Sociology: study of human social life, groups, and society, as well as behaviour of groups and

social institutions

Ex: Gender roles, Criminal behaviour, Ethnicity, Family Structure, social institutions, Sexuality,
social classes

Ibn Khaldun wrote about the world around him in the 14th century

Sociology did not really exist until the industrial revolution

Industrial revolution: Change in agriculture and manufacturing in England that began in the 18th
and 19th century. Cause significant cultural, social,and economic changes. Scholars start to
write about the social aspect of things

Sociology was started by Auguste Comte, who defined it as the systematic study of society. He
observed that society was constantly changing, and people also changed to adapt. He believed
that these changes were positive as a whole. He also developed positivism

Positivism: application of the scientific method in order to get quantifiable data in order to
understand societies.

Values: Shared ideas and standards that are considered acceptable and binding

Norms: expectations on how a person should behave

Role: the expected behaviour of a person in a particular societal position

Learned behaviour comes from values, norms, and roles. Eg: equality in Canada is a value

Objectivity and universality: when sociologists conduct their research, it is important for them to
do so in an objective manner, without any kind of bias, similar to ethnocentrism in anthropology.
Some aspects of human behaviour is shared in all cultures, and sociologists compare these
societies in order to explain trends and behaviours

In thomas Balmes “Babies”, he demonstrated that it is society that shapes us, since the babies
were the same from the start and they started changing over time.

Sociologists and the Berlin Wall: Sociologists studied the societal changes that happened when
the berlin wall fell, as the families and the cities were reunited. They can use this to predict
behaviour in the future
Schools of thought:

Structural Functionalism: Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons: study how social structures function
to serve society

Conflict Theory: Karl Marx, C. Wright Mills: Study how power forms the basis of the relationships
between groups and create conflict.

Feminist Sociology: Dorothy Smith: examine conflicts created by gender

Symbolic Interactionism: Charles Cooley, George Herbert Mead, Max Weber: Study individual’s
role and place in wider society, and how people create their world through interactions. Also how
environment and social structures determine a person’s behaviour

Macrosociology: sociology by analyzing social systems on a large scale. Eg: country, place of
worship

Microsociology: Study small groups and individuals within a society. Eg: Individuals, small
groups within a religion

Structural Functionalism: A society is stable when the social institutions meet the needs of its
members. These institutions depend on each other, and work together to benefit society. A
criticism is that it does not account for the bad things in society, and how they might go against
the needs of the citizens in society. Things can be overlooked by structural functionalists, such
as racism and poverty.

Emile Durkheim: established sociology as an academic disclipline, was inspired by comte.

Propelled it forwards with Karl Marx and Max Weber, and his theories were the foundations of
structural functionalism. He said we are social creatures, defined by our social interactions, and
also that society is in a constant state of change. He viewed this change as positive

Functional diffrentiation: divisions that are created in order to deal with complex environments

Durkheim on suicide: He studied the social facts, and concluded that the causes of suicide are
very deepy rooted in society. He pioneered modern statistical analysis

Talcott Parsons: also a structural functionalist, and brought structural functionalism to the united
states. He said that all social occurrences and relationships could be explained through their
function in society, and that if something existed in many societies it has to exist to serve a
necessary purpose. He found that there was a strong desire between people to get along with
each other, and that we all want to work together to achieve goals. This suggests that negative
parts of society serve a purpose. Believed in social evolution and social darwinism (survival of
the fittest but in society)

Herbert Spencer: applied Darwin’s theory of evolution to the study of society, and applied
natural selection. He said that the fittest people in society survive and flourish and vice versa.
This justifies colonialism, slavery, and the homeless. Also somewhat connected to eugenics.
This was applied by Helen MacMurchy, who applied eugenics, and sterilized mothers.

Conflict Theory: study the struggle between different groups for power, which is usually the
result of economic and political disparities between them. Based on the work of Karl Marx,
Marxists focus on the imbalance in economics. People who have power try to keep it away from
the people who don’t, and the people without power try to seek it. Can also be applied to races
and gender

Karl Marx: He witnessed the industrial revolution, and observed how workers were working long
hours for little pay, and he predicted that they would soon revolt against the owners. He found
that Western society is based on property ownership and labour, and that everything was for
financial wealth. He saw the conflict between the rich and the poor as the only way for society to
evolve, almost in a cyclical manner.

William Foote Whyte: studied a boston neighborhood through participant observation, and he
studied the college boys and the corner boys. He demonstrated that a poor community was
socially organized, and he challenged the way sociology could be studied.

Feminist Sociology:
They study how men controlled women’s lives and how women were marginalized, deprived of
power, and essentially lesser beings in society. They found society to be patriarchal, and
historian Gerda Lerner argued in “the creation of patriarchy” that the status of women in the past
was largely connected to their relationship with men, and female scholars did not have access
to funding for their research

Dorothy Smith: says that women have been marginalized in society, and that sociologists should
change sociology so that it speaks to all members of society. In her book, she talks about how
women are deprived of authority because of the social constructs that favor men.

Chandra Talpade Mohanty: talked about how Western feminism created the “third world
woman”, which portrays women from different cultures as one, and how they all suffer from
oppression in some way. She points out the ethnocentrism of this, and how people in different
cultures are oppressed in different ways based on their geography, history, and culture.
Srinivas studied the caste system in india, and how it organizes people into social classes that
determine things like status, job, culture, marriage, and political power. Even though it is
outlawed, it still exists, and his work challenges western views about indian society. In particular,
he studied its impact on elections, and his work had a large impact on developing sociology in
india.

Symbolic Interactionism: studies human interaction at the micro level, and emphasizes how the
individual is living in a larger society. It focuses on how individuals use their interpretations of
social situations and behaviours to give meaning to social interactions.

Thomas and Znaniecki’s study looked at Polish families and the early applications of symbolic
interactionism as they adapted to North American society.

Max Weber: believed social life is full of conflict and cohesion. He created a theory called
rationalization, which is social actions motivated by efficiency and benefit, as opposed to custom
or emotion. He saw the capitalist system as faulty, and said it trapped people. Instead, he
proposed a bureaucracy as opposed to revolution, and he said it would improve social
problems.

He also thought that inequality was unequal access to society’s resources, and that
bureaucracies could solve this issue. Overall, he thought that bureaucracies could solve many
issues in society, and reduce tension and inequality

Bureaucracy: a large administration that pursues a wide variety of goals, and according to
Weber, there are hierarchies and people are given specialized tasks. A person holds a job
based on their competence, and there are a lot of rules and regulations, as well as written
communication. However, given that there are a lot of steps involved in getting anything done,
Weber acknowledged that bureaucracies are slow, and can reduce people to “cogs in a
machine”

The Chicago school: Emerged from scholars at U of Chicago, and they further developed
symbolic interactionism. They focused on how a physical environment and social structures
shape individual behaviour, and how a community affects how people act and behave.

Their research was conducted by immersion in an urban environment, and through

enthographies and particpant observation. This allowed them to study in a natural setting,
however, one of their biggest weaknesses was the exclusion of quantitative data, as opposed to
the surplus of qualitative data.

Charles Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and the Looking-Glass Self: Cooley studied the
connection between individuals and believed they were greatly influenced by each other. He
said that the primary group was very important to shaping social identity. This is reflected in his
concept the “looking glass self”, which says that an individuals sense of self is mirrored by
others. Eg: online profiles
George Herbert Mead: added details about the importance of symbols, language, and
communication in human relationships. He claimed that an individual assumes many different
social roles, and learns which mask to wear, such as acting differently based on the
environment. He is known as the founding theorist for symbolic interaction

Mead and Cooley’s work made it easier to study social inequalities and differences

Primary group: a set of people with whom an individual has strong emotional and personal
connections.

Socialization: the process where an individual learns the appropriate behavioural patterns, skills,
and values for their social world.

C. Wright Mills: influenced by Marx and Weber, and developed sociological imagination, which
was the ability to connect individual experiences to social realities. Without this, people will not
be able to understand their place in society, and if they have it, it allows them to understand the
larger forces at work in society.

Mills vs Parsons: Mills accused Parsons of being too conservative, and that his belief that
society was static was wrong. He essentially considered that the negative aspects of structural
functionalism were wrong such as poverty and crime, as opposed to Parsons. He also thought
that such negative things could be changed over time.

Socialization: the process by which someone learns the values, attitudes, and behaviours that
are valuable/necessary/acceptable for a certain society. It continues throughout a person’s life,
and there are many agents of socialization.

Agents of socialization: people and institutions that shape an individual’s social development

Social influence: the effect of other people on a person’s thoughts or actions

What influences behaviour?

