| A | B |
|---|
| Sociology | The systematic study of human society |
| Sociological perspective | seeing general patterns in the behavior of particular people |
| Peter Burger | described sociological perspective |
| Emile Durkheim | provided strong evidence of how social forces affect individual behavior |
| C. Wright Mills | believed using sociological imagination helps people understand their society and how it affects their own lives |
| global perspective | study of the larger world and our societies place in it |
| 3 ways sociological perspective is useful | guides laws and policies; leads to important personal growth; sociology is excellent preparation for working |
| Sociologist have helped shape_________ by developing laws and regulations which guide how people live and work | Public Policy |
| 3 significant events transformed society | rise of factory based economy; explosive growth of cities; new ideas about democracy and political rights |
| Auguste Comte | french social thinker coined the term "sociology" and applied the scientific approach to the study of sociology |
| Comte saw sociology a result of 3 stages of historical development | theological stage; metaphysical stage and scientific stage |
| Positivism | a way of understanding based on science |
| theory | a statement of how and why specific facts are related |
| theoretical approach | basic image of society that guides thinking and research |
| 3 theoretical approaches | Structural-functional; social conflict; symbolic-interaction |
| structural functional theoretical approach | sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability |
| Social structure | any relatively stable pattern of social behavior |
| social funtion | the consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society as a whole |
| Robert Merton | expanded understanding of social function |
| manifest functions | the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern |
| latent functions | unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern |
| social dysfunction | any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society |
| Social-conflict theoretical approach | framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change |
| Gender conflict theoretical approach | a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men; closely linked with feminism |
| race-conflict theoretical approach | a point of view that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories |
| micro level orientation | a close-up focus on social interaction in specific siutations |
| macro level orientation | braod focus on social structures that shape society as a whole |
| symbolic-interaction theoretical approach | a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals |
| scientific sociology | study of society based on systematic observation of social bevior |
| reliability | consistency in measurement |
| validity | actually measuring exactly what you intend to measure |
| interpretive sociology | study of sociology that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world |
| webers concept of Verstehen (german for understanding) | Observe what people do; share their world of meaning; appreciate why they act like they do |
| critical sociology | study of society that focuses on the need for socail change |
| 4 methods of sociological investigation | experiments; surveys; participant observation; existing sources |
