Sociology - Chapter 1 & 2

generalized others (Mead)

the organized and generalized attitude of a social group

dramaturgical analysis

Erving Goffman's term for the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance

A theory

Explanation of how and why facts are related. Sociological theory helps us understand the world around us. A way to trying to make sense of the social world. Why do people act the way they do? in sociology, a theory is a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and to create a testable proposition, called a hypothesis, about society. theories vary in scope depending on the scale of the issues that they are meant to explain. Macro-level theories relate to large-scale issues and large groups of people, while micro-level theories look at very specific relationships between individuals or small groups.

dynamic equilibrium

In a healthy society, all parts work together to maintain stability, called this by later sociologists such as Parsons (1961).

society

A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture

methodology

A system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline. the rules followed by sociologists as they formulate and conduct scientific research.

Conflict Theory

Look at what's not working. A struggle between two opposing forces. Conflict theorists will say we learn from our families how to be racists, bigots, domestic violence, etc. The way inequalities contribute to social differences and perpetuate differences in power. looks at society as a competition for limited resources. This perspective is a macro-level approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx - have's vs. have nots (1818-1883), who saw society as being made up of individuals in different social classes who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and housing, employment, education, and leisure time. Social institutions like government, education, and religion reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities and help maintain the unequal social structure. Look at issues of racism, sexism, classism, ageism, all those isms really fall under conflict. Just as structural functionalism was criticized for focusing too much on the stability of societies, conflict theory has been criticized because it tends to focus on conflict to the exclusion of recognizing stability. Many social structures are extremely stable or have gradually progressed over time rather than changing abruptly as conflict theory would suggest.

dysfunctions.

Social processes that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society. In education, examples of dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy, dropping out, not graduating, and not finding suitable employment.

Structural Functionalism (first sociologists)

Society is a set a of social insitutions that work together for the benefit of us all. that work to theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures (the family, the division of labor, or gender) that exist to fulfill some set of necessary functions (reproduction of the species, production of goods, etc.). The way each part of society functions together to contribute to the whole. How does society work so well? One criticism of the structural-functional theory is that it can't adequately explain social change. Also problematic is the somewhat circular nature of this theory; repetitive behavior patterns are assumed to have a function, yet we profess to know that they have a function only because they are repeated. Furthermore, dysfunctions may continue, even though they don't serve a function, which seemingly contradicts the basic premise of the theory. Many sociologists now believe that functionalism is no longer useful as a macro-level theory, but that it does serve a useful purpose in some mid-level analyses.

deductive reasoning

Start with a theory, confirm a hypothesis and do quantitative research. Is more precise and quantitative. general to specific

reification

an error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence. sociologists take care not to treat the concept of "culture" as though it were alive in its own right.

Constructivism

an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be. We develop social constructs based on interactions with others, and those constructs that last over time are those that have meanings which are widely agreed-upon or generally accepted by most within the society. This approach is often used to understand what's defined as deviant within a society. There is no absolute definition of deviance, and different societies have constructed different meanings for deviance, as well as associating different behaviors with deviance.

Paradigms

are philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them. Three paradigms have come to dominate sociological thinking, because they provide useful explanations: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. provide broad perspectives that help explain many different aspects of social life.

Social facts

are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life (Durkheim 1895). Each of these social facts serves one or more functions within a society. For example, one function of a society's laws may be to protect society from violence, while another is to punish criminal behavior, while another is to preserve public health.

social facts

are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life,

latent functions

are the unsought consequences of a social process. Latent functions of your college years include meeting new people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even finding a spouse or partner. Another latent function of education is creating a hierarchy of employment based on the level of education attained. Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful.

Grand theories

attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change.

Postmodern social theory

attempts to look at society through an entirely new lens by rejecting previous macro-level attempts to explain social phenomena. Generally considered as gaining acceptance in the late 1970s and early 1980s, postmodern social theory is a micro-level approach that looks at small, local groups and individual reality. Its growth in popularity coincides with the constructivist aspects of symbolic interactionism.

