Sociology
Group Work
1.
List 5 things about yourself.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
My name is
I love
I hate
My favorite place is
I wish
2. Go around the room and get this
information from 4 other people.
What is Sociology?
 Sociology:
systematic study of social
behavior in human groups
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Study influence of social relationships
Determine how those relationships
influence behavior
Understand how societies develop
and change
The Sociological Imagination
 Sociological
imagination: awareness of
relationship between an individual and
the wider society, today and in the past
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Ability to view one’s society as an outsider,
rather than from perspective of one’s
limited experiences and cultural biases
Goes beyond personal experiences
and observations
Sociology and the Social Sciences
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Science: body of knowledge obtained by methods that are based
on
systematic observation
 Natural Science: study of physical features of nature and ways
they interact and change
 Social Science: study of social features of humans and ways they
interact and change
Sociologists study influence society has on people's attitudes and
behavior and ways people interact and shape society
Investigate vast range of relationships
 Aging
 Family
 Human ecology
 Religion
Sociologists test and analyze information they use and rely on
scientific studies to describe and understand a social environment
What Is Sociological Theory?
 Theory:
set of statements that seeks to
explain problems, actions, or behavior
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Effective theories have explanatory and
predictive power
Theories are never a final statement about
human behavior
Historical Walk
With
a partner, pick a current
event
 What
event did you pick?
 What are the different groups
involve?
 How is the perspective different
for each group?
Stereotypes
-
Likes Rap & Hip-Hop
- Likes live Rock concerts
- Favorite book "Malcom X"
- Favorite movie "Being John Malkovich"
This person is? fill in: Gender_________,
Ethnicity_____________, sexual
orientation________________
Stereotypes
-
Likes trance/techno music
- Likes Classical music (mostly large
orchestral works)
- Favorite book "Mrs. Dalloway"
- Favorite movie " The great dictator."
This persone is? fill in: Gender_________,
Ethnicity_____________, sexual
orientation________________
Stereotypes
-
Likes Latin music, middle easter music
- Likes live Reggae Concerts
- Favorite book "The Quran"
- Favorite movie "Brooklyn Babylon"
This person is? fill in: Gender_________,
Ethnicity____________, sexual
orientation________________
Stereotypes
-
Likes Jazz and folk music
- Likes live Rock
- Favorite book "freakonomics"
- Favorite movie "Brokeback mountain"
This person is? fill in: Gender_________,
Ethnicity_____________, sexual
orientation________________
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
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Comte is credited with being the founder of sociology
First to apply the scientific method to the social world, known as positivism.
He was French. He migrated from a small town to Paris. The changes he
himself experienced, combined with those France underwent in the
revolution, led Comte to become interested in the two interrelated issues:
social order (social static) and social change (social dynamics). What holds
the society together (Why is there a social order)? And once the society is set
then what causes it to change? Why its directions change?
Believed there must be laws that underlie the society. Therefore we should
discover these principles by applying scientific method to social world. Once
these principles discovered then we could apply these for social reform.
He advocated for building new societies on twin foundations of science and
industry rather than on religion and landowner-serf relationship.
This new science was named Sociology (1838) – the study of society.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
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He was an Englishman and is sometimes called second founder of
sociology.
He too believed that society operates under some fixed laws.
Social Darwinist - Social Darwinism grew out of Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution. When the favorable traits of the species are
passed on to an individual in the next generation, then that
individual thrives. He called the “natural selection” because only
the best suited individuals survived. In the late 1800s, this theory was
applied to human society to explain why some people became
millionaires and other did not. Those who were poor were lazy.
By following the basic principle of Social Darwinism Spenser
advocated that ‘let the fittest survive’. There should be no reform
because it will help in the survival of lower order individuals. (Charity
and helping the poor were considered to be wrong).
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
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Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a comfortable
middle-class home in Germany on May 5, 1818.
Founder of Marxism
Marxism is the political and economic philosophy in
which the concept of class struggle plays a central
role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable
development from bourgeois (property owning class)
oppression under capitalism to ultimately classless
society.
Marx argues that in capitalist society, an economic
minority (the bourgeoisie) dominate and exploit an
economic majority (the proletariat). Marx argues that
capitalism is exploitative.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
 He
was French.
 His primary goal was of getting sociology
recognized as a separate academic
discipline.
 His systematic study comparing suicide
rates among several countries revealed
an underlying social factor: People were
more likely to commit suicide if their ties to
others in their communities were weak.
Max Weber (1864-1920)
 Was
German.
 Used cross-cultural and historical materials
in order to determine how extensively
social groups affect people’s orientations
to life
Stanford Prison Experiment
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The Stanford prison experiment was a study of
the psychological effects of becoming a
prisoner and prison guard.
Conducted at Stanford University August 14 –
20 1971
Funded by US Office of Naval Research to
understand conflict between military guards
and prisoners
Twenty-four male students out of 75 were
selected to take on randomly assigned roles
of prisoners and guards in a mock.
Your Experiment
 Come
up with a
topic you want to
study, a question
you want answered
and an experiment
to conduct
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Be prepared to answer
the following questions:
What did you decide?
Why did you pick that?
What supplies will you
need?
What would you expect
to see during the
experiment?
Could it be consider
unethical?
Essay #1
 Discuss
the ethical considerations
governing experimentation.
 Use specific examples and point out
ethical problems faced by researchers.
 Evaluate if science should be constricted
by ethics.