SOC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Forces, Sociological Theory, Georg Simmel

• School: University of Miami
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 101
• Professor: La Torre Aurelie

Document Summary

Two common characteristics of social sciences common interest for social behaviors and human beings studying the behavior of other human beings. Social science vs. natural science social science tend to be less objective, Soft , researches and research are both humans, more value judgements coming into play. 3 levels of social context: broad, narrow, intimate: broad: historical events such as a war, narrow: social location. Where you are located as an individual within a society: age, ethnicity, religion, economic status, gender, geographical aspect: country, state, city, neighborhood, shapes what are how you think, what you do. Exposed to certain social differences that make you act the way you do: intimate: relationships with your family/friends/co workers. Sociologists are able to make predictions about groups of people but not for a unique individual: sociologists can identify possible social policies, sociologists can evaluate likely consequences of social policies, the value of sociology (according to peter berger)