Lesson 1:

What is Sociology?

Intro to Sociology
Three revolutions had to take
place before the sociological
imagination could crystallize:
 The scientific revolution (16th c.)
encouraged the use of evidence to
substantiate theories.
 The democratic revolution (18th
c.) encouraged the view that
human action can change society.
 The industrial revolution (19th c.)
gave sociologists their subject
matter.
 Sociology
Sociology is the
systematic study of
human society and
social interaction. It
is based on the idea
that our relations with
other people create
opportunities for us to
think and act but also
set limits on our
thoughts and action.
 What is Sociology?

Sociology is also the

study of reifications, or
social constructions.

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 Sociology
Howard Becker defined
sociology as the study
of people “doing things
together.”

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 Sociology
This reminds us that
society and the
individual are
inherently connected,
and each depends on
the other.
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Sociology?
 Sociology
Sociologists study this
link: how society
affects the individual
and how the
individual affects
society.
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Sociology?
A society is a large social grouping that shares
the same geographical territory and is
subject to the same political authority and
dominant cultural expectations.
 Society Is….

A society is a group of people who

share a culture and live more or less
together. They have a set of
institutions which provide what they
need to meet their physical, social,
and psychological needs and which
maintain order and the values of the
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culture.
Social structures are the more or less
stable patterns of people’s interactions
and relationships.

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Institutions are the principal social
structures that organize, direct, and
execute the essential tasks of
living.

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Some institutions are:
Family,
Educational,
Economic,
Religion,
Law,
Political Systems

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 Sociological Imagination

 The ability to see

the relationship
between individual
experiences and the
larger society.
Cool Insights from Sociology
Humans cannot be
understood apart from
social context (i.e.
society)

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Sociology?
Cool Insights from Sociology
Society makes us who
we are by structuring
out interactions and
laying out an orderly
world before us

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Cool Insights from Sociology
 Society is a social
construction, that is an idea
created by humans (i.e. doesn’t
exist in the biological world but
only in the social world)
through social interaction
and given a reality through our
understanding of it and our
collective actions.
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 Society Influences You
 Death…

Related to
society?

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Baby Names

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Sociology?
Names that have gained
the most popularity,
2004 – 2010

...Or, the names I’ll begin seeing all

the time in 2022-2028

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 What Does Society Look
Like?
 While the idea of society is familiar,
describing it can be difficult.
Ultimately society is made up of
many different components, such
as culture, race, family, education,
social class, and people’s interactions.
 People who share a culture and
territory

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Meaning through Interaction
 People actively and collectively shape
their own lives, organizing their social
interactions and relationships into a
meaningful world.
 Sociologists study this social
behavior by seeking out its patterns.
 Patterns are crucial to our
understanding of society

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 Society
Society is a group of people
who shape their lives in
aggregated and patterned
ways that distinguish
their group from other
groups.

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 The Social Sciences
 Social Sciences are the disciplines
that use the scientific method to
examine the social world, in contrast
to the natural sciences, which
examine the physical world.
 Examples of social sciences include
….?

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How Sociology fits in

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 Levels of Analysis
 We can study society from different levels:
 Microsociology is the level of analysis that
studies face-to-face and small-group
interactions in order to understand how
they affect the larger patterns and
institutions of society.
 Microsociology focuses on small-scale
issues.
 Ex: Symbolic Interactionism

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Levels of Analysis (cont)
 Macrosociology is the level of
analysis that studies large-scale
social structures in order to
determine how they affect the lives of
groups and individuals.
 Macrosociology focuses on large-scale
issues.
 Ex: Functionalism, Conflict Theory

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 How We Use Levels of
Analysis
 Pam Fishman took a micro-level approach
to studying issues of power in male–female
relationships.
 She found that in conversation, women
ask nearly three times as many questions
as men do, perhaps because a speaker is
much more likely to ask a question if he or
she does not expect to get a response by
simply making a statement.

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Levels of Analysis (cont)
 When conducting research, methodology
involves the process by which one
gathers and analyzes data.
 Quantitative research translates the
social world into numbers that can be
treated mathematically; this type of
research often tries to find cause-and-
effect relationships.
 Any type of social statistic is an example
of quantitative research.
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Levels of Analysis (cont)
 Qualitative research works with non-
numerical data such as texts, fieldnotes,
interview transcripts, photographs, and
tape recordings; this type of research often
tries to understand how people make
sense of their world.
 Participant observation, in which the
researcher actually takes part in the social
world he or she studies, is an example of
qualitative research.

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 Take Away Points
Humans cannot be
understood apart from the
social context they live in
(society, culture and time +
place)

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 Take Away Points
The world around us
profoundly shapes and
influences who we are, how
we behave and even
how/what we think.

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 Take Away Points
It is the job of the
sociologist to understand
how this process works and
to what effect.

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Lesson Quiz
1. Which of the following is NOT an
example of a social science?
a. biology
b. political science
c. psychology
d. economics

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Lesson Quiz
2. Sociology is defined as:
a. the scientific study of humans.
b. the study of ancient cultures and
behavior.
c. the study of how the brain works.
d. the study of human society and social
behavior.

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Lesson Quiz
3. __________ is the level of analysis that
studies face-to-face and small-group
interactions in order to understand how
those interactions affect the larger patterns
and institutions of society.
a. Microsociology
b. Macrosociology
c. Sociology
d. Social science

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Lesson Quiz
4. A sense of disorientation that occurs
when you enter a radically new social
or cultural environment is called:
a. cultural mind.
b. culture shakes.
c. cultural fear.
d. culture shock.

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For Next Time:
 How we come to understand the
social world
 Theories and Theorists
 Read more!

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