Class for Thursday, Oct. 21 is a recorded guest lecture. There is no class meeting on Zoom.
This lecture is gated at Prof. Mincyte’s request. You can find the lecture by clicking here, or go to Blackboard, then navigate to: Content–Guest Lectures.
Please watch the video in its entirety, then make two posts below, according to the following instructions. These comments are due before the following class period (i.e. before 4:00pm on Tuesday, 10/26).
The first one is your own individual thoughts and response to the lecture. This post should be at least 75 words long. You should interact with main ideas, although what you say is up to you. You may want to criticize an idea, agree with something, or offer further insight or thoughts about some topic discussed by our guest. Or, you may want to pose a question for others about the lecture. I expect the post to interact with the content of the actual lecture, and not just the day’s topic or other thoughts you may be having.
The second post is an interactive comment, posted as a response to another student’s comment. There is no length requirement on this post.
It’s interesting that sociology can predict the habits or lifestyle preferences of an individual based on the information gathered from a population. People tend to underestimate just how much they share in common with others no matter their background, age, beliefs, etc. There are just some things in life that most people follow or share. The range of issues sociology covers is also interesting. All things affect us socially in one way or another. Since sociology is a discipline that focuses on what influences human behavior, relationships, and social life it essentially looks at every aspect of society and life.
I agree with your thought of how people underestimate the common things we share because people are very busy with life and do not realize the sociology that shapes them.
There is a term called the “sociological imagination,” that is a perspective that enables to the context in which individual experiences and life cylces are situated in.
I agree Tara. We all have so much in common especially relating to age, religion and how we were raised. It’s also interesting how the media, another social institution, can manipulate us into thinking similarly; what we find beautiful, behaviors we find acceptable, what groups commit the most crimes, the list goes on and on.
The point about the media is well taken, Shabon. Something to keep in mind is that not all messages are equally easy to communicate. For this reason, vaccine hesitancy is quite common despite the concerted efforts to explain vaccine benefits by public health experts, doctors, etc. Sociologists would argue that it is not so the media per se, but social relationships in which individuals are embedded in and the imagined groups (including those online) that shape it one’s views.
Yes Tara I agree we can all relate to each other onw way or another
Tara, it is wonderful to hear you found the lecture relevant. As a discipline that focuses on groups and patterns, sociology sees individuals as formed in relation to others, not as autonomous decision makers.
The study of sociology is a principle discipline when it comes to studying society and further advancing our architectural features such as our police system as Prof. Mincyte spoke about. I found it very profound that sociology is an empirical science. This means that the science is based solely on testing through observation. I also like how in the study of sociology, they aren’t just focusing on individuals, rather groups or even outside forces that can affect an individual that is similar. I also found it amazing how sociology is able to draw conclusions based off relationships and correlations through decisions that someone has made such as what the income would be for someone or what the life expectancy of someone would be.
Thanks for your comment, Tahshin. I didn’t have enough time to get into this, but there is a branch in sociology that is based on what is called an interpretative approach. Instead of looking at data to derive conclusions, it considers various social phenomena from a perspective of different theories. Such an approach helps to come up with new hypotheses and ideas that later may lead to empirical analyses.
I found the results given on the Self-reported Individual Happiness snapshot interesting. Seeing that people’s happiest period in life is when they’re in their 80s is surprising to me. One would not expect to be the happiest in life being around the age of 80 because you’re old, have to be taken care of, health problems arise, etc. After seeing that, it makes sense to me because at that age you’re at a point in your life where you just got to be grateful to be even alive for that long. You no longer stress things in your life that maybe you would have before.
This chart stuck out to me as well, as I said in my post I agreed with her especially when she spoke about an individual turning 18 and they have some sort of independence and ability to make decisions for themselves. A like how you analyzed the higher aged people and made some examples about how/why life could be more stressful as we age. But as Professor Mincyte said, as we get older we make a name for ourselves, we become established and that leads to a life of happiness.
I can see how people around the age of 80 might be the happiest. For one they lived so long that they’ve probably come to appreciate the little things in life. They surely have come to terms with certain things in life such as their mortality which will bring them much greater peace of mind. There are benefits like pension and more free time in retirement. Also, you don’t have the same stressors as young people since you aren’t beginning to tackle the hurdles of adolescence or adulthood.
I agree that people over the age of 80 might be the happiest but, I also think that young children are also as happy as people over the age of 80 because they have no responsibilities or an aspect of what their life will be when they get older.
