Society and culture

This course is a part of MCAT, a 14-course Topic series from Khan Academy.

Foundational Concept 9: Cultural and social differences influence well-being.

This course contains 3 segments:

Social structures

9A: Any group of people involved in interpersonal relationship is a society. How do we humans all live together in such highly populated cities? How does a society change? You will learn about some famous sociological theories which aim to address these important questions, from conflict theory and feminist theory to social constructionism.

Demographics

9B: There are many different ways of looking at a population. You can separate the population into different groups to view statistics. For instance, one may want to compare the efficacy of a drug in treating diabetics with congestive heart failure compared to diabetics without heart failure - these each form two separate populations of patients. In this module, you will come to see how different populations interact and change over time.

Culture

Why is it that in America it is acceptable to eat a quarter pound hamburger and guzzle down a large soft drink yet it is weird to eat a grasshopper? The answer is because of our culture. Culture varies across the world and provides rules for a society of people to live by. Here we explore what culture is and how it shapes our human experience.