Sociology Final

Sociological Concepts on Class (Karl Marx)

Class is determined by the economic system and in that system you have the Bourgeoisie (owners) and the Proletariat (workers). Problem with Marx's notion is that an NBA player earning millions is in the same category as a secretary earning $35k/year because they are both selling their time/labor

Eugenics

Literally meaning, "well born". A pseudoscience that postulates that controlling the fertility of populations could influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation Race, politics and science are essentially inseparable

Robert Merton: Strain Theory

Deviance occurs when a society does not give all of its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals. We learn what society considers to be appropriate goals and appropriate means for achieving them. When someone fails to recognize and accept either socially appropriate goals or socially appropriate means (or both), they become a deviant

Contemporary definitions of masculinity (Deceptive Distinctions)

Differences between men/women that do not have much to do with individual gender differences, but rather behaviors that arise from the different positions men/women occupy. They grossly exaggerate the actual differences between men/women. Example: Think of a Doctor and a Nurse. (Assumptions: men=analytical/women=nurturing)

Dominant Cultures and Subcultures

Different subgroups have different norms throughout society. What is considered normative behavior in one group, may be deviant in another. Example: Dancing and music may be normative behavior across many groups, but considered deviant to religious groups

Types of statuses

Family - Father, mother, husband, wife, and so on Occupational - Boss, president, CEO, police officer, dog catcher Social Class Status - Upper class, Middle-class, Upper-Middle-Class, Lower-Class, Working-poor Age Race Sex

Biological Sex Assumptions

Hormonal behavioral consequences Relative physical strength of bodies Brain Architecture (men are supposedly more left-brain dominant) Chromosome (XX, XY)

Feminism (Third-wave)

How identities surrounding gender, sex, sexuality intersect with other meaningful social categories like race/class

Sex Category

How society classifies (categorizes) someone's biological sex Refers to biological differences (genitalia) that are used to categorize humans as male, female, or intersex (ambiguous or co-occurring male and female genitalia)

Social Integration

How well you are integrated into your social group or community

Thomas Malthus (1798): Inequality was Positive

Human populations grow geometrically (multiplicatively like rabbits), and our ability to produce food increases only arithmetically (much more slowly). A rising number of people on the planet will eventually use up all the available resources and bring about mass starvation and conflict. Humankind was destined to live in a state of constant near-death misery, as population growth always pushed society to the limits of food availability. Because of this Malthus believed inequality was good and/or necessary for avoiding the problem of massive overpopulation and starvation. Inequality kept the population in check.

The Pygmalion Effect: Rosenthal and Jacobson Study

Hypothesis - Teachers' expectations influenced children's performance. Design - Administered a special test to all the students in the school. The phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people (often children/students/employees) the better they perform

Voluntary (Ethnicity)

I choose to identify with my one-eighth Irish background

Types of Discriminatory Behavior (Verbal Rejection)

"Antilocution" - Using derogatory nouns (epithets) to refer to people in particular groups; telling jokes that put down entire groups of people

C. Wright Mills (1959)

"Nobody cares more about free enterprise and competition and about the best man winning than the man who inherited his father's store or farm"

Latent Function of School

"The hidden curriculum" - To prepare students to accept what teachers and administrators believe will be the student's places in the social structure. In some schools, students are "tracked" into special programs (ie vocational versus college prep programs).

White-Collar Crime

"White-collar crimes are categorized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and are not dependent on the application or threat of physical force or violence. Such acts are committed by individuals and organizations to obtain money, property, or services, to avoid the payment or loss of money or services, or to secure a personal or business advantage" (p. 226). Offense committed by a professional (or professionals) against a corporation, agency, or other institution. White-collar crime has a greater financial impact than street crime

Essentialist Argument

If you are born with male parts, you are essentially and absolutely a man and you will be sexually attracted to women only, as is preordained by nature

Where is Inequality Located

If you divide the US population into 5 groups There is inequality in income and wealth, but greater inequality in wealth

Ascribes Status

Involuntary placements within the social structure. People are placed in their status, sometimes by birth as in race, ethnicity, sex and age... Social Class: If you're born into a wealth, you fall within a wealthy social class by merely being born These ascribed statuses are inescapable. Involuntary social position received later in life

Who was black during Segregation?

Kentucky: Anyone with one-fourth or more black blood (at least 1 grandparent) Indiana/Maryland: One-eight or more blood (at least one black great-grandparent) Louisiana: One-sixteenth or more black blood (one great-great-grandparent) Arkansas: Any black blood at all... "One-drop" rule subsequently adopted by the other states

Intersectionality

Kimberle Crenshaw (1989): The idea that it is critical to understand the interplay between social identities such as class, race, gender, ability status, and sexual orientation, even though many social systems and institutions try to treat each category on its own. Black feminists made the case that early liberal feminism was largely by, about, and for white middle-class women

Labeling Theory - The Stickiness of Labels

Labeling Theorists believe that labels sticking has important consequences for behavior.

Goffman's 3 Types of Stigma: Blemishes of individual character

Labels of mental disorder, dishonesty, alcoholism, bankruptcy, addiction.

Race

A group of people who share a set of characteristics - typically, but not always, physical ones - and are said to share a common bloodline

Dominant Group

A group that enjoys higher social status, privilege and/or power in a given society. Generally favored by the social institutions (social, economic, political, educational systems) and unstigmatized. Dominant groups perceive loss of advantage as discrimination when rights/privileges are extended to members of minority groups. A smaller group can still be the dominant group: Example: Apartheid SA, the white minority (in numbers) were the dominant group

Types of Social Mobility (Status-Attainment Model for Studying Mobility)

An approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more desirable occupations

Twentieth Century Concepts of Race

As scientific racism/eugenics began to fall out of favor, theories of cultural differences began to gain momentum from the 1920's-1940's

Structural Strain

As societies grew larger and more specialized, thigs that had traditionally held people together would begin to fail. As people changed through these specializations (economically, in status), they did not know any of the norms that came with their new life positions... There was no longer a great deal of agreement on what values were most important and on which norms applied to whom

2 Types of Vertical Mobility:

Ascending: Upward mobility where one goes from a lower social level to a higher one, or creates an entirely new group that exists at a higher level. Example: Going from lower status job to higher status... Or new job was created in a higher level. Descending: Downward mobility of individuals or groups from a higher social position to a lower one.

Bodies are not completely deterministic

Biological Determinism: Assumes that what you do in the social world is a direct result of who you are in the natural world

Forms of Equality

Nearly all capitalist societies claim to follow this form of equality. Unequal opportunity stifles meritocracy, which is a major part of this ideological form of equality. This was/is the argument used for marginalized groups to force a seat at the table

The Matthew Effect

Once wealth is accumulated, opportunities to make more money multiply, since accumulated wealth leads to income-earning opportunities that are not open to those without wealth

Emile Durkheim

One of the first sociologists to look at deviance from the perspective of social forces rather than individual

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics

Margaret Corcoran (1968-1988) tests the validity of the equality of opportunity rationale. Study consisted of following 5,000 families and their children for 20 years

Exhibited Social Closure

Marriages were primarily within caste groups. This division was a method to maintain the caste hierarchy

Types of Social Mobility (Exchange Mobility)

Mobility resulting form the swapping of jobs. Example: People trade jobs such that if one person is upwardly mobile it necessarily entails someone else being downwardly mobile

Types of Social Mobility (Structural Mobility)

Mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy. Example: Changes in available jobs/industries, job distributions, monetary values and so on

4 Areas that Affect Outcomes of Success (Education)

Parental income effects whether children finish high school and attend and graduate college. Children who did not attend preschool have fewer skills and are disadvantaged compared to kids who did attend preschool. Children growing up in poorer zip-codes have less means within schools in comparison to richer zip-code children

Types of Discriminatory Behavior(Extermination)

Participating in lynchings, massacres, genocide, ethnic cleansing

Achieved Status

Positions in the social structure that individuals achieve for themselves. Examples: College graduate, Spouse, President of the US A social position a person gets voluntarily and as a result of personal choice, merit or effort taken on their part. Because of that, an achieved status can also be negative... ie drug dealer, drug addict, some homeless people

Race is not as simple as black and white

Racial taxonomies ranged anywhere from 2 to 2,000 different racial groups

Functionalist Perspective of Gender

Talcott Parsons Sex Role Theory (1953) This ideology "naturalized" gender roles, divisions of labor, inequality

Agents of Socialization: Mass Media

Television viewing shapes viewer's conceptions of social reality. The more television exposure, the more likely one's interpretation of the social reality will reflect that of the TV world rather than the real observable world. Examples: Terror alert manipulation in the years after 9/11. Immigrant "invaders" Crime statistics vs Crime reporting Other examples??

