American Sociological Perspectives

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According to the American Sociological Association, “Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts... Sociologists understand social inequality, patterns of behavior, forces for social change and resistance, and how social systems work.” Sociology has opened my eyes to many things I never really paid much attention to. There were 7 units of the course and each touched upon the most important parts of it with the best articles from great sociologists.
Unit 1 was “Sociological Perspectives” is all about the different parts of society that contribute to …show more content…

Aspects such as: language, values, customs, rules, technologies, etc, are all categories to relate to one another with. In “Peer Power: Clique Dynamics among School Children,” by Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler, status and roles play a huge part of social structure. Status is the social position an individual holds within a group and a role is a set of expectations about behavior assigned to particular status. In schools, especially high school, there are cliques. Jocks, nerds, goths, artists, tech geniuses, etc. Adler explains techniques of inclusion like recruitment, application, friendship realignment, and ingratiation, and techniques of exclusion like compliance, stigmatization, and expulsion. Peers have a lot of influence. Teens want to fit in. They want to be seen as popular and have a lot of friends which leads to copying someone older. No one wants to be excluded so one may try to act like someone they look up to to feel the sense of …show more content…

They believe race is a “social fabrication”. Race is based off your physical appearance and the ancestry of a person. Society sees race as something unchangeable. “Why, we might ask, should we only have five main racial groups?
Why not ninety-five? Why should we divide people according to their skin color? Why not base racial divisions according to foot size, ear shape, teeth color, arm length, or height?” Race influences how we look at one another but it shouldn’t. Skin color doesn’t make you less of a person than the person next to you. It’s your character that matters. Racial domination is the power and structure of society. Whites are viewed as “normal” and people of color are “abnormal”. We shouldn’t be divided because skin color. We shouldn’t be divided at all. We are all human. We all have hearts and people we love and care for and things we love. Race creates advantages and disadvantages for people.
To summarize unit 7 “Think About Social Change”, the article "What Can We

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