DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction to Sociology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction to Sociology Introduction to Sociology Edition 1.0 6th March 2006 From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection Note: current version of this book can be found at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Sociology Contents INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY .................................................................................................................................1 AUTHORS...................................................................................................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................................................7 Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................7 What is Sociology?...............................................................................................................................................7 History..................................................................................................................................................................8 Sociology and Other Social Sciences.................................................................................................................11 Sociology Today.................................................................................................................................................13 Technology and the Social Sciences...................................................................................................................13 References..........................................................................................................................................................13 External links .....................................................................................................................................................14 SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS ........................................................................................................................................15 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................15 The Development of Social Science ...................................................................................................................16 The Scientific Method.........................................................................................................................................17 Correlation and Causation ................................................................................................................................21 Quantitative and Qualitative..............................................................................................................................23 Objective vs. Critical..........................................................................................................................................24 Ethics..................................................................................................................................................................24 What Can Sociology Tell Us? ............................................................................................................................25 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................................26 References..........................................................................................................................................................26 External Links ....................................................................................................................................................26 GENERAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY...........................................................................................................................27 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................27 Structural-Functionalism ...................................................................................................................................28 Conflict Theory ..................................................................................................................................................30 Symbolic Interactionism.....................................................................................................................................31 Role Theory........................................................................................................................................................32 Social Constructionism ......................................................................................................................................34 Integration Theory .............................................................................................................................................34 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................................35 References..........................................................................................................................................................35 External Links ....................................................................................................................................................36 SOCIETY ..................................................................................................................................................................38 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................38 Societal Development.........................................................................................................................................38 Classical Views on Social Change.....................................................................................................................44 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................................47 References..........................................................................................................................................................47 External Links ....................................................................................................................................................48 CULTURE .................................................................................................................................................................50 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................50 Subcultures & Countercultures..........................................................................................................................53 Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism................................................................................................................54 Theories of Culture ............................................................................................................................................55 Cultural Change.................................................................................................................................................56 Cultural Sociology: Researching Culture..........................................................................................................57 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................................58 References..........................................................................................................................................................58 External links .....................................................................................................................................................59 2 SOCIALIZATION .......................................................................................................................................................60 What is Socialization?........................................................................................................................................60 Elements of Socialization ...................................................................................................................................60 Theoretical Understandings of Socialization.....................................................................................................64 Research Examples ............................................................................................................................................65 Notes ..................................................................................................................................................................67 References..........................................................................................................................................................67
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From Factors to Actors: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling1
    From Factors to Actors: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling1 Michael W. Macy Robert Willer Cornell University August, 2001 Contents: 73 citations (2.5 published pages), 1 figure (1 page), 8522 main-text words (19.5 published pages) Total length: 23 published pages 1 The first author expresses gratitude to the National Science Foundation (SES-0079381) for support during the period in which this review was written. We also thank James Kitts, Andreas Flache, and Noah Mark for helpful comments and suggestions. From Factors to Actors: Computational Sociology and Agent-Based Modeling Introduction: Agent-Based Models and Self-Organizing Group Processes Consider a flock of geese flying in tight formation. Collectively, they form the image of a giant delta-shaped bird that moves as purposively as if it were a single organism. Yet the flock has no “group mind” nor is there a “leader bird” choreographing the formation (Resnick 1994). Rather, each bird reacts to the movement of its immediate neighbors who in turn react to it. The result is the graceful dance-like movement of the flock whose hypnotic rhythm is clearly patterned yet also highly non-linear. If we tried to model the global elegance of the flock, the task would be immensely difficult because of the extreme complexity in its movement. Yet the task turns out to be remarkably easy if instead we model the dynamics of local interaction. This was demonstrated by Craig Reynolds (1987) when he modeled the movement of a population of artificial “boids” based on three simple rules: • Separation: Don't get too close to any object, including other boids.
    [Show full text]
  • Westminsterresearch Sociology and Non-Equilibrium Social Science Anzola, D., Barbrook-Johnson, P., Salgado, M. and Gilbert, N
    WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Sociology and Non-Equilibrium Social Science Anzola, D., Barbrook-Johnson, P., Salgado, M. and Gilbert, N. This is a copy of the final version of a copy published in: Non-Equilibrium Social Science and Policy, Springer, pp. 59-69. ISBN 9783319424224 Available from the publisher, Springer via: https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42424-8_4 © The Author(s) 2017. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, duplication, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] Sociology and Non-Equilibrium Social Science David Anzola, Peter Barbrook-Johnson, Mauricio Salgado, and Nigel Gilbert Abstract This chapter addresses the relationship between sociology and Non- Equilibrium Social Science (NESS). Sociology is a multiparadigmatic discipline with significant disagreement regarding its goals and status as a scientific discipline. Different theories and methods coexist temporally and geographically.
