Lecture 1
October 27, 2015
Overview of Sociology (man with society)
● Systematic study of social life and behavior
➢ set of elements related through some kind of interdependency thought as a whole
➢ apply both theoretical and research methods to examine social behavior
Why study sociology (focused on health)?
1. Understand “society” – group of people with (1) defined geographic territory, (2) same
governance, (3) distinct culture and traditions and (4) unity as a group
2. Help understand ourselves better (ex. Social definition of sick role)
3. Show human arrangements of shared ideas and relationships that connect our separate lives
4. Allows study of behavior patterns that varies through history and in consonance with such
factors as age, race and gender
5. Showed it is possible to produce reliable knowledge about society that human beings could use
to shape their future for better
6. Problems and issues in the emerging world:
➢ Alienation and loneliness
➢ Social disorganization
➢ Secularization and decline of traditional religious beliefs
➢ Pessimism about individual’s capacity to take rational control of his destiny
7. Help us look beyond intuition, common sense, or subjective experiences
8. Use systematic research techniques and methods accountable to the scientific community for
presentation
Sociology
● Emerged in late 18th and early 20th century in response to challenges of modernity
● Great Transformation – period modern societies and sociology emerged
1. Rapid and continuous growth of science and technology and productive capacities
2. Changes in population growth and migration
3. New form of governments
4. Western expansion
Development of Sociology
1. Philosophers (Aristotle, Plato, Confucius)
2. Rise of scientific thinking in 19th century
● Philosophy that understanding based on reason and experience would make it possible
to solve social problems and improve society, in the process promoting human rights
and freedom from oppression
● Preference for science over religion as a way of explaining reality
3. Social upheaval
➢ French Revolution
o Toppled monarchy in 1789
o Napoleon and Bonaparte plunged Europe into war
➢ Industrial Revolution
o Unprecedented productivity and technological change
o Rapid growth of capitalism
a. Rapidly growing and congested cities, high unemployment, increase
poverty, miserable living
4. Utilitarianism
● Based on the assumption in that humans behave rationally and that social life results
solely from the rational choices made by individuals
o Social systems result from the calculated decisions of individual, and nothing of
importance exists beyond the limits of individual psyche
● Social systems result from calculated decisions of individual
o Sociology rejected this view as too narrow; instead, developed as a way of
understanding social life as more than a collection of individual lives
● Individual lives take place in relation to social systems
o Societies are more than the sum of their parts; they are entities in themselves
whose characteristics must be included in any full understanding of social life
Theoretical Perspective
● Set of assumptions that define an approach to understanding something
● Does not explain anything (unlike a theory)
o Example: understanding suicide from sociological, psychological and biological
perspectives
Sociological Perspective
Sociological Perspective Level of Analysis Focus
1. Symbolic Interactionism Micro Use of symbols; face-to-face
interactions
2. Functionalism Macro Relationship between the parts
of society; how aspects of
society are functional (adaptive)
3. Conflict Theory Macro Competition for scarce
resources; how the elite control
the poor and weak
Symbolic Interactionism
● Focus on people’s actual experience and behavior in everyday life and the relation of these to
how they perceive, interpret and feel about themselves and others
● Use of symbols in the relationship between individuals and societies(George Herbert Mead,
1863-1931)
● Definition of the situation: whenever in a new situation, we have to identify the social system
we are in and our position in it; we must figure out what beliefs, values, norms and attittues
apply to us
Functionalism
● Reaction to growing influence of psychological thinking
● Social systems are entities in and of themselves that can be understood as more than the sum
of the various parts that make them up including the people who participate in them
o Societies are wholes whose parts have little significance except in relation to one
another and the whole
● Emphasis on how social systems operate, change, remain stable, produce consequences that
support or interfere with system requirements or cultural values
● Consequence (Merton 1968)
➢ Functional – contributed to one or more requirements or values
➢ Dysfunctional – interferes
➢ Manifest – intended consequences
➢ Latent – unintended consequences
● Most important contribution raises questions about social systems and the relationship between
their characteristics and the social consequences they produce (ex. Wealth and poverty, slavery,
crime and corruption
Conflict Perspective
● Social systems promote division, inequality and struggle
● Marx: class conflict among the owners of means of production (capitalist) and those who work
for wages
● Weber: conflict also arise from people’s idea about prestige and distribution of power and
authority in organizations such as corporations and government
o Bureaucracy as a pervasive form of social organization that is ideally suited to enforcing
ever greater degrees of inequality and oppression
