The purpose of sociology is to study human social behavior and the phenomena that interactions between people create, such as social structures, institutions, stratification, and collective behavior. It focuses on modern industrial societies, whereas anthropology focuses on preliterate societies. The sociological imagination allows people to see connections between personal experiences and larger social forces or trends. Early founders of sociology included Auguste Comte, Harriet Martineau, Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Jane Addams, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Sociologists use theoretical perspectives like functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism to study and understand social phenomena. Common research methods include surveys,

1. What is the purpose
of sociology?

2. The purpose of sociology is to
• Look at interactions with people and the
phenomenon that those interactions create:
social structure, institutions, stratification,
collective behavior.
• Study human social behavior.
• Note: Anthropology and sociology are closely
related in that they both look at traits and beliefs
of groups. But anthropology focuses on
preliterate society, while sociology focuses on
modern, industrial societies.

3. Define the sociological imagination.

4. Sociological Imagination is
• The ability of individuals to see the relationship between
events in their personal lives and events in society.
• Focus on the history and biography of people in a given
time and place, then make the connection , personal
troubles as public issues.
• Example:
• Divorce in your family is a very personal issue, but also has a
societal impact (changes status of women in society,
increases the need for government funding for families with
dependent children, and alters housing patterns.

5. Auguste Comte
• 1798-1857
• French
• Positivism - sociology a study
of what is sure
• Social static - stability and
order in society
• Social dynamic - the study of
social change

6. Harriet Martineau
• 1802-1876
• English
• Translate Comte's book
• Feminine Theorist

7. Herbert Spencer
• 1820-1903
• English
• Explained social stability by
comparing it to a body (parts
working together to promote
well being and survival)
• Social Darwinism - social
change leads to progress as
long as people do not interfere
(natural selection ensures the
fittest society so opposes
reforms to help poor)

8. Karl Marx
• 1818-1883
• German
• Bourgeoisie - owners (means to
produce wealth)
• Proletariat - laborers (worked
for owners)
• Saw class conflict as inevitable
• Thus leading to communist
(classless) society

9. Emile Durkheim
• 1858-1917
• French
• Mechanical solidarity preindustrial society dependent
of family and tradition, so
strong pressure to conform
• Organic solidarity - industrial
society interdependent because
of specialized roles

10. Max weber
• 1864-1920
• German
• Verstehen - understanding
social behavior by putting
yourself in the place of others
• Rationalization - the mindset
emphasizing knowledge,
reason, planning

11. Jane Addams
• 1860-1935
• United States
• Hull House - a refuge for poor,
sick, aged, immigrants in
Chicago
• 1931 Nobel Peace Prize
• Focused on women's suffrage,
peace movements, and problems
caused by the imbalance of
power among social classes

12. W.E.B.DuBois
• 1868-1963
• United States
• Addressed the "Negro
Problem" - a racist policy that
assumed blacks were inferior
• Founded the NAACP

13. Theoretical
Perspectives
Functionalist, Conflict, Symbolic Interactionist

14. Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalism - parts of society are an integrated whole, so a
change in one part leads to changes in another (focus on
cooperation to achieve common goals)
• Latent Functions - unintended and unrecognized
• Manifest Functions - intended and recognized
• Conflict Perspective - focuses the disagreement among
various groups in society (those with the most power have
the most wealth, prestige, privilege and use it to constrain/limit
the less powerful)
• Symbolic Interactionist - focuses on the actual interaction
among people based on mutually understood symbols

15. Research Methods

16. Survey
• Survey - people are asked to answer a series of
questions (population = all the people, sample = limited
number from the population, representative sample =
has the same basic characteristics as the general
population)
• Interview - spoken
• Questionnaire - written
• Closed Ended - limited predetermined choices
• Open Ended - answered in own words

17. Secondary Analysis
• Using information that someone else has already
collected (Census Bureau, corporate records,
voting lists...)
• Pros - Cheap, easy, less bias
• Cons - Can be outdated, no exactly on topic

18. Field Research
• Looks at aspects of life that cannot be measured
quantitatively (with numbers), so must be
observed in the natural setting for more accurate
qualitative (descriptive) data
• Case study - investigate a single group, incident,
or community
• Participant observation - researcher becomes a
member of the group studied

19. Experiments
• Research occurs in a laboratory setting with
minimum contamination
• Not suited to sociology because the environment
artificial
• Used to establish causation (why it happens),
rather than correlation (how are things
associated)
• Sociologists look for multiple causation, because
human interaction is to complicated to be
explained by a single factor

20. Procedures and Ethics
• Identify the Problem, Review the literature,
Formulate a Hypothesis, Develop a Research
Design, Collect Data, Analyze Data, State Findings
and Conclusions
• Ethics - respect the rights of research subjects
and avoid deceiving or harming them

