1. We will be looking at the subject of sociology, the perspective sociologists take on that subject, several important sociological concepts, how sociology emerged and the place of theory in sociology.

2. One of the most important goals is to help students understand that they are studying social behavior rather than individual behavior.

3. Sociology differs from other social sciences in the way it examines all aspects of the social world from relationships between individuals, to groups, organizations, and large institutions like the family, religion, the economy, education, science, sports, the arts and all other aspects of social life.

4. Sociology helps students understand the complex world in which they live and develop skills for dealing with social issues and personal relationships.

5. Chapter 1 1.Social Sciences: the discipline that studies human social behavior or institutions and functions of human society in a scientific manner 2. Sociology: the social science that studies human society and social behavior

6. 3. Anthropology: comparing past and present cultures (Sociologists are more interested in group behavior of advanced societies) 3.Anthropology – the comparative study of past and present cultures. 4.Psychology – it focuses on individual behavior rather than on group behavior 5. Economics - studies the processes by which goods and services are produced, distributed and consumed

7. 6. Political Science – the examination of the principles, organization and operation of the government 7. History – studies people and events of the past

8. 8. Social Interaction: how people relate to one another and influence each other’s behavior 9. Social phenomena: observable facts or events that involve human society

9. The Sociological Perspective (Why study sociology?) 1.It involves helping students to think critically and reflectively about the social world. Things are not what they seem.

10. 2. It can help you gain a new perspective on, or view of, yourself and the world around you. 3. Sociologists look at general patterns in the behavior of particular people.

11. … Peter Berger (1963) – “things are not what they seem” – social reality turns out to have many layers of meaning

12. … Who we are is affected by the groups we belong to …Why do people behave the way they do?

13. 4. To look at social life in a scientific systematic way.

14. 5. To help see all people as social beings. 6. So you can look beyond commonly held beliefs to the hidden meanings behind human actions

15. 7. Your behavior is influenced by social factors that you learned from others 8. Tells you there are many different perceptions of social reality

16. 9. To help view the world through others’ eyes 10. Helps you view your own life within a larger social and historical context

18. 11. It gives you insights into how your social environment shapes you and how you can shape your social environment

19. Sociological Imagination, termed by C. Wright Mills, (1959) is the ability to see the connection between the larger world and your personal life. It looks at how historical events impact normal events in an individual’s life.

20. 1. You use Social Imagination to alter your perceptions 2. It helps you see the relationship between large-scale social forces and the personal actions of individuals.

21. Ex. 1 - a girl wishes to look thin and fair but cannot achieve this look - she goes into a depression and suffers from an inferiority complex - in order to be thin she becomes anorexic and faces severe health problems - looking at this case in isolation, it is her personal problem and she is spoiling her life on her own

22. - but if we apply Sociological Imagination, we would realize it is the obsession of society in general for the thin body that has indirectly affected this girl - the media (represents society) portrays beautiful girls as thin

23. - If only a few girls suffered from anorexia in society then we could have called it an individual or personal problem - but when there are many girls suffering from the same problem then it becomes a social issue (where stereotypes about women and social media needs to be looked at)

24. Ex. 2 - there is a young boy who can’t get a job and has a loan that he needs to pay back - he starts to engage in illegal/criminal activities - if you look at this case individually, you might say that he isn’t trying hard enough to get a job and performed illegal activities to get easy money

25. But if you see this boy from a sociological imagination perspective, then you would see that larger forces such as unemployment or maybe lack of education had a direct impact on the life of this boy

26. 3. Sociological Imagination is the ability to look at issues from a sociological perspective

27. When did Sociology develop? 1.1800s: France, Germany and England

28. 2. The early European sociologists wanted to: - Understand and explain how and why societies endured - Understand the ideas of order and stability - What caused societies to change and what shaped the nature of that change

29. 3. What factors led to the development of Sociology? The Industrial Revolution brought social and political changes: Rural economy to economy based on large scale production Factory replaced the home as the site for manufacturing Growth of cities Growth of urban populations ……. Social problems developed (housing shortages, crime increased, pollution)

30. These political, social and economic changes led some scholars to question the traditional explanations of life (religious explanations of the physical world).

31. They believed that the physical world operated according to a set of basic principles that could be studied and analyzed through the use of scientific research and methods.

32. Early European Sociologists Auguste Comte Harriet Martineau Herbert Spencer Karl Marx Emile Durkheim Max Weber

33. Auguste Comte 1. considered to be the founder of sociology 2. coined the term sociology which means the study of society 3. focused on social order and social change

34. 4. He believed that certain processes which he called social statics are the forces that keep a society together.

35. 5. He also believed that certain processes which he called social dynamics are the forces that cause change in society.

36. Harriet Martineau 1. wrote Society in America 2. it was a review of how well the U.S. lived up to its promise of democracy (she had traveled in Am.) 3. topics in her book: religion, the marriage, family, race relations, education and religion

37. 4. She was objective in her research 5. She later translated Comte’s Positive Philosophy 6. a book about the study of society 7. She believed that scholars should advocate for change to solve the problems that they studied 8. spoke out on women’s rights, religious tolerance & the end of slavery

38. Herbert Spencer 1. adopted a biological model of society 2. he said that society is like a living organism – it is a set of interdependent parts that work together to maintain the system

39. 3. Social change and unrest are natural occurrences as society moves towards stability and perfection 4. the best aspects of society would survive so steps should not be taken to correct social ills 5. fittest societies would survive over time 6. called social Darwinism because of its similarities to Darwin’s ideas

40. Karl Marx 1. most important forces in society were economic forces 2. society is divided into 2 classes: the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the proletariat 3. the bourgeoisie owned the means of production and the proletariat provided the labor 4. this imbalance of power would lead to conflict between the 2 groups