Good point, Emerson. From a sociological point of view, children are not expected to take on demanding social roles such as caring for others, building a career, etc, and thus experience less external pressures. At the same time, it is difficult to study children’s sense of happiness because they have not lived enough to be able to compare happy and unhappy periods in their lives.
I’m glad to hear you found this example interesting, Cristina. One of the key take-aways from this study is that people in their 80s feel less external pressure to perform certain social roles and/or duties.
Sociology is the study of individual interactions with other(s). Since sociology focuses on the different influences of human behavior and interactions/relationships it essentially looks at every aspect of life. I like how Professor Mincyte made the comparison about how we are now taking classes online and we are not fully receiving the full effect of that individual interaction with others. I never studied sociology, so this guest lecture was interesting for me. I like how Professor Mincyte spoke about happiness and what is the happiest period in a person’s life? From the chart that she showed from a study of different age groups determining their happiness it made more sense to me. I agree with how she spoke about how someone is pretty happy when they turn 18, they are finally an adult, can make our own choices etc. As time goes on pressure and stress come, so the happiness might drop a little in an individuals life – as we get established in life we become content with ourselves and become happier in our day to day activities.
I am finding that we each watched the lecture and learned different things. I also like Prof. Mincyte’s explanation on happiness and the U-Bend graph. When she broke it down, it truly made sense and kind of made me reflect a bit on how I view happiness. When you are younger, you aren’t really thinking so much of your next steps and that care free attitude helps out a lot with you not being weighed down. I also like the chart on happiness between married and unmarried people and how happy they would be with and without children. As someone without children, I can see how the added stress of being responsible for someone else might take away from you focusing on things that make you happy.
Krystal, I completely agree with you. The transition from elementary/high students with fewer responsibilities to college students/adults with many responsibilities, affecting how happy someone is. The addition of responsibilities, cultural pressures, and growing up, in general, affects one’s happiness too. I found it very interesting how we view and feel happy at different stages of our lives, depending on the different circumstances.
It’s great to read your post, Allie. As I mentioned in response to other students’ posts, sociologists have interpreted the decline in happiness during young adulthood as a result of social pressures coming from the expectation that one takes on the role of a responsible adult who carries out various duties and obligations. It’s these expectations that lead many people feel stressed.
A main idea that I wanted to comment on was the transition of collective farming to and lifestyle to individualistic living that was seen in the Enclosure Movement during the 13th-18th Century. This was interesting because it further explained an idea that we already knew regarding wealth affording opportunity. Wealth allowed for there to be private property which hurt those who couldn’t afford the same privileges. There once existed a society where each person contributed, and people took advantage and used it for their benefit. During the lecture it was mentioned that this led to more crime and scarcity of resources. When the rich secluded themselves, they took away from populations that benefited from their forms of contribution. This also resulted in overpopulation which are things that we are experiencing now. Our guest speaker used the term “inverted quarantine” which is the idea of wealthier families displacing themselves to “consume” healthier circumstances. This was something that stood out to me because I could have never described someone using their access to wealth to consume better opportunities. It really spoke to the destruction of society and how the inequalities of status can be so detrimental.
It is an unfortunate truth that having these inequalities disrupts our potential to be a society that is beneficial to everyone. The data showing high crime rate and wealth inequality having a correlation reflect much to our modern society as well. It is interesting how these graphs providing data from so long ago are still relevant to the present day.
Krystal, it is notable that sociology as a discipline was formed during the time of transition from traditional/agrarian to industrial/urbanized societies. This also explains why one of the key fields in sociology is studies of inequalities.
Unlike psychology, sociology focuses on groups and patterns. I found it very interesting how sociology is an empirical science and how the predictions are collected by observation. In other words, sociologists are able to calculate many factors based on what other people in the same group are doing. Based on this knowledge, sociologists can predict a person’s income, health, life expectancy, and happiness. I was very surprised by the reports of self-reported individual happiness and the U-bend graph. As a college student, there are many responsibilities that may cause a sudden decline. Many factors, such as cultural pressures, picking a major, obtaining an associate or bachelor’s degree, loans, and finding a place of work, affect one’s happiness. Before college, I did not have the same responsibilities that I do now. Learning about the principles of sociology has made me realize that we are a lot more alike than I anticipated.
Hello Jordyn,
I totally agree with your arguments and sharings! I too thought it was interesting to know about empirical data since we talked about both normative and empirical data in our class. Also, you brought a good point in regards to the U-bend of happiness decline during college years. I believe many high school students are not prepared for the drastic change and responsibilities in college which can take a toll on our happiness and mental health.
Great to see you tie the lecture to your own experiences, Jordyn.
