Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach (8th Edition)

Book Preface

To the Student…from the Author

I’ve loved sociology since I was in my teens, and I hope you enjoy it, too. Sociology is fascinating because it is about human behavior, and many of us find that it holds the key to understanding social life.

If you like to watch people and try to figure out why they do what they do, you will like sociology. Sociology pries open the doors of society so you can see what goes on behind them. Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach stresses how profoundly our society and the groups to which we belong influence us. Social class, for example, sets us on a particular path in life. For some, the path leads to more education, more interesting jobs, higher income, and better health, but for others it leads to dropping out of school, dead-end jobs, poverty, and even a higher risk of illness and disease. These paths are so significant that they affect our chances of making it to our first birthday, as well as of getting in trouble with the police. They even influence our satisfaction in marriage, the number of children we will have—and whether or not we will read this book in the first place.

When I took my first course in sociology, I was “hooked.” Seeing how marvelously my life had been affected by these larger social influences opened my eyes to a new world, one that has been fascinating to explore. I hope that you will have this experience, too.

From how people become homeless to how they become presidents, from why people commit suicide to why women are discriminated against in every society around the world—all are part of sociology. This breadth, in fact, is what makes sociology so intriguing. We can place the sociological lens on broad features of society, such as social class, gender, and race–ethnicity, and then immediately turn our focus on the smaller, more intimate level. If we look at two people interacting—whether quarreling or kissing—we see how these broad features of society are being played out in their lives.

We aren’t born with instincts. Nor do we come into this world with preconceived notions of what life should be like. At birth, we have no concepts of race–ethnicity, gender, age, or social class. We have no idea, for example, that people “ought” to act in certain ways because they are male or female. Yet we all learn such things as we grow up in our society. Uncovering the “hows” and the “whys” of this process is also part of what makes sociology so fascinating.

One of sociology’s many pleasures is that as we study life in groups (which can be taken as a definition of sociology), whether those groups are in some far-off part of the world or in some nearby corner of our own society, we gain new insights into who we are and how we got that way. As we see how their customs affect them, the effects of our own society on us become more visible.

This book, then, can be part of an intellectual adventure, for it can lead you to a new way of looking at your social world—and, in the process, help you to better understand both society and yourself.

I wish you the very best in college—and in your career afterward. It is my sincere desire that Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach will contribute to that success.

James M. Henslin
Department of Sociology
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville

Brief Contents

PART I The Sociological Perspective
CHAPTER 1 The Sociological Perspective 2
CHAPTER 2 Culture 34
CHAPTER 3 Socialization 58
CHAPTER 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction 84
PART II Social Groups and Social Control
CHAPTER 5 Social Groups and Formal Organizations 114
CHAPTER 6 Deviance and Social Control 140
PART III Social Inequality
CHAPTER 7 Global Stratification 170
CHAPTER 8 Social Class in the United States 196
CHAPTER 9 Race and Ethnicity 224
CHAPTER 10 Gender and Age 260
PART IV Social Institutions
CHAPTER 11 Politics and the Economy 296
CHAPTER 12 Marriage and Family 328
CHAPTER 13 Education and Religion 358
PART V Social Change
CHAPTER 14 Population and Urbanization 392
CHAPTER 15 Social Change and the Environment 424