Lesson 1: What is Sociology? Intro to Sociology. Three revolutions had to take place before the sociological imagination could crystallize: The scientific.

Lesson 1:

What is Sociology?

Intro to Sociology

Three revolutions had to take place before the sociological imagination could crystallize: The scientific revolution (16th c.)

encouraged the use of evidence to substantiate theories.

The democratic revolution (18th c.) encouraged the view that human action can change society.

The industrial revolution (19th c.) gave sociologists their subject matter.

SociologySociology is the systematic study of human society and social interaction. It is based on the idea that our relations with other people create opportunities for us to think and act but also set limits on our thoughts and action.

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What is Sociology?

Sociology is also the study of reifications, or social constructions.

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SociologyHoward Becker defined

sociology as the study of people “doing things together.”

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SociologyThis reminds us that

society and the individual are inherently connected, and each depends on the other.

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SociologySociologists study this

link: how society affects the individual and how the individual affects society.

A society is a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is

subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

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Society Is….

A society is a group of people who share a culture and live more or less together. They have a set of institutions which provide what they need to meet their physical, social, and psychological needs and which maintain order and the values of the culture.

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Social structures are the more or less stable patterns of people’s interactions and relationships.

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Institutions are the principal social structures that organize, direct, and execute the essential tasks of living.

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Some institutions are: Family,Educational, Economic, Religion, Law, Political Systems

Sociological Imagination

The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.

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Cool Insights from Sociology

Humans cannot be understood apart from social context (i.e. society)

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Cool Insights from Sociology

Society makes us who we are by structuring out interactions and laying out an orderly world before us

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Cool Insights from Sociology

Society is a social construction, that is an idea created by humans (i.e. doesn’t exist in the biological world but only in the social world) through social interaction and given a reality through our understanding of it and our collective actions.

Society Influences You

Death…

Related to society?

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Baby Names

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Names that have gained the most popularity, 2004 – 2010

...Or, the names I’ll begin seeing all the time in 2022-2028

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What Does Society Look Like?

While the idea of society is familiar, describing it can be difficult. Ultimately society is made up of many different components, such as culture, race, family, education, social class, and people’s interactions.

People who share a culture and territory

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Meaning through Interaction

People actively and collectively shape their own lives, organizing their social interactions and relationships into a meaningful world.

Sociologists study this social behavior by seeking out its patterns.

Patterns are crucial to our understanding of society

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Society

Society is a group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from other groups.

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The Social Sciences Social Sciences are the disciplines

that use the scientific method to examine the social world, in contrast to the natural sciences, which examine the physical world.

Examples of social sciences include ….?

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How Sociology fits in

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Levels of Analysis We can study society from different levels: Microsociology is the level of analysis that

studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and institutions of society.

Microsociology focuses on small-scale issues. Ex: Symbolic Interactionism

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Levels of Analysis (cont)

Macrosociology is the level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals.

Macrosociology focuses on large-scale issues. Ex: Functionalism, Conflict Theory

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How We Use Levels of Analysis

Pam Fishman took a micro-level approach to studying issues of power in male–female relationships.

She found that in conversation, women ask nearly three times as many questions as men do, perhaps because a speaker is much more likely to ask a question if he or she does not expect to get a response by simply making a statement.

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Levels of Analysis (cont) When conducting research, methodology

involves the process by which one gathers and analyzes data.

Quantitative research translates the social world into numbers that can be treated mathematically; this type of research often tries to find cause-and-effect relationships.

Any type of social statistic is an example of quantitative research.

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Levels of Analysis (cont) Qualitative research works with non-

numerical data such as texts, fieldnotes, interview transcripts, photographs, and tape recordings; this type of research often tries to understand how people make sense of their world.

Participant observation, in which the researcher actually takes part in the social world he or she studies, is an example of qualitative research.

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Take Away Points

Humans cannot be understood apart from the social context they live in (society, culture and time + place)

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Take Away Points

The world around us profoundly shapes and influences who we are, how we behave and even how/what we think.

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Take Away Points

It is the job of the sociologist to understand how this process works and to what effect.

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Lesson Quiz

1. Which of the following is NOT an example of a social science?a. biologyb. political sciencec. psychologyd. economics

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Lesson Quiz

2. Sociology is defined as:a. the scientific study of humans.b. the study of ancient cultures and

behavior.c. the study of how the brain works.d. the study of human society and social

behavior.

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Lesson Quiz

3. __________ is the level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how those interactions affect the larger patterns and institutions of society.a. Microsociologyb. Macrosociologyc. Sociologyd. Social science

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Lesson Quiz

4. A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment is called:a. cultural mind.b. culture shakes.c. cultural fear.d. culture shock.

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For Next Time:

How we come to understand the social world

Theories and Theorists Read more!