SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
CHAPTER 3
Cultural Conformity
and Adaptation
Section 1: The American Values System
Section 2: Social Control
Section 3: Social Change
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: The American Values System
Objectives:
 Identify the basic values that form the
foundation of American culture.
 Describe new values that have developed in
the United States since the 1970s.
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: The American Values System
(Eight) Basic Values
of American Culture
 Personal Achievement – built primarily by people
that value individual achievement, as in the area
of employment
 Individualism – success comes through hard work
and initiative
 Work – Americans view discipline, dedication,
and hard work as signs of virtue
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: The American Values System
Basic Values
of American Culture
(continued)
 Morality and Humanitarianism – Americans place
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a high value on morality and tend to view the
world in terms of right and wrong; quick to help
the unfortunate
 Efficiency and Practicality – practical and
inventive, every problem has a solution; judge
objects on their usefulness and people on their
ability to get things done
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: The American Values System
Basic Values
of American Culture
(continued)
 Progress and Material Comfort – Americans
believe that through hard work and determination
living standards will continue to improve
 Equality and Democracy – to have human
equality, there must be an equality of opportunity;
success is a reward that must be earned
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: The American Values System
Basic Values
of American Culture
(continued)
 Freedom – freedom of choice such as religion,
speech, and press and protect them from
government interference
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 1: The American Values System
Our Changing Values
 Self-fulfillment – the commitment to the full
development of one’s personality, talents, and
potential; includes leisure, physical fitness and
youthfulness
 Environmental protection
 Education and Religion were deemed
important by students who were polled
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Social Control
Objectives:
 Identify how the norms of society are
enforced.
 Describe the differences between positive and
negative sanctions and between formal and
informal sanctions.
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Social Control
Enforcing the Norms of Society
 Internalization – process by which a norm
becomes a part of an individual’s personality
thus conditioning that individual to conform to
society’s expectations
 Sanctions – rewards and punishments used to
enforce conformity to the norms
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Social Control
Different Types of Sanctions
 Positive Sanction – action that rewards a
particular kind of behavior such as good grades or
a pay raise
 Negative Sanction – punishment or the threat of
punishment to enforce conformity such as frowns,
imprisonment, and even death
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 2: Social Control
Different Types of Sanctions
(continued)
 Formal Sanction – rewards or punishments by a
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formal organization or regulatory agency such as
the government and includes promotions, awards,
or low grades
 Informal Sanction – spontaneous expression of
approval or disapproval by an individual or group
such as a standing ovation, gifts, gossip, or
ridicule
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Social Change
Objectives:
 Identify and describe the main sources of
social change.
 Describe the factors that lead people to resist
social change.
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Social Change
Source of
Social Change
values and beliefs
technology
population
diffusion
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Social Consequence
Example
Women vote helped
political decisions (social)
Right to Vote
IPOD Factory
Child Labor
Increase Population
Increase in Cultural Traits and
values. Decrease in open land
Instant communications, TV,
Radio, and Satellite
physical environment
Floods, Drought, Fire
wars and conquests
September (9/11/01)
Pollution
Spread of Cultural Traits
Ruined homes and landscape
Loss of lives, Depression,
and possibly War
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Social Change
Main Sources of Social Change
 Values and Beliefs – are affected by ideology spread
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through social movements
 Technology – knowledge and tools people use to
manipulate their environment
 Population – change in size of population may bring
about changes in the culture
 Diffusion – the process of spreading culture traits
from one society to another
HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Social Change
Main Sources of Social Change
(continued)
 Physical Environment – the environment may provide
conditions that encourage or discourage cultural
change
 Wars and Conquest – are not common but bring about
the greatest amount of change in the least amount of
time
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON
SOCIOLOGY THE STUDY OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS
Section 3: Social Change
Factors Leading to
Resisting Social Change
 Ethnocentrism – can lead to segregation
 Cultural Lag – a delay in cultural change such
as the introduction and use of computers
 Vested Interests – might lead to a focus on
maintaining budgets over a focus on providing a
quality education and instruction
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HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON