Response 2: Sociological Theory
Please respond to the following prompt in no less than 300-400 words. In your response, you must fully answer all aspects of the question and support your answer with reference to course materials (textbook, supplementary readings, videos, etc).
- Pick one of the sociological theories you've learned about in this unit. What are its core assumptions about how society and social life work? What are its strengths? its weaknesses? What makes it different from other theories you've learned about?
oTHER INFORMATION
Social Theory
It might surprise you to learn that sociologists do not have a single, unified theory of human society. In fact, they very often don't agree with each other! Sociology has at least three major theoretical perspectives that act as lenses through which to view social life – and a lot smaller, more specific theories for various topics of sociological interest. As you learn about these theories, don't feel compelled to choose between them; rather, think about how they each show us different things.
Introduction to Sociology
Wikibooks.org
August 11, 2012
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Contents
1 Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 What is Sociology? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.2 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.3 Sociology and Other Social Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 2.4 Sociology Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.5 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 2.6 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3 Sociological methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.2 The Development of Social Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3 The Scientific Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3.4 Correlation and Causation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 Quantitative and Qualitative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 5 Objective vs. Critical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6 Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 7 What Can Sociology Tell Us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 10 General sociological theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 10.2 Structural-Functionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 10.3 Conflict Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 10.4 Symbolic Interactionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 10.5 Role Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 10.6 Social Constructionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 10.7 Integration Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 10.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 10.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
11 Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 11.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 11.2 Societal Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 11.3 Classical Views on Social Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 11.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 11.5 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
12 Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 12.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 12.2 Subcultures & Countercultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 12.3 Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 12.4 Theories of Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
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12.5 Cultural Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 12.6 Cultural Sociology: Researching Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 12.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 12.8 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
13 Socialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 13.1 Elements of Socialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 13.2 Theoretical Understandings of Socialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 13.3 Research Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 13.4 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 13.5 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 13.6 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
14 Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 14.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 14.2 Social Identity Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 14.3 Primary and Secondary Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 14.4 Group Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 14.5 Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 14.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 14.7 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
15 Demography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 15.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 15.2 Why study demography? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 15.3 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 15.4 Data and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 15.5 The Demographic Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 15.6 Population Growth and Overpopulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 15.7 Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 15.8 Urbanization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 15.9 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
16 Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 16.1 Dividing the lifespan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 16.2 Socially Constructed Aspects of Aging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 16.3 Differential Treatment by Age or Ageism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 16.4 Age and Income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 16.5 Age and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 16.6 Age and Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 16.7 Aging in the US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 16.8 Global Aging Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 16.9 Aging and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 16.10 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 16.11 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
17 Deviance and norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 17.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 17.2 Theories of Deviance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 17.3 Crime Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 17.4 Social Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 17.5 Current Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 17.6 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
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17.7 Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 17.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 17.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
18 Race and ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 18.1 Race and Ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 18.2 The Changing Definitions of Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 18.3 Social Construct or Biological Lineage? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 18.4 Prejudice, Bias, and Discrimination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 18.5 Racism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 18.6 Minorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 18.7 Racial Stratification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 18.8 A Research Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 18.9 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 18.10 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 18.11 Recommended Readings for Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 18.12 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
19 Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 19.1 Gender vs. Sex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 19.2 Biological Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 19.3 Social and Psychological Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 19.4 Sexism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 19.5 Theories of Gender Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 19.6 Research Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 19.7 Additional Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 19.8 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 19.9 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 19.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
20 Stratification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 20.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 20.2 Socioeconomic Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 20.3 Social class in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 20.4 Dominant Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 20.5 Intersections of Class, Race, and Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 20.6 Capitalism, class, privilege, and oppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 20.7 Capitalism, race and gender inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 20.8 Points of View: Micro-Meso-Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 20.9 Global Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 20.10 Consequences of Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 20.11 Questions for Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 20.12 Applying Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 20.13 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 20.14 Recommended Reading for Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 20.15 See Also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 20.16 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
21 Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 21.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 21.2 Capitalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 21.3 Socialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
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21.4 Economic measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 21.5 Informal economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 21.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
