SO428 Exam 1
To analyze the Behavioral system, use "__________" -The _______ and the _______ are the units of measurement -Where we ______, and the ______ we have are important This system -Is close to the ideas of sociobiology -Supplies us with the biological "______" to live/interact in society
biology environment and the body live body equipment
The group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender is vital to Collin's conceptualization of _______ ________ ________, which, like all specialized thought, reflects the interests and standpoint of its creators.
black feminist thought
The new discipline of sociology sought to scientifically explain both the ___________ and the __________ of such extraordinary social change. One of the most important of these changes was the _________ ___________, which began in England in the eighteenth century.
causes and the effects Industrial Revolution
Marcuse does recognize, however, that, relative to the ninettenth century, sexual mores and behavior have been "desublimated" or liberalized. Yet, the modern liberation of sexuality provides on a false freedom. The conflict between sexuality (a central source of the pleasure principle) and society (the source of the reality principle) has produced a state of _______ __________ or "institutionalized desublimation" managed by a controlled liberalization which increases satisfaction with the offerings of society." Tolerance of sexual promiscuity and experimentation (as well as other formerly deviant pursuits) does not lead to individual freedom. Instead, tolerance has itself paradoxically become a form of repression.
repressive desublimation
To analyze the Social system, use "_________ ________" -__________--not INDIVIDUALS--are the units of measurement -________ _______ include TWO or more people These interactions: -Help us to have a foundation to exist together -Motivate use to have a "_________" reality
role interactions Interactions Role interactions shared
Durkheim emphasized that while the primary domain of psychology is to understand processes internal to the individual (for example, personality or instincts), the primary domain of sociology is ______ ______; that is, conditions and circumstances external to the individual that, nevertheless, determine one's course of action.
social facts
From the 1930s through the 1970s, __________ _________ was the dominant theoretical approach in American sociology.
structural functionalism
Structural functionalists emphasize "_________ within _____________." For instance, while each family can be considered its own self-contained "_______" or unit, it is also acomponent of society as a whole.
systems within systems system
Contemporary sociological theory can be periodized roughly from ________ to the present.
1935
Four Functional Requirements of Action Systems: _________ ______________: How well the system adapts to its material environment ________ ___________: Ability of individual or group to identify and pursue goals ______________: Dimensions of cohesion and solidarity ____________ __________ __________: Sphere of general values
AGIL Adaptation Goal Attainment Integration Latent pattern maintenance
the ______ scheme refers to the dilemmas or problems faced by all systems of action.
AGIL
______________ -Believed that sociological language is a _________ construct -Felt that sociological theory should be stringently tested -Wanted us to understand society as influenced by strengthening of the current _______ _______--passively encouraging __________
Adorno political social order alienation
the French intellectual __________ ___________ (1798-1857), who coined the term "sociology" in 1839, also used the term "social physics" to refer to this new discipline and his organic conceptualization of society.
Auguste Comte
__________ ________ __________ -The group or community level of the cultural context created by race, class, and gender which, like all specialized thought, reflects the interests and standpoint of its creators. -maintains that the experience of multiple oppressions makes black women particularly skeptical of and vulnerable to dominant paradigms of knowledge and thus more reliant on their own experiential sources of information.
Black feminist thought
Though Parson's variant of structural functionalism dominated American sociology, his views were not embraced by all. One of the more vocal critics of parson's work was ____ _______ ________.
C Wright Mills
_______ ______ -Main concerns: pursuit of research and theory development -Platform to research and understand society -Utilizes macrosociology -Objectivity ______ _______ -Main concerns: action orientation and critique of society -Platform to change society for the better -Uses psychoanalysis (microsociology) -Subjectivity
Chicago School Frankfurt School
___________________ Preexisting social arrangement produce the apparent orderliness of social life as individuals and groups are pursuing trajectories that, in a sense, are not of their own making. Society is thus pictured as an overarching system that works down on individuals and groups to determine the shape of the social order. Society is understood as a reality sui generis that operates according to its own logic distinct form the will of individuals.
Collectivist
_______ _________ is achieved only when individuals are confident that t he claims being made by others meet the criteria for proof specific to the other three worlds.
Communicative rationality
Robert K Merton's Deviance Typology ___________: -Accept the goals -Accept the means ___________: -Accepts the means -Rejects the goals ___________: -Accepts the goals -Rejects the means ___________: -Rejects the goals -Rejects the means ___________: -Rejects the goals -Rejects the means -Replaces with NEW
Conformists Ritualists Innovators Retreatists Rebellion
Many of the seeds for what would become sociology were first planted with the _____________, a period of remarkable intellectual development that occurred in Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The development of _________ __________ (open spaces of debate relatively free from government control) and the rapid pace of the modern world enabled a critical mass of literate citizens to think about the economic, political, and cultural conditions that shaped society. However, the Enlightenment was not so much a fixed set of ideas, but a new _________, a new method of _________. One of the most important aspects of this new attitude was an emphasis on ___________.
Enlightenment civil society attitude thought reason
Many of the seeds for what would become sociology were first planted during the ______________, a period of remarkable intellectual development that originated in Europe during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. One of the most important aspects of this new attitude was an emphasis on ___________.
Enlightenment reason
____________ -Perhaps the most __________ oriented of the Frankfurt school -Rejected Western Capitalism as dehumanizing and contributing to alienation -Capitalism encourages ______-________ and _______ _________
Fromm psychologically self-interest role internalization
_________ argued that the essence of reality lies in thoughts or ideas because it is only in and through the concepts that order our experiences that experiences, as such, are known.
