What we learned in sociology.
In the Fall, 2021 semester our class learned about the following primary concepts:
Sociology: the study of people and how they interact with others. Instead of studying chemicals, we study people. We do research using science, but can’t make predictions because all people are different and have free will.
Cognitive Schemas: cognitive schemas are when your brain helps make sense of a lot of information at once. This helps the brain organize and interpret information quickly. Stereotypes are one example of the way our brain groups information. For example, one stereotype is criminality and drugs. Our brain associates these two topics together because of societal definitions but it is not always related.
Cognitive Dissonance: when your brain tries to make sense of information that does not go together. Schemas can lead to dissonance because our brain creates these shortcuts. Without schemas we have to try and relate this information. A personal example could be jail and college. We are in this class in college and most would not associate incarcerated individuals with college, but we have seen the similarities this semester.
Self esteem: In class we learned about the concept of self-esteem. Self esteem is overall perception of your self-worth. There are 4 strategies that people use to protect self-esteem: 1) manipulating appraisals 2) selective information processing 3) selective social comparisons and 4) selective commitment to identities. Manipulating appraisals is defined as trying to get others to interpret what you did in a favorable way. For example, you are walking home from school with your friends in the winter and slip on some ice and immediately jump up and make fun of yourself for falling before anyone else can. Selective information processing is when you choose the pieces of information that you want to focus on. Another way to state this is that you focus on the information that makes you look good, and not bad. For example, you choose not to listen to negative things people say about you. Selective social comparison is when comparing yourself to others in order to protect yourself esteem, you compare yourself with someone ‘worse’ than you. For example, you get a 67 on a test and you ask the room what they got and someone says a 53 - so you feel better about yourself. The last definition is selective commitment to identities. This choosing the identity that makes you feel the best. For example, you could steal money from a bank and use that money to buy your kids presents, then this will make you feel like a great parent.
Agents of socialization: during class we learned about agents of socialization. Agents of socialization include primary and secondary agents. 1) a primary agent is defined as the people who teach you social norms and what is right and what is wrong. Primary agents are your parents or grandparents, siblings, and teachers - and are often the people closest to you. 2) Secondary agents are not as close to you and are someone who you do not see every day. For example, secondary agents are your co-workers, bosses, the media, and TV.
The Looking-Glass Self: where we imagine what others think about us and how we imagine their judgements to be of us individually. We then create our own self-image based on these thoughts and judgements. For example, if you go to work and you want to impress your boss with your performance you would first think about how they think about you, then you would make your own assumptions on their judgements of you. Lastly, you would react in response to these judgements that you created.
Generalized Other: the ability to be embarrassed when nobody else is around. For example, if you were to trip while walking up the stairs and you check to see if anybody is watching, realize that they’re not, but you’re still feeling embarrassed, you have experienced the generalized other.
Perceptions: our perceptions of other peoples’ opinions are more important than their actual opinions. For example, if you go to the store and the cashier is in a bad mood, you might think they’re a jerk, but actually, their dog could have died that morning. So, your perception of their attitude affects how you may treat them.