Take five minutes and write down your reactions to…

Rules defining appropriate and inappropriate

behavior; ways of behaving in specific situations; guides people to

behave similarly in similar circumstances; ingrained and we are typically unaware of them until they

are broken

Expected BehaviorExpected Behavior• Stand in line when

buying your lunch

• Earning your own income through work and effort

ViolationViolation• Cutting in line

• Stealing from others

What happens when are violated?

• Norms are learned and accepted• Groups teach norms through use of

sanctions – Rewards/punishments used to encourage

conformity

• Sanctions are used– Humiliation; people staring– Asked to move back to the end of the

line/guilt– Jail time, fines, etc.

• The study of modern human social behavior as a group (psychology – individual)

• Examine the patterns of behavior that are shared by members of a group (social factors that influence our actions)

• The sociological perspective focuses on the group not the individual– Young men join gangs because they have been

taught by their society to be “masculine” NOT a young man joins a gang to prove his toughness

PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING…

•SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE: Looks at the behavior of GROUPS not individuals

SOCIAL STRUCTUREand the study of social

behavior help to create a social structure.

- An environment that prescribes/dictates members of a group to behave in a certain way.

I can’t determine how you

will act when you’re alone,

but I can make predictions

as to how groups of people

typically behave.

• When groups form, individual personalities no longer solely dictate the behavior of an individual

• Because of a group environment/setting as individuals we behave differently then we might otherwise if we were alone

- Example: 2008 World Series Champions Philadelphia Phillies

• Understanding how social forces impact our decisions as individuals

• Helps you make sound decisions (sometimes influenced by the social structure but at least you are aware of that)

How many of you are the exact same person with your friends as you are with your family?

Or

How many of you act the same way in school as you do on the weekends with your friends (language, demeanor, attitude, clothes, etc.)

Auguste Comte

• 1798-1857• Considered “Father of Sociology”• Coined the term sociology• Create a science to study society• Used scientific observation• Positivism – science based on knowledge

that we can be sure about• Studied social statics (stability) and dynamics

(social change)• Positive Philosophy - book

Harriet Martineau

• 1802-1876

• English

• Translation of Comte’s work• “mother of sociology”• Contributed to sociological research

methods, political economy, and feminist theory

• Book – Society in America

Herbert Spencer

• 1820-1903• English

• Without interference from people, natural social selection would ensure survival of the fittest.

• Used Theory of Social Darwinism– Opposed social reform– Allow nature of wealth/poverty to take its course– This will help develop/structure society the way it is

meant to be

Karl Marx

• 1818-1883• German• Believed social scientists should try and change

the world/society not just study it• Studied class conflict

– Believed a classless society would prevail (communism)

– Bourgeoisie/capitalists – own the means of production (money, factories, etc.)

– Proletariat - workers

Emile Durkheim• 1858-1917• French• Society exists because of

consensus/agreement– Pre-industrial society – mechanical

solidarity (based on consensus)– Industrial society – organic solidarity

(based on each person having specialized roles, interdependent upon one another)

• Developed sociological research tools– Observation– statistics

Max Weber

• 1864-1920

• German

• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism – book

• Verstehen – putting yourself in someone else’s shoes

• Rationalization

Jane Addams

• 1860-1935

• American

• Social reformer – seeking social justice

• Imbalance of power among social classes and its effects of industrialism on poor

• Not considered a sociologist while living

WEB DuBois

• 1868-1963

• American

• Social structure of African American communities

• American sociologist

• sociological imagination - being able to connect individual experiences and societal relationships

C. Wright Mills

• American psychologist, sociologist, and educator • demonstrated that "personality emerges from

social influences, and that the individual and the group are complementary aspects of human association”AKA…concept of the looking glass self, which is the concept that a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others

Charles Cooley

• American sociologist• 1937 Known as the founder of the symbolic

interactionism concept (Man and Society)– Humans behave according to the meanings that things and

events have for them. – Individual meanings of things and events stem from interaction

with others. – Meanings entail interpretation rather than simple literal

compliance with standardized expectations

• His earlier work included Movies and Conduct (1933) and Movies, Delinquency, and Crime (1933). A collection of essays concerning social organization and industrialization formed from the perspective of social interactionism

Herbert Blumer

• 1959 - Most influential work on social inequality is Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society.– The problem of inequality in modern, or postcapitalist,

societies – Neither structural functionalism nor Marxism alone

provides an acceptable perspective on advanced society

• Criticized and wanted to challenge the “false, utopian representation of societal harmony, stability, and consensus by the structural functionalist school”

Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf

• American sociologist

• One of the founders of social psychology and the American sociological tradition in general

• Most influential idea was the emergence of mind and self from the communication process between organisms, discussed in Mind, Self and Society, also known as social behaviorism– Aligns with symbolic interactionism theory

George Mead

• A set of assumptions about the workings of society

• Viewed as true by its supporters

– To be able to examine a

social situation using all

three theories is best

(gives best understanding)

Sociology has THREE major theories (each has its own followers)…AH AH

AHHHH!

Line up in order of birth date. Youngest (left) to oldest (right)No talking, no pen and paper,

no ID’s

Theory 1: • Emphasizes the contributions made by each

part of society (ex. Family, religion, economics)

• Everyone in society has a function in which they seek to fulfill

• Societies tend to turn towards a state of stability

Birth Order Activity

All parts of society/group working together for common goal

(functionalism)

Theory 1: • Manifest Functions: Intended and

recognized consequences

• Latent Functions: Unintended and unrecognized consequences

• Dysfunction: Negative consequences

Theory 2:

• Emphasizes conflict and competition

(Opposite of Functionalism)

• Groups compete to preserve and promote their own special values and interests

Theory 2:

• As the balance of power shifts in society, change occurs

• POWER = The ability to control the behavior of others

Women’s movement is

shifting power between

men and women

• Play two rounds of musical chairs, removing a chair each time

• From here forward anyone left without a chair when the music stops may share a chair with someone (emphasizes cooperation – functionalism, rather then competition – conflict theory)

• How can this game be explained by the theoretical perspectives?– First two rounds illustrate competition = conflict theory

(limited resources and the fight for those resources)– Later rounds promote cooperation =

functionalism

What were the Manifest and Latent Functions of Musical Chairs?

Manifest = Demonstrating Theories

Latent = Fun

Theory 3: What is the symbol?

What do you think of seeing this symbol?

What/who would you expect to see with this symbol?

Where might you see this symbol?

How might you behave because of this symbol?

Theory 3: • Coined by Herbert Blumer

• SYMBOL: anything that stands for something else and has an agreed-upon meaning.– We learn the meaning of symbols by watching

others

– We use learned meanings to help us imagine how others are going to respond to the same symbol and base our actions accordingly

A guest speaker visiting your sociology class described her tour of duty as an army nurse in Vietnam during the height of the conflict. She

commented that her parents forbade her to enlist because they felt the war was not a

legitimate cause. She was eighteen; she felt free to choose. When she returned home two

years later, she faced criticism and ridicule from students on her college campus, as well as from her parents. Thirty years later she has

been recognized as a U.S. war hero.