Devry SOCS185 All Weeks Discussions Latest 2019 MAY

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.