CHAPTER 1

Sociology and the Real World

Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

Opening Question 1
Sociology is

A. the study of individual behavior.

B. the study of personal issues and illnesses.

C. the nonscientific study of small group interactions.

D. the scientific study of society and social behavior.

Opening Question 2
Which of the following disciplines is a social science?

A. chemistry

B. biology

C. economics

D. zoology
Opening Question 3
Sociology, as a discipline, took root with a few key thinkers. Match the following

three people with the appropriate key term or idea.

A. social Darwinism 1. Auguste Comte

B. full citizenship for women and 2. Herbert Spencer

Black people 3. Harriet Martineau

C. positivism
Opening Question 4
Macrosociological theory is the study of grand social behavior, such as social

order, social change, and social inequality.

A. true

B. false
Opening Question 5
Thomas has a degree in engineering, just like his father and grandfather. His grandfather
was able to get a job straight out of college and stay with the same company until he
retired. But after searching for over a year, Thomas was only able to find contracted,
hourly engineering work. He has decided to pursue a graduate degree with the hopes of
finding full-time employment when he graduates. Using a sociological imagination, how
might we better understand this change?

A. Thomas is part of a different economy and workforce than his grandfather, so his
experiences are different.

B. Thomas is not making enough effort, so he is less successful than his grandfather.

C. Engineering is less important than it used to be.

Opening Question 6
Match each sociological perspective with its assumptions and approach to

understanding society.

A. Meanings are created and interpreted 1. structural functionalism

through interaction.
2. conflict theory
B. Society is characterized by patterns of
3. symbolic interactionism
inequality and dominance.
4. postmodernism
C. Society is an orderly and unified system.
D. Social reality is diverse and best explored
via mini-narratives.
1.1 What Is Sociology?
Defining Sociology
• Sociology: The systematic or scientific study of human society and social

behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and

individual interactions.

• The term’s Latin and Greek roots, socius and logos, suggest that sociology

means the study of society.

• Society: A group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and

patterned ways that distinguish their group from others.

Howard Becker’s Sociology
• According to Howard Becker, sociology is the study of people “doing things

together” because neither the individual nor society exists independently of

one another.

• Our survival is contingent on the fact that we live in various groups

(families, neighborhoods, dorms).

• Our sense of self derives from our membership in society.

Sociology as a Social Science
• Sociology is one of the social sciences.

• Social sciences: The disciplines that use the scientific method to examine

the social world.

• The social sciences include fields such as anthropology, psychology,

economics, political science, and sometimes history, geography, and

communication studies.
Sociology and the Social Sciences (1 of 2)
Sociology and the Social Sciences (2 of 2)

Social Sciences Similar to Sociology Different From Sociology

History Both fields compare the past and the Sociology is more likely to focus on
present in order to understand them. contemporary society.
Anthropology Both fields study human culture. Sociology is interested in societies at all
levels of development.
Economics, Political These fields all examine social Sociology looks at a range of social
Science institutions. institutions, rather than a single one.
Geography Both fields consider the relationship Sociology is more concerned with the
of people to places. people rather than the places themselves.
Communication Both fields examine human Sociology studies both the social and the
Studies communication. interpersonal levels, rather than one or
the other.
Psychology Both fields study the individual and Sociology looks at the individual in
their relationships. relationship to external social forces.
1.2 How to Think Like a Sociologist
Sociological Perspective
• Sociological perspective: A way of looking at the world through a sociological

lens.

• One part of building a sociological perspective is distinguishing between practical

knowledge and scientific knowledge.

• Practical knowledge allows people to get along in their everyday life. Most people

can’t explain the technical details of such knowledge; they know only how it works

in a mundane context.

• Scientific knowledge is that which is systematic, comprehensive, coherent, clear,

and consistent. It is the result of constant questioning and investigation.

Beginner’s Mind (1 of 2)
• One technique for gaining a sociological perspective comes from Bernard

McGrane.

• Beginner's mind: Approaching the world without preconceptions in order

to see things a new way.

• McGrane says that to explore the social world, it is important that we clear

our minds of stereotypes, expectations, and opinions so that we can be

more receptive to our experiences.

Beginner’s Mind (2 of 2)
• Beginner's mind posits that our
greatest obstacle to making new
discoveries is our habitual ways
of thinking.

• According to McGrane,
“Discovery is not the seeing of a
new thing—but rather a new
way of seeing things.”
Culture Shock
• Another way to gain a sociological perspective is through culture shock.

• Culture shock: A sense of disorientation that occurs when entering a radically

new social or cultural environment.

• Normal behaviors in one society or culture may seem very strange in another, and

putting all judgement aside allows us to truly perceive what we are experiencing.

• When applied to our daily lives, we can see that what is familiar to us, if viewed

from an outsider’s perspective, is just as exotic as some foreign culture, only we’ve

forgotten this is true because it’s our own and we know it so well.
The Sociological Imagination (1 of 2)
• Sociological imagination: A quality of the mind

that allows us to understand the relationship

between our individual circumstances and larger

social forces.

• C. Wright Mills, who coined this term, said that to

understand social life, we must understand “the

intersection between biography and history.”

The Sociological Imagination (2 of 2)
• The sociological imagination searches for the link between micro and macro

levels of analysis: It allows us to see the connection between a particular

situation in our lives and something happening at a broader social level.

• One of the most important benefits of using the sociological imagination is

access to a world beyond our own immediate sphere, where we can

discover radically different ways of experiencing life and interpreting

reality.
1.3 Levels of Analysis: Micro- and
Macrosociology
Levels of Analysis
• Sociological perspectives have different levels of analysis that give us
different ways of looking at a common subject.

• Microsociology: The level of analysis that studies face-to-face and

small-group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger
patterns and structures of society.

• Macrosociology: The level of analysis that studies large-scale social

structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and
individuals.
The Macro-Micro Continuum
1.4 Sociology’s Family Tree
Theories and Paradigms
• Theories: Abstract propositions that explain the social world and make
predictions about the future.

• Theories are also sometimes referred to as approaches, schools of thought,

perspectives, or paradigms.

• Paradigm: A set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way

of understanding social reality.

• Sociological theories typically address social processes at either the

microsociological or macrosociological level.
Sociology’s Family Tree
Auguste Comte
• Auguste Comte developed a theory of the

progress of human thinking that came to be

known as positivism.

• Positivism: The theory that sense perceptions are

the only valid source of knowledge.

• Comte laid the groundwork for future sociologists

and helped to establish the discipline.

Harriet Martineau
• Harriet Martineau was a social activist who

traveled around the United States and

wrote about social changes that were

radical for this time period.

• Martineau translated Comte’s work into

English, making his ideas accessible to

England and America.

Herbert Spencer
• Herbert Spencer was primarily responsible for the

establishment of sociology in Britain and America.

• He believed that societies evolve through time by

adapting to their changing environment.

• Social Darwinism: The application of the theory of

evolution and the notion of “survival of the fittest”

to the study of society.

Émile Durkheim
• Structural functionalism: Paradigm based on

the assumption that society is a unified whole

that functions because of the contributions of its

separate structures.

• Émile Durkheim is the central figure in

functionalist theory. He studied the social factors

that bond and hold people together.

Solidarity
• In The Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim stated that solidarity was

present in all types of societies, but that different types of societies created

different types of social bonds.

• Solidarity: The degree of integration or unity within a particular society;

the extent to which individuals feel connected to other members of their

group.
Mechanical Solidarity vs. Organic Solidarity
• Durkheim suggested that people in a simple agricultural society were bound
together by mechanical solidarity.

• Mechanical solidarity: The type of social bonds present in premodern,

agrarian societies, in which shared traditions and beliefs created a sense of
social cohesion.

• In industrial societies, he thought people were bound by organic solidarity.

• Organic solidarity: The type of social bonds present in modern societies,

based on difference, interdependence, and individual rights.
Anomie
• In his classic study, Suicide (1897), Durkheim theorized that suicide is one

result of a lack of connection to the social world, or anomie.

• Anomie: “Normlessness”; term used to describe the alienation and loss of

purpose that result from weaker social bonds and an increased pace of

change.
Religion
• In his final major study, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912),

Durkheim suggested that religion was a powerful source of social solidarity

because it reinforced collective bonds and shared moral values.

• He found that though religious traditions might differ, any form of religion is

unified in its definition of what is considered to be sacred and profane.

• Sacred: The holy, divine, or supernatural.

• Profane: The ordinary, mundane, or everyday.

Durkheim’s Contributions to Sociology
• Durkheim’s attempt to establish sociology as an important, independent

academic discipline was enormously successful.

• He made significant contributions to the literature, and also demonstrated

the effectiveness of using scientific, empirical methods to study “social

reality.”

• Empirical: Based on scientific experimentation or observation.

Main Principles of Functionalism (1 of 2)
1. Society is conceived as a stable, ordered system made up of interrelated

parts, or structures.

• Structure: A social institution that is relatively stable over time and

that meets the needs of a society by performing functions necessary to

maintain social order and stability.

Main Principles of Functionalism (2 of 2)
2. Each structure has a function that contributes to the continued stability or

equilibrium of the unified whole.

• Any dysfunction in a structure leads to change and a new equilibrium.

• Dysfunction: A disturbance to or undesirable consequence of some

aspect of the social system.

Offshoots of Functionalism
• Talcott Parsons applied functionalism to modern society specifying some of
the functions that social structures might fulfill in contemporary life.

• Robert Merton identified manifest and latent functions for different social
structures.

• Manifest functions: The obvious, intended functions of a social

structure for the social system.

• Latent functions: The less obvious, perhaps unintended functions of a

social structure.
Conflict Theory
• Conflict theory: A paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society

and social change and that emphasizes a materialist view of society, a

critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change.

• Conflict theory posits that social inequality is the basic characteristic of

society.

• Social inequality: The unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige

among members of a society.

Karl Marx
• Karl Marx was a German political economist who
inspired conflict theory, sometimes called
“Marxism.”

• Marx believed that most problems of poverty,

crime, and disease were a result of capitalism.

• He proposed a radical alternative to the inherent

inequalities of this system in the Manifesto of the
Communist Party.
Proletariat vs. Bourgeoisie
• Marx felt that tensions between the wealthy and the poor would inevitably lead to

class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

• Means of production: Anything that can create wealth: money, property,

factories, and other types of businesses, and the infrastructure necessary to run

them.

• Proletariat: Workers; those who have no means of production of their own and so

are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.

• Bourgeoisie: Owners; the class of modern capitalists who own the means of

production and employ wage laborers.

Alienation
• Marx believed everything of value in society resulted from human labor,

which was the proletariat’s most valuable asset.

• However, he felt that workers suffered from alienation because they were

unable to directly benefit from the fruits of their own labor.

• Alienation: The sense of dissatisfaction the modern worker feels as a result

of producing goods that are owned and controlled by someone else.

False Consciousness
• Conflict theory takes a materialist view of society (focused on labor

practices and economic reality) and extends it to other social inequalities.

• Marx observed that in an unequal society, most people readily accept the

prevailing ideology, despite its failure to represent the reality of their lives.

• False consciousness: A denial of the truth on the part of the oppressed

when they fail to recognize that the interests of the ruling class are

embedded in the dominant ideology.

Class Consciousness
• Marx argued that the only way to change the status quo is for the masses to

attain class consciousness.

• Class consciousness: The recognition of social inequality on the part of the

oppressed, leading to revolutionary action.

Offshoots of Conflict Theory: Critical Theory
• Critical theory: A contemporary form of conflict theory that criticizes many

different systems and ideologies of domination and oppression.

• Critical theorists were some of the first to see the importance of mass

communications and popular culture as powerful ideological tools in

capitalist societies.
Offshoots of Conflict Theory: Critical Race Theory
• Critical race theory: The study of the relationship among race, racism, and

power.

• Critical race theory emerged out of legal scholarship in the 1970s and ’80s.

• It argues that racism is deeply embedded in American institutions, including

our laws.
Offshoots of Conflict Theory: Feminist Theory
• Feminist theory: A theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in

society and the way that gender structures the social world.

• Feminist theory developed alongside the twentieth-century women’s rights

movement.

• Theorists such as Judith Butler, bell hooks, and Catharine MacKinnon argue

that gender and power are inextricably intertwined in society through other

social hierarchies, such as race and ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation.
Offshoots of Conflict Theory: Queer Theory
• Queer theory: Social theory about gender and sexual identity; emphasizes

the importance of difference and rejects ideas of innate identities or

restrictive categories.

• Queer theory emerged from the gay and lesbian rights movement that

gained momentum in the 1970s and ’80s.