41. 5. believed that society’s economic system influences its social structure 6. his emphasis on conflict as the main cause of social change led to the development of the Conflict Theory

42. Emile Durkheim 1. he applied the methods of science to the study of society 2. concerned with social order 3. he saw society as a set of interdependent parts that maintain the system throughout time

43. 4. He saw the role of these interdependent parts in terms of their functions 5. a function is the consequence that an element of society produces for the maintenance of its social system 6. interested in how religion maintains social order: shared beliefs and values hold society together

44. 7. He believed that sociologists should only study the features that are observable (because they can be tested by applying the scientific tool of statistical analysis). 8. first sociological study was on suicide 9. he found that suicide increased with change and feelings of anomie or purposelessness

45. Max Weber 1. was interested in separate groups w/in society, not society as a whole 2. focused on the effect of society on the individual 3. believed that sociologists should focus on people’s feelings & thoughts, not just what can be directly observed

46. 4. Proposed using the principle of Verstehen to look at people’s feelings & thoughts 5. Verstehen – put yourself in the place of others & try to see situations through their eyes

47. 4. Used the concept of the ideal type in his work 5. Ideal Type: a description of the essential characteristics of a feature of society 6. it is the basic method for a comparative study

48. 7. How do sociologists arrive at an ideal type? - they examine many different examples of the feature & then deduce its essential characteristics - a representation of the ideal type might not contain all of the essential features - never corresponds to concrete reality

49. American Sociologists Jane Addams W.E.B. Du Bois

50. Jane Addams 1. set up Hull House in1889 in Chicago

51. 2. Hull House offered welfare, educational and recreational services for poor residents of the neighborhood

52. 3. Jane wanted to solve the problems of the poor, but she had to find out what the problems were and what caused them 4. She conducted surveys of poor people 5. She published her results in Hull House Maps and Papers

53. 6. In it she addressed: wage levels, sweatshops, child labor, the immigrant experience, living conditions in poverty-stricken neighborhoods 7. This was the first serious discussion on the effects of industrialization and urbanization –two major social forces

54. W.E.B. Du Bois 1. also studied society 2. in 1899 he published The Philadelphia Negro – an examination of life in a African- American neighborhood 3. it was the 1 st empirical study in the U.S.

55. Why do sociologists develop theories? 1. to guide their work and help interpret findings

56. 2.Theory is built on evidence that is gathered and from which a clear conclusion can be made 3.Sociologists follow a particular theoretical perspective (it outlines specific ideas about the nature of social life)

57. 3 broad theoretical perspectives form the basis of modern sociology

58. Functionalist Perspective (based on the ideas of Comte, Spencer and Durkheim) 1. Views society as a set of interrelated parts that work together to produce a stable social system

59. 2. Most people agree on what is best for society and work together to ensure that the social systems run smoothly

60. 3. it focuses on the structures of society, so sometimes called structural functionalism 4. society is held together through consensus 5. It views everything in society in terms of their function (a positive consequence that an element of society produces for the maintenance of the social system)

61. 6. It recognizes that not everything in society operates smoothly 7. It labels some elements of society as dysfunctional (the negative consequences an element has for the stability of the social system)

62. 8. Functions can also be manifest or latent 9. Manifest function: the intended and recognized consequence of some element of society

63. 10. Latent function: the unintended and unrecognized consequence of an element of society

64. Conflict Perspective – Karl Marx 1. focuses on the forces of society that promote consequence and change 2. interested in how those who possess more power in society exercise control over those with less power in society 3. looks at acts of violent conflict and nonviolent competition between various groups in society

65. 4. competition over scarce resources is at the basis of social conflict 5. conflict leads to social change 6. The conflict Perspective sees social change as an inevitable part of society

66. 7. feminist theory: focuses on an area of inequality - gender

67. 8. Claire M. Renzetti and Daniel J. Curran: “view society as a sex/gender system in which men dominate women and that which is considered masculine is more highly valued than that which is considered feminine” 9. acc. to the feminist theory, society causes gender inequality and it is reinforced by social institutions (family, religion, education)

68. 10. Feminist theorists say that sociology has played a part in perpetuating gender inequality: the lives of women have not been represented or have been misrepresented 11. They believe that the experience of women should be central to the study of social life

69. Interactionist Perspective 1.Focuses on how individuals interact with one another in society 2. Looks at how individuals respond to one another in everyday situations

70. 3. Looks at meanings that individuals attach to their own actions & the actions of others 4. study: child development, relationships w/in small groups, selecting a partner 5. Looks at the role that symbols play in daily lives 6. A symbol is anything that represents something else

71. 7. If something is to be considered a symbol, members of society must agree on the meaning that is attached to it (physical objects, gestures, words, events) 8. Symbolic interaction – focuses on how people use symbols when interacting – has 3 elements: meaning, language and thought 9. Symbolic Interaction involves constantly defining and interpreting each other’s actions

72. Levels of Analysis 1. macrosociology – the study of large-scale systems or society as a whole - used by functionalist & conflict perspectives

73. 2. microsociology – looking at small group settings and the everyday face- to-face interactions among group members

75. 3. globalization – the development of economic, political, and social relationships that stretch worldwide - sociologists look at social life not only in terms of their own society, but also in a global context

76. Research Methods 1.Sociology is scientific – it collects and analyzes evidence 2. Goals: explain and describe human behavior 3. It uses surveys, interviews, participant observation, content analysis, and historical and comparative research

77. 4. Sociologists don’t study individual people, they look at measurable characteristics that vary from one group to the next 5.limitations of scientific Sociology The presence of the researcher may affect the behavior being studied Social patterns change Sociologists are part of the world they study, making value-free research difficult