    [Show full text]
  • Familial Generations Tutorial
    UCLA Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory Title FAMILIAL GENERATIONS TUTORIAL Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5m51s6k6 Author Denham, Woodrow W Publication Date 2011-09-15 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: SERIES: MACT LECTURE NOTES AND WORKING PAPERS FAMILIAL GENERATIONS TUTORIAL VERSION 1.0, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 WOODROW W. DENHAM, PH. D. RETIRED INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR [email protected] COPYRIGHT 2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY AUTHOR MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: SERIES: LECTURE NOTES AND WORKING PAPERS ISSN 1544-5879 DENHAM: FAMILIAL GENERATIONS TUTORIAL WWW.MATHEMATICALANTHROPOLOGY.ORG MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: SERIES: MACT LECTURE NOTES AND WORKING PAPERS FAMILIAL GENERATIONS TUTORIAL WOODROW W. DENHAM Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 2 Disambiguation ........................................................................................................................... 3 Basics .......................................................................................................................................... 3 Generations and kin types ..................................................................................................4 Descent generations ...........................................................................................................6
    [Show full text]
  • Origin of Sociology As a Discipline
    NPTEL – Humanities and Social Sciences – Introduction to Sociology Lecture 1: Origin of Sociology as a Discipline Sociology is the study of human social life. Because human social life is so expansive, sociology has many sub-sections of study, ranging from the analysis of conversations to the development of theories to try to understand how the entire world works. This lecture will introduce you to sociology and explain why it is important, how it can change your perspective on the world around you, and give a brief history of the discipline. What is Sociology? The social world is changing. Some argue it is growing; others say it is shrinking. The important point to grasp is: society does not remain unchanged over time. As will be discussed in more detail below, sociology has its roots in significant societal changes (e.g., the industrial revolution, the creation of empires, and the enlightenment of scientific reasoning). Early practitioners developed the discipline as an attempt to understand societal changes. Some early sociological theorists (e.g., Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) were disturbed by the social processes they believed to be driving the change, such as the quest for solidarity, the attainment of social goals, and the rise and fall of classes, to name a few examples. While details of the theories that these individuals developed are discussed in the last module, it is important to note at this point that the founders of sociology were some of the earliest individuals to employ what C. Wright Mills (1959) labeled the sociological imagination: the ability to situate personal troubles within an informed framework of social issues.
    [Show full text]
  • Modelling Communities and Populations: an Introduction to Computational Social Science
    STUDIA METODOLOGICZNE NR 39 • 2019, 123–152 DOI: 10.14746/sm.2019.39.5 Andrzej Jarynowski, Michał B. Paradowski, Andrzej Buda Modelling communities and populations: An introduction to computational social science Abstract. In sociology, interest in modelling has not yet become widespread. However, the methodology has been gaining increased attention in parallel with its growing popularity in economics and other social sciences, notably psychology and political science, and the growing volume of social data being measured and collected. In this paper, we present representative computational methodologies from both data-driven (such as “black box”) and rule-based (such as “per analogy”) approaches. We show how to build simple models, and discuss both the greatest successes and the major limitations of modelling societies. We claim that the end goal of computational tools in sociology is providing meaningful analyses and calculations in order to allow making causal statements in sociological ex- planation and support decisions of great importance for society. Keywords: computational social science, mathematical modelling, sociophysics, quantita- tive sociology, computer simulations, agent-based models, social network analysis, natural language processing, linguistics. 1. One model of society, but many definitions Social reality has been a fascinating area for mathematical description for a long time. Initially, many mathematical models of social phenomena resulted in simplifications of low application value. However, with their grow- ing validity (in part due to constantly increasing computing power allowing for increased multidimensionality), they have slowly begun to be applied in prediction and forecasting (social engineering), given that the most interesting feature of social science research subjects – people, organisations, or societies – is their complexity, usually based on non-linear interactions.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Is Doing Computational Social Science? Trends in Big Data Research
    A SAGE White Paper Who Is Doing Computational Social Science? Trends in Big Data Research Katie Metzler Publisher for SAGE Research Methods, SAGE Publishing David A. Kim Stanford University, Department of Emergency Medicine Nick Allum Professor of Sociology and Research Methodology, University of Essex Angella Denman University of Essex www.sagepublishing.com Contents Overview ........................................................................................................................1 What Have We Learned About Those Doing Big Data Research? .....................................1 What Have We Learned About Those Who Want to Engage in Big Data Research in the Future? ...................................................................................1 What Have We Learned About Those Teaching Research Methods? .................................2 Methodology .................................................................................................................2 Analysis .........................................................................................................................2 Challenges Facing Big Data Researchers in the Social Sciences ....................................11 Challenges Facing Educators ............................................................................................16 Barriers to Entry ................................................................................................................16 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................17