Process of Learning to Smoke: Step 2: Learning to Enjoy the Effects

The effects may not be pleasant - dizziness, paranoia, confusion about space/time, thirst/hunger. The experience becomes pleasurable and sought after when one learns how to enjoy it as well, which happens from help from peers and social messaging Ultimately, just as conformity, deviance can be learned behavior.

What is the "I"?

The part of you that is uniquely you - your personal reactions to a situation. Your response to the attitudes of others Represents the person's identity based on response to the "me". The "I" would say... Society wants (expects) me to behave and interact in this way, and so I either will or won't.

The Middle Class:

Those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty-line though this is a highly debated and expansive category where broad swaths of people consider themselves middle-class. 90% of Americans have self-identified in this category. There is no real consensus as to what middle class really is

Gendered Identity

Through socialization and personality development (steering to certain games, ways to dress and names) children acquire a gendered identity that reproduces the attitudes/values of their society

Ways to understand how we socially construct our reality

To compare one society over different time periods Example: Children in the US, their roles/expectations/responsibilities in early society was different than it is now. To compare two contemporary societies Example: What constitutes food? In many nations insects are viewed as food, whereas the US has different impressions of insects as food... So, who's right?

The Hamitic rationale

To make sense of what they considered "primitive" and "degraded" races of Africa, Europeans turned to the Biblical story of Genesis and the curse of Ham. This passage states that after the flood, Noah learned that his youngest son, Ham, saw him naked while asleep. The other sons refused to witness that, and so Noah decided to curse Ham's descendants saying "A slave of slaves shall be to his brothers". European Christians and scientists interpreted this to mean that Ham was the original black man, and all black people were his unfortunate, degraded descendants

Agents of Socialization: Resocialization and Total Institutions:

Total Institutions (Erving Goffman): A place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life.... Examples?? People are cut off from the rest of society and stripped of their individuality. Goal of the total institutions is to take away the individual's self and give them a new one, more keeping with the needs of the total institution

Problems with Living Out Status and Playing its Role There are 3 categories: 2 - Status Inconsistency

When a person comes to occupy multiple statuses that do not mesh with social expectations A situation where a person with a particular Ascribed status Achieves an inconsistent status. Example: When a man (ascribed status) goes to work as a nurse (a status traditionally achieved by women) When a teenager (ascribed status) goes to college (achieved status)

Robert Merton: Disjunction

When a system of cultural values extols, virtually above all else, certain common success-goals for the population at large while the social structure rigorously restricts or completely closes access to approved modes of reaching goals for a considerable part of the same population" (1938, 211). This situation breeds deviant behavior at a large scale

2 Levels of Discrimination (Individual Discrimination)

When an individual discriminates against another individual, or groups of individuals

Recidivism

When an individual who has been involved with the criminal justice system reverts to criminal behavior. Deterrence theory may contribute to recidivism in a viscous cycle. Increased supervision and stricter parole codes might make it too restrictive to make/keep parole meetings and/or live a lifestyle that avoids violations, which can lead to an individual going back through the system

Exclusive (Race)

You don't get to check more than one box

Contemporary definitions of masculinity (Bridges and Pascoe 2014)

argue that this cultural practice can often serve to conceal inequalities

Contemporary definitions of masculinity (Metrosexual Kristen Barber, 2016)

is a male who is typically white and wealthy and spends a large amount on grooming activities, such as manicures, that would have been considered feminine in the days of Goffman

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911)

claimed that each race had a separate package of social and psychological traits transmitted through bloodlines. Everything from feeblemindedness to disease and intelligence could be traced through bloodlines and selectively bred out of or into populations

Beckers Methodology

Qualitative - conducted 50 interviews

Argued there are 3 major institutional forces in modern American society where power of decision making has become centralized

1 - Economic Institutions - Where a few giant corporations hold the keys for economic decisions. 2 - Political Order - There is increasing concentration of power in the federal government and away from the state and localities, leading to a centralized executive establishment. 3 - Military Order - The largest and most expensive feature of the government

3 things in common amongst stratification systems

1- The systems tend to persist for a long time. 2- The systems are resistant to change. 3- Each system is bolstered by widely accepted legitimating rationales

3 Steps of Social Self Development

1- We imagine how we look to the other person 2- We imagine the judgement of that other person's reaction to our appearance 3- We have some self-feeling such as pride, shame, mortification, etc

3 Theories of Symbolic Interactionism

1. Human beings act toward ideas, concepts, and values on the basis of the meaning that those things have for them. 2. These meanings are the products of social interaction in human society. 3. These meanings are modified and filtered through an interpretive process that each individual uses in dealing with outward signs.

Cultural Explanations - 2 Assumptions #2

2 - The "Culture of Poverty" Oscar Lewis (1966) Turns poverty into a vicious cycle... Once poverty comes into existence, the culture of poverty tends to perpetuate itself from generation to generation because of its effects on the children. "By the time slum children are age 6 or 7 they have usually absorbed the basic values and attitudes of their subculture... Thereafter, they are psychologically unready to take full advantage of changing conditions or improving opportunities that may develop in their life time" (1966:7). It is not so much that the values, beliefs and behavioral norms of poor people are bad; it's the degree to which these values, beliefs and behavioral norms are out of whack with those of mainstream society

Making Gender (Hijra)

A group in India that are phenotypical men, but wear female clothing and ideally, renounce sexual desire and practice by undergoing a sacrificial emasculation - a removal of male genitalia

Meritocracy

A society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability and achievement.

2 Levels of Discrimination (Institutional Discrimination)

A denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups that results from the normal operation of society. Institutional discrimination is "built into" the usual operations of society. It can occur even when people have no intention of subordinating others because of color, or are totally unaware of doing so

Agents of Socialization: Workplace

A major area of adult socialization Involves various steps: Step 1: Decide what you want to be when you grow up Step 2: "Anticipatory Socialization" - Learning about and/or playing at a work role before entering it. For instance, children playing storekeeper or doctor. High school/college students may volunteer, take on internships or research a specific job/field. These are essentially a rehearsal for the future and a way the individual learns about its expectations and rewards. Step 3: Finds the job and learns the reality of the job - the good and the bad. On the job socialization then, is not just learning to do "work" but learning to cope with doing the work.

Bourgeois Society

A modern capitalist society. A society of commerce in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive

Symbolic Ethnicity

A nationality, not in carrying rights/duties of citizenhip, but of identifying with a past or future nationality. For later generations of white ethnics, something not constraining but easily expressed, with no risks of stigma and all the pleasures of feeling like an individual

Patriarchy

A nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity

Prejudice

A negative or hostile attitude toward a person who belongs to a group, simply because he/she belongs to that group and is therefore presumed to have the objectionable qualities ascribed to that group. Thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group, which lead to preconceived notions and judgements (often negative) about the group. Based on inaccurate information and/or illogical arguments. An unjustified prejudgement, it involves not just pre-judgement, but also mis-judgement

Stigma

A negative social label that not only changes others' behavior toward a person but also alters that person's own self-concept and social identity. Stigma can range from mental illness, criminal behavior, personality types, race and so on... But the ranges are not equally stigmatized, some carry more negative implications than others. Example: Devah Pager's study (2001) found that employers were slightly more willing to consider a white applicant with a felony record than a black applicant with a clean history The results of stigma are the same whether one has it ascribed on to them or if they are achieved. The negative label, or social stigma, can easily become a person's Master Status

Normative

A normative statement contains and inherent value judgement or a morally endorsed ideal

Corporate Crime

A particular type of white-collar crime committed by the officers (CEO's and/or other executives) of a corporation

Types of Social Mobility (Intragenerational Mobility)

A person changes status within their lifetime... Someone growing up in poverty and obtaining a high-status occupation. A difference in social class that between different members of the same generation. For example, the wealth and prestige experienced by one person may be quite different from that of his or her siblings

Sexuality

A persons capacity for sexual feelings. An individual's sexual interests and behaviors, involving biological, cultural, psychological, and social factors. The experience and expression of people as sexual beings

Cesare Lombroso (1876)

A physician who worked in Italian prisons. Claimed that deviants were biological failures, or evolutionary throwbacks known as "Atavists"

Forms of Stratification (2- Estate System)

A politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility. Primarily found in feudal Europe from the medieval era through the 1700's and in the American South before the Civil War. Characterized by laws being written in language in which rights and duties separate individuals and distribute power unequally. Example: Antebellum American South, many states required landownership for voting privileges. There was limited mobility among 3 estates, the Nobility, Clergy and Commoners. Commoners were also further fragmented into peasants and city dwellers. Each group enjoyed certain rights, privileges and duties. Membership in Nobility Estate was generally inherited/ascribed. Membership in Clergy Estate was NOT ascribed, but higher-ranking members of the Church were from Nobility Estate and lower members from Commoner Estate. Commoner Estate members were called peasants, or serfs. They were tied legally to land parcels, so when land was granted to a member of Nobility, they got the people on it too

