LESSON 1: SOCIETY AND BEHAVIOR

PART 1: PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS

DEFINITION

Behavior is generally defined ways that individuals interact with their environment, and can be
observable or unobservable. According to William Glasser, Behavior has four components: Thinking,
Feeling, Action, and Physiology. The interplay between these components makes up the total human
experience.

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. This can include many things, from how children learn
a native language to how one finds a car in a crowded parking lot. Even the simplest human activities
involve complex psychological processing.

When human behavior is so complex, where is a psychologist to start? Just like how a mechanic looks
under the hood of a car to examine the function of each component in the engine, psychologists often
start by examining the mind's underlying processes. Each of these basic psychological processes has a
function, and they all work together to produce complex human behavior.

TYPES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Based on the way people act or behave in different situations and in response to different stimuli,
human behavior can be divided into different types. Let’s discuss below some known and important
types of human behavior.

Here are the common types of behaviors human beings can have:

1. Molecular and Moral Behavior

Molecular Behavior: It is an unexpected behavior that occurs without thinking. One example is suddenly
closing eyes when something is about to this the eyes.

Moler Behavior: Unlike molecular behavior, this type of behavior occurs after thinking. For example, a
person changes the way when one sees a harmful thing.

2. Overt & Covert Behavior

Overt Behavior: It is a visible type of behavior that can occur outside of human beings. Eating food,
riding a bicycle, and playing football are some examples

Covert Behavior: Unlike overt behavior, this type of behavior is not visible. Thinking is a good example of
covert behavior because no one can see us thinking.

3. Voluntary and Involuntary Behavior

Voluntary Behavior: It is a type of behavior that depends on human wants. We can characterize walking,

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speaking, and writing as voluntary behaviors.

Involuntary Behavior: Unlike voluntary behavior, this type occurs naturally and without thinking.
Breathing air is a perfect example of involuntary behavior.

BASIC PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES AFFECTING BEHAVIOR

The 8 basic psychological processes are: (a) perception, (b) learning, (c) language, (d) thought, (e)
attention, (f) memory, (g) motivation, and (h) emotion. All are closely related to each other. Although
they maintain their terminological independence, many could not exist without the others. It is better to
understand this distinction as an artificial classification that facilitates scientific work.

1. Perception
Perception is responsible for us having an “image” of the reality that surrounds us. It processes the
information we receive from the external stimuli of our senses.

Perception is responsible for organizing and giving meaning to all sensory stimuli. The function of this is
obvious: knowing the environment around us allows us to move and interact with it. These are basic and
necessary skills to achieve an efficient adaptation.

2. Learning
This is how we modify and acquire knowledge, abilities, skills, behaviors, etc. It works through what
happened in the past. Learning also helps us relate our behaviors with their consequences. It is closely
related to memory.

The study of learning is given largely to the field of behaviorism. This gave us theories of classical and
operant conditioning to explain how we learn.

This process is useful because it allows us to vary our repertoire of behaviors according to what
happened in the past. It allows us to respond more adaptively in the present and future situations.

3. Language
The human being is a social being. That’s why language is such an important process. It gives us the
ability to communicate with others. This communication, in the case of humans, is carried out through a
complex symbolic code, or language. The complexity of our language allows us to accurately describe
almost anything, be it past, present, or future.

The usefulness of this process comes from our need to maintain complex social relationships that allow
us to survive in a hostile environment. Language allows us a mode of communication broad enough to
maintain human societies.

4. Thought
This is a complex process that psychology defines as the process in charge of transforming information
to organize it and give it meaning. The study of thought began with Aristotelian logic. However, this was
not an effective form of analysis, because the human being does not reason with logic.

The function of thought is a controversial issue. This is partly due to the existing terminological
confusion around it. The most accepted idea is that its objective is to act as a control mechanism in the

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face of situations presented to us.

5. Attention
Attention focuses our resources on a series of stimuli while ignoring the rest. We receive a large number
of stimuli all at once and we cannot attend to all at the same time.

The attention process is adaptive because, if it did not exist, we would find ourselves overwhelmed by
stimuli. We would not know which to react to. It is paradoxical that the self-imposition of a cognitive
limitation implies an evolutionary adaptation, but it’s true.

6. Memory
Memory allows us to encode information for future storage and retrieval. This is an essential process
and closely related to all other processes.

Memory allows us to remember explicit information such as the capital of France or procedural
information like how to ride a bike. Memory exists because it is really useful to have information about
our past experiences at our disposal. This allows us to make guesses about the future and act on them.
Without this process, the other basic psychological processes would not exist, since all are strongly
supported by memory.

7. Motivation
Motivation is responsible for providing the body with resources to perform a behavior. It is the process
in charge of activating the body and putting it in the ideal state. Another important aspect of motivation
is direction. Not only does it prepare the body, it is also responsible for directing behavior among
possible options.

The function of motivation is to get the individual to direct their behavior toward their goals and
objectives. It prevents them from standing still. This process is closely related to emotion and learning.

8. Emotion

Emotions are reactions to external stimuli. They allow us to guide our behavior and act quickly in
response to the demands of our environment.

Emotions have three components:

Somatic: the physiological changes provoked by emotion
Behavioral: the spectrum of behavior triggered by an emotion
Feeling: the subjective experience of the individual

Emotion manages our behavior in a fast and effective way. Most decisions lack enough importance for
us to spend a lot of time on. That’s where emotion comes in. It is important to understand that any
decision is mediated by our emotions to some degree.

PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN PSYCHOLOGY

1. Psychodynamic perspective.

This perspective which started from Sigmund Freud’s work, views that human behavior emphasizes the

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role of early childhood experiences, the unconscious mind, and interpersonal relationships to treat
mental illnesses and explain human behavior.
Freud believes that the human is composed of three elements; id, ego, and superego.
1.1 Id- known as the persona’s main source of initial and unconscious desires.
1.2 Ego- this psyche aspect is the one that deals with the pressure of the real world.
1.3 Superego- this part of the human psyche is the last to develop and is responsible for our
internal morals, standards, and ideals.

2. Cognitive perspective.

The cognitive perspective focuses on the human mental processes that include thinking, memory,
decision-making, language, and problem-solving. It depicts how the human mind works by comparing it
to a computer. The main goal is to figure out how the mind acquires, process, store, and utilize
information.

3. Behavioral perspective.

This perspective is focused on humans’ learned behavior. Its main concern is learning how behaviors
were learned and reinforced in an individual. Behavioral perspective is usually used by therapists in
treating a mental health condition to explain the cause of the illness.

4. Cross-cultural perspective.

This particular perspective examines human behavior throughout different cultures. There are 2
components that researchers study in order to determine how culture affects our thinking and behavior.
The first one is the individualistic culture while the second one is the collectivistic culture.

5. Biological perspective.

This area of psychology previously known as biopsychology or physiological psychology highlights the
physical and biological bases of human behavior. Biological psychologists study how genetics or
damaged areas in the brain can affect behavior and personality. Some of its subjects include not only
the brain but also the nervous system, the immune system, and the endocrine system. It uses tools such
as magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography to observe the brain.

6. Humanistic perspective.

Psychologists on this perspective focus on what makes human wants to change, grow, and develop their
personality. This area of psychology examines the responsibility of motivation on behavior and thought,
making self-actualization an essential concept.

7. Evolutionary perspective.

Psychologists who use this approach study how human evolution has an impact on psychological
phenomena. This study proposes that human mental processes exist because of the purpose that they
serve on evolution, including how they can aid human survival and reproduction.

FIVE LONG-STANDING PSYCHOLOGICAL DEBATES

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1. Nature vs. Nurture.

This debate focuses largely on whether inherent, biological factors or developmental, “experiential”
factors play the dominant role in shaping who people are and how they behave. Think about your own
level of extraversion, or how outgoing you are. Someone who appeals to the "nature” side of this debate
might cite evidence that genes play a role in determining levels of extraversion and argue that you were
“born” to have a certain level of extraversion. Someone on the “nurture” side might point toward
research on how one’s environment helps to shape levels of extraversion as well as other basic
personality traits.

2. Materialism vs. Constructionism.

Some academic psychologists focus on the physical (i.e., material) underpinnings of behavior, based on
the idea that at the end of the day, behavior is nothing more than the result of neural activity.
Constructionists, on the other hand, downplay material causes of behavior and instead focus on how
psychological reality is ultimately found in the meaning that people give psychological concepts in social
contexts. On this point, let’s consider the psychological attribute of emotional responsivity or the ways
that one responds to emotionally laden stimuli (Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997). A materialist might see
someone’s high level of emotional responsivity as nothing more than a particular set of genes and a set
of physiological structures, such as the reticular activation system, being set a certain way. On the other
hand, a constructionist might see someone who is seen as highly emotionally responsive as having been
shaped to behave in an emotional manner based on various social roles and social expectations in one’s
community.

3. Person vs. Situation.

There is often debate regarding whether factors within people themselves cause their behaviors or if
situational cues play a more critical role.

Dispositionists focus on internal causes of behavior, such as personality traits or emotional states.

Situationists focus more on factors in situations that exert influences on behavior.

For instance, suppose that Joe is watching a Little League baseball game and just yelled out that the ump
doesn’t know what he’s doing. A dispositionist might look at Joe’s behavior and say that he has poor
impulse control and an aggressive social style, while a situationist might ask more about the call that the
ump made and about the behaviors of others in the crowd to examine how much the details of the
situation may have affected Joe’s actions.

4. Consistency vs. Change Across Development.

Whether people can change who they are across the life span is another hotly debated topic in
psychology. Some argue that our personality becomes largely fixed during late childhood. Others argue
that there is potential for change. Research into this issue is extremely intriguing, with some data
suggesting that there is little change in one’s basic character across life and other data suggesting that
there can be substantial change in personality over the long term.

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5. Cultural Universals vs. Cultural Variability.

Are people the same wherever you go? Some will say yes, and some will say no. To be sure, there are
clearly ways that humans are the same across the globe. For instance, using a smile to express happiness
seems to be a human universal. On the other hand, there seem to be important ways that one’s culture
shapes behavior. This is why religious activities often look quite different from one another across
religious groups. The question of behavioral universality vs. cultural variability is a hot one, and some of
the best research being done by psychologists examines questions related to this particular debate.

LESSON 1: SOCIETY AND BEHAVIOR

PART 2: SOCIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
DEFINITION OF TERMS

 folkways: direct, appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressions of a culture

 formal norms: established, written rules

 informal norms: casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to

 mores: the moral views and principles of a group

 norms: the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured

 bourgeoisie: those who owned the means of production (i.e. factory owners in the Industrial
Revolution)

 class consciousness: the awareness that one is a proletarian, a worker, and has an understanding of
solidarity in a class struggle against the bourgeoisie

 conflict theory: a theory that examines society as a competition for limited resources

 double consciousness: a term used to describe an individual whose identity is divided into several
facets

 false consciousness: proletarians are unable to identify and understand their own class position and
exploitation

 feminist: one who believes that females should be equal to males

 feminist theory: the critical analysis of the way gender affects societal structures, power, and
inequality

 intersectional theory: utilizes multiple identities (such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
economic class, etc.) as important to understanding inequality

 patriarchy: a set of institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power and
sources of income) that are based on the belief that males (patri means “father”) are and should be
dominant

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 power elite: the dominant individuals and groups within the military, business world, governments,
and other institutions who are at the top of the power hierarchy

 proletariat: those who labor in the means of production (workers) and who do not possess or
control capital, as the bourgeoisie does

 dysfunctions: social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society

 functionalism/structural-functional theory: a theoretical approach that sees society as a structure

with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up
that society

 latent functions: the unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process

 manifest functions: sought consequences of a social process

 social facts: the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the
cultural rules that govern social life

 social institutions: patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs

 social solidarity: the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location,
and religion

 constructivism: an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what
humans cognitively construct it to be

 dramaturgical analysis: a technique sociologists use in which they view society through the
metaphor of theatrical performance, including role improvisation

 looking-glass self: concept that the development of self occurs through interactions with others,
based on our understanding of how others perceive us

 symbolic interactionism: a theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship
of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols)

 dominant gender ideology: the assumption that physiological sex differences between males and
females are related to differences in their character, behavior, and ability (i.e., their gender)

 heterosexism: is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that favor male-female sexuality and
relationships

 feminist: one who believes that females should be equal to males

 feminist movement: a series of political campaigns for reforms on issues such as reproductive
rights, domestic violence, maternity leave, equal pay, women’s suffrage, sexual harassment, and
sexual violence, all of which fall under the label of feminism and the feminist movement

 feminist theory: the critical analysis of the way gender affects societal structures, power, and
inequality

 intersectional theory: utilizes multiple identities of females (i.e. such as race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation, class, etc.) as important to understanding inequality

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 patriarchy: a set of institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power,
relationship to sources of income) that are based on the belief that males (patri means “father”) are
dominant

 standpoint theory: theory that feminist social science should be practiced from the standpoint of
women

 alternative movements: social movements that limit themselves to self-improvement changes in

individuals

 reform movements: movements that seek to change something specific about the social structure

 religious/redemptive movements: movements that work to promote inner change or spiritual

growth in individuals

 revolutionary movements: movements that seek to completely change every aspect of society

 social movement organization: a single social movement group

 social movement sector: the multiple social movement industries in a society, even if they have
widely varying constituents and goals

NORMS

Norms define how to behave in accordance with what society has defined as good, right, and important,
and most members of the society adhere to them.

Formal norms are established written rules. They are behaviors worked out and agreed upon in order to
suit and serve the most people. Laws are formal norms, but so are employee manuals, college entrance
exam requirements, and “no running” signs at swimming pools. Formal norms are the most specific and
clearly stated of the various types of norms, and they are the most strictly enforced. But even formal
norms are enforced to varying degrees and are reflected in cultural values.

For example, money is highly valued in the United States, so monetary crimes are punished. It’s against
the law to rob a bank, and banks go to great lengths to prevent such crimes. People safeguard valuable
possessions and install antitheft devices to protect homes and cars. A less strictly enforced social norm is
driving while intoxicated. While it’s against the law to drive drunk, drinking is for the most part an
acceptable social behavior. And though there are laws to punish drunk driving, there are few systems in
place to prevent the crime. These examples show a range of enforcement in formal norms.

There are plenty of formal norms, but the list of informal norms—casual behaviors that are generally
and widely conformed to—is longer. People learn informal norms by observation, imitation, and general
socialization. Some informal norms are taught directly—“Kiss your Aunt Edna” or “Use your
napkin”—while others are learned by observation, including observations of the consequences when
someone else violates a norm. But although informal norms define personal interactions, they extend
into other systems as well. In the United States, there are informal norms regarding behavior at fast
food restaurants. Customers line up to order their food and leave when they are done. They don’t sit
down at a table with strangers, sing loudly as they prepare their condiments, or nap in a booth. Most

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people don’t commit even benign breaches of informal norms. Informal norms dictate appropriate
behaviors without the need of written rules.

Norms define how to behave in accordance with what a society has defined as good, right, and
important, and most members of the society adhere to them.

Formal norms are established, written rules. They are behaviors worked out and agreed upon in order to
suit and serve the most people. Laws are formal norms, but so are employee manuals, college entrance
exam requirements, and “no running” signs at swimming pools. Formal norms are the most specific and
clearly stated of the various types of norms, and they are the most strictly enforced. But even formal
norms are enforced to varying degrees and are reflected in cultural values.

For example, money is highly valued in the United States, so monetary crimes are punished. It’s against
the law to rob a bank, and banks go to great lengths to prevent such crimes. People safeguard valuable
possessions and install antitheft devices to protect homes and cars. A less strictly enforced social norm is
driving while intoxicated. While it’s against the law to drive drunk, drinking is for the most part an
acceptable social behavior. And though there are laws to punish drunk driving, there are few systems in
place to prevent the crime. These examples show a range of enforcement in formal norms.

There are plenty of formal norms, but the list of informal norms—casual behaviors that are generally
and widely conformed to—is longer. People learn informal norms by observation, imitation, and general
socialization. Some informal norms are taught directly—“Kiss your Aunt Edna” or “Use your
napkin”—while others are learned by observation, including observations of the consequences when
someone else violates a norm. But although informal norms define personal interactions, they extend
into other systems as well. In the United States, there are informal norms regarding behavior at fast
food restaurants. Customers line up to order their food and leave when they are done. They don’t sit
down at a table with strangers, sing loudly as they prepare their condiments, or nap in a booth. Most
people don’t commit even benign breaches of informal norms. Informal norms dictate appropriate
behaviors without the need of written rules.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES IN THE STUDY OF SOCIETY

1. symbolic interactionism theory

Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings attached to human interaction,
both verbal and non-verbal, and to symbols. Communication—the exchange of meaning through
language and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds.

Charles Horton Cooley introduced the looking-glass self (1902) to describe how a person’s sense of self
grows out of interactions with others, and he proposed a threefold process for this development: 1) we
see how others react to us, 2) we interpret that reaction (typically as positive or negative) and 3) we
develop a sense of self based on those interpretations. “Looking-glass” is an archaic term for a mirror, so
Cooley theorized that we “see” ourselves when we interact with others.

George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) is considered a founder of symbolic interactionism, though he never
published his work on this subject (LaRossa and Reitzes 1993). Mead’s student, Herbert Blumer, actually
coined the term “symbolic interactionism” and outlined these basic premises: humans interact with

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things based on meanings ascribed to those things; the ascribed meaning of things comes from our
interactions with others and society; the meanings of things are interpreted by a person when dealing
with things in specific circumstances (Blumer 1969). This sounds close to Cooley’s looking-glass self, but
Mead’s contribution was really to the development of self, especially in childhood, which we’ll discuss in
more detail when we address theories of socialization. If you love books, for example, a symbolic
interactionist might propose that you learned that books are good or important in the interactions you
had with family, friends, school, or church; maybe your family had a special reading time each week,
getting your library card was treated as a special event, or bedtime stories were associated with warmth
and comfort.

Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings attached to human interaction,
both verbal and non-verbal, and to symbols. Communication—the exchange of meaning through
language and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds.

Charles Horton Cooley introduced the looking-glass self (1902) to describe how a person’s sense of self
grows out of interactions with others, and he proposed a threefold process for this development: 1) we
see how others react to us, 2) we interpret that reaction (typically as positive or negative) and 3) we
develop a sense of self based on those interpretations. “Looking-glass” is an archaic term for a mirror, so
Cooley theorized that we “see” ourselves when we interact with others.

George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) is considered a founder of symbolic interactionism, though he never
published his work on this subject (LaRossa and Reitzes 1993). Mead’s student, Herbert Blumer, actually
coined the term “symbolic interactionism” and outlined these basic premises: humans interact with
things based on meanings ascribed to those things; the ascribed meaning of things comes from our
interactions with others and society; the meanings of things are interpreted by a person when dealing
with things in specific circumstances (Blumer 1969). This sounds close to Cooley’s looking-glass self, but
Mead’s contribution was really to the development of self, especially in childhood, which we’ll discuss in
more detail when we address theories of socialization. If you love books, for example, a symbolic
interactionist might propose that you learned that books are good or important in the interactions you
had with family, friends, school, or church; maybe your family had a special reading time each week,
getting your library card was treated as a special event, or bedtime stories were associated with warmth
and comfort.

2. social conflict theory

Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources. This perspective is a macro-level
approach most identified with the writings of German philosopher and sociologist Karl Marx
(1818–1883), who saw society as being made up of two classes, the bourgeoisie (capitalist) and the
proletariat (workers), who must compete for social, material, and political resources such as food and
housing, employment, education, and leisure time. Social institutions like government, education, and
religion reflect this competition in their inherent inequalities and help maintain the unequal social
structure.

In the economic sphere, Marx focused on the “mode of production” (e.g., the industrial factory) and
“relations of production” (e.g., unequal power between workers and factory owners). The bourgeoisie
owns and controls the means of production, which leads to exploitation due to the profit motive. In this
arrangement, proletarians have only their labor to sell and do not own or control capital. False
consciousness is Marx’s term for the proletarian’s inability to see her real position within the class

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system, a misrecognition that is complicated by the control that the bourgeoisie often exerts over the
media outlets that disseminate and normalize information. These are just some of the structural
constraints that prevent workers from joining together in what Marx called class consciousness or a
common group identity as exploited proletarians and potential revolutionaries.

