Chapter 1 an introduction to sociology

Sociology
CHAPTER 1: An Introduction to Sociology
Prof.Dr. Halit Hami ÖZ
Kafkas Üniversitesi/Kafkas University
Kars, Turkey
hamioz@yahoo.com

Learning Objectives
 1.1. What Is Sociology?
 · Explain concepts central to sociology
 · Understand how different sociological perspectives have developed
 1.2. The History of Sociology
 · Explain why sociology emerged when it did
 · Describe how sociology became a separate academic discipline
 1.3. Theoretical Perspectives
 · Explain what sociological theories are and how they are used
 · Understand the similarities and differences between structural functionalism,
conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism
 1.4. Why Study Sociology?
 · Explain why it is worthwhile to study sociology
 · Identify ways sociology is applied in the real world

Download for free at
http://cnx.org/content/col11407/latest/ 2

Introduction to Sociology
 Concerts, sports games, and political rallies can have very
large crowds.
 When you attend one of these events, you may know only the
people you came with. Yet you may experience a feeling of
connection to the group.
 You are one of the crowd.
 You cheer and applaud when everyone else does. You boo
and yell alongside them.
 You move out of the way when someone needs to get by, and
you say "excuse me" when you need to leave.
 You know how to behave in this kind of crowd.

Introduction to Sociology
 It can be a very different experience if you are traveling in a foreign country and
find yourself in a crowd moving down the street.
 You may have trouble figuring out what is happening.
 Is the crowd just the usual morning rush, or is it a political protest of some kind?
 Perhaps there was some sort of accident or disaster.
 Is it safe in this crowd, or should you try to extract yourself?
 How can you find out what is going on?
 Although you are in it, you may not feel like you are part of this crowd.
 You may not know what to do or how to behave.

1.1 What Is Sociology?
 Figure 1.2 Sociologists learn about society as a whole while studying one-to-
one and group interactions. (Photo courtesy of Robert S. Donovan/flickr)

1.1 What Is Sociology?
 A dictionary defines sociology as the systematic
study of society and social interaction.
 The word “sociology” is derived from the Latin
word socius (companion) and the Greek word
logos (study of), meaning “the study of
companionship.”
 While this is a starting point for the discipline,
sociology is actually much more complex.
 It uses many different methods to study a wide
range of subject matter and to apply these
studies to the real world.

What Are Society and
Culture? Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society.
 A society is a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area,
and share a culture.
 A culture includes the group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs.
 One sociologist might analyze video of people from different societies as they
carry on everyday conversations to study the rules of polite conversation from
different world cultures.
 Another sociologist might interview a representative sample of people to see how
texting has changed the way they communicate.
 Yet another sociologist might study how migration determined the way in which
language spread and changed over time.
 A fourth sociologist might be part of a team developing signs to warn people living
thousands of years in the future, and speaking many different languages, to stay
away from still-dangerous nuclear waste.

Studying Patterns: How Sociologists View Society
 All sociologists are interested in the experiences of
individuals and how those experiences are shaped by
interactions with social groups and society as a whole.
 To a sociologist, the personal decisions an individual
makes do not exist in a vacuum.
 Cultural patterns and social forces put pressure on
people to select one choice over another.
 Sociologists try to identify these general patterns by
examining the behavior of large groups of people living
in the same society and experiencing the same societal
pressures.

 The recent turmoil in the U.S. housing market and the high rate of foreclosures
offer an example of how a sociologist might explore social patterns.
 Owning a home has long been considered an essential part of the American
Dream.
 People often work for years to save for a down payment on what will be the
largest investment they ever make.
 The monthly mortgage is often a person’s largest budget item. Missing one or
more mortgage payments can result in serious consequences.
 The lender may foreclose on the mortgage and repossess the property.
 People may lose their homes and may not be able to borrow money in the future.
 Walking away from the responsibility to pay debts is not a choice most people
make easily.

 About three million homes were repossessed in the United States
between 2006 and 2011. Experts predict the number could double
by 2013 (Levy and Gop 2011).
 This is a much higher rate than the historical average.
 What social factors are contributing to this situation, and where
might sociologists find patterns?
 Do Americans view debt, including mortgages, differently than in the
past?
 What role do unemployment rates play?
 Might a shift in class structure be an influential factor?
 What about the way major economic players operate?

 To answer these questions, sociologists will look beyond
individual foreclosures at national trends.
 They will see that in recent years unemployment has been at
record highs.
 They will observe that many lenders approved subprime
mortgages with adjustable rates that started low and
ballooned.
 They may look into whether unemployment and lending
practices were different for members of different social
classes, races, or genders.
 By analyzing the impact of these external conditions on
individuals’ choices, sociologists can better explain why
people make the decisions they do.

Figure 1.3 Risky bank loans, falling housing prices, and high
unemployment can result in higher foreclosure rates. (Photo courtesy of
Jeff Turner/flickr)

 Another example of how society
influences individual decisions can be
seen in people’s opinions about and use
of food stamps (also known as the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, or SNAP benefits).
 Some people believe that those who
receive food stamps are lazy and
unmotivated.
 Statistics from the United States
Department of Agriculture show a
complex picture.

Table 1.1 Food Stamp Use by State Sociologists examine social conditions in
different states to explain differences in the number of people receiving food
stamps. (Table courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Percent Eligible by Reason for Eligibility
Living Have Not In E & T Received Total Percent Waiver
Time Limitsa Program Exemption the FSPa
Alabama 29 62 / 72 0 1
Alaska 100 62 / 72 0 0
California 6 62 / 72 0 0
District of 100 62 / 72 0 0
Florida 48 62 / 72 0 0
Mississippi 39 62 / 72 0 3
73 / 80
100
64 / 74
100
80 / 85
100
Wyoming 7 62 / 72 0 0 64 / 74

 The percentage of the population receiving
food stamps is much higher in certain states
than in others.
 Does this mean, if the stereotype above were
applied, that people in some states are lazier
and less motivated than those in other
states?
 Sociologists study the economies in each
state—comparing unemployment rates, food,
energy costs, and other factors—to explain
differences in social issues like this

 To identify social trends, sociologists also study how
people use food stamps and how people react to their
use.
 Research has found that for many people from all
classes, there is a strong stigma attached to the use of
food stamps.
 This stigma can prevent people who qualify for this type
of assistance from using food stamps.
 According to Hanson and Gundersen (2002), how
strongly this stigma is felt is linked to the general
economic climate.
 This illustrates how sociologists observe a pattern in
society Download for free at

 Sociologists identify and study
patterns related to all kinds of
contemporary social issues.
 The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, the
emergence of the Tea Party as a
political faction, how Twitter has
influenced everyday communication—
these are all examples of topics that
sociologists might explore.

Studying Part and Whole: How Sociologists View Social
Structures
 A key basis of the sociological perspective is the concept that the individual and
society are inseparable.
 It is impossible to study one without the other.
 German sociologist Norbert Elias called the process of simultaneously analyzing
the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior figuration.
 He described it through a metaphor of dancing.
 There can be no dance without the dancers, but there can be no dancers without
the dance.
 Without the dancers, a dance is just an idea about motions in a choreographer’s
head.
 Without a dance, there is just a group of people moving around a floor.
 Similarly, there is no society without the individuals that make it up, and there are
also no individuals who are not affected by the society in which they live (Elias
1978).

Studying Part and Whole: How Sociologists View Social
Structures
 An application that makes this concept understandable
is the practice of religion.
 While people experience their religion in a distinctly
individual manner, religion exists in a larger social
context.
 For instance, an individual’s religious practice may be
influenced by what government dictates, holidays,
teachers, places of worship, rituals, and so on.
 These influences underscore the important relationship
between individual practices of religion and social
pressures that influence that religious experience

1.2 The History of
Sociology
 Since ancient times, people have been
fascinated by the relationship between
individuals and the societies to which
they belong.
 Many of the topics that are central to
modern sociological scholarship were
studied by ancient philosophers.
 Many of these earlier thinkers were
motivated by their desire to describe an
ideal society.

