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Entry # 1 – Sociological Perspectives. September 3, 2014. What is Sociology?. Define: the study of human behavior and how society is structured. How is sociology unique? Perspective on groups of people. There is a focus on the patterns of behavior shared by members of a group or society.
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Entry # 1 – Sociological Perspectives September 3, 2014
What is Sociology? Define: the study of human behavior and how society is structured. How is sociology unique? Perspective on groups of people. There is a focus on the patterns of behavior shared by members of a group or society.
What is society? Define: it is made up of many people acting together in groups and each group interacting. In order to understand how a society functions you need to examine the ENTIRE society. Similarly To understand how the liver works, you need to understand its place in the body.
Explaining Events Explanations based on the societal cause not the personal cause. (Entry # 2) Personal = a teenager Societal = teenagers Example: Joining a gang Personal: A boy joins a gang because his best friend is in a gang Societal: Boys that live in neighborhoods with gangs join gangs because it is viewed as a means of survival.
Social Structure Define: it is the pattern of interactions of people in social relationships Example: Student/Teacher Relationship The personal characteristics of individual students and teacher vary from class to class and school to school. The way that students and teachers interact in the classroom and the school follows a similar pattern of behavior.
How do group behavior and individual behavior differ? If you are in a class that you do not know anyone, how would you behave? If you are in a class that has several of your friends, how would you behave? The mixing of individuals creates a whole new group with new characteristics.
Sociological Imagination Define: the ability of individuals to see the relationship between events in their personal lives and events in their society. Why is this important? People do not make decisions in isolation. It allows us to understand the effects of social events on our daily lives.
Understanding the effects of social events, allows individuals to see multiple sides to a given event. Example: Letter that opposes welfare. Side 1: The person has no compassion and is cold hearted to the needs of others. Side 2: The person believes in the importance of independence and self-reliance .
Activity: Perspective Part I: Choose an object that has great personal meaning to you. Example: Childhood toy Next describe the object in detail in 5 to 6 sentences. Be specific – color, size, who gave it to you, why it is so meaningful to you. Start with: The object with the most personal meaning to me is _______________.
Part II: Who manufactured your object? When was your object created/made? Who sells your object? Who would buy your object? Who else would consider your object to be valuable?
Part III: What is the difference between the set of questions in Part I and Part Two? Part I = Personal Part II = Social How is this activity connected to the idea of social imagination? Objects that hold personal meaning have wider social significance to the outside world.
