SOC 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-5: Social System, Social Environment, Individualism
Document Summary
Individualism causes us to look at problems being personal instead of social. Privileged groups have power because they react negatively to the supposition, which causes the oppressed try to avoid the issues or are guilty about it. Every problem is characterized on an individual basis. Problems become a matter of cumulative individual solutions not one collective one. The world encourages us to explain problems through the mindset of the individual. Social environment is seen just as a collection of individuals. Analogy: forest is seen as just a collection of trees but it"s more than that. It"s a collection of trees in relation to one another. We are always participating in something larger than ourselves, and in order to understand society, we have to understand what we"re participating in and how we"re participating in it. System is a collection of parts that relate to one another. Social system is not just a group of people.
