Transcript Beginnings of Sociology

Sociological Viewpoint
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The Beginnings of Sociology
Sociological Perspectives
The Origins of Sociology
Sociological Theory
Current Perspectives
Sociology’s Purpose
This course will lend you the ability to
understand and apply knowledge about
our social world as well as visualize how
a scientific approach can be used to
study social issues.
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Seeing the Strange in the Familiar
Emile Durkheim’s study of suicide in the late 1890’s
found the following more likely to commit suicide:
Why?
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Men
Protestants
The wealthy
The unmarried
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Sociology’s Purpose
What social institutions are Americans between the
ages of 14-18 a part of?
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Sociological Perspective
• Sociology views society from the viewpoint of an
observer, Focusing on social interaction and
social phenomena.
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Sociological Perspective
• This perspective gives a person the ability to see the
invisible workings of society.
• Instead of wondering why somebody did something
YOU can understand the what invisible forces
pushed them.
• It also exposes the judgments we all succumb to. As
Americans: Is the way we “live”
– Better?
– The right way?
– More civilized?
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Sociological Perspective
Why are white people more likely to
graduate from college?
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Sociological Imagination
When you develop this perspective you at the same
time develop a Sociological Imagination.
“ The ability to see the connection between the larger
world and your own life.”
Nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps.
They sense that within their everyday worlds, they cannot overcome
their troubles, and in this feeling, they are often quite correct: What
ordinary men are directly aware of and what they try to do are
bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their visions and their
powers are limited to the close-up scenes of job, family, neighborhood;
in other milieux, they move vicariously and remain spectators. And the
more aware they become, however vaguely, of ambitions and of
threats which transcend their immediate locales, the more trapped
they seem to feel.
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Underlying this sense of being trapped are seemingly impersonal
changes in the very structure of continent-wide societies. The facts of
contemporary history are also facts about the success and the failure of
individual men and women. When a society is industrialized, a peasant
becomes a worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or becomes a
businessman. When classes rise or fall, a man is employed or
unemployed; when the rate of investment goes up or down, a man
takes new heart or goes broke. When wars happen, an insurance
salesman becomes a rocket launcher; a store clerk, a radar man; a wife
lives alone; a child grows up without a father. Neither the life of an
individual nor the history of a society can be understood without
understanding both.
Yet men do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of
historical change and institutional contradiction. The well-being they
enjoy, they do not usually impute to the big ups and downs of the
societies in which they live. Seldom aware of the intricate connection
between the patterns of their own lives and the course of world history,
ordinary men do not usually know what this connection means for the
kinds of men they are becoming and for the kinds of history-making in
which they might take part. They do not possess the quality of mind
essential to grasp the interplay of man and society, of biography and
history, of self and world. They cannot cope with their personal troubles
in such ways as to control the structural transformations that usually lie
behind them.
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The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the
larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the
external career of a variety of individuals. It enables him to take into
account how individuals, in the welter of their daily experience, often
become falsely conscious of their social positions. Within that welter, the
framework of modern society is sought, and within that framework the
psychologies of a variety of men and women are formulated. By such
means the personal uneasiness of individuals is focused upon explicit
troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement
with public issues.
Excepts from C.Wright Mills: The Sociological Imagination published 1959
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Sociological Imagination
• Take the issue of race relations:
How does is race viewed at the societal
level in the U.S., and how do you view
race from your situation?
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Consider marriage. Inside a marriage a man and a woman may
experience personal troubles, but when the divorce rate during
the first four years of marriage is 250 out of every 1,000
attempts, this is an indication of a structural issue having to do
with the institutions of marriage and the family and other
institutions that bear upon them...
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As A Science
Science: a body of systematically
arranged knowledge that shows the
operation of general laws.
carried out by the ….
Scientific Method: a process by which a
body of scientific knowledge is built
through observation, experimentation,
generalization, and verification.
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Science As A Method
Empiricism: the view that generalizations are
valid only if they rely on evidence that can be
observed directly or verified through our
senses.
• Sociology would more likely study divorce
rates instead of personal reasons for divorce
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Social Sciences
• Sociology is one of a hand full of social
sciences: academic disciplines that
apply scientific methods to studying
human behavior.
• However, instead of focusing on physical
properties it attempts to understand people
through theory. This makes soc. And the
social sciences; “soft sciences”.
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Social Sciences
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Other social sciences include:
1. Anthropology: Which focuses on past
cultures or the origin of culture.
2. Economics: Focuses on economic
factors such as the production and
consumption by people.
3. Political Science: Studies the
organization of governments and the
basis of politics.
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Social Sciences
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Other social sciences include:
4. History: Sets it sights on the study of past events.
5. Education: studies pedagogy: the science of
understanding how people learn.
closely related but significantly different are…
Behavioral Sciences
1. Psychology: looks to study and understand the
behaviors, thought processes, and cognitive
abilities of individuals.
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Development
The Beginnings of Sociology:
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Sociology as a field developed in the late 18th
century/early 19th century.
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Rapid change because of the
Industrial Revolution led to the study
of social conditions
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Growth of cities
Declining power of the church
Growth of manufacturing
Growth of urban and transient populations.
