Brief Lecture Notes

                         WALLACE AND WOLF

CHAPTER 1: THE UNDERSTANDING OF SOCIETY

Sociologists do not come to the subject matter cold, 
their minds blank.  Whatever the topic they approach the subject with 
certain assumptions they emphasize particular methods and they have 
particular questions that they want answered.  This means that research is 
based on ways of looking at things for sociological theories advance the 
theories lay this out in an explicit and systematic way.

they noted that because of the differences in various theories sociological 
theories may look like a group of perspectives with little in common 
except their general and formalizing approach and their concern with 
understanding human behavior. thing out the theories are made of concepts 
A CONCEPT is a word or symbol that represents a phenomenon, or a label we 
used to name and classify our perceptions and experiences, or an abstract 
idea generalized from particular instances.  Examples: Durkheim's cconcept 
of anomie, or marx's concept of alienation are classic examples of 
sociological concepts

Theories differ along several major dimensions:

FIRST, deductive and inductive approaches,

SECOND, methodologies
	methodologies are simply how we gather our data.  There are 
different kinds of methodologies (list some)

THIRD, their subject matter

	distinguish between macro sociology and microsociology.
	(functionalism and conflict.  Our two approaches concerned with 
the overall characteristics of social structure and the general nature of 
social institutions. 

FOURTH, their assumptions underlying their approach

    assumptions refer to the taken for granted characteristics about the 
world and how it operates.  For example theorists differ in whether they 
view human behavior as essentially determined and so in principle 
predictable, or whether they emphasize humans of creativity.  The clearest 
contrast is between, on the one hand, functionalism and series of rational 
choice, and on the other symbolic interactionand phenomenology.
Functionalists Cedar world as built around individual motives but they see 
human behavior has ultimately determined and so in principle easy to 
explain or fully explainable.  Symbolic interaction, on the other hand, 
focuses on how people put together their social world.

Functionalists assumed more or less explicitly that people's motives and 
behavior are largely a function of the social values they internalize.  In 
other words people's basic purposes are formed by their birth into a 
particular society; they do not exist independently.  Conflict theorists 
like contrast emphasize interests, especially the interests of powerful 
groups who impose them on less powerful groups.

FIFTH, types of questions they ask about the material.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE CHARTS, TABLE 1 -- ONE, ON PAGE 11.

OBJECTIVES

the final respect in which major perspectives in sociology deferred from 
each other is in their ultimate objectives in particular whether they aim 
at describing things at explaining things or at predicting things.  ALL 
THEORIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES LIKE THE SCIENCES, ARE CONCERNED WITH 
INCREASING OUR COMPREHENSION OF THINGS WITH PROVIDING ACCOUNTS THAT MAKE 
US FEEL THAT WE NOW UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON TO A GREATER DEGREE THAN 
WE DID BEFORE.

The fact that sociological theory does not form a cumulative body of work 
comparable to physics or even neoclassical economics does not mean that we 
have an impasse with one approach merely contradicting another.  The test 
of the fairy is whether it helps us to understand and each of the theories 
and discourse shed light on a different aspect of human behavior.

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