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Instructor’s Resource Manual

Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach

Fifteenth Edition

James M. Henslin

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Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective

Chapter Summary

This chapter explains what sociology is and how it is similar to and different from other social sciences. The sociological perspective focuses on the connection between biography and history. This chapter also discusses the origins of sociology with a focus on European sociologists writing about the Industrial Revolution and how sociology came to exist in the United States. The values in sociological research and the concept of Verstehen are also discussed. The chapter also explores the contributions and debates of sociologists within the United States, including the debate between pure sociology and social reform. The author then explains the three main perspectives of sociology: symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory. The chapter ends with a discussion of the contention between research and social reform and also the influence of globalization on the field of sociology and how the author believes these two ideas could shape sociology in the future.

Learning Objectives

LO 1.1: Explain why both history and biography are essential for the sociological perspective.

LO 1.2: Know the focus of each social science.

LO 1.3: Trace the origins of sociology, from tradition to Max Weber. 1.4

LO 1.4: Summarize the arguments in the debate about values in sociological research. 1.5

LO 1.5: State what Verstehen is and why it is valuable. 1.6

LO 1.6: Trace the development of sociology in North America, and explain the tension between objective analysis and social reform.

1.7

LO 1.7: Explain the basic ideas of symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory.

1.8

LO 1.8: Explain how research versus social reform and globalization are likely to influence sociology.

Chapter Outline

A. The Sociological Perspective

1.1 Explain why both history and biography are essential for the sociological perspective.

1. This perspective is important because it opens a window onto unfamiliar worlds and offers a fresh look at familiar ones. It allows us to gain a new view of social life.

2. The sociological perspective is an approach to understanding human behavior by placing it within the social context that surrounds it.

a) The center of the sociological perspective examines how people are influenced by their society—or the group of people who share a culture and a territory.

b) The sociological perspective stresses the broader social context of behavior by looking at individuals’ social location—jobs, income, education, gender, race–ethnicity, health, and age—and by considering external influences—people’s experiences—which are internalized and become part of a person’s thinking and motivations.

c) The sociologist C. Wright Mills claimed that the sociological perspective enabled us to grasp the connection between history (the broad stream of events that each society is located in) and biography (your experiences within a specific historical setting).

d) The sociological perspective can help us see how social settings shape people’s behavior.

3. This perspective enables us to analyze and understand both the forces that contribute to the emergence and growth of the global village and our unique experiences in our own smaller corners of this village.

B. Sociology and the Other Sciences

1.2 Know the focus of each social science.

1. Science is the systematic methods used to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods. It can be divided into the natural sciences and the social sciences.

2. The natural sciences attempt to comprehend, explain, and predict events in our natural environment.

3. Social sciences attempt to objectively study the social world. Akin to the natural sciences, the social sciences are divided into specialized fields based on their subject matter.

a) Anthropology, which in the past focused on tribal groups, is closely related to sociology. It focuses mostly on culture including artifacts (such as tools, art, and weapons), structure (patterns in the ways people interact with one another), ideas and values, and forms of communication. Anthropology now studies groups in agricultural settings and also in industrialized societies.

b) Economics focuses on the production, distribution, and allocation of the material goods and services of a society.

c) Political science focuses on politics and government.

d) Psychology concentrates on processes that occur within the individual.

e) Sociology is similar to the other social sciences, but it is distinct because it looks at all social institutions, focuses primarily on industrialized and post-industrialized societies, and looks at external factors that influence people.

4. All sciences have certain goals.

a) The first goal is to explain why something happens.

b) The second goal is to make generalizations by looking for patterns, recurring characteristics or events, to make a statement that goes beyond the individual and can be applied to a broader group or situation.

c) The third goal is to predict what will happen in the future, given current knowledge.

d) To achieve these goals, scientists must move beyond common sense and rely on conclusions based on systematic research.

5. Sociologists at times explore parts of social life that some groups might prefer remained unexamined. Sociologists need to continue social research even if it makes people unhappy or uncomfortable.

C. Origins of Sociology

1.3 Trace the origins of sociology, from tradition to Max Weber.

1. Sociology developed in the middle of the nineteenth century when social observers began to use scientific methods to test their ideas. The following three factors led to its development:

a) The social upheaval as a result of the Industrial Revolution, which led to changes in the way people lived their lives.

b) The political revolutions in America and France, which encouraged people to rethink their ideas about social life.

c) The development of imperialism—as Europeans conquered other nations, they came in contact with different cultures and began to ask why cultures differ.

d) These three factors led to a questioning of traditional answers, which created a desire to apply scientific methods to find answers to the questions being raised about the social world.

2. Auguste Comte coined the term “sociology” and suggested the use of positivism— applying the scientific approach to understand the social world—but he did not utilize this approach himself. Comte believed that this new science should not only discover sociological principles, but should then apply those principles to social reform.

3. Herbert Spencer viewed societies as evolutionary, coined the term “the survival of the fittest,” and became known for social Darwinism. Spencer was convinced that no one should intervene in the evolution of society and that attempts at social reform are wrong.

4. Karl Marx, whose ideas about social classes and class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat laid the foundation of the conflict perspective, believed that class conflict is the key to human history. Marx believed that the conflict and struggle would end only with a revolution by the working class.

5. Emile Durkheim played an important role in the development of sociology. One of his primary goals was to get sociology recognized as a separate academic discipline. He was interested in understanding the social factors that influence individual behavior; he studied suicide rates among different groups and concluded that social integration—the degree to which people are tied to their social group—is a key social factor in suicide.

6. Max Weber was one of the most influential of all sociologists, raising issues that remain controversial even today. Disagreeing with Karl Marx, Weber defined religion as a central force in social change (i.e., Protestantism encourages greater economic development and was the central factor in the rise of capitalism in some countries).

a) The Protestant belief system encouraged its members to embrace change.

b) Protestants sought “signs” that they were in God’s will; financial success became a major sign. The more money they made, the more secure they were about their religious standing.

c) Weber called this behavior the Protestant ethic; he called their readiness to invest capital to make more money the spirit of capitalism.

D. Values in Sociological Research

1.4 Summarize the arguments in the debate about values in sociological research.

1. Weber advocated that sociological research should be value free (personal values or biases should not influence social research) and objective (totally neutral).

a) Sociologists agree that objectivity is a proper goal, but acknowledge that no one can escape values entirely.

b) Replication is when a study is repeated to see if the same results are found. It is one means to avoid the distortions that values can cause.

2. Although sociologists may agree that research should be objective, sociologists argue about the proper purposes and uses of sociology, with some taking the position that the proper role of sociology is to understand human behavior, while others believe that it is the responsibility of sociologists to focus on harmful social conditions.

3. On the one side are those who say that the knowledge gained through social research belongs to the scientific community and can be used by anyone for any purpose. On the other side are those who say that research results should be used to alleviate suffering and improve society and that sociologists should lead the way in reforming society.

E. Verstehen and Social Facts

1.5 State what Verstehen is and why it is valuable.

1. Max Weber advocated Verstehen, the German term for “grasp by insight,” to understand why people act as they do.

a) The best interpreter of human behavior is someone who “has been there.”

b) We should focus on subjective meanings; that is, how people interpret their situation in life, how they view what they are doing and what is happening to them.

2. In contrast, Emile Durkheim believed that sociologists should focus primarily on uncovering social facts—a group’s recurring patterns of behavior.

3. Verstehen and social facts go hand in hand. Contemporary sociologists often employ both approaches to examine and understand the social contexts that underlie human behavior.

F. Sociology in North America

1.6 Trace the development of sociology in North America, and explain the tension between objective analysis and social reform.

1. The first sociology course in the United States was taught at Yale University (1872).

a) In the 1890s, sociology courses were also taught at the University of Kansas (1890), the University of Chicago (1892), Catholic University (1895), and Atlanta University (1897); the first department of sociology in Canada was at McGill University (1922).

b) Albion Small, founder of the department of sociology at the University of Chicago, also established the American Journal of Sociology

c) The department of sociology at the University of Chicago dominated North American sociology. Other early sociologists from the University of Chicago were Robert Park, Ernest Burgess, and George Herbert Mead.

2. In the early years of sociology, men dominated the field because rigidly defined social roles prevented most women from pursuing an education.

a) Women were supposed to devote themselves to the four Ks: Kirche, Küche, Kinder, und Kleider (church, cooking, children, and clothes).

b) Few people, male or female, attained education beyond basic reading, writing, and math, but most higher education was reserved for men.

c) The few early female sociologists included Marion Talbot, an associate editor for the American Journal of Sociology for thirty years. Others went beyond sociology, such as Grace Abbott, the chief of the U.S. government’s Children’s Bureau, and Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a cabinet position.

d) Most early female sociologists viewed sociology as a path for social reform. Academics who viewed it as the opposite distanced themselves from female sociologists.

e) Harriet Martineau studied social life in both Great Britain and the United States, publishing Society in America decades before Durkheim and Weber were even born. While her original research has been largely ignored by the discipline, she is known for her translations of Comte’s ideas into English.