I found it very interesting that Sociology involves in all aspects of our lives. It focus on how we interact with other. The explanation on the U-Bend curve was an eye opener on the different stages of our lives on how happy we are. We are at our happiest when we are young adults and it does not get back to that stage until we are in our golden age.
I agree definitely was an eye-opener. Sociology is an interesting subject with the way it shows you about society as a whole.
After listening to the sociology lecture and of its etiology, I realized that people uses sociology without realizing it. It is like slowly progressing, and people slowly blend and adapt to it. When actually studying sociology of how people and society behave that shapes this world today, it is astonishing that the society can be so organized and yet complicated because of such a large population. It can also explain why certain things happens such as why people commit suicide, crime rate, when we are the most happy or why there are poverty.
It’s rather interesting to see the correlation with suicide rates, crime rate, happiness and poverty based off social economics. Hopefully the sociologist continue to further their studies in these categories in hopes to figure out a solution to these concerning issues.
Yes, it was very interesting to see how these issues all connect through the science of sociologist.
Yes, these are exactly the kinds of topics that sociologists study!
Benny, one of the contributions of sociology as a discipline is that it helps us to see ourselves from outside. It helps to explain our successes as well as failures, a very useful perspective to have when thinking about our health, jobs, incomes, family composition, etc.
Sociology is depends on empirical data which comes from surveys, interviews and observations. This helps sociologist gather their raw data to compile for their studies. I didn’t know studying happiness stems from sociology. I always thought happiness were during your youth years since you are able and willing to as you please depending upon your financial status. But in the u-bend graph it shows happiness during your later years in life around 80s. Which makes sense since people have pretty much seen and done it all in their life time and not have to worry much about anything else. On the flip side I always thought as you get older, health plays a factor and could potentially affect happiness.
Hello Jason,
Yes, I also mentioned how empirical data comes into play with sociology. It was nice to see a very similar topic in this lecture. It’s true, most of the time older people tend to be happier. They tend to be positive and they have wisdom.
Jason, other disciplines such as economics and psychology also study happiness. What makes sociologists distinct is that they pay particular attention to the influence that various social groups, one’s background, and the social milieu more broadly have on individuals.
Sociology has a fascinating approach to life. How is it embedded in our society today, and its existence as a piece of historical evidence. Sociology relies upon empirical evidence as opposed to our class; we study the effects of empiricism, but philosophy is based on normativism. What I found interesting in this lecture is the rapid population growth, and how society drastically changed due to Industrialization and urbanization. The professor mentioned an interesting question in class “what is the happiest period in a person’s life.” I was thinking about my childhood, but then she presented this chart, and to my surprise when you are in your 80s you tend to be the happiest.
Leila, it is indeed interesting how technological innovations during the 17th and 18th led to major changes in society and with them, the formation of modern social sciences, including sociology.
Sociology as we know is the study of sociality, but what some may not know is that it’s also on the relations to non-human nature such as technologies. Also, sociology relies on empirical data which is interesting as philosophers mostly rely on normative judgments. I didn’t know that before sociology was established, we had theology in relation to religion. For life expectancy, I would have liked to see graphs on other POC as well. In the study on suicide rates by race and gender, I was surprised to know that males of all races were predominantly more likely to suicide than females. Overall, these empirical data help sociologists gain insight into human behaviors and such.
I am glad you brought up technologies, Kaitlyn. They play an important role in how we communicate with others as well as how we organize our lives, and thus, are key for understanding social relations.
It’s interesting to see even in the 18th-century people were trying to live up to the ideal society. The contribution to the development of sociology as the discipline was to industrialization, Urbanization, and new ideas about democracy and political rights. All this played a major role in the past decade to form a somewhat of an ideal society as we have now. Sociology studies modern society it looks at forces and patterns of behavior looks at the larger political-economic context that our individuals live are invaded.
Hello Tanjum,
I agree that it is very interesting to see people in the 18th century trying to live up the ideal society. In 2021, people are still trying to achieve the ideal society and it is due to the early development of sociology’s ideas that are used to piece together the ideal society.
Tanjum, yes, it is important to understand these connections so that we can see how various disciplines are situated in particular historical contexts. Philosophy’s evolution is very different from that of sociology and other modern disciplines.
Sociology is the study of sociality, that includes various different aspects of society. Through sociology we are able to study the interactions of individuals with others, groups, agency vs. structure. Along with the human aspects of sociology we are also able to see the relations to non-human nature. It is fascinating that we are able to understand individuals and their behaviors based upon this theory that was created by Auguste Compete where he applied hard Science approaches to understand society.
