Ms.

Nataly Pineda Castañeda

Sociology 12th grade

SOCIOLOGY
 AN INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
McGivern, W. L. (s.f.). Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition. Recuperado el 25 de Junio de 2021, de
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter1-an-introduction-to-sociology/

Figure. Sociologists study how society affects people and how people affect society. How does being in a crowd affect people’s
behaviour? (Photo courtesy of PDerek Hatfield/wikimedia commons)

Concerts, sports games, and political rallies can have very large crowds. When you attend one of these
events, you may know only the people you came with. Yet you may experience a feeling of connection

to the group. You are one of the crowd. You cheer and applaud when everyone else does. You boo and

yell alongside them. You move out of the way when someone needs to get by, and you say “excuse
me” when you need to leave. You know how to behave in this kind of crowd.

It can be a very different experience if you are travelling in a foreign country and find yourself in a crowd

moving down the street. You may have trouble figuring out what is happening. Is the crowd just the
usual morning rush, or is it a political protest of some kind? Perhaps there was some sort of accident or

disaster. Is it safe in this crowd, or should you try to extract yourself? How can you find out what is
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going on? Although you are in it, you may not feel like you are part of this crowd. You may not know

what to do or how to behave.

Even within one type of crowd, different groups exist and different behaviours are on display. At a rock
concert, for example, some may enjoy singing along, others may prefer to sit and observe, while still

others may join in a mosh pit or try crowd surfing. On February 28, 2010, Sydney Crosby scored the
winning goal against the United States team in the gold medal hockey game at the Vancouver Winter

Olympics. Two hundred thousand jubilant people filled the streets of downtown Vancouver to celebrate
and cap off two weeks of uncharacteristically vibrant, joyful street life in Vancouver. Just over a year
later, on June 15, 2011, the Vancouver Canucks lost the seventh hockey game of the Stanley Cup finals
against the Boston Bruins. One hundred thousand people had been watching the game on outdoor

screens. Eventually 155,000 people filled the downtown streets. Rioting and looting led to hundreds of
injuries, burnt cars, trashed storefronts and property damage totaling an estimated $4.2 million. Why

was the crowd response to the two events so different?

Figure. People’s experiences of the post-Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver were very different. (Photo courtesy of Pasquale Borriello/flickr)

A key insight of sociology is that the simple fact of being in a group changes your behaviour. The group
is a phenomenon that is more than the sum of its parts. Why do we feel and act differently in different

types of social situations? Why might people of a single group exhibit different behaviours in the same
 4
situation? Why might people acting similarly not feel connected to others exhibiting the same

behaviour? These are some of the many questions sociologists ask as they study people and societies.

What Is Sociology?

Figure. Sociologists learn about society as a whole while studying one-to-one and group interactions. (Photo courtesy of Robert S.
Donovan/flickr)

A dictionary defines sociology as the systematic study of society and social interaction. The word

“sociology” is derived from the Latin word socius (companion) and the Greek word logos (speech or
reason), which together mean “reasoned speech about companionship”. How can the experience of

companionship or togetherness be put into words or explained? While this is a starting point for the
discipline, sociology is actually much more complex. It uses many different methods to study a wide

range of subject matter and to apply these studies to the real world.

The sociologist Dorothy Smith (1926 – ) defines the social as the “ongoing concerting and coordinating

of individuals’ activities” (Smith 1999). Sociology is the systematic study of all those aspects of life
designated by the adjective “social.” These aspects of social life never simply occur; they are organized

processes. They can be the briefest of everyday interactions—moving to the right to let someone pass
on a busy sidewalk, for example—or the largest and most enduring interactions—such as the billions
 5
of daily exchanges that constitute the circuits of global capitalism. If there are at least two people

involved, even in the seclusion of one’s mind, then there is a social interaction that entails the “ongoing
concerting and coordinating of activities.” Why does the person move to the right on the sidewalk?

What collective process lead to the decision that moving to the right rather than the left is normal?
Think about the T-shirts in your drawer at home. What are the sequences of linkages and social

relationships that link the T-shirts in your chest of drawers to the dangerous and hyper-exploitive
garment factories in rural China or Bangladesh? These are the type of questions that point to the unique

domain and puzzles of the social that sociology seeks to explore and understand.

What Are Society and Culture?

Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society. A society is a group of people whose members

interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture. A culture includes the group’s shared practices,
values, beliefs, norms and artifacts. One sociologist might analyze video of people from different

societies as they carry on everyday conversations to study the rules of polite conversation from different
world cultures. Another sociologist might interview a representative sample of people to see how email

and instant messaging have changed the way organizations are run. Yet another sociologist might study
how migration determined the way in which language spread and changed over time. A fourth

sociologist might study the history of international agencies like the United Nations or the International
Monetary Fund to examine how the globe became divided into a First World and a Third World after

the end of the colonial era.

These examples illustrate the ways society and culture can be studied at different levels of analysis, from

the detailed study of face-to-face interactions to the examination of large-scale historical processes
affecting entire civilizations. It is common to divide these levels of analysis into different gradations

based on the scale of interaction involved. As discussed in later chapters, sociologists break the study
of society down into four separate levels of analysis: micro, meso, macro, and global. The basic

distinction, however, is between micro-sociology and macro-sociology.

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The study of cultural rules of politeness in conversation is an example of micro-sociology. At the micro-

level of analysis, the focus is on the social dynamics of intimate, face-to-face interactions. Research is
conducted with a specific set of individuals such as conversational partners, family members, work

associates, or friendship groups. In the conversation study example, sociologists might try to determine
how people from different cultures interpret each other’s behaviour to see how different rules of

politeness lead to misunderstandings. If the same misunderstandings occur consistently in a number of

different interactions, the sociologists may be able to propose some generalizations about rules of

politeness that would be helpful in reducing tensions in mixed-group dynamics (e.g., during staff
meetings or international negotiations). Other examples of micro-level research include seeing how

informal networks become a key source of support and advancement in formal bureaucracies or how
loyalty to criminal gangs is established.

Macro-sociology focuses on the properties of large-scale, society-wide social interactions: the dynamics
of institutions, classes, or whole societies. The example above of the influence of migration on changing

patterns of language usage is a macro-level phenomenon because it refers to structures or processes

of social interaction that occur outside or beyond the intimate circle of individual social acquaintances.

