Our Social World: Condensed: Introduction to Sociology
Instructor Resources
Video and Multimedia
Tip: Click on each link to expand and view the content. Click again to collapse.
Chapter 1. Sociology: A Unique Way to View the World
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 1.1: Explain the sociological perspective.
This video explains the discipline of Sociology and how it can be used to analyze any topic and/or issue.
1.2 The Sociological Imagination
This video examines the concepts related to the Sociological Imagination which is a term coined by Sociologist C. Wright Mills. Utilizing the Sociological Imaginations allows us to connect our personal lives to the bigger societal picture and connect our own biography with historical events.
Professor Sharma, an assistant professor of political science at Yale, explains his social theory of war. He explains, in this video, this theory of war which is based on the idea that there are two different types of war: one based on rulership and one is based on wars and how this leads to an understanding of how wars can differ in their amount of violence that takes place.
Learning Objective: 1.2: What do sociologists do?
1.4 A Sociologist Is Interviewed by Trevor Noah about for-profit Colleges
Sociologist Tressie Cottom is interviewed by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show. Dr. Cottom explores how for-profit colleges tend to exploit marginalized groups. This clip is a good illustration of sociological research and how sociologists examine social change, race, and conflict.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 1.1: Explain the sociological perspective.
Host Ira Glass plays tape of two women who ended up as frenemies. They kept trying to be friends, but could not help themselves from fighting. Ira then speaks with psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad who has run scientific studies to answer the question: Why do not we simply end these troubling kinds of friendships? Holt-Lunstad’s research also shows that these relationships are much more common than you might think.
Learning Objective: 1.3: Explain how the social world model works, with examples.
1.2 Financial Crisis
This special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s?
This podcast is a discussion with Shehzad Nadeem, author of Dead Ringers: How Outsourcing is Changing the Way Indians Understand Themselves. He discusses what it is like to work at a call center in India, what Indians think about outsourcing, and the social and cultural challenges faced by both labor and management in outsourcing firms.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 1.1: Explain the sociological perspective
This article from Contexts examines six recent sociological findings as it pertains to domestic violence. This article highlights how Sociologists study a social problem, specifically domestic violence, and which factors they consider when investigating a social problem.
1.5 How Tinder is Changing the Way We Date
This article shows the ways in which Tinder is changing the way we date. This newspaper article could be used to talk about the sociological imagination and how thinking sociologically about dating, marriage, and divorce would consider the proliferation of online dating websites and meeting new people.
Learning Objective: 1.2: What do sociologists do?
1.1 Occupational Outlook Handbook-Sociologists
This website examines the median income for Sociologists and explains what Sociologists do. This website also explains the job outlook for Sociologists.
1.2 Sociology in a Changing World
This article discusses the fallout that has taken place in response to turn China into an urban nation. Local governments have demolished tens of millions of homes over the past decade. Homeowners have often fought back, blocking heavy machinery and battling officials. In recent years, resistance has taken a disturbing turn: Since 2009, at least 53 people across China have lit themselves on fire to protest the destruction of their homes, according to human rights and news reports.
1.4 The Sociology of Gifts for Mother’s and Father’s Day
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine discusses the gifts that are traditionally given on Mother’s and Father’s Day and how these gifts reflect the traditional societal roles that we associate with both mothers and fathers in our society. Sociologists are interested in studying how the roles mothers and fathers play in our society can change over time.
1.6 If Sociologists' Findings were Given as Much Attention as Economists' Are
This article is a great thought experiment about the worth of sociological findings. It compares the value of sociological insights with economic insights and considers what would happen if sociologists were valued as highly as economists.
Chapter 2. Examining the Social World: How Do We Know?
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 2.2: Describe key theoretical perspectives.
2.1 Family Traditions: a 1950s Dinner
This video highlights a typical dinner that took place during the time of the 1950s. Think about how this type of dinner differs from dinners that might take place in American households today.
As the Army struggles to meet recruitment numbers, FRONTLINE takes a hard look at private contractors servicing U.S. military supply lines, running U.S. military bases, and protecting U.S. diplomats and generals. Between the logistics giant Halliburton and a myriad of armed security companies, private military contractors comprise the second largest “force” in Iraq, far outnumbering all non-U.S. forces combined. There are as many as 100,000 civilian contractors and approximately 20,000 private security forces.
2.3 Occupy Wall Street and Karl Marx
Noam Chomsky discusses the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In his interview, he hints to several of Marx’s ideas about the owners of the means of production and the importance of social movement. He also discusses class tensions and class struggles.
