Ch1 The Sociological Perspective

The world's _nations can be divided into broad categories according to their_. These categories are_

-195 -level of economic development -High-income countries, middle-income countries, and low-income countries

Low-income countries (number of countries, examples, describe society, problems)

-53 -Africa and a few of Asia -Few people are very rich, but the majority struggle to get by with poor housing -unsafe water, poor housing, too little food, and little chances to improve their lives

Middle-income countries (number of nations, examples, describe their cites arrangements, # of years of schooling, problems within the society,

-70 -Countries of Eastern Europe, some of Africa, and almost all of Latin America and Asia -Live in rural villages as in cities and to walk or ride tractors, scooters, bicycles, or animals as to drive automobiles -8-10 years of schooling -Considerable social inequality: some people are extremely rich but many more lack safe housing and adequate nutrition

High-income countries (number of countries, examples, their productions, describe the people, economy)

-72 -The United States, Canada, Argentina, The nations of Western Europe, South Africa, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Australia -These nations produce most of the world's goods and services -people who live there own most of the planet's wealth -Economy: people in these countries are very well off/ rich region

Explain "Growth of cities"

-Across Europe, landowners took part of enclosure movement-they fenced off more and more farmland to create grazing areas for sheep -Without land, countless tenant farmers had little choice but to head to the cities in search of work in the new factories -As cities grew larger,these urban migrants faced social problems, including pollution, crime, and homelessness -Moving through streets crowded with strangers, they faced a new and impersonal social world

Who created the term sociology? when? to describe what?

-Auguste Comte -1838 -To describe a new way of looking at society

Explain "thinking globally help us learn more about ourselves"

-Comparing life in various settings also leads to unexpected lessons about the countries where we live

Positivism

-Comte approach -Way of understanding based on science

Name people that think about the nature of sociology. What these thinkers were more interested into about sociology?

-Confucius -Plato -Aristotle -Marcus Aurelius -Saint Thomas Aquinas -Christine de Pisan -Williean Shakespeare -They were more interested in imagining the ideal society than in studying society as it really was. How society could be improved, but their major objective was to understand how society actually operates

Describe "a new industrial economy"

-During middle ages of Europe, most people worked in small-scale manufacturing -By the end of18th century, inventors used new sources of energy -power of moving water and then steam-to operate large machines in mills and factories, instead of laboring at home or in small groups, workers became part of a large and anonymous labor force, under the control of strangers who owned the factories -This change in the system or production took people out of their homes, weakening the traditions that had guided community life for centuries

Describe "Political Change"

-Europeans in the Middle Ages viewed society as an expression of God's will -But as cities grew, tradition came under attack -There was a shift in focus form a moral obligation to God and king to the pursuit of self-interest -"personal liberty" and "individual rights" were in the minds of these people -The French Revolution was an even greater break with political and social tradition

Give examples of "Many social problems that we face in the United States are far more serious elsewhere"

-Ex: poverty, gender inequality

Where did the new discipline of sociology born? why?

-Germany -France -England -Because these places experimented the most changes

What did Karl Marx did?

-He championed the cause of the workers in what he saw as their battle against factory owners -He asserted "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, is to change it"

What did William Edward Burghardt Du Bois?

-He contributed to understand race in the U.S. -Earned the first doctorate awarded by the Harvard university to a person of color -Founded the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, important center of sociological research -He believed that sociologists should not simply learn about society's problems but also try to solve them -Studies black communities across the United States, pointing the numerous social problems ranging from educational inequality to a political system that denied people their right to vote and the terrorist practice of lynching -Spoke out against racial inequality -Participated in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) -He helped his colleagues in sociology to see the deep racial division in the U.S. -He worked to change the laws and social customs that deprived African Americans of the rights and opportunitties enjoyed by white majority

What changes make the people more aware of their surroundings

-Huge factories -Exploding cities -new spirit of individualism

What are the disadvantages of the structural-functional approach?

-Ignores inequalities of social class, race, and gender, which cause tension and conflict -Its focus on stability at the expense of conflict makes this approach somewhat conservative

Scientists, including_, hoped that the new discipline of sociology _

-Karl Marx -would not just help us understand society but also lead to change toward greater social justice

What two situations helps the people use the sociological perspectives in their lives?

-Living on the margins of society -living through a social crisis

Robert K. Merton distinguished between _

-Manifest functions -Latent functions -Social dysfunction

Social dysfunction

-Merton recognized that not all the effects of social structure are good -any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society

Is "free will" exists under the sociological perspective? why?

-No -Because sociology teaches is that the social world guides all our life choices

gender-conflict approach

-Part of social-conflict approach -a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men -Closely linked to feminism

Typically, what the people of high and low act in the social-conflict approach do?

-People on the top try to protect their privileges while the disadvantaged try to gain more for themselves

manifest functions

-Robert K. Merton -The recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern

What are some of the careers that you can enter by studying sociology as a career? What careers are benefited by sociology and describe how?