German sociologist Max Weber agreed with some of Marx’s main ideas, but also believed that in
addition to economic inequalities, there were inequalities of political power and social structure that
caused conflict. Weber noted that different groups were affected differently based on education, race,
and gender, and that people’s reactions to inequality were moderated by class differences and rates of
social mobility, as well as by perceptions about the legitimacy of those in power.

Ida B. Wells articulated the conflict perspective when she theorized a connection between an increase in
lynching and an increase in Black socio-economic mobility in the United States from the late 1800s into
the mid-20th century. She also examined competition within the feminist movement as women fought
for the right to vote, yet the presumably egalitarian mainstream suffragist movements were headed by
white women who excluded Black women from suffrage. W.E.B. DuBois also examined race in the U.S.
and in U.S. colonies from a conflict perspective, and emphasized the importance of a reserve labor force,
made up of Black men. Race conflict paradigms will be examined later in the course in the module
devoted to race and ethnicity.

3. structural-functional theory

Structural-functional theory, also called functionalism, sees society as a structure with interrelated parts
designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society. Functionalism grew
out of the writings of English philosopher and biologist, Hebert Spencer (1820–1903), who saw
similarities between society and the human body. He argued that just as the various organs of the body
work together to keep the body functioning, the various parts of society work together to keep society
functioning (Spencer 1898). The parts of society that Spencer referred to were the social institutions, or
patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs, such as government, education,
family, healthcare, religion, and the economy.

Émile Durkheim, another early sociologist, applied Spencer’s theory to explain how societies change and
survive over time. Durkheim believed that society is a complex system of interrelated and
interdependent parts that work together to maintain stability (Durkheim 1893), and that society is held
together by shared values, languages, and symbols. Durkheim believed that individuals may make up
society, but in order to study society, sociologists have to look beyond individuals to social facts. Social
facts are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules
that govern social life (Durkheim 1895). Each of these social facts serves one or more functions within a
society. For example, one function of a society’s laws may be to protect society from violence, while
another is to punish criminal behavior, while another is to preserve public safety.

Although suicide is generally considered an individual phenomenon, Émile Durkheim was interested in
studying the social factors that affect it. He studied social ties within a group, or social solidarity, and
hypothesized that differences in suicide rates might be explained by religion-based differences.
Durkheim gathered a large amount of data about Europeans who had ended their lives, and he did
indeed find differences based on religion. Protestants were more likely to commit suicide than Catholics
in Durkheim’s society, and his work on this topic demonstrated the utility of theory for sociological
research.

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Another noted structural functionalist, Robert Merton (1910–2003), pointed out that social processes
often have many functions. Manifest functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought
or anticipated, while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process. A manifest
function of college education, for example, includes gaining knowledge, preparing for a career, and
finding a good job that utilizes that education. Latent functions of your college years include meeting
new people, participating in extracurricular activities, or even finding a spouse or partner. Another
latent function of education is creating a hierarchy of employment based on the level of education
attained. Latent functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Social processes that have undesirable
consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions. In education, examples of
dysfunction include getting bad grades, truancy, dropping out, not graduating, and not finding suitable
employment.

Think About It: A global culture?

Sociologists around the world look closely for signs of what would be an
unprecedented event: the emergence of a global culture. In the past, empires such
as those that existed in China, Europe, Africa, and Central and South America linked
people from many different countries, but those people rarely became part of a
common culture. They lived too far from each other, spoke different languages,
practiced different religions, and traded few goods. Today, increases in
communication, travel, and trade have made the world a much smaller place. More
and more people are able to communicate with each other instantly—wherever they
are located—by telephone, video, and text. They share movies, television shows,
music, games, and information over the Internet. Students can study with teachers
and pupils from the other side of the globe. Governments find it harder to hide
conditions inside their countries from the rest of the world.

Sociologists research many different aspects of this potential global culture. Some explore the dynamics
involved in the social interactions of global online communities, such as when members feel a closer
kinship to other group members than to people residing in their own countries. Other sociologists study
the impact this growing international culture has on smaller, less-powerful local cultures. Yet other
researchers explore how international markets and the outsourcing of labor impact social inequalities.
Sociology can play a key role in people’s abilities to understand the nature of this emerging global
culture and how to respond to it.

