Chapter 1: Roots of Sociology
Sociology is the systematic and objective study
of human society and social interaction.
Sociologists use research techniques similar to those of
the natural sciences. They often conduct research using
scientific method. That is, they establish testable
hypotheses and decide ahead of time which results will
lead them to accept or reject the hypotheses. Like other
scientists, sociologists strive to reach conclusions and
present findings that are objective—not biased by
emotion or preferences. It is this commitment to scientific
methods that makes sociology different from the
nonscientific disciplines of the humanities.
The history and development of
sociology
• Henry de Saint-Simon(1760-1821)
– He was the first scholar to treat society
as a distinct and separate unit of
analysis. He also was one of first to
stress the idea that the social sciences
might use the new methods of the
natural sciences. But like most of the
early social thinkers who followed the
Industrial Revolution, Saint-Simon was
interested in the analysis of society
only as it related to his desire for social
reform.
Industrial Revolution
• Industrial change
– Movement of
people from
villages to cities
– Working in
factories away from
families
– Travel becomes
more common
• Rapid social
change
– New forms of social
interaction occur
– Pace is too fast for
some and they fall
off by embracing
social movements
or getting involved
in drugs and/or
crime
Industrial Revolution
• Nature of work changes
– People now worked in factories
– Standardization of work
• Ones interaction is influenced by work
• Nature of interaction changes
– People communicate with a broader spectrum
of people—railways, planes, internet
– People move to urban areas, families split
August Comte(1798-1857)
• He was considered the founder
of sociology. He had once been
personal secretary to SaintSimon. Comte coined the term
sociology. Previously, he had
called the discipline “positive
philosophy”( social physics ),
both to stress its scientific nature
and to distinguish it from
traditional philosophy. The aim of
sociology, as he saw it, was to
find the “invariable laws” of
sociology upon which a new
order could be based.
Harriet Martineau
English (1802-1876)
• Published Theory and Practice of
Society in 1837, a year or two before
Comte coined the term sociology
• Studied family, race relations, and
religion in America. Concerned with
the plight of women and children
during Industrial Revolution.
• Detached style of reporting set the
standard for objectivity in sociological
research
• Pioneering nature largely ignored by
male disciplines.T ranslated
Comte’s work into English
Herbert Spencer
• Spencer (1820-1903) put the idea
that society is like an organism—a
self-regulating system. Drawing an
analogy to Charles Darwin’s
theory of biological evolution,
Spencer suggested that societies,
like animal species, evolved from
simple to more complex forms.
Spencer was an early advocate of
what later came to be called Social
Darwinism—the view that the
principle of survival of the fittest
applies to societies and within
societies.
Karl Marx(1818-1883)
• In contrast to Spencer’s view
that societies are subjected to
“natural” laws, Marx believed
that societies follow historical
laws determined by economic
forces. He saw human history as
a series of inevitable conflicts
between economic classes.
• Marx’s view on class conflict
are reflected in the conflict
school of modern sociology
Primitive society slavery 
feudalism capitalism 
communism
“The workers of the world have nothing
to lose but their chains; they have a
world to gain. Workers of the world
unite.”(Marx)
Contemporary Marxists
• Capitalists look for profit as a sign of
success
• It may ignore human needs and people
may not be able to buy products
• Capitalism survived and flourished by
sucking the blood of living labor
Emile Durkheim(1858-1917)
More than anyone, the French scholar
Emile Durkheim defined the subject
matter of sociology and pointed out
how it differed from philosophy,
economics, psychology, and social
reform. In The Rules of Sociological
Method (1894) and in Suicide (1897),
Durkheim argued that the main concern
of sociology should be what he called
social facts. In contrast to those who
reduce most social phenomena to
individual psychological and biological
traits, Durkheim felt that the main
building blocks of societies are laws,
customs, instititions, and organizations.
Durkheim
• Wrote the book Suicide to look at
circumstances that cause people to kill
themselves
• Found 4 types
– Egoistic—lack group ties
– Altuistic—strong group ties
– Anomic—normlessness—due to changes
– Fatalistic—no hope for change
Max Weber(1864-1920)
• Weber was perhaps the greatest single
influence on modern sociology. He was
particularly interested in the larger
dimensions of society—its organizations
and institutions—which he studied on a
vast historical and worldwide scale. He
is perhaps best known for his
bureaucracy and capitalism. Much of
Weber’s thought contrasts strongly
with that of Marx. Weber argued that
sociology should include the study of
“social action”.
