The Sociological Perspective

1
The Sociological Perspective

• Peter Berger
• Seeing the general in the particular
• Durkheims Study of suicide
• Lack of social integration
• Eg. Wealthy,unmarried Protestant male

2
The Sociological Imagination

• C. Wright Mills
• How changes in society effect us individually

3
How did Sociology get started?

• From France, Germany England
• August Comte (France)
• Coined the tern Sociology
• Behavior more complex than natural phenomena
• Becomes an academic discipline in U.S. around 1900

4
How does Sociology look at the world

• Theory
• How why specific facts are related
• Confirmed, modified, or rejected through research

5
Theoretical paradigms

• Help decide what kinds of questions to ask.
• Structural Functionalism
• Conflict
• Symbolic interaction

6
Structural Functionalism

• Society promotes solidarity and stability
• Manifest functions
• Recognized or intended consequences
• Latent functions
• Unrecognized and unintended consequences
• Social dysfunction

7
Conflict Theory

• Karl marx
• The point of studying society is to produce
  changes
• Social patterns benefit some people while
  depriving others

8
Symbolic Interaction

• Society operates on the subjective meanings of
  symbols