Download Human activity

Answer the following:
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Which two household cleaners should never be mixed?
What is the average oven temperature for baking?
What are the two most common types of screwdrivers?
Mauve is closest to which color: purple, green, or red?
What color is the electrical ground wire?
What do the letters LED stand for?
What is the proper way to hang a roll of toilet paper?
Which statement is correct:
In conversation, men touch each other more.
In conversation, men make more eye contact.
Peter Berger 2
Aim: What is Sociology?
Sociology is the scientific study of
human activity.
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Human activity—the things people ….
. . . do with, to
and for one
another
. . . think and
do as a result of
others’ influence
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How do sociologists think about
any human activity?
Social
forces
Human activity (the
way it is organized)
Opportunities
Disadvantages
Sense of self
Relationships with
others and larger
environment
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Social forces are anything humans
create that influences or pressures
people to interact, behave, respond,
or think in certain ways.
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Example of an “invention” as a social
force: the mobile phone
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Social Force:
Mobile Phone
Human activity (the
way it is organized)
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it frees people from being in a specific
physical space when they communicate
with others.
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What kinds of human activities have
changed as a result of the mobile
phone?
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Human activity (the
way it is organized)
Opportunities
Disadvantages
Sense of self
Relationships with
others and
environment
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What opportunities and disadvantages come
with the mobile phone?
Immediate access to
others (not present), no
matter the setting
May not be able to
fully engage in an
activity
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How is sense of self shaped by the
mobile phone?
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What about relationships with others and
the surrounding environment?
In a survey of 439
doctors who
perform
cardiopulmonary
bypass (CPB)
surgery 55.6%
reported using
their mobile
phones while
performing
surgery to send or
check text
messages, access
e-mail, check
postings on social
networking sites
or otherwise use
the internet
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What meaning do you assign to
this empty roll of toilet tissue?
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Which photograph best reflects the
meaning you assign to the empty
roll of toilet tissue?
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Cuba
U.S.
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What social forces contribute to
different ways of thinking about and
responding to empty toilet paper rolls?
Resource-poor country
Thrift-oriented culture
U.S. embargo since 1960
Collapse of Soviet Union
Resource-rich country
Consumption-oriented culture
(capitalism)
Ability to access resources from
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foreign sources
How does attitude toward resources and
corresponding behavior affect sense of
self?
Sense of self revolves around
ingenuity
Sense of self revolves around
consumption
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Empirical
• Sociology is an empirical science based on
purposeful, objective observations
• Are these statements objective or subjective?
• The man in the drugstore fell to the floor
clutching his chest and the other customers
turned in his direction when he screamed.
• objective
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• The pigeon had been pecking at the disk was
distracted by the sound of the door slamming,
and it hesitated while it considered whether to
keep pecking or not.
• Subjective
• When the dinner with her husband’s parents
was over, she was so anxious to leave and go
home that she left her coat behind.
• Subjective
• He beeped the horn several times in rapid
succession, turned into the oncoming lane,
and sped around the stalled car.
• Objective
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What do sociologists study?
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Social Institutions: Family, Education,
Religion, the Economy, Government,
Health and Medicine, the Media, and
Sports.
Sociologists look at the impact of
institutions on the individual, changes in
these institutions, and the causes and
effects of change.
• The Sociological Imagination: The
ability to see the link between society and
self.
• Link between history and biography
• It questions common interpretations of
human social behavior.
• It challenges conventional social wisdom –
ideas people assume are true.
• Debunking: looking beyond surface level
explanations for deeper explanations.
• Seeking new perspectives to old realities
or beliefs.
C. Wright Mills
Who is this guy?
• Professor – Columbia University
• Social Critic
• Public Intellectual
The sociological imagination
enables us to grasp history and biography
and the relations between the two within
society.
That is its task and its promise
Those who have been
imaginatively aware of the promise
of their work have consistently
asked three sorts of questions:
• a. Structure. What is the structure of a society? What are
the essential components and their relation to each
other? How is this society’s structure different from
others?
• b. Time/history/process. Where does this society stand
historically? What are the mechanisms of change? How
are its features affected by the historical period? What
are the characteristics of this historical period?
• c. Individuals/human nature. What kinds of people
succeed and fail in this society? Has this changed?
What do these individuals tell us about “human nature”?
Troubles
• occur within the character of the individual
and within the range of his immediate
relations with others
• they have to do with his self and with
those limited areas of social life of which
he is directly and personally aware
Issues
• have to do with matters that transcend
these local environments of the individual
and the range of his inner life.
• They have to do with the organization of
many such milieu into the institutions of a
historical society as a whole
Examples – Troubles vs. Issues
Unemployment
War
Divorce
Homelessness
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