Welcome to Sociology

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Welcome to Sociology Summer 2011 with
Dr. H
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SOCIOLOGY 2013 GETTING STARTED!!!http//
www.uark.edu/lholyfieWhere youll find your
syllabus, your paper guidelines, extra credit
information, power points, etc..

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What Can I do with Sociology?

• Employers in business and government seek
  college graduates with a well-rounded, liberal
  arts education. Examples of employment
  opportunities for Sociology majors are found in
  

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Careers with a Degree in Sociology

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• Youth Services
• Mental Health
• Agencies on Aging Banking
• Computers Retail trade
• News media FBI agents
• Personnel officers Sales representatives
• Stock brokers
• Why so broad?
• 43 subfields in sociology..

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• For information on possible careers with a major
  in Sociology see the American Sociological
  Association website
•  http//www.asanet.org/student/career/homepage.htm
  l

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SOCIOLOGY 2013 GETTING STARTED!!!

• "A sociologist is a person who goes to a football
  game and watches the crowd!"

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A Sociologist

• Is a person who is intensively, endlessly,
  shamelessly interested in the doings of people.
• Peter Berger

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• And is not just interested in the extraordinary
  but is fascinated by the everyday, taken for
  granted social world.

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WHAT IS SOCIOLOGY?

• Begins with..
• We are shaped by the groups to which we belong
  and the social interaction that takes place
  within and among groups.
• A social scientific approach to the social world
  or Systematic Study of human behavior
• But why is it more accurate than common sense?
• We take a step back, apply both theory and
  research methods to look at human behavior in a
  group context.

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SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

• C.W. Mills
• Common sense is based upon individual
  experiences, distorts reality, is often
  contradictory and based on myths
• We don't usually define our troubles in terms of
  social changes, rapid growth, economic downturn
  or other types of institutional upheaval or
  contemplate what proportion of the population
  shares our experiences.... Were too busy living
  our lives!

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Individual experiences dont always constitute
social problems.

• e.g., Feeling Sad or Depressed
• Versus
• Depression as a
• social problem

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Personal versus Public

• One in 10 American women take antidepressant
  drugs such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft, and the
  use of such drugs by all adults has nearly
  tripled in the last decade
• The number of children getting psychiatric drugs
  also soared. In 2002, about 6 percent of all boys
  and girls were taking antidepressants, triple the
  rate in the period 1994-96.
• National Center for Health Statistics

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• Women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed
  with depression. Why?

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• Explained in part by physiological differences
  and in part by gender norms and social roles
  this is where sociology comes in!!
• Gender norms, Age, Marital status, Socioeconomic
  status, Trauma loss -- life changes

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• Depression in men often goes unrecognized.
• Gender norms and constraints
• typically takes 10 years and 3 mental health
  professionals to properly diagnose depression in
  men
• Some research argues men are more likely to
  experience depression and its twin -- anxiety.

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• Men tend to Act out depression
• Short fuse, impatient, irritable, angry
• Women tend to Act in depression
• Negative, withdrawn, stressed, numb
• http//www.scribd.com/doc/18648340/Male-vs-Female-
  Depression-Why-Men-Act-Out-and-Women-Act-In

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What about Socioeconomic Status?

• Does your education and income influence whether
  you are depressed?

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• Research Suggests.
• Classism relates positively to symptoms of
  depression, anxiety, and stress and negatively to
  perceived wellness, self efficacy, and
  self-esteem
• (Source http//www.irp.wisc.edu/newsevents/semin
  ars/Presentations/2010-2011/MThompson_10-21-10.pdf

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• Most psychotherapy techniques have been developed
  for, and used with, middle class individuals (Sue
  Sue, 1990)
• Low social class related to depression, anxiety,
  substance abuse or dependence (e.g., Diala et
  al., 2004 Lorant et al., 2003 Lynch et al.,
  1997 Poulton et al., 2002)
• Low income individuals less likely to attain
  treatment and underrepresented in research (e.g.,
  Isaacs Schroeder, 2004 Pope Arthur, 2009)

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• Clients from low income backgrounds may be
  experiencing a host of environmental and personal
  factors that impact their presenting concerns as
  well as the ability of some therapeutic
  techniques to effectively meet those concerns
• (Source http//www.irp.wisc.edu/newsevents/semin
  ars/Presentations/2010-2011/MThompson_10-21-10.pdf
  )

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Antidepressant drug costsSource
ConsumerReportsHealth.org/BestBuyDrugs

• Bupropion 75 mg tablet Wellbutrin Three a day
  281
• Bupropion 75 mg tablet Generic Three a day 49
• Bupropion 100 mg tablet Wellbutrin Three a day
  364
• Bupropion 100 mg tablet Generic Three a day 59
• Bupropion 100 mg sustained-release tablet
  Wellbutrin SR Two a day 241
• Citalopram 10 mg tablet Celexa One a day 121
• Citalopram 10 mg tablet Generic One a day 35
• Desvenlafaxine 50 mg sustained-release tablet
  Pristiq One a day 147
• Duloxetine 20 mg capsule Cymbalta One a day 154
• Escitalopram 10 mg tablet Lexapro One a day 111
• Escitalopram 20 mg tablet Lexapro One a day 113
• Fluoxetine 10 mg capsule Prozac One a day 223
• Fluoxetine 10 mg capsule Generic One a day 19
• Fluoxetine 10 mg tablet Prozac One a day 198D
• Fluoxetine 10 mg tablet Generic One a day 45
• Fluvoxamine 50 mg tablet Generic One a day 51
• Fluvoxamine 100 mg tablet Luvox One a day 132D

