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MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 13
Lesson 1: Social structures- Understanding social structures questions
- Macrosociology vs microsociology
- Social institutions
- Social institutions - education, family, and religion
- Social institutions - government, economy, health and medicine
- Functionalism
- Conflict theory
- Social constructionism
- Symbolic interactionism
- Rational choice-exchange theory
- Social theories overview (part 1)
- Social theories overview (part 2)
- Relating social theories to medicine
- What are social groups and social networks?
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Social institutions - education, family, and religion
Created by Sydney Brown.
Want to join the conversation?
- How would you summarize the purpose of this video? What message should I be leaving with? (Didn't think that was so clear...)(23 votes)
- I'm not quite sure how the teacher's expectations and student performance part is supposed to fit in with the big picture of the institution of education. What function of education is this example illustrating?(3 votes)
- How education is more than just what they teach you in school - you learn social norms from going to school. Like if the teacher thinks boys are better than girls and the teacher is reinforcing this indirectly by saying "That's great sweetie" when a girl does a math problem correctly and "Let me give you a more challenging worksheet now!" when a boy does a math problem correctly, the school/teacher is "causing" the stereotype to be "true", reinforcing that social norm.(16 votes)
- its not a Keebla, its the Kaaba(2 votes)
- No.. she's right as well. Qibla refers to the proper direction (but yes - that refers to the Kaaba as well)(15 votes)
- Just a note - the secularization hypothesis is definitely on shaky ground. Modernity =/= secularization! See Peter Berger, one of the former giants of secularization theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv3aLp27sO4(3 votes)- Please post things like this in Tips and Thanks.(0 votes)
- In one video, you say that institutions are not dependent on any one individual... Then in another, you say that some institutions, like cults, die off when the inspirational leader dies.
I'd also point to the fact that very few companies in the history of humanity actually achieve that immortal status you give them. The Forbes 500 list of 20 years ago has changed drastically, and over 90% percent of them are no longer there. Do you remember Kodak?
There is tremendous uncertainty in the world of business, and the idea that individual action has no real effect on it is laughable.(1 vote)- I think she means that insitutions in general, like religion, have existed for thousands of years. The insitution of schooling has existed for a long time, same as government. To me, she's not saying that a specific member of an institution will exist for a long time, but rather, she's saying that the actual institution will. For example, if one teacher quits a school, it may cause that school to shut down, but it won't cause ALL schools to suddenly cease operations. I don't think a specific business is an institution on its own. A university (which is truthfully operated like a business in USA) is a part of the schooling institution. Even if a particular university does not achieve longentivity, the actual schooling institution will be there for a while (as far as we know, anyway).(1 vote)
- Atshe says "spousal abuse is bery common". How common is "very common"? A phrase like that makes me think its prevalence is over 50% of the population but that seems high, at least for North America. 4:19(1 vote)
- what isReligious pluralism and secularism,(1 vote)
- if funcalist focus on instuton what does it have to go with society(0 votes)
- Should education and religion institutions work hand in hand?
Should religious instruction be part of a school's curriculum?(0 votes) - What role is played by social institutions in African studies(0 votes)
Video transcript
Voiceover: We've heard in
general about institutions. What they are, what role they play in
society. Now let's take a closer look at specific institutions like education,
family and religion. Each of these institutions plays a
fundamental role in both creating and supporting
society. And each shapes the individuals who make
up that society. Education is more than just going to
school, memorizing what the teacher writes on the board, and taking a test on it a
few weeks later. There is a hidden curriculum of
information that is taught outside the official
curriculum. We learn how to stand in line, how to wait our turn to ask a question, how to treat
our peers. We learn without realizing it. We are socialized to internalize certain
social inequalities when girls and boys are treated differently in school
by their teachers. Teachers expect different things from
different students. And that expectation affects how students
learn. Teachers tend to get what they expect from
their students. If the teacher only expects a certain
level of effort or skill, that's all the students
will give them. Teachers put students into categories based on the student's perceived
abilities. And the teacher expect certain things
based on the categorization. But what if the categorization is wrong? Then the student is not challenged enough
and might only meet the teacher's expectations rather than
exceeding the expectation to reach their true potential. Sometimes the limiting factor comes from
outside the classroom itself. Schools experience educational segregation
and stratification in part because the way that we fund schools is most often
through property taxes. This creates inequalities between
different school districts which have different property
taxes. So the schools in lower income districts
will often get less funding than those in
affluent neighborhoods. You can see a reflection of the
socioeconomic inequalities in our society in the funding
given to schools, and the residential segregation
that occurs based on what neighborhoods people can afford to
live in. There's a lot more to the institution of
education than first meets the eye. Let's see what's hidden in some other
institutions. Family is another institution essential to
our society. It can defined by many forms of kinship
including blood, marriage and adoption. In the United States, we put more value on the small nuclear family than on the
larger extended family. Though, that depends on the society. Different family values go hand in hand
with different social obligations to the family, and also
with the economy. Rural families were production-based, so
large families were beneficial. As people moved into cities, families
became consumption-based. So, having a large family actually became
a strain on their resources. With urbanization came changes and
expectations of family roles and child care. There's much diversity in family forms. A family can be a married couple or a
single parents or step families, or gay couples, adoptive families, generation
skips where the grandparents take care of the little
ones. Or some other unit I haven't mentioned. There is no one uniform type of family. When we talk about family, we have to talk
about marriage and divorce. New families often begin with marriage. When people join together, and begin a
life together. For something that was intended to be
rather permanent, citizens of the United States tend to experience
multiple marriages in their lifetime. We are serial monogamists as we go from
one marriage or relationship to the next. This means that divorce is becoming a
normal aspect of family life, but because we expect marriage to be
permanent, divorce created tension. Especially when children are involved and custody battles or when a parent
remarries. No family is perfect. And unfortunately, some families contain
violence. We often hear of extreme cases of child abuse where the child is physically
abused. Often by another member of the family. More common though is abuse through
neglect, such as a lack of parental supervision, or poor
nutrition or insufficient clothing. Children aren't the only family members to
be abused. Elder abuse occurs when families aren't
ready for the responsibility of taking care of
elders. Having no plan of who will take care of
the elderly, and the expense of nursing homes, can lead to robbery,
threats, and neglect of elder members of the
family. Spousal abuse is also very common. Again abuse is not just physical, it can
also be psychological. While spousal abuse is usually perpetrated
by men, men can also be the victims. Often, it is economic issues that lead to
abuse. A pattern or behavior that takes years to
escalate. It is about controlling the partner and
limiting their support network, which makes it difficult for a victim to get out
of the situation. It is difficult for abused spouses to seek
help. Women's shelters don't always accept kids,
while for men, the social stigma that men don't get abused
keeps them quiet. There's much more to the institution of
family than raising a kid. Religion is another institution that
permeates our society. The religiosity, or how religious a person
is, can range from private beliefs to spiritual
routines to institutionalized religion. Or, to reading the Bible but not attending
church. To celebrating Passover because your
grandmother cooks dinner. To facing a keebla and praying five times
every day. There are many types of religious
organizations. Churches are established religious bodies
like the Roman Catholic church. Sects tend to be smaller and are established in protest of an established
church. They are a revival and break away from the
established church like the movement of the restoration of
the ten commandments of God. Cults are more radical. They break away and reject the values of outside society undergoing a complete
religious renovation. They rise when there is a break down of societal belief systems but
they're usually short lived because they depend on an
inspirational leader who will only live for so long. Over the years religion has been affected
by social change. Modernization has led to more information
being available to the public, and less emphasis in society on
religion, leading to secularization. Secularization in turn, is the weakening
of social and political power of religious organizations, as
religious involvement and belief declines. But then you have the reaction to
secularization in fundamentalism, when people go back to
the strict religious teachings and beliefs,
though this can create social problems when people become
too extreme. In the end, in some shape or form,
religion affects everyone in society.