Chapter 1: Roots of Sociology

Sociology is the systematic and objective study of human society and social interaction.Sociologists use research techniques similar to those of the natural sciences. They often conduct research using scientific method. That is, they establish testable hypotheses and decide ahead of time which results will lead them to accept or reject the hypotheses. Like other scientists, sociologists strive to reach conclusions and present findings that are objective—not biased by emotion or preferences. It is this commitment to scientific methods that makes sociology different from the nonscientific disciplines of the humanities.

The history and development of sociology

• Henry de Saint-Simon(1760-1821)– He was the first scholar to treat society

as a distinct and separate unit of analysis. He also was one of first to stress the idea that the social sciences might use the new methods of the natural sciences. But like most of the early social thinkers who followed the Industrial Revolution, Saint-Simon was interested in the analysis of society only as it related to his desire for social reform.

Industrial Revolution• Industrial change

– Movement of people from villages to cities

– Working in factories away from families

– Travel becomes more common

• Rapid social change– New forms of social

interaction occur– Pace is too fast for

some and they fall off by embracing social movements or getting involved in drugs and/or crime

Industrial Revolution

• Nature of work changes– People now worked in factories – Standardization of work

• Ones interaction is influenced by work• Nature of interaction changes

– People communicate with a broader spectrum of people—railways, planes, internet

– People move to urban areas, families split

August Comte(1798-1857)• He was considered the founder

of sociology. He had once been personal secretary to Saint-Simon. Comte coined the term sociology. Previously, he had called the discipline “positive philosophy”( social physics ), both to stress its scientific nature and to distinguish it from traditional philosophy. The aim of sociology, as he saw it, was to find the “invariable laws” of sociology upon which a new order could be based.

Harriet MartineauEnglish (1802-1876)

• Published Theory and Practice of Society in 1837, a year or two before Comte coined the term sociology

• Studied family, race relations, and religion in America. Concerned with the plight of women and children during Industrial Revolution.

• Detached style of reporting set the standard for objectivity in sociological research

• Pioneering nature largely ignored by male disciplines.T ranslated Comte’s work into English

Herbert Spencer• Spencer (1820-1903) put the idea

that society is like an organism—a self-regulating system. Drawing an analogy to Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution, Spencer suggested that societies, like animal species, evolved from simple to more complex forms. Spencer was an early advocate of what later came to be called Social Darwinism—the view that the principle of survival of the fittest applies to societies and within societies.

Karl Marx(1818-1883)• In contrast to Spencer’s view that

societies are subjected to “natural” laws, Marx believed that societies follow historical laws determined by economic forces. He saw human history as a series of inevitable conflicts between economic classes.

• Marx’s view on class conflict are reflected in the conflict school of modern sociologyPrimitive society slavery feudalism

capitalism communism “The workers of the world have nothing

to lose but their chains; they have a world to gain. Workers of the world unite.”(Marx)

Contemporary Marxists

• Capitalists look for profit as a sign of success

• It may ignore human needs and people may not be able to buy products

• Capitalism survived and flourished by sucking the blood of living labor

Emile Durkheim(1858-1917)

More than anyone, the French scholar Emile Durkheim defined the subject matter of sociology and pointed out how it differed from philosophy, economics, psychology, and social reform. In The Rules of Sociological Method (1894) and in Suicide (1897), Durkheim argued that the main concern of sociology should be what he called social facts. In contrast to those who reduce most social phenomena to individual psychological and biological traits, Durkheim felt that the main building blocks of societies are laws, customs, instititions, and organizations.

Durkheim

• Wrote the book Suicide to look at circumstances that cause people to kill themselves

• Found 4 types– Egoistic—lack group ties– Altuistic—strong group ties– Anomic—normlessness—due to changes– Fatalistic—no hope for change

Max Weber(1864-1920)• Weber was perhaps the greatest single

influence on modern sociology. He was particularly interested in the larger dimensions of society—its organizations and institutions—which he studied on a vast historical and worldwide scale. He is perhaps best known for his bureaucracy and capitalism. Much of Weber’s thought contrasts strongly with that of Marx. Weber argued that sociology should include the study of “social action”.

