1. ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY CSI – Gorski - 2015

2. DEFINITION OF SOCIOLOGY  The study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society  Study of social problems

3. DIVISIONS OF SCIENCE  Natural sciences: disciplines designed to explain & predict events in our natural environment  Biology, geology, chemistry, physics  Social sciences: fields of academic scholarship which explore aspects of human society  Uses controlled & repeated observations  Sociology

4. ORIGINS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES  For most of human history, people didn’t question the world & society!  Tradition ruled  Religion  Original thinking discouraged  Monarchies governed  Social questions answered by myths, superstitions, & traditions  Why are some rich and some poor?  Why are some more powerful?  Nothing was tested

5. CHANGES  Societies became more sophisticated starting with the Renaissance  Questioning religion & government  Printing press!!  Social order & societies studied in the Enlightenment of the 1700s  Growing belief in scientific laws  Increased study of government & political science  Examples: Newton’s Laws & John Locke

6. BIRTH OF SOCIOLOGY  Social sciences gained importance in the 1800s as sociology was created  3 reasons:  Industrial Revolution sparked social unrest & upheaval, urbanization, workers’ unions, etc.  Science harnessed for modern machines  Social Darwinism  Natural sciences popular, so people applied scientific method to social world = Positivism  Political Revolutions (American & French) inspired people to think about social life and government forms  Imperialism exposed new cultures, traditions, and ideas  why are people so different? Are Europeans superior?  Europe began to modernize & expand its viewpoints & people needed answers to new rising questions

7. THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

8. ANTHROPOLOGY  Study of culture  Ways of life, artifacts, ideas, values, communication  Most work has been done on tribal peoples  Anthropologists typically live with those they’re studying  Archaeology is a sub-branch of Anthropology

9. ECONOMICS  Study of production, distribution, and consumption of material goods & services in a society  What is being produced? At what cost?  What motivates people to buy one thing over another?  Scarcity – limited amount of goods/materials in a world & how they are used/distributed  Oil, gold, money, jobs, pasture, land, etc.

10. HISTORY  Study of past events and people  Focus on cause & effect relationship and patterns  Why did things happen?  Why do things happen today?

11. POLITICAL SCIENCE  Study of politics & forms of government, voting patterns, etc.  What is the proper form of government?  Why do people vote the way they do?  Why do nations go to war?  Why do nations choose to cooperate with one another?

12. PSYCHOLOGY  Study of mental processes, intelligence, emotions, perception, memory, dreams, personality, mental illness, etc.  Sigmund Freud

13. SOCIOLOGY  Study of societies  Diff. from psychology which focuses on individuals  Crime  Religion  Race & ethnicity  Culture  Poverty  Education  Social movements

14. PARTNER QUESTIONS  Which social science would you like to study? Why?  Which social science is most important? Why?  Why did the social sciences emerge?