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1 Sociology and Why It's Important
Drawing of wooden figurines facing back to back in a circle
History is, strictly speaking, the study of questions; the study of answers belongs to anthropology and sociology.

—W.H. Auden

Learning Objectives
By the time students complete this module they will be able to do the following:

Describe the field of sociology.
Know the three major theories in the field of sociology.
Identify major theorists of the field.
Understand the importance of culture.
Understand how one's social position and characteristics influence life outcomes.
Identify basic components of research.
Learn how to conduct good research.
1.1
Why Sociology Is Important
Sociology assumes that all aspects of human relationships and institutions are related to each other. It relies upon an open system perspective. Consider this example—when you have money troubles, is it just an economic problem? Of course not! It influences the way you feel about yourself (perhaps you feel panicky, angry, or frustrated). You might be irritable and yell at someone you live with when they make a mistake that normally wouldn't bother you. They may get upset and move out, so then you've got to figure out how to make ends meet on your own. You go to the bank for a loan and they think you're not a good credit risk and won't give it to you. This may put you into a tailspin as you have no idea what to do or where to go for help.

Now imagine that your economic situation is more stable. The bank is more likely to give you a loan. How might that affect your life chances and relationships? Economic security helps create social and lifestyle security. If you don't get help, you could lose your job and you may find yourself poor and unable to afford where you are living. If that happens, how will you be able to get secure housing, another job, medical care, education, and develop a social network that would help you succeed and be happy? It's pretty hard for anyone in that situation to do unless many social institutions are there to assist you. Your life is affected by politics, the economy, your community, the helping services, and your family and friends. All of the social forces dynamically intersect in some way. Society shapes your life options and the way you view yourself. Instead of studying just one of the social forces that impact your life, sociology integrates them into a cohesive way of analyzing their cause and effect. A change in one part of the system influences what happens in other parts of life.

1.2
What Is Sociology?
Sociology is the study of group behavior through the use of scientific investigation and research. It includes ideas about how society affects individuals and social interaction. The field also examines how people's life chances are influenced by social forces. Sociologists, as scientists, do not rely on "common sense" assumptions or tradition. Instead they use the scientific method to figure out what is happening and why. They do this guided by theory, or a philosophical means of interpreting the world around us, and by the use of research (Blumer, 1969; Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1967).

Man looking through a magnifying glass
People are often inclined to view the world around them from their own point of view.

People are often inclined to view the world around them from their personal point of view. Everyone has self-interests and experiences that influence what they think and why. So the way we view things may be quite different from how other people view things. Who is right? We all like to think that our way of viewing things is the best. But other people think the way they see things is correct also. You cannot assume that your experience reflects that of others. You cannot assume you're right and your explanations are necessarily valid. Like other academic disciplines, sociologists employ scientific rigor and objective facts rather than these subjective perceptions.

C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) (1956), a leading sociologist, alleged that when we use "the sociological imagination," we have a better ability to see patterns in society and identify how these patterns influence individuals and groups of individuals. The sociological imagination is a way of thinking that helps us use information (data) to form theories about the social patterns around us. If one looks at society and human interactions just from one's own point of view, then it is impossible to learn why other people think and act differently. A Native American legend says that you should never criticize others unless you have walked a mile in his moccasins. Looking at social phenomena from different points of views is an important part of the sociological perspective. Sociologists view the causes and consequences of reality as products of social construction. What we think of as real is merely one possible outcome; many competing versions of reality could also exist. This way of thinking is an important component of sociology.

Society can sometimes act like blinders on a horse. Blinders keep us looking at only a small segment of the world. Unlike the horse, we don't even know we have blinders on! We are socialized from an early age to think that society and people operate in very particular ways. This makes it difficult to see that there may be a different way of looking at things until someone brings our attention to that fact.