Family: learn basic values and behaviours, and act as caregivers

Gender: societal gender roles, which are socially constructed, dictate the way we are expected
to act/behave, and can vary based on culture

Culture: people can be influenced by different and even multiple cultures, and people may have
to adjust their views in order to function, and understand the norms and values around them

Media: very big agent of socalization

Cultures and greetings: Different cultures can be raised to have different greetings, such as the
inuit nose rubbing and western european cheek kissing

Egerton Blackwood: social works use social science knowledge and solve problems in
relationships, face illness and disability, as well as social problems. Blackwood created a
program to motivate at risk youth to learn about photography and video.

Primary socialization: the process of learning the basic skills needed to survive in society eg:
family

Secondary socialization: the process of learning how to behave appropriately in group settings
eg: places of worship and school

Anticipatory socialization: learning how to plan the way to behave in new situations

Resocialization: transforming a negative behaviour into a socially acceptable behaviour eg:

prison

Reena Virk: was killed by a group of people after trying to get home to her foster home, and it
was shown that girls were no longer willing to channel their aggression into socially acceptable
feminine ways

Abnormal socialization: when children are raised in unfortunate circumstances where they may
be neglected or even abandoned.

Child abuse: physical, emotional, neglect, sexual abuse. Basically, failing to do the duties of a
parent

Feral children: unwanted children that are deserted at a young age and are raised by animals.
Eg: Oxana Malaya, the Ukrainian dog girl, who was found at 8 years old, and was left with dogs
in her family yard. This was a case of neglect, and she essentially acted like a dog. By her mis
20s, she was able to speak, and many of her issues had been mostly resolved.

Isolate children: children raised in isolation within a human household. Eg: Genie, and danielle,
who was found at 3 years old and had a very similar experience to Genie

Emotional intelligence: ability to recognize, use, and regulate emotions. Can greatly depend on
culture

Russian bird boy: raised by mother and surrounded by bird cages, and acted like a bird
Anja W: lived on a farm and was confined to a house, because her mom was afraid that the
government would find about the poor living conditions

The Linz sisters: kept prisoners by their mother for 7 years

Andrei Tolstyk: acted like a dog

Bello: acted like a chimp

Daniel: acted like a goat

Family structure: A family is any combination of two or more people that are bound by mutual
consent, birth, adoption, etc. They assume certain responsibilities such as physical
maintenance, addition of new members, socialization, control, survival needs, and nurturing

Nuclear family: spouses and children

Extended family: several generations

Lone-parent family: one parent with one or more children

Blended: divorced people remarry

Same-sex: same gender, with or without children

Ekman experiment: studied non-verbal communication, and the facial expressions of emotions
in different cultures. He said that humans overall, use the same facial expressions for the 6
basic emotions: fear, anger, surprise, happiness, sadness, disgust

Kinesics: study of body movement, except for touching.

Haptics: study of touch

Proxemics: human communication with respect to territorial zones

Social Identity: how you define yourself to the world and yourself

Life stages:

Young single adult

Newly Married Couple

Family with young children

Family with adolescents

Family in mid-life

Family in later life

Role Theory: Erving Goffman set out to understand individual behaviour based on the roles they
willingly and unwillingly play. According to him, all human behaviour is acted, and people
manipulate themselves to present themselves to a certain audience

Social roles: expectations attached to specific positions

Gender role vs gender behaviour: role is the societal expectation while behaviour is more
personal

Burke and Tully conducted an experiement called the measurement of role/identity, and the
children had very stereotypical views on gender. Also people who acted like the other gender
had lower self-esteem

Chaperone: an older or married woman who accompanies or supervises a young unmarried

woman on social occasions

During the victorian era, young women would be under the watch of chaperones when they
accepted invitations from eligible gentlemen

Homophily: the tendency to associate with those who are similar to us

David Reimer: Bruce had circumcision go wrong, and dr money and his parents got him to act
as a girl, since apparently, children are gender neutral in their first couple years. However, as he
approached puberty, things changed, and his parents told him, he changed his name to david,
and lived as a man

Discrimination: the act of treating individuals unfairly because of their race gender or other
characteristic. Either overt or systemic

Stereotype: an exaggerated view or judgement made about a group or class of people

Racism: judgement, assumptions, or opinions that one race is better than another

Sexism: attitudes or behaviours based on predetermined ideas of sexual roles

Classism: discrimination based on economic level

Prejudice: judgement or hostility towards another social group (not action, just thought)

Overt discrimination: intentional actions, such as not hiring someone because they are a woman

Systemic: unintentional, such as someone not being able to accept a job because of how the
workplace is not wheelchair accessible

Upstander: someone who takes action when the easiest thing is to do nothing, because they
believe that something is right