Hegel
Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas-Max Weber -_______ --The alienation of humanity and the obstacles to realizing a perfected social order lie in __________ ___________. --The source of distorted consciousness in the "__________ of __________." -___________ _________ --is based on establishing impersonal, calculable procedures --is the lifeblood of the ________________ administration of human affairs --is precisely the bureaucratic form of rationality that is most responsible for creating an oppressive, overly routinized, and depersonalized society --____________ is the iron cage that has stifled individual freedom. -____________ --drew a distinction between "________ _________" and "_________ __________." ---parallel to Weber's notion of ________ ________. --___________ __________ is "essentially concerned with means and ends, with the adequacy of procedures for purposes more or less taken for granted and supposedly self-explanatory ---It attaches little importance to the question whether the purposes as such are reasonable" (Horkheimer 1947:3). --_________ _________ speaks to the relative value of the ends of action and thus provides a basis for determining what is ethical, right, and just -__________ emphasized the distinction between "_________ __________" and "_________ __________." --___________ ______________ is "a critical and oppositional attitude that derived freedom of action from the unrestricted liberty of thought and conscience and measured all social standards and relations by the individual's rational self-interest" (1941:433). --___________ __________ is marked by the scientific approach to all human affairs. Social relations as well as humanity's relationship to nature are now understood as "problems" to be efficiently solved. ---_________ _________ represented a worldview that had come to dominate all spheres of life. ---Scientific-technological progress had become the god of modern society, and only a "crank" would refuse to worship before its idols.
Hegel distorted consciousness irrationality of rationality Formal Rationality bureaucratic Bureaucracy Horkheimer subjective reason objective reason formal rationality subjective reason objective reason Marcus individualistic rationality technological rationality Individualistic rationality Technological rationality Technological rationality
The final influence on the critical theorists considered is the work of Sigmund Freud, whose ideas had a particularly profound impact on _________ __________.
Herbert Marcuse
_____________ -Uses ______ ________/ ______ ______ as a platform to enlighten and emancipate people -Encourages _________ -Unlike traditional, ________ approaches to research -Researchers cannot be purely "_________" -__________ is reflecting on the limits of claims (science)
Horkheimer conflict theory/critical theory change positivistic objective Critique
The logic of technological rationality that emphasizes means and aims at answering the question "_______?" was now the authority for determining legitimate courses of action. But this form of rationality is divorced from ethics and value judgements; it is not oriented to answering the question"_______?"
How Why
Basic Theoretical Continuum as to the Nature of Social Order ____________ -Patterns of social life seen as emerging from ongoing interaction ----> _____________ -Patterns of social life seen as the product of existing structural arrangements
Individual Collective
_____________ It is individuals and groups creating, recreating, or altering the social order that works up to produce society. This position grant more autonomy to actors: they are seen as relatively free either to reproduce the patterns and routines of social life or to transform them.
Individualist
The new discipline of sociology sought to scientifically explain both the causes and the effects of such extraordinary social change. One of the most important of these changes was the ____________ ____________, which began in England in the eighteenth century.
Industrial Revolution
The Frankfurt School -These three figures' relationship was solidified through their association with the _________ of _________ _________ at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. --established in 1923, through the patronage of _______ ________, the son of a wealthy grain merchant who, to his father's displeasure, sought to advance the ideals of _________
Institute of Social Research Felix Weil socialism
In one of his most important works, The Social Contract, ______-_______ _________ argued that in order to have a free and equal society, there must be a genuine social contract in which everyone participates in creating laws for the good of society.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Second-generation critical theorists ___________ ____________ _______ _________ ___________
Jurgen Habermas Patricia Hill Collins
__________'s move to Washington, DC, marked the beginning of his permanent separation from the institute.
Marcuse
Biographical Sketch: __________ ________ -__________ dedicated himself to his studies at Humboldt University in Berlin, where he took up modern Germany history. -Soon thereafter he left for Freiburg, where he studied philosophy and economics, completing his doctorate in 1922. --There he met __________ and, with him, attended ___________'s lectures.
Marcuse Horkheimer Husserl
_____________ -Concerned with the dehumanizing effects of contemporary ________ and new technology -Felt that ________ exploited and objectified us -Encourage the "______ ________" to be intolerant of the "______" -Influential to the '60s student movement in the US
Marcuse capitalism capitalism New Left Right
Like __________, the critical theorists saw in modern industrial societies an oppressive, dehumanizing social order.
Marx
Intellectual Influences and Core Ideas- Karl Marx -The critical theorists developed a framework that at once extends and departs from central ________- ideas. -Like Marx, the critical theorists saw in modern, industrial societies an oppressive, dehumanizing social order. And like Marx, their aim was not simply to construct a theory capable of explaining the real workings of society.
Marxist
Biographical Sketch: _________ __________ -While his father intended for him to take over the family business, _______'s radical political leanings and sympathies with the working class left him ill equipped for embracing the role of a __________ -He subsequently married his father's long-time secretary. Herself from a humble background, reinforced Horkheimer's feelings of compassion for the plight of the working class and his distaste for "domineering businessmen like his father."
Max Horkheimer Max capitalist
First wave critical theorists ________ ___________ _______ _________ ________ ___________
Max Horkheimer Theodor Adorno Herbert Marcuse
During 1925-1926, Parson studied at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where he was exposed to and deeply influenced by the work of ____ _______. Following _________, Parsons sought to explore the "relations between economic and sociological theory:.
Max Weber Weber
In 1949 ________ published what would become his magnum opus, _______ ________ and _______ ________ From 1941 until his death in 2003, ______ was a professor of sociology at Columbia University He mentored an extraordinary number of students, many of whom would become prominent in their own right, including (but not limited to) Robin Williams, Jr. Jesse Pitts, and Peter Blau
Merton Social Theory and Social Structure Merton
_________-______ ____________ is a form of reasoning that shapes our understanding of cultural norms and values, ethics and law, justice, and the exercise of authority--in short, the "rightness" and legitimacy of action. Tied to law, it serves as a normative and moral guide within the social world of interpersonal relations.
Moral-practical rationality
____________ The individual takes his bearings from subjective ideals, symbolic codes, values, morals, norms, traditions, the quest for meaning, unconscious desires, emotional states, or a combination of these.