This sociological insight can be applied to almost any social situation to help us understand why people view things the way they do. Individuals in one religion may feel their faith is best, while people in another religion may feel just as strongly that they are on the correct path. People active in one political party may feel their ideas are superior to that of a different group. When a couple goes through a divorce, family and friends may take sides, supporting one spouse over the other. What we see and who we think is correct depends on whose side we are on, according to sociologist Howard Becker (1899–1960) (1966). How we view the world creates real and tangible outcomes in how we feel and what we do. W. I. Thomas (1863–1947) (1966) stated that whatever we believe to be real will become real in its consequences. So if we believe one religious or political group is right, we will act in a way that supports that view, and we may disagree with those who view things differently. We may try to convince them that our view is right. In a divorce, when we pick sides it could influence how the couple feels about each other and how children view their parents. The way we think about things has real ramifications.

1.3
History of the Field
Sociology developed in Europe during the 1800s. Historical events of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the American Revolution shaped the way people thought about issues such as freedom, inequality, power, and progress. The Industrial Revolution was just beginning, and a whole host of social problems emerged as people with different backgrounds, cultures, races, religions, and nationalities merged together in newly developing cities to find work. People didn't look the same, act the same, or believe the same things. Conflicts, crime, health problems, ownership issues, and competition resulted from many diverse peoples being thrown together in a small space over a short period of time. All the social systems that previously guided people's lives, such as the agrarian and feudal systems, were being challenged. Society was in flux. New systems of economic production, government, and lifestyles were being created. The early sociologists wanted to understand these changes. So who were they and what did they do that ultimately developed the field?

Theorists and Theory
The founders of the field used a theoretical perspective to examine social phenomena. A theory is essentially a set of statements that help us explain why something happens. Theories guide research processes and help frame how one looks at phenomena. Theory is an essential part of any science, whether in physics, math, biology, or the social sciences. You rely upon theories in your everyday life and are probably not aware that's what you are doing! The theoretical foundations of the field of sociology emerged over time, with the knowledge of each helping advance our understanding of the social world around us.

The Forerunners: The Structural Functionalists
Black and white portrait of Auguste Comte
Auguste Comte, sometimes called the father of sociology.

Auguste Comte (1798–1857) is regarded as the father of sociology. He believed that the study of society should be based on empirical data. This was a different view than commonly held during the early 1800s, when people relied upon tradition, religion, intuition, or authorities. He thought we should instead look at observable facts. Comte felt that societies move through different stages of development that intersect with how they think. First they rely upon religious explanations for what happens, later they rely on notions of fate or metaphysical explanations, and eventually move toward scientific explanations for why things are the way they are. His concept of positivism holds that there is nothing that can't be accurately studied if the right methodology is employed. If we try conscientiously enough by employing the scientific method, most things can be studied and understood.

Comte and Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) are often credited with the creation of the structural-functionalist theoretical perspective in sociology. This theoretical approach held that all social structures (institutions or stable units of society) exist because they fulfill some specific functions. For instance, the family exists for the care and protection of offspring and is a major unit for economic consumption. The educational structure exists to prepare youth to assume occupational and leadership roles. The functionalist approach looks at manifest functions, latent functions, and dysfunctions, as described by the work of Robert K. Merton (1910–2003) (1968). Using college as an example, the manifest (or intended) function is education and skills preparedness; a latent function (or side benefit) may be gaining a job skill, meeting and getting along with diverse people, learning not to put reds and whites in your laundry together (unless you want pink t-shirts!), or meeting the person you may one day marry. College can prove to be dysfunctional to students when they accrue debt or develop a substance abuse problem.

The functionalists felt society worked best when there was homeostasis or equilibrium, which sometimes meant that the people in power (status quo) remained unchallenged. Essentially, functionalists don't want to rock the boat. They may see value in society's inequalities. For society as a whole structurally, they see advantages to having a working class and a ruling class. For instance, one function of a bank is to choose who receives loans, since its goal is to make money by maximizing benefits and minimizing risks. Functionalists focus on how to keep society operating smoothly while the goals of the status quo are maintained.

