SOCI 205 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I. What is SociologyII. The Social ImaginationIII. Thinking Like a SociologistIV. Critical DistanceCurrent LectureI. What is Sociology?a. Study of peopleb. Antipathy of psychologyc. How we do things around us affects us (our interactions)d. Science of studying human behavior in societye. All behavior takes place in social contextf. Scientific method is used to study social phenomenag. Sociological analysis occurs at the micro and macro leveli. There is also a meso-level analysis1. Argues that we miss the mark2. We focus too much on micro or too much on macroII. The Sociological Imagination a. Developed by C. Wright Millsb. The ability to see societal patterns that influence individual as well as groups of individualsc. Enables us to see how society shapes our lives and determines our life chancesIII. Thinking Like a Sociologist a. Sociologists are trained to “look past the smoke and mirrors” of the taken for grantedb. Peter Berger calls this “debunking”c. Ex: history, beauty, significance of educationIV. Critical Distance a. Detaching oneself from the situation in order to view it with a critical mindb. George Simmel asserted, “strangers” can see the social structure better than those within itc. Critical distance heavily critiqued recently with women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ communityi. Based on belief that outsider CANNOT understand the lived experience ofgroup