Figure 1.4 People have been thinking like sociologists long before sociology
became a separate academic discipline: Plato and Aristotle, Confucius, Khaldun, and
Voltaire all set the stage for modern sociology. (Photos (a),(b),(d) courtesy of Wikimedia
Commons; Photo (c) courtesy of Moumou82/Wikimedia Commons)

1.2 The History of
Sociology
 In the 13th century, Ma Tuan-Lin, a Chinese historian,
first recognized social dynamics as an underlying
component of historical development in his seminal
encyclopedia, General Study of Literary Remains.
 The next century saw the emergence of the historian
some consider to be the world’s first sociologist: Ibn
Khaldun (1332–1406) of Tunisia.
 He wrote about many topics of interest today, setting a
foundation for both modern sociology and economics,
including a theory of social conflict, a comparison of
nomadic and sedentary life, a description of political
economy, and a study connecting a tribe’s social
cohesion to its capacity for power (Hannoum 2003).

1.2 The History of
Sociology
 In the 18th century, Age of Enlightenment philosophers
developed general principles that could be used to explain
social life.
 Thinkers such as John Locke, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, and
Thomas Hobbes responded to what they saw as social ills by
writing on topics that they hoped would lead to social reform.

 The early 19th century saw great changes with the Industrial
Revolution, increased mobility, and new kinds of employment.
 It was also a time of great social and political upheaval with
the rise of empires that exposed many people—for the first
time—to societies and cultures other than their own.
 Millions of people were moving into cities and many people
were turning away from their traditional religious beliefs.

Figure 1.5 Auguste Comte is considered by many to be the father of
sociology. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

1.2 The History of
Sociology
 The term sociology was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836) in an unpublished
manuscript (Fauré et al. 1999). In 1838, the term was reinvented by
Auguste Comte (1798–1857).
 Comte originally studied to be an engineer, but later became a pupil
of social philosopher Claude Henri de Rouvroy Comte de Saint-
Simon (1760–1825).
 They both thought that society could be studied using the same
scientific methods utilized in natural sciences.
 Comte also believed in the potential of social scientists to work
toward the betterment of society.
 He held that once scholars identified the laws that governed society,
sociologists could address problems such as poor education and
poverty (Abercrombie et al. 2000).

1.2 The History of
Sociology
 Comte named the scientific study of social patterns
positivism.
 He described his philosophy in a series of books called
The Course in Positive Philosophy (1830–1842) and A
General View of Positivism (1848).
 He believed that using scientific methods to reveal the
laws by which societies and individuals interact would
usher in a new “positivist” age of history.
 While the field and its terminology have grown,
sociologists still believe in the positive impact of their
work.

Karl Marx was one of the founders of sociology. His ideas about
social conflict are still relevant today. (Photo courtesy of John
Mayall/Wikimedia Commons)

1.2 The History of
Sociology Karl Marx (1818–1883) was a German philosopher and economist. In 1848 he
and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) coauthored the Communist Manifesto.
 This book is one of the most influential political manuscripts in history. It also
presents Marx's theory of society, which differed from what Comte proposed.

 Marx rejected Comte's positivism.
 He believed that societies grew and changed as a result of the struggles of
different social classes over the means of production.
 At the time he was developing his theories, the Industrial Revolution and the rise
of capitalism led to great disparities in wealth between the owners of the factories
and workers.
 Capitalism, an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership
of goods and the means to produce them, grew in many nations.

1.2 The History of
Sociology
 Marx predicted that inequalities of capitalism would become so
extreme that workers would eventually revolt.
 This would lead to the collapse of capitalism, which would be
replaced by communism.
 Communism is an economic system under which there is no private
or corporate ownership: everything is owned communally and
distributed as needed.
 Marx believed that communism was a more equitable system than
capitalism.

 While his economic predictions may not have come true in the time
frame he predicted, Marx’s idea that social conflict leads to change
in society is still one of the major theories used in modern sociology.

