Socialized Self: Merton's self-fulfilling prophecy and Cooley's looking-glass self

(Robert Merton)

Robert Merton was an American sociologist who won the 1994 National Medal of Science for his founding of the sociology of science. He spent most of his career as a professor at Columbia University, where he developed the concepts of the "reference group," and "self-fulfilling prophecy." For the purposes of this post, I will only discuss the latter.

Socialized Self: Erving Goffman's 'Dramaturgy'

(Erving Goffman)

Erving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist who discussed and contributed to symbolic interaction. He was considered to be the twentieth century's most influential American sociologist, and he gained this title with his research on social interaction and the social construction of self, among many others. His most well-known concept is Dramaturgy -- the illustration of human behavior through theatre.

Socialized Self: George Herbert Mead's Self, Mind and Society

(George Herbert Mead)

George Herbert Mead was a social philosopher who discussed the connection between the self, the mind, and society. He believed that society has an effect on the self and mind, and the self and the mind have an effect on society. Mead is considered to be the father of symbolic interaction.

Socialized Self: Herbert Blumer's Three Basic Premises

(Herbert Blumer)

Herbert Blumer was a sociologist who discussed social research and symbolic interaction. As a supporter of George Herbert Mead's findings, Blumer was a big believer that individuals create their own social reality through collective and individual action. Through his works on symbolic interaction, Blumer was deemed by many as the leader of this sociological school of thought during his times.

Here is Blumer's Three Basic Premises for human interaction from his book, Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method:

Sociology of Social Stratification

(Karl Marx)

Social stratification is society's way of ranking people based on a hierarchal system of property, prestige, and/or power.

There are two different types of stratification. The caste system and the class system. Caste ranks people based on whose family they were born into, while class ranks people based on both birth and a person's achievements.

What is the Sociology of Family?

The Sociology of Family is the study of the different types of families. It investigates how a person enters each and how this can affect society. 

A family is defined as a group of two or more people who are related -- and consider themselves as such -- by blood, marriage or adoption.

When studying families, sociologists like to look at demographics, social class, ideology, domain, and interaction.  They research these areas to learn why certain beliefs and/or lifestyles, for instance, are more prevalent in certain areas (or societies) over others.

On Cooley's and Mead's Theories of Socialization

(Charles Horton Cooley)

Socialization is the process whereby social institutions teach their members how to properly interact in a society. It also helps its members develop a sense of self (the "self" is a unique sense of identity that distinguishes people from others). 

But socialization can also be negative. A lot of times it can develop people into conforming citizens rather than free-thinkers or people with agency (a person's capacity to act independently; to have free will). 

The 4 Paradigms of Sociology

Emile Durkheim

For this week's article, I will take a very textbook approach. What I mean by this is that I will simply give you the definition of the sociological concept and a short example. The reason being is that these ideas are very broad, as they are tools used by sociologists to analyze issues of social institutions. 

So rather than giving you an in-depth, descriptive example of each paradigm, I will save it for when I write about the sociology of family or the sociology of religion.

My goal with this article is to get you to be familiar with the four major schools/ideologies of sociology so that you can start thinking about it, and maybe even applying it to the real world. So without further to do, let's get started:

1) Functionalism (Macro sociological)

Functionalism is the relationship and interdependency between all social groups, big and small. When a change occurs to one, other institutions will be affected as well.

An example of this would be the relationship between the economy and recent grads. Back in 2008, when the economy was hit with the financial crash, many new grads weren't able to find professional employment because companies were trying to cut costs by lowering the number of people working for them.

Functionalism is also broken into three sub-groups:

• Manifest Function - The intended result.
• Latent Function - The unintended result.
• Dysfunction - The harmful result.

2) Conflict Theory (Macro sociological)

Conflict theory looks at the inequalities of life/society.

An example would be the narrative of some very wealthy people using their money and status to persuade the government into creating policies that are beneficial for the rich but are (the majority of the time) detrimental to the middle class and the poor.

3) Symbolic Interaction (Micro sociological)

W.I. Thomas

Symbolic interaction looks at how individuals interact with one another. Symbolic interactionists believe that society, or people's social reality, is created as people interact with one another, and not something that has been predetermined.

For example, if we, as a group, were to collectively view immigrants as a negative element of society, then immigrants will be a negative element of society because this is the definition that we have developed for them in our minds. The root of this example is based on the Thomas Theorem.

4) Feminists Perspective (Macro and micro-sociological)

The feminists perspective looks at the inequality among the genders, due to the dominance of men in major social institutions, such as education and work. It also looks at the efforts of women in overcoming discrimination.

An example of this would be the pay gap between men and women. If one male and one female with the same looking resume and same personality traits were to work at the same job and complete the same amount of work, the man would have higher pay than the woman, according to studies. This is why many women challenge big corporations and fight for equal pay.

RELATED: Sociologist's Tools

So there it is. These are the four paradigms of society. So now that you have an understanding of the theories and a gist of how society works, which paradigm do you think best describes your society? Is it just one, or a combination? Write your thoughts in the comments section.

P.S. Do you want to learn more about sociology? Check out my book,  SOCI 001: The Armchair Sociologist’s Guide to Sociology, on Amazon. It's a clear and concise guide with descriptive examples to help you better understand this social science. Click here to learn more about it.