Introduction to Sociology (Soc 001, Sections 201-204)
University of Pennsylvania
Fall 2009
Prof. Lareau
288 McNeil Building 215 898-3515 email: alareau@sas.upenn.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays 2:30 to 3:45 p.m. and by appointment
This course does not presume any prior knowledge of the field. It is intended to help you
understand the social world. It shows how social structural factors influence the rituals of daily
life. It also provides an analysis of the ways in which social class, racial and ethnic background,
and gender have an impact on life chances.
Teaching Assistants:
Ms. Clarisse Haxton, Email: clarisse@dolphin.upenn.edu
Office Hours: Mondays from 2-4 p.m. or by appointment at the Graduate School of Education Buildling,
3700 Walnut Street, 4th floor (cubicle outside of rm.409). 215 898-1974
Ms. Arielle Kuperberg Email: akuperbe@sas.upenn.edu
Office Hours: Wednesdays 4-6 p.m. or by appointment McNeil Building Room 508 (3718
Locust Walk).
Required readings: The books are on sale at HOUSE OF OUR OWN, 3920 Spruce Street
Phone: 215 222-1576. Hours: Monday to Friday, 10-7. Saturday and Sunday 12-6. This
Wednesday, September 9th, and Thursday, September 10th, the store will be open until 9 p.m..
Hochschild, Arlie, The Second Shift, Viking.
MacLeod, Jay, Ain’t No Making It, Westview Press 3rd edition 2008.
Klinenberg, Eric, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of a Disaster, University of Chicago Press.
McNamee, Stephen and Robert T. Miller, The Meritocracy Myth, 2009, Rowman & Littlefield.
Lareau, Annette ,Unequal Childhoods, University of California 2003
Conley, Dalton, You May Ask Yourself ,W.W. Norton Company. 2008. [We will only read about
one-half of this book.]
You will have to Xerox and turn in six research articles for your paper. There also are additional
readings posted on Blackboard under each week. Here is the login for Blackboard:
https://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/
Course requirements:
Four exercises to apply the concepts to daily life
Five quizzes (you may drop your lowest score)
Midterm
Final (comprehensive with more emphasis on the period since the midterm)
Research paper (i.e., six to seven pages in length) on a sociological question of your
choice.
These course requirements will contribute to your final grade in the following fashion:
Midterm:
30%
Final:
39%
Research Paper:
17%
Quizzes:
8%
Exercises:
4%
Class engagement: 2%
In addition, of course, it is expected that you will complete all of the reading before recitation
and attend every recitation. (We do not expect you to complete the reading before section in the
first week of class; all you need to do before your recitation is to look at the Zimbardo slide
show. If possible, please read the Zimbardo chapter on Blackboard.)
All exercises and your research paper must be printed out in hard copy and given to the teaching
assistant. I am sorry, but given the large number of students we cannot accept email assignments.
Exercises may be handed in early to the teaching assistant. All of the quizzes take place in
recitation. Unfortunately, unless you are in a university sponsored event such as a team
competition, at a funeral, in the hospital, we cannot excuse a missed quiz. You are, however, able
to drop your lowest quiz score. To make the class more lively there will be movies and video
clips that will are available on reserve in the library. For most of the semester this part of the
library is open 24/7. You may earn a total of 20 points extra-credit through the entire semester by
watching 10 movies. The movies are interesting and they should enrich your course experience.
You may watch the movies in any sequence that you wish. You may also get together a group
from the class to watch a movie. To get the extra credit, please submit one paragraph where you
discuss how the film illustrates a sociological concept that you have learned about in this course.
Movies on reserve in library
Week 1
Conley: Chap 1 & 2
Blackboard (hereafter BB)
Zimbardo
Henslin
Davis
Gracey
Monday
Wednesday
9/9/09
Thursday/Friday
Recitations:
What is
sociology?
Please review and be
prepared to discuss the
Zimbardo prison
experiment. Please watch
the slide show:
http://www.prisonexp.org
and, if possible, read the
Zimbardo article. (The
article is short.)
1st exercise due at the
beginning of section!
