Terms
for Review:
social
construction of reality
sociological
imagination
sociological
Mindfulness
ingroups
categories/generalizing
stereotypes
sociological
research
culture
norms
folkways
mores
taboos
values
socialization
nature
and nurture
agents
of socialization
gender
masculinity
femininity
deviance
social
class
race
racism
explicit
bias
implicit
bias
Course Narrative
Unit 1:
Introduction to the Sociological Perspective
The sociological perspective is
viewing individuals as members of different groups and recognizing how these
groups shape individuals. There are a
number of theories that help establish this perspective. Social construction of reality is the idea
that society/people create how we feel about things and how we experience the
world. Sociological imagination is the
connection between history and biography, or a person is who they are because of
when and where they live. Sociological
Mindfulness is taking our knowledge of sociology and applying them to our own
life; it is realizing that we are impacted by society and we also play a role
in society. Another way that
sociologists understand how individuals are influenced is by looking at the
groups that individual’s belong to. Each
group is an ingroup for the individual and it shapes them. These groups are categories which we make
generalizations about if we use scientific methods to study the group. If the generalizations are not accurate or
are applied too broadly, they may become stereotypes.
Unit 2:
Culture
Culture is perhaps the most
pervasive group membership that shapes individuals. It is so omnipresent that it affects all
groups the individual is part of.
Because of that, culture is important to understand and to take a step
back from in order to see the whole picture.
Culture shapes everything about how individuals act and even think. The second part of this unit focuses
specifically on culture in the United States and how students have been shaped
by the values of our culture.
Unit 3:
Socialization
After learning the importance of
understanding culture, socialization helps students understand how the process
of being shaped takes place. The process
of socialization begins even before childbirth and continues throughout one’s
life. Many taken-for-granted aspects of
being human are really learned from a young age. This is true in how we learn about our gender
as well. Females and males learn to act
differently and learn that there are different expectations for them from
childhood. We explore the negative
impact that our constructions of masculinity and femininity have on young men
and women. Then we examine how to change
individuals drastically once they are shaped by society – that change is
resocialization.
Unit 4: Deviance and Social Class
This unit begins with an
understanding of what deviance is; that is, when someone breaks the norms of
society. In other words, deviance is
when individuals go against the socialization process. Using William Chambliss’s study called The
Saints and the Roughnecks, I connect deviance to social class and
perception. Using this connection, we
explore how the prison system has exploded over the last 20 years especially
with those from lower income social classes.
This leads into what creates social class and how individuals are
affected by it, especially how the poor are affected by their poverty.
Unit 5:
Race
Race
is, like gender, a taken-for-granted social construction that people assume is
natural or biological. However, there is
no scientific way to discretely categorize humans into distinct racial groups –
not through DNA or any other traits.
Race is a social construction that changes depending on where or when
you live. However, even though race does
not exist biologically, it does exist as a social construction which has
enormous impacts on individuals. The
impacts can be in the form of prejudice or discrimination and explicit or
implicit bias. One type of implicit bias
is through institutional racism. This is
also a form of white privilege.
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