-Secondary school teacher -College professor -Researcher in this field -Researchers for government agencies or private foundations and business by gathering important information on social behavior and carrying out evaluation research -Clinical sociologists (focus on the individual's web of social relationships) -Criminal justice gain the sociological advantage by learning which categories of people are most at risk of becoming criminals as well as victims, assessing the effectiveness of various policies and programs at preventing crime, and understanding why people turn to crime in the first place -Health care also gain the sociological advantage by learning about patterns of health and illness within the population, and factors (race, gender, and social class affect the human-being)

What did Jane Addams did?

-Sociological pioneer -Helped found Hull House, a Chicago settlement house that provided assistance to immigrant families -Wrote 11 books and hundreds of articles -Had a life of public activist by speaking out on issues involving immigration and the pursuit of peace -Nobel prize in 1931 -Used Gender-conflict approach -Founded NAACP with Du bois

Explain "The sociological perspective helps us see the opportunities and constraints in our lives"

-Sociological thinking leads us to see that in the game of life, society deals the cards -Sociology helps us learn more about the world so that we can purpose our goals more effectively

Describe what it means by "Global awareness is a logical extension of the sociological perspective "

-Sociology shows us that out place in society shapes our life experiences -It stands to reason, then, that the position of our society in the larger world system affects everyone in the United States

Explain "societies throughout the world are increasingly interconnected"

-The US and the rest of the world have become linked as never before -Electronic technology now transmits sounds, pictures, and written documents around the globe, which influences that the people throughout the world share many tastes. -The larger world impact on us like through immigration Trade across national boundaries has also created global economy -Because most new jobs in the United States involve international trade, global understanding has never been before more important

social functions

-The consequences of any social pattern for the operation of society as a whole -Function to keep society going

Race-conflict approach

-Type of Social-conflict analysis -Point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories

Symbolic-interaction approach

-Views society less in general terms and more as the everyday experiences of individual people -framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals

Explain "The sociological perspective helps us assess the truth of common sense"

-We take many things for granted but that does not make them truth -Ex: we are free individuals who are personally responsible for our own lives Sociological approach, encourages us to ask whether such such common beliefs are actually true ,and the extent that they are not. why they are so widely held

Theory

-a statement of how and why specific facts are related -Important aspects of sociology

What fields is sociology an excellent preparation?

-advertising -banking -business -education -government -journalism -law -public relations -social work

social structure

-any relative stable pattern of social behavior -gives our lives shape-in families, workplace, classroom, and the community

Why structural-functional approach owes much to Auguste Comte? who else based his/her on this approach?

-because he pointed out the need to keep society unified at a time when many traditions were breaking down -Emile Durkheim -Herbert Spencer

why men, protestants, wealthy people, and unmarried people had much higher suicide rates than women, Catholics, Jews, the poor, and married people?

-because the differences in terms of social integration -Categories of people with strong social ties had low suicide rates, and more individualistic categories of people had high suicide rates -freedom weaken social ties and increase suicide rates

macro-level orientation

-broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole -big-picture

micro-level orientation

-close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations -street-level

What did Harriet Martineau did?

-first woman sociologist -Translated the writings of Auguste Comte from French to English -She documented the evils of slavery and argued for laws to protect factory workers, defending workers' right to unionized -She was concerned about the position of women in society -She fought for changes in education policy so that women could have more options in life than marriage and raising children -Used gender-conflict approach

what are the disadvantages of conflict analysis?

-focuses on inequalities, it largely ignores how shared values and interdependence unify members of a society -Pursue political goals, they cannot claim scientific objectivity

what approaches the social-conflict approach includes?

-gender-conflict and race-conflict approaches

How Herbert Spencer used this approach?

-he compared society to the human body -Just as the structural parts of the human body function independently to help the entire organism survive, social structures work together to preserve society

Sociological perspective

-is seeing the general in the particular -the special point of view of sociology that sees general patterns of society in the lives of particular people

Gender-conflict approach makes us aware_

-of the many ways our ways of life places men in position of power over women -of the importance of women to the development of sociology

Social imagination is used by people to turn_

-personal problems into public issues -the sociological imagination is the key to bring people together to create needed change

A conflict analysis rejects the idea that social structure_, focusing instead on how_

-promotes operation of society as a whole -social patterns benefit some people while hurting others

In social-conflict approach sociologists investigate how factors such as_are linked to a society's_

-social class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age -unequal distribution of money, power, education, and social prestige

Structural-functional approach points to_

-social structure -social functions

Unlike the structural-functional emphasis on _and_, social-conflict approach highlights_and_

-solidarity -stability -inequality -change

What approaches have macro-level orientation?

-structural functional approach -Social conflict approach

In building a theory, sociologists face two basic questions_

-what issue should we study? -How should we connect the facts?

