Chapter 1
Mr. Porter

• Should sociologists try to reform society?
• What are the 3 perspectives, which do you prefer and why?
• What’s the difference between macro and micro approaches in sociology? Which is the best to explain social life and why?

Seeing the Broader Social Context
• How groups influence people
• How people are influenced by their society
– People who share a culture
– People who share a territory

• Jobs
• Income
• Education
• Gender
• Age
• Race

• “The sociological perspective enables us to grasp the connection between history and biography.”
• History- society is located in a broad stream of events.

• Biography- Individual specific experience
• External influence our experiences
• This becomes part of our thinking and motivation.

• Global Village
• Instant Communication
• Everyone has different lives
• Sociology studies both global network and our experience.

• To satisfy the needs of humans in regards to the world around them, humans developed
science.
• Sociology was developed by humans as a scientific study of society and human behavior.
• Sciences are divided into two categories
(Natural Science and Social Sciences)

• Intellectual and academic disciplines designed to explain and predict the events in our natural environment
• Biology
• Geology
• Chemistry
• Physics

• Social Sciences examine the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to understand the social world objectively by means of controlled and repeated observations.
• Anthropology
• Economics
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Sociology

Anthropology- Study of
Cultures (4 Types)
• Cultural Anthropology
• Archeology
• Physical/Biological
Anthropology
• Linguistic Anthropology

• Economics- Studies the production and distribution of goods and services.
• Examine what goods are being produced, cost and distributed
• Study why people purchase certain items rather than others

• Political Sci- the study how people govern themselves.
• Politics
• Government
• Consequences of breaking rules

• Psychology- The study of processes within individuals.
• Focus on mental process
• Examine intelligence, emotions, perception, memory and dreams

• Similar to the other sciences (study culture like anthropology, study goods and services like economics)
• Sociologists look at how people of different backgrounds look at the same information.

• Explain why things happen
• To make generalizations
• Look for patterns
• Go beyond what as seen as common sense

• For centuries people tried to figure out social life.
• By the mid 1800’s people began to apply science methods
• As the Industrial Revolution came about, people began to study the problems with society.
• Sociology grew out of social upheaval
• Scientific Method- using objective, systematic observations to test theories

• Applying the scientific method to the social world.
• What creates social order?
• As one society sets in a course, how does it change?
• Applied scientific method and coined it sociology.

Herbert Spenser & Social Darwinism
• Disagreed with Comte
• Believed societies evolve from lower to higher.
• Most capable in society will survive
• Help the poor will only interfere with the process
• “Survival of the Fittest”

• Engine of human history is class conflict.
• Bourgeoisis vs
Proletariat
• Marxism is not the same as Communism.
• Marx did not think of himself as a Sociologist.
• One of 3 greatest thinkers in history

Emile Durkheim & Social Integration
• Able to get sociology recognized as separate academic discipline.
• Social forces affect behavior.
• Identified Social
Integration- degree to which people feel part of a social group.

• Disagreed with Marx’s claim that economics central force in social change.
• Religion (Prostestants) brought the rise of capitalism.
• Still debated about today.

• Weber pushed for sociology should be value free.
• Weber felt that sociology should be objective.
• Researchers should involve replication.
• Wide variety of uses for sociology
– Used to help human suffering (Social Reform)
– Some feel it should be used for any purpose
– Used to describe events not to place judgment

• Verstehen- “To grasp by insight”
– Understand subjective meaning (way people interpret their own behavior)
• Durkheim
– Stressed Social Facts (group patterns of behavior)
– Use social facts to interpret social facts
• How social facts and verstehen work together

Females in Sociology
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
• Born into a wealthy family, she began analyzing social life while keeping it a secret.
• Studied in both the U.S. and the U.K.
• Published Society in
America
• Her work was ignored

• Sociology can be traced to Univ. of Kansas, Univ. of Chicago & Atlanta
Univ. late 1800’s
• Many women work as social workers rather than sociologist (Not like today’s social worker)

• Born into wealth and privilege
• Attended The Women's
Medical College of
Philadelphia
• She was inspired by what was being done for the poor in
London
• 1889, she founded the Hull-
House in Chicago

• First African American to earn a doctorate @
Harvard
• Wrote over 2,000 writings on white and black relations from 1896-1914
• Founded the NAACP
• Until recently, his writings were rejected by sociology

• Early North American sociologists combined the role of sociologist w/ social reformer
• By the 1940’s, Talcott Parsons developed models on how society works together which did nothing to promote social activism
• Mills pushed for Sociologists to get back to promoting social reform
• Mills found that the power elite was imminent threat to our freedom.

• Micro Level- Looks at family and relationships
• Macro Level- Looks at outside sources such as crime and pollution
• Applied Sociology- The use of sociology to solve problems in society either macro or micro levels.
– NAACP
– Pornography
– AIDS

• 1. Symbolic Interactionism
• 2. Functional Analysis
• 3. Conflict Theory

• Theory that society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another.
• George Herbert Mead is considered one of the founders to symbolic interactionism.

George H. Mead We use symbols to attach meaning
• 1. Emotional Satisfaction
• 2. The Love Symbol
• 3. The Meaning of Children
• 4. The Meaning of Parenthood
• 5. Marital Roles
• 6. Perception of Alternatives
• 7. The Meaning of Divorce
• 8. Changes in the Law

• Theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function, when fulfilled, contributes to society’s equilibrium.
• These functions can be either manifest or
latent.

• 1. Economic Production
• 2. Socialization of Children
• 3. Care of the Sick and Elderly
• 4. Recreation
• 5. Sexual Control
• 6. Reproduction

• Founded by Karl Marx
• Theory in which society is viewed as composed of groups competing for scarce resources.
• Human history as a class struggle (bourgeoisie & proletariat)

• Today its used in a broader sense, used in all relations that deal with authority.
• Today it can be seen such as Feminists and equal rights to men.
• Applying it today with the changes in our society.
– Compare the Divorce Rate and how times have changed.

• Level of analysis.
• Functionalists and Conflict Theorists are more focused on Marco Level.
• Symbolic Interactionists more focused on
Micro Level, on Social Interaction.
• Symbolic would focus on nonverbal
interactions.

• Phase 1 to improve society (lasted until the
1920’s)
• Phase 2 to make sociology a better field of knowledge (1920’s- early 1940’s)
• Phase 3 to apply research and findings through the development of applied sociology
(1940’s to present day).

• Globalization- the extensive interconnections among nations due to the expansion of capitalism.
• The focus is more than just the U.S. but rather now global issues.
• Looking at Globalization of Capitalism in which capitalism is the globes dominant economic system.