Introduction to Sociology - 2013

Welcome to Sociology

The Study of Society.

Sociology focuses on identifying, explaining, and interpreting patterns and processes of human social relations. This introductory course is designed not just to teach you some of the major findings of sociology, but to help you master fundamental sociological skills, including the ability to think with a "sociological imagination" as well as integrate "technological fluency" with "informational literacy" utilizing basic computer-based data analysis—skils which have broad applicability in a range of educational and work settings.

Our goal in this class is for you to gain a different perspective of a diverse world often taken for granted and to gain new insight into the ways that society shapes people and the way people shape their society. Our objectives are directed at building competence as a critical thinker and change agent so that you will better able to raise relevant questions about the direction in which society is moving, interpret social trends, and examine significant social problems.

It is my hope that this hands-on experience of "doing" sociology will both enliven your interest in sociological analysis and help you develop practical skills that you can use in other contexts as well. We can best understand the process of social interaction when we understand the person in place and in time. Our syllabus sets the place, time and process of this course for you the person.

Welcome to my world, your world, our world.
Dr. Michael Thompson

society and life

Brandon Heusser

The UK ranked 12th out of 19 countries of similar affluence in 2010 in terms of healthy life expectancy at birth, according to a detailed analysis from the Global Burden of Disease data collected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle. Despite big increases in funding for the NHS in recent years and many reform initiatives, the UK was in exactly the same place as in the league table for 1990. This is according to the IHME report, published in the Lancet medical journal. While life expectancy has improved by 4.2 years in the UK over the two decades, other countries have improved faster. In 2010, Spain topped the league. Its people could expect 70.9 years of healthy life before disease and disability began to take a toll. Second came Italy, with 70.2 years and third was Australia, on 70.1 years. In the UK, we can expect 68.6 healthy years of life.

Jeremy Hunt a health secretary said that the UK was a long way behind its global counterparts and called for action by local health commissioners to tackle the five big killers’: cancer, heart disease, stroke, respiratory and liver diseases. He will on Tuesday announce a strategy to tackle cardiovascular disease, which he says could save 30,000 lives a year. The problem is only in part to do with hospital care; much of it is about the way we live. Our diet, our drinking and continuing smoking habits all play a part, according to one of the report's authors, Prof John Newton, chief knowledge officer of Public Health England, which assumes its responsibilities on 1 April.
The leading causes of death in the UK have changed very little over the last 20 years, says the report – with ischemic heart disease the biggest killer (for which diet and smoking are big risk factors). Also in the top five over two decades are stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer and lower respiratory infections. Smoking is a risk factor for all of these. But there has been a startling increase, say the authors, in Alzheimer's disease, which is up by 137% to be the 10th leading cause of death; cirrhosis, which is up by 65% to ninth, and drug-use disorders – up 577% from 64th place to 21st. Drinking and drug use have been the main issues behind the worsening of the UK's ranking in early deaths among adults aged 20-54. In 2010, drugs were the sixth leading cause of death in this age group and alcohol was 18th – up from 32nd and 43rd place respectively 20 years earlier.

The UK has lower-than-average premature death rates from diabetes, road injuries (the best of the whole group), liver cancer and chronic kidney diseases. But it has not kept up with progress elsewhere in a number of areas, including heart disease, breast and esophageal cancers and preterm birth complications. "We found that the UK had made significant improvements in health overall, but those were masking serious problems in certain age groups," said Dr Alan Lopez, head of the School of Population Health at Queensland University and one of the founders of the Global Burden of Disease project. "If you look at adults aged 20-54, increases in deaths from alcohol and drugs overshadowed the substantial reductions in deaths from greater cervical cancer screenings and efforts to reduce road traffic injuries.

As people live longer, disability is becoming an ever-bigger issue. In 2010, mental and behavioral disorders (mainly depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol use, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder), and musculoskeletal disorders (mainly lower back pain and falls) were responsible for more than half of all years lived with disability in the UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/05/healthy-life-expectancy-shorter-than-abroad
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/health?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Jorge Cruz
Society & Life

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, a new economic system emerged that began to replace feudalism. Capitalism is marked by open competition in a free market, in which the means of production are privately owned. Europe's exploration of the Americas served as one impetus for the development of capitalism. The introduction of foreign metals, silks, and spices stimulated great commercial activity in European societies.

Industrial societies rely heavily on machines powered by fuels for the production of goods. This produced further dramatic increases in efficiency. The increased efficiency of production of the industrial revolution produced an even greater surplus than before. Now the surplus was not just agricultural goods, but also manufactured goods. This larger surplus caused all of the changes discussed earlier in the domestication revolution to become even more pronounced.

Once again, the population boomed. Increased productivity made more goods available to everyone. However, inequality became even greater than before. The breakup of agricultural-based feudal societies caused many people to leave the land and seek employment in cities. This created a great surplus of labor and gave capitalists plenty of laborers who could be hired for extremely low wages.

Tino Thompson
Michael Thompson
Intro to Sociology
March 6th, 2013
Society & Social Life

Society is what makes life, without society there would be no mean to life. We consider society as a group of people living in a stable environment creating life’s worth. Society is an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes, a body of individuals living as members of a community. There are many different groups of society. The meaning of life is left unsolved. We only could explain life by what we live on and what we see.

Society is a group of people agreeing to work together. “Individuals commitment to a group effort that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” So said legendary football coach Vince Lambadi.
No matter the size and the economy, society is shaped by relationships between the people. Philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that without society, human life would be “nasty, brutish and short.” A man without society resort to violence and crime. The mean thing that holds society together is enforcing rules. Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau dubbed the set of rules that a society lives by “the social contract.” A leader has to be put in place to set the rules, and people have to abide by them. A society without an agreement would be like a game of football with no rules or referee. The technology has no rules on society; it will be interesting to see how society is shape in the future.

Life is composing of good and evil. Humans are always aggressive, competitive, and selfish that’s why life is so hard to explain. ‘What is the meaning of life’ is to be integrative! The meaning of life is to behave in an integrative corporative, selfless and loving way.

The world’s greatest physicists, Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, have said, respectively, that ‘the overwhelming impression is of order… [In] the universe’ (the time of his life, Gregory Bedford, Sydney morning Herald, 28 Apr. 2002), and that ‘behind everything is and order’ (Einstein revealed pbs, 1997). Matter plays a role in order. The purpose of life is to have order. Selfishness is stinginess resulting from a concern for your own welfare and a disregard of other. Consider others for once and maybe an answer can float alone as of the true meaning towards life.

Love is what’s hold the world together, without love the world would crumble. The old Christian word for love was ‘caritas’ which means charity or giving or selflessness. Love binds us together in a perfect unity. In John 15:13 we see Christ said, ‘greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friend.’ Life is about integrative cooperative, selfless and loving. Hawing said, ‘the overwhelming impression is of order. The more we discover about the universe, the more we find that it is governed by rational laws. If one liked, one could say that this order was the word of God. Einstein thought so…we could call order by the name of God.’ In the bible it says God is love. For God so loved the world he gave his son. Life is about caring and loving. Scientist philosopher wrote, ‘I can see a direction and a line of progress for life, a line and a direction which are in fact so well marked that I am convinced their reality will be universally admitted by the science tomorrow.’ I agree, life can set a new direction and make progress if we all can just come together and unit as one.

Society & Life is combining together; it cannot be one without the other. Society as individual has to change their ways, their attitude and the way they carry their self to draw a narrow meaning to life. It is in fact ineffective for ethical solutions to the problem of society and the…in life which mark our existence as well as that of others in the long and short run.

Work Cited
http://people.howstuffworks.com/what-is-society.htm
http://www.worldtransformation.com/what-is-the-meaning-of-life/

Natalie Morris

Something that has become a big part of society and social life has been social networking and texting.

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building of social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections.

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace (which is becoming less and less popular) as well as YouTube, are all forms of social networking that many of us use on a daily basis. But did you know that the average time a person spends on Facebook per month is fifteen hours and thirty-three minutes? and the amount of tweets that go out everyday is about one hundred and ninety million? The average amount of time spend on YouTube world wide is two point nine billion hours a month. I would say that our society and social life is fairly consumed with social media. While taking part in these things are not bad, and can be very helpful in learning something knew, by looking up a video on YouTube for example, or can help you keep in touch with family that lives far away, I think that it has drastically changed the communication of this generation.

Before Facebook, MSN, texting, etc, what did we have to communicate? Our voices, and a good old paper and pen. While these things seem almost prehistoric to us now, when you think about it, would you rather send someone a message, or talk to them in person? I believe as a society we are becoming less social amongst ourselves for the sheer fact that we always have to have some form of technology taking up our time. It’s very rare to walk on a college campus and see a group of students talking, and not a single person is on their phone. Social Networking and texting has become the norm for communication. That is the main form of communication amongst young adults today.
I believe in some ways, a lot of ways depending on how you look at it, it is damaging our culture in the area of communication. I do not know many young people who can engage in conversation with an adult, or senior citizen comfortably. I think that is what makes the biggest difference between our generation and the previous. Sure, young adults can talk to older adult and senior citizens but going about in a comfortable way, without fidgeting, loosing eye contact and concentration, is rare. Sometimes it’s even rare amongst young adults talking to each other, because it’s not what we are used to. We are among a generation, that seems uninterested in learning, and more interested in texting, all the while messaging is really shallow, asking people over and over again how they are doing, and not really getting to know people.

I think this social norm has become more and more of a distraction, and an easy way out of truly getting to know people. If you never spend time with someone, and only text them, there may only be so much information that you learn about them. Truly getting to know someone, and investing time in their lives, shows that not only are you a genuine person, but you have enough respect for that person to invest time in them. Communication face to face shows an immense amount of respect especially to the older generation, which may I add will be our bosses when we first enter the workforce. Learning to communicate effectively and respectfully, without social media and multi media, is something we should invest our time doing, if we want to be successful, especially for our future.

References
http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/
http://mashable.com/category/social-networking/

Louis Edmiston
Society & Social Life
2/27/13
Michael Thompson

The study of society; it is basically watching people live on planet Earth. There are billions of people that live in different ways. According a basic online dictionary www.merriam-webster.com, the definition of society is a voluntary association of individuals for common ends; especially an organized group working together or periodically meeting because of common interests, beliefs, or profession. This means that there are different types of people and they live differently based on government, religion, education, and families, they also live by culture. A culture from a country has been passed down from generations. When people think of social life, they think of interacting with other people and getting to know them. They also think about how to possibly fit into a social group and what would fit them the best. According to www.brainyquote.com, another definition for society is a person’s collectively who live in any region or at any period; any community of individuals who are united together by a common bond of nearness or intercourse; those who recognize each other as associates, friends, and acquaintances. An example of this would be people in a different country such as India; they have different religions, food, music, clothes, and education.

They have had this culture that has been passed down from generations. That may be how society has started in the beginning times. This could possibly be related to social groups. Social groups may have begun society. Another question would be what is culture and how would it relate to culture. According to Cliff Notes.com, Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Culture relates to society by having different types

According to Dictionary.com, social life is pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations such as a social club. Social life may be critical for people because it will help them get to where they need to be in life. If a person isn’t really social, then they may not be able to become successful in life. An example of this would be a middle school student getting bad grades because he is not getting the help he needs from teachers. He is also not communicating from his parents that he is having trouble is school. Another issue this student has is he does not have any friends. So he is not having any fun in middle school and he is not relieving the stress that he has with his grades. So he may have not been successful going into high school.

Another name for social life would be interpersonal relationship. According to Dictionary.com, interpersonal relationship is the condition or fact of being related. This relation could be through family, friendship, work, and residents. This is relevant to social life because the relationships may help in society. It could help because it could potentially help people find groups or cultures to live in and they will stick with them. It has been happening this way throughout generations and it should continue to happen this way in society. Society is a very important trait in this world. It is basically who we are. It expresses each and every culture in the different countries. Having social life’s are also important in this world because it will help people to become successful and help them know what to do in the world and they will know how to interact with each other.

Sources
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Culture-and-Society-Defined.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26848.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/society
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social
http://www.brainyquote.com/words/so/society221265.html

Fily Perez
Sports in today’s society

Sport’s today play a very big part in today’s society from little kids to old adults.

It helps develop positive character traits and life values. Even in some sport experiences can be beneficial, teaching the importance of teamwork, cooperation, and hard work, among many other qualities. They also tend to change people’s problems. Many kids use them for something to fall back on. For example a kid could grow up in a rough neighbor hood and has a chance to go to jail r even die, they join a football, basketball team or another sports and it takes them away from the violence. In today’s society peoples healths are getting better because they need to be in good shape for their sport.

Eating healthier is another big step because people need perform at the top level for a longer period of time. Education is also changed by sports in today’s society. If you don’t have passing grades you can’t play, therefore kids start to try harder in school and get better grades. It pushes them to earn a scholarship. Most kids or teenagers probably wouldn’t be in college right now if it wasn’t for a sport. Many people go to college or try in school because of a sport. If that option wasn’t there, who knows what they’d be doing. Also many schools today make most of their money from high school to college. It brings in more profit for the school. They charge people to get in to watch a game.

Colleges make the most because they start getting sponsors and TV deals which brings in millions every year for the school. Schools are becoming nice and playing facilities are becoming bigger because they want to attract more athletes and people to they school. Sports can also be a big help to politics around the world. They have world events such as the Olympics that brings all nations in the world together to cheer on for their country with not a care of what’s going on with other countries. Sports are a very big economic buster for a country, state, or town. Building sporting goods stores to having a sports apparel store. It brings and money and opens up jobs for people. More than half of the united states has at least three professional teams which brings in millions for them. In today’s society sports play a major role in every one’s life.

Sources:
https://members.weforum.org/pdf/GAC/issue_descriptions/RoleofSportsinSociety.pdf
http://www.stmarysmd.com/docs/communitystandardsbrochure.pdf
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10699023

Peter Koskey
Sociology essay

Society and life of the kikuyu people in Kenya.

The kikuyu are a group of bantu people inhabiting east Africa. They are the largest ethnic group in Kenya, and speak the bantu kikuyu language as a mother tongue. The term kikuyu is the Swahili form of the proper name and pronunciation of kikuyu, although group members refer to themselves as the Agikuyu.

The kikuyu are of bantu origin. They constitute the largest ethnic group in Kenya, and are concentrated in the vicinity of mount Kenya. The exact place that the kikuyu’s ancestors migrate from after the initial bantu expansion from west Africa is uncertain. Some authorities suggest that they arrive in their present mount Kenya area of inhabitation from earlier settlements further to the north and east, while others argue that the kikuyu, along with related eastern bantu people such as the embu, mbeere and meru, moved into Kenya from points further south.

Although much as change since pre-colonial period, kikuyu society is still characterized by its strong unity on all levels. Historically this was crucial in defensive arrangements against persistent enemies such as the Maasai. Therefore one finds that the society was strictly structured all the way up from family and home to the nine or ten clans which included everyone, and the councils of elders who presided over all the issues concerning the kikuyu as whole.

The Agikuyu nation was divided in ten clans. The members of each clan had a blood tie in common, but were not restricted to any particular geographical area, they lived side by side. some clans had recognized leader, others did not.Howere,in either case, real political power was exercised by ruling council of elders, lead by a headman.

The kikuyu creation myth which has God appointing land for the nine daughters of Mumbi and kikuyu, neatly explain the coming into existences of clan system, and indeed, it seems that before the kikuyu arrive in their present area, they either had no clans or the clan system which may have existence before broke down completely to be replaced with another one.

I should say immediately that the clan system no longer exists: it was swept away by the British especially after colonization. Nowadays the most important social unit of the kikuyu remains family groups.

Furthermore the most important kikuyu social distinction was the family and homestead. Its in the home that the children are introduced first to the culture of their people., and where their mothers and grandmothers would tell them stories, riddles, tales both to amuse and educate themTtradionally the kikuyus lives in separate domestic family homesteads, each of which was surrounded by a hedge or stockage and contained a hut for each of the men’wives.the houses are made of thatch, sticks and baked mud, often raised on poles. But nowadays the lives in breeze blocks homes with corrugated metal roofs.

Both boys and girls were raised differently. Girls were raised by their mothers, by taking care of household chores, tend sambas(farm) crops and young children, while boys were expected to help out by herding the animals. Now days formal education has become of paramount importance, with an estimate of 95% of kikuyus children attending school.

In cuisine, music, marriage and everyday family life most Kenya kikuyu holds a true identity. They are bound by strict and strong clans’ loyalty and even a sense of tribal unity. They also believe in a supreme God, Ngai, whom they recognized to have live in the peak of MT Kenya. Who later descended from heaven to the mountain throne to survey his created land. The mountain later became known as Kirinyaga, his, his resting place and it was from there that he called the fourth Gikuyu the farther of the kikuyu people.

http.//www.kikuyu book.google.co.ke.
http://www.kenya-information-guide.com/kikuyu;tribe.html

Gregg Gausden
Wiki
Dr. Thompson

Society and Life

Society is defined as ones companionship or ones association with ones fellows. In the world we live in today, society makes up the majority of our population. Societies are made up from relationships made from person to person. Over time these relationships build upon the community and make it united.

The society today that we live in has a lot to do with media and technology. People do things in their lives that they see on the TV and that they see celebrities doing. TV, radio, and things like that have a lot of impact on our society people daily lives. Technology is another thing that people are revolved around. Many people probably couldn’t live today without their smartphones because it is capable of doing so many things. Our phones are becoming more and more advanced. So many new apps are coming out that help people out. Phones can do so much for people and that could have something to do with why some are so lazy.

I believe that social networks are a huge part of society today. Social networks are good and fun but at the same time they are bad and dangerous. Some people aren’t aware that there are predators out in the world that could attack at any moment. There are also a lot of scams out there that can get to you any time. The society is very vulnerable to the internet and things involved with it. They have to begin to realize that not everything that they see on the web is completely true.

“When we speak of the impact of technology on society, we always talk about the positive effects of technology and about how technology has made life easy. We talk about the Internet as an information resource and a communication platform and conveniently ignore the fact that an overexposure to it leads to Internet addiction. We often discuss how technology has made life easy but easily forget that it has made us overly dependent on it. Have you thought of the impact of technology from this point of view? I am sure, most of you haven't. Let us look at this aspect of technology here.”

“Think of the days when there were no computers and no modern means of transport. Human life was highly restricted due to the unavailability of technological applications. Daily life involved a lot of physical activity. Life of the common man was not as luxurious as that of modern times, but he was more active. Exercise was integrated into routine physical activities. It was contrary to the sedentary lifestyle of today, which leaves no time for exercise and fills days with inactivity and laze. Today we don't want to, and thanks to technology, don't even need to, walk, move around or exert physically to get things done. We have the world is at our fingertips”

“Think of the days when there were no online messengers, no emails and no cell phones. Indeed cellular technology made it possible for us to communicate over wireless media. Web communication facilities have worked wonders in speeding long-distance communication. On the other hand, they have deprived mankind of the warmth of personal contact. Emails replaced handwritten letters and communication lost its personal touch. With the means of communication so easily accessible, that magic in waiting to reach someone and the excitement that followed have vanished.” http://blog.iloveallaah.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Financial-Technology.jpg

So I believe that how the society lives their everyday lives has a lot to do with technology.

[[http://www.google.com/search?q=technology&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=MVM1Ubr9HOfm2AWLhoDgDQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1242&bih=626#imgrc=UyVt9ZNpW773BM%3A%3BHesiwTrxZUJhmM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.bsd405.org%252Fportals%252F0%252FDepartments%252FTechnology%252Fimages%252FTechnology_management_LG_FOC.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.bsd405.org%252Fabout-us%252Fdepartments%252Ftechnology.aspx%3B700%3B255]]

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-is-the-impact-of-technology-on-our-society.html
http://www.malaysia.gov.my/EN/Relevant%20Topics/Society%20and%20Life/Pages/SocietyandLife.aspx

Marsha Fenita-Putri
Sociality and Social Life

Social Network on Facebook

Social networking has been a huge impact on todays social life's. Social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace, and etc, has made some changes in the communication of our everyday life's. This social networking sites prevent a face-to-face communication. Before this social networking become popular, people are emailing from their own personal emails, peoples are calling each other on the phones more often, dealing with problems personally, and having a regular face-to-face chatting. Now, everyone are mostly chatting online almost half of their days. Since Facebook is really big, my focuses are going to be about Facebook and how it affects our social life. You see people checking their Facebook every minute at home, work, school, every where else and possibly bathroom. Even before you go to sleep, you logged off Facebook from your laptop, laid on the bed and signed in to Facebook from your phone. What made social media or networking so addicting? What are social networking about? Popular networking such as Facebook gives you the opportunities to get connected with friends, families and meet new people. A site to give news feed about you're thoughts and share it with others. You can even find out some information about a person you barely know without asking them face to face, like where they're from, what activities they like to do, birthdate, and even where they work. This gives society a bad place to keep identities safe.

So what age does social networking affect? From teenagers to adult, now, kids and the age over 50 are even getting the hang of media networking. Most parents are now having Facebook just to see how their kids are doing or what they are up too. For teens, this would not be a problem because now Facebook are giving the opportunities to hide informations from whoever they want, even parents can also hide informations on what they post and hide them from their children. Even advertisements, news media, politicians,departments, movies/shows on television, and celebrities have Facebook. Surprisingly, even the White House has its own blog on Facebook.

Bullying, violence and crimes often starts on Facebook. Teenagers are getting bullied on Facebook by posting false information about other people and shared them with hundreds and hundreds of people. With the opportunity to “share” and “like”, informations are easy and fast to spread around. Some people even killed themselves just because of bullying over Facebook. Behind the computer, most of us won't know the real person behind that profile. Videos and picture are so easy and fast to get viral over the internet. Not only Facebook, but it can also spread from Facebook to other social networking sites. In 2009, Illinois passed a law that sex offender are banned from having any social networking. In December of 2008, Internet Safety Technical Task Force reported that most users using social network are lying about their age, pictures, and interest. To me, I think that not giving all of the true information is actually smart because you will never know if anyone is stalking you or any other reasons. Even though giving false information is also bad, I think that in order for you to even have a social network account, you should only just add or communicate with the person you've already knew and not just adding random strangers because you've like how they look.

Facebook lowers self-esteems. It lowers self esteems because it can impact your life negatively by comparing themselves to other peers. Not only that, but there are some users that are stalking other people, and yet you might not know about it. Even a quarter of Americans says that social media has interrupted an important capture moments of their life.

http://socialnetworking.procon.org/#Background
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jmaureenhenderson/2012/12/29/3-reasons-you-should-quit-social-media-in-2013/

David Johnson
Society and Social Life
M/W 8:00am

Society is defined as the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community or the community of people living in a particular region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations. “Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts. Since all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the hostile mob; from organized crime to religious cults; from the divisions of race, gender and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; and from the sociology of work to the sociology of sports.”

With society being defined as a group of people living together in a community or a community of people living in a particular region sharing customs, laws, and organizations, I see society as a huge social group. Personally I define society as everyone in the world but then you don’t honestly know everyone in the world, so then you have your primary and secondary groups of people. Primary groups in this situation are defined, as are groups of people, which individuals intimately interact and cooperate over a long period of time. Examples of primary groups are families, friends, peers, neighbors, and classmates. But then again you also have secondary groups, which are defined as groups where individuals don’t interact much, they are less personal and not as emotional as primary groups. They are comprised of individuals who lack strong emotional ties with one another. Examples of secondary groups are classes, political parties, and members of the same work force in a large cooperation. With all these social groups we also would include most of these people involved in our groups as in our social life.

Almost all people have a social life and that can be defined as what they do for fun or how they spend their time. But then again its sometimes hard for people to have a solid social life because they have a hard time making friends or keeping friends. For example people could have trouble fitting in and have a hard time keep friends because they are to busy with their own life to hang out with their friends. I know from experience a lot of people that move a lot with their family have a lot of trouble making friends because they aren’t around long enough to make solid friends and truly get to know the people they are starting all over with and that can effect their social life. For example my social life involves hanging out with my baseball team because I literally spend four to five hours everyday with them due to the fact it is what we enjoy doing. With looking over sociology and learning about what it has to do with society and life, I would say that everyone is involved in a social life even if they don’t think so because in reality everyone does something they enjoy daily and if they don’t then they really aren’t living the life they should be living.

Sources
http://www.google.com
http://www.soc.cornell.edu/undergrad/what_is_sociology.html
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Social-Groups.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26868.html

Kody Denny
Society and Social Life
A common social issue that people have today is making friends or trying to fit in in a new environment. Most people in their lifetime struggle with social skills and being social. There are many reasons for this like moving to a new place, going off to college, or even joining a new club or sport. People who go to a new place most the time are so nervous about fitting in that they won’t be social at all or will be overly social and everyone will think that they are simply weird. Making friends is often hard. A good way to make friends is to put you out there and try new things like join a sport or a club. Being in a club or sport will simply make it easier for you to make friends because you will share the same interests as the people you have just now surrounded yourself with.

Make sure what you are doing or joining though is for something that you are also interested in or you have just made yourself no progress and are still at stage one. Fitting in is different than making friends for many different reasons. Most the time the people you are trying to fit in with are a crowd or crowds that’s you don’t want to be a part of but at the same time you think you will be looked at as being cool. For example, people who drink, the party crowd. Say you want to be looked at as cool so you do stuff and be pure pressured into something this might cause you to lose some of your friends you already had because they don’t like your new decisions. It can work the other way also, like if you originally have your friends and they get into drugs or start hitting the boos you choose to leave that group this could cause them to look at you as an outsider and loose some of your friends.

Philosophers and scientist agree that being social is key to happiness. Having close long term relationships with people allows you to be able to communicate and share stuff that is bothering you that they can also relate to. Being social and having these ties with your friends is also proven to cut depression which will most likely lengthen your life. Making friends first off is key. To make friends whenever someone asks you hey do you want to go to this party or to this movie make sure you show up. Putting yourself out there makes you seem available your new friends will want to hang out with you more because they know that they will not be let down.

Making friends with your friend’s friends is key. Being able to be social with your friend’s friends will expand your social network. Make an effort. Don’t be afraid to be yourself when hanging out with your new friends being shy when hanging out with them will make you seem socially awkward and will make your new friends not want to call you to hang out the next time. As you can see social life is very important. Everyone at some point in their life will come upon new situation where they have moved or joined a new group where they don’t know how to be social. Being social is key to making new friends and fitting in. Once you begin making friends you will be able to expand your social life and join new groups that you knew friends are in making your social life bigger an expanding your friends by going to these new clubs.

Sources
http://www.succeedsocially.com/sociallife
http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2009/02/friendship-seven-tips-for-making-new-friends/

Daniel Bolte
Society and Social Life

There are many are many different communities in just one state of the United States of America. There are many different social groups, and each social group influences people in many different ways. There are good social groups, but also bad social groups: high school football players are in a social group, there are also high school social groups that kids will do drugs and party. As adults in this world the same basic priciple is still applied, there are good groups that are positive, but also bad groups that will make each person struggle in today's life. The definition of society:

"noun
-an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
-a body of individuals living as members of a community; community.
-the body of human beings generally, associated or viewed as members of a community: the evolution of human society.
-a highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members: American society.
-such a system characterized by its dominant economic class or form: middle-class society; industrial society."

