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Sociological Point of View
What are social problems to you?
Give me some examples…
Social Problem
 Whatever a significant part of the population
perceives as an undesirable gap between
social ideals and social realities and believes
can be eliminated by collective action.
 Only a problem when people perceive it as
problematic
 Some conditions exist for decades before it is
classified as a problem.
 Sociologists try to identify “latent” problems to
predict the social concerns of the future.
 Visible – public attention in dramatic ways/mass
media
Social Problem cont.
 Significant part of the population:
 People who occupy positions of power and influence in
society (not always the majority)
 Gap between social ideal and social realities
 What is (reality) vs. what ought to be (ideal)
 Ideals are based on a society’s values
 Over time, ideals adjust to the reality
 Capable of solution through collective action
 Collective Action: group of people people acting to
change/solve the issues
 People believe they can do something about them
 Conditions defined as part of natural order (has changed
over time)
Social Sciences
 Related disciplines that study various aspects of human
behavior.
 They lend and borrow from each other in an effort to
better understand the social forces that help to shape
our lives.
 Goal of Science:
 Explain why things happen
 Make generalizations – statements that go beyond the
individual case and can be applied to broader groups of
situations.
 To predict what will happen in the future based on the
facts
 Science – application of systematic methods to obtain
knowledge (how do we do this in a social setting?)
Social Sciences continued…
 Anthropology: studies aspects of past and present
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cultures.
Psychology: studies behavior and thinking of individual
organisms (process from within – mental).
Social Psychology: studies how an individual’s behavior
and personality are affected by the social environment.
Economics: studies the choices people make in an effort
to satisfy their wants and needs.
Political Sciences: examines the organization and
operation of governments.
History: studies past events.
Sociology
 The science that studies human society and social behavior.
 Understand them in order to possibly solve the undesirable impact
they have on human social life.
 It allows us to study the relationship between social factors
(something that influences the way we think, feel, act, react,
or make decisions) and the lives of individuals.
 Suggests that people do things not because of some inherited
characteristics, but because of their experiences and the
environment they live in
 Social Interaction: how people relate to one another
and influence others’ behaviors.
 Human behavior and ideas are a result of social factors
and learned behavior - this allows us to see how our
social environment shapes our lives.
 Balance between our personal desires and the demands of our
social environment.
 Paradoxes
Social Phenomenon
 An observable fact or event.
 The focus here is on the group rather
than the individual (helps sociologist
make some generalizations).
 So we can find patterns – reoccurring
characteristics or events
 As so much influences society, sociologist
use these to focus on less broad topics in
society.
Perspective
 Viewing things from multiple vantage points
 Sociological perspective: understanding human behavior
by placing it within its broader social context
 Offers a different way to view the world, like looking through
someone else’s eyes
 Social Imagination: the ability to see the connection
between the larger world and our personal lives - this
includes historical context.
 Social Location: where an individual fits in history and
society
 Helps to answer why people do what they do
 Compare ourselves with others in other places of the world,
with people who live during different time periods, etc.
 Life exists outside of community – sociology helps us
understand the broader issues and perspectives.
Times They Are A-Changin’
 Listen to the song and fill in the worksheet
examining the way societies change over
time.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7K28ZJS-
Ichttp://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_
id=126933&title=Did_You_Know__4_0&vpkey=
History of Sociology
 Development of sociology as a distinct field of
study was largely influenced by the Industrial
Revolution in Europe.
 Move from farms/cottage industries to large-
scale factories located in cities.
 What kinds of changes did this yield?
 When customs/traditions change or challenged,
we are forced to look at them critically and
reflectively.
 Thomas Hobbes asked “how is society
possible”?
 If individual self-interest perpetually leads to
conflict, how is there order/organization?
Theoretical Perspective
 Theory – general statement about how some parts of
the world fit together and how they work
 General set of assumptions about the nature of
phenomena, outlining certain explanations for why a
phenomenon occurs.
 Finding a relationship between two or more
concepts
 If the theory is sound, it can be used to generalize other
cases and predict that the same relationship will exist
under the same conditions.
 Hypothesis – theory that has not been
confirmed
 Further research is need.
 Conflict, Functionalism, Symbolic Interaction,
and Deviance
Auguste Comte
 “Founder of Sociology” - study Hobbes’ question using
empirical observation.
 Wanted to find solutions to the chaos created by the
French Revolution.
 He thought that change and order would create stability in
society – applied social principles to social reform.
 Observed collections of individuals – even though
individuals differ, particular social behavior exists within
and across societies.
 Herbert Spencer – Social Darwinism
 Societies evolve from lower (“barbarian”) to higher
(“civilized”) forms
 The most capable and intelligent (“fittest”) member thrive
while the less capable diminish in power
 Ex. $, Education, Race, Power, Politics, Law
Karl Marx/Conflict Theory
 Believed that the overall structure of society is
heavily influenced by how the economy is
organized, where groups are competing for scarce
resources (power and wealth).
 He always saw the bad in everything by focusing on
the power imbalances and how the powerful control
society.
