End of Year Reflection

Sociology has made me think more about society. I never thought that society was so vast and complex. Sociology also made me see how societies and people interact. I knew people and societies interacted but I never thought they interacted all the time and that there are many different processes of interaction. Sociology is not very interesting, especially when compared with psychology, but I learned things that I may have not without this class. The articles helped me remember the subjects we learned in class but I did not like how, when we made a presentation about a chapter we still had to write an article. I would have liked to watch more documentaries or take some sort of sociological test like we did in psychology. In psychology we took fun psychological/brain tests, I would have liked to take fun tests like that but sociology based. Sociology is not a fun subject to learn but if we had more activities like last semester, it could have been more fun than it was. I felt I learned a bunch of cool facts, like the age of the youngest mom is five. Sociology taught me to endure classes that were boring because it did not interest me. I was glad to have taken the class though, so I know what I like and what I don't.

Documentary Reflection

In 2011, “The Arab Spring” arose. The Arab countries like Tunisia, Egypt, and others used to be censored. But due to facebook and internet access, things have started to unravel. It started in Tunisia with Sid Bouzid, a food seller. Some corrupt government officials wanted him to pay money for no reason, he was taken to town hall but nothing was done. He ended up committing suicide by setting himself on fire. Some people took videos of his suicide and word spread. People soon gathered to protest against the corrupt government.

It started off as a peaceful demonstration but soon turned into a confrontation. Policemen started to arrest those with cell phones, for the videos were being posted on facebook. And sent across the Arab countries and the globe. Everywhere, on facebook and twitter, there were videos being posted of the corruption in Tunisia. Soon it spread to Egypt and then to Libya and later to the island country of Bahrain. Revolutions were spreading like wildfire, people were taking a stand against the corruption. A group of activists lead the protests throughout the different countries. Police forces tried to stop the activists and others from protesting. People were shot and killed and even still, more videos were being posted about the corruption. People in Tunisia wanted their leader out, they hated him. He eventually stepped down and people were rejoicing. But in Libya a new leader came, and people revolted against him just like in Tunisia. This has subsided, people are still going against the government in order to win democracy for their countries.

One theory of collective behavior is seen during this Arab Spring. The theory that I think is shown is the resource-mobilization theory which states that even the most ill-treated group with the most just cause will be able to bring about change without resources. If the Arabs had no internet access or phones with the technology to video what was going on, it wouldn't have succeeded. The Arabs needed the internet and technology in order to carry out their plan of revolution. One theory of social change is shown aw well. I think that the theory that is shown is the conflict theory of social change which states that change results from conflicts between groups with opposing interests. The Arabs wouldn't have revolted if it wasn't for the conflict between the people and the government. Without that difference in beliefs, the revolution wouldn't have happened and change wouldn't have been made.

So as we can see, collective behavior and social change occur all the time. It is a repeating process. So many times people revolt because of conflict, sometimes for the better sometimes not. People want change, even though change is sometimes hard, we secretly crave it. Social change occurs constantly, that is why society, in most cases, gets better. 

Chapter 18: Social Change and Modernization

 Social change occurs in any society that is willing to develop and grow. Social change is very important for a society to become the best they can be. Modernization goes along with social change for a society must change to become modernized. As modernization occurs, so does social change.

Sociologists define social change as alterations in various aspects of a society over time. A cyclical theory of social change views change from a historical perspective; societies arise, go through various stages o development, and then decline. Oswald Spengler suggested that all societies pass through four stages – childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age. Pitirim Sorokin's view was that all societies fluctuate between two extreme forms of culture. In an ideational culture, truth and knowledge are sought through faith or religion. The other extreme is a sensate culture, where people seek knowledge through science. Sometimes, societies reach a middle point between those extremes, which he called the idealistic culture. Sorokin referred to this natural tendency (of swinging back and forth between ideational and sensate cultures) toward social change as the principle of immanent change.evolutionary theory of social change views change as a process that moves in one direction – toward increasing complexity. Evolutionary theorists of the 1800s believed that all societies progress through the same distinct stages of social development. By the early 1920s, most social scientists had rejected evolutionary theory. It did not remain out of favor for long, however. Modern evolutionary theorists do not claim that all societies pass through a single set of distinct stages of development on their way toward some ideal of Western society, they hold that societies have tendency to become more complex over time. Talcott Parsons, a functionalist theorist, offered the equilibrium theory of social change, which argued that a change in one part of the system produces change in all of the other parts of the system. According to the conflict theory of social change, change results from conflicts between groups groups with opposing interests. Karl Marx saw violence as a necessary part of social change. Ralf Dahrendorf believed, opposing Marx, that social conflict can take many forms.

The

Modernization is the process by which a society's social institutions become increasingly complex as the society moves toward industrialization. According to sociologists' view of modernization theory, the more-developed nations modernized because they were the first to industrialize. Immanuel Wallerstein proposed the world-system theory, which views modernization in terms of the world economy. Core nations are the most powerful developed nations – the United States, Canada, Japan, and the countries of Western Europe – that form the center, or core, of the world economy. Peripheral nations are the poor countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Semiperipheral nations are somewhere in between core and peripheral nations. A country's external debt is the amount it owes to foreign individuals, organizations, companies, and governments. Modernization has both negative and positive consequences for social life and the natural environment. Modernization offers many benefits to developing countries. Modernization is often accompanied by the arrival of electricity and communication technology such as telephones. The very same technological innovations that improve the standard of living and prolong life in modern societies also give rise to problems. The family and religion lose some of their traditional authority in modern society. Modernization has brought with it the problems of soil, water, and air pollution. Modern technology also gives rise to moral and ethical questions.

