1. Lesson 1:
What is Sociology?
Intro to Sociology
Prepared by: Apurva Tolia

2. Three revolutions had to take place
before the sociological imagination
could crystallize:
The scientific revolution (16th
c.) encouraged
the use of evidence to substantiate theories.
The democratic revolution (18th
c.)
encouraged the view that human action can
change society.
The industrial revolution (19th
c.) gave
sociologists their subject matter.

3. Sociology
Sociology is the systematic study of human
society and social interaction. It is based on
the idea that our relations with other people
create opportunities for us to think and act
but also set limits on our thoughts and
action.

4. What is Sociology?
Sociology is also the study of
reifications, or social
constructions.
Introduction to Sociology: What is
Sociology?
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5. Sociology
•Howard Becker defined
sociology as the study of people
“doing things together.”
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6. Sociology
•This reminds us that society
and the individual are
inherently connected, and
each depends on the other.
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7. Sociology
•Sociologists study this link:
how society affects the
individual and how the
individual affects society.
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8. A society is a large social grouping that shares
the same geographical territory and is
subject to the same political authority and
dominant cultural expectations.

9. Society Is….
A society is a group of people who
share a culture and live more or less
together. They have a set of
institutions which provide what they
need to meet their physical, social,
and psychological needs and which
maintain order and the values of the
culture.
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10. 10
Social structures are the more
or less stable patterns of
people’s interactions and
relationships.

11. Institutions are the principal social
structures that organize, direct, and
execute the essential tasks of living.
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12. Some institutions are:
Family,
Educational,
Economic,
Religion,
Law,
Political Systems
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13. Sociological Imagination
• The ability to see the relationship
between individual experiences and
the larger society.

14. Cool Insights from Sociology
•Humans cannot be understood
apart from social context (i.e.
society)
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15. Cool Insights from Sociology
•Society makes us who we are by
structuring out interactions and
laying out an orderly world
before us
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16. Cool Insights from Sociology
•Society is a social construction, that is
an idea created by humans (i.e. doesn’t
exist in the biological world but only in
the social world) through social
interaction and given a reality through
our understanding of it and our
collective actions.
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17. Society Influences You
• Death…
Related to society?
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18. Baby Names
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology? 18

19. Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology? 19
Names that have gained
the most popularity,
2004 – 2010
...Or, the names I’ll begin seeing all
the time in 2022-2028

20. What Does Society Look Like?
• While the idea of society is familiar, describing it can be difficult.
Ultimately society is made up of many different components, such
as culture, race, family, education, social class, and people’s
interactions.
• People who share a culture and territory
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology? 20

21. Meaning through Interaction
• People actively and collectively shape their own lives, organizing their
social interactions and relationships into a meaningful world.
• Sociologists study this social behavior by seeking out its patterns.
• Patterns are crucial to our understanding of society
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22. Society
•Society is a group of people who
shape their lives in aggregated and
patterned ways that distinguish
their group from other groups.
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23. The Social Sciences
• Social Sciences are the disciplines that use the scientific method to
examine the social world, in contrast to the natural sciences, which
examine the physical world.
• Examples of social sciences include ….?
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24. How Sociology fits in
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25. Levels of Analysis
• We can study society from different levels:
• Microsociology is the level of analysis that studies face-
to-face and small-group interactions in order to
understand how they affect the larger patterns and
institutions of society.
• Microsociology focuses on small-scale issues.
• Ex: Symbolic Interactionism
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26. Levels of Analysis (cont)
• Macrosociology is the level of analysis that studies large-scale social
structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups
and individuals.
• Macrosociology focuses on large-scale issues.
• Ex: Functionalism, Conflict Theory
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27. How We Use Levels of Analysis
• Pam Fishman took a micro-level approach to studying
issues of power in male–female relationships.
• She found that in conversation, women ask nearly
three times as many questions as men do, perhaps
because a speaker is much more likely to ask a question
if he or she does not expect to get a response by simply
making a statement.
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28. Levels of Analysis (cont)
• When conducting research, methodology involves the
process by which one gathers and analyzes data.
• Quantitative research translates the social world into
numbers that can be treated mathematically; this type
of research often tries to find cause-and-effect
relationships.
• Any type of social statistic is an example of quantitative
research.
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29. Levels of Analysis (cont)
• Qualitative research works with non-numerical data
such as texts, fieldnotes, interview transcripts,
photographs, and tape recordings; this type of research
often tries to understand how people make sense of
their world.
• Participant observation, in which the researcher
actually takes part in the social world he or she studies,
is an example of qualitative research.
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30. Take Away Points
•Humans cannot be understood
apart from the social context they
live in (society, culture and time +
place)
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31. Take Away Points
•The world around us profoundly
shapes and influences who we are,
how we behave and even how/what
we think.
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32. Take Away Points
•It is the job of the sociologist to
understand how this process works
and to what effect.
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33. Lesson Quiz
1. Which of the following is NOT an example of a social science?
a. biology
b. political science
c. psychology
d. economics
Introduction to Sociology: What is Sociology? 33

34. Lesson Quiz
2. Sociology is defined as:
a. the scientific study of humans.
b. the study of ancient cultures and behavior.
c. the study of how the brain works.
d. the study of human society and social behavior.
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35. Lesson Quiz
3. __________ is the level of analysis that studies face-
to-face and small-group interactions in order to
understand how those interactions affect the larger
patterns and institutions of society.
a. Microsociology
b. Macrosociology
c. Sociology
d. Social science
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36. Lesson Quiz
4. A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new
social or cultural environment is called:
a. cultural mind.
b. culture shakes.
c. cultural fear.
d. culture shock.
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37. For Next Time:
• How we come to understand the social world
• Theories and Theorists
• Read more!
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