1. SocIology: PerspectIve and theory
Chapter 1
SocIology: PerspectIve and theory

2. Sociology: Perspective and Theory
Learning Objectives

3. “Sociology shows us the power of society to guide all our life decisions in much the same way that the seasons influence our choice of clothing.”

4. The Sociological Perspective: What Is…?
Sociology
Systematic study of human society
Distinctive view guided by sociological perspective
Sociological Perspective
View that sees general patterns of society in the lives of particular people
The Sociological Perspective: What Is…?
LO 1.1: Explain how the sociological perspective differs from common sense.

5. How is the sociological perspective defined?
Seeing general patterns in the behavior of particular people (Berger 1963)
Seeing society shapes what we think and do in patterned ways
Seeing society in our everyday lives
Seeing sociologically, especially through marginality and crisis
Seeing sociologically

6. How does the power of society guide marriage partner selection?
Stay tuned!
We will revisit this topic at the end of the chapter.

7. Is childbearing simply a matter of personal choice?
How does the power of society influence private decisions throughout the world?
Is childbearing simply a matter of personal choice?

8. Does society affect decisions about suicide?
The Sociological Perspective: Durkheim's Study of Suicide
Does society affect decisions about suicide?
Emile Durkheim's research findings
More likely to commit: Male Protestants who were wealthy and unmarried
Less likely to commit: Male Jews and Catholics who were poor and married

9. The Sociological Perspective: Contemporary Suicide Statistics
A century later Durkheim's analysis hold true.
Suicide rates are higher for white people than they are for black people and Hispanic people.
Within each category, suicide rates are higher for men than for women.
Rates indicate the number of deaths by suicide for every 100,000 people in each category for 2010.

10. Seeing sociologically
What situations help people see clearly how society shapes individual lives?
Seeing sociologically
Marginality; living on the edge
Social crisis; turning personal problems into public issues

11. What is the sociological imagination?
C. Wright Mills
Society, not people, is main cause of poverty and other social problems.
By turning personal problems into public issues, the sociological imagination is the key to bringing people together to create needed change.

12. The Importance of a Global Perspective: What Is…?
Study of the larger world and our society's place in it
Global Awareness
Logical extension of the sociological perspective
LO 1.2: State several reasons that a global perspective is important in today’s world.

13. In what way can nations be categorized by their level of economic development?
Country categories
Low-income
Nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor
Forty-nine nations include most of Africa and part of Asia
Middle-income
Nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole
Seventy-two nations include many of the countries of Eastern Europe, some of Africa, and almost all of Latin America and Asia
High-income
Nations with the highest overall standards of living
Seventy-four countries include the U.S. and Canada, Argentina, the nations of Western Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Australia

14. Comparisons are important because:
Why is it important to study comparisons between the U.S. and other nations?
Comparisons are important because:
Where we live shapes the lives we lead.
Societies are increasingly interconnected through technology and economics.
Many social problems that we face in the United States are more serious elsewhere.
Thinking globally is a good way to learn more about ourselves.

15. What then are the benefits of applying the sociological perspective?
Importance of a Global Perspective
“In sum, in an increasingly interconnected world, we can understand our way of life and ourselves only to the extent that we understand others and the societies in which they live.”
What then are the benefits of applying the sociological perspective?

16. Usefulness of applying the sociological perspective
Sociology guides many of our life-shaping laws and policies.
Using a sociological perspective leads to important personal growth and awareness.
Studying sociology aids in the preparation for the world of work.
LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for developing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.

17. Applying the Sociological Perspective: Sociology and Public Policy
Sociologists shape public policy in countless ways
What examples can you identify?

18. Applying the Sociological Perspective: Sociology and Personal Growth
Helps us assess truth of common sense
Helps us see opportunities and constraints
Empowers us to be active participants in society
Helps us live in a diverse world

19. Applying the Sociological Perspective: Careers
The “sociological advantage” Sociology is excellent preparation for jobs in dozens of diverse fields (American Sociological Association, 2002, 2011a, 2011b).

20. Origins of Sociology What are the origins?
The birth of sociology was itself the result of powerful social forces.
Let's take a closer look at some of these forces.
LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.