Break a norm exercise
Movie FYI:
Quiet Rage
9/14
9/16
Week 2
Hochschild, The Second Shift,
Appendix, 1-94
BB:
Davis and Moore
Giddens
Meyer
Movie FYI: The Life and Times of
Rosie the Riveter
9/23
Week 3
9/21
Hochschild, 95-203
GENDER
BB:
Collins
Movie FYI:
Genie
Week 4
9/28
Hochschild: 204-238
Conley: pp. 235-279 and 474-488
BB
England et al article
Movie FYI:
Milk or
A Class Divided
Week 5
MacLeod: Ain’t No Making It 150, 467-496
BB:
10/5
1st quiz
9/30
2nd exercise due: Gender
Division of Labor Exercise
10/7
2nd quiz
Lawson
Pager
Movie FYI:
The Corporation
Week 6
BB: Lipson
MacLeod, 51-153
Midterm includes lecture,
recitations, and all reading
including week 6
Movie FYI:
Mrs. Evers’ Boys
Or Deadly Deception
Week 7
MacLeod, 153-239
10/12
10/14
Midterm
3rd exercise due: Hook-up
Survey
10/19
Fall Break
No class
10/21
RACE
Paper topic due
10/26
10/28
Conley: Chapter 13
BB:
Western
Hunt
Arrest report, articles about the
arrest of Henry Louis Gates
FYI:
Race: Power of an Illusion (1)
Week 8
3rd quiz
Klinenberg, Heat Wave, 1-78
BB:
Oliver and Shapiro
Massey
Feagin
FYI:
Mississippi: Is This America?
(1963-1964)
Week 9
Klinenberg: 129-224
Movie FYI
Crash
Week 10
McNamee, Meritocracy Myth
pp. 1-106
11/2
11/4
Exercise 4 due: Buy a
home Exercise
11/9
Social
Class
11/11
Hard copies of your six
research articles are due at
beginning of recitation.
The articles will be
Movie FYI:
Integration of ‘Ole Miss
Week 11:
Conley: Chap 8, Education
McNamee, 107-164
Lareau: Unequal Childhoods, 165
Movie FYI:
High School
Week 12
Lareau:66-160
Movie FYI:
Born Rich
Week 13
Lareau:163-287
Movie FYI: 42 Up
Week 14
Lareau update (It will be
distributed in class during week
13.)
McNamee 243-269
MacLeod 407-463
11/16
11/18
11/23
11/25
11/30
Paper due at
the beginning
of class!
12/2
12/7
returned to you at the end
of the period.
4th quiz
Recitations do not meet
due to Thanksgiving
holiday
5th quiz
Last recitation
12/9
Introduction
to Sociology
Last class
Movie FYI:
Hoop Dreams
Final examination;
December 22nd
9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Exercises:
The exercises are intended to help bring the concepts of the course to life. The exercises
normally will not take a large amount of time to complete. Usually you will write one or two
paragraphs summarizing what you learned from the exercise. There are four exercises. They are
posted under “Course content” and then “Exercises” under Blackboard. As a courtesy, we are
distributing your first exercise. (It is due in the second week.) It is your responsibility to
download the remaining exercises.
Research Paper:
In the class you will have an opportunity to investigate a sociological question of your choice. It
is our hope that you will find this class assignment to be interesting. For example, you might
look at if gender has an impact on a specific outcome (e.g., depression, income, commitment to
romance, marital satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, or so forth). You could examine if race or class
has an impact on an important area of life. You might examine a topic of interest to you in
religion, political participation, or education. You could examine if divorce has a negative impact
on children. Your paper should be six to seven pages in length (i.e., double-spaced with 1 inch
margins). More information about the paper will be posted on Blackboard under Course Content
in a few weeks. In addition, we will discuss the paper in recitations.
Choose a question that is of interest to you!
Academic integrity:
Please familiarize yourself with Penn’s Code of Academic Integrity,
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/osl/acadint.html, which applies to this course. It goes without saying
that I do not anticipate any problems with academic integrity. In the unlikely event that any
concerns do arise on this score, I will forward all related materials to Penn’s Office of Student
Conduct, http://www.upenn.edu/osc/index.html, for an impartial adjudication.
Penn Resources:
We are blessed to have many resources at Penn. The Weingarten Learning Resource Center has a
number of valuable handouts on-line about how to improve your studying and test preparation.
There are instructors with whom you may schedule a (free) appointment. Their email is
http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lrc/lr/
The library also has many valuable on-line guidelines to help you in doing the research and
writing for your paper. You may also schedule an appointment with a reference librarian. The
student disability center is also housed in Weingarten:
http://www.college.upenn.edu/support/sds.php
Penn also has a writing center. Here is the link: http://writing.upenn.edu/critical/help/ Students
may schedule (free) appointments to get help from a trained tutor with the writing process.
Welcome to the class!