o
The scientific and systematic study of human
activity in society
§
Define this: what does scientific and systematic
mean?
§
What do we study?
o
Race, gender, globalization, sexual orientation,
social status/stratification, religion, education
· Social Forces- anything human or otherwise created that influence, pressure, or push people to interact, behave, or think in specific ways
o What are some social forces?
· Social Facts- Durkheim
o Collectively imposed ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that have “the remarkable property of existing outside the consciousness of the individual.”
§ Gendered clothes, colors, actions
§ Marriage/family structure
§ Race: jobs, sports, living situations
o Groups impose social facts: collective feelings, emotions
o Looks, comments, approval/disapproval, etc
·
Sociological Imagination
o
Perspective that allows us to consider how
outside forces, especially out time in history and the place we live, shape our
life stories or biographies.
o
Socioeconomic status
·
How do
we study society and social issues scientifically?
o
Sociological theory-framework of thinking about
and explaining how societies are organized and/or how people in them relate to
one another and respond to their surroundings
o
Macrosociology- large scale conditions-
industrialization, globalization, and urbanization
o
Microsociology- small scale issues- social
relationships and individual interactions
o
Functionalist perspective Robert Merton-
How is social order maintained?
o
Society is a system of independent parts; all
parts of society contribute to order
§
Ex: the body
o Function:
contribution a part makes to maintain the stability of an existing social
order
o Manifest
functions: part’s anticipated, recognized, and intended of maintaining
social order
o Latent
functions: unanticipated, unintended, unrecognized
o Examples:
o Positive
and negatives of perspective: balance of society; negative effects of balance
o
Conflict perspective: Karl Marx -
Who benefits and who loses from ways in which society is organized?
§ Seek
to identify dominant and disadvantaged groups; structural inequalities
§ Positive:
consider the ways dominant groups control valued resources
§ Negative:
portrays advantaged group as all powerful and disadvantaged as victims and
incapable of change
Symbolic
Interactionist: Herbert Blumer: focus on social interaction:
Social interaction:
everyday encounters in which people communicate, interpret, and respond to each
others words and actions.
Self awareness: people observe
and evaluate the self from anothers viewpoint
Reactions, comments, actions
Shared symbols:
Symbol:
object in which people assign name, meaning or value; physical, social, or
abstract
Negotiated
order: the sum of existing expectations and newly negotiated ones
Examples: US Flag, talking
on cell phone,
o Suicide-
caused by severing ties that bind/fail to bind one to their social group
§
Egoistic- ties to social group are weak
·
Women have stronger social ties because they are
socialized to do so; men have weaker
§
Altruistic- when people commit suicide because
the love of their group is more than themselves
§
Anomic/anomie- ties to social group are severed
or changed due to dramatic changes
§ Fatalistic-
so oppressive, no hope of release. Ie: slaves
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