SOCIO ANTHRO WITH POP EDUC & DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION (SOCIO 100)

Sociological Perspectives, Sociological Imagination, -concerned with the repetitive in human

and Sociological Inquiry behavior, presented according to logically related
hypotheses and supported by empirical evidence
SOCIOLOGY- scientific study of human societies
Fundamental Procedures:
- study of human social life, groups and society
that attempt to provide assessment of individual and a. Defining the Problem
group behavior b. Reviewing the Literature
c. Forming a Hypothesis
SOCIOLOGISTS- person which professional knowledge and d. Choosing a Research Design
skills in studying the facts of society and social behavior e. Collecting the Data
f. Analyzing the Data
SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES- a sociological way of
g. Drawing Conclusions
looking at the things which includes a basic orienting idea
h. Communication the Results of the Study
from which one’s conceptualization and analysis follow
which reflects a set of ideas and assumptions regarding Methods in Sociological Inquiry
the nature of people and society.
a. EXPERIMENT- exposes subjects to a specially
Characteristics: designated situation
-most effective technique for establishing a
 Seeing the general in the particular: while not
cause-and-effect relationship
erasing our uniqueness as individuals, there are
b. SURVEY- uses either questionnaires or
social forces on our lives in so many unseen, yet
interviews, or both to learn how people think,
significant ways
feel, or act
 Seeing the strange in the familiar: things are not
-it involves choosing a sample, constructing and
always what they seem; society guides our
asking the right questions, and analyzing data
thoughts and deeds
c. CASE STUDY-intensive study and examination of
 Seeing society in our everyday lives: where we
a person or a specific group, organization or
are placed in the society profoundly affects our
institution is carried out
individual experiences
d. FIELD OBSERVATION OR PARTICIPANT
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION- sociological term coined by OBSERVATION- a research method in which
C. Wright Mills in 1956 researchers deliberately involve themselves in
the activity, group, or community they are
-the process of linking individual experience with studying in order to get an insider’s view
social institutions and one’s place in history and society. e. HISTORICAL APPROACH- procedure where
historical materials (documents, archives,
-way of looking at our personal experiences in manuscripts, letters etc.) are analyzed
terms of what is going on in the world around us
Techniques and Tools
It enables one to do the following:
a. QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUE- examines data from
 See that society is responsible for many of our observations, interviews, and publication which
problems are not statistical in nature
 See that many of our personal problems can be Tools Used: historical records, biographies,
transformed into political issues autobiographies, diaries, speeches, and
 See the power of society to shape our individual videotapes
lives  Interviewing- may be face-to-face or by
 See the intricate connection between the telephone
patterns of our lives and the course of world  Structured or Directive- questions are
history asked in affixed order to provide
systematic and comparable data and
SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY- scientific investigation or hence facilitates analysis
intellectual rigorous research on a particular issue,  Unstructured or Nondirective- neither
problem, concern, event or situation the questions nor the answers are
predetermined, instead the researcher
 let the interviewee or respondent  Symbolic Interactionism: coined by Herbert
guide the flow of the interview Blumer; people act toward things based on the
b. QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUE uses statistics which meaning those things have for them, and these
deal with a mass data and permit more precise meanings are derived from social interaction and
statements of their relationships modified through interpretation
Tools Used: census, vital statistics, sampling  Phenomenology Sociology
measures if central tendency, national and  Phenomenology- used to refer to
international reports subjective experiences or their study
 Enthno Methodology: method of understanding
Sociological Paradigms and Sociological Theories the social orders people use to make sense of
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGM- specific set of assumptions the world through analyzing the accounts and
that frame theories and findings descriptions of their day-to-day experiences;
term coined by Harold Garfinkel
-complex explanations on social actions, social  Sociology of Knowledge: study the relationship
processes and social structures work between human thought and social context
 Development Theories: seek to explain the
1. EVOLUTIONARY PARADIGM OR DARWINISM development and underdevelopment of nations
PARADIGM- proposes that societies, like biological  Sociobiology: systematic study of the biological
organisms, undergo different stages in the development basis of all the social behavior
cycle, and that societies passed through different phases  Contemporary Feminist Theory: advocates the
of growth and development feminist theory – system of general ideas
2. STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONAL PARADIGM OR SOCIAL designed to describe and explain social life and
SYSTEMS PARADIGM-framework for building theory that human experience from a woman
envisions society as a complex system whose parts work
together to promote solidarity and stability

-To understand society, functionalists say that

we need to look at both “structure” and “function” SOCIOLOGY AS SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE
3. CONFLICT PARADIGM- envisions society as an arena of SOCIOLOGY- science that deals with the study of society
inequality that generates conflict and change. and the social interaction taking place therein
-emphasizes the role of coercion and power, a -concerned with the study of human societies
person’s groups ability to exercise influence and control and human behavior in social settings
over others, in producing social orders
-as a discipline, it undertakes a scientific study of
4. SYMBOLIC-INTERACTION PARADIGM- theoretical man’s behavior as a consequence of his being
framework that envisions society as the product of the member of a social group
everyday interactions of individuals
- comes from the Latin word “socius” meaning
- society is viewed as a mosaic of subjective companion or associate, and the Greek word “logos” for
meanings and variable responses study
Major Contemporary Approaches to Sociological Theory Essential Characteristics of Sociology