21. The Sociology of
Culture
Heredity, Language, Diversity

22. The Sociology of
Culture
• Culture is knowledge, customs,
values, language, physical
objects
• Instincts - genetically inherited
patterns of behavior
• Relex - reaction to stimuli
• Drives - impulse to reduce
discomfort

23. Language and
Culture
Humans can create and transmit culture. The
symbols of language play a role in determining
people’s views of reality

24. Essential
Components of
Culture - Norms
• Norms - Rules defining appropriate
and inappropriate behavior
• Folkways - Customary was of
thinking, feeling, behaving
• More - morals, conduct related to
right and wrong, foundation for laws
• Taboo - a norm so strong that its
violation demands punishment by
the group
• Sanctions - punishment (formal jail, informal - shunning)

25. Essential
Components of
Culture - Values
• Values - broad ideas about what
most people in society consider
desirable
• Achievement and Success
• Activity and Work
• Efficiency and Practicality
• Equality
• Democracy
• Group Superiority

26. Diversity
• Cultural Universals are traits
that exist in all cultures.
• They include: sports, cooking,
courting, educations, etiquette,
family, government, hospitality,
inheritance, music, religious
ritual, sexual restrictions,
property rights, tool making...
• Subculture and Countercultures
belong to the broader culture
but differ in particular ways
(dress, worship, job).

27. Ethnocentrism - a strong commitment to the culture you
live in and learn, that causes you to judge other cultures
using your own cultural standards

28. Socialization
• Socialization is the cultural
process of learning to
participate in group life.
• Socialization plays a role in
developing our attitudes,
beliefs, values, and behaviors.
• Isolation causes an inability to
develop emotional ties, as well
as developmental deficiencies
(talk, walk, interact with others,
learn)

29. Socialization and Theoretical Perspectives
• Functionalist - groups work together, so family
and school teach basic norms, values, and beliefs
• Conflict Perspective - views socialization as a way
of perpetuating the status quo (preserving the
current class system)
• Symbolic Interactionist - uses key concepts to
explain socialization (self-concept, looking-glass
self, significant others, role taking, generalized
other), and believes that socialization is the major
determinant of human nature

30. Social Structure
• The patterned interaction of
people in social relationships
• Status is a person’s position in
the structure (ascribed,
achieved, status set, master
status)
• Roles are the expected
behaviors associated with a
status (role conflict, role strain)
• Status and Roles are a
reflection of the culture, as well
as the time period.

31. Hunting/Gathering, Pastoral,
Horticultural, Agricultural,
Tradition, Family
Tradition, Family
Preindustrial

32. Industrial Society
Machines, Labor, Urbanization

33. Postindustrial
Service, Technology,
Interdependent
Relationships

34. Groups and Organizations
• Group - people who share features (contact, thinking,
feeling, behavior, interests, goals)
• Social Category - share a social characteristic (seniors)
• Social Aggregate - happen to be in same place at same
time
• Primary Group - emotionally close, know each other well,
seek each other’s company (family, friends), small group
with face to face contact
• Secondary Group - impersonal and goal oriented
(employer/worker, doctor/patient, waitress/customer)

35. Social Interaction
• Cooperation - individuals or groups combine efforts to
reach a goal
• Conflict - individuals or groups work against each
other for a large share of the rewards
• Social Exchange - when one person voluntarily does
something, expecting a reward
• Coercion - forced to give in to the will of others
• Conformity - behavior that matches group
expectations

36. Bureaucracy
• Advantages: division of labor, rules/procedures,
written records, promotion based on
merit/qualifications, rationalization (the mindset
emphasizing knowledge, reason, planning over
tradition and superstition)
• Disadvantages: undervalue people
(rules/procedures cause impersonal treatment of
people), red tape (too much paperwork)

37. Formal and
Informal
Organizations
• Formal Organization deliberately created to achieve
one or more long term goals
(high schools, colleges,
hospitals, corporations)
• Informal Organization - a group
within a formal organization in
which personal relationships
are guided by norms, rituals,
sentiments (book club after
work, teachers walking after
school, coffee club at work)

38. Deviance and
Social Control
• Deviance: behavior that
departs from societal or group
norms
• Social Control: ways to
encourage conformity to
society’s norms

39. Positives and
Negatives of
Deviance
• Positive: clarifies norms by
exercising social control to
defend its values (defines,
adjusts, and reaffirms norms)
• Positive: act as safety valve
(teens music, clothes,
TV...relieve pressure caused by
authority figures)
• Negative: erodes trust
• Negative: if not corrected it
spreads
• Negative: expensive

40. Major Theories of
Deviance:
Functionalism
• Strain: Innovation (accepts
goal but has illegal means of
achieving), Conformity (accepts
goals and means of achieving),
Ritualism (acts as if wants
success but doesn’t exert
effort), Retreatism (rejects goals
and effort), Rebellion
(substitutes new way to achieve
new goal)
• Control: conformity depends
on the presence of strong
bonds between the individual
and society

