SOCA 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Forces

• School: WVU
• Department: Sociology And Anthropology
• Course: SOCA 101
• Professor: Daniel Brewster

Document Summary

Sociology is the scientific study of human social relationships, groups, and societies. The systematic study of the relationship between the individual and society and of the consequences of difference. Aims to understand human behavior, social relations, and social institutions on a larger scale. Principle of social embeddedness idea that economic, political and other forms of human behavior are fundamentally shaped by social relations. Much of our common sense is based on myths and misconceptions. The ability to grasp the relationship between individual lives and the larger social forces that shape them. Agency: the ability of individuals and groups to exercise free will and to make social change whether on a small or large scale. Structure: patterned social arrangements that have an effect on agency. Our choices are enabled or constrained by structure. The ability to evaluate claims about the truth by using reason and evidence.