Introduction to Sociology: Key Concepts and Perspectives
Sociology
The systematic study of the relationship between the individual and society and of the consequences of difference
Key Concepts
Private Troubles
Obstacles that individuals face as individuals rather than as a consequence of their social position.
Public Issues
Obstacles that individuals in similar positions face.
Anomie
Social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values.
Sociological Imagination
An awareness of the relationship between who we are as individuals and the social forces that shape our lives.
Agency
The freedom individuals have to choose and to act.
Double Consciousness
The concept proposed by W.E.B. DuBois, which suggests that African Americans maintain a dual identity, simultaneously American and Black, thus experiencing social marginality.
Microsociology
Stresses the study of small groups and the analysis of our everyday experiences and interactions.
Macrosociology
Concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire civilizations.
Culture
Consists of the totality of our shared language, knowledge, material creations, and rules for behavior.
Dominant Ideology
A set of cultural beliefs and practices that legitimize existing powerful social, economic, and political interests.
Material Culture
The physical or technological aspects of our daily lives.
Nonmaterial Culture
The ways of using material objects, as well as customs, ideas, expressions, beliefs, knowledge, philosophies, governments, and patterns of communication.
Values
A collective conception of what is considered good, desirable, and proper – or bad, undesirable, and improper – in a culture.
Norms
Established standards of behavior maintained by a society.
Sanctions
Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The idea that the language a person uses shapes his or her perception of reality and therefore his or her thoughts and actions.
Nonverbal Communication
Using gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate.
Cultural Universals
Common practices and beliefs shared by all societies.
Innovation
The process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture.
Discovery
The process of making known or sharing the existence of an aspect of reality.
Invention
The combination of existing cultural items into a form that did not exist before.
Diffusion
Refers to the process by which some aspect of culture spreads from group to group or society to society.
Culture Shock
The feelings of disorientation, uncertainty, and even fear that people experience when they encounter unfamiliar cultural practices.
Cultural Relativism
Viewing people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture.
Dramaturgical Approach
Popularized by Erving Goffman, this method compares everyday life to the setting of the theater and stage and sees people as theatrical performers.
Alienation
The state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved.
Social Inequality
Characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.
Theoretical Perspectives
Functionalist Perspective
Emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.
Conflict Perspective
Assumes that social life is shaped by groups and individuals who struggle or compete with one another over various resources and rewards, resulting in particular distributions of power, wealth, and prestige in societies and social systems.
Interactionist Perspective
Generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction to explain society as a whole.
Research Methods
Scientific Method
A systematic, organized series of steps that ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching a problem.
Theory
A set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behavior.
Hypothesis
A testable statement about the relationship between two or more factors known as variables.
Quantitative Research
Collects and reports data primarily in numerical form.
Qualitative Research
Relies on what researchers see in the field and naturalistic settings and often focuses on small groups and communities.
Code of Ethics
The standards of acceptable behavior developed by and for members of a profession.
Founding Figures in Sociology
Karl Marx
Wrote the Communist Manifesto and suggested that capitalism causes alienation – loss of control over our creative human capacity to produce, separation from the products we make, and isolation from our fellow workers.
W.E.B. DuBois
Proposed the idea of double consciousness.
Emile Durkheim
Suggested that specialized labor in industrial societies leads to anomie – the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective – which increases the likelihood of suicide.
Max Weber
Argued that who has power was determined not only by social class and control of material resources but also by social status and organizational resources.
Ida Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)
Argued that societies can be judged on whether the principles they claim to believe in match their actions.
Erving Goffman (1922-1982)
Popularized the dramaturgical approach.
Short Answer Questions
What are the four key components of sociology?
Systematic study, the individual, society, consequences of difference.
What are the three theoretical perspectives of sociology?
Symbolic interactionist perspective, functionalist perspective, conflict perspective.
Name three founding members of sociology.
Max Weber, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim.
What are the five steps in the research process?
Problem, observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion.
What are two ways to create cultural innovation?
Change and growth.
What is the difference between macrosociology and microsociology?
ex1.2
stresses the study of small groups and the analysis of our everyday experiences and interactions while macrosociology concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire civilizations an example of microsociology would be the study of Cartman?s life in southpark vs macrosociology which would be the study of the entire community of south park.
Short answer What is the difference between private troubles and public issues examples?
Private troubles are Obstacles that individuals face as individuals rather than as a consequence of their social position while public issues are Obstacles that individuals in similar positions face an example of private troubles is a person not being able to obtain a federal government job because of a bad criminal past while an example of a public issue would be not being able to obtain a job because the company just outsourced all jobs in the area to china.
Short answer What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods give an example?
Quantitative research collects and reports date primarily in numerical form while qualitative research relies on what they see in the field and naturalistic settings, and often focuses on small groups and communities an example of quantative research would be the percent of teenage mothers in California an example of qualitative research would be to gain a better understanding of people in an alcoholics anonymous group.
Short answer define the three theorectical perspectives and give examples of each perspective would analyze the criminal justice system?
Interactionist perspective generalizes about everyday forms of social interactions in order to explain society as a whole, functionalist perspective emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability and conflict perspective assumes that social life is shaped by groups and individuals who struggle or compete with one another over various resources and rewards, resulting in particular distributions of power, wealth, and prestige in societies and social systems. Interactionist perspectives would label black youths as more likely to commit a crime making this group more likely to be charged of a criminal offense. An example of functionalist perspective would be that without the criminal element in society no jobs would be created to enforce laws. A conflict perspective example would be that theft of a television would yield more jail time than stealing millions through illegal business practices because.
Short answer
The Jewish holocaust of WWII taught us that people must give their consent to be in an experiment. The Tuskegee Experiment said that people must be informed that they are in an experiment.
Short answer
Material culture is the physical or technological aspects of our daily lives while nonmaterial culture is the ways of using material objects, as well as customs, ideas, expressions, beliefs, knowledge, philosophies, governments, and patterns of communication. For example the use of transportation is material culture that is used in our daily lives to commute from place to place. An example of non-material culture is listening to Rush Limbaugh?s radio show because you have similar beliefs to what he communicates.
Norms are standards of behavior maintained by society and sanctions are penaties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm
For example Tattoos are becoming a norm in our society but tattoos on your face are generally not accepted. The sanction towards having tattoos on your face would not being able to obtain a well paying job.
Music represents nonmaterial culture because it a way to communicate.
A belief or ideas can be communicated to music and you as a person can decide whether or not that song connects with you. Music can also be an idea pertaining to a revolution or dislike of certain ideas of the government.
Sociological imagination
– an awareness of the relationship between who we are as individuals and the social forces that shape our lives. In our society, we are taught from a young age that without school and its teaching you cannot become successful. That is why we as college students choose to go to school everyday because we have commited ourselves to this idea.
Sociological imagination
– an awareness of the relationship between who we are as individuals and the social forces that shape our lives. The Mexican American culture is potrayed to be seen usually as illegal in this country. In our society we are viewed to be part of gangs, not being able to speak English and lazy. Our culuture has manifested the wider society into believing that Mexicans can only do such jobs like fieldwork.
Karl Marx-
wrote the Communist Manefesto, and suggested that capitalism causes alienation?loss of control over our creative human capacity to produce, separation from the products we make, and isolation from our fellow workers
W.E.B. DuBois-
proposed the idea of double consciousness, which suggests that African Americans maintained a duel identity, simultaneously American and black, thus experiencing social marginality
Emile Durkheim-
suggested that specialized labor in industrial societies leads to anomie?the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective?which increases the likelihood of suicide
Max Weber-
argued that who has power was determined not only by social class and control of material resources, but also by social status and organizational resources
Ida Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)
argued that societies can be judged on whether the principles they claim to believe in match their actions
Erving Goffman (1922-1982)
popularized a method known as the dramaturgical approach, which compares everyday life to the setting of the theater and stage and sees people as theatrical performers
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
the idea that the language a person uses shapes his or her perception of reality and therefore his or her thoughts and actions
Diffusion
– refers to the process by which some aspect of culture spreads from group to group or society to society