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• Fluvoxamine 100 mg tablet Generic One a day 48
• Fluvoxamine 100 mg continuous-delivery capsule
  Luvox CR One a day 197
• Mirtazapine 15 mg tablet Remeron One at bedtime
  152
• Mirtazapine 15 mg tablet Generic One at bedtime
  50
• Nefazodone 50 mg tabletE Generic Two a day 71
• Nefazodone 100 mg tabletE Generic Two a day 67
• Paroxetine 10 mg tablet Paxil One a day 142
• Paroxetine 10 mg tablet Generic One a day 38
• Paroxetine 20 mg tablet Paxil One a day 134
• Paroxetine 20 mg tablet Pexeva One a day 186
• Paroxetine 20 mg tablet Generic One a day 20
• Paroxetine 12.5 mg sustained-release tablet Paxil
  CR One a day 126
• Paroxetine 12.5 mg sustained-release tablet
  Generic One a day 97
• Sertraline 25 mg tablet Zoloft One a day 142
• Sertaline 25 mg tablet Generic One a day 31
• Sertraline 50 mg tablet Zoloft One a day 139
• Sertaline 50 mg tablet Generic One a day 26
• Venlafaxine 25 mg tablet Effexor Two a day 150D

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Happiness is not cheap!
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The sociological imagination is

• The ability to use information to understand the
  world, yourself and others....
• It's the ability to use reason to sum up the
  situation, not just rely on your own
  experience.....
• Connects biography with history
• Sociological thinking requires we look at a
  broader context.

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How might it help to have the sociological
imagination?

• Can be empowering to know we are not alone
• Lincoln, Beethoven, Roosevelt, Twain, Van Gogh.
  All suffered from depression so do 15 million
  Americans.
• (personal trouble versus public issue)
• Can mean that social change is possible
• Can mean that the phenomenon can be studied and
  understood

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DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY

• 1. Rapid Social Change
• 2.Industrialization
• 3. Immigration
• 4.Urbanization
• 5. Imperialism
• 3. SCIENCE (empiricism)replaced traditional ways
  of knowing

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Industrial Revolution 1760-1850 Massive
changes On the horizon
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Some Big Names in Sociology

• AUGUST COMTE - "father of sociology"
• SOCIAL STATICS
• Order and stability
• SOCIAL DYNAMICS
• Conflict and change
• POSITIVISM - the goal is not to question the
  reality of a phenomenon but to describe it

• Sociology was divided into two distinct parts.
  Social Statics -- the study of socio-political
  systems relative to their existing level of
  civilization.
• Social dynamics -- the study of the three
  stages of historical thought processes -
  theology, metaphysical, positivism with
  positivism being the higher of the three. The
  inevitable result would be positivism.
• http//www.philosophyprofessor.com/philosophers/au
  guste-comte.php

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• He believed that the solution of persistent
  social problems was the application of
  hierarchical rules this was progress and the
  evolving of society over the individual i.e.,
  social civilization over individual interests.
• It might not taste good but its good for you!

• In his later years, he became interested in
  mysticism and turned away from positivism

A religion of humanity Priests would be
intellectual elites
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Struggle , Competition, reveal fitness

• HERBERT SPENCER
• Social Darwinism
• -- society is always
• evolving, becoming more complex progress
  so hands-off approach to social change.
• Developed the idea of the right of the
  individual and noninterference on the part of the
  state.
• But which individuals??

Coined the term survival of the fittest
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Simmelstudied social interaction within groups
(size matters!)study of the universal patterns
that are found in social interaction - geometry
of social life
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• Martineauthe first to write about the use of
  scientific perspective as a research method
  also among the first to advocate for racial and
  gender equality

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More Big Names

• Durkheim
• SOCIAL FACTS - patterns of being (acting,
  thinking, and feeling) that originate from our
  groups/society
• (external and constraining) our society gets
  inside our minds and hearts
• Applied scientific method to suicide
  Solidarity/anomie

Father of functional theory
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Together they form Functional TheoryBut what is
a theory?
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• THEORY a statement that organizes a set of
  concepts in a meaningful way by explaining the
  relationships between them.
• Like all disciplines, sociology has competing
  theories intended to explain social phenomena.

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Social Change Set Stage for Functionalism

• 1. elements of a society are interrelated and
  compliment each other
• 2. these elements function in society just like
  organs of a body
• 3. there is strong consensus over what is needed
  for society

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Functionalism

• too much change or too rapid change causes
  problems because the system is delicate.
• society is an independent entity, greater than
  the individuals who compose it.