3. African American professionals also faced problems.

a) W. E. B. Du Bois was the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard. He conducted extensive research on race relations in the United States, publishing one book a year on this subject between 1896 and 1914.

b) Despite his accomplishments, he encountered prejudice and discrimination in his professional and personal life. When he attended professional sociologists’ meetings, he was not permitted to eat or stay in the same hotels as the White sociologists.

c) Frustrated at the lack of improvements in race relations, he turned to social action, helping to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) along with Jane Addams and others from Hull-House.

d) Until recently, his contributions to sociology were overlooked.

4. Jane Addams is an example of a sociologist who was able to combine the role of sociologist with that of social reformer.

a) In 1889, she co-founded Hull-House, a settlement house for the poor, and worked to bridge the gap between the powerful and powerless.

b) Sociologists from nearby University of Chicago visited Hull-House frequently.

c) She is one of two sociologists (both of them women) to have won the Nobel Peace Prize; she was awarded this in 1931.

5. Many other early North American sociologists combined the role of sociologist with that of social reformer. For example, University of Chicago sociologists Park and Burgess studied many urban problems and offered suggestions on how to alleviate them. By the 1940s, as sociologists became more concerned with establishing sociology as an academic discipline, the emphasis shifted from social reform to social theory.

a) Talcott Parsons developed abstract models of society to show how the parts of society harmoniously work together.

b) Countering this development was C. Wright Mills, who urged sociologists to get back to social reform. He saw the emergence of the power elite as an imminent threat to freedom.

6. The debate over the proper goals of sociological analysis—analyzing society versus reforming society—continues today.

a) Some sociologists view the goal of sociology as understanding the social world without the goal of applying this knowledge to reform. This is referred to as basic (or pure) sociology.

b) Applied sociology aims to use sociology to solve problems. One of the first attempts at applied sociology was the founding of the NAACP.

i. Today, applied sociologists work in a variety of settings, from business and high-tech organizations to government and not-for-profit agencies.

ii. Applied sociology goes back to the roots of sociology.

c) In an effort to pursue a social reform agenda, the American Sociological Association is now promoting public sociology with the goal of influencing politicians, public officials, and policy makers. This is considered a middle ground between research and reform.

d) Promoting social reform does include risks, as in a few cases where entire departments of sociology have been taken over by university administrators.

G. Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology

1.7 Explain the basic ideas of symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory.

1. Central to the study of any science is the development of theory. A theory is a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work. It is an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another. Sociologists use three major theories—symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory—to observe and interpret social contexts, relationships, and realities in distinct ways.

2. Symbolic interactionism views symbols, things to which we attach meaning, as the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another.

a) Through the use of symbols, people are able to define relationships to others; to coordinate actions with others, thereby making social life possible; and to develop a sense of themselves.

b) A symbolic interactionist studying divorce would focus on how the changing meanings of marriage, divorce, parenthood, and love have all contributed to the increase in the rate of divorce in U.S. society.

3. The central idea of functional analysis is that society is a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together.

a) To understand society, we must look at both structure (how the parts of society fit together to make up the whole) and function (how each part contributes to society).

b) Robert Merton used the term “functions” to refer to the beneficial consequences of people’s actions to keep society stable, and “dysfunctions” to refer to consequences that undermine a system’s equilibrium. Functions can be either manifest (actions that are intended) or latent (unintended consequences).

c) In trying to explain divorce, a functionalist would look at how industrialization and urbanization both contributed to the changing function of marriage and the family.

4. According to conflict theory, society is composed of groups competing for scarce resources.

a) Karl Marx focused on struggles between the bourgeoisie (the small group of capitalists who own the means of production) and the proletariat (the masses of workers exploited by the capitalists).

i. Contemporary conflict theorists have expanded this perspective to include conflict in all relations of power and authority.

ii. Just as Marx examined conflict between capitalists and workers, many feminists analyze conflict between men and women.

iii. Divorce is seen as the outcome of the shifting balance of power within a family; as women have gained power and try to address inequalities in their relationships, men resist.

5. Each perspective provides a different and often sharply contrasting picture of the world. However, sociologists often use all three perspectives because no one theory or level of analysis encompasses all of reality.

6. The perspectives differ in their level of analysis. Functionalists and conflict theorists provide macro-level analysis because they examine the large-scale patterns of society. Symbolic interactionists carry out micro-level analysis because they focus on the smallscale patterns of social life.

H. Trends Shaping the Future of Sociology

1.8 Explain how research versus social reform and globalization are likely to influence sociology.

1. To understand the tension between social reform and social analysis, sociologists have found it useful to divide sociology into three phases.

a) In the first phase, which lasted until the 1920s, the primary concern of sociologists was to improve society.

b) During the second phase, from the 1920s until the 1960s, sociologists focused on developing abstract knowledge.

c) In the third (current) phase, sociologists seek ways to apply their research findings.

d) Despite being able to identify three phases, each of which has been characterized by a different position on reform versus analysis, consensus has never been complete on which approach is better.

2. Globalization is a second major trend destined to leave its mark on sociology.

a) Globalization is the breaking down of national boundaries because of advances in communications, trade, and travel.

b) Globalization is likely to broaden the scope of sociological analysis as sociologists look beyond the boundaries of the United States in considering global issues.

3. Globalization is one of the most significant events in world history. This book stresses the impact of globalization on our lives today.

Figures

1.1: Suicides of Americans Ages 18–24

1.2: The Forgotten Sociologists

1.3: Comparing Basic and Applied Sociology

1.4: Pager’s call-backs

1.5: U.S. Marriage, U.S.

1.6: Western Marriage

1.7: The Research Model

1.8: The Experiment

Tables

1.1: Three Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology

1.2: How to Read a Table

1.3: Three Ways to Measure “Average”

1.4: Closed- and Open-Ended Questions

1.5: Cause, Effect, and Spurious Correlations

Journal Prompts/Shared Writing

J 1.1

Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective to Gender Discrimination

How do you think relations between men and women have changed since Harriet Martineau did her research?

J 1.2

Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Careers in Sociology

Which career in sociology discussed in this section do you find most appealing? Why?

J 1.3

Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Intersectionality

How have the social groups that you belong to shaped your ideas and behavior?

J 1.4

Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Values in Sociological Research

Have there every been any instances where you have found it difficult to be objective in your research?

J 1.5

Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Verstehen

Have you ever applied Verstehen? If so, how did it help you gain insight into other people’s behavior?

SW 1.1

Shared Writing: Theoretical Perspectives

Of the three theoretical perspectives, which one would you prefer to use if you were a sociologist? Why?

Special Features

 Down-to-Earth Sociology: An Updated Version of the Old Elephant Story

 Down-to-Earth Sociology: Enjoying a Sociology Quiz—Testing Your Common Sense

 Down-to-Earth Sociology: Testing Your Common Sense—Answers to the Sociology Quiz

 Down-to-Earth Sociology: Harriet Martineau and U.S. Customs: Listening to an Early Feminist

 Down-to-Earth Sociology: W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk

 Down-to-Earth Sociology: Careers in Sociology: What Applied Sociologists Do

 Cultural Diversity in the United States: Unanticipated Public Sociology: Studying Job Discrimination

Lecture Suggestions

 To understand peoples’ behavior, sociologists look at their social location in society. Ask students to identify the corners in life they occupy by describing their jobs, income, education, gender, race–ethnicity, health, and age. Have them explain how each of these elements influences their self-concept and behavior. Then have them select two or three elements to change (for example, gender and race–ethnicity) and describe what differences may exist in their self-concept and behavior if they occupied this social location.

 Using the symbolic interactionist perspective, have the students evaluate the sociology course and its instructor. They should identify the symbols that are a part of the course and the meanings that they each apply to those symbols. Initially, have the students make their own lists that include symbols and meanings and then share them with the class in a group discussion.

 The introduction of sociology as “the study of society” created a social upheaval in the nineteenth century that destroyed many traditions and social norms. Among these were challenges to religion and the divine right of kings. During the 1960s, the feminist perspective challenged other traditions such as the family and the role of women. What traditions and social norms in today’s society are being challenged in a similar manner?

 Herbert Spencer is credited with developing the “survival of the fittest” concept and the philosophic approach known as social Darwinism. The idea behind this approach was that societies evolve from primitive to civilized and that helping primitive societies interferes with the natural process of either evolving or becoming extinct. As an example, nations like the United States have for decades intervened in sub-Saharan African countries in an attempt to fight AIDS and end poverty with little success. Have students discuss their thoughts on this subject and whether aid to poor societies actually helps them or simply creates dependency.

 An issue that remains controversial among sociologists is the degree to which personal values should enter into research efforts. Ask students who support the pro-choice position and students who support the pro-life position to participate in a debate. Try to keep the numbers in each group approximately the same. Have each group research its position and then present it to the class. The rest of the class should then critique the presentations based on each group’s objectivity. Can people with a stake in a position objectively research that topic? Regardless of the presence or lack of objectivity, which side of the debate had the most support among students? If the results support the research that younger people subscribe to a more liberal ideology, then the pro-choice team should win the debate because its members will also lack objectivity and allow their own attitudes to affect their arguments.

