Answer the following:

• 1. Which two household cleaners should never be mixed?

• 2. What is the average oven temperature for baking?

• 3. What are the two most common types of screwdrivers?

• 4. Mauve is closest to which color: purple, green, or red?

• 5. What color is the electrical ground wire?

• 6. What do the letters LED stand for?

• 7. What is the proper way to hang a roll of toilet paper?

• 8. Which statement is correct:

• In conversation, men touch each other more.

• In conversation, men make more eye contact.

2Peter Berger

Aim: What is Sociology?

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Sociology is the scientific study of human activity.

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. . . do with, to and for one another

Human activity—the things people ….

. . . think and do as a result of others’ influence

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Social forces

Human activity (the way it is organized)

Opportunities

Disadvantages

Sense of self

Relationships with others and larger environment

How do sociologists think about

any human activity?

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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?

May not be able to fully engage in an activity

Immediate access to others (not present), no matter the setting

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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?

18Cuba U.S.

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What social forces contribute to different ways of thinking about and

responding to empty toilet paper rolls?

Resource-rich country

Consumption-oriented culture (capitalism)

Ability to access resources from foreign sources

Resource-poor country

Thrift-oriented cultureU.S. embargo since 1960

Collapse of Soviet Union

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How does attitude toward resources and corresponding behavior affect sense of

self?

Sense of self revolves around consumption

Sense of self revolves around ingenuity

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?

• 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

….