Islamaphobia: racism that leads to prejudice against islamic beliefs and muslims

Learned theory: prejudice and discrimination are not innate, but introducted to us by
socialization such as family and friends

Competition theory: People distrust immigrants because of economic competition (similar to

conflict theory)

Little Mosque on the prarie: uses humour to talk about the challenges that muslims face, and in
a scene, someone in the airport was reported for using words such as allah and bomb

Frustration-aggression theory: the shortcomings of an individual lead them to resent people in

society who have better situations (nazis killing disabled people and jehovahs witnesses as
well)

Scapegoat: a specific person or group that becomes the target of hatred or blame for the
hardships of others

Ignorance theory: lack of personal experience and social experience can cause people to make
incorrect assumptions about a specific group or class within society (related to ethnocentrism)

Solidarity: the ties that unite members of a group

Dyad: a group of 2 members

Informal group: a less intimate gathering where member interaction is not governed by explicit
rules (neighbours in small talk). Members who are closer are called the primary group

Primary group: a group held together by intimate relations, such as family and close friends
Secondary group: a large impersonal gathering of people in which members roles are measured
by their contribution to a common goal/purpose. Eg: school sports team

Virtual community: a group of individuals who communicate online

Robin Dunbar: said that there is a limit to steady connections that a person can hold, which he
said to be 150.

Sanction: informal or formal penalty or reward to ensure conformity within a group

Gangs: a group of people who associate for antisocial and often criminal behaviour, with many
of the same characteristics as other groups. It provides a sense of identity, power, purpose,
loyalty, and protection.

Norms: guidelines for appropriate behaviour within a group

Crowd: little or nothing to do with each other, and are a collection of people who come together
for a specific purpose such as riding a bus or shopping in a mall

Category: people who have something in common but members are unaware of each other. Eg:
teens, single parents, doctors

Social group: two or more people who interact with each other and are aware of having
something in common. Eg: family friends, schools, work groups

Network: a loose group that connects people who would otherwise have little to no connection
to each other. Often at great distances from each other

Clique: an exclusive and small group of people who usually share values, ideas, and activities.
Close friendships and spend a lot of time together. Eg: very close friend group

Gang: a type of clique that engages in unlawful or antisocial activity, and and conflict with
societal norms

Cult: an organized group that usually has extreme spiritual beliefs, generally centered around an
authoritarian and charismatic leader. People in the cult are usually obsessive in devotion for the
person principle or thing

Example of why someone joined a gang: kevin, who was abused by his mother, decided to join
a gang for the feeling of a real family, protection, loyalty, and respect.

Real life superheroes: aeon star: patrolled his area at night. Polarman: spoke with children in
schools to help them with bullying and troubles. Timber Wolf: helped his community
Collective behaviour: behaviour by a large group that does not reflect the existing rules
institutions and structures of society. They engage in this behaviour to get some kind of specific
outcome, and is usually spontaneous, and a reaction to something in a panic

Panic: a highly emotional and irrational response to a dangerous or harmful social event

Ex: The war of the worlds story led some to believe that there was an actual alien invasion, and
people panicked.

Riot: civil disorder stemming from a social grievance caused by a disorganized crowd exhibiting
aggression, who may turn to violence, vandalism, and destruction of property

Convergence theory: people engaging of collective behaviour are doing so based on their own
beliefs, but are also doing so under the protection of the group.

Rational decision theory: according to granovetter, there is a number at which individuals will be
more convinced to engage in collective behaviour, called the threshold. People tend to favour
larger groups over smaller ones, but individual thresholds can vary.

Threshold: a level or point at which something would happen; a tipping point

Altruism: the principle of unselfish regard for the needs and interests of others

Prosocial behaviour: a form of altruism in which individuals or groups demonstrate empathy and
care for the welfare of others with benefit to themselves. Sometimes, those engaged in this
behaviour might be placing themselves in the way of harm. Eg; earthquake happened in haiti
and the world responded with aid.

Mass public grief: usually asociated with celebrities, and mourners gather in order to honor the
deceased. Eg: michael jackson, princess diana, and remembrance day

Collective solidarity: a comumunities ability to overcome the negative consequences of crime.

Crowds: large numbers of people gathered for a specific reason. Sociologists study crownds to
better understand the nature of collective behaviour, and examine what happens when people
come together for various reasons.

Conventional crowd: large group of people gathered for a clear purpose who behave according
to expectations

Casual crowd: a group of people who are at the same place at the same time, and do not have
a common goal. Such as shoppers as a mall
Expressive crowd: group at event that displays emotion and excitement.

