THINKING SOCIOLOGICALLY: SOCIAL SCRIPTS AND EVERYDAY LIFE

ISBN: 0757532624

Author: Richard Macdonald

Condition: Used

eBook VersionYou will receive access to this electronic text via email after using the shopping cart above to complete your purchase.The objective of this book is to teach students how to think sociologically by looking at how social scripts are acquired and play out in everyday life. It looks at how the social scripts or behavioral preferences people bring to social encounters and relationships form the basis for cooperation or conflict. Special attention is given as to how different negotiation strategies are used by participants when disputes concerning the behavioral preferences contained in their social scripts exist. The use of value appeals and truth-claims by participants to persuade others to comply with their preferences serves as the basis for examining how acquaintance and public moral entrepreneurs promote their preferences and attack scripts that they disagree with.Once the logic of social script analysis has been established within the context of interaction it is then applied to larger social units such as small groups, organizations, spheres of activities such as the sociology of science, and entire societies. Coverage involving societies begins with efforts to discover whether or not script agreement or disputes exist and the role of moral entrepreneurs for the dominant group and minorities in sustaining the status quo or bringing about social change. It continues by looking at different combinations of political and economic scripts, the study of conformity and deviance, the criminal justice system, stratification, American minorities, sexual behavior, and family structures.Special FeaturesStudy guides that feature key sociological ideas and concepts precede each set of chapters contained in the five Parts of the book. Encouraging students to pencil in crucial definitional reminders as they read the chapters provides an excellent method for preparing them for class assignments, projects, and exams. Professors can also use these study guides as lecture outlines. A productive use of class time is helping students fill in their study guides.Key ideas and concepts are boldfaced in the text to get readers to focus on the definitions and illustrations that follow. This helps them work with the study guides and to prepare for assignments, projects, and exams.The glossary provides students with a quick reference that they can use to review definitions and prepare their study guides.