While functionalists examine how structures keep balance, they also examine how societies grow and change like an organism. Theorist Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) thought society was like an organism, and every part was interdependent so a change in one part would naturally cause changes in others. Durkheim (1915) studied how the sense of social support people experience affects their desire to live, and he is most famous for his studies of social forces that pushed people to commit suicide. Suicide rates vary by age, gender, employment, and how much social support people feel. For instance, people who have weak bonds with others or don't feel like they belong experience a feeling of anomie, or normlessness. When they are caught between two cultures or ways of living, they may be conflicted when their old ways of doing things no longer are comfortable, yet they feel great pressure to conform to the new ways. They may kill themselves as a result, which he termed anomic suicide. You may observe this type of suicide among immigrants or college students. Another type of suicide is altruistic suicide, when people kill themselves ostensibly for the good of others or for society. For instance, suicide bombers may kill themselves for a social cause that they think will benefit others; terminally ill people may kill themselves because they don't want to put their families through hardship. The theorists believed that human feelings and behavior are affected by social forces.

19th century painting of Karl Marx
Karl Marx (1818–1883) argued that it is tension and conflict that motivate us to think and act differently.

Max Weber (1864–1920) was one of the main social theorists of the twentieth century, and he alleged that there is a cause and effect in most social action, even though it may be perhaps more challenging to see in the social sciences than in the physical sciences because society is subjectively perceived. He felt that while empirical research could help explain social phenomenon, so could non-empirical methods. His work underscored that society could be studied through the meaning and purpose that people attach to actions. Weber (1904/1958) thought there was an interrelationship between religion, the capitalistic economy, and bureaucratic organizations that reinforced the existence of each of these institutions. Weber's work was expanded by Talcott Parsons (1902–1979); Parsons also drew on work by Durkheim and Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) and regarded functionalism as a methodological stage in the development of social evolution (Parsons, 1951/1964). More on these institutions and Weber's view will be explained later in this book.

The Conflict Theorists
From a different point of view, Karl Marx (1818–1883) argued that it is tension and conflict that motivate us to think and act differently. Conflict theory assumes that the institutions and interactions within society foster inequality and competition, and when they are challenged, then beneficial social change can result. Marx thought it wasn't enough to understand why society functions as it does; it was important to use our scientific knowledge to create social change (Marx, trans. Bottomore, 1964). Society, according to Marx, was run by a handful of elites, called bourgeoisie, who had access to wealth, prestige, and power within society. The majority of people work for the elites and are called proletariats. The bourgeoisie are the people in charge of production who determine what should be done and how, while proletariats are the people who do the work. Proletariats are expendable; if they do not want to do the work required by the bourgeoisie, they may be fired or replaced. The proletariats may feel alienated at their jobs and be frustrated because they do not get to reap the benefits of what they produce. As examples, laborers who built the U.S. railroads, many of whom were Chinese, were paid exploitative wages. They didn't make much money for all their hard work—but the owners of the railroad did. The owner of a professional football team may make a large salary, but the janitors who clean the football stadium do not.

Marx felt that sooner or later, proletariats would overthrow the bourgeoisie in an attempt to establish a more equal, or socialist, type of social system. The power elites (Mills, 1956), in this theory, would go to great extremes to make sure this would not happen. The bourgeoisie would use propaganda, limit access to information (since information can be transformed into power that could be used against them), hire only people who would support what they thought and wanted, and fire those people who dared to challenge them. If the proletariats could band together, according to Marxist theory, they could overthrow the power structure. In this way, a new social structure could be created.

As an example of how these conflict theory concepts can be applied to real life, consider the history of labor unions. Before the creation of unions, workers were at the mercy of their employers, who set their pay, hours, and working conditions. Many workers had no job security and were forced to work in hazardous situations. Unions were created to ensure safe working conditions, reasonable compensation, and other protections. Some employers were opposed to the unionization of employees, and there was tension between the workers and the employers as a result. The employers would tell the workers why unions weren't good for them, so even some workers were not sure whether joining a union would be a good thing. Ultimately, unions have been found to help protect workers and to force employers to treat them fairly. Even today, when workers feel they are being exploited or being treated unfairly, they may resort to strikes so the employers cannot fulfill their production demands. Unionized workers and employers must negotiate so that both sides have their needs met.

Conflict theory has several variations, which will now be explored. These sub-theories are interesting and show how a single theory can spin off into approaches that are applicable to contemporary events.

