The Real World
An Introduction to Sociology
Fourth Edition
Kerry Ferris and Jill Stein
Chapter 1:
Sociology and
the Real World
What Is Sociology?
• Sociology is one of the social sciences—
disciplines that examine the human, or
social, world.
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Sociology and the Social Sciences
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What Is Sociology?
(cont’d.)
• Sociology—the study of
society
• According to Howard
Becker, sociology is the
study of people “doing
things together”
because neither the
individual nor society
exist independently of
one another.
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What Is Sociology? (cont’d.)
• Sociology looks at a broad range of
institutions or structures in our society
(like education, the family, religion,
economics, and politics), to better
understand social relationships.
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What Is Sociology?
(cont’d.)
• Sociologists are interested in all
aspects of society.
• Society—a group of people who
shape their lives in patterned ways
that distinguish their group from
other groups
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Culture Shock
• Culture shock is the sense of
disorientation you experience
upon entering a new
environment.
• Behaviors that are typical in
one society or culture may
seem very strange in another
context.
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Sociological Imagination
• Sociological imagination is a term
coined by C. Wright Mills.
• Mills says, “To understand social life,
we must understand the intersection
between biography and history.”
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Sociological Imagination
(cont’d.)
• Sociological imagination: a quality of
the mind that allows us to
understand the relationship between
our particular situation in life and
what is happening at a social level
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Levels of Analysis
• Sociologists can use different levels of
analysis to explore social relationships:
• Microsociology: examines small-group
interactions to see how they impact larger
institutions in society
• Macrosociology: examines large-scale social
structures to determine how they impact
groups and individuals
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The Micro-Macro Continuum
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Sociological Theories
• Theories in sociology are propositions
that explain the social world and help to
make predictions about future events.
• Theories are also sometimes referred to
as approaches, schools of thought,
paradigms, or perspectives.
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Modern Schools of Thought
• Structural functionalism:
• Society is viewed as an ordered system
of interrelated parts, or structures,
which are the social institutions that
make up society (family, education,
politics, the economy).
• Each of these different structures meets
the needs of society by performing
specific functions for the whole system
(society).
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Sociology’s Roots
(cont’d.)
• Émile Durkheim worked to
establish sociology as an important
academic discipline.
• Interested in the social factors that bond
and hold people together
• Studied the correlation between social
isolation and suicide
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Émile Durkheim
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Modern Schools of
Thought (cont’d.)
• Conflict theory:
• Sees social class conflict as the basis
of society and social change
• Proposes that conflict and tension are
basic facts of social life and suggests
that people have disagreements over
goals and values and are involved in
struggles over both resources and
power
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Sociology’s Roots
(cont’d.)
• Karl Marx was a German philosopher
and political activist.
• Marx contributed significantly to
sociology’s conflict theory.
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Karl Marx
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Sociology’s Roots
(cont’d.)
• Marx believed that capitalism was
creating social inequality between the
bourgeoisie, who owned the means of
production (money, factories, natural
resources, and land), and the proletariat,
who were the workers.
• According to Marx, this inequality leads
to class conflict.
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Sociology’s Roots
(cont’d.)
• Max Weber was also interested in how
society was becoming industrialized.
• He was concerned with the process of
rationalization, applying economic
logic to all human activity.
• He believed that contemporary life was
filled with disenchantment, the result of
the dehumanizing features of modern
societies.
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Max Weber
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Modern Schools of
Thought (cont’d.)
• Symbolic interactionism:
• Sees interaction and meaning as central to
society and assumes that meanings are not
inherent but rather are created through
interaction
• Society is produced and reproduced through
our interactions with each other, by means of
language, and our interpretations of that
language  through interaction that we
create a meaningful social reality
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Sociology’s Roots
(cont’d.)
• George Herbert Mead was interested in
the connection between thought and
action—or between the individual and
society.
• Mead suggested that the meanings that
we give to objects in our society are
social processes—people interact, and
meanings come from these interactions.
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George Herbert Mead
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Sociology’s Roots
(cont’d.)
• Erving Goffman was interested in how
the “self” is developed through
interactions with others in society.
• Goffman used the term dramaturgy to
describe the way people strategically
present themselves to others.
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Erving Goffman
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Class Activity
• In groups of 3-5, please answer
the following question…
• Pick any topic from the syllabus (crime,
gender, race, social class, etc.) and discuss
how each of the 3 Sociological Paradigms
might view that topic
• 1. Structural Functionalism
• 2. Conflict Theory
• 3. Symbolic Interactionism
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