Introduction to Sociology

1. Introduction to Sociology Lesson 2: Sociological Theory

2. Warm-Up: The Beatles - Imagine What is the sociological issue at work in this song?

3. Definitions and Terms • Sociology: The development of systematic knowledge about social life, the way it is organized, how it changes, its creation in social action, and its disruption and renewal in social conflict • Sociological Theory: the method that guides sociological inquiry and helps to bring its results in order. • Objectivity: The goal of acquiring knowledge of something independent of one’s personal biases and perspectives. • Value Judgments: a judgment of the worth of something, often in terms of right or wrong/good or bad. • Normative Questions: questions about how something should be or what someone should do. • Descriptive Questions: questions about what is occurring or what people are doing. • Explanatory Questions: questions about why something is occurring.

4. The Science of Sociology • Sociology in general conforms to the scientific method of inquiry. Typically this is how one goes about making sociological inquiries: • Observation and Imagination – Seeing social phenomena and both having questions and possible answers about why these things occur. • Hypothesis – Predicting the explanation of social phenomena and setting the terms for the investigation. • Data Collection – Observing and recording the phenomena in question as much as necessary for sufficiently workable data. • Identifying Patterns – Looking for underlying patterns in the data to determine the causal patterns. • Producing Explanation – Showing the results of the inquiry by providing explanations in line with the data.

5. Sociological and Non-Sociological Explanation • List six reasons why a person would commit suicide. • Descriptive Questions: “What do people do” • Explanatory Questions: “Why are people doing that?” • Why is the rate of suicide higher in California than it is in Ohio? • External Factors: factors that relate to circumstances outside of the person. (sociological) • Internal Factors: factors that relate to circumstances inside of the person. (non-sociological)

6. The Prisoner’s Dilemma • You are members of the same gang who have been caught and put in prison. You have no means of communicating to one another. • The police don’t have enough evidence to convict both of you on the principle charge so they are going to convict you both for 1 year (each) on a lesser charge. • However, the police simultaneously offer each of you a deal if you choose to testify against each other.

7. Prisoner’s Dilemma Scoring • Both betray each other = 2 years each • One betrays and the other stays silent: • The betrayer will be set free • The silent one will get 3 years • Both remain silent = both serve lesser charge (1 year each)

8. Historical Backgrounds of Sociology • Individualism • Rise of Modern States • The Development of Capitalism • European Exploration and Colonization

9. Individualism • The “flight from authority” and the emphasis on individual rights and responsibilities • A transition from “inherited (or ascribed) to chosen (or achieved) relationships • Vocation • Romance • Social status • Social Contract theories describe how individuals in society come to agreement with other individuals in order to create a society that negotiates each individual’s self-preservation. • In religion this created an emphasis on the value of the temporal world, as opposed to the spiritual world.

10. Rise of Modern States • The state’s ability to regulate and shape social life. • Increasing distinction between “society” and “state” • The state is the governing forces of society • The society is constituted by the values and practices of social groups • The state took on responsibility for more and more civic functions. • “Society was the crucial middle ground in which relationships could not be explained entirely by either psychology or politics.”

11. The Development of Capitalism • Improvements in farming created the possibility of sustaining large population clusters in cities. • Division of Labor: increasing specialization spread among multiple persons allows for economic efficiency (faster production, lower cost). • Self-Regulating Markets: supply and demand conditions markets to behave efficiently. Self-interest is the motivating factor. • Capitalism arose as a response to traditional authoritarian governments showing that it was possible for things to regulate themselves as opposed to the necessity of authoritarian regulation.

12. European Exploration and Colonization • Increased awareness of the diversity of cultures prompted questions about universal and particular values/practices, as well as theories about human nature in society (e.g., “survival of the fittest.”) • Understanding cultures was a prerequisite to colonizing (read: exploiting) them. • Wealth and other commodities extracted (read: exploited) from colonies contributed to the growth of capitalism and introduced new trends in markets.

13. Practicing Sociology • Read “Behind Our Culture’s Marriage Obsession” • What the author propose is behind the “marriage obsession”? • Are her answers sociological in nature? • If not, what nature are her answers? • List 3 EXTERNAL reasons why a person would want to get married. • Based on these external (sociological) reasons, why do you think marriage has become increasingly marginalized? • How might we explain our culture’s marriage obsession in terms of the sociological factors of marriage?