Feminist theoryAs you may have noticed, all of the theorists mentioned so far were white males. This is because during the 1800s, most women did not attend college, since the norm of the day dictated that "a woman's place was in the home." Even when women were well educated, they were usually not allowed to be in positions of leadership. The same is true for nonwhite scholars. Science, in both the physical and social sciences, tended to be a white gentleman's club, so to speak. It was only a bit later on that the contributions of others were recognized. Feminist theory focuses on the causes and consequences of gender inequality.

Applying Sociology
Is what you think really true? Homelessness
What kinds of people do you think are homeless?
Why do you think they are homeless?
Where did you get this impression?
Some people think that homeless individuals are mentally ill and have substance abuse problems. But this is not necessarily true. If you snapped your fingers and took away mental illness and substance abuse, there would still be many people who were homeless. The media and personal expectation greatly skew what most people know about them. Research from the National Coalition for the Homeless (www.nationalhomeless.org) provides facts that challenge misperceptions that include:

Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years: a growing shortage of affordable rental housing and a simultaneous increase in poverty.
Families with children are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.
About 40% of homeless individuals are children, and 42% of them are younger than five years old.
According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, in 2004, 25% of homeless were ages 25 to 34; the same study found that homeless persons aged 55 to 64 make up 6% of the total.
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that on any given night, 271,000 veterans are homeless.
Now look at data on homelessness from a more personal perspective.

How much does it cost per month for the average person to live? Let's estimate conservatively that we spend:

$1000 per month for housing and utilities
$400 for food
$200 for transportation
$100 for medical
$200 miscellaneous (clothes, recreation, emergencies, pets, etc.)
This means that a person would need about $2000 a month just to survive.

Now let's say that you work 40 hours a week on a minimum wage job that pays no benefits. How much would you make? Do the math.

If one made $8.25 an hour and worked 40 hours a week, this results in $330 a week, or $1320 per month. But that is before taxes, so deduct 20% from that figure.
This means that a person working a full time job may take home around $1000 per month – which is about half of what a survival lifestyle costs! Where can a person cut down costs? It is hard to cut back on food or transportation to get to work – so the most logical place for most people is to look for less expensive housing. When affordable housing is not available, or when people's necessary expenditures creep above their income, homelessness may result, even for the most hardworking person.

Questions to Consider:

Why do you think that families and children are the fastest growing segment of the population who are poor?
What are the social factors that make it possible for an American to work a full time job and still fall below the poverty guidelines?
Why do you think people are quick to blame homeless people for their poverty, but quick to blame the economy for their own financial troubles?
Black and white drawing of Harriet Martineau
Early feminist theorist Harriet Martineau.

There were female sociologists who were active in the early creation of the field, but their contributions were largely ignored until feminist activists brought the issue into the public arena. Scholar Harriet Martineau (1803–1876), an English opponent of slavery and capitalism who felt they oppressed women, children, and nonwhites, translated the work of Comte so people could understand the importance of his perspective (Adams & Sydie, 2001). Regarded as a radical in her day, her work was largely dismissed by people in authority. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) was a sociologist and novelist who explored the origin of women's subordination and used her academic knowledge to fight for women's rights (Gilman, 1915/1999).

But it was the social activists who brought their work to the forefront. Journalist Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) helped lay the intellectual foundation of the Women's Movement in the 1800s (Fuller, 1845/1994). Activists Sojourner Truth (1797–1883), Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906), and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) helped take the Suffragette Movement out of the academy and into the streets during the 1870s. Ida Wells Barnett (1862–1931) was an African-American journalist who wrote about discrimination against both women and Blacks. Jane Addams (1869–1935), inspired by her religious, medical, and political background, helped establish a settlement house, and her work became critical to the creation of the field of social work (Deegan, 1986). Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) became well known for her opposition to the image of women in the home that was promoted in her book The Second Sex. Betty Friedan (1921–2006) helped found the National Organization of Women and wrote The Feminine Mystique. There is a long list of women who have worked for legal rights of women, such as an Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which still has not been ratified by Congress. Feminist theory also looks at how information is shaped and whether there is a woman's way of knowing that is different from male perspectives.

Black and white photograph of W.E.B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois.

