SOC101Y1 Chapter 1: Chapter 1 SOC101.docx
Document Summary
Sociology: systematic study of human behavior in social context. Social causes are distinct from physical and emotional causes. Understanding social causes can help clarify otherwise inexplicable features of famine, marriage, and so on. Organizations of social world opens some opportunities/closes others, constraining our freedom/helping make us what we are. *sociology is motivated by a desire to improve the social world. Reason for increased suicide rates in youth: places of worships" attendance is down (eg. church, synagogue, unemployment is up, divorce rate is up, sexual orientation is more diverse (prone to harassment) Patterns of social relations affect your innermost thoughts, influence actions, shape you. Social structure: relatively stable patterns of social relations: microstructures: patterns of intimate social relations, formed during face-to-face interaction. Families, friends, coworkers: macrostructures: patterns of social relations that lie outside and above our circle of intimate acquaintances. Patriarchy: traditional system of economic /political inequality between women/men in most societies: global structures: patterns of trends on an international level.
