Standards - Social Studies

Describe the development of sociology as a social science field of study.

Identifying important figures in the field of sociology, including Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, and W. E. B. Du Bois

Identifying characteristics of sociology, including functional integration, power, social action, social structure, and culture

Explain methods and tools of research used by sociologists to study human society, including surveys, polls, statistics, demographic information, case studies, participant observations, and program evaluations.

Differentiating between qualitative and quantitative research methods

Describe how values and norms influence individual behavior.

Comparing ways in which cultures differ, change, and resist change, including countercultures, subcultures, and ethnocentric beliefs

Comparing the use of various symbols within and across societies

Explaining the significance of socialization in human development

Illustrating key concepts of socialization, including self-concept, looking-glass self, significant others, and role-taking

Determining the role of family, school, peer groups, and the media in socializing young people

Explaining the process of socialization in adulthood

Identify antisocial behaviors, including social deviance, addiction, terrorism, anomie, and related arguments for the strain theory and the conflict theory.

Contrasting violent crime, property crime, and victimless crime with white-collar crime

Comparing methods for dealing with antisocial behavior, including imprisonment, restitution, community service, rehabilitation, education, and therapy

Describe how environment and genetics affect personality, including self-concept and temperament.

Identify stages of development across the life cycle, including birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood, middle age, and late adulthood.

Describing the value of birth cohorts as a research device

Describe types and characteristics of groups.

Explaining the relationship between social stratification and social class, including status ascription versus achievement, intergenerational social mobility, and structural occupational change

Relating the importance of group dynamics, including size, leadership, decision making, and gender roles

Distinguishing between the terms, race and ethnicity and prejudice and discrimination

Describing social inequalities experienced as related to gender and age

Describe the structure and function of the family unit, including traditional, extended, nuclear, single-parent, and blended families involving the roles of parent, child, and spouse.

Identifying problems facing families, including abuse, divorce, teen pregnancy, poverty, addiction, family violence, and care of elderly family members

Explain the purpose of social systems and institutions, including schools, churches, voluntary associations, and governments.

Describing origins and beliefs of various religions

Distinguishing among the concepts of power, coercion, and authority

Comparing charismatic, traditional, and rational-legal authority

Describe social movement and social change.

Comparing various forms of collective behavior, including mobs, riots, fads, and crowds

Identifying major ethical and social issues facing modern society

Explaining the impact of the modern Civil Rights Movement, the women’s movement, the gun rights movement, the green movement, and other minority movements in the United States

Contrast population patterns using the birth rate, death rate, migration rate, and dependency rate.

Identifying the impact of urbanization on human social patterns