Suggested Assignments

 Have students attend a local conference to observe the field from within the sociological community. Afterward, students could write a reflection on what they experienced and if any particular elements sparked their interest.

 Assign students to choose a film that illustrates one of the three sociological perspectives and to write a brief report on how that film illustrated the perspective. A few examples of the film and the perspective(s) it illustrates include Shrek (symbolic interactionism), Antz (functionalism), Titanic (the conflict perspective), or Apollo 13 (a case can be made for this film as illustrating any of the three perspectives). Other films may also be used, depending on their subject matter and plots.

 W. E. B. Du Bois was a forerunner in promoting racial equality. Have students write a paper that reflects how they think Du Bois would respond to the current state of race relations and what his reaction would be to the current NAACP if he were still alive.

Chapter 2: Culture

Chapter Summary

This chapter examines how culture shapes our orientation to life. Culture includes many components such as gestures, language, values, norms and sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos. Culture is not universal and varies according to time and place. Sociologists promote cultural relativism to understand and appreciate cultures other than our own. Subcultures and countercultures exist within cultures. Subcultures have their own cultures, but do not push against the mainstream culture. For example, teenagers could be considered a subculture. Countercultures, however, go against the mainstream culture. This chapter also discusses sociobiology and examines the relationship between genes and human behavior; most sociologists consider genes to be an inadequate explanation of behavior. The chapter ends with a discussion of technology and how it plays a crucial role in changing culture across space. With the increased flow of technology, cultural diffusion has increased, shifting cultural norms from one country to another. On the other hand, cultural lag occurs when a cultural practice lags behind a technological change. Conversely, cultural leveling describes the process of countries becoming more similar to one another culturally.

Learning Objectives

LO 2.1 Explain what culture is, how culture provides orientations to life, and what practicing cultural relativism means.

LO 2.2 Know the components of symbolic culture: gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos; also explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

LO 2.3 Distinguish between subcultures and countercultures.

LO 2.4 Discuss the major U.S. values and explain value clusters, value contradictions, value clashes, how values are lenses of perception, and ideal culture versus real culture.

LO 2.5 Explain what cultural universals are and why they do not seem to exist.

LO 2.6 Explain why most sociologists consider genes to be an inadequate explanation of human behavior.

LO 2.7 Explain how technology changes culture and what cultural lag and cultural leveling are.

Chapter Outline

A. What Is Culture?

2.1 Explain what culture is, how culture provides orientations to life, and what practicing cultural relativism means.

1. The concept of culture is sometimes easier to grasp by description than by definition. All human groups possess culture, which consists of the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects passed from one generation to the next.

2. Culture can be subdivided into material culture and nonmaterial culture.

a) Material culture—things such as jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, machines, clothing, and hairstyles.

b) Nonmaterial culture—a group’s ways of thinking (including beliefs, values, and assumptions) and common patterns of behavior (including language and other forms of interaction).

3. Culture provides a taken-for-granted orientation to life.

a) We assume that our own culture is “normal” or “natural”; in fact, it is not natural, but rather is learned. It penetrates our lives so deeply that we take it for granted, and it provides the lens through which we perceive and evaluate things.

b) It provides implicit instructions that tell us what we ought to do and a moral imperative that defines what we think is right and wrong.

c) Coming into contact with a radically different culture produces culture shock, which challenges our basic assumptions.

d) An important consequence of culture within us is ethnocentrism, using our own culture (and assuming it to be good, right, and even superior) to judge other cultures. It is functional when it creates in-group loyalties but can be dysfunctional if it leads to discrimination against those who are different.

4. Although all groups practice some forms of ethnocentrism, people can also employ cultural relativism, the practice of understanding a culture on its own terms without assessing its elements as any better or worse than one’s own culture.

a) Because we tend to use our own culture as the standard, cultural relativism presents a challenge to ordinary thinking.

b) At the same time, this view helps us appreciate other ways of life.

c) Robert Edgerton suggested developing a scale for evaluating cultures on their “quality of life.” He argued that those cultural practices that result in exploitation should be judged as morally inferior to those that enhance people’s lives.

B. Components of Symbolic Culture

2.2 Know the components of symbolic culture: gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos; also explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

1. Sociologists sometimes refer to nonmaterial culture as symbolic culture, because symbols are the central component of nonmaterial culture. Symbols include gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores.

2. Gestures, or using one’s body to communicate with others, are shorthand means of conveying messages without using words.

a) People in every culture use gestures, although gestures and their meanings differ; confusion or offense can result because of misunderstandings over the meaning or misuse of a gesture.

b) Experts disagree over whether any universal gestures exist. They tend to vary considerably around the world.

