Day 5, Unit One, Sociology: 9/8 & 9/9
I. HW reminders: Journal #2 and go over; due date 9/11. Chapter 5: The Vocabulary of Science, due 9/10 & 9/13; be ready for reading quiz. (5 min.)
II. Hook activity: (35 min.)
a. Have several envelopes with various statements in them. Have students sit at tables of four and pull one statement at a time to discuss. Have the statements color-coded so you can tell them which ones to pull out and when. Give them about 1-2 minutes to discuss each statement.
i. The majority of adults who sexually abuse children are heterosexual.
ii. Even when they do the exact same jobs and have the exact same educational background, men tend to earn more money than women, and whites tend to earn more than African Americans.
iii. Whether students get into college has more to do with their parents’ socioeconomic standing than with their own intelligence or high school grades.
iv. Friendships between people of different races are as stable as friendships between people of the same race.
b. Then debrief with these questions: What did you discuss? What surprised you? Did you disagree or not believe any of the statements you read? Explain why.
c. Transition… into “inconvenient facts” and empirical questions.
i. Sometimes as students of sociology we become uncomfortable when we encounter the results of research. Max Weber termed these “inconvenient facts:” pieces of evidence that contradict what you have always believed and/or want to believe about the world. It is the duty of sociologists to deal with “inconvenient facts.” It might be unsettling to hear such things but hiding them does not make the world a better place.
ii. Sociologists are concerned with the empirical world. Empirical: observable through the use of one’s physical senses.
1. Example: Sociological questions
a. Do people in a particular society believe in god?
b. What impact does belief in god(s) have on one’s behavior?
c. What are the manifest and latent functions of religion in society?
2. Example: Non-sociological questions
a. Is there a god?
b. Is god more fond of Buddhists, Jews or Catholics?
c. Is religion x more correct in its beliefs than religion y?
III. Ethnocentrism (40 min.)
a. Hook: Give each student an anonymous, blank index card. #1-5 depending on number of examples. Write the first thing you think of, reaction-wise, when you see and/or hear the example. Go with your gut: what you write can be a word, phrase, or question. Do not censor yourself: that is why it is anonymous. Then, pass cards to front, shuffle, pass back and discuss what people wrote.
i. southern accent or some other notable accent
ii. people in Papua New Guinea
iii. picture of a Texan with a Texas flag
iv. NY or NY accent
v. Japanese maiko woman
b. Define ethnocentrism:
i. Ethnocentrism: the process of judging other peoples and their customs and norms as inferior to one’s own people, customs, and norms.
ii. Read excerpt on p. 52 on language.
iii. Table 4.1
iv. Top of page 54
c. Practice.
i. Why is asking a kilted Scotsman why he is dressed like a woman ethnocentric?
ii. Why might the Olympics be an example of ethnocentrism? (Olympics, Sociology & You, page 100)
iii. Table, page 278, Sociology & You
d. Define culture shock: feelings of disorientation as a result of encounters with different cultures that challenge one’s taken-for-granted assumptions about the way things ought to be. “The whole set of feelings about being in an alien setting and the resulting reactions. It is a creepy, chilly, feeling of alienation, of being without some of the most ordinary, trivial, and therefore basic, cues of one’s culture of origin” (Conrad P. KOttak, 1992).
e. Share personal stories of culture shock.
f. Sociologists work to overcome their tendency toward culture shock by practicing cultural relativism, the belief that other people and their ways of doing things can be understood only in terms of the cultural context of those people, nothing to do with “better” or “worse,” rather, being objective enough to understand people’s behavior in terms of their culture and social situation.
IV. Scientific Method review
V. Social Patterns Assignment