Sociology 1, Chapter 1 Outline

Chapter 1 – Sociological Perspective
Intro
A lot of information we mistake for sociology is actually an attempt by different groups to influence social policy.
Sociologists have different goals than journalists do, where sociologist answer to the scientific community. This means their goal is not high ratings, but an accurate and scientific approach to the issue they are studying.
Sociology represents both a body of knowledge AND a scientific approach to the study of social issues.

Sociology as a Point of View
Sociology
Scientific study of human society and social interactions
The main focus of sociology is the GROUP, not the individual.
Sociology tries to move beyond personalized, common-sense approach to understanding society.
Stop looking at the world from a perspective based solely on your own individual experience
Sociological Imagination
C. Wright Mills (1959)
Described the different levels on which social events can be perceived and interpreted
Mills used the term Sociological Imagination, which means a relationship between individual experiences and forces in the larger society that shape our actions.
Process of looking at different human behaviors and seeing unseen connections between them.
Is Sociology Common Sense?
Common Sense: what people develop through everyday life experiences. Or, another words, it is the set of expectations about society and people’s behavior guides our own behavior.
Cannot rely on Common Sense
Common Sense is often vague, oversimplified and contradictory; whereas Sociology as a science tries to be specific, to qualify its statements and to prove its assertions.
Proverbial words of wisdom are often illogical
Common Sense might be helpful, but it does NOT help us understand why and under what conditions these interacts are taking place.

Sociology and Science
Science
Body of a systematically arranged knowledge that shows the operation of general laws
Scientific Method
A process by which a body of scientific knowledge is built through observation, experimentation, generalization and verification.
Empiricism
The view that generalizations are valid only if they rely on evidence that can be observed directly or verified through our senses

Sociology as a Social Science

Social Sciences – consist of all those disciplines that apply scientific methods to the study of human behavior.
Cultural Anthropology
Main difference:
Anthropologists tend to focus on the culture of small, preindustrial societies because they are less complex and more manageable, whereas Sociology tend to study groups within large, modern, industrial societies with research methods to enable rather quickly to gather specific information about large numbers of people.

Psychology – the study of individual behavior and mental processes
Both fields overlap in Social Psychology – the study of how human behavior is influenced and shaped by various social situations.
Main difference:
Psychologists study the individual, while Sociologists study groups of individuals and society’s institutions.
Economics
The study of creation, distribution and consumption of goods and services
Main difference:
Economists study prices and availability factors, whereas Sociologists are interested in the social factors that influence person’s economic decisions.
History
Involves looking at the past to learn what happened, when it happened and why it happened
Main difference:
Historians provide a narrative of the sequence of certain events during a certain period (focus on the past), whereas Sociologists examine historical events to see how they influenced later social situations (focus on the present).

Political Science
The study of 3 major areas: political theory / operation of government / political behavior.
Main difference:
Political Science devotes more attention to the forces that shape political systems, whereas Sociology focuses on how the political system affects other institutions in society.
Social Work
Main difference:
Social Work’s main goal is to help people solve their problems, whereas Sociology aims to understand WHY the problems exist.
Work of journalists is NOT same as Sociologists.

The Development of Sociology
Auguste Comte (1798 – 1857) (Frenchman)
Converted from being an advocate of liberty and equality to be an elitist supporter of conception of society.
Rejected the lack of empiricism.
Turned to natural sciences
Collaborated with Henri Saint-Simon, but later broke off that relationship
He coined the term Sociology – as the greatest of all sciences.
Wanted to develop “a science of man” that would reveal the underlying principles of society.
Much less concerned with defining sociology matter, than with showing HOW it would improve our society.
Wrote “Cours de Philosophie Positive” – the work which he eventually coined as Sociology.

Harriet Martineau (1802 – 1876) (British lady)
Published “Theory and Practice of Society in America” in which she analyzed the customs and lifestyle present in the 19th century U.S.
The book helped to map out what sociologists dealt with by examining issues like immigration, family, politics, religion, race, and gender issues.
Her work demonstrated the level of objectivity
Outspoken critic of women treatment in the U.S. (thought women were treated like slaves)
Proponent of expanding education of women
Her 2nd important contribution to Sociology was translating Comte’s “Positive Philosophy”, which introduced the field of Sociology to England and influenced other sociologists like Spencer.

Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903) (British)
Wanted to demonstrate how the idea of evolution applied to sociology, biology, psychology and morality.
Became the most famous philosopher of his time
Believed that society is similar to a living organism, where every part of a society serves a specialized function necessary to ensure society’s survival as a whole (segments of a society are interdependent).
Became a proponent of a doctrine known as Social Darwinism
Notion applied to society where species of animals who are best adapted to the environment survived, whereas those poorly adapted died out.
Social Darwinism became a justification for the repression and neglect of African Americans

Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
Revolutionary proponent of the political and social system known as Communism
Believed that capitalist societies produced conflict because of the deep divide between the social classes
The conflict between the Bourgeoisie (rich capitalists) vs. Proletariat (poor workers)
Contributed to the development of Conflict Theory

Emile Durkheim (1858 – 1917)
Produced the first true sociological study
Published “Rules of the Sociological Method”, in which he described what sociology was and how research should be done.
Founded the 1st European Department of Sociology at the University of Bordeaux.
Studied suicide. Believed that individuals were the product of their social environment and that society shapes people in every way (social cohesion in society).
Divided suicide into 3 categories:
Egoistic – low group cohesion, underinvolvement with others.
Altruistic – high level of group cohesion, overinvolvement with others.
Anomic – sense of feeling disconnected from today’s society’s values.
His study was important because it was one of the first examples of a scientifically conducted sociological study that proved that the most personal of all acts (suicide) is a product of social forces.

Max Weber (1864 – 1920)
Thought of Sociology as the study of social action
His work contrasted the works of Marx, showed that economic control does NOT necessarily result in prestige and power.
Believed bureaucracy would characterize both socialist and capitalist societies.

The development of Sociology in the U.S.
The first graduate department of Sociology was founded in 1890 in the U.S at the University of Chicago.
Jane Adams – championed the rights of immigrants and fighter for child labor laws, developed a reputation as a peacemaker.
W.E.B. Du Bois – became the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard for his dissertation “The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the U.S.”
Country’s leading African American sociologist
Argued for the acceptance of African American into all areas of society
Talcott Parsons – was the sociologist most responsible for developing theories of structural functionalism in the U.S.
Elaborated on Durkheim’s perspective, portrayed socialism as a stable system of well-ordered, interrelated parts.
Robert Merton – influential proponent of Functionalist theory.
Distinguished between 2 forms of social functions: Manifest vs. Latent functions
Social Functions
Those social processes that contribute to the ongoing operation or maintenance of society.
Manifest functions
Intended and recognized consequences of those processes (aka go to college to obtain a degree)
Latent functions
Unintended (or not readily recognized) consequences of those actions (college can offer opportunity of finding friends)

Theoretical Perspectives

Paradigms – models or frameworks for questions that generate and guide research (i.e. Good will triumph over evil)

Functionalism (or Structural Functionalism)
Views society as a system of highly interrelated structures or parts that function/operate together harmoniously
Example: The education system serves as a gatekeeper to rewards from society to those who follow the rules
Rooted in the work of Spencer and Durkheim
Society is stable and self-regulating in the state of balance
Limitation:
Assumption that society is normally in balanced (harmony) makes it difficult to account for social change.

Conflict Theory
Proposes that each individual or group struggles to attain the maximum benefit. This causes society to change constantly in response to social inequality and social conflict.
Opposite of Functionalism, but share some similarities
Rooted in the works of Marx
Social change is pushed forward by social conflict
Limitation:
Too concerned with concentrating too much on conflict/change and too little on what produces stability in society
Too ideologically based and using little in the way of research (or objective statistical evidence).

The Interactionist Perspective
Focuses on how individuals make sense of – or interpret – the social world in which they participate.
Concerned with human behavior on a person-to-person level.
George Mead devised a Symbolic Interactionist approach – that focused on signs, gestures, shared rules and written/spoken language.
Concerned with the meaning that people place on their own and one another’s behavior.
Criticism:
Pays too little attention to the larger elements of society.
Harold Garfinkel used Ethnomethodology – to show how people create and share their understanding of social life.
Erving Goffman used a Dramaturgical approach – in which he saw social life as a form of theater.

Contemporary Sociology
Builds on ideas proposed in Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Interactionist perspective
Middle-range theories:
Concerned with explaining specific issues or aspects of society, instead of trying to explain how ALL of society operates.

Theory and Research
The purpose of science is to collect data to answer questions growing out of a specific theory and to draw conclusions.

Summary
Summary of major theoretical perspectives is outlined on page 19.