Introduction to Sociology

Thinking Sociologically

• Sociology systematically studies human behavior within a social context, using scientific research to analyze patterns.
• Agency refers to individuals' ability to make decisions and act in their own lives.
• Social structures are enduring patterns and institutions that organize social life.
• Sociology explores the relationship between individual agency and broader social structures through scientific research.

Structure and Agency

• Social structures can limit individual free will or agency.
• Individuals can also use their agency to shape and change social structures.
• The extent of an individual's agency varies based on their socio-demographic characteristics.

Sociological Imagination

• The sociological imagination connects individual agency to wider social structures.

Sociological Theory

• A theory is a testable explanation of social life aspects, explaining relationships between facts.
• Theories are validated through systematic observational research.
• Functionalism examines how social structures maintain stability at a macro level, focusing on values.
• Functionalism addresses how societal institutions contribute to overall stability.
• Functionalism views an ideal society as being in equilibrium, where individuals fulfill their roles.
• In functionalism stability is threatened when people cannot fulfill roles and can be solved by ensuring social structures facilitate the role fulfilment.
• Key concepts of functionalism include stability, function, equilibrium and solidarity.
• Conflict theory examines social divisions and power imbalances impacting harmony at macro and global levels and focusing on class inequality.
• Conflict theory questions how privileged groups maintain advantages while subordinate groups seek to increase theirs, often leading to social change.
• In conflict theory an ideal society involves eliminating privilege, especially class privilege.
• Conflict theory posits differing interests among social groups and varying levels of power.
• Power, in this context, is the ability to impose one's will despite resistance.
• Key concepts of conflict theory include conflict, power, dominance, and privilege.
• Symbolic interactionism explores how social interaction shapes behavior and creates meaning at the micro level.
• Symbolic interactionism focuses on meaning, and addresses how individuals communicate to create meaningful social settings.
• Symbolic interactionism views an ideal society respects minority values.
• Key concepts of symbolic interactionism include; interaction, communication, meaning, norms, and values.
• Feminist theory examines gendered dimensions of social life and inequality at both micro and macro levels.
• Feminist theory focuses on patriarchy and questions which social structures and interaction processes maintain male dominance and female subordination.
• Feminist theory views an ideal society eliminates gender inequality.
• Gender inequalities emerge from patriarchy, a historical system of economic and political inequality.
• Key concepts of feminist theory include conflict, power, dominance, and privilege combined with gender analysis.

Scientific Research

• Validity is the degree to which results reflect reality.
• Reliability is the degree to which research yields consistent results.
• Achieving validity and reliability requires scientific thinking and methods.

Unscientific Thinking

• Unscientific thinking includes causal observation, tradition, and authority.
• Selective Observation involves unconsciously ignoring contradictory evidence.
• Illogical Reasoning involves drawing conclusions from false premises.
• Overgeneralization occurs when exceptions are treated as the rule

Scientific Thinking

• Positivism views social realities as objective and best studied through quantitative methods.
• Positivism uses deductive reasoning, starting with general ideas to test specific cases.
• The scientific method for quantitative research involves identifying a theoretical idea, translating it into a testable hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and accepting or rejecting the hypothesis based on the analysis.
• Interpretivism views social realities as subjectively constructed and best studied through qualitative methods.
• Interpretivism uses inductive reasoning, starting with concrete cases to identify general patterns.
• The scientific method for qualitative research involves identifying a research interest, collecting evidence from cases, analyzing them for common patterns, and providing an interpretation within context.

Quantitative Methods

• An experiment controls an artificial situation to isolate causes and measure their effects.
• A hypothesis is tested about how an independent variable (cause) affects a dependent variable (effect).
• An experimental group is exposed to the independent variable and a control group is not.
• Randomization assigns individuals to groups by chance.
• A survey involves asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, or behavior.
• Surveys test how independent variables affect a dependent variable.
• The goal is to study a sample to learn about the population as a whole.
• The sample must be an identical representation of the population

Qualitative Methods

• Participant observation (ethnography) involves researchers taking part in a social group and systematically observing.
• The goal is to understand the experience of being a community member.
• Unstructured and semi-structured interviews use open-ended questions, allowing respondents to answer in their own words.

