Transcript An introduction to Sociology?

An introduction to
Sociology?
What is Sociology?
Sociology comes from two words - ‘SOCIO’
referring to society and ‘-LOGY’ meaning
science.
 Therefore sociology literally means the
SCIENCE OF SOCIETY. To be more specific,
SOCIOLOGY IS THE STUDY OF PEOPLE IN
SOCIETY.
 OUR LIVES ARE SHARED WITH OTHERS
AND SHAPED BY THE SOCIETY IN WHICH
WE LIVE.

Getting you thinking
How might your life have been different
if you were:
 Born 200 years ago
 Born into an wealthy aristocratic family
 Born in a less developed country such as
Ghana.
This should have demonstrated
to you that society effects
who we are, how we think,
and our life chances
What is culture?

We are all born into and live in a culture. A culture is
a whole way of life of a group of people.

It includes behaviour that we have learned, that is
shared ways of doing things. These are different in
different cultures. For example, in some cultures it
is normal to eat with your hands, in others with
chopsticks and yet in others with a knife and fork.

Having a culture makes us fully human- this can be
seen from the examples of children who have not
belonged to a culture.
Feral children


One famous example of feral children is that of two infant girls who
were lost in the jungle in India, in about 1918. The girls had been
found living with wolves, in a cave-like den. The older girl was 6 or
7 years old and the other, who died a year later, perhaps a year
younger.
When captured, the girls were like animals. They were naked and
ran in a sort of stooped crouch.. They did not display any
characteristically human qualities. They did not know how to make
a shelter. They did not walk upright. They did not laugh. They did
not sing. They did not show any affection or attraction or curiosity
towards humans. But what is especially striking is that the girls
used no language. They used no noises or gestures to
communicate. They preferred to eat with the dogs in the
compound, who seemed to accept them. They ate by pushing
their faces into the food, the way dogs do, and they drank by
lapping from a bowl.
Getting you thinking

So, a culture is the whole set of beliefs and
guidelines as to how people ought to behave in any
society.

It includes the way we dress, what we eat, the
language we speak, our leisure interests, our
religion etc..The majority of people in any society
regard the culture as natural and normal.
Think about British culture, what are the different
elements of our culture
E.g. we speak English
 There
is no such thing as ‘normal’
behaviour or ‘abnormal’ behaviour for
human beings.
 Whenever you study another society
rather than thinking how weird/ silly /
strange their behaviour is, remember
that to the members of that society, it
is as sensible and normal as our own
seems to us.
Norms
 NORMS
are the normal, expected
patterns of behaviour which we ought to
follow in everyday life if we are to be
considered ‘normal’.
Getting you thinking
For example, ‘norms’ are very important in a
classroom.


What norms have you followed today?
How did you learn these norms?
What norms apply in the following situations?
 The waiting room of a doctor’s surgery
 At a party with your teenage friends
 In a lift full of people
Values
 Values
are beliefs about what is right
and wrong. They stress how we should
behave. For example, because we hold a
belief that human life is sacred, a shared
value is that it’s wrong to hurt people.
Therefore we have laws against fighting
and murder.
Getting you thinking
Another shared value in Britain is that
people have the right to privacy and
personal space.
 How
do you think this value affects the
way we behave, that is the norms in our
society?
How do we learn to fit in?
 Socialisation
is the learning of norms
and values. It is a lifelong process that
can be seen to have two stages:
 Primary socialisation is the learning of
norms and values that takes place in
early life, usually within the family by
parents. For example, parents teach their
children how to eat with a knife and fork,
how to use a toilet.
Getting you thinking
 Secondary
socialisation is the later
stage of learning norms and values.
There are a number of institutions that
carry out secondary socialisation. These
are called the agencies of socialisation.
For example:
 Education- think about schools, how are
students taught to fit into society and be
productive workers?