Sociology Exam 1 Review ● The definition(s) of Sociology: Impact of external factors Sociology according to Peter Berger (1963): A science in understanding action in soceity ● The 2 basic questions Sociology researches: ○ What do people do ○ Why do they do what they do ● 3 additional questions Sociology asks: ○ What are humans ○ What holds society together ○ Why is their inequality and consequences of that ● Main sociological theories ○ Conflict theory (different groups fighting) ○ Structural functional theory (everyone contributes to society) ○ Symbolic interaction theory (giving meaning to everyday life objects) ● key levels of sociological analysis ○ Macro- global (largest) ○ Meso- national, ethnic subcultures (middle) ○ Micro- family, local community (smallest) ● Major aspects of the wheel of science: deductive & inductive reasoning ○ Data Analysis ○ Data Collection ○ Theory ● Pillars of science ○ Logic ○ Observation ● Social forces that propelled Sociology ○ Political Change ○ Industrialization ○ Urbanization ● Principles of Sociology ○ Manner/use senses ○ Emperical proof ○ Community of scientists ○ Generalize ○ Explain events ○ Develop ideas about cause and effect relationships ● 5 assumptions of Sociology ○ Conflic and change are inevitable ○ People are social by nature ○ Interaction is a 2 way street ○ People belong to social groups ○ Common understandings and shared behavior characterize groups ● Sociological imagination according to C. Wright Mills (1959): ○ Ability to understand the intersection of people with history and the present social structure people find themselves in (Understadning the private in public terms, things may not seem what they are) ● Durkheim’s study of suicide: ○ Typology of suicide: ■ Fatalistic (too much regulation) ■ Anomic (little regulation) ■ Altruistic (too much integration) ■ Egotitic (little integration) ● Social facts: ○ Anything outside of the person which has consequences on them (external factors) ● Culture: ○ Traditions ○ Alive and living all the time bc happens through daily interactions ○ Ability to change and evolve ○ Able to be passed down, learned and taught through generations ● Forms of culture: ○ Culture: Main group, dominant ○ Subcultures: Culture under main culture ○ Countercultures: Goes against the main culture ● Aspects of Culture: ○ Norms, beliefs, values, expressive symbols, practices ● What social interaction is: ○ 2+ people relating to one another with a goal and within social context ● Three types of statuses (achieved, ascribed, master) ○ Achieved: Earned by decision/ability ○ Ascribed: Birth assigned ○ Master: Most important status in ones life ● Social roles: Behaviors and obligations that give one status, expectations of how to act ● Social strain: Tension between roles within one status ● Social conflict: Tension between the roles of 2+ statuses ● Types of social organizations: ○ Primary: Close contacts, personal relationships ○ Secondary: formal, business like relationship ○ Reference: Where menbers act as role models and establish standards for lower members ● Bureaucracies: Organization whos main goal is maximizing efficiancy ● Social action: The beginning of organization ● Social interaction: Mutual action ● Socioal Organization: Patterned social interaction ● Social structure vs individual agency: ○ Structure: recurring pattern of social behavior ○ Actions of the direct individual