Sociology
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Foundations of Sociology
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The Sociological Perspective
Bell Work
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Grab Books, folder, and paper from back
Be ready to read Sociology of Bananas!!
Days Learning Objectives
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Define Sociology and examine the
components of the sociological
perspective
Learn how social marginality/crisis
encourage people to use the
sociological perspective
Explain the importance of a global
perspective for sociology
Sociology? What is it?
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Sociology is the systematic study of
human society
Also the relationship between the
individual and society
Sociological Perspective
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Is the heart of Sociological viewpoints
Helps people do three key sociological
things.
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See the general in the Particular
See The strange in the familiar
See personal Choice in Social Context
Seeing the General in the
Particular
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Sociologists look for general patterns in
the behavior of particular people.
Belief that society shapes the lives of its
members
Examples?
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Marriage Example: Read Pg. 2
Can you think of another example in
school?
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Boys vs. Girls
Private school vs. Public?
Seeing the Strange in the
Familiar
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Sociologists look at how society really has
many of the “true” links for our behavior
What may look simple/easy to understand
may in-fact, be strange.
Marriage Example?
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Many people have the idealistic perception that
only those that are in love marry.
Is that really true? TPS
College Example (pgs. ¾)
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Is attending college (for everyone) simply a
matter of personal choice? TPS
Seeing Personal Choice in
Social Context
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Looking at how society truly shapes
personal choices
Belief that social integration influences
personal choices
Women’s Childbearing (look @ pg.4
map)
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Is it really a personal choice?
What factors influence this?
Suicide
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Why are whites and unmarried higher?
Anchor Work
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Task #1
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Read/answer critical thinking on pg.7
Bell Work
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Get Book
Task #2
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Read/answer critical thinking on pg.7
Answer questions and TPS w/ table
partner
Critical Thinking
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How are personal troubles
different from public issues?
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Living in U.S., why do we often
blame ourselves for the personal
problems we face?
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Not different, caused by society
Individualistic, not thinking in
terms of society/history
Using socio imagination, how do
we gain power over our world?
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See the overall relationship of
what is going on in the world, as
well as their own lives.
Marginality and Crisis
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Marginality and Crisis help clear the vision on
how society shapes individual lives.
Marginality: sort of an outside looking in
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Greater a person’s marginality to a group, the
better they are able use the socio. Perspective
Race, gender, sexual preference and effects?
Outside looking in on an old group or any group?
Think Mean Girls!?!? What happen in that movie?
Crisis
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Puts people off-balance and forces them to use
the sociological perspective
Read thinking critically (pg.7 and answer ?s in
head)
Importance of a Global
Perspective
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Global Perspective
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Study of the larger world and our society’s
place in it.
Importance
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Technology reaching all over the world is
bringing societies closer than ever.
Position of our society in the world will
affect everyone in the U.S.
Importance of a Global
Perspective
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3 Types of Nations
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High-income: nations w/ highest overall standards
of living
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Middle-income: nations w/ an average standard of
living
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Produce most of worlds goods/services, own most wealth
Lots of social inequality
Low-income: nations w/ a low standard of living in
which most people are poor
Global perspective is
important for 4 reasons
Where we live makes a great difference in shaping our
lives
1)
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Think of Women’s birthrates around the world
Societies the World over are increasingly interconnected
2)
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Trade and technology has increased this
Many human problems faced in the U.S are far more
serious elsewhere
3)
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Gender equality and poverty are both issues of greater
importance than in the U.S.
Thinking globally helps us learn more about ourselves
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Comparing life in various settings can lead to valuable lessons
Lesson Closing: Task #3
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Thinking Globally (pg.8)
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Statistics Surprise you? Which ones? Why?
How do you think the lives of poor people
in low income countries differ from typical
U.S. people
Is your “choice” to attend college affected
by the country in which you live? How?
Friday Bell Work
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Grab Book and folder
Finish task #3
Have Role of Influence out and ready to
go over
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Share your answers with a partner
Share some with the class
Applying the Sociological
Perspective
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Application is useful in 3 main ways
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Guides laws/policies that shape lives
Leads to personal growth & expanded
awareness
Preparation for the world @ work
Sociologists help shape public
policies/laws/regulations
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By exposing inequalities, injustices in systems
Racial Desegregation
School Busing
Divorce Regulations
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Pre-late 80s Study by Lenore Weitzman
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Revealed statistics about post marriage standards of
living
Led to state policies that increased women’s claims to
marital property, and increased alimony paid to child
holder.
Sociology & Personal Growth
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Can help make us more active and aware,
and to think more critically in our daily lives
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Helps asses the truth of “common sense”
Helps asses both opportunities/constraints in
our lives
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Think of the movie “21”
Empowers citizens to be active participants in
society
Helps us to live in a more diverse world
Sociological Advantage?
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Why is a background in Sociology a
good prep for a working world?
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Increased ways of thinking
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Understanding in how people differ
Ability to deal w/different people
Task #4: Applying Sociology:
Nickel and Dimed
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Have you ever held a low-wage job?
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Was the work hard?
Pay?
What do you think the statement
means?
Do low wage workers have a chance at
college? Why? Why not?
Lesson Closing
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L-J#1
Homework
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To Turn in Monday
Think of 5 jobs you’d like
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Identify ways in which a background in
sociology would increase your chances of
success in each.
Origins of Sociology
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Bell Work: Monday First 10 Min.’s
Get a book
Task #4: Think of 5 jobs you’d like to
have when you grow up
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Identify ways in which a background in
sociology would increase your chances of
success in each.
