Invitation to Sociology A Humanistic Perspective

obedience-and-authority

• The unmasking imperative carries a logical procedure of looking for levels of reality other than those given in the official interpretations of society.

  VLA-9EA2A133-RC-031

• Views that serve to rationalize the vested interests of some group systematically distort social reality much as an individual may neurotically deny inconvenient aspects of his life.

  VLA-9EA2A133-RC-033

self-and-identity

• To be located in society means to be at the intersection of coordinates that tell an individual just what he may do and what he can expect of life.

  VLA-9EA2A133-RC-052

• The past is malleable and flexible, constantly changing as our recollection reinterprets; we have as many lives as we have points of view.

  VLA-9EA2A133-RC-045

• We stumble like drunkards over the sprawling canvas of our self-conception, throwing a little paint here, erasing some lines there, never really stopping.

  VLA-9EA2A133-RC-048

transformation

• Sociological consciousness allows one to perceive one's biography as a movement through specific social worlds, making us less likely to be trapped by every missionary band.

  VLA-9EA2A133-RC-051