As we can see social change is inevitable and important to a developing society. Modernization plays a big role in the development of nations from peripheral to core nations possibly in the future. Modernization is great for a society to grow but sometimes the growing of a society can cause damage to other societies or to the environment around them.  

Chapter 17: Collective Behavior and Social Movements

Collective behavior includes all different types of groups interacting with each other. This is important in sociology for sociology is all about the interactions of people. So collective behavior and all that is associated with it is very important to sociology as well as to a society.

Collective behavior is the relativity spontaneous social behavior that occurs when people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations. A collectivity is a gathering of people who have limited interaction with one another and do not share clearly defined, conventional norms or a sense of group unity. A crowd is a temporary gathering of people who are in close enough proximity to interact. A mob is an emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific destructive or violent goal. A riot is a collection of people who erupt into generalized destructive behavior, the result of which is social disorder. A panic is a spomoral panic occurs when people become fearful about behavior that appears to threaten society's core values. Mass hysteria is an unfounded anxiety shared by people who can be scattered over a wide geographic area. Fashions refer to enthusiastic attachments among large numbers of people for particular styles of appearance or behavior. A fad is an unconventional object, action, or idea that a large number of people are attached to for a very short period of time. A rumor is an unverified piece of information that is spread rapidly from one person to another. Urban legends are stories that teach a lesson and seem realistic but are untrue. The term public refers to a group of geographically scattered people who are concerned with or engaged in a particular issue. Public opinion refers to the collection of differing attitudes that members of a public have about a particular issue. Propaganda is an organized and deliberate attempt to shape public opinion. According to the contagion theory, the hypnotic power of a crowd encourages people to give up their individuality to the stronger pull of the group. According to emergent-norm theory, the people in a crowd are often faced with a situation in which traditional norms of behavior do not apply. According to the value-added theory, collective behavior had six basic preconditions: structural conduciveness, structural strain, growth and spread of generalized belief, precipitating factors, mobilization for action, and social control.

ntaneous and uncoordinated group action to escape some perceived threat. A

Social movements are much more deliberate and long-lasting forms of collective behavior. The main goal of reactionary movements is to reverse current social trends. Most conservative movements try to protect what they see as society's prevailing values from change that they consider to be a threat to those values. The goal of revisionary movements is to improve some part of society through social change. The main goal of revolutionary movements is a total and radical change of the existing social structure. There is a life cycle of social movements, starting with agitation, then comes legitimation, then bureaucratization, it then ends with institutionalization. Relative-deprivation theory, people join social movements because they feel deprived relative to other people or groups with whom they identify. Resource mobilization is the organization and effective use of resources. According to resource-mobilization theory, not even the most ill-treated group with the most just cause will be able to bring about change without resources.

As we saw, collective behavior is very important. We also saw that social movements are important as well. Social movements are important for they add to a growing society and even promote already grown societies. In some cases, social movements can create damage to the government but may be beneficial to the people.  

Chapter 16: Population and Urbanization

Population is a very important part of a society. Population can show whether a society is increasing, decreasing or neutral. This is important because when a society has more people, I is considered more powerful. Urbanization is important also for it shows how developed a country or society is based on their cities and their populations.

A population is the number of people living in an area at a particular time. Demography is the are of sociology devoted to the study of human populations. The measure most often used by demographers to describe the births within a population is the birthrate. Fertility refers to the actual number of births occurring to women of childbearing age. Demographers distinguish fertility from fecundity, the biological capability to bear children. Mortality is the number of deaths within a a society. The measure most often used by demodeath rate. The infant mortality rate is the annual number of deaths among infants under one year of age per 1000 live births in a population. Life expectancy refers to the average number of years that a person born in a particular year can expect to live. Migration is the movement of people from one specified area to another. Migration rate is calculated as the annual difference between in-migration and out-migration. Growth rate is the rate at which a country's population is increasing. Doubling time is a period of time that is the number of years necessary for a population to double in size, given its current rate of growth. Demographers also study population composition. A population composition is shown in a pyramid, of the age and sex distribution of the population. The Malthusian theory predicted that the population would soon reach astronomical numbers. The demographic transition theory holds that the population patterns are tied to society's level of technological development. Zero population growth is the point as which nearly equal birthrates and death rates produce a growth rate of zero. Family planning is the conscious decision by couples to have a certain number of children. Some critics of family planning policies believe that economic development must proceed before people in less-developed nations will voluntarily limit their family size.

graphers to describe the deaths in a population is the

Urbanization involves the concentration of the population to move towards cities. A city is a permanent concentration of a relatively large number of people who are engaged mainly in non-farming activities. Most preindustrial cities contained a few thousand people while some were considerably larger. The industrial city covered a greater area and had a much larger population. Overurbanization is a situation in which more people live in a city than can be supported in terms of jobs and facilities. Urban ecology examines the relationship between people and the urban environment. According to a concentric zone model a typical industrial city spreads outward from the center, resulting in a series of circles, or zones. In the sector model growth occurs in wedge-shaped sectors outward from the center to the edge of the city. In the multiple nuclei model a city does not develop around one central core but around several centers of activity, or “nuclei.” Urban sprawl is characterized by poorly planned development on the edge of cities and towns. According to the urban anomie theory the city is an anonymous and unfriendly place, and living there carries serious negative consequences for residents. Compositional theory examined the ways in which the composition of a city's population influences life in the city. Subculture theory was used to explain the nature of city life, the characteristics of the city encourage rather than discourage the formation of primary group relationships.

As we can see population is very important for society. We saw that three factors influence population. We also saw that urbanization can bring about positive and negative effects. It is very important that we understand these two major concepts in order to further understand sociology.