Ch 1 – The Sociological Perspective

 

I.                    Why a sociological perspective? 

This perspective is important because it provides a different way of looking at familiar worlds.

a.       It allows us to gain a new vision of social life.

b.      It stresses the broader social context of behavior by looking at the social location of individuals.

c.       We are able to see the links between what people do and the social settings that shape their lives.

d.      It allows us to understand events in both the local and global contexts.

 

II.                 The origins of sociology

a.       Sociology as a separate, formal discipline developed in the middle of the 19^th century when European social observers began to use scientific methods to test their ideas.  During the 18^th century, some critical new ideas about society began to emerge – Vico, Montesquieu, the Scottish thinkers – Adam Smith, David Hume, Ferguson, Saint-Simon (France) who examined industrial society and the changes from feudal to industrial society.

b.      Some of the key antecedent ideas included Hobbes idea that there was not a Divine Order to social organization.  The rise of the Age of Reason and the development of the natural sciences helped challenge the underlying assumptions about society and social order.  The French and American Revolutions helped encourage the rethinking of ideas of social life.

c.       Auguste Comte coined the term “sociology”

                                                               i.      Suggested the use of ‘positivism’, applying the scientific approach to the study of the social world.

                                                             ii.      This new science would discover the laws of society, and the application of those laws would ensure social balance.

d.      Herbert Spencer (England) viewed society as evolutionary.

                                                               i.      Based on the ideas of Darwin, he saw society as similarly undergoing a process of evolutionary change.

                                                             ii.      There should be no intervention in the process; social reform was wrong.  The process would ensure that those best suited would survive.

e.       Karl Marx. (Germany and later England)  His ideas about social classes and class conflict became the foundation of conflict theory.

                                                               i.      Marx believed that class conflict was the key to human history.

                                                             ii.      Marx argued that people should take active steps to change history.

f.        Emile Durkheim (France) – important to the development of sociology as a discipline

                                                               i.      A primary goal was to have sociology recognized as a discipline.

                                                             ii.      He was also concerned with the content of sociology.  Wrote the “Rules of sociological methods”, detailing the scientific study of society.  Such research should lead to solutions.

                                                            iii.      His study of suicide examined the mechanisms that connect people to society – social integration.  His conclusions remain valid.

g.       Max Weber (Germany) was one of the most influential sociologists, raising issues which remain controversial.

                                                               i.      Weber believed religion was the central force in social change. (Protestantism encouraged greater economic development and was the key factor in the rise of capitalism in some countries.)

                                                             ii.      This contradicted Marx who believed economics was the central force in social change.

                                                            iii.      Weber believed that sociological research should be value-free; personal values should not influence social research.  While sociologists agree that research should be objective, true value-freedom is not possible.  There are methodological ways of ensuring objectivity.

                                                           iv.      Debate still continues about the proper role of sociologists in contemporary society.

 

III.               Other voices.

a.       The text recognizes some of the other voices which are only now being heard. These voices were largely ignored due to gender and race.

 

IV.              Sociology in North America.

a.       Sociology emerged in America in the 1890s at Universities of Kansas, Chicago and Atlanta University (where W.E.B. DuBois was located)

b.      The University of Chicago (known more familiarly as the Chicago School) was most dominant in early American sociology.  Some of the principal names -  Mead, Cooley, Park, Burgess – were all part of the Chicago School.

c.       In general American sociology was more focused on “local level” issues rather than society-wide issues as was the case in Europe.

d.      The social changes following the Civil War, including internal migration and immigration from Europe led to a greater focus on social reform rather than theory.  The interest in more general social theory came in the 1940s

 

V.                 Theoretical perspectives in Sociology

a.       A theory is a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work.  A theory explains how two or more facts are related to one another.

                                                               i.      Sociologists use three different theoretical perspectives to understand behavior:  symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory.

b.      Symbolic interactionism views symbols, things to which we attach meaning, as the basis of social life.

                                                               i.      Through the use of symbols, people are able to define relationships to others, to coordinate actions with others thereby making social life possible, and to develop a sense of who and what they are.

c.       Functional analysis has as its central idea that society is a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together.

                                                               i.      To understand society, we must look at both structure (how the parts of society fit together to make up the whole) and function (how each part contributes to society).

                                                             ii.      Robert Merton used the term function to refer to the beneficial outcomes of people’s actions to keep society stable, and dysfunction to refer to those outcomes that undermine stability.

