Introduction to Sociology
Michael Cavallaro
2010
Social Location
Social- the connection and communication with other people in a society
Social location is the place where people are in a society. Sociologists (people who study sociology) use this to describe people. The following things are used to find the social location of people:
· Jobs
· Income
· Education
· Gender
· Age
· Race
· Ethnicity
Theory- a possible explanation of something you see
· A theory can be your perspective on a situation or on ideas that you have
Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology
A theoretical perspective is the way the study of sociology tries to explain society
Sociology has three main theoretical perspectives
a) Symbol- a word, sign, picture, or number that means something to people
the heart is a symbol for what?
b) Interactionism- the activity of being and talking to other people in the society
Theoretical Perspective #1
Symbolic Interactionism
In social life, people use symbols to understand their life and communicate with other people in society.
For example: You are in love with somebody very much, and tomorrow you are going to get married to this person. The night before you get married, your mother tells you that she had a child before she got married. And she gave this baby away to somebody else. After that, she tells you that the person you are going to marry tomorrow is your BROTHER!!!!!
You can see how the symbol will quickly change----and how you think and act!!!!
Stigma- you have a stigma when people think badly about you for something they think you are, a negative opinion about what someone does or is in society
For example, if you have AIDS, you are sick and there’s something wrong with you, or if you can’t walk because you are in a wheelchair people think you can’t do anything
Social interactionists (people who study social interactionism) look at things like divorce in the US to explain why more and more people are getting divorced.
(see page 16 Figure 1.2)