Sociology 001

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Sociology 001

• Week 1 1st Half
• Introduction

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Course Section

• Sociology 001
• 3785 INTRO SOCIOLOGY
• M, W 0200PM - 0320PM, South Annex, Room 15
• 3803 INTRO SOCIOLOGY
• T, Th 0800AM - 0920AM, W. Annex, Room 1
• 3763 INTRO SOCIOLOGY
• T, Th 1230PM - 0150PM, EVC, Room 7
• Luís Villanueva
• Mr. Vee

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Cliques

• who hung out together based on region, that is,
  where they lived congregated together on school
  activities, such as jocks and nerds came
  together in a group centered on social class,
  whether middle-class, working-class, or recent
  migrant or del rancho
• you will learn about the intellectual tools that
  seem simple in seeking understanding of group
  differences and human behaviors, yet require for
  you to broaden your perspective and connect the
  dots

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Sociological Mindfulness

• Sociology makes us think deeply about the divide
  between ourselves and those of different races,
  classes, and ethnicities and I would include
  gender and sexualities. It forces us to
  recognize the effects of power, technological
  advances, and that increasingly rapid process of
  social change on our own lives. Sociology
  mattersto you, me, and everyone with a stake in
  the society we live in (Scaheffer 2008vii).

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Intellect, Life, History

• Rather than display the contents of our shining
  intellectual toolbox, I try to put the tools to
  use. Michael Schwalbe
• An unexamined life is not worth living.
  Socrates
• "He who does not remember the past is condemned
  to repeat it. Santayana

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Sociological Analysis

• If people made social conditions, then people can
  change them either to be mutually beneficial or
  not.
• how and why is one group of people privileged and
  another is not?
• we will learn how to take things sociologically
  apart

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FILL OUT A CARD

• Name
• Major
• Age
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Optional (religion, area, sexuality, etc.)
• Why taking SOC 001?
• What do you expect to learn from this class?

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Grades

• Each of the first three exams will have 50
  multiple questions and is worth 20 of your
  course grade.
• The final exam will have 40 multiple questions
  and 4 short essay questions.

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Assignments

• on each assignment, write your name, SOC 001,
  section , assignment , and date
• write or type papers clearly, and staple papers
  or assignmentlest you lose points
• save your graded assignments at least until the
  end of the semester

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Is Sociology just common sense?

• we often use common sense to help us make sense
  of facts or what we have observed in our daily
  lives
• Birds of a flock
• Opposites attract
• Jump in a chance
• Out of sight, out of mind
• Look before you leap
• Sociologists utilize science rather than rely on
  superstition to explain social phenomena

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What is the difference between a scientific
theory and a superstitious belief?

• theory is a set of statements that seeks to
  explain problems, actions, or behavior (p7)
• scientific theories should be consistent,
  parsimonious, correctable, empirically
  testable/verifiable, useful, and progressive
• The validity of superstitions is based on belief
  in the power of magic or things one cannot simply
  explain due to ones limited knowledge

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Sociological Findings versus Common Sense

• More US students are shot to death at school now
  than ten or fifteen years ago.
• According to the National School Safety Center,
  more students were shot to death at US schools in
  the early 1990s than now.

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Adapting to Life Conditions

• the human species uses its faculties of
  consciousness, conceptual thought and symbolic
  language to continue to advance by means of
  social (rather than genetic) evolution
• the three parts of the brain
• with the reptilian inner core the most primitive
  (appetite, fear, lust, aggression, instincts),
• next the limbic brain (emotions, empathy),
• lastly the cortex (higher reason, cognitive)

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Societies and Their Transformations

• How do mental developments and social
  transformations come about?
• How did our minds evolve or our society develop?
  
• A society is a fairly large number of people who
  live in the same territory, are relatively
  independent of people outside it, and participate
  in a common culture (Schaeffer 38).

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Social Change and Sociology

• Three significant changes transformed society
• a factory-based economy,
• the explosive growth of cities,
• and new ideas about democracy and political
  rights

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Comtes Law of Three Stages

• theological stage, people took a religious view
  that society expressed Gods will
• metaphysical stage in which people saw society as
  a natural rather than supernatural phenomenonthe
  mind supposesabstract forces capable of
  producing all phenomena
• positive stage, explanations are based on
  scientific laws discovered through
• Experimentation
• Observation
• Logic

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Social Revolutions that Transformed Societies

• Societies transformed based on their level of
  technology, communication, and economy
• 1) hunters and gatherers,
• 2) horticulture,
• 3) agrarian,
• 4) industrial
• 5) postindustrial

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Hunting, Gathering Societies

• depend on hunting and gathering for their survival

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Pastoral, Horticultural Societies

• are based on the cultivation of plants by the use
  of hand tools

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Agrarian, Agricultural Societies

• many more people were able to engage in
  activities other than farmingto develop the
  things properly known as culture,

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Industrial Societies

• machinery giving you a form of production in the
  industrial society which was far more efficient
  and brought even greater surplus
• What was the key to the industrial revolution?
• urban migrants face many social problems,
• pollution,
• crime,
• homelessness,
• inequality

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Political Change

• a shift from a focus on peoples moral duties to
  God and king to the pursuit of self interests
• each citizen has
• certain inalienable rights,
• life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
• Early sociologists were deeply troubled by the
  striking inequality of the new industrial society

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Legitimizing Sociology

• thinking or philosophizing about society is as
  old as when people began to make records of their
  activities
• the classical sociological theorists observed and
  criticized the industrial revolution and its
  impact on societies
• legitimizing sociology as a social science

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Food for Thought

• what social changes have you seen occurring?
• Are the social conditions of the average American
  improving or getting worse?
• How are you personally connected to somebody in
  your neighborhood, in another state, or in
  another country?