Chapter 1: A Sociological Compass

1. Chapter 1:A Sociological Compass Melanie Hatfield Soc 100

2. What is Sociology??? • Sociology: the systematic study of human behavior in social context. • The organization of the social world opens some opportunities and closes others, thus constraining our freedom and helping to make us what we are. • By examining the operation of these powerful social forces, sociology can help us to know ourselves, our capabilities and limitations.

3. The Sociological Perspective:The sociological explanation of suicide • As many argue, suicide appears to be the supremely antisocial and nonsocial act. • At the end of the 19th century, French Sociologist, Emile Durkheim demonstrated that suicide is more than just an individual act resulting from a psychological disorder. • He showed that suicide rates are strongly influenced by social forces.

4. The Sociological Explanation of Suicide (cont.) • Durkheim first examined the relationship between rates of suicide and rates of psychological disorders for different groups. • The idea that a psychological disorder causes suicide would be supported only if suicide rates were high where psychological rate were high and were low where rates of psychological disorder were low. • His analyzations did not support this.

5. The Sociological Explanation of Suicide (cont.) • So what accounts for suicide? • Durkheim argued that suicide rates vary because of differences in the degree of social solidarity in different groups. • Social solidarity is defined as: (1) The degree to which group members share beliefs and values and (2) the intensity and frequency of their interaction. • The higher the level of social solidarity, the more firmly anchored individuals are to the social world and less likely to commit suicide if adversity strikes (to a point).

6. Durkheim’s Theory of Suicide

7. The Sociological Explanation of Suicide (cont.) • Durkheim found that: • Married adults were half as likely as unmarried adults to commit suicide • Women were less likely to commit suicide than men • Jews were less likely to commit suicide than Christians • Elderly people were more prone than young and middle-aged people to commit suicide

8. Suicide Rate by Age Cohort and Sex in the US in 2005

9. The Sociological Imagination • Sociologists call stable patterns of social relations social structures. • C. Wright Mills called the ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures the sociological imagination

10. Social Structures • Three levels of social structure that surround and permeate us: • Microstructures: patterns of intimate social relations. • Macrostructures: patterns of social relations that lie outside and above your circle of intimates and acquaintances. • Patriarchy, which is the traditional system of economic and political inequality between women and men in most societies. • Global structures: patterns of social relations that lie outside and above the national level. • “Sociological Imagination,” coined by C. Wright Mills, refers to the ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures.

11. Origins of the Sociological Imagination • The sociological imagination was born in the context of three modern revolutions that pushed people to think about society in new ways. • The Scientific Revolution (1550) suggested that a science of society was possible. • The Democratic Revolution (1750)suggested that people could intervene to improve society. • The Industrial Revolution (1780s) presented social thinkers with a host of pressing social problems crying out for solution. • They responded by giving birth to the Sociological Imagination.

12. Functionalism Durkheim Parsons Merton Conflict Theory Marx Weber Du Bois C. Wright Mills Symbolic Interactionism Weber Mead Goffman Feminist Theory Martineau Addams Sociological Theoretical Schools and Their Theorists

13. Features of Functionalism • Human behavior is governed by social structures. • Theories show how social structures maintain or undermine social stability. • Theories emphasize that social structures are based on shared values. • Suggests that reestablishing equilibrium can best solve most social problems.

14. Talcott Parsons • A leading proponent of functionalism. • Argued that society is integrated and in equilibrium when: • the family raises new generations • the military defends society • schools teach students the skills and values they need to function as adults • religions create a shared moral code among people

15. Robert Merton • Leading functionalist in the US • Proposed that social structures may have different consequences for different groups. • Some of those consequences may be disruptive or dysfunctional. • Some functions are manifest, others are latent.

16. Conflict Theory • Focuses on macro-level structures, such as “class relations”. • Shows how major patterns of inequality produce stability in some circumstances and change in others. • Stresses how members of privileged groups try to maintain advantages while subordinate groups struggle to increase theirs. • Leads to the suggestion that eliminating privilege will lower the level of conflict and increase total human welfare.

17. Karl Marx • Ideas revolves around class conflict, defined as the struggle between classes to resist and over come the opposition of other classes. • Marx argued that owners of industry, or capitalists, focus on attempting to improve the efficiency of work and earning higher profits. • This causes capitalists to concentrate workers in larger establishments, keep wages as low as possible, and invest little in improving working conditions. • Marx felt that workers would eventually become aware of their exploited class, referred to as class consciousness.

18. Max Weber • Weber pointed out flaws in Marx’s ideas. • He noted that the rapid growth of the service sector of the economy, with its many nonmanual workers and professionals. • He argues many members of these occupational groups stabilize society because they enjoy higher status and income than manual workers employed in the manufacturing sector. • Weber showed that politics and religion are also important sources of historical change.

19. W.E.B. Du Bois • The first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard • He was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and of the country’s second Department of Sociology at Atlanta University in 1897. • In The Philadelphia Negro, Du bois illustrates that social problems that African Americans face were not due to some “natural” inferiority, but to white prejudice. • He believed that the elimination of white prejudice would create more equality between blacks and whites.

20. C. Wright Mills • Laid the foundation for modern conflict theory in the U.S. in the 1950s. • One of his most important books is the Power Elite, where he argues that power is highly concentrated in American society, which is therefore less of a democracy than we are often lead to believe.

21. Symbolic Interactionism • Focus on interpersonal communication in micro-level social settings. • Emphasis on social life as possible only because people attach meanings to things. • Stress the notion that people help create their social circumstances and do not merely react to them. • Validation of unpopular and nonofficial viewpoints by focusing on the subjective meanings people create in small social settings.

22. Feminist Theory • Focuses on patriarchy. • Holds that male domination and female subordination are determined by power and social convention. • Examines the operation of patriarchy in micro- and macro-level settings. • Patterns of gender inequality should be changed for the benefit of all members of society.

24. The Research Cycle

25. Ethics in Sociological Research • Researchers must respect their subjects’ rights to: • Safety • Privacy • Confidentiality • Informed consent

26. Steps of an Experiment • Selection of subjects. • Random assignment of subjects to experimental and control groups. • Measurement of dependent variable in experimental and control groups. • Introduction of independent variable to experimental group. • Remeasurement of dependent variable in experimental and control groups. • Assessment of experimental effect.

27. Surveys • Surveys ask people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, or behavior either in a face-to-face interview telephone interview, or paper-and-pencil format. • Sample: the part of the population of research interest that is selected for analysis. • Population: the entire group which the researcher wishes to generalize.

28. Field Research • Field research is based on the observation of people in their natural settings. • Problems with direct observation: • Reactivity – the presence of the researcher may itself affect the behavior of the people being observed. • The meaning of the observed behavior may remain obscure to the researcher. • Participant observation research is when researchers observe a social setting systematically and take part in the activities of the people they are studying.

29. Analysis of Existing Documents And Official Statistics • A nonreactive research method that involves the analysis of diaries, newspapers, published historical works, and statistics produced by government agencies, all of which are created by people other than the researcher for purposes other than sociological research.

31. Postindustrial Revolution • The technology-driven shift from manufacturing to service industries and the consequences of that shift for virtually all human activities.

32. Globalization • The process by which formerly separate economies, states, and cultures are becoming tied together and people are becoming increasingly aware of their growing interdependence.

33. A Sociological Compass