For Nontrad Students 2nd Sem SY 2007-2008

Dear students:

For this semester, please get hold of Sociology in the Philippine Setting By Hunt, Espiritu, Quisumbing and Green. This book is available at National Bookstore.

For your first half essays, please answer the following:

I.
A. Discuss what is Social Imagination according to C.Wright Mills (you may surf for the first chapter of the book entitled "The PRomise". Discuss how we should relate our personal troubles with public issues. Also, discuss the relvance of our own biographies to society and its history.

B. Comment on Peter Berger's statement: "What you see is not what it seems?" What is the difference between common sense and sociological perspective? Why is Sociology considered a science? What are the methods that sociology uses in answering its questions? How would you trace the development of Sociology as a scientce form its early beginnings to Positivism (by Auguste Comte)

C. Compare the following micro perspectives: Looking Glass Self of Charles Horton Cooley; Dramaturgy by Erving Goffman and Symbolic Interaction by George Herbert Mead (coined by Herbert Blumer)

D. Compare and contrast the main points of functionalism and conflict macro perpsectives. Discuss this in terms of relation of theparts of society, the promotion of its values, and its laws, social mobility, etc.

Essay No. 2

A. Discuss the continuing socialization happening inside your workplace. How does your workplace contribute to the development of the self-concept of the employees? Trace the other forms of socialization through the family, peers, school, media and other forms such as organizations or the church. INterview one or two co employees and present your data in narrative form.

B. Working on the data you gathered in Part A, describe the structure and processes followed in the groups formed in your company. What are the major group divisions? What are the sub-groups that you can identify within the major groups? What are the major boundaries of these sub-groups? How do secondary relationships turn into primary ones. Again, observe what is happening in your company. Validate your observations through interviews with one or two office mates and present the data in narrative form.

Essay number one should be submitted before the Christmas break ends. Essay number two is due second week of January.


The Last essay is a choice among the following topics:

1. Culture
2. Collective Behavior
3. Deviancy
4. Social Change
5. Rural and Urban Communitites
6. Social Institutions
7. Population and Family Planning

The third essay is due last week of February.

Thanks. Happy writing. (and reading)

Justin V. Nicolas

Maligayang Pasko!