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• TALCOTT PARSONS
• society social system
• structures / functions
• Our job is to understand how groups and
  individuals adapt to the structure
• e.g., institutions like family, the economy,
  religion, education

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• ROBERT MERTON
• Intended / Manifest
• Unintended / Latent
• dysfunctions as well as functions

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• Raises the question
• Is the status quo, always best for society???

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• This questioning can lead to social activism
• Jane Adams. Chicagos Hull House and Nobel
  Prize Winner.

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Adaptation to structural conditions is not
always the best answer. Sometimes conflict is
necessary.
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Functional for Who?

• Conflict theorists want to know who benefits and
  who loses from the structural arrangements that
  we take for granted.
• Karl Marx A founder of Conflict Theory

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Marx

• The ideas of the ruling class become the ruling
  ideas
• Proletariat versus Bourgeoisie
• Economic Systems inevitably lead to Conflict
  according to Marx

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Max Weber

• "both conflict and order are derived from social
  power"
• Wealth, Power, Prestige
• An Uncritical conflict theorist
• Also advocated value-free research and verstehen

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• Social Conflict takes many forms
• . Race, class, gender, age, religion, politics,
  military..

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Race is an important component of power and
conflict. Not just about wealth, power, and
prestige. Being a minority creates Double
Consciousness
Economic conditions led to slavery but even
after slavery was abolished we had the Jim
Crow era and black codes so discrimination
was based on more than just economics.
Conflict comes in many forms
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Conflict Theory

• 1 - society does not have its own needs - groups
  of people do and they compete
• 2 - society can be seen as split into relative
  or absolute
• haves and have-nots
• (super-ordinate and subordinate)
• 3 - conflict is inevitable over resources and is
  the key to human history

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CONTEMPORARY CONFLICT

• (Ralph Dahrendorf, C. W. Mills)
• 1. there are social processes of tension that
  exist anytime or anywhere there is power and
  authority.
• 2. Power Elite top corporate, political, and
  military officials

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FEMINIST/CONFLICT THEORY

• Based on the assumption that males and females
  are equal
• patriarchy based upon gender stratification
• ( a system of male domination that varies
  according to culture) from valuing male
  activities over female to actual physical
  violence

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• 1.The first African American sociologist was
• a. W.E. B. Dubois c. Jane Adams
• b. Karl Marx d. Emile Durkheim
•  
• 2. The first sociologist to apply the scientific
  methods was
• a. Max Weber c. Auguste Comte
• b. Karl Marx d. Emile Durkheim
• 3.. Emile Durkheim showed that abstract
  sociological theories can be applied to a very
  real social problem by studying
• a. alcoholism. c. suicide.
• b. homelessness. d. war.
•  

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SYMBOLIC INTERACTION - micro

• (G. H. Mead, C. H. Cooley, H. Blumer)
• social structures are just groups of people
  interacting.. immediate reciprocal
  communication between two or more people
• behaviors depend upon how we see ourselves and
  others or our subjective realities --
• Interacting with symbols allow communication
• (language is our most important symbol) but it
  comes in other forms too. Tone of voice, facial
  gestures, posture, body language.
• Role-taking is how we develop

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Social Constructionism

• What appear as taken for granted systems of
  operation are often socially constructed for a
  purpose Although, over time these patterns come
  to be seen as natural social realities.

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But

• When we look at these historically or
  cross-culturally, we begin to see they are in
  fact constructed practices, attitudes, and
  meanings. For example, gender relations - these
  are often unintended byproducts of patterns that
  get created and then over time, become
  institutionalized. So they come to us as
  objective reality.

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In Deviance well learn.

• One need only try to deviate from this
  constructed reality to find out how concentrated
  the power of constructed reality can be.
• Being born male or female is a biological fact
  BUT Gender (e.g., feminine or masculine) is a
  sociological construction with social
  implications

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(No Transcript)
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Definitions of Gender influence who we can and
cannot be
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• The social construction of gender can lead to
  rigid rules that result in harmful consequences
  some imposed upon us and some self-imposed.
  More later on this subject..

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Crime as a social constructed reality

• Building upon symbolic interaction social
  realities get constructed through interaction
  With Crime there are written rules and unwritten
  rules that guide the social reality that arises
  
• http//video.google.com/videoplay?docid-271579211
  7793977759
• What we do is often less important than how we
  negotiate the definition of the situation

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• These existing theories are helpful but times are
  changing and we need a global sociological
  imagination as we connect our experiences with
  others around the globe.
• We live in the age of credit and the U.S. high
  income country or industrialized has great
  influence on other nations e.g., China, India
  low-income nations via megacorporations.
  The ideology that is being spread with this is
  buy now, pay later - from the level of
  consumer to that of nations.

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Postmodernismmacro/micro

• Based on the assumption that overly rational
  lives have led us to overly thirst for
  individuality and react to modern institutions
  in ways that make them weaker Also, it pays
  attention to the ways that risks of various types
  have shaped our culture technology, global
  environmental issues, global financial issues --
  we move from symbolic interaction to simulated
  interactions because in the information age, we
  can avoid the real! Credit cards, cyber
  villages, modern warfare etc..