1.2 The History of
Sociology

 The different approaches to research based on positivism or
antipositivism are often considered the foundation for the
differences found today between quantitative sociology and
qualitative sociology.
 Quantitative sociology uses statistical methods such as
surveys with large numbers of participants.
 Researchers analyze data using statistical techniques to see
if they can uncover patterns of human behavior.
 Qualitative sociology seeks to understand human behavior
by learning about it through in-depth interviews, focus groups,
and analysis of content sources (like books, magazines,
journals, and popular media).

 1.3 Theoretical Perspectives


Sociologists develop theories to explain social occurrences such
as protest rallies. (Photo courtesy of voanews.com/Wikimedia
Commons)

1.3 Theoretical Perspectives
 Sociologists study social events, interactions, and patterns.
They then develop theories to explain why these occur and
what can result from them.
 In sociology, a theory is a way to explain different aspects of
social interactions and to create testable propositions about
society (Allan 2006).

 For example, early in the development of sociology, Émile
Durkheim was interested in explaining the social
phenomenon of suicide.
 He gathered data on large groups of people in Europe who
had ended their lives.
 When he analyzed the data, he found that suicide rates
differed among groups with different religious affiliations.
 For example, the data showed that Protestants were more
likely to commit suicide than Catholics.

 To explain this, Durkheim developed the concept of
social solidarity.
 Social solidarity described the social ties that bind a
group of people together such as kinship, shared
location, or religion.
 Durkheim combined these concepts with the data he
analyzed to propose a theory that explained the
religion-based differences in suicide rates.
 He suggested that differences in social solidarity
between the two groups corresponded to the
differences in suicide rates.

 Theories vary in scope depending on the scale of the
issues they are meant to explain.
 Grand theories, also described as macro-level, are
attempts to explain large-scale relationships and answer
fundamental questions such as why societies form and why
they change.
 These theories tend to be abstract and can be difficult if
not impossible to test empirically.
 Micro-level theories are at the other end of the scale and
cover very specific relationships between individuals or
small groups.
 They are dependent on their context and are more
concrete. This means they are more scientifically testable.

 An example of a micro-theory would be a
theory to explain why middle-class teenage
girls text to communicate instead of making
telephone calls.
 A sociologist might develop a hypothesis that
the reason they do this is because they think
texting is silent and therefore more private.
 A sociologist might then conduct interviews or
design a survey to test this hypothesis. If
there is enough supportive data, a hypothesis
can become a theory.

 In sociology, a few theories provide broad perspectives that
help to explain many different aspects of social life.
 These theories are so prominent that many consider them
paradigms.
 Paradigms are philosophical and theoretical frameworks
used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations,
and the experiments performed in support of them.
 Three of these paradigms have come to dominate
sociological thinking because they provide useful
explanations:
 structural functionalism,
 conflict theory, and
 symbolic interactionism.

2 Sociological Theories or Perspectives Different sociological
perspectives enable sociologists to view social issues through a
variety of useful lenses.
Sociological Level of Paradigm Analysis
Functionalism Macro or mid
Conflict Theory Macro
How each part of society functions together to contribute
to the whole
How inequalities contribute to social differences and
perpetuate differences in power
Symbolic Interactionism
Micro One-to-one interactions and communications

Functionalism
 Functionalism, also called structural functional theory, sees society as a structure
with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of
individuals who make up that society.
 It is the oldest of the main theories of sociology. In fact, its origins began before
sociology emerged as a formal discipline.
 It grew out of the writings of English philosopher and biologist Herbert Spencer
(1820–1903) who likened society to a human body.
 He argued that just as the various organs in the body work together to keep the
entire system functioning and regulated, the various parts of society work together
to keep the entire society functioning and regulated (Spencer 1898).
 By parts of society, Spencer was referring to such social institutions as the
economy, political systems, healthcare, education, media, and religion.
 Spencer continued the analogy by pointing out that societies evolve just as the
bodies of humans and other animals do (Maryanski and Turner 1992).