22 Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 22.1 What is a family? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 22.2 Families and Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 22.3 The Family Life Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 22.4 Families and Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 22.5 New Developments in Families . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 22.6 Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 22.7 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 22.8 See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 22.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
23 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 23.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 23.2 Definitions of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 23.3 The Church-Sect Typology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 23.4 Theories of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 23.5 World Religions and Religious History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 23.6 Religion and Other Social Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 23.7 The Future of Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 23.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 23.9 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
24 Health and medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 24.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 24.2 Health Disparities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 24.3 Paying for Medical Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 24.4 Behavior and Environmental Influences on Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 24.5 The Evolution of Health Care and Medicine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 24.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 24.7 Recommended Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 24.8 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
25 Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 25.1 What is Politics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 25.2 Power, Authority, and Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 25.3 Types of Governments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 25.4 Political Parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 25.5 Voting Patterns and Inequality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 25.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
26 Collective behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 26.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 26.2 Why Study Collective Behavior? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360 26.3 Crowds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 26.4 Panic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364 26.5 Riots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 26.6 Mass Hysteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 26.7 Fads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 26.8 Rumors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
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26.9 Research Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 26.10 Suggested Multimedia Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 26.11 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 26.12 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
27 Social movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 27.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371 27.2 Types of Social Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 27.3 Stages in Social Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 27.4 Social Movement Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 27.5 New Social Movement theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 27.6 Examples of Social Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 27.7 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 27.8 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 27.9 External Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
28 Being a Sociologist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 28.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 28.2 Sociology Majors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 28.3 Bachelor's Degree Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 28.4 PhD Degree Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 28.5 Personal Experiences of Individuals With Degrees in Sociology . . . . . . . . . . 386 28.6 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386 28.7 External Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
29 Sociological Videos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 30 Famous Sociologists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 31 License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423 32 Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425 List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427 33 Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
33.1 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 33.2 GNU Free Documentation License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436 33.3 GNU Lesser General Public License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Note: current version of this book can be found at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_- Sociology1http://2
1 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology 2 http://
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1 Authors
• Rcragun1 Ryan T. Cragun, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Tampa • Contribution: Initial book layout and the development of most of the first 15 chapters
• Deborahcragun2 Deborah Cragun, MS Human Genetics • Contribution: Developed the chapters on health care and medicine and race and ethnicity.
• Piotrus3 Piotr Konieczny, PhD student in sociology, University of Pittsburgh • Contributions: various small changes, videos, slides and downloadable tools
Noted Contributors4
1 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3ARcragun 2 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3ADeborahcragun 3 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User%3APiotrus 4 http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Category%3AIntroduction%20to%20Sociology
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2 Introduction
Sociology is the study of human social life. Sociology has many sub-sections of study, ranging from the analysis of conversations to the development of theories to try to understand how the entire world works. This chapter will introduce you to sociology and explain why it is important, how it can change your perspective of the world around you, and give a brief history of the discipline.
2.1 What is Sociology?
Figure 2 Emile Durkheim, one of the founders of Sociology.
Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of government policies designed to benefit the general social welfare. Its subject matter ranges from the micro
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Introduction
level to the macro level. Microsociology involves the study of people in face-to-face interactions. Macrosociology involves the study of widespread social processes.
Sociology is a broad discipline in terms of both methodology and subject matter. Its traditional focuses have included social relations, social stratification, social interaction, culture and deviance, and its approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. As much of what humans do fits under the category of social structure or social activity, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to such far-flung subjects as the study of economic activity, health disparities, and even the role of social activity in the creation of scientific knowledge.1 The range of social scientific methods has also been broadly expanded. The "cultural turn" of the 1970s and 1980s brought more humanistic interpretive approaches to the study of culture in sociology. Conversely, the same decades saw the rise of new mathematically rigorous approaches, such as social network analysis.
The social world is changing. Some argue it is growing; others say it is shrinking.2 The important point to grasp is: society does not remain unchanged over time. As will be discussed in more detail below, sociology has its roots in significant societal changes (e.g., the industrial revolution3, the creation of empires4, and the age of enlightenment5 of scientific reasoning). Early practitioners developed the discipline as an attempt to understand societal changes.
Some early sociological theorists (e.g., Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) were disturbed by the social processes they believed to be driving the change, such as the quest for solidarity, the attainment of social goals, and the rise and fall of classes, to name a few examples. The founders of sociology were some of the earliest individuals to employ what C. Wright Mills (a prominent mid-20th century American sociologist) labeled the sociological imagination: the ability to situate personal troubles within an informed framework of social issues.6 Mills proposed that:
"What people need… is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and of what may be happening within themselves. The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals."7
As Mills saw it, the sociological imagination could help individuals cope with the social world by helping them to step outside of their personal, self-centric view of the world. In employing the sociological imagination, people are able to see the events and social structures that influence behavior, attitudes, and culture.
The sociological imagination goes beyond armchair sociology or common sense. Many people believe they understand the world and the events taking place within it, even though they have not actually engaged in a systematic attempt to understanding the social world, as sociologists do. Humans like to attribute causes to events and attempt to understand what is taking place around
1 Moore, Kelly. 2008. Disrupting Science: Social Movements, American Scientists, and the Politics of the Military, 1945-1975. Princeton University Press.
2 Putnam, Robert D. 2001. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. 1st ed. Simon & Schuster.
3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial%20Revolution 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/empire 5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age%20of%20Enlightenment 6 Mills, C. Wright. 2000. The Sociological Imagination. 40th ed. Oxford University Press, USA. 7 Mills, C. Wright. 2000. The Sociological Imagination. 40th ed. Oxford University Press, USA.
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