Brooklyn Technical High School

Essential Questions for Sociology

• How can the study of sociology help one better understand human behavior, and in turn, the world?

• How do structural and situational forces respectively affect human behavior?

• How have key theorists contributed to the emergence of sociology as a distinct academic discipline?

• To what extent is human behavior agentially determined? To what extent is behavior socially determined?

• How do the myriad components of culture respectively shape human behavior?

• Who possesses authority in our society? Why do individuals tend to obey authorities?

• Why do individuals deviate from established norms of behavior? Which structural and situational factors tend to affect proclivities vis-à-vis social deviance?

• How do the key theoretical paradigms comprehend social deviance and social stratification?

• How have key theorists contributed to the study and comprehension of obedience, deviance and stratification?

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit One:

• The Sociological Imagination, as described by C.W. Mills

• The concept of “Social Facts,” as described by Emile Durkheim

• Durkheim’s findings vis-à-vis the phenomenon of suicide

• The Werther Effect (Suicide Contagion)

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Describe Emile Durkheim’s contribution to the study of human behavior and definition of Sociology

• Describe the historical and epistemological origins of Sociology as an academic discipline

• Explain the significance of Durkheim’s findings in his suicide study, vis-à-vis the establishment of sociology as an academic discipline

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Two:

• The Functionalist paradigm

• Conflict theory / The Conflict paradigm

• The Symbolic-Interactionist paradigm

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Describe each of the major theoretical paradigms/perspectives of sociology

• Identify the salient contributions of key theorists to each of the aforementioned paradigms

• Utilize the functionalist and conflict paradigms/perspectives to analyze key social institutions

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Three:

• Social Currents and Collective Effervescence, as described by Emile Durkheim

• The Bystander Effect, and related experiments performed by John Darley and Bibb Latane

• The concept of “Social Proof” and myriad related phenomenon

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Discuss the impact that certain social situations (and situational forces) tend to have on human behavior

• Durkheim’s theory (and findings) vis-à-vis the origins of religion and fundamental linkage between religious worship, faith and collective effervescence

• Describe historical phenomena and key experiments (procedure, control, outcome) relevant to the Bystander Effect

• Describe historical phenomena and key experiments (procedure, control, outcome) relevant to social proof

• Discuss the implications of the bystander effect vis-à-vis the American legal system

• Describe examples of behaviors that have, on occasion, proven contagious

• Describe how the presence of crowds tends to affect the behavior of individuals

• Describe how perceptions of quality/value/reality are affected by the perceptions and views of others

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Four:

• The major components of culture, with an emphasis on contemporary American culture

• Max Weber’s theory of the “Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”

• Cultural Universals

• Cultural Lag, as described by William Ogburn

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Identify and describe the major components of culture and their respective impact on human behavior

• Describe key American symbols, values, and norms (both contemporary and historical)

• Describe the different types of norms, and provide salient examples of each

• Provide multiple examples of both cultural universals and cultural lag

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Five:

• Japan’s unique cultural elements

• Salient Japanese cultural institutions and practices

• Japanese aesthetics

• Critical differences between American and Japanese culture

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Critically juxtapose American and Japanese cultural elements and the concomitant differences in the key patterns of behavior in the two nations

• Describe salient differences in the American and Japanese legal systems and patterns of criminality

• Describe salient differences in the American and Japanese educational systems

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Six:

• The existence of networks of status and role and the extent to which these forces shape behavior

• Gender, socialization and gender roles

• Role strain and role conflict

• Master Status and status sets

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Critically assess the impact of status and role on behavior

• Describe social ills born of role strain and role conflict

• Describe the essential difference between (biological) sex and gender

• Describe the essentialist-constructivist debate vis-à-vis gender and gender roles

• Describe the key statuses that they possess and how these (respectively) shape their behavior

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Seven:

• The sociological concept of authority

• John French and Bertrand Raven’s contributions to the study and comprehension of power and obedience

• Max Weber’s contributions to the study and comprehension of authority and obedience

• Cults and cult leaders

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Describe Max Weber’s tri-partite model of authority, and provide pertinent examples of each

• Describe the French and Raven model of the ideal types of social power and provide examples of each

• Describe several of the key experiments which testify to the capacity of authorities to elicit obedience

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Eight:

• The sociological concept of social deviance

• The contributions of the major theoretical paradigms and key theorists (e.g., Durkheim, Marx, Merton, Zimbardo) to the study and comprehension of social deviance

• The relationship between social deviance and societal (structural) change

• “Behavioral economics” and the contributions of behavioral economists to the study and understanding of social deviance

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Describe key experiments and case studies pertinent to the phenomenon of social deviance

• Describe the profoundly divergent perspectives on the phenomenon of social deviance articulated by theorists associated with the different theoretical paradigms

• Discuss various approaches to reducing crime that have been attempted by various municipalities and the academic debate regarding their respective levels of effectiveness

Following are the Major subtopics of Unit Nine:

• The sociological concept of social stratification

• The contributions of the major theoretical paradigms and key theorists (e.g., Marx, Merton, Weber) to the study and comprehension of social stratification

• Major elements (strata) of the American stratification system and their respective impact on “life chances” and access to social desirables

At the end of this unit, students will be able to …

• Describe the profoundly divergent perspectives on systems of social stratification as articulated by theorists from the different theoretical paradigms

• Describe the concept of social stratification and explain how systems of stratification impact “life chances” and access to social desirables

• Describe social stratification in the contemporary United States and recent trends pertinent to gender, race, ethnicity, and the distribution of wealth