Sociology Introduction
13/05/2008 18:49:00
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Common sense only gave incomplete explanations about what happened to
people, their behaviors, and their society.
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Sociologists study societies methodically
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Sociologists always see 2 sides to these issues: a macro sides and a micro
side
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Goal of sociologists: explain social life, critique social inequality, and work
toward effecting social change
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Formal definition: the systematic study of social behavior in human society
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Visible tug-of-war between the group and the individual
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Macrosociology and microsociology are two related but distinct approaches to
studying the social world
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Macrosociology – study of large social organizations and large social
categories for a long periods of time. Focuses on the complex social
patterns that people form over long periods of time. Stresses how
slowly things change and how persistent a social pattern is.
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Microsociology – focuses on the typical processes and patterns of
face-to-face interactions in small groups. Studies the common,
everyday interactions and negotiations that together produce lasting,
secure patterns. Any social unit is constantly being created and
reconceived by the members of society.
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In nature, large things move slowly and small things move quickly
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Combining macro and micro approaches improves our understanding of the
social world.
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The answer lies in a society’s history, culture, and economy
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C. Wright Mills
(1959)
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Sociological imagination – connects the micro and the macro sides of
sociology, relates the personal biographies to human history. Something we
need to use in order to understand how societies control and change their
members and how their members’ actions constantly change it.
Problems with common-sense explanations
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Based on voluntaristic view of life – we lead the life want (NOT TRUE)
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Untested character
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Voluntaristic bias
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Like journalism, history, philosophy, and psychology, sociology describe and
explain human behavior
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Journalism and history – describe real events. Sometimes base their
descriptions on a theory or interpretation and is often a implicit theory
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Sociology – describes real events and makes its theories explicit in order to
test them. Analytical, and completely empirical. Sociological theories must
stand up to logical and evidence. Study social relationships or groups
observed in society.

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- Spring '08
- TEPPERMAN
- Sociology, social expectations socialization
-
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