Take five minutes and write
down your reactions to…
Rules defining appropriate and
inappropriate behavior; ways of
behaving in specific situations; guides
people to behave similarly in similar
circumstances; ingrained and we are
typically unaware of them until they
are broken
Expected Behavior
• Stand in line when
buying your lunch
Violation
• Cutting in line
• Earning your own
income through work
and effort
• Stealing from others
What happens when
are violated?
• Norms are learned and accepted
• Groups teach norms through use of
sanctions
– Rewards/punishments used to encourage
conformity
• Sanctions are used
– Humiliation; people staring
– Asked to move back to the end of the line/guilt
– Jail time, fines, etc.
• The study of modern human social behavior
as a group (psychology – individual)
• Examine the patterns of behavior that are
shared by members of a group (social factors
that influence our actions)
• The sociological perspective focuses on the
group not the individual
– Young men join gangs because they have been
taught by their society to be “masculine” NOT a young
man joins a gang to prove his toughness
PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING…
• SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE:
Looks at the behavior of GROUPS not
individuals
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
and the study of social
behavior help to create a social structure.
- An environment that prescribes/dictates
members of a group to behave in a certain
way.
I can’t determine how you
will act when you’re alone,
but I can make predictions
as to how groups of people
typically behave.
• When groups form, individual personalities no
longer solely dictate the behavior of an individual
• Because of a group environment/setting as
individuals we behave differently then we might
otherwise if we were alone
- Example: 2008 World Series Champions
Philadelphia Phillies
How many of you are the exact same
• Understanding how social forces
person
with
your
friends
as
you
are
impact our decisions as individuals
with your family?
• Helps you make sound decisions
Or
(sometimes influenced by the
How
many
of you act
way
social
structure
butthe
at same
least you
inare
school
as you
do on the weekends
aware
of that)
with your friends (language,
demeanor, attitude, clothes, etc.)
Auguste Comte
•
•
•
•
•
•
1798-1857
Considered “Father of Sociology”
Coined the term sociology
Create a science to study society
Used scientific observation
Positivism – science based on knowledge that we
can be sure about
• Studied social statics (stability) and dynamics
(social change)
• Positive Philosophy - book
Harriet Martineau
• 1802-1876
• English
• Translation of Comte’s work
• “mother of sociology”
• Contributed to sociological research methods,
political economy, and feminist theory
• Book – Society in America
Herbert Spencer
• 1820-1903
• English
• Without interference from people, natural social
selection would ensure survival of the fittest.
• Used Theory of Social Darwinism
– Opposed social reform
– Allow nature of wealth/poverty to take its course
– This will help develop/structure society the way it is
meant to be
Karl Marx
• 1818-1883
• German
• Believed social scientists should try and change
the world/society not just study it
• Studied class conflict
– Believed a classless society would prevail
(communism)
– Bourgeoisie/capitalists – own the means of production
(money, factories, etc.)
– Proletariat - workers
Emile Durkheim
• 1858-1917
• French
• Society exists because of consensus/agreement
– Pre-industrial society – mechanical solidarity
(based on consensus)
– Industrial society – organic solidarity (based on
each person having specialized roles,
interdependent upon one another)
• Developed sociological research tools
– Observation
– statistics
Max Weber
• 1864-1920
• German
• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism – book
• Verstehen – putting yourself in someone
else’s shoes
• Rationalization
Jane Addams
•
•
•
•
1860-1935
American
Social reformer – seeking social justice
Imbalance of power among social classes
and its effects of industrialism on poor
• Not considered a sociologist while living
WEB DuBois
• 1868-1963
• American
• Social structure of African American
communities
C. Wright Mills
• American sociologist
• sociological imagination - being able to
connect individual experiences and
societal relationships
Charles Cooley
• American psychologist, sociologist, and educator
• demonstrated that "personality emerges from
social influences, and that the individual and the
group are complementary aspects of human
association”
AKA…
concept of the looking glass self, which is the
concept that a person's self grows out of
society's interpersonal interactions and the
perceptions of others
Herbert Blumer
• American sociologist
• 1937 Known as the founder of the symbolic
interactionism concept (Man and Society)
– Humans behave according to the meanings that things and
events have for them.
– Individual meanings of things and events stem from interaction
with others.
– Meanings entail interpretation rather than simple literal
compliance with standardized expectations
• His earlier work included Movies and Conduct (1933) and
Movies, Delinquency, and Crime (1933). A collection of
essays concerning social organization and
industrialization formed from the perspective of social
interactionism
Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf
• 1959 - Most influential work on social inequality
is Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society.
– The problem of inequality in modern, or postcapitalist,
societies
– Neither structural functionalism nor Marxism alone
provides an acceptable perspective on advanced
society
• Criticized and wanted to challenge the “false,
utopian representation of societal harmony,
stability, and consensus by the structural
functionalist school”
George Mead
• American sociologist
• One of the founders of social psychology and
the American sociological tradition in general
• Most influential idea was the emergence of
mind and self from the communication
process between organisms, discussed in
Mind, Self and Society, also known as social
behaviorism
– Aligns with symbolic interactionism theory
• A set of assumptions about the workings of society
• Viewed as true by its supporters
Sociology has THREE major theories (each
has its own followers)…AH AH AHHHH!
– To be able to examine a
social situation using all
three theories is best
(gives best understanding)
Line up in order of birth date.
Youngest (left) to oldest (right)
No talking, no pen and paper,
no ID’s
Theory 1:
• Emphasizes the contributions made by each
part of society (ex. Family, religion,
economics)
• Everyone in society has a function in which
they seek to fulfill
• Societies tend to turn towards a state of
stability
Birth Order Activity
All parts of society/group working
together for common goal
(functionalism)
Theory 1:
• Manifest Functions: Intended and recognized
consequences
• Latent Functions: Unintended and
unrecognized consequences
• Dysfunction: Negative consequences
Theory 2:
• Emphasizes conflict and competition
(Opposite of Functionalism)
• Groups compete to preserve and promote
their own special values and interests
Theory 2:
• As the balance of power shifts in society,
change occurs
• POWER = The ability to control the behavior of
others
Women’s movement is
shifting power between
men and women
• Play two rounds of musical chairs, removing a chair
each time
• From here forward anyone left without a chair when the
music stops may share a chair with someone
(emphasizes cooperation – functionalism, rather then
competition – conflict theory)
• How can this game be explained by the theoretical
perspectives?
– First two rounds illustrate competition = conflict theory
(limited resources and the fight for those resources)
– Later rounds promote cooperation =
functionalism
What were the Manifest and Latent
Functions of Musical Chairs?
Manifest = Demonstrating Theories
Latent = Fun
Theory 3:
What is the symbol?
What do you think of seeing this
symbol?
What/who would you expect to
see with this symbol?
Where might you see this symbol?
How might you behave because of
this symbol?
Theory 3:
• Coined by Herbert Blumer
• SYMBOL: anything that stands for something else
and has an agreed-upon meaning.
– We learn the meaning of symbols by watching
others
– We use learned meanings to help us imagine how
others are going to respond to the same symbol
and base our actions accordingly
A guest speaker visiting your sociology class
described her tour of duty as an army nurse in
Vietnam during the height of the conflict. She
commented that her parents forbade her to
enlist because they felt the war was not a
legitimate cause. She was eighteen; she felt
free to choose. When she returned home two
years later, she faced criticism and ridicule from
students on her college campus, as well as
from her parents. Thirty years later she has
been recognized as a U.S. war hero.