SOCA03Y3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: C. Wright Mills, Vaishya, Nonverbal Communication
chapter one: understanding the sociological imagination
1.1 the sociological perspective
- sociology: the systematic study of human groups and their interactions
- sociological perspective: the unique way in which sociologists see our world and can dissect the
dynamic relationships between individuals and the larger social network in which we all live
charles wright mills and the sociological imagination
- c. w. mills was one of the most influential american sociologists
- suggested that people who do not, or cannot, recognize the social origins and character of their
problems may be unable to respond to them effectively
- individual and social are inextricably linked and we cannot fully understand one without the other
- personal troubles: result from individual challenges
- social issues: caused by larger social factors
- many personal troubles never become social issues because people rarely equate what is
happening to them with the larger social worlds in which they exist (lacks quality of mind)
- quality of mind: ability to look beyond personal circumstance and into social context
- “much private uneasiness goes unformulated; much public malaise and many decisions of
enormous structural relevance never become public issues”
- sociological imagination: the ability to understand the dynamic relationship between individual
lives and the larger society
- stepping outside of your own condition and looking at yourself from a new perspective --
seeing yourself as the product of your family, income level, race, and gender
- who am i and why do i think the way i do?
- few things are black and white
- by seeing their own histories in a social context, they improve their quality of mind
- cheerful robots: people unable/unwilling to see the social world as it truly exists
- peter berger
- 1964 book,
invitation to sociology: a humanistic perspective
, defines sociological
perspective as the ability to view the world from two distinct yet complementary
perspectives: seeing the general in the particular and seeing the strange in the familiar
peter berger
- seeing the general in the particular
- the ability to look at seemingly unique events/circumstances and then recognize the
larger (or general) features involved
- to appreciate an individual circumstance and broaden your perspective to the larger social
patterns that create and perpetuate these circumstances
- seeing the strange in the familiar
- thinking about what is familiar and seeing it as strange
- evidence of having quality of mind, and of beginning to develop the sociological
imagination
- ability to see the general in the particular and the strange in the familiar is the cornerstone of the
sociological perspective
- less about remembering details and specifics than about seeing the social world from a unique
position -- one that allows us to understand social context and appreciate the position of others
1.2 what makes you, you? engaging the sociological imagination
- agency: the assumption that individuals have the ability to alter their socially constructed lives
- structure: opportunities and constraints that exist within a network of roles, relationships, and
patterns that are relatively stable and persistent over time
- not only refers to large social parameters like occupation, minority status, education level,
but also to small interactions between individuals
- e.g. gay couples’ relationships defined by larger society’s views on
heteronormative ideal
- structure-versus-agency debate:
revolves around whether or not individuals behave autonomously
or are the expressive agents of the social structure
minority status
- visible minority groups face discrimination (wow!)
- does your minority status influence how you relate to others or how you view other minorities?
gender
- patriarchy: a system of rule that translates to “rule by the father” in which men control the political
and economic resources of society
- men earn more than women
socioeconomic status
- socioeconomic status (ses): combination of variables to classify or rank people on criteria such as
income level, level of education achieved, occupation, and area of residence
- ascribed status: a person is assigned advantage or disadvantage simply through birth
- being born rich means a person will have opportunities for postsecondary education and
material pleasures
- achieved status: the status a person has gained through personal attributes and qualities
family structure
- regardless of a child’s age, higher income tends to be related to better physical, social/economic,
cognitive, and behavioural well-being
- family structure influences a child’s development to the extent that female lone-parent families
tend to have lower incomes than two-parent family structures
- loving parents with adequate incomes generally raise productive and well-adjusted children
urban-rural differences
- people who live in small towns report that they are distinct from urban dwellers and that their rural
connections are an important defining feature
1.3 the origins of sociology
- confucius and ancient greeks engaged in elaborate discussions and writings about society and
role of individual citizen
- ancient greece, sophists (first paid teachers) travelled the city and catered to the rich, who wanted
to learn how to live well and be happy. first thinkers to focus efforst on the human being (rather
than physical world)
- socrates and his student plato challenged virtue of being paid for one’s knowledge & advocated
necessity of deeper reflection on human social condition
- ibn khaldun recognized as first social philosopher working from sociological perspective
- 1838, august comte coined term
sociology
; referred to as father of sociology
scientific revolution
- auguste comte believed techniques used to explain physical world should be applied to social
world
-law of three stages: defines how advances of the mind created three different types of societies
- theological stage:
longest period of human thinking, beginning with earliest human
ancestors and ending during middle ages (1300)
- characterized by a religious outlook that explains the world and human society as
an expression of god’s will and views science as a means to discover god’s
intentions
- people explained what they could see through actions of spiritual/supernatural
beings
- concluded with emergence of renaissance and enlightenment went science, not
religion, was used to explain the world
- metaphysical stage:
(metaphysics: a field of philosophy dedicated to an understanding of
truth and the relationship between mind and matter) a period during which people began
to question everything and to challenge the power and teachings of the church
- characterized by the assumption that people could understand and explain their
universe through their own insight and reflection
- these smells and images are only abstractions, but they may inspire powerful
emotional reactions--feelings, passions, and fears that were explored during the
metaphysical stage as an attempt to understand ourselves better
- positive stage
: (began to emerge during comte’s lifetime) he believed that the world would
be interpreted through a scientific lens--society would be guided by rules of observation,
experimentation, and logic
- sociologists don’t grant much credibility to his ideas because
- first, idea of having only three stages is difficult, as it assumes that human
thinking is currently as good as it will ever get
- second, idea that the third (and final) stage was just emerging during comte’s
lifetime is somewhat self-serving
- positivism:
- a theoretical approach that considers all understand to be based on science
- three primary assumptions:
1) there exists an objective and knowable reality.
a)
positivists asserted that the physical and social worlds can be
understood through observation, experimentation, and logic
b) reality is objective & beyond individual interpretation or manipulation
c) grounded in the premise that we have the capacity to do so -- that our
physical and social existence is knowable
2) since all sciences explore the same, similar reality, over time all sciences will
become more alike.
a)
since there is only one correct explanation for the physical and social
worlds, discipline and scientific boundaries will fall away as we progress
in our studies and realize that all science is investigating the same reality
b) there may be only one science in the future rather than many divisions
3) there is no room in science for value judgments
a) since all science is exploring the same reality, only from different
perspectives, there is no good or bad science (e.g vaccination to aids
virus is not more valuable than shrinking the size of a hydrogen bomb)
- anti-positivism:
-a theoretical approach that considers knowledge and understanding to be the result of
human subjectivity
1) while hard science may be useful for exploring the physical world, the social world cannot
be understood solely through numbers and formulas
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