Development of never before seen urban
issues and problems.
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Development
…also people are starting to question
their rulers and forms of
government….
1. American Revolution…
2. French Revolution…
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Early Sociologists
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Early sociology grew in France,
Germany, and England and produced
numerous sociologists.
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Auguste Comte:
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Considered Founder of Sociology
Focused on –social order and social change
Cited “social statics” –processes that keep
society together ex: marriage
“social dynamics”- social processes
that cause change-ex: education
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Early Sociologists
1. Herbert Spencer:
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Influenced by Charles Darwin
Society is a set of parts that work together
to form something bigger
That it is natural for societies to change
even violently
View was coined “Survival of the Fittest”
and became known as Social Darwinism
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Early Sociologists
1. Karl Marx:
• Believed society is influenced by its
economy.
• Society is divided into (2) classes- the
proletariat (workers)-the bourgeoisie
(capitalists)
• The imbalance between the two always
lead to conflict.
• Society would eventually lead into a
classless society.
• Conflict is the primary cause of social
change.
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Early Sociologists
1. Emile Durkheim:
• First sociologist to apply scientific
methods to the study of society.
• Saw society as a set of parts that make
up a larger system.
• Everything in society has a function.
• Renowned for his study of suicide.
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Early Sociologists
1. Max Weber:
• Interested in separate groups within
society.
• Focused on how society effects the
individual.
• Applied the process of Verstehen (the
meanings people give to their actions)
• Employed the concept of ideal type
( the examination of a particular
element of society ex: schools)
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A theory; possible
explanations of
why certain factors
in society influence
each other.
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Theoretical Perspectives
…the perspectives of sociology are based on
many theories.
• A theory; possible explanations of why certain
factors in society influence each other.
• Theories are outlined by paradigms; or frameworks
for questions to be answered
• The theoretical perspectives take these theories
and their frameworks and attempt to apply them
to social life.
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Structural-Functional Approach
• Looks at society as a set of interrelated parts
that work together to produce a stable social
system; focus on functions and dysfunctions
• This understanding presumes that most
people agree on what is best for society
and work towards achieving it. Ex: work
(almost all people work in diff. jobs which
ensures that society functions smoothly.)
… think of human society as a great machine with each
person and component of society as a gear moving
with each other
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TIMEOUT...think of Pink Floyd's timeless
musical hits
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Functionalism
• As with anything some things do not function
properly: Dysfunctions: elements of society
that have a negative effect.
• Some functions are Manifest: or intended
• Some functions are Latent: or unintended
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Social-Conflict Perspective
• Focuses on the elements of society that
promote competition and change
• Interest lies in the conflicts that arise for
the struggle for power; Which can
include
- violent riots
- Wars
- the “war” of the sexes or the struggle
between worker and owner.
- Conflict between minority and majority 40
Conflict Perspectives
• The basis lies in the theory that resources
such as power and money are limited so
there is always a struggle for it
• Those who agree with this perspective
agree that conflict and change are
inevitable amongst societies.
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Conflict Perspectives
Educational Examples:
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Vocational Schools & Courses v. College Preparatory Schools
& Courses
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Inner City Schools v. Suburban Schools
v.
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Abbott v. Burke
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(1990)The NJ Supreme Court
rules in Abbott v. Burke
(Abbott II) that inadequate and
unequal
funding
denies
students in urban districts a
thorough and efficient education
and requires the State to
equalize
funding
between
suburban and urban districts for
regular education and to provide
extra
or
"supplemental"
programs
to
"wipe
out
disadvantages as much as a
school district can."
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Symbolic-Interaction Perspective
• This perspective narrows its sight on how people
interact with one another, and how and why people
commit certain actions; in other words how do people
make sense of and navigate their social world?
• The cornerstone of this outlook is understanding that
the components, systems, and facets of society are
developed, maintained and changed by the
interaction of people.
• This approach takes a narrowed micro-level
viewpoint towards society.
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Symbolic-Interaction Perspective
That is, human beings live in a world of
symbols, attaching meaning to virtually
everything, from the words on this page
to the wink of an eye. “Reality”,
therefore, is simply how we define our
surroundings, our obligations toward
others, and even our own identities.
P. 17 Sociology
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Interactionist Perspective
• All of the things we surround our lives with
are symbols:
Ex: Cars, clothes, jewelry, tattoos, flags,
business suits, combed hair: are all
symbols that say something about us to
others.
…to study all of these components the
interactionist perspective many different
approaches
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Interactionist Perspective
1. Ethnomethodology: the study of how people
create and share their understandings of
social life.
2. Dramaturgical: the study of social life as if it
was a theater.
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Symbolic Interactionism
…all of these sub-categories of the interactionist
approach focus on….
Definition: Concerned with the meanings that
people place on their own and one another’s
behavior.
• a PVHS senior giving directions to a freshman
• a teacher giving a student the bathroom pass
• the principal signing a form giving consent for a
teacher to take a day off
• a policeman waiving a motorist past an accident
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….Next Up…..
• What methods does sociology employ
to study and research people and
society?
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