Download Welcome Lecture

Welcome to Soc 1A!
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Quick Writing and Attendance
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Review Syllabus
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Sociological Perspective and Analysis
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Homework:
 Introduction to Sociology: Chapter 1
Quick Writing:
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Name, email
major/interests/goals
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What do you hope to learn from this class?
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How do you plan on succeeding in this class?
Review the Syllabus
The Sociological
Perspective
What is Sociology?
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Study of Society…what does that mean?
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It examines the ways in which the forms of:
social structure
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social categories
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various social institutions
….affect human attitudes, actions, and opportunities.
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Sociology enables us to understand the structure and
dynamics of society, and their intricate connections to
patterns of human behavior and individual life
changes.
Why Care About Understanding Society?
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We are products of society and society is a product
of us
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Understand why and how we came to be like we are
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Our position within the social structure (society)
determines how we will act, think, and what
resources we have
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Our place in society is the intersection of many
social relationships
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Gender, race, class, age, geography, sexuality
Examining the present with the past
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“[Humans] make their own history, but they
do not make it just as they please; they do
not make it under circumstances chosen by
themselves, but under circumstances directly
encountered, given and transmitted from the
past.” - Karl Marx
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To understand the present social
arrangement in society, sociologists must
also look into the past
How sociologists study society
Sociologists look to
explain how and why
things happen. In
every question a
sociologist asks and
every answer they
give you will find an
explanation of the
how and why
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Keep this in mind over
the semester!
Critical Thinking is Required
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Sociology is a critical,
analytical, and
empirical discipline
and sociological
thinking is a process of
actively and skillfully
conceptualizing,
applying, analyzing,
synthesizing, and
evaluating
Beliefs vs. Sociological Analysis
As social beings, we see the social world through
our own lens of experience and belief system and
often make judgments based on our personal
beliefs
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To remain objective, sociology helps us see how that
lens was formed and be honest about our assumptions
What we see with sociological analyses often
challenges many of our thoughts and beliefs
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Come to class prepared to be exposed to alternate
explanations of the world and to try and understand
them
Exercise: Who am I?
On a piece of paper write:
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Ten answers to the question – “Who am I?”
Next:
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Pair up with a class member and share
Chose 3 answers and introduce your partner and their
answers
Next:
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Examine the data on the board and write a paragraph
explaining it – note any patterns
Finally:
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Do men and women define themselves differently?
Examining our Analysis
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Is our analysis based on beliefs or what is in
the data?
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What are we missing? Are there more
meaningful/additional relationships to
explore?
What we did…
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Collected data
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Interpreted data and looked for patterns
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Used concepts – gender
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Asked questions: factual, interpretive and not
moral or aesthetic
In conclusion:
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Sociology provides us with the tools to
examine the social world empirically,
analytically, and critically
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To do this objectively we have to constantly
examine how our own perspectives and
experiences shape how we view and interpret
the world around us