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INTRODUCTION
Introductory
Sociology
Edward Brent
Copyright © 2016 Edward Brent
Sociology
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Sociology is the scientific study of social life
Sociology studies the relationship between
individuals and social structures
Sociology includes micro-level analyses focusing
on individuals, such as studies of small groups
and attitude change
Sociology includes macro-level analyses
focusing on social structures, such as studies of
political and economic systems
August Comte
(1798-1857)
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Born in France and heavily influenced
by the French Revolution (1789)
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Comte coined the term sociology
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Comte proposed applying the
scientific methods used in the natural
sciences to the social sciences
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He called this approach Positivism
C. Wright Mills
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The sociological imagination is
the capacity for individuals to
understand the relationship
between their individual lives
and broad social forces that
influence them.
The Sociological Imagination
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The intersection of history and biography
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The relationship between private troubles and
public issues
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Our lives are not purely personal, but are lived
out in the context of social circumstances that
affect us all
Q1: The relationship between
private troubles and public issues
is associated with
1.
2.
3.
4.
Social control
Social structure
Conflict theory
The sociological imagination
RECURRING THEMES
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Social Control
The Social Construction of Reality
Inequality
Social Structure
Knowledge
Social Change
Q2: Recurring Themes
Which of the following is not one of the
recurring themes covered in this course?
1. Social change
2. Inequality
3. The mind-body dualism
4. The social construction of reality
SOCIAL THEORY
Sociology has several theories that we use to
explain these recurrent themes
Structural-Functional Theory
Conflict Theory
Interactionist Theory
CLASSIC SOCIOLOGISTS
Marx
Weber
Durkheim
Mead
THEME: SOCIAL CONTROL
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How is social control maintained in a
society?
How powerful is social control?
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO IN RESPONSE
TO SOCIAL CONTROL?
SOCIAL CONTROL (Continued)
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For example…
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Would you let someone take pictures of you naked?
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No…not when you were a child, but today?
Posture
Photos
Have you had your
posture photos yet?
POSTURE PHOTOS
Not Just the
Few
Thousands of
students at some of
the nation’s most
prestigious
universities had
these posture
photos taken,
including George
Bush, Sr., Hillary
Rodham Clinton,
and many others.
Q3: They serve as their own
policemen
Which theoretical perspective or concept
is most associated with the above
phrase?
1. Verstehen
2. Conflict theory
3. Structural functional theory
4. Internalized social control
How Can Social Control Be So
Powerful?
The great majority of social control is internalized
social control in which people do things because
they believe it is the right thing to do, not
because they are forced to do so.
- Emile Durkheim
INTERACTIONIST THEORY
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Individuals, though constrained by social
circumstances, can make decisions and
take actions that influence their own lives
and those of others.
Symbols are used to communicate
meaning between people
Emergent properties are important
characteristics of groups that cannot be
reduced to some simple combination of
characteristics of individuals.
THEME: THE SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY
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People offer a “definition of the situation”--a statement or action
that explicitly or implicitly suggests the meaning the actor would like
others to attribute to their actions.
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Competing definitions of the situation are reconciled to produce a
“negotiated order”--a shared meaning of the situation agreed upon
by all participants.
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Since the meaning of social life is negotiated in a social process
among participants, reality is not directly experienced by individuals
so much as it is socially constructed.
Definition of the Situation
Michelangelo’s David
She’s cute, but
kind of 2dimensional for
a senior, and
has funny hair
Amedeo Modigliani’s
Head and Bust in Profile
Competing Definitions of the Situation
Michelangelo’s David
He’s kind of
immodest, but
nice chest
She’s cute, but
kind of 2dimensional for
a senior, and
has funny hair
Amedeo Modigliani’s
Head and Bust in Profile
Negotiated Order
After all, it is a
toga party
Carpe Diem
Michelangelo’s David
Amedeo Modigliani’s
Head and Bust in Profile
Is This A Crime?
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Is taking this picture a crime?
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On November 2, 1995 Cambridge, MA police arrested Toni
Marie Angeli for taking photographs of her nude 4-year old
son after they were called by photo shop employees who
developed the film.
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Yet many families have nude photographs of young
children taken in bathtubs, playing outside, and so on.
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Mrs. Angeli claimed she was taking the photographs for a
photography class at Harvard University.
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What do you think?
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How does this relate to defining the situation and
negotiated order?
Defining Crime
Posters like this appeared on
trains and subways early in the
20th Century as part of efforts to
criminalize marijuana.