Max Weber explained that modern capitalism was born not because of new technology or new financial instruments. What started it all off was religion.
2.5 Kanye’s Surprising Revelation
In this humorous clip, Kanye West makes a bold statement after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In this clip, Kanye breaks the flow of symbolic interaction and says something that no one is expecting. The clip shows how people react when something out of the ordinary happens. Symbolic interactions are interested in everyday interactions such as this and what happens when interactions do not go smoothly.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 2.1: Outline the development of sociology.
Stories of the kindness of strangers and where it leads. Also, the unkindness of strangers and where that can lead. All of today’s stories take place in the city most people think of as the least kind city in America: New York.
Learning Objective: 2.3: Explain the scientific approach.
NPR discussion of the ethics and research procedures of Facebook’s experiment on clients’ reaction to positive and negative news updates.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 2.3: Explain the scientific approach.
2.1 Survey Versus Public Opinion
Discussion of a difference of opinion between the general public and the scientific community regarding evidence for the findings and advancement of scientific research.
2.4 Pets and Sociological Inquiries
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine discusses the lack of research regarding pet ownership in Sociological studies and how including this type of research can be useful in understanding human behavior.
2.5 Recent Findings on Race and the Criminal Justice System
This article from Contexts focuses on peer literature review studies regarding race and the criminal justice system. This highlights the results of Sociological research on a particular topic.
Learning Objective: 2.4: Outline the basic steps of the scientific research process.
2.2 Breast Cancer Research Data
This web resource explains how to interpret and read a research table. This is important information for Sociologists as they often use research tables for background information in Sociological studies.
Chapter 3. Society and Culture: Hardware and Software of Our Social World
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the structure (the “hardware”) of our social world.
Jamesurowiecki pinpoints the moment when social media became an equal player in the world of news-gathering: the 2005 tsunami, when YouTube video, blogs, IMs and txts carried the news—and preserved moving personal stories from the tragedy.
Learning Objective: 3.2: Illustrate how culture affects individuals, groups, and societies.
FRONTLINE peers inside the world of a cyber-savvy generation through the eyes of teens and their parents, who often find themselves on opposite sides of a new digital divide.
With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world’s indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.
Learning Objective: 3.3: Provide examples of microcultures, subcultures, countercultures, and global cultures.
3.4 Amish Culture
Amish teenagers go through a period of their lives in which they have to decide whether they are going to stay in the community, or not. Testing their religious beliefs. Ashland, Ohio. Rumm-Shpringa which means “to run around” in their language.
3.5 The Rainbow Family of Living Light
The Rainbow Family of Living Light is a counter-cultural group that meets in the National Forest to pray for peace. At the Rainbow Gathering, the consumption of alcohol is not allowed, however, other societal norms are flipped on their head. At the Gathering, you allowed to smoke marijuana and take psychedelic drugs.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 3.2: Illustrate how culture affects individuals, groups, and societies.
3.1 Public Shaming
This podcast focuses on public shaming, specifically being tarred and feathered. The roots of this cultural practice are discussed and examined.
3.2 Materialism
This podcast from NPRs asks listeners to discuss what material things are part of a middle-class lifestyle in America.
Reality television is commonly found on television listings in our society today and is a staple of American culture. This podcasts examines how individuals may be affected if they were the subject of a reality show.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 3.1: Describe the structure (the “hardware”) of our social world.
3.3 Positive News and Positive Change
This article from Contexts magazine focuses on the lack of news articles that discuss positive changes that have occurred in recent years and the reasons behind why this is so.
Learning Objective: 3.2: Illustrate how culture affects individuals, groups, and societies.
This article examines cell phone usage and how often individuals were likely to use their cell phones to access information online. This article also examines the demographics of those who are likely to utilize their cell phones for this purpose.
Since 1996, the California immigrant rights movement has convened annually at the state capitol for a day of advocacy, education, and unity, demanding better rights and treatment for immigrant communities.
3.4 Music Bridges Cultures? Actually, Not So Much
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine discusses a study where the results showed that certain types of music can actually lead to a divide between various cultures.
Chapter 4. Socialization: Becoming Human and Humane
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 4.5: Explain how micro- and meso-level agents of socialization influence individuals.
4.1 Socialization: Music and Development
Roger H. Brown, President of Berklee College of Music, discusses the importance of music as a form of communication throughout history for families, groups, and civilizations, and ties this to the ways in which music is central to the social and mental development of very young children.
FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff examines the tactics, techniques, and cultural ramifications of marketing moguls in “The Merchants of Cool.”