 A small group controls the means of production and
exploits everybody else.
 The power imbalance leads to conflict (class
struggle), where the oppressed revolt to for
equality.
 People should try to change society – classless society, free
of exploitation
Conflict Theory cont.
 Bourgeoisie: the capitalists who own the means to
produce wealth (haves/oppressors)
 Control politics, so when workers rebel, they call on the
power of the state to control them.
 Proletariat: the mass of workers who do not own the
means to produce wealth and who are exploited by the
bourgeoisie (have not/oppressed)
 Power that people consider legitimate involve authority
(who will walk away with power and how much?)
 Economic power translates into social and political power
(they can maintain that position and protect its interests)
 Social/cultural arrangements of any society therefore reflect the interests
of the ruling class
 Disagreement over values and competition for scarce
resources such as power, wealth, or prestige (some will gain
and others will lose).
Topic
Bourgeoisie
Proletariat
Topic
Powerful
Oppressed
Economy
Own the means of
labor
Working Class
Gender
Males
Females
Race
Whites
Minorities
Sexual Orientation
Heterosexual
Homosexual
How do you define the relationship between the powerful
and oppressed groups in our society? Does that change over
time?
Functionalist Theory
 Views society as a set of interrelated parts (each with a
function) that work together to produce a stable social
system.
 Herbert Spencer compared society to a living organism, in which
each organ of an animal has its own job to do, but together they
ensure the survival of the organism.
 Various parts of society – culture, government, economy, family,
law, religion, etc. – are also interdependent and contribute to the
survival of the society.
 Each function is beneficial or has a purpose (otherwise it would not
be present).
Functionalist Theorists
 Emile Durkheim: viewed society as interrelated parts, each
part serving a specific function with a specific purpose.
 Functional -> Equilibrium -> Normalcy
 Dysfunctional -> Unbalanced -> Abnormal
 Figure out the purpose of something to understand it – what is the
purpose of a door?
 Specific functions are shared/agreed upon by members of
society.
 Ex. What is the function of technology, education, religion, and
family?
 Talcott Parsons – institutions, statuses, roles, and
norms all have a function in maintaining society’s
stability.
 Society – set of interdependent positions (statuses) each
of which have specific expected behavior patterns
(roles)
Robert Merton
 Functions (beneficial consequences of people’s actions)
keep a group in equilibrium vs. Dysfunctions
(consequences which undermine a system’s equilibrium)
 Manifest Function – intended to help some part of a system
 Latent Function – unintended outcome that helps a system
to adjust
 Manifest Dysfunction – anticipated disruptions in social life
 Latent Dysfunction – unanticipated outcome that
hurts/disrupts the system.
 How do social problems arise in such an organized
system?
 Some parts of society become dysfunctional in certain
respects or at certain times – having negative rather than
positive effects.
Symbolic Interactionism
Theory
 Focuses on how individuals interact with one another
in society based on the composition of symbols.
 Interested in the meanings individuals attach to their
own actions and to the actions of others.
 Symbol: anything that stands for something else (has
meaining) - physical objects, gestures, words, and events.
 Ex. Graduation, “A”, Diploma = pass/completion of school
 Without symbols we would have no concept of
relationships (animal level)
 Without symbols there would be no social life
 No basis for moral or value judgments
Even the self is a symbol:
•
Comes from the ideas
or belief of who we are
•
•
•
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The hat that we are
wearing and the role
we’re playing.
Our behavior depends
on how we define
ourselves and others
We act in different
ways around particular
people.
How people define
situations and how they
interpret their own
behavior and others’
actions
Max Weber
 Thought that sociologist should uncover the
thoughts/feelings of individuals.
 Verstehen: empathetic understanding of
another person’s point of view.
 Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.
 Ideal Type: essential characteristics of some
aspect of society (how we define it).
 What is the ideal type of school?
Journal/Exit Slip
 Describe how four different people
may view you based on the idea of the
looking-glass self.
 One complete sentence for each
person/mirror!
Deviance Theory
 Behavior that violates important social norms and
consequently is negatively valued by a large
number of people.
 Norm: formal or informal rules that prescribe the
appropriate behavior for a given situation
 Become social problems because most of the
population regards them as repugnant or
threatening
 Sociologists blamed deviants for most social
problems
 Something is “wrong” with them (taking from the
middle-class, white America value system and
anything that deviates is sick, wicked, or immoral)
Robert Merton/Anomie
 Anomie: situation in which social norms cease
to be meaningful or effective, so people are
no longer guided by these norms, so their
behavior may become deviant
 Social disorganization – discrepancy between
socially approved goals and the availability of
socially approved means of achieving them.
 Problem is in the structure of society itself –
denying certain categories of the population
access to approved means, pressures people to
achieve the socially approved goal.
Howard Becker
 Deviance in terms of labeling – apply the
“deviant” label to others.
 Everyone is deviant from someone else’s
viewpoint.
 Stronger group in society has the power
to make the deviant label stick (deviant is
the victim of a value conflict)
 Criticized for encouraging sympathy for
the underdog (victim of labeling by the
powerful)