CRITICAL THINKING

of this status were better off marrying and starting families. There were also legal constraints to women’s

entry into higher education and the paid labor force. So while the women in our example might have

individually argued and pushed to go to college and have professional careers, the dreams of this group were

constrained by powerful normative and legal structures that identified women’s place as being in the home.

Figure 1.1 Unemployment Rates Among Young College Graduates in the United States, 1989–2014

SOURCE: Shierholz, Heidi, Natalie Sabadish, and Hilary Wething. (2012). “The Class of 2012: Labor

market for young graduates remains grim.” Briefing paper 340. Figure G. Washington, DC: Economic

Policy Institute. Reprinted with permission.

Consider the relationship between the class structure and individual agency as another way of thinking about

social mobility in U.S. society. If, for instance, a young man today whose parents are well educated and

whose family is economically prosperous wishes to go to college and become a doctor, his position in the

class structure (or the position of his family) is enabling—that is, it makes it likely that he will be able to

make this choice and to realize it. If, however, a young man from a poor family with no college background

dreams of being an engineer and wants to study in college, his position in the class structure is likely to be

constraining: Not only does his family have insufficient economic means to pay for college, but he may also

be studying in an underfunded or underperforming high school that cannot provide the advanced courses he

needs to prepare for college. His lack of college role models may also be a factor. This does not mean that

inevitably the first young man will go to college and the second will not; it does, however, suggest that

probabilities favor the first college aspirant over the second.

Put succinctly, in order to understand why some students go to college and others do not, sociologists would

say that we cannot rely on individual choice or will (agency) alone— structures, whether subtly or quite

obviously, exercise an influence on social behavior and outcomes. At the same time, we should not see

structures as telling the whole story of social behavior, because history shows the power of human agency in

making change even in the face of obstacles. Agency itself can transform structures (for example, think about

the ways women’s historical activism has helped to transform limiting gender norms for women today).

Sociologists weight both agency and structure and continue to seek to understand how the two interact and

connect in affecting social behavior. For the most part, sociologists understand the relationship as

reciprocal—that is, it goes in both directions, as structure affects agency and agency, in turn, can change the

dimensions of a structure (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Structure and Agency

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Critical Thinking

Applying the sociological perspective requires more than an ability to use the sociological imagination. It

also demands critical thinking, the ability to evaluate claims about truth by using reason and evidence. In

everyday life, we frequently accept things as “true” because they are familiar, feel right, or are consistent

with our beliefs. Critical thinking takes a different approach—recognizing poor arguments, rejecting

statements not supported by evidence, and questioning our assumptions. One of the founders of modern

sociology, Max Weber, captured the spirit of critical thinking in two words when he said that a key task of

sociological inquiry is to openly acknowledge “inconvenient facts.”

Critical thinking requires us to be open-minded, but it does not mean that we must accept all arguments as

equally valid. Those supported by logic and backed by evidence are clearly preferable to those that are not.

For instance, we may passionately agree with Thomas Jefferson’s famous statement “that government is best

that governs least.” However, as sociologists we must also ask, “What evidence backs up the claim that less

government is better under all circumstances?”

To think critically, it is useful to follow six simple rules (adapted from Wade & Tavris, 1997):

Be willing to ask any question, no matter how difficult. The belief in small government is a

cherished U.S. ideal. But sociologists who study the role of government in modern society must be

willing to ask whether there are circumstances under which more—not less—government is better.

Government’s role in areas such as homeland security, education, and health care has grown in the past

several years—what are the positive and negative aspects of this growth?

1.

Think logically and be clear. Logic and clarity require us to define concepts in a way that allows us to

study them. “Big government” is a vague concept that must be made more precise and measurable

before it provides for useful research. Are we speaking of federal, state, or local government, or all of

these? Is “big” measured by the cost of government services, the number of agencies or offices within

the government, the number of people working for it, or something else? What did Jefferson mean by

“best,” and what would that “best” government look like? Who would have the power to define this

notion in any case?

2.

Back up your arguments with evidence. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson is a formidable person to

quote, but quoting him does not prove that smaller government is better in the 21st century. To find

evidence, we need to seek out studies of contemporary societies to see whether there is a relationship

between a population’s well-being and the size of government or the breadth of services it provides.

Because studies may offer contradictory evidence, we also need to be able to assess the strengths and

weaknesses of arguments on different sides of the issue.

3.

Think about the assumptions and biases—including your own—that underlie all studies. You

may insist that government has a key role to play in modern society. On the other hand, you may

believe with equal passion that big government is one root of the problems in the United States. Critical

4.