These include the economic and other circumstances that lead to migration; the educational, media,
and other communication structures that help or hinder the spread of speech patterns; the class, racial,

or ethnic divisions that create different slangs or cultures of language use; the relative isolation or
integration of different communities within a population; and so on. Other examples of macro-level

research include examining why women are far less likely than men to reach positions of power in
society or why fundamentalist Christian religious movements play a more prominent role in American

politics than they do in Canadian politics. In each case, the site of the analysis shifts away from the
nuances and detail of micro-level interpersonal life to the broader, macro-level systematic patterns that

structure social change and social cohesion in society.

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The relationship between the micro and the macro remains one of the key problems confronting

sociology. The German sociologist Georg Simmel pointed out that macro-level processes are in fact
nothing more than the sum of all the unique interactions between specific individuals at any one time

(1908), yet they have properties of their own which would be missed if sociologists only focused on the
interactions of specific individuals. Émile Durkheim’s classic study of suicide (1897) is a case in point.

While suicide is one of the most personal, individual, and intimate acts imaginable, Durkheim
demonstrated that rates of suicide differed between religious communities—Protestants, Catholics, and

Jews—in a way that could not be explained by the individual factors involved in each specific case. The
different rates of suicide had to be explained by macro-level variables associated with the different

religious beliefs and practices of the faith communities. We will return to this example in more detail
later. On the other hand, macro-level phenomena like class structures, institutional organizations, legal

systems, gender stereotypes, and urban ways of life provide the shared context for everyday life but do
not explain its nuances and micro-variations very well. Macro-level structures constrain the daily

interactions of the intimate circles in which we move, but they are also filtered through localized
perceptions and “lived” in a myriad of inventive and unpredictable ways.

The Sociological Imagination

Although the scale of sociological studies and the methods of carrying them out are different, the
sociologists involved in them all have something in common. Each of them looks at society using what

pioneer sociologist C. Wright Mills called the sociological imagination, sometimes also referred to as
the “sociological lens” or “sociological perspective.” In a sense, this was Mills’ way of addressing the

dilemmas of the macro/micro divide in sociology. Mills defined sociological imagination as how

individuals understand their own and others’ pasts in relation to history and social structure (1959). It is
the capacity to see an individual’s private troubles in the context of the broader social processes that

structure them. This enables the sociologist to examine what Mills called “personal troubles of milieu”
as “public issues of social structure,” and vice versa.
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Mills reasoned that private troubles like being overweight, being unemployed, having marital

difficulties, or feeling purposeless or depressed can be purely personal in nature. It is possible for them
to be addressed and understood in terms of personal, psychological, or moral attributes, either one’s

own or those of the people in one’s immediate milieu. In an individualistic society like our own, this is
in fact the most likely way that people will regard the issues they confront: “I have an addictive

personality;” “I can’t get a break in the job market;” “My husband is unsupportive;” etc. However, if
private troubles are widely shared with others, they indicate that there is a common social problem that

has its source in the way social life is structured. At this level, the issues are not adequately understood
as simply private troubles. They are best addressed as public issues that require a collective response

to resolve.

Obesity, for example, has been increasingly recognized as a growing problem for both children and
adults in North America. Michael Pollan cites statistics that three out of five Americans are overweight

and one out of five is obese (2006). In Canada in 2012, just under one in five adults (18.4 percent) were

obese, up from 16 percent of men and 14.5 percent of women in 2003 (Statistics Canada 2013). Obesity
is therefore not simply a private trouble concerning the medical issues, dietary practices, or exercise

habits of specific individuals. It is a widely shared social issue that puts people at risk for chronic diseases
like hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It also creates significant social costs for the

medical system.

Pollan argues that obesity is in part a product of the increasingly sedentary and stressful lifestyle of
modern, capitalist society, but more importantly it is a product of the industrialization of the food chain,

which since the 1970s has produced increasingly cheap and abundant food with significantly more
calories due to processing. Additives like corn syrup, which are much cheaper to produce than natural

sugars, led to the trend of super-sized fast foods and soft drinks in the 1980s. As Pollan argues, trying
to find a processed food in the supermarket without a cheap, calorie-rich, corn-based additive is a

challenge. The sociological imagination in this example is the capacity to see the private troubles and
attitudes associated with being overweight as an issue of how the industrialization of the food chain
 9
has altered the human/environment relationship, in particular with respect to the types of food we eat

and the way we eat them.

By looking at individuals and societies and how they interact through this lens, sociologists are able to
examine what influences behaviour, attitudes, and culture. By applying systematic and scientific

methods to this process, they try to do so without letting their own biases and pre-conceived ideas
influence their conclusions.

Studying Patterns: How Sociologists View Society

All sociologists are interested in the experiences of individuals and how those experiences are shaped

by interactions with social groups and society as a whole. To a sociologist, the personal decisions an
individual makes do not exist in a vacuum. Cultural patterns and social forces put pressure on people

to select one choice over another. Sociologists try to identify these general patterns by examining the
behaviour of large groups of people living in the same society and experiencing the same societal

pressures.

Understanding the relationship between the individual and society is one of the most difficult

sociological problems, however. Partly this is because of the reified way these two terms are used in
everyday speech. Reification refers to the way in which abstract concepts, complex processes, or

mutable social relationships come to be thought of as “things.” A prime example of this is when people
say that “society” caused an individual to do something or to turn out in a particular way. In writing

essays, first-year sociology students sometimes refer to “society” as a cause of social behaviour or as
an entity with independent agency. On the other hand, the “individual” is a being that seems solid,

tangible, and independent of anything going on outside of the skin sack that contains its essence. This
conventional distinction between society and the individual is a product of reification in so far as both

society and the individual appear as independent objects. A concept of “the individual” and a concept
of “society” have been given the status of real, substantial, independent objects. As we will see in the
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chapters to come, society and the individual are neither objects, nor are they independent of one

another. An “individual” is inconceivable without the relationships to others that define his or her
internal subjective life and his or her external socially defined roles.

The problem for sociologists is that these concepts of the individual and society and the relationship

between them are thought of in terms established by a very common moral framework in modern
democratic societies, namely that of individual responsibility and individual choice. Often in this

framework, any suggestion that an individual’s behaviour needs to be understood in terms of that
person’s social context is dismissed as “letting the individual off” of taking personal responsibility for
their actions.