21. What kinds of social change were especially important in the development of sociology?
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Rise of a factory-based industrial economy
Explosive growth of cities
New ideas about democracy and political rights

22. Social Change and Sociology: A New Industrial Economy
Middle Ages:
Farming and small-scale manufacturing
End of Eighteenth Century
New energy sources
Large, anonymous work forces
Large scale production; movement of system of production
Weakening of community influence

23. Social Change and Sociology: Growth of Cities
Enclosure movement: Reduction in tenet access and movement to city
Urban migrant problems: Pollution, crimes, and homelessness

24. Social Change and Sociology: Political Change
Middle Ages: Society is an expression of God's will
Gradual attack of tradition: Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Adam Smith (1723–1790)
Shift to self-interest: Personal liberty and individual rights
French Revolution: Greater break with politics and social tradition: Tocqueville (1805–1859)

25. Social Change and Sociology: A New Awareness of Society
What changes combined to make people more aware of their surroundings?
Huge factories
Exploding cities
New spirit of individualism
The new discipline of sociology was born in England, France, and Germany.
Do you know why?

26. Science and Sociology Ancient civilizations Medieval period
Thought about nature of society
K'ung Fu-tzu, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle
Medieval period
Imagined ideal study society
Marcus Aurelius, Aquinas, Pisan, Shakespeare

27. Comte Science and Sociology: A New View
Coined term “sociology” in 1838
Saw sociology as product of a three-stage historical development
Theoretical stage (Church in the Middle Age
Metaphysical stage (Enlightenment and the ideas of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau)
Scientific stage (Modern physics, chemistry, sociology, and the work of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton)

28. Comte (continued) Science and Sociology: A Closer Look at Comte
Used scientific approach to the study of society in positivism
Believed that society operates according to its own laws, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other laws of nature
Disputed by modern sociologists who posit a more complex view of human behavior, including that related to social injustice

29. Sociological Theory: What Is…?
Statement of how and why specific facts are related
Theoretical Approach
Basic image of society that guides thinking and research
Structural-functional
Social-conflict
Symbolic-interaction
LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.

30. The basics Structural-Functional Approach
Macro-level orientation is concerned with broad patterns that shape society as a whole.
Society is viewed as a complex system; parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.

31. Social function: Consequences for the operation of society as a whole
Structural-Functional Approach
Key elements
Social structure: Any relatively stable patterns of social behavior found in social institutions
Social function: Consequences for the operation of society as a whole
Manifest functions: Recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern
Latent functions: Unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern

32. Who's Who in the Structural-Functional Approach
Auguste Comte
Importance of social integration during times of rapid change
Emile Durkheim
Helped establish sociology as a discipline
Herbert Spencer
Compared society to the human body

33. Robert K. Merton Who's Who in the Structural-Functional Approach
Manifest functions are recognized and intended consequences
Latent functions are unrecognized and unintended consequences
Social dysfunctions are undesirable consequences

34. Evaluation of the Structural-Functional Approach
Favored approach in mid-1900s
Focus on stability at expense of conflict makes this approach somewhat conservative
Less utilized today

35. Social Conflict Approach: What Is…?
Sees society as arena of inequality that generates conflict and change

36. Social Conflict Approach: What Is…?
Gender-conflict theory
Focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men
Feminism
Race-conflict theory
Focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories

37. The basics Social-Conflict Approach
Factors such as race, sex, class, and age are linked to social inequality
Dominant group vs. disadvantaged group relations
The social-conflict approach points out patterns of inequality in everyday life. The TV series Keeping Up with the Kardashians takes a close-up look at the lives of extremely affluent women. In what ways do they depend on the work of people of lower social position?

38. Key elements Social-Conflict Approach
Rejects the idea that social structure promotes the operation of society as a whole
Suggests society is structured in ways to benefit a few at the expense of the majority

39. Evaluation Social-Conflict Approach
Many sociologists use social-conflict approach not just to understand society but also to bring about societal change that would reduce inequality.
Critics of the conflict perspective point to its overly negative view of society.

40. Who's Who in the Social-Conflict Approach
Focus on importance of social class in inequality and social conflict
Karl Marx
Focus on race as the major problem facing the U.S. in the 20th century
W.E.B. Du Bois

41. The basics Gender-Conflict Approach and Feminism
Gender-conflict theory: Focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men
Feminism: Advocacy of social equality for women and men linked to gender-conflict theory

42. Who's Who In Feminism and the Gender-Conflict Approach
First woman sociologist
Translated Comte's work from French to English
Documented the evils of slavery, argued for laws to protect factory workers, and fought for changes in education policy for women
Harriet Martineau

43. Jane Addams Who's Who In Feminism and the Gender-Conflict Approach
Was a sociological pioneer who helped found Hull House
Dealt with issues involving immigration and the pursuit of peace
Won Nobel Peace Prize (1931)
We can use the sociological perspective to look at sociology itself. All of the most widely recognized pioneers of the discipline were men. This is because in the nineteenth century, it was all but unheard of for women to be college professors, and few women took a central role in public life.

44. The basics The Race-Conflict Approach
Focus on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories

45. Suggests racial conflict is still an issue in U.S.
The Race-Conflict Approach
The basics
Focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories
Suggests racial conflict is still an issue in U.S.

46. Ida Wells Barnett Who's Who in the Race-Conflict Approach
Born to slave parents but rose to become a teacher and then a journalist and newspaper publisher
Campaigned for racial equality throughout her life
Ida Wells Barnett

47. Who's Who in the Race-Conflict Approach
Earned the first doctorate awarded by Harvard to a person of color
Founded the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory
Believed that sociologists should not simply learn about society's problems but also try to solve them
W.E.B. Du Bois

48. Evaluation Social-Conflict Theories
Large following gained in recent decades
Focus on inequality, but largely ignores how shared values and interdependence unify members of a society
Cannot claim scientific objectivity

49. The basics Symbolic-Interaction Approach
Presents a micro-level orientation
Offers a close-up focus on social interactions in specific situations
Views society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals

50. Society is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of subjective meanings.
Symbolic-Interaction Approach
Key elements
Society is a shared reality that people construct as they interact with one another.
Society is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of subjective meanings.

51. Who's Who in the Symbolic-Interaction Approach
Understanding a setting from the people in it
Max Weber
How we build personalities from social experience
George Herbert Mead

52. George Homans and Peter Blau
Who's Who in the Symbolic-Interaction Approach
Dramaturgical analysis
Erving Goffman
Social-exchange analysis
George Homans and Peter Blau

53. Overall Evaluation Structural-Functional Social-Conflict
Appears too broad
Ignores inequalities of social class, race and gender
Focuses on stability at the expense of conflict
Social-Conflict
Ignores how shared values and mutual interdependence unify society
Pursues political goals
Symbolic-Interaction
Ignores larger social structures, effects of culture, factors such as class, gender, and race

54. Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.

55. Sports have functional and dysfunctional consequences.
The Sociology of Sports
Functions of Sports
A structural-functional approach directs our attention to ways sports help society operate.
Sports have functional and dysfunctional consequences.

56. The Sociology of Sports
Sports and conflict
Social-conflict analysis points out games people play reflect their social standing.
Sports have been oriented mostly toward males.
Sports in the United States are bound up with inequalities.

57. Do the Math!
Why is there a high number of African Americans in some professional sports?
Athletic performance in some sports can be precisely measured and is not influenced by racial prejudice.

58. Is race is linked to stacking of the positions athletes play on the field in baseball?
What do you see?

59. Sports as Interaction Symbolic-interaction approach
Posits sports are less a system than an ongoing process
Structural-functional, social-conflict, and symbolic-interaction
Provide different insights into sports
No one is more correct than the others

60. Is sociology nothing more than a stereotype?
Generalizations are not applied to everyone in a category.
Generalizations square with the available facts.
Generalizations are offered fair-mindedly, with an interest in getting at the truth.
A sociology classroom is a good place to get at the truth behind common stereotypes.

61. Back to Marriage Partner Selection
True or False?
All societies enforce various rules that state who should or should not marry whom.