W. E. B. Du Bois W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) was an African-American sociologist who embraced the tradition of merging scholarship and activism (Du Bois, 1907/1994). His work was groundbreaking in the area of civil rights. Author of 21 books, he helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He laid the foundation for the study of Black sociology and the work of scholars such as E. Franklin Frazier (1894–1962), who studied the social forces that impact the Black family, and St. Clair Drake (1911–1990), who helped start some of the first African-American Studies programs in the United States (Drake, 1945). Today, Black sociologists like Elijah Anderson (1999) promote better understanding of the structural plights that continue to keep discrimination alive.

Symbolic Interactionists
Functionalism and conflict theories both focus on macro, or large-scale, social forces. Some theories concentrate more on micro level, or small-group, interactions. The most predominant of these is symbolic interaction. This approach focuses on how people make sense of interactions in specific situations. Essentially, we react to things on the basis of meanings or labels that we ascribe to those things. The meanings are influenced by social interactions we have with others, which we modify to new situations when we encounter them. In these theories, the emphasis is on the social construction of reality, particularly as created through the negotiation of socially relevant symbols. These theories allow sociologists to examine experience relevant to everyday life.

George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) and Herbert Blumer (1900–1987) asserted that how we view others and society is a process of personal creation. In other words, reality is subjectively constructed. This is why someone could look at gay and lesbian behavior and think it is "normal" while someone else could look at it as being "wrong." It isn't the act but our reaction that matters according to this theoretical approach.

We use symbols all the time to navigate our social worlds, but we do not necessarily perceive these symbols to have the same meaning. For instance, language, words, body movements, and facial expressions all help us figure out what people mean. They have no meaning on their own; they have only the meaning that we attribute to them. This is a point made by sociolinguists in what is known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Kay & Kempton, 1984). That view argues that the structure of language shapes one's view of the world and what is real. The words that are selected and the social context in which they are used give meaning to the way people perceive reality. As a result, we are always engaged in an active process of looking at symbols and trying to figure out what things mean, and we then try to impose that view on others.

Are colorful tattoos down a young man's arm and multiple facial piercings any indication of what he is like inside? Some people may think he is a "punk" or a "troublemaker," while others may think he looks very fashionable and "cool." He could be a criminal, a celebrity, or a CEO—the fact is, you don't know by looking. You are the one who is attributing an entire script to what he is like on the basis of only a few symbols, and you may not be correct in your analysis at all. If a store clerk is curt with us, does that mean she doesn't like us, that she is angry at her boss, that she hates her job, that she feels sick, that she has trouble at home that is preoccupying her mind, or that is just her style of interaction and she's not mad at all? We look for social context and interaction clues to help us make sense of situations. It is natural for us to be looking at different things and from different points of view as we try to make sense of what is going on around us. As a result, we will likely see things differently. Therefore, what we perceive to be "reality" is socially constructed, according to symbolic interactionists (Blumer, 1986).

Group of business professionals interacting in a meeting
According to social exchange analysis, individuals are nicer to people who they believe can help them, like a boss, than they are to someone who they believe is not important.

Theorists George Homans (1910–1989) and Peter Blau (1918–2002) studied how social interactions are often motivated by what people stand to gain or lose from one another (Blau, 1964). Their work, called social exchange analysis, helps us understand why individuals are nicer to people who they believe can help them (like a civic leader or boss) than they are to those who they believe aren't important (like the waitress, the custodian, or the beggar on the street). If we believe we "owe" somebody something, it impacts how we interact with them, compared to believing they owe us something! In this regard, our interactions with others are not random; we make strategic choices about who receives our time and attention and who doesn't. As a result, we tend to like people who go out of their way to be kind to us and help us achieve the social rewards we want, and we tend not to enjoy being around people who ignore us, disparage us, or create obstacles to our success.

Erving Goffman's (1922–1982) (1959) work on dramaturgy focuses on how in social situations, we are actors and actresses in the play of life. We resemble actors and actresses on stage as we strategically go out of our way to make sure others get a certain impression of us. He also talks about "front-stage" and "back-stage" behavior. Front-stage behavior is what you want others to see; back-stage behavior is what you do behind the scenes to create the person you want them to see. These concepts are part of impression management, and help us understand why people sometimes change who they seem to be as they interact with others.

