SOSA 1003 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - White-Collar Crime, Tax Evasion, Symbolic Interactionism
12 Oct 2018
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Department
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SOSA 1003
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
SOSA 1003 - Notes
Chapter 1
- Power of Sociology : relationship between people and society
- See the operation of the social world more clearly, the powerful force of social
relations
- Charting a better course for society
- Come to grips with your century
- Sociological Perspective – Suicide
- Unique and enlightening perspective on social events
- Suicide – antisocial and non-soial at? Usuall doe i priate, rare…et.
▪ patterns of social relations that might encourage such actions in general
- Emile Durkheim: pioneers of sociology
▪ Suicide rates strongly influenced by social forces
- He found now correlation between psychological disorders and incidence of
suicide
- Suicide rates vary because of the degree of social solidarity – very high (altruistic
suicide – like going to war or sacrificing yourself) or very low (egoistic and
anomic suicide)
▪ Degree of integration for the social groups of which the individual forms a
part
- Married less likely to commit suicide (social ties/moral cement), women less
likely than men (more involved with social life) and Jews less likely than
Christians (social knit because of years of persecution)
- Patterns of social relations
- Affects your innermost thoughts and feelings, your actions and shapes who
you are
- Social structures: stable patterns of social relations
- Peoples persoal troules --- the social structures their embedded in
- Microstructures: intimate relations, face to face interactions (families,
friendship circles and work)
- Macrostructures: lie outside your intimate circle
▪ Ex: patriarchy – traditional system of inequality between women and
men in societies
- Global structures: international organizations, pattern of travel or economic
relations between countries
▪ Foreign debts are a large problem that keep poorer countries struggling,
pay more to countries they owe than they get in Charity financial aid
- Sociological Imagination
- The ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social
structures
- Scientific Revolution – sound conclusions must be based off of solid evidence
- Democratic Revolution – people are responsible for organizing society and human
intervention can solve social problems
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Massive change in a short period
- Industrial Revolution
- New social problems created
- Responded to these revolutions with the sociological imagination
Theory – tentative explanations of some aspect of social life – how and why certain facts are
related
- August Comte – coined sociology
- Herbert Spencer – societies evolve like species do, the fittest succeed, evolve from
barbaric to civilised
- Social Darwinism – justifies social inequality and trumpeted the superiority of the
wealthy and powerful
Research – process of carefully observing social reality to test a theory for validity
Values – decide on which problems are worth studying
- Therefore, they have ideas of what is right and wrong, to formulate or favour some
theories over others
Functionalism
- Durkheim
- Human behaviour is governed by stable patters of social relations (social
structures)
- Social structures maintain social stability – how parts of a society fit together and
contribute to the overall stability (its function)
- Social structures – shared values (moral cement that binds people together)
- Parsons and Merton
- How social equilibrium could be restored
- Functionalism
- How various institutions must work to ensure the smooth operation of society
as a whole
- Exaggerated the degree to which member of society share common values
- Merton: different social structures may have different consequences for
different groups of people
▪ Some may be dysfunctional
- Manifest function: intended and observed – like learning at school
- Latent function: unintended and less obvious – meeting a significant other at
school
- Conflict Theory
- Large macrostructures – class relations
- Major patterns of inequality between society – social stability or social change
- Privilege groups try to maintain their advantages while subordinate groups
struggle to increase theirs
- Eliminating privileges will lower the level of conflict and increase human welfare
- Marx
- Class conflict – struggle between classes to overcome the opposition of other
classes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Power of sociology : relationship between people and society. See the operation of the social world more clearly, the powerful force of social relations. Unique and enlightening perspective on social events. Usuall(cid:455) do(cid:374)e i(cid:374) pri(cid:448)ate, rare et(cid:272): patterns of social relations that might encourage such actions in general. Emile durkheim: pioneers of sociology: suicide rates strongly influenced by social forces. He found now correlation between psychological disorders and incidence of suicide. Married less likely to commit suicide (social ties/moral cement), women less likely than men (more involved with social life) and jews less likely than. Christians (social knit because of years of persecution) Affects your innermost thoughts and feelings, your actions and shapes who you are. Social structures: stable patterns of social relations. People(cid:859)s perso(cid:374)al trou(cid:271)les --- the social structures their embedded in. Microstructures: intimate relations, face to face interactions (families, friendship circles and work)
