SOC103H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Acculturation, Intersectionality, Social Constructionism
Lecture 1: Introducing Sociology and Social Institutions
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Institution: a relatively stable, shared pattern of behavior based on relatively stable values
• Different societies have different institutions but within each society, the behavior is
predictable
• All societies are addressing universal human concerns and developing shared patterns
of behavior
• Institutions do not exist without social interaction
o Interaction: a socially recognized pattern of interrelated acts
Social Institutions are social structures
• Social structures:
o control us
o change us
o both resist and produce social change
Sociology: the study of predictable and recurring relations among human beings, and the social
institutions and societies people create through such relations
Sociology Origins
• Two social crisis were especially important for the early development of sociology –
o Industrial Revolution – thrust new people into new kinds of economic
relationships
o French Revolution – thrust people into new kinds of political relationships
*Convinced people that new social and political arrangements were needed
Three Aims of Sociology:
1) To find and explain patterns in people’s social relations
2) To question ‘common sense’ and the received wisdom about the way society works
3) To solve social problems and find better ways of living together
Ex. Growing Up Too Soon? Parentification Among Immigrant and Native Adolescents in
Germany
Problem: parentification: children being put in a position to serve as an adult and be
parents to their parents
• Often causes long-term problems of depression, anxiety, and faulty relationships
• Assumed to be more common in immigrant families, due to the adolescent-parent
acculturation gap
o Immigrant adolescents acculturate faster and outperform their parents socio-
culturally (learn language and pick up the customs of the country faster)
Findings:
1) immigrant children are more parentified than native born children
o Measured emotional and instrumental parentification
2) marital dissatisfaction of mothers has no effect on immigrant parentification
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