test one
Key Concepts:
Social construction
- “How are the things that we take to be natural actually social?”
- Refers to an idea or practice of people agree exists
- Products of culture and history
Social Order
- “How is social order possible?”
- People generally conform to rules and behave in patterned ways
- Rational/self-interest
- Socialization
- Sharing beliefs and values
Agency and Structure
- “Does the individual matter?”
- Agency: free will and individual choices
- Structure: social systems
- They work together, reciprocally
Social Change
- “How are the times in which we are living different from before?”
- Social life is active and dynamic; it changes over time.
- Understanding the present relies on understanding the past
Origins of Sociology
By the mid-1800s, sociology had developed primarily due to:
- Industrial Revolution
- American and French revolutions
- Impact of imperialism and colonialism
- The success of natural sciences
Required new ways of understanding the social world
It started in Europe in the mid-1800s; by the early 1900s sociology was in universities in the United States
Development of Sociology Auguste Comte (1798-1857) The big three:
- Karl Marx (1818-1883)
- Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
- Max Weber (1864-1920)
Many others have been important in the development of the field For example
- Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
- W.E.B Du Bois (1868-1963)
Theory in Sociology
Levels of sociology analysis- Microsociology
- Macrosociology
In sociology, a few theories provide broad perspectives (called paradigms) that help explain many different aspects of social life (major sociological paradigms crash course)Outline
- Sociology as a science
- The sociological perspective
- The sociological imagination
- Key concepts
Sociology as a science
Science: a process (systemic methods) leading to a product (knowledge and information).
- Basic science: adding to knowledge
- Applied science: applying the knowledge to something else
Social sciences: the study of people: as individuals, communities, and societies; their behaviors and interactions with each other and their environments
- Natural science: studying the natural world (biology, chemistry, physics)
Sociology: the scientific and systematic study of groups and group interactions, societies and
social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups
A sociological perspective involves
- Broader social contexts
- Social location
- Links between behavior and social settings
- Cultural world views
The sociological imagination
C. Wright Mills argued that it involves:
- An awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions
- It requires us to “think ourselves away” from the familiar routines of daily life in order to look at them again with a fresh perspective.
Example:
Coffee: more than simply something to drink
- A cultural fixture
- Symbolic value
- Use as a drug
- Global endeavor
- Inequality
- Past social and economic development
antipositivism
the view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values
conflict theory
a theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources constructivisman extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be
culture
a group's shared practices, values, and beliefsdramaturgical analysis
a technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance
dynamic equilibrium
a stable state in which all parts of a healthy society work together properly dysfunctionssocial patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society
figuration
the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior
function
the part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuityfunctionalism
a theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society generalized others
the organized and generalized attitude of a social group
grand theories
an attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change
hypothesis
a testable proposition
latent functions
the unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process
macro-level
a wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society
manifest functions
sought consequences of a social process
micro-level theories
the study of specific relationships between individuals or small groups
paradigms
philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them
positivism
the scientific study of social patterns
qualitative sociology
in-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of its data
quantitative sociology
statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants
reification
an error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence
significant others
specific individuals that impact a person's life
social facts
the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life
social institutions
patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs
social solidarity
the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion
society
a group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture
sociological imagination
the ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular
sociology
the systematic study of society and social interaction
symbolic interactionism
a theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols)
theory
a proposed explanation about social interactions or society
verstehen
a German word that means to understand in a deep way
accuracy
using a tool makes the measuring more precise.
case study
in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual
code of ethics
a set of guidelines that the American Sociological Association has established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology
content analysis
applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as it relates to the study at hand
correlation
when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but does not necessarily indicate causation
debunking
looking beyond the obvious to expose falseness by examining merit, logic, and evidence.
dependent variables
a variable changed by other variables
empirical evidence
evidence that comes from direct observations, scientifically gathered data, or experimentation
ethnography
participating and observing thinking and behavior in a social setting experiment
the testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions
field research
gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey
Hawthorne effect
when study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awareness of being observed by a researcher
hypothesis
a testable educated guess about predicted outcomes between two or more variables independent variables
variables that cause changes in dependent variables
interpretive framework
a sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing interview
a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject
literature review
a scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research
nonreactive research
using secondary data, does not include direct contact with research subjects and does not alter or influence people’s behaviors
operational definitions
specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study
participant observation
when a researcher immerses herself in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an “insider” perspective
population
a defined group serving as the subject of a study
primary data
data that are collected directly from firsthand experience
qualitative data
non-numerical, descriptive data that is often subjective and based on what is experienced in a natural setting
quantitative data
data collected in numerical form that can be counted and analyzed using statistics random sample
a study’s participants being randomly selected to serve as a representation of a larger population
reliability
a measure of a study’s consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced
samples
small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population
scientific method
an established scholarly research that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing a data collection method, gathering data, and drawing conclusions
secondary data analysis
using data collected by others and applying new interpretations
surveys
collect data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about thinking, behaviors, and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire
validity
the degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study value neutrality
a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in publishing results
beliefs
tenets or convictions that people hold to be true
countercultures
groups that reject and oppose society’s widely accepted cultural patterns
cultural universals
patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies
culture
shared beliefs, values, and practices
culture lag
the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture’s acceptance of it
diffusion
the spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another discoveries
things and ideas found from what already exists
ethnocentrism
the evaluation and judgment of another culture based on one’s own cultural norms
folkways
direct, appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressions of a culture
formal norms
established, written rules
globalization
the integration of international trade and finance markets
high culture
the cultural patterns of a society’s elite
ideal culture
the standards a society would like to embrace and live up to
informal norms
casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to
innovations
new objects or ideas introduced to culture for the first time
inventions
a combination of pieces of existing reality into new forms
language
a symbolic system of communication
mores
the moral views and principles of a group
norms
the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured
popular culture
mainstream, widespread patterns among a society’s population
real culture
the way society really is based on what actually occurs and exists
sanctions
a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviors
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
the way that people understand the world based on their form of language
social control
a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms
society
people who live in a definable community and who share a culture
subcultures
groups that share a specific identification, apart from a society’s majority, even as the members exist within a larger society
symbols
gestures or objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture
values
a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society