Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective

Question 1

The study of human society and social life and the social causes and consequences of human behavior

Answer 1

Sociology

Question 2

a quality of mind that allows us to understand the influence of history and biography on our interactive process.

Answer 2

Sociological Imagination

Question 3

the ability to see how society and social behavior has patterns and discern social processes

Answer 3

Sociological Perspective

Question 4

Macrosociology

Answer 4

A level of sociological analysis concerned with large scale structures like war and unemployment

Question 5

Microsociology

Answer 5

small scale units like small group and social interactions

Question 6

the study of the physical, biological, social and cultural development of humans

Answer 6

Anthropology

Question 7

Auguste Comte

Answer 7

“father of sociology”, coined the term sociology, best known for law of human progress, created concept that society is like an organism, social statics/social dynamics

Question 8

Law of Human Progress

Answer 8

Society has gone through three stages

1. Theological (priests and military hold political dominance, family is prototypical social unit)
2. Metaphysical (clergy and lawyers, state)
3. Scientific (scientific moral guides and industrial admins, whole human race)

Question 9

Social statics

Answer 9

Comte’s term for the stable structure of society

Question 10

Comte’s term for social progresses and change

Answer 10

Social dynamics

Question 11

Herbert Spencer

Answer 11

Believed that societies pass through an evolution process, his theories helped well educated and wealthy, he opposed public school, government non-interference

Question 12

Karl Marx

Answer 12

lower class = moral outrage, political revolution = vital for improvement of society, economics = dominant institution, social conflict, economic determinism, bourgeoisie, class-consciousness

Question 13

Social conflict

Answer 13

a view of Karl Marx that class struggle due to economic inequality is at the core of society

Question 14

Economic determinism

Answer 14

Marx’s idea that economic factors are responsible for most social change and for the nature of social conditions, activities and institutions

Question 15

The class of people who own the means of production

Answer 15

Bourgeoisie

Question 16

The group in capitalist societies that does not own the means of production has only labor to sell

Answer 16

Proletariat

Question 17

Awareness among members of society that the society is organized in hierarchical order

Answer 17

Class-consciousness

Question 18

Emile Durkheim

Answer 18

Suicide is a social phenomenon, social phenomenon have distinctive characteristics/determinants, collective consciousness, made sociology a legitimate academic enterprise, “social order”, empirical research

Question 19

Egoistic suicide

Answer 19

results from lack of social integration into meaningful groups

Question 20

Altruistic suicide

Answer 20

results from being overly integrated into a group and the group meaning takes on more importance than the individual. Ex: ISIS

Question 21

Anomic suicide

Answer 21

Results from sudden changes in society or in one’s life, disruption of patterns; ex: Great Depression

Question 22

Fatalistic suicide

Answer 22

results from oppressive social conditions that lead on to a fatal sense of hopelessness

Question 23

Max Weber

Answer 23

German sociologist who believed sociologists should not just study social structures and facts but social actions, considered structures, social divisions, social movements, Verstehen, iron cage of rationality

Question 24

Reliable and valid pieces of information about society

Answer 24

Social facts

Question 25

A collective psyche that results from the blending of many individual mentalities but exist above any one individual; ex: God exists in the beliefs of people

Answer 25

Collective conciousness

Question 26

Verstehen

Answer 26

Understanding human action by examining the subjective meaning that people attach to their own behavior and behavior of others

Question 27

Significant contributor to early development of sociology who was ignored by the male dominated field

Answer 27

Harriet Martineau

Question 28

Middle-range theory

Answer 28

A set of propositions designed to link abstract theory with empirical testing

Question 29

A set of logically and systematically interrelated propositions that explain a particular process phenomenon

Answer 29

Theory

Question 30

The theory that societies contain certain interdependent structures, each of which perform certain functions

Answer 30

Structural functionalism

Question 31

In structural functionalism theory, factors that lead to the disruption of breakdown of the social system

Answer 31

Dysfunctions

Question 32

Functional alternatives

Answer 32

Meeting functions of the system in ways other than initially intended. ex: providing alternatives for a child left alone (clubs, staying with a relative, etc.) = less chance of school violence

Question 33

Conflict Theory

Answer 33

A social theory that views conflict as inevitable and natural as a significant cause of change. When sociologists look for answers to conflict they look for inequalities

Question 34

Symbolic interaction theory

Answer 34

The social theory that stressing interactions between people and the social progress that occur within the individual that are made possible by language and internalized meaning; red traffic light = stop

Question 35

Exchange theory

Answer 35

A theory of interaction that attempts to explain social behavior in terms of reciprocity of costs and rewards

Question 36

Evolutionary theory

Answer 36

A theory of social development that suggests that societies, like biological organisms, progress through stages of increasing complexity

Question 37

A science that has human behavior, social organizations and society as its subject matter

Answer 37

Social science

Question 38

Responsible for concept of Sociological Imagination

Answer 38

C. Wright Mills

Question 39

Data derived from observation and experience

Answer 39

empirical evidence

Question 40

The Development of Sociology was inspired by...

Answer 40

Ideas produced during the Enlightenment (18th century), progress in physical/natural sciences, Industrial Revolution, expansion of colonialism

Question 41

Henri de St. Simon

Answer 41

Studied the scientific analysis of society as it pertained to social reform

Question 42

Mechanical Solidarity

Answer 42

Societies and groups held together by similarities

Question 43

Organic Solidarity

Answer 43

Societies and groups held together by interdependence

Question 44

False Consciousness

Answer 44

A belief that something is true even if it is not. ex: American Dream rags to riches stories

Question 45

Iron Cage of Rationality

Answer 45

Behavior becomes goal oriented (purposeful) rather than value oriented (emotional). Causes Bureaucracies to lose their "human element"

Question 46

Roots of Sociology in US

Answer 46

1892, University of Chicago - used to study urban development

Question 47

George Herbeat Mead

Answer 47

"The Chicago School", roots of social psychology

Question 48

Charles Horton Cooley

Answer 48

"The Chicago School", primary self

Question 49

Robert Park and Ernest Burgress

Answer 49

"The Chicago School", focus on social problems;urban sociology

Question 50

1st big shaper of sociology

Answer 50

Durkheim

Question 51

Key Contributors to Functionalism

Answer 51

Durkheim, Parsons, Merton

Question 52

Critique of Functionalism

Answer 52

An overly conservative view of social life, lacks sufficient critical component

Question 53

Key Contributors to Conflict Theory

Answer 53

Marx, Mills, Dahrendorf, Collins

Question 54

Criticisms of Conflict Theory

Answer 54

Too radical, overly critical, ignores cooperative aspects of society

Question 55

Key Figures of Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 55

Cooley, Mead, Blumer