Functionalism
 One of the founders of sociology, Emile Durkheim, applied Spencer’s analogy to explain the
structure of societies and how they change and survive over time.
 Durkheim believed that earlier, more primitive societies were held together because most
people performed similar tasks and shared values, language, and symbols.
 They exchanged goods and services in similar ways.
 Modern societies, according to Durkheim, were more complex.
 People served many different functions in society and their ability to carry out their function
depended upon others being able to carry out theirs.
 Durkheim's theory sees society as a complex system of interrelated parts, working together to
maintain stability (Durkheim 1893).
 According to this sociological viewpoint, the parts of society are interdependent.
 This means each part influences the others. In a healthy society, all of these parts work
together to produce a stable state called dynamic equilibrium (Parsons 1961).

Functionalism
 Durkheim believed that individuals may make up
society, but in order to study society, sociologists have
to look beyond individuals to social facts.
 Social facts are the laws, morals, values, religious
beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural
rules that govern social life (Durkheim 1895).
 Each of these social facts serves one or more functions
within a society.
 For example, one function of a society’s laws may be to
protect society from violence, while another is to punish
criminal behavior, while another is to preserve public
health.

Functionalism
 Another noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton (1910–2003), pointed out
that social processes often have many functions.
 Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or
anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social
process.
 A manifest function of college education, for example, includes gaining
knowledge, preparing for a career, and finding a good job that utilizes that
education.
 Latent functions of your college years include meeting new people, participating in
extracurricular activities, or even finding a spouse or partner.
 Another latent function of education is creating a hierarchy of employment based
on the level of education attained.
 Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Social processes that have
undesirable consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions.
 In education, examples of dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy,
dropping out, not graduating, and not finding suitable employment.

Criticism
 Structural-functionalism was the sociological
paradigm that prevailed between World War
II and the Vietnam War.
 Its influence declined in the 1960s and 1970s
because many sociologists believed that it
could not adequately explain the many rapid
social changes taking place at the time.
 Many sociologists now believe that structural
functionalism is no longer useful as a macro-
level theory, but that it does serve as useful
purpose in many mid-range analyses

Conflict Theory
 Another theory with a macro-level view, called conflict theory, looks at society as
a competition for limited resources.
 Conflict theory sees society as being made up of individuals who must compete
for social, political, and material resources such as political power, leisure time,
money, housing, and entertainment.
 Social structures and organizations such as religious groups, governments, and
corporations reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities.
 Some individuals and organizations are able to obtain and keep more
resources than others. These "winners" use their power and influence to
maintain their positions of power in society and to suppress the advancement of
other individuals and groups.
 Of the early founders of sociology, Karl Marx is most closely identified with this
theory.
 He focused on the economic conflict between different social classes. As he and
Fredrick Engels famously described in their Communist Manifesto,
 “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and
journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed” (1848).

Conflict Theory
 The German sociologist Max Weber agreed with Marx that
the economic inequalities of the capitalist system were a
source of widespread conflict.
 However, he disagreed that the conflict must lead to
revolution and the collapse of capitalism.
 Weber theorized that there was more than one cause for
conflict: besides economics, inequalities could exist over
political power and social status.
 The level of inequalities could also be different for different
groups based on education, race, or gender.
 As long as these conflicts remained separate, the system as
a whole was not threatened.

Criticism
 Just as structural functionalism was
criticized for focusing too much on the
stability of societies, conflict theory has
been criticized because it tends to focus
on conflict to the exclusion of recognizing
stability.
 Many social structures are extremely
stable or have gradually progressed over
time rather than changing abruptly as
conflict theory would suggest.

Symbolic InteractionistTheory
 Symbolic Interactionism provides a theoretical perspective
that helps scholars examine the relationship of individuals
within their society.
 This perspective is centered on the notion that
communication—or the exchange of meaning through
language and symbols—is how people make sense of their
social worlds.
 As pointed out by Herman and Reynolds (1994), this
viewpoint sees people as active in shaping their world, rather
than as entities who are acted upon by society (Herman and
Reynolds 1994).
 This approach looks at society and people from a micro-level
perspective.

 It was up to his student Herbert Blumer (1900–1987) to
interpret Mead's work and popularize the theory. Blumer
coined the term “symbolic interactionism” and
identified its three basic premises:

 1. Humans act toward things on the basis of the
meanings they ascribe to those things.

 2. The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises
out of, the social interaction that one has with others
and the society.
 3. These meanings are handled in, and modified
through, an interpretative process used by the person in
dealing with the things he/she encounters (Blumer
1969).

 Social scientists who apply symbolic-
interactionist thinking look for patterns of
interaction between individuals.
 Their studies often involve observation of
one-on-one interactions.
 For example, while a conflict theorist studying
a political protest might focus on class
difference, a symbolic interactionist would be
more interested in how individuals in the
protesting group interact, as well as the signs
and symbols protesters use to communicate
their message.

 The focus on the importance of symbols in
building a society led sociologists like Erving
Goffman (1922-1982) to develop a technique
called dramaturgical analysis.
 Goffman used theater as an analogy for
social interaction and recognized that
people’s interactions showed patterns of
cultural “scripts.”
 Because it can be unclear what part a person
may play in a given situation, he or she has
to improvise his or her role as the situation
unfolds (Goffman 1958).

Criticism
 Research done from this perspective
is often scrutinized because of the
difficulty of remaining objective.
 Others criticize the extremely narrow
focus on symbolic interaction.
 Proponents, of course, consider this
one of its greatest strengths.

Sociology in the Workplace
 Employers continue to seek people with what are called “transferable skills.” This
means that they want to hire people whose knowledge and education can be
applied in a variety of settings and whose skills will contribute to various tasks.
Studying sociology can provide people with this wide knowledge and a skill set
that can contribute to many workplaces, including:

 · an understanding of social systems and large bureaucracies,

 · the ability to devise and carry out research projects to assess whether a program
or policy is working,
 · the ability to collect, read, and analyze statistical information from polls or
surveys,

 · the ability to recognize important differences in people’s social, cultural, and
economic backgrounds,
 · skills in preparing reports and communicating complex ideas,

 · the capacity for critical thinking about social issues and problems that confront
modern society. (Department of Sociology, University of Alabama)

Sociology in the Workplace
 Sociology prepares people for a wide variety of
careers.
 Besides actually conducting social research or
training others in the field, people who graduate
from college with a degree in sociology are hired
by government agencies and corporations in
fields such as social services, counseling (e.g.,
family planning, career, substance abuse),
community planning, health services, marketing,
market research, and human resources.
 Even a small amount of training in sociology can
be an asset in careers like sales, public relations,
journalism, teaching, law, and criminal justice

Making Connections
 Sociology in the Real World
 Please “Friend” Me: Students and Social
Networking
 The phenomenon known as Facebook was designed
specifically for students. Whereas earlier generations
wrote notes in each other’s printed yearbooks at the
end of the academic year, modern technology and the
internet ushered in dynamic new ways for people to
interact socially. Instead of having to meet up on
campus, students can call, text, and Skype from their
dorm rooms. Instead of a study group gathering weekly
in the library, online forums and chat rooms help
learners connect. The availability and immediacy of
computer technology has forever changed the ways
students engage with each other.
 Download for free at

Making Connections
 Now, after several social networks have vied for primacy, a
few have established their place in the market and some
have attracted niche audience.
 While Facebook launched the social networking trend geared
toward teens and young adults, now people of all ages are
actively “friending” each other.
 LinkedIn distinguished itself by focusing on professional
connections, serving as a virtual world for workplace
networking.
 Newer offshoots like Foursquare help people connect based
on the real-world places they frequent,
 while Twitter has cornered the market on brevity.

Making Connections
 These newer modes of social interaction have also
spawned harmful consequences, such as cyberbullying
and what some call FAD, or Facebook Addiction
Disorder. Researchers have also examined other
potential negative impacts, such as whether
Facebooking lowers a student’s GPA, or whether there
might be long-term effects of replacing face-to-face
interaction with social media.
 All of these social networks demonstrate emerging
ways that people interact, whether positive or negative.
They illustrate how sociological topics are alive and
changing today. Social media will most certainly be a
developing topic in the study of sociology for decades to
come.


Chapter 1 an introduction to sociology

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (20)

Similar to Chapter 1 an introduction to sociology (20)

More from Prof. Dr. Halit Hami Öz (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Chapter 1 an introduction to sociology