Weber
• Four types of social action
– Traditional—goal pursued as in the past
– Affectional—goal is emotion
– Value-rational—goal pursued because of it’s
value without consideration of
appropriateness
– Instrumental—goal is carefully thought out in
relationship to other goals
George Simmel(1858-1918)
• Unlike the other theorists we have
discussed, who were interested in
studying the larger structures of society,
Gorege Simmel focused on smaller social
units. He put forth the idea that society is
best seen as a web of patterned
interactions among people. He also
believed the main purpose of sociology
should be to examine the basic forms that
that these interactions take. Some
examples of the basic forms of interaction
that Simmel analyzed are cooperation and
conflict, leaders and followers, and the
process of communication.
Jane Adams (1880-1935)
• Won the first Nobel
Peace Prize (1931) given
to an American
sociologist
• Founded Hull House for
the poor in Chicago.
Influenced the “Chicago
School” of applied
sociology
• • Pioneered the study of
social problems
Sociological Perspectives
• The Structural/Functional
Perspective
• The Conflict Perspective
• Symbolic/Interactionist Perspective
Structural-Functional
• Society is viewed
as a complex
system of parts
(structures) that
• interact to
perform various
necessary
functions
• Shared values,
norms, attitudes
and beliefs
(consensus)
• Change is viewed
as gradual and
disruptive
• Macrosociology
Functionalist Perspective
• Society is a set of inter-related parts that works
best in a stable system-study families or
education
• Some elements can be dysfunctional-these
destabilize the system
• Manifest function is the intended and
recognized consequence of some element on
society- car is speedy transportation
• Latent function is an unintended consequencecar as sign of wealth or class
Conflict Theory
• • Views society as a struggle for resources and
power
• • Change is inevitable, often beneficial and can be
violent
• • Conflict between the classes determines social
change
• • Some groups prosper at the expense of others
• • Conflict is universal; social consensus is limited and
•
inequality is widespread
• Macrosociology
Symbolic Interactionism
• Studies society through interactions within individual
and small groups
• Interaction between individuals is negotiated through
shared symbols (anything that represents something
else), words, gestures and nonverbal communication.
• Humans are social animals and require interaction
Asks the questions” “How do individuals experience
one another?” “How do they interpret the meaning of
these interactions?” and “How do people construct a
sense of self and the society as a whole?”
• Microsociology
Gorge Herbert Mead
• Gorge Herbert Mead (1863-1931) was
the major theorist of the symbolic
interactionist branch of sociology that
was born at the University of Chicago.
Mead stressed that humans respond to
abstract meanings as well as to concrete
experience. Unlike most theorists of the
time, Mead claimed that the human mind
and self-consciousness are largely
social creations. Thus he helped to
define that aspect of sociology that sees
individual behavior as the product of
society.
W. E. B. DuBois
(American) (1868-1963)
• First Afro-American PhD
•
•
•
•
graduate of Harvard University
• Wrote The Philadelphia Negro
(1899) on race relations
double consciousness of blacks-always looking at oneself through
the eyes of others
Showed how there can exist a
double feeling while living in a
single society
Believed Western nations
exploited Africans and blacks
taking their wealth leaving them
politically powerless and
impoverished
Talcott Parsons
(American) (1902-1979)
• • Reintroduced the
theories of European
sociologists while
•
teaching at Harvard
University
• • Structural/Functionalist
• • Abstract “ivory tower”
theoretician
• • Emphasis on empirical
research--not social
reform
C. Wright Mills
(American) (1916-1962)
• Taught at Columbia
University
• • Marxist,
structural/functionalist
theorist
• • Key concepts: power
elite, radical social
change, social
•
injustices, applied
sociology, the
“sociological
imagination”
Robert K. Merton
(American) (1910-2002)
• • Taught at Columbia
University
• • Sought to bridge the
European “grand” theories
and a
•
more focused research style
• • Structural/Functionalist
• • Key concepts: manifest &
latent functions, “Strain
Theory”
•
of deviance, dysfunctions
Charles Horton Cooley
(American) (1864-1929)
• • Symbolic
interactionist theorist
• • We develop a sense
of who we are in
society based upon
• interaction with
others and how we
feel others perceive us
• • The “Looking Glass
Self”
Erving Goffman
(American) (1922-1982)
• Symbolic interactionist
theorist
• • Believed we play
roles and present a
“face” for public
view
• • Key concepts:
dramaturgical
approach, frontstage &
backstage
• selves, presentation
of self
Sigmund Freud
(German)(1856-1939)
• Psychoanalyst
• • Key concepts:
unconscious, id, ego,
superego, psychosexual
• stages,
psychoanalysis, ego
defense mechanisms,
free association.