Edward T. Hall (1914–2009) studied how people communicate differently depending on their social relationships. The field of proxemics refers to the use of space in social interactions. For instance, we feel comfortable having family and friends physically close to us when we interact, but the more socially prestigious people are, the less likely it is that we will be able to have close contact with them (Hall, 1959). See Table 1.1 for a summary of major theorists.

Table 1.1: Major Theorists
Theory Level of Analysis Key Points Key Theorists
Functionalism Macro Society consists of interrelated institutions and supports stability through social consensus Comte Durkheim Spencer
Conflict Macro Society consists of structured inequality that benefits those with access to power and resources Marx Mills
Symbolic Interaction Macro Reality is socially constructed through interactions about the meaning of social symbols Becker Goffman Lemert

1.4
Sociology Gives Us an Overview of Culture
As you begin your journey into the field of sociology, it is useful to point out that much that you know about yourself and others comes from the work of sociologists. In this final section of Module 1, let's take a look at a few sociological concepts that impact your everyday life.

Defining Culture
The typical use of the term "culture" often refers to the arts, ethnic food, style of dress, or form of lifestyle. It is much more than that, according to sociologists. Culture is an organized system of living and thinking. It contains shared attitudes, values, goals, and behaviors that are present in individuals, groups, organizations, or regions of the world. Culture is a pervasive influence that is virtually imperceptible to us. Material and nonmaterial attributes shape the way we think, the way we act, what we expect, and what our life chances may be. Culture shapes our values and normative behavior, and as a result we see the world in culturally relativistic terms. It is common for us to become ethnocentric as a result, or for us to judge others according to standards that predominate in our culture.

Group of dancers performing a traditional Hawaiian dance
Even in the United States, people may seem quite different in one part of the country than in another.

The ever-present impact of society shapes us according to a variety of factors. People who live in Omaha live differently from people in Manhattan, who live differently from people in Prague, who live differently from people who live in San Jose, who live differently from people in Nairobi, who live differently from people in Shanghai, who live differently from people in Baghdad. Part of who we are is cultural and influenced by our ethnicity and race. Part of who we are depends on our religious point of view. We are certainly influenced by what countries we come from. Even within the United States, people may seem quite different in one part of the nation than another part. The weather naturally imposes differences in lifestyles, whether we live in Alaska or Florida. So do the economic conditions of an area; some areas are thriving while in other areas people are struggling just to get by. People who live in urban areas come to develop a different sense of how society works than those who live in isolated, rural areas. Social interactions vary if you live surrounded by many and diverse peoples, many of whom you do not know, compared with living in towns where there aren't very many people and you know every single person who lives there (plus their father and grandfather!). What you do for recreation is influenced by where you live; young people in suburban areas may go to the mall for entertainment, in rural areas they may hang out at the corner store, and in urban areas they may go to clubs or concerts for fun. Sports teams may be present in small towns, but they are only vaguely similar to going to a glitzy major league professional game in the city. Who you choose to be a romantic partner will be different if you live in an isolated area compared to being a world traveler to cities across the globe. What you consider as a potential career will vary as well, whether it is a salesperson, a computer software engineer, a politician, a waitress, a movie producer, a plumber, a farmer, or a restaurant owner. The job market varies from place to place, so even if you have dreams of one occupation, you may find your options limited and you end up doing something entirely different.

How we live in the year 2015 is very different from how people lived in 1915—and how we will live in 3015. Technology and innovations shape the way we live and the way we think. They also influence the kinds of possibilities that the future holds, so social life and its impact on individuals is never stagnant but always changing, always evolving. People get confronted with the tension between "ideal culture" and "real culture." Ideal culture refers to the ideal that a culture encourages people to aspire to, or the values that embody the way things are supposed to be. Real culture reflects actual behavior, the way things are. For instance, ideal culture may place importance on democracy, yet real culture may reflect a relatively low voter turnout in elections. Ideal culture may promote the idea that we should care about people in our community, but in real culture we may not even know our neighbors.