41. Deviance:
Symbolic
Interactionism
• Differential Association Theory:
individuals learn deviance in
proportion to the number of
deviant acts they are exposed
to
• Labeling Theory: society
creates deviance by identifying
certain members as deviant

42. Major Theories of
Deviance: Conflict
• Victim Discounting: process of
reducing the seriousness of the
crimes that injure people of
lower status
• White Collar Crime: job related
crimes committed by high
status people

43. Major
Approached to
Crime Control
• Deterrence: discouraging
criminal acts by threatening
punishment
• Retribution: punishment
intended to make criminals pay
compensation for their acts
• Incarceration: a method of
protecting society from
criminals by keeping them in
prison
• Rehabilitation: process of
changing or reforming a
criminal through socialization

44. Social Stratification
• Social Stratification: the creation of
layers (strata) of people who
possess unequal shares of scarce
resouces.
• The most important of these
resources are income, power,
wealth, prestige.
• Each layer represents a social class
• Social Class: a segment of the
population whose members hold
similar amounts of scarce resources
and share values, norms, and an
identifiable lifestyle.

45. Theories on Social
Stratification
• Functionalist: inequality exists because certain jobs are more important than
others, and that these jobs involve special talent and training.
• Conflict: inequality exists because people are willing to exploit others.
• Symbolic Interactionism: children taught that social class a result of talent and
effort, causing people to accept the existing system.

46. Characteristics of
Major Social Class
• Upper = investors, heirs, chief
executives
• Upper Middle = Managers,
professionals, owners of medium
sized businesses
• Lower Middle = Semi-professional,
craftspeople, foreman, non-retail
sales, clerical
• Working = Low-skill manual,
clerical, retail sales
• Low /Underclass = unemployed,
part-time menial, public assistance

47. Poverty in
America
• Absolute Poverty: absence of
enough money to secure life’s
necessities - food, shelter, clothes
• Relative Poverty: a measure of
poverty baed on the economic
disparity between those at the
bottom of society and the rest of
society
• Feminization of Poverty: a trend in
the US society in which women
and children make up an
increasing proportion of the poor

48. Social Mobility
• Social Mobility: the movement
of individuals or groups
between social classes
• horizontal: a change in
occupation within the same
social class
• vertical: a change upward or
downward in occupational
status or social class
• intergenerational mobility: a
change in status or class from
one generation to the next

49. Minority, Race,
Ethnicity
• Minority: a group of people with
physical or cultural traits
different from those of the
dominant group in society
• Race: people sharing certain
inherited physical
characteristics that are
considered important within
society
• Ethnic Minority: group
identified by cultural, religious,
or national characteristics

50. Racial and Ethnic
Relations
• Assimilation: the blending or fusing of minority
groups into dominant society
• Cultural Pluralism: desire of a group to maintain a
sense of identity separate from the dominant group
• Genocide: the systematic effort to destroy an entire
population
• Subjugation: process by which a minority group is
denied equal access to the benefits of society
• De Jure Segregation: denial of equal access based
on law
• De Facto Segregation: denial of equal access based
on everyday practice

51. Prejudice and
Discrimination
• Prejudice: widely held negative attitudes
toward a group (minority or majority) and
its relative members
• Racism: an extreme form of prejudice that
assumes superiority of one group over
others
• Discrimination: treating people differently
based on ethnicity, race, religion, culture
• Hate Crime: criminal act motivated by
prejudice
• Stereotype: a distorted, exaggerated,
oversimplified image applied to a category
of people

52. Theoretical Perspectives
on Race And Ethnicity
• Functionalists: focus on the
dysfunction caused by
prejudice and discrimination
• Conflict: a majority uses
prejudice and discrimination as
weapons of power to control a
minority
• Symbolic Interactionist:
members of society learn to
prejudice, much in the same
way they learn to be patriotic

53. Sex, Gender, and
Gender Identity
• sex - classification of people as
male or female based on
biological characteristics
• gender identity - a sense of
being male or female based on
learned cultural values
• biological determinism principle that behavioral
differences are the result of
inherited physical
characteristics

54. Sociological
Perspectives on
Gender and Age
• Functionalists - any pattern of
behavior that does not benefit
society will be unimportant
• Conflict - it is to the advantage
of the majority to prevent the
minority from obtaining political,
economic, political status
• Symbolic Interactionism learned behavior

55. Inequalities of Sex
and Gender
• Sexism - a set of beliefs,
attitudes, norms, and values
used to justify sexual inequality
• Ageism - a set of beliefs,
attitudes, norms and values
used to justify age-based
prejudice and discrimination