Sociology: Seventeenth Edition

Sociology
SEVENTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 1
The Sociological
Perspective
Copyright © 2019, 2017, 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
1.1 Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
1.2 State several reasons why a global perspective is important in today’s world.
1.3 Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for developing public policy, for
encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
1.4 Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
1.5 Summarize sociology's major theoretical approaches.
1.6 Apply sociology's major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
The Power of Society
Do we simply “pick” our marriage partners?
The Sociological Perspective (1 of 6)
1.1 Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
• Sociology
– Systematic study of human society
– Distinctive view guided by sociological perspective
• Society
– People who live in a defined territory and share a way of life
Seeing the General in the Particular
• How is the sociological perspective defined?

– Seeing the general in the particular (Berger, 1963)
– Seeing how society shapes what we think and do in patterned ways
– Seeing society in our everyday lives
– Seeing sociologically, especially through marginality and crisis
– Seeing sociologically
Seeing the Strange in the Familiar
• Takes a bit of practice

– Why you “chose” to enroll at a particular college
Global Map 1–1 Women’s Childbearing
in Global Perspective
Seeing Society in Our Everyday Lives
• Does society affect decisions about suicide?

– Emile Durkheim’s research findings
– More likely to commit: Male Protestants who were wealthy and unmarried
– Less likely to commit: Male Jews and Catholics who were poor and married
Figure 1–1 Rate of Death by Suicide, by Race
and Sex, for the United States
Seeing Sociologically: Marginality and Crisis
• Marginality: living on the margins of society
• Social crisis: turning personal problems into public

issues
• Sociological imagination
• C. Wright Mills
– Society, not people, is main cause of poverty and other social problems.
– By turning personal problems into public issues, the sociological imagination is
the key to bringing people together to create needed change.
The Importance of a Global Perspective (1 of 3)
1.2 State several reasons why a global perspective is important in today’s world.
• Global perspective
– Study of the larger world and our society’s place in it
• Global awareness
– Logical extension of the sociological perspective
• Country categories
– High-income
▪ Nations with the highest overall standards of living
– Middle-income
▪ Nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole
– Low-income
▪ Nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor
• Comparisons are important because:
– Where we live shapes the lives we lead.
– Societies are increasingly interconnected.
– What happens in the world affects life in the United States.
– Many social problems that we face in the United States are more serious
elsewhere.
– Thinking globally is a good way to learn more about ourselves.
Applying the Sociological Perspective (1 of 3)
1.3 Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for developing public policy, for
encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Sociology and Public Policy
• Sociologists shape public policy in countless ways
• What examples can you identify?
Sociology and Personal Growth
• The sociological perspective

– Helps us assess truth of common sense
– Helps us see opportunities and constraints
– Empowers us to be active participants in society
– Helps us live in a diverse world
Careers: The “Sociology Advantage”
• The “sociology advantage”

– Sociology is excellent preparation for jobs in dozens of diverse fields.
The Origins of Sociology (1 of 3)
1.4 Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Social Change and Sociology
• A new industrial economy

– During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
• Explosive growth of cities
• Political change
• A new awareness of society
Science and Sociology
• Ancient civilizations
– Thought about nature of society
– K'ung Fu-tzu (Confucius), Plato,
Aristotle
• Medieval period
– Wrote about the workings of
society
– Marcus Aurelius, Aquinas, Pisan,
Shakespeare
• Comte
– Coined term “sociology” in 1838
– Saw sociology as product of a three-stage historical development
▪ Theoretical stage
▪ Metaphysical stage
▪ Scientific stage
– Used scientific approach to the study of society in positivism
– Believed that society operates according to its own laws, much as the physical
world operates according to gravity and other laws of nature
Sociological Theory (1 of 17)
1.5 Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
• Theory
– Statement of how and why specific facts are related
• Theoretical approach
– Basic image of society that guides thinking and research
▪ Structural-functional
▪ Social-conflict
▪ Symbolic-interaction
National Map 1–1 Suicide Rates across the
United States
The Structural-Functional Approach
• The basics
– Macro-level orientation is concerned with broad patterns that shape society as a
whole.
– Society is viewed as a complex system; parts work together to promote solidarity
and stability.
• Key elements
– Social structure: Any relatively stable patterns of social behavior found in social
institutions
– Social function: Consequences for the operation of society as a whole
▪ Manifest functions: Recognized and intended consequences of any social
pattern
▪ Latent functions: Unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social
pattern
• Auguste Comte
– Importance of social integration during times of rapid change
• Emile Durkheim
– Helped establish sociology as a discipline
• Herbert Spencer
– Compared society to the human body
• Robert K. Merton
– Manifest functions are recognized and intended consequences
– Latent functions are unrecognized and unintended consequences
– Social dysfunctions are undesirable consequences
• Evaluation of structural-functional approach