Aspects of Culture
Culture consists of both material and nonmaterial components. The material ones are easy to recognize—cars, computers, televisions, clothes, eating implements, and basically anything we can touch or see. A century ago women washed both dishes and clothes by hand, while today Western women typically do so with the use of appliances. Women in underdeveloped countries may have no electricity, therefore no major appliances, to help them with such mundane household tasks. Their social realities are different as a result of what material objects are available for them to use. The washing machine, the washboard, and the soap used to clean clothes are all examples of material culture. So are iPods, coffee cups, Gap brand clothes, Converse sneakers, Nikon cameras, Ikea chairs, and Dell computers. Material objects may be convenient for us to use, but they also hold symbolic value of their importance: telling someone you drive a new Mercedes will automatically generate a different picture of who you are compared to telling people that you drive a 1995 Ford Escort.

Status
If you are asked the question "Who are you?" how would you answer? You are likely to respond that you are a male or female, you are a student, you are an Iowa resident, and that you are an employee. These aspects of who you think yourself to be are referred to as your status. Status is a social placement that is related to a set of characteristics, some of which you have control over, and some of which you don't (Linton, 1936).

Four sets of legs with different skin colors hanging off the ledge of a swimming pool
Skin color perceptions can vary.

Ascribed Status
An ascribed status consists of characteristics that you have little or no control over, but that impact how people perceive you. You were born with a particular set of biological characteristics commonly associated with how you look, which impact how people will treat you. You were born with a particular gender, and as a male or female your life is shaped quite differently. People will expect different behaviors from you if you are a man or a woman. Another major characteristic we have no control over is skin color. Skin color is used as a social indicator of race, and light-skinned people may be treated differently than dark-skinned people. Height is another characteristic that you inherit, and data shows that tall people have more social advantages than short ones. Some people inherited genes that influence metabolic processes that result in their being skinny while others naturally carry more weight. Some people were born with characteristics that are culturally defined as more beautiful than others. Others were born with physical or cognitive characteristics that result in them being disabled, and they find it is more challenging for them to accomplish behaviors that society deems normative. You cannot control what age you are. So factors like race, gender, age, and height all impact how you will be perceived by others.

Achieved Status
Sometimes people react to us according to our ascribed characteristics, but often we are viewed according to what we accomplish. An achieved status is an earned social position. Perhaps you have decided to pursue a college education because you think it will get you a better job, which might lead you to a more comfortable lifestyle and a more socially attractive reputation. Our socioeconomic status (SES) is one of the most important social statuses we have, because people treat us differently if we are rich, middle class, or poor. There are usually more social advantages to being rich than poor, and as a result people may try to upgrade their social position. The importance of SES will be discussed more in Module 3. Essentially, in order to live well we try to influence our life chances by achieving certain social characteristics that are deemed more desirable. How far we go in school, what kind of job we have, whether we are married and have kids or not, if we become an athlete, if we are put on the board of directors, all these things influence how other people will treat us too. Being a student, spouse, employee, or athlete are examples of achieved statuses. When individuals change their jobs, their appearance, or their social standing, they will be perceived and treated differently.

Master Status
While we all have a variety of statuses at any particular point in time, usually we cling to a master status that shapes our sense of who we are. Some of us identify most with our professional job while others of us identify more with being a parent or a spouse. Our master status may be actively cultivated, such as becoming a lawyer or doctor, but it may also not be of one's choosing, such as being disabled or an AIDS victim. Our master status influences how others will see us. As a clergy member, one is always expected to be honorable and holy. A physician is expected to give medical care to others in need, even if she's on vacation. If someone has broken the law and gone to prison, he is always perceived as an "ex-con," even after paying his dues to society. People with AIDS find that their disease may become their master status. Whether someone is a CEO or homeless, those social positions become their master status.

Values and Norms
While culture consists of material objects, perhaps the most important aspects of culture are the nonmaterial aspects. These include values, norms, folkways, mores, and laws. Values are emotionally charged beliefs that represent a set of principles that someone regards to be good and correct (or bad and wrong). Values are used to guide people in their everyday lives and help shape their treatment of others, as well as establish standards for desirable individual and group conduct.

