SOCY 1101 – Ch. 3 & 4

Mary McKenzieUNC Charlotte

Sociologists accept that to understand a particular social event or interaction, they must take a multitude of factors into account.

They accept that generally it is impossible to make predictions with absolute assurance. We can predict what most people will likely do under particular sets of circumstances, but we cannot make guarantees.

McIntyre – Chapter 3: Science and Fuzzy Objects

Sociologists make exact predictions of human behavior, instead of only probabilistic predictions.

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Sociologists also tend to specialize in how they approach the study of their chunks.

There are three sorts of divisions:◦The first has to do with what chunk of society a sociologist chooses to study

◦The second and third have to do with how particular sociologists approach their research

Most sociologists specialize by taking chunks of society and making these their particular concerns.

What Sociologists Study Topic area or subject matter – Table 3.1

How Sociologists Study theoretical Perspectives (paradigms, orienting

strategies) Levels of Analysis

Paradigm – framework or model of the world

3 Major theoretical perspectives: functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist

Differences between these paradigms mostly have to do with the sets of assumptions about the nature of the social world on which each paradigm is based.

Tend to share three major assumptions about the nature of the social world:

Within a particular society, there is a great deal of consensus about what values and norms are important. Regardless of the nature of the values and norms, functional perspectives assume that there is a general consensus about them in society.

Society is an entity or whole that is made up of many integrated parts. Because all the parts are integrated, or tied together, when one part of society changes, other parts will change in response.

Society tends to seek stability and avoid conflict. Conflict is not normal, but is dysfunctional or pathological.

Functionalist Paradigm

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Sociologists who work from the functionalist paradigm tend to assume that society is normally harmonious. 

Theories that emerge from the conflict paradigm tend to be based on assumptions that seem opposite to theories that grow out of the functionalist paradigm:

Within any particular society, there are subgroups of people who cherish different beliefs and have conflicting values and goals.

Society is made up of subgroups that are in ruthless competition for scarce resources.

Society is never harmonious; conflict is normal in society.

Conflict Paradigm

Those who work from the conflict paradigm tend to assume that society is made up ofpeople and groups who compete for resources.

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False 

Symbolic interactionists are sometimes called social constructionists because of their interest in how people construct their own social worlds.

The kinds of questions that symbolic interactionists ask have to do with such issues as how people use symbols to make sense of their environments.

Symbolic Interactionist Paradigm

Among other things, a sociologist who adheresto the symbolic interactionist paradigmwould be concerned about what meaningspeople attached to their behavior and how theycommunicated these meanings to othersaround them.

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How people act depends on how they see and evaluate reality.

People learn from others how to see and evaluate reality.

People constantly work to interpret their own behavior and the behavior of others to determine what these behaviors “mean.”

When people do not attach the same meanings to behaviors or perceive reality in the same way, there will be misunderstanding and conflict.

Most symbolic interactionists share four basic assumptions about the nature of the social world:

The paradigm adopted depends on which of these aspects of society one judges to be the most interesting and important.

Sociologists tend to ask different kinds of questions about their subject matter depending on the paradigm or perspective they hold.

Sociologists divide up their discipline between levels of analysis: microsociology and macrosociology.

Microsociologists generally focus on the interactions of individuals and the context of those interactions.

  Macrosociologists focus on broader social

phenomena, such as whole social structures, systems, and institutions.

Sociologists studying small group interactions are utilizing a macrosociological level of analysis.

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Functionalist, or consensus, tend to focus on what holds society together and on how changes in one part of society lead to changes in other parts.

  Conflict tend to focus on the kinds of things that create

tension and conflict between people and groups and on the ways people from one group may exploit people from another group.

  Symbolic interactionists tend to look at how ideas emerge

from social interaction and then affect that interaction

Understanding any complex phenomenon may require the sociologist to make use of the insights offered by all three paradigms.

Sociologists would never consider utilizing a variety of paradigms in their analysis of a societal phenomenon.

TrueFalse

Sociologists are concerned with issues of observable facts. Sociologists tend to be preoccupied with the empirical world.

  Empirical refers to things that can be

observed through the use of one’s physical senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. If a thing is not observable, then it is of little interest to sociologists.

McIntyre – Chapter 4: Who’s Afraid of Sociology?

The term “empirical” refers to thingsthat can be observed through the useof one's physical senses. 

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Max Weber had a term for those pieces of evidence that contradict what you have always believed and/or want to believe about the social world; he called them inconvenient facts. It is the sociologists’ duty to deal with inconvenient facts.

Mary firmly believes that if people just workhard enough they can be successful in thissociety. For her, any information that provesthe existence of job discrimination would be(according to Weber) an unfortunate

dilemma. 

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Ethnocentrism – to make a value judgment on people’s way of life that differs from our own. We generally do not see difference as merely difference, but as an indication of inferiority.

The positive side of ethnocentrism is that it brings together people and builds solidarity within a particular society.

The negative, or dysfunctional, side of ethnocentrism is that it can lead to nasty consequences: prejudice, discrimination, even genocide or “ethnic cleansing.” ◦ Ethnocentrism is especially dangerous because it gets in

the way of understanding since we are viewing things in terms of our own society.

◦ Culture shock – the resulting feeling of disorientation when our taken-for-granted assumptions about the way things out to be are challenged.

Sociologists draw upon theirethnocentrism to gain insight intothe workings of unfamiliargroups and societies. True

False

Cultural Relativism – the belief that other people and their ways of doing things can be understood only in terms of the cultural context of those people. We have to look for clues in their culture to understand their culture.

Cultural relativity means being objective enough to understand people’s behaviors in terms of their culture and social situation.

Sociology seeks to understand and explain behavior. Understanding is difficult to do unless one is willing to look at things in their own context.

Americans are the only group ofpeople who believe that they aresuperior to people fromother societies. True

False