o Bureaucracy makes social life increasingly impersonal and subject to external control
and manipulation
Important Figures in the Development of Sociology
1. Auguste Comte
● Father of Sociology
● Coined term “sociology” (Latin socius – companion, associate)
● Saw history in 3 intellectual stages: (1) theological – included the medieval period in
which society was seen as reflecting the will of a deity; (2) metaphysical – during the
Enlightenment and focused on forces of “nature,” rather than God, to explain social
event; and (3) positivistic or scientific – his own time period
o Positivism – way to understand the social world based on scientific facts; social
life was governed by laws that could be discovered by a new science, Sociology
2. Herbert Spencer
● Theory of General Evolution
● Society has various interdependent parts that work to ensure the stability and survival
of the entire society
● Societies develop through a process of struggle for existence and fitness for survival –
survival of the fittest
● Opposed social reforms that interfered with natural selection process – social Darwinism
3. Emile Durkheim
● Rules of sociological method: Societies are built on social facts
● People are product of their social milieu and their behavior should be understood in
terms of the social forces in addition to their biological and psychological traits
● Anomie – social control becomes ineffective as a result of loss of shared values and
purpose
Tools Used
1. Field research
2. Observation
3. Scientific experiment
4. Questionnaire and survey
5. Studying primary and secondary resources
On Becoming a Social Being
1. Culture
● Complex wholes acquired by man as a member of society
● Accumulated sum of symbols, ideas and material products associated with life in a social
system
● Full range of learned human behavior patterns
● Acquired thru the process of socialization
a. Material culture (object)
b. Non material (no physical reality like symbols)
2. Language
3. Values
4. Norms
a. Folkways
b. Mores
c. Taboo
d. Laws
Agents of Socialization
1. Family
2. School
3. Peer
4. Religion
5. Government
6. Mass media
Lecture 2 – Social Structure: The Building Blocks of Social Life
October 29, 2015
Social structure – social patterns society is organized; instrument of control
a. Horizontal social structure – social relationships and the social and physical characteristics of
communities to which individuals belong
b. Vertical social structure (social inequality) – ways society/ group ranks people in a hierarchy
(pecking order)
Components
1. Status
● Position someone occupies in society
● Status set – one individual occupies several different statuses at the same time
(1) ascribed status – status someone is born with and has no control over
o Race, ethnicity, and gender
o Cannot be changed
(2) achieved status – social position that person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit
or direct effort
o Marital status, educational attainment, employment status
o Can be changes
(3) situational status – position occupied only in a particular situation
o (customer, pedestrian, motorist, patient)
(4)transitional status – occupied for a limited time as a bridge from one status to another
o Engaged to be married; single to married
o Probationary: temporary to permanent employee
Types of Status
(1) master status – so important; status that overrides other held statuses (race, occupation)
(2) status symbols – certain objects signify any particular status (dresses suited at your age)
(3) social category – collection of people occupying the same status
2. Roles
● Set of beliefs, values, attitudes and norms associated with a particular status in
relation to one or more other statuses
● Behavior expected of someone – and in fact everyone – with a certain status
o Ex. Status: manager
Role: coach, leader, subject matter expert
● Help us interact because of familiarity with the behavior associated with roles
o The content of a particular role depends on the other statuses involved
in the relationship (doctor to patient; doctor to doctor)
● Major dimension of socialization – learning the roles our society has and then
behaving in the way a particular role demands
● Role partner – the content of a particular role depends on the other statuses
involved in the relationship
● Role set – relationship with occupants of other statuses
Role strain and Role conflict
1. conflict
● Occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by 2 or more statuses
held at a time
● Caused by changing statuses and roles, as well as having two or more roles
● Solution: (1) prioritize and (2) compartmentalize – divide performance of role to specific
parts of the day or place
● Ex. You – student, mother, worker
2. strain (expertise)
● Occurs when a person experiences difficulty in meeting the demands of a role
● Especially true in conflicted situations
o Adolescent mothers
o Single parents
o Stigma (homosexuality)
● Ex. You – student – do well or not
3. Group
● 2 or more people sharing a feeling of unity and bond
(1) primary – involve 2 or more people enjoy direct, intimate, cohesive relationships (expressive ties)
(2) secondary – involved in impersonal, touch-and-go (instrumental ties)
(3) Group boundaries
● Social demarcation lines tell us where interaction begins and ends in group
● Prevent outsiders from entering a group’s sphere and keep insiders
(4) Reference Groups
● Provide models we use for appraising and shaping our attitudes, feelings and
actions
● May or may not be an in-group member
● Provides both normative and comparative functions
Group dynamics
(1) Group size
o Influences nature of interaction