The definition of social:
"adjective
-pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.
-seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.
-of, pertaining to, connected with, or suited to polite or fashionable society: a social event.
-living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation: People are social beings.
-of or pertaining to human society, especially as a body divided into classes according to status: social rank."

As I read these definitions I thought to myself what Society and Social Life meant to me. There are many groups in society that influence the public opinion of what is right and what is wrong. Religious groups influenece peoples lives, but also how people should live them. The media and news have a way of impacting the public, the media chooses what they get to show citzens. Many people have opinions and judgement, in reality we do not know what is right and what is wrong. The only things we know is what social groups chose to influence the public, our government has made laws that we must follow or face the punishment of breaking the laws.

Society and Social Life is such a broad topic, you could literally analyze the every aspect of the world, study the group and show how they impact the world. I have decided to write about Christiananity, I want to show how this has impacted my life. I was brought up in a religious lifestyle, my family always lived by God, but not as most Christians would. My family and I would go to church, but not every Sunday. We would have conversations about God, but I didn't go to bible study every week. Individually, I know what is right and what is wrong, I know what God wants us to do. I believe that a religion helps a human mind from traveling into the peer pressures of life. I am still young, I still make mistakes that make me shake my head, but my religion has taught me how to learn and once you learn you become wise. When I was in high school I fell into the pressures of partying and being the cool kid.

Looking back on high school I had a very enjoyable time in sports, but the social groups outside of sports influenced me in a negative way. On the page 20 Popular Bible Verses About Life: by Pamela Rose Williams shows many inspirational verses that can help you live what in now known society as a good life. "Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." This verse states how the God put food for the people and let the world flourish, but to find the knowledge to be good and fight the evil. Another verse shown from the article by Pamela Rose Williams "Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death." This verse shows how God has given us life and one has the freedom of choie to turn their backs from evil. These are two verses out of a large book that has influenced people on how to live a good life. This is all opinion of course, because not everyone has to believe in a religion, but this particular religon has influenced many to do what society looks at as a good and healthy life.

Society and life
By: Mishelle Reeder

Over centuries the way of life and social interactions has changed. The word society means “a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.” According to Sociology in our times the 8th edition. A social group can be labeled by the use of technology. It is defined as any large group of people that interact and communicate with one another.

Technology has taken a huge turn on our world. There is technology everywhere. As to back about a thousand years ago, when there was very little communication. Technology refers to the knowledge, techniques, and tools that allow people to transform resources into useable forms and the knowledge and skills required to use what is developed.

For instance back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s there were usually only 3 forms of communication. First there was the simple pen (feather) and a piece of paper that was sent through many different places before reaching its destination. Then there was the form of telegraph. The telegraph was first made in around 1861 where it sent out urgent messages in Morris code according to inventers.about.com. And then there was the longest way ever and that was traveling from one place to another which took up to many weeks or months.

Once the years past technology began to advance in such things as medical purposes and communication. In forms of communication though, things advanced, and the first telephone was invented in the late 1870’s by Alexander Graham Bell, according to invertors.about.com. People could call family or friends anywhere using the operator. Now days the telephone is usually only found in business setting because many people have stopped using land lines and started using cell phones.

The computer was then invented around the year 1936 by Kinrad Zuse, according to news.everstonline.edu. It took awhile for these to take off but once they did, different companies such as Apple and Dell started making different versions with different features. The computer has traveled a long way and has been upgraded so much since the early 1930’s.

So now days we have things on the computer like Myspace which was a popular social networking site in the late 90’s and early 2000’s which upgraded to face book which is said to have over a billion members using its service worldwide. Now we can also skype with people far away as well.

But, the major break through has been the cell phones. Cell phones have grown up but slimed down over the last 20 years. We went from having a dinosaur phone hanging in our purse to a thin slim hand held phone that fits in our pocket. On the phones to date we can get on the internet to research last minute questions and then use the face book app to update our status every five minutes telling everyone what they might be doing every minute of their lives.

As you can tell by now technology has been around for awhile. Technology is found everywhere and is used for different things. Communication with technology is growing so rapidly, but if it gets us able to talk to the ones we love, that is all that matters. It’s been a long haul for technology and it will continue to keep advancing as the years pass. Who knows where technology will be in the next 20 years.

References: http://importanceoftechnology.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Impact-of-technology-on-Communication-2.jpg
Sociology in our times the essentials the 8th edition by Diana Kendall
www.businessweek.com article by Ashlee Vance October 2012
http://news.everestonline.edu/post/2009/07/invented-first-computer article June 2009 by: Kelvin Otis
www.inventors.about.com
Image by:http://www.illinoisci.com/files/cellphone.gif

Society and Life
Natalie Elmgreen

There are so many different groups within the world, they way we live and act is different everywhere that you go. Some cultures embrace the importance and traditions that other groups do not agree with. The “same” culture is completely different depending on the location of the of the person or group. America is one of the best examples of this. There are so many different ways of life, food, religion and more all combined and wrapped up in one country.

A great comparison of the difference of culture is the south region such as Louisiana and somewhere like Colorado. The greetings in the south is completely different then the greeting that most people in the West have. The south is way more blunt. The areas that people typically visit are low income areas. There is a lot of visible poverty. People depend on fishing and work like that. Where in the West there is bigger dependence on office jobs and expansion. The south is still very dependent on the traditions sources of income for the most part. The job opportunities are still very similar to the ways it was in the past. A lot of back woods and hunting kind of experiences and jobs. While in the West everything is more domesticated.

America is often lumped together on the global scale. But the reality is America is a bunch of traditions from around the world combining into one, creating its own unique culture. The culture is something that can’t be duplicated. To repeat this culture is nearly impossible on the planet that we have access to. Since the pilgrims came over to what we now call America there have been the opportunities and the freedoms to create traditions and a new culture. With this there are no other areas that have the resources or the opportunities to have other traditions and cultural organizations form.

Modern day culture is not based on as much tradition as other generations. Older generations depend more on nationalities and the traditions that have been developed in that country. While today's generation is more influenced by pop culture and current social media. Social media has created a new kind of culture that the world has never seen before. There is the ability to start a movement, that can change society as a whole within seconds. For example the revolution in Egypt broke out so quickly. With the ability to post a status or send a tweet and have hundreds of people, then thousands, then soon a million people see it. There is a movement, and this particular movement changed the country of Egypt and then the world. Everyone saw the ability that the average person has to start a movement. With this ability anyone can change the future. Anyone can make history and that in itself has the world in a completely different state of mind. When we have the ability to change so much in a short period of time, we have the ability to change things for the worse. Social media can start a trend of bullying, this has caused teens and adults death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Social-Groups.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26868.html

Social groups and social control

Brandon Heusser

By: Heather Flohrschutz

Social Groups and Social Control

You may ask yourself, what are social groups? A social group is people who have common characteristics and interact with each other. There are two kinds of social groups. These are the primary group and the secondary group. A primary group of people tend to interact with each other for long periods of time and are close to each other. The secondary group of people, do not interact as much as the primary group of people would. The primary and secondary groups can be broken down into further groups called small groups. In small groups there are usually two people called a dyad or three people called a triad. Small groups are able to interact more directly towards each other because of the smallness of the group.

In a social group, there is a leader. Each leader has a preference on how they lead the group and leading types can be classified into two different groups. The first kind of leader is an expressive leader. Expressive leaders like to be in the group and have good friendly relationships with the other members in the group. The next kind of leader is the instrumental leader. This leader likes to achieve goals and will be very motivated to reach those goals.
th?id=H.4675377771250097&pid=15.1

There may be two kinds of leaders but there are also different leadership styles that the leaders can apply when leading. There are ten kinds that have been classified but I will only be listing six of those ten.

The transactional leader is a controlling leader that judges each person on performance and wants every- one to do their job accordingly to what they say.
A Bureaucratic leader likes to run the group by rules that have been laid down and wants those rules to be followed exactly so that things run smoothly.
The charismatic leader likes to have an enthusiastic team and seeks to motivate the group. The charismatic leader tends to be focused on themselves more than the team but is supportive of the group.
The democratic leader likes the team to be cooperative and involved in making the decisions. They want the team to do lots of work before a decision is made but the final decision is not made by the group as a whole but rather just by the leader.
A Laissez- Faire leader likes to let the team do everything on their own and only helps the team if absolutely necessary.
Task orientated leaders just want to get the job done and will do anything to get the job done.

In order for a society to work properly, there must be social control. Social control is, “the rules and standards of society that circumscribe individual action through the inculcation of conventional sanctions and the imposition of formalized mechanisms.”(Merriam –Webster Dictionary). The different types of leaders mentioned above are a part of social control because they lead the groups and have set standards for the group that they lead. There are different forms of social control. These are internal, external, informal, and formal.
Internal social control is, “The process of internalizing the norms of society and accepting them as valid. It operates through the process of socialization that is learning and adopting the norms of the society or a particular group or collectivity within the society.”(“Deviance and Social Control”)

External social control is, “Society's effort to bring those who "stepped outside the lines" back into line. It is made up of the system of rewards and punishments, sanctions that persons, parties, and agents use to induce others to conform to a norm.”(“Deviance and Social Control”)
Informal social control is, “Interpersonal actions between and among people to remind someone that their behavior upsets or pleases them. I.e. frowning, smiling, criticizing, praising, shunning or being warm.”(“Deviance and Social Control”)
Formal social control is, “An effort to bring about conformity to the law by agents of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) i.e. police, courts and correctional institutions”. (“Deviance and Social Control”)

Work Cited
http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/200/socialcontrol.htm
http://www.cliffsnotes.com

Johnathon Stiles

There are several social groups among everyday life. Society being the biggest social group, others branch of making society, society. Some of these are grouped by racial background, athletic abilities, hobbies, and intelligence. Usually racial groups, people of the same tend to stick together, some make way off on their own but only when they have something else to contribute to another social group. There are many groups that separate and bring together athletes. Based on skill and sport are the greatest factor in determining where you belong or will fit best. People who have the same hobbies frequently stay together and do what they all enjoy. Intelligence tends to form its own group as well, the smart guys don’t enjoy the dummies. People with the same amount of intelligence stay together. People in these different groups interact most of time within their own groups. Sometimes there are fights within the group. Fights are not frequent among members of different groups although they can happen. The fights include physical and verbal fights.

The most common are verbal fights. Rarely do physical fights occur among fellow group mates. The altercation is formed when trying to determine who the best is. After a long and tiring fight, many changes can occur to the members of the group. Personality and feelings can be changed greatly. Members of the group could have once been enemies to another but then they might feel pity for those they have beaten. We humans are born to socialize. It is very important to be in a social group, no one likes to be alone and I once heard no one can survive completely on their own. People in the social groups are friends and it is very important to have friends. A good social group can make you have a good reputation.

Coming into a new environment being away from home, I joined a social group. Me being here for track I was immediately drafted into that social group. What I’ve noticed is, once you find your main group, another group is formed from there and another and another. Being as though it’s a track team, its several groups that can be made within that one group. Even during practice everybody isn’t together as one. The biggest group would be sprinters vs. distance runners. Within those groups you have the short sprints vs. the long sprinters, and mid distance vs. long distance. From there you can make another group based on race, intelligence and whoever you’re just automatically attracted to. My group consists mostly of the black sprinters. We all get along fairly well for the most part, but a team isn’t a team, society isn’t society, and the world wouldn’t be the world without social groups. This class and essay made me realize how easily were grouped. I don’t think it’s necessarily bad because I think everybody has a place they belong and are comfortable being. You just have to find out where you belong. Don’t try to fit in somewhere you don’t belong or don’t want to be because of your family or culture or whatever, because there’s a place for everyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group

Jaydon Bixenman
Social Groups and Social Control
Chapter 7
Social Statuses

Every society and civilization on earth is composed of individuals and each individual has a status. A status is a position defined by society and is characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties (Kendall). In other words this refers to what people are deemed in a social group. For example, being a parent, politician, waitress, or CEO of a company are all statuses that people may hold. People generally have more than one status. This is called your status set which comprises of all the statuses that a person has. One person may be a parent, spouse, employer, student, and a son all at the same time. Having so many roles could eventually even cause conflict within each other.

There are a couple ways in which to gain or relinquish a status. The first is through ascribing to a status. This means that the status is given at birth or is involuntarily placed upon you in life. Gender, age, and race are all considered to be ascribed statuses. The second way is the idea that statuses are achieved through choices, merit, or direct effort. Employed, student, and doctor are all achieved statuses. These statuses are not always positive though. Being a criminal is an achieved status, but not a desired one.

In all the statuses that we have there is one that is considered our master status. A master status is the main status that attributes to the individual. For many men, their master status is their occupation, because it shows how wealthy they may be or how successful. Being rich or poor is another common master status because it generally gives evidence of health, education level, and life styles.

When people are proud of their status, they usually try to show other individuals of their success using what is called a status symbol. A status symbol is usually a material object that signifies a certain status. For example, expensive cars show that a person is wealthy. Other people see this and think that the man must have a high income or wealthy life style. Wedding rings are also symbols of the fact that the individual is married and not on the single market. Uniforms also show others of the individual’s status.

Having so many roles can be difficult sometimes. An individual who is a father, spouse, son, and employee, and student can easily experience role conflict. Role conflict occurs when two or more role’s duties conflict with each other. For example, as a father, he may be entitled to go to his son’s baseball game, but his job requires him to be at work during that time. He also has an overwhelming amount of homework he has to do at night instead of paying attention to his wife. Many women who compete in sports feel role conflict as a part of their role as an athlete and their womanly status. Ladies are expected to be “lady like”, but playing basketball is a rather manly occupation. These situations generally cause role conflict among these individuals. Unlike role conflict, role strain is when there is an incompatibility inside of a single status. For example a father must work enough to provide for his family, but if he works all the time he doesn't get to spend any time mentoring his son emotionally into becoming a moral and responsible adult. Finally there is role exit. Role exit is when an individual loses a role that was a big part of their social identity. For example, a woman getting divorced or a man retiring are examples of these.