- Howard Becker
George Herbert
Mead(1863-1931)
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Son of a New England
minister
Taught at the University of
Chicago
Developed Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective
Believed people can interact by taking the
role of the other
THEME: SOCIAL STRUCTURE
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Social structures are enduring, relatively
stable patterns of social behavior
Social structures constrain social
behavior, even behaviors we might think
are solely individual
For example, consider suicide. Suicide is
not just a highly personal individual act,
but is influenced by social factors
Q4: Studied social statistics
related to suicide
Which sociologist conducted the first
study of social statistics related to
suicide?
1. Max Weber
2. Emile Durkheim
3. W. E. B. Dubois
4. Karl Marx
SUICIDE
Suicide Rates per 100,000 by Country, 2001
United States
Switzerland
Sweden
Females
Italy
Males
Germany
France
Canada
Australia
0
5
10
15
20
Source: World Health Organization
25
30
Suicide rates
differ
systematically
by country and
Gender
SUICIDE
Suicide
I. Russell Sorgi, 1942
The woman was
described as a
despondent divorcee.
Sorgi’s camera caught
her as she plunged to
her death.
SUICIDE
A Bhuddist
monk burns
himself to death
to protest the
Diem
government in
South Vietnam
Malcolm
Browne,
Associated
Press, 1963.
Emile Durkheim
(1858-1917)
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Social facts are regular patterns of behavior that exist
independently of individuals and constrain individual
behavior
Conducted a classic study in which he found suicide
to be related to social integration of individuals in the
larger society (e.g., egoistic suicide and altruistic
suicide)
Developed the structural-functional perspective
STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL
THEORY
Some social structures lead
to important consequences
So societies
that survive
are more
likely to have
these
structures
Structures
Social
Consequences
The
consequences, in
turn, help
societies survive
Society
Structural-Functional Theory
Example: Families
Families have important
consequences like
socializing children
So societies
that survive
are more
likely to have
families,
because
those lacking
families were
unlikely to
survive.
Socializing
Children
Families
Well-socialized
children help
societies survive.
Society
THEME: SOCIAL INEQUALITY
There is great inequality both
within societies and between
societies.
POVERTY
Death vigil in Sudan
Kevin Carter, 1993
After taking this
picture, the
photographer chased
away the vulture.
Child Labor in
the U.S. in early
20th Century
EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY
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10% of U.S. population owns 91% percent
of all securities
l The average income in the United States is
hundreds, even thousands of times, larger
than the average income in some developing
countries.
l The per capita energy consumption in
developed countries is more than ten times
the per capita consumption in developing
countries.
Q5: Marx
Which theoretical perspective is Karl Marx
associated with?
1. Symbolic interactionism
2. Conflict theory
3. Structural functional theory
4. The sociological imagination
Karl Marx
(1818-1883)
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Born in Germany, spent most
of his life in Britain
Influenced by the Industrial Revolution
Believed that human history was the history of class
conflict
Father of the conflict perspective
CONFLICT THEORY
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Society consists of groups competing for
scarce resources.
What appears on the surface to be
cooperation merely masks the struggle for
power.
Social structures persist in society because
they serve the interests of those who have
wealth and power.
CONFLICT THEORY
bourgeoisie
proletariat
THEME: KNOWLEDGE
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How do we KNOW something?
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How do we distinguish scientific
knowledge from beliefs?
So, is this some
vast cosmic
intergenerational
conspiracy?
Or could it be
due to chance?
THEME:
SOCIAL CHANGE
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Social change is a
pervasive aspect of
social life
Social change occurs
more quickly in some
societies than in
others…Why?
This statue of Lenin
was torn down after
the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1989
This statue of
Saddam
Hussein met a
similar fate in
2003
Max Weber (1864-1920)
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German son of a successful Protestant
entrepreneur
Argued modern life was experiencing
increasing rationality
Traditional organizations were being
superceded by bureaucracies
The Protestant Work Ethic encouraged
the rise of capitalism
Social life is based on rational action
guided by subjective understanding
(verstehen) anchored in shared cultural
ideas
An Example: College Life
Question
Concept Illustrated
Who’s not here?
Inequality (race, gender, class)
CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR
Social structures (norms,etc.),
socialization
• what is a classroom? social construction of reality
• how should we act?
• talking and other
disruptions
deviance, social control, crowd
behavior
An Example: College Life
(Continued)
Question
Concept Illustrated
What is a university?
Roles, Social statuses,
organizations, social change
Grading
knowledge
Grading on a curve
latent functions, inequality
Student subcultures
Culture, distinction
RECAP
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What is Sociology?
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Recurrent Themes
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Theoretical Perspectives
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Founding Sociologists