Weber

• Four types of social action– Traditional—goal pursued as in the past– Affectional—goal is emotion– Value-rational—goal pursued because of it’s

value without consideration of appropriateness

– Instrumental—goal is carefully thought out in relationship to other goals

George Simmel(1858-1918)• Unlike the other theorists we have

discussed, who were interested in studying the larger structures of society, Gorege Simmel focused on smaller social units. He put forth the idea that society is best seen as a web of patterned interactions among people. He also believed the main purpose of sociology should be to examine the basic forms that that these interactions take. Some examples of the basic forms of interaction that Simmel analyzed are cooperation and conflict, leaders and followers, and the process of communication.

Jane Adams (1880-1935)• Won the first Nobel

Peace Prize (1931) given to an American sociologist

• Founded Hull House for the poor in Chicago.

Influenced the “Chicago School” of applied sociology

• • Pioneered the study of social problems

Sociological Perspectives

• The Structural/Functional Perspective

• The Conflict Perspective• Symbolic/Interactionist

Perspective

Structural-Functional

• Society is viewed as a complex system of parts (structures) that

• interact to perform various necessary functions

• Shared values, norms, attitudes and beliefs (consensus)

• Change is viewed as gradual and disruptive

• Macrosociology

Functionalist Perspective• Society is a set of inter-related parts that works

best in a stable system-study families or education

• Some elements can be dysfunctional-these destabilize the system

• Manifest function is the intended and recognized consequence of some element on society- car is speedy transportation

• Latent function is an unintended consequence-car as sign of wealth or class

Conflict Theory

• • Views society as a struggle for resources and power

• • Change is inevitable, often beneficial and can be violent

• • Conflict between the classes determines social change

• • Some groups prosper at the expense of others• • Conflict is universal; social consensus is limited and• inequality is widespread• Macrosociology

Symbolic Interactionism• Studies society through interactions within individual

and small groups• Interaction between individuals is negotiated through

shared symbols (anything that represents something else), words, gestures and nonverbal communication.

• Humans are social animals and require interaction

Asks the questions” “How do individuals experience

one another?” “How do they interpret the meaning of these interactions?” and “How do people construct a sense of self and the society as a whole?”

• Microsociology

Gorge Herbert Mead• Gorge Herbert Mead (1863-1931) was

the major theorist of the symbolic interactionist branch of sociology that was born at the University of Chicago. Mead stressed that humans respond to abstract meanings as well as to concrete experience. Unlike most theorists of the time, Mead claimed that the human mind and self-consciousness are largely social creations. Thus he helped to define that aspect of sociology that sees individual behavior as the product of society.

W. E. B. DuBois(American) (1868-1963)

• First Afro-American PhD graduate of Harvard University

• • Wrote The Philadelphia Negro (1899) on race relations

• double consciousness of blacks--always looking at oneself through the eyes of others

• Showed how there can exist a double feeling while living in a single society

• Believed Western nations exploited Africans and blacks taking their wealth leaving them politically powerless and impoverished

Talcott Parsons(American) (1902-1979)

• • Reintroduced the theories of European sociologists while

• teaching at Harvard University

• • Structural/Functionalist• • Abstract “ivory tower”

theoretician• • Emphasis on empirical

research--not social reform

C. Wright Mills(American) (1916-1962)

• Taught at Columbia University

• • Marxist, structural/functionalist theorist

• • Key concepts: power elite, radical social change, social

• injustices, applied sociology, the “sociological imagination”

Robert K. Merton(American) (1910-2002)

• • Taught at Columbia University

• • Sought to bridge the European “grand” theories and a

• more focused research style• • Structural/Functionalist• • Key concepts: manifest &

latent functions, “Strain Theory”

• of deviance, dysfunctions

Charles Horton Cooley(American) (1864-1929)

• • Symbolic interactionist theorist

• • We develop a sense of who we are in society based upon

• interaction with others and how we feel others perceive us

• • The “Looking Glass Self”

Erving Goffman(American) (1922-1982)

• Symbolic interactionist theorist

• • Believed we play roles and present a “face” for public view

• • Key concepts: dramaturgical approach, frontstage & backstage

• selves, presentation of self

Sigmund Freud(German)(1856-1939)

• Psychoanalyst• • Key concepts:

unconscious, id, ego, superego, psycho-sexual

• stages, psychoanalysis, ego defense mechanisms, free association.

