CHAPTER 1

Sociology: Perspective,
Theory, and Method
Sociology provides a way of viewing the worlds that emphasizes the social nature of
human behavior.

It allows one to see the general in the particular and the strange in the familiar.

Sociology differs from popular notions of human behaviour, it uses systematic, scientific
methods of investigation and encourages critical thinking. This critical thinking can be
particularly important in analysing the mass media and their impact on society.

The sociological perspective shows that the general operation of society affects the
experiences of particular people. In this way, sociology helps us better understand
barriers and opportunities in our lives.

Early social thinkers focused on what society ought to be. Sociology, named by Auguste
Comte in 1838, uses scientific methods to understand society as it is.
 The development of sociology was triggered by the rapid transformation of Europe during the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The risk of an industrial economy, the explosive growth of
cities, and the emergence of new political ideas combined to weaken tradition and make people
more aware of their social world.

 Three overriding theoretical perspectives, or paradigms, have been developed in sociology.

Symbolic interactionism was developed by Mead and others at the University of Chicago,
structural functionalism was promoted by Parsons and Merton, and the conflict perspective was
advanced by radical sociologist who revised the ideas of Karl Marx.

 Sociological research uses the logic of sciences, based on empirical evidence we confirm with our
senses.

 Measurement is the process of giving a value to a variable in a specific case. Sound measurement
is both reliable and valid.

 Science seeks to specify the relationship between variables. Ideally, researchers try to identify
how one (independent) variable causes change in another (dependent) variable.
Interpretive Sociology is a methodological approach that focuses on the meaning
that people attach to behaviour. Reality is not “out there” (as scientific sociology
claims) but is constructed by people in their everyday interaction.

Critical sociology is a methodological approach that uses research to bring about

social change. It rejects the scientific principle objective of objectivity, claiming
that all research has a political character.

Studying people raises ethical issues. Sociologists must strive to maintain

objectivity and integrity in their research, protect their subjects, use the research
role properly, disclose assistance and support, and disassociates themselves from
unethical research.

Future sociologist must use the sociological imagination to fulfil the promise of
influenced by the extent to which it has become institutionalized and must rely
on government and private funding to carry out research. In the ongoing quest
for knowledge, sociologists must renew their scientific commitment to develop
new and creative research designs and methods aimed at increased
understanding of our social world.
Terms:
Applied Sociology - using sociological principles, social ideas, and ethical
considerations for the improvement of the society.

Concept - an abstract idea or general thought.

Conflict Perspective - view of society as composed of diverse groups who have

conflicting values and interests.

Critical Thinking - understanding and evaluating statements and information,

articulating a position, and making a creative statement.

Dramaturgical Analysis - analytical approach that uses the analogy of the theatre
to analyse social behaviour and views people as actors occupying roles as they
play out life’s dreams.
Explanatory Research - research that attempts to discover a cause-and-
effect relationship between variables.

Exploratory Research - research that attempts to answer the question

“What?”

Functionalist Perspective - analytical view of society as a system of

interdependent and interrelated parts.

Interactionist Perspective - view that focuses on micro-level analysis and

the meanings that arise through the process of social interaction.

Latent Functions - unintended and unrecognized consequences of social

institutions Macro-level approach. Studying society on a broad scale and
viewing it as more than the sum of its parts.
 Manifest Functions - anticipated and intended consequences of social institutions Micro-level approach.
Focusing on small group interaction and the relationship between the individuals and the society.

 Perspective - a view point; particular way of looking at things.

 Positivism - the use of observation, comparison, experimentation and the historical method to get the
necessary facts to analyse society.

 Pure Sociology - the study of society in an effort to understand and explain the natural laws that govern its
evolution.

 Sociology - the systematic and scientific study of human behaviour, social groups, and society.

 Theory - a set interrelated propositions, or statements, that attempts to explain some phenomenon.

 Variable - a representation of ways in which concepts vary or differ.

 CHAPTER 2
Culture and Society
Culture consist of the learned set of practices, beliefs, values, rules
for proper conduct, and material objects that are shared by members
of a society.

Culture is a way of life shared shared by members of a society, several

species display limited capacity for culture, but only human beings
rely on culture for survival.

There are four major characteristics of culture. Culture is universal, all

humans have the ability to learn the essential understandings of their
own and other societies and each culture is cumulative learned, and
shared.
All societies create worlds of meaning with the same basic elements:
Cognitive, normative, and material culture. Cognitive culture includes
symbols, language, beliefs, and values. Normative culture includes
expectations and rules for proper conduct. Material culture includes
artifacts, art, architecture, and other material object material objects
that a society creates and to which it assigns meaning.

Culture is paradoxical because it is the product of a number of

opposed tendencies, including utilitarian responses to current
environmental conditions as societies, social inequality produces
conflicting ideologies as well.
Cultural variations also reflects the different standards amd tasks of
social classes.

The globalization of the economy and demographic and demographic

change will have an important impact on virtually all cultures in the
world. Likewise, technological changes will continue to alter
traditional beliefs, values, and norms arounds the world at an
unprecedented rate.
Terms:
Beliefs – a set or system of proposition and assertions about the nature of reality.

Cognitive culture – symbols, language, and a society’s beliefs and values.

Countercultures - groups that rejects the conventional wisdom and standars of

behaviour of the dominant culture and provide alternatives to mainstream
culture.

Cultural hegemony – domination of cultural industries by elite groups.

Cultural lag – inconsistencies in a cultural system, especially in the relationship

between technology and nonmaterial culture.
Culture – the learned set of practice, beliefs, values, rules for proper
conduct, and material objects shared by members of a society.

Culture shock – a feeling of confusion and disorientation that occurs

as one adjusts to another culture.

Ethnocentrism – the tendency to evaluate the customs and traditions

of others according to one’s own cultural tastes, beliefs, and
practices.

Folkways – informal rules and expectations that guide people’s

everyday behavior.
Ideal culture – what people should do, according to their society’s norms
and values.

Ideologies – norms and values that support and rationalize elite power and
privilege.

Language – a complex system of symbols with conventional meanings,

used by members of society.

Material culture – the artifacts, art, architecture, and other material

objects that a society creates and to which it assigns meaning.

Mores – norms that people consider essential to the proper working and
functioning of society.
Normative culture – expectations and rules for proper conduct that
guide the behavior of the members of society.

Norms – rules, expectations, and guidelines that govern what people

should or should not think, fee, or do in a given situation.

Real culture – what people should do in everyday social interaction.

Sanctions – penalties pr rewards that a society uses to enforce norms

by rewarding conformity and punishing deviance.
Subcultures – groups that share many elements of the dominant
cultures but maintain their own distinctive customs, values, norms,
and lifestyles.

Symbol – anything that stands for something other than itself,

representation.

Taboos – prohibitions against behavior that most members of a

society consider so repugnant as to be thinkable.

Values – shared ideas about what is socially desirable.

 CHAPTER 3
Socialization
Socialization is the way individuals develop their humanity and particular
identities. Through socialization, one generation transmits culture to the
next.

A century ago, people thought most human behavior was guided by

biological instinct. Today, we recognize human behavior results mostly from
nurture rather than nature.

The permanently damaging effects of social isolation reveal that social

experience is essential to human development.

Sigmund Freud’s model of human personality has three parts; the id

expresses innate human needs or drives the life and death instincts, the
superego represents internalized cultural values and norms; the ego
resolves competition between the demands of the id and the restraints of
the superego.
Jean Piaget believed that human development reflects both biological maturation
and increasing social experience. He identified four stages of cognitive
development; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal
operational.

Lawrence Kohlberg applied Piaget’s approach to moral development. Individuals

first judge rightness in preconventional terms, according to their individual needs.
Next, conventional moral reasoning takes account of parents’ attitudes and
cultural norms. Finally, postconventional moral reasoning allows people to
criticize society itself.

Carol Gilligan discovered that white males rely on abstract standards of rightness,
females look at the effect of decisions on interpersonal relationships.

To George Herbert Mead, social experience generates the self, which Mead
characterized as partly autonomous and partly guided by society. Infants engages
in initiation; children engage in play and games and eventually recognize the
“generalized other”.
Erik Erikson identifies characteristics challenges that individuals face
at teach stage of life from infancy to death.

The major socializing agents are the family, schools, religion, peer
groups, the workplace, and the mass media. All play prominent roles
in transmitting culture and influencing personality development.

Each stage of the life course – from childhood to old age – is socially
constructed in ways that vary from society to society.
Terms:
Agents of Socialization – the groups and institutions that both informally
and formally take on the task of socialization.

Ageism – prejudice and discrimination against the elderly.

Ego – the component of personality that mediates between the id and the
superego and balances the two.

Generalized others – the dominant attitudes and expectations of most

members of society.

Gerontology – the study of aging and the elderly.

Gerontocracy – a form of social organization in which the elderly have
the most wealth, power, and prestige.

Id – basic needs, drives, and desires that are present at birth – the
animal nature of human beings.

Life course – a process where individuals move from one biologocial

and social stage to another as they grow and develop.

Mass media – impersonal communication aimed at a vast audience.

Nature – heredity
Nurture – environment

Personality – dominant pattern of attitudes, feelings, and behaviors.

Significant others – specific people with whom we interact and

whose response has meaning for us.

Socialization – process wherein we learn and internalize the

atittudes, values, beliefs, and norms of our culture and develop a
sense of self.

Superego – the conscience which constraints the id.

Thank you!
Submitted by:
Enriquez, Cidney B.
AB English 4

Submitted to:
Maam Parisya Musa