Talking about society is akin to being morally soft or lenient. Sociology, as a social science, remains

neutral on these type of moral questions. The conceptualization of the individual and society is much
more complex. The sociological problem is to be able to see the individual as a thoroughly social being

and yet as a being who has agency and free choice. Individuals are beings who do take on individual
responsibilities in their everyday social roles and risk social consequences when they fail to live up to

them. The manner in which they take on responsibilities and sometimes the compulsion to do so are
socially defined however. The sociological problem is to be able to see society as a dimension of
experience characterized by regular and predictable patterns of behaviour that exist independently of
any specific individual’s desires or self-understanding. Yet at the same time a society is nothing but the

ongoing social relationships and activities of specific individuals.

Video: What Is Sociology?: Crash Course Sociology #1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnCJU6PaCio
 11
Why study Sociology?
McGivern, W. L. (s.f.). Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition. Recuperado el 25 de Junio de 2021, de
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter1-an-introduction-to-sociology/

The prominent sociologist Peter L. Berger (1929– ), in his 1963 book Invitation to Sociology: A

Humanistic Perspective, describes a sociologist as “someone concerned with understanding society in

a disciplined way.” He asserts that sociologists have a natural interest in the monumental moments of

people’s lives, as well as a fascination with banal, everyday occurrences. Berger also describes the “aha”
moment when a sociological theory becomes applicable and understood:

[T]here is a deceptive simplicity and obviousness about some sociological investigations. One
reads them, nods at the familiar scene, remarks that one has heard all this before and don’t
people have better things to do than to waste their time on truisms—until one is suddenly
brought up against an insight that radically questions everything one had previously assumed
about this familiar scene. This is the point at which one begins to sense the excitement of
sociology (Berger 1963).

Sociology can be exciting because it teaches people ways to recognize how they fit into the world and
how others perceive them. Looking at themselves and society from a sociological perspective helps

people see where they connect to different groups based on the many different ways they classify
themselves and how society classifies them in turn. It raises awareness of how those classifications—

such as economic and status levels, education, ethnicity, or sexual orientation—affect perceptions.

Sociology teaches people not to accept easy explanations. It teaches them a way to organize their
thinking so that they can ask better questions and formulate better answers. It makes people more

aware that there are many different kinds of people in the world who do not necessarily think the way
they do. It increases their willingness and ability to try to see the world from other people’s perspectives.
This prepares them to live and work in an increasingly diverse and integrated world.
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Sociology prepares people for a wide variety of careers. Besides actually conducting social research or

training others in the field, people who graduate from college with a degree in sociology are hired by
government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and corporations in fields such as social

services, counselling (e.g., family planning, career, substance abuse), designing and evaluating social
policies and programs, health services, polling and independent research, market research, and human

resources management. Even a small amount of training in sociology can be an asset in careers like
sales, public relations, journalism, teaching, law, and criminal justice.

Video: Wisdom of Sociology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWD6g9CV_sc
 THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
Social theories draw the connections between seemingly disparate concepts
13
in order to help us understand the world around us.

Sociologists study social events, interactions, and patterns, and they develop a theory in an attempt to
explain why things work as they do. A sociological theory seeks to explain social phenomena. Theories

can be used to create a testable proposition, called a hypothesis, about society (Allan 2006).

Theories vary in scope depending on the scale of the issues that they are meant to explain. Macro-
level theories relate to large-scale issues and large groups of people, while micro-level theories look

at very specific relationships between individuals or small groups. Grand theories attempt to explain
large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they

change. Sociological theory is constantly evolving and should never be considered complete. Classic
sociological theories are still considered important and current, but new sociological theories build

upon the work of their predecessors and add to them (Calhoun 2002).

In sociology, a few theories provide broad perspectives that help explain many different aspects of

social life, and these are called paradigms. Paradigms are philosophical and theoretical frameworks
used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in

support of them. Three paradigms have come to dominate sociological thinking, because they
provide useful explanations: structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism.

Video: Major Sociological Paradigms: Crash Course Sociology #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbTt_ySTjaY
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Conflict Theory Functionalist

Pioneer is Karl Marx Pioneer is Emile Durkheim

Theory that states there is a perpetual class Theory that states all aspects of a society serve a

conflict in the society due to the unequal function and are necessary for the survival of
distribution of resources that society

Focuses on the concept of the social inequality States that all elements of the society are

in the division of resources and therefore, the interdependent and they serve a function for the
conflicts that exist between classes, which will overall stability of the society

eventually trigger social change

Suggests that far-reaching social change Implies that far-reaching social change
is needed to achieve a just society will be socially harmful
 SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH 15
Video: Sociology Research Methods: Crash Course Sociology #4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwhK-iEyXYA

In the university cafeteria, you set your lunch tray down at a table, grab a chair, join a group of your

classmates, and hear the start of two discussions. One person says, “It’s weird how Justin Bieber has 48
million followers on Twitter.” Another says, “Disney World is packed year round.” Those two seemingly

benign statements are claims, or opinions, based on everyday observation of human behaviour. Perhaps
the speakers had firsthand experience, talked to experts, conducted online research, or saw news

segments on TV. In response, two conversations erupt. “I don’t see why anyone would want to go to

Disney World and stand in those long lines.” “Are you kidding?! Going to Disney World is one of my
favourite childhood memories.” “It’s the opposite for me with Justin Bieber. Seeing people camp out

outside his hotel just to get a glimpse of him; it doesn’t make sense.” “Well, you’re not a teenage girl.”
“Going to a theme park is way different than trying to see a teenage heart throb.” “But both are things

people do for the same reason: they’re looking for a good time.” “If you call getting crushed by a crowd
of strangers fun.”

As your classmates at the lunch table discuss what they know or believe, the two topics converge. The
conversation becomes a debate. Someone compares Beliebers to Beatles fans. Someone else compares
Disney World to a cruise. Students take sides, agreeing or disagreeing, as the conversation veers to

topics such as crowd control, mob mentality, political protests, and group dynamics. If you contributed
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your expanding knowledge of sociological research to this conversation, you might make statements

like these: “Justin Bieber’s fans long for an escape from the boredom of real teenage life. Beliebers join
together claiming they want romance, except what they really want is a safe place to explore the

confusion of teenage sexual feelings.” And this: “Mickey Mouse is a larger-than-life cartoon celebrity.
Disney World is a place where families go to see what it would be like to live inside a cartoon.” You

finish lunch, clear away your tray, and hurry to your next class. But you are thinking of Justin Bieber and
Disney World. You have a new perspective on human behaviour and a list of questions that you want

answered. That is the purpose of sociological research—to investigate and provide insights into how
human societies function.

Although claims and opinions are part of sociology, sociologists use empirical evidence (that is,

evidence corroborated by direct experience and/or observation) combined with the scientific method
or an interpretive framework to deliver sound sociological research. They also rely on a theoretical

foundation that provides an interpretive perspective through which they can make sense of scientific

results. A truly scientific sociological study of the social situations up for discussion in the cafeteria
would involve these prescribed steps: defining a specific question, gathering information and resources

through observation, forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis in a reproducible manner, analyzing
and drawing conclusions from the data, publishing the results, and anticipating further development

when future researchers respond to and retest findings.

An appropriate starting point in this case might be the question “What do fans of Justin Bieber seek
that drives them to follow his Twitter comments so faithfully?” As you begin to think like a sociologist,

you may notice that you have tapped into your observation skills. You might assume that your
observations and insights are valuable and accurate. But the results of casual observation are limited

by the fact that there is no standardization—who is to say one person’s observation of an event is any
more accurate than another’s? To mediate these concerns, sociologists rely on systematic research

processes.
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Approaches to Sociological Research
When sociologists apply the sociological perspective and begin to ask questions, no topic is off limits.

Every aspect of human behaviour is a source of possible investigation. Sociologists question the world
that humans have created and live in. They notice patterns of behaviour as people move through that

world. Using sociological methods and systematic research within the framework of the scientific
method and a scholarly interpretive perspective, sociologists have discovered workplace patterns that

have transformed industries, family patterns that have enlightened parents, and education patterns that

have aided structural changes in classrooms. The students at that university cafeteria discussion put
forth a few loosely stated opinions.

If the human behaviours around those claims were tested systematically, a student could write a report

and offer the findings to fellow sociologists and the world in general. The new perspective could help
people understand themselves and their neighbours and help people make better decisions about their

lives. It might seem strange to use scientific practices to study social trends, but, as we shall see, it’s
extremely helpful to rely on systematic approaches that research methods provide. Sociologists often

begin the research process by asking a question about how or why things happen in this world. It might
be a unique question about a new trend or an old question about a common aspect of life. Once a

question is formed, a sociologist proceeds through an in-depth process to answer it. In deciding how
to design that process, the researcher may adopt a positivist approach or an interpretive approach. The

following sections describe these approaches to knowledge.

The Scientific Method

Sociologists make use of tried-and-true methods of research, such as experiments, surveys, field
research, and textual analysis. But humans and their social interactions are so diverse that they can seem

impossible to chart or explain. It might seem that science is about discoveries and chemical reactions
or about proving ideas right or wrong rather than about exploring the nuances of human behaviour.

However, this is exactly why scientific models work for studying human behaviour. A scientific process
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of research establishes parameters that help make sure results are objective and accurate. Scientific

methods provide limitations and boundaries that focus a study and organize its results. This is the case
for both positivist or quantitative methodologies and interpretive or qualitative methodologies. The

scientific method involves developing and testing theories about the world based on empirical
evidence. It is defined by its commitment to systematic observation of the empirical world and strives

to be objective, critical, skeptical, and logical. It involves a series of prescribed steps that have been
established over centuries of scholarship.

Figure. The scientific method is an essential tool in research.

Research Methods

Sociologists examine the world, see a problem or interesting pattern, and set out to study it.
They use research methods to design a study—perhaps a positivist, quantitative method for

conducting research and obtaining data, or perhaps an ethnographic study utilizing an

interpretive framework. Planning the research design is a key step in any sociological study.

When entering a particular social environment, a researcher must be careful. There are times to
remain anonymous and times to be overt. There are times to conduct interviews and times to

simply observe. Some participants need to be thoroughly informed; others should not know they
are being observed. A researcher would not stroll into a crime-ridden neighbourhood at

midnight, calling out, “Any gang members around?” And if a researcher walked into a coffee
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shop and told the employees they would be observed as part of a study on work efficiency, the

self-conscious, intimidated baristas might not behave naturally.

In the 1920s, leaders of a Chicago factory called Hawthorne Works commissioned a study to
determine whether or not changing certain aspects of working conditions could increase or

decrease worker productivity. Sociologists were surprised when the productivity of a test group
increased when the lighting of their workspace was improved. They were even more surprised

when productivity improved when the lighting of the workspace was dimmed. In fact almost
every change of independent variable—lighting, breaks, work hours—resulted in an

improvement of productivity. But when the study was over, productivity dropped again.

Why did this happen? In 1953, Henry A. Landsberger analyzed the study results to answer this
question. He realized that employees’ productivity increased because sociologists were paying

attention to them. The sociologists’ presence influenced the study results. Worker behaviours
were altered not by the lighting but by the study itself. From this, sociologists learned the

importance of carefully planning their roles as part of their research design (Franke and Kaul

1978). Landsberger called the workers’ response the Hawthorne effect—people changing their
behaviour because they know they are being watched as part of a study.

The Hawthorne effect is unavoidable in some research. In many cases, sociologists have to make

the purpose of the study known for ethical reasons. Subjects must be aware that they are being
observed, and a certain amount of artificiality may result (Sonnenfeld 1985). Making sociologists’

presence invisible is not always realistic for other reasons. That option is not available to a
researcher studying prison behaviours, early education, or the Ku Klux Klan. Researchers cannot

just stroll into prisons, kindergarten classrooms, or Ku Klux Klan meetings and unobtrusively
observe behaviours. In situations like these, other methods are needed. All studies shape the

research design, while research design simultaneously shapes the study. Researchers choose
methods that best suit their study topic and that fit with their overall goal for the research.

In planning a study’s design, sociologists generally choose from four widely used methods of

social investigation: survey, experiment, field research, and textual or secondary data analysis (or
 20
use of existing sources). Every research method comes with plusses and minuses, and the topic

of study strongly influences which method or methods are put to use.

Surveys
As a research method, a survey collects data from subjects who respond to a series of questions
about behaviours and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire. The survey is one of the

most widely used positivist research methods. The standard survey format allows individuals a
level of anonymity in which they can express personal ideas.

