Introduction to Sociology
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What is Sociology?
Connections to Social Work
Basic Insight of Sociology
What is a Sociologist?
Natural Curiosity (focus on the too
sacred, too repulsive, too boring) and
The Social Organization of Man
Sociology like a Passion than a Pastime
Introduction to Sociology
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What is the sociological perspective?
Personal Experience:
1. No understanding of other
cultures.
2. Sweeping Conclusions.
3. Errors in Understanding.
Leon Festinger’s Need to Know
Fritz Heider’s Naïve Psychology
Introduction to Sociology
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Perspective:
1. Removes us from familiar
experiences
2. Critically and objectively examine
phenomenon
3. Conscious effort to question the
obvious
Social Science vs. Natural Sciences
Introduction to Sociology
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Difference Between Social Problems
and Sociological Ones
First Mission of Sociology: much of what
may initially appear to be one way may
not be that way at all in practice.
Origins of Sociology
Auguste Comte
Social Statics and Social Dynamics
Introduction to Sociology
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Herbert Spencer
Social Darwinism
Survival of the fittest
Karl Marx
Optimistic view of Man
2 Classes: Elite and Proletariat
Means of production: False
Consciousness, Class Consciousness
Introduction to Sociology
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Work is not rewarding in any form.
Economic Determinism
Emile Durkheim
Social Facts
Collective Conscience
Max Weber
The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of
Captialism
Rationalization of Social Relations
Verstehen
Introduction to Sociology
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Charles Cooley and George H. Mead
Self and symbolic interactionism
Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
Structural Functionalism
Conflict Perspective
Symbolic Interactionism
Dramaturgical Sociology
Ethnomethodology
Research Methods
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Methods of “Knowing”
Logic
Common Agreement
Direct Personal Observation
Things That Inhibit the Research
Process
Tradition
Inaccurate Observation
Research Methods
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Overgeneralization
Selective Observation
Terms in Research
Attribute
Variable
Parsimoniously
Independent, Dependent Variables
Exogenous and Intervening Variables
Research Methods
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Goals of Research
Exploration
Descriptive
Analysis
Types of Research Design
Experiments
Surveys
Field Research
Research Methods
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Types of Field Research
Participant Observer
Participant as Observer
Observer as Participant
Complete Observer
Ethical Issues in Field Research
Culture
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Culture Shock
Ethnocentrism
Cultural Relativity
Components of Culture
Nonmaterial Culture=Symbolic Culture
Gestures
Culture
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Language—words are symbols
How it allows culture to exist:
1. Allows experiences to be cumulative
2. Provides a shared past and future
3. Allows shared understandings
Culture
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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Values
Norms: folkways and mores
Subcultures/Countercultures
Groups
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Social Organization
Social Positions: Status and Role
Ascribed and Achieved Statuses
Status Symbols
Master Status
Problems with Statuses and Roles
Role Strain/Role Conflict
Groups
Types of Groups
Primary/Secondary
Dyads/Triads
 Communities
Territorial
Non-Territorial
Reference Groups
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Groups
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Interaction in Groups
Hobbs—War of all against all.
Principles of Interaction
Pleasure Rationality, Reciprocity,
Fairness Principles
Influence of Groups on Behavior/Group
Conformity
Trivial: Asch, Sherif
Moderate: Newcomb and Libermann
Serious: Zimbardo and Milgram
Zimbardo Study
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Environ Cues
New Role Expect
Role Merger Neg. Interaction
Reward
Groups
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Altruism and the Bystander Effect
Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies
History of Bureaucracies—Feudal System
Paternalistic Organizations
Loss of control
Poor communication
History of decision making
Questions of Efficiency and Effectiveness:
Compared to What?
Groups
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Parkinson’s Laws #1 and #2
Finding Responsible Decision Makers
Trained Incapacity/Ritualism
Organizational Survival
Socialization
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Feral children
Isabelle in 1938 in Ohio
So what’s the key to this change in behavior?
Language…and stimulating interaction
Orphanages, Skeel and Dye’s study. Main
Finding? Those assigned to the challenged
women gained 28 IQ points, control group
lost 30 IQ points.
So how do we become human?
Socialization
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Mead and Cooley
1. We imagine how we appear to those
around us.
2. We interpret others’ reactions
3. We develop a self-concept.
Connections to self-esteem, esp. among
women in our society
Socialization
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Mead:Role Taking: The Significant
Other and the Generalized Other
Play, Game, Generalized Other Stages
of Self
Agents of Socialization
Family, Peers, Schools, Media
Resocialization
Deviance and Social Control
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Deviance Defined
Theories of Deviance
Individual/Biological
Social Structural
Miller’s Focal Concerns
Merton’s Theory of Anomie
Deviance and Social Control
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Social Process
Sutherland’s Differential Association
Labeling Theory
Process of Labeling
Act (Primary Deviance), Status Degradation
Ceremony, Label (Master Status)
Retrospective Interpretation, Internalization
(Secondary Deviance), Deviant
Subculture/Career
Can Label be Removed?
Crime