Intro to Sociology

WHAT IS SOCIETY?
When we say “a group of people who share territory and culture” we mean a group of people who live in the same area and share culture. They have similar attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms. What society/societies are you a part of?
(Image courtesy of xedos4/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

SOCIAL SCIENCES
The social sciences are the sciences that observe and study human behaviors and human relationships. Your text discusses the differences between several of the social sciences. We are going to discuss three specific social sciences: anthropology, psychology, and sociology. Do you know the differences between each of these sciences? Just as a side note, I have had several people ask me what I “do.” When I say I teach sociology several people have responded, “Oh, psychology.” I say “no, sociology” and have been faced with the response, “oh, same thing.” No, they are not the same thing.

A bit of review from Sociology 101: What is anthropology? What is psychology? How do anthropology and psychology differ from sociology? Anthropology focuses on culture and understanding a specific group’s culture. An anthropologist looks at the norms, values, beliefs, artifacts, weapons, etc. of a specific culture. Psychology focuses on individuals. For instance, an individual’s mental processes, IQ, personality, etc. The key to think of in terms of psychology is focusing on the internal happenings of the individual. So then, what is sociology?

SOCIOLOGY
Sociology is “the scientific study of society and human behavior.” Sociology focuses on groups as the unit of analysis. We focus on the external factors. We can look at the external environment and how it affects an individual. For instance, we can look at the groups individuals belong to and how those groups affect individuals’ behaviors. We look at the group influence on behavior. I always say that once you have two people, you have sociology!

One of the goals of sociology is to understand the meaning of behavior. We are always attempting to understand why people do what they do. Why people make the choices they make and behave the way they do. When I say to understand I do not necessarily mean condone all behaviors but to have an understanding of why people do what they do. For example, if you watch the news or read the newspaper you probably see or read about people who do some “crazy” things, especially when we see or read about people who break the law. When we hear about criminal activity do we automatically say to ourselves “what an idiot?” As sociologists, our goal is to understand why people are criminals and not just be quick to judge them. A newborn baby does not think “when I get older I want to be a drug dealer or a thief!” It’s not that we are condoning the behavior but we are trying to understand it…understand the causes of the behavior. Sociology looks at cause and effect relationships.

Another goal of sociology is to describe, explain, and predict human behaviors and social phenomenon. As sociologists we describe what is happening, explain why it is happening, and predict the outcomes. When we explain why something is happening we use sociological concepts, terms, and theory in our explanations. This is what you will be doing with the writing assignments in this class. Sociological analysis is describing, explaining, and predicting. Predicting is best described as looking at patterns of behaviors and making generalizations. For instance, if we look at an individual who has come from a family of alcoholics ONE of the predictions is that the individual will also become an alcoholic. We are NOT stereotyping…we do not say to a person “oh, your parents are alcoholics? Well you are going to become an alcoholic.” What studies have shown us is that there is a high probability of this happening, not the only possible outcome, but statistics show that this is the most common outcome (more on the other outcomes later). What we do with this information is note that this is a pattern of behavior and strive to develop and implement programs to try to break this cycle. Sociology is interested in solving the social problems and the only way to do this is to understand the problem. The focus of a social problems course is to not only understand the major social problems our society faces but also take steps to help alleviate or solve these problems.

SOCIAL FORCES
What makes us behave the way we do? What causes us to make the choices we make? We are all a product of social forces. Social forces are social factors that cause us to behave the way we do and make the choices we make. We like to think that we are all very independent and are not affected by anything and anyone when we make certain decisions; however, that is not the case. There are three main social forces that affect us: history, culture, and environment. The time in history we were born in, raised in, and current live in definitely affect our decisions. If it were 1950 right now would any of you make different life decisions than you are making right now (history)? If I was raised in a very traditional family and was socialized with the expectation that I would take on a very traditional female role in adulthood (environment) would I be in the position I am in today? What about a girl who was raised in a very non-traditional family? Think of the cultural values and beliefs you were taught throughout your socialization and the “choices” you made in accordance?

Think of three different individuals living in different times in history and the different choices they would make due to this one social force. A good example of this is the film “If These Walls Could Talk” (part one). Go to the following website to read more information on this film and think about how social forces (history, environment, and culture) played a role in these women’s lives:

Another example: There is a man who you would consider a “racist.” He makes derogatory comments and labels ethnic and racial minorities as well as toward homosexuals. Now, most of us would say he is a “racist” or uneducated, etc… Do we agree with his actions? NO. But can we try to understand why he is this way? Yes, let’s look at social forces to explain.
1) History: he is in his mid seventies
2) Culture: he retired from the military
3) Environment: he lives in Alabama
Do these factors explain why he is the way he is? It’s not that we are condoning his behaviors but now we can understand them.

Think about this: how many of you think you would be able to convince your grandmother that same-sex marriages should be legalized? Most of us, unless your grandmother is considered a young grandma, could talk till we were blue in the face and still never convince grandma! The goal is not the change grandma, remember what Berger said, “If you are only interested in people if you can change them, be warned,” but to change the next generation…to break these cycles.

MACRO/MICRO
What is the difference between macro and micro? What is a macro level of analysis? What is a micro level of analysis? We are looking at large-scale patterns of behaviors versus small-scale patterns of behaviors. An example: If I were to research the homeless how would I do it from a macro level of analysis? How would I do it from a micro level of analysis?
Macro: I would research the social causes of homelessness. I may ask the question, why is homelessness increasing in our society? I would look at the state of the economy in our society or corporate downsizing.
Micro: I would observe the homeless and see how they are able to survive. Or I could observe the homeless to see how they interact with one another. Do you see the difference? In the next section we will be discussing our three main social theories, two of them are macro theories and one is a micro theory – but we will look at each from both perspectives.

SOCIOLOGISTS
There are many different types of sociologists. There are sociologists that research social problems and find the causes of the problems. There are those that develop solutions to the social problems. There are those that implement the solutions (social workers are part of the process here). And finally there are those that evaluate the programs implemented to see if there are actually helping to solve the social problems. We all work together to help solve the problems.

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