Chapter 1

• Define sociology, detail its early origins, and illustrate how the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, industrialization, and urbanization played a role in its development as a social science.
• Utilize their ‘sociological imagination’ and critical thinking skills to highlight the relationships between personal troubles and public issues and recognize how the individual agency is shaped by a larger structure.
• Explain functionalist theory, which will include identifying the basic principles of the theory, the questions it seeks to address, underlying assumptions, key theorists, and weaknesses.
• Explain conflict theory, which will include identifying the basic principles of the theory, the questions it seeks to address, underlying assumptions, key theorists, and weaknesses.
• Explain symbolic interactionism, which will include identifying the basic principles of the theory, the questions it seeks to address, underlying assumptions, key theorists, and weaknesses.
• Draw comparisons between the three dominant sociological paradigms: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.
• Discuss particular social phenomena and institutions using sociological terms and in the context of the overarching themes of sociology: power and inequality; globalization and global diversity; and technology and digital society.