Sociology: As a life or Death Issue: Preface Flashcards
What is Brym’s Definition of Sociology?
The systematic study of human action in social context.
According to Brym, what do sociologist do?
Sociologist analyze the social relations that lie beneath ordinary aspects of everyday life.
What does sociology speak on, according to Brym?
Sociology speaks on the big issues of the day and the big issues of life, and speaks to a broad audience.
Determinism?
The belief that everything happens the way it does because it was destined to happen in that way.
Voluntarism?
The belief that we alone control our destiny.
How does Brym describe the sociological approach to improving human welfare?
Based on the idea that the relations we have with other people create opportunities for us not only to think and act, but also set limits on our thoughts and actions.
Émile Durkheim’s Study of Suicide
Durkheim showed that high rates of psychological distress often do not result in a high suicide rate, while low rates sometimes do.
What did Durkheim argue?
The rate and type of suicide that predominated in a society tells us something fundamentally important about the state of society as a whole.
According to Durkheim, the probability that your state of mind will lead you to suicide is influenced by _______
the social relations in which you are embedded.
Social Solidarity?
The frequency of interaction, and the degree of sharing beliefs, values, and moral in a group.
Durkheim’s Low Solidarity:
- High suicide rates
- Interacting infrequently and sharing few beliefs, values, and moral standards.
- People in low solidarity setting lack emotional support and cultural guidelines for behaviour, making them more prone to commit suicide if they experience distress.
Durkheim’s Intermediate Solidarity:
If we want suicide rates to decline, we must figure out ways of increasing the strength of social ties and shared culture in modern society.
Durkheim’s High Solidarity:
When members of exceptionally high level of solidarity perceive that the group is threatened, they are likely willing to sacrifice their lives to protect it.
According to Brym, Sociologist strive to identify 3 things:
- A type of behaviour that for personal, political, or intellectual reasons they regard as interesting or important.
- The social forces- the patterns of social relations among people- that influence that behaviour.
- The larger institutional, political, or other changes that might reliably improves human welfare with respect to the behaviour of interest.