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thinking, however, requires that we recognize our beliefs and biases. Otherwise we might

unconsciously seek out only evidence that supports our argument, ignoring evidence to the contrary.

Passion has a role to play in research: It can motivate us to devote long hours to studying an issue. But

passion should not play a role when we are weighing evidence and drawing conclusions.

Avoid anecdotal evidence. It is tempting to draw a general conclusion from a single experience or

anecdote, but that experience may illustrate the exception rather than the rule. For example, you may

know someone who just yesterday received a letter mailed 2 years ago, but that is not evidence that the

U.S. Postal Service is inefficient or does not fulfill its mandates. To determine whether this government

agency is working well, you would have to study its entire mail delivery system and its record of work

over time.

5.

Be willing to admit when you are wrong or uncertain about your results. Sometimes we expect to

find support for an argument only to find that things are not so clear. For example, consider the position

of a sociologist who advocates small government and learns that Japan and Singapore initially became

economic powerhouses because their governments played leading roles in promoting growth of a

sociologist who champions an expanded role for government but learns from the downturn of the

1990s in the Asian economies that some things can be better achieved by private enterprise. The

answers we get are sometimes contradictory, and we learn from recognizing the error of our

assumptions and beliefs as well.

6.

Sociological Imagination Critique

Major metropolitan areas like New York City, Paris, and London are heavily monitored by security cameras,

especially since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Defining the appropriate balance between privacy

and increased security is a contemporary challenge for governments and societies.

REUTERS/Charles Platia

Sociology in Everyday Life

Critical thinking also means becoming “critical consumers” of the information—news, blogs, surveys, texts,

magazines, and scientific studies—that surrounds us. To be a good sociologist, it is important to look beyond

the commonsense understanding of social life and develop a critical perspective. Being critical consumers of

information entails paying attention to the sources of information we encounter and asking questions about

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how data were gathered.

Private Lives, Public Issues

Why Are Divorce Rates So High?

In the United States, the probability of a first marriage ending in separation or divorce within 5 years is 22%; after 10

years, it rises to 36%. Over the longer term, the rate of marital dissolution is closer to 50% (Goodwin, Mosher, & Chandra,

2010). Just half a century ago, most marriages were “‘til death do us part.” What accounts for the change?

The sociological imagination shows us that marriage and divorce, seemingly the most private of matters, are as much

public issues as personal ones. Consider the fact that when wages for working people lagged from the mid-1970s to the late

1990s, growing numbers of women went to work to help their families make ends meet. Many middle-class women also

went to college and pursued careers as a means of personal fulfillment. In fact, today more women than men finish

undergraduate degrees. As a result of trends like these, women today enjoy a higher measure of economic independence

than ever before. The combination of educational attainment and satisfying careers reinforces women’s independence,

making it easier for those who are in unhappy marriages to leave them. Greater social acceptance of divorce has also

removed much of the stigma once associated with failed marriages.

Social trends like those described have made it more likely that an unhappy couple will divorce rather than stay in a failing

marriage. Thus, this private trouble is in many respects strongly influenced by public issues such as women’s rising

economic independence and the dynamism of cultural norms related to marriage and divorce.

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Marriage is one of the most private and personal forms of a relationship between two people. How can marriage—and

divorce—be viewed through a sociological lens?

©iStockphoto.com/raw20

Think It Through

▶ What other “private troubles” could sociologists identify as “public issues”?

Agency: The ability of individuals and groups to exercise free will and to make social changes on a small or large scale.

Structure: Patterned social arrangements that have effects on agency.

Critical thinking: The ability to evaluate claims about truth by using reason and evidence.

The Development of Sociological Thinking

Humans have been asking questions about the nature of social life as long as people have lived in societies.

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Aristotle and Plato wrote extensively about social relationships more than 2,000 years ago. Ibn Khaldun, an

Arab scholar writing in the 14th century, advanced a number of sociological concepts we recognize today,

including ideas about social conflict and cohesion. Yet modern sociological concepts and research methods

did not emerge until the 19th century, after the Industrial Revolution, and then largely in those European

nations undergoing dramatic societal changes like industrialization and urbanization.

The Birth of Sociology: Science, Progress, Industrialization, and

Urbanization

We can trace sociology’s roots to four interrelated historical developments that gave birth to the modern

world: the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, industrialization, and urbanization. Since these

developments initially occurred in Europe, it is not surprising that sociological perspectives and ideas

evolved there during the 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, sociology had taken root in North

America as well; somewhat later, it gained a foothold in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.

Sociology throughout the world initially bore the stamp of its European and North American origins, though

recent decades have brought a greater diversity of perspectives to the discipline.

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