    [Show full text]
  • Degree Thesis English (61-90) Credits
    Degree Thesis English (61-90) credits Keeping Mum: An Exploration of Contemporary Kinship Terminology in British, American and Swedish Cultures Linguistics, 15 credits Halmstad 2021-06-21 Gerd Bexell HALMSTAD UNIVERSITY Abstract Keeping Mum: An Exploration of Contemporary Kinship Terminology in British, American and Swedish Cultures The aim of this paper is to briefly clarify the categorization and usage of kinship terms in American and British English in comparison with the Swedish kinship terms, both considering the vocative use and the referential function. There will also be a comparison with previous studies. The Swedish language contains considerably more detailed definitions for kinship. By choosing mostly informants with experience of both language cultures, this paper will investigate and explore whether English speakers themselves experience this as a lack of kinship vocabulary, and in what circumstances supplementary explanation is needed to clarify the identities of referents and addressees. It will further be established how and when the use of such terms can give rise to misunderstandings or confusion. Kinship terms will also be considered in connection with the present social and cultural environment. Seemingly, the use of kin terms has changed over recent decades and there appears to be etymological, lexicological and semantic causes for such misunderstandings. This essay research was conducted using interviews in which informants relate their experiences of language changes as well as regional variations with respect to how family members and relatives are addressed or referred to. Kinship terms are insightful and important within the field of genealogy and have implications for diverse disciplines such as law, church history, genetics, anthropology and popular custom.
    [Show full text]
  • Predictive Analytics of Social Networks
    Predictive Analytics of Social Networks A Survey of Tasks and Techniques Ming Yang, William H. Hsu, Surya Teja Kallumadi Kansas State University Abstract In this article we survey the general problem of analyzing a social network in order to make predictions about its behavior, content, or the systems and phenomena that generated it. First, we begin by defining five basic tasks that can be performed using social networks: (1) link prediction; (2) pathway and community formation; (3) recommendation and decision support; (4) risk analysis, and (5) planning, especially intervention planning based on causal analysis. Next, we discuss frameworks for using predictive analytics, availability of annotation, text associated with (or produced within) a social network, information propagation history (e.g., upvotes and shares), trust and reputation data. Meanwhile, we also review challenges such as imbalanced and partial data, concept drift especially as it manifests within social media, and the need for active learning, online learning, and transfer learning. We then discuss general methodologies for predictive analytics, involving network topology and dynamics, heterogeneous information network analysis, stochastic simulation, and topic modeling using the abovementioned text corpora. We continue by describing applications such as predicting “who will follow whom?” in a social network, making entity-to-entity recommendations (person-to-person, business-to-business aka B2B, consumer-to-business aka C2B, or business-to-consumer aka B2C), and analyzing big data (especially transactional data) for customer relationship management (CRM) applications. Finally, we examine a few specific recommender systems and systems for interaction discovery, as part of brief case studies. 1. Introduction: Prediction in Social Networks Social networks provide a way to anticipate, build, and make use of links, by representating relationships and propagation of phenomena between pairs of entities that can be extended to large-scale dynamical systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Kinship Terminology from a Cultural Perspective: Japanese Versus? Hungarian
    日本語とジェンダー 第14号（2014) 【研究例会 IN ハンガリー 発表】 Kinship Terminology from a Cultural Perspective: Japanese versus? Hungarian Judit Hidasi This article is part of a longer study in progress on the relationship of language use and society with regards to kinship terminology. The article first gives some frame to the study by briefly introducing the concept of kinship, next different descent patterns in societies to be followed by categorization patterns of kinship terminology (Morgan) in Hungarian and Japanese. It is assumed that kin terms are valuable clues to the nature of a kinship system in a society as well as to the social statuses and roles of kinsmen, of the roles of men and women. Changes in kinship terminology also reflect to a certain extent changes of a given society. What is kinship? Kinship refers to the culturally defined relationships between individuals who are commonly thought of as having family ties. All societies use kinship as a basis for forming social groups and for classifying people. However, there is a great amount of variability in kinship rules and patterns around the world. In order to understand social interaction, attitudes, and motivations in most societies, it is essential to know how their kinship systems function. In many societies, kinship is the most important social organizing principle along with gender and age. Kinship also provides a means for transmitting status and property from generation to generation. It is not a mere coincidence that inheritance rights usually are based on the closeness of kinship links. Kinship connections are based on two categories of bonds: those created by marriage (affinal relatives: husband, wife, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law) and those that result from descent (consanguinal that is ’blood’ relatives: mother, father, grandparents, children, grandchildren, uncles, aunts and cousins), which is a socially recognized link between ancestors and descendants.
