Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, Brief Edition

New in This Version

Thoroughly updated throughout with recent data, new examples, and current events, including:

• 2020 polling data, updated data on suicide, unemployment during the coronavirus pandemic, and the use of age and COVID-19 disease to illustrate the difference between independent and dependent variables (Ch. 1) 
• Traditional cattle ritual in India; updated World Values Survey data; new discussion of American individualism and COVID-19 behaviors (Ch. 2)
• Threats to a Muslim community center; watching television and relationship between religiosity and belief in legal abortion; people violating additional role expectations during the pandemic (Ch. 3)
• Teenagers’ acts of racist vandalism; new discussion of groupthink and the refusal to wear face masks; regional incarceration data illustrates the influence of social backgrounds on the chances of ending up in coercive organizations; gender and race/ethnicity in regards to imprisonment; new discussion of Black Lives Matter as an example of groups working for social change (Ch. 4)
• Robbery and the elderly; fear of crime; updated crime and victimization data; new discussion of racial bias in arrests; new discussion of population density, crime rates, and COVID-19 rates (Ch. 5)
• Effects of the 2020 pandemic on low-income Americans; updated income and poverty data; updated global poverty and inequality data; new discussion of consequences of the global pandemic for malnutrition (Ch. 6)
• Nationwide protests after George Floyd’s murder; the severe impact of the 2020 pandemic on people of color; new racial and ethnic data throughout; updated discussion of mass media portrayal of people of color; racial bias in the treatment of African Americans with COVID-19 symptoms; new discussion of racial/ethnic disparities in wealth; the hidden toll of racial and ethnic inequality on the health of people of color, including evidence that the presidency of Donald Trump impaired their health; how structural racism helps explain the higher COVID-19 infection and death rates for African Americans and Latinx (Ch. 7)
• Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s response to being called a sexist vulgar term by another member of Congress; updated data on LGBTQ population; updated gender data; women’s traditional gender roles and the Bible; women’s caregiving responsibilities and the gender pay gap; gender inequality amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Ch. 8)
• Senior citizens and volunteer work; updated aging data; loss of social networks’ contact with older Americans during the pandemic; higher COVID-19 death rate of older Americans; nursing homes’ carelessness during 2020 pandemic; food security among older Americans; reducing ageism and helping older Americans (Ch. 9)
• Early voting in the 2020 election; updated voting and other political data; updated work and labor data; the impact of unemployment on low-wage workers due to the pandemic; revised discussion of bloated military spending (Ch. 10)
• Increases in domestic violence due to the pandemic; updated family data; parenting and childcare during the pandemic; cohabitation; effects of divorce on children; same-sex marriage; racial and ethnic diversity in marriages and families; increased intimate partner violence during the pandemic; dating violence in college and high school; child abuse in general and child abuse during the pandemic (Ch. 11)
• Ventilation problems in public schools during the pandemic; updated education data; the racial/ethnic gap in educational attainment; comparisons to education in Finland; problems faced by low-income secondary school students during the pandemic; school choice; problems experienced by low-income college students during the pandemic; updated religion and religiosity data (Ch. 12)
• The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on low-income people and people of color; updated health and health care data; annual household income and self-reported health; American diets and risk for COVID-19; racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infections and deaths; the high cost of U.S. health care (Ch. 13)
• Black Lives Matter protests; the pandemic’s effects on birth and immigration rates; urban life as a risk factor for coronavirus infections; new population data; immigration; racial segregation in housing; limiting traffic and pollution in Europe (Ch. 14)