With 35 million elderly people in America, “the old, old”— those over 85— are now considered the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. For millions of Americans, living longer also means serious chronic illness and a protracted physical decline that can require an immense amount of care, often for years and sometimes even decades.
4.4 The Process of Resocialization
This year, hundreds of thousands of prisoners with serious mental illnesses will be released into communities across America, the largest exodus in the nation’s history. FRONTLINE examines what happens to the mentally ill when they leave prison and why they return at such alarming rates.
4.5 Socialization and the Media
Nicholas Christakis tracks how a wide variety of traits—from happiness to obesity—can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you do not even know.
4.6 Socialization of Gender in the Media: An Example
CNN’s Ali Velshi shows a clip of a little girl, Riley, who is frustrated by meso-level agents of socialization such as the makers of kid’s toys. This humorous clip shows the power of corporations to socialize children into playing with “gender-appropriate” toys.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 4.4: Describe how we develop a “self” through interacting with others.
4.2 Socialization Throughout the Life Cycle: Reputation
Stories of people trying to recover from damage to their reputations—sometimes caused by others, sometimes self-inflicted.
Learning Objective: 4.5: Explain how micro- and meso-level agents of socialization influence individuals.
4.1 Teen Creates App So Bullied Kids Never Have to Eat Alone
This podcast explores how a 16-year-old has created a new app where children that are bullied no longer have to eat alone during lunchtime.
4.3 Veterans Are Housed Together in Prison
This audio clip explains why a prison implemented a change to keep veterans together. The clip talks about a total institution. In total institutions, people undergo processes of resocialization.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 4.1: Summarize the nature versus nurture debate and the sociological perspective on it.
At the San Diego Convention Center in 2014, Hilary Clinton announced the distribution of an early literacy tool kit to help promote the verbal development of young children.
Learning Objective: 4.4: Describe how we develop a “self” through interacting with others.
This article from Contexts magazine focuses on the concept of being a grown-up and takes a look at how individuals believe they have reached this stage in their lives.
4.3 Technology and Interaction
In this Contexts article, the author examines how smart phones have impacted social interaction.
Chapter 5. Interaction, Groups, and Organizations: Connections That Work
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 5.1: Demonstrate the impact social networks can have on the lives of individuals.
In a funny, rapid-fire 4 minutes, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit tells the real-life fable of one humpback whale’s rise to web stardom.
Fred Stutzman discusses Facebook, Myspace, and social networks in general. He covers the concepts of Social surveillance, weak versus strong ties, and the effect of the “invisible audience.” The differences between social networks, and the effects of social networks on society in terms of privacy implications are discussed.
In Generation Like, author and FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff (The Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders) explores how the perennial teen quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media—and exposes the game of cat-and-mouse that corporations are playing with these young consumers.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 5.1: Demonstrate the impact social networks can have on the lives of individuals.
Scroll down to the “Big Data Revolution”. Once invisible details of our lives can now be tracked and turned into data. Will this make life easier or more complicated? This hour, TED speakers imagine how Big Data will reshape our world.
Learning Objective: 5.2: Provide examples of how verbal and nonverbal interaction guides our behavior.
NPR All Things Considered story describes Milgrim’s experiment, key findings, and limitations of the original study. The story reports on present-day follow-up investigation with original participants, and addresses ethics and implications for human subjects studies.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 5.1: Demonstrate the impact social networks can have on the lives of individuals.
5.3 Social Media
This article from Contexts magazine takes a look at the relationship between higher education and social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook.
Learning Objective: 5.3: Describe the needs primary and secondary groups meet for members of society and the overall society.
5.1 Role Strain of Student Athletes
This article looks at the challenges college athletes face and how stress can impact their course work.
Learning Objective: 5.4: Show how the characteristics of bureaucracy apply to formal organizations.
5.2 National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Act protects the rights of employees to act together to address conditions at work, with or without a union. This protection extends to certain work-related conversations conducted on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine takes a look at “mindfulness” initiatives that are now becoming more commonplace in many companies. These techniques may help workers be happier while on the job and more productive.
Chapter 6. Deviance and Social Control: Sickos, Weirdos, Freaks, and Folks Like Us
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 6.2: Compare key ideas in the differential association, labeling, rational choice, structural functional, and conflict perspectives of deviance
Following up on the award-winning collaboration that produced Rape in the Fields/Violación de un Sueño in 2013, FRONTLINE (PBS), Univision, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at UC Berkeley, and KQED are teaming up to uncover the sexual abuse of immigrant women who clean the malls where you shop, the banks where you do business, and the offices where you work.
