Sociology

  1. What is Sociology?
    • -The scientific study of social behavior and human groups.
    • Influence of social relationships on individual attitudes and behavior.
    • Not based on opinion but data
  2. Sociological Imagination
    • -Developed by C. Wright Mills
    • An Awreness of the relationship between the individual and the wider society
    • An "outside" view
    • Beyond Personal to public
    • Personal experiences-Public Perspective
  3. August Comte
    • France
    • Coined Sociology
    • "positivism"
    • Established social principle and applied them to reform
    • Social static vs. Social Dynamic
  4. Social Static
    • That within a culture that doesnt change readily: family, education
    • takes time
  5. Social Dynamic
    • That within a culture changes quickly
    • Fashion, Technology
  6. Harriet Martineau
    • Society in America
    • Work based off assumptions and secondary documents, letters, books.
    • Comtes ideas to english and reduced to 2 volumes
    • Wealthy background allowed her to do the things she did
  7. Emile Durkheim
    Showing how social forces impact peoples behavior

    • Focus and thorough research
    • Suicide
    • Social factors underlie suicide
    • Social integration
    • The degree to which people are tied to their social group.
    • I.E.
    • Males are more likely to kill themselves because of their masculinity, need to sustain their families but cannot/ Wealthier males have more freedom and less connectedness.

    • Woman Are less likely to commit suicide because of their nurturing role associated with females.
  8. Anomie
    • Breaking down of the controlling influences of society
    • Children in the past listened to any adults in general. Today children only listen to their parents
  9. Karl Marx
    People need to be active in Changing society
    • Set framework for social conflict theory
    • Class conflict is the engine of human history: Economic Viability
    • Society divided into classes who clash in pursuit of their own class interest
    • Upperclass needs are very different than middle class
    • Group identificatioms and associations influence an individuals place in societyRelationships within the class affect position of the individual
  10. Praxis
    Take what you know and apply it
  11. Max Weber
    • Verstehen:Insight and understanding ones intellectual work.
    • Must understand peoples subjective meanings attached by themselves to their actions
    • How oneself views and explain their own actions
    • Very Complex
    • i.e.
    • Im such a bad mother the children are better off dead>> The animal is suffering so we should put it down.
    • Believed religion was the central force in change.
    • Ideal Type
    • Made up model that can be measured against actual cases. Can be evaluated
  12. W.E.B. DuBois
    • Made through many constraints
    • pushed away by society because of ethnicity
    • Founding member of NAACP
    • Worked under Max Weber
  13. Herbert Spencer
    • Very popular
    • Believed in social darwinism-
    • Overtime societies will improve-
    • coined term survival of the fittest
    • His theory was contradictive
    • I.e. America has advanced technology but a high infant mortality rate
    • Vegatative states allowed by technology-Fit society?-
    • Did not conduct scientific studies
  14. Structural Functionalism
    • MACRO SOCIAL
    • Society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability
    • Social structure-Relatively stable patterns of social behavior:i.e. standard behavior walking into class on the first day.
    • Useless ideals, values, thoughts, or practice are not passed down from gen. to gen.
    • Bad habits or things in which we have no idea why we are doing them may also get passed down
  15. Manifest Function
    Recognized and intended qonsequences of any social pattern- The transmission of knowledge at school.

  16. Latent Function
    Largely unrecognized or unintended consequence.-School provides free childcare in k-12. Higher education is the place for meeting oned marriage partner.
  17. Dysfunction
    undesirable consequence or disruption to social structure.-Crime, But criminal need crime as well as guards, parol officer etc(now crime is functional)
  18. Social Conflict theory
    • Some people benefit from things in society while other dont-(education) examine differences in individuals living in poorer communities to richer ones.
    • scarce resources-not everyone can have everything
    • society is viewded as an arena of inequality, generating conflict and change
    • interested in how societys institutions including family, government, religion, education and media may help to maintain the privleges of some groups and keep others in subservient positions- female siblings cannot stay out later than the same age male sibling because of sex.
  19. Feminist Perspective
    • Inequity in gender is central to all behavior and organization.
    • Allied with conflict theory but tends to focus on relationships of everyday lif like interactionist
    • analysis beyond the male point of view
  20. Symbolic Interactionist
    MICRO SOCIAL
    • Interactons with other humans have a behavioral impact collectively on society
    • Subtle messages influence long term
    • Humans live in a world of meanigful objects-wedding ring is a symbol of current marriage, while not wearing it is a symbol of dissolved marriage.

