Sociology ch. 1
John Locke, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Hobbes
Enlightenment philosophers who developed general principles that could be used to explain social life Emmanuel first coined "sociology" in 1780
verstehen
a German word that means to understand in a deep way
society
a group of people whose members interact, have the same location, and share a culture
theory
a proposed explanation about social interactions or society
Erving Goffman
a sociologist who helped develop a technique called dramaturgical analysis because he focused on the importance of symbols in building a society
dynamic equilibrium
a stable state in which all parts of a healthy society are working together properly
dramaturgical analysis
a technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance
functionalism
a theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society
symbolic interactionism
a theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols)
conflict theory
a theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources
macro-level theories
a wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society
grand theories
attempts to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change
Norbert Elias
called the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior figuration
Blumer
coined the term "symbolic interactionism"
Auguste Comte
considered to be the father of sociology after reinventing "sociology" in 1838. also named the scientific study of social patters positivism
Ibn Khaldun
considered to be the world's first sociologist
qualitative sociology
in-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of its data
culture
includes the group's shared practices, values and beliefs
Weber & Dilthey
introduced the concept of vestehen that means to understand in a deep way
sociology
is the systematic study of society and social interaction
Karl Marx
one of the founders of sociology. rejected Comte's positivism and believed that societies grew and changed as a result of the struggles of different social classes over the means of production.
paradigms
philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them
Durkheim's theory
sees society as a complex system of interrelated parts, working together, to maintain stability. the parts of society are inter-dependent. a stable society has dynamic equilibrium
dysfunctions
social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society
manifest functions
sought consequences of a social process
quantitative sociology
statistical methods such as s urveys with large numbers of participants
sociological imagination
the ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular
social facts
the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life
function
the part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity
figuration
the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior
positivism
the scientific study of social patterns
social solidarity
the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion
micro-level theories
the study of specific relationships between individuals or small groups
latent functions
the unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process
anti-positivism
the view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values