SOCIOL 101 Lecture Notes - Individualism, Jiaxing
Document Summary
Norms: written and unwritten rules that specify behaviors appropriate and inappropriate to a particular social situation. Sanctions- expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms. Negative sanctions- expressions of disapproval for breaking norms. Taboo: actions that are not just bad , but unthinkable. Values: general, shared conceptions of what is good, right, appropriate, worthwhile, and important with regard to conduct, appearance, and states of being. Core american values (williams: achievement and success. Individualism: activity and work, efficiency and practicality, science and technology, freedom, democracy, equality, racism and group superiority. Symbols: anything physical or conceptual- a word, an object, a feeling, a gesture, a bodily movement-to which people give a name and assign a meaning or value. Language has embedded within it ways of looking at the world: sapir-whorf reverses common sense. Rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, it is our.