Quantitative research designs

emphasize the use of numbers and statistics to analyze and explain social events and human behavior. generate data from secondary analysis, experimental designs, or survey research, and employ numbers and statistics to understand events and behavior. A strength of experimental designs is their capacity to establish patterns of causation (when a change in one variable causes a change in another variable).

Symbolic Interactionism

interaction between people that takes place through the use of symbols. One-to-one. is a micro-level theory that focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society. Communication—the exchange of meaning through language and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds. A wink is a symbol that we learned from our society. humans interact with things based on meanings ascribed to those things; the ascribed meaning of things comes from our interactions with others and society; the meanings of things are interpreted by a person when dealing with things in specific circumstances (Blumer 1969). If you love books, for example, a symbolic interactionist might propose that you learned that books are good or important in the interactions you had with family, friends, school, or church; maybe your family had a special reading time each week, getting your library card was treated as a special event, or bedtime stories were associated with warmth and comfort. Studies that use the symbolic interactionist perspective are more likely to use qualitative research methods, such as in- depth interviews or participant observation, because they seek to understand the symbolic worlds in which research subjects live. Research done from this perspective is often scrutinized because of the difficulty of remaining objective. Others criticize the extremely narrow focus on symbolic interaction. Proponents, of course, consider this one of its greatest strengths.

Qualitative research designs

involve more direct modes of observation that focus on the meanings people give to their actions. Ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and case studies are the primary techniques employed with this approach. understand human behavior by learning about it through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and analysis of content sources (like books, magazines, journals, and popular media).

social institutions

or patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs, such as government, education, family, healthcare, religion, and the economy.

closed-ended questions

questions that can only be answered by selecting from a limited number of options, usually multiple-choice, 'yes' or 'no', or a rating scale (e.g. from strongly agree to strongly disagree).Closed-ended questions give limited insight, but can easily be analyzed for quantitative data. Start with Do you... have you....

open-ended questions

questions that cannot be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no', and instead require the respondent to elaborate on their points.Open-ended questions help you see things from a customer's perspective as you get feedback in their own words instead of stock answers. Often start with what , why, how, when, etc. require more thought and conversation.

figuration

simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior

Social Solidarity (Durkheim)

social ties within a group,

Significant others (Mead)

specific individuals that impacted a person's life

inductive reasoning

specific to general. Start with data, infer conclusions from data and then qualitative research. More general and qualitative (specific to general)

Sociological Imagination (C. Wright Mills)

the ability to see the link between society and self. reminds us to look to the context behind our and others' actions. understand the distinction between a person's troubles and public issues. An intricate relationship between a person and society. Whatever a person does is not just because it is of their own choice or personal preference. pioneer sociologist C. Wright Mills described as an awareness of the relationship between a person's behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person's choices and perceptions. It's a way of seeing our own and other people's behavior in relationship to history and social structure (1959)."

Positivism (Auguste Comte)

the application of the scientific approach to the social world. study of social patterns. He believed that using scientific methods to reveal the laws by which societies and individuals interact would usher in a new "positivist" age of history. While the field and its terminology have grown, sociologists still believe in the positive impact of their work.

Manifest functions

the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated. A manifest function of college education, for example, includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career, and finding a good job that utilizes that education.

Content analysis

the description and interpretation of communications—including things such as music, ads, and movies, is often approached from either design (quantitative and qualitative). Also, researchers may combine them in order to overcome the limitations of each (as no research methodology is "perfect")

culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

Sociology

the study of society (human beings in groups, really). the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups.

Triangulation

the use of three or more data collection techniques (e.g., survey with interviews and participant observation) within a study, is especially useful for securing rich and reliable data. (Thompson and Hickey, Instructor's Manual, pages 15-16)

antipositivism (Weber)

whereby social researchers would strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values. This approach led to some research methods whose aim was not to generalize or predict (traditional in science), but to systematically gain an in-depth understanding of social worlds.