Many of the most significant rewards in society are distributed on the bases of social position or membership in socially defined category

--Thus individual merit and ability count for less than does social position or membership in a category

Diversity is both a source of strength and a source of conflict in every society

-- thus groups that are diverse throughout society differ in amounts of power, social rewards, influence, and in lifestyles

--the groups with the greater power use ideological hegemony to legitimize the inequality suffered by those with less power

The study of human behavior in society

--All human behavior occurs in a societal context: in the community we live in, in the church, the school, the family, the nation, or somewhere in this world

--That context shapes what people do and how they think

The ability to see the societal patterns that influence the individual as well as groups of individuals

Debunking - refers to looking behind the facades of everyday life

-Berger called it the “unmasking tendency” of sociology (1963). This allows us to see the truth and expose it

-Few people like to know disquieting facts as their cherished views are challenged and this makes them uncomfortable

-The founding father of Sociology

-Believed that  society could be studied scientifically

-This approach is known as positivism

-A French politician, scholar, and historian

-He traveled in America and studied the political system

-He felt that Americans were marked by individualism

-Fascinated by the newly emerging American culture

-In 1937, she wrote about it in "Society in America"

-She also wrote about how to observe behavior as a participant (the method of participant observation)

-His major work focuses on the forces that hold society together

    ---He called this force social solidarity

-People are glued together by religious rituals which sustain moral cohesion

-Viewed society as larger than the sum of it's individual parts

    ---Society is "external to the individual"

-He saw society as an integrated whole with each part contributing to the stability of the system

    ---This is the central theme of functionalism

    ---Social facts, exercise constraints on the individuals behavior

-One of the most influential thinkers in history

-Saw society as systematic and structural

-Saw class as a fundamental dimension of society that shapes social behavior

-Took social structure as his subject rather than the actions of individuals

-Was devoted to explaining how capitalism, an economic system based on pursuing profit, shaped society

-Addressed the capitalist class, the bourgeoisie, controllers of the production of goods and of ideas

-Spoke of economic determinism with a class system of owners (bourgeoisie) and workers (proletariat)

-Weber expanded on Marx’s thinking; he said that society had three basic dimensions: political, economic, and cultural, which must all be examined

-Weber was concerned with ideas and how they shaped society

-He did not advocate political activism

-Was influenced by Marx’s work; however, he saw society from a multidimensional perspective that went beyond Marx’s strictly economic focus

-Professed that the task of a sociologist is to teach students the uncomfortable truth about the world

-Believed that sociologists must not project their political ideas on their students

    ---Professed understanding social behavior from the point of view of those engaged in it

-He demonstrated that suicide was not purely a personal trouble, but that rates of suicide within a society varied by how clear and consistently upheld the norms and customs of the society were.

-He showed that suicide rates were higher in societies where norms were unclear or contradictory

Theoretical Frameworks Used by Sociologists

-Sociological thinkers have developed different perspectives, frameworks, schools of thought, and paradigms to help them ask questions and to assist their understanding of the underlying relationships regarding their observations

-These theoretical frameworks provide different insights into the nature of society

-Funtionalism (macro)

-Conflict Theory (macro)

-Symbolic Interaction (micro)

-Diverse theoretical frameworks (macro and micro)

-Functionalists are concerned with the stability and shared public values of the culture or the society

    ---Conditions such as deviance are disruptive to the stability of the society and they lead to social change as the society must find ways to deal with it and re-establish its social stability and order

-This theoretical perspective was derived from the contributions of Karl Marx. It emphasizes the role of coercion and power, a person or group’s ability to exercise influence and control over others, in producing social order

    ---Conflict theory emphasizes strife and revolution as an agent of social change

    ---Karl Marx was a political activist and he desired greater equality and access social opportunities for the masses

-This theoretical framework focuses on immediate social interaction to be the place where “society” exists

    ---It studies the ways groups of people, cultures, and societies assign different meaning to behavior, events, or things

        -----It is concerned with how different people interpret the same event and how the interpretation determines one’s behavior

    ---These theorists emphasize face-to-face interaction and pay attention to words, gestures, and symbols

-Feminism

-Postmodernism

- Society is comprised of groups that compete for social and economic resources

-Social order is maintained not by consensus, but by domination, with power in the hands of those with the greatest political, economic, and social resources

-This theoretical framework focuses on immediate social interaction to be the place where “society” exists

    ---It studies the ways groups of people, cultures, and societies assign different meaning to behavior, events, or things

        -----It is concerned with how different people interpret the same event and how the interpretation determines one’s behavior

    ---These theorists emphasize face-to-face interaction and pay attention to words, gestures, and symbols

-Feminism is concerned with understanding:

    ---Life from the female world view

    ---The symbols used in speech, dress, and how one learns

    ---How the social organism/society functions, and the impact of gender in society

    ---Both manifest and latent functions of gender and gender roles

-This perspective is based on the idea that society is not an objective thing.

