CONCEPTS FOR THE COURSE:

 

Sociology – the science of society; study of society and social interactions; using the scientific method to study the social world (the day-to-day interactions that people experience in the world around them); analyzing the influence of group life (how groups influence the individual and how individuals influence groups); examining how individual behavior is patterned

 

 

The sociological perspective refers to stepping back from specific events, situations, and circumstances in order to search for larger patterns in human behavior

 

 

Social structure

-         the ways in which people and groups are related to each other; the characteristics of groups that influence our behavior; the components of society that operate to maintain the system

  

 

Social organization

   Agriculture ่ Industrial Revolution ่

   ่Post-Industrial society = service orientation

 

  

Types of social organization:

 

Mechanical solidarity – social unity based on:

a)     consensus of values and norms

b)     strong social pressures for conformity

c)     dependence on tradition and family

 

 

Organic solidarity – social unity based on a complex network of highly specialized statuses that makes members of society dependent on one another

  

 

Gemeinschaft – the type of society based on:

a)     tradition

b)     kinship

c)     intimate social relationships

 

 

Gesellschaft – the type of society characterized by:

a)     weak family ties

b)     competition

c)     impersonal social relationships

 

 

 

Bureaucracy...

 

  

Consequences of bureaucracy:

 

a.     anomie – the societal condition characterized by confusion of, contradiction of, ambiguity of, or absence of norms

 

 

b.     alienation – being disconnected from major social institutions (family, religion, work, medicine, government, etc.)

 

   Characteristics of alienation:

1)     helplessness – the belief that one does not have control over one’s destiny

 

2)     hopelessness – a sense of futility about the future

 

3)     normlessness – absence of social norms

 

4)     uselessness – the belief that one is not a productive, contributing member of society

 

 

c.     marginality – the process of being denied acceptance into major social institutions

 

 

  

 

Dimensions of Culture

 

Characteristics of dimensions of culture

 

a. cultural universals

b. manifest differently in each culture

c. they are learned through socialization

 

 

The Dimensions of Culture:

 

1.     Cognitive Dimension – patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving; values, beliefs, attitudes, and ideas

 

 

2.     Material Dimension – all tangible objects of a group or culture

 

 

3.     Normative Dimension – rules governing appropriate and inappropriate behavior for any given situation

-         Types of norms

 

a.     Folkways – norms governing everyday behavior

 

 

b.     Mores – norms of moral significance; what people “ought” or “ought not” do; 

  

 

c.     Laws – norms created and enforced by persons of designated authority

 

 

-         Social control refers to a system of rewards and punishments which encourage appropriate behavior and discourage inappropriate behavior

 

-         Types of sanctions

 

a.     Positive – rewards for appropriate behavior

 

 

b.     Negative – punishments for inappropriate behavior

 

 

c.     Informal – sanctions carried out in the course of everyday living

 

 

d.     Formal – sanctions created and enforced by persons of designated authority

 

  

 

 

Culture – all humanly created physical objects and patterns for thinking, feeling, behaving that are passed from generation to generation among members of a society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Socialization – the processes through which people learn to participate in group life and learn the culture of their society

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Agents of Socialization:

 

1)     family –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2)     religion –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3)     media –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4)     education –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5)     peers –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6)     occupation –

 

 

 

 

Human agency

-         individuals adapting to, coping with, or changing their circumstances

 

 

Sociological imagination

-         putting oneself in social context; the intersection of history and biography; recognizing the influence of larger social forces on one’s personal life experiences

 

 

 

Verstehen

-         empathetic understanding; mentally putting oneself in another’s place

 

 

 

Ethnocentrism

-         the belief that one’s group, culture, or way of life is superior to all others; judging other groups, cultures, or ways of living by the standards of one’s own group, culture, or way of life

 

 

 

Cultural relativity

-         judging other groups or cultures according to the standards of that group or culture

 

 

 

Culture lag

-         when one component of society changes and another component of society does not change or does not change at the same rate