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Social contagion involves behaviour, emotions, or conditions spreading spontaneously through a group or network. The phenomenon has been discussed by social scientists since the late 19th century, although much work on the subject was based on unclear or even contradictory conceptions of what social contagion is, so exact definitions vary.
Manifest functions are the consequences that people see, observe or even expect. It is explicitly stated and understood by the participants in the relevant action. The manifest function of a rain dance, used as an example by Merton in his 1957 Social Theory and Social Structure, is to produce rain, and this outcome is intended and desired by people participating in the ritual.
Middle-range theory, developed by Robert K. Merton, is an approach to sociological theorizing aimed at integrating theory and empirical research. It is currently the de facto dominant approach to sociological theory construction, [1] especially in the United States. Middle-range theory starts with an empirical phenomenon (as opposed to a broad ...
Structuration theory. The theory of structuration is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based on the analysis of both structure and agents (see structure and agency), without giving primacy to either. Furthermore, in structuration theory, neither micro - nor macro-focused analysis alone is sufficient.
Sociology. Macrosociology is a large-scale approach to sociology, emphasizing the analysis of social systems and populations at the structural level, often at a necessarily high level of theoretical abstraction. [1][2] Though macrosociology does concern itself with individuals, families, and other constituent aspects of a society, it does so in ...
Sociology. A sociological theory is a supposition that intends to consider, analyze, and/or explain objects of social reality from a sociological perspective, [1]: 14 drawing connections between individual concepts in order to organize and substantiate sociological knowledge. Hence, such knowledge is composed of complex theoretical frameworks ...
Cumulative inequality theory. Cumulative inequality theory or cumulative disadvantage theory is the systematic explanation of how inequalities develop. The theory was initially developed by Merton in 1988, [1] who studied the sciences and prestige. He believed that recognition from peers, and from published research in the scientific field ...
In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity[1] are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his Division of Labour in Society (1893) as part of his theory on the development of societies. According to Durkheim, the type of solidarity will correlate with the type of society, either ...