Classroom Discussion (SOC 1000) ____________________________________________________________________________________

Theme: Sociological Explanations ofSocial Phenomena

(Example: Marriage/Family and Social Class)

Description:

In this activity, you are asked why people get married or create families. Before giving

answers, get in groups of 2-3, and spend few minutes discussing the topic. At the end, we will

differentiate between personal explanations and sociological explanations of this phenomenon.

Learning Objectives:

To facilitate your critical thinking that will help you to distinguish between sociological

and non-sociological explanations of the different phenomena. In addition, this activity is

designed to encourage deeper thinking among all of you before making any generalizations

about anything. As it’s said, for this activity, our phenomenon is marriage/family.

Requirements:

For data showing variations in marriage/family go to the American Census Bureau’s page

and find family data. The links of three newspaper articles are below with finding is based on

sociological research: http://www.today.com/money/marriage-luxury-good-class-divide-who-

gets-married-divorced-8C11457474.; http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/culture-class-

and-the-decline-of-marriage/; and, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283727/Less-half-

working-class-people-wed-marriage-rates-rise-high-income-earners.html. You should also read

the chapter Family from our required text.

Activities:

To start the discussion, youare given three minutes to list five reasons why people get

married. I will come back to these answers ina few minutes. At this time, I will lecture on how

sociologists try to work on “what” and “why” question such as what we do (descriptive) and why

we do what we do (explanatory). Here, I also will give a brief lecture on the three perspectives

most often used in sociology: functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. The

main purpose of this lecture is to encourage thinking sociologically about any issues around us.

In addition, this will make the foundation for differentiating between non-sociological and

sociological explanations for any phenomena.

From the students’ list of reasons why people marry, I will write six or eight on the

blackboard.I expect the list to include the following: instinct, love, care, sexual needs, economic

support, procreation, emotional support, and so on. After having these listed, I will askyouto

think about them as category. Or in other words, I will categorize these answersby asking

themhow they are alike. We may then come into general explanations of why people get

married! I suggest calling these explanations not sociological but personal. Surely, they are not

wrong, but they are not necessarily providing us with a sociological insight into marriage.

Then, I will aska question about marriage which, I suggest, will lead us into sociological

explanations about the institution of marriage. The question I have is: “why is the rate of

marriage lower in working class people?” I will cite the most recent findings where the

marriage rate is in sharp decline among the working classes but on the rise among high income

earners.Now, among those defined as working class fewer than 45 per cent are married.

Again, I will ask you to come up with some speculations on this question. Students will be given

4-minutes to write three responses. Typically, students will assume that lower education rate,

higher crime rate, poverty, victim of the discrimination, low employment rate, low financial

security, etc. are responsible for lower marriage among working class.

Conclusion:

Using the list of students’ responses, I suggest that their answers to the question about

marriage rate all refer to factors which are “external” to individuals. This list of assumptions I

will tell my students is a wonderful example of sociological thinking about marriage. I will

explain that a sociological analysis for any phenomena emphasizesexternal (in a different word,

institutional) factors.

More:

Marriage as a topic for discussion is always interesting. Additionally, it is more

interesting even to the students who are only 18 years of age. I assume that there are students

who have surprising opinions on marriage. However, this is not the main reason behind selecting

this topic for this discussion. This discussion covers the theme presented in “The Promise” that

enables us to use our Sociological Imagination to bridge the connection between what appears

personal but, it is, in fact, significantly affected by social factors. (In our example marriage may

appear to us as a personal choice, but what do the class differences help us to imagine. How can

the Sociological Imagination show us about the structural factors and how are these affected by

class). I will refer back to this example a number of times, particularly the one that talks about

three sociological perspectives that will be discussed in my next class.

Homework: Three Perspectives in Sociology. Review the chart below. You are required to list

the reason(s) for marriage that we discussed in this class under the perspective you find

appropriate. Prepare to discuss this at the next class meeting.

Table: Three Perspectives in Sociology.

Perspectives

Level of Analysis Central point Example(Family)

Functionalism

Macro Society is a system,

which composed of

interrelated parts; all

parts are functional

for the whole system.

Family is one of the

few important

institutions that keep

the system functional,

and, in general, family

contributes to

society’s order.

Conflict

Macro Society is all about

competition for scarce

resources, and

powerful group

control the powerless.

Family as one of the

many institutions that

serves the interest for

the powerful; as in

most cases, it is the

apparatus through

which powerful male

exercise control over

powerless female.

Symbolic

Interactionsim

Micro

Face to face

interactions; use of

symbols in

interactions.

How members of the

family interact with

each other, or what

symbols they use in

interactions.