Download A human society is defined as…

8/1/2013
 In our first lecture we discuss…
 Different types of human societies.
 The history and emergence of sociology.
 The levels of sociological inquiry.
 Sociological perspectives and theorists.
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 A human society is defined as…
 A politically autonomous population
whose members engage in a broad
range of cooperative activities.
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
Social organization represents networks of
relationships among society’s members,
taking the form of....
 Individuals
 Social positions, roles, and statuses
 Groups, defined by:
1. Cooperation to satisfy needs
2. Shared norms
3. Common identity
 Classes
 Stratification
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 Social institutions exist to assist in
social organization.
 Institutions are frameworks or rules that
define appropriate behavior, emotions,
and ways of thinking in specific areas of
social life.
 Institutions are “durable answers to
important and persistent problems.”
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 There are six main social institutions:
1. Kinship
▪ Kinship represents structures of obligations and
responsibilities among relatives, marriage choices,
and relations between spouses.
2. Economy
▪ The economy centers on the production and
distribution of valued goods in a society.
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3. Polity
▪ Polity represents the distribution of power
and the governance of society.
4. Religion
▪ Religion organizes societal beliefs and
practices regarding things considered
sacred.
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5. Education
▪ Education prepares society members to
assume productive roles in society.
6. Law
▪ A society’s legal system defines appropriate
and inappropriate conduct and provides
rules for sanctioning offenders of the moral
order.
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
Three assumptions about human societies:
1. Human societies are influenced by their
environment.
2. Human societies are endowed with a genetic
heritage that influences behavior.
3. Human societies create symbolic cultural
heritages that give life a unique quality.
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
Classifications of human societies are based on
the primary subsistence technology a society
employs.
 Societies thus can be divided the following ways:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Hunting and gathering
Horticultural
Agrarian
Industrial
Post-industrial*
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Type of Society
Plant
Metallurgy
Cultivation
Plow
Iron





Inanimate
Energy
Hunting/gathering
Horticultural (simple)
Horticultural (adv.)
Agrarian (simple)
Agrarian (adv.)
Industrial










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High
Energy and
Information
Industrial
Typical
Pattern of
Evolution
Agrarian
Atypical
Pattern of
Evolution
Maritime
Herding
Horticultural
Fishing
Hunting and Gathering
Low
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Hunter/Gatherers
Horticultural
Agrarian
Industrial
TIME
15,000 B.C.
10,000 B.C.
5,000 B.C.
0
2,000 A.D.
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
As societies evolve and become more
technologically advanced, they are affected by
differences regarding:
1. Size
▪ More technology = larger societies
2. Permanence of settlements
▪ More technology = permanent societies
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
As societies evolve and become more
technologically advanced, they are affected by
differences regarding (cont.):
3. Societal complexity
▪ More technology = greater division of labor,
status differentiation
4. Ideology
▪ More technology = changes in beliefs
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7
Percentage
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100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
100
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7
1
0
Complex Status Systems
Percentage
15
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
64
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10
15
Belief in a Creator God Concerned with Moral Conduct
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 Modern societies are commonly
identified as a three-level
typology:
1.
First world (high income) societies
2.
Middle-income societies
3.
Third world (low income) societies
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
Before we define sociology, let’s first
examine what the sciences study:
 The natural sciences
▪ Natural sciences explain and predict events in the
natural environment (e.g. biology, physics,
chemistry).
 The social sciences
▪ Social sciences examine human relationships (e.g.
psychology, anthropology, sociology).
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 What do the social sciences study?
 Anthropology focuses on culture.
 Economics focuses on the
production, distribution, and
consumption of goods and services.
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 Political science focuses on how
people govern themselves.
 Psychology focuses on process
within individuals.
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 The term sociology was coined in the
1830s (by Auguste Comte).
 The term is derived from Latin and Greek:
▪ socius (companion/being with others)
▪ logos (the study of)
 Sociology is the scientific study of society
and human behavior.
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 Four factors contributed to the birth
of sociology:
1. The Industrial Revolution
2. The American and French Revolutions
3. Imperialism
4. The scientific method
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
Comte believed society should be
understood through positivism: a way of
understanding based on science.

Comte saw sociology as the product of a
three-stage historical development:
1. Theological stage (in which thought was guided by
religion)
2. Metaphysical stage (a transitional phase)
3. Positive stage (using science to understand society)
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
The sociological perspective helps one see
general social patterns in the behavior of
particular individuals.
 It enables one to grasp the connection between
history and biography.
▪ History represents the idea that society is located in
a broad stream of events.
▪ Biography represents an individual’s specific
experiences.
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 Sociology has three main goals:
1. To explain why social phenomena occur.
2. To make generalizations by looking for
patterns, recurring characteristics, or
events.
3. To predict what will happen in the
future, given current knowledge.
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 There are three levels of sociological
analysis:
1. The micro-level
▪ Dyads, triads, small groups
2. The meso-level
▪ Organizations (small/large)
3. The macro-level
▪ Large scale populations/societies
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 How do social forces at each
level operate together?
 Each process operates in a
reflexive fashion.
 Micro level processes create (and
are constrained by) macro level
processes.
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Forces
Macro-level forces
Meso-level forces
Micro-level forces

Structural Outcomes
→
Social Institutions
↕
→ Corporate Units ↔ Categoric Units
↕
→
Face-to-Face Encounters
These embedded social forces and their structural
outcomes reveal (in a very simple way) the structure
of society and social organization.
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 There are four main perspectives that
(generally) define sociological inquiry:
1.
Structural Functionalism
2.
The Conflict Perspective
3.
Utilitarianism
4.
Symbolic Interactionism
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
Structural-functionalism sees society as a
complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and
stability.
 It asserts that individuals are guided by social
structures (relatively stable patterns of social
behavior).
 Each social structure has a social function, or
consequence, for the operation of society as a
whole.
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
Key figures in the development of
functionalism include Auguste Comte,
Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Robert
Merton, and Talcott Parsons.
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
Utilitarianism is a “rational choice”
perspective that believes individual and
group actions are motivated by the
attempt to maximize rewards while
minimizing costs.
 Human beings are “status maximizers.” All
human behavior is based on the exchange of
resources.
 Resources can be material (money, goods) or
immaterial (time, services, love).
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
Key figures in the development of
utilitarianism include James S. Coleman,
George Homans, Peter Blau, and Richard
Emerson.
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
The conflict perspective sees society as an
arena of inequality that generates conflict
and change.
 Individuals in society are in a constant
struggle for scarce resources.
 Most sociologists who favor the conflict
approach attempt not only to understand
society but also to reduce social inequality.
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
Key figures in the development of the
conflict perspective include Karl Marx,
Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams, and
W.E.B. Du Bois.
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
Two major approaches within the conflict
perspective regard gender-conflict and
race-conflict.
 Gender-conflict represents inequality and
conflict between males and females.
 Race-conflict focuses on inequality and
conflict between people of different racial
and ethnic categories.
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 The symbolic interactionist perspective
sees society as the product of the
everyday interactions of individuals.
 The functionalist and conflict perspectives are
macro-level orientations (they focus on broad social
structures that shape society as a whole).
 Symbolic-interactionism is a micro-level orientation;
it focuses on patterns of social interaction in specific
settings.
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
Key figures in the development of
symbolic interactionism include Charles
Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead,
Herbert Blumer, and Sheldon Stryker.
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 Sociological perspectives are…
1.
Historical and evolutionary
 To understand social change, one must
consider the trajectory and
development of a society over time.
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2.
Comparative
 Comparison is the basis of science;
understanding a specific society is only
possible via its comparison of similarity
and difference with others.
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3.
Theoretical
 Theory is the engine that drives
sociological inquiry; theories explain
aspects of nature and why things are as
they are.
 Theories must be falsifiable.
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 Sociology is practiced in different
ways. There are three main “versions”
of sociology:
1. Positivist sociology
2. Interpretive sociology
3. Critical sociology
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 Positivist (or scientific) sociology is the
study of society based on systematic
observation of social behavior.
 This scientific orientation assumes that
an objective reality exists, and
emphasizes the examination of
relationships among variables.
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
A variable is a characteristic or condition
that can change. Variables have multiple
values.
 An attribute is a specific value of a variable.
▪ E.g.: the variable sex has two attributes: male and female.

Variables can represent any quantitative or
qualitative facet of persons, objects, or
events.
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
Variables can take different forms:
 Discrete variables
▪ Discrete variables consist of indivisible categories.
▪ Examples: race, religion, sex, and gender.
 Continuous variables
▪ Continuous variables are infinitely divisible into
whatever units a researcher may choose.
▪ Examples: time, weight, income.
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
Variables can be classified as independent or
dependent depending on how a researcher
conceives them in relation to other variables.
 An independent variable (IV) is a variable that causes a
change in a dependent variable. It represents the
antecedent conditions that occur prior to observing a
dependent variable.
▪ Researchers often manipulate an IV to see how it affects a
dependent variable.
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 A dependent variable (DV), or outcome variable, is the
variable that is observed after exposure to one or
more independent variables.
▪ A change in a DV is dependent on a change in an IV.
Independent Variable
Education

Dependent Variable
Income
All variables can be independent or dependent
depending on context: There is no example of a
variable that is only one or the other!
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 In order for variables to be causally
related, the following three criteria must
be met:
1. Correlation (x and y must co-vary).
2. Time-order (x must precede y in real time).
3. Nonspuriousness (the relationship between
two variables [x and y] cannot be explained
by a third variable [z]).
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 Interpretive sociology is the study of
society that focuses on subjective
meanings people attach to their
social world.
 The interpretive sociologist’s job is not just to
observe what people do, but to share in their
world of meaning and come to appreciate
why they act as they do.
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
Critical sociology is the study of society
that focuses on the need for social
change.
 Critical sociologists reject the idea that
society exists as a “natural” system with a
fixed order.
 The point is not merely to study the world as
it is, but to change it for the better.
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
One of the most important elements in
sociology is the generation of theory.
 A theory is a system of generalized statements
or propositions about phenomena.

