An introductory sociology

"For our purposes we shall draw upon social psychology at many points in order to analyze and understand the behavior of man in society. From this dual approach--sociological and social psychological--we shall undertake to examine some of the more important phases of social life. Our work is separated for convenience into five major divisions. Part one deals with groups, culture, and personality. The first three chapters sketch the dominant features of group life and culture. Then follows a chapter dealing with the expanding world of social contact from primary village life to the "world society." From this we go on to discuss the individual in the group, drawing largely upon biology and social psychology. These chapters are basic to all that follows. Part two presents material on three important factors which underlie society and culture: geography, race, and population. But these do not affect man in society without reference to his culture, as we shall see. Part three discusses organized group life or societal organization and culture with particular reference to the family, education, play life, art, religion, science, and philosophy. While the emphasis in this section is upon the institutional phases of our material, the individual's role will not be neglected. Part four concerns itself with the fundamental forms of interaction or social processes, but these do not operate independently of each other nor of the culture of the particular society. The most obvious processes are co-operation and opposition, the latter divided, ordinarily, into competition and conflict. Out of these, in turn, develop other processes concerned with differentiation, accommodation, stratification, and assimilation. The final division, part five, deals with social control, which is intimately bound up with societal organization and social processes. In our present world the rate of change and the problems of controlling the use of power are fundamental to the very existence of society itself. Nowhere is the challenge to social science greater than in regard to these matters. Since this volume is necessarily limited in the matter of illustrative material, at the close of each chapter selected references to other reading are provided. At the close of each chapter there are also a number of questions and exercises, and suggestions for class reports and longer papers, designed to aid students in discussing the materials"--Book. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).