Famous People in Sociology
named the scientific study of social patterns positivism. He described his philosophy in a series of books called The Course in Positive Philosophy (1830–1842) and A General View of Positivism (1848).
Auguste Comte
the view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values
antipositivism
a group's shared practices, values, and beliefs
Culture
an attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change
grand theories
in-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of its data
qualitative sociology
introduced sociology to English speaking scholars through her translation of Comte’s writing from French to English. She was an early analyst of social practices, including economics, social class, religion, suicide, government, and women’s rights.
Harriet Martineau
a theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources
conflict theory
social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society
dysfunctions
a testable proposition
hypothesis
statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants
quantitative sociology
German philosopher and economist. In 1848, he and Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) coauthored the Communist Manifesto. He rejected Comte’s positivism.
Karl Marx
a theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society
functionalism
the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior
figuration
the unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process
latent functions
a German word that means to understand in a deep way
verstehen
Founder of the NAACP
W.E.B Du Bois
the scientific study of social patterns
positivism
the part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity
Function
sought consequences of a social process
manifest functions
the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion
social solidarity
Helped establish sociology as a formal academic discipline. Believed that sociologists could study objective social facts (Poggi, 2000). He also believed that through such studies it would be possible to determine if a society was “healthy” or “pathological.
Émile Durkheim
an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be
constructivism
the organized and generalized attitude of a social group
generalized others
a wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society
macro-level
patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs
social institutions