Lessons of Sociology
1) Ever-Present Hierarchy
2) Think like a Sociologist Using Critical Thinking
3) The Value of Theory and Research
4) We are Products of Our Environment
5) Social Movements: The Power of the People
You have been in this class for a few short weeks. You had a very brief overview of sociology, and how to use it as a tool to observe and explain human behavior, societal changes, and how those two intersect and influence one another.
In these few weeks, you have read and been examined on:
1) The sociological imagination and sociological perspective
2) Sociological research and how sociologists collect data to answer important questions about society and people
3) Culture – what is culture and how does it influence everything about what we do and become.
4) The social structure – what is the structure, how does it change and how do the changes shape people’s outcomes
5) Socialization – how do we learn culture, why do we learn culture, and what are the consequences of learning the culture we are surrounded by.
6) Social class and social stratification – how does how much money we have and how much money we don’t have shape almost EVERYTHING about how we interact with the culture we are in? What are the consequences of the social class we are born into and grow up in. Can we change our social class? Does everyone change their social class? How do we change our social class?
7) Race/ethnicity and gender/sexuality – these are identities that long created the haves and have-nots in society, and sociologists argue it is not because there is something inherently wrong with one race or another, or one gender or another. The inequality was reinforced and caused a sedimentation of privilege and disadvantage because of an oppressive social structure that included attitudes, principles, views, laws, practices and actions that valued some groups over others.
8) Social change and social movements (chapter 21) – social change happens, and it happens every day. Some social change is very positive, and some is very negative. All social change happens because of the actions of people, or the inactions of people. People are needed to make changes in society. So, society does not change us only. We change society, also. We are not rendered helpless by society. We are also empowered to be agents of change to make the society we wish to be part of. In small ways, or big ways, social change, has always been the product of people deciding and acting to change family, religion, schools, their political system, their culture (fashion, beliefs, music, art, etc.), cars, work, pollution, food, racism, immigration, technology, etc.
REFLECTION PAPER QUESTIONS/PROMPT (must answer all bullets below)
Explain which chapter in the book personally resonated with you the most? Why?
Of the five lessons (see them in blue above), which two lessons do you believe are the most important and why? Give two personal and/or other examples (from a movie or book you read) that illustrate or evidence your response
In the future, which lesson will be the most beneficial tool as an observer/analyzer of the society you live in. Explain your answer.
