Dr.

Scott Renshaw
Soc 101
Review Guide for Test # 2 (the test will be on Tuesday, 20 November 2012)
The Sociological Perspective, Symbolic Interaction, and the Conflict Perspective
*symbolic interaction
READINGS before the First Exam
sociological imagination- ability of self to understand our placement in history and structure to
witness our self of working
structure- history- self- witness
self can influence history and strucure
#1, Mills, The Sociological Imagination
#2, Berger, Invitation to Sociology
csk
#3, Women and the Birth of Sociology
women are immensely to the world and development of sociology
1500's- women challenged church
#3a, Coakley, How Would a Sociologist Look at Sport
(Posted into Blackboard Course Documents)
sociology vs psychology- social structure vs person/individual mind
#4, Miner, The Body Ritual of the Nacirema
#6, Babbie, The Importance of Social Research
#8, White, Symbol: The Basic Element of Culture
^#9, Merton, Manifest and Latent FunctionsManifest- obvious one. Latent- happens through time.
Merton- most prolific sociologist ever.
^#10, Harris, Indias Sacred Cow
Cows- everything- life.
^#12, Tonnies, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Italicized information at beginning of chapter.
Shift in morality in Gemeinschaft to work. Division of labor becomes more specialized. Most people
have to be trained for the job. Shift in self. More opportunity to attach.
^Important
READINGS since the First Exam
#9, Merton, Manifest and Latent Functions
#10, Harris, Indias Sacred Cow
#12, Toinnes, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
*#15, Mead, The Self
*#19, Simmel, The Dyad and the Triad
*#20, Goffman, The Presentation of Self
#26, Ritzer, McJobs
Idea that we do work so organizations don't have to.
*#42, W. E. B, Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
first to do a type of study in a neighborhood in philly, what's your life like being an african american?
Dual consciousness- being black in black areas, being black in racist areas.
#47, Wilson, When Work Disappears
#48, Newman Getting a Job in Harlem
Idea of identity. Idea of jobs we'll take.
MATCHING (You will match phrases from the sociological perspectives handout, attached)

CLASS DISCUSSION
The sociologist studies society by utilizing and developing a specialized language. This language
generates abstractions in attempt to capture and/or categorize the on-going stream of social interaction.
Sociologists systematically attempt to describe, explain, analyze, evaluate, and predict social phenomenon/a;
Sociologists systematically challenge (and/or sometimes create) social myth;
In so doing, sociologists systematically address social stability and social change.

For C. Wright Mills, part of the sociological imagination is the ability to see ourselves (see our
patterns of behavior) in relation to the structure of society, our specific placement in history, and how
the self interplays with the structure and history.
--The sociologist systematically studies the structure of society.
--The sociologist systematically studies the organization of society
--The sociologist systematically studies the individual as a collective Self within the structure
and/or organization of society.

Three General Sociological Questions Guide the Sociological Exploration of Social

Phenomenon\a:
1. How does any social phenomenon\a organize human beings and create
social structure\s?
2. How do people create meaning, and what meanings do they create, from
within any given system of human organization and social structure?
3. How does human meaning itself organize human beings and create social
structure\s?
VISUAL MEDIA before the First Exam
The Truman Show
The Merchants of Cool
Snickers Commercials & The Sears Commercial (Cool and Thrash)
Devils Playground
Bill Moyers Journal, Nuns on the Bus & The United States of ALEC
VISUAL MEDIA Since the First Exam
Devils Playground
Larry David: Cell Phones in Public and Talking with ones self
Bernie Mac: Jordan the Bully and Bernie the Man
Breakfast at Tiffanys The Party (1961)
Modern Times & Office Space
SOCIOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING DEVICES, MODELS, and/or REPRESENTATIONS
#1) The Language of Sociology Model
#2) C. Wright Mills sociological imagination and his three sorts of questions (pg 3)

1. structure; 2. history; 3. self (be able to sociologically define structure and self)
#3) The Saussurian Sign Mechanism
#4) The Common Stock of Knowledge and Strips of Activity
#5) The Structural Functional Model, Marx/Heilbroners M-C-M
#6) Symbolic Interaction (see the Symbolic Interaction Handout in BB Course Documents)

WRITTEN DEPICTION OF SOCIOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING DEVICES

1) Define abstraction and understand how to apply abstraction to sociological ideas.
2) C. Wright Mills sociological imagination is a model (see page 3 in your text)
1.Structure
What is the structure of any given society? What can we identify?
2. History
Where in history is our society located?
What is unique or novel to our specific time period?
What has changed, what is changing?
3. Self
What types of human beings exist in our specific time period?
How are human being formed, selected, or made hard easy going?
How does the self inform the structure?
And how does the structure inform the self?
3) We have explored the Saussurian sign mechanism(essay 8) associated with the language of
sociology.
Humans dependent on signs and symbols.
Sign = [ signifier\signified]
An important question to ask yourself is: How can we apply the sign mechanism to the idea of
the language of sociology, as well as to television and commercials?
4) The Social Construction of Reality Model and the Common Stock of Knowledge Model (C.S.K.)
and strips of activity.
**Our C.S.K. model is a circle that houses our taken for granted reality, language/signs, and social
recipes
C.S.K continued
**We can use the C.S.K. to interpret a strip of activity.
In any strip of activity and from our common stock of knowledge, we interpret what it is that is going
on in any given situation; and then we can reflect back into our C.S.K. and suggest that the information
contained in our common stock of knowledge is indeed real.
We can also use our collective understanding of a strip of activity to categorize and describe the
elements contained in our C.S.K.

5) The Structural Functional Perspective Model (Structure, Function, and the shift from Gemeinschaft
to Gesellschaft) and Marx/Heilbroners M-C-M- answer true
(study the Structural Functional perspective world-view assumptions while thinking about this model)

Institutions
Supporting Institutions
Status
Role
Self

6) Sociological Models within Symbolic Interaction (See SI Handout in BB Course Docs)

(study the Symbolic Interaction perspective world-view assumptions while thinking about this model

VOCABULARY in the LANGUAGE of SOCIOLOGY

Abstract 1.considered apart from concrete experience. 2. theoretical
Abstraction The Course Definition: the process of first abstracting out of our bodily feeling into
ones common language and common stock of knowledge. Second, abstracting out of our common
language and common stock of knowledge into a specialized language of Sociology in order to explain
some type of social phenomenon/a.
Accounting Device or Model a configuration of signs (the Saussurian Sign Mechanism) or symbols
that aid in describing and explaining social phenomenon/a.
Beliefs what we think is true in regard to the cosmos, world, society, group, and/or individual
Critical thinking to ask questions about what is assumed to be real, valued, and significant in our
culture.
Ethnicity denotes a group of people who perceive themselves and are perceived by others as sharing
cultural traits such as language, religion, family customs, food preferences, values, and beliefs
Gemeinschaftgemeinschaft is a sense of experience associated with self and society rooted in the
rural, small community, and kinship-based life of the past
Gender how a group of people, community, or society socializes (trains) its biologically born males,
females, and variations thereof to socially become either a man (masculine), woman (feminine), or
variations thereof

Gesellschaftgesellschaft, by contrast, finds its clearest expression in a sense of self and society
located within the large commercial world of todays large, anonymous cities
Institution A concrete or abstract entity that generates guidelines for norms, values, and beliefs, that
then guide human behavior
Norms common guidelines for behavior
Oppression a relationship of domination and subordination in which the dominant group benefits
from the systematic abuse, exploitation, and injustice directed at a subordinate group.
Power the ability to invoke action in another human being or in an animal.
Roles the dynamic enactment of our status and identity, as well as the sets of rules and expectations
that are attached to a social position
Socialization the process of social interaction by which people learn the way of life of their society
and where they learn their specific roles
Social myth a story told, that is generated and replicated in the social, and that is either true or not.
This story then guides norms, values, beliefs, and physiological events.
Status the socially defined position a person occupies in society or the social structure.
Stratification a system by which people in society rank and create categories of people in a hierarchy
Values something we cherish to be desirable. Value statements are generally judgments to which
something is either good or bad.

Three Sociological Perspectives

(Structural Functionalism, Symbolic Interaction, and Conflict Perspective)
Created by Dr. Dorothy Everts and prepared by Chris Stipp
Structural Functionalism (world-view assumptions)
What are their beliefs?
Believes that sudden social change is potentially harmful
Believes that society is held together through consensual agreement among social members
Believes that there are certain jobs that need to be done in a society, and that it is important to insure
that they get done
Believes in the interdependence of social institutions
Believes that society is like an organism whose separate organs perform different but necessary
activities

Believes that an individual's role performances consist merely stepping into roles, ready-made
situations, and performing behaviors previously defined by institutions
Believes that stratification provides rewards for tasks requiring great responsibility and
preparation, while providing motivation for upward mobility for those not rewarded
Believes that huge social forces, not individuals, have power over human lives and human action
What do they focus on?
Focuses on social elements that contribute harmony, stability, and equilibrium to a social system
Focuses on the roles a society creates for people through institutions
What are their values?
Values maintaining the status quo of the social system
Values tradition as important source of direction for human actions
What it is or what it does?
Asks how different elements of society are integrated
Depicts society in relatively static terms
Concerned with maintaining social order
Assumes that everyone has equal access to social resources and that everyone is starting from the same
place in the social structure (i.e., that society provides an even playing field)
The poor shall always be with us.
The family that prays together, stays together.

Conflict Perspective (world-view assumptions)

-power
What are their beliefs?
Believes that the social system operates under conditions of perpetual scarcity of societal
resources
Believes that to bring about beneficial social arrangements, a change is inevitable, even desirable
Believes that a ruling elite enjoys sufficient power to transform its preferences for behavior (values)
into operating rules for other groups
Believes that social unity is an illusion based on coercion
Believes that ruling groups not only have primary access to social resources but also controls other
groups' access to these resources
What do they ask?
Asks, for any given social situation, who has the power
Asks who benefits from existing social arrangements

Asks how some groups acquire power, dominate other groups, and impose their will on others in
human affairs
What do they look at or see?
Focuses on how society distributes people among various roles it has created for them
Focuses on dissent among small groups
Sees many existing social arrangements as neither necessary nor justified
What are they concerned with?
Concerned with who wins and who loses from the way society is organized
Concerned with identifying/defining victims in society
What do they say?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Religion is the opiate of the masses.
Points out that every society has resources/rewards available for its members and that these rewards are
political, economic, and social
The Family is the model for all tyranny.

Symbolic Interaction (world-view assumptions)

- more than conflict
- study the language
- language of social institutions that work together
What are their beliefs?
Believes that people are responsible for their own meanings, emotions, and behaviors
Believes that we experience the world as constructed reality
Believes that individuals actively attempt to manage the impressions people have of them
Believes that if people define situations as real, the situations are real in their consequences
Believes that people exhibit a great deal of freedom and creativity as they enact different social roles
Believes that a person's self-concept can only be developed through communication with other humans
Believes that individuals in their day-to-day behavior do not feel the need to explain their actions to
themselves and others until challenged to do so
Believes that humans always have choices
Believes humans have an infinite capacity to transform social reality
Believes that humans construct new social roles when existing roles do not meet their needs
What do they focus on?

Focuses attention on the nonrational nature of human behavior

Focuses on the way people interpret their social roles
Focuses on the meanings individuals attach to human events and relationships
What do they say or think about?
Asks how everyday behavior supports, modifies, or refutes social definitions of reality
Emphasizes the processes of change that continually transform social life
Concerned with how people's definition of the situation affects their behavior
Sees social life as theater and role enactments as performances consisting of front stage behaviors
adhering to scripts constructed and revised by individual actors
What do they study?
Studies how people use symbols to construct reality
Studies processes of socialization and human development by analyzing social situations and
communication processes
Our perspective helps determine the questions we ask and by the type of questions we ask gives us the
answer. Guides questions then guides answers.

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