– Favored approach in mid-1900s
– Focus on stability at expense of conflict makes this approach somewhat
conservative
– Less utilized today
The Social-Conflict Approach
• Sees society as arena of inequality that generates conflict and change
• The basics
– Factors such as race, sex, class, and age are linked to social inequality
– Dominant group vs. disadvantaged group relations
The social-conflict approach points out
patterns of inequality in everyday life. The
TV series Keeping Up with the Kardashians
takes a close-up look at the lives of
extremely affluent women. In what ways do
they depend on the work of people of lower
social position?
• Key elements
– Rejects the idea that social structure promotes the operation of society as a
whole
– Suggests society is structured in ways to benefit a few at the expense of the
majority
• Evaluation
– Many sociologists use social-conflict approach not just to understand society but
also to bring about societal change that would reduce inequality.
– Critics of the conflict perspective point to its overly negative view of society.
• Karl Marx
– Focus on importance of social class in inequality and social conflict
Feminism and Gender-Conflict Theory
• Gender-conflict theory
– Focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men
– Feminism: Advocacy of social equality for women and men linked to gender-
conflict theory
• Harriet Martineau
– First woman sociologist
– Translated Comte's work from French to English
– Documented the evils of slavery, argued for laws to protect factory workers, and
fought for changes in education policy for women
• Jane Addams
– Was a sociological pioneer who
helped found Hull House
– Dealt with issues involving
immigration and the pursuit of
peace
– Won Nobel Peace Prize (1931)
We can use the sociological perspective

to look at sociology itself. All of the most
widely recognized pioneers of the
discipline were men. This is because in
the nineteenth century, it was all but
unheard of for women to be college
professors, and few women took a central
role in public life.
Race-Conflict Theory
• The basics
– Focus on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic
categories
– Suggests racial conflict is still an issue in U.S.
• Evaluation
– Large following gained in recent decades
– Focus on inequality, but largely ignores how shared values and interdependence
unify members of a society
– Cannot claim scientific objectivity
• Ida Wells Barnett
– Born to slave parents but rose to become a teacher and then a journalist and
newspaper publisher
– Campaigned for racial equality throughout her life
• W.E.B. Du Bois
– Earned Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard
– Founded the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory
– Believed that sociologists should not simply learn about society's problems but
also try to solve them
– Saw sociology as the key to solving society’s problems, especially racial
inequality
The Symbolic-Interaction Approach
• The basics
– Presents a micro-level orientation
– Offers a close-up focus on social interactions in specific situations
– Views society as the product of everyday interactions of individuals
• Key elements
– Society is a shared reality that people construct as they interact with one another.
– Society is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of subjective meanings.
• Max Weber
– Understanding a setting from the people in it
• George Herbert Mead

– How we build personalities from social experience
• Erving Goffman
– Dramaturgical analysis
• George Homans and Peter Blau

– Social-exchange analysis
Applying Theory:
Major Theoretical Approaches
APPLYING THEORY
Major Theoretical Approaches
blank Structural-Functional Social-Conflict, Gender-Conflict, Symbolic-Interaction
Approach and Race-Conflict Approaches Approach
What is the level of Macro-level Macro-level Micro-level
analysis?
What image of society Society is a system of Society is a system of social Society is an ongoing
does the approach interrelated parts that is inequalities based on class (Marx), process.
have? relatively stable. gender (genderconflict People interact in
Each part works to keep society theory and feminism), and race countless settings using
operating in an orderly way. (race-conflict theory). symbolic communications.
Members generally agree about Society operates to benefit some The reality people
what is morally right and morally categories of people and harm experience is variable and
wrong. others. Social inequality causes changing.
conflict that leads to social change.
What core questions How is society held together? How does society divide a How do people experience
does the approach What are the major parts of population? How do advantaged society? How do people
ask? society? How are these parts people protect their privileges? How shape the reality they
linked? What does each part do do disadvantaged people challenge experience? How do
to help society the system seeking change? behavior and meaning
work? change from person to
person and from one
situation to another?
Applying the Approaches:
The Sociology of Sports (1 of 2)
1.6 Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
The Functions of Sports
• A structural-functional approach directs our attention to ways sports help society

operate.
• Sports have functional and dysfunctional consequences.
Sports and Conflict
• Social-conflict analysis points out games people play reflect their social standing.
• Sports have been oriented mostly toward males.
• Sports in the United States are bound up with inequalities.
Applying the Approaches:
The Sociology of Sports (2 of 2)
Sports as Symbolic Interaction
• Major theoretical approaches

– Provide different insights into sports
– None by itself presents the whole story.
Figure 1–2 “Stacking” in Professional Baseball
Does race play a part in professional
sports?
Controversy & Debate
Is Sociology Nothing More Than
Stereotypes?
• Generalizations are not applied to

everyone in a category.
• Generalizations square with the

available facts.
• Generalizations are offered fair-

mindedly, with an interest in getting at
the truth.
• A sociology classroom is a good place to

get at the truth behind common
stereotypes.
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Sociology

1.5 Summarize sociology's major theoretical approaches.

1.6 Apply sociology's major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.

• How is the sociological perspective defined?

• Takes a bit of practice

• Does society affect decisions about suicide?

• Marginality: living on the margins of society

• Social crisis: turning personal problems into public

Sociology and Public Policy

• Sociologists shape public policy in countless ways

• What examples can you identify?

• The sociological perspective

• The “sociology advantage”

Social Change and Sociology

• A new industrial economy

• Explosive growth of cities

• A new awareness of society

• Evaluation of structural-functional approach

• Sees society as arena of inequality that generates conflict and change

We can use the sociological perspective

• George Herbert Mead

• George Homans and Peter Blau

The Functions of Sports

• A structural-functional approach directs our attention to ways sports help society

• Sports have functional and dysfunctional consequences.

Sports and Conflict

• Sports have been oriented mostly toward males.

• Sports in the United States are bound up with inequalities.

• Major theoretical approaches

• Generalizations are not applied to

• Generalizations square with the

• Generalizations are offered fair-

• A sociology classroom is a good place to

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