    [Show full text]
  • NPRC) VIP List, 2009
    Description of document: National Archives National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) VIP list, 2009 Requested date: December 2007 Released date: March 2008 Posted date: 04-January-2010 Source of document: National Personnel Records Center Military Personnel Records 9700 Page Avenue St. Louis, MO 63132-5100 Note: NPRC staff has compiled a list of prominent persons whose military records files they hold. They call this their VIP Listing. You can ask for a copy of any of these files simply by submitting a Freedom of Information Act request to the address above. The governmentattic.org web site (“the site”) is noncommercial and free to the public. The site and materials made available on the site, such as this file, are for reference only. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals have made every effort to make this information as complete and as accurate as possible, however, there may be mistakes and omissions, both typographical and in content. The governmentattic.org web site and its principals shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information provided on the governmentattic.org web site or in this file. The public records published on the site were obtained from government agencies using proper legal channels. Each document is identified as to the source. Any concerns about the contents of the site should be directed to the agency originating the document in question. GovernmentAttic.org is not responsible for the contents of documents published on the website.
    [Show full text]
  • A Conceptual Framework for the Modelling and Simulation of Social Systems
    DYNA ISSN: 0012-7353 ISSN: 2346-2183 Universidad Nacional de Colombia A conceptual framework for the modelling and simulation of social systems Awad, Gabriel; Alvarez, Hernán A conceptual framework for the modelling and simulation of social systems DYNA, vol. 87, no. 212, 2020 Universidad Nacional de Colombia Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=49663642023 DOI: 10.15446/dyna.v87n212.83266 PDF generated from XML JATS4R by Redalyc Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Artículos A conceptual framework for the modelling and simulation of social systems Un marco conceptual para el modelado y la simulación de sistemas sociales Gabriel Awad a [email protected] Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia Hernán Alvarez b [email protected] Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia Abstract: is paper presents a conceptual framework for the modelling and simulation of properties, interactions and processes of social systems based on computational templates using discrete event system specification (DEVS) formalism and OMG DYNA, vol. 87, no. 212, 2020 Systems Modelling Language (SysML) diagrams. No antecedents of this combination Universidad Nacional de Colombia were found in the literature, and so this is one of the contributions of this paper. Received: 30 October 2019 Additionally, this article explains how the principles and rules of SysML can be applied Revised document received: 24 January to the analysis of social systems. An example of the proposed framework based on a basic 2020 Agent_Zero model is shown. e conceptual framework was built based on a critical Accepted: 10 February 2020 literature review, and included new additional elements to create a complete but simple DOI: 10.15446/dyna.v87n212.83266 conceptual framework.
    [Show full text]
  • Full-Text PDF (Final Published Version)
    Racz, P., Passmore, S., & Jordan, F. (2019). Social practice and shared history, not social scale, structure cross-cultural complexity in kinship systems. Topics in Cognitive Science, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12430 Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record License (if available): CC BY-NC-ND Link to published version (if available): 10.1111/tops.12430 Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Wiley at https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12430 . Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ Topics in Cognitive Science (2019) 1–22 © 2019 The Authors Topics in Cognitive Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Cognitive Science Society ISSN: 1756-8765 online DOI: 10.1111/tops.12430 This article is part of the topic “The Cultural Evolution of Cognition,” Andrea Bender, Sieghard Beller and Fiona Jordan (Topic Editors). For a full listing of topic papers, see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1756-8765/earlyview Social Practice and Shared History, Not Social Scale, Structure Cross-Cultural Complexity in Kinship Systems Peter Racz,a,b Sam Passmore,b Fiona M. Jordanb aCognitive Development Center, Central European University bEvolution of Cross-Cultural Diversity Lab, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol Received 31 July 2018; received in revised form 10 April 2019; accepted 12 April 2019 Abstract Human populations display remarkable diversity in language and culture, but the variation is not without limit.
    [Show full text]