Intro, History, and Theories

Question 1

What is sociology?

Answer 1

• study of society and social interaction
• a multi-perspectival science (many perspectives/paradigms)
• key insight: being in a group changes your behaviour
• sociologists study all aspects and levels of society

Question 2

social interaction

Answer 2

anything involving at least 2 people (even in the seclusion of one’s mind)

Question 3

society

Answer 3

• a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture
• society is not an object, and is not independent of the individual

Question 4

culture

Answer 4

group’s shared practices, values, beliefs, norms, and artifacts

Question 5

micro-level analysis

Answer 5

focuses on social dynamics of intimate, face-to-face interactions (ex. between family, co-workers, etc.)

Question 6

4 levels of analysis

Answer 6

• micro (primary)
• meso
• macro (primary)
• global

Question 7

macro-level analysis

Answer 7

focuses on large-scale, society-wide interactions (ex. institutions, classes, societies)

Question 8

Sociological imagination

Answer 8

• Proposed by C. Wright Mills

- the ability to see your private troubles in the context of the broad social processes that contain them

Question 9

early history of sociology

Answer 9

• Ancient Greeks provided foundation
• 13th century Chinese historians recognized the importance of social dynamics
• Sociology established as a discipline in the 19th century (due in part to development of modern science)

Question 10

Rationalism vs. empiricism

Answer 10

• rationalism: using the truth of reasoning and ideas

- empiricism: making careful, methodical, detailed observations of the world

Question 11

important people in the history of sociology

Answer 11

• August Comte
• Karl Marx
• Harriet Martineau
• Emile Durkheim
• Max Weber
• Georg Simmel

Question 12

August Comte

Answer 12

• “father of sociology”

- created positivism: scientific study of social patterns

Question 13

Karl Marx

Answer 13

• critically analyzed capitalism
• saw material and economic basis of inequality as a cause of social instability and conflict
• believed that sociology (or historical materialism) should be a “ruthless critique of everything existing”
• created framework for critical sociology -> rigorously analyzing society in order to change it

Question 14

capitalism

Answer 14

• economic system characterized by private ownership of goods and the means to produce them
• inherently unstable

Question 15

why is capitalism unstable?

Answer 15

• need to expand markets and create cheap products -> reduce cost of production -> downward pressure on wages -> failure of businesses, economic crises and recessions, etc.
• yet the capitalists rely on worker’s labour to produce wealth -> injustice may eventually lead to its destruction

Question 16

Harriet Martineau

Answer 16

• first female sociologist
• focused on social reform movements, added women’s perspective to sociology
• recognized that researcher/subject relationship needed to be different in social sciences vs. hard sciences (ex. impartiality, critique, sympathy)

Question 17

Emile Durkheim

Answer 17

• helped establish sociology as an academic discpline by establishing the first department of sociology at a university
• represented the sociologist as a doctor -> healthy societies were stable, unhealthy ones experienced a breakdown and needed social remedy
• saw religion as something that functioned to unify society
• key figure in development of positivist sociology

Question 18

anomie

Answer 18

state of normlessness (no clear direction and purpose to individual action)

Question 19

Max Weber

Answer 19

• noted that business leaders and owners of capital were Protestant
• focused on development of the “Protestant work ethic”: duty to work hard
• argued that Western society developed due to rationalism
• introduced concept of “verstehen”: understanding in a deep way (ex. an outsider understanding another culture from an insider’s POV)
• founded interpretive sociology

Question 20

interpretive sociology

Answer 20

finding systematic means to interpret and describe meanings behind social processes, cultural norms, and societal values

Question 21

Georg Simmel

Answer 21

• wanted to know how society is possible
• developed formal sociology (sociology of social forms)
• proposed “tragedy of culture”: social forms like interactions, art, music, etc. tend to detach themselves from lived experiences, and humans have a limited ability to understand them

Question 22

theory

Answer 22

a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and create testable propositions about society

Question 23

paradigms

Answer 23

frameworks used to formulate theories, generalizations, and research performed in support of them

Question 24

3 types of sociological knowledge

Answer 24

• positivist sociology
• interpretive sociology
• critical sociology

Question 25

4 paradigms of sociological thinking

Answer 25

- structural functionalism - critical sociology - feminism - symbolic interaction

Question 26

positivist sociology

Answer 26

- emphasizes empirical observation and measurement; values neutrality and objectivity - forms: quantitive sociology and functionalism

Question 27

quantitive sociology

Answer 27

uses statistical methods and surveys with large numbers of participants

Question 28

structural functionalism

Answer 28

- describing sociology in terms of objective social facts -> how each party of society functions to create a whole - macro-level

Question 29

mechanical solidarity vs. organic solidarity vs. dynamic equilibrium

Answer 29

- mech solidarity: shared collective consciousness with harsh punishment for deviation from norms - org solidarity: complex system of interrelated parts working together to maintain stability - dynamic equilibrium: stable state; combination of mech and org solidarity

Question 30

AGIL

Answer 30

- Adaptation (adapting to environment) - Goal attainment - Integration (achieving social cohesion) - Latent pattern maintenance (maintaining cultural patterns and belief systems)

Question 31

manifest functions vs. latent functions

Answer 31

- manifest: consequences of sought-after actions (ex. manifest function of going to college = getting degree) - latent: consequences that aren't sought-after (ex. college = making friends)

Question 32

dysfunctions

Answer 32

social processes with undesirable consequences (ex. getting bad grades)

Question 33

symbolic interactionism

Answer 33

- one-to-one interactions and communications -> exchange of meaning through language and symbols - micro-level

Question 34

critical sociology

Answer 34

- how inequalities contribute to social differences of power and perpetuate them - using liberation and social change to achieve social justice - macro level - ex. feminism, historical materialism

Question 35

interpretive perspective

Answer 35

understanding or interpreting human activity in terms of the meanings that humans attribute to it

Question 36

historical materialism

Answer 36

how our everyday lives are structured by relations between power and economic processes

Question 37

mode of production

Answer 37

the way human societies use resources in order to meet their needs

Question 38

feminist sociology

Answer 38

focuses on power relationships and inequalities between women and men

Question 39

why study sociology?

Answer 39

- learn how to think critically about social issues - prepares you for careers in a diverse society - helps make informed decisions about social issues