Social Control

A set of mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals. It impacts the individuals own sense of right/wrong and decreases the likelihood of deviating from social norms

Feminism

A social movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle in society and to address gender-based inequalities that intersect with other forms of social identity. First started as a social movement to advocate women's right to vote

Gender

A social position; a set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories. The scripts for behavior that we like to think correspond to more or less fixed biological categories. These scripts have divided people into broad male and female gender binaries. Many people believe that gender differences are a natural distinction between 2 fixed groups

Race

A socially constructed attribute that is tied to beliefs about differences in the physical makeup of different individuals. Racial groupings are about domination and struggles for power. They are organizing principles for social inequality and a means of legitimating exclusion and harassment

Forms of Stratification (4- Status Hierarchy System)

A system of stratification based on social prestige and NOT in political, religious or economic factors. Status is determined by what society as a whole thinks of the particular lifestyle of the community to which you belong. Someone can be high in social status but low in pay. Example: College professors vs. mechanic/plumber/carpenter... Lawyer vs. salesperson, small business owner. People exist along a status ladder, where there is a lot of social mobility. People assert their status, or increase their status, not just through occupation but through consumption, memberships and other aspects of how they live. Social prestige can be generated through occupation, but also through driving a nice car, living in a gated community, wearing stylish clothes, or using certain kinds of language

Forms of Stratification (5- Elite-Mass Dichotomy Systems)

A system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society

The Upper Class:

A term for the economic elite. People at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid. Historically, the upper class was determined by those who didn't have to work - AKA "the leisure class". They were the aristocracy and landowners and the only way to join them was by birth or sometimes through marriage. In the US - Upper class is associated with income/wealth/power/prestige. The primary differentiation is their source of income - more from ROI than from wages. Approximately 1% of the US population fall in this level.

Friederich Hegel (Dialectic)

A two-directional relationship, following a pattern in which an original statement or thesis is countered with an antithesis, leading to a conclusion (synthesis) that unites the strengths of the original position and the counterarguments. Hegel viewed the world from a "master-slave" dialectic. The slave is dependent on the master because the master provides food, shelter and protection. The master is also dependent on the slave, who performs the basic duties of survival until the master can no longer function on his own... This is a relationship of mutual dependency

Egoism

A type of structural strain that occurs when people are not well integrated into society. People lack ties to their social groups. Example: Durkheim found that unmarried people were less integrated into society than married people who had ties to spouses, parents, in-laws, children, children's friends and their parents... In terms of suicide, Durkheim found that married people act on suicidal thoughts less than unmarried because of those social ties

Socialist Feminist Theory

AKA Radical Feminist, claim the root of all social relations, including relations of production, stemmed from unequal gender relations. Hartmann and MacKinnon (1981 & 1983): Analyzed how capitalism combines with patriarchy to make women economically dependent on men's incomes. Capitalists then (men) reap all the benefits of women's subordination. When women are subordinate, men benefit. Gender inequality is first and foremost about power inequalities, and the gender differences emerge from there. The world is divided in 2 groups; men and women. They are pitted against each other in a struggle for resources

Getting high involves 2 things

Achieving the psychological effects of the drug Recognizing and identifying these effects - without knowing the effects one is not really high because they don't know they are high

Types of Discriminatory Behavior (Active Discrimination)

Acting to exclude members of particular groups from education, employment, housing, political, or recreational opportunities

Forms of Stratification (3- Class System)

An economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility. A system of stratifying resulting form industrialization/urbanization where people went from agricultural jobs to city environments and factory positions. Commonly thought that the best people work their own way into the highest ranks. It is supposed to reflect achieved rather than an ascribed characteristics where the smart, talented, hardest-working will rise to the top and the opposite will sink to the bottom. The perception of this system is that it is fair and just... It is legitimated by the principle that the opportunity to get ahead is available to all. The position you reach in this class system is the direct result of your own efforts, traits, abilities and NOT the result of economic, God-placed, or social factors. Therefore, YOU are personally responsible for the rewards you receive and inequality is not only legitimate but inevitable Class is hard to locate Some define class primarily in terms of money, where others see it as a function of culture or taste

Sexual Harassment

An illegal form of discrimination revolving around sexuality that can involve everything from inappropriate jokes to sexual "barter" (where victims feel the need to comply with sexual requests for fear of losing their job) to outright sexual assault

The Generalized Other

An internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings - regardless of whether we've encountered those people or places before. In this way we are able to function with complete strangers in a wide range of social settings

Glass Ceiling

An invisible limit on women's climb up the occupational ladder

Social Structure

An ordered arrangement of different parts... The relationships between social groups of individuals within society A pattern of social relationships existing in the society or within groups Social structure analyses are typically "macro-level" analyses that include: Social institutions and the patterns associated with those relationships

Collective Resistance

An organized effort to change a power hierarchy on the part of a less-powerful group in a society. Example: Through movements, revolutions, nonviolent protests

What is Deviance

Any transgression of socially established norms. It runs a spectrum from minor forms of "informal deviance", which are violations that you may not be punished for, but still know its wrong (picking your nose in public) to more serious formal deviance of murder

H.H. Goddard

Applied eugenic thinking to generalize findings in intelligence tests in America. He handed out tests to immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the early 1900's and generalized their test scores to whole populations, claiming that around 70% of the immigrants coming from eastern/southern Europe were "morons" who posed a serious threat to the good of the nation

Howard Becker - Study of Marijuana Use: Becoming a Marijuana User (1953) The Inquiry

Are marijuana users different from non-users? Is there something about the individual psychology of marijuana users that causes them to smoke? Most scientists, politicians, parents and social critics at the time said, YES.

Erving Goffman

Argued that the stigma of negative social labels can work to spoil a person's identity. He defined stigma as "any attribute that discredits a person or disqualifies him or her from 'full social acceptance'"

Types of Discriminatory Behavior (Avoidance)

Avoiding interaction with people from particular groups

Cultural (Ethnicity)

Based on differences in practices such as language, food, music and so on

The Looking-glass self

Based on our perception of how others view/see us, we develop our reflected (looking-glass) selves. This process raises questions on our behaviors, self-esteem, identity We essentially develop our self (identity) through the judgements of others We learn to use this looking glass (our sense of identity/self) in the intimacy of primary groups (primarily family) and often early on in life

Dramaturgical Theory Cont...

Because we are all actors, we all need scripts, costumes and sets. Setting: The physical layout or background where the social interactions occur - this includes the props and costumes. Stage: The makeup of the situation; the location where a performance unfolds Scripts: Our internalized categories and "labels" that we project when interacting; this can be very explicit like when your job expects you to literally say specific lines... or when in a relationship and your partner says "I love you," you're expected to reply, "I love you, too." Face: The esteem in which an individual is held by others Breach: Mistakes - these are parts of the game where there is a break down in the scripts. Example: On the first day of class, you knew your role was student, the professor handed out materials (props) and talked about class expectations (script) and gave a lecture (performance) Front Stage: The behavior you engage in when you know others are watching. Reflects internalized norms and expectations for behavior partly shaped by the setting and your role. Performance can be intentional and/or habitual. This behavior typically follows routinized and learned social scripts shaped by cultural norms. Examples: Waiting in line, making appointments, job interviews... Back Stage: You are free from the expectations of others Space where you let your hair down, and reflect your true self... You are free to reflect the real you. Example: Your clothes, ways of speaking, ways of behaving may all change. Front Stage/Back Stage Example: Wait staff at a restaurant

Symbolic Interactionists Theories of Deviance

Began in the 1960's and 1970's Study of deviance that looked at the meanings individuals brought to their actions rather than the broader social structures. SI's would look at the small and subtle particulars of social contexts, and the beliefs and assumptions people carry into their everyday interactions

Fluid/Multiple (Ethnicity)

Being Irish and German

Goffman's 3 Types of Stigma: Tribal stigmas

Being discredited for membership in a particular racial, religious, or ethnic group or subcultural group

William Sheldon (1940's)

Believed a persons body type plays a role in criminality... Came up with 3 general body types: Ectomorph: Tall, thin, fragile Endomorph: Short, fat Mesomorph: Muscular, athletic Concluded that criminality was linked with Mesomorphs.

Passing

Blending in with the dominant group, or trying to

How are we stratified today?

