Week 1 · Readings & resources

Week 1 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Sociology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 1 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 60–70 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–21 min total)

① Seeing the pattern behind a private problem

Chapter 1, Section “The sociological imagination: connect a trouble to an issue” · Session 1, Segment 2, “The sociological imagination” · Remember: one person's problem can also be a public issue when the same thing happens to many people at once.

What Is Sociology?: Crash Course Sociology #1 — CrashCourse — a quick, lively tour of what sociology studies and how it differs from the other social sciences; listen for the sociological perspective and compare it with the chapter's definition. Use it while working through the Week-1 module overview. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
The Sociological Imagination: Five Minute Sociology! — Dr. Maples — a five-minute explainer on Mills's personal troubles and public issues, worked through the decision to go to college; sort each example it gives into a trouble or an issue as you watch. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)
Sociological Imagination: College Enrollment in Context — The Society Pages — a short teaching piece that treats the choice to go to college as both a personal decision and a pattern shaped by wider forces; read it alongside the chapter's three lenses on going to college. (reading, 6–9 min)

② The people who built the field

Chapter 1, Section “Meet the founders: match each name to an idea” · Session 1, Segment 3, “The founders” · Remember: each founder is known for one big idea and one major work, and the pairing matters.

History Brief: WEB DuBois — Reading Through History — a five-minute history of Du Bois's life and major works, including The Philadelphia Negro and The Souls of Black Folk; where it calls The Philadelphia Negro the first study of its kind, compare the chapter's more careful wording, one of the first empirical community studies in American sociology. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Happy Birthday Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois! — National Archives, Rediscovering Black History — a short archive blog post that places Du Bois's major works, including The Philadelphia Negro and The Souls of Black Folk, in the arc of his career. (reading, 3–5 min)
Women Behind the Curtain: Harriet Martineau (Womanica) — Wonder Media Network — an audio profile of Martineau's life and writing; check any work or year it names against the chapter's list of founders. (video, 10 min) (captions: automatic)

③ Two levels and three lenses

Chapter 1, Section “Three perspectives: run one case through three lenses” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The three perspectives” · Remember: the three perspectives answer different questions at different levels, so no one of them wins.

Major Sociological Paradigms: Crash Course Sociology #2 — CrashCourse — structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism, each with its strengths and blind spots; note the level of analysis for each one as it goes. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Analyzing Society: Macro-Sociology vs Micro-Sociology — CulTube — a three-minute contrast between studying whole societies and studying face-to-face interaction. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

④ Counts versus rates

Chapter 1, Section “Counts versus rates: read your first statistic” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Counts versus rates” · Remember: divide a count by the population it comes from before you compare two places of different sizes.

Calculating Rates for Health Events — New Mexico Department of Health — a state health office's plain guide to why counts mislead when populations differ in size and how a rate per 100,000 fixes that; read the opening and the Crude Rates section, then stop before the age-adjusted sections, because next week, Sociological Research Methods, takes up how researchers design fair comparisons. (reading, 5–8 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

What Is Sociology? — American Sociological Association — the discipline's professional association describes what sociology studies; read the opening description and compare it with the chapter's definition, and skip the membership links. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com