Such as men have power over women in gender-conflict approach, _people have numerous social advantages over people of_. Ex?

-white -color -Including higher incomes, more schooling, better health, and longer life expectancy

What is the importance of global perspective for sociology?

1. Global awareness is a logical extension of the sociological perspective -by showing how our society fits within the larger world and how the larger world affects us.

How apply the sociological perspective is useful? (3)

1. Sociology is at work guiding many of the laws and policies that shape our lives 2. An individual level, making use of the sociological perspective lads to important personal growth and expanded awareness 3. Studying sociology is excellent preparation for the world of work

What three kinds of changes were especially important in the development of sociology_

1. The rise of the factory-based industrial economy 2. The explosive growth of cities 3. New ideas about democracy and political rights

How use sociology benefit us? (4 ways)

1. The sociological perspective helps us access the truth of "common sense" 2. The sociological perspective helps us see the opportunities and constraints in our lives 3. The sociological perspective empowers us to be active participants in our society 4. The sociological perspective helps us live in a diverse world

How Comte saw sociology as the product of a three-stage historical development?

1. Theological stage: people took religious view that society expressed God's will 2. Metaphysical stage: People saw society as a natural rather than a supernatural system (Enlightenment, Ideas of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau) 3. Scientific stage: (Started with Copernicus, Galileo, and Issac Newton) Scientific approach (physics, chemistry, sociology)

What are the 4 reasons that every chapter of the book make comparisons between the United States and other nations?

1. Where we live shapes the lives we lead 2. Societies through the world are increasingly interconnected 3. Many social problems that we face in the United States are far more serious elsewhere 4. Thinking globally helps us learn more about ourselves

What are the three major theoretical approaches?

1. the structural-functional approach 2. the social-conflict approach 3. the symbolic-interaction approach

How society shapes the lives of people?

Although every individual is unique, a society shapes the lives of people in patterned ways that are evident as we discover how various categories live very differently

Who stated the sociological imagination?

C. Wright Mills

Who is regarded as the first women sociologist?

Harriet Martineau

Sociology

Is the study of human society

Sociologists have helped shape _

Public policy- the laws and regulations that guide how people in communities live and work

Explain "The sociological perspective empowers us to be active participants in our society"

The more we understand how society works, the more active citizens we become by accepting or support society as it is or set out with others to change it

middle-income countries

The nations with a standard living about average for the world as a whole

High-income countries

The nations with the highest overall standards of living

Explain "The sociological perspective helps us live in a diverse world"

The sociological perspective encourages us to think critically about the relative strengths and weaknesses of all ways of life, including our own

Latent functions

The unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern

Explain "where we live shapes the lives we lead"

To understand ourselves and appreciate how others live, we must understand something about how countries differ.

Why human behavior cannot be explained by any rigid "laws of society?

We are creatures of imagination and spontaneity, so human behavior can never be fully explained by any rigid "laws of society"

As a positivism, Comte believed that society operates_

according to its own laws, much as the physical world operates according to gravity and other laws of nature

Robert K. Merton expanded our understanding of the concept of social function by pointing out that _

any social structure probably has many functions, some more obvious than others

Theoretical approach

basic image of society that guides thinking and research

Why women of poorer countries have more children than women with high-status?

because poor countries provide women with less schooling and fewer economic opportunities, women's lives are centered in the home; such women have less access to contraception

Why using the social perspective may seem like seeing the strange in the familiar?

because the sociological perspective reveals the initially strange idea that society shapes what we think and do

How sociologists test their own theories?

by gathering evidence using various research methods

Sociologists using the social-conflict approach look at ongoing conflict between_

dominant and disadvantaged categories of people

The job of sociological theory is to_

explain social behavior in the real world

Structural-functional approach

framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability

Social-conflict approach

framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change

We begin to see the world sociologically by realizing how the_

general categories into which we fall shape our particular life experiences

The structural-functional approach leads sociologists to_

identify various structures of society and investigate their function

The more we learn about how the system works, the more we_

may want to change it in some way

Low-income countries

nations with a low standard living in which most people are poor

In an increasingly interconnected world, we can understand_

ourselves only to the extent that we understand others

The birth of sociology was itself the result of_

powerful social forces

Just as social changes can bring social thinking_,

social thinking can bring social change

As a critical response to structural-functional approach, what did sociologists developed?

social-conflict approach

Many sociologists use the social-conflict approach not just to understand society but also to bring about _

societal change that would reduce inequality

The special point of view of sociology is called_

sociological perspective

The main idea of structural-functional approach is its vision of society as _

stable and orderly

feminism

the advocacy of social equality for women and men

The race-conflict approach also points out_

the contributions made by people of color to the development of sociology

global perspective

the study of the larger world and our society's place in it

what criticism is there about structural-functional and the social-conflict approaches?

they paint society in broad strokes

The main goal of the sociologists who use the structural-functional approach is to figure out_

what makes society thick