What is sociology?
The study of human society
What is sociological imagination?
The ability to connect one’s personal experiences to society at large and greater historical forces
What is a social institution?
A group of social positions, connected by social relations, that perform a social role
What is social identity?
How individuals define themselves in relationship to groups they are apart of
What was Auguste Comte known for?
- French Scholar
- founder of “social physics” or “positivism”
- felt he could better understand society by determining the logic or scientific laws governing human behavior
What was Harriet Martineau known for?
- first to translate Comte’s written works to English
* one of the earliest feminist social scientists
What is historical materialism?
- a theory developed by Karl Marx
* identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social change
Who was Max Weber?
- felt culture and politics as well as economics were important influences on society
- his emphasis on subjectivity became a foundation of interpretive sociology
Who was Emile Durkheim?
- considered the founding practitioner of positivist sociology
- developed the theory that the division of labor in a given society helps to determine how social cohesion (togetherness) is maintained, or not maintained, in society.
Who was Georg Simmel?
Established formal sociology (sociology based purely on numbers)
What was the importance of the Chicago School?
focused on empirical research with the belief that people’s behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical environments. This is a place were sociologists came together.
What is double consciousness?
- concept developed by W.E.B. DuBois
- refers to an individual’s constant awareness of how others perceive them and how those perceptions alter their own behavior
What do modern sociological theories include?
- fundamentalism
- postmodernism
- midrange theory
How does sociology differ from history and psychology?
- History focuses on specific instances and cases and studies only those specific cases
- Psychology focuses on ONE specific person and is on a much smaller scale
What is interpretive sociology?
focuses on the meanings people attach to social phenomena, prioritizes specific situations over a search for social facts that transcend time and place.
What is positivist sociology?
- called “normal science” model of sociology
- attempts to reveal the social facts that affect social life by developing and testing hypotheses based on theories about how the social world works
- NUMBERS AND TESTS
What is micro sociology?
- seeks to understand local interactional contexts, focusing on face-to-face encounters and gathering data through participant observations and in-depth interviews
- One small thing, gathering data, finding trends
What is macro sociology?
generally looks at social dynamics across WHOLE societies or large parts of them and often relies on statistical analysis to do so.
