SOC313H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Margarine, Social Constructionism
Document Summary
Sociological approaches to the study of deviance: objectivist perspective. Deviant acts are violations of pre-existing and concrete societal norms. Widespread consensus about ideas, behaviors, and characteristics which are either proper and. Social norms are external and given, therefore they are objective acceptable, or improper and unacceptable. Set of shared beliefs within society, provide cohesion within a society. Social facts: values, cultural norms, and social structure which transcend the individual and are capable of exercising social constraint. Positivism: society operates according to general laws just like the physical world (extend scientific principles to human conduct. Wisconsin & laws against margarine challenge the objectivist perspective. Challenges the notion that deviance is necessarily harmful: subjectivist perspective. Rules do not appear out of thin air. People create and interpret the standards upon which behaviors and attributes are deemed to be acceptable or not acceptable. Deviance is relative or in the eye of the beholder.
