AN INVITATION TO SOCIOLOGY
The Sociological Perspective
What is Sociology?
the scientific study of social structure
Social Structure
Sociological Findings Verses Common Sense
True or False
1. More U.S. students are killed in school shootings now than ten or fifteen
years ago.
2. The earnings of U.S. women have just about caught up with those of U.S.
men.
3. When faced with natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, people
panic and social organization disintegrates.
4. People who commit rape and sexual assault are mentally ill.
5. Most people on welfare are lazy and looking for a handout. They could
work if they wanted to.
6. Compared with women, men maintain more eye contact while they are
conversing.
7. The more available alcohol is (as measured by the number of places to
buy alcohol per one hundred people), the more alcohol related injuries and
fatalities occur on U.S. highways.
8. Couples who live together before marriage are usually more satisfied with
their marriages than couples who do not live together before marriage.
9. When husbands of working wives get laid off from work, most take up the
slack and increase the amount of housework they do.
10. Students in Japan are under such intense pressure to do well in school
that their suicide rate is about double that of U.S. students.
1. Someone who can’t find a job is ___________________.
2. Homelessness is the result of _____________________.
3. Illegal immigrants come here because of ___________.
Personal
Societal
Sociological Perspective
Are More Heads Better Than One?
How many pennies are in the jar?
Class average?
How many came closer to the actual number
than the group?
Conclusion: Many times groups solve problems
better than individuals
Why do people conform?
Groups tend to think, feel and behave in similar ways
elevator conformity
The Social Sciences
• Sociology – investigates human behavior from
group (not individual) perspective
• Anthropology – closely related, focus on preliterate societies
• Psychology - mental and emotional processes
and functioning of the individual
• Economics – studies production, distribution
and consumption of goods and services
• Political Science – organization, administration,
history, and theory of government
• History - past events in human societies
Sociological Imagination
Who was August Comte,
and why does he matter?
• Frenchman
• Father of Sociology
• 1st to advocate scientific
study of society (positivism)
Positivism: the belief that knowledge
should be derived from scientific
observation
1798-1857
Believed people’s behavior within a group cannot be predicted by their
personal characteristics (bronze)
Comte’s Big Ideas
Social Statics: the study of
social stability and order
Social Dynamics: the study of
social change
Harriet Martineau… the first feminist?
• Englishwoman
• Popular writer, Society in America
• drew link between slavery and
oppression of women
• inspired future feminist theorists
1802-1876
Ebenezer Scrooge…Social Commentary
Herbert Spencer and Darwinism
• Social Darwinism
• natural social selection and survival
of the fittest society
• opposed social reform – to interfere would
be harmful to society in long run
1820-1903
“What is not good for the hive is
not good for the bee.”
Marcus Aurelius Antonius (121-180)
occupy movement
Karl Marx & class conflict
• German scholar
• poverty and inequality of
the working class
• bourgeoisie: class owning the
means for producing wealth
(capitalists)
• proletariat: working class,
those who labor for bourgeoisie
1818-1883
Class Conflict
• eventually wage workers
would overthrow capitalists
• result in communistic society
(one without classes)
Emile Durkheim
•
Frenchman
• Consensus (solidarity) of society
• mechanical solidarity
• organic solidarity
• Studied Suicide: believed suicide
is related to the strength of shared
beliefs among group members
(solidarity)
1858-1917
More About Durkhiem
First to stress statistical techniques
Anecdotal vs. Scientific Data
Who was Max Weber?
• German law & economics professor
• verstehen: understanding others
by “putting yourself in their shoes”
• rationalization: mindset that
emphasizes knowledge, reason, and
planning
1864-1920
Jane Addams and Hull House
• American social reformer
• poor, immigrants, sick, aged
• believed society should help the
less fortunate
1860-1935
W.E.B. Dubois’ Contributions
•
African American social activist
• doctorate degree from Harvard
• used science and sociology to
disprove racist assumptions
about African Americans
1868-1963
Theoretical Perspective
• a set of assumptions accepted as true
• in sociology, assumptions about the workings
of society
What is a Theoretical Perspective?
