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Weber's most important contribution to sociology was his study of the relationship between the emergence of Protestant belief system and the rise of capitalism. He believed that sociologists should not allow their personal values to affect their social research; objectivity should become the hallmark of sociology. He argued that sociologists should use Verstehen—those subjective meanings that people give to their behavior. (13-15) |
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Addams was the founder of Hull House—a settlement house in the immigrant community of Chicago. She invited sociologists from the nearby University of Chicago to visit. In 1931 she was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. (18) |
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Ernest Burgess and Harvey Locke: |
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Research by these early sociologists documented a fundamental shift that was occurring in the symbolic meaning of U.S. marriages. They found that marriage was increasingly dependent on mutual affection, understanding, and compatibility. (18) |
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Comte is often credited with being the founder of sociology, because he was the first to suggest that the scientific method be applied to the study of the social world. (10, 26) Charles Horton Cooley: One of the founders of symbolic interactionism, a major theoretical perspective in sociology. (23) |
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Coser pointed out that conflict is likely to develop among people in close relationships because they are connected by a network of responsibilities, power and rewards. (29) |
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Du Bois was the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. For most of his career, he taught sociology at Atlanta University. He was concerned about social injustice, wrote about race relations, and was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). (18-20) |
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Durkheim was responsible for getting sociology recognized as a separate discipline. He was interested in studying how individual behavior is shaped by social forces and in finding remedies for social ills. He stressed that sociologists should use social facts—patterns of behavior that reflect some underlying condition of society. (12-13, 15, 26) |
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An Englishwoman who studied British and U.S. social life, Martineau published Society in America decades before either Durkheim or Weber were born. She is known primarily for translating Auguste Comte’s ideas into English. (17) Karl Marx: Marx believed that social development grew out of conflict between social classes; under capitalism, this conflict was between the bourgeoisie—those who own the means to produce wealth—and the proletariat—the mass of workers. His work is associated with the conflict perspective. (11, 29) |
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Mead was one of the founders of symbolic interactionism, a major theoretical perspective in sociology. (18, 23-24) |
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Merton contributed the terms manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions to the functionalist perspective. (26) |
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Mills suggested that external influences (a person's experiences) become part of his or her thinking and motivations and explain social behavior. As the emphasis in sociology shifted from social reform to social theory, Mills urged sociologists to get back to their roots. He saw the emergence of the power elite composed of top leaders of business, politics and the military as an imminent threat to freedom. (4, 20-21) |
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As early as 1933, Ogburn noted that personality was becoming more important in mate selection; this supported the symbolic interactionists’ argument that there was a fundamental shift in the symbolic meaning of U.S. marriages. (24) |
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Parsons' work dominated sociology in the 1940s and 1950s. He developed abstract models of how the parts of society harmoniously work together. (20-21) |
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Small was the founder of the sociology department at the University of Chicago and the American Journal of Sociology. (18) |
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Another early sociologist, Spencer believed that societies evolve from barbarian to civilized forms. He was the first to use the expression "the survival of the fittest" to reflect his belief that social evolution depended on the survival of the most capable and intelligent and the extinction of the less capable. His views became known as social Darwinism. (10, 26) |
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Along with Mead and Cooley, Thomas was important in establishing symbolic interactionism as a major theoretical perspective in sociology. (23) |
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