Sociology Ch.1
Taking a New Look at a Familiar World
Introduction
Individualistic explanations – attributing people’s achievements and failures to personal qualities
oFocusing exclusively on individual “deficiencies” risks overlooking the broader societal
factors
oTo understand experiences in our personal lives, we must move past individual traits and
examine broader societal characteristics and trends
Sociology and the Individual
Sociology – systematic study of human societies
We are affected both directly and indirectly by society – government, gender, race, economy, etc
The Insights of Sociology
Sociologists study what goes on among people as individuals, groups, or societies
oHow do social forces affect the way people interact with one another? How do individuals
make sense of their private lives and the social worlds they occupy? How does everyday
social interaction create “society”?
Sociology, unlike other disciplines, forces us to look outside the tight confines of individual
anatomy and personality to understand the phenomena that shape us
The Sociological Imagination
Sociological imagination – the ability to see the impact of massive cultural or historical processes
on our private lives
oEnables us to understand the larger historical picture and its meaning in our own lives
oEx. divorce rates have been increasing in many countries
Therefore we must view divorce in the context of broader historical changes
occurring throughout societies: in family, religion, law, economics, and the culture
as a whole
Impossible to explain significant changes in divorce rates over time by focusing
exclusively on the personal characteristics and behaviors of divorcing individuals
oSociological imagination should not debilitate us to powerlessly perceive our lives as
wholly beyond our control
The opposite is true. An awareness of the impact of social forces or world history
on our personal lives is a prerequisite to any efforts we make to change our social
circumstances
oAllows us to recognize that the solutions to many of our most serious social problems lie
not in changing the personal situations and characteristics of individual people but in
changing the social institutions and roles available to them
Task of sociology is to help us view our lives as the intersection between personal biography and
societal history and thereby to provide a means for us to interpret our lives and social circumstance
Emile Durkheim: A Sociological View of Suicide
Sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that suicide is more likely to occur under particular social
circumstances and in particular communities
oThe first to see suicide as a manifestation of changes in society rather than of
psychological shortcomings
Comparative method – he compared existing official statistics and historical records across groups
oIf suicides were purely acts of individual desperation, he reasoned, one would not expect to
find any noticeable changes in the rates from year to year or from society to society
In other words, the distribution of desperate, unstable, unhappy individuals should
be roughly equal across time and culture
1
Taking a New Look at a Familiar World
Introduction
Individualistic explanations – attributing people’s achievements and failures to personal qualities
oFocusing exclusively on individual “deficiencies” risks overlooking the broader societal
factors
oTo understand experiences in our personal lives, we must move past individual traits and
examine broader societal characteristics and trends
Sociology and the Individual
Sociology – systematic study of human societies
We are affected both directly and indirectly by society – government, gender, race, economy, etc
The Insights of Sociology
Sociologists study what goes on among people as individuals, groups, or societies
oHow do social forces affect the way people interact with one another? How do individuals
make sense of their private lives and the social worlds they occupy? How does everyday
social interaction create “society”?
Sociology, unlike other disciplines, forces us to look outside the tight confines of individual
anatomy and personality to understand the phenomena that shape us
The Sociological Imagination
Sociological imagination – the ability to see the impact of massive cultural or historical processes
on our private lives
oEnables us to understand the larger historical picture and its meaning in our own lives
oEx. divorce rates have been increasing in many countries
Therefore we must view divorce in the context of broader historical changes
occurring throughout societies: in family, religion, law, economics, and the culture
as a whole
Impossible to explain significant changes in divorce rates over time by focusing
exclusively on the personal characteristics and behaviors of divorcing individuals
oSociological imagination should not debilitate us to powerlessly perceive our lives as
wholly beyond our control
The opposite is true. An awareness of the impact of social forces or world history
on our personal lives is a prerequisite to any efforts we make to change our social
circumstances
oAllows us to recognize that the solutions to many of our most serious social problems lie
not in changing the personal situations and characteristics of individual people but in
changing the social institutions and roles available to them
Task of sociology is to help us view our lives as the intersection between personal biography and
societal history and thereby to provide a means for us to interpret our lives and social circumstance
Emile Durkheim: A Sociological View of Suicide
Sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that suicide is more likely to occur under particular social
circumstances and in particular communities
oThe first to see suicide as a manifestation of changes in society rather than of
psychological shortcomings
Comparative method – he compared existing official statistics and historical records across groups
oIf suicides were purely acts of individual desperation, he reasoned, one would not expect to
find any noticeable changes in the rates from year to year or from society to society
In other words, the distribution of desperate, unstable, unhappy individuals should
be roughly equal across time and culture
1