Often, polls on TV do not reflect a general population, but are merely answers from a specific
show’s audience. Polls conducted by programs such as American Idol or Canadian Idol represent

the opinions of fans but are not particularly scientific. A good contrast to these are the BBM
Ratings, which determine the popularity of radio and television programming in Canada through

scientific market research. Sociologists conduct surveys under controlled conditions for specific
purposes. Surveys gather different types of information from people. While surveys are not great

at capturing the ways people really behave in social situations, they are a great method for
discovering how people feel and think—or at least how they say they feel and think. Surveys can

track attitudes and opinions, political preferences, reported individual behaviours (such as
sleeping, driving, or texting habits), or factual information such as employment status, income,
and education levels. A survey targets a specific population, people who are the focus of a study,
such as university athletes, international students, or teenagers living with type 1 (juvenile-onset)

diabetes.

Most researchers choose to survey a small sector of the population, or a sample: that is, a
manageable number of subjects who represent a larger population. The success of a study

depends on how well a population is represented by the sample. In a random sample, every
person in a population has the same chance of being chosen for the study. According to the laws
of probability, random samples represent the population as a whole. For instance, an Ipsos Reid

poll, if conducted as a nationwide random sampling, should be able to provide an accurate

 21
estimate of public opinion whether it contacts 2,000 or 10,000 people. However the validity of

surveys can be threatened when part of the population is inadvertently excluded from the sample
(e.g., telephone surveys that rely on land lines exclude people that use only cell phones) or when

there is a low response rate. After selecting subjects, the researcher develops a specific plan to
ask questions and record responses.

Experiments
You’ve probably tested personal social theories. “If I study at night and review in the morning, I’ll
improve my retention skills.” Or, “If I stop drinking soda, I’ll feel better.” Cause and effect. If this, then
that. When you test the theory, your results either prove or disprove your hypothesis. One way

researchers test social theories is by conducting an experiment, meaning they investigate relationships
to test a hypothesis—a scientific approach. There are two main types of experiments: lab-based

experiments and natural or field experiments.

In a lab setting, the research can be controlled so that perhaps more data can be recorded in a certain

amount of time. In a natural or field-based experiment, the generation of data cannot be controlled
but the information might be considered more accurate since it was collected without interference or

intervention by the researcher. As a research method, either type of sociological experiment is useful
for testing if-then statements: if a particular thing happens, then another particular thing will result.

To set up a lab-based experiment, sociologists create artificial situations that allow them to manipulate
variables. Classically, the sociologist selects a set of people with similar characteristics, such as age,
class, race, or education. Those people are divided into two groups. One is the experimental group and

the other is the control group. The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable(s) and
the control group is not. This is similar to pharmaceutical drug trials in which the experimental group

is given the test drug and the control group is given a placebo or sugar pill. To test the benefits of
tutoring, for example, the sociologist might expose the experimental group of students to tutoring

while the control group does not receive tutoring. Then both groups would be tested for differences in
performance to see if tutoring had an effect on the experimental group of students. As you can imagine,

in a case like this, the researcher would not want to jeopardize the accomplishments of either group of
 22
students, so the setting would be somewhat artificial. The test would not be for a grade reflected on

their permanent record, for example.

On the other hand, ethnomethodology focuses on the study of methods that individuals use in “doing”
social life to produce mutually recognizable interactions within a situated context, producing

orderliness. It explores how members’ actual, ordinary activities produce and manage settings of
organized everyday situations. Ethnomethodology draws on video-recorded data as a preferred

method with detailed attention to talk-in-interaction and gestures as interaction. The rich, detailed data
generated may be viewed several times over, thus demonstrating that the data is valuable and

trustworthy. Ethnomethodology developed some experiments that help to identify how we are socially
conditioned by breaking everyday life to demonstrate how unconsciously we follow the established

norms, by a group or an institution. These experiments are called breaching experiments.

Field Research
The work of sociology rarely happens in limited, confined spaces. Sociologists seldom study subjects in
their own offices or laboratories. Rather, sociologists go out into the world. They meet subjects where

they live, work, and play. Field research refers to gathering primary data from a natural environment

without doing a lab experiment or a survey. It is a research method suited to an interpretive approach
rather than to positivist approaches. To conduct field research, the sociologist must be willing to step
into new environments and observe, participate, or experience those worlds. In fieldwork, the
sociologists, rather than the subjects, are the ones out of their element. The researcher interacts with or

observes a person or people, gathering data along the way. The key point in field research is that it
takes place in the subject’s natural environment, whether it’s a coffee shop or tribal village, a homeless

shelter or a care home, a hospital, airport, mall, or beach resort.

While field research often begins in a specific setting, the study’s purpose is to observe specific
behaviours in that setting. Fieldwork is optimal for observing how people behave. It is less useful,
however, for developing causal explanations of why they behave that way. From the small size of the
groups studied in fieldwork, it is difficult to make predictions or generalizations to a larger population.

Similarly, there are difficulties in gaining an objective distance from research subjects. It is difficult to
 23
know whether another researcher would see the same things or record the same data. We will look at

three types of field research: participant observation, ethnography, and the case study.

Figure. Sociological researchers travel across countries and cultures to interact with and observe
subjects in their natural environments. (Photo courtesy of Patrick/flickr)

Secondary Data or Textual Analysis

While sociologists often engage in original research studies, they also contribute knowledge to the

discipline through secondary data or textual analysis. Secondary data do not result from firsthand
research collected from primary sources, but are drawn from the already-completed work of other

researchers. Sociologists might study texts written by historians, economists, teachers, or early
sociologists. They might search through periodicals, newspapers, or magazines from any period in

history. Using available information not only saves time and money, but it can add depth to a study.
Sociologists often interpret findings in a new way, a way that was not part of an author’s original

purpose or intention. To study how women were encouraged to act and behave in the 1960s, for
example, a researcher might watch movies, televisions shows, and situation comedies from that period.

Or to research changes in behaviour and attitudes due to the emergence of television in the late 1950s
and early 1960s, a sociologist would rely on new interpretations of secondary data. Decades from now,

researchers will most likely conduct similar studies on the advent of mobile phones, the Internet, or
Facebook.
 24
One methodology that sociologists employ with secondary data is content analysis. Content analysis is

a quantitative approach to textual research that selects an item of textual content (i.e., a variable) that
can be reliably and consistently observed and coded, and surveys the prevalence of that item in a

sample of textual output. For example, Gilens (1996) wanted to find out why survey research shows that
the American public substantially exaggerates the percentage of African Americans among the poor.

He examined whether media representations influence public perceptions and did a content analysis of
photographs of poor people in American news magazines. He coded and then systematically recorded

incidences of three variables: (1) Race: white, black, indeterminate; (2) Employed: working, not working;
and (3) Age. Gilens discovered that not only were African Americans markedly overrepresented in news

magazine photographs of poverty, but that the photos also tended to underrepresent “sympathetic”
subgroups of the poor—the elderly and working poor—while overrepresenting less sympathetic

groups—unemployed, working age adults. Gilens concluded that by providing a distorted

representation of poverty, U.S. news magazines “reinforce negative stereotypes of blacks as mired in

poverty and contribute to the belief that poverty is primarily a ‘black problem’” (1996).

Social scientists also learn by analyzing the research of a variety of agencies. Governmental departments
and global groups, like Statistics Canada or the World Health Organization, publish studies with findings

that are useful to sociologists. A public statistic that measures inequality of incomes might be useful for
studying who benefited and who lost as a result of the 2008 recession; a demographic profile of

different immigrant groups might be compared with data on unemployment to examine the reasons
why immigration settlement programs are more effective for some communities than for others. One

of the advantages of secondary data is that it is nonreactive (or unobtrusive) research, meaning that it
does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influence people’s behaviours. Unlike

studies requiring direct contact with people, using previously published data does not require entering
a population and the investment and risks inherent in that research process. Using available data does

have its challenges. Public records are not always easy to access. A researcher needs to do some legwork
to track them down and gain access to records. In some cases there is no way to verify the accuracy of
existing data. It is easy, for example, to count how many drunk drivers are pulled over by the police. But
how many are not? While it’s possible to discover the percentage of teenage students who drop out of
 25
high school, it might be more challenging to determine the number who return to school or get their

GED later.

Another problem arises when data are unavailable in the exact form needed or do not include the
precise angle the researcher seeks. For example, the salaries paid to professors at universities is often

published. But the separate figures do not necessarily reveal how long it took each professor to reach
the salary range, what their educational backgrounds are, or how long they have been teaching. In his

research, sociologist Richard Sennett uses secondary data to shed light on current trends. In The
Craftsman (2008), he studied the human desire to perform quality work, from carpentry to computer

programming. He studied the line between craftsmanship and skilled manual labour. He also studied
changes in attitudes toward craftsmanship that occurred not only during and after the Industrial

Revolution, but also in ancient times. Obviously, he could not have firsthand knowledge of periods of
ancient history; he had to rely on secondary data for part of his study. When conducting secondary data

or textual analysis, it is important to consider the date of publication of an existing source and to take
into account attitudes and common cultural ideals that may have influenced the research. For example,

Robert S. Lynd and Helen Merrell Lynd gathered research for their book Middletown: A Study in Modern
American Culture in the 1920s. Attitudes and cultural norms were vastly different then than they are

now. Beliefs about gender roles, race, education, and work have changed significantly since then. At the
time, the study’s purpose was to reveal the truth about small American communities. Today, it is an

illustration of 1920s attitudes and values.

Some examples of Social Experiments

Video: The Standford Prison Experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXv91xFipLM
 26
Video: Milgram experiment on obedience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXXbIF5Okjc

Video: Experimento Milgram: ¿Obedecer la autoridad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D0dGmk06vc

Video: Invading personal space in public

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgJ24hknbHs

Video: How obedient are we?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jcleVvgchs
KEY TERMS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND FOR
SOCIOLOGY
27
Podscast: Key terms you need to understand for Sociology

Podcast: The Sociology Show

Episode: 18 key terms you need to understand for Sociology (STUDENT SPECIAL)

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4i5fHJZaLcDvji3FNUjVIc

https://www.spreaker.com/user/thesociologyshow/18-key-term s

Also in: Google Podcast, Apple Podcast

Dur 22min
 SOCIAL STRUCTURE, SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS,
SOCIAL INTERACTION
28
Wilterdink, Nico and Form, William. "Social structure". Encyclopedia Britannica, Invalid Date, https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-
structure. Accessed 29 June 2021

https://open.lib.umn.edu/sociology/chapter/5-1-social-structure-the-building-blocks-of-social-life/

http://www.uop.edu.pk/ocontents/SOCIAL%20INSTITUTIONS.pdf

Social life is composed of many levels of building blocks, from the very micro to the very macro. These
building blocks combine to form the social structure. Social structure refers to the social patterns
through which a society is organized and can be horizontal or vertical. Horizontal social structure refers

to the social relationships and the social and physical characteristics of communities to which individuals
belong, while vertical social structure, more commonly called social inequality, refers to ways in which

a society or group ranks people in a hierarchy.

Social life is structured along the dimensions of time and space. Specific social activities take place at

specific times, and time is divided into periods that are connected with the rhythms of social life—the
routines of the day, the month, and the year. Specific social activities are also organized at specific

places; particular places, for instance, are designated for such activities as working, worshiping, eating,
and sleeping. Territorial boundaries delineate these places and are defined by rules of property that

determine the use and possession of scarce goods. Additionally, in any society there is a more or less
regular division of labour. Yet another universal structural characteristic of human societies is the

regulation of violence. All violence is a potentially disruptive force; at the same time, it is a means of
coercion and coordination of activities. Human beings have formed political units, such as nations,
within which the use of violence is strictly regulated and which, at the same time, are organized for the
use of violence against outside groups.
care and education of the young. These arrangements take the form partly of kinship and marriage
29
Furthermore, in any society there are arrangements within the structure for sexual reproduction and the

relations. Finally, systems of symbolic communication, particularly language, structure the interactions

between the members of any society. Several ideas are implicit in the notion of social structure. First,
human beings form social relations that are not arbitrary and coincidental but exhibit some regularity

and continuity. Second, social life is not chaotic and formless but is, in fact, differentiated into certain
groups, positions, and institutions that are interdependent or functionally interrelated. Third, individual

choices are shaped and circumscribed by the social environment, because social groups, although
constituted by the social activities of individuals, are not a direct result of the wishes and intentions of

the individual members. The notion of social structure implies, in other words, that human beings are
not completely free and autonomous in their choices and actions but are instead constrained by the

social world they inhabit and the social relations they form with one another.

Within the broad framework of these and other general features of human society, there is an enormous

variety of social forms between and within societies. Some social scientists use the concept of social
structure as a device for creating an order for the various aspects of social life. In other studies, the

concept is of greater theoretical importance; it is regarded as an explanatory concept, a key to the

understanding of human social life.

Radcliffe-Brown, a British social anthropologist, gave the concept of social structure a central place in

his approach and connected it to the concept of function. In his view, the components of the social
structure have indispensable functions for one another—the continued existence of the one component

is dependent on that of the others—and for the society as a whole, which is seen as an integrated,
organic entity. His comparative studies of preliterate societies demonstrated that the interdependence

of institutions regulated much of social and individual life.

 30
Social Institutions
A component of social structure is the social institution, that help a society meet its basic needs or social

functions. Social Institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behaviour that are centered on basic
social needs. Modern society is filled with many social institutions that all help society meet its needs

and achieve other goals and thus have a profound impact not only on the society as a whole but also
on virtually every individual in a society. Examples of social institutions include the family, the

economy, the polity (government), education and religion.

Each institution performs two types of social function: Primary functions, which are also called manifest,

explicit, or direct functions; Secondary functions, which are also called indirect, hidden, orlatent
functions.

Characteristics of Social Institutions

❖ Institutions are the controlling mechanisms, institutions like religion, state, government, law,
legislation etc. control the behaviour of people. These preserve the social order and give stability

to it.
❖ Institutions are interrelated: Institutions, though diverse, are interrelated and interdependent.

These are connected through statuses and roles of the individuals.

❖ Relatively permanent: Many institutions are rigid and enduring.Institutions normally do not

undergo sudden or rapid changes. Changes take place slowly and gradually in them. Therefore
institutions are the great conservers and transmitters of cultural heritage.

❖ Use Symbols to distinguish: Institutions have cultural symbols. The symbols may be either
material or non-material. A country has a flag, an emblem, a national anthem as its symbol. A
school may have its own flag, uniform dress etc.
❖ Social institutions are patterns of behaviour grouped about the central needs of human beings

in society.
 31
Other components of social structure

Statuses
The position that someone occupies in society. This position is often a job title, but many other types

of positions exist: student, parent, sibling, relative, friend, and so forth. It should be clear that status as
used in this way conveys nothing about the prestige of the position, to use a common synonym for

status. A physician’s job is a status with much prestige, but a shoeshiner’s job is a status with no prestige.

Any one individual often occupies several different statuses at the same time, and someone can
simultaneously be a banker, Girl Scout troop leader, mother, school board member, volunteer at a
homeless shelter, and spouse.

There are two types of statuses. The first type is ascribed status, which is the status that someone is

born with and has no control over. There are relatively few ascribed statuses; the most common ones
are our biological sex, race, parents’ social class and religious affiliation, and biological relationships

(child, grandchild, sibling, and so forth).

The second kind of status is called achieved status, which, as the name implies, is a status you achieve,
at some point after birth, sometimes through your own efforts and sometimes because good or bad

luck befalls you. The status of student is an achieved status, as is the status of burglar, restaurant server
or romantic partner, to cite just some of the many achieved statuses that exist.

Whatever status we occupy, certain objects signify any particular status. These objects are called status
symbols. In popular terms, status symbol usually means something like a Rolls-Royce or BMW that

shows off someone’s wealth or success, and many status symbols of this type exist.

Roles
Whatever its type, every status is accompanied by a role, which is the behavior expected of someone—

and in fact everyone—with a certain status. Roles for given statuses existed long before we were born,
and they will continue long after we are no longer alive. A major dimension of socialization is learning
the roles our society has and then behaving in the way a particular role demands.
 32
Groups and Organizations
A social group (hereafter just group) consists of two or more people who regularly interact on the basis

of mutual expectations and who share a common identity. To paraphrase John Donne, the 17th-century
English poet, no one is an island; almost all people are members of many groups, including families,

groups of friends, and groups of coworkers in a workplace. Sociology is sometimes called the study of
group life, and it is difficult to imagine a modern society without many types of groups and a small,

traditional society without at least some groups.

In terms of size, emotional bonding, and other characteristics, many types of groups exist. But one of

the most important types is the formal organization (also just organization), which is a large group that
follows explicit rules and procedures to achieve specific goals and tasks. For better and for worse,

organizations are an essential feature of modern societies. Our banks, our hospitals, our schools, and
so many other examples are all organizations, even if they differ from one another in many respects.

Video: Social interaction & Performance?: Crash Course Sociology #15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUukBV82P9A
 SOCIALIZATION
33
Socialization is how we learn the norms and beliefs of our society. From our earliest family and play
experiences, we are made aware of societal values and expectations.

Socialization is important because it helps uphold societies and cultures; it is also a key part of individual
development. Research demonstrates that who we are is affected by both nature (our genetic and

hormonal makeup) and nurture (the social environment in which we are raised). Sociology is most
concerned with the way that society’s influence affects our behaviour patterns, made clear by the way

behaviour varies across class and gender.

Agents of Socialization
Our direct interactions with social groups, like families and peers, teach us how others expect us to

behave. Likewise, a society’s formal and informal institutions socialize its population. Schools,
workplaces, and the media communicate and reinforce cultural norms and values.

Socialization helps people learn to function successfully in their social worlds. How does the process of

socialization occur? How do we learn to use the objects of our society’s material culture? How do we
come to adopt the beliefs, values, and norms that represent its nonmaterial culture? This learning takes

place through interaction with various agents of socialization, like peer groups and families, plus both
formal and informal social institutions.

Social Group Agents

Social groups often provide the first experiences of socialization. Families, and later peer groups,

communicate expectations and reinforce norms. People first learn to use the tangible objects of material
culture in these settings, as well as being introduced to the beliefs and values of society.

Family
Family is the first agent of socialization. Mothers and fathers, siblings and grandparents, plus members
of an extended family, all teach a child what he or she needs to know. For example, they show the child
 34
how to use objects (such as clothes, computers, eating utensils, books, bikes); how to relate to others

(some as “family,” others as “friends,” still others as “strangers” or “teachers” or “neighbours”); and how
the world works (what is “real” and what is “imagined”). As you are aware, either from your own

experience as a child or your role in helping to raise one, socialization involves teaching and learning
about an unending array of objects and ideas.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that families do not socialize children in a vacuum. Many social

factors impact how a family raises its children. For example, we can use sociological imagination to
recognize that individual behaviours are affected by the historical period in which they take place. Sixty
years ago, it would not have been considered especially strict for a father to hit his son with a wooden
spoon or a belt if he misbehaved, but today that same action might be considered child abuse.