Boundaries between socioeconomic categories are not clearly defined and the common upper class, middle class, lower class dynamics do not have a real social scientific origin. Income: Money received by a person for work, from transfers/gifts/inheritance, or ROI's. Wealth: A family/individual's net worth - Total assets minus total debts

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's (1775) Racial Categories

Caucasian, Mongolian, Malay, American, and Ethiopian/African

Types of Social Mobility (Intergenerational Mobility)

Changes in position in the stratification system by different generations of family members. Example: An upper-level executive may have parents that belonged in middle/working-class

Becker's Argument

Chronic marijuana use results from a process of social learning. Before people start, they must learn how to smoke. Learning the smoking process took time and social interaction

Sociological Concepts on Class (Max Weber)

Class is more dynamic than economic systems and is multidimensional. Class is a group that has as its basis the common life chances or opportunities available to it in the marketplace. Power and status in society is necessary to understand stratifications of social positions. Power: Legitimate power is seen as Authority that is seen as justified. The extent to which people have power has a big impact on their overall position in the stratification system. Status: Social status has to do with prestige - or the degree to which a person has social honor

Goffman's 3 Types of Stigma: Abominations of the body

Clear visible physical marks - deformities, scars, disfiguring injuries.

Status Symbols

Clues we give off that show our placement within the social structure in terms of status. Visible and mostly material examples of a person's status... this is usually used to display their power or wealth, but it's not restricted to that. Status symbols are not concrete, they change frequently. Examples of Status Symbols: A reserved parking spot Expensive shoes Hair style Brands - clothing or other material objects

Johann Caspar Lavater popularized physiognomy

Correlated people's outside appearance to inner virtues. Those with light skin/small features signified high intellect and worthy character

Street Crime

Crime committed in public and often associated with violence, gangs, and poverty.

Types of Deviance

Crime, alcoholism, pornography, drug use, suicide, pedophilia, stalking, panhandling, online predatory behavior, and so on

Social Darwinism (1859

Darwin's natural selection thesis called into question ontological equality and climate influenced racial difference and offered an account in which racial lineages were much more deeply rooted and long-standing. Humankind was now seen as being on the trajectory in which some groups advanced over others. This was then applied to the social world Herbert Spencer advanced the notion that some people, defined by their races, are better fit for survival than others and are therefore intended by nature to dominate inferior races

Making Gender (Cisgender)

Describes people whose gender corresponds to their birth sex

Making Gender (Transgender)

Describes people whose gender does not correspond to their birth sex

Ethnomethodology

Developed by Harold Garfinkle (1950's&1960's) The methods of the people - an approach to studying human interaction that focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a shared social order. Garfinkle created "Breaching Experiments". Experiments where he would send his students out to the public to breach social norms and see what happens. These experiments included facing backwards in an elevator, asking people on the subway for their seat without giving a reason

Charles Horton Cooley

Developed the concept of the looking glass self, and a premier symbolic-interactionist sociologist.

Mead's Development of Self Concept 3 Activities develop the self: 1- Language

Develops the self by allowing people to respond to each other through symbols, gestures, words, and sounds. It conveys others' attitudes and opinions toward a subject or the person.

Mead's Development of Self Concept 3 Activities develop the self: 2- Play

Develops the self by allowing people to take on different roles, pretend, and express expectation of others. It develops one's self-consciousness through role-playing. A person is able to internalize the perspective of others and develop an understanding of how others feel about themselves and others in different social situations. Play is an essential part of human development... Meade calls it "simple imitative behaviors"

Mead's Development of Self Concept 3 Activities develop the self: 3- Games

Develops the self by allowing people to understand and adhere to the rules of the activity. The self is developed by understanding that there are rules in which one must abide by in order to win the game.

Differential Association

Deviance is a learned behavior that results from continuous exposure to others who violate norms and laws. People who commit deviant behavior learn values/norms that are diff than dominant culture. So, the person believes this is normal behavior. Example: Athlete who worked hard and was trained by teams and coaches to excel through learned skills alone. No cheating, no enhancers. Now the athlete turns pro and new team members, trainers believe excelling involves steroids, partying and degrading your opponent. New team members/trainers may show "how" to become deviant, by showing how to take certain drugs. When the athlete rejects their norms/values and accepts the new ones his deviance was brought on by differential association because of the relationships

2 Ways Stigma affects one's social interactions

Discredited Identity: Being publicly labeled as a criminal (or deviant) and being treated by people as such. Discreditable Identity: One is able to hide the attributes that would stigmatize them... Because the person is vulnerable to being found out they are in danger of feeling the full force of the stigma

Female Western Standards

Dominant and emphasized definitions of femininity, which have been embodied by looks, have changed over time. Changes from the Victorian housewife to the sport working girl (1980's) to the current perfect-in-all-ways supermom. These changes correspond with societal changes

Robert Merton (1938): Merton's Take on Anomie

Durkheim believed once the transition from preindustrial to industrial was complete, anomie would disappear. Merton states, "anomie is built into the structure of modern society". Rather than just a lack of norms, Merton said Anomie occurs when the norms of a society do not match its social structure Everything is fine in society as long as there is a good match between the culturally approved goals and the AVAILABILITY of legitimate means to reach those goals.

Contemporary concepts of sex and gender challenges essentialist arguments

Essentialism: Arguments explaining social phenomena in terms of natural, biological, or evolutionary inevitabilities. Essentialism relies on biological determinism

Mid-Seventeenth Century

European colonizers encountered other people in newly conquered lands and interpreted physical differences with biblical and then scientific explanations. Race proved to be a good organizing principle to legitimate the imperial adventure of conquest, exploitation and colonialism. Religious arguments were used to justify imperial conquests, such as the cure of Ham

Process of Learning to Smoke: Step 1: Learning to Perceive the Effects

Even after learning how to inhale, one may know what "being high" is Becker found that those who did not recognize the effect, did not continue to use the drug because there was no point in doing so.

Cloward and Ohlin (1960)

Expanded on Merton by claiming that just as legitimate means to success are unequally distributed in society, so are illegitimate means. Example: If you are poor and illiterate, you may not achieve wealth goals committing white collar crimes. If you are educated and have money, you may be able to earn hundreds of millions of dollars robbing the pensions and life savings of retired people, whereas the poor deviant would most likely resort to more petty crime

Agents of Socialization: Family

Family is the first socializing agent because it gets the first crack at you. Family not only provides you with your learned cultural competency, but also helps society perpetuate its existing social structure by reproducing existing social arrangements. The ascribed social status of parents, they place different expectations on their children that translate to real-world social placements of the children when they grow up Parents tend to pass on to their children the outlooks that are suited to their own experiences in the world.

Pink-Collar Jobs

Feminized jobs that are low-paid service industry jobs like: Nursing, teachers, social workers, meeting/convention planning, counselor, HR, admin roles

Biological

First attempt to scientifically locate why people perform deviant behavior

Cultural and Social Impacts on Race

Franz Boas (Anthropologist) and Robert Park (Sociologist) dismissed the biological bases of discrete races. Race was less about fixed inherited traits than about particular social circumstances. With the atrocities of WW2 and the eugenics movement intellectual backing of it, the movement lost popular favor and cultural theories helped chip away at the Immigration Act of 1924 and contributed to its repeal in 1965

In what ways is gender a powerful force in our lives

Gender can determine everything from the toys we play with, are allowed to play with, to the expectations and opportunities afforded to us later in life. Gender is composed of a set of traditions, assumptions, and expectations that create roles and norms that become the building blocks of society

Consequences of gender

Gender establishes patterns of expectations for people These expectations are the established norms that create deviancy once violated. Gender orders our daily lives Out lives are ordered by gender because gender is acted out and reified on the interactional level among all social actors. It is inherent in our interactions and can guide our handling of situations and experiences. Gender is one of the fundamental building blocks of society Gender presents itself in the law, family, education, economy and more

Gender Differences Over Time

Gender is historically contingent upon society as gender norms can be fluid across time and culture

Doing Gender - West and Zimmerman (1987)

Gender is not a fixed identity or role that we take with us into our interactions. Rather, it is the product of those interactions. Gender is a matter of active doing, not simply a matter of natural being. To be a man or a woman is to Perform masculinity and femininity constantly. Gender is a process not a static category. By "doing gender" people contribute to, reaffirm, and reproduce masculine and feminine submissiveness in the bedroom, kitchen, workplace and so on

Conflict Feminist Theory

Gender, not class, was the driving force of history

Usually based on physical difference (Race)

Genetics, skin tone, nose/lips shape

All social systems have 2 characteristics

Goals: All social systems have commonly accepted goals that are simply socially valued things that are worth striving for. Example: in the US the value is on achievement and success. Means: Each society establishes what is considers legitimate means, or ways, to reach those valued goals. Example: in the US hard work (means) will get you success (goals)

