•What is sociology? Sociology is the scientific study of humans, social groups, and
society. (p. 6)
•The term social life encompasses all interpersonal relationships, all groups or collections
of persons, and all types of social organizations (p.6)
•Sociological imagination – a quality of mind that allows us to understand the influence
of history and biography on our interactive processes (p.7)
•Sociological perspective – a conscious effort to question the obvious and to remove us
from familiar experiences and examine them critically and objectively (p.7)
•The sociological perspective operates at two levels, termed macrosociology and
microsociology (p.8)
oMacro-level analysis deals with large-scale structures and processes: broad
social categories, institutions, and social systems, such as war, unemployment,
and divorce
oMicro-level analysis, on the other hand, is concerned with how individuals
behave in social situations
•Without social research, it is extremely difficult to distinguish what is actually true from
what our common sense tells us should be true (p.12)
•All branches of science attempt to discover general truths, propositions, or laws through
methods based on observation and experimentation. (p.12)
•Science is often divided into two categories: (p.13)
oThe Natural Sciences:
▪The Biological sciences: Biology, eugenics, botany, bacteriology
▪The Physical Sciences: physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology
•The topics covered by social sciences are just as natural as those that the natural
sciences embrace (p.13)
•Sociology, like other social sciences, applies the scientific method to studying human
behavior. (p.13)
•Economics: the study of how goods, services, and wealth are produced, consumed, and
distributed within societies. (p.13)
•Political Science- the study of power, governments, and political processes (p.15)
•Anthropology- is a broad and varied discipline (p.15)
oIncludes physical anthropology, archaeology, cultural history, social linguistics,
and social and cultural anthropology
•Physical Anthropologists attempt to understand both traditional indigenous and modern
cultures by studying physical traits such as the shape and size of skulls, etc.… (p.15)
•The work of cultural and social anthropologists, on the other hand, is very similar to that
of sociologists (p.15)
•Psychology: is concerned primarily with human mental processes and individual human
behavior (p.15)
•Social Psychology: the study of how an individual influences his or her social
interactions with other individuals or with groups and of how social behavior influences
the individual (p.15)
•Applied Sciences: those that directly use principles (p.17)
•Pure Sciences: those that seek knowledge for its own sake (p.17)
•Most early writers were interdisciplinary in orientation drawing their ideas from
philosophy and from the physical and biological sciences (p.23)
•Sociology originally developed as a practical discipline intended to address social
problems and social reform (p.23)
•Auguste Comte (p.24)
oCredited with being the “father of sociology” because he coined the term
sociology
oComte said that sociology, like the natural sciences, would use empirical
methods to discover basic laws of society, which would benefit humankind by
playing a major part in the improvement of the human condition
oComte is best known for his law of human progress of three stages
▪The theological, or fictitious
•Everything is explained and understood through the supernatural
▪The metaphysical or abstract
•Abstract forces are assumed to be the source of explanation and
understanding
▪The scientific or positivist
•The scientific laws of the universe are studied through
observation, experimentation, and comparison
oComte reasoned that sociology should focus on social statics, the structure of the
organism, and on social dynamics, the organism’s processes and forms of change
oComte believed that sociology was the means by which a more just and
rational social order could be achieved.
•Herbert Spencer (p.26)
oHe believed that societies evolved from relative homogeneity and simplicity to
heterogeneity and complexity
oHe opposed legislation designed to solve social problems, believing it would
interfere with the natural selection process.
oHe also opposed free public education, assuming that those who really wanted to
learn would find the means
oSpencer was one of the earlier writers to be concerned with the special problems
of objectivity in the social sciences
•Karl Max (p.28)
oMarx was a major social theorist and contributor to economic and philosophical
thought
oHe believed that capitalism was dominant in the shaping of society
oHe argued that social conflict – struggle and strife – was at the core of society,
the source for all social change.
oHe asserted that all history was marked by economic determinism – the idea that
all change, social conditions, and even society itself are based on economic
factors – and that economic inequality in class struggles
oMarx believed society was comprised largely of two social classes:
▪Bourgeoisie: the owners and rulers
▪Proletariat: the industrial workers
•Emile Durkheim (p.30)
oDurkheim is responsible for several important ideas
oHe refused to explain social events by assuming that they operated according to
the same rules as biology or psychology
oDurkheim, social phenomena are social facts that have distinctive social
characteristics and determinants
oSuch communal interaction gives rise to what Durkheim called a collective
conscience – a common psyche that results from the blending together of many
individual mentalities yet exists over and above any individual
oDurkheim’s work Suicide deserves special attention for several reasons
▪It established a unique model for social research and it clearly
demonstrated that human behavior, although it may seem very
individual, could be understood only by investigating the social context
in which the
behavior takes place
▪He explains suicide in terms of people’s connections to society and social
groups and how organized or disorganized social conditions are
•Egoistic Suicide: is a result of not being sufficiently integrated
into society or meaningful social groups
•Altruistic Suicide: when people are overly connected to society or
a social group to the extent that, that group takes on more
meaning than their personal lives and that they live for the group
•Anomic Suicide: occurs when individuals are faced with sudden
social disorganization or a disruption in the social conditions
that guide their lives
•Fatalistic Suicide: may occur when people are faced with
oppressive social conditions with such a high degree of regulation
over people’s lives that they feel that there is no hope or
possibility of pursuing their personal interests.
