Sociology 101
Semester 1
SOCİOLOGY
Dr. Mark Heirigs
,What is Sociology?
• I believe that sociology is the study of human interactions between each other and
their environment. I believe that through this study we can deduce what influences a
person’s social cues, reactions, and behavior.
• Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and
consequences of human behavior. Systematic study of human society.
• Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior.
• Auguste Comte first coined the term sociology.
• Inspired to create a new discipline because he lived during a time of rapid social
change.
• Industry versus agriculture
• Democracies versus monarchies
• Urban versus rural
• Society is the largest-scale human group that shares a common geographic territory
and common institutions
• Not necessarily states…ex: The United Kingdom
• Society requires social interaction
• Occurs at different lvels
• Neighborhoods, schools, workplace, etc.
• Connections created shared understanding and basis of continued cooperations
• Socialization
• Kids can be a good example of early socialization. Children in preschool are not
learning academic topics, they are learning how to socialize and how to behave in
school. Learning different social norms, rules, and values of our society.
• We need these social situations to go smoothly or predictably, or it can create a rift or
chaos. Humans love predictability.
• How do you respond to the question “how are you?”
• Imagine you respond to that question with a long story
• Surprising and unusual
• By responding in an unexpected way, you challenged the common
expectations of social interaction.
• People unknowingly create and re-create rules of society every day.
• Constantly interacting with one another, with set guidelines.
• We are not always able to articulate or even notice these rules. We take them for
, granted. They become very evident when the rules are broken.
• To examine these accepted ways of producing social order in society,
researchers created Breaching Experiments.
• Researchers break a social rule to reveal the unrecognized way that all
individuals cooperate to maintain social order.
• Going into an elevator and standing backwards.
Culture
• a system of behaviors, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values, and materials.
• Shapes behaviors
• Culture is contested (we don’t all agree on one way to act, one thing to believe, etc. in
a society).
• Dominant culture can impose its values, beliefs, and behaviors on a given society.
• Political and economic power
• Counterculture is a group that rejects certain elements of the dominant culture
• Anti-consumerists
• Subcultures- differ from the dominant culture but don’t necessarily oppose
• Lawyer versus plumber: they don’t necessarily oppose the values or behaviors of the
other group. Just a very different daily routine.
• High culture
• Culture of society’s elitres
• Difficult to appreciate without having been taught to enjoy and understand
it
• Theatre, opera, ballet
• Popular (low) culture
• Culture of the majority
• Sports
• “The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical
scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of variety of
individuals.” - C. Wright Mills
• What is the sociological imagination?
• The ability to connect an individual to their larger social institutions that invisibly
influence their behaviors and opportunities
• Individual actions are heavily influenced by the people and society around you.
Semester 1
SOCİOLOGY
Dr. Mark Heirigs
,What is Sociology?
• I believe that sociology is the study of human interactions between each other and
their environment. I believe that through this study we can deduce what influences a
person’s social cues, reactions, and behavior.
• Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and
consequences of human behavior. Systematic study of human society.
• Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior.
• Auguste Comte first coined the term sociology.
• Inspired to create a new discipline because he lived during a time of rapid social
change.
• Industry versus agriculture
• Democracies versus monarchies
• Urban versus rural
• Society is the largest-scale human group that shares a common geographic territory
and common institutions
• Not necessarily states…ex: The United Kingdom
• Society requires social interaction
• Occurs at different lvels
• Neighborhoods, schools, workplace, etc.
• Connections created shared understanding and basis of continued cooperations
• Socialization
• Kids can be a good example of early socialization. Children in preschool are not
learning academic topics, they are learning how to socialize and how to behave in
school. Learning different social norms, rules, and values of our society.
• We need these social situations to go smoothly or predictably, or it can create a rift or
chaos. Humans love predictability.
• How do you respond to the question “how are you?”
• Imagine you respond to that question with a long story
• Surprising and unusual
• By responding in an unexpected way, you challenged the common
expectations of social interaction.
• People unknowingly create and re-create rules of society every day.
• Constantly interacting with one another, with set guidelines.
• We are not always able to articulate or even notice these rules. We take them for
, granted. They become very evident when the rules are broken.
• To examine these accepted ways of producing social order in society,
researchers created Breaching Experiments.
• Researchers break a social rule to reveal the unrecognized way that all
individuals cooperate to maintain social order.
• Going into an elevator and standing backwards.
Culture
• a system of behaviors, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values, and materials.
• Shapes behaviors
• Culture is contested (we don’t all agree on one way to act, one thing to believe, etc. in
a society).
• Dominant culture can impose its values, beliefs, and behaviors on a given society.
• Political and economic power
• Counterculture is a group that rejects certain elements of the dominant culture
• Anti-consumerists
• Subcultures- differ from the dominant culture but don’t necessarily oppose
• Lawyer versus plumber: they don’t necessarily oppose the values or behaviors of the
other group. Just a very different daily routine.
• High culture
• Culture of society’s elitres
• Difficult to appreciate without having been taught to enjoy and understand
it
• Theatre, opera, ballet
• Popular (low) culture
• Culture of the majority
• Sports
• “The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical
scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of variety of
individuals.” - C. Wright Mills
• What is the sociological imagination?
• The ability to connect an individual to their larger social institutions that invisibly
influence their behaviors and opportunities
• Individual actions are heavily influenced by the people and society around you.