    • -running into a burning building is mal adaptive behavior but the reasons we do it are personal and usually meaningful to the individual
  21. What is culture?
    • Subjective Culture:Beliefs,Values,Behavior that together, form a peoples way of life.Harder to change than material/physical culture.
    • Material Culture:physical or technological aspects of our daily lives
    • American culture is more subjected to adopt a more physical culture rather than subjective.
  22. Cultural Universasls
    General practices found in every culture:Family arrangement, kinship, food, sex taboos, recreation.
  23. Cultural Diffusion
    • process by which a group cultural item spreads from group to group.
    • More powerful culture takes over smaller culture beliefs and materials are diffused from larger to smaller
  24. What is the purpose of culture?
    • Major mode of adaptation.
    • Limits on behavior and guides us along predictable paths.
    • becomes internalized-DOXA:umbrella when it rains, parties for birthday
    • Used to survive
  25. Characteristics of culture
    • •Culture is shared
    • –uniquely
    • •Culture is learned
    • Culture begins in utero
    • Use culture to modify certain characteristics of everything
    • •Culture is based on symbols•Culture is integrated –Cannot change one element without impacting another
  26. Values
    – culturally defined standards which serve as broad guideline for social living (can be in conflict: war and peace)
  27. High culture
    – cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite-going to an opera, elite society
  28. •Popular culture
    – cultural patterns that are widespread among a society’s population-mainstream
  29. •Subcultures
    – cultural patterns that distinguish some segment of a society’s population
  30. Counterculture
    – cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted in society
  31. Ethnocentrism
    • – the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture
    • -culture relativism deals with problem of
    • i.e. my moms better than your mom
  32. Cultural relativism
    – the practice of judging a culture by its own standards
  33. Socialization
    • Lifelong social experiences by which individuals develop their human potential and learn culture
    • group
  34. Sigmund Freud’s Personality Model
    • Id – the human being’s basic drives-solely based on individual needs. me, me, me<<decisions based off
    • Ego – a person’s conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society
    • Superego – the operation of culture within the individual-what should i do/decisions based on needs of society
  35. Jean Piaget – Stages of Cognitive Development
    • 1st stage – sensorimotor – level of human development in which individuals experience the world only through sensory contact:tactile,taste,-sense-Brain catalouges sensory interactions during early childhood
    • 2nd stage – preoperational – individuals first use language and other symbols
    • Stage 3 – concrete operational – individuals first perceive causal connections in their surroundings:7-12yrs if i do this, this will happen
    • relationships
    • limits of things
    • Stage 4 – formal operational – individuals think abstractly and critically-more precise thoughts like i want to make money instead of i want to be a teacher.
  36. George Herbert Mead
    • 1st stage – Preparatory stage – children imitate people around them(must have developmental milestone to move into next stage-recognition of self>>paint on babies face realization)
    • 2nd stage – Play stage- role taking – mentally assuming the perspective of another(key time fordevelopment of empathy : developed socially)
    • 3rd stage – Game stage- can consider tasks and relationships simultaneously understanding tasks and roles involved with sports:>>players roles switch depending on posession
  37. Erik Erikson
    • 8 stages of development
    • Stage 1 – Infancy – trust vs. distrust
    • Stage 2 - Toddlerhood – autonomy vs. doubt and shame
    • Stage 3 – Preschool – Initiative vs. guilt
    • Stage 4 – Pre-Adolescence – industriousness vs. inferiority
    • Stage 5 – Adolescence – identity vs. confusion
    • Stage 6 – Young Adulthood – Intimacy vs. isolation
    • Stage 7 – Middle Adulthood – Making a difference vs. Self-absorption
    • Stage 8 – Old Age – integrity vs. despair
  38. Charles Horton Cooley
    • Looking glass self – we learn who we are by interacting with others
    • Imagine how we are presenting ourselves
    • Imagine how people are evaluating us
    • Form opinions about ourselves based on our perceptions
  39. Agents of Socialization
    • Family – the most important agent of socialization:No suitable substitute for parents in society
    • Peer groups
    • School
    • media
  40. Forced Socialization
    • Anticipatory socialization – social learning geared toward gaining a desired position
    • Resocialization – altering personality through deliberate control of the environment
    • Total Institution – all aspects of a person’s life are under one authority
  41. Personality
    – a person’s fairly consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting
  42. Self
    – a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self-awareness and self-image-towards the group
  43. Beliefs
    - specific statements which people hold to be true
  44. Norms –
    rules and expectations by which society guides the behavior of its members •–Formal -laws, gov.–Mores – norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance •informal-personal ettiquette, picking nose/Folkways – norms for routine, casual interaction
  45. –Cultural transmission –
    passing of cultural traits from one generation to the next Cultural Transmission passed from parents to children-watching sports, dress, food
  46. •Cultural integration
    – close relationship among various elements of a cultural system :school systems intertwine with politics, family life etc
  47. •Cultural lag –
    period of maladjustment when on element of culture changes and disrupts a system:(material)•
  48. –Innovation –
    introducing a new idea or object
  49. »Invention –
    creating new elements tht change society usually technology phines cars
  50. »Discovery –
    understanding an idea not fully understood before
  51. –Symbol –
    anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share culture:to understand how people percieve situations most understand smbols.
  52. –Language –
    a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with each other •Language is our most important symbolic system •Ensures the continuity of culture
  53. •Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis –
    people perceive the world through the cultural lens of language. -The amount of words for technology and money the lack of words for kinship in the english lang.
Author
aivans22
ID
69754
Card Set
Sociology
Description
Exam 1
Updated