References
Kendall, Diana. Sociology In Our Times: The Essentials. 8th Edition ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2012. Print.
"Status and Role: A Sociological Perspective." Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2013.

Social Groups and Social Control
Louis Edmiston

According to the online dictionary, social groups are defined as an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. All the people on this Earth has grown up to live their own lives but may also have looked up to their leaders and learn from them on how to live a certain way of life. Society also has different groups, or classes called social groups.

Social groups, according to the sociology guide are a social group that consists of two or more people who interact with one another and who recognize themselves as a distinct social unit. Groups are among the most stable and enduring of social units. They are important both to their members and to the society at large. Through encouraging regular and predictable behavior, groups form the foundation upon which society rests. Thus, a family, a village, a political party a trade union is all social groups. An example of a social group would be a team. A team would have a social group because they may share the same social interaction but they have different personalities.

There is always a coach or a team captain there to show them how to do their part in the group and cope with the other group members. The social groups have mainly developed in a school environment, with different personalities and how they have formed. There are also two types of groups, the primary and the secondary group. According to Wikipedia, a primary group is a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships. Examples of primary groups would be married couples, families, and close friends. According to Wikipedia, secondary groups are large groups involving formal and institutional relationships. Some examples of secondary groups would be gangs, classes, teams, co-workers, and also neighbors. Examples of different social groups in a school environment would be jocks, nerds, Goths, geeks, and preps.

These social groups started either by one individual or multiple individuals with one similar idea to have the same personalities. Then when different people wanted to follow them, then they would become a part of the group. Eventually, the social group will form. The cause of a social group transforming would be to have everyone in the group change their thoughts and actions, or if one person caused everyone to change their thoughts and actions. According to Wikipedia, if a group attempted to add new group members, then it could be a way to cause the group to fail. The number in the group can be reasonably flexible, as long as there is a strong enough leader in the group.

According to the online dictionary, Social Control is defined as the enforcement of conformity by society upon its members, either by law or by social pressure. People who study sociology like to look at how the groups are formed and when were they formed. There are two types of social control. There is informal means of control, then formal means of control. Informal means of control is the means of an individual who is born with potentiality in a wide range. Informal means of control is outside laws enforced by the government to prevent any establishment of chaos. Each group functions differently because of different trends. With the example of the team being a social group, the social control in the team would be the captain or the coach. They would be the social control because they are the ones who are the leader of the social groups. Every social group has social control because the social controls are the ones who began the social group.

Sources
http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Social-Groups.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group

Tino Thompson
Michael Thompson
Intro to Sociology
February 11th, 2013
Social Groups & Social Control

A social group is a number of individuals interacting with each other with respect to establish status, social rank, dominance, and relationships. A group of people who interact with each other and are aware of having something in common. There are four types of social groups: 1. Low class, 2. Middle class 3. Upper class 4. High class. In sports, work places, and schools are all forms of social groups. The low classes are the group who can’t keep up as well but, try’s the best they can putting in more time than others. The middle class finds ways of making their groups succeed. The upper class is those who work hard at what they do counting and tracing every step they make. The high class some of them work twice as hard to get to this level of class, others are just blessed with their ability.

Social class as in a class society, is a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centered on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middles, and lower classes. Class in an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, anthropologists, and social historians. The term class is etymologically derived from the Latin classis, which was used by census takers to categorize citizens by wealth, in order to determine military service obligation. The lower class is typified by poverty, homelessness, and unemployed. The working classes are those minimally educated people who engage in manual labor with little or no prestige. The middle class have more money than those below them on the social ladder, but less than those above them. They divide into two levels according to wealth, education, and prestige. The lower upper class includes those with new money or money made from investments, business ventures, and so forth. The upper upper class includes those aristocratic and high society families with old money who have been rich for generations. The upper upper class is more prestigious than the lower upper class.

Social control means control of individual’s behavior by society and that control of social institutions should be in the interest and welfare of the whole society. Some warning and directions of prohibited activities are an example of social control. The first thing comes to people mind when social control is mention is police, court, and punishment, but even thou it songs comparing it’s not stated to that. Social control has been defined by MacIver as the way in which entire society order coheres and maintain itself how it operates as a whole as a changing equilibrium. The term is control exerted actively or passively by group’s action. Social control is very essential for every society. Without social control, society as well as individual cannot exist. Therefore, the need of social control is very essential. Social control is necessary for the following reasons: 1. to maintain the old order, 2. to establish society unity, 3. to regulate or control individual behavior, 4. to provide social sanction and, 5. to check cultural mal adjustment.

Social control is one of the most generally used concepts in sociology. It refers to the various means used by a society to bring its recalcitrant members back into line. Social control theory refers to perspective which predicts that when social constraints on antisocial behavior are weakened or absent, delinquent behavior emerges. Social Groups & Social Control; stables our society. But, social control; is the most important part of this subject, it helps balance our society behavior and sets things in place; way as nothing won’t get out of hand.

Work Citied
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Social-Groups.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26868.html
http://www.sics.se/~lra/nsp96/node3.html

Fabian Hayles
Sociology
Mike Thompson

Social Groups & Social Control

A social group consists of 2 or more individuals, who socialize with each other publicly, behind a computer screen, or over the phone; and, recognize themselves as a distinct social group or unit. Constantly socializing leads to sheared beliefs and values, making them identify themselves as a social group. Social groups influence occurs when one’s emotions, opinions, or behaviors are affected by others of the same or different group. Social influence can take the form of socialization, leadership persuasion conformity, or peer pressure. We as individuals play many different roles in society; these roles serve many different purposes. I for instants find that I belong to many different groups’ such as an athlete at Colby Community College more specially a member of the Track team, a member of Phoenix Athletics Track Club, a member of Presidential Honor Roll, and volunteer coach. These roles make up my social identity, because I belong to so many different social groups in society. These images can have either a positive or negative image. In this case a positive image because I’m doing positive things that are deemed “acceptable” in society.

Social groups are a collection of people who shear the same interest or similar characteristics and come together to interact in a group at a certain location. A social category is a collection of people who have or share similar characteristics but they never interact. For example, Track and Field athletes, Basketball players, and Baseball players at Colby Community College all belong to an social categories. This category can and will become a social group as soon as the members in the 3 groups being to interact. In this case they are already deemed a social group because they are a part of a sports team a socialize at practice and in games.

Within these social groups in society you’ll have primary and secondary groups. Primary groups are groups where people or members cooperate and interact over a long time period. An example, would be family members, sports teams, and classmates. They are primary groups where communicating with one and other is a must. Members of a primary group have strong ties emotionally, socially, and morally.

Whereas, a secondary group is a group where individuals don’t interact often with each other. If you are a member of a secondary group your less personal or emotional. Members of secondary groups can be college classes, online classes, cruises these members might not know each other.

Social groups fulfill one of the most psychological needs to belong. The feeling of being wanted and needed motivates an individual to socialize, and be mentally healthy. Not all social groups are made up of people who known each other prior. Spending excessive time with people in this group builds relationships and friendships. All members of the group have at least 1 thing in common, or else the group wouldn't form. Social groups is a form of communication among friends and peers. Communication plays a essential role in our lives. In society social groups form for many reasons. For example, teachers going on strike. They came together and united to express the groups beliefs towards an opposing group, Purpose to accomplish unified goal. Social groups act as a great support system. The members of the group can come together and help solve another members problems. For example, Alcohol Anonymous, they come together to try and help each member of the group fight alcohol addiction. Thus, Social Groups and social control plays a vast role in society because they help to give each individual a role in society and to feel wanted and belong.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6552170_importance-social-groups.html#page=7
http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Social-Groups.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_influence
——

Gregg Gausden
Dr. Thompson

Social Groups
A social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share similar characteristics and a sense of unity. A social category is a collection of people who do not interact but who share similar characteristics. For example, women, men, the elderly, and high school students all constitute social categories. A social category can become a social group when the members in the category interact with each other and identify themselves as members of the group. In contrast, a social aggregate is a collection of people who are in the same place, but who do not interact or share characteristics.

Groups play a basic role in the development of the social nature and ideals of people. Primary groups are those in which individuals intimately interact and cooperate over a long period of time. Examples of primary groups are families, friends, peers, neighbors, classmates, sororities, fraternities, and church members. These groups are marked by primary relationships in which communication is informal. Members of primary groups have strong emotional ties. They also relate to one another as whole and unique individuals.

In contrast, secondary groups are those in which individuals do not interact much. Members of secondary groups are less personal or emotional than those of primary groups. These groups are marked by secondary relationships in which communication is formal. Members of secondary groups may not know each other or have much face-to-face interaction. They tend to relate to others only in particular roles and for practical reasons. An example of a secondary relationship is that of a stockbroker and her clients. The stockbroker likely relates to her clients in terms of business only. She probably will not socialize with her clients or hug them.

Primary relationships are most common in small and traditional societies, while secondary relationships are the norm in large and industrial societies. Because secondary relationships often result in loneliness and isolation, some members of society may attempt to create primary relationships through singles' groups, dating services, church groups, and communes, to name a few. This does not mean, however, that secondary relationships are bad. For most Americans, time and other commitments limit the number of possible primary relationships. Further, acquaintances and friendships can easily spring forth from secondary relationships.

A group's size can also determine how its members behave and relate. A small group is small enough to allow all of its members to directly interact. Examples of small groups include families, friends, discussion groups, seminar classes, dinner parties, and athletic teams. People are more likely to experience primary relationships in small group settings than in large settings.

The smallest of small groups is a dyad consisting of two people. A dyad is perhaps the most cohesive of all groups because of its potential for very close and intense interactions. It also runs the risk, though, of splitting up. A triad is a group consisting of three persons. A triad does not tend to be as cohesive and personal as a dyad.

The more people who join a group, the less personal and intimate that group becomes. In other words, as a group increases in size, its members participate and cooperate less, and are more likely to be dissatisfied. A larger group's members may even be inhibited, for example, from publicly helping out victims in an emergency. In this case, people may feel that because so many others are available to help, responsibility to help is shifted to others. Similarly, as a group increases in size, its members are more likely to engage in social loafing, in which people work less because they expect others to take over their tasks.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Social-Groups.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26868.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/social+group

——
By Fily Perez
Social Groups

In the social sciences a social group has been defined as two or more humans who interact with one another, share similar characteristics and collectively have a sense of unity. Other theorists, however, are a wary of definitions which stress the importance of interdependence or objective similarity. Instead, for researchers in the social identity "a group is defined in terms of those who identify themselves as members of the group.” Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. For example, a society can be viewed as a large social group.

People may form opinions or judge their own behaviors against those of a reference effect (a group used as a standard for self-appraisals). Parishioners at a particular church, for instance, may evaluate themselves by the standards of a denomination, and then feel good about adhering to those standards. Such positive self-evaluation reflects the normative effect that a reference group has on its own members, as well as those who compare themselves to the group. Still, reference groups can have a comparison effect on self-evaluations. If most parishioners shine in their spiritual accomplishments, then the others will probably compare themselves to them. Consequently, the “not-so-spiritual” parishioners may form a negative self-appraisal for not feeling “up to par.” Thus, reference groups can exert a powerful influence on behavior and attitudes.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_group
www.education.com › … › Bullying and Teasing

David Johnson
Social Groups
8:00am Sociology MW

A social group is a collection of people who interact with each other and share characteristics and a sense of unity, also known as people sharing the same social relation. There are all different types of social groups around the world and most of them we interact with everyday, examples of these groups would have people in them like families, women, men, the elderly, high school students, college students, friends. There are two many types of social groups which are primary and secondary groups and then the small groups that tie in with social groups are groups like peer and reference groups.

Primary Groups are groups of people, which individuals intimately interact and cooperate over a long period of time. Examples of primary groups are families, friends, peers, neighbors, and classmates. Usually individuals in primary groups have an emotional attachment. Secondary Groups are groups where individuals don’t interact much, they are less personal and not as emotional as primary groups. They are comprised of individuals who lack strong emotional ties with one another. Examples of secondary groups are classes, political parties, and members of the same work force in a large cooperation.

The main differences between Primary and Secondary Groups are their size, relationship, and control of behavior, goals, structure, and position due to age, birth, and sex. A smaller type of social group would be a Peer Group which is a group made up of individuals of relatively equal status that interact frequently. The power of a peer group becomes more important when the family relationships are not close or supportive. An example of this would be a teenager joining a gang, most join a gang at a young age because their parents support isn’t there and they look to the gang for emotional support.

Another smaller social group is the Reference Group is a group of individuals possessing a set of similar characteristics, which are used as standards, by other individuals in evaluating their own behavior, but not classification as a true groups individuals don’t usually share a common identity in characteristics for there groups. There are also groups like Voluntary and Involuntary groups. Groups may be classified according to how members become members. If an individual select to become a member of a group then that group can be referred to as a voluntary group. On the other hand, if an individual becomes a member of a group, as a result of factors over which he/she has no control, then the group may be referred to as an involuntary group. In an over view of these socials groups, I would say that there is a lot of good a social group can do for people. A social group gives you people who are just like you and gives you another individual who may be going through the same thing you are and they might be able to help them out.

