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Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
What Is Sociology?
 The systematic study of
society .
human
 Systematic
 Scientific discipline that focuses
attention on patterns of behavior.
 Human society
 Group behavior is primary focus;
how groups influence individuals
and vice versa.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
What Can I
Do with a
Sociology
Degree?
 http://sociology.eku.edu/
 http://www.usi.edu/libar
ts/socio/socdegree.asp
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
The Sociological Perspective:
Peter Berger
 Seeing the general in the particular.

Sociologists identify general social patterns in
the behavior of particular individuals.
 Individuals are unique but, society’s social
forces shape us into “kinds” of people.
 Seeing the strange in the familiar.
 Giving up the idea that human behavior is
simply a matter of what people decide to do.
 Instead sociologists focus on the idea that
society shapes our lives.
 Sociological perspective encourages
challenging commonly held beliefs.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Things are not
what they
seem to be…
Seeing the Strange in the
Familiar: College
 Today most feel that anyone
can go to college.
 A look at a classroom shows
society’s effects:
 Age  young
 Class  families with above
average incomes
 Our Place in History  college
wasn’t an option for most a
century ago.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Durkheim’s Study of Suicide
 Emile Durkheim’s research showed that
society affects even our most personal
choices.
 More likely to commit: male Protestants
who were wealthy and unmarried
 Less likely to commit: male Jews and
Catholics who were poor and married
 One of the basic findings: Why?
 The differences between these groups
had to do with “social integration”.
 Those with strong social ties had less of
a chance of commiting suicide.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Social Marginality
 Being defined by others as
an “outsider”.
 If you are an “outsider”
you are more aware of how
society shapes people’s
lives.
 Privileged people often
see individuals as being
responsible for their own
lives…not the role society
plays.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
C. Wright Mills’ Sociological Imagination
 The power of the sociological
perspective lies not just in changing
individual lives but in transforming
society.
 Society, not people’s personal failings, is
the cause of social problems.
 Sociological imagination is likely to be
more widespread in times of social
crisis.
 Sociological imagination/perspective
is often used by people with
disabilities or racial minorities.
 The S.I. transforms personal problems
into public issues.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Importance of Global
Perspective
 Global perspective – the study of the
larger world & our society’s place in it.
1. Greater understanding of both a new
way of life & your own way of life.
2. Societies throughout the world are
increasingly interconnected through
technology and economics.
3. Many problems that we face in the
United States are more serious
elsewhere.
4. Thinking globally is a good way to learn
more about ourselves.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DISCUSSION QUESTION
 Confronting the strange gives us a new sense of
the familiar. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz once
commented that nothing made him aware of
home as much as being in the world’s most
remote places.
 Have you ever had a similar experience?
 What cultures do you consider “strange”? Why?
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Benefits of Learning Sociology
Helps us assess the
truth of common sense.
2. Helps us assess both
opportunities and
constraints in our lives.
3. Empowers us to be
active participants in
our society.
4. Helps us live in a
diverse world.
1.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DISCUSSION QUESTION
 Can anyone in the US really
become president?
 44/44 – Men
 43/44 – White
 0/44 – Jewish
 1/44 – Catholic
 1/44 – Divorced
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY
 One of the youngest of academic
disciplines (1838), sociology, has it
origins in powerful social forces:
 Social Change
 Industrialization, urbanization,
political revolution, and a new
awareness of society.
 Philosophy (500 BCE) came around
long before sociology.
 Philosophy focused on imagining the
ideal society.
 Sociology focuses on how society
actually operates.
Comte’s Three Stages of Development
 Theological
 People took a religious view that society expressed God’s will.
 Metaphysical
 People saw society as natural, not supernatural.
Hobbes – society reflects failings of selfish human nature.
 Scientific – Comte used scientific method to study society.
 Positivism – Comte’s approach – way of understanding based on science.
 Society operates according to its own laws.
 Today’s sociologists cannot identify “laws of society” that allow us to
predict human behavior because human behavior is patterned and
spontaneous.

Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Sociological Theory
 Theory: a statement of how and why facts are related.
 Explains social behavior to the real world.
 Theoretical paradigm: a set of fundamental
assumptions that guides thinking.
 Three major approaches:



Structural-functional
Social-conflict
Symbolic-interaction
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Structural –Functional Approach
 The basics
 A macro-level orientation, concerned with broad
patterns that shape society as a whole.
 Views society as a complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and stability.
 This approach points to a society’s social structure and
looks for a structure’s social functions.
 Key elements:
 Social structure refers to any relatively stable patterns
of social behavior found in social institutions.
 Social function refers to the consequences for the
operation of society as a whole.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Structural –Functional
Example: Sports
 The S-F
approach would
look at how
sports
contribute to
the operation of
society.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Who’s Who in
Structural-Functional Approach
Auguste Comte
Emile Durkheim
Herbert Spencer
Robert K. Merton
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Auguste Comte
 Coined the term “sociology”.
 Importance of social
integration during times of
rapid change.
 Belief: you need to
understand society as it really
is, not what it wants to be.
 Positivism – path to
understanding the world
based on science.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Emile Durkheim
 Helped establish
sociology as a
university discipline.
 Bonds/functions
hold society
together
(social integration).
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Herbert Spencer
 Compared society to
the human body.
 Coined phrase
“survival of the fittest”.
 Social Darwinism
 Most intelligent,
ambitious people rise to
the top.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Robert K. Merton
 Manifest functions are recognized
and intended consequences.
 Latent functions are unrecognized
and unintended consequences.
 Social dysfunctions - any social
pattern that has negative
consequences for the operation of
society as a whole.
 What is functional for one category
of people, may not be functional for
another.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DISCUSSION QUESTION
 Let’s examine prostitution by using the
structural functional approach.
 What are the functions of prostitution?
 What do people get out of it?
 Who does it benefit?
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Social-Conflict Approach
 The basics:
 A macro-oriented paradigm
 Views society as an arena of inequality that generates
conflict and social change.
 Key elements:
 Society is structured in ways to benefit a few at the
expense of the majority.
 Factors such as race, sex, class, and age are linked to
social inequality.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Who’s Who in Social-Conflict
Approach
Karl Marx
W.E.B. Du Bois
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Karl Marx
 The importance of
social class in
inequality and social
conflict.
 We need to study
society to bring about
change.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
W.E.B. Du Bois
 Founding member of
NAACP and received
first Harvard doctorate
awarded to an African
American.
 Focused on race as the
major problem facing
the United States in the
twentieth century.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Social Conflict Example:
Sports
 The SC
approach would
examine the
links between
sports and
social
inequality.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Social-Conflict Approach
 Gender-Conflict Approach –
 A point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict
between women and men.
 Linked to feminism


Harriet Martineau – first woman sociologist
 Documented the evils of slavery, argued for laws to protect
factory workers, and defended unions.
Jane Addams
 Public activist
 Founded the Hull House – assistance to immigrants.
 Race-Conflict Approach –
 A point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict
between people of different racial and ethnic
categories. Sociology, Eleventh Edition
DISCUSSION QUESTION
 Let’s examine prostitution by using the social
conflict approach.
 What social conflicts do you think prostitution
causes/reinforces?
 What categories of people are likely to be
prostitutes?
 Why do people become prostitutes?
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Symbolic Interaction Approach
 The basics:
 A micro-level orientation, a close-up focus on social
interactions in specific situations.
 Views society as the product of everyday interactions of
individuals.
 Key elements:
 Society is nothing more than the shared reality that
people construct as they interact with one another.
 Society is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of
subjective meanings.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
individuals
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Symbolic Interaction
Example: Sports
 The S-I
approach would
assess the
different
meanings and
understandings
people have of
sports.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Who’s Who in SymbolicInteraction Approach
Max Weber
George Herbert Mead
Erving Goffman
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Max Weber
 Understanding a
setting from the
people in it.
 Called attention
to the meaning
people attach to
their behavior.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
George Herbert Mead
 How we build
personalities from
social experience.
Erving Goffman
 Dramaturgical
analysis
 We are actors on a
stage as we play
out our roles/lives.
DISCUSSION QUESTION
 Let’s examine prostitution by using the symbolic
interaction approach.
 Think about the everyday interactions of
individuals.
 How would a prostitute be easy to recognize?
 How would people respond to passing a
prostitute on the street?
 Would everyone respond the same way?
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Social-Exchange Analysis
 Social interaction is guided by what each person
stands to gain and lose from others.
 People seek mates who offer at least as much as
they offer.
Critical Evaluation
 Structural-Functional
 Too broad, ignores inequalities of social class, race &
gender, focuses on stability at the expense of conflict.
 Social-Conflict
 Too broad, ignores how shared values and mutual
interdependence unify society, pursues political goals.
 Symbolic-Interaction
 Ignores how larger social structures, effects of culture,
factors such as class, gender & race affect people’s
experiences.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Applying Theory (p. 22)
Major Theoretical Perspectives
Sociology, Eleventh Edition
Pg. 22
Stereotypes
 Stereotype – an
exaggerated
description applied to
every person in some
category.
Sociology, Eleventh Edition