Scientific theories…
1. Explain and predict a phenomena in question.
2. Produce testable and thus falsifiable
hypotheses.
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
Many famous theorists in sociology have
impacted the discipline. Some of the most
important theorists from the classical era
include…
1. Auguste Comte
4. Emile Durkheim
2. Herbert Spencer
5. Max Weber
3. Karl Marx
6. G.H. Mead
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 Auguste Comte (1798-1857) coined the
term sociology; his “social physics”
sought to provide a systematic
understanding to the workings of the
social universe.
 Comte’s “positive philosophy” was based on
a hierarchy of the sciences, beginning with
astronomy and culminating in sociology.
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Comte saw the
hierarchy of the
sciences culminating
in sociology: the
queen of the sciences.
Sociology
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
Astronomy
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
Herbert Spencer’s (1820-1903) analytical
functionalism and moral philosophy
compared societies to organisms.
 Spencer believed that a society’s structures
function to serve requisite needs.
 As a societies increase in size, their needs
differentiate among structures of operation,
regulation, and distribution.
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
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was inspired by the
transition from feudalism to industrial
capitalism.
 Marx focused on economic classes (the
bourgeoisie and the proletariat) and their
relationship to forces of production.
 Marx stated that “the history of all hitherto
existing societies is the history of class
struggle.”
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
By any standard, Durkheim (1858-1917) is
one of the greatest minds in the history of
sociology. His work examined…
 How task specialization affects interpersonal
relationships in modern society.
 The origins of religious life.
 Morality, suicide, and deviance.
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
Max Weber (1864-1920) is perhaps the
most influential figure in sociological
theory; his brand of sociology employs a
historical comparative methodology.
 Weber was interested in why people defer to
authority, how power is used by individuals,
what causes social action, the evolution of
world religions, and what spawned modern
capitalism.
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 George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) was
mainly a philosopher, though he had a
major influence on sociology.
 Mead’s ideas are the foundation of many areas
of sociological social psychology and are the
basis of symbolic interactionism.
 Mead examined relationships among the mind,
self, and society.
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 The first empirical sociological study
was done by Émile Durkheim (1897),
who examined rates of suicide.
 He demonstrated that suicide—a
phenomenon most think of as an
intensely individual act—had social (rather
than psychological) roots.
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 Durkheim felt that the question was
not “why a person commits suicide,”
but “why doesn’t everyone commit
suicide?”
 He felt answering the latter question
could lead to a better understanding
about why certain individuals commit
suicide and others do not.
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 Durkheim identified four types of suicide:
1. Egoistic
2. Altruistic
3. Anomic
4. Fatalistic
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 Egoistic suicide
 Definition: Self-destructive behavior occurring
when the social part of an individual’s nature is
insufficiently developed.
 Egoistic suicide, like anomic suicide, is most
prevalent in periods of transition to modern
society.
 It occurs due to an extreme lack of social
integration.
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 Altruistic suicide
 Definition: A form of self-sacrificing behavior
that occurs as a result of over-conformity
with group rules and over-identification with
the collective whole.
 Altruistic suicide is most prevalent in simple
societies.
 It occurs due to extreme social integration.
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 Anomic suicide
 Definition: Self-destructive behavior arising
in a social setting that lacks sufficient
sociomoral rules to constrain actors.
 Anomic suicide is most prevalent in periods
of transition to modern society.
 It occurs due to an extreme lack of social
regulation.
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 Fatalistic suicide
 Definition: Self-destructive behavior in social
conditions where an individual experiences
pervasive oppression.
▪ Durkheim only briefly describes this type, seeing
it as a rare phenomenon in the real world.
 Examples include those with overregulated,
unrewarding lives such as slaves, childless
married women, and young husbands.
 It occurs due to extreme social regulation.
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 Durkheim posited that the four types
of suicide were extreme ends of two
dimensions,  suicide is a function of:
1. Social integration
2. Social regulation
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Degree of Social Force
Social Force
Low
High
Integration
Egoistic suicide
Altruistic suicide
Regulation
Anomic suicide
Fatalistic suicide
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