SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 1 Discussion
Social
Causes of Suicide
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Lesson
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
Sociologist
C. Wright Mills preferred to call the sociological perspective the sociological
imagination, and he saw it transforming personal troubles into public issues.
Let us begin our discussion this week by considering suicide, which is
thoroughly explored in Chapter 1 of the textbook.
For the
initial post, address the following:
How does
the sociological imagination help to examine private acts such as suicide
within a larger societal context?
What are
some examples of social forces influencing youth suicide trends in the United
States, suicide trends in India, and suicide trends in the U.S. military?
Use the
sociological imagination to explain your observations, and how the sociological
imagination helps us consider the causes and possible solutions to suicide.
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 2 Discussion
The Games
Children Play
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapters 2, 3, 4
Lesson
Link
(library article): Games Children Play: An Exercise Illustrating Agents of
Socialization (Links to an external
site.)Links to an external site.
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
In the
article noted in this activity, the authors point out that most introductory
sociology textbooks identify the main socialization agents as family, peers,
schools, media, work, and religion. "...[W]hat is far less often
acknowledged is the contribution that children's toys and games play in
representing and reinforcing dominant conceptions of 'appropriate' social
identities found in social discourse and in institutional arrangements."
Toys and games can allow us to experience the subtleties of race, class,
gender, and political socialization that are embedded in play. Sometimes
players may challenge and subvert these images and messages at the delight or
disgust of other players.
For the
initial post, address the following:
What toys
did you have as a child that you think of as agents of socialization?
How did you
use toys to understand relationships, or prepare for new ones?
What
specific theoretical perspectives on socialization from this week's reading
(symbolic interactionist, functionalist and/or conflict theoretical
perspectives) best help you understand your childhood toys as agents of
socialization and why?
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 3 Discussion
Conformity
and Deviance
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapter 5, 6
Lesson
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
Social
psychologist Irving Janis coined the term groupthink to describe how people
often respond differently in a group context than they might if they were
alone. Another interesting topic of sociological study is the area of deviance
and social control. The textbook provides multiples examples from history where
groupthink may have influenced people to participate in socially deviant
behavior that they might have otherwise avoided.
For the
initial post, address one of the following:
Option 1:
Share an example from your personal experience (of your own or of someone you
know), or an example from history, where groupthink may have influenced people
to behave or arrive at a decision in a way that many individual members
privately might have avoided or thought unwise.
Option 2:
Choose a form of deviance with which you are familiar (not necessarily
something you have done, but something someone you know did). Examine why society
views that behavior as deviant and whether perceptions of that behavior have
changed over time. Determine and explain which theory of deviance you think
works best for understanding the deviant behavior you have chosen to discuss.
Remember to be respectful in light of potentially sensitive topics, and
consider what you might be disclosing as there is no guarantee of privacy.
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Respond to one peer who
chose a prompt different from the one you chose. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 4 Discussion
Social
Mobility
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapter 7, 8
Lesson
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
Think of a
person you know (either yourself, someone you know, or even a famous person with,
perhaps a "rags to riches" story) who has experienced significant
upward or downward mobility over the past three or four generations.
For the
initial post, address the following:
Briefly
describe the person (and be sure to respect confidentiality of others and, as
always, remember to be respectful of potentially sensitive information, and
remember there is no guarantee of privacy).
Describe
the person's significant upward or downward mobility over the past three or
four generations.
How do you
think the person's values and behavior might differ had the person experienced
the opposite pattern of mobility?
How might
experiences have been different had the person's family been of a different
ethnic or racial origin?
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 5 Discussion
Race,
Ethnicity, Gender, and Identity
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapter 9, 10
Lesson
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
The lesson
and textbook readings for this week emphasize that race, ethnicity, and gender
are all social constructs. For the initial post, address the following:
Compare and
contrast what is meant by the social construction of race with what is meant by
the social construction of ethnicity and what is meant by the social
construction of gender.
How or why
is it beneficial to view these as social constructs?
For you
personally, are your racial, ethnic, and/or gender identities more matters of
how you view yourself or of how others view you? Please explain.
In what
ways is how you view yourself influenced by the larger society and culture?
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 6 Discussion
Social
Institutions and Health
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapter 11, 12, 14
Lesson
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
For this
discussion we will consider if the social world can be bad for your health
and/or if social institutions can improve your health.
For the
initial post, examine ways that some of the social institutions studied this
week (the family, the educational system, or religions) might affect the health
of the people in the institution. Address the following:
What are
some effects of family life on health?
How might
the educational system in the United States affect the health of American
children?
How might
health outcomes be affected by religious practices of members of varying
religions in the United States? Are there other behaviors, outside of formal
religious practice or formal religious ceremonial observances, such as dietary
requirements or other behavioral requirements of members of religious
institutions in the United States that might affect their health, either
directly or indirectly?
Are there
behaviors, practices, or experiences of specific demographic groups in the
United States that positively or negatively affect their health?
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 7 Discussion
Think
Globally, Act Locally
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapter 15, 16
Lesson
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
For the
initial post, address the following:
What items
that you frequently use do you think have the greatest negative impact on the
environment?
Explain how
the use of the item impacts the environment and the people in your community?
What steps
do you or your family members take to lessen your impact on the environment?
What are
some approaches communities could take to encourage members to reduce waste?
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from outside
scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or the
instructor.
Writing
Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
SOCS185 Culture and Society
Week 8 Discussion
Coming Back
to Research
Required
Resources
Read/review
the following resources for this activity:
Textbook:
Chapter 1 (review)
Lesson:
Week 1 (review)
Minimum of
1 outside scholarly source
Initial
Post Instructions
End-of-course
student surveys exist for you to share your anonymous feedback on your courses.
The purpose of the survey is to gather data from a specific population (you,
the students) to understand your experience in the course, and to determine
areas of success and improvement in our courses, including this one (so
hopefully you do share your feedback because we always want to improve our
courses and teaching).
Chapter 1
of the textbook and Week 1 of this course explored the research process. As
mentioned in Week 1, research is fundamental in the social sciences, and a
survey is a common sociological data collection method. If we look at the
course surveys from a sociological perspective, we see that they are used to
understand a specific population's perspective of a social experience/issue.
For this discussion, then, you will observe and analyze and evaluate the survey
itself, as the budding social scientists you all now are, based on your
learning in this course!
Now, to
come full circle, analyze the end-of-course surveys for their effectiveness as
a sociological measurement tool.
How would
you improve the survey itself to create the very best snapshot of student
impressions of this or any Chamberlain University Online course?
Which
questions would you add and why?
Which would
you delete and why?
What
questions would you change and why?
What
questions would you keep the same and why?
Follow-Up
Post Instructions
Respond to
at least two peers or one peer and the instructor. Further the dialogue by
providing more information and clarification and/or include perspectives from
outside scholarly sources shared in the discussion forum by classmates and/or
the instructor.
Writing Requirements
Minimum of
3 posts (1 initial & 2 follow-up)
APA format
for in-text citations and list of references
Include
citations from at least the assigned textbook/lesson reading and one additional
outside scholarly source to support your response.
