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American Values

American Values. What is “ America ” ?. See Handouts Note: Population trends Ethnicity trends Income trends Education trends. So…What is America?. How do we determine the values of a society? Values: shared beliefs about what is right and wrong Norms: values in action

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American Values

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  1. American Values

  2. What is “America”? • See Handouts • Note: • Population trends • Ethnicity trends • Income trends • Education trends

  3. So…What is America? • How do we determine the values of a society? • Values: shared beliefs about what is right and wrong • Norms: values in action • Folkways: norms with little social significance • “Man Laws” • Mores: norms with great social significance • Laws and sanctions • What are “American Values”? • SEE HANDOUT • Are we greedy?

  4. Sociologist Robin Williams’ Ten Values That Are Central to American Life • Equal opportunity • Achievement and success • Material comfort • Activity and work • Practicality and efficiency • Progress • Science • Democracy and free enterprise • Freedom • Racism and group superiority

  5. Enforcing Values Sanctions and Social Control

  6. Learning Values • Values become part of our mindset in two ways • Internalization • Taught through agents of socialization • Sanctions • Rewards or punishments to enforce conformity

  7. The Agents of Socialization • The Family • The Peer Group • School • Mass Media • Institutions • Army • Prison

  8. Sanctions • Positive Sanction • Reward for good behavior • Negative Sanction • Punishment for bad behavior • Formal Sanction • Issued by a recognized institution • Informal Sanction • Issued by an individual or an informal group

  9. Subtle forms of Control • Surveillance • Bentham’s Panopticon

  10. Institutional Control

  11. The Power over Choice

  12. Normalizing Power

  13. Changing Values • What causes change? • Technology • Population Diffusion • The Environment • War and Conquest • The Historical Process • What American values have changed in the past 50 years? • Values that are currently changing • Abortion • Drug Legalization • Human Cloning / Stem Cell research • Immigration • Capital Punishment

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