Goffman and Institutions

Goffman believed that total institutions like prisons/mental health institutions often become breeding grounds for secondary deviance. Providing an important link in the reproduction of deviance through their effects on inmates and patients. Authorities in these institutions are given the duty of expediting the process of prisoner degradation to ensure "co-operativeness"... Wardens must socialize inmates into compliance through informal obedience tests or will-breaking contests until the inmate humbles himself. Because the roles we play are important to how we think about ourselves, the labels are important as well

Primary Groups

Groups characterized by intimate face-to-face association or cooperation. Includes family and friendship groups, or groups where people learn the rules of social life and cooperation in a more intimate fashion

Secondary Groups

Groups consisting of secondary relationships, means-to-an-ends type relationships. What is important in this group is your status rather than your personal characteristic. This group is less intimate and usually much bigger than primary groups. You and your close friends are a PRIMARY GROUP, but your sociology class/university is a SECONDARY GROUP

C. Wright Mills:

Had a negative view of elite-mass dichotomy. He argued that it's neither natural nor beneficial for society Mills argued, families and churches and schools adapt to modern life; governments and armies and corporations shape it; and as they do so, they turn these lesser institutions into means for their ends. Mills believed the more interaction occurred among the big 3 power elites, the more interchange of personnel takes place among them as well

Problems with Living Out Status and Playing its Role There are 3 categories: 1- Role Strain

Happens when the person has a hard time meeting all the demands of a particular role. When there are incompatible demands built into a single status that a person occupies... This ultimately makes it difficult to perform the role. What are Some Examples of Role Strain: Occupational Familial

Inequality in INCOME

Income: Money received by a person for work, from wages, salaries, transfers/gifts/inheritance, or ROI's. The top 20% receives half of the money that is paid out in income per year

Types of Social Mobility (Horizontal Mobility)

Individual or group movement from one position to another in the same level. There is no change in social status in horizontal mobility. Example: Moving from one job to another within the same social position, family migrating from one city to another, ethnic group that shifts its typical labor from one form of unskilled labor to another

Types of Social Mobility (Vertical Mobility)

Individual or group movement up or down in a stratification system

5 Types of Adaptation to Anomie: Conformity (Conformist)

Individual who accepts both the goals and the strategies that are considered socially acceptable to achieve those goals. Example: Deciding to purse a college education to land a good paying job. You deliberately do things, make social/professional networks to get you to your goal of success and work hard to obtain it

5 Types of Adaptation to Anomie: Ritualism (Ritualist)

Individual who rejects socially defined goals but not the means. They follow legitimate means without caring about the goals. Example: Bureaucrat who continues to stamp and file papers even when there is no point in doing so... The teacher who comes to class but puts no effort in teaching students. Goes through the motions of conforming

5 Types of Adaptation to Anomie: Rebels (Rebellion)

Individuals who reject both traditional goals and traditional means and want to ALTER or DESTROY the social institutions from which they are alienated. They desire to substitute new means and new goals in place of the current rejected ones

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Influenced the political ideas of the French Revolution and the development of socialist thought. Appealed to biology and human instincts to explain social outcomes. Claimed it is only through the process of building society and repressing this pure natural character that social problems develop. Believed that if we strip away the elements of society that result from the institution of private property (ownership) - the competition, isolation, aggression, and hierarchical organization - only social equality would remain

Matrix of Domination

Intersecting domains of oppression that create a social space of domination and, by extension, a unique position within that space based on someone's intersectional identity along the multiple dimensions of gender, age, race, class, sexuality, location, and so on. A 40-year old poor, black straight, single mother in rural Georgia will not have the same conception of what it means to be a woman as a 25-year-old professional, white, single, lesbian in Chicago. Black women face unique oppressions that white women don't, and white masculine notions of the world (what motherhood/femininity means) do not capture the daily lived experiences of many black women

Agents of Socialization: School

Is usually the first place where kids learn that everyone can expect to be treating in the same relatively impersonal manner.

Isms Categories

Isms are different than ordinary discrimination. Sociologists categorize "isms" as potent forms of discrimination. The use of "ism" is used to signal the differences in potency of different types of discrimination Racism is different than race-based discrimination. Ism is applied to acts of discrimination that occur at the institutional level or, when at the individual level, are consistent with institutional patterns of discrimination

Self-defined (Ethnicity)

It is embraced by group members from within

Structural Explanations

It is much more appropriate to focus on the LIMITED ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITIES that poor people have compared to the more affluent than on their cultural attributes. The differences in the values, beliefs and behavioral norms that seem to exist are better explained as a consequence of poverty (end result), rather than a "culture of poverty" (root cause). It is not that poor children tend to be less prepared for the realities of school than middle-class children, but that the schools themselves are inadequate. The cultural theories of poverty are a contribution to the perpetuation of the problem... By stressing the inadequacies of poor people, they encourage a cover-up of structural inadequacies poor people live in

Why Wealth is Important

It signifies the command over financial resources that a family has accumulated over its lifetime along with those resources that have been accumulated across generations. These resources when combined with income can create the opportunity to secure the "good life" in various forms: education, business, training, justice, health, comfort.... Wealth is a special form of money... not used for hard goods (food/clothes/necessities). It is used to create OPPORTUNITY, secure a desired stature and standard of living, PASS along class status to children

Social Mobility

It was possible, but very limited. A rich commoner could buy a title and become a member of nobility... A son of a noble family could join clergy and be part of that estate.

Unequal (Race)

It's about power conflicts and struggles

Involuntary (Race)

It's not up to you to decide to which category you belong: someone else puts you there

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Measure of SES looks at people's income, education, occupational prestige, and wealth multidimensionally to find where they place in the social stratification system

Types of Social Cohesion (Durkheim's Model)

Mechanical Solidarity: A solidarity/cohesion based on sameness (premodern society) Organic Solidarity: Cohesion based on difference/interdependence of parts (modern society)

Two-Sex Model

Men and women become radically different. Sex became related to physical facts. Gender roles started to emerge and become institutionalized

Sex Role Theory

Men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers, respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers. With a work-oriented father (public sphere) and a domestic-oriented mother (private sphere), children are most effectively reared to be future laborers who can meet the labor demands of a capitalist society. Gender roles/functions are fixed... gender as a social structure require a fixed division of labor because they work to ensure a stable society

4 Areas that Affect Outcomes of Success (Working Life)

Men who grew up in poor families tend to work many fewer hours per year and to earn less per hour than men who grew up in middle-class homes. Growing up in poor families reduces annual earnings by more than 40%. Most people end up in a class position that is the same as or close to the one occupied by their parents... Essentially, members of each new generation tend to reproduce the class structure they were raised in

What is Middle Class and what is Working Class?

Middle Class has historically been connected with white-collar workers (office workers) and working class has been those who worked manually (using hands and bodies) This new expanding group of low-wage service work challenges the notion of working-class status needing to be defined through physical/manual labor.

Equality of Opportunity

Most people believe that regardless of social class, everyone has about the same chance to get ahead in society. Is this true? If Equality of Opportunity exists, a person's individual class origins should not determine the level of their economic social achievement. What you should see is people who grew up in poor families should be no more likely to be poor as adults than people who grew up in nonpoor families

Withdrawal

Moving from one place of domination to a safer more secure place. Example: After Nazi persecution, Jews moved out of Poland as violence against them still continued after WW II. Example: The Great Migration - Mid-Twentieth century in the US where blacks left the Jim Crow south in search of jobs/equality in the industrialized North and West. Estimated 1.5 million per decade left between 1940 and 1970.

Level (Ethnicity)

Much less about unequal power than race is

Consequences of Tracking

Negative effect on the achievement of lower track groups, negligible effect on students in the middle group (average), a weak to modest positive effect on high track students. Negative consequences for lower track students range from development of negative attitudes/behaviors related to learning, student achievement, future course selection, future desire for college. Parent's social class can influence the children's placement... Higher class parents can get their children in fast track even if their abilities did not reflect that placement... This stratification is present outside of school as well

Robert Merton's Typology of Discrimination & Prejudice(All-Weather Liberal)

Neither prejudiced nor discriminatory. Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. They adopt/champion ideologies of racial equality and practice it when faced with real choices

What does society need??

