SOCIOLOGY 1001 EXAM 1 a

Surveys

-A systematic method for collecting data from respondents including questionnaires, face- to- face or telephone interviews, or a combination of these -Inexpensive, provide lots of information, strong generalizability -People may lie or misremember -People may formulate their answers to what they feel is appropriate -Question may direct answer

Experiments

-A test or procedure carried out under controlled conditions to determine the validity of a hypothesis or make a discovery -Least used in sociology, hard to control for many factors and variables

Structural functionalism perspective

-A theoretical perspective that views society as an organized system, analogous to the human system, that is made up of a variety of interrelated parts or structures that work together to generate social stability and maintain society -Institutions are structured to maintain stability and order in society

Cultural survival kits

-Abstraction: create ideas or ways of thinking that aren't linked to particular instances -Cooperation: establishing generally accepted ways of doing things -Production: making and using tools and techniques that improve our ability to take what we want from nature

Norms

-Acceptable standards of behavior within a group that are shared by the group's members

Self-Socialization

-Active role in socialization -Choose socialization influences from the variety of influences -How you interact with your social experiences -Internal self-choices affects experience of the world, experience of world affects self-choices

Adult Socialization

-Adult roles are discontinuous and context based -Some roles are invisible -Some roles are unpredictable -Socialization continues until we die

Sociological Imagination

-An awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past -See social forces in private lives

Symbols

-Anything that carries a particular meaning, including the components of language, body language, and signs

Symbolic Interactionism perspective

-Approach that focuses on the interactions among people based on mutually understood symbols -Micro theory -People create their social circumstances and do not merely react to them (reinforce structure and participate) -Language

Ethnocentrism

-Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group -"Development as poison": In American we have a White Man's Burden- the tendency to want to spread our Western beliefs and practices -Capitalist/Imperialist agenda

Values

-Beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment (either for or against something) -What is right/wrong, good/bad

Social Networks

-Bounded by a set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material/nonmaterial resources -Tighter the network, more frequent engagement with the same individuals, higher solidarity and norms of conformity -Patterns of exchange determine boundaries

Initiation Rites

-Ceremonies or rituals in which an individual is admitted to new status or accepted into a new position -Signifies transition from one group to another -formal and informal initiations 1)Ritual rejection 2)Ritual death 3) Ritual rebirth

Social Groups

-Collections of people who interact regularly with one another and who are aware of their status as a group -Adhere to defined norms, roles, statuses

Non-Material Culture

-Composed of symbols, norms, and other non tangible elements of culture

Role conflict

-Conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses

Group Think

-Conformity to the group despite individual misgivings

Taboos

-Culturally forbidden behaviors -Strongest form of norms

Norms of solidarity

-Engage in behaviors to sustain relationships -Sustaining relationships require norms -Reinforce our sense of belonging -Conformity -Strong solidarity= strong norms -Weak solidarity= weak norms

Population

-Entire group which researcher whats to generalize

Mores

-Essential for survival of society -fixed customs or manners; moral attitudes

Erving Goffman & Dramaturgy

-Examine your presentation of self -Dramaturgy: theatrical performance of the self -Role shifting -Define the situation: understanding of appropriate or inappropriate roles/responsibilities within the environment -Understand the roles within the context of environment -We engage in specific roles for favorable outcomes

Gender roles

-Expectations about what is appropriate behavior for each sex -Transmitted through the media -Message is often conflated, sexualized, misleading, and manipulative

Agents of Socialization

-Family (most important) -TV/media (growing in importance) -friends/peers (interactional) -school (formal socialization) -The way we develop opinions & beliefs, through institutions and interactions

Individualism

-Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications -American values and culture, "you can be whoever you want"

Primary Socialization

-The process by which children learn the cultural norms of the society into which they are born -FAMILY -Acquire basic skills needed to function in society

Culture

-The sum of practices, languages, symbols, beliefs, values, ideologies, and material/non-material objects that people create to deal with real-life problems or issues -Collectie beliefs, customs, behaviors

Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Self

-Three components: id, ego, superego -ID: immediate self gratification -SUPEREGO: personal conscience -EGO: balance the conflicting needs of the ID and SUPEREGO -Gender bias -Neglects socialization after childhood!! -Connections between early childhood development and adult personality are more complex that conceived

Spoiled identity

-When impression management is unsuccessful, the identity we are presenting is discredited -Can be physical, characteristic, or racial