Nonrational
Basic Theoretical Continuum as to the Nature of Social Order ______________ -Action motivated by ideals, values, morals, tradition, habits, or emotional states <--> ______________ -Action motivated by a strategic or calculated attempt to maximize rewards/benefits while minimizing costs
Nonrational Rational
__________ ___________ is fiction (albeit a comforting one) and it is imperative for theorists to recognize that fact and value cannot be separated. The critical theorists argued that the notion of a free-floating intellectual, is a self-aggrandizing myth.
Objective Knowledge
___________ began teaching at ___________ University, where he would remain until his retirement in 1973. He passed away in 1979. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, __________ was a dominant figure in American sociology. An _______-___________ backlash was in full swing by the 1970s. ____ ________ _________ and other critics had charged _________ with a conservative bias as well as academic elitism. By the late 1980s, however, the fervor of _______-____________ had died down.
Parsons Harvard Parsons anti-Parsonian C. Wright Mills Parsons anti-Parsonianism
________ _______ __________: A Biographical Sketch The exclusion of black women from intellectual discourses became the subject of her first book. -Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990/2000). -_________ was particularly influenced by Dorothy Smith -_________ ________ --the philosophic viewpoint that what one knows is affected by the standpoint (or position) one has in society ("epistemology" means how we know what we know, how we decide what is valid knowledge)
Patricia Hill Collins Collins standpoint standpoint epistemology
__________ _______ ______ was particularly influenced by Dorothy Smith, as is evident in her concept of __________ ____________, which she defines as the philosophic viewpoint that what one knows is affected by the standpoint one has in society.
Patricia Hill Collins standpoint epistemology
________ ________: A dichotomy that describes alternatives of action between which each person (or group) has to choose in every situation. The actions are shaped by the three systems: personality, cultural, and social. 1. ___________/ ___________-__________ -_____________: Emotional impulses are gratified. For example, a child is allowed to show love for his or her parent. -__________-__________: Emotional impulses are inhibited. For example, a bureaucrat in an organization (such as the DMV) or a teacher grading papers is expected to be emotionally neutral. 2. ___________-____________/ __________-_____________ -________-_____________: Action is based on the actor's own interests, needs, and goals. For example, a student decides what to study in college based on his or her own interests. -_______-____________: Action is based on what is best for the "collectivity." For example, a child quits school to work to support her family. 3. ____________/_____________ -___________: Action is based on general standards or universal laws and moral rules. For example, the Supreme Court decides cases according to rules that are valid for the whole community. -___________: Action is based on the priority and attachment that actors place on relationships and situations. For example, you might give support to a friend without considering whether his or her actions are wrong. 4. _____________/_____________ -_____________: Action based on given attributes (race, sex, age). For instance, you are eligible for the draft or allowed to buy alcohol or vote because you have reached a specific age. -____________: Action based on performance. For example, graduation from college is based on a student's completion of requirements for graduation. 5. ____________/_____________ -_____________: Action based on specific criteria or roles. For example, in clerk-customer or teacher-student roles, there are narrowly and clearly defined criteria for interaction. -____________: Open guidelines for action. For example, befriending a teacher goes beyond the clear boundaries of the teacher-student relation.
Pattern Variable Affectivity/Affective-Neutrality -Affectivity -Affective-Neturality Self-Orientation/Collectivity-Orientation -Self-orientation -Collectivity-orientation Universalism/Particularism -Universalism -Particularism Ascription/Achievement -Ascription -Achievement Specificity/Diffuseness -Specificity -Diffusness
________ _______ -a system of action organized by need-dispositions, both organic (e.g., "drives") and emotional, at the level of the individual __________ _________ -is made up of the "values, norms and symbols which guide the choices made by actors and which limit the type of interaction which may occur among actors"
Personality system Cultural system
________________ Contends that the individual and group actions are motivated primarily by the attempt to maximize rewards while minimizing costs. Here, individuals and groups are viewed as essentially calculation and strategic as they seek to achieve the "selfish" goal of improving their position.
Rational
"_______ ________ in the ________ _________ _________" This descriptive essay -Did not incite much reaction when it was first published in the 1940s -In the 1970s it came to epitomize Parson's ___________, interpreted as it was an explicit endorsement by Parsons of traditional gender roles and the dire consequences that would ensue should they be breached -Although there is no question that his description of the ideal, typical, white middle-class family is told from an upper-middle-class white male's point of view, Parsons did capture important elements of this system.
Sex Roles in the American Kinship System conservatism
_________ _________ -The level of integrated interaction between two or more actors -It involves cognizance of the other actors' _________ and/or _________ (whether at a relatively conscious or unconscious level), as well as shared ________ or _________ and _________.
Social system ideas intentions norms or expectations and interdependence
__________ refers to the process by which individuals come to regard specific norms as binding. It necessarily involves a community, as it is a process of social learning. _____________ refers to the process by which the individual personality system incorporates some specific interpretation of cultural symbols into its need-dispositions. Finally, cultural values and norms are institutionalized at the level of the social system. ______________ refers to the longstanding processes of communal association that binds actors to particular meanings. Institutionalization privileges particular symbolic constructions and, at the same time, curtails resistance to social norms.
Socialization Internalization Institutionalization
From the 1930s to the 1970s, ___________ ____________ was the dominant theoretical approach in American Sociology. __________ ________ introduced central concepts such as "role," "norm," and "social system" into the discipline of Sociology.
Structural Functionalism Structural Functionalist
Talcott Parsons was a _____________
Structuralist
___________ -systems within systems;the pattern-variable continuum is always apparent in full at another level -although affective/neutrality is generally considered more legitimate than affectivity in modern societies, as evidenced in economic relationship, affectivity is generally considered a more legitimate basis of action in the context of the family
Subsystems
Biographical Sketch: _________ _______ -Music, or at least "real" music offered an expression of truth itself, a truth defined in dialectic terms such that the value of music is measured by its freedom from conformity to existing forms. -_________ believed that music and art alone was capable of transcending the alienated, "soulless" world ushered in by the advance of _________ and __________ political systems. -In classic Marxist fashion, he saw in dominant musical forms a reflection of existing material conditions or property relations that fueled the exploitation of one class by another.
