The History of SociologyLauryn Thompson

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

Theological stage All theoretical

conceptions bear a supernatural impress

Metaphysical Stage Behavior is governed

by biological instincts

Scientific Stage• Everything concludes

rationally

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) Wrote Theory and

Practice of Society in America Describes our nations

physical and social aspects.

Wrote How to Observe Morals and Manners Discussed the

assumption of the inferiority of women.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) Theory of Historical

Materialism• Saw history as an

account of mans struggle to gain control of and later dominate his natural environment.

• Each economic system had its own fault lines of conflict.

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Wrote The Division of Labor in Society• Refers to the degree in

which jobs are specialized.

Wrote Suicide• Shows how this

individual act is derived by social forces.

Positivist Sociology• The social world can be

described and predicted by certain relationships.

Georg Simmel (1858-1918) Established formal

society• A sociology of pure

numbers Provided formal

definitions for small and large groups• Small Group

Face-to-face interactions• Party

Multifocal• Large Group

Formal structure that mediates interaction and status differentiation.

Jane Addams (1860-1935) Founded the first

American settlement house, Hull House.• An institution that

attempted to link the ideas of the Chicago university to the poor through a community center.

W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963) The first African

American to receive a PhD from Harvard.

Developed the concept of double consciousness• A mechanism by

which African Americans constantly maintain two behavioral scripts.

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

Developed a theory about how the social self develops over the course of childhood• Infants know only the

“I” but through social interaction they learn about the “me.”

Generalized Self• Allows them to apply

norms and behaviors in specific situations.

Max Weber (1864-1920) Wrote Economy and

Society• Presented theories of

authority, rationality, and the government

Presented the concept of Verstehen• Study how social actors

understand their actions and the social world through experience.

Interpretive Sociology• The study of social meaning.

Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)

The looking glass self• The self emerges from

out ability to assume the point of view of others and how they see us.

Primary Groups• Family and friends

Secondary Groups• Work and School

Other Groups• In-Groups, Out-Groups,

Reference Groups.

Microsociology Seeks to

understand local interactional contexts• Its methods of

choice are ethnographic, generally including participant observation and in-depth interviews.

Macrosociology Generally concerned

with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis• Large-scale

experimentation• concerns individuals,

families, and other aspects of a society

• Deals with broad social trends.