o Emotions and feelings tend to assume a larger part in dyads
(2) group process
o Social interactions (as the number of people interacting increase so does the
interactions)
(3) leadership
o Some members usually exert more influence than others
o 2 Types of leadership roles tend to evolve in small groups: (1) task specialist and
(2) social emotional specialist – or both
o May follow authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire style
(4) group think
o Group members may share an illusion of invulnerability that leads to
overconfidence and a greater willingness to take risks
(5) conformity
o Groups bring powerful pressures to bear that produce conformity among their
members
o Although such pressures influence our behavior; we often are unaware of them
(6) social loafing
o When individual work in groups, they work less hard
(7) social dilemnas
o Conflicting between maximizing their personal interest or group welfare
Groups and Organizations
(1) social group – consists of 2 or more people who regularly interact on the basis of mutual
expectations and who has a common identity
o Connect individuals to the larger society
o Provide security and support
o Help share values
(2) forma organization – large groups that follows explicit rules and procedures to achieve specific goals
and tasks
(3) social networks – totality of relationships that link people and groups and through them to still other
people and groups
4. Social institutions – widely accepted, relatively stable set of beliefs, rules and behavior that help a
society meet its basic needs standardized way of doing things
Basic Social Institutions
Before: family, economy, politics (government), education, religion
Now: with mass media, science and medicine, military
Essential tasks
o Replacing members (procreation, recruitment)
o Teaching new members (socialization)
o Producing, distributing and consuming goods and services
o Preserving order
o Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose
5. Society
● Most complex macrostructure consisting of groups of people who live within a
defined territory (not necessary), share a distinct culture, share common ways of
interacting and feel some unity as a group
● Largest component of social structure
● Evolve from less complex to more complex socio cultural arrangement (primitive
communal – industrial)
Changes in Societal Structure
(1) Mechanical Solidarity
o Social cohesion based on relatively simple divisions of labor and common
culture, conditions found most often in small traditional communities
➢ Social cohesion during preindustrial societies with minimal division
of labor, people felt united by shared values
o Social integration of members of a society who have common values and
beliefs
➢ Members shared dependence on one another
o Common values and beliefs constitutes a “collective conscience” that works
internally in individual members to cause them to operate
(2) Organic Solidarity
o Social cohesion found in industrial (post-industrial society)
o Social integration arises out of the need of individuals for one another’s
services (i.e. mutual dependence)
➢ There is relatively greater division with individuals functioning much
like the interdependent but differentiated organs of a living body
o Social interaction is less personal, more status oriented, and more focused
on specific
Gameinschaft and Gesellschaft (Tonnies)
● Degree of social solidarity and social control in social societies
1. Gameinschaft
● Community feeling results from likeness and from shared life experience
● Social relationship are based on personal bonds of friendship, kinship
● Ex. Bayanihan, tribes
● People have simple and direct face-to0face relations with each other that are determined by
Wesewille (natural will) – natural and spontaneously arising emotions and expressions of
sentiment
2. Gesellschaft
● Communities held together by rational self-interest and calculating conduct that make people
depend on one another
● Creation of Kurwille (rational will) and its typically modern, cosmopolitan societies with their
government bureaucracies and large industrial organizations
● Human relations are more impersonal
Social Interactions
● Coalitions are formed
o To maximize control over others and minimize control of others over us
o Usually when decision has to be made
o No one has power to make decisions alone
o No one has veto power
● Physical space
o Affect perception and awareness
o Arranged to control interaction
o Tool for social control (e.g. elevation)
● Dramaturgical analysis
o Concern
o Interaction takes place on a stage and unfolding in scenes
o Irving Goffman: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
o Continuing performance of actors before audiences
➢ Audience – role partners
➢ Social scripts – expected behavior associated with status for each situation
➢ Front – physical appearance and behavior
➢ Front stage – roles are performed before an audience
➢ Back stage – players are freed from requirements of particular role
Bureaucracy
● Small organization basis face-to-face interaction
● Larger organizations must establish formal operating and administrative
Characteristics (Max Weber)
o Each office has clearly defined duties
o Office organized in hierarchy of authority
o Governed by system of rules
o Have qualification
o Incumbents
o Employment is career
o Decisions are documented
Problems
o Principles of trained incapacity
o Robinsons’ Law
o Iron Law of Oligarchy
Conflict Interactionist Perspectives – organizational reality generated through actions of people
Humanizing Bureaucracies – allow employee participation, flex-time
