INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY

by

Dr. Ron J. Hammond

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

Dr. Ron J. Hammond and Dr. Paul Cheney on Smashwords

Introduction to Sociology

Copyright ? 2010 by Dr. Ron J. Hammond

This book is being released under a Creative Commons License of Attribution (BY).

This means that you are free to use the materials contained in this work for any purpose

as long as credit is given to the authors. More free books available at freebooks.uvu.edu.

Table of Contents

Chapter 01 History & Introduction

Chapter 02 Sociological Imagination

Chapter 03 Social Theories

Chapter 04 Scientific Sociology

Chapter 05 Culture

Chapter 06 Socialization

Chapter 07 Society and Groups

Chapter 08 Deviance & Crime

Chapter 09 Stratification

Chapter 10 Sex and Gender

Chapter 11 Race and Minority

Chapter 12 Aging

Chapter 13 Family

Chapter 14 Education

Chapter 15 Religion

Chapter 16 Media

Chapter 17 Population

Chapter 18 Urbanization

Chapter 19 Collective Behaviors

Chapter 20 Rape & Sexual Assault

*****

Chapter 01 - History and Introduction

This New Science of Societies: Sociology

Sociology is a relatively new discipline in comparison to chemistry, math, biology,

philosophy and other disciplines that trace back thousands of years. Sociology began as

an intellectual/philosophical effort by a French man named Auguste Comte (born 1798

and died 1857). He is considered the founder of sociology and coined "Sociology."

Comte's Definition of Sociology is the science of society. In his observation Comte

believed that society's knowledge passed through 3 stages which he observed in France.

His life came in what he called the positivism stage (science-based). Positivism is the

objective and value-free observation, comparison, and experimentation applied to

scientific inquiry. Positivism was Comte's way of describing the science needed for

sociology to takes its place among the other scientific disciplines.

His core work, "The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte" was translated by a Britishborn philosopher named Harriet Martineau (1802-1876). She literally clarified Comte's

original writing as she condensed it into a concise English language version. This

expanded the interest in sociology to include English speakers. Martineau held values

that are common today but were way before her time. She opposed oppression, especially

of women and Black slaves in the US. Her own work about society which first addressed

this, Society In America has been scanned and is free (public domain) to read at



%22Society+in+America%22&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0 .

Why did thinkers of the day find a need for a new science of sociology? Societies had

change in unprecedented ways and had formed a new collective of social complexities

that the world had never witnessed before. Western Europe was transformed by the

Industrial Revolution, a technological development of knowledge and manufacturing that

began in the late 1600s and continued until the early 1900s. The Industrial Revolution

transformed society at every level. Look at Table 1 below to see pre and post-Industrial

Revolution social patterns and how different they were.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, families lived on smaller farms and every able member

of the family did work to support and sustain the family economy. Towns were small and

very similar (homogamy) and families were large (more children=more workers). There

was a lower standard of living and because of poor sanitation people died earlier.

After the Industrial Revolution, farm work was replaced by factory work. Men left their

homes and became breadwinners earning money to buy many of the goods that used to be

made by hand at home (or bartered for by trading one's own homemade goods with

another's). Women became the supervisors of home work. Much was still done by

families to develop their own home goods while many women and children also went to

the factories to work. Cities became larger and more diverse (heterogamy). Families

became smaller (less farm work required fewer children). Eventually, standards of living

increased and death rates declined.

It is important to note the value of women's work before and after the Industrial

Revolution. Hard work was the norm and still is today for most women. Homemaking

included much unpaid work. For example, my 93 year old Granny is an example of this.

She worked hard her entire life both in a cotton factory and at home raising her children,

grand-children, and at times great grand-children. When I was a boy, she taught me how

to make lye soap by saving the fat from animals they ate. She'd take a metal bucket and

poked holes in the bottom of it. Then she burned twigs and small branches until a pile of

ashes built up in the bottom of the bucket. After that she filtered water from the well

through the ashes and collected the lye water runoff in a can. She heated the animal fat

and mixed it in the lye water from the can. When it cooled, it was cut up and used as lye

soap. They'd also take that lye water runoff and soak dried white corn in it. The corn

kernel shells would become loose and slip off after being soaked. They'd rinse this and

use it for hominy. Or grind it up and make grits from it. We'll talk more about women

and work in Chapter 10.

These pre and post-industrial changes impacted all of Western civilization because the

Industrial Revolution hit all of these countries about the same way: Western Europe,

United States, Canada, and later Japan and Australia. The Industrial Revolution brought

some rather severe social conditions which included: deplorable city living conditions;

crowding; crime; extensive poverty; inadequate water and sewage; early death, frequent

accidents, and high illness rates. The new social problems required a new science that

was unique from any scientific disciplines of the day. Comte wanted a strong scientific

basis for sociology, but because of various distractions he never quite established it.

Core Founders of Sociology

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was the first to take a position in a university and because

of the scientific journal he edited, L'Ann?e Sociologique (the sociological year) and his

scientific work, he was able to help sociology to become part of higher education's

academic culture. He was also French and took the first position at a university as a

sociology professor.

