1. Chapter Review: What is Sociology?
Intro to Sociology

2. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Lesson Outline
What does society look like?
What is sociology?
Levels of Analysis
The Sociological Perspective
Starting your sociological journey
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

3. Cool Insights from Sociology
Humans cannot be understood apart from social context (i.e. society)
Society makes us who we are by structuring out interactions and laying out an orderly world before us
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

4. Society Influences You
Death… Related to society? Of course!
Nephropathies – diseases of the kidney
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

5. What Does Society Look Like?
While the idea of society is familiar, describing it can be difficult. Ultimately society is made up of many different components, such as culture, race, family, education, social class, and people’s interactions.
People who share a culture and territory
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

6. Meaning through Interaction
People actively and collectively shape their own lives, organizing their social interactions and relationships into a meaningful world.
Sociologists study this social behavior by seeking out its patterns.
Patterns are crucial to our understanding of society
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

7. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Society
Society is a group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from other groups.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

8. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
The Social Sciences
Social Sciences are the disciplines that use the scientific method to examine the social world, in contrast to the natural sciences, which examine the physical world.
Examples of social sciences include economics, psychology, geography, communication studies, anthropology, history, and political science.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

9. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Sociology is the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions.
Sociology is also the study of reifications, or social constructions.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

10. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Howard Becker defined sociology as the study of people “doing things together.”
This reminds us that society and the individual are inherently connected, and each depends on the other.
Sociologists study this link: how society affects the individual and how the individual affects society.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

11. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Levels of Analysis
We can study society from different levels:
Microsociology is the level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and institutions of society.
Microsociology focuses on small-scale issues.
Ex: Symbolic Interactionism
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

12. Levels of Analysis (cont)
Macrosociology is the level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals.
Macrosociology focuses on large-scale issues.
Ex: Functionalism, Conflict Theory
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

13. How We Use Levels of Analysis
Pam Fishman took a micro-level approach to studying issues of power in male–female relationships.
She found that in conversation, women ask nearly three times as many questions as men do, perhaps because a speaker is much more likely to ask a question if he or she does not expect to get a response by simply making a statement.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

14. How We Use Levels of Analysis
Christine Williams took a macro-level approach to studying women in male-dominated occupations and men in female-dominated occupations.
She found that women in male-dominated positions faced limits on their advancement (the glass ceiling), while men in female-dominated positions experienced rapid rates of advancement (the glass escalator).
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

15. Levels of Analysis (cont)
When conducting research, methodology involves the process by which one gathers and analyzes data.
Quantitative research translates the social world into numbers that can be treated mathematically; this type of research often tries to find cause-and-effect relationships.
Any type of social statistic is an example of quantitative research.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

16. Levels of Analysis (cont)
Qualitative research works with non-numerical data such as texts, fieldnotes, interview transcripts, photographs, and tape recordings; this type of research often tries to understand how people make sense of their world.
Participant observation, in which the researcher actually takes part in the social world he or she studies, is an example of qualitative research.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

17. The Sociological Imagination
C. Wright Mills used the term sociological imagination to describe the ability to look at issues from a sociological perspective.
Personal troubles versus public issues
Ex: unemployment, obesity
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

18. The Sociological Perspective
Incorporates Mills’ notion of the sociological imagination 
The sociological perspective is a quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our particular situation in life and what is happening at a social level.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

19. The Sociological Perspective
When using a sociological perspective, one focuses on the social context in which people live and how that social context has an impact on individuals’ lives.
This is the essence of what sociology does.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

20. Using the Sociological Perspective
In small groups:
How would you explain the following social problems using the sociological imagination/perspective?
Obesity
Homelessness/Poverty
Unemployment
Marriage
War
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

21. The Sociological Perspective (cont)
One way to gain a sociological perspective is to attempt to create in ourselves a sense of culture shock, which is a sense of disorientation that occurs when one enters a radically new social or cultural environment.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

22. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Take Away Points
Humans cannot be understood apart from the social context they live in (society, culture and time + place)
The world around us profoundly shapes and influences who we are, how we behave and even how/what we think.
It is the job of the sociologist to understand how this process works and to what effect.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

23. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Lesson Quiz
1. Which of the following is NOT an example of a social science?
a. biology
b. political science
c. psychology
d. economics
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

24. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Lesson Quiz
2. Sociology is defined as:
a. the scientific study of humans.
b. the study of ancient cultures and behavior.
c. the study of how the brain works.
d. the study of human society and social behavior.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

25. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Lesson Quiz
3. __________ is the level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how those interactions affect the larger patterns and institutions of society.
a. Microsociology
b. Macrosociology
c. Sociology
d. Social science
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

26. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Lesson Quiz
4. The glass escalator effect refers to the:
a. limits on the advancement of women in the workplace.
b. limits on the advancement of men in the workplace.
c. rapid rate of upward mobility for women.
d. rapid rate of upward mobility for men in female-dominated workplaces.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?

27. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?
Lesson Quiz
5. A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment is called:
a. cultural mind.
b. culture shakes.
c. cultural fear.
d. culture shock.
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology?