1. Taking a New Look at a Familiar World
Chapter 1
Taking a New Look at a Familiar World

2. Sociology Sociology is the systematic study of human societies.
Everyday social life is the product of a complex interplay between societal forces and personal characteristics.
Sociology examines the interpersonal, historical, cultural, organizational, and global environments that individuals inhabit.

3. Sociology vs. the Individual
Individualistic explanations
We tend to look at internal qualities to explain experiences.
Sociological explanations
We try to look at external factors that shape individual choices and opportunities.

4. Thinking Sociologically
Looking at “individual problems”
Example: the break-up of a relationship, loss of a job, or credit-card debt
What are some of the possible individual causes of these events?
Now, examine this within a societal context. What are some other possible explanations?

5. Contrasting Fields
Biologists and psychologists focus on processes within the individual
Biology: focuses on innate characteristics (genetics, bio-chemical explanations)
Psychology: focuses on personal characteristics (the mind)
Sociologists study what goes on among people as individuals, groups, and societies
Sociology: focuses on a systematic study of human interaction (people as a part of the larger society)

6. Thinking Sociologically
How might research on alcohol use differ among these three disciplines?
Biology
Psychology
Sociology

7. The Sociological Imagination C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
The ability to see the impact of massive cultural and historical processes on our private lives
The ability to recognize that the solutions to many of our most serious social problems lie not in changing the personal situations and characteristics of individual people but in changing the social institutions and roles available to them

8. Suicide Émile Durkheim (1858–1917)
Classic sociological work titled Suicide, published in 1897
Compared statistics and historical data across different groups
If suicide is an act based in individual explanations, rates would be fairly constant across time and place.
However, this is not the case.

9. Different Types of Suicide
Fatalistic—when people see no possible way to improve their oppressive circumstances
Anomic—when a person’s life has been suddenly disrupted by a major social event
Egoistic—when a person belongs to a group that has weak ties
Altruistic—when a person’s ties to the community are too strong

10. Fatalistic Suicide
When people feel horribly oppressed in their social situation
When people perceive no possible way to improve their lives
Examples: inmates in prison, slaves

11. Egoistic Suicide
When people’s ties to their social networks are weak or deemphasized
When people feel alienated from social networks
When there may be too much emphasis on individualism
Current U.S. society has weaker ties and suicide rates have risen as Durkheim predicted

12. Altruistic Suicide
When ties to one’s community are too strong, individuality may be overshadowed
In circumstances where community or family needs are considered far superior to needs of individual
Examples may be found in “greedy” group sects

13. Anomic Suicide
When conditions around which people organize their lives dramatically change (economic depressions, wars, famines etc.)
May result in sense of hopelessness and despair

14. Suicide Rates Among Young African Americans
Potential individual-based influences
Growing sense of hopelessness
Reluctance to open up about mental health issues
Broader social factors
More and more black families moving into middle class
Increased pressure to succeed in white-dominated professions

15. Thinking Sociologically
Suicide rates among young African Americans have dropped over the last few years
Can you think of a sociological reason to account for this trend?

16. Summary
Everyday social life is the product of a complex interplay between societal forces and personal characteristics.
To explain why people are the way they are (or do the things they do), we must understand the interpersonal, historical, cultural, organizational, and global environments they inhabit.
To understand either individuals or society, we must understand both (C. W. Mills, 1959).