Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Psychology and Sociology

Consciousness: the subjective awareness of internal and external events

Communication Across Cultures is Necessary due to:

1- outsourcing 2- offshoring  3- Global supply chains

High Context Cultures

q1- Place high value on relationships

qFavor indirect communication

qAssign meaning to shared history, nonverbal signals, and the Context of the message

Multicultural Communication Guidelines

qUnderstand how your own culture shapes your beliefs, values, and Behaviors.

qLearn about other cultures while keeping an open mind and Respecting differences.

qAdapt to variations in cultural communication patterns.

qOvercome language barriers.  

Culture Defined

Culture is the sum of the “values, rituals, symbols, beliefs, and thought processes that are learned, shared by a group of people, and transmitted from generation to generation.” It shapes how individuals perceive the world and interact within their communities.

Conceptualizing Culture

Culture has been conceptualized in various influential ways:

• "Software of the Mind" (Hofstede): Culture serves as a guide for humans on how to think and behave, acting as a fundamental problem-solving tool.
• "An Invisible Barrier" (Hall): Culture represents a completely different way of organizing life, thinking, and conceiving underlying assumptions about family, the state, the economic system, and even humanity itself.
• "A Thicket" (U.S. Ambassador

Steps in the Job Analysis Process

1. Determine who will do the analysis and get top management buy-in the process.

2. Choose jobs that are critical to the success of the company and have a sufficient number of employees in them.

3. Review what has already been written about the job. One important source of information is the Occupational Information Network.

4. Select job agents, people who will provide job information, such as incumbents (people currently doing the job), supervisors, or job analysts (experts).

5. Collect job information through interviews, questionnaires, and observations.

Job Analysis Techniques

Job analysis interview: Face-to-face meeting with the purpose of learning about a worker’s duties and responsibilities.

Job analysis questionnaire:... Continue reading "Job Analysis Process: Steps, Techniques, and Results" »

What is communication? And its objective and significance

Communication is the process of exchanging information, ideas, thoughts, or feelings between individuals or groups using various methods and mediums. It is a fundamental aspect of human interaction and plays a crucial role in conveying messages, sharing knowledge, building relationships, and achieving various objectives. Communication can occur through verbal and non-verbal means, including spoken or written language, body language, gestures, facial expressions, and more.

Objectives of Communication:

1. Information Sharing: One of the primary objectives of communication is to convey information from one party to another. This can include sharing news, updates, instructions, or data.

2. Understanding:

Common Sociological Concepts

• Achieved Status
• Agents of Socialization
• Aggregate
• Alienation
• Anomie
• Apartheid
• Appearance
• Ascribed Status
• Assimilation
• Authoritarianism
• Belief
• Blue-Collar
• Body Language
• Bourgeoisie
• Bureaucracy
• Capitalism
• Capitalist Class
• Caste System
• Category
• Class System
• Clique
• Commoners
• Communism
• Conflict Theory
• Conformists
• Control Theory
• Counterculture
• Crime
• Crime Against the Person
• Crime Against Property
• Cultural Diffusion
• Cultural Relativism
• Culture
• Culture of Poverty
• Culture Shock
• Democracy
• Deviance
• Dominant Culture
• Dyad
• Economy
• Education
• Ego
• Endogamy
• Ethnocentrism
• Ethnomethodology
• Exogamy
• Formal Organization
• Gender Role
• Gender Socialization
• Global Stratification
• Globalization of Capitalism
• Government
• Group
• Group Dynamics
• Id
• Ideal Type
• Ideology
• In-Group
• Inner Controls
• Institution
• Law
• Macrosociology
• Manner

Socialization Use the term to describe a lifelong process in which you become integrated with your society.,We are constantly learning our society,We learn the norms and expectations, Both Absolute and Relative

Darkheim's Social IntegrationWhen an individual is brought into society

AbsoluteEvery Society that ever existed socializes it's kids

RelativeWhat you are being socialized into differs from society to society. Different periods of history. Gender roles and Social class are also relative.

3 Necessary Components of Socialization1) Language - Its important to learn a language by puberty unless it will be hard2) Human Interaction - You get socialized through interaction with other people3) Human Affection - People need to show love for you to... Continue reading "Concept of education" »

Social Status and Position

Status refers to the social position an individual occupies, recognized by others, and is a basic element of social structure.

Both social position and status encompass expectations, responsibilities, and privileges. They significantly determine how a person acts within a social context.

Ultimately, status provides an individual with a social identity.

Status Combination

Individuals often occupy more than one social position throughout their lives, leading to a combination of statuses.

Types of Status

• Assigned Status: Ascribed at birth or involuntarily later in life (e.g., family of origin, ethnicity, health conditions, gender).
• Acquired Status / Meritocratic Status: Achieved through effort, skill, or choice (e.g., educational

Understanding Race and Ethnicity in Society

Defining Race: A Social Construct

• A socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.
• Scientists invented the concept of “race” in the nineteenth century and identified three racial types: Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid.

Racial Categories and Genetic Variation

• The three racial categories differ in only 6% of their genes, which is less than the genetic variation within each category.
• The Canadian census asks people to identify themselves as Aboriginal, Black, and Visible Minority.
• Many people have multiracial ancestry.

The Trend Toward Mixture and Multi-Ethnic Identities

• Over many generations and throughout the Americas, genetic

Understanding Workflow Definitions

Workflow analysis is the process of describing and registering a job's goals, its principal accountabilities and activities, the conditions under which it is performed, and the required knowledge, skills, and aptitudes.

It is used when establishing:

• The organization's structure
• Job structure
• Levels of authority
• Control levels
• Performance criteria
• Redundant employees
• Counseling

There are strong relations between job analysis and:

• Organization's goals
• Technology
• HR planning
• Employee recruitment and selection
• Performance evaluation
• Training
• Compensation
• Career planning and management
• Health and life quality at the workplace

The influence that job design has on employee satisfaction, motivation, and performance has been known since... Continue reading "Job Analysis and Recruitment: Best Practices" »