SY 1001:03 Study Guide - Final Guide: George Herbert Mead, Auguste Comte, Complex Number
Conflict Theory
Functionalism
Symbolic Interactionalism
Social Imagination -
Charles Wright Mills
Auguste Comte coined the term
Sociology.
- Philosopher proponent of
Positivism
- he advocated for the scientific
method: objective, logical, and
systematic.
- he proposed the study of social
statistics (existing structural
elements) and social dynamics
(changes in those elements)
Harriet Matineau
- born in England and later
travelled to the US.
- an early feminist
- inspired by Auguste Comte’s
positivism
- translated and condensed
Comte’s Positive Philosophy
- an advocate for anti-slavery
campaigns
- wanted to improve the status
that women had in society
- was one of the first sociologists
that examined the role that
women played in society, and she
coined the term ‘domestic state’
Herbert Spencer
- Societies evolve from simple to
complex in which “the individual
parts, while becoming more
Macro-orientated
1. Life chances
2. Scarcity of resources
3. Power relations
4. Distributions of wealth
- focuses on inequalities in society
- Claims that wealthy elites have
move power and money and want
to keep it
- accordingly, elites determine
social norms, rules, and laws.
Overall – examines why some
groups have less than others.
(race, class, gender, environment)
Karl Marx – Father of Conflict
Theory
- believes that capitalism corrupted
human nature
- states that in a capitalist system
the members of the bourgeoisie
(capitalist class) are the owners of
the wealth, thus, they benefit from
the exploitation of the proletariat
(members of the working class); this
creates conflict.
- believes in Social revolution (his
ideas are the basis of Socialism and
Communism)
- was interested in the changes
caused by the Industrial Revolution
- believes that “people must first be
able to supply themselves with food
Macro-orientated
1. Society – Organic analogy
2. Solidarity
- Durkeim
- holds society together, people see
themselves unified by a collective
consciousness
- Mechanical solidarity
Community bonding though shared
beliefs, values, goals, etc
- Organic solidarity
Within a society there is a diverse
division of labour, which forces people
to depend on one-another.
e.g. farmers, truck drivers, and grocers
are all part of the complex division of
labour that enables people in the
West to eat.
3. Social Institutions
- formal organisations that address
public needs such as education, health
care, government, and welfare.
4. Value consensus
- They believe that value consensus
forms the basic integrating principle in
society. And if members of society
have shared values they therefore
also have similar identities, this helps
cooperation and avoids conflict. Value
consensus also ensures that people
have shared: – Goals, Roles and
Norms.
6. Social norms
can be described as specific guidelines
Micro-orientated
1. Construction of
meaning/symbols
2. construction of self
3. agency
4. negation of roles
- focuses on how communication
influences the way people’s
interactions with each other create the
social world in which they are
immersed
Symbolic interactionists aske these
questions
How does social interaction influence,
create, and sustain human
relationships?
Do people change behaviour from one
setting to another, and if so, why?
George Herbert Mead – considered
the founder of Interactionalism
His book “Mind, Self and Society”
introduced the Symbolic Interactionist
Theory
- believes that the root of society is
the symbols that teach us how to
apprehend the world. These symbols
help us to develop a sense of self, the
self is an individual’s identity
- suggests that we learn to interpret
symbols through our daily interactions.
- maintains that may symbols enter
our minds, their meaning is
Conflict Theory
Functionalism
Symbolic Interactionalism
autonomous and specialised,
nevertheless come increasingly to
depend on each other”/
- coined the term “Survival of the
fittest” : Social Darwinism
Michel Foucault – Post
Structuralist Theory
- focused on issues that are of
much interest to sociologists –
- madness, medicine, knowledge,
punishment, institutions and
sexuality
- much of his work focused on
issues of power, yet this develops
in opposition to Marxist conflict
theory.
- power isn’t about class and
economic relations, but rather
‘localised and fragmented’ and so
an emphasis on everyday
practices is needed if power
relationships are to be
transformed.
- power and knowledge must be
considered together
- prisons function as ‘criminal
factories’
Raewyn (formerly R.W) Connell
Recognised as being one of the
most important contributors to
sociological in Australia.
- analysis of class relations in
Australia
- book “Ruling Cass, Ruling
Culture” (1977)
and drink, and clothing and
habitation”.
- adds that ‘any analysis of history
must first begin by studying the
production of the means to satisfy
these needs’.
Marx sees religion as the “sigh of
the oppressed creature, the
sentiments of a heartless world and
the soul of soulless conditions. It is
the opium of the people” (in
Bottomore & Bubel, 1963)
Questions
How are wealth and power
distributed?
How do people with wealth and
power keep them?
How are society’s resources
distributed
Marx and Social Class
- capitalism creates inequality
- the wealthy elites oppressed the
masses
- Developed the term – ‘mode of
production’ to refer to the way in
which a society produces wealth.
- includes the means of production,
technological knowledge, and social
relations between groups
- He believed that powerful elites
produced and acquire wealth
through exploitation
- claims that inequality is the result
of a surplus of wealth which goes
far beyond what the members need
of appropriate behaviour; for
example, queuing when buying things.
* Studies the impact that social
structures have on society and how
they affect society’s function
Society is seen as a system of
interrelated parts. These parts work
together to make a society function
harmoniously
Functionalists claim that changes in
one area of society will be reflected in
different areas.
Society, thus, benefits from a state of
equilibrium.
Emile Durkeim (a French sociologist,
and taught at the Uni of Bordeaux. He
shared some of Comte’s views.
– social facts
Which refer to society’s values,
cultural norms, laws, conventions,
social structures, etc that are external
to the individuals and influence our
lives, The individual is thus
conditioned by society.
- critiques an individualistic
understanding of social life.
- claims that the power that can
overcome egoism is the strength of a
group.
Durkeim describes religion as “a
unified system of beliefs and practices
relative to sacred things, that is to say,
things set apart and forbidden – belief
interpreted, and we are told how to
react. This process is constant and
fluid, it never ends.
- saw the self developing through a
number of stages, through the process
of role taking
Herbert Blumer
- a disciple of Mead
-established three premises that define
the interactionist paradigm
1. Human behaviour is not the product
of either biology or external social
constrains, but of the meaning that
people attach to the world around
them.
2. The meanings the people attach to
things do not pre-exit prior to the
process of interaction, but emerge
with it. People do not just act out of a
pre-existed script, they write and re-
write the script for their role as they go
along.
3. This process of meaning creation
depends on a variety of approaches to
interpretation of the social world
utilised by people.
People take a role of the ‘other’ and
imagine how they are perceived,
modifying their conduct accordingly.
(Van Keirken et a. 2010)
Erving Goffman
- developed the concept of
Dramaturgy – an interactionist theory.
- people are always ‘acting’ – because
we are constantly trying to have