3. Language consists of a system of symbols that can be put together in an infinite number of ways to communicate abstract thought. Each word is a symbol to which a culture

attaches a particular meaning. Language is important because it is the primary means of communication between people.

a) It allows human experience to be cumulative; each generation builds on the body of significant experiences that is passed on to it by the previous generation, thus freeing people to move beyond immediate experiences.

b) It provides a social or shared past. We are able to discuss past events with others.

c) It provides a social or shared future. Language allows us to plan activities with one another.

d) It allows shared perspectives (i.e., ideas about events and experiences).

e) It allows shared, goal-directed behavior. Common understandings enable us to establish a purpose for getting together.

4. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that not only does language express our thinking and perception, but language actually shapes them because we are taught not only words but also a particular way of thinking and perceiving. Rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, our very language determines our consciousness.

5. Values are the standards by which people define good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Every group develops expectations regarding the “right” way to reflect its values.

6. Norms are the expectations of “right” behavior that develop out of a group’s values.

7. Sanctions are the positive or negative reactions to the way people follow norms. Positive sanctions (a money reward, a prize, a smile, or even a handshake) are expressions of approval; negative sanctions (getting fired, a frown, or harsh words) denote disapproval for breaking a norm.

8. To relieve the pressure of having to strictly follow the norms, some cultures have moral holidays—specified times when people are allowed to break the norms and not worry about being sanctioned. Mardi Gras is an example of a moral holiday in our society.

9. Some societies have moral holiday places, locations where norms are expected to be broken. An example would be red-light districts where prostitutes are allowed to work the streets.

10. Folkways are norms that are not strictly enforced, such as passing on the left side of the sidewalk. Breaking them may result in a dirty look.

11. Mores are norms a culture believes to be essential to core values and therefore insists on conformity to them. A person who steals, rapes, or kills has violated some of society’s most important mores.

12. Norms that one group considers to be folkways another group may view as mores. A male walking down the street with the upper half of his body uncovered may be violating a folkway; a female doing the same thing may be violating a more.

13. Taboos are norms so strongly ingrained that even the thought of them is greeted with revulsion. Eating human flesh and having sex with one’s parents are examples of such behavior and tend to span cultural boundaries.

C. Many Cultural Worlds

2.3 Distinguish between subcultures and countercultures.

1. Subcultures are groups whose values and related behaviors distinguish its members from the larger culture.

a) Each subculture is a world within the larger world of the dominant culture. It has a distinctive way of looking at life, but remains compatible with the dominant culture.

b) U.S. society contains thousands of subcultures. Some are quite broad (teenagers), while others are narrow (body builders). Some ethnic groups form subcultures, as do certain occupational groups.

2. Countercultures are groups whose norms, beliefs, and values place it in opposition with the broader culture.

a) While usually associated with negative behavior, some countercultures are not.

b) The dominant culture often perceives countercultures as a threat because they challenge the culture’s values; for this reason, the dominant culture will move against a particular counterculture to affirm its own core values. For example, the Mormons challenged the dominant culture’s core value of monogamy and were driven out of several states before settling in Utah.

D. Values in U.S. Society

2.4 Discuss the major U.S. values and explain value clusters, value contradictions, value clashes, how values are lenses of perception, and ideal culture versus real culture.

1. Because the United States is a pluralistic society made up of many different groups, competing value systems are common. Some sociologists, however, have tried to identify some underlying core values in the United States.

a) Sociologist Robin Williams identified ten core values: individualism (success due to individual effort); achievement and success (especially, doing better than others); hard work; efficiency and practicality; science and technology (using science to control nature); material comfort; freedom; democracy; equality (especially of opportunity); and group superiority.

b) Henslin updated Williams’s list by adding education, religiosity (belief in a Supreme Being and following some set of matching precepts), and romantic love.

2. Some values conflict with each other. Full expressions of democracy, equality, racism, and sexism cannot exist at the same time. These are value contradictions, and, as society changes, some values are challenged and undergo modification.

3. Values are not independent units; value clusters are made up of related core values that come together to form a larger whole. In the value cluster surrounding success, for example, we find hard work, education, material comfort, and individualism all bound together.

4. A cluster emerging in response to fundamental changes in U.S. society is made up of the values of leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, and youthfulness. Another emerging value is concern for the environment.

a) The emergence of leisure is reflected in the huge recreation industry that exists today.

b) Self-fulfillment is expressed through the “human potential” movement and by the popularity of self-help books and talk shows.

c) While physical fitness is not a new value, it is emphasized more today, as evidenced by the interest in organic foods, weight, and diet, and the growth in the number of health clubs and physical fitness centers.

d) Today, being young has taken on a new urgency, perhaps because of the generation of aging baby boomers who are trying to deny or at least postpone their biological fate.

e) Our history suggests a lack of concern for the environment; the environment was generally viewed as a challenge to be overcome. However, today a genuine concern exists for protecting the environment.