I agree. I find that the study of people fascinating and that you can really see how human nature really is depending on where they come from or what cultures they were born in. It really shows that people can be very predictable.
I agree with you that sociology is our door to explore and understand the interactions of individual to another or to a group because as you mentioned sociology allowed us to use the of nonhuman nature. I think that sociological aspects of nonhuman natural related to how individuals interact in the society, what they do to interact and why they do this to interact with another individual or another group.As well as what the main forces affect the individual to interact that why.
Karolen, the concept of forces–often called “social forces”–is very important in sociology.
It’s interesting you mention agency vs. structure argument, Jaggernath. This is one of the most debated topics in sociology.
The talk on Sociology and its development as a discipline was especially interesting to me. The unexpected events that led to Industrialization, Urbanization and new politics forced the creation of this discipline which studies human social relationships and institutions. The fact that private property was introduced by the Enclosure Movement in England was also intriguing. I would have to think that even that far back, poorer individuals were likely robbed of whatever “little” rights they had relating to the use of property; not a whole lot has changed. The growth of East European and North American cities by six times “1 Century later” was fascinating but, put in context, makes perfect sense.
I am glad to hear you found this talk useful for understanding the history of disciplines, Shabon.
Sociology is a study of sociality that covers the interactions of individuals with others. Due to the study of sociology we have been able to keep track and see the changes of individual interactions with others. It’s fascinating that as time has passed there has been drastic changes in society due to urbanization and industrialization. One thing I found interesting but not surprised was that all males were predominantly most likely to commit suicide than females.
The unequal distribution of suicide rates by gender has been studied not only by sociologists, but also by psychologists who are focusing more on mental health issues rather than external social forces.
It is really interesting how sociology covers a wide variety of subjects on how people interact with each other. I found it interesting that if you study a group, or just people in general, long enough you can find patterns. One of the more interesting facts I saw in the lecture was the fact that men had a higher suicide rate than females. I like how the professor explains why this could be and gives solid information on why people may commit suicide.
Sociology is very important in our everyday lives it is a transformation of life from the beginning of time to how we live today. Social behavior is important because we can use it to improve our thoughts on the way we live. We can incorporate sociology into everyday jobs in occupations because if we can understand social behavior it may help us improve the way we deal with people on a day-to-day basis. For example the enclosure movement which turned into individuals creating private sectors which was a form of a study for social behavior which affects our lives today. Because we have our own personal quarters when we have our homes separated and personal land enclosures . Modernization and our transition into capitalism is a part of our social history. Modernization and
Urbanization is also a part of our social history. The study of sociology can help us improve our lives because It can improve life decision making When it comes to picking a spouse how many children you wanna have how much money you wanna make etc. These decisions are important because it can make life easy easier or harder.
I agree social behavior is important to know and it would help with how we deal with people. If we all know how to apply what we learn in sociology everyone would have maybe a better life since now we would have a better understanding.
Mecca, it’s great to see you connecting sociological insights to everyday life experiences. This is one of the key contributions of this discipline.
After watching the guest lecture , I can conclude that sociological perspectives are based on empirical evidence, which based on observation of the society and how it changed and developed over years. What really grapes my attention was the Enclosure Movement, England (13th-18th century). Because it show when sociology started when land use rights took place which allowed rich people further to own lands and Poor people move to the city. Professor Mincyte explain the different of having your own sources of living and to depend on a working wage to get money to trade it for life source like food or board. The study of this enclosed movement shows that it led to increase population almost sixth times between 1800’s -1900’s which increases the crime ability to happen in the city as well as developed a new ideas of political matters. Moreover, sociology study the matter of a group not an individual, the interaction of one to another , structure vs. Agency which based on capacity to make a decision and the external matter that forces an individual to take that decision.
Great summary, Karolen!
I find it intriguing how sociology became this treasure trove of information spanning over the years of human evolution. With each data, not only giving a viewpoint for people to engage in but also influencing questions that further pose as gateways for more data to be researched. Giving a bird’s-eye view on what to expect and also coming closer to understanding human behavior and its interactions. I find it especially interesting how Prof. Mincyte tackled happiness and its correlation to our age. The U-bend phenomenon raises questions about stressful experiences and their relation to different points in our life. Providing me with a conclusion that perhaps having stability and a decrease to societal constraints that usually happens during old age is a powerful enough influence to have a happiness rating that continually increases. Either way, these series of inquiries just further elaborate the depth of sociology and how its potential as a science is very broad.
Sociology is relatively new, just over a century old. But yes, it brings new insights in understanding social processes.