Sources:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Social-Groups.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26868.html
http://www.tomcravens.com/groups.html
http://www.preservearticles.com/201101173464/differences-between-primary-group-and-secondary-group-in-sociology.html

Kody Denny
Social Groups and Social Control

There are many different kinds of groups in our society. The definition of society “so·ci·e·ty
noun: an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.” Today there are many organized groups for example: athletes which then bring in a society group known as the fans, people who worship a certain religious view creates another group.

These groups are then contained by laws created by a government or pressures caused my peers. This is known as society control. Society control is created by a group of people and their opinions of what is considered to be right from wrong. The advancements of technology have affected our society, for example children now have cell phones. There parents can contact them at any moment allowing them to have more space. Parents feel more comfortable with letting their children to go to parks without adult supervision, compared to when cell phones never existed.

There has always been a view to say no to drugs, sex and rock and roll. This has been a control by society to prevent people from damaging there lives, when not everyone that has sex has a dirty mind. Or even when people smoke marijuana, not all of them have an addiction problem. The article The Deviance of Society by Patricia Adler, Ph.D. and Peter Adler, Ph.D. shows the point of view about society control: “Say no to drugs, no to alcohol, no to tobacco, no to sex. People are trading in their former "sins" by drinking non-alcoholic beer, chewing nicotine gum, or abstaining from the bong. Some people are choking their sex drive, figuring it's better to be monogamous or abstinent than to negotiate condoms or dental dams.

A re-virginization movement has grown where couples do not engage in intercourse for three days to six months before their weddings. Tim Tebow and Lady Gaga are the poster children for voluntary celibacy.” Throughout the article, there are many examples of how the views of society changes. One day a children’s idol is a hero and the next he has tested for a performance enhancing drug creating an image for children that to make it big you must do illegal drugs. Patricia and Peter Adler demonstrate a very interesting point of view about how society creates an image that chaos is occurring “This move toward abstinence, sobriety, moderation, and puritanical thoughts about sex is more than a trend. It's a practical program that expands the limits of law enforcement, the authority of employers, and ultimately its own parameters. Big Brother IS looking over your shoulder. Across American society one sees effort after effort to restore social cohesion, re-assert authority, and basically get a grip on the energies that have been unleashed over the past quarter-century.” I believe that this is a way for people to control the general population. They create an image of fear so people will believe there is a problem and do there best to stay away from it.

All in all, society is always trying to find an edge to gain power of the general population to prevent mass chaos. They create laws and drama to prevent people from doing drugs, and having sex. People have groups, causing judgments from good to bad. It’s how people will look at their group.

Sources:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social+control
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/society
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-deviance-society/201201/the-control-society

Daniel Bolte
Social Control and Social Groups

Every person experiences the effects of social control. The definition of social control:
“social control
noun
1.
Sociology . the enforcement of conformity by society upon its members, either by law or by social pressure.
2.
the influence of any element in social life working to maintain the pattern of such life.”

In the article Technology and Social Control: The Search for the Illusive Silver Bullet by Gary T. Marx expresses how social control has effects on society “The increased prominence of social control via engineering is related to concerns over issues such as crime, terrorism, drug abuse, border controls, AIDS and economic competitiveness and to technical developments in electronics, computerization, artificial intelligence, bio-chemistry, architecture and materials science.” These problems have been pointed out, so people in the government can try to control what is right from wrong. They can make laws to prevent people from doing things that society frowns upon. Science and technology has increased much over the past years. The military can spy and protect to coast using the advancements in technology. There are many ways that people are controlling our society. There are patterns on how people live today.

Many people have the same daily patterns controlling how they live on a day to day bases. For example: many American families are married, have kids, the parents both have jobs, and the kids go to school. In society people have to learn how to cope with certain scenarios that society throws at them. People may be neglected and be considered weird which will cause social isolation, which can than lead to psychiatric problems. Also patterns begin to form, such as marriages. Just a decade ago people looked down on divorce, so of course the pattern of society a decade ago showed that the divorce rate was much lower. Since then people do not frown upon divorce as much, we are now at America’s highest divorce rates.

Social groups have a big impact on people in the work environment, at the preschool ages, elementary, and adolescent ages. I’m going to talk about the effects of adolescent ages. Social groups have a big effect on people at this age. A healthy, and considerably normal adolescent period is key. The article Social Life in Middle and High School: Dealing With Cliques and Bullies, by Joshua Mandel demonstrates the opinion of how important the adolescent years are. “Adolescence is a tough and exciting time, with many biological, cognitive, and social/emotional challenges, as well as the potential for many accomplishments.

Most teens navigate these years successfully, but for some these transitional years are socially difficult.” Later in the article Mandel explains the psychology effects of social grouping: “Teens who are different physically, emotionally, or behaviorally may fall in this category. There are also teens who are socially rejected. These youth often make repeated attempts to be part of a group of students but are rejected because they are antagonistic or unable to behave in a socially appropriate manner, such as teens with untreated ADHD or overly aggressive behavior.” What Mandel is trying to get across is that social groups can effect people, while being rejected for so many years they lose the self esteem that is key in succeeding in today’s society.

As I have read about how the effects of social control and social groups are on todays society. I have learned that there must be a happy medium, because if the social control was not there the human species would cause mass chaos in the world. Also, social groups are created by the social controls.

Sources:
-http://www.education.com/reference/article/bullying-in-middle-and-high-school/
-http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social+control
-http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/techandsocial.html

Social Inequality

By: Jo-elle Endreola

Social inequality happens all over the world in many different societies. Every person in society is grouped into different groups. And every group has a different ranking. These groups are not equal. People can be grouped in many different ways. Way’s society today group’s people are by education, age, race, gender, and culture.

Education plays a big role in social inequality. Say there two people in a room. The first person did not graduate from high school and the second person has a law degree. The two people will be grouped into two different groups. The first group would be the people who didn’t finish high school, and the second group would be the one that has a college degree. Is there anything bad between the two groups? No there is not. But the group that is successful may frown upon the people who did not do anything with there life; but if that’s what made them happy the rest of there life then so be it.

Age can usually be classified in many different ways. Young, old, middle aged, elderly, children, babies, and the list goes on and on. Say you put a eighteen year old right out of high school and a middle class adult in a room. Most likely the eighteen year old is going to have less money, not as many job experiences, and will most likely be not mentally be fully matured compared to a middle age adult. Our society today does not have high expectations for young adults, which also makes them at a disadvantage sometimes at getting high paying jobs.

Race has been a really big problem in society for years. Weather you’re black, white, Spanish, Irish, Mexican, or even Indian There will always be someone out there that does not like your race. It would be like going back to the 1800’s and putting a group of racist white people in a room with African Americans and I guarantee you the African Americans would have most likely been sold off as slaves, or killed.

Men and Women are completely different in the gender issue. Men are known for being the “bread winners” for the family, and having hard working labor jobs such as coal mining, farming, construction, or even working on oil rigs. Men have also been known to be the stronger ones of both genders. Females are mostly known has “home makers” such as a, housewife, or an office lady. Even though both genders have been stereotyped this way; we have seen a big change in society from what it use to be like. You see way more women now days being considered the “bread winners” and you also see many men staying home with the kids. What started this trend you may ask? The woman’s rights movement did of course. As women saw the slavery issue with the blacks, the women also started to see a slavery issue with their own gender. Women then pushed to get the rights to vote and to be able to work in the same jobs men do. America has come a long way since that time period.

Everyone has a different culture depending on his or her race. If your Italian you are most likely going to be very family oriented, Catholic, and love spaghetti. Italians are also known for their art, and romantic language. The Irish have the St. Patrick’s holiday which is huge religious days celebrating the death of a saint. On this day the traditional Irish go to church, dance, drink, and eat all day. The Jewish have Hanukkah, which is pretty much Christmas for the Jews. This holiday is celebrated over eight nights and days The Jewish celebrated by the kindling of lights. So as you can see there are many different ways to classify culture. So what makes this an inequality? Well if one culture is mainly catholic and the other culture is mainly Jewish. Then you are going to have to different cultures that may not get along.

Social inequality does not have to mean that a certain inequality group is particularly better or worse, but in some cases both social groups may frown upon the other social group for their way of living. This all depends on what the norm is on where you are living. Social inequality is everywhere and there is no escaping this inequality degradation.

http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_inequality
http://www.mindomo.com/edit/5e8aa10aae424d3c817c9e2cc7acc19d

Johnathon Stiles

Social Inequality
In this day and age what one word would best describe everyday life and how we live, “Diversity”. Diversity being the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness. Diversity even being such small things such as; place of birth, social status, language, culture, height, weight, and age. I’ve always heard even if it was just from tv, my parents or even from just being out and so happen to stumble into someone else’s conversation, “what counts is what’s inside,”. It never really hit home until I got older and ventured out on my own, started meeting new people and dating. It’s deeper than just intelligence and personality. To me diversity and social inequality go hand and hand.

Most of my life I never gave much thought to what category I fell into. Being from an area where pretty much everyone looks the same, growing up I looked at everyone as my equal, besides the little guys whose clothes seemed to be a little raggedy but no big deal. Wasn’t much diversity, for every 10 black kids there were .5 white kids. Most of the people I graduated with I’ve known for years going alway back to 1st grade, and lived in the same house for most of that time. For most of my school years my friends and I lived the same lifestyles and we all enjoyed the same social statuses. I guess we would have been classified as African American middle class.

Being a black man, all my life I’ve been told it would be a little rougher for me than a white person just because the color of my skin. Seeing for myself, and hearing stories about what use to go on several years before my being all way up until now, some people seem to think they’re above others because of race. Being from a place where a majority of the population is black the few white people I’ve meant always seemed to be alright, so when I’d think about all the stories I was told it didn’t make much sense.

Going from a predominantly black area moving here, in my 6 months of being here I’ve already encountered several people who must’ve thought they were better than me because I’m black and they were white. Inequality seems to happen when majority overcomes the minority. If I Took those same people to where I’m from I’d like to see if the portray and express those same feelings they did towards me then.
Social inequality from the girl at school not talking to the girl with the cheap shoes, all the way to the black man not talking to the white man because of his skin color its all the same. That’s just another reason why society is society. Much as most of us would like to see everybody looked at as equal it probably won’t ever happen. It will always be somebody somewhere who thinks there better, it’s just the way of life.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/diversity
http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Social-Inequality.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/strat.html

Social Inequality
Michaela Garrett

Social inequality is a rather large and slightly complex term. Social inequality covers a broad spectrum of categories. There are more than what I am going to talk about in this essay. I am going to discuss three different types of social inequality; class inequality, gender inequality, and race inequality. Keep in mind, just because I chose to discuss these, it does not mean that it is happening in the United States, I am discussing what is or has happened globally.

Gender inequality happens all over the globe. The most common that we, as United States citizens see most frequently, however, is the pay gap between men and women. Even though women now have all the same rights as men in our society it is still found that there is a 25 percent pay gap between the two genders. Meaning, that woman, on average, get paid 25 percent less than a man working in the same position. Other examples throughout the world include women in all Middle Eastern countries not being allowed to show their face in public and in the past, women not being able to vote or work in general. Throughout time these inequalities have gotten a little better, but the truth is the world may never be without some sort of gender inequality. If not gender inequality, racial inequality is probably the next largest inequality that we have seen globally in the past.

6a00d83451d75d69e2013486534f33970c-500wi

Racial inequality has been a thing in the beginning of almost every history book. The things that are most remembered when it comes to racial inequality are the civil rights movement, the civil war, and more recently, the case against the Los Angeles police department that beat up the black man, Rodney King, for no reason and all charges were eventually dropped. This kind of inequality, often called Racism is something that may never truly see an end. It has kept mankind from being all they can be. There have been changes in places to keep racial inequality from happening but the truth is, even now, minorities still do not get the same education and jobs as the majorities in the world. This leads us into class inequality.

Class inequality is “a large category of similarly ranked people located in a hierarchy and distinguished from other large categories in the hierarchy by such traits as occupation, education, income, and wealth.” Simply put, those in the lower class do not get the same opportunities as those in the middle class and the same for the middle class to the high class. One example of a place where this is very apparent is in Mexico. In Mexico City, for example, you can be walking around the business part of town and the next you see, almost like a line, the poverty stricken side of the city. It does not fade into the slums; it simply just becomes the slums. This is the kind of inequality that is becoming more and more apparent in the United States. We can see this now, as the middle class becomes low class and the low class becomes poverty stricken and sometimes homeless with the way our economy has gone to crap.

Social inequality does not just affect one person or one group of people it affects everyone. Some people feel the affects more than others but the truth is clear and simple, our social net is filled with inequalities and there will never be a day that there are little to no inequalities in the world.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_inequality
http://www.globalresearch.ca/massive-growth-of-social-inequality-across-america/5316793
http://liberation.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451d75d69e2013486534f33970c-500wi

Megan Doctor
Social Inequality

Social Inequality is summed up as the social structure between classes that measures whom has more than whom. As Americans we always want more; more food, more clothes, and more money. The fact that not everyone can get the same of everything means that not everyone is getting treated equal. Does it though? Social inequality is not always a bad thing. As humans we need someone to follow and to tell us what to do. If we didn’t get sort of leadership that then our society would be chaos, no rules being enforced and no voice of reason telling us what is right and what is wrong.

Social Inequality is not an uncommon thing in most societies. As hierarchy has grown from the past so does social inequality of things. The more we create and gain as a society the more inequality we will have. Just as the more we lose certain products and they become rare to find, the people who are able to attain those products will be higher on the totem pole. Take fresh water for example as our society grows the supply of fresh water gets more and more limited to where in the future only the strongest and most powerful countries will be able to attain enough to support the demand and then it will only be for the people that will be able to buy water. Water that is free in restaurants will cost more than expensive wines. We as humans will fight over the remaining sources of fresh water and ultimately the lack of water will result in smaller third world countries being wiped out completely.