Acting crowd: single purpose or goal

Mob: disorderly group of people, can evolve into a riot. Ex: G20 summit, was supposed to be a
protest but turned into a riot, demonstrating collective behaviour, as well as the convergence
theory and rational decision theory.

SARS stock expressive crowd: They made a concert to show that toronto was safe, and they
invited many bands to perform. There was a lot of distress from heat stroke and hydration, but it
stayed peaceful

Mass hysteria: the widespread irrational reaction to a perceived danger. Difference between this
and panic is that this is always widespread. Eg: lining up for vaccines for hours

Smart mobs: a large group of strangers who use electronic media to organize and stage suprise
public gatherings.

Conformity: the process by which an individual will change their thoughts, feelings, or behaviour
in order to meet the expectations of a group or authority figure. It can be either good or bad, but
it is necessary in order to have a functioning society because of laws. Eg: people looking up in
an elevator

Compliance: social behaviour by an individual that may be contrary to their beliefs, but is done
to receive some kind of reward and to avoid punishment

Conformity in collectivistic societies: conformity is placed above individualism, and the needs of
the group are more important than individuals. Ex: Japan, since they have to live in close
proximity to each other, and they have to conform in order to maintain harmony and order.

The breaching experiments: harold garfinkel was interested in what would happen if social
norms were breached, and he intentionally broke them in experiments. Reactions to this include
confusion, anxiety, anger, and sometimes laughter. He found taht society resists breaches to
order, and tries to reconstruct when a norm is broken. It shows how people take social norms for
granted, and come to expect certain things, highlighting the need for conformity.

Stanley Milgram had another breaching experiment, where he went on a train and got able
bodied people to give up their seats. When not given a reason, most people gave it up, while
when given a stupid reason such as “I can’t read my book standing up”, most people did not
give it up.
Groupthink: the effects of collective pressure on the decision-making abilities of individual
members of a group. Irving Janis studied this.

Effects of groupthink: pressure, self-censorship, morality, stereotypes, mindguard

Obedience: the act or habit of doing what one is told or submitting to an authority, like the
milgram experiment

Milgram experiment: participants had to admister an “electric shock” to the experimenters, and
given the authority figure telling them to continue, even when the person being shocked
exhibited signs of pain, most people still continued.

The game of death: they had to shock another contestant when they answered a question
wrong, and most people kept shocking until the voltage was lethal. Kaufmann said that this
shows how powerful television is in terms of commanding people’s willingness to obey

Charles Hofling’s Obedience Study: he conducted an experiment seeing if nurses would carry
out the orders of doctors they hadn’t seen in person, and administer a potentially lethal dose of
a fake drug to a patient. Almost all of the nurses complied with the doctor’s orders, showing how
dangerous obedience is, since they are not supposed to take orders on the phone.

Solomon Asch Line experiment: people are influenced by the responses by others,
demonstrated by people questioning their own perception on the lengths of lines.

Why people conform: group size, group unanimity, public vs private response, self-esteem,
difficult or ambiguous task, status of members in group

Chameleon effect: the mimicking of the body language of a person with whom we are interacting

Chartrand and Bargh conducted an experiment in which participants had to interact with the
experimenters. The experimenters who altered their body language to act like the participants
were more likable. Similar to homophily

The 8 concepts of groupthink: illusion of invulnerability, collective effort to rationalize, belief in

group’s inherent morality, stereotyped views of enemy leaders, direct pressure, self-censorship,
shared illusion of unanimity, self-appointed mind-guards.

Groupthink can be limited with a devil’s advocate, as well as the leader not giving their opinion

The bystander effect: Kitty was attacked by strangers, and nobody called the police, because of
the bystander effect
4 mechanisms that lead to the bystander effect: self-awareness, social cues, blocking
mechanisms, diffusion of responsibility

Serotonin: a chemical messenger in the brain that is associated with feelings of well-being

Social status is linked to serotonin, as said by jordan peterson, and in rhesus monkeys, when
social status decreased, so did the overall serotonin levels. The need to beling to a group is
biological

Marc Lewis: said that the brains of teenage boys is not fully developed, especially the prefrontal
cortex

William Pollack said that boys are socialized with the traditional strong and fearless mindset,
which could be what led to the toronto group of 18 (canadian version of the group of 19 in 9/11)

Non-conformity: could be because of morality, and according to lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of

moral development, some people don’t conform because of morality.