Group

(Characteristics)

Two or more people interacting

Status: Position in Group

Role: Expected behavior in Status

Norm: Enforce Roles / Statuses

Norms

(3 kinds)

Folkways: Negative feedback

More's: Punishment (grounding a child)

Taboos: Prohibted in society

Science

(Characteristics)

Observed

Tested

Objective

Pragmatic: Defined by it's use

NOT: Truth / Faith / Absolutely Understood

1. The SCIENTIFIC study of human behavior, as it pertains to GROUPS

2. Things are not what they seem

Auguste Comte

(Father of Sociology)

Social Physics: There are laws of human behavior, just like physics

Sociologists can rule the world by predicting human behavior

Stages of Sociological Evolution

(3) In Order

1. Theological / Religious
2. Metaphysical / Logical

3. Positivist / Scientific

**Note: As society changed, so did their understanding and way of looking at the world

Durkheim

Suicide (4)

"Sociologists must treat social facts as things."

1. Altruism: For a cause

Ex: Suicide Bomber

2. Egoism: Lack of Group Ties

3. Fatalism: Too many Group Ties

4. Anomie: Lack of Norms

Ex: Revolutions

Sociology Theories

(3)

Structural Functionalism: Order based on consensus (Parson)

Symbolic Interaction:

Conflict Theory:

Privately owned businesses

Laze Faire Economics

Marx' Theory of Evolution

(5 - in order)

1. Communism: Nomads

Moved Around

Hunted

No Government

Equal because no one owned anything

2. Feudalism:

Relationship to means of production

Formalized system of slavery

Agriculture / Land based economy

Owners vs. Workers

3. Capitalism:

Industrial Revolution

Factory means of production

Class Consciousness Emerges

Owners: Bougewaze

Workers: Prolatariats

4. Socialism:

Government owns everything

Government controls resources

**Note: When there are no more resources in the hands of the people, it will be redistributed.

5. Communism:

No more need for government

Higher standard of living

Subfields of Sociology

(1 question on test)

Social Problems

Ex: Criminology / Race / Urbanization

Research Methods

Ex: Design / Statistics

Structural Functionalism

Came about due to WW1 and WWII

Parsons / Organization based on consensus

Institutions / Functions (5)

Conflict Theory

Caused by Vietnman War

C. Wright Mills - 1st to use word 'power'

Social Modernism

There is no truth, only what we perceive

**Note: Use common sense and timeline knowledge to determine which happened first, and what brought it about

Rationalization

(Weber / Vaber)

Increased:

1. Standardization

2. Coordination

3. Efficiency

Lead to Bureaucracy

"Sociologists must understand the MEANINGS people attribute to their behavior." - Weber

Example: Why a rapist rapes

Bureaucracy:

Large organization with fixed positions, arranged in a hierarchy

Rules and regulations govern behavior

Example: Prisons / Corporations

Ideal Type

(Weber)

Model Of Behavior

Society behaves a certain way

**Note: There are exceptions, but they don't disprove the model

Verstehen

(Weber)

“Sociologists must understand the MEANINGS people imbue to their behavior." - Weber

Subject Understanding

Example: Why rapists rape

Conditions for the rise of Sociology in Europe (19th Century), and America (20th Century)

**Note: Same

Industrialization

Industrial Revolution

Factories

Urbanization

Mass move to cities for work

Science

Scientific understanding

Discoveries

Rural, white, middle-aged men from religious backgrounds

Rejected religion because it didn't focus on earthly things, but the afterlife

Order based on consensus

Example: Students take notes because they all agree that that's what they should be doing

Anything against the order is a threat

Example: Homosexuals

Structures - Functions

(5)

**Note: Don't confuse structures for functions

Family: Procreation

Religion: Purpose

Education: Socialize Children

Economy: Production

Government: Law / Regulation

Change takes place slowly, over time

Example: Some say Martin Luther King brought change too quickly, and it upset the balance

Conflict Theory

(C. Wright Mills)

Claims that structural functionalism is a theory invented by people in power, in order to maintain their power, by labeling people who disagree with them as Deviants

Example: Homosexuals endanger society by not breeding, thus harming heterosexuals

**Note: Invented in 50s, but didn't catch on till 60s, when baby boomers drafted into Vietnam War

Social Darwinism (4)

(Herbert Spencer)

**Note: DO NOT confuse it with American Sociology Association

1. Life is survival of the fittest

2. Social Change is PROGRESS

3. Some suffer for good of society

4. Based on Laze Faire Economics

American Sociological Association

(4 things passed)

1. There are laws of human behavior

-Positivism: Sociology studied scientifically

-Comte / Durkheim

2. Life consists of individual motivations

-Weber: Study meaning behind action

3. Social change is PROGRESS (Social Dar)

-Herbert Spencer / Adam Smith

4. Sociologists should intervene to solve social problems

**Note: Contradicts Laze Faire Economics

Herbert Spencer /

Adam Smith

Captialist

Basis of Rep Party today

Laze Faire Economics

No Government Intervention

Spencer: Social Darwinism

Smith: Law of Supply and Demand

Law of Supply and Demand

(Adam Smith)