With that said social inequality will get even worse as the people who are all powerful must then decide who is in charge and sense they are not use to being told what to do their will be a collapse in the social structure of even those powerful countries. An alternative would be that scientists may go into outer space looking for another planet to support the life of humans and we may move there, but then again there is no guarantee that we will be able to survive or find water on that planet. If in fact we decide to distill the salt water, price of that will be so expensive that only the super powerful and wealth will be able to afford it. The common man will be made to fight over little rations of water that the government gives each day to everyone. Those who are not strong enough, smart enough, or rich enough will there for die and as the week die off the rations will get smaller and smaller until they don’t give out rations anymore and only certain people in the world will get water until we don’t have societies, or hierarchies or anything. The world will lack water and therefore every living organism on the planet will cease to exist.

Right now as it stands everyone is able to obtain water. It doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you have you can afford water. It’s the unattainable that makes the social structure and inequality work, as time goes on though none of those things will matter when there is no one to be at the top of the social structure or at the bottom. Social inequality will not exist.
http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Social-Inequality.htm
http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/strat.html

—-
Marsha Fenita-Putri
Social Inequality
Famous Vs. Nurses

Social inequality is an unequal opportunities. It contains unequal distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments. Inequality of conditions and inequality of opportunities are the two ways to measure social inequalities. Types of inequality conditions are income, wealth, and material goods. Some of the examples are homeless people, people with home living at the bottom of the hierarchy and those who are multi millionaire living at the top.Types of inequality opportunities are some of the life chances such as level of education, health status, and treatment by the criminal justice system. Social inequality also defined based on a person such as gender, age, class, and ethnicity. This are some ways social can access some social goods like source of income, healthcare system, participations, citizenship status and etc.

In my opinion, why do people who are working on the medical fields like Doctors, and nurses make less money comparing those who are an athletes or celebrities. The only good thing about athletes or celebrities are only good for being famous. Since social media, like television, internet, and other media are huge in society, being famous or well known is a big thing. Since when does playing a game or showing up on media and talk makes more money than saving a life? It's easy and fast to some people to get well noticed and be popular on social media, and it might even takes minutes to do so. For being doctors and nurses, it takes a minimum of at least 4 years to be achieve and get a degree or more than 4 years to get a bachelor degree. Medical and science fields are more trained and well educated about more important things.
Saving lives and taking a good care of those who needed the help should at least deserve a little more.

When it comes to ethnicity, different race and background can also affect the society in United States. For examples, for those who came to state as an immigrants, but been living in state for most of their lives, some are not eligible for a citizenship. I would understand if they have committed a crime, but for those who are talented and graduated from schools and colleges, they should at least have the opportunities to have a good paying job. For instance, some may argue about the immigrants being able to apply for financial status when their own citizens cannot afford for their own tuitions. Also, having those immigrants who also pays the same price as an in-state cost.

Long time ago, either you are a male or a female, the things you do and the things you get are not always equal from each other. Most male gender are more likely to get a better job and a better pay than those who are a female gender. This mostly happens because male gender are supposed to go out and work, while females are supposed to stay home and do every house work. Now, most jobs are offering both male and female and also getting paid the same. Not only jobs are being about how much they make, but it can also be about the positions. When you think about nurse or nurses, you would think about only females applying for that position and some males won't even try to be a nurse as their major.

Age can also affect the social inequality. The age for drinking have changed so much for this past years. Drinking age are not always the same in every countries. In United States, drinking age has changed from 18 to 21. Insurance are less expensive as you get older. In my opinion, I think that insurance should just stay low even at a young age until you get caught drinking while driving or when getting a ticket.
Social inequality are not always equal, but its society ways to have the world going around.

http://toddarthurbridges.org/4.html
http://sociology.about.com/b/2012/05/09/sociology-definition-of-the-week-social-inequality.htm
Articles on “The Dream for Some, A Nightmare for the Rest." by Ling-Ling, Yeh.
—-

Social institutions
Fabian Hayles

Social institutions are a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic social value. The five primary institutions are of family, education, religion, government, and economics are found among all human groups. They are not always as highly elaborated or as distinct from one another, but they exist everywhere in today’s world. They are deeply rooted and intertwined in human nature and that they are essential in the healthy development and healthy maintenance of human life and society. Without these essentials input into society—society would collapse almost right away.

A family is a permanent group of people linked together by ties of blood, marriage, or adoption. A family is not only a biological but a social group as well. This group that make up this category exist to raise new generations to replace the old. The basic components of a family is the mother, father, and children. When a mother, father, and their children form an independent household living divided from other family members, we call them a nuclear family. Another example would the extended family, which includes the mother, father, children, and other family members such as grandmother, grandfather, cousin, aunt, uncle, godchildren etc.

The Government/politics exist to maintain order and security in a society, examples of these types of institutions would include the various court systems, different types of government, and law enforcement. More specifically there are 3 common types of government. Monarchy which is an government headed by a single member of a royal family, usually a king or queen. An oligarchy is a form of government in which few individuals in power. A dictatorship is a form of government where a single person has 100% of the power over a country.

Another important aspect of our social environment is religion. Religion may be defined as a more or less coherent system of beliefs and practices concerning a supernatural order of beings, forces, places or other entitles. Religion is founds in every society around the world, It gives inhabitants of that community an explanation of life, a guide for ethical behaviour, and an explanation for human problems that cannot be answered by reason alone; and, reinforce moral values. Examples include Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Roman Catholic etc. as well as less organized religious.

The Economic institutions provide food, water, shelter, and determine how much and who gets these necessities. Economic organization is distribution, production, and consumption of goods and services. People are led to produce goods and services because of need and use. We produce goods because they are culturally desirable or indigenous. Examples would include banks, agricultural bureaucracies, trade organizations, and stock markets.

The educational institution is the social structure concerned with the purpose of relaying knowledge to the new generation. Education is a form of socialization that is systematic. All schools are organized around cultural ideas and aspects, such as a belief in grades, values of punctuality, and competition. This category exist to train the children from young and input them in the norms and values of the society. Examples of this type of institutions include public and private schools, universities, colleges, and religious schools.

Social institutions are enduring relationships that result from human interaction. Over time these relationships established predictable patterns and norms throughout society. Social institutions are natural products or creations of our societies, their primary function are to help societies meet basic needs and standards. Social institutions overlap, interact, and support each other. It’s impossible to think of a social order without any existing social institution, because they serve as the foundation for human society.

Links for work
http://www.angelfire.com/or3/tss/socinst.html
http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/Weblessons/GeographicalThemes/themepages/institutions.html
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/social-institutions-definition-examples-quiz.html

links for pictures
http://www.cdc.gov/healthycommunitiesprogram/images/home.jpg

By: Heather Flohrschutz
Social Institutions

A social institution is the guidelines and beliefs that people set into place that help society meet its basic social needs. The social institution can be broken down into five main categories/institutions. These are family, education, religion, government and economics.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary: a Family is-“a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head.”
The family institution is the most basic of institutions and can be considered the first institution. In the family institution there is usually one person at the head of the household, usually the father and then the mother. This social institution is most nearly always created by blood, marriage, or adoption. The family contains relationships such as parents, children and relatives of the immediate or non-immediate family unit. The nuclear family is, “a family group that only consists of father mother and children”, and the extended family is, “a family that includes in one household near relatives in addition to a nuclear family”. (Merriam-Webster dictionary). In recent times the family has said to be transforming or has transformed in basic structure. Due to changes in varying societal values and principals, the family institution can consist of one-parent verses a traditional two-parent relationship. Also a family may be defined as consisting of a unit with no parent, but simply a group of close net individuals with common goals and values such as gangs.

The next institution is the educational institution. Education- is “the action or process of educating or of being educated or b) the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process.” (Merriam-Webster dictionary)
In the U.S system of the educational institution, regulated by the government, it is mandatory for children to attend school. At school they learn necessary skills that will be practiced in every - day life and when they go take a job. Once out of high school a student may choose to or not to take further education at a college. At college there are two main types; universities and junior colleges. A university is, “ an institution of higher learning providing facilities for teaching and research and authorized to grant academic degrees; specifically: one made up of an undergraduate division which confers bachelor's degrees and a graduate division which comprises a graduate school and professional schools each of which may confer master's degrees and doctorates”. (Merriam-Webster dictionary). A junior college is, “an educational institution that offers two years of studies corresponding to those in the first two years of a four-year college and that often offers technical, vocational, and liberal studies to the adults of a community.”(Merriam-Webster dictionary).

Another institution is religion. Religion – is “b (1): the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2): commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance” (Merriam- Webster dictionary).
Religion is an extremely large institution that contains many religious groups. The largest religious group is Christianity in which 33 percent of the world is this. The second largest group is the Islam. 21 percent of the world’s population is this. More inferior religions are Judaism, Hinduism, Chinese traditional, Buddhism, non-religious and other religions. Just about the whole entire world population practices some form of religion. Most of the religions seen today are ones that were formed many years ago.

Government- “the body of persons that constitutes the governing authority of a political unit or organization”. (Merriam – Webster dictionary) Examples of government institutions are the U.S White house, U.S Senate and the U.S library of congress.
Kinds of government are monarchy, democracy, authoritarianism and totalitarianism. A monarchy is the ruling of one, such as a household over many persons. “A democracy is a political system in which citizens periodically choose officials to run their government.” (Spark notes). “Authoritarianism is a political system that does not allow citizens to participate in government.” (Spark notes). “Totalitarianism is a political system under which the government maintains tight control over nearly all aspects of citizens’ lives.”(Spark notes).

Economics- “a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services”. (Merriam –Webster dictionary). In the system of economics there are specifically two types. These are macroeconomics and microeconomics which are interrelated.

Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole, such as the income, growth and how things change. Macroeconomics deals with aspects of supply for the public’s demand of scare resources as well as maintaining adequate supplies of most public resources. Macroeconomics addresses how our government’s policy affects or improves our standard of living.
Microeconomics- “a study of economics in terms of individual areas of activity (as a firm or an individual).” (Merriam-Webster dictionary). Even though microeconomics addresses the individual, we must consider how the individual choices can affect international economics scope. When we buy certain products we often dwell into the macro environmental of international trade. Also our actions often determine the price of goods and services we desire. Businesses depend on the critical information gathered from our actions for the growth and stability of their profits.

References
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/family
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
http://www.ima-na.org/Government-Institutions
http://www.whatiseconomics.org/
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/macroeconomics.asp#axzz2KMVNoQvU
Contemporary Business 1994 Edition. Louis E. Boone, David L Kurtz (The Dryden Press)

Social Institutions
By: Mishelle Reeder

The word family has a wide variety of definitions, according to www.bing.com the definition of family is, “people that are related by birth, marriage, and or adoption”. Family is a big responsibility that many people take on each day. A family should be involved with each other. They should learn to communicate and take part in each others everyday lives. A family that communicated is more involved, more supportive and respects one another better. A family should be there to guide you whenever needed but, the word “family” has several different meanings.

Family branches out to more than just one lifestyle. In this day and age couples are having offspring out of wedlock. Wedlock is non married couples reproducing. Some wedlock families may result in single parenting: in some instances as teen pregnancy. Teen pregnancy can be linked to a single based income, and maybe hard on both the child and the parent. Teen pregnancy is on the rise and there is currently around 750,000 pregnant teens a year in the United States. (www.pregnancy-info.net)

There are also blended families which are: families coming together by spouses that been married before and have resulted in children. Many of the children may feel out of place with a new step-parent. The child finding its place in this new situation between the separated spouses may be a difficult time of adjusting According to www.census.gov, “The divorce rate in the United States in 2009 was 3.4%." Results in divorce can be because of constant disagreement with one another, a dishonest spouse, or the couples mutual interests have changed. Divorce puts so much stress and strain on the entire family that can make or break the family structure. Divorce is as hard on the child (ren) as it is on the parent.

Another branch in the family lifestyle is the nuclear family which is the family that has a mother, a father, and the offspring. The parents may fight and there could possibly be a sibling rivalry causing more problems, and as many of the same problems as all the other family branches, but may not result in divorce in all situations.

Another lifestyle branch is adoption. According to https://www.childwelfare.gov “127,000 children are adopted each year by foster parents.” That may put more stress and strain on the new parents as they learn to adapt to their new lifestyles and responsibilities. If parents already have their own offspring and then the family decides they should adopt, that could put some chaos into everyone’s daily lives, this will take time to learn and to adjust by not only learning everyone in the families personality and habits, but the
Child they adopt will have to learn a new lifestyle also. It will be like any family and sometimes not everyone will get along all the time.

There is also a branch called Extended Family: which is when the children live in different places. In this situation the child can live with another family member like a grandparent or aunt and uncle. The child could also live with a parent in the same family setting. For example: A mother and child live together with an aunt or uncle. Then again they can have the same disagreements as any other branch of family. This puts more chaos on everyone in the house hold and their daily routines, but they will learn to adapt.

The end result in all these situations and branches of family is: a family is a family whether or not it’s a: Wedlock family, Nuclear family, Blended family, or Extended family. They all should share the same love and respect for one another no matter the conflict.

References: www.bing.com, www.pregnancy-info.net article by , www.census.gov,
https://www.childwelfare.gov.
Photo by: www.googleimages.com

CHAPTER 5
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS by Kayla Bennett**

I am writing this essay on social institutions. I will tell you what they are, give some examples, and tell you what purpose they serve.
First off, a social institution is is a set of organized beliefs and rules that establish how a society will attempt to meet its basic needs. An example of social institutions today are mass media, sports, science and medicine, and the military. In earlier days social institutions were believed to be family, religion, education, economy, and the government.
[size="small"]

Social institutions are seen to provide five major tasks. The first is replacing members, finding socially appropriate ways of replacing members who may have died or moved away. The second is teaching new members, people must learn how the group does things such as values and customs. The third is producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services. The fourth is providing order since every society needs some type of order and protection. The fifth is providing and maintaining a sense of purpose.