oDurkheim played a key role in the founding sociology
oDurkheim made sociology a legitimate academic enterprise
•Max Weber (p.34)
oWeber was concerned with value-free sociology
oWeber believed that sociologists must study not just social facts and social
structures but also social actions- external objective behaviors as well as the
internalized values, motives, and subjective meanings that individuals attatch
to
their own behavior and to the behavior of others
oAchieve a “sympathetic understanding”
▪Known as Verstehen: understanding human action by examining the
subjective meanings that people attach to their own behavior and to the
behavior of others
•Harriet Maineau (p.35)
oWas a significant contributor to the early development of sociology
oShe was acknowledged for translating Comte’s work
•The first department of sociology was established in 1893 at the University of Chicago
(p.36)
•The University of Chicago was the leading sociological training and research center in
America (p.36)
•Chicago was an ideal social laboratory because it was experiencing all the problems
associated with urban life (p.37)
•Burgess created the concentric zone model, the first explanation of the distribution of
social groups within urban areas (p.37)
•W.E.B DuBois (p.38)
oBecame the first African American to receive a PhD from Harvard
•Middle rang theory (p.38)
•Theories are explanations offered to account for a set of phenomena (p.39)
•Social theories: are explanations of social phenomena (p.39)
•A scientist will use a theory, a set of interrelated statements or propositions, to attempt
to answer the question about juvenile crime or any other social phenomenon (p.39)
•Theorists are based on a set of assumptions and self-evident truths; they include
definitions and describe the conditions in which the phenomena exists (p.39)
•Structural Functionalists use macro-level analysis to explain society and
social structures.
•Macro sociological orientations interpret society in terms of its large
structures- organizations etc. (p.39)
•Structural Funcionlism is sometimes referred to as “social systemts theory”
“equilibrium theory” (p.39)
oStructures can be compared to the organs or parts of the body of an animal,
oFunctions can be compared with the purposes
•Social System is composed of many interrelated and interdependent parts or structures.
(p.39)
•According to structural functionalist, the overall function of a society is dependent of
each structure performing is required duties (p.39)
•A social system can be regarded as having two types of functions: (p.40)
oThe immediate purpose of what the system does
oThe broader, less immediate consequences resulting from a particular type of
structure or organization
•According to Merton, a social system can have both manifest functions and latent
functions (p.40)
oManifest functions: are intended and recognized
oLatent functions: are neither intended nor recognized
•According to the functionalist perspective, social systems exist because they fulfill some
function for the society (p.40)
oFunctionalist focus on order and stability
•Function Alternatives: are other ways to achieve the intended goal (p.41)
•Karl Max began with a very simple assumption: (p.41)
oSociety is constructed around its economic organization, particularly the
ownership of property
oMarx argued that society basically consists of two classes
•According to Marx, in any economic system that supports inequality, the exploited
classes eventually recognize their submissive and inferior status and revolt against the
dominant class of property owners and employers (p.42)
•Contemporary conflict theorists assume that conflict is a permanent feature of social life
and that, as a result, societies are in an a state of constant change (p.42)
•How can conflict be a constructive force? (p.42)
•Functionalists believe the social process is a continual effort to maintain harmony (p.42)
•Conflict theorists believe it is a continual struggle to get ahead (p.42)
•Functionalist view society as abasically consensual, integrated, and static (p.42)
•Conflict theorists believe it is characterized by constraint, conflict and change (p.42)
•Functionalist have been criticized for focusing on stability and the status quo, (p.42)
•Conflict theorists have been criticized for overlooking the less controversial and more
orderly aspects of society. (p.42)
•Symbolic Interaction Theory (p.44)
•The symbolic interactionist perspective emphasizes that people act on the basis of their
interpretation of the language and symbols in a situation, and not the situation in and of
itself (p.45)
•Exchange theory: has a diverse intellectual heritage with sources in economics
anthropology, and psychology, as well as sociology (p.45)
oThis perspective is based on the belief that life is a series of exchanges involving
rewards and costs
•Behaviorists focus their attention on actual behavior, not on processes that are inferred
from behavior but cannot be observed (p.48)
•Pete Blau argues that exchange is more subjective and interpretive and exchanges occur
on a symbolic level (p.48)
•Exchange theory: is viewed as a process of bargaining or negotiation and social
relationships are based on trust and mutual interests (p.48)
•The evolutionary approach is associated with biological concepts and concerned with
long term change
•Evolutionary Theory suggests that societies, like biological organisms progress
through stages of increasing complexity (p.50)
•Evolutionary theory proves us with a historical and cross-cultural perspective from
which to judge a wide range of social influences (p.50)
•Humanistic theories: consistent with ideas expressed by Marx, reject the positivist
position that social science can or should be value free (p.52)
•Feminist theories and perspectives hold the belief that gender is basic to all social
structure and organization (p.53)
