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Chapter 1
Putting Social Life Into Perspective
• Sociology is the systematic study of human society and social
interaction.
• Sociologists study societies and social interactions to develop
theories of:
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how human behavior is shaped by group life
how group life is affected by individuals
Sociologists want to understand “why people do the things they do.”
Helps us to see how behavior is shaped by the groups to which we belong
and to the society in which we live.
• Society is a large social grouping that shares the same geographical
territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant
cultural expectations.
• The sociological imagination is the ability to see the relationship
between individual experiences and the larger society.
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The Importance of a Global Sociological
Imagination
• High-income countries: nations with highly industrialized
economies (ex: United States, Canada, Japan, western Europe). These
counties have a high standard of living and a lower death rate due to
advances in medical care and nutritition.
• Middle-income countries: nations with industrializing economies
(ex: eastern Europe, Brazil, Mexico). Developing countries with
moderate levels of national and personal income.
• Low-income countries: nations with little industrialization (ex:
African and Asian countries). Primarily farming nations; low levels of
personal and national income.
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The Origins of Sociological Thinking
• Sociology and the Age of Enlightenment
• emphasis on individual’s possession of critical reasoning and experience
• science versus religion
• the philosophes: if people were free from the ignorance and superstition of
the past, they could create new forms of political and economic organization,
such as democracy and capitalism
• Sociology and the Age of Revolution, Industrialization, and
Urbanization
• revolutions: intellectual, political
• industrialization: the process by which societies are transformed from
dependence on agriculture to manufacturing; moving from family farms to
the towns and cities for work.
• urbanization: the process by which an increasing proportion of a population
lives in cities rather than in rural areas; people began to live with people
from different backgrounds; began social issues like crowding, poverty, and
inadequate housing.
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The Development of Modern Sociology
• Early Thinkers: A Concern with Social Order and Stability
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Comte
Martineau
Spencer
Durkheim
• Differing Views on the Status Quo: Stability versus Change
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Marx
Weber
Simmel
The Chicago School
Adams
Du Bois
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August Comte (1798-1857)
• Considered to be the founder of
Sociology
• coined the term“sociology”
• societies contain social statics
and social dynamics
• positivism: belief that the world
can best be understood through
scientific inquiry
• Believed that society could be
studied like any other sciences
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Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
• translated Comte’s works
• Society in America
• advocate of racial and gender
equality
• Concerned with social change
and the plight of women and
children in English factories in
the early part of
industrialization
• First acknowledged female
sociologist
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Herbert Spencer (1920-1903)
• Structural Functionalist
• evolutionary perspective
• social Darwinism: belief that
species of animals best adapted
to their environment survive
and prosper; coined term
survival of the fittest in
reference to social
arrangements
• Advocated against social reform
efforts to poor people because
it disrupts the natural selection
process for evolution
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Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
• people are the product of their
social environment
• Rules of Sociological Method
• social facts
• anomie
• Suicide
• Founded Sociology as an
academic discipline
• Structural Functionalist
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Karl Marx (1818-1883)
• history is a continuous clash
between conflicting ideas and
forces
• economic systems
• class conflict – bourgeoisie
versus proletariat
• Founder of conflict perspective
• Believed that the economy was
the central force for social
change
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Max Weber (1864-1920)
• The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism
• research should be value-free
• Rationalization
• Felt sociologist could never
capture the reality of society but
should focus on ideal types that
best capture the essential
features of aspects of social
reality
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Georg Simmel (1858-1918)
• group size
• formal sociology
• Believed that society was a
pattern of interactions among
people
• Believed that social interaction
is different between a dyad (2
members) and a triad (3
members)
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Jane Addams (1860-1935)
• founded Hull House
• Nobel Prize
• One of the authors of a
methodology text used for the
next 40 years
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W.E.B. Du Bois (1968-1963)
• The Philadelphia Negro
• One of the first to note the
identity conflict of being both
black and American.
• Pointed out that people in the
US value democracy, freedom,
and equality while they accept
racism and group discrimination
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Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives
• A theory is a set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to
describe, explain, and predict social events.
• Functionalist Perspectives are based on the assumption that society
is a stable, orderly system.
• Society is composed of interrelated parts (institutions), each of which serve a
function and contributes to the overall stability of the society.
• All societies must provide for meeting social needs in order to survive.
• Institutions include education, family, government, religion, the economy
• Change is generally viewed as disruptive and gradual
• Talcott Parsons – division of labor; husbands perform instrumental tasks
such as leadership and decision making especially regarding money; wives
provide expressive tasks such as housework, care for children, meet
emotional needs of the family
• Robert K. Merton – manifest and latent functions
• Manifest functions are intended and/or overtly recognized.
• Latent functions are unintended functions that are hidden and remain
unacknowledged.
• Dysfunctions are the undesirable functions of any element of a society.
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Conflict perspective
• Conflict perspectives belief that groups in society are engaged in a
continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources. Change is
inevitable, often beneficial and can be violent. Conflict between the
classes determines social change. Conflict is universal; social
consensus is limited and inequality is widespread.
• Karl Marx – bourgeoisie versus proletariat
• Max Weber - power
• C. Wright Mills – power elite
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Symbolic Interactionist Perspective
• Symbolic interactionist perspectives argue that society is the
sum of the interactions of individuals and groups. Humans are social
animals and require interaction. Interaction between individuals is
negotiated through shared symbols, gestures and non verbal
communication.
• Asks the questions, “How do individuals experience one another?” How
do they interpret the meaning of these interactions?” “How do people
construct a sense of self and the society as a whole?”
• Macro-level analysis: examines large-scale social structures
• Micro-level analysis: focuses on small groups
• interaction – communication between two people
• symbols – something that meaningfully represents something else
• subjective reality
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Postmodern Perspectives
• Postmodern perspectives argue that existing theories have not
successfully explained social life in postindustrial societies.
• When society has moved from modern to postmodern conditions it
has a harmful effect on people.
• There is a significant decline in the influence that family, religion and
education have on people’s lives.
• We are more focused on our wants than our needs.
• We have more jobs that are based on services or information not so
much the production of goods.
• We are influenced to purchase goods we want-sinking more in debt
so we have to continue to work to pay for these goods.
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