    ---Instead, it is found in the words and images that people use to represent behavior and ideas

    ---Postmodernists think that images and text reveal the underlying ways that people think and act

    ---Postmodernists’ studies typically involve detailed analyses of images, words, film, music, and other forms of popular culture

-Culture is the complex system of meaning and behavior that defines the way of life for a given group or society

    ---It includes beliefs, values, knowledge, art, morals, laws, customs, habits, language, and dress, among other things

    ---Culture includes ways of thinking as well as patterns of behavior

-Culture is both material and nonmaterial

-Consists of non-tangible things such as norms, laws, customs, values, beliefs, and ideas of a group of people

    ---Belief in God, spoken language, how you sit when you eat are non-tangible aspects of culture.

-Culture is shared

-Culture is learned

-Culture is taken for granted

-Culture is symbolic

-Culture varies across time and space

Culture is collectively experienced and agreed upon. This is what makes human society possible.

We thoroughly learn culture through observation and imitation

We engage unknowingly in hundreds of cultural practices every day; culture makes these practices seem “normal”

-The significance of culture lies in the meaning it holds for people.  Different cultures assign different meanings to symbols.

-Symbols are things or behaviors to which people give meaning; the meaning is not inherent in a symbol but is bestowed by the meaning people give it

-Culture develops as humans adapt to the physical and social environment around them

    ---Solutions to everyday problems vary in different time periods

        -----Culture is a mix of the past and the present

-Solutions to everyday problems also vary by place (where the people live)

    ---The environment helps define how the cultural group lives and what the people do and think about

-Teens begin sex much earlier in Europe

-Teen pregnancy rates in the US are higher than in Europe because high rates among blacks

-Teens are too immature to use contraceptives

-Talking about sex encourages teens to have sex

-Making contraceptives available only increases promiscuity and therefore increases teen pregnancy

-The World Health Organization has consistently found from research that sex education does not encourage earlier sexual debut, but often delays sexual activity and leads to safer sexual practices

-The Bush administration spent, by one estimate, $1.5 billion on abstinence-only education in the last decade.  According to studies, it actually led to more teen pregnancies, more teen births, and more teen abortions

-Is this an example of where values and beliefs of a particular culture drive behavior? Yes

-Popular culture refers to the culture’s beliefs, practices, and objects that are part of everyday traditions

    ---The popular culture of the US is one defined by its dominating the usage and reliance of the mass media

    ---Social class, race, and gender determined one’s access to the mass media

o   Beauty

o   Age and ageism

o   Race

o   Gender

o   Morality

o   Religion

o   Political and economics

-Contends that the mass media reflects the values of the general population

    ---Media developers spend millions studying groups of the population to find out what they value; then they create characters that reflect the values of society

-Social structures are the organized pattern of social relationships and social institutions that together compose society

- Structural analysis looks at patterns in social life that reflect and produce social behavior

-Human society is a system of social interaction that includes both culture and social organization

-It involves social interaction between two or more people

- According to Durkheim, society is greater than the sums of its parts.

- Society has a life of its own

-Sociologists recognize and examine the interrelatedness of the individual parts to understand how society operates

o   Family

o   Education

o   Work and the economy

o   Political institution (or state)

o   Religion

o   Health care

o   Mass media

o   Organized sports

o   Military 

-Socialization of new members

-Production and distribution of goods and services

-Replacement of society’s members

- Maintenance of stability and existence

-Providing members a sense of purpose

-Conflict theorists see disharmony and the subordination of groups of individuals as inherent within social institutions

-For example, in the health care system, doctors are always superior to nurses and other service providers. Doctors give orders and are paid more; nurses take orders and are paid less

-And… insurance companies dictate how much to pay and for what

-Social collectives or membership groups consisting of intimate, face-to-face interaction, relatively long-lasting relationships, and serves members expressive (emotional) needs

- These groups have a powerful influence on their members and like the family, help shape the individual’s personality and self-identity

-Family and peers such as street gangs, classmates, and prisoners exemplify primary groups

-Social collectives or membership groups that are larger in size than primary groups, less intimate, and less long lasting in duration

-These groups are usually less significant in the emotional lives of the people and serve their instrumental (task-oriented) needs

-In an emergency situation, such as a flood or the New Orleans flood of 2005, a secondary group can often take on the characteristics of a primary group

-Groups which you identify with in the form of a generalized role model as they provide standards for evaluating your values, attitudes, and behaviors; you may or may not belong to this group

-These groups strongly influence one’s aspirations, self-evaluation, and self-esteem

-Examples include: major league sports teams, popular bands, and/or classical musicians are super models

-Reference groups can provide both positive and negative influences