The Holy Trinity of classical sociological theory, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, were addressing the social problems of their times.

The field of sociology has spawned other areas of study. Which of the following is an area of study spawned by sociology? Gender studies. You just studied 5 terms! 1/5.

The term sociology was first used by Frenchman Auguste Compte in the 1830s when he proposed a synthetic science uniting all knowledge about human activity. In the academic world, sociology is considered one of the social sciences.

Sociology is the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups. A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists call a society.

The survey, in which people are asked to answer a series of questions, is the most widely used research method among sociolo- gists. It is ideal for studying large numbers of people. The survey is the most widely used research method for collecting data in sociology.

The Two Core Commitments of Sociology The sociological eye and social activism go hand in hand. The sociological eye helps us to uncover social patterns in society, and our use of those find- ings leads us to become effective, engaged citizens.

The sociological eye means looking at things for what they are, as best we can given the blinders of interest and ideology, of cliché and ritualized belief. The sociological eye holds up a periscope above the tides of political and intellectual partisanship, spying out the patterns of social life in every direction.

The term sociology was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836) in an unpublished manuscript (Fauré et al. 1999). In 1838, the term was reinvented by Auguste Comte (1798–1857).

As discussed in later chapters, sociologists break the study of society down into four separate levels of analysis: micro, meso, macro, and global. The basic distinction, however, is between micro-sociology and macro-sociology. The study of cultural rules of politeness in conversation is an example of micro-sociology.