Introduction to Self and

Society
Angie Andriot
Lecture 1
 Reflect:
Is there an OBJECTIVE reality that exists
outside our perception?

Relatedly:

Is it ever possible to perfectly predict

human behavior? If we had all the
knowledge that was to be had about why
people do things, could we apply that to
anyone's future actions? Could we
become, essentially, fortune tellers with
science on our side?
 Key
Concepts Sociology
Science
Culture
Positivism
Antipositivism
The Sociological Perspective
Social location
Structure
Agency
 (mad) social
scientists
You don’t see many mad social scientists

Of course not! All of the funding goes to building those

flashy clanks and death rays!

It‘s so unfair!

I TOLD the baron: “Give me a thousand orphans, a hedge

maze and enough cheese and I can—“

“You’re NOT reassuring me”

(Girl Genius)
Who are Sociologists?
• Sociology professors
• Researchers
• Statisticians
• Criminologists
• Human Resources
• Managers

American Sociological Association

 Sociology
The SCIENTIFIC study of
SOCIETY and human
behavior
Language The application of systematic methods to
Beliefs obtain knowledge

Values People who share a CULTURE and

Norms a TERRITORY
Behaviors
Objects
TELL me where is Fancy bred, 
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourishèd?     
Reply, reply. 
It is engender'd in the
eyes,         
With gazing fed; and Fancy dies 
In the cradle where it lies.     
Let us all ring Fancy's
knell:     
I'll begin it,—Ding, dong,
bell. 

All. Ding, dong, bell

(Anti)Positivi
sm
Interpret the meaning of
social action

Subjectivity CAUSAL EXPLANATION

Interpretation
Empathetic SUBJECTIVELY MEANINGFUL
Situational
Situated NOT OBJECTIVELY
Historical “CORRECT” OR “TRUE”
Geographical
Do not try and bend the spoon.
That’s impossible. Instead only
try to realize the truth.

There is no spoon.

Then you’ll see that it is not

the spoon that bends, it is only
yourself.
 The Sociologal
IS Perspective
Understanding human
behavior by placing it within
the broader social context
NOT
Making generalizations about the
C. Wright world based on your own limited
Mills, experiences
The Sociological Imagination
 Social
Location
The corners in life that people occupy

Job
Social class
Race
Sex
Religion

Social location can shape our ideas of who

we are and what we should attain in life.
It can shape our very self-definitions.
 Structure versus
Agency Where is the balance?

“I am entirely “I am
a product of completely in
my control of my
upbringing” actions”
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;        

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,        
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
        
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
 Key
Concepts Sociology
Science
Culture
Positivism
Antipositivism
The Sociological Perspective
Social location
Structure
Agency
 Reflect:
Is there an OBJECTIVE reality that exists
outside our perception?

Relatedly:

Is it ever possible to perfectly predict

human behavior? If we had all the
knowledge that was to be had about why
people do things, could we apply that to
anyone's future actions? Could we
become, essentially, fortune tellers with
science on our side?