SC Principles

1. PRINCIPLES OF
SOCIOCULTURAL
LOA
Overview & Discussion Questions

2. TODAY’S OBJECTIVE
 To understand the three basic principles of the Sociocultural Level
of Analysis.

3. PRINCIPLE #1
 Human beings are social animals with a basic need to belong.

4. QUOTATION #1
 “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial
naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more
than human. Society is something that precedes the individual.
Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient
as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of
society, is either a beast or a god. ”
― Aristotle

5. PRINCIPLE #2
 Culture influences human behavior.
 Culture: norms and values that define a society.

6. CULTURE BRAINSTORM
 What is culture?
 What defines your culture?
 How does your culture impact your life?
 Do you agree with the following quotation? Why or why not?
 “Cultural legacies are powerful forces. They have deep roots and
long lives. They persist, generation after generation, virtually
intact, even as the economic and social and demographic
conditions that spawned them have vanished, and they play such
a role in directing attitudes and behavior that we cannot make
sense of our world without them.”
― Malcolm Gladwell

7. PRINCIPLE #3
 Humans have a social self which reflects their group membership.
 Social Self: Group memberships that define our identities.

8. GROUP QUESTIONS
 What groups do you belong to? Do those groups impact who you
are as an individual? Why or why not?
 Are certain groups more important than others? What makes
them more important?