Sociologists recognize that race, social class, religion, and other societal factors play an important role
in socialization. For example, poor families usually emphasize obedience and conformity when raising

their children, while wealthy families emphasize judgment and creativity (National Opinion Research
Center 2008). This may be because working-class parents have less education and more repetitive-task

jobs for which the ability to follow rules and to conform helps. Wealthy parents tend to have better
educations and often work in managerial positions or in careers that require creative problem solving,
so they teach their children behaviours that would be beneficial in these positions. This means that
children are effectively socialized and raised to take the types of jobs that their parents already have,

thus reproducing the class system (Kohn 1977). Likewise, children are socialized to abide by gender
norms, perceptions of race, and class-related behaviours.

Peer Groups
A peer group is made up of people who are similar in age and social status and who share interests.

Peer group socialization begins in the earliest years, such as when kids on a playground teach younger
children the norms about taking turns or the rules of a game or how to shoot a basket. As children grow

into teenagers, this process continues. Peer groups are important to adolescents in a new way, as they
begin to develop an identity separate from their parents and exert independence. Additionally, peer
 35
groups provide their own opportunities for socialization since kids usually engage in different types of

activities with their peers than they do with their families. Peer groups provide adolescents’ first major
socialization experience outside the realm of their families. Interestingly, studies have shown that

although friendships rank high in adolescents’ priorities, this is balanced by parental influence.

Institutional Agents
The social institutions of our culture also inform our socialization. Formal institutions—like schools,

workplaces, and the government—teach people how to behave in and navigate these systems. Other
institutions, like the media, contribute to socialization by inundating us with messages about norms

and expectations.

School
Most Canadian children spend about seven hours a day, 180 days a year, in school, which makes it hard
to deny the importance school has on their socialization. In elementary and junior high, compulsory

education amounts to over 8,000 hours in the classroom (OECD 2013). Students are not only in school
to study math, reading, science, and other subjects—the manifest function of this system. Schools also

serve a latent function in society by socializing children into behaviours like teamwork, following a
schedule, and using textbooks.

School and classroom rituals, led by teachers serving as role models and leaders, regularly reinforce
what society expects from children. Sociologists describe this aspect of schools as the hidden

curriculum, the informal teaching done by schools.

For example, in North America, schools have built a sense of competition into the way grades are
awarded and the way teachers evaluate students. Students learn to evaluate themselves within a

hierarchical system as “A,” “B,” “C,” etc. students (Bowles and Gintis 1976). However, different “lessons”
can be taught by different instructional techniques. When children participate in a relay race or a math

contest, they learn that there are winners and losers in society. When children are required to work
together on a project, they practise teamwork with other people in cooperative situations. Bowles and
 36
Gintis argue that the hidden curriculum prepares children for a life of conformity in the adult world.

Children learn how to deal with bureaucracy, rules, expectations, waiting their turn, and sitting still for
hours during the day. The latent functions of competition, teamwork, classroom discipline, time

awareness and dealing with bureaucracy are features of the hidden curriculum.

Schools also socialize children by teaching them overtly about citizenship and nationalism. In the United
States, children are taught to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Most districts require classes about U.S.

history and geography. In Canada, on the other hand, critics complain that students do not learn
enough about national history, which undermines the development of a sense of shared national

identity (Granatstein 1998). Textbooks in Canada are also continually scrutinized and revised to update
attitudes toward the different cultures in Canada as well as perspectives on historical events; thus,

children are socialized to a different national or world history than earlier textbooks may have done.
For example, information about the mistreatment of First Nations more accurately reflects those events

than in textbooks of the past. In this regard, schools educate students explicitly about aspects of
citizenship important for being able to participate in a modern, heterogeneous culture.

The Workplace
Just as children spend much of their day at school, most Canadian adults at some point invest a

significant amount of time at a place of employment. Although socialized into their culture since birth,
workers require new socialization into a workplace, both in terms of material culture (such as how to

operate the copy machine) and nonmaterial culture (such as whether it is okay to speak directly to the
boss or how the refrigerator is shared).

Different jobs require different types of socialization. In the past, many people worked a single job until

retirement. Today, the trend is to switch jobs at least once a decade. Between the ages of 18 and 44,
the average baby boomer of the younger set held 11 different jobs (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

2010). This means that people must become socialized to, and socialized by, a variety of work
environments.
 37
Religion
While some religions may tend toward being an informal institution, this section focuses on practices

related to formal institutions. Religion is an important avenue of socialization for many people. Canada
is full of synagogues, temples, churches, mosques, and similar religious communities where people

gather to worship and learn. Like other institutions, these places teach participants how to interact with

the religion’s material culture (like a mezuzah, a prayer rug, or a communion wafer). For some people,
important ceremonies related to family structure—like marriage and birth—are connected to religious

celebrations. Many of these institutions uphold gender norms and contribute to their enforcement
through socialization. From ceremonial rites of passage that reinforce the family unit, to power

dynamics which reinforce gender roles, religion fosters a shared set of socialized values that are passed
on through society.

Government
Although we do not think about it, many of the rites of passage people go through today are based on
age norms established by the government. To be defined as an “adult” usually means being 18 years

old, the age at which a person becomes legally responsible for themselves. And 65 is the start of “old
age” since most people become eligible for senior benefits at that point.

Each time we embark on one of these new categories—senior, adult, taxpayer—we must be socialized
into this new role. Seniors, for example, must learn the ropes of obtaining pension benefits. This

government program marks the points at which we require socialization into a new category.

Mass Media
Mass media refers to the distribution of impersonal information to a wide audience, via television,

newspapers, radio, and the internet. With the average person spending over four hours a day in front
of the TV (and children averaging even more screen time), media greatly influences social norms

(Roberts, Foehr, and Rideout 2005). People learn about objects of material culture (like new technology
and transportation options), as well as nonmaterial culture—what is true (beliefs), what is important

(values), and what is expected (norms).

 38
Socialization across the Life Course
Socialization is a lifelong process recurring as we enter new phases of life, such as adulthood or senior

age. Resocialization is a process that removes the socialization we have developed over time and
replaces it with newly learned rules and roles. Because it involves removing old habits that have been

built up, resocialization can be a stressful and difficult process.

Video: Socialization: Crash Course Sociology #14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-RvJQxqVQc