New members who are capable of functioning effectively within existing social structures. People who can fill positions within the social structure (Statuses) and carry out the behaviors expected (roles) of those within the status position

Norms Change Over Time

Norms within a culture evolve and change throughout time. Because of cultural norms evolving, so does what is considered deviant. What is considered deviant in one time, may become considered normative in another time... At one point racial integration was considered deviant and now it is considered normative

Hierarchical (Race)

Not white? Take a number down the ranks in a social stratification system

Fatalistic Suicide

Occurs as a result of too much social regulation. Where you find yourself doing the same thing day after day with no variation or surprises. Example: slaves and prisoners

Sexism

Occurs when a person's sex or gender is the basis for judgement, discrimination, or other differential treatment against that person

Groups

One or more other individuals with whom we share some sense of identity or common goals and with whom we interact within a specific social structure. We do not spend our time as complete isolated individuals and society does not exist with detached individuals. Groups are: Family, marriage, friendships, occupational, clubs/orgs.... Groups are NOT: Social Aggregations: Some collective of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time... Example, fans at a concert/sporting event, people at a restaurant

Robert Merton's Typology of Discrimination & Prejudice (Active Bigot)

One who holds prejudice and actively discriminates. Example: The prototypical racist (KKK member and so on)

Robert Merton's Typology of Discrimination & Prejudice (Fair-Weather Liberal)

One who is not prejudiced but does discriminate. They favor racial equality, but still discriminates, perhaps without even knowing it. Example: Selling home when black neighbors arrive

Robert Merton's Typology of Discrimination & Prejudice (Timed Bigot)

One who is prejudiced but DOES NOT discriminate. Could be a closet racist who backs down when confronted with real opportunity to display racist action. Example: Store owner in a city who is prejudice but still needs their business may not discriminate

5 Types of Adaptation to Anomie: Retreatist

One who rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by completely retreating from or not participating in society. They don't care about the goal of success and don't care to even go through the motions of conformity

Ethnicity

One's ethnic quality or affiliation. Has to do with shared cultural heritage varying from religion, language, dress, music, food preferences Ethnicity, for nonwhites can become racialized where individuals are put within a specific level of stratification. Being Irish is something that one can turn on/off, whereas being Black, Brown or Asian is unavoidable for the most part

5 Ideal-type forms of stratification systems (1- Caste System)

One's rank is determined by birth. One's position in the caste is based on ascribed characteristics. A religion-based system of stratification characterized by extremely little-to-no social mobility While there was little/no social mobility for individuals, caste groups could collectively achieve higher positions in the hierarchy by adopting practices/behaviors of the upper castes in 1-2 generations. Example: During British colonial period in South Asia the Vaishya caste (second lowest caste in Pakistan) adopted Christianity in an attempt to jump ahead in hierarchy. The caste system in India, while politically changed, still has strong social pulls because of its importance and connection to religious beliefs, it has retained much of its strength and is enforced by strong informal social norms and sanctions. This shows the power of legitimating principles

Question: In modern times, do we still see mechanical sanctions? How?

Organic Solidarity: Because people are more individually differentiated, the punishments/sanctions focus on the individual... They are tailored to the specific conditions and circumstances of the perpetrator. Punishments are geared more towards rehabilitation... to transform the person back to a member of the society, to fix the person's root cause for their deviance. Punishments are also restitutive... They attempt to restore the status quo that existed before an offense or event

Stereotypes

Oversimplified generalized images about members of a particular group. This essentially categorizes all members of a particular group as having a specific set of characteristics. They deny the existence of individual differences among the members of a specific social category

4 Areas that Affect Outcomes of Success (Health)

Parental class position has long-term health consequences for children. Poverty is related to delays in children's physical development. Poor children are more likely to suffer from serious psychological distress. Physically underdeveloped and ill children might become less healthy and less employable as adults

Cultural Explanations - 2 Assumptions #1

People in different social classes have different patterns of values, beliefs, and behavioral norms, which they pass on to their children through the socialization process. Allison Davis (1940s) "Social class patterning of the child's learning, as exerted through the family, extends from the control of the type of food he eats and the way he eats it, to the kinds of sexual, aggressive and educational training he receives" (1948:12). This perspective extends from the influence of the family to one's immediate social surroundings

Minority Groups (AKA Subordinate group)

People who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination. Minority status carries with it the exclusion from full participation in the life of the society... They are treated and regard themselves as a people apart. Those who lack power compared to the dominant group

Deterrence Theory

Philosophy of criminal justice arising from the notion that crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and benefits.

2 Forms of Inequality for Rousseau

Physical (Natural): Consists in a difference of age, health, bodily strength and the qualities of the mind or of the soul. Social (Political): Is established or at least authorized by the consent of men. The privileges which some men enjoy to the prejudice of others, such as being more rich, honored, powerful

4 Areas that Affect Outcomes of Success (Crime and Justice)

Poor people are more likely to be victims of all kinds of crime. People from lower classes who break the law are more likely to be arrested, less likely to be released on bail and more likely to be convicted and sent to prison than people from higher classes who break the law. Once poor people are in the system, it is more difficult to shake the structural and stigmatizing ramifications than higher class members that break the law

What is Middle Class and what is Working Class? 2 trends eroded this distinction

Post-WW2 boom led to the enrichment of many manual workers. Most working class whites (factory workers, firemen, plumbers) were able to buy their own homes, afford college for their children and retire comfortably. This working class became the newly expanded middle class. The rise of low-wage service sector: Since 1973 manufacturing jobs began declining and service jobs began replacing factory work. Service jobs: (health care employees, educators, restaurant employees, hairstylists, musicians and actors. These jobs are working with things or with people) However - Jobs like data-entry clerk, cashier and paralegal are technically white-collar but provide working-class wages.

Discrimination

Prejudice involves attitudes and beliefs. Discrimination involves behavior. Harmful or negative ACTS (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial/ethnic category, without regard to their individual merit

The Scottish Enlightenment & Thomas Malthus

Private property/Surplus creates inequality. It used to be that people gathered and accumulated what they could consume or manage at a certain time and incentivized to give the excess away to others for reciprocal goodwill. When individuals/society became more efficient and productive they can conserve surplus and transform them into assets, a form of wealth that can be stored for the future... The incentive is for the individual to hoard it all so that personal savings are available for a rainy day. If a resource-rich person chooses to distribute surplus wealth, it can be done so to extract power, promises and rewards in return. Social developments resulting from private property represent huge improvements in society because private property leads to higher degrees of social organization and efficiency... If someone can preserve/accumulate resources and gain more power storing up assets (private property), they will have more incentive to work and by default build up society. Inequality was a prerequisite for social progress, and social progress was a prerequisite for the development of civilization, which is the greatest goal humankind could strive for

Resocialization

Process where old behaviors that were helpful in a previous role are removed because they are no longer of use. Radically changing someone's personality by carefully controlling their environment. The systematic attempt to build a different personality or self

Manifest Function of School

Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the adult world.

Anomie

Rapid social change that results in a state of social confusion. A situation in which people do not experience the constraint of social norms- either because there are no norms or because they don't know the norms. A state wherein society fails to exercise adequate regulation of the goals and desires of individual members. When things like the collective conscience are not strong enough to affect the behavior of individuals. This scenario creates a situation where behavior is not properly regulated and suicide becomes easier

Contemporary Concepts of Sex - Paradoxes

Rather than believing that biology comes before or dictates behavior, we now look at the "nature-behavior" relationship as a two-way street. Biological sex makes up the inside of the individual and the social world (Culture, experiences, gender) make up the outside. Often, we speak of them interchangeably incorrectly. Ultimately, biological sex has not existed in the world without some level of social involvement

Straight-Line Assimilation

Robert Parks model for immigrant assimilation: Immigrants first arrive, then settle in, mimic the practices and behaviors of the people already there and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenized country

Social Control Theory

Seeks to understand how to control deviance. It describes the internal means of social control. Presupposes that all choices are constrained by social relations and social contracts between people. Morality is created within a social order by assigning costs and consequences to certain actions marked as evil, wrong, illegal or deviant. It proposes that people's relationships, commitments, values, norms and beliefs encourage conformity through internalized means. Example: If moral codes are internalized and the individual is connected to, and has a stake in the wider community, acts of deviance will be voluntarily self-limited

Social Cohesion

Social bonds, how well people relate to each other and get along on a day-to-day basis

5 Types of Adaptation to Anomie: Innovator

Social deviant who accepts socially acceptable goals but rejects socially acceptable means to achieve them. More specifically, you accept the social goal of success and pursue it, but when faced with lack of legitimate means to achieve the goals, you devise new one

How Does Socialization Work?

Socialization is a give-and-take between people and the others in their environment. It is a reflective process. ***People do not receive their social selves passively*** People are active participants in the creation of their selves within the socialization process

Externally imposed (Race)

Someone else defines you as black, white, or other

The Other

Someone or something outside of oneself.