Learning Objective: 6.5: Which theoretical perspective would be most useful in explaining the function of prisons in U.S. society today?
The United States is one of the very few countries in the world that allows children under 18 to be prosecuted as adults and sentenced to life without parole. Producer Ofra Bikel visits five young men in Colorado sentenced to life without parole to examine their crimes and punishment, the laws that sanctioned their convictions, and the prospect of never being free again.
6.3 13th
In 2016, a documentary was released about the criminal justice system and how it is discriminatory against people of color. This trailer gives a taste about what the documentary is about.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 6.1: Describe who is deviant and why.
Two crime scenes, two murders. One crime is solved, the other case went cold. Both raise the question: What should a person suspected of murder say?
Learning Objective: 6.2: Compare key ideas in the differential association, labeling, rational choice, structural functional, and conflict perspectives of deviance
6.1 Crime Scenes
Every crime scene hides a story. This podcast examines how we hear about crime scenes and the stories they tell.
Learning Objective: 6.4: Give examples of crimes committed at the national and global level today.
Stories about people who take the law into their own hands, even when the line between enforcing the rules and breaking them gets kind of hazy.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 6.1: Describe who is deviant and why.
The Supreme Court overturned The Defense of Marriage Act in 2013 and as a result for the first time, same-sex marriage is legal for the majority of the U.S. population.
Dr. Yifrah Kaminer is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at UConn Health who focuses on adolescent high-risk behaviors. He is a prolific author and renowned researcher on youth substance use disorders, and is frequently asked to speak on the topic to school and community groups. UConn Today asked Kaminer about the impact of marijuana on adolescents, and his views on legalization.
Young people are turning beginning to use electronic cigarettes. This resource illustrates how deviance varies from time, place, and age group
Learning Objective: 6.3: Provide possible explanations for why the crime rate has fallen in recent years.
6.4 Sex Crimes
This article, from Pacific Standard Magazine, takes a look at the recidivism rate among those who commit sex crimes and what reasons account for this rate.
Learning Objective: 6.5: Which theoretical perspective would be most useful in explaining the function of prisons in U.S. society today?
In this article from Contexts magazine Michael Light and Jeffrey Ulmer analyze homicide deaths between 1989 and 2010 to examine the determinants of criminal violence trends among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics.
Chapter 7. Stratification: Rich and Famous—or Rags and Famine?
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 7.1: Describe what social stratification means for individuals and groups.
7.1 The Most Expensive Homes in the World
This video takes a look at the most expensive homes in the world.
Learning Objective: 7.4: Explain what affects your chances for social mobility.
7.2 Social Class
Filmed over three years (1999–2002), “Country Boys” tracks the dramatic stories of Chris and Cody from ages 15 to 18. David Sutherland’s film bears witness to the two boys’ struggles to overcome the poverty and family dysfunction of their childhood in a quest for a brighter future.
Learning Objective: 7.6: Discuss inequality and poverty from a sociological perspective.
7.3 Rebuilding the Middle Class
Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, appointed by President Obama to set up the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, outlines what is wrong with today’s financial markets and how to help the middle class rebound from the recession in this 2010 address at UC Berkeley.
Producer Ofra Bikel chronicles how the middle class is faring in this recession through the stories of the people who she has come to know at the hair salon she has frequented for the past 20 years. The film reveals the struggles of a small business owner to stay afloat, her sister’s risk of imminent foreclosure on her Florida home, and the various clients whose lives intersect at this New York City salon—from well-to-do bankers to struggling actors, each with a story to tell about how they are getting by in these turbulent times.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 7.3: Explain how achieved and ascribed characteristics impact individuals’ life chances.
This podcast examines what happens when you suddenly strike it rich. And the power money has over our lives, for good and bad.
Learning Objective: 7.4: Explain what affects your chances for social mobility.
Stories of people trying to get rich quick or otherwise make something for nothing. As everyone knows, there is no such thing as something for nothing. You always pay a price.
7.3 The Wealth Gap
This podcast examines the pay gap between minorities in Boston.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 7.1: Describe what social stratification means for individuals and groups.
Global poverty rates have actually been on the decline since 1990—the World Bank calculates that 1.1 billion people escaped extreme poverty between 1990 and 2013. The chart above illustrates these trends.
Learning Objective: 7.3: Explain how achieved and ascribed characteristics impact individuals’ life chances.
7.5 Lottery Tickets: Consider This
This article from Contexts Magazine looks at what a person’s odds are for actually winning the lottery.
