• What would you do if you saw a kid crying in a
crowded hallway?
• What would you do if you saw a kid crying in
an empty hallway?
• If you saw someone drop their notebook in a
crowded hallway, what would you do?
• If you saw someone drop their notebook in an
empty hallway, what would you do?
What is Bystander Effect?
• What is the Bystander Effect?
• The term bystander effect refers to the
phenomenon in which the greater the number
of people present, the less likely people are to
help a person in distress.
• When an emergency situation occurs,
observers are more likely to take action if
there are few or no other witnesses.
Bystander Effect
• Reading: Kitty Genovese
What did we learn?
Exit Quiz
• What is bystander effect?
• What is the formula for how likely it would
be for someone to help someone else?
• Why do you think people hesitate to help
toothers, while others put themselves at
great risk to do the same?
• What is bystander effect?
• What does this theory say about large groups
versus small groups?
• Who was Kitty Genovese and what happened
to her?
• Have you ever witnessed bystander effect?
What is Society?
• Comes from the Latin root “socius”
meaning companion.
• The society in which we live determines
everything from the food we eat to the choices
we make.
• A society consists of people who share a
territory, who interact with each other, and
who share a culture
How do Societies Form?
• Some societies are in fact, groups of people
united by friendship or common interests.
What do societies teach us?
• Our respective societies teach us how to behave, what
to believe, and how we’ll be punished if we don’t follow
the laws or customs in place.
How does Sociology define Territory?
• Territory: Most countries have formal
boundaries and territory that the world
recognizes as theirs. However, a society’s
boundaries don’t have to be geopolitical
borders, such as the one between the United
States and Canada.
• Instead, members of a society, as well as
nonmembers, must recognize particular land
as belonging to that society.
How can people from similar cultures
have different societies?
• Interaction: Members of a society must come
in contact with one another. If a group of
people within a country has no regular contact
with another group, those groups cannot be
considered part of the same society.
• Geographic distance and language barriers
can separate societies within a country.
• Example: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, East and
West Germany, Rwanda.
When do Cultures Clash
• At different times
and different
places, groups come
into conflict over
beliefs due to
cultural differences
• Culture is defined as the values, beliefs,
behavior, and material objects that constitute a
people's way of life.
• When people travel between societies or even
within their own, they can experience culture
shock, a personal disorientation that can come
from encountering an unfamiliar way of life.
What is your ethnicity?
How do you know this?
How would you feel if this
turned out to be false?
Would you still be you?
Do Now:
Conflict Theory in Same Culture
1. What would a conflict be among family?
2. What would be a conflict among friends?
3. Do you think people of the same exact
culture have less conflict?
4. Can there be enough conflict among people
who are 99.9% EXACTLY the same ethnicity
and culture group that they commit violence
against them?
What do Sociologists look for
in studying other cultures?
• Sociologists study the way people learn about
their own society’s cultures and how they
discover their place within those cultures.
• They also examine the ways in which people
from differing cultures interact and sometimes
clash—and how mutual understanding and
respect might be reached.
What did we learn?
• A society consists of people who share a territory, who interact with
each other, and who share a culture
• Sociologists study the way people learn about their own society’s
cultures and how they discover their place within those cultures.
• Some societies are in fact, groups of people united by friendship or
common interests. Our respective societies teach us how to behave,
what to believe, and how we’ll be punished if we don’t follow the laws
or customs in place.
• Sometimes societies and cultures clash. Sociologists study the
causes of this.
Case Studies: South Asia, Germany &
Rwanda
• Examples: Although Islam was practiced in both parts
of the country, the residents of East Pakistan spoke
Bengali, while the residents of West Pakistan spoke
Urdu. In 1971 East Pakistan declared independence
from West Pakistan and became Bangladesh. While
they same ethnicity – there is no societal unity.
• During the Cold War, the U.S.S.R. took over their post
WWII occupied zone of Berlin and eventually sealed off
Eastern Germany from the West creating a communist
satellite nation (G.D.R.) from August 13, 1961 -November 9, 1989
Palestine/Israel Border
U.S./ Mexican Border
What did we learn?
• A society consists of people who share a territory, who interact with
each other, and who share a culture
• Sociologists study the way people learn about their own society’s
cultures and how they discover their place within those cultures.
• Some societies are in fact, groups of people united by friendship or
common interests. Our respective societies teach us how to behave,
what to believe, and how we’ll be punished if we don’t follow the laws
or customs in place.
• Sometimes societies and cultures clash. Sociologists study the
causes of this.
What did we learn?
• If a group of people within a country has no regular contact
with another group, those groups cannot be considered
part of the same society.
• Geographic distance and language barriers can separate
societies within a country. a society’s boundaries don’t
have to be geopolitical borders, such as the one between
the United States and Canada.
• Instead, members of a society, as well as nonmembers,
must recognize particular land as belonging to that society.
Geographic distance and language barriers can separate
societies within a country.
• Sometimes the same cultural groups can see themselves as
so different – that they turn to violence.
Hotel Rwanda
• Hand-out
• Film: Hotel Rwanda
• On April 6, 1994, the Hutu president of Rwanda,, was
assassinated when his plane was shot down near Kigali
International Airport. The current Hutu president of Burundi
was also killed in the attack.
• This sparked the well-organized extermination of Tutsis by
Hutu militias, even though blame for the plane attack has
never been established. Sexual violence against Tutsi women
was also widespread, and the United Nations only conceded
that "acts of genocide" had likely happened after an
estimated half-million Rwandans had already been killed.
Hutus & Tutsis in Rwanda
• The longstanding conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi has
nothing to do with language or religion -- they speak the
same Bantu tongues as well as French, and generally
practice Christianity .
• Many geneticists have been hard-pressed to find marked
ethnic differences between the two, though the Tutsi have
generally been noted to be taller.
• Many believe that German and Belgian colonizers tried to
find differences between the Hutu and Tutsi in order to
better categorize native peoples in their censuses.
• Generally, the Hutu-Tutsi strife stems from class warfare,
with the Tutsis perceived to have greater wealth and social
status
Exit Quiz
Midterm Exam Review
• Intro to Sociology
• Sociological Theories and Theorists
• What started the science of sociology, urbanization, industrial revolution,
conflict theory, interactionist theory, macro/micro, functionalist theory
• Weber, Marx, Emile Durkheim “Suicide Studies”
• Bystander Effect, norms, folkways, mores, laws deviance, status, applied
status, use of symbols in communication, ethnocentrism
• Clips: Jenks “Street Queen”, “Just Let me Be”
• Analysis: Sociology Analysis of VCHS Project
• What is: Culture, Material Culture, Cultural Relativism, socialization, feral
children, agents of socialization, culture clash, genocide
• FILM: Hotel Rwanda
• Rwandan Genocide, (Essay Section)