The Social Construction of Reality

Something is real, meaningful, or valuable when society tells us it is. Less about what is real and what is fake... Rather, it is about an explanation of how we give meanings to things or ideas through social interactions

Examples of racial categories

South Africa: 4 Categories: White (European Descent), Coloured (mixed), Asiatic (Indian descent), African (Bantu). United States: 3 Categories: White (European), Black (African), Native American Mexico: 6 Categories: Black (negro), Indian (indio), white (hispano), Indian/white (mestizo), Indian/black (lobo), white/black (mulatto)

Theories on Crime

Street crime rises and falls in relation to the availability of opportunity within the legitimate economy. One way to REDUCE crime would be to raise the costs of working in the illegitimate economy, thereby lowering the net return. This leads to tougher sentencing policies, 3-strikes laws. Another strategy is to increase the returns to entry-level opportunities in the legitimate economy; raising the minimum wage. These two approaches attempt to shorten the distance, or differential, between the two economies; legitimate and illegitimate

Secondary Deviance

Subsequent acts of rule breaking that occur after primary deviance and as a result of your new deviant label and people's expectations of you. Deviant behaviors that arise out of a need of social defense, or adaptations to the problems created by the societal reaction of the primary deviance. Others' expectations about how you will act affect how you do act. Example: If you hear voices, or become depressed and are put in an institution (Primary deviance), when released when people treat you differently, or label you as depressed, your actions may become depressive because of how you internalized the label and how it attached itself to your identity.

Anomic Suicide

Suicide that occurs as a result of insufficient social regulation... Example: When the stock market crashed in 1929, stockbrokers, businessmen and investors committed suicide because they did what they were supposed to do (get a high paying job on Wall Street) and could not cope with the rapid change... Example: Lottery winners and depression.. The individual was once poor and now has no script as a wealthy person to live by

Altruistic Suicide

Suicide that occurs when one experiences too much social integration. Because the group dominates the life of the individual so much, they may feel meaningless apart from this social recognition. Example: Suicide amongst high ranking military officers; honor and self-worth are given through the role/group more than enlisted soldiers... Samurai warriors who killed themselves rather than live with disgrace in the community

Egoistic Suicide

Suicide that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social group. Example: Protestant suicide rates vs. Catholic rates

One Drop Rule

That one drop of black blood makes a person black. A concept that evolved from US laws forbidding miscegenation. Integral in maintaining the Jim Crow system of segregation upheld in the 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. This helped divide America into two distinctive societies: black and white. More importantly, it allowed for all white ethnics to be clumped under "white"

Making Gender (Native Americans)

The Navajo tribes have three genders - masculine men/feminine women/the nadle. Nadle are born with ambiguous genitalia, or they might declare a Nadle identity later in life regardless of genitalia

The "I" and the "Me" - George Herbert Mead

The Social self arises out of the social act of communication, which is the basis for socialization. The social self is the product of an ongoing interaction between the I and the Me The self is then built up through the interaction of the I and me... the interaction between my own impulses (the I) and my understanding of other people's reactions to those impulses (the me).

Social Mobility

The ability to change positions within a social stratification system. When people improve or diminish their status in a way that affects social class, they experience social mobility. Most commonly, social mobility refers to change in wealth and social status of individuals or families. But it can also refer to changes in: Health status, literacy rate, education

Glass Escalator

The accelerated promotion of men to the top of a work organization, especially in feminized jobs... They tilt the favor in female-dominated jobs as they get the opportunity to ascend to higher leadership roles faster

Ploygenism

The belief that different races evolved from different origins, that different races constituted different subspecies of humanity

Labeling Theory

The belief that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels over time form the basis of their self-identity. This social process of labeling allows us to create deviance by assigning shared meanings to acts. deviance is not inherent to a specific act, but rather the result of the externally-imposed label of "deviant". focuses on the tendency of majorities to negatively label minorities or those seen as deviant from standard cultural norms. Labeling Theory focuses not only on who commits the deviant act, but also on the response of the audience. How the self-identity and the behavior of individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify them. Not only are deviant acts created by a process of labeling but deviants are also created by a process of labeling... We become (or don't become) deviant only in interaction with other social actors

Nativism

The concern about the new and objectionable stock of immigrants, as opposed to "native" more desirable immigrants. The movement to protect/preserve the indigenous land of culture from the allegedly dangerous/polluting effects of new immigrants

Masculine Western Standards (Hegemonic Masculinity)

The condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisible. Masculinity in eighteenth century was NOT associated with physical fitness, money-making or sports. Business were for rude trade classes, physical strength undermined gentlemanly character. 1700's masculinity went hand in hand with kindness, intellect, maybe even poetry

Nineteenth Century

The divine right of conquest ended and lead to "scientific racism" Scientific Racism sought to make sense of people who were different from white Europeans - who constituted the "norm". So, anyone different from Europeans was a deviation from the norm. SR justified imperial exploits by automatically classifying nonwhites as abnormal, improper, and inferior

Primary Deviance

The first act of rule breaking that may incur a label of "deviant" and thus influence how people think about and act toward you. It does not lead to symbolic reorganization at the level of self-regarding attitudes and social roles

Racialization

The formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological boundaries of difference around a formerly unnoticed group of people

(Social) Stratification

The hierarchical organization of a society into groups with differing levels of power, social prestige, or status and economic resources. Evaluation-ranking-reward system where people in higher-ranking groups tend to receive disproportionately larger shares of valued social stuff (wealth, power, respect) than people in lower-ranking groups. The people in the top are generally regarded as better than the people on the bottom. Better can be purer, smarter, or braver

Equality of Outcome

The idea that each player in the game must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the game. This is the most antibourgeois/anticapitalist form of equality. This is concerned less with the rules of the game than with the distribution of resources... it is essentially a Marxist (communist) ideology. Since everyone is different and has different natural abilities, everyone contributes to society and to the economy according to what they do best... So, everyone contributes to the best of their abilities, yet everyone will receive the same rewards regardless of occupation or position

Equality of Opportunity

The idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game are the same for everyone.

Equality of Condition

The idea that everyone should have an equal starting point. Some argue that the rules of the game need to be altered in order to compensate for inequalities in the relative starting positions of members of society. Example: Affirmative Action legislation aims to increase the representation of women, racial/ethnic minorities and people from less privileged social classes in employment, education and business that they have been historically excluded from. The aim of legislations in this category attempt to level off a tilted playing field

There is a social context for Ism

The impact of discriminatory acts is different for minorities than it is for members of the dominant group. When the source is a member of the dominant group and their target is a member of a minority group of society it falls into an "ism" category. Takes into account the institutionalized relationships of social actors - That's why if a black person tells an anti-white joke it does not fall into the category of raceism (it is race prejudice/discrimination), but does if whites tell anti-black jokes. Also, if women make anti-male jokes it is not considered sexism, but rather sex-prejudice/discrimination

Masculine Western Standards (Erving Goffman 1963)

The masculine ideal of mid-twentieth century America was of a "young man, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual, Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight and height, and with a decent record in sports"

Examples of the I and Me

The me, is the internalization of other's perspectives on ourselves, it is the perspective we get of ourselves from how others treat us... So, it's the cumulative perspective I have of myself if I'm treated as a man or as a troubled youth for example. The I, is the part of us that responds to these internalized attitudes - how I act based on others' perspective of me as a man or troubled youth. Another example: The me is the expected "masculine"/"feminine" behavior of a woman or man... the I is the part of you that responds to those expectations. The I are your actions to conform or not... It is your unique you. Me = The expectations and attitudes of others and the organized set of attitudes of others assumed by the individual. I = The individual's response to the "me"

Durkheim's Concerns

The nature of society and social order, what sorts of factors held society together, what factors can destroy society. Society was viewed as a system made up of interrelated parts... each part of the social system work together to make the entire system run well

The Free Rider Problem

The notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight. Example: Group school projects

Social Regulation

The number of rules guiding our daily life and, what you can reasonably expect from the world on a day-to-day basis

What is the "Me"?

