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WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?Prof. Alberto Pimentel Jr
WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?
➤ Sociology is the scientific study of societies and human social behavior.
➤ Human behavior is largely determined by the groups to which people belong and by the societies in which they live.
➤ Human groups can be as small as a group of friends and as large as 60,000 cheering fans at a professional football game.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
➤ Sociological Perspective: the powerful role that group membership and social forces play in shaping behavior.
➤ Rather than focusing on individuals, sociologists focus on social interaction and social relationships.
➤ The sociological perspective concentrates on human groups and the multiple influences on human behavior.
➤ As we progress through life, we may move from one group to another…and so on.
➤ Each interaction with a “new” group may influence our behavior.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
➤ The sociological perspective promotes the idea that beliefs, values, and behaviors are relative to particular groups or societies and can be understood only in the context of those affiliations.
➤ Within human behavior, diversity within different societies is limitless.
➤ Shared View of Reality: American perspective vs. World perspective
➤ We must understand that social practices (within a specific culture/group) cannot be understood unless it is viewed in the context of the shared view of reality found in a particular culture.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
➤ C. Wright Mills (1959), the sociological perspective offers the ability to understand that our own behavior and viewpoints are shaped by the intersection of biography and history…
➤ Biography is the point we are at in our own lives.
➤ History is the point in history in which we live.
➤ Example: White settlers vs. Native Americans
➤ Example: Wealthy vs. Poor
GLOBALIZATION
➤ Globalization refers to trends toward increasing interconnectedness between different peoples around the world and the growing unification of social and cultural life.
➤ Greater uniformity across societies and cultures.
➤ https://youtu.be/JJ0nFD19eT8
GLOBALIZATION
➤ Technological developments (rapid transportation and instant communication) have allowed societies throughout the world to become increasingly intertwined.
➤ Example: Global Branding
THE INTERNET…SOCIAL MEDIA
➤ The internet has drastically changed how humans communicate.
➤ The 20th & 21st century witnessed the creation and expansion of online communities…ultimately, shaping the social life of humans.
➤ The internet has torn down barriers and boundaries that were once created by distance.
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
➤ The sociological imagination refers to the ability to understand the relationship between what is happening in people’s personal lives and the social forces that surround them.
➤ Mills (1959) argued, the more people learn about society and social processes, the better equipped they will be to understand their own lives and the impact of society on them.
➤ Offers a sense of emancipation…we learn that social forces hinder us from achieving sought-after goals.
C. Wright Mills
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
➤ The functionalist perspective grew out of the similarities early sociologists observed between society and biological organisms.
➤ Example: The Human Body…parts within the body are not isolated..instead, they are interdependent and interrelated…if one fails, the entire operation of the human body is threatened.
➤ Society operates in a similar manner.
➤ Functionalist perspective: society is a system made up of a number of interrelated and interdependent elements, each performing a function that contributes to the operation of the whole.
➤ Society includes the following elements (institutions): the family, education, and the economy.
➤ In addition to institutions, society also includes: social roles, social groups, and subcultures, and all these parts fit together into a reasonably well-integrated whole.
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
➤ In a system with all the parts so tightly interdependent, a change in one element of society will probably lead to changes in other parts.
➤ Example: U.S Education System (Compulsory Education)- Age 8 to 16..required by law.
➤ A central concern for the functionalist perspective is the determination of what functions each element in society performs…not easy to determine the functions.
➤ In 1968, Merton argued the existence of two types of functions, manifest and latent.
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
➤ Manifest functions are intended consequences of some action or social process and refer to what most people expect to result.
➤ Latent functions are consequences that are unexpected or unintended.
➤ Example: Higher Education
CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
➤ Conflict theorists emphasize the inevitability of coercion, domination, conflict, and change in society.
➤ Conflict perspective: the idea that society consists of different groups who struggle with one another to attain the scarce societal resources that are considered valuable…(money, power, prestige, or the authority to impose one’s values on society).
➤ Karl Marx is the godfather of Conflict Theory.
Karl Marx
CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
➤ Karl Marx viewed society as consisting of different social classes…
➤ Two distinct social classes…workers vs. business owners..
➤ AKA…proletariat (working class) vs. bourgeoisie (ruling class).
➤ Workers struggled to gain more income and control over their labor/work.
➤ Owners sought to increase profits by lowering labor costs and getting workers to work harder.
CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE
➤ Marx’s believed that both groups could not reconcile their differences because when one group benefits, the other group loses.
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
➤ Interactionist perspective focuses on everyday social interaction among individuals rather than on large societal structures such as politics and education.
➤ Society consists of people interacting with one another, therefore, to understand society we must understand social interaction.
➤ Through these interactions, groups, organizations, and society as a whole are created, maintained, and changed.
➤ A central part of social interaction is people’s interpretations or definitions of others behavior.
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
➤ In order to define and interpret, human beings rely on symbols.
➤ Symbol-using capabilities enable humans to attach complex social meanings to objects, events, or people.
➤ Symbol: something that stands for, represents, or takes the place of something else.
➤ Any object, event, or word can serve as a symbol.
MEANING OF SYMBOLS
MEANING OF SYMBOLS
INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE
➤ As human beings, our ability to use symbols allows us to live in a society where we attach meanings to phenomena, therefore, we shape and create our own world.
➤ We respond to symbolic/social meanings rather than to actual physical objects or actions…we then interpret the meaning and respond.
➤ What Would You Do Video: Muslim
➤ https://youtu.be/XvIDqgyK8fw
COMMON SENSE VS. SOCIOLOGY
➤ Common Sense refers to ideas that are so completely taken for granted that they have never been seriously questioned and seem to be sensible to any reasonable person.
➤ Common Sense interpretations based on personal experience are an important means of processing information and deciding on a course of action.
➤ Does not necessarily mean that the ideas and assumptions we hold are accurate.
➤ The difference between common sense and sociology is that sociologist test their beliefs by gathering information and analyzing the evidence in a planned, objective, systematic, and replicable (repeatable) scientific way.
THE SOCIAL WORLD
➤ Levels of analysis:
➤ Social groups from the smallest to the largest.
➤ Small Groups: Family, Sports Team, Sorority
➤ Large Groups: Corporations, Colleges, Local and State Government
➤ The Social World model helps us picture the levels of analysis in our social surroundings as an interconnected series of small groups, organizations, institutions, and societies.
➤ Sometimes, these groups are connected by mutual support and cooperation, but sometimes, there are conflicts and power struggles over access to resources.
➤ Micro-level Analysis: a focus on the individual or small group interactions.
➤ It is important because face to face interaction forms the basic foundation of all social groups and organizations to which we belong, from families to corporations to societies.
➤ Meso-level Analysis: involves looking at units small than the nation but larger than the local community or region.
➤ Educational System
➤ National Not-For-Profit Organizations
➤ Ethnic Groups
➤ Marco-level Analysis: involves looking at entire nations, global forces and international social trends.
➤ Massive natural disasters
➤ Political conflicts
➤ “Culture of Rape”
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
➤ Social Units: interconnected parts of the social world.
➤ All social units combine to form the social structure.
➤ Social Structure: holds societies together and brings order to our lives by regulating the way the units work in combination.
➤ Sometimes the interconnections in the social structure conflict because of divergent beliefs of self interest within the various social units.
➤ Social Institutions are found in every society: family, education, religion, politics, economics, science, sports, and health care.
➤ Social Institutions provide the rules, roles, and relationships to meet human needs and guide human behavior.
➤ Social Institutions are parts of the social structure in society through which organized social activities take place, and they provide the setting for activities essential to human and societal survival.
➤ National Society: one of the largest social units.
➤ Includes: a population of people, usually living within a specified geographic area, who are connected by common ideas and are subject to a particular political authority.
➤ Subsystem of the interdependent global system.
SOCIAL PROCESSES
➤ Social Processes are the actions taken by people within social units.
➤ Social Processes keep the world working, much as the beating heart keeps the body working.
➤ Within Social Processes, socialization occurs.
➤ Socialization teachers individuals how to become productive members of society.
➤ Occurs through the family, educational system, religious organizations, and other social units.
➤ Socialization is essential for the continuation of any society.
➤ Similarly, our social positions in society are the result of stratification, the process of layering people into social strata based on such factors as birth, income, occupation, and education.
THE ENVIRONMENT
➤ It includes everything that influences the social unit, such as physical and organizational surroundings and technological innovations.
➤ Each unit has its own environment to which it must adjust.
