Summary of second year Sociology for Psychology Students course
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Cours
Sociology for Psychology Students (400302B5)
Établissement
Tilburg University (UVT)
Summary of second year Sociology for Psychology Students course, including lectures, slides, book "Sociology" fifth edition by Macionis and Burawoy article.
Lecture 1: Introduction
Sociology tries to see the particular in the general
Originated in the 19th century
Durkheim: “Man is double. There are two beings in him: an individual being and a social being.
In so far as he belongs to society, the individual transcends himself, both when he thinks and
when he acts”
What is sociology?
- Interaction between people
- Looking for general elements in social behavior
- Improve society and social interaction (malleable society)
-> science of society: science + social / societal problems
Social / societal problems: terrorism, delinquency, migration, self-enrichment, poverty, divorce,
extreme-right voting
- Sociological problems: logical problems, objective
- Social problems: issue of validation (it is bad that people…), issues of action (something
should be done)
Zygmunt Bauman:
- Responsible speech: rules of responsible arguments
- Size of the field: transcending your own social world
- Making sense: explaining and interpreting human behavior by looking at the different
figurations and institutions which people are embedded in
- Defamiliarize: the ability to discuss / question the familiar and obvious
3 levels: all interact
- Micro: family, friends
- Meso: office, university
- Macro: government, country
Key questions of sociology:
1. Social inequality: To what extent are scarce resources unequally distributed?
2. Social cohesion: To what extent do members of a society live peacefully together?
3. Rationalization: To what extent is each society rationalized?
Changes in structures of societies: sociocultural evolution
- Hunters and collectors
- Nomadic societies (horticultural and pastoral): using hand tools to cultivate plants and
domesticate animals
- Agrarian societies: large scale farming
- Industrial societies: machines and energy
- Post-industrial societies: computer linked technology, information-based economy
(information, network, cyber and postmodern society), more mental work
Classification based on technology
1
,Postmodernism: ways of thinking which stree a plurality of perspectives as opposed toa unified,
single one)
Technological determinism:
- Technology is neutral, people determine how it is used
- 5 societies no successive stages or progress - eurocentrism (they coexist)
- Technology is limited, no solution to everything
- Technology produces new problems
- Technological progress sets limits to the environment
Societal changes in the past 2 centuries:
- Economic changes: growth of capitalism and the industrial revolution
- Political changes
- Developments in religion
- Growth of cities and genesis of social problems
Discovery of society (18/19 century)
1. Start of modern science: reevaluating empirical observations
2. Discovering of society: from nature to culture
3. Sociology as study of society: sociologist try to grasp the large societal changes of the
18th and 19th century
Auguste Comte (1798-1857): invented the term “sociology”, how society is held together (social
statistics) and how society changes (social dynamics)
1. Theological stage: explanation via gods and spirits -> priests
2. Metaphysical stage: via abstract, philosophical speculation on the natural order ->
philosophers
3. Scientific stage: via objective observations -> scientists
Toennies: saw modern world as progressive loss of traditional, human communities
(Gemeinschaft) and that people are essentially separated in spite of uniting factors
(Gesellschaft)
The great transformation:
The digital age: computerisation of life, shift from analogue to digital, and thee miniaturization
of these technologies
The cyborg age: humans are becoming more and more adapted to all technology
The information age: rapid growth of production and availability of all kinds of data and
information
The network society: the new ways of communicating and relating have developed
The virtual age: the mediated nature of reality, reality is less direct and instead mediated
through som technology
Herbert Spencer -> “survival of the fittest”, rise of social Darwinism
2
,-> if left to compete for themselves, the most intelligent, ambitious and productive people will
inevitably win out
- Civilization labor
- Discipline
- Education of the masses
- Trust in science
- The “Sociale Questie”
The sociale quaestie:
- Misery of urbanization and industrialization (Marx and Engels)
- Rise of labor movement (socialism)
- Reaction liberals (conservatives) confessionals -> well understood self-interest
- If gap between rich and poor is too big -> unequal societies
Research themes: poverty, division of labor and class relations
Academics and “do gooders”:
- Rise of the people
- Social workers
- Anti alcohol movement
Paradigma: a view upon society that steers scientific thinking and research
- Perspective, world views (what color is the dress)
A paradigm: The Kuhn Cycle
4 paradigmata in sociology: classical traditional perspectives
1. Structural-functionalist paradigm: society as a complex system whose parts work
together and interconnect - often to promote solidarity and stability
- Manifest functions: the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern
(Merton)
- Latent functions: consequences that are largely unrecognized and unintended
- Social dysfunctions: any social pattern’s undesirable consequences for the operation of
society
2. Conflict paradigm: sees society as an arena of differences and inequalities that
generate conflict and change
3
, Interactionist paradigm: in Macionis 1 paradigm
3. Symbolic interactionist paradigm: (action theory) the ways in which people (actors)
orientate themselves to each other and how they do so on the basis of meaning
- Symbolic interactionism: society as the product of the everyday interactions of people
doing things together
4. Rational choice paradigm
Multiparadigmatic: sociology is many positions
A theory: a coherent system of statements about how and why specific facts are related (e.g.
classical historical materialism - Marx, integration theory and Anomie theory - Durkheim and
world view theory - Weber)
- A theory is part of a paradigm
Integration theory: more integration leads to more cohesion (this is circular if you also measure
cohesion through integration - social contacts lead to social contacts)
Problems with paradigma:
- Sociology is not detached from the position of the researcher, but is a part of it
- This determines the view on society
- A complete view or theory of society does not exist
- Always limited and selected: “partial perspectives”
Sociological approaches:
Positivist sociology: knowledge based on direct, systematic observations
- Following physical principles
- Laws
- Empirical facts: seeing as believing
- Objectivity and replicable
- Deductive science: zooming in from a broad view
Humanistic stance (humanist epistemology):
- Inductive: from specific observation to broad speculation
- Meaning of human behavior and symbols
- Understanding and subjective interpretation (also empirical)
1. Creativity and activity of people
2. Concrete human experience through social and economic organization (instead
of physical or biological drive)
3. Intimate knowledge of these experiences
4. Sociologist had political and moral obligation to steer towards equal society
Emergent epistemologies: the realist stance (theorizing science)
1. Realism: a theoretical system of concepts that are evolved to handle a particular
problem
- Argues that empirical evidence is never straightforward, we can never be sure of facts
- Mode of production (Marx): the way a society is organized to produce goods and
services
4
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