Sociology as Science
Amy is the head chef at Gordon Ramsay's restaurant. As the head chef, she is always looking for ways to improve her line cooks' productivity. Amy has noticed that her line cooks always make food faster when Gordon Ramsay is in the kitchen.
What is reactivity?
Alfonso is a member of the working class, and he watches his local news station. During tonight's broadcast, a story about the philanthropic works of a local factory owner is featured. Alfonso believes that this story is only getting attention because it benefits the rich, while the real problems of the working class get ignored.
What is Conflict Theory?
George loves America. He thinks that American culture is the best culture that has ever existed, and he is very judgmental about practices from other cultures that differ from America.
What is Ethnocentrism?
Levi invited a new member of his soccer team over to his house during the weekend. His parents are on vacation, so this is the perfect time for them to hang out, eat junk food, and practice soccer together. Levi wants to make his new friend comfortable and prepare him for what his new soccer team expects.
What is Informal Socialization?
Dr. Pruit has conducted research by sitting in a children's classroom for over a year. He made observations and took notes on the kids' day to day behaviors and the overall culture of the classroom. He compiled this information into a narrative report.
What is an Ethnography?
Juan is conducting an experiment to see which species of sheep has the whitest wool. To do this, he needs to construct an experiment that actually tests the whiteness of a sheep's wool and does not produce unrealistic data (e.g., telling him that the sheep's wool is pink).
What is Validity?
Wallace was raised by his biological parents, a man and a woman. He also has a sister. His parents were married, and they cared for Wallace and his sister until they were able to take care of themselves. Now Wallace is planning to get married to a woman, and he hopes to start his own family with her.
What is a Social Structure?
Waving your hand at someone, the "ok" hand sign, the color red.
What are Symbols?
Mary was raised catholic, and her parents decide to send her to a catholic school. Girls and boys are kept separate in Catholic schools, and there are often different schools entirely for boys than girls. Mary gets sent to an all-girl school, and has very few social interactions with boys as she grows up. She is taught things specific to her being a girl that do not apply to boys, like girls wear skirts that must be at least fingertip length.
What is Differential Socialization?
Sally is a Christian, but she believes that people should focus on this life instead of the next. She thinks people should approach life problems rationally, and that hard work is the key to success.
What is The Protestant Ethic?
Charlie is conducting an experiment to determine if mice will run faster through a tube if cheese is placed at the end of it. The independent variable for this experiment is the presence of cheese. Charlie gathers 5 mice and places them into the tube with cheese at the end of it.
What is Experimental Group?
John works 10 hours a day for minimum wage at McDonalds. He doesn't own property, he doesn't have access to debt, and he lives paycheck to paycheck. Jeanie works 8 hours a day as a social media consultant for Walmart. She receives a salary and lives relatively comfortably, but she does not own property or any means of production.
What is the Proletariat?
The telephone was invented in 1876. This new innovation allowed for instant, verbal communication across large distances. Despite this, many businesses and people kept sending letters or traveling long distances to send a message to someone far away.
What is Cultural Lag?
Martha recently had a baby. She notices that as the baby grows, it seems to go through different phases of social development. First, the baby would mostly imitate the people nearby. Then, Martha's baby became a toddler, and would seem to start understanding Martha's point of view. As the toddler became a child, Martha saw the kid consider the thoughts and feelings of many other children it was playing with. Now that Martha is feeling old, her child has become capable of taking on the attitudes of society at large.
What is Mead's Stages of Socialization?
Everyone who attends SI comes for different reasons, but everyone agrees that they are there to learn. They share that understanding of the situation.
What is Negotiated Order?
Gwen is conducting a survey on how many people identify as homosexual in the middle east, where being homosexual is illegal in many countries. Gwen decides to only call members of government in Saudi Arabia to conduct the survey.
What is Sampling Bias?
Brad and Jenny are madly in love. They have run away to the courthouse and are getting a marriage certificate. After they are officially married, Brad tells Jenny that he thinks getting a piece of paper to "officially" love each other forever is silly. Jenny reminds Brad that marriage is important because it makes their love official to everyone else.
What is a Social Fact?
Survivalists are a group of people who believe that the end of the world is always near, and it is best to prepare for the worst. They stockpile food and weapons in anticipation of the apocalypse. They tend to reject the dominant beliefs that people should work together and society is relatively stable.
What is Counterculture?
At Lufkin High School, different classes are available for children with different academic abilities and goals. The STEM program is for "advanced" kids who will likely go on to college. The academic program is for kids who are average and probably will not go on to college.
What is Tracking?
Hugh loves to travel. He has been to every continent and visited many countries. Throughout his travels, Hugh notices that while the particulars differ, all of the cultures he has interacted with have music, religion, and games.
What are Cultural Universals?
Alice is a STEM major at SFA. She was recently talking to a Sociology Major about their respective fields of study. During this conversation, Alice learned that the processes she uses in the natural sciences can be applied to the social sciences that her friend is studying.
What is Positivism?
Nancy is an African-American living in America. She has been reading the works of a person who described experiences she is all too familiar with. She feels a conflict between two of her identities that are both important but at odds with each other. She is frustrated with the seeming inability of other people she knows to see through their attitudes and prejudices against black people. She decides this person is her new hero.
What is W.E.B. Du Bois?
Matt has recently learned a really cool fact. In ancient Greece, they had a word for the color green but no word for the color blue. To those ancient greeks, the grass, the ocean, tree leaves, and the sky were all different shades of green. Matt realizes that language can effect our experiences.
What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?
Nathan is getting dressed in the morning. As he is picking out his clothes for the day, he considers what others might think of him based on his choices. He would like to wear a skirt, but he knows this would not go over well socially despite him not personally knowing anyone that would treat him differently for wearing a skirt.
What is Generalized Other?
Brett was raised in the southern US, so he was raised to be friendly and polite to strangers. It was common in his hometown for strangers to smile at each other on the street. When Brett travels to Europe, he continues to smile at strangers. However, in Europe, Brett finds that his smiles are met with strange looks. Brett comes to the rational conclusion that smiling at strangers is not culturally common in Europe, so he stops smiling at strangers until he returns home.
What is Verstehen?