Chapter 1

Max Weber

A German sociologist, economist, legal scholar, historian, and politician.Focused on social organization, a subjective understanding of behavior, and value-free sociology.

Symbolic Interaction Theory (Interactionism)

A micro-level perspective that examines individuals' everyday behavior through the communication of knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and attitudes. Focuses on process and keep the person at the center of their analysis.

W.E.B DuBois

A prominent black sociologist, writer, editor, social reformer, and passionate orator. The first African American to receive a Ph. D. from Harvard University. Help found the National Association for the Advanced of Colored People.

Theory

A set of statements that explains why a phenomenon occurs.

Jane Addams

A social workers who co-founded Hull House, one of the first settlement houses that served as a community center for the neighborhood poor. A leader in the women's suffrage movement, and was given a Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy of negotiating to settle disputes.

Symbolic Interactionism

A theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another.

Capitalism

An economic system in which the ownership of the means of production is in private hands.

A,B,C,D

An example of symbolic interactionism.

Division of Labor

An interdependence of different tasks and occupations, characteristic of industrialized societies, that produces social unity and facilitates change.

Manifest Functions

Are intended and recognized.

Latent Functions

Are unintended and unrecognized; they're present but not immediately obvious.

Social Facts

Aspects of social life, external to the individual, that can be measured.

Postmodern Theory

Attempts to explain social life in contemporary societies that are characterized by post industrialization, consumerism, and global communications.

C. Wright Mills' Sociological Imagination

Believed individual behavior is influenced by social factors such as religion, ethnicity, and politics. The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and larger social influences.

Emile Durkheim

Believed societies are characterized by unity and cohesion because their members are bound together by common interests and attitudes.

Material Facts

Can be determined by examining demographic characteristics such as age, place of residence, and population size.

Non-material Facts

Can be determined by observing everyday behavior and how people relate to each other.

August Comte

Coined the term sociology, and is often described as the "father of sociology". Said the study of society must be empirical.

Herbert Blumer

Coined the term symbolic interactionism, developed Mead's ideas, and emphasized that people interpret or "define" each other's actions, especially through symbols, instead of merely reacting to them.

Social Currents

Collective behavior and social movements.

Erving Goffman

Contributed significantly to earlier theories by examining the human interaction in everyday situations ranging from jobs to funerals. Used "dramaturgical analysis" to compare everyday social interaction to a theatrical presentation.

James White

Describes theories as "tools" that don't profess to know "the truth" but "may need replacing" over time as our understanding of society becomes more sophisticated.

Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton

Developed the earlier ideas of structure and function.

Suicide (social study)

Durkheim relied on extensive data collection to test his theory that suicide is associated with social integration. He concluded that people who experience meaningful social relationships are less likely to commit suicide than those who feel alone, helpless, or hopeless.

Harriet Martineau

Emphasized the importance of systematic data collection through observation and interviews, and an objective analysis of data to explain events and behavior.

Liberal Feminism

Emphasizes social and legal reform to create equal opportunities for women.

Feminist Theories

Examine women's social, economic, and political inequality.

Conflict Theory

Examines how and why groups disagree, struggle over power, and compete for scarce resources (property, wealth, prestige). Explains how societies create and cope with disagreements.

Microsociology

Examines the patterns of individuals' social interaction in specific settings.

Water, Food, Energy

Examples of conflict theory.

Government, Religion

Examples of functionalism.

Social dynamics

Explores how individuals and societies change over time.

Karl Marx

Father of sociology. Associated with Conflict Theory. Looked at the economic conflict between different social classes, and argued that societies progress through class struggle between those who own and control production and those who labor and provide the manpower for production. Believed that capitalism would ultimately lead to self-destruction of society due to internal tensions.

Global Feminism

Focuses on how the intersection of gender with race, social class, and colonization has exploited women in the developing world.

Macrosociology

Focuses on large-scale patterns and processes that characterize society as a whole.

What did Martineau promote?

Improving women' positions in the workforce via education, nondiscrimination employment, and training programs. They advocated women's admission into medical schools and emphasized issues such as infant care, the rights of the aged, the prevention of suicide, and other social problems.

Empirical

Information that is based on observations, experiments, or other data collection rather than on ideology, religion, intuition, or conventional wisdom.

Social Statics

Investigates how principles of social order explain a particular society, as well as the interconnections between institutions.

What does common sense do?

It is subjective (based on personal experiences), and ignores facts.

Functionalism

Maintains that society is a complex system of interdependent parts that work together to ensure a society's survival.

Value-Free

One who separates her or his personal values, opinions, ideology, and beliefs from scientific research.

Social Interaction

People take each other into account in their own behavior.

George Herbert Mead

Proposed that the human mind and self arise in the process of social communication become the foundation of the symbolic interaction schools of thought in sociology and social psychology.

Functions

Purposes and activities to meet different needs that contribute to a society's stability and survival.

Critical Sociological Thinking

Requires a combination of skills: rely on reason ask questions recognize one's own and others' assumptions, prejudices, and points of view remain open to alternative explanations and theories require and examine competing evidence understand how public issues affect private troubles.

Verstehen

Requires knowing how people perceive the world in which they live.

Radical Feminism

Sees male dominance in social institutions as the major cause of women's inequality.

Petit Burgeoisie

Small business owners and owner workers who still have their own means of production but might end up in the proletariat because they're driven out by competition or their businesses fail.

Social Solidarity

Social cohesiveness and harmony.

Dysfunctions

Social patterns that have a negative impact on a group or society.

What are the three primary sociological perspectives?

Symbolic interactionism, Conflict theory, and Functionalism.

What does the Sociological Imagination emphasize?

The connection between personal troubles (biography) and structural (public and historical) issues.

Alienation

The feeling of separation from one's group or society - is common across all social classes.

Proletariat

The masses of workers who depend on wages to survive, have few resources , and make up the working class.

Capitalists

The ruling elite who own the means of producing wealth.

Direct Observational Understanding

The social scientist observes a person's facial expressions, gestures, and listens to his/her words.

Explanatory Understanding

The social scientist tries to grasp the intention and context of the behavior.

Herbert Spencer

Used organic analogy to explain the evolution of societies and wrote our vital organs (heart, lungs, etc.) must function together.

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Weber argued that the self-denial fostered by Calvinism supported the rise of capitalism and shaped many of our current values about working hard.

Much of our common sense is ...

based on myths and misconceptions.

Sociological Imagination relies on ...

both micro- and macro-level approaches to understand our social world.

Sociological Imagination helps us understand ...

how larger social forces affect individuals and how individuals affect society.

Functionalists believed society ...

is a system that is composed of major institutions such as government, religion, the economy, education, medicine, and family.

Emile Durkheim was ...

the father of MODERN sociology.