Research Ethics

• Formal standards for ethical research involving human subjects have emerged recently.
• Formal standards include respect for persons, beneficence (do no harm), and justice.
• Informed consent is participants acknowledging awareness of risks while participating voluntarily.
• Voluntary participation and harm minimization is essential.
• Anonymity is when a researcher cannot identify subjects based on evidence.
• Confidentiality is when a researcher can identify subjects but agrees not to do so.
• Debriefing involves interviewing participants after a study to clarify what occurred and address any fallout related to deception.

Socialization

• Socialization is the process by which people learn to function in social life.
• Socialization occurs in three steps: acting based on personal characteristics, the social environment responding, and the response shaping future actions.

Agents of Socialization

• Key agents of socialization include families, schools, peer groups, and mass media.
• Primary socialization occurs during childhood, teaching basic skills.
• Secondary socialization takes place outside the family after early childhood.
• Schools teach academic and vocational subjects and obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms through a hidden curriculum.
• Peer groups are people of the same age and status and have grown in importance over time.
• Mass media communicates information to a large audience and has become important to secondary socialization, especially with the internet's emergence.

Culture

• Culture varies between and within societies, based on location, socio-demographic groups, and power struggles.
• Culture is shared symbols and their definitions.
• Symbols are concrete objects or abstract terms that represent something else
• Concrete exisits in physical form.
• Abstract exists as an idea.

Human Abilities Contributing to Creating Culture

• Abstraction enables the creation of concepts that organize sensory experience.
• Concepts from abstraction are the most persuasive symbols in cultures.
• Example: Time allows humans to create concepts like day, week, or year.
• Beliefs are cultural statements that define what community members consider real.
• Cooperation allows complex social life through accepted ways of doing things and ideas about right and wrong.
• Norms are generally accepted ways of doing things.
• Values are ideas about what is right and wrong and good and bad.
• Production is the human capacity to make or manufacture.
• Material culture includes tools, technology, and techniques for accomplishing tasks.
• Social organization is the orderly arrangement of social interaction.

Culture's Two Faces

• Freedom provides us with opportunities to exercise our freedom in numerous ways through cultural diversity.
• Globalization ties economies, states, and cultures together, increasing awareness of interdependence.
• Postmodernism is a historical period characterized by an eclectic mix of cultural elements.
• Constraints put limits on what we can think and do through rationalization and consumerism.
• Rationalization applies efficient means to achieve goals, with unintended negative consequences.
• Consumerism defines ourselves in terms of the goods we purchase.

Social Interaction

• Social Interaction begins with an individuals actions.
• Social interaction is the process through which individuals act in relation to others.
• Individuals learn norms associated with different roles and statuses.
• People have opportunities to reinforce or challenge the norms associated with different roles and statuses.
• Status is a culturally defined position or social location.
• An ascribed status is imposed on a person at birth and is difficult to change.
• An achieved status is acquired through effort and choices.
• Roles are expectations about thoughts, feelings, and actions appropriate for a particular status.
• Role-playing conforms to performance expectations.
• Role Strain occurs when a single status has incompatible role demands.
• Role Conflict occurs when multiple statuses have different role demands.
• Role-making is the creative process by which individuals generate role expectations.

Presentation of Self

• Self are your ideas and attitudes about who you are as an independent being.
• The dramaturgical model likens social interaction to a theatrical performance.
• An actor is the individual and the audience are the observers.
• Performance is all the verbal and non-verbal activity of an individual in front of an audience.
• The front stage adheres to status and role expectations and involves impression management.
• The back stage is where an individual feels comfortable and relaxed.
• Off stage is when there is no audience.

Networks, Groups, Bureaucracies, and Societies

• A social network is a set of individuals linked by the exchange of material or emotional resources (formal or informal).
• Nodes are units of analysis, such as individuals, groups, organizations, or countries.
• A dyad is a social relationship between two nodes.
• A triad is a social relationship between three nodes.
• Group size impacts social dynamics.
• A social group is one or more networks of people who identify with one another and adhere to defined norms, roles, and statuses.
• Social Categories are people who share a similar status but do not identify with one another.
• Formal Organizations are designed to achieve explicit objectives.
• Bureaucracy is a large, impersonal organization with defined positions arranged in a hierarchy.
• Societies are collectives of interacting people who share a culture and usually a territory.