Durkheim discussed Social Facts, a phenomena within society that typically exists

independent of individual choices and actions. Durkheim approached a subject that most

thought of as being exclusively individualistic in nature-suicide. But, he defined suicide

from a social fact perspective which helped him to establish the unique wisdom of

sociological analysis.

To Durkheim, individual people don't cause suicide, suicide is a social fact that some

members of society participate in for various social reason. Durkheim studied suicide

among categories of people in various contexts in Western Europe. He found 4 distinct

types of suicide that occur as social facts and that could be collectively remedied by

adjusting social processes. Before we explain these let's look at 2 core sociological

concepts.

Social Integration is the degree to which people are connected to their social groups. Let's

check your own personal degree of social integration. On a piece of paper right down

how many close family members you have. Then add in how many close friends and

coworkers you have. Finally add in all others whose name you know and they know

yours. This number is one measure of your social integration. But, to really get an idea

you might evaluate these relationships. In other words list your top 6 closest relationships

in order. Make a short list of the 6 closest relationships you have. Now, rank 1 for the

closest, 2 for next closest and so on up to 6th. Durkheim realized from his suicide studies

that the closer we are to others, the more socially integrated we are and the less likely we

are to commit suicide. The second concept to understand is called anomie.

Anomie is a state of relative normlessness that comes from the disintegration of our

routines and regulations. Anomie is common when we go through sudden changes in our

lives or when we live in larger cities. Sudden changes bring stress and frustration. To

illustrate this, I often tell my students to remember how they felt the day after high school

graduation. They walk for graduation then wake up the next morning with very few

demands on their time and energies. This sudden shift in demands from very intense to

almost absent, leads many to feel extremely frustrated and lost. Add to that they are now

adults and no longer students (children) and you get a prime formula for anomie (role

shift + vague expectations about what is expected + sudden change=anomie).

One of my college students told me that at the end of last semester she had 4 finals, one

paper, two presentations, and one lab project all due in the last 5 days of class. She

finished it all, packed, and moved back home. The first morning she woke up at home she

got out her planner and realized that all she had to do that day, in other words all the

demands placed upon her were to eat and shower. She was not a full-time university

student for now and was between significant roles. "It took a week to get my life back

into a routine for the break," she explained.

As a larger social fact, anomie is a byproduct of large complex societies, especially

around large cities. It's easier to get lost in the crowd, not be noticed, and to rarely receive

praise or criticism for personal actions. Durkheim and others were aware that society

impacted the life of the individual even if the individual had very little impact on society.

By the way, Durkheim measured suicide rates and so do we in our day. Suicide is the

purposeful ending of one's own life for any reason. Suicide Rate is the numbers of

suicides per 100,000 people in a population.

Durkheim's first 2 types of suicide had to do with the degree of social integration of the

individual into their groups. Altruistic Suicide is suicide which occurs when people are

over involved and over committed to a group or society as a whole. This occurs when the

needs of society as a whole override the needs of the individual. Soldiers often do this to

protect their comrades.

Egoistic Suicide is suicide which occurs when people are under-involved or undercommitted to groups. This is the loner-type suicide when an individual is disconnected

(or never connected) to others. Certain social pressures isolate us more than others and

suicide becomes more risky for the isolated. Certain social forces within society create

this isolated state within us (TV viewing, video games, online time, and other solo

activities that preoccupy us with our own interest and isolate us from our groups and

relationships; see and search "James at war Halo3" for a humorous

example of technology isolating us from others).

Interestingly, the Suicide Prevention Resource Center gives a few suicide prevention

strategies that relate to social integration:. "Strong connections to family and community

support cultural and religious beliefs that discourage suicide and support selfpreservations and various other types of social support are recommended" (retrieved 13

January, 2009 from the "Risk and Protective Factors for Suicide," National

Strategy for Suicide Prevention: Goals and Objectives for Action, 2001). Interestingly

Durkheim's work is quoted multiple times on this Website.

The next 2 types of suicide described by Durkheim have to do with the levels of social

control and social regulation. Anomic Suicide is suicide which occurs when people are

under-regulated by familiar norms that serve as anchors to their social reality. You'd

expect this type of suicide in very large cities or when dramatic social changes have

transpired (e.g., 9-11 terrorist attacks or recent economic recessions).

Fatalistic Suicide is suicide which occurs when people are over regulated or overconstrained. This might happen in oppressive societies where people prefer to die rather

than continue under the hopeless state of oppression (IE: prisoners of war, inmates, and

refugees). The US Center for Disease Control list Suicide as the 11th most common form

of death with about 32,000+ US suicides reported last year. That's a rate of 11 suicides

per 100,000 living people (retrieved 23 April, 2009 from Suicide and Self-inflicted Injury

at ).

In Durkheim's day he found highest suicide rates for Protestants, males, singles, and

wealthy persons. He found lowest rates for Jews, Catholics, females, marrieds, and poor

persons. Many of these are still common predictors of suicide today. The World Health

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