PRAYER BEFORE STUDY

Creator of all things, true Source of light and wisdom,

lofty origin of all being, graciously let a ray of Your brilliance
penetrate into the darkness of my understanding
and take from me the double darkness
in which I have been born, an obscurity of both sin and ignorance.
Give me a sharp sense of understanding,
a retentive memory, and the ability to grasp things correctly and
fundamentally.
Grant me the talent of being exact in my explanations,
and the ability to express myself with thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning, direct the progress, and help in completion;
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
 Marxism
and
Symbolic
Interactionism Theories
Marxism is a social, political, and
economic philosophy named after
Karl Marx, which examines the effect
of capitalism on labor, productivity,
and economic development and
argues for a worker revolution to
overturn capitalism in favor of
communism.
Marxism posits that the struggle
between social classes, specifically
between the bourgeoisie, or
capitalists, and the proletariat, or
workers, defines economic relations
in a capitalist economy and will
inevitably lead to revolutionary
communism.
Socioeconomic status refers to a
person’s standing with regard to
his/her access to resources,
monetary capability, income status,
occupation, and living situation.
Class conflict (class warfare or class
struggle) refers to the conflict
between different classes in a
community that is composed of
different social or economic
positions and opposing interests.
The Six Elements in Marx’s View of Class Conflict
1. Classes are authority relationships based on
property ownership.

2. A class defines groupings of individuals with

shared life situations and interests.

3. Classes are naturally antagonistic by virtue of

their interests.
4. Imminent within modern society is the growth of
two antagonistic classes and their struggle, which
eventually absorbs all social relations.

5. Political organization and Power are an

instrumentality of class struggle and reigning
ideas are its reflection.

6. Structural change is a consequence of the class

struggle.
Variables that Determine Class from a Marxian Perspective

1. Conflicts over the distribution of economic

rewards between the classes.
2. Easy communication between the individuals in
the same class positions so that ideas and action
programs are readily disseminated.
3. Growth of class consciousness in the sense that
members of the class have a feeling of solidarity
and understanding of their historic role.
4. Profound dissatisfaction of the lower class over its
inability to control the economic structure of
which it feels itself to be exploited victim.

5. Establishment of a political organization resulting

from the economic structure, the historical
situation, and maturation of class consciousness.
The Three Levels of Culture Model
Infrastructure - population, basic biological need, and
resources (labor, equipment, technology, etc.).

Structure - pattern of organization (government,

education, production regulation, etc.).

Superstructure - social institutions (law, religion,

politics, art, science, superstition, values, emotions,
traditions, etc.).
Symbolic Interactionism stated that
people inhabit a world that is in
large part socially constructed.
Many symbolic interactionism
examples seen throughout society
can be subjective, based on your
experiences with that particular
symbol.
Operant conditioning is a learning
process whereby deliberate
behaviors are reinforced through
consequences. It differs from
classical conditioning.
FOUR CATEGORIES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Positive Reinforcement

• Negative Reinforcement

• Punishment

• Extinction
Positive reinforcement describes the
best-known examples of operant
conditioning: receiving a reward for
acting in a certain way.
Negative reinforcement is a different
but equally straightforward form of
operant conditioning. Negative
reinforcement rewards a behavior by
removing an unpleasant stimulus,
rather than adding a pleasant one.
Psychology defines punishment as
something done after a given
deliberate action that lowers the
chance of that action taking place in
the future. Whereas reinforcement is
meant to encourage a certain
behavior, punishment is meant to
discourage a certain behavior.
Psychology defines extinction as the
loss of conditioning over time when
the conditioning stimuli are no
longer present. Over time, an animal
(or person) will become less
conditioned unless the stimuli that
conditioned them in the first place is
reapplied.