Welcome to Soc 1A!

1. Welcome to Soc 1A! • Quick Writing and Attendance • Review Syllabus • Sociological Perspective and Analysis • Homework: • Introduction to Sociology: Chapter 1

2. Quick Writing: • Name, email • major/interests/goals • What do you hope to learn from this class? • How do you plan on succeeding in this class? • Explain the quote at the top of the syllabus

3. Review the Syllabus

4. The Sociological Perspective

5. What is Sociology? • Study of Society…what does that mean? • It examines the ways in which the forms of social structure & social categories & various social institutions affect human attitudes, actions, and opportunities. • Sociology enables us to understand the structure and dynamics of society, and their intricate connections to patterns of human behavior and individual life changes.

6. Why Care About Understanding Society? • We are products of society and society is a product of us • Understand why and how we came to be like we are • Our position within the social structure (society) determines how we will act, think, and what resources we have • Our place in society is the intersection of many social relationships • Gender, race, class, age, geography, sexuality

7. Examining the present with the past • “[Humans] make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past.” - Karl Marx • To understand the present social arrangement in society, sociologists must also look into the past

8. How sociologists study society • Sociologists look to explain how and why things happen. In every question a sociologist asks and every answer they give you will find an explanation of the how and why • Keep this in mind over the semester!

9. Critical Thinking is Required • Sociology is a critical, analytical, and empirical discipline and sociological thinking is a process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating

10. Beliefs vs. Sociological Analysis • As social beings, we see the social world through our own lens of experience and belief system and often make judgments based on our personal beliefs • To remain objective, sociology helps us see how that lens was formed and be honest about our assumptions • What we see with sociological analyses often challenges many of our thoughts and beliefs • Come to class prepared to be exposed to alternate explanations of the world and to try and understand them

11. In conclusion: • Sociology provides us with the tools to examine the social world empirically, analytically, and critically • To do this objectively we have to constantly examine how our own perspectives and experiences shape how we view and interpret the world around us