History of sociology

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/history-of-sociology

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the key early theorists?Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber developed foundational sociological theories
2. What is the methodological expansion?Sociology evolved from primarily quantitative methods to include qualitative approaches like ethnography
3. What does the word "sociology" mean and who first used it?Auguste Comte, a French philosopher, first used the word "sociology" to describe the study of society.
4. Why did people in the 19th century want to study society?People wanted to study society because the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution were changing how people lived, and they needed science to understand and help manage those changes.

Positivism: A philosophical approach that emphasizes empirical evidence and scientific methods for understanding the world.
Social Facts: External social forces that shape individual behavior and are studied objectively by sociologists.
Verstehen: A German term meaning 'understanding,' referring to the interpretive method of grasping the subjective meanings behind social actions.