Theodor Adorno Adorno capitalism and totalitarian
_____________ is a system of generalized statements or propositions about phenomena. There are two additional feature, however, that together distinguish scientific ___________ from other idea systems, such as those found in religion or philosophy. "Scientific" theories 1. ____________ and ____________ the phenomena in question, and 2. Produce testable and thus falsifiable ______________.
Theory Theories Explain and predict hypothesis
_________ is a system of generalized statements or propositions about phenomena. However, there are two additional features that, together, distinguish scientific theories from other idea systems, such as those found in religion or philosophy. "Scientific" theories 1. __________ and _________ the phenomena in question 2. produce _________ and thus _________ hypotheses.
Theory explain and predict testable and thus falsifiable
___________ is vital to making sense of social life because it holds assorted observations and facts together. Facts make sense only because we interpret them using preexisting categories and assumptions; that is, "__________." The point is that even so-called facts are based on implicit __________ and ___________ presuppositions.
Theory theories assumptions unacknowledged
_________-_________ ________ informs our evaluations of taste and the sincerity or deceitfulness of managed self-presentations and expressions. It is oriented to the ___________ or _____________ world of personal experience and artistic judgement.
aesthetic-expressive subjective or internal
Parsons saw social action as composed of four basic elements that distinguish it from isolated, individual behavior: -It is oriented toward _________ of ________ or _______ -It takes place in ________, consisting of the _________ and _________ objects to which the actor relates -It is _____________ regulated (i.e., regulated by norms that guide the orientation of action) -It involves expenditure of _______ or __________
attainment of ends or goals situations physical and social normatively effort or energy
The development of __________ ___________ (open spaces of debate relatively free from government control) and the rapid pace of the modern world enabled a critical mass of literate citizens to think about the economic, political, and cultural conditions that shaped society.
civil society
Society is thus pictured as an overarching system that works down on individuals and groups to determine the shape of the social order. Society is understood as a reality "sui generis" that operates according to its own logic distinct from the will of individuals. This orientation has assumed many different names—macro, holistic, objectivist, structuralist, and the label we use here, ____________.
collectivist
Despite the multidimensionality of their conceptual tool kit, we consider the critical theorists primarily _________ and __________ in their theoretical orientation.
collectivist and rationalist
As the complexity, power, and differentiation of the system grows, it eventually become sealed off from the lifeworld and ultimately comes to engulf it. in one of his more famous expressions, Habermas describes this process as the _____________ of the __________. In this process, system steering media (_________ and __________) and technical/instrumental logic come to replace the consensual negotiation of shared meanings as the foundation for social integration and the reproduction of the lifeworld.
colonization of the lifeworld power and money
Habermas defines _________ _____________ as the process in which individuals come to mutual understanding and consensus through open, noncoercive debate and discussion freed from the corrosive effects of money, power, and manipulation. Encompassing the other forms of rationality and addressing simultaneously the worlds of objective, social, and subjective experience, ________ _____ embodies a critical stance that allows for the negotiation of shared meanings, the coordination of action, and the socialization of individuals. In the process, ____________ ___________--itself an outgrowth of the evolutionary rationalization of the lifeworld--reproduces the lifeworld by transmitting the cultural stock of knowledge, integrating individuals into the community, and securing the formation of personal and social identities.
communicative action communicative action communicative action
During the 1970s, the image of society as a system of interrelated parts was harshly rejected by those sociologists who emphasized that society was based on _________, not ____________, among social groups.
conflict, not consensus
Structural functionalism came to be viewed as, at best, an old-fashioned tradition with a ____________ bias, and, at worst, a perspective that legitimated the exploiters, augmenting social problems rather than helping to correct them.
conservative
Yet interestingly, sociology reflects a complex mix of Enlightenment and ______-_________ ideas (Seidman 1994). People would willingly obey the laws because they helped make them. ___________'s challenge of the age of reason echoed _________'s view that the heart has reasons that reason does not know.
counter-Enlightenment Rousseau Pascal
The "_________" in critical theory ultimately refers to a critique of empirical sciences and the philosophy of positivism on which they are based.
critical
The ____________ _________ is made up of the "values, norms and symbols which guide the choices made by actors and which limit the type of interaction which may occur among actors." It is composed of intangible ideas and broad symbolic patterns of meaning that establish boundaries of social behavior.
cultural system
None of the offerings of the ___________ _________ fulfills its promise. In fact, they are not designed to, and although we know this, we are unable to envision an alternative.
culture industry
__________ ___________ This "industry" encompasses all those sectors involved in the creation and distribution of mass-culture products: television, film, radio, music, magazines, newspapers, books, and the advertisements that sell them. Suggestive of the effectiveness of the __________ ______ is the fact that most people seem to prefer its familiar, predictable offering to alternatives that require active contemplation. For instance, how many theme songs can you hum from TV shows? How many Mozart concertos?
culture industry
In the end, the ________ _______ combines with _______ _____________ to produce a totalitarian social order that transcends any particular economic or political arrangement.
culture industry technological rationality
According to Merton, __________ refers to modes of action that do not corm to the dominant norms or values in a social group or society. following the functionalist notion that society is a system of interrelated parts, Merton hypothesized that _________ results when there is a disconnect between the cultural and social realms. That is, _______ occurs when the __________ of a society are out of sync with the ________ available for achieving them.
deviance deviance deviance goals means
The bleak (if not realistic) picture of the future painted by the critical theorists was not simply a product of the shortcomings of their theoretical model. Instead, it stemmed more directly from what they saw as the changing nature of ____________. It was not the exploitation inherent in capitalism that was responsible for the oppression of humanity, but rather forms of thought, and, in particular, the totalitarianism of _____ and ______.