Be ready to share w/class
Origins of Sociology
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3 important changes
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Rise of Factory based industrial economy
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Weakened community life
Growth of Cities
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Urbanization led to migrant social problems
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Pollution, crime, homelessness
Political Changes: Fights for Liberties
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Examples?
Origins of Society
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Auguste Comente: French social thinker
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Coined Sociology as a new way to look at
how society operates
Positivism: understanding of society based
on science.
3 Stages of Historical Development
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Theological Stage
Metaphysical Stage
Scientific
Karl Marx
Read: “In the Times” pg.16.17
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Answer in folders as Task #5
Why do you think suicide rates are
higher in rural areas than cities?
Do these findings support Durkheim’s
Theory? Why or why not? (pg.5)
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Social ties reduces suicide rates
What steps could be taken to reduce
the rate of suicide in rural areas
Lesson Closing
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Read from chosen book. Or………
Put away books and folders
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Look at the jobs you wrote down for Task
#4 and see if that would maybe be
someone you are interested in interviewing
for your project
Make sure you bring your books/ideas
tomorrow so you are ready in the m/c
Bell Work (10 minutes for BW)
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Get Book and journal
Have 5 jobs Task ready and out to share
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Think of something you would like to know
relating to people and society.
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Could be how certain groups work, how people
look at each other, how people adjust, etc.
Form that into a statement on how one thing may
relate to another
Sociological Theory
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What is a theory?
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Statement of how/why specific facts are related
Examples? Mine and yours?
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What are its goals?
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Greater autonomy/freedom will result in a higher rate of
suicide among Americans
Teens in areas with higher poverty rates will have a
greater vulnerability to having a criminal record
Explain social behavior in the real world
Can you think of some applicable theories by
looking at our school as a society?
Sociological Theory
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Based on Theoretical Approaches
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What is a theoretical approach?
Two basic ?’s
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What issues should we study
How should we connect the facts?
Structural-Functional
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View of Society?
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Society as a complex system whose parts
work together to promote
solidarity/stability
2 Important Looks
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Believes lives guided by social structures
Each Structure has social functions to keep
society going
Structural-Functional
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Key Figures:
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Robert Merton’s Concepts
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Comte, Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer
Manifest Functions
Latent Functions
Social Dysfunction
U.S. college system example
Declining population…Why?
Lesson Closing
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L-J #2
Task #7
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Summarize the main idea and sub-points of
the structural-functional approach
Use complete sentences
Bell Work
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Get book and folder
Task #8:
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Read Thinking about diversity, pg.19
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Will Answer later
3 Major Theoretical Approaches
Social-Conflict
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Sees society as an arena of inequality
Key Figures
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Karl Marx, Harriet Martineau, Jane Addams
Goals
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Attempts to understand society/reduce social
inequality
Investigates societies links b.t. social class, race,
gender, and age and its unequal distribution of
money, power, and education
Social-Conflict
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Two main types
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Gender-Conflict: inequality in men/women
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Closely linked to Feminism
Increases Awareness
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Race-Conflict: Inequality in race/ethnicities
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Examples: Roles in home/workplace
White Power?
W.E.B. Du Bois Key contributor
Popularity?
Read Thinking about diversity: Answer in Folders
Task #8:Thinking about
diversity
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What would he say today?
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How much “double consciousness” is still
experienced?
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He would be extremely pleased about Obama, but he would
still say there’s a bit of a “double conscious” still going on
with people of color today
I think many people of color still have that; how many times
was Obama “anointed” and deemed the representative of his
race, and how many times was race still made an issue!?!?!
What ways can it help?
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Can often help give us a different perspective to look at and
attempt to understand. By attempting to understand and
accepting there is conflict, we can look for solutions!
Symbolic Interaction
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Sees society as product of basic everyday life
Idea that people create the reality they
experience as they interact
Macro-Level Approaches
Micro-Level Approach
Key Figures
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Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Ervin Goffman
Weaknesses:
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Micro approach can ignore influence of larger
structures like culture, class, gender, and race
Task #9: In complete
Sentences: Go over 2morro
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What is a theory?
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What 2 ?’s asked by a theoretical approach?
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Auguste Comente
What are the 3 stages of historical development?
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What issues to study & how to connect the facts
Who coined term Sociology?
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Statement of how/why specific facts are related
Theological, metaphysical, scientific
What are the Three Theoretical Approaches?
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Explain one
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Symbolic Interaction, Social Conflict, Structural-Functional
What is difference between micro/macro approaches?
Bell Work
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Bellwork
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Get books, folders, and have Task 9 ready
L-J #3
Schedule
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Finish Ch.1
“Thinking it through”
Clicker #2
Applying Approaches:
Sociology of Sports
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Functions of Sports:
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Sports & Conflict:
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Pays attention to ways sports help society
function
Analysis that sports are linked to social
inequality
Sports as interactions
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Sees sports less as a system and more as a
process
Lesson Closing
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Task #10
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Read/Answer Thinking it Through
Fill In any Vocabulary words not defined
yet!
Vocabulary Game!!!!!
Vocabulary
Charades/Pictionary
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Split in teams of two
You will get 2-3 vocabulary terms a person
You may not let your teammates see what
you are doing (you won’t know your teams
until after you have prepared your vocab.
Words)
Present them and your team needs to
guess them! Winner gets prize!!
Bell Work
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2 Team competition in
Charades/pictionary
Finish any vocabulary
Chapter Review for tomorrow
Test Tuesday!