SOC 3310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Symbolic Interactionism, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning
Document Summary
Chapter 1 the understanding of society pg. Express theories systematically and discuss in a comprehensive way how far they can explain social life, insight into behaviour and society, relates different events to general principles to see the similarities. The key concepts of a theory also allow us to see parts of social reality that would otherwise escaped us. Theories differ in 3 different significant aspects: subject matter, assumptions underlying their approach, and types of questions they believe social theory can and should answer. Theoretical perspectives divide into: large scale characteristics of social structure and roles (macrosociology) Functionalism and conflict theory: 2 approaches concerned with overall characteristics of social structure & general nature of social institutions. Emphasize relation b/w general categories of social position, discuss social evolution: person-to-person encounters and the details of human interaction/ communication (microsociology) Symbolic interactionism and phenomenology examine human interaction in minute detail.