SOC 014 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Relativism

• School: University of Vermont
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 014
• Professor: Lutz F Kaelber

Document Summary

Deviance the fact or state of departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behavior (google) Deviations from social norms which encounter disapproval (sociologist marshall clinard) Behavior, beliefs, and characteristics that violate society"s, or collectivities norms, the violation of which tends to attract negative reactions from audiences (goode) Social rules of conduct; expectations about beliefs and conduct; rules about acceptable or unacceptable behavior. Types of norms: more: standard taken more seriously, folkway: standard taken less seriously. Deviance is not necessarily criminal, harmful, or atypical/unusual. Objectivism a true essence of all things exists, which scientists uncover. Weight is objectively determined by a scale. Relativism (constructivism) social things are contingent upon time and space, and humanly created. Weight is determined by a chart, normalcy is time and space contingent. There are cut-off points for weight categories by country. Normalcy is determined by chart, charts are socially constructed by scientists agreement.