                                                            iii.      Functions can be either manifest (actions and consequences that are intended) or latent (unintended consequences).

d.      Conflict theory – Society is viewed as composed of groups competing for scarce resources.

                                                               i.      Marx focused on struggles between the bourgeoisie, or the small group of capitalists who own the means of production, and the proletariat, the masses of workers exploited by the capitalists.

                                                             ii.      Contemporary conflict theorists have expanded this perspective to include conflict in all relations of power and authority.

e.       The perspectives differ in their level of analysis.

                                                               i.      Functionalists and conflict theorists provide macro-level analysis because they examine the large-scale patterns of society.

                                                             ii.      Symbolic interactionists carry out micro-level analysis because they focus on the small-scale patterns of behavior.

f.         Each perspective provides a different and often contrasting picture of the world.  Sociologists often use all three perspectives because no one theory can provide a complete picture of society.

 

 

Chapter 2  Culture

 

1. What is culture?
   1. Non-material culture:

                                                               i.       language, beliefs, values, norms – a group’s way of thinking, and

                                                             ii.       gestures, other forms of interaction - common patterns of behavior.

2. Material culture:

                                                               i.      The manufactured items within a culture – art, buildings, clothing, hairstyles

3. Together, these are passed from one generation to the next.
4. Culture provides a taken-for-granted orientation to life.

                                                               i.      Culture penetrates our live so deeply that it forms the lens through which we evaluate things and events. (Sapir-Whorf thesis)

                                                             ii.      Culture is learned.

                                                            iii.      Culture provides us with instructions of what we ought to do, and defines what is wrong or right.

                                                           iv.      Culture shock occurs when we encounter a culture different from our own.

                                                             v.      Ethnocentrism – judging another’s culture by the standards of one’s own.

5. Cultural relativism. Understanding a group’s way of life within its own context. 

 

2. Components of Symbolic Culture (non-material culture)
   1. Use of symbols to communicate.  Symbols: things to which people have attached meanings).  Symbols include gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores.

                                                               i.      Gestures – using one’s body to communicate. Used in every culture, although gestures and the meanings attached to them differ among cultures.

                                                             ii.      Language: a system of symbols (written, visual, verbal) used to communicate abstract thought.

1.      Each word is a symbol to which a culture attaches particular meaning, allowing communications.

2.      Language allows human experience to be cumulative, each adding to the body of significant experiences passed on by earlier generations.  This includes history and folklore.

3.      Allows shared perspectives or understandings of the past and future.  Also allows the exchange of perspectives i.e. ideas about event and experiences.

4.      Allows complex goal-directed behavior.

5.      Sapir-Whorf thesis.  Language shapes our thinking and perception; determines our consciousness of things around us.

                                                            iii.      Culture includes values, norms, and sanctions

1.      Folkways are not strictly enforced, defining right from rude.

2.      Values:  standards by which people define good, bad, beautiful, ugly.  Every group develops values and expectations regarding the right way to reflect them, what is appropriate behavior.

 

3.      Norms are expectations by which people determine good or bad; norms develop out of a group’s values.

a.       Norms vary in their importance to a culture

b.      Folkways are norms that are not very strictly enforced; right vs. rude.

c.       Mores: norms believed to be essential to core values; conformity required.

d.      Norms in one culture or group may be a folkway in another.

e.       Taboos are strongly ingrained; breaches may be treated with revulsion, e.g. incest taboo.

4.      Sanctions are the positive or negative reactions to how people follow norms.

 

3. Subcultures and Countercultures
   1. Subcultures and countercultures are often found within the broader culture

                                                               i.      Subcultures: groups whose values are related behaviors are so distinct that they set the group as distinct from the dominant culture.

                                                             ii.      Subcultures as world within the larger world; distinctive view of life while compatible with dominant culture.

2. Counter cultures: groups whose values set members in opposition to dominant culture

                                                               i.      Most associated with negative behavior, but not all.

                                                             ii.      Are often perceived as a threat to the dominant culture because they challenge the culture’s values.  Actions against the counterculture serve to reinforce core values.

 

4. Values in US Society
   1. Identifying core values difficult due to the pluralistic nature of American society.

                                                               i.      Robin Williams identified: Achievement and success (doing better than others); Individualism (success due to individual effort) activity and work; efficiency and practicality; science and technology (using science to control nature) progress, material comfort, humanitarianism (helpfulness, kindness, philanthropy) freedom, democracy, equality; racism and group superiority.

                                                             ii.      Henslin added religiosity (belief in a Superior being and related sets of precepts) romantic love and monogamy.

2. Some values conflict with each other

                                                               i.      Values of democracy and equality cannot coexist with racism and group superiority

                                                             ii.      As society changes values are challenged and undergo change. Core values do not change without strong resistance e.g. civil rights struggles.

3. Values not independent units.

                                                               i.      Value clusters are made up of related sets of core values that come together to form a larger whole.  Success: hard work, education, efficiency, material comfort and individualism.

                                                             ii.      Merging cluster in Am Society do so around self-fulfillment, physical fitness and youth.

                                                            iii.      Values and their supporting beliefs shape how we see the world around us.

4. Ideal culture: ideal norms and values of a people.  Real culture those people actually follow.

 

5. Technology in the global context
   1. Technology includes tools, as well as the skills and procedures necessary to make and use those tools.

                                                               i.      Emerging technologies that greatly impact human lives called new technologies.

                                                             ii.      Technology sets the framework for non-material culture, influencing the way people think and how they relate to others.

                                                            iii.      Not all parts change at the same pace.

                                                           iv.      Cultural lag (William Ogburn) where material culture changes first then non-material follows.

2. Cultural transmission occurs even where there is minimal contact.

                                                               i.      Cultural diffusion: osmosis –like process more likely to produce change in material culture.  Is more rapid today due to travel and technology of communication; education.

                                                             ii.      This leads to cultural leveling where cultures become similar to each other.

 

 

03 Socialization

 

1. What is human nature:
   1. Cases of isolated children and monkey studies all serve to demonstrate that becoming human is a social process.  This learning includes physical contact/human interactions.

 

2. Socialization into Mind, Self and Emotions
   1. Socialization is the process by which we learn the ways of society.

                                                               i.      Charles Cooley – human development socially created; our sense of self develops out of interactions with others.

                                                             ii.      Looking-glass self – term to describe this process.

                                                            iii.      Process has 3 steps: we imagine how we look to others; we interpret others reactions and we develop a self-concept.

                                                           iv.      Even if we misjudge others’ reactions, the misjudgments become part of our self image.

2. The process is lifelong.
3. Mead agreed with Cooley, but added play as critical to the development of the self.

                                                               i.      In play we earn to take the role of the other.  At first they the other are parents and siblings i.e. significant others.

                                                             ii.      As the self develops children internalize the attitudes and expectations of other people and eventually the entire group, what he calls the generalized other.

                                                            iii.      Stages are imitation, play (3-5) and games.

                                                           iv.      “I” and “ME” in the self, the ‘me’ being the objective part, attitudes internalized from interactions with others.

                                                             v.      Both the mind and the self are social products.  We cannot think without symbols, and it is our society that gives us the symbols by giving us our language.

4. Piaget.  4 stages in the development of cognitive skills- the development of abstract thinking..

                                                               i.      Sensorimotor stage – based on touch, taste sound

                                                             ii.      Preoperational stage (2-7) development of the ability to use symbols, esp language which allows them to experience things without direct contact.

                                                            iii.      Concrete operational stage (7-12) Reasoning abilities become muchmore developed and include greater levels of abstraction.

                                                           iv.      Formal operational stage where abstract thinking is fully developed.

5. While it appears that the “looking-glass self”, role taking and the social mind are universal phenomena, there is not consensus about how universal Piaget’s four stages might be.

                                                               i.      Some adults never reach the 4^th stage due to social experiences or biology.

                                                             ii.      The content of what we learn varies form one culture to another; we cannot assume that the developmental sequences will be the same for everyone.

6. Sigmund Freud argued that personality consisted of three elements: id, ego, superego.

                                                               i.      The id, inherited drives for self-gratification, demand fulfillment of basic needs – hunger, attention, food.

                                                             ii.      The ego balances the needs of the id and the demands of society (superego)

                                                            iii.      Superego, the social conscience we have internalized from social groups, generating feelings of shame or pride.

                                                           iv.      While sociologists generally reject Freud’s views of the role of our innate drives in shaping behavior, they do recognize his point that learning is a continuous process.

7. Emotions are not simply the result of biology; they also depend on socialization.

                                                               i.      How emotions are expressed is culturally determined.  Also varies according to gender, social class.

                                                             ii.      Most socialization is meant to turn us into conforming members of society.

1.      What we choose to do is a result of socialization

2.      As we contemplate an action, the emotion that would result is part of the social controls of society.

 

3. Socialization into Gender
   1. By expecting different behaviors from people based on gender, society nudges boys and girls into separate directions from an early age.  This carries over into adulthood.