4. feminist theory.

Feminist theory is a type of conflict theory that examines inequalities in gender-related issues. It uses
the conflict approach to examine the maintenance of gender roles and uneven power relations. Radical
feminism, in particular, considers the role of the family in perpetuating male dominance (note that
“radical” means “at the root”). In patriarchal societies, men’s contributions are seen as more valuable
than those of women. Patriarchal perspectives and arrangements are widespread and taken for granted.
As a result, women’s viewpoints tend to be silenced or marginalized to the point of being discredited or
considered invalid. Peggy Reeves Sanday’s study of the Indonesian Minangkabau (2004) revealed that in
societies considered to be matriarchies (where women comprise the dominant group), women and men
tend to work cooperatively rather than competitively, regardless of whether a job would be gendered as
feminine by U.S. standards. The men, however, do not experience the sense of bifurcated (i.e., divided
into two parts) consciousness under this social structure that modern U.S. females encounter (Sanday

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2004).

Patriarchy refers to a set of institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power,
relationship to sources of income) that are based on the belief that men and women are dichotomous
and unequal categories of being. The key to patriarchy is what might be called the dominant gender
ideology toward sexual differences: the assumption that physiological sex differences between males
and females are related to differences in their character, behavior, and ability (i.e., their gender). These
differences are used to justify a gendered division of social roles and inequality in access to rewards,
positions of power, and privilege. The question that feminists ask therefore is: How does this distinction
between male and female, and the attribution of different qualities to each, serve to organize our
institutions (e.g., the family, law, the occupational structure, religious institutions, the division between
public and private) and to perpetuate inequality between the sexes?

One of the influential sociological insights that emerged within second wave feminism is that “the
personal is political.” This is a way of acknowledging that the challenges and personal crises that emerge
in one’s day-to-day lived experience are symptomatic of larger systemic political issues, and that the
solutions to such problems must be collectively pursued. As Friedan and others showed, these personal
dissatisfactions often originated in previously unquestioned, stubbornly gendered discrepancies.

5. Standpoint Theory

Many of the most immediate and fundamental experiences of social life—from childbirth to who washes
the dishes to the experience of sexual violence—had simply been invisible or regarded as unimportant
politically or socially. Dorothy Smith’s development of standpoint theory was a key innovation in
sociology that enabled these issues to be seen and addressed in a systematic way by examining one’s
position in life (Smith 1977). She recognized from the consciousness-raising exercises and encounter
groups initiated by feminists in the 1960s and 1970s that many of the immediate concerns expressed by
women about their personal lives had a commonality of themes.

Smith argued that instead of beginning sociological analysis from the abstract point of view of
institutions or systems, women’s lives could be more effectively examined if one began from the
“actualities” of their lived experience in the immediate local settings of “everyday/ everynight” life. She
asked, “What are the common features of women’s everyday lives?” From this standpoint, Smith
observed that women’s position in modern society is acutely divided by the experience of dual
consciousness (recall W.E.B. DuBois’ double consciousness). Every day women crossed a tangible
dividing line when they went from the “particularizing work in relation to children, spouse, and
household” to the institutional world of text-mediated, abstract concerns at work, or in their dealings
with schools, medical systems, or government bureaucracies. In the abstract world of institutional life,
the actualities of local consciousness and lived life are “obliterated” (Smith 1977). Note again that
Smith’s argument is in keeping with the second wave feminist idea that “the personal” (child-rearing,
housekeeping) complicates and illuminates one’s relationship to “the political” (work life, government
bureaucracies).

6. Intersectional Theory

Recall that intersectional theory examines multiple, overlapping identities and social contexts (Black,
Latina, Asian, gay, trans, working class, poor, single parent, working, stay-at-home, immigrant,
undocumented, etc.) and the unique, various lived experiences within these spaces. Intersectional

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theory combines critical race theory, gender conflict theory, and critical components of Marx’s class
theory. Kimberlé Crenshaw describes it as a “prism for understanding certain kinds of problems.”

GENDSO030 – Lesson 1 Supplementary Notes 14