Learning Objective: 7.6: Discuss inequality and poverty from a sociological perspective.
Poverty USA seeks to educate and promote understanding about poverty and its root causes.
This article from Contexts Magazine focuses on assistance that is available from the Internal Revenue Service for lower-income families.
Learning Objective: 7.7: Illustrate how the digital divide helps stratify people.
This article examines the impact that the internet has on psychological health.
Chapter 8. Race and Ethnic Group Stratification Beyond "Us" and "Them"
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 8.4: Outline effects of prejudice, racism, and discrimination on minority and majority groups.
8.2 Race and Voting
Nate Silver has data that answers big questions about race in politics. For instance, in the 2008 presidential race, did Obama’s skin color actually keep him from getting votes in some parts of the country? Stats and myths collide in this fascinating talk that ends with a remarkable insight.
The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, a teacher in a small town in Iowa tried a daring classroom experiment. She decided to treat children with blue eyes as superior to children with brown eyes. FRONTLINE explores what those children learned about discrimination and how it still affects them today.
Sixty years after the Supreme Court declared separate schools for black and white children unconstitutional, school segregation is making a comeback. What is behind the growing racial divide in American schools—and what is the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education?
Learning Objective: 8.5: Describe efforts to reduce racial and ethnic inequality at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of analysis.
8.1 Race Relations
arack Obama speaks in Philadelphia, PA at Constitution Center, on matters not just of race and recent remarks but of the fundamental path by which America can work together to pursue a better future.
This clip looks at the issue of higher educational institutions that use race as a factor in the admissions process.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 8.4: Outline effects of prejudice, racism, and discrimination on minority and majority groups.
8.1 Police and a Racial Divide
There are so many cops who look at the killing of Eric Garner or Mike Brown and say race did not play a factor. And there are tons of black people who say that is insane. There is a division between people who distrust the police—even fear them—and people who see cops as a force for good. Stories of people living on both sides of that divide, and people trying to bridge it.
This podcast takes a look at how people may react when others are speaking about racial stereotypes.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 8.4: Outline effects of prejudice, racism, and discrimination on minority and majority groups.
8.1 Racism Protests
In the weeks since Colin Kaepernick, a San Francisco 49ers quarterback, took a knee during the national anthem—a protest against racial injustice—he has been discussed by President Obama, has been derided by Donald J. Trumpand has helped to intensify an already roiling national debate about race, the police, and the definition of patriotism.
This article from Contexts magazine focuses on ways Sociologists can study institutional racism and offers some tips on ways to end this form of racism.
8.4 Racism in the Kindergarten Classroom
This article, published by Pacific Standard Magazine, examines newly published studies that indicate racism starts as early as Kindergarten for some children.
8.5 Black and Blue
This Contexts article looks at racial profiling in a large, U.S. city.
Learning Objective: 8.5: Describe efforts to reduce racial and ethnic inequality at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of analysis.
The Non-Profit Anti-Racism Coalition is an alliance of organizations and individuals committed to ending institutional racism.
Chapter 9. Gender Stratification: She/He—Who Goes First?
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 9.2: Identify agents of gender socialization.
9.1 Tough “Guise”
Tough Guise is the first educational video geared toward college and high school students to systematically examine the relationship between pop-cultural imagery and the social construction of masculine identities in the United States at the dawn of the 21st century.
9.5 What if Men Were Catcalled Like Women Are?
This humorous clip shows what if could be like if men were subject to the same street harassment that women are.
Learning Objective: 9.3: Give examples of meso- and macro-level gender stratification.
This video examines how women are portrayed in the media in a discriminatory manner.
Learning Objective: 9.5: Discuss costs and consequences of gender stratification.
9.3 Sexism
In this fascinating talk, founder of the award-winning EverydaySexismProject, Laura Bates, talks about her inspiring initiative. The EveryDaySexism is an ever-increasing collection of over 50,000 women’s experiences of gender imbalance. The stories come from women of all ages, races and sexual orientations, disabled and non-disabled, employed and unemployed, religious and non-religious.
9.4 Online Sexism
Julia Hardy tells us how she uses humor to combat endemic online sexism, and explains how the actions of this small percentage of men not only adversely affect and change women’s behavior, but actually cause detriment to other men.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 9.1: Describe the difference between sex and gender.
9.1 Being a Girl
Variations on what it means to be a girl and what it means to be a woman.
Learning Objective: 9.3: Illustrate the relationship between minority status and gender and sexual orientation.
9.3 Homosexuality
The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.
Learning Objective: 9.5: Discuss costs and consequences of gender stratification.
A roundtable of women discuss how Senator Clinton’s gender has affected her campaign and how her candidacy has shaped the national conversation about the role of women.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 9.3: Give examples of meso- and macro-level gender stratification.
Honduras is the third largest exporter of clothes and textiles to the U.S. market, employing approximately 110,000 workers, 53% of whom are young women from deprived backgrounds with little education. Many of the clothing factories are found in Honduras’ 24 Export Processing Zones (EPZs), industrial areas with low or non-existent taxes and a cheap labor force designed to attract foreign investment.
This article from Contexts Magazine looks at how sexual orientation may differ for both men and women.
9.4 Children and Sexual Orientation
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine looks at the issues pertaining to whether or not parents should be able to choose their children’s sexual orientation.
This website contains information about documentaries and other media literacy resources that help us to demand proper representation of women and men in the media.
Learning Objective: 9.5: Discuss costs and consequences of gender stratification.
9.1 Politics
Republicans across the country are blasting Donald Trump for spewing sexist comments in a despicable videotape revealed Friday—and some are even withdrawing their support for the raucous mogul and calling on him to step down as the party’s nominee.
Chapter 10. Family and Education: Institutionalizing Socialization
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 10.2: Illustrate different patterns of mate selection.
10.1 Arranged Marriages
This video examines arranged marriages in regards to where they take place and why so many people accept this form of marriage as the norm.
10.2 Polygamy
This video takes a look at those who live in polygamous families, specifically where women choose multiple husbands.
Learning Objective: 10.5: Give examples of micro level interactions in schools.
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.
Learning Objective: 10.6: Explain the formal and informal structures of schools.
This video from Ted Talks highlights Peter, a school principal with a radical solution-no school bell, no school levels, staff selection, and curriculum is even decided by students. Result? No bullying, collaboration, and innovation in school dynamics.
10.4 Medicating Kids
As the debate over medicating children continues to grow, FRONTLINE confronts psychiatrists, researchers, and big pharma about the risks and benefits of prescription drugs for troubled children.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 10.1: Discuss how definitions of families are socially constructed and change overtime
10.2 Happy Marriages
Stories trying to understand what actually happens in marriages during this time when the definition of marriage is up in the air.
10.3 Technology and Love
Love is instinctive and essential, but what is it that brings certain people together? In this hour, TED speakers examine the impact of technology on love and relationships.
Learning Objective: 10.4: Describe controversial topics facing the family today.
10.1 Unconditional Love
Can love be taught? A family uses a controversial therapy to train their son to love them. And other stories about the hard and sometimes painful work of loving other people.
Learning Objective: 10.6: Explain the formal and informal structures of schools.
The true story of little-known rooms in the New York City Board of Education building. Teachers are told to report there instead of their classrooms. No reason is usually given.
Learning Objective: 10.7: Present evidence that schools contribute to the reproduction of social class.
Stories of schools struggling with what to do with misbehaving kids. There is no general agreement about what teachers should do to discipline kids. And there is evidence that some of the most popular punishments actually may harm kids.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 10.2: Illustrate different patterns of mate selection.
10.1 Why Get Married?
This article takes a look at why monogamy became the norm in regards to marriages in the modern era.
Learning Objective: 10.3: Provide examples of how families interact with other institutions.
10.3 Baby Boomers
This article from Contexts magazine examines the paths that women who are considered to be part of the Baby Boomer generation (born between 1944 and 1954) have taken in regards to their home and work lives.
Learning Objective: 10.4: Describe controversial topics facing the family today.
10.2 Divorce Myths
This article takes a look at the 27 most common myths regarding divorce.
10.4 Women and Divorce
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine takes a look at the fact that women are more likely than men to initiate a divorce and examines the reasons as to why this is the case.
Learning Objective: 10.6: Explain the formal and informal structures of schools.
10.5 Education: Good for Society
People who attend universities are less likely to commit crime, drink heavily or smoke, according to a new database of evidence on the social benefits of higher education.
Learning Objective: 10.6: Explain the formal and informal structures of schools.
10.8 Early Childhood Education
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine examines the benefits of a universal Pre-K program in the U.S. educational system.
Learning Objective: 10.7: Present evidence that schools contribute to the reproduction of social class.
10.6 School Funding
According to a recent report by the Education Law Center in most states the public school funding remains unfair and inequitable, depriving millions of U.S. students of the opportunity for school success.
10.7 Financial Aid
This article by Contexts Magazine takes a look at some of the issues regarding financial aid in higher educational institutions.
Chapter 11. Health Care: An Anatomy of Health and Illness
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 11.2: Illustrate how health issues impact us at the micro, meso, and macro levels.
11.1 AIDS
Through interviews with AIDS researchers, world leaders, activists, and patients, FRONTLINE investigates the science, politics, and human cost of this fateful disease and asks: What are the lessons of the past, and what can be done to stop AIDS?
11.2 Health Care System
This video from Ted Talks features Rebecca Onie who discusses our healthcare system
And asks the question: What if our healthcare system worked at keeping us healthy?
Learning Objective: 11.3: Use the symbolic interaction perspective to show that illness is a social construction.
In this Ted Talk, Ivan Oransky asks if we are over-medicalized.
Learning Objective: 11.6: Describe how globalization influences health care issues at micro, meso, and macro levels.
11.3 Zika Virus
Dr. Bergman shows the facts and research behind the Zika virus and explains why you should not believe everything you hear on the media.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 11.1: Provide examples of health at the societal level.
11.1 Health Care System
An hour explaining the American health care system, specifically, why it is that costs keep rising. One story looks at the doctors, one at the patients and one at the insurance industry.
Learning Objective: 11.2: Illustrate how health issues impact us at the micro, meso, and macro levels.
11.3 Disabililty Payments
The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost 1/4 of adults are on disability. Chana Joffe-Walt spent 6 months exploring the disability program, and emerges with a story of the U.S. economy quite different than the one we have been hearing.
Learning Objective: 11.3: Use the symbolic interaction perspective to show that illness is a social construction.
11.2 Homosexuality and Mental Illness
The story of how the American Psychiatric Association decided in 1973 that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 11.1: Provide examples of health at the societal level.
11.2 Canadian Healthcare
This website provides information regarding Canada’s health care system which is comprised of socialized health care plans which provides coverage to all Canadian citizens.
11.4 Mental Health Care Coverage
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine focuses on the fact that despite progress being made in regards to coverage being provided by the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans who have mental health issues are still not being treated properly due to a lack of health care coverage.
Learning Objective: 11.2: Illustrate how health issues impact us at the micro, meso, and macro levels.
11.1 Healthcare and Aging
By 2030, 1 in 5 Americans will be over age 65 and the result will be more healthcare costs in the future.
This article from Contexts magazine examines the rates of depression between blacks
And whites and the consequences of having depression.
Chapter 12. Politics and Economics: Probing Power; Dissecting Distribution
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 12.5: Describe the major types of governmental systems in operation today.
Neil Sroka (Democracy for America Communications) joins John to argue the need for more socialism, while economist Ivan Pongracic (Hillsdale College) explains why such a path is folly.
Learning Objective: 12.6: Provide examples of the threats political systems can face from internal and external groups vying for power.
12.1 Climate Change
The film examines some of the key moments that have shaped the politics of global warming, and how local and state governments and the private sector are now taking bold steps in the absence of federal leadership.
12.3 The United States and Iran
Through interviews with key players on both sides, FRONTLINE traces the tumultuous history of U.S.-Iran relations since 9/11—from unprecedented early cooperation in Afghanistan, to the growing crisis over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Tehran’s open threats to drive America out of the Middle East.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 12.1: Describe the sociological definition of power.
12.1 Kid Politics
What if, say, the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada in 1983 had been decided, not by Ronald Reagan, but by a bunch of middle-schoolers? And what if every rule at your high school had been determined, not by teachers and administrators, but entirely by teenagers? This podcast examines when it comes to governing, do kids do any better than grown-ups?
Learning Objective: 12.4: Explain why some people participate in political systems and others do not.
12.2 Swing Voters
Everyone knows that politics is now so divided in our country that not only do the two sides disagree on the solutions to the country’s problems, they do not even agree on what the problems are. It is two versions of the world in collision. This week we hear from people who have seen this infect their personal lives.
Learning Objective: 12.6: Provide examples of the threats political systems can face from internal and external groups vying for power.
12.3 Iraq After the United States
Operation Iraqi Freedom is over. And the next chapter of Iraq is being written now. But what actually happened there the last seven years? Producer Nancy Updike and reporter Larry Kaplow spent a month in Iraq talking to Iraqis and Americans about the war that tore the country apart, and what is happening as we try to put it back together.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 12.3: Compare the key points of the pluralist and elite theories of power.
12.4 Females in Politics
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine examines females who are in the political world and how the relationships they create can be functional for them.
Learning Objective: 12.5: Describe the major types of governmental systems in operation today.
12.2 Politics
This website from CNN contains information about the most up-to-date information regarding the world of U.S. politics.
12.3 Government
This article from Contexts magazine examines a new type of government created by Joyce Rothschild entitled Democracy 2.0 and describes the details of this concept.
Learning Objective: 12.6: Provide examples of the threats political systems can face from internal and external groups vying for power.
This articles examines the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia which lasted from 1975 to 1979 and claimed the lives of up to 2 million people.
Chapter 13. Population and Urbanization: Living on Planet Earth
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 13.4: Discuss national and global urbanization trends.
13.1 The Transit System of the Future
In this forward-thinking talk, preview exciting concepts like modular, detachable buses, flying taxis, and networks of suspended magnetic pods that could help make the dream of a dynamic, driverless world into a reality.
13.2 The Future of Cities
This video from Ted Talks examines how megacities are now changing the map of the world.
13.3 Urban Planning
Fifty percent of traffic accidents happen at intersections. Gary Lauder shares a brilliant and cheap idea for helping drivers move along smoothly: a new traffic sign that combines the properties of “Stop” and “Yield.”
Learning Objective: 13.5: Explain three major social problems facing urban areas in the Global South.
This clip looks at how people are migrating because of their degrading environment.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 13.2: Give examples of institutional influences on fertility, mortality and migration.
13.1 Immigration
Alabama’s new immigration law aims to make life so difficult for illegal immigrants that they will “self-deport.” And in a way it is working. Immigrants are fleeing Alabama ... but not just the undocumented ones. This and other stories of people living with the unintended consequences of their decisions.
Learning Objective: 13.4: Discuss national and global urbanization trends.
13.2 Community Schools
This podcast from NPR looks at how community schools changed life in Cincinnati and how Baltimore has begun to embrace the change as well.
13.3 Small Towns
Stories of small town life: the claustrophobia and freedom people feel in small towns, the yearning people feel in small towns. Three teenagers in one of the harshest urban environments explain how the public housing projects are like a small town.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 13.2: Give examples of institutional influences on fertility, mortality and migration.
13.1 Pandemics
This article from TIME magazine examines the top 10 epidemics that have plagued our world.
13.2 Population Clock
The Population Clock, issued by the Census Bureau, looks at how many births and deaths take place within the United States as well as the 10 most populated countries around the world.
Learning Objective: 13.4: Discuss national and global urbanization trends.
13.3 Urban Sprawl
This article from Contexts Magazine examines urban sprawl and how this sprawl has changed the urban landscape and changed American life.
13.4 The Growth of Cities
This article from Pacific Standard Magazine examines a simple pattern of population growth and decline in four major cities in both the United States and Europe.
Chapter 14. Process of Change: We Can Make a Difference!
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Video Links
Learning Objective: 14.1: Give examples of how change takes place at each level of analysis.
14.2 Social Change and the Media
In a four-part special series, News War, FRONTLINE examines the political, cultural, legal, and economic forces challenging the news media today and how the press has reacted in turn.
Learning Objective: 14.2: Explain how stresses and strains can lead to organizational change.
14.1 Low Prices at the Cost of Low Wages
While some economists credit Wal-Mart’s single-minded focus on low costs with helping contain U.S. inflation, others charge that the company is the main force driving the massive overseas shift to China in the production of American consumer goods, resulting in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and a lower standard of living here at home.
14.3 Occupy Wall Street
A short film on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Included: facts behind big banks, history of social change and a first-hand observation of the protest itself.
Learning Objective: 14.4: Provide examples of the difference between planned and unplanned change.
For the first time in history, the majority of American parents do not think their kids will be better off than they were. This should not be a cause for alarm, says journalist Courtney Martin. Rather, it is an opportunity to define a new approach to work and family that emphasizes community and creativity.
Learning Objective: 14.6: Describe how the development of technology brings about change in societies and their environments.
14.5 The Women’s March
Women took to the streets on January 21st, 2017. It was one of the largest demonstrations in modern history.
Audio Links
Learning Objective: 14.3: Explain the six factors necessary for collective behavior to occur.
14.1 Social Engineering
Governments are always looking for ways to change behavior—stopping people from driving drunk, or encouraging them to recycle. This podcast contains stories of social engineering on a smaller scale.
Web Resources
Learning Objective: 14.5: Illustrate the stages of social movements.
14.1 Social Movements
This article takes a look at the 10 social movements that changed America.
14.2 Flash Mob Movements
This article from Contexts Magazine examines the components of flash mobs and how they form.