 Neo-positivism: movement in the early 20th 1. Sociology is Neutral: it seeks knowledge for the
century American sociology which blended sake of knowledge
together the three themes of quantification, 2. Sociology is concerned with the study of human
behaviorism, and positivist epistemology social life
 Human Ecology: focuses on the idea of 3. Sociology is Science: utilizes scientific methods
sustainable development, asking what conditions and techniques to develop a body of organized,
are necessary for humanity to achieve continued systematized and verifiable knowledge about
improvement in standards of living human societies
 Sociometry and Microsociology
 Sociometry- way of measuring the Importance of Sociology
degree of relatedness among people
 Understand the society better
 Microsociology- concerns itself with
 Understand of ourselves better
the nature of everyday human social
interactions on a small scale Areas of Sociology
 1. Social Organization: includes the study of social in society, and it offers meaning and purpose to answer
groups, social institutions, social stratification any existential questions.
and mobility, ethnic relations and bureaucracy
2. Social Psychology: includes the study of human MAX WEBER-his works dealt on the significance of
nature as the outcome of group life, personality subjective meanings people give to their interactions with
formation and collective behavior others
3. Social Change: study of change in culture and
Two types of understanding:
ongoing social problems
4. Human Ecology: studies the behavior of a given  Direct Observational Understanding
population and its relationship to the group’s
social institutions and natural resources
 Empathetic Understanding
5. Population Studies: concerned with the
population size, composition, change, and
quality as they influence the economic, political,
and social systems and vice versa ANTHROPOLOGY AS SCIENTIFIC AND HUMANISTIC
6. Sociological Theory and Research: discovery, DISCPLINE
development, and replication of research tools
that will test the applicability of the principles of The Nature, Definition, and Scope of Anthropology
group life as basis for the regulation of the social
ANTHROPOLOGY- comes from the Greek word anthropos
environment
(man) and logos (study/inquiry)
7. Applied Sociology: concerned with the
application of the findings of pure sociological -systematic study of the biological, cultural, and
research social aspects of man
Sociology Prominent Scholars -integrates elements from the biological science
and humanities to fully comprehend the complex human
AUGUST COMTE- Father of Sociology
species
-coined the term sociology in 1838 to refer to
-branch of knowledge which deals with the
the study of society
scientific study of man, his works, his body, his behavior
-believed that every society goes through three and values in space and time
stages: religious, metaphysical, and scientific
The Four Major Fields of Anthropology
HERBERT SPENCER- compared society to a living organism
1. SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY- also called Cultural
– each part of an had its own functions to perform, yet all
Anthropology
the parts are interdependent; a change in one part affects
-studies how social patterns, practices,
the others.
and cultural variations develop across different
-social problems work themselves out through societies and examines the need to understand
the process of natural selection called “Survival of the each culture in its own context
Fittest” Two Major Areas:
a. ETHNOGRAPHY- descriptive study of
KARL MARX- proponent of Marxism one culture, subculture, micro culture
based on field work
-wrote Communist Manifesto which presents b. ETHNOLOGY- comparative study of
analytical approach to class struggle cultures which present analytical
generalizations about human culture
-claimed that the primary feature of the society
2. LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY- studies language
is class conflict – the struggle between the capitalists and
and discourse, and how they reflect and shape
the proletariats
different aspects of human society and culture
EMILE DURKHEIM- focused on the characteristics of social Two Major Areas:
groups, particularly the cohesion or non-cohesion of a. DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS- focuses on
religious groups the mechanics of language
b. HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS- works to
-given this approach, he proposed that religion reconstruct the history of language,
has three major functions in society: it provides social including the development and
cohesion to help maintain social solidarity through shared relationship to other language
rituals and beliefs, social control to enforce religious-based 3. BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY- also called
morals and norms to help maintain conformity and control Physical Anthropology
 -studies the origins of human as well as -introduced the ideology of cultural relativism,
the interplay between social factors and the which holds that cultures cannot be objectively ranked but
processes of human evolution, adaptation, and that all humans see the world through the lens of their
variation overtime own culture, and judge it according to their own culturally
Two Major Areas: acquired norms
a. PALEO ANTHROPOLOGY- study of
human biological evolution through an ALFRED KROBER- student of Franz Boas
examination of the fossils of our
ancient ancestors and relatives -believer in the principal of cultural relativism.
b. PRIMATOLOGY- study of primates -concerned with culture as a universal human
4. ARCHAELOGY- deals with prehistoric societies by characteristic and believed that a complete understanding
shaping their tools and environment of culture must contain explanations not only of
ANTHROPOLOGY PROMINENT SCHOLARS specific cultures but also of cultural elements and
patternings that transcend specific cultures.
EDWARD BURNETT TAYLOR- founder of Cultural
Anthropology BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI- Father of Functionalist School
of Anthropology
-His most important work, Primitive
Culture (1871), influenced in part by Darwin’s theory of -developed Methodological Cultural Relativism:
biological evolution, developed the theory of an methods and primacy of anthropological fieldwork
evolutionary, progressive relationship from primitive to CLIFFORD GEERTZ- argued that culture is made up of the
modern cultures. meanings people find to make sense of their lives and to
-“Culture is that complex whole which includes guide their actions.
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other -outlined culture as "a system of inherited
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of
society.” which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their
FRANZ BOAS- pioneer of modern anthropology who has knowledge about and attitudes toward life."
been called the "Father of American Anthropology"