Sociology

Chapter 1: the sociological perspective

Sociology- Sociology is the systematic study of of human society

Key concepts in sociology: Study of societies, interactions, relationships, and social institutions

Perspectives of sociology: 1) symbolic 2) functionalism 3) conflict

The scope of sociology

basics: family, state, race, social divisions, religion, beliefs, and cultures

  • Scientific study of the functioning of human society
  • Main focus is the study of human society and associations as a whole

Job options: Social researchers, public relations workers, administrators, community organizers, public policy researchers, data analysis

Fastest growing type of family today is the single parent

  1. Culture
  2. Social structure
  3. Social inequality-
  4. Society- system of organization of those in the same culture, those within a society share the same interactions that mold a society and the people in it
  5. Social organization- parts that make up a society

2 or more people interact on

  1. Social change-

Social location- the social position that an individual hold within a society w characteristics that are deemed to be important by a society

  • Profoundly influences who someone is and who they become

The sociological perspective

  • The sociological perspective reveals the power of society to shape individual lives
  • C. Wright mills called this POV the sociological imagination
  • The sociological perspective helps us to see the general in particular (Peter Berger 1963)
  • Society guides our thoughts and deeds (actions)
  • Encourages us to see individuality in social context

Symbolic interaction focuses on the actual interaction among people thru the use of shared symbols

  • People attach meaning to symbols and act upon interpretations of them
  • Symbols: anything that stands for something else and has an agreed upon meaning attached to it

Functional looks at the relationship between parts of society

  • Each part of society is dependent on other parts of society
  • Family- primary socialization
  • Education- meritocracy social order in the middle
  • Religion- collective conscience
  • Crime- social regulation

Conflict theory focuses on how certain parts of society are in conflict with one another

  • Competition for scarce resources
  • How the elite control the poor and weak
  • Focuses on mainly the negative, conflicted, and ever-changing nature of society
  • Violent and non violent comp
  • When 2 elements in a society are in conflict
  • There has to be some resolution
  • If both take place this is what makes society go forward

History of sociology

Eras of history thatv led to the creation of sociology:

  • Age of enlightenment (1700S)
  • French Revolution (1789-1799)
  • Industrial Revolution (1750s onward)

Reason over superstition & science over blind faith

Auguste Comte 1798-1857

  • Known as the founder of sociology
  • Used the scientific method to identify what holds society together (positivism)
  • Comte was more of a social philosopher than a true sociologist
  • Thought that the study of society could bring about social reform

Herbert Spencer 1820-18903

  • The evolution of society
  • Social darwinism
    • Applied darwinism to humans
    • Some people adapt better than others natu
    • Thise who adapt more efficiently dominate
    • Came up with the term “survival of the fittest”
    • Natural order observable via scientific means
    • Empirically evident
    • Justified market economies, imperialism, colonialism, racism, and general global coercive domination that is still evident in this day and age

Karl Marx

  • Political and economic philsoopher
  • Founder of communism
  • Saw history through his Class Conflict

His ideas:

  • Society has 2 classes
  • Rich = bourgeoisie = owners of factories, businesses, lawyers, doctors, merchants
  • Poor = proletariat = workers
  • Both groups fight each other for resources
  • Marx wrote his ideas in his book: The Communist Manidesto (1848) Europe
  • He thought a new system that could make life better for the majority of people - the workers

Emile Durkheim - French sociologist

  • Major goals were to study how individual behavior us shaped by social forces
  • Was interested in the rates of suicide and how they varied from country to country
  • Insisted that behavior cannot be fully understood in individualistic terms, instead it must be understood within a larger social context

Max Weber - Moral ideas/bureaucracy

  • division of labor
  • Hierarchy of authority
  • Formal selection
  • Formal rules of conduct
  • Impersonality
  • Career orientation

Harriet Martineau (1902-1876)

  • Considered first female sociologist
  • Wrote the first book on sociological methods
  • Studied social class distinctions, gender, and race
  • Wrote about the link between slavery and oppression of women

Women and the 4 K’s

  • Kirche - church
  • Kuchen - kitchen (cook)
  • Kinder - kids
  • Kleider - clothes

W.E.B. Du Bois

  • Interested in race relations
  • First black american to get a PhD from harvard
  • Wanted to eliminate social injustice
  • Founded the national association for the advancement of colored people (NAACP) with jane adams and others in 1990

Jane Addams

  • Known as the mother of social work
  • A pioneer american settlement activist/reformer
  • Leader in women’s suffrage and world peace

Chapter 2

Society- a collective of individuals who share common geographical, cultural, or social ties,, and who often operate under a shared set of norms, values and institutions.

Types of societies

  • hunter-gatherer - earlier humans lived in small groups, which today we call tribes. They were nomads. They followed food sources, and did not settle permanently in one spot.

4 characteristics include family, small, nomadic, members are dependent upon each other, women are responsible for gathering, men hunting

  • Pastoral - nomadic people who domesticated animals
    • Move in search of food for their animals
    • Develop on marginal land apart from areas suitable for agriculture, often semi-arid regions
    • Different labor types
  • Horticultural - specialize in the domestication of plants such as wheat, rice, etc.
    • Forced to relocate when land is done
  • Agricultural - permanent settlements
    • Use of advanced technology
    • Populations can be large
    • Stratification intensifies
      • Peasant classes
      • Ruling classes
    • Institutions beyond the family are established
      • Religious
      • Political
      • Military organizations
  • Industrial - rely on mechanized production
    • Pronounced division of labor
    • Rise in overall standard of living
      • Wide gap

- state power and coercive apparatus become consolidated > bigger wars

- population concentrates in cities

- social changes become rapid

  • Post-industrial- technological or scientific knowledge used for utilitarian purposes, very important
    • Majority of labor force in service position
    • division of labor more pronounced and globalized
    • Technological and professional education increasingly important
      • Stratification based on technological knowledge and education now overlaps wealth and status stratification
    • Emphasis on science to solve social problems
      • Creating alternative energy sources
      • Finding automated ways of completing tasks
      • computers/robots

Information revolution - the internet, TV, etc.

Different from a degree of isolation from other societies

Culture

Material culture - concrete and tangible objects such as books, automobiles, buildings, technology, etc.

  • Man made objects
  • Folk art, clothes and dressings, foods

Non-material culture - intangible and abstract ideas

  • Customs, traditions, habits, language, manners, religion

Components of symbolic culture

  • Nonmaterial culture
  • A symbol- something that people attach meaning and use in communications
  • Language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and more.

Norms are values or expectations set by cultures

Sanctions are the positive or negative reactions to the way in which we follow our norms

Folkways are norms that are not strictly enforced

Morals are norms that are supposed to be very essential to our core values

Taboos are norms so strong that even the thought of them are revulsive ( having sex w parents or siblings)

Language is a specific numbers or symbols that can be put together for words and phrases

Cultural lag is a term coined by Oilliam Ogburn to refer to the tendency for certain aspects of culture to change more quickly than others, causing conflict

  • Material culture tends to change more rapidly than non-material culture

Ethnocentrism is Judging another culture using our own culture’s rules and standard

  • Judgment of evaluation of the behaviors and ideas of others
  • Imposing your own standard when they may not apply
  • Thinking your way is the best or correct way

Culture shock is disorientation that you get when you move from one culture to another; could be feelings of homesickness along with alienation

  1. The climate (weather, clothes may not be appropriate for every climate)
  2. Language (understanding a new language, language barriers
  3. Food
  4. Consciousness
  5. Different lifestyles

American values

  • . Control over environment
  • Change seen as natural
  • Time and its control
  • Equality
    • Americans believe that all people are created equal and everyone should have the same opportunities
  • See themselves as individualistic and don't associate themselves with a group
  • Value themselves
  • Individualism and privacy
  • Self-help
  • Competition
  • Future orientation
  • action/work orientation
  • Informality
  • Direct and openness and honesty - know exactly what is expected out of you
  • Practicality and efficiency
  • Materialism - value materialistic things such as cars and clothes

American Values

Emerging values

  • Leisure
  • Self-fulfillment
  • Physical fitness
  • Youthfulness
  • Environmental concerns

Ideal vs real culture

Ideal culture refers to the norms and values we would follow in a perfect world or the values we claim to hold

