Sociology 101 Notes
Sociology 101 Rogers and Yan 8/27/12
What makes you, you?
We Study:
Sports
Music
Religion
Medicine
What is sociology?
1. The study of human society
2. Examines the relationship between history and biography
3. Uses the scientific method
4. Looks at social structures, patterns, and meaning
Original Founders of Sociology
Augste Compte 1798-1857
One of the first people to try to understand society and morality using science rather than theology
He thought there could be a kind of “social physics” used to understand the social world in the same way physics understand the physical world
Harriet Martineu
Wrote how to observe morals and manners
Said this is the best way to observe society
Sociological Imagination?
Term coined by C Wright Mills
It allows us to see connection between our personal experiences and the larger forces of history
8/2912
Where you live, background, opportunities do not determine who you will become
It just effects the degree of difficulty that you must face
History
Where you live, country? City? Community?
Economic system, conditions?
Biography
Who are you? Man/woman, rich/poor, social class, etc.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Theory of what drives history, historical materialism, primarily the conflicts between classes that drove social change throughout history
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Wrote “The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism.” Looked at political, religious, and other cultural factors as important to social developments—not just economic class
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Focused on how societies hold together. Studied suicide and showed how individuals acts are conditioned by social forces, known as the term Anomie— a sense of normalness after great social change
Max Weber and Durkheim, though later than Comte and Martineau, are often considered the founders of sociology.
Theories of the Self
Charles Horton Cooley
Argued that the “looking glass self” comes from social interaction
What makes you, you?
We Study:
Sports
Music
Religion
Medicine
What is sociology?
1. The study of human society
2. Examines the relationship between history and biography
3. Uses the scientific method
4. Looks at social structures, patterns, and meaning
Original Founders of Sociology
Augste Compte 1798-1857
One of the first people to try to understand society and morality using science rather than theology
He thought there could be a kind of “social physics” used to understand the social world in the same way physics understand the physical world
Harriet Martineu
Wrote how to observe morals and manners
Said this is the best way to observe society
Sociological Imagination?
Term coined by C Wright Mills
It allows us to see connection between our personal experiences and the larger forces of history
8/2912
Where you live, background, opportunities do not determine who you will become
It just effects the degree of difficulty that you must face
History
Where you live, country? City? Community?
Economic system, conditions?
Biography
Who are you? Man/woman, rich/poor, social class, etc.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Theory of what drives history, historical materialism, primarily the conflicts between classes that drove social change throughout history
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Wrote “The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism.” Looked at political, religious, and other cultural factors as important to social developments—not just economic class
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Focused on how societies hold together. Studied suicide and showed how individuals acts are conditioned by social forces, known as the term Anomie— a sense of normalness after great social change
Max Weber and Durkheim, though later than Comte and Martineau, are often considered the founders of sociology.
Theories of the Self
Charles Horton Cooley
Argued that the “looking glass self” comes from social interaction