5. Change is seen as a threat to the established way of life, something that will undermine people’s present and their future. Today’s clash in values is often so severe that the term “culture wars” has been coined to refer to it.

6. Values and their supporting beliefs may blind people to other social circumstances. Success stories blind many people in the United States to the dire consequences of family poverty, lack of education, and dead-end jobs.

7. Ideal culture refers to the values, norms, and goals that a group considers ideal. What people actually do usually falls short of this ideal, and sociologists refer to the norms and values that people actually follow as real culture

E. Cultural Universals

2.5 Explain what cultural universals are and why they do not seem to exist.

1. Cultural universals are values, norms, or other cultural traits that are found in every group.

2. Although many human activities are universal, there is no universally accepted way of doing any of them.

a) Anthropologist George Murdock concluded that all human groups share certain cultural universals: customs about courtship, cooking, marriage, funerals, games, laws, music, myths, incest taboos, and toilet training are present in all cultures.

b) Even so, the specific customs differ from one group to another. For example, there is no universal form of the family, no universal way of disposing of the dead, and no universal method of toilet training. Even incest is defined differently from group to group.

F. Sociobiology and Human Behavior

2.6 Explain why most sociologists consider genes to be an inadequate explanation of human behavior.

1. Sociobiologists argue that, as a result of natural selection, the basic cause of human behavior is biology.

a) Just as the physical characteristics and instinctual behavior of animals are the result of natural selection (i.e., those genetic traits that aid in survival tend to become common to a species, while those that do not tend to disappear), so is human behavior.

b) Edward Wilson has argued that religion, competition and cooperation, slavery and genocide, war and peace, and envy and altruism can all be explained by sociobiology.

c) Most sociologists reject this claim. Unlike other species, humans are capable of reasoning and abstract thought.

G. Technology in the Global Village

2.7 Explain how technology changes culture and what cultural lag and cultural leveling are.

1. Central to a group’s material culture is its technology. In its simplest sense, technology can be equated with tools. In its broadest sense, technology also includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools.

a) The emerging technologies of an era that make a major impact on human life are referred to as new technologies. The printing press and the computer are both examples of new technologies.

b) The sociological significance of technology is that it sets the framework for the nonmaterial culture, influencing the way people think and how they relate to one another.

2. Not all parts of culture change at the same pace; “cultural lag” was William Ogburn’s term for material culture changing first and nonmaterial culture lagging behind.

3. Although for most of human history cultures have had little contact with one another, there has always been some contact among groups, resulting in groups learning from one another.

a) This transmission of cultural characteristics is called cultural diffusion; it is more likely to produce changes in material culture than in nonmaterial culture.

b) Cultural diffusion occurs more rapidly today, given the technology.

c) Travel and communication unite the world to such an extent that the “other side of the world” has all but disappeared. This is leading to cultural leveling, where cultures become similar to one another.

Figures

2.1: Gestures to Indicate Heights, Southern Mexico

Tables None

Journal Prompts/Shared Writing

J 2.1

Journal Prompt: Apply It to Your Life: Core Values

List your three most important values. Explain how you learned each. Then explain how each value is related to some other value (is part of a value cluster).

J 2.2

Journal Prompt: Apply It to Your Life: Cultural Relativity

What is your opinion about eating toasted ants? Beetles? Flies? Fried frog legs? Cod sperm? Maggot cheese? About eating puppies and kittens? About eating brains scooped out of a living monkey? If you were reared in U.S. society, more than likely you think that eating frog legs is okay; eating ants or flies is disgusting; and eating cod sperm, maggot cheese, monkey brains, and cats and dogs is downright repugnant. How would you apply the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism to your perceptions of these customs?

J 2.3

Journal Prompt: Apply It to Your Life: Race and Language

What terms do you use to refer to your race–ethnicity? What “bad” terms do you know that others have used to refer to your race–ethnicity?

J 2.4

Journal Prompt: Apply It to Your Life: Why the Dead Need Money

How has your culture shaped your ideas about death and the relationship of the dead and the living?

J 2.5

Journal Prompt: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Artificial Intelligence

Do you think there is any possibility that computers could take over the world? If not, why do you think that some of the most intelligent people in the world have begun to warn us of this possibility?

SW 2.1

Shared Writing: Subcultures

What subculture are you a member of? Why do you think that your group is a subculture and not a counterculture? What is your group’s relationship to the mainstream culture?

