SOCI 201 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Structural Functionalism, Social Class, Norm Social
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCI 201
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Invitation to Sociology
● Sociology as a profession is ambiguous
● Connected to people, helping people
● Insights are valuable to anyone concerned with action in society
● Not always “good” like we think it is
● Social work is not necessarily related to sociology
○ Sociology is not a practice but an attempt to understand
● Only one value- scientific integrity
● “The good spy reports what is there”
● Social reformers are not sociologists either
○ Can be used for good or bad
● Another image- gatherer of stats about human behavior
○ Understandable due to the fact that they need to have a career and strengthens
papers
○ Data itself is not sociology, need to be interpreted
● Another image- man concerned in developing a scientific methodology that he can
impose on human phenomena
● Fixation on methodology and lingo
● Image of the sociologist as a detached, sardonic observer
○ Cold manipulator of men
○ Due to him wanting to be a genuine scientist
● Sociologist is someone concerned with understanding society in a disciplined way
○ Nature of this discipline is scientific
○ Strictly defined frame of reference, need good evidence
○ Must be concerned with methodological questions
○ Uses stat techniques, not all of sociology
○ Has to be careful of terminology but doesn’t need to invent his own
○ Interest of the sociologist is primarily theoretical
○ Further, he is curious about the doings of men, wants to know and understand
facets of human life
○ Concerns himself with matters that others find boring
■ Not just what men do, but the action itself
○ Has to deal with economic or political matters but will not do that like economist
or political scientists will
■ Also will cross paths with the historian
○ There is excitement in discovering new things- sociology is different because it
works a lot with what you’re used to
■ Fascination is making us see new things in the normal world we live in
everyday
■ Hard to separate self from it
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
YMAY page 35-40
● Talks about sociology and its related fields: history, anthropology, bio/psych,
economics/political science
● Sociology boils down to comparisons across cases of some form or another
● History is concerned with the uniqueness of phenomena
● Sociology is concerned with commonalities that can be abstracted across cases
● Comparative
○ TO identify abstractable patterns
● Used to be that anthropologists studied non-Western cultures and sociologists studied
Western cultures but not so much anymore
● Different from cultural anthropology in that it uses stats and experiments, comparative
cases studies
● Psychologists focus on the individual whereas sociologists focus on the supra-individual
(group dynamics and social structures)
● Sociology deals with supra-individual level dynamics that affect our behavior
○ Psych deals with individual level dynamics
○ Biology deals with intra-individual level dynamics
● Economics assumes that people are rational utility maximizers- out to get the best deal
for themselves
○ Sociologists have a more open view of human motivation
● Political science focuses on power
2/5
● Syllabus review
2/7
● *Slides posted online
● Sociology- the study of society
○ Social science involving the study of social lives of people, groups, and societies
● Peter Berger- “Invitation to Sociology”
○ “Soc is not about helping people but about understanding how society works” true
■ Want to make clear the distinction between soc and social
work/psychology/etc
○ “Soc’s purpose is to perceive clearly and judge normatively” false
■ “To judge normatively” means to say whether its right or wrong, not the
goal of soc (just to observe, catalog, and report back)
○ “Soc insights can be used for good or evil” true
■ Quote on slides
■ Compare to criminology- useful for both criminals and law enforcement
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
14
SOCI201 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
14 documents
Document Summary
Insights are valuable to anyone concerned with action in society. Not always good like we think it is. Social work is not necessarily related to sociology. Sociology is not a practice but an attempt to understand. The good spy reports what is there . Can be used for good or bad. Another image- gatherer of stats about human behavior. Understandable due to the fact that they need to have a career and strengthens papers. Data itself is not sociology, need to be interpreted. Another image- man concerned in developing a scientific methodology that he can impose on human phenomena. Image of the sociologist as a detached, sardonic observer. Due to him wanting to be a genuine scientist. Sociologist is someone concerned with understanding society in a disciplined way. Strictly defined frame of reference, need good evidence. Uses stat techniques, not all of sociology. Has to be careful of terminology but doesn"t need to invent his own.