Social institutions are used to meet basic needs but are not always good for everyone. For example a family can have a negative affect on a child.

I hope after reading this you understand what a social institution is and what purpose they serve.

Sources
SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES by Diana Kendall 8th edition
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/

Social Institutions
Mike Pettibone

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQjAlQCfUsvOD_36VfAGTJuicpo9dtksLhCeerKhNUEaMhEWvpy

The seven major societal institutions are family, community, religion, academia, business, media, and government. Of course as citizens to this world, we all play a role in one or more of these seven different categories that are the basis to social institutions. Most of us might be oblivious to our interaction with social institutions but we all are introduced to the first one when we are born. I would like to touch on a few that I believe are the most important. A key note to remember is that the Government and Business institutions run society today, and that is not always a good thing.

A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value. Obviously, the sociologist does not define institutions in the same way as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use the term "institution" very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and many other things as institutions.

When born, we are brought into the world and are a part of a family. We all come from different families, and our families are the backbones to our lives. They shape us into what we believe in for the rest of our lives. In an article written by Stephen Palmer he states, “The role of the family is to ensure responsible citizens, preserve society, and balance the desires of individual liberty with the demands of community responsibility.” John Adams once said, “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people…They have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge — I mean, of the characters and conducts of their rulers.”

In America today, government and business are predominant over the other five societal institutions. Furthermore, they are often joined together, forming an oligarchic structure that harms small business, decreases widespread prosperity and increases discrepancies in wealth distribution, and increases the size and scope of the government. When government stifles the press, the media is obviously weakened, and so is academia as citizens are kept in the dark on important matters.

Stephen Palmer goes on to say in the same article, “If America is to survive and thrive in the 21st Century, it is imperative that the power and influence of the government and business be reduced and the power of family, community, religion, academia, and media be increased.” I would 100% agree with him! The government and businesses make up too much of society, and ultimately make a lot of decisions that affect our society. Sometimes these decisions are for the best, while others seem to really bring down the society as a whole.

Resources
http://www.thesocialleader.com/2009/12/7-major-societal-institutions-roles/
http://www.sociologyguide.com/basic-concepts/Social-Institutions.php

Jaydon Bixenman
Social Institutions

Social institutions of our society covers a wide range of topics from families to Health Care. Social institutions are the backbone and future of our society. The way our families are shaped, our education established, and how our government operates all contribute to who we are as a nation.

The institution of marriage is a very important and complex part of our lives. The word family used to only refer to blood relation or marriage, but it has evolved into a more broad term. It extends to not only blood or marriage related, but to any economic unit in which people live together with commitment. Gangs are examples of this. They feel that they belong to the group and they watch out for each other and protect one another. Apart from family, there is the institution of marriage. There are many different factors that occur inside of a marriage. The status and responsibilities that each spouse acquires is different between houses. Some may practice a duel-earner marriage. This is when both husband and wife are in the workforce in order to provide for their family. Deciding whether or not to have kids, adoption, and also divorce are also important factors to consider.

Education is one of the most important factors that can alter and change the future. Education is an organized structure that is responsible for teaching the skills needed to live in society. There are many functions that education provides such as socialization, the transmission of culture, social control, placement, and change. These are the manifest functions that education strives to achieve for its students.

Religion constitutes to who we are as individuals and is responsible for many of the things we find morally right and wrong this in term helps social control. A functionalist’s perspective on religion states that religion provides three functions. These functions include giving a meaning and purpose, a sense of belonging, and social control. This holds true for any society. The conflict perspective states a different meaning of religion in society. It states that religion justifies social change, even against the governments will.

Politics and the government go hand in hand. They shape one another. Politics is the institution on which power is achieved and used by a group of people. The government is an organization that regulates relationships among what it controls. Authority is power that people realize as real and not to go against and there are many types of authority. Traditional authority is attained by a long-standing custom, while charismatic authority is given by the leader personal qualities. Rational-legal authority is the power given by laws or regulations. There are also many types of political systems. A monarchy is a system where one man rules while his blood line continues his legacy. Authoritarianism and totalitarianism both seek to control the lives of the individuals with no democracy whatsoever. Democracy is where the people share power and have a say in the government policies and also give power to representatives to speak on their behalf.

Health Care is when the government tries to better the health of its citizens in any way. There are ways to measure a nations overall health. Life expectancy refers to the average lifetime an individual may have. Countries with better health and higher development tend to have a higher average life expectancy. Infant mortality rate is also another way to measure a countries health. Infant mortality rate is the percentage of baby deaths in relation to survivals. Health has many factors including age, sexual orientation, race, and lifestyle factors. Alcohol, drug use, and sexual activity are all lifestyle factors. Medicine has come very far the in the last century. It was considered to be very little based in science. But in the 19th century many advancements were made that changed medicine from an art form to a science.

Sources
Kendall, Diana. Sociology In Our Times: The Essentials. 8th Edition ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2012. Print.
"Social Institutions, Basic Concepts of Sociology Guide." Social Institutions, Basic Concepts of Sociology Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013.

Social Institutions
Justin Talley

A social institution is a set of norms surrounding the carrying out of a function necessary for the survival of a society. In sociology the five main types of institutions are government, family, economics, religion, and educational institutions. All five play a major part in society in the way it is shaped and support each other in one way or another.

The economy is the institution that provides for the production and distribution of goods and services, which people in every society need. Some examples of social economic institutions include how to produce products and the entire exchanging method between people. This method has been used since the beginning of time and is mostly the exact same as it is today. The only thing that has changed is the products that are being traded. Countries trade ideas with one another on how to improve things and make everything run smoothly. Social economic institutions have built nations and destroyed others.

A family is another type of social institution. The institution of family has three important functions; to provide for their children, to provide identity amongst its members, and transmit culture between generations. Without the institution of family children wouldn’t have caretakers and wouldn’t know right from wrong without going through a trial error method. A family gives a sense of identity to a person. This can be seen in orphans who have grown up their entire lives without the family atmosphere around them, they sometimes lack belonging. Culture is also passed between generations because of the institution of family. This is known as tradition.

Educational institutions influence society also. Educational institutions prepare young adults for life in society. Education provides social experiences in well diverse societies because students come from all walks of life. Education institutions also promote integration because of this socialization. Although mostly positive education institutions can also have a negative effect. All schools aren’t located in the most appropriate places for a student to succeed. A student that goes to a predominately white, suburban, middle classed school has a better chance at succeeding than a student that attends an inner city less funded school located on the west side of the crime filled streets of Chicago. This is unfair because the student whose has a higher social status is given the better chance to better himself.

“Religion is a social institution that answers questions and explains the seemingly inexplicable. Religion provides explanations for why things happen and demystifies the ideas of birth and death. Religions based on the belief in a single deity are monotheistic. Those that encompass many deities are polytheistic.”Religion gives people a since of hope in times of need and glory in times of thanks. Religion is a comforting tool also. Religion also can bring a mass of people together for one reason and also tare them apart. Wars have been fought and people have died over religion which has shaped societies history, present, and future.

A government is sort of a parental figure of society. The government is placed to set and enforce rules and also handle business amongst other societies on behalf of the general population. In order to be an official government the people must recognize a certain group as their government that represents them. Though the government is meant to be representful in some nations the government is in almost total control of its populations lives. For example some Governments censor what can come into their land and be shown in their media which affects people socially.

In conclusion all five forms of social institutions help form society. Each and every institution relies on the other to keep a society in place. If one fails eventually it will result in a domino effect. That is the reason nations place so much emphasis on their economic status. Society has always been functioned through these institutions and will forever continue to be.

References
http://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/social-institutions/section7.rhtml
http://www.tomcravens.com/inst.html

Social Dynamics/Change
Michaela Garrett

Through out history we, as the human race, have been witness to many memorable social changes, or a significant alteration over time in behavior patterns and cultural values and norms. As this definition points out, social change is not something that happens in a blink of an eye. There are many theories behind what causes social change, as social dynamics points out. Of those, the ones that are the easiest to explain are the Marxist Theory, Heraclitian Theory, and Daoist Theory.

According to the Marxist Theory of social change, all of humankind’s history is one giant struggle between social classes. I take this to mean that no matter what kind of condition the world’s economy is, there will always be some kind of struggle regarding social classes. With these struggles, change will slowly but surely make its way around and will in the end result in a social change. I personally see the civil rights movement as an example that supports this theory. I say this because in general, African Americans were in the lowest social class for the longest time and it took not only a war, but also a rights movement after the war to get them to have equal rights. This sort of leads into the next theory I want to discuss, the Heraclitian Theory.

The Heraclitian Theory simply suggests that change is always taking place. I do not know of a perfect example for this one by any means. I assume that this simply means that you are not always meant to be stuck in the social class you are born into. For example, a child born into a poor family and a very low social class could change the way he does things so that his future family can have a better life than he did. There are really no “big” changes that I can think of that fit this theory. Which brings on the Daoist Theory.

The Daoist Theory states that change is to be natural, harmonious and steady. I see a good example of this theory as the feminist movement. Yes, there was a time where it wasn’t steady, so maybe not so much the movement itself but how it has changed things for the present. We now have women running for president and governing states and cities. These are not things women could have done in the not so distant path. This is why I think it fits in so well with the Daoist Theory. Yes, the initial push was not so “natural” but everything that has followed that movement has been quite steady and natural, if you ask me.

Other examples of significant social change include, but are not limited to, the industrial revolution, the abolition of slavery, and urbanization. All of these have greatly impacted not only the United States but also people around the world. Without these changes humankind would most likely still be in the stone ages and we would not have emerged as the society we are today.

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/Social-Change-Defined.topicArticleId-26957,articleId-26951.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_change
http://www.uleth.ca/artgallery/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/public_web.jpg

Jorge Cruz
Social Control and Social Groups

Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, they do this to usually gain conformity with other people around them social science, a social group is defined as two or more people who are joined together by some shared bond or affinity. Everybody has different social control from one another to gain peace from each other. Different types of groups may overlap with one another. Also, a given individual may belong to more than one group, although he may identify with one group more deeply than another. Group status can be acquired or lost instantly or assigned to an individual by outside observers. Lot of people has their own social control to be able to get around with in the society around them. Each and every person has their own way to behave and around people. That’s why everybody gets along with different people than others. This is how they make friends, because if there is a group that acts and behaves the same way that the one person does they become friends.

It is necessary for every society or group to maintain its social order and this is possible only when its members behave In accordance with that social order. An important objective of social control is not to maintain the old order. Family helps in the realization of this objective. The aged members of the family enforce their ideas over the children. Without social control, social unity would be a mere dream. Social control regulates behavior in accordance with established norms, which brings uniformity of behavior and leads to unity among the individuals. The family maintains its unity because its members behave in similar manner in accordance with family norms.

There are four characteristics that are common to social groups. First, there must be direct interaction between the members. Second, members must be aware of being members of the group. Third, members usually share a common interest or cause. Fourth, there should be some organizational structure to the group, whether formal or informal. In the first characteristic of social groups there basically should be bonding or interaction between the people. In the second characteristic there should kind of be concern within the group knowing who you are around with. The third characteristic of the social groups means that there is something that each person has in common to be able to get along with each other. Usually when students or any person in life are the same age is when they get along the best according to sociologists. The fourth one is that interaction has to happen between the group and have it be organized to be able to work.

There is also many different types of social groups in school. It all begins from elementary to high school especially in high school when there is more drama. Parents play a big part in this social groups. Teachers also play a big role in creating these social groups in school. Although many parents and teachers would prefer that schools be strictly places of academic learning, they are also places where adolescents create distinct, hierarchical social groups. The social lives of students begin as early as elementary school, with groups becoming more stratified as the students grow older. Many sociologists have studied the behavior of these groups, hoping not only to better understand the social lives of children, but also to learn how to address issues such as bullying. Most of these things sociologist have studied these things through students in high school and how they acted and in what “social groups” they were involved.

work cited:
www.cliffsnotes.com › Sciences › Sociology
http://www.education.com/reference/article/bullying-in-middle-and-high-school/

Social Dynamics
Natalie Morris
2nd Wiki Essay (March 06, 2013)

Social Dynamics-can refer to the behavior groups that results from the interactions of individual group members as well to the study of the relationship between individual interactions and group level behaviors.

Social Dynamics-the study of social processes, especially social change.

Studying social dynamics and changes is a society can prove to be very interesting, but also a lot of work. Our society has changed so much, I feel it has changed a lot even since my birth.
There have been a lot of social changes since the beginning of time, people have learned to socialize and interact without having to beat each other over the head with sticks, or hitting rocks together. Many things that were once looked upon as being wrong, sinful, what ever word you care to use, are now looked upon as normal.

I believe there has been a lot of social change since the 1900’s. In the 20’s the wealthy people seems to sit around and drink, and try and have a good time. That was almost expected for someone who had money. The women had nurses who took care of their children and there seemingly was no responsibility.

When World War II came about there was more social change, not only did men go off to war, but women who hadn’t worked a century before had to find jobs to provide for their families while their husbands were away. When America joined the war they were just coming out of the great depression. There were nearly 17 million jobs that came open for workers, and many children even started working to help bring in money while fathers were away.

By the late 1960’s through the early 1970’s we had the common hippies, and Woodstock. Peace was all the talk, and weed was the substance of interest. I would also say this is about the time period where religion was quickly swept under the rug. There were more people who decided that there were more religious options than being a Christian, which seemed to be traditional up until this point. Slowly but surely religion was existing the American home, but during this time period I think there was a massive movement of people existing the church compared to other generations.

