introduction of sociology
pioneered a field of study that examined the relationship between people and their natural, social, and built environments
Robert E. Park
What was Harriet Martineau's contribution to sociology?
She wrote an analysis of American society.
believed that society followed certain unchangeable laws and proposed using a scientific approach to study society on the same lines as the natural world
Auguste Comte
Harriet Martineau, an English journalist and social reformer, contributed to the founding of sociology through an analysis of
American society after her travels there in the 1830s. She also translated the work of Auguste Comte and popularized it in the English-speaking world
what do phycology and sociology have in common?
Both fields share a common sub-discipline called social psychology, which is the study of how individual behavior and personality reflects the influence of the group or social environment to which the person belongs.
criticized the structural functionalism approach to sociology and the empirical methods of social research
C. Wright Mills
Which sociologist receives credit for laying the foundation of scientific methodology in sociology?
Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim was a French philosopher and sociologist
He pioneered the use of scientific methodology in sociology. He denounced traditional methods of speculation and laid the foundation for a scientific, research-based discipline of sociology.
Julian Samora was a Mexican-American professor of sociology.
He studied the social conditions of Mexican-American people, highlighting the issues of civil rights, public health, and rural poverty.
believed that just as the struggle for survival in the natural world depended on "the survival of the fittest," human society would evolve through natural selection
Herbert Spencer
proposed that the class struggles that occurred throughout history would eventually disappear with the victory of the working class
Karl Marx
Auguste Comte (French philosopher) defined sociology as
Positive science, a search for the invariant laws of the natural and social world.
What is the difference between psychology and sociology?
Psychology studies an individual's behavior and sociology focuses on group behavior.
Sociology seeks to understand existing of
Social institutions, structures, and phenomena, and to analyze their causes and effects, in order to improve society.
in 1905
The founding of the American Sociological Society occurred, with Lester Ward serving as its first president.
Functionalism:
The functionalist perspective considers society as an organism and analyzes it as a system of interconnected parts, each working to maintain a state of equilibrium or balance. Each component of society, such as a family, education group, or political or economic body, works to achieve and maintain a balance in society. The functional perspective emphasizes the interconnectedness of different parts of society and that each part influences the others. Functionalism explains the existence of all social customs, traditions, and institutions by investigating the purposes they serve in maintaining social harmony.
Herbert Spencer (English philosopher) defined sociology as
The societal evolution, the ultimate goal of societal evolution is complete harmony and happiness.
Anthony Giddens (British sociologist) defined sociology as
The study of human social life, groups and societies... our own behavior as social beings, he scope of sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes.
The American Sociological Association defines sociology as
The study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior
treat human beings as mere objects that are at the mercy of social forces
sociology
Symbolic interactionism:
While the functional and conflict perspectives are at loggerheads with each other, they analyze society as a whole and look at the big picture. They explain social problems at an institutional level. This fixation with macro and grand theories resulted in the neglect of individuals and small groups in society. Symbolic interactionism filled this vacuum by offering a micro-level approach to studying sociology.
Conflict theory:
While the functionalists view different elements of society as working constantly together toward stability, the conflict perspective views the world as inherently unstable due to the actions of competing groups. It emphasizes that every society has two conflicting groups with mutually opposing interests.
Which African-American sociologist campaigned for civil rights and fought against racism?
William E.B. Du Bois
understand present-day problems, predict future problems, and suggest solutions
sociology
Science is
a systematic way of acquiring knowledge through making observations and verifying them with factual data.
Sociology has a broad scope and covers a wide range of topics. Due to its
all-pervasive nature, many of these topics influence and spill over into a number of other fields of study.
Jane Addams
an American social worker, started the first settlement house in the United States, called Hull House. This was a social movement to get the rich and the poor to live more closely together in an interdependent community.
do not focus on predicting future events
anthropologists
live within the community that they study in order to observe and record what they see
anthropologists
study small societies with static cultures that belong to the pre-literate period, and focus mainly on the study of historic human behavior
anthropologists
treats humans as beings endowed with a conscience—as entities that are able to make choices, and which are not passively subject to forces within society.
anthropologists
Robert Nisbet, an American sociologist
attempted to create a balance between the values of traditionalism (represented by community, moral authority, and the sacred) and the values of modernism (associated with individualism, equality, and moral release). He believed that the values of both philosophies must find a balance in society.
Auguste Comte
believed that society followed certain unchangeable laws and concluded that it should receive examination in the same fashion as the natural world, using a scientific approach.
Sociologists also study economic behavior, but...
but their interest is limited to an understanding of the non-economic (or social) causes and consequences of economic behavior.
Robert E. Park, an American sociologist
coined the term "human ecology." He developed this field of study, which explores the relationship between people and their natural, social, and built environments.
Domination of TV by the cultures of a few powerful societal groups may lead to the marginalization of other cultures.
conflict theory
TV may also be a disruptor of genuine family bonding activities.
conflict theory
TV programs may be a means of spreading propaganda. Many people perceive powerful sectors of society—such as the government, corporations, and the wealthy elite—to control TV as a medium
conflict theory
American sociologist, Robert K. Merton
contributed significantly to the sociology of science by examining the interactions and importance of social and cultural structures and science. He later formulated the Merton Thesis, which explained the relationship between religion and science.