Real culture refers how people actually behave, the values we reflect and our actual behavior

Cultural diffusion: the spread of cultural traits from one group to another

spread of culture from one country to others around the world

  • Popularization of other culture’s traditions in the us
  • Diffusions of the us to other regions of the world

Cultural leveling: the process by which cultures become similar to one another; REFERS TO THE PROCESS BY WHICH WESTERN CULTURE IS BEING EXPORTED AND DIFFUSED INTO OTHER NATIONS

CHAPTER 3: socialization

Social environment - the entire human environment including direct contact with others

  • Anna and isabelle show that personal and social development associated with being human is acquired thru intensive and prolonged social contact with others

Harry Harlow (psychologist)

  • Designed a famous experiment that showed the negative effects of social isolation on rhesus monkeys
  • determined that closeness and comfort were more important than food

Charles Horton Cooley

3 components of the looking glass shelf

  1. The perception of how you appear to others
  2. Perception of how others judge your behavior
  3. How you feel about other people’s judgment

Mead: The Stages of the Self

The preparatory stage - children imitate those around them to learn meaning behind symbols, gestures, and language

The play stage - children begin “role taking” in which they mentally assume the perspective of another and response from that viewpoint

  • Ages 2-6
  • Do not adhere to rules of the game

The game stage - children are now aware of their position in relation to the other numerous social positions in society

Freud’s personality structure

  • ID
    • Born with this
    • Governed by “pleasure principle”
    • Houses unconsciousness drives of sex and aggression
    • Selfish, irrational, seeks instant gratification
  • Ego
    • Deve;ops during infancy (6 months)
    • Governed by “reality principle”
    • Seeks to gratify Id urges at an appropriate time
    • Inherits inevitable anxiety produced by id-superego conflict
  • Superego
    • Develops during childhood (6 years)
    • Governed by “judicial” or “moral principle”
    • The internalized parent
    • Seeks to do what is right and good “conscience”
    • Causes us to feel guilty for our desires/id impulses

Types of basic emotions (6)

  • Happiness
  • Sadness
    • Grief, disappointment, hopelessness
  • Fear
  • Disgust
  • Anger
    • Hostility, aggression
  • Surprise
    • Physiological state of response to an unexpected event

Different shades of emotions

Gender socialization

Agencies of socialization

  • Family
  • Gender socialization
  • Workplace
  • Church
  • Mass media
  • Peer group
  • school

Resocialization - a learning process by which old roles and behaviors of individuals are replaced by new ones

  • Voluntary resocialization happens by choice such as when people move countries and attempt to assimilate
  • Involuntary resocialization happens against a person’s will such as when a person has to undergo a correctional program like the AA steps

Life course: stages of life as we go from birth to death

  • Childhood (birth -12)
  • Adolescence (13-17)
  • Young adulthood (18-29)
  • Early middle (30-49)
  • Later middle (50-65)
  • Early older (65-75)
  • Later older (75- death)

The stages of death

Dr Elisabeth Kubler-ross described 5 stages of dying

  1. Denial ( no, not me )
  2. Anger ( why me )
  3. bargaining ( yes, me, but )
  4. Depression ( “yes, me”, and is very sad )
  5. Acceptance ( the person is calm and at peace )

The 4 C’s

  • Communication
    • Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions
  • Collaboration
    • Working together to reach a goal
  • Critical thinking
    • Looking at problems in a new way & linking learning across subjects and disciplines
  • Creativity
    • Trying new approaches to get this done equals innovation and invention

Self-control

  • Adaptability to changing requirements, Agility in the face of unexpected obstacles, Bouncing back, coachability, eagerness to learn from criticism, flexibility, friendliness, honesty, passion, resilience, self-awareness, tolerance of change and uncertainty

Wisdom

  • Artistic sense and good taste, critical thinking instead of mere compliance, dealing with difficult people, empathy for others, intercultural competence, mentoring, social skills

Perception

  • Design thinking, fashion instinct, map making, judging people and situations, strategic thinking

Influence

  • Ability to deliver criticism, body language, charisma, resolution skills, inspiring others, leadership, negotiation skills, selling skills, talent management,