"Oil is everywhere. It is in everything you do. If someone can tell me one thing they do in their life that has no connection to oil, I will give you an A for the class and tell you to leave. You are covered in oil, right now. The clothes on your back- they came from machines run by oil. Everything you do comes from oil."
Okay, so maybe the clothes part didn't fit exactly. But the rest of it did.
"Sociology is everywhere. It is in everything you do. If someone can tell me one thing they do in their life that has no connection to Sociology, I will give you an A for the class and tell you to leave. Everything you do comes from sociology."
And this, I believe, was the most important thing we learned this week. We did spend time talking about the history of early sociology, with Karl Marx, and class struggle, Emile Durkheim, and Population growth and other social forces, and Max Weber, who believed that social life is based on the accumulation of different interactions. Each with there own interpretation of how sociological forces impact us, But they all said essentially the same thing. "Individual choice is always determined to some extent by the persons environment."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA
And while all that IS important to understanding exactly what sociology is, I feel the most important aspect of this weeks lessons is WHY sociology is important to us.
and the answer to that?
"Sociology is everywhere. It is in everything we do."
Interesting that you post a link to the Asch conformity studies. This is a good example of the difference between sociology and social psychology. Asch studied how the group dynamics exert pressure on an individual to conform to a group. Since it mostly talks about the individual, it is technically under the heading of social psychology. How would sociology be different? Sociology might talk about how a particular group or society would view the idea of conformity? In the US, we value individuality and therefore might view 'conforming' as a negative thing. A society that was more collectivist might cheer and praise the ability of an individual to conform to the group. But this is a small difference. You show a great grasp of the importance of studying sociology. Very nicely done!
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