Resocialization

-occurs when powerful socializing agents deliberately cause rapid change in one's values, roles, and self-conception -Total institutions may influence resocialization -Think Zimbardo prison experiment (role/authority affects socialization)

Who Defines Culture

-politicians, media, socialization processes, the majority

The Rights Revolution

-process of socially excluded groups struggling to win equal rights under the law

Status

-recognized social position that an individual can occupy

Hidden Curriculum of School

-teaches students what will be expected of them from larger society after they graduate -prepares students for labor force participation -led to believe they will be evaluated on the basis of their performance on impersonal, standardized and objective tests

Feminist Theory perspective

-A sociological theory that focuses on the domination of women by men -Patriarchy

Sapir-Whorf Thesis

-The idea that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language -Language structures thought

Social Structures

-The patterns of relationships that shape any society -Stable patterns of social relations

Social Control

-A group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms -Norms, values, folkways, mores, taboos

Multiculturalism

-A perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions -Should be reflected in our education system -Promotes cultural relativism to the extreme and undermines national unity

Probability Sample

-A sample in which every element in the population has a known statistical likelihood of being selected -Representative sample

Peer group

-A social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common -Similar status

Conflict perspective

-A sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups -Private groups attempt to maintain advantage

Folkways

-Informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture

Charles Horton Cooley & "The Looking Glass Self"

-Interact with others, they gesture and react to us -We imagine how we appear to them -We judge how others evaluate us -From these judgements, we develop a self-concept -Reactions to our interactions guide our concept of self

Anticipatory Socialization

-Involves learning the rights, obligations, and expectations of a role to prepare for assuming that role in the future -Aspiring to achieve or express a certain role -"Acting older"

Aligning Actions

-Justify or explain failed impression -Account: verbally -Disclaimer: before impression fails, explains conduct moving forward

Bureaucracies

-Large impersonal organization composed of defined positions arranged in a hierarchy

Conformity

-Likelihood of conformity increases as group size increases -Unanimous decisions affect conformity (appear as one unit) -Cohesion breeds conformity -Low status not likely to break from conformity, fear of spoiling status -Individualistic societies will face lower conformity than collectivist societies

Rationality

-Most efficient means to achieve goals -A constraining aspect to contemporary culture

Counterculture

-Norms and values incompatible with mainstream culture -Direct opposition to mainstream culture -Resist mainstream values, attempt to bring about social change

Microstructure

-Patterns of intimate social relations

Social Category

-People who share a social characteristic but don't identify with one another

Cultural Relativism

-People's beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of their own culture -All cultures must be understood and interpreted from the perspective of that culture and none are better or worse than others

Material Culture

-Physical objects to which we give social meaning -Art, artifacts, tools, utensils, machines, weapons, clothes, food, etc. -Particular to different cultures, subcultures

Impression Management

-Process by which individuals try to control the impressions others have of them -Act of presenting a favorable public image of oneself so that others will form positive judgements -Goals; favorable outcomes

Socialization

-Process by which people learn their culture -Engaging and disengaging from roles -Become aware of self as you interact with others

Rational Choice Theory

-Rational actor theory -Weight cost and benefit of action to arrive at decision -A social theory that explains individual action with the principle that actors choose actions that maximize their gains from taking that action

Sampling

-Select population for analysis

Sense of Self

-Set of ideas and attitudes about who you are as an independent being -social interaction enables infants to develop a self-image or sense of self

Macrostructure

-Social relations outside intimates and acquaintances

Subculture

-Social world with distinctive way of life -Unique set of values and norms, practices & beliefs -Exist harmoniously within mainstream culture

Secondary socialization

-Socialization outside the family after childhood

Obedience

-Structures of authority render people obedient -Authority may be formal or informal -Fear of judgement, punishment, ostratization -Authority structures (social groups) shape our actions

Language

-System of symbols strung together to create meaning and communicate thought -Allow us to share understandings, pass experience and knowledge and make plans for the future -Allows cultures to develop through the shared use of language

Consumerism

-Tendency to define oneself in terms of the goods purchased -Money as status

Role

-the behavior or set of behaviors expected of a person occupying a particular position in society -Context specific roles vs. stable roles

George Herbert Mead: 4 Stages of Role Taking

1) Imitation 2) Pretend roles 3) play games, take roles 4) Take the role of the generalized other (social norms embodied in a human) -specific responses become general responses as a broader conception of what its like to be human arises -Example) children at first don't know how to play soccer, but soon come to understand the broader concept of the game