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Course: College Sociology Instructor: [email protected] Required Textbook: Sociology: A Brief Introduction, by Alex Thio Why you need this textbook: • You will be tested from this book • Reading Assignments • Homework Assignments • Quizzes The Website! Holyoke.schoolfusion.us Nicolas Balog Sociology Find the syllabus and the Nacirema Reading Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Chapter One: The Essence of Sociology The Study of Social Life More Than Common Sense Sociology offers factually supported ideas based on sociological research. Appreciation of Social Diversity Sociology suggests that we can know ourselves better by studying others. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 The Importance of Global Analysis The whole world has become a global village. Economic globalization has become a big influence in both the U.S. economy and society at large. Outsourcing has changed the way U.S. corporations operate. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Sociology as a Science Scientists search for patterns using a method known as observation. When scientists discover a pattern in the world, they describe it in the form of a hypothesis – which is a tentative statement of how events are related to each other. A theory is comprised of logical hypotheses that explain the relationship among various phenomena. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 The Sociological Imagination To understand human behavior, sociologists look “from the outside” at individuals. Sociologists examine the impact of social forces on individuals. Social forces include: friends, family, customs, beliefs, and politics. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Sociological Frontier Deconstructing Society – Postmodern Theory- traced back to early 20th century. Core of Postmodern theory today is deconstructionism – idea that to understand society, we should “deconstruct” it, or take it apart, and anything associated with it. Then we can uncover the meaning, values, and ideologies of society. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 The Development of Sociology Sociology is a very new discipline. It emerged during the nineteenth century. It grew out of upheaval during the Industrial Revolution. The American and French Revolutions encouraged new thought. Scientists began applying the scientific method to real world problems. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Comte - “The Father of Sociology” Comte coined the term “sociology.” He argued that reliance on superstition and speculation was inadequate in understanding society. He envisioned a science of society with two branches: statics - the study of the organization that allows societies to endure and dynamics – the study of the processes by which society changes Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Spencer “Society is an Organism” Spencer thought family, religion, government are all parts of one organism— society. Society corrects its own problems— “survival of the fittest” Spencer believed that governments should leave social problems alone. Society will evolve to become better naturally. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Karl Marx Marx stated that all human history is marked by class conflict. Marx believed that economic systems determine beliefs and values. Marx urged people not to let society evolve but to change it. The struggle between the capitalists and the proletariats would end in revolution that would create a classless society Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Emile Durkheim Pioneered the systematic application of scientific principles to sociology. First to use statistical methods to test hypotheses. Studied suicide. Argued that sociologists should only consider what they could observe and should look at “social facts as things.” Believed that people’s subjective experiences should not be a concern of sociologists. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Max Weber Believed that individuals always interpret the meaning of their own behavior and act according to these interpretations Sociologists should adopt a method called Verstehen – emphatic understanding of their subjects. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Sociologists could then obtain “interpretive understandings” of the meanings of particular behaviors. Sociology in the United States Jane Addams - cofounded the Hull House in Chicago. Addams played a significant role in establishing government programs such as: Social Security and the Children’s Bureau. W.E.B. DuBois was the first African American to receive a doctorate at Harvard. He worked on racial equality and created the NAACP. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Theoretical Perspectives Functionalist Perspective – Focus is on social order. Conflict Perspective – Focus is on social conflict Symbolic Interactionist Perspective – Focus is on social interactions Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Functionalist Perspective Society is made up of interdependent parts that perform functions for society as a whole. Society is held together by social consensus—the majority agree on what would be good for everybody. For Durkheim, social consensus came out in two forms: Mechanical solidarity Organic Solidarity Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Functionalist Perspective Mechanical Solidarity • Social cohesion that develops when people do similar work and have similar beliefs. • Exists in small-scale societies Organic Solidarity – • Social cohesion that arises when the people in a society perform a wide variety of specialized jobs and have to depend on each other. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Conflict Perspective Portrays society as always changing and marked by conflict. Emphasizes that different groups compete with each other for scarce resources. e.g.: men and women; one religious group or another. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Feminist Theory A form of conflict theory that explains human life in terms of the experiences of women. Women’s experiences differ from men’s Women’s position in most social situations is unequal to that of men. Women are viewed as oppressed – restrained, subordinated, controlled, and abused by a male dominated society known as patriarchy Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Symbolic Interactionist Perspective A micro view of society. People assign meanings to each other’s words and actions. Our response to a person’s actions is determined by our subjective interpretation of that action. Behavior is fluid and always changing. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Theoretical Thumbnail: Major Perspectives in Sociology Perspective Focus Insights Functionalist Social order or stability Society consists of interdependent groups pursuing common goals. Social order is maintained through social consensus, whereby people agree to cooperate in order to contribute to social order. Conflict (including feminist theory) Social conflict or change Society is made up of conflicting groups, such as women and men, each pursuing their own interests. Social order is maintained through coercion, whereby social order is imposed by the powerful over the weak, such as how patriarchy is imposed by men on women. Symbolic interactionist Interaction between individuals Society is composed of individuals whose actions depend on interpreting each other’s behavior. Social order is maintained through constant negotiations between individuals trying to understand each other’s actions and reactions. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 “Which one is right?” The perspectives are not incompatible. They each offer a different view of society that when brought together, enrich our sociological knowledge of the world. They offer a fuller and more balanced view of sociology. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Sports: Illustrating the 3 Perspectives Conflict Perspective – Sports harm society by serving the interests of the relatively powerful over those of the powerless. Functionalist Perspective – Sports contributes to society by performing 3 major functions. Symbolic Interactionist Perspective – View how athletes, coaches, and fans behave. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Major Research Methods Social research checks validity of theories. Produces information that describes our lives. Helps develop new theories. Includes: survey, observation, experiment, and analysis of existing data. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Surveys Ask questions about opinions, beliefs, and behavior. Use self-administered questionnaires or personal interviews. You need to select a sample—small number of people selected from population. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Observation and Ethnography Participant Detached observation—the observation—the researcher takes part in researcher observes as the group they are an uninvolved outsider, studying. from a distance. Ethnography –an analysis of people’s lives from their own perspective. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Experiment A research operation in which the researcher manipulates variables so that their influence can be determined. Situation is created in which researcher determines if independent variable caused dependent variable. Create experimental group – exposed to independent variable and the control group – which is not. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Analysis of Existing Data Searching for new knowledge in the data collected earlier by another researcher or a public agency. Data is usually quantitative Content analysis is used to search fro specific words or ideas and then turning them into numbers. Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Major Research Methods in Sociology Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009 Chapter Review How does sociology differ from common sense? How did the early U.S. sociologists differ from their European predecessors? What are the basic ideas of the 3 theoretical perspectives? What research methods do sociologists use? Copyright © Allyn and Bacon 2009