Chapter 1 The Sociological Perspective The Sociological Perspectives Sociological perspective understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context Society people who share a culture and a territory Social location the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society jobs income education gender age race and ethnicity Sociology and the Other Sciences Science the application of systematic methods to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods Natural sciences the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to comprehend explain and predict events in our natural environments Social sciences the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to understand the social world objectively by means of controlled and repeated observations examine human relationships anthropology studies culture economics studies the productions and distribution of goods and services political science studies how people govern themselves psychology the study of processes within the individual most in common with sociology often confused for sociology The Goals of Science explain why something happens make generalizations look for patterns predict what will happen to move beyond common sense Generalization a statement goes beyond that individual case and is applied to a broader group or situation Common sense those things that everyone knows are true Scientific method the use of objective systematic observations to test theories Positivism the application of the scientific approach to the social world Auguste Comte and Positivism applying the scientific method to the social world armchair philosophy Karl Marx and Class Conflict Class conflict Marx s term for the struggle between capitalists and workers Bourgeoisie Marx s term for capitalists those who own the means of production Proletariat Marx s term for the exploited class the mass of workers who do not own the means of production engine of human history is class conflict The Bourgeoisie v The Proletariat Marxism is not the same as communism Emile Durkheim and Social Integration Verstehen and Social Facts Max Weber and the Protestant Ethic Social integration the degree to which members of a group or a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds also known as a social cohesion Patterns of behavior recurring characteristics of events Value free the view that a sociologist s personal values should not influence social research Values the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable good or bad beautiful or ugly Objectivity value neutrality in research Replication the repetition of a study in order to test its findings Subjective meanings the meanings that people give their own behavior Social facts Durkheim s terms for a group s pattern of behaviors Weber importance of religion on behavior Verstehen to grasp by insight importance of subjective meanings Durkheim social integration stressed social facts explain social facts with other social facts Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology Theory a general statement about how some parts of the wod fit together how they work an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another Symbolic interactionism a theoretical perspective in which society if viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning develop their views of the world and communicate with one another Functional Analysis a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts each with a function that when fulfilled contributes to society s equilibrium also known as functionalism and structural functionalism Conflict theory a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources Macro level analysis an examination of large scale patterns of society Micro level analysis an examination of small scale patterns of society such as how the members of a group interact Social interaction one person s actions influencing someone else usually refers to what people do when they are in another presence but also includes communications at a distance Non verbal interaction communication without words through gestures use of space silence and so on Globalization the growing interconnections among nations due to the expansion of capitalism Globalization of capitalism capitalism inventing to make profits within a rational system becoming the globe s dominant economic system