• dream interpretation
Erik Erikson
(German/American)(1902-1994)
• • Psychologist
• • Eight Stages of Man
(Psycho-social
stages)
• • Focused on ego
conflict through the
life span and how
they are resolved
Carol Gilligan
(American) (1936- )
• • Social psychologist:
former student of Lawrence
Kohlberg
• • Took a feminist
perspective to moral
reasoning, author of
•
In a Different Voice, which
proposes that males and
•
females have different
moral reasoning
• • Key concepts: caring
perspective (females);
justice & law (males)
Albert Bandura
(American) (1925- )
• • Social (cognitive)
psychologist, performed
classic study of
•
imitation and aggressive
behaviors in children.
• • Key concepts: social
learning theory, imitation,
models,
•
vicarious reinforcement,
expectancies self efficacy,
reciprocal determinism
B(urrhus) F(redrick) Skinner
(American) (1904-1990)
• • Psychologist, learning
theorist, behaviorist. Taught at
Harvard
•
University, probably the most
famous American psychologist
• • Wrote several books
including: The Behavior of
Organisms,
•
Beyond Freedom and
Dignity, and Walden Two
• • Key concepts: operant
learning, positive & negative
reinforcement, punishment,
behavior modification
Sociological theories (1)
• The functionalist perspective
– It emphasizes the way in which each part of
society contributes to the whole so as to
maintain social stability. According to this
perspective, society is like the human body
or any other living organism. Like the parts
of the body (such as the limbs, the heart,
and the brain), the parts of society (such as
families, businesses, and governments)
function together in a systematic way that is
usually good for the whole. Each part helps
to maintain the state of balance that is
needed for the system to operate smoothly.
Sociological theories (2)
• The conflict perspectives
– It emphasizes conflict as a permanent aspect of societies and a
major source of social change. This perspective is based on the
assumption that the parts of society, far from being smoothly
functioning units of a whole, actually are in conflict with one
another. This is not to say that society in never orderly—conflict
theorists do not deny that there is much order in the world—but
rather that order is only one outcome of the ongoing conflict
among society’s parts and that it is not always the natural state
of things.
– Conflict theorists trace their roots back to Marx and Simmel.
They stress the dynamic, ever-changing nature of society. To
them, society is always in a fragile balance. More often than not,
social order (often quite temporary) stems from the domination of
some parts of society over other parts rather than from the
natural cooperation among those parts. Order is the product of
force and constraint—domination—of the over the weak, the rich
over the poor.
Sociological theories (3)
• The interactionist perspective
– It focuses on how people interact in their
everyday lives and how they make sense of
their social interaction. Interactionists do not
see society as such a controlling force, at
least not to the degree that the
macrosociologists do. Interactionists stress
that people are always in the process of
creating and changing their social worlds.
Interactionists explore people’s motives,
their purposes and goals, and the ways they
perceive the world.
Three perspectives—a summary
Perspective
Central concern
Scope of
theorizing
Typical
concepts
Some
proponents
Fuctionalist
How parts contribute to
workings of total society
or institutions
Maro-level
Manifest
Durkeim
functions,
Parsons
latent functions, Merton
dysfunctions
Conflict
Social conflict and
inequalities; why they
arise and how they are
maintained,
Maro-level
Class struggle,
self-interests,
domination of
some social
groups
Marx
Dahrendorf
Collins
interactionist
Everyday encounters
between people and the
symbols by which they are
interpreted
microlevel
Definition of
the situation,
Looking glass
self
Mead
Cooley
Goffman
Assignment
• Choose ONE (1) of the following topics. Maximum length is 2 pages.
• Due Friday, September 7th, 2012.
• Biography…Pick one of the sociologists discussed in class or in
your book. Include basic biographical information, the perspective
used in their studies, and their areas of interest. Discuss at least one
of their seminal works. Why do you finding them interesting?
• Sociology and the scientific method…After discussing the
requirements of objective research in the field of sociology, I asked
you to begin to develop a plan of research on a topic of your own
choosing. Describe the study. What is your preliminary hypothesis?
Where will you go to perform a literature review. Are there ethical
considerations? How will you design the study-ex. Survey, field
observation, etc.?