• dream interpretation

Erik Erikson(German/American)(1902-1994)• • Psychologist• • Eight Stages of Man

(Psycho-social stages)

• • Focused on ego conflict through the life span and how they are resolved

Carol Gilligan(American) (1936- )

• • Social psychologist: former student of Lawrence Kohlberg

• • Took a feminist perspective to moral reasoning, author of

• In a Different Voice, which proposes that males and

• females have different moral reasoning

• • Key concepts: caring perspective (females); justice & law (males)

Albert Bandura(American) (1925- )

• • Social (cognitive) psychologist, performed classic study of

• imitation and aggressive behaviors in children.

• • Key concepts: social learning theory, imitation, models,

• vicarious reinforcement, expectancies self efficacy, reciprocal determinism

B(urrhus) F(redrick) Skinner(American) (1904-1990)

• • Psychologist, learning theorist, behaviorist. Taught at Harvard

• University, probably the most famous American psychologist

• • Wrote several books including: The Behavior of Organisms,

• Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and Walden Two

• • Key concepts: operant learning, positive & negative reinforcement, punishment, behavior modification

Sociological theories (1)

• The functionalist perspective– It emphasizes the way in which each part of

society contributes to the whole so as to maintain social stability. According to this perspective, society is like the human body or any other living organism. Like the parts of the body (such as the limbs, the heart, and the brain), the parts of society (such as families, businesses, and governments) function together in a systematic way that is usually good for the whole. Each part helps to maintain the state of balance that is needed for the system to operate smoothly.

Sociological theories (2)• The conflict perspectives

– It emphasizes conflict as a permanent aspect of societies and a major source of social change. This perspective is based on the assumption that the parts of society, far from being smoothly functioning units of a whole, actually are in conflict with one another. This is not to say that society in never orderly—conflict theorists do not deny that there is much order in the world—but rather that order is only one outcome of the ongoing conflict among society’s parts and that it is not always the natural state of things.

– Conflict theorists trace their roots back to Marx and Simmel. They stress the dynamic, ever-changing nature of society. To them, society is always in a fragile balance. More often than not, social order (often quite temporary) stems from the domination of some parts of society over other parts rather than from the natural cooperation among those parts. Order is the product of force and constraint—domination—of the over the weak, the rich over the poor.

Sociological theories (3)• The interactionist perspective

– It focuses on how people interact in their everyday lives and how they make sense of their social interaction. Interactionists do not see society as such a controlling force, at least not to the degree that the macrosociologists do. Interactionists stress that people are always in the process of creating and changing their social worlds. Interactionists explore people’s motives, their purposes and goals, and the ways they perceive the world.

Three perspectives—a summary

Perspective Central concern Scope of theorizing

Typical concepts

Some proponents

Fuctionalist How parts contribute to workings of total society or institutions

Maro-level Manifest functions, latent functions,dysfunctions

DurkeimParsonsMerton

Conflict Social conflict and inequalities; why they arise and how they are maintained,

Maro-level Class struggle, self-interests, domination of some social groups

MarxDahrendorfCollins

interactionist Everyday encounters between people and the symbols by which they are interpreted

microlevel Definition of the situation,Looking glass self

MeadCooleyGoffman

Assignment• Choose ONE (1) of the following topics. Maximum length is 2 pages.• Due Friday, September 7th, 2012.

• Biography…Pick one of the sociologists discussed in class or in your book. Include basic biographical information, the perspective used in their studies, and their areas of interest. Discuss at least one of their seminal works. Why do you finding them interesting?

• Sociology and the scientific method…After discussing the requirements of objective research in the field of sociology, I asked you to begin to develop a plan of research on a topic of your own choosing. Describe the study. What is your preliminary hypothesis? Where will you go to perform a literature review. Are there ethical considerations? How will you design the study-ex. Survey, field observation, etc.?