[SOC 111] - Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam (23 pages long!)
Document Summary
The systematic study of human social groups and their interactions. A view of society based on the dynamic relationships between individuals and the larger social network in which we all live. The assumption that individuals have the ability to alter their socially constructed lives. The network of relatively stable opportunities and constraints influencing individual behaviours. There is an ongoing debate among sociologists as to whether social change is brought about my human agency (people who have ideas) or through structural forces (technological, economic, institutional). Examples of sociological variables: minority status, gender, socioeconomic status, urban-rural differences. Origins: confucius society and the roles of individual citizens, socrates and plato concerned with wellbeing of all citizens and answered questions about citizenship, justice, and morality. Discoveries of inquisitive thinkers gained acceptance in spite of resistance from the church. Observation, experimentation, and logic would be used to explain the world around us and our place within it.
