SOC 110 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: The Sociological Imagination, Jane Addams, The Communist Manifesto
Chapter 1/3: Sociological Perspectives/Research
Sociology= Study of human behavior in society; a scientific way to think about society and its
influence; includes study of social interaction and social change
– All human behavior occurs in a social context (institutions and culture)
– Human behavior, even when seemingly ‘natural’ is shaped by social structure
Key Sociological Concepts:
– Social Interaction= Behavior between two or more people that is given meaning.
Through social interaction, people react and change, depending on the actions and
reactions of others.
– Social Structure= The organized pattern of social relationships and social institutions
that together constitute society.
o largely conditioned by one’s location in society
– Social Institutions= Established and organized systems of social behavior with a
particular and recognized purpose
o Family, religion, marriage, government, the economy
– Social Change= The alteration of society over time.
o Society is not fixed
o Humans are not passive recipients of social expectations
Social Location= A person’s place in society establishes the limits and possibilities of life.
The Sociological Perspective= The ability to see social patterns that influence individual and
group life.
– C. Wright Mills:
o Wrote about sociological perspective in his book The Sociological
Imagination
o Task of sociology= to understand the relationship between individuals and the
society in which they live
o Sociological Imagination= the ability to see the societal patterns that influence
the individual as well as groups of individuals
o The Sociological Imagination distinguishes between troubles and issues
▪ Troubles= privately felt problems that spring from events or feelings
in a person’s life
▪ Issues= affect large numbers of people and have their origins in the
institutional arrangements and history of society (issues shape the
context in which personal troubles arise)
Sociology= Empirical
– Requires that conclusions be based on systematic observations, not assumptions
o Must be gathered and recorded rigorously
Inconvenient Facts= facts we learn through research that can challenge familiar ways of thinking
Debunking=
– Studying patterns and processes that shape behavior they observe in the social world
– Questioning actions and ideas that are usually taken for granted
– Acting as an ‘outsider within’
– Easier to do when looking at a culture or society different from one’s own
o Behaviors that are unquestioned in one society may seem bizarre to an
outsider (cultural practices)
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Diversity= the variety of group experiences that result from the social structure of society.
– Includes:
o Studying group differences in society’s opportunities
o The shaping of social institutions by different social factors
o The formation of group and individual identity
o The process of social change
Globalization= brings diverse cultures together, but it is also a process by which Western
markets have penetrated much of the world
Sociology and the Enlightenment:
– 18th/19th century enlightenment in Europe had a huge influence on the development of
Sociology
– characterized by human reason to solve societal problems
– Believed there were natural laws in society to be discovered/used for general good
August Comte:
– French Philosopher – coined term Sociology
o Believed Sociology could discover the laws of human social behavior and
help solve society’s problems
o Positivism= a system of thought in which scientific observation is considered
highest form of knowledge
Alexis de Tocqueville:
– Thought democratic values positively influenced American institutions/transformed
personal relationships
– Found a big emphasis on individualism but had little independence of mind, making
them self-centered and anxious
Classical Sociological Theory:
Emile Durkheim:
– Fist sociologist
– Established significance of society as something larger than sum of its parts
– Conceptualized social facts as social patterns external to individuals
– Discovered the social basis of human behavior
– The Rules of Sociological Method
Karl Marx
– His writings on capitalism as an economic system with implications for how society
is organized
o In particular how inequality between groups stems from economic
organization of society
– Explained how capitalism shaped society
– At this time, it was all about competition (the surplus value)
– The Communist Manifesto
Max Weber:
– Interpreted the economic, cultural, and political organization of society as shaping
social institutions and social change
– Society has 3 dimensions:
o Political
o Economic
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o Cultural
– To understand social behavior one had to understand the meaning that behavior had
for social actors
– The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Organic Metaphor:
– Early sociologists conceived society as an organism (a system of interrelated
functions that work together to make a whole)
o Constantly evolving
Charles Darwin:
– Identified process of evolution (survival of the fittest)
– Social Darwinists say that society= organism that evolves in process of adaptation to
environment
– Evolution always led to perfection
The Chicago School:
– Focused on going out into societies and measuring behavior
– Society= its own human laboratory
o Could observe/understand human behavior to be better able to address human
needs
Robert Park:
– Interested in race relations
– Noted that cities were concentric circles
o very rich/very poor lived in middle, ringed by slums/low income
neighborhoods
Jane Addams:
– Only sociologist to win the Nobel Peace Prize
– Settlement House Movement= provided social services to groups in need as well as a
social laboratory to observe problems (rec centers – like YMCA)
W.E.B DuBois:
– One of the first sociologists to use community studies as basis for sociological work
– Significant analysis of race in the U.S.
The Functionalist Perspective:
– Originates from Durkheim (macro-level)
– Emphasizes the way society is structured to maintain stability
– Consensus and order important for society
– Disorganization= impetus for change
Theorists of Functionalism:
– Talcott Parsons
o All parts of a social system are interrelated/serve a function
– Robert Merton
o Manifest functions (shows itself)
o Latent Functions (underlying function)
The Conflict Perspective:
– Originates in the work of Marx
– Macro-level perspective
– Focused on coercion and power in producing social order
– Groups are fragmented – struggling over power
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Document Summary
Sociology= study of human behavior in society; a scientific way to think about society and its influence; includes study of social interaction and social change. All human behavior occurs in a social context (institutions and culture) Human behavior, even when seemingly natural" is shaped by social structure. Social interaction= behavior between two or more people that is given meaning. Through social interaction, people react and change, depending on the actions and reactions of others. Social structure= the organized pattern of social relationships and social institutions that together constitute society. largely conditioned by one"s location in society. Social institutions= established and organized systems of social behavior with a particular and recognized purpose. Social change= the alteration of society over time: society is not fixed, humans are not passive recipients of social expectations. Social location= a person"s place in society establishes the limits and possibilities of life. The sociological perspective= the ability to see social patterns that influence individual and group life.