Values shape norms. Norms are recommended patterns for behavior for most of the people most of the time given specific situations. For instance, it would be normal to wear a bathing suit to the beach; it would not be considered proper to wear just a bathing suit to a business meeting. In college, students adhere to a variety of norms—how they dress, what they carry their books in, and what they do for recreation, to name but a few. If a student comes to class wearing a Brooks Brothers suit and wingtip shoes, carrying a leather briefcase, and talking about how much he loves the symphony, this is out of the norm; most students wear jeans and t-shirts, carry back-packs, and talk about going to sports games or parties.

When you break an insignificant norm, or folkway, it isn't necessarily bad; it just means that people will look at you as if you are odd. Should you eat chicken with your fingers or cut it with a knife and put it genteelly into your mouth with a fork? If you eat one way while everyone else eats a different way, they may look at you like you're different, but that's it.

But if you violate a more (pronounced more-ray), or a norm that carries a heavy moral imperative, people will think you are bad. Common mores are not spitting on the American flag or taking something that isn't yours. Some mores reflect violations of religious rules or committing forbidden acts, such as incest. Mores are universally acknowledged behaviors that are usually prohibited.

Some mores are regarded as so serious that they have been turned into laws. Societies have developed social structures via the police departments and courts to make sure people will follow the laws. "Thou shalt not kill" was a more that so many people thought was important that murder became defined as breaking the law. Enforcing norms and laws helps a society function more smoothly so that people will be safe and know what to expect from one another.

A shocked father holding a baby while his two other toddlers make a mess in the kitchen
Parental roles have changed over the years.

Roles
Social positions or statuses dictate that people act in particular ways, called roles. Roles are specific behaviors that are expected for people who hold a certain status. When people become parents, role requirements are for them to be patient, kind, and attentive to their children. When parents decide to drink alcohol and smoke in front of their children or leave them alone at night while they go out dancing, these parents violate normative role requisites for appropriate parental behavior. If you are an employee, your role requires that you be at work on time, look clean and neat, and interact politely with others even when they are annoying. As students, your role is to look interested during lectures, take notes, and sit quietly unless asked questions. Most professors do not like it when students fail to pay attention, text their friends during class, check their e-mail instead of taking notes on their computers, sleep in class, or arrive late. In order to be successful when you are acting in a particular status, you have to play the role well.

Sometimes we experience role strain or role conflict, and this occurs when we're trying to hold two statuses at the same time and the behaviors required in each are not the same. For instance, role strain may occur when a father has to be at work and at a child's school function at the same time, and the father has to juggle schedules to do both. Role conflict occurs when two of your major roles diametrically oppose each other, as may be the case when a police officer is called to make an arrest and finds that the person she has to arrest is her child.

Groups
Sociology is the study of group behavior, and we are members of a variety of groups. The most common group we belong to is our family, and we have our own ways of communicating and interacting with them that may seem unique. We belong to groups at work, at school, and in the community. Each of these groups will have its own members, rules, and expectations for us.

A multi-generational family helping boy build with blocks
Family is a primary group.

Primary and Secondary Groups
Primary groups are small, intimate groups of individuals whose opinions are very important to us. We try to please them and don't like it when they're mad at us. Primary group members are usually family and close friends. Secondary groups contain more people who are of less emotional importance to us. We associate with them in order to accomplish a particular social purpose. They may include our colleagues at work or school, our favorite waitresses at the diner, or members of our bowling league. Secondary group members may influence our behavior and attitudes (think of how youth are influenced by peer pressure), but in the big picture, it's what our family and close friends think that matters the most to us.

Subgroups or Subcultures
You may be a citizen of the United States, living in Iowa, going to college, a member of a sorority, working at an office on campus, and participating in a theatre company on weekends. Each group you are associated with will require you to behave in particular ways. Usually the subcultures or smaller groups you are associated with have values and norms that are similar to that of the dominant culture. Sometimes, however, people are part of subcultures whose agendas are not the same, and this may pose difficulties for them. Amish people may find it very difficult to live a strict lifestyle according to their religious convictions when they are in a larger society that is more boisterous and materialistic. Youth gang members may attend public school and have regular jobs, but also affiliate with others who share a common identity and norms.