Week 3 · Readings & resources

Week 3 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Sociology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 3 (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 55–63 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 (19–21 min total)

① Which rules weigh the most?

Chapter 3, Section “Rank the norms, then ask how each is enforced” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Norms and sanctions” · Remember: ask how much moral weight a norm carries, then ask separately how it is enforced.

Symbols, Values & Norms: Crash Course Sociology #10 — CrashCourse — a quick tour of material and nonmaterial culture, values and beliefs, and the three kinds of norms; as you watch, sort each example it gives into a folkway, a mos, or a taboo. Use it while working through the Week-3 module overview. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)

② Do words shape what we notice?

Chapter 3, Section “Read symbols and language” · Session 1, Segment 4, “Symbols and language” · Remember: the Sapir–Whorf idea is a hypothesis to test, not a proven law.

Does the language you speak change how you think? — Tom Scott — a short, careful look at the claim that language shapes thought, with a cautious answer; listen for how it separates a strong version of the idea from a weaker one. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
New Data on Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and the Ability to Speak English — U.S. Census Bureau — the Census Bureau's release on the many languages spoken in homes across the country; read it as a reminder that one society can hold many languages, and ask the four data questions of any figure you meet there. (reading, 4–6 min)

③ When the rules stop working, or fall behind

Chapter 3, Section “Look across cultures and across time” · Session 2, Segment 5, “Universals, culture shock, and cultural lag” · Remember: new objects can spread faster than the rules for using them.

The 4 Stages of Adaptation: Culture Shock — Sprouts — an animated explainer on the disorientation of arriving in an unfamiliar culture and how people settle in over time. Stop here before how people learn a culture from childhood on; next week, Socialization & the Self, takes that up. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
'What is Cultural Lag?' Explained in under 2 Minutes For Sociology Students — Revision Rush — a two-minute definition of cultural lag with examples of new technologies that arrived before the rules for them; compare its examples with the chapter's smartphone case. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
Manners 2.0: Key findings about etiquette in the digital age — Pew Research Center — a survey summary of where adults think phone use is and is not acceptable; read it as evidence about the norms around a new object, which the ownership figure in the chapter cannot show. (reading, 4–6 min)

④ Judging, understanding, and the groups inside a culture

Chapter 3, Section “Judge, or understand? Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism” · Remember: cultural relativism means understanding a practice first, and it is a method, not a verdict.

What is Cultural Relativism? Definition, Strengths, and Criticisms (Theory to Go 3) — Armchair Academics — a short explainer on cultural relativism as a research method and on the main criticisms of it; listen for the difference between understanding a practice and approving of it. (video, 6 min) (captions: automatic)
Teaching Ethnocentricity — The Society Pages — a short piece describing classroom activities that describe everyday habits in deliberately strange-sounding language, so readers catch themselves judging a culture by their own standards. (reading, 3–5 min)
Cultures, Subcultures, and Countercultures: Crash Course Sociology #11 — CrashCourse — how a culture holds smaller groups that add their own norms and groups that reject the dominant ones; this builds on Week 1's work with the three perspectives, since it reads culture through two of them. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

About Language Use in the U.S. Population — U.S. Census Bureau — how the Census Bureau asks about the languages spoken at home and why it collects them; read the opening sections and skip the detailed table notes. (reading, 6–8 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