The part of the self that is based on how you see others seeing you. What you see when you put yourself in the shoes of someone else looking at you. The organized set of attitudes of others which you assume learned behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of others and of society (AKA the Generalized other) The Me has been developed by the knowledge of society and social interactions the person has gained

Agents of Socialization: Peer Groups

The peer group socializes children to become independent from adult authority. Much of children's peer group socialization reinforces standard cultural conventions of statuses and roles... Peer groups can act as a means of reinforcing existing social structures/arrangements Examples: Boys' and girls' play is policed by peer groups to reinforce social roles of "masculinity" and "femininity". Girls are put down for displaying independent behavior or being overly aggressive, whereas boys are put down for being "wimps" if they don't behave aggressively or tough

Status

The position an individual occupies within a social structure. Socially defined positions in a group or society - they are known by certain expectations, rights, and duties... Statuses are independent/separate from the people who occupy them

Pluralism

The presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society. A low degree of assimilation exists. A society where there is one large sociocultural framework with a diversity of cultures functioning within it... This is the premise of multiculturalism in America

Specific Deterrence

The prison and parole system works by assigning years of punishment where the individual is deterred from committing other offenses because they are under the supervision of the system for x number of years

Socialization

The process by which society molds its members into properly social beings. The process by which people acquire cultural competency and through which society perpetuates the fundamental nature of existing social structures

Symbolic Interactionism

The process by which things - ideas, concepts and values are socially constructed SI is useful to really understanding cultural differences in styles of social interaction. SI is a useful tool for understanding the meanings of symbols and signs and the way shared meanings, or lack of shared meanings, facilitate or impede routine interaction

Norms

They are agreed-upon modes and rules of behavior that are enforced and reinforced within a society. Something that is accepted, common and frequent within society

School Stratification: Tracking - Jeannie Oakes Keeping track: How Schools Structure Inequality

The process whereby students are divided into categories so that they can be assigned in groups to various kinds of classes. Groups can be called fast, slow, or average and learners are placed into corresponding classes. Their aptitude is measured by the teacher's estimation of what students have already learned and their potential for learning. Most schools have some mechanism where they divide their student populations into groups who are "alike", because educators strongly believe that students learn better in groups with others like themselves

Master Status

The status of greatest importance in a person's life. The primary identifying characteristic A type of label that may be given to you by others, or the status that you personally feel is most important about you. Examples: Race, sex, sexual orientation, occupation, age

Roles

The sum total of expectations about the behavior attached to a particular social status. Example: My status is "Professor", my role is "teach", my expectations are to prepare lessons, grade and so on... What is important: In our interactions, each status comes with certain expectations about how the person occupying the status is supposed to behave and how others are to behave towards them. Statuses and roles exist independent of us, the actors fulfilling them

Miscegenation

The technical term for interracial marriage meaning a mixing of kinds

The Collective Conscience

The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to the average members of the same society. Collective conscience is made up of the values, beliefs, norms, and goals shared by people in society... It was the social oil that made the machine run smoothly. A set of common assumptions about how the world works

The Social Self

The values, beliefs, ideas and decision-making strategies, and the general way in which people live their lives. These are not biologically explained, but are the areas where the society directs the human being. To form the social self, social interaction is a necessity, not a luxury or option. Without social interaction you cannot organize your complex attitudes of beliefs, values or behaviors

Developed by Erving Goffman in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) Dramaturgical Theory

The view of social life as essentially a theoretical performance (a play), in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets. The moral of this play is "impression management", which is that all of us actors are struggling to make a good impression on our audience (who also happen to be actors as well). The goal is not to just make the best impression on others, but also to actively work to ensure that others will believe they are making a good impression as well

Color-Blind Racism

The view that racial inequality is perpetuated by a supposedly color-blind stance that ends up reinforcing historical and contemporary inequalities, and institutional bias by "ignoring" them in favor of a technically neutral approach Race-neutral rhetoric that relies on culture and nationality to explain differences between nonwhite and whites than on physical traits... It replaces biology with culture

Scientific Racism

Theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race

Broken Windows Theory

Theory explaining how social context and social cues impact whether individuals act deviantly - specifically, whether local, informal social norms allow deviant acts. Zimbardo placed 2 abandoned cars with the hoods up in the South Bronx, and Paolo Alto, California near Stanford Univ. The car in the Bronx was almost immediately stripped. The car in Paolo Alto went untouched for days. Zimbardo and his team then broke the windshield and dented it up. People soon began smashing the car, breaking it more and tagging it with graffiti. The social cues and social context influenced the way people, even in a rich neighborhood treated the car

Durkheim's study, Suicide (1897)

There were higher rates of suicide in industrialized than in non-industrialized societies. Suicide rates were a manifestation of:

The Poor

Unlike upper-class, middle-class or working-class, poverty has a specific government definition. In 2018 the poverty line for a family of 4 was $25,100. Political Distinctions: The working poor: Those who deserve our assistance. The nonworking poor: those who can work but don't' and therefore have a weaker moral claim for assistance. This group is also sometimes called the "Underclass"

Personality

Unsuccessful socialization: People with a strong conscience tend to be good and people with a weak conscience tend to be bad. Aggressive personalities become manifested in deviance and violent acts

Sex

Used to describe socially accepted, perceived biological differences that distinguish males from females

Types of Discriminatory Behavior (Physical Attacks)

Using violence or the threat of violence against members of particular groups or their property, such as burning Churches or desecrating graves

Fallacy of Hard Work - Social Mobility

Vertical Mobility is not experienced that much in the US between or within generations. People who start out in blue-collar jobs tend to stay there their entire working lives as do those in white-collar jobs. Vertical social mobility happens in short steps rather than long leaps, and usually between closely related occupations. Most social mobility over the past 100 years has occurred due to social factors, rather than individual efforts. Example: Industrialization, technology, increase in expanded jobs industries/markets, more specializations w/in industries... Example: Class differences in birth rates - People in upper class tend to marry later and have fewer children than people in lower classes. So when jobs open up in higher class job categories, there are fewer members of that class to fill them... this contributed to people in lower classes (middle/working) to fill them

The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

Vilfredo Pareto The Mind and Society (1983). Claimed that as long as they are the most able individuals and know what they're doing, a small elite in power - the masses are all the better for it. This imbalance where a small number of people (20%) cause a disproportionately large effect (80%) is known as the Pareto Principle. Basically, people are all unequal physically, intellectually and morally and those who are the most capable should lead.

Examples of the Looking-Glass Self

We may be ashamed to seem weak/cowardly in front of a brave person. We may be ashamed to seem low-class in front of someone with a high-class, dignified status. We may be ashamed to seem poor in front of someone who is wealthy. What other examples are there? Do you agree or disagree with Cooley? To Cooley, the child who lives in complete isolation from others is not fully human, because to be human involves the reflective social experience... "Man does not have it at birth; he cannot acquire it except through fellowship, and it decays in isolation"

Inequality in WEALTH

Wealth: A family/individual's net worth - Total assets minus total debts. The richest 20% owns more than 80% of the wealth. That means the 80% are sharing or competing for the 20% left of the pie

One-Sex Model

Western biological thought from the ancient Greek to the mid-eighteenth century. There was only one body - a male body. The female body was regarded as an inversion of the male body.. A male body whose parts were flipped inside rather than on the outside. The belief that women were a lesser but not so radically different version of men - This is an example of how epistemic issue in the science (One way science reinforces what is "natural" and what isn't

Making Gender

Western culture mostly operates from a gender binary - Male/Female with clear male female bodies.

Types of Social Cohesion (Keeping Society in Line)

When people break from the collectively produced moral fabric you must either punish or rehabilitate to get social realignment... This depends on your type of "solidarity" Mechanical Solidarity: Punitive justice: making the offender suffer and defining the boundaries of acceptable behavior... Also, collective vengeance/punishment. Other punishments include lynching and public chastisement. Collective punishments reinforce boundaries of acceptable behavior and also unites the collective by producing cohesion and unity

Problems with Living Out Status and Playing its Role There are 3 categories: 3 - Role Conflict

When the actual demands of roles within a status clash. When there are incompatible role demands placed on a person by two or more statuses that are held at the same time. Example: Juvenile court judge who is also a parent and has their child stand before them in court. The status of judge is impartiality, the role of parent is advocate for child. What to do? When a parent coaches a team their child plays on... Roles of parent and coach conflict.

Acceptance

When the oppressed group feigns compliance and hides its true feelings of resentment to the dominant group, but then present a different self with their oppressed members. Example: Code-Switching: A strategy used by minority groups in the presence of dominant groups. Learning two languages, one of the street and one of dominant society and daily survival involved knowing which one to speak at the right time

General Deterrence

When the threat of the punishment itself is known in public... knowing that you can get 25 years for selling marijuana, might make you think otherwise.

The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (Findings)

Where one begins does have a big effect on where one ends up. If one's parents are poor, it matters a lot to children's outcomes. People have a greater chance of succeeding in life if their parents are not poor

Legitimating Rationales

Widely accepted beliefs that something is fair and just. Widely accepted beliefs that the inequalities that exist in society (differences in power, wealth, prestige, respect...) are essentially right and reasonable. They reflect people's beliefs about why some people are ranked higher than others and why it is fair. Different societies have different legitimating rationales leading to different forms of stratification

Fallacy of Hard Work

Willingness to work hard is no guarantee that one will succeed in our competitive social system. Minimum-wage fast food job have approximate hiring ratio of 14:1 (Newman & Lennon (1995) Study in Harlem, NY)... Warehouse and dockyard work had similar results for people in poorer inner-city neighborhoods. In poorer areas, people become locked into a fierce struggle for scarce opportunities at the bottom

Contemporary definitions of masculinity (Hybrid Masculinities)

Young white men may try to distance themselves from hegemonic masculinity and instead adopt aspects of black masculinity

Feminism (Second-wave)

a consciousness-raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life... gender structures relations between people in unequal ways