CAS BI 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Integration, Protestantism, Social Group
22 May 2018
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Define “theory” and its uses:
- Theory = way of thinking to explain a phenomenon
Sociological Imagination (Mills 1959)
- Human lives are the intersection of “biography” and “history”.
- Some sociology problems occur in pattern, where there are groups of people that
are affected by a structural component.
- Identification of the “big picture” instead of the “individual” components is the main point
of sociological imagination
- Ex. How today’s class would be different today compared to the last 5 years?
- The idea of white men instead of diverse pop is due to structural
component
- “An ind. Can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate by only locating
himself within his period.”
- Meaning:
Importance of social norms:
- Humans are socialized to behave in accordance with informal rules that guide behavior
- Even in the absence of direct punishment, we generally know what the “rules for life” are.
- The “rules” may vary by gender, age, social class, religion, national origin, and so on...
Social group memberships matter:
- Our social categories are not deterministic (race, gender do not determine obstacles),
however they do expose us to different opportunities and obstacles
- Being with the majority has its advantage compared to being in a minority group.
- Sociologists make note that social structures and institutions also shape our lives,
preferences, attitudes, etc.
Why did the students commit suicide?
- Hypothetical theory: New stressful situations/structure that affect the student’s
confidence or self/ social pressures to become a better of themselves/ high schools do
not fully prepare students for the isolation in college
Durkheim's Suicide (1897) study:
- Discovered that the suicide rates in Europe in the late 19th century were highly
patterned; suicide was not a random occurrence:
- Unmarried > married: unmarried where more likely to die
- Having an SO would provide support and feeling of being part of a
community
- Childless > parents: childless more likely to kill themselves
- Having a child = feeling of living for something
- Protestants > Catholics: protestants were more likely to kill themselves
- Social integration, in which one religion was more popular than the other
because of the connectedness (protestant = pray to God = individuality
vs. Catholic = praying through a saint = coming together with the
community)
- The use of data via death certificates depicting when/where/how they died
Document Summary
Theory = way of thinking to explain a phenomenon. Human lives are the intersection of biography and history . Some sociology problems occur in pattern, where there are groups of people that are affected by a structural component. Identification of the big picture instead of the individual components is the main point of sociological imagination. The idea of white men instead of diverse pop is due to structural component. Can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate by only locating himself within his period. Humans are socialized to behave in accordance with informal rules that guide behavior. Even in the absence of direct punishment, we generally know what the rules for life are. The rules may vary by gender, age, social class, religion, national origin, and so on Our social categories are not deterministic (race, gender do not determine obstacles), however they do expose us to different opportunities and obstacles.
