Midetrm 1 Flashcards
(48 cards)
What is sociology?
Sociology is patterns, collective phenomenons
Faces are important to society
Interactions happen in patterned ways shaped by culture
What is a society?
Large scale human groups sharing territory and institutions
What are the three dimensions of social life?
Social Activities (material)
Cultural, social practices, how we make/do things,
Representations (immaterial)
How we name, represent, language
Social Meaning (immaterial)
Organization of social significance, defining what things mean to us
What is the sociological imagination?
The relationship between how we live through events and how they shape us, but also how we take part in society contributes
What is the difference between personal troubles and public issues?
When personal troubles affect other people, it becomes a public issue
What are value judgments?
One sided opinions about realities, not based on evidence, cohesive form of interrogation (bias, prejudice)
What are the three events that helped birth social sciences?
Modern Democracy
Scientific revolution/ enlightenment
Industrial revolution/ urbanisation
What is modern democracy and what was it’s impact?
Authority lies within the social body
→ Impact: we do not consider society the creation of god or god’s emissary (king). People are responsible for the creation of society
Social issues are perceived as stemming from social/natural causes (places responsibility on citizens)
What is scientific revolution and what was it’s impact?
Systematic ways to gain knowledge
Empirical evidence of sensory experience
→ Impact: this period advanced social values such as freedom, equality, opposition to absolute power
What is industrial revolution and what was it’s impact?
Industrialization brought about rapid change
Urban life changed dynamics of social relations
→ Impact:
Before: people lived in more rural areas which meant there were more traditions and social life was governed by these traditions (ex. Living on farm meant you were going to be a farmer)
BUT
Big cities provided new ways of doing things (new kinds of life), changes in social relations, breaking traditions
What are the three core aims of sociology?
Define general themes in everyday life (study of social life and culture, seeing general in the particular)
To critically determine/ question the familiarity (question patterns, question little things that we do in everyday interactions)
How individuals are shaped by society (how individuals shape society)
Who is Emile Durkheim?
Interested in considering society from a global perspective
Main concern: social integration and what holds society together
Wondered how people from worlds that were really different could work together (wanted to find links that created solidarity between these people)
Interested in finding palace within a social body
What was Durkheim’s study of suicide?
Argument: believed larger social structures shape individual experience (had a powerful influence, social forces have strong influence)
Used personal trouble (suicide) to back up
What are the types of suicide?
Egoistic
Altruistic
Anomic
Fatalistic
What is egoistic suicide?
bonds
Societies that have low social integration (social bonds are fragile, correlated to high levels of suicide)
What is altrusitic suicide?
bonds
Societies have excessively high social integration (extreme collective over individual mentality) (high interactions in the army)
What is anomic suicide?
norms
Societies that have little regulation
Loss of meaning and connection
Normlessness
Crisis situations where one takes one’s owen life because of lack of norms
(someone living in a war situation)
What is fatalistic suicide?
Society has excessive regulation (creates feeling of being stuck) (slavery)
The decision to die is based on structures of society
What is socialization?
“How do we become members of society and how does society reproduce itself through socialization?”
Lifelong process by which we learn about norms, customs, identity, sense of self
What is structual functionalism?
Places importance of society as a cohesive whole
Positive view of socialization
How society functions
Institutions and how they work together
Focuses on developing autonomy
Shaped by forces outside of the individual (institutions bigger than you)
Macro level
What is Conflict Theory?
Group of theories with conflict as the forefront
See how society and socialization is shaped by conflict (thinking more critically, asking questions)
Behaviour is a result of conflict
Socialization is not ideal or functional
Thinking about ideals
What is Symbolic Interactionism?
Micro sociological approach to socialization
How we form sense of self through social interactions in our everyday lives
Interactions and shared experiences are more important
Actively participate in socialization
Meanings rooted in environments that you grow up in/ from interactions with people
Meaning is relative and relational (you know things from a certain position)
Develop sense of self by gauging reactions of others
Self identification
What did Mead believe in?
Stages of role taking by children, “taking the role of other by imaging how others are seeing us”
What did Cooley believe in?
Sense of self is constructed from reactions of others