                                                               i.      Parents begin the process.  Research indicates that mothers reward girls for being passive and dependent and boys for being active and independent.

                                                             ii.      Mass media reinforce society’s expectations in many ways

1.      Stereotypical images in ads.  (Soaps vs. sitcoms portrayal of male/female roles)

2.      More male roles than females

 

4. Agents of Socialization
   1. Experiences within our families create our basic sense of self, motivation, values and beliefs.

                                                               i.      Family – shape children’s understandings of society’s expectations for them as Male/Female

                                                             ii.      Research by Melvin Kohn suggests that there are social class and occupational differences in child-rearing.

1.      working-class parents place greater stress on conformity while middle-class parents stress concern for motivation behind child’s behavior.

2.      Type of job is a factor; those more closely supervised tend to stress conformity in their children.

2. Neighborhood

                                                               i.      Some neighborhoods are better for raising children.

3. Religion important even if people are not raised in a religious family.

                                                               i.      Religion influences morality, but also idea about dress, speech, manners.

4. The rise of working mothers creates an important role for daycare as a socializing agent.

                                                               i.      Quality of daycare and child’s background.

                                                             ii.      Children living in poverty or other dysfunction benefit from daycare.

                                                            iii.      Quality of daycare impact how children learn to interact with others; hence fewer behavior problems.

                                                           iv.      Studies suggest a link between time and daycare and quality of parent-child links.  This is subject to some dispute.

5. Schools serve manifest functions of education children in knowledge needed by society.

                                                               i.      Latent functions include child care; streaming which in turn impacts opportunities for further education, etc.

                                                             ii.      Expose children to a different way of looking at the world, possible different from that of home.  Learn universality and that the same rules apply to all (in theory).

                                                            iii.      Hidden curriculum: values not taught directly but inherent to curriculum. E.g. citizenship.

6. Peer groups.  Overlaps with schools.

                                                               i.      Peer groups: groups of persons of roughly the same age who are kinked by common interests.  Next to family, peer groups are most powerful socializing forces.

                                                             ii.      The Adlers research shows how peer groups provide a space where members can resist parents and school.  This is part of the natural process of the maturation process.

                                                            iii.      The cardinal rule of the peer group to conform or be rejected.

7. Sports and the culture of sports also strong socializing agent, teaching skills and values.
8. Workplace: major source of socialization for adults.

                                                               i.      Learn skills and matching attitudes and values. (Hawthorne experiment)

                                                             ii.      Anticipatory socialization may occur, learning to play a role before actually entering it, and enabling us to gradually identify with the role. (e.g. beginning teaching)

 

Resocialization

1. the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes
   1. Occurs every time we learn something contrary to our previous experiences. E.g. going to a new job.
   2. Can be intense as occurs in boot camps, brat camps, prisons.
2. Goffman and total institutions
   1. A place cut off from the rest of society and under the total control of agents of the institution.
   2. A person entering is greeted with a degradation ceremony that may include fingerprinting, shaving the head, banning or limiting personal items, and wearing a uniform, identified by a number.

Socialization and Life Course

Stages include:

1. Childhood (birth to 12).  View of children changed from mini-adults to tender and innocent, in need of care, protection and guidance.
2. Adolescence (13-17).  Econ changes resulting from industrial and later changes removed the need for child labor, allowing teens to remain outside the labor force and redefined teenage-hood.  Argument is that while biologically able to work and have children, this extension of childhood creates inner turmoil leading teens to develop their own standards of beauty, etc.
3. Young Adulthood. (18-29) Adult responsibilities may be postponed due to extended education.  The self become more stable, optimism is often quite high.
4. Middle years (30-65).  Can be divided into two periods.
   1. Early middle. 30-49 Period when new families are raised; careers, etc.  Events such as divorce or being fired can have severe repercussions.  Burden greater for women.
   2. Later middle (50-65).  Preparation for major changes due to children leaving home, retirement, new roles as grandparents, impending loss of independence, declining health.  Can also be most comfortable period of a person’s life.
5. Older years 66-
   1. This period may extend later middle years due to improving health care.
   2. The later older years marked by frailty, and loss of social relations as persons die, or otherwise become socially detached.
6. The social significance of life course is shaped by social factors:
   1. The time period in which one is born and lives.
   2. Social location.
   3. Social class, gender, race.

 

Although socialization is powerful and affects us all, people are not robots; the self is dynamic.  We each reason and make choices.  As new technologies and information becomes available, we are also continuously constructing our selves.