C. Wright Mills, an American sociologist
criticized the structural functionalism approach to sociology and the empirical methods of social research. Mills believed that sociology should find the connections between the micro social environments of individuals and the macro social and historical forces in which they exist. He coined the term 'sociological imagination' to explain the kind of insight that sociology offered.
a sociologist studies social factors that
determine wealth inequality. Sociologists are more interested in understanding how an individual's (or group's) social position relies on their economic strength and vice versa.
Talcott Parsons, a renowned twentieth-century American sociologist
developed the action theory. He also provided further insight into the functionalist theory of sociology.
Max Weber, a German sociologist
developed the theory of social action. Weber defined and identified four different types of social action. He showed how socio-cultural and religious factors had a major influence on the rise and success of early European capitalism.
Which of these related social sciences depends the most on statistical techniques?
economics
A sociological study must rely on
facts. It must use relevant data that supports an idea or belief and translate it into certain knowledge. For example, people may have different ideas about the prevalence of juvenile delinquency in society. For a sociological analysis, the study must collect, classify, and analyze data on the number of juvenile delinquents across multiple years. Only then can a commonly-held notion become a sociological certainty. Sociology challenges you to question assumptions about social phenomena through empirical investigation.
William E.B. Du Bois, an African American
fought against racism and campaigned for civil rights of African Americans.
Some programs may in fluence violent and undesirable behavior ,especially among viewer sin impressionable age groups.
functionalism
TV programs are useful as a means of entertainment—to help people relax and de-stress.
functionalism
The telecast industry has created thousands of jobs and it offers an effective advertising medium for other industries to spread awareness about their goods and services
functionalism
the focus of sociology is on
group behavior
economic study
human behavior and concerns itself with group and individual habits. However, economics focuses only on economic behavior—not on all types of human behavior
Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx stated
human history demonstrated multiple class struggles, and he predicted that these would all disappear with the victory of the working class.
Anthropologists take a broad approach to understanding the
many different aspects of the human experience, which we call holism. They consider the past, through archaeology, to see how human groups lived hundreds or thousands of years ago and what was important to them.
Economic development and the growth of cities led to
new political ideas. The perception of society as part of a divine plan began to fade as new political ideas emerged, which motivated people to pursue their own self-interest rather than continue believing that they had a moral obligation to God and their rulers
. The French Revolution (1789-1799) and the US War of Independence (1775-1783) were indicators of the
new self-assertive thinking. These striking transformations—industrial growth, overcrowded cities, and a spirit of individualism—made people more aware of their surroundings and eventually led to the new discipline of sociology.
According to symbolic interactionists
people attach meanings to actions and the meanings guide social interactions. Thus, these researchers consider sociology to be the study of social interactions. Symbolic interactionism also explains how we derive our sense of self. By interacting and observing how others view us, we see a reflection of ourselves and develop a self-concept.
Political science focuses on
political systems and structures. It examines the aspects of human behavior that relate to power and authority. The overlap and interaction between the two disciplines resulted in the emergence of the field of political sociology.
Economists study the
production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in society. They use sophisticated statistical techniques to examine the measurable concepts of interest rates, taxes, and production rates.
Lester Ward, an American botanist and sociologist
published Dynamic Sociology, followed by other works on sociology. His most notable contribution to sociology was his insistence that people could identify social laws and control them to improve society.
Sociology is a
science
Political sociologists study the effects of
social behaviors on issues of power and authority. They analyze how social factors affect voting behavior, political dominance, and other political processes (such as social and political movements).
focus on the study of present day society
sociology
Charles Darwin's theory on natural selection in 1859 influenced
social thought, giving rise to the theory of Social Darwinism. Herbert Spencer, a pioneering contributor to this approach, held that a similar process was applicable to people, groups, and races. In his view, just as the struggle for survival in the natural world depended on "the survival of the fittest," human society evolved through struggle as well.
Auguste Comte believed that
society conforms to unchangeable laws in the same way that the natural world operates according to the laws of nature. He concluded that we could study social phenomena using the methods of positive science. To understand why sociology is a science, you need to understand what science is.
generally, use a quantitative approach, making use of statistical techniques and information gathered through surveys.
sociology
People have their own interpretations of what they view on TV.
symbolic interactionism
People have their own interpretations of what they view on TV. People are in control of what they want to watch and choose appropriately from the available TV programs
symbolic interactionism
This choice rests on one person's interpretation, which in turn reflects various social factors.
symbolic interactionism
Which sociological school of thought focuses on the study of small groups?
symbolic interactionist perspective
psychology mainly concerns itself with
the behavior of individuals
anthropology
the study of human societies and cultures and their development.
economist interprets the data from the point of view of
wealth creation (or the loss of it)
Booker T. Washington was an African-American educator and reformer
who urged other African-American people to abandon their efforts to win civil rights, and to cultivate industrial and farming skills to achieve economic security instead. He believed that attaining economic security was the means to win over the respect and acceptance of the white community.
Plato, Aristotle, and Thomas Aquinas concerned themselves
with the concept of an "ideal society" (one that people could use as a standard to guide social life) rather than examining how society actually functions.