domination reason rationality
Society is thus pictured as an overarching system that works ________ on individuals and groups to determine the shape of the social order. Society is understood as a reality "_____ _________" that operates according to its own logic distinct from the will of individuals. This orientation has assumed many different names—macro, holistic, objectivist, structuralist, and the label we use here, ________.
down sui generis collectivist
Whereas Parson's conceptualization of society as a system of interrelated parts seemed to imply that all social institutions were inherently functional--otherwise they would not exist--Merton emphasized that different parts of a system might be at odds with each other and, thus, that even functional or beneficial institutions or subsystems can produce ___________ or __________ __________ as well.
dysfunctions unintended consequences
In his "________ _________", Parsons focused on bringing classical European theorists into American sociology in order to upend the individualistic and rationalistic utilitarian models prevalent in American sociology at the time. Parsons sought to replace the pragmatic, "grounded" theory dominant in American sociology and most evident in the detailed micro-level work of the ________ ___________ with an all encompassing theory of action based on a synthesis of the works of the classical European thinkers, particularly _______ ___________ and _____ ______. This effort culminated in The ____ of ______ ______. Although it has since become a classic, The _______ of ________ __________ was roundly criticized initially for its high level of abstraction.
early period Chicago School Emile Durkheim Max Weber The Structure of Social Action The Structure of Social Action
Horkheimer and his colleagues looked elsewhere for the source of ____________; not surprisingly, they found them in critical theory. This signaled a major shift from orthodox Marxism, as the critical theorists abandoned analyses of __________ conditions an no longer cast the working class in the role of savior of humanity. Moreover, in placing in the hands of critical theoreticians whatever limited hope they had for the establishment of a just society, they drew inspiration from the work of _________ _____________ and his followers--the "Young Hegelians"--whose philosophy Marx subjected to a scathing critique.
emancipation economic Georg Hegel
Sociological theories share certain characteristics with theories developed in other branches of science. However, there are significant differences between social and other scientific theories (i.e., theories in the social sciences as opposed to the natural sciences) First, sociological theories tend to be more ___________ and ___________ than theories in the natural sciences. A second difference between sociological theories and those found in other scientific disciplines stems from the _________ of their respective subjects.
evaluative and critical nature
Whether we are consciously aware of them or not, our everyday life is filled with theories as we seek to understand the world around us. The importance of formal sociological theorizing is that it makes assumptions and categories _________; hence open to ____________, ___________, and __________.
explicit examination, scrutiny, and reformulation
The lifeworld serves as the backdrop for social integration, identity formation, and the construction of meaning in two domains: the private sphere of the ________ and the public sphere of open _____ ________. Interaction within these domains is mediated through language and the development of shared meanings that in turn serves to reinforce or challenge the legitimacy of existing social norms and values.
family civic debate
The critical theorists claimed that all knowledge is __________.; there are no timeless, empirical truths subject to scientific discovery and proof. Because objective knowledge is nothing but a ___________ (albeit a comforting one), it is imperative for theorists to recognize that fact and value cannot be separated.
finite fiction
Parsons maintains that there are four "_________ _________" or requirements encountered by all action systems. That is, there are four basic problems that a society, group, or individual must confront in order to survive as a system of action. Parsons called these four problems or functions, ___________, __________ _________, ____________, and ______ ____ _________. Parson's students used the acronym "________" to refer to this scheme. These four functions or requirements are evident at every level of every system. __________ (A) refers to responses to the physical environment. At the level of the actor-ego, the problem of __________ is often managed by the behavioral or physiological organism. For example, the body adapts to heat by perspiring, thereby cooling itself down. At the level of the social system, the economy typically fulfills the requirement of _________. That is, the economy is the subsystem that adapts to the environment for social purposes (providing goods and services). ____________ __________ (G) refers to the problem of resolving the discrepancies between "the intertial tendencies of the system and its 'needs' resulting from interchange with the situation". At the level of the individual, _________ ________ is met primarily by the personality system. At the level of the social system, the requirement of ______ _______ is typically met by the polity, as it is the realm in which goals and resources are prioritized, and discrepancies are resolved between "the inertial tendencies of the system and its 'needs' resulting from interchange with the situation." _____________ (I) refers to the coordination of a system's or subsystem's constituent parts, since "all social systems...are differentiated and segmented into relatively independent units". Within the four systems of action (behavioral organism, personality, social system, and cultural system), the function of ___________ is met primarily by the social system. Integration involves __________--that is, the feeling of "we-ness" that develops in a social group as distinct roles are carried out; integration depends on interaction and the norms that guide interaction more so than abstract cultural values. ___________ __________ ___________ (L) refers to the "imperative maintaining the stability of the patterns of institutionalized culture." This function is carried out primarily by the cultural system, as it is through culture (made up of shared meanings and values) that specific patterns of behavior are maintained. Within the social system, the function of _____________ ___________ ____________, that is, the maintaining of shared values, most readily apparent in the realm of religion.
functional imperatives adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latent pattern maintenance adaptation adaptation adaptation Goal attainment goal attainment goal attainment Integration integration solidarity Latent pattern maintenance latent pattern maintenance
For Comte, the new science of society--sociology--involved (1) the analysis of the central elements and ___________ of social systems, using (2) concrete __________ and comparative methods in order to (3) establish ___________ generalizations about them.
functions historical testable
Pattern Variable Traditional/___________ -Affectivity -Collectivity-orientation -Particularism -Ascription -Diffuseness Modern/_____________ -Affective-neutrality -Self-orientation -Universalism -Achievement -Specificity
gemeinschaft gesellschaft
Perhaps the single most important contribution Merton made to functionalism--and sociology--is that he extended Parson's point that society is a system of interrelated parts and reworked it to emphasize that the components of the system may or may not be "___ ______," and the results are not always predictable.
in sync
Here, it is individuals and groups creating, re-creating, or altering the social order that works up to produce society. This position grants more autonomy to actors, as they are seen as relatively free to reproduce the patterns and routines of social life (i.e., the social order) or transform them. Over time, this orientation has earned several names as well—micro, elementarism, subjectivist, and the term we adopt, ____________.
individualist
For his part, Marcuse (1941) emphasized the distinction between "__________ ___________" and "__________ ____________." (the latter term was adopted by most of the Frankfurt theorists.) Analogous to Horkheimer's notion of objective reason, he defined ____________ ___________ as "a critical and oppositional attitude that derived freedom of action from the unrestricted liberty of thought and conscience and measured all social standards and relations by the individual's rational self-interest." ___________ __________ allows for negating all that is established in order to critically understand one's world, develop personal objectives, and achieve them through rational methods. _________ ___________ is marked by the scientific approach to all human affairs. Social relations as well as humanity's relationship to nature are now understood as "problems" to be efficiently solved--and with solutions comes control.
individualistic rationality technological rationality individualistic rationality technological rationality
To analyze the Personality system, use "____________" -____________ are the units of measurement ___________ act based on -Individual needs, motives, and attitudes -We gravitate toward ______-_________ and personal _______ _________
individuals individuals self-gratification profit maximization
Habermas posits three complementary modes of rationality--________, ________-_________, and __________-____________--that individuals use to five meaning to their everyday lives.
instrumental moral-practical aesthetic-expressive
Habermas conceptualizes _________ ________ as a purposive and goal-oriented attitude underlying the pursuit of objective truth and technical, empirical knowledge. ________ ________ reflects the moment of reason captured by science as it serves to quantify, organize, and systematically control the objective or external world of physical objects.
instrumental rationality Instrumental rationality
Like Weber and the Frankfurt School theorists, Habermas (1981) contends that the modern world is characterized by increasing ______ __________--that is, by the spread of methodical procedures and calculable rules into more and more domains of social and personal life.
instrumental rationalization
In his third and final intellectual phase (roughly 1952-1979), Parsons developed his "_________ __________," dubbed by his students the "_________ __________" and focused on the evolution of societies. In this period, Parsons shifted back to his preoccupation with political and economic systems, epitomized in his book __________ and ________ __________.
interchange model AGIL Scheme Politics and Social Structure
Durkheim emphasized that while the primary domain of psychology is to understand processes _________ to the individual (for example, personality or instincts), the primary domain of sociology is _______ ___________; that is, conditions and circumstances external to the individual that, nevertheless, __________ one's course of action.
internal social facts determine
The foremost concern of science is to uncover what ____, not what ______ to be.
is ought
Perhaps Parsons's single most important idea is that action must not be viewed in ___________. -Rather, action must be understood as a "_________ in _________," or as a system. _______ ________ -A hypothetical actor in a hypothetical situation bounded by an array of parameters and conditions (required effort, ends or goals, situation, norms).
isolation process in time Unit act
Drawing from and extending the work of Husserl and Schutz, Habermas conceives of the _______________ as a prereflexive framework of background assumptions, a "network of shared meanings that individuals draw from to construct identities, to negotiate situational definitions, know-how, customs, and norms through which we are able to construct common understandings of our social world In addition, the _______ provides for the socialization of society's members and the internalization of the norms and values essential to the stability of the social order.
lifeworld lifeworld
For Merton, __________ __________ refers to the overt or intended purpose of action. Conversely, ______ _______ refers to implicit or unintended purpose.
manifest function latent function
Collins uses the term __________ of __________ to underscore that one's position in society is made up of multiple contiguous standpoints rather than just one essentialist standpoint. Thus, in contrast to earlier critical theorists' account that assume that power operates from the top down by forcing and controlling unwilling victims to bend to the will of more powerful superiors, Collins asserts that "depending on the context, an individual may be an oppressor, a member of an oppressed group, or simultaneously oppressor and oppressed...Each individual derives varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone's lives.
matrix of domination
To analyze the Cultural system, use "_____________" -__________--not PEOPLE--are the units of measurement -Examples: language, morals, values These ____________ form, in essence, the ________ ________ -Socialization helps us to maintain _______ _______ -_______ ________ holds society together
meanings meanings meanings socialization process social control social control
In contrast to Parsons, who sought to delineate a highly abstract master conceptual schema, Merton favored what he called _________-________ __________: -"lie between the minor but necessary working hypotheses that evolve in abundance during day-to-day research and the all-inclusive systematic efforts to develop a unified theory that will explain all the observed uniformities of social behavior, social organization, and social change" (1967:49, as cited in Sztompka 1986:41).
middle-range theory
In suggesting that history is marked by a separation of the True from the real, it follows that we are alienated from Absolute Idea or Spirit. The alienation of humanity and the obstacles to realizing a perfected social order lie in distorted consciousness. As we noted earlier, the critical theorists located the source of distorted consciousness in the "irrationality or rationality." Reason itself had become corrupted, leaving individuals unable to _________ or develop a critique of "objective truths" that would alone enable us to resist the domination of the status quo. In short, the power of negative thinking to subvert the established social order and the oppressive conditions it fosters has been lost.
negate
Turning to the question of action, we again find two answers labeled here as ___________ and ___________. Specifically, action is primarily ___________ when it is guided by values, morals, norms, traditions, the quest for meaning, unconscious desires, and/or emotional states. The ___________ contends that individual and group actions are motivated primarily by the attempt to maximize rewards while minimizing costs.
nonrational and rational nonrational rationalist
Turning to the question of action, we again find two answers labeled here as ______________ and _____________. Specifically, action is primarily ____________ when it is guided by values, morals, norms, traditions, the quest for meaning, unconscious desires, and/or emotional states. The ___________ contends that individual and group actions are motivated primarily by the attempt to maximize rewards while minimizing costs.
nonrational and rational nonrational rationalist
The creation of needs and the products dispensed to meet them serve to indoctrinate and manipulate; they promote a false consciousness which is immune against its falsehood. And as these beneficial products become available to more individuals in more social classes, the indoctrination they carry ceases to be publicity; it becomes a way of life. It is a good way of life--much better than before--and as a good way of life it militates against qualitative change. Thus emerges a pattern of ______-_______ __________ and ___________ in which ideas, aspirations, and objectives that, b their content, transcend the established universe of discourse and action are either repelled or reduced to terms of this universe.
one-dimensional thought and behavior
Our framework revolves around two central questions that social theorists and philosophers have grappled with since well before the establishment of sociology as an institutionalized discipline: the question of _________ and the question of __________. The first question, that of __________, asks what accounts for the patterns and/or predictability of behavior that lead us to experience social life as routine. The second question, that of ________, considers the factors that motivate individuals or groups to act.
order action order action
Our analytical frame or map revolves around two central questions that social theorists and philosophers have grappled with since well before the establishment of sociology as an institutionalized discipline: the questions of _________ and ___________ (Alexander 1987). The first question, that of _________, asks what accounts for the ________ and/or ___________ of behavior that lead us to experience social life as routine. The second question, that of __________, considers the factors that ___________ individuals or groups to act.
order and action order patterns predictability action motivate
The classic structural functionalist image of society is of an ________, such as the body, with different parts--limbs, brain, liver, and so forth--working together in an interdependent way.
organism
The _________ ___________ refers to a system of action organized by _______-____________, both organic (e.g., drives) and emotional, at the level of the individual. Although the personality system is the source of a distinctive and unique self, Parsons does not construe it as autonomous in the sense that psychologists typically do. Rather for Parsons, the personality is a distinct level of social life; physical separateness of one's body never entails complete social or cultural differentiation because personal uniqueness is itself a function of interaction and socialization.
personality system need-dispositions
Habermas was particularly disillusioned by the earlier critical theorists' rejection of the __________ __________ of debate as a possible arena for democratic, progressive change and their despairing view of modern society more generally.
public sphere
Habermas argues that the world of public discussion and debate that first emerged within European bourgeois social circles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries held great promise for the rise of democratic government. This world of public discussion and debate, or _______ _________, is composed of an array of social spaces where, ideally, private individuals can publicly congregate and freely debate political, ethical, and social issues in a noncoercive and "undistorted" manner. The _________ ________ is not an institution, an organization, or a system; rather, it is.
public sphere public sphere
Central to the critical theorists' perspective is Freud's notion of the "_________ ___________" and the "__________ ______________." The ________ _______ refers to the individual's instinctual drive for the immediate and painless gratification of desires. According to Freud, this unconscious impulse is inimical to the development of civilization, because civilization demands cooperation between individuals in order to achieve a social (as opposed to personal) aims, and cooperation entails the delay, if not denial, of self-gratification. Restraining the free play of the _________ _________ is the "___________ ________." The ____ ______ serves as a precondition for entering into associations with others that alone are able to secure basic needs. Essentially, an unconscious trade-off is made as powerful--and at times destructive--instinctual pleasures are exchanged for less satisfying, sublimated pleasures that nevertheless make social life possible. As a result, the apparent freedom to do and think and say what one wants is based on an essential unfreedom. The necessary repression of the instincts that accompanies the transfer to the _____ ________ is a form of psychological domination as the socially imposed restraint of instinctual pleasures is internalized within one's own psyche. "The repressive transformation of the instincts becomes the biological constitution of the organism: history rules even in the instinctual structure; culture becomes nature as soon as the individual learns to affirm and to reproduce the _____ _____ within himself.
pleasure principle reality principle pleasure principle pleasure principle reality principle reality principle reality principle reality principle
Perhaps Parson's single most important idea is that action must not be viewed in isolation. Rather, action must be understood as a "_________ in __________," or as a ____________. As Parsons and Shils explicitly state, "Actions are not empirically discrete but occur in constellations we call systems." To underscore this point, Parsons used the term ____ ________- to refer to a hypothetical actor in a hypothetical situation bounded by an array of parameters and conditions (required effort, ends or goals, situation, norms). In other words, instead of construing action in terms of something concrete (such as business or an individual), Parsons conceptualized action __________ as a means of analyzing social phenomena. More generally, he saw social action as composed of four basic elements that distinguish it from isolated, individual behavior. 1. It is oriented toward attainment of _________ or _________. 2. It takes place in _________ consisting of the physical and social objects to which the actor relates. 3. It is _________ ______________ (i.e., regulated by norms that guide the orientation of action). 4. It involves expenditure of ________ or _________.
process in time system unit act systems ends or goals situations normatively regulated effort or energy
Tied directly to the standardization of products is the ________-________________ that endows "cultural mass production with the halo of free choice or open market on the basis of standardization itself." Here is the "parade of progress," the world of the "new and improved," that masks an eternal sameness. Deodorants and shampoos, hit songs and movies, cars and soft drinks--each product is made to closely resemble its competitors in order to conform to the consumer's pregiven expectations, but offers just the slightest difference in order to capture his attention.
pseudo-individualization
A key component of modern societies is the ongoing ___________ of the lifeworld in which the discourses regarding "truth,goodness, and beauty" are differentiated into separate sphere of knowledge. ______________ produces a greater potential to question our actions and the actions of others and to question more generally the conditions of the world around us. In the process, highly abstract concepts like democracy, quality, freedom, and universal rights circulate in debates that, in turn, create the conditions for a consensual understanding of the forces that shape social life.
rationalization Rationalization
In stark contrast to the Frankfurt School theorists, whose antimodernist stance and loss of faith in reason led them to abandon Marx's utopian commitment to emancipation, Habermas holds out great hope for the power of _________ to combat the dehumanizing consequences stemming from the rationalization of society.
reason
The Enlightenment emphasis on __________ was part and parcel of the rise of science. They argued that these laws could be uncovered by means of science and __________ research. Enlightenment intellectuals rebuked existing knowledge as fraught with _________ and mindless tradition
reason empirical prejudice
Parsons and Shils define _______ as _________, detailed sets of obligations for interaction A _______-______ is that complement of interdependent social relationships in which persons are involved simply because they occupy a particular social status -begins with the idea that "each social status involves not a single associated role, but an array of roles"
roles complementary role-set
The ________ _________ refers to the level of integrated interaction between two or more actors. It also involves cognizance of the other actors' ideas or intentions, or both (whether at a relatively conscious or unconscious level), as well as shared norms or expectations and interdependence. In other words, social systems are not material structures or institutions but rather a complex arrangement of interconnected social roles. Parsons and Shils define __________ as complementary, detailed sets of obligations for interaction. Role-set theory begins with the idea that"each social status involves not a single associated role, but an array of roles." A ________-_____ is that complement of interdependent social relationships in which persons are involved simply because they occupy a particular social status. For instance, in an everyday situation such as buying groceries, you enter the store, walk around and pick out what you want, and go to the cashier to pay for it. Order and predictability ensue because you, as well as the other actors in the _______-_________ know how to play your respective _________.
social system roles role-set role-set roles
Parsons and Shils maintain that actions are organized into three modes or realms: _________ ________, ________ __________, and _________ ____________.
social systems, personality systems, and cultural systems
The personality, social, and cultural systems interpenetrate each other through _________, ___________, and __________. __________ -refers to the process by which individuals come to regard specific norms as binding -It necessarily involves a __________, as it is a process of social learning __________ -refers to the process by which the individual personality system incorporates some specific interpretation of cultural symbols into its ______-___________ -cultural values and norms are institutionalized at the level of the _______ __________ ____________ -refers to the longstanding processes of communal association that bind actors to particular meanings
socialization, internalization, and institutionalization Socialization community Internalization need-dispositions social system Institutionalization
The rise of science and empiricism would give birth to ___________ in the mid-nineteenth century. The central idea behind the emerging discipline was that society could be the subject of scientific examination in the same manner as biological organisms or the physical properties of material objects. Indeed, the French intellectual _________ _________ (1798-1857), who coined the term "__________" in 1839, also used the term "_______ __________" to refer to this new discipline and his organic conceptualization of society. However, it was the French theorist __________ __________ (1858-1917) who arguably was most instrumental in laying the groundwork for the emerging discipline of sociology.
sociology Auguste Comte sociology social physicsÉmile Durkheim
Parson's second intellectual phase is often termed "_________ __________." It is during this period that parsons wrote his most famous works, and it is for the ideas developed during this period that he is most well known. This period culminated in 1951 with the publication of two pivotal works: ________ a ______ ________ of _________ and The ______ ________. In these works, Parsons attempts to resplve the theoretical problems he himself had posed earlier. Specifically, fascinated by Fred and having read Freud thoroughly, Parsons integrated _________ ___________ into his general theory of action. More generally, Parsons sought a conceptual convergence and synthesis in social psychology, sociocultural anthropology, and sociology.
structural functionalism Toward a General Theory of Action The Social System psychoanalytic theory
Horkheimer drew a distinction between "_________ _______" and "__________ _________." Parallel to Weber's notion of formal or instrumental rationality, _________ __________ is "essentially concerned with means and ends, with the adequacy of procedures for purposes more or less taken for granted and supposedly self-explanatory. It attaches little importance to the question whether the purposes as such as reasonable." While _______ _________ may allow us to determine the most efficient way of achieving our goals, it cannot in itself offer a guide for determining what is a "reasonable" goal. ________ _________ is the guiding mentality of the technician, the bureaucrat, who, while adept at carrying out functional, procedural rules, is blind to the ethical basis of those rules. Conversely, ______ _______ speaks to the relative value of the ends of action and thus provides a basis for determining what is ethical, right, and just.
subjective reason objective reason subjective reason subjective reason subjective reason objective reason
The multivocality of the pattern variables is most readily apparent in Parson's notion of _____________, or systems within systems, because this means that the pattern-variable continuum is always apparent in full at another level.
subsystems
While the reality principle and the repressive control of instinctual energies that it demands are inherent in the continuing development of civilization, "the specific historical institutions of the reality principle and the specific interests of domination introduce additional controls over and above those indispensable for civilized human association." These additional controls represent ___________ ___________: the portion of repression "which is the result of specific societal conditions sustained in the specific interest of domination" and which unnecessarily impedes the gratification of instinctual desires. In other words, although the reality principle is intrinsically opposed to the pleasure principle, the specific form it takes is determined by the prevailing method of social domination--the existing system of social institutions, norms, and values that guides the necessary control of the instincts. Thus, whether a society's mode of production is based on private or collective property, a market or planned economy, or whether all of its members work to secure their survival or only particular groups do so, the content of the reality principle will be affects and, thus, the scope and degree of instinctual repression. The extent of _____ _____, then, provides a standard of measurement according to which the repressiveness of a society can be gauged.
surplus repression
Jurgen Habermas is commonly regarded as one of sociology's greatest ____________ thinkers.
synthethetic
The ________________ comprises a societ's political and economic structures that are responsible for the organization of power relations and the production and distribution of material resources. As societies evolve, both the state and the economy develop their own formal structure and mechanisms for self-organization. Habermas calls these organizational mechanisms _________ __________ and argues that two primary forms emerge: ____________ and ____________.
system steering media power and money
One could argue that Merton's single most important achievement has been to establish connections between _________ and __________, thereby charting the course of the discipline of sociology. Merton learned especially from __________ ___________, the first chair of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, who recruited Merton for graduate school, and Sorokin's young colleague at Harvard, Talcott Parsons.
theory and research Pitirim Sorokin
Here, it is individuals and groups creating, re-creating, or altering the social order that works _____ to produce society. This position grants more autonomy to _______, as they are seen as relatively free to reproduce the patterns and routines of social life (i.e., the social order) or transform them. Over time, this orientation has earned several names as well—micro, elementarism, subjectivist, and the term we adopt, __________.
up actors individualist
t was the French theorist ________ ____________ (1858-1917) who arguably was most instrumental in laying the groundwork for the emerging discipline of sociology
Émile Durkheim