• It asserts that no sexual category is fundamentally deviant or normal; we

create such definitions, so we can change them as well.

Praxis
• One of Karl Marx’s great contributions to the social sciences is praxis, the

idea that intellectuals should act on what they believe.

• Praxis: The application of theory to practical action in an effort to improve

aspects of society.

• Conflict theory contrasts sharply with structural functionalism, because it

argues that a social arrangement’s existence does not mean that it is

inherently beneficial.
Max Weber
• Like many of his contemporaries, Max Weber

was interested in the shift from a more

traditional society to a modern industrial one.

• His work drew on the ideas of other

macrosociologists, but it forms its own branch

of sociology.
Rationalization
• Weber expressed a pessimistic view of social forces such as work ethic, and

one of his most overriding concerns was with the process of rationalization.

• Rationalization: The application of economic logic to human activity; the

use of formal rules and regulations in order to maximize efficiency without

consideration of subjective or individual concerns.

Bureaucracy
• Weber also proposed that modern industrialized societies were increasingly

characterized by bureaucracies.

• Bureaucracy: A type of secondary group designed to perform tasks

efficiently, characterized by specialization, technical competence, hierarchy,

written rules, impersonality, and formal written communication.

• He believed that bureaucratic goals were taking precedence over traditions,

values, or emotions as drivers of individual behavior.

Iron Cage
• Weber also proposed the image of an "iron cage" which trapped people in an
industrious way of life.

• Iron cage: Max Weber’s pessimistic description of modern life, in which we

are caught in bureaucratic structures that control our lives through rigid
rules and rationalization.

• Similar to Durkheim’s concept of anomie and Marx’s description of

alienation, Weber believed that the dehumanizing features of contemporary
bureaucracies filled people with disenchantment.
Verstehen
• Weber was interested in how individual motivation led to certain social

actions and how those actions helped shape society as a whole.

• He used the term verstehen to describe how a social scientist should study

human action.

• Verstehen: “Empathic understanding”; Weber’s term to describe good social

research, which tries to understand the meanings that individuals attach to

various aspects of social reality.

Symbolic Interactionism
• Symbolic interactionism: A paradigm that sees interaction and meaning as

central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are

created through interaction.

• Symbolic interactionism helps us explain both our individual personalities

and the ways in which we are all linked together.

• George Herbert Mead was one of the most influential thinkers in this branch

of sociology, but there were many other theorists involved.

The Chicago School
• In the 1920s, the University of Chicago had a budding sociology department
that included now-famous names like Robert Park, W. I. Thomas, Charles
Horton Cooley, and later George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer.

• This group, the theories they developed together, and the way they studied
the social world are often referred to as the Chicago School of sociology.

• Chicago School: A type of sociology practiced at the University of Chicago

in the 1920s and ’30s that centered on urban settings and field research
methods.
Pragmatism
• The Chicago School was strongly influenced by pragmatism.

• Pragmatism: A perspective that assumes organisms (including humans)

make practical adaptations to their environments; humans do this through

cognition, interpretation, and interaction.

• George Herbert Mead eventually combined ideas derived from pragmatism

together into a theory meant to address questions about the relationship

between thought and action, the individual and society.

George Herbert Mead
• Mead proposed that both human development
and the meanings we assign to everyday objects
and events are fundamentally social processes,
and that language is the key to development of self
and society.

• According to Mead, the most important human

behaviors consist of linguistic “gestures,” such as
words and facial expressions.
Herbert Blumer
• Herbert Blumer appealed for researchers to

get “down and dirty” with the dynamics of

social life.

• He also published a clear and compelling

series of works based on Mead’s ideas.

• Notably, he gave the name “symbolic

interactionism” to Mead's theory.

W.E.B. Du Bois
• W.E.B. Du Bois did groundbreaking research on

the history of the slave trade, post–Civil War

Reconstruction, the problems of urban ghetto

life, and the nature of Black American society.

• It is often said that all subsequent studies of race

and racial inequality in America depend to some

degree on his work.

Jane Addams
• Jane Addams was one of the first proponents
of applied sociology—addressing the most
pressing problems of her day through
hands-on work with the people and places
that were the subject of her research.

• As a result of her commitment to service,

Addams is often considered the founder of
social work.
Three Tenets of Symbolic Interactionism
• The following tenets were laid out by Herbert Blumer.

