WOSOCU REVIEWER
understanding of ourselves and the
A. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
C WRIGHT MILLS
- American sociologist
- Influenced by max weber
- Promote that scientist should assert
social responsibility.
- Published in 1959 in Oxford university
press
SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION
- Relationship between experience and
wider society
How should we view society?
- Should pull from the situation all look at
it from diff pov
- The focus should be on social
circumstances
Why focus on the wider scope of society
and not just on the self?
- Social conditions affect our personal
lives
- Mills believe that every problem faced
by an individual has roots in society as a
whole.
PERSONAL TROUBLE – private problems
ex. Getting fired from work, household issue.
PUBLIC ISSUE – problems that affect large
groups of people. Ex. Unemployment, couple
having divorce.
PERSONAL AND PUBLIC – problems that
involve public issues cannot be solved by
personal trouble. Ex. U cannot fix the divorce
rate by forcing divorced couple to get back
together.
Why sociology is important in the study of
society?
- Sociology hels us gain better
social world we belong to.
- Connects the personal and histrocial by
recasting personal problems to historical
then vice versa.
IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOLOGICAL
IMAGINATION IN THE STUDY OF
SOCIOLOGY
- SI relates personal and public issue
connecting biography and history in
order to give a complete sense of the
specific anxieties and crisis in our
society.
- quality of mind that helps them know
what is going on in the world and what
may be happening within themselves.
- Helps us understand that we are all
interconnected with one another.
- It would allow us to solve things.
B. SOCIAL CONTRUCTION OF
REALITY
THE PROBLEM
- Reality is a social construct.
- The sociology of knowledge is how
people make sense of the world.
- Sociology of knowledge was first coined
by max scheler as wissenssoziologie.
REALITY OF EVERDAY LIFE
1. CONSCIOUSNESS – capable of
moving through diff spheres
2. REALISSIMUM OF
CONSCIOUNESS – being attentive to
the here and now or shock. Ex. Waking
up from a dream
3. REALITY OF LIFE IS OBJECIFIED
– order of object has been chosen even
before ex. Language
4. INTERSUBJECTIVE WORLD –
world that we share with others.
SOCIAL INTERACTION IN EVERDAY
LIFE
 - Ppl create a stereotype based on - World openness: the world becomes for
standard assumptions from general him the dominant and definite realiry.
knowledge, known as typification. 3. LEGITIMATION
- Produces new meanings
- Process of explaining and justifying
- Reality becomes objectively true when
INTERNALIZATION – one learns the social
we are able to translate our interactions.
norms values etc of the social construct they are
in.
SIGN SYSTEMS
IDENTITY IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
1. Reciprocity – exchange conversational
SUMMARY:
in nature
2. Detachability – ability to refer to things - Socialization is a necessity for man.
outside the persons scope - Reality is socially constructed.
3. Objective repositoy – a time capsule that
- There are 3 steps in reality construction:
can be passed down. externalization, objectivation, and
4. Basis of experience – the wway we internalization.
expericen the daily motions of life is
- Institutionalization +
thru languange. Legitimation=objective reality
KNOWLEDGE - Internalization + Identity +
Interaction=subjective reality
- Revolves around things were interested.
- The social construction of reality refers
- Retention is structured around relevance
to the systematic analysis on how our
and common knowledge.
perception of ourself and our
- An individual does not share knowledge
environment is influenced partly by our
to other at equal rates.
interactions with others, as well as by
our life experiences.

SOCIETY AS OBJECTIVE REALITY C. GANS THEORY ON POVERTY

1. INSTITUTIONALIZATION - Just view the ppt Madali lng
- Mans development is linked to their - Summary: poor ppl can do the dirty
environment. work, they can be recipients of aid, etc
- There is a difference between being a
body and having a body.
- We create social construct thru D. SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
interaction. MACROSOCIOLOGY – big picture
- Humanness and social order is a MICROSOCIOLOGY – social
construct. interactions small
- Roles appear as common knowledge
- Transmission of knowledge is thru STRUCTURAL FNCTIONALISM
interaction. - Emile Durkheim said that ppl have
- Sedimentation are experiences that are desires that results to chaos unless
remained due to repetition. society limits them.
2. ORGANISM AND INDENTITY - Social stability is important.
- Man is multifaceted
- Man is a social creature CONFLICT THEORY
 - Instead of fearing the disintegration of
society its best to explore the conditions
or roots to solve it.
- Society is characterized by inequality APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
based on social class etc.
- May hierarchy ex. Feminist vs sexist, 1. DEDUCTIVE – begins with theory an
ceo vs laborer generates hypotheses and assumption
which leads to challenge the theory
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM 2. INDUCTIVE – collects info first then
- It says that people do not merely learn construct theory then test through
the roles that society sets our for them hypotheses and assumptions.
but instead they construct these roles as
they interact and negotiate the
definitions of their situations.
SUMMARY:
1. STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
- Society is an organic whole composed
of stable parts MACRO
2. CONFLICT THEORY
- Society is set of groups competing for
power and resources MACRO
3. SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
- Society is the sum of daily interactions
guided by symbols MICRO

E. SOCIAL RESEARCH
SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH –
explanation of the social and natural world,
but not in an exact science.
PRINCIPLES:
1. Objectivity – produce evidence to
refute existing knowledge.
2. Positivism – predict ppls behavior
3. Empiricism - facts
4. Realism – understand ppls behavior and
their interaction with the society.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD – scientific
knowledge