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A. Cultural Effects on Behavior
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Each culture has distinctive patterns of behavior, usually practiced by most of the people who grow up in it.
- Within a large society, there may be many groups, with distinctly different subcultures associated with region, ethnic origin, or social class.
- Although within any society there is usually broad general agreement on what behavior is unacceptable, the standards used to judge behavior vary for different settings and different subgroups, and they may change with time and different political and economic conditions.
- Technology, especially in transportation and communication, is increasingly important in spreading ideas, values, and behavior patterns within a society and among different societies.
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B. Group Behavior
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Affiliation with a group can increase the power of members through pooled resources and concerted action.
- People sometimes react to all members of a group as though they were the same and perceive in their behavior only those qualities that fit preconceptions of the group.
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C. Social Change
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Some aspects of family and community life are the same now as they were a generation ago, but some aspects are very different.
- By the way they depict the ideas and customs of one culture, communications media may stimulate changes in others.
- Migration, conquest, and natural disasters have been major factors in causing social and cultural change.
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D. Social Tradeoffs
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- There are tradeoffs that each person must consider in making choices about personal popularity, health, family relations, and education, for example that often have life-long consequences.
- One common aspect of all social tradeoffs pits personal benefit and the rights of the individual, on one side, against the social good and the rights of society, on the other.
- Tradeoffs are not always between desirable possibilities.
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E. Political and Economic Systems
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Government provides some goods and services through its own agencies and some through contracts with private individuals or businesses.
- Government leaders come into power by election, appointment, or force.
- However they are formed, governments usually have most of the power to make, interpret, and enforce the rules and decisions that determine how a community, state, or nation will be run.
- In a central-planning model, a single authority, usually a national government, decides what to produce, how to produce it, and for whom.
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F. Social Conflict
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Being a member of a group can increase an individual's social power or hostile actions against other groups or individuals.
- Most groups have formal or informal procedures for arbitrating disputes among their members.
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G. Global Interdependence
By the end of 8th grade, students should know that:
- Trade between nations occurs when natural resources are unevenly distributed and the costs of production are very different in different countries.
- The major ways to promote economic health are to encourage technological development, to increase the quantity or quality of a nation's productive resources more or better-trained workers, better equipment and methods and to engage in trade with other nations.
- The purpose of treaties being negotiated directly between individual countries or by international organizations is to bring about cooperation among countries.
- Scientists are linked to other scientists worldwide both personally and through international scientific organizations.
- The global environment is affected by national policies and practices relating to energy use, waste disposal, ecological management, manufacturing, and population.
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