1. We act toward things on the basis of their meanings.

2. Meanings are not inherent; rather, they are negotiated through interaction

with others.

3. Meanings can change or be modified through interaction.

Erving Goffman
• Erving Goffman studied how the self is

developed through interactions with others in

society.

• He elaborated on Mead's ideas by using the

theatrical metaphor of dramaturgy to

describe the ways in which we engage in a

strategic presentation of ourselves to others.

Offshoots of Symbolic Interactionism
• Dramaturgy: An approach pioneered by Erving Goffman in which social life

is analyzed in terms of its similarities to theatrical performance.

• Ethnomethodology: The study of “folk methods” and background

knowledge that sustain a shared sense of reality in everyday interactions.

• Conversation analysis: A sociological approach that looks at how we create

meaning in naturally occurring conversation, often by taping conversations

and examining their transcripts.

1.5 New Theoretical Approaches
Postmodern Theory
• Postmodernism: A paradigm that suggests that social reality is diverse,

pluralistic, and constantly in flux.

• Postmodernism developed primarily out of the French intellectual scene in

the second half of the twentieth century as a response to modernism.

• Modernism: A paradigm that places trust in the power of science and

technology to create progress, solve problems, and improve life.

Postmodern Theory
• In postmodernism, there are no absolutes: no claims to truth, reason, right,

order, or stability.

• Everything is therefore relative: fragmented, temporary, and contingent.

• On one hand, postmodernism can feel like a liberation from rationality and

tradition.

• On the other hand, it can feel chaotic and nihilistic.

Midrange Theory
• Midrange theory: An approach that integrates empiricism and grand

theory.

• Developed by Robert Merton, midrange theory is a style of theorization that

attempts to strike a balance between micro and macro perspectives in

sociology.

• It aims to build knowledge cumulatively while offering a way to make

sociology more effective as a science rather than just a way of thinking.

Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
The social sciences include all of the following except

A. sociology.

B. psychology.

C. anthropology.

D. economics.

E. biology.
Review Question 2
Jorge wants to study divorce from a structural functionalist perspective and decides to
look at how divorce has unintentional positive impacts on the economy, such as
creating work for lawyers and boosting the number of homes that are rented or sold.
In examining unintentional impacts, Jorge is focusing on the __________ of divorce.

A. dysfunctions

B. latent functions

C. manifest functions

D. pragmatism
Review Question 3
If you are a researcher interested in the relationship between cultural values

and national suicide rates, your analysis will likely focus on social processes

occurring at which level?

A. micro level

B. macro level
Review Question 4
Structural functionalist theorists are primarily concerned with social processes

at which of the follow levels of analysis?

A. micro level

B. macro level
Review Question 5
Dramaturgy, a term describing the strategic presentation of ourselves to others,

is related to which school of thought?

A. structural functionalism

B. conflict theory

C. symbolic interactionism

D. queer theory
Review Question 6
The sociological imagination gives us a way to look at the world beyond our

own personal experience.

A. true

B. false
Review Question 7
Abstract propositions that both explain the social world and make predictions
about future events are known as

A. theories.

B. social inequalities.

C. ideas.

D. social assumptions.

E. means of production.
Review Question 8
What are paradigms?

A. specific research methods

B. broad theoretical perspectives

C. dominant sociological applications

D. all of the above

E. none of the above

Review Question 9
Marx believed that there was a class struggle between

A. groups of people who worked alongside one another.

B. groups of people who practiced different religions.

C. people who owned the means of production versus people who worked for a

wage.

D. people who were born rich versus people who earned their wealth.

E. people who were born poor versus people who fell into poverty due to a poor

work ethic.
Review Question 10
Which of these sociological paradigms has proved to be the most influential of
the twentieth century?

A. structural functionalism

B. conflict theory

C. symbolic interactionism

D. world-systems theory

E. critical race theory

Discussion Question 1
• Have you used beginner's mind or the sociological imagination in your own

life? Do you think these concepts can be applied to other fields of study?
Discussion Question 2
• One of Karl Marx's contributions to sociology is praxis, the idea that

intellectuals should act on what they believe. However, it is also important

for a researcher to be objective and able to separate their personal emotions

from their research. Do you think this conflict between objectivity and

praxis can be resolved? How?

Credits
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