Introduction to Sociology Kathy Edwards Lecture Two/Three

Values n Ideals of a society n standards of good/bad; right/wrong n the goals we try to attain n what is important in a society

Core American Values n These are the values shared by the majority of people in the U.S. n American society is a pluralistic society, made up of many varying groups of people.

Core American Values n Achievement/success, individualism, activity/work, efficiency/practicality, science/technology, progress, material comfort, humanitarianism, freedom, democracy, equality, group superiority, education, religiosity, love/monogamy

Core American Values n Physical fitness n self fulfillment n environmentalism n leisure n youth

Core American Values n People become threatened by changes of values or creation of new values, or when values contradict. n Group superiority threatens the value of freedom, equality, democracy.

Values n Values may be dynamic, in process and change. n Value contradictions are when values contradict one another; to follow one value means to come into conflict with another value; value contractions create social change.

Value Clusters n Series of inter-related values that together form a larger whole: work, education, efficiency, material comfort, individualism create the cluster of “success”. n The emergence in the 90’s of leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, youth creates a new value cluster.

Values n Values do not change without resistance. n Ideal culture: a society’s ideal values, glorifies n Real culture: everyday life, the values we follow daily n Sometimes basic survival prevents us from meeting our ideal values: such as death, accidents, physical/mental illness, loss of job