The Sociological Perspective

The Sociological Perspective

Chapter One

Outline

I) Sociology is the systematic study of human society.

a) Sociological perspective is seeing the general in the particular.

i) Sociologist look for the general patterns in the behavior of particular people

ii) Emily Durkheim (1858-1917), one of sociology's pioneers, researched suicide.

(1) Men, Protestants, wealthy people, and unmarried had the highest suicide rates

b) Periods of change or crisis make everyone feel a little off balance.

i) The sociologist C. Wright Mills (1959) illustrated this idea using the Great Depression

(1) He believed that using what he called the "sociological imagination" in this way helps people understand not only their society but their own lives, because the two are closely related.

II) The importance of a global perspective

a) Global Perspective is the study of the larger world and our society's place in it,

i) High-income countries are the nations with the highest overall standards of living

(1) United states, Canada, Argentina, South Africa, Japan, Australia

ii) Middle-income countries are nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole.

(1) Latin America, Asia, some of Africa

iii) Low-income countries are nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor.

(1) Africa, some in Asia

III) Applying the sociological perspective

a) Using sociology benefits us in four ways:

i) the sociological perspective helps us assess the truth of "common sense."

ii) the sociological perspective helps us see the opportunities and constraints in our lives.

iii) the sociological perspective empowers us to be active in our society

iv) the sociological perspective helps us live in a diverse world

IV) Auguste Comte coined the term sociology in 1838 to describe a new way of looking at society.

a) He saw sociology as the product of a three-stage historical development

i) Theological stage- People taking a religious view that society expressed God's will

ii) Metaphysical stage- people saw a society as a natural rather than a supernatural system,

(1) Thomas Hobbes suggested that society reflected not the perfection of God so much as the failings of a selfish human nature.

iii) Scientific stage- used the study of the physical world to the study of society.

b) Comte's approach is called positivism, a way of understanding based on science.

V) Sociological Theory

a) A theory is a statement of how and why specific facts are related.

b) Theoretical approach as a basic image of society that guides thinking and research.

VI) Structural-functional approach

a) Structural-functional approach is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to