Let people compete for wages / business

Made better through struggle

Best will come out on top

Ethnomethodology

(Erving Garfinkle)

Studies the way order is negotiated in everyday life, by challenging that which is taken for granted

The only social structure is that which is negotiated here and now

Verbal / Body Language used to communicate

1. Science / Positivism

2. Social Structure

3. Social Interaction

4. Social Change

Free the workers from the oppression and poverty of industrialization

Communist

Mechanical Solidarity

Durkheim

Identical values hold society together

Works in small/traditional societies where many people have the same jobs/tasks/lifestyles

Organic Solidarity

(Durkheim)

Unity based on division of labor

Industrialized Societies

When one part of an assembly line succeeds, the rest succeed

Functions

(2 Types)

1. Manifest: Overt / Easily Recognizable

2. Latent: Hidden

Example: School

-Manifest: Get a job

-Latent: Coordinate Behavior / Socialize

Ability to discern relationship between individual experience and social forces in larger society

Example: Stuck in dead end job becuase of lack of skills OR because industsry declining, no room for advancement 

William Graham Sumner

(Social Darwinist)

Professor at Yale

Strongly influenced by functionalist ideals of Herbert Spencer

Life is a struggle for existence, where only the fittest survive

Taught first sociology class in US

W. E. B. Dubois

(Father of African American Sociology)

Worked under Max Weber at University of Berlin

Returned to US to continue work on the African American experience

Co-Founded Hull House

-Settlement house to help those in need in disorganized neighborhoods

Won Nobel Peace Prize (1931)

Struggle: Being Female / Ill-Health / Partially Deaf

Translated Auguste Comte

Didn't accept government help, and instead funded her research through royalties from her writings

Believed that, when the scientific laws governing human behavior were understood, they could be used to create a better world

Sees society as a system of parts, that work together to maintain the cohesion of the whole system

---

Manifest Functions: Seen Immediately

Latent Functions: Hidden

Dysfunctions: Actions with negative consiquences for the social system

Anomie: Absence of Social Norms

(Durkheim)

Conflict Theory

(Chart)

Society is a collection of parts held together by social power

---

Conflcit

Dominance

Inequality

Alienation

Symbolic Interaction Theory

(Chart)

Socially constructed by every-day encounters

between people

---

Symbols

Meaning

Significant Others

Definition of the Situation

Great Social Transformation

(Industrial Revolution)

Due to the industrialization of society, individuals are kept track of via records.

Example: In smaller societies and tribes, children don't get names until they are 6 or 7. Instead, because they don't travel far from the group, they are referred to via relation to the other person.

In industrialized society, children are imeediately given names and SSNs to keep track of via records.

Statuse: One's position in a group

Role Conflict: Being a parent may conflict with being a college student

Changing Roles: Do you hold the door for a woman, or would it be seen as sexist?

Ascribed Status: Born with

Example: Born male or female

Acheived Status: Earned

Example: Get high / low position in job

Dramatalogical Approach

(All of Life is a Stage)

How we act in one situation differs from another

Example: Backstage vs Front Stage / One part vs a different part

In Groups: Groups we belong to

Out Groups: Everyone Else

Primary Groups: Most Important

Example: Family

Secondary Groups: Less Important

**Note: We only really relate to society via secondary groups

Example: Don't ask your cashier about their marriage or kids

Reference Group

**Note: DO NOT mistake for primary group

Group where you get your valeus and beiiefs

Example: Your family may be your primary group, but you get your beliefs and values from your friends instead

Group Conformity

(2 - Shereef / Ash)

Experiments

Shereef: Put people in dark room, and ask how much a dot moves

One person says an inch, but the group says three feet, so the person says three feet

Ash: Most would say A, but person thinks B

Perceives as group perceives

Negative Consequences of a Bureaucracy

(3)

1. Service Without a Smile

2. Rules are Rules

-Excuse used by nazi war criminals

3. Iron Law of Olligarchy

-Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely

Socialism: Government ownership of businesses

Capitalism: Privaate ownership of resources

Mixed Economy: US - Both

Laws put in place by US

US government will step in if a business gets too powerful, or too much of the market

Example: AT&T used to be the only cellphone provider in the country. Government stepped in to allow other businesses a piece of the market

Government responsible for maintaining a minimum standard of living

**Note: Republicans don't like this because it's preventing social darwinism

While the two are basically different, Capitalist countries like the US provides Social Welfare. Likewise, Socialist China allows some free enterprise.

Example: Ford

Ford might have its headquarters in America,but its parts are still made oversees.

Neo Marxists believe we're only under the illusion that we're not workers

In reality, no matter how good the job is, if you're let go, you quickly realize just how poor you are

Conflict vs Functionalist View on Economy

(Chart)

Functionalist: Function / Innovation

See the economy as helping society adapt to the environment, by efficient production of goods and services

Conflict: Worker Alienation

See the economy as inherently unstable, producing class conflict and inequality

It's been proven that, on average, self-employed individuals are happier than those employed by others.