This document provides an overview of key concepts from the first 4 chapters of an introductory sociology textbook. It defines sociology as the scientific study of human interactions and relationships. Important early sociologists discussed include Comte, Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and Mills. Durkheim studied how social integration impacts suicide rates. Functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism are discussed as major sociological paradigms. The document also distinguishes between micro and macro levels of sociological analysis and emphasizes the importance of avoiding ethnocentrism.

1. Introduction to Sociology

2. Week 1: Chapter Review, 1-4

3. CHAPTER 1
What is sociology?
• The scientific study of interactions and relations among human beings.
W.I. Thomas-
• American sociologist. Authored a fundamental principle of sociology
called the Thomas theorem.
Thomas theorem-
• “If people define situations as real, they are real in their
consequences.” (p.3). To understand the social context one must
not only look at what is really going on, but also what people believe
is going on.
Industrial revolution-
• Series of improvements in industrial technology that transformed the
process of manufactured goods.
Auguste Comte-
• Supported the view that ideas, & society as a whole, pass through three
stages:
 the theological-where religious ideas dominate.
 the metaphysical-where systematic thought is stressed.
 the positivistic-where science comes to dominate.

4. CHAPTER 1
Emile Durkheim-
• A French sociologist, social psychologist, and philosopher. Widely
regarded as one of the fathers of sociology. Applied scientific methods
to sociology as a discipline.
Mechanic and organic solidarity-
• Mechanical: Homogeneous divisions of labor.
• Organic: Heterogeneous division of labor.
Collective conscience-
• The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average
members of the same society. the society was made up of the values,
beliefs, norms and goals shared by the people in the particular
society.
Social Facts-
• Patterned ways of behaving, thinking, and feeling beyond the
individual.
Sui generis-
• Apart from the individual.
Ferdinand Tonnies-
• German sociologist who formulated a theory of modernization that still
applies to today's societies: Gemeinschaft (intimate association) and
Gesselschaft (impersonal association).

5. CHAPTER 1
Max Weber-
• built upon Marx's theory of social class by describing three dimensions of
one's social class: class position, status, and power.
Rational and nonrational behavior-
• rational- people began to see one another more and more as means to
ends was part of a larger trend.
• nonrational- to be experienced or appreciated for itself.
Rationalization of society
• Historical change from tradition to rationality as the main type of human
thought.
Karl Marx-
• All but economy is epiphenomenal.
• Explained that most people have one of two basic relationships to the means
of production: They either own productive property or labor for others.
• Explained that capitalist society reproduces the class structure in each new
generation.
Proletariat
• Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own
the means of production..
Bourgeoisie
• capitalist class, comprising the owners of the means of production.
Means of production
• owners of factories that produced the goods sold and distributed
throughout society.

6. CHAPTER 1
Herbert Spencer-
• English philosopher who argued that in the difficult economic struggle
for existence, only the fittest would survive.
Survival of the fittest-
• Process by which individuals that are better suited to their
environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called
natural selection
Jane Addams-
• Social worker in the 19th century who was instrumental in creating the
settlement house movement (Hull House) as a resource for preparing
immigrants to live in a new society.
W.E.B. DuBois-
• Was highly critical of the race system in the US. Demanded for both
social and economic equality for blacks. Founded the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909.

7. CHAPTER 2
Individualism-
• The idea that in life people pursue their own ends that people follow
their own ideas.
C.W. Mills’ the social Imagination-
• The ability to connect impersonal and remote historical forces to the
most basic incidents of an individual’s life.
Emile Durkheim’s suicide rates and integration-
• The rate of suicide tended to vary with the degree to which people have
strong ties to their social group.
Emile Durkheim's institutional racism-
• Laws, customs, and practices that systematically reflect and produce
racial and ethnic inequalities in a society, whether or not the individuals
maintaining these laws, customs and practices have racist intentions.
Robert K. Merton-
Expanded understanding of social function, pointed out that there were
probably many functions.

8. CHAPTER 2
Manifest and latent functions-
• Manifest are open stated conscious functions.
• Latent are unconscious or unintended functions.
Functions and dysfunctions-
• Consequences of social structures that are neither intended or
unintended.

9. CHAPTER 3
Ludwig Wittgenstien on fuzzy objects-
• “It is difficult to paint a clear picture of a fuzzy object” (p. 40).
Fuzzy objects in the social sciences-
• Too many variables create make it difficult to make predictions with
absolute assurance, however, we can frequently predict what most
people will likely do under particular sets of circumstances, but we can
offer no guarantees.
Werner Heinsenberg’s uncertainty principle-
• There are important limits on science’s ability to measure and
predict the behavior of physical objects.
Albert Einstein-
• A German physicist who developed the theory of relativity, which
states that time, space, and mass are relative to each other and not
fixed. He created uncertainty by rejecting Newtonian physics, and
his work later led to the creation of the atomic bomb
Stephen Hawking-
• Developed the theory of singularity, in the beginning the earth was
concentrated at a single point making a very small, dense body. His
research was focused on black holes.

10. CHAPTER 3
Chaos theory-
• A theory that demonstrates that in a complex system such as the
atmosphere, small differences at the beginning of an event can lead to
large differences later.
Topic areas in sociology-
• Age, art, collective behavior, religions, race, and environment.
Paradigms in sociology-
• Functional-
• According to functionalism, society is a system of interconnected
parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance
and social equilibrium for the whole.
• Conflict-
• Emphasize the social, political, or material inequality of a social
group, that critique the broad socio-political system, or that
otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological
conservativism.
• Symbolic interaction-
• a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by
words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired
conventionalized

11. CHAPTER 3
Microsociology-
• The study of what PEOPLE do, think and say as they go about their
daily lives.
Macrosociology-
• The study of large-scale social systems and long-term patterns and
processes. Examples could be a family, economy, culture, and even a
society.

12. CHAPTER 4
Empirical-
• Based on things that can be observed by one's physical five senses.
Max Weber’s inconvenient facts-
• pieces of evidence that contradict what you have always believed
and/or want to believe about the social world.
Ethnocentrism-
• Believe that your culture is the only correct culture and thus other
cultures are wrong.
Culture shock-
• the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly
subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.
Genocide-
• The deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation
Cultural relativity-
• The idea that behavior must be judged relative to the values of the
culture in which it occurs.