What is Sociology?  The systematic study of human society.  Look for patterns among people.  How does society influence individuals?  How do individuals influence society?

Three Major Approaches  Sociologists use approaches to guide thinking.  Structural-Functional  Social-Conflict  Symbolic-Interaction

Structural-Functional A macro-level orientation, concerned with broad patterns that shape society as a whole. Views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach points to a society’s social structure and looks for a structure’s social functions. Key Terms: Benefits, unity, solidarity, stability, needed for the operation of society Ex. Studying why deviance is needed in society.

Social-Conflict A macro-oriented paradigm Views society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and social change. Society is structured in ways to benefit a few at the expense of the majority. Factors such as race, sex, class, and age are linked to social inequality. Key Terms: Inequality, conflict, change, divide, differences Ex. Studying income differences between male and female athletes.

Symbolic-Interaction A micro-level orientation, a close- up focus on social interactions in specific situations. Views society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals. Society is nothing more than the shared reality that people construct as they interact with one another. Society is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of subjective meanings. Key terms: individual, everyday interactions, meanings Ex. Studying how we determine what is feminine or masculine.

Important Sociologists Structural-Functional  Auguste Comte  Emile Durkheim  Robert Merton  Herbert Spencer Social-Conflict  Karl Marx  W.E.B. DuBois  Harriet Martineau  Jane Addams Symbolic-Interaction  Max Weber (view of individuals)  George Herbert Mead (personalities)  Erving Goffman (dramaturgical analysis)

Research  Be objective.  Don’t let your personal feelings get involved in research.  “Common sense” isn’t always the truth.  Hawthorne effect – a change in the subject’s behavior due to the awareness of being studied.  Easy to lie with statistics.

Experiments  Variables Independent – causes the change Dependent – changes  Operationalizing a variable Assigning a value to the variable ○ Ex. Good Teaching  Reliability = consistency  Validity – measuring what you intend to measure  For a measurement to be valid, it must be reliable.

Survey Research  Questionnaire Subjects respond to questions on paper. ○ Open-ended – free response ○ Closed-ended – fixed response  Interview Asking subjects questions orally  Participant Observation  Impossible to survey everyone. Sample – a part of the population that represents the whole.

Culture  The values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects that, together, form a people’s way of life.  Material culture – tangible  Non-material culture – intangible  Ethnocentrism – judging cultures by the standards of your own culture.  Cultural relativism – judging cultures by its own standards.  Culture shock – disorientation due to not being able to make sense out of your surroundings.

Different Meanings  Symbols can mean different things in different cultures.  Norms – Rules and expectations by which society guides the behavior of its members. Proscriptive – should nots Prescriptive – shoulds Folkways – Right v. Rude Mores - Right v. Wrong ○ Taboo – strictly forbidden mores

Social Control  How we encourage people to conform to society’s norms:  Guilt  Shame  Sanctions

Deviance  Deviance - Recognized violation of cultural norms.  Crime – Violation of law.  Hate crime – criminal act against a person or person’s property motivated by racial or other bias.  Victimless crime – Prostitutes and gamblers

Social Stratification  Social Stratification - a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.  Social mobility – change in social position.  Caste system – Social stratification based on birth (ascription).  Class system – Social stratification based on birth and individual achievement.

Sexuality  Thoughts are often consumed by sexuality.  Sex – biological distinction – male or female  Gender – socially constructed  Intersexuals – neither male nor female  Incest taboo – universal but varies among cultures.  Other cultures prefer homosexuality.

Types of Sexuality  Heterosexuality  Homosexuality  Bisexuality  Asexuality

Sexual History  Not really talked about until  Sexual Revolution - Peaked in 1960s.  Sexual Counterrevolution – 1980s  Teen pregnancy lower today than in 1950s.  Official rape statistics only include females.  Roe v. Wade – legalized abortion