The amount of technology alone that has changed a generation is unbelievable if you think about it. Televisions were commonly found in homes only by the 1960‘s. Computers were used in the 1980’s but few people had them in their homes until the 1990’s. Cell phones started being used more frequently around 1995. All of this has influenced the social behavior and caused changes in society. Cell phones make talking to people accessible to you, where ever you are, you can talk. Computers provide an easy way to gain information, rather than having to go to a library.

The idea of a girl being pregnant before she was married was an embarrassment to families when my grandmother was growing up in the 1930’s but it is becoming more and more common amongst teenage girls of this generation. Another taboo topic is homosexuality, which until the last ten years a least has been a topic most try and avoid. Even these two simple topics which we seem to hear about on at least once a week, show how much our society has changed.

Watching societies change and develop over time may also help us in the future, and anticipating how our society will be different. Taking into account things such as the recession, and movements such as gun laws. Each of these things, plus countless other situations will shape the society we will live in in the near future

Sources
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social+dynamics
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_social_changes_after_world_war_2_in_US

Social Dynamics
Natalie Elmgreen

Social dynamics have always been a problem in society. The term social inequality is defined as unequal opportunity and rewards more members of a social group or society. The two most common ways of measuring inequality is through unequal distribution of income, conditions, opportunities, material goods and wealth. The problem with this is there is no real way to make society equal. There are always going to be people who free ride and people who work hard and there is never a pay off.

Throughout history there has always been a problem with people not being treated well or good enough. This whole idea of societal equality is impossible. This is called a utopia and there has never been a successful attempt at utopia. There has always been a hierarchy and people have always followed it, it's human nature. Even in medieval times there were people who were respected and envied. There were also people who lived in terrible conditions, starved, begged and got nowhere in life. There have to be people like this though. If everyone found success and lives extraordinary lives then there would never be improvements in society. There always have to be people in back situations that want to change the situation that they are in. Where would society be if people in tough situations did not find a way to change history? Thats how social class and rank changes, there is always the ability to move up in the world if you have something that everyone else wants. Not everyone can move up, because these ideas are not easy to come by.

Humans like wolves, lions and apes want to be apart of a group. Even if they are the lowest member of the group at least they are apart of the group.There are always going to be people in a social group that don't make as much money, that don't get the immediate perk, that never get ahead and get ignored by the upper class or higher ranking members of the group. But this is acceptable because leaders of groups should have some special treatment. The treatment of group leaders can be looked at like kings, royalty, leaders, dictators and many more titles. In the end humans are a lot like baboons. The most dominating male leads the group, eats first, has first choice of mates and the option to exclude others from the group.This is a lot like in society. For example, America. We have dominant figures like politicians, athletes, actors, entertainers, and others. There are the middle class or working class. Who are rewarded most of the time but still have to work hard for what they have. Then there are the lower classes. People that for the most part get ignored. These are people that others question how they got into the situation that they are in. A lot of the time these people have mental disorders, addictions and rough pasts that they cannot escape.

The truth about society is hard to take in. There is no such thing as a perfect society, where everyone has the same things that everyone else has. This has been attempted in history. Communism was an attempt at this and it had failed. There is no way to keep everything fair. Some people are going to have better, some people are born into families that are going to make sure that they don't go without. If everything was even there would be no such thing as money, beauty, individualism, and any other advantage that people might have over others. So social inequality is a reality that has to be apart of society, for society to function as a whole.

Work Cited
http://socialdynamicsllc.com/
http://socialdynamicsllc.com/

Social Dynamics
Megan Doctor

Everyone is different in each society therefore the social dynamics should be different. Each person reacts to another person in a different way. Social Dynamics can be defined in many ways as how individuals and groups behave and interact with each other. It also includes the relationship they have with each other. Social Dynamics can be a problem though. By including everyone in a social dynamic, it is including millions to billions of different views and reactions. Not everyone will like each other and hence causes hate and wars. During the First World War the United States had relationships with Great Britton, France, and Russia. Their social dynamics were on a positive note and they all interacted in likes toward each other. As time went on though the dynamics and interactions between Russia and America changed the views they had differed too much and they became enemies transitioning into the Cuban Missile Crisis. Not only did the dynamics change for the United States and Russia but they also changed for many other countries that sided with the newly found enemies.

After many years the social dynamics of both countries have changed even more to being bitter enemies to being respective of each other boundaries. Everyday a new social change may happen without the majority knowing about it. It could happen in a high school or in a family; even a relationship could suffer or thrive from a social change. Even in the middle ages people were changing what they believed in or how they viewed someone. Psychology explains that the brains frontal lobe which is a main factor in decision making and processing changes for many years even after the person is well into their twenty’s. Having this as a factor the social dynamics a person has in their life may change on a day to day basis. Considering that we as humans are changing all the time it makes sense that the social dynamics in which we associate ourselves with are changing also. Whether the change it be for the good of mankind or not.

(Needs Reference)

Society In Life
By: Jo-elle Endreola

Our society as whole shares many customs and the same interest. Such as technology, books, and media. But then you also have a society with in a society that share different customs then other societies. We determine these societies by things like culture, religion, athletics, and language. Many times we look at society with in certain groups, but whether you look at society as separate groups or as a whole. We are all united as one.

Culture in society can usually be grouped by different countries, or the area you live in. If you live in China most people are going to be Chinese and have the same cultural Chinese experience. If you live in Africa you may find a completely different culture than what you would find in China. This could range any where from food, drinking age, holidays, and traditions.

Religions are a really good example as a society because everyone has their own church community, and in that church community is their own church society. This could range from any kind of religion or church like Catholic, Jewish, Protison, or even Mormon. Not everyone has the same religion so everyone will have a different religion society. Usually people living in the same area will most likely all have the same religion in that location.
If you look at the NFL teams you can see that all those people playing football all share a common interest. They love to play football. This shows society in sports. This does not only have to be athletics but could also be hobbies such as, chess clubs, rodeo team, or even a choir.

Language could also be a society grouped by location or country. If you live in America a high percentage of people will speak English. If you live in Spain then most people will speak Spanish. Language is not only a way of grouping a society but is also in a way survival of the fittest. If you decide to move to Spain, and do not know Spanish, and do not know your directions, or want to go out to eat and can’t because people in Spain do not understand you then you will have a hard time living in that country. You have to learn to communicate to wherever you are living.

Culture, Religion, Sports, and Language may all separate us in different society, but what does the whole world have in common that make us all one society? Media is a huge way to make our society a whole. Now days we have the technology to look up any news we want to from all around the world. You could be in Italy and here that there was a big massacre shooting in America. Or you could be in America and hear about a massive fire in Italy. Another big thing that makes us a society as a whole is the Internet. People can get on chat rooms, Facebook, My Space, and even Skype and talk to people half way around the country. And if these people don’t speak the same language you can get on Google translator and figure out what the other person is trying to say. I think these are two incredible things that we have the ability to do.

Weather you think of our society as a whole or individually societies you can expand your horizon and see things in a bigger picture. We may not all talk the same look the same, or have the same interest, but in ways we all have at least two things in common. And this is what makes society in life interesting and unique.

Work Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_religion
http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Sports.htm

Social Dynamics
Mike Pettibone

Social dynamics are an ever changing piece of our world today, and social networking has a major role in how these dynamics play out. I do not know how many of you are aware of the fairly new social networking app, Path. Path is a combination of Facebook, Twitter, and FourSquare. You can update your status, let people know if you are awake or sleeping, share your location, and inform people of what music you are listening to as well as what movie you are watching and what book you might be reading. These social networking sites have ultimately changed how we hold conversations with people. Face to face conversation has declined, and some people would rather text, call on the phone, or have conversations over the social networking websites. Merriam-Webster.com defines social dynamics as a branch of social physics that deals with the laws, forces, and phenomena of change in society. Meaning everyday life and how we react to it.

Although the terms ‘‘social dynamics’’ and ‘‘social change’’ both indicate a focus on change over time, they are used in different circumstances. Social dynamics has a more precise meaning. First, social dynamics usually presumes change within a social system. That system may consist of similar entities or disparate entities or various attributes of a single social entity. The system usually is regarded as bounded, allowing the rest of the world to be ignored for purposes of explanation. There also may be exogenous changes, that is, unexplained (perhaps random) changes that influence change within the system under study but whose causes originate outside that system. Because of interdependent forces and feedback effects as well as possible exogenous changes, social dynamics typically implies a concern with complex changes.

Social Dynamics are all around us, sitting in the classroom is a dynamic that we encounter every day. They change and we adapt to what is thrown at us, while some of us struggle to adapt others adapt to the changes smoother.

Resources:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20dynamics
http://edu.learnsoc.org/Chapters/4%20key%20concepts%20in%20sociology/6%20social%20dynamics.htm

Social Dynamics
Justin Talley

Social Dynamics is change within a society. That could either be a society of people varying in all ages, genders, and races; or even more specific as change within a group of people. Factors can vary in both inner and outer change. Social dynamics can also be measured by change over time. For example “social scientist refer to the dynamics of a phenomenon, meaning that they focus on how it changes over time.”

Social dynamics have been apart of human life since day one. If you were to do research on the mid evil times and how their culture was shaped as opposed to our life today you would find many differences technological wise, culture wise and just about every other possible way. Change happens because of certain individuals or groups create ideas an present them to the inner group. For example Henry Ford, the creator of the first motorized vehicle, was apart of the outer group. If he were to ask the inner group, which was everybody else except him, what they wanted for transportation everybody would have said a faster horse. Instead he created the car, and look where we are today just because of his part in history. That is change, he and so many others have affected society in a way that can be seen visually.

Another example would be social networking. Because of the addition of sites such as twitter, facebook, and instagram society has changed from the 1900s way of living which was more inward than outward and less personal to somewhat of a social diary that anybody can read. Again because of people like Mark Zuckaberg, the creator of Facebook, and Tom Anderson, the creator of myspace, society has taken a more personal dynamic.

Also there are multiple theories on why a society changes or why people want change. One set of theories is the Marxist theories also known as conflict theories. “Marxist explanation of sociological change lies on the assumption that every society will face the forces of instability, struggle and social disorganization, which will cause it to change. Karl Marx, the most famous conflict-theory philosopher, argued that individuals and groups with opposing interests, such as different social classes or hierarchical status, are necessarily at conflict with each other. It's only through repetition of the conflict between social classes that capitalism can be overthrown, and socialist states can be created.”

Throughout history there have been movements that have affected society; the civil rights movement in the 60s, hippies in the 70s, style in the 80s, racial tensions have died down overtime and this is all because of change. In the 50s and 60s for example there were separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks. Today if somebody tried to bring that idea back it wouldn’t happen because we as a society have progressed.

The days have changed and so have the people in it. Different dynamics have shaped society in positive and negative ways. People influence their internal societies everyday through relationships and their actions whether they are aware of it or not.

Social Dynamics and Social Change
Keagan Strange

Population and Urbanization

Most nations are composed of communities that range in size from small to large. These various sizes of communities depend on many factors such as population, birth rate (the amount of live births per 1,000 people in a given year), mortality (the amount of deaths per 1,000 people in a given year), and fertility (the actual level of childbearing for an individual or population). These affect how productive a society can be, while also giving the community a sense of belonging. Another factor that affects societies is immigration and emigration. Immigration is the relocation of people into a new setting with the intention of settlement, while emigration is the relocation of people from a setting with means of finding a new home.

According to the Malthusian Perspective, food shortage is inevitable, because populations can grow geometrically, or exponentially, while food production can only grow arithmetically (marathon.uwc.edu). The Neo-Malthusian Perspective also agreed with this statement. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, on the other hand, argued against this theory, stating that food shortage does not have to be linked to population growth.
16498315-abstract-word-cloud-for-overpopulation-with-related-tags-and-terms.jpg

Over time, technology has caused certain societies with previously high birth and death rates to attain lower rates. This so called demographic transition has four stages. These include preindustrial societies, early industrialization, advanced industrialization and urbanization, and post industrialization. While the demographic transition theory may apply to western societies well, it does not apply to all nations equally.

Collective Behavior, Social Movements, and Social Change

When a group of people is in close proximity, they commonly face social change, which is the alteration, modification, or transformation of public policy, culture, or social institutions over time. This can commonly cause people to form a collectivity, which in turn causes a collective behavior, or the relatively spontaneous, unstructured activity that typically violates established social norms. More common causes of collective behavior include timing, the need to conform and feel normal, a common stimulus, and structural factors that result in a certain reaction.

Collective behavior is commonly found in crowds and masses, which are generally a large group of people. Herbert Blumer separated crowds into four different sub-areas: Casual crowds, which are a result of coincidence of place and time. These include malls, city sidewalks, etc. Another type of crowd is the conventional crowd that includes groups of people gathered for scheduled interactions such as school gatherings and meetings. Expressive crowds include church gatherings, and are commonly defined as people expressing their emotions with groups who share a common feeling. Finally, acting crowds are groups of people that react to an incident so greatly that it may end up resulting in violence. Examples of acting crowds include mobs, riots, and panics.

Neal Smelser composed a theory stating that six conditions are necessary to produce a social movement, or an organized group that acts consciously to promote or resist change through collective action. These six conditions include structural conduciveness, structural strain, spread of generalized belief, precipitating factors, mobilization for action, and social control factors. According to Smelser’s book, The Theory of Collective Behavior, people respond to these conditions based on their own personal value system. He states, “Values, then, are the most general statements of legitimate ends, which guide social action.”

Souces

Smelser, Neil. The Theory of Collective Behavior. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited, 1962. Print.
Marathon.uwc.edu