QuestionSOCS185 Culture and Society

SOCS185 Culture and Society

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

Sociologist C. Wright Mills preferred to call the sociological perspective “the sociological imagination” and he saw it transforming personal troubles into public issues. Let’s begin our discussion this week by considering homelessness. Why are a high percentage of the homeless veterans? What situations might be a cause in someone being homeless? Use the sociological imagination to explain your observations, and how the sociological imagination helps us consider the causes and possible solutions to homelessness.

DQ2 STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

In 1971, Philip Zimbardo’s experiment demonstrated the power of the situation and the interaction between social interaction and social structure. There are many videos of the experiment, search two or three videos on internet to see different perspectives about this experiment. After viewing the videos, if you had been a guard, do you think you would have been more likely to go along with the other guards or would you have resisted or spoken up about treating the prisoners the way you would have wanted to be treated if the roles had been reversed?

SOCS185 Culture and Society

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1 THE CHANGING MEANING OF SYMBOLS

Symbols can have more than one meaning.

The battle flag of the Confederate States of America is viewed by some as the rebel flag and is a symbol for individualism against authority. To others, it is a powerful symbol of repression, hate, and slavery.

Someone wearing the hat or jersey of their favorite team might be perceived as a gang member (friend or foe) because of the symbolic meaning of the colors to another group.

What examples can you think of where symbols can have more than one meaning?

DQ2 THE GAMES CHILDREN PLAY…

In the article, “Games Children Play: An Exercise Illustrating Agents of Socialization” (Teaching Sociology, 26, April, 1998: 130-139). Davita Silfen Glasberg, Florence Maatita, Barbara Nangle, and Tracy Schauer pointed out that most introductory sociology textbooks identify the main socialization agents as family, peers, schools, media, work, and religion. “…what is far less often acknowledged is the contribution that children’s toys and games play in representing and reinforcing dominant conceptions of ‘appropriate’ social identities found in social discourse and in institutional arrangements.” Toys and games can allow us to experience the subtleties of race, class, gender, and political socialization that are embedded in play. Sometimes players may challenge and subvert these images and messages at the delight or disgust of other players.

What toys did you have as a child that you think of as agents of socialization? How did you use toys to understand relationships or prepare for new ones?

SOCS185 Culture and Society

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENTS

The Milgram experiments on obedience to authority, discussed in chapter five were conducted with groups of subjects who had not met before the experimental session. Here is a brief video from the original experiment:

Milgram Experiment (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Do you think that groups of people who already knew each other would demonstrate more or less conformity if placed in these experimental situations? What if the teachers were men and the learners were women? Would teenagers conform the same as adults?

DQ2 SEXUALITY AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

How could sexuality play a part in social inequality? Watch the following video:

Girl’s Self-Esteem (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Does society hold women to a different set of expectations than they do for men?

SOCS185 Culture and Society

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 SOCIAL MOBILITY

Has your family experienced significant upward or downward mobility over the past three or four generations? How do you think your values and behavior might differ had you experienced the opposite pattern of mobility? How might it have been different had your family been of a different ethnic or racial origin?

DQ2 PERCEPTIONS OF DEVIANCE

One of the more interesting topics of study is the area of deviance and social control. Choose a form of deviance with which you are familiar (not necessarily something you’ve done, but something someone you know did) and discuss why society views that behavior as deviant and whether perceptions of that behavior have changed over time. Explain which theory of deviance you think works best for understanding the deviant behavior you’ve chosen to discuss.

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