Special Features

 Cultural Diversity around the World: Why the Dead Need Money

 Cultural Diversity around the World: You Are What You Eat? An Exploration in Cultural Relativity

 Standards of Beauty

 Cultural Diversity in the United States: Race and Language: Searching for Self-Labels

 Looking at Subcultures

 Thinking Critically about Social Life: Are We Prisoners of Our Genes?

 Sociology and the New Technology: When Tradition Meets Technology: The Bride Price

Lecture Suggestions

 Ask students to provide specific examples of how the material cultures in China, Iran, and Ethiopia may differ from the material culture in the United States. Where do they obtain the information they have about the material cultures in China, Iran, and Ethiopia? Then ask them how much confidence they have in their sources of information, and why. In considering this last point, have students think about and discuss the ways a “source” country’s own material and nonmaterial culture might consciously and/or unconsciously distort the information it provides about another country’s culture.

 Examining the concept of ethnocentrism, ask students to list some of the groups to which they currently belong. Then have them identify the ethnocentric tendencies of these groups and discuss in what ways these ethnocentric tendencies may be functional and/or dysfunctional to the group as a whole and its members in particular.

 Send students on a scavenger hunt throughout campus to search for elements of culture. When they return, have them connect what they found with the material from the chapter. They can then synthesize this information into a general statement about the culture of their campus. Have students share and compare their discoveries.

 Considering the concept of culture shock, ask students to share an instance or instances when an encounter with a significantly different culture challenged their cultural assumptions. In

which ways did the culture shock force them to reevaluate or change their own ways of thinking? Did the effects of the culture shock lead to any long-lasting and/or profound changes in their own cultural attitudes and, if so, do they now view those changes as a positive or negative experience?

 Have students list some norms, folkways, and mores of American society. Then discuss the importance of these in American culture. Do any of them seem silly, irrelevant, and so on? If their parents/grandparents were to make this list, would it look the same or different? What do these differences imply about the social changes that have taken place in our society? Has cultural leveling influenced any of these changes?

Suggested Assignments

 Ask students to log on to the internet and connect to three major newspapers available online from countries other than the United States. Have them spend at least fifteen minutes per paper examining as many features, stories, and advertisements as they can. From their examination, ask them if they can deduce any core values of the countries where the newspapers are published. Furthermore, ask them to consider how those core values may or may not differ from some of the “American” core values identified by Robin Williams and James Henslin. Then have students report their findings to the class while discussing to what extent newspapers, as examples of material culture, may or may not be indicative of their producing society’s nonmaterial culture.

 Require each student to attend a cultural activity of an ethnic or racial group apart from their own and write a short paper on their impression of the experience. Students should record all the observations of material and nonmaterial culture they can observe.

 Have students participate in or lead a multicultural event. They could prepare different foods, generate lists of diverse music, provide examples of artwork from many cultures, and so on.

Chapter 3: Socialization

Chapter Summary

This chapter explores different ideas and theories as to how we are socialized from birth to adulthood. The chapter starts with the debate between nature and nurture, suggesting that socialization is a combination of the two and that extreme cases such as feral children can provide insight into the socialization process. The chapter then explores Cooley’s idea of looking-glass self, Mead’s theory of role taking, and Piaget’s theory regarding reasoning to further explain our socialization. Then it discusses how the development of personality and morality and socialization into emotions are part of how society makes someone human. It then focuses on socialization into gender, the different agents of socialization, such as family, neighborhood, religious organizations, day care, school, peer groups, mass media, and the workplace. The section on resocialization discusses how over our lives we experience the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors, which can also occur in total institutions, such as prisons or the military, where resocialization is slightly more extreme. The chapter also examines the life course and how we experience different socialization throughout it. The chapter ends by examining how socialization is not predetermined and we are not prisoners of socialization.

Learning Objectives

LO 3.1 Explain how feral, isolated, and institutionalized children help us understand that “society makes us human.”

LO 3.2 Use the ideas and research of Cooley (looking-glass self), Mead (role taking), and Piaget (reasoning) to explain socialization into the self and mind.

LO 3.3 Explain how the development of personality and morality and socialization into emotions are part of how “society makes us human.”

LO 3.4 Discuss how gender messages from the family, peers, and the mass media teach us society’s gender map.

LO 3.5 Explain how the family, the neighborhood, religion, day care, school, peer groups, and the workplace are agents of socialization.

LO 3.6 Explain what total institutions are and how they resocialize people.

LO 3.7 Identify major divisions of the life course, and discuss the sociological significance of the life course.

LO 3.8 Understand why we are not prisoners of socialization.