Intro to Sociology
What is Sociology?
A scientific discipline that describes and explains human perceptions and behaviors.
What are experiments?
A scientific procedure that tests a hypothesis and follows the scientific method.
Examples of structural solutions to gender inequality.
Feminism organizations, equal rights, fair education systems, etc.
What are some examples of social institutions?
Health care system, the education system, the criminal justice system, the mass media economic system, religion, and the government.
What are the five steps in the scientific method?
1. Ask question 2. Review the literature/propose hypothesis 3. Collect data 4. Analyze data 5. Evaluate hypothesis
What is there percentage of wealth the top 20% have out of all the wealth in the US?
84%
What is intersex?
A category of people who have a combination of the standard biological differences between men and women.
What is a subculture?
A group of people that have specific cultural norms, values, and beliefs that are different or more intense from the rest of society but not counter to society.
Within group variation
A measurement of distance -or amount of variation- among members of the same group in regards to a particular characteristic.
Between group variation
A measurement of distance -or amount of variation- between two groups in regards to a particular characteristic.
What is ethnicity?
A set of socially constructed categories in which people place themselves and others based on perceived cultural traits.
What is the new social movement theory?
A set of theories that argue that social movements emerge and people stay involved because of a combination of cultural ideologies and personal identity.
What is interpretative sociology?
A sociological approach to studying society by focusing on how individuals see and understand their social environments and behaviors.
Quantitative
A strategy of collecting data that are mainly numeric in form and need statistical techniques for analyses in order to represent a population of people.
Qualitative
A strategy of collecting data which are based on observations and need interpretive techniques for analyses in order to understand the social life of a relatively small group of people.
Define looking-glass self.
A theoretical idea that people create a social identity by determining what they think other people think of them.
Structural functionalism
A theoretical perspective that sees society as a social system of interconnected social institutions, which have separate functions to help society survive over time.
What is structural strain theory?
A theory of deviance that focuses on the mismatch between society's achievement expectations and its available means of achievement.
What is white-collar crime?
A type of crime that is usually committed by business professionals or government workers who engage in fraud or run scams.
What is nonmaterial culture?
All of the non tangible features of human life for a set of people, including values, norms, and beliefs.
How can divorce be explained biologically, psychologically, and sociologically?
Biologically: women tend to divorce during their reproductive years, human brains are designed for divorce. Psychologically: they are not compatible because they have different personalities. Sociologically: divorce rates in countries, changes in economy or media, society relaxing its traditional beliefs.
What is cultural capital?
Cultural knowledge of the norms, values, beliefs, and practices of people who can make things happen.
T/F. A lot of social inequality is due to differences in personal attributes, such as ambition and intelligence.
False
Why was Chris Langan, from Outliers, not successful?
He lacks cultural competency.
What did Emile Durkheim explain in differences in suicide rates?
He noticed that some countries had more people in them that committed suicide than others. Catholic vs. Protestant religions: Catholics: more interaction, more people's help, considered a sin; Protestant: less interaction with people, less people's help in times of need, not considered a sin. Even when considering very personal decisions, the social context in which people reside has an influence on them, notwithstanding their unique individual qualities and this results in observable patterns of behavior over time and in different locations.
Gladwell's epilogue talks about who the most?
His mother and her own pathway to success.
When did Sociology emerge as an academic discipline?
In the late 1800s.
What is a public issue?
Individual and group problems that are a function of broader social structures in society.
What are sociologists most interested in?
Interactions between people and group behavior.
Why did Sociology emerge?
It developed in response to the world at that time, such as the US recently gaining independence and changes in the economy, technology, and politics.
When did Sociology emerge?
It emerged in response to the intellectual fervor of the Enlightenment Era and the rapidly changing social environment of the Industrial Revolution during the 19th century.
Who was the first female sociologist to win the Nobel Prize?
Jane Addams
Examples of agents of socialization.
Media, family, religion, etc.
Prejudice
Negative opinions, beliefs, and emotions toward a group or category of people.
Are people born with gender rather than learn gender?
No
Are race and ethnicity the same thing?
No.
Are sex and gender the same thing?
No.
Do all behaviors have negative outcomes for society?
No.
Do men and women have nearly the same annual income currently unlike 10 years ago?
No.
Does Sociology focus on individual characteristics to explain group behavior?
No.
Is Sociology a science just like physics and biology?
No. Suigeneris meaning "of its own kind."
Do social institutions change quickly?
No. The change very slowly.
Do cross sectional surveys ask the same people the same questions over a period of time?
No. This is longitudinal.
What are statuses?
One of three general dimensions of social stratification and inequality, as defined by Max Weber, involving a person's level of honor or prestige. (ex. police officer, president of the US, mother, sociologist)
Explanations of the economic gap between Whites and Blacks.
Residential segregation, racism, change in economy, etc.
What do sociologists examine in order to understand, explain, and predict human behavior and perceptions?
Social environmental differences such as education systems, community, and school systems.
In Gladwell's Chapter 1, