SOCI 1301 Unit 3
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Unit 3: Culture and Socialization

 

 

A.  Read the following selections from the Margin Notes by clicking on each link.

 

B.  Watch these presentations. When you click on one of the links below, a new screen will pop up. Use the scrollbar on the side of the new screen to navigate. You need Adobe Reader to view PDF files.

 

C.  (Optional) Read the following chapters from the textbook.

Chapters 04 and 06

 

D.  The following Optional Links will help you do better in your course but they are not required.

 

E.  Activity #2: Using Content Analysis to Compare Core Values (10 points)To Do Note

In 1970, sociologist Robin Williams identified twelve core values of American culture.

o  achievement and success (especially doing better than others)

o  individualism (success due to individual effort)

o  activity and work

o  efficiency and practicality

o  science and technology (using science to control nature)

o  progress

o  material comfort

o  humanitarianism (helpfulness, personal kindness, philanthropy)

o  freedom

o  democracy

o  equality (especially of opportunity)

o  racism and group superiority

A few years later, sociologist James Henslin updated Williams’ list by adding three additional core values of American culture.

o  education

o  religiosity (belief in a Supreme Being and following some set of matching precepts)

o  romantic love

Think about those 15 core values. Are they still held by most Americans today? Why do/don't you think so? Are there any additional core values that have developed in the 1980s, the 1990s and the 2000s? If so, what are they?

Take a few minutes to read What are Core Values?.

Use the internet to find three major newspapers available online from three countries other than the US. (Most countries have at least one English-language newspaper and many of them are online.) Spend a minimum of thirty minutes per paper conducting a content analysis of as many features, stories and advertisements as you can. [If you have trouble finding newspapers, look at the instructions for GEOG 1303 Activity #4 on the Unit 7 page of the GEOG 1303 syllabus.]

Take a few minutes to read What is Content Analysis?.

From your examination, can you deduce any core values of the countries that publish the newspapers? Consider how those core values may or may not differ from some of the American core values identified by Williams and Henslin.

Take a few minutes to read Toward a Global Culture.

Summarize your activity and findings in a brief research report that includes the 4 points below. Your summary should be thorough, specific, include relevant concepts from the course material and be free of spelling and grammar errors.

  1. Do you think most Americans today still hold the 15 core values developed by Williams and Henslin? Why or why not? Would you alter the list in any way by deleting or adding core values?

  2. For each of the three countries whose newspaper you studied, what core values for that culture were you able to identify? (One newspaper will most likely not allow you to create a long list of core values for a culture but you should be able to identify some.) From your limited perspective how do those countries’ core values differ from ours?

  3. To what extent are newspapers – as examples of material culture – indicative of their producing societies’ cultures?

  4. Make specific and detailed connections to relevant course content. Always include course concepts in your work. If you're reading your margin notes and watching the presentations, you'll have plenty of material from which to choose on every activity. (When it comes to making specific and detailed connections to the course material, I always show some leniency in the first assignment. With this second assignment, you need to begin to approach this item in a more scholarly fashion. This is the part of each assignment in which you should show off how much you know. You should have already completed margin notes and power point presentations that deal with relevant theoretical concepts so it should be easy to make those connections. If you don't, then you miss the purpose of the assignment and cannot expect to earn full points for it.)

 

Activity Submission Instructions

By the deadline shown in the Course Schedule on the main page of the syllabus:

  • Send your report containing the 4 items requested in the body of a new email to dramyglenn@gmail.com.

  • Put only your name and Activity #2 at the beginning of your email.

  • Be careful to use the correct subject line.

  • Late reports will lose one point per day late, including weekends and holidays.

 


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Copyright © 1996 Amy S Glenn
Last updated:   03/06/2024 2100

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