Theoretical Perspective: a set of assumptions accepted as true
FUNCTIONALISM
Emphasizes the contributions (functions)
of each part of a society
• A society is a relatively integrated whole
• A society tends to seek relative stability
• Most aspects of a society contribute to the
society’s well-being and survival
• A society rests on the consensus of its members
Functionalism
Functionalism: approach that emphasizes the contributions made
by each part of society
• contributes to society by providing for
the reproduction and care of its new
members
Functionalism
• contributes to society by emphasizing
beliefs and practices that are sacred
• kill
• steal….
FUNCTIONALISM
Contributes by ensuring
Survival of society by passing
On essential knowledge/skills
“Religion is the opiate
of the masses.”
Functionalism
Economics: contributes to society by dealing with the production,
distribution, and consumption of goods and services
Functionalists: see parts of a society as an
integrated whole
• a change in one part of society leads to changes in others
• Example: pre and post-Industrial Revolution
What do functions do?
…If they didn’t, they would disappear.
Manifest and Latent Functions
Robert Merton
Manifest functions: intended and recognized
Q: Manifest function of school?
A: Education
Latent Functions: unintended and unrecognized
aspects of society
Q: Latent Function of School?
A: development of close
friendships
Dysfunctions: negative consequences of
an aspect of society
Consensus of society that these two aspects were dysfunctional
CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
• A society experiences inconsistency and conflict
everywhere
• A society is continually subjected to change
• A society involves the constraint and coercion
of some of its members
Conflict Perspective
Conflict Perspective: approach emphasizing the role of conflict,
competition, and constraint within a
society
Conflict and Constraint
Those with the most power are able to constrain (or limit)
the less powerful.
Functionalism
Conflict Perspective
A society is an integrated whole
A society experiences
inconsistency and conflict
everywhere
A society tends to seek relative
stability
A society is continually
subjected to change
A society rests on the consensus
of its members
A society involves the constraint
and coercion of some members
by others
Conflict Perspective and Social Change
Men -Women
Whites - Minorities
pencil = clock
pen = stapler
paper = projector
desk = closet
tablet = shoe
write = dribble
down = up
snack = door handle
party = nosebleed
year = waffle
I want you to take out a clock or a stapler
and some projector and put it on your
closet. It’s OK if you leave it in your shoe
for now. I want you to dribble up your
favorite door handle for a class nosebleed
at the end of the school waffle.
Symbolic Interactionism
Focuses on the actual interaction among people through
the use of shared symbols
Symbol: anything that stands for something else and has
an agreed upon meaning attached to it
aunts, uncles,
brothers, sisters
employers, employees
teachers, students
Three Assumptions About Symbolic Interactionism
We learn the meaning of a symbol by the way we
see others reacting to it.
Once we learn the meanings of symbols, we base
our behavior (interaction) on them.
We use the meaning of symbols to imagine how
others will respond to our behavior
Dramaturgy
•
approach that sees human interaction
as theatrical performances
Erving Goffman
Assumptions of the Major Theoretical Perspectives
Functionalism
Conflict Perspective
Symbolic Interactionism
1. A society is a
relatively integrated
whole.
1. A society
experiences
inconsistency and
conflict
everywhere.
1. People’s
interpretations of
symbols are based on
the meanings they
learn from others.
2. A society tends to
seek relative
stability.
2. A society is
continuously
subjected to
change.
2. People base their
interaction on their
interpretation of
symbols.
3. Most aspects of a
3. A society involves
society contribute to
the constraint and
a society’s well-being
coercion of some
and survival
members by
others.
4. A society rests on the
consensus of its
members
3. Symbols permit people
to have internal
conversations,
behaving the way they
think others expect of
them and the behavior
they expect of others.
Comparing Theoretical Perspectives
Functionalist
Perspective
Conflict
Perspective
Symbolic
Interactionist
Perspective
Emphasis
is on…
order and stability
conflict over scarce
and valued resources
shared meaning of
symbols
Society is
viewed as…
a system of
interrelated parts
dominant and
subordinate groups
in conflict over scarce
and valued resources
a series of
interactions
dependant on
shared symbols
Key question
is…
How does a part
contribute to
overall functioning
of a society?
Who benefits from a
pattern or social
arrangement, and
at whose expense?
How are symbolic
meanings created?
Major
criticisms
are that…
it defends
existing social
arrangements
it exaggerates
tension and
divisions in society
it offers no systematic
explanation for how
meanings persist
or change