Download Challenge and Change in Society

Challenge and Change in Society
Sociology Overview
What is Sociology?
• The study of human relationships and
institutions
What is Sociology?
• The purpose is to develop social policy based
on patterns discovered
• It ranges from crime to religion; family to
state; divisions of ethnicity to social status
• Ultimately: how does human action and
consciousness both shape and are shaped by
cultural and social structures
Personal/Societal/Global
• Personal level - investigates the social causes
and consequences of such things as romantic
love, racial and gender identity, family conflict,
deviant behavior, aging, and religious faith.
Personal/Societal/Global
• Societal level - examines and explains matters like
crime and law, poverty and wealth, prejudice and
discrimination, schools and education, business
firms, urban community, and social movements.
Personal/Societal/Global
• Global level - studies such phenomena as
population growth and migration, war and
peace, and economic development.
We Are Born to Social
• The moment we take our first breath, we
become part of a society
• The moment the doctor verifies our gender,
we start the process of socialization
• Institutions form us into ‘human beings’
• Institutions are: family, teams, friends, school,
church, media
How Do Sociologists Study Society?
• Through experience, people learn to behave
according to ‘unwritten’ rules of society
• These are called ‘Roles’
• Roles range and change as we live our life
• Roles are based on our ‘status’ in a group
• Roles require ‘hierarchies’
• Roles can sometimes conflict – “Role Conflict”
Values/Norms/Deviance
• Every role carries a ‘Value’ attached
• These are desirable characteristics associated
with the value
• Human beings are expected to ‘internalize’
these values and live out of them
• In other words, the person in a particular role
acts within the value set
Values/Norms/Deviance
• Additionally, people who live in particular
roles are also required to follow ‘norms’
• Norms are arbitrary rules that societies
develop
• They differ from culture to culture
• Breaking a norm usually results in the person
no longer able to play that role
Values/Norms/Deviance
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Severe breaking of norms is called ‘deviance’
These acts offend/violate society as a whole
These acts are usually considered criminal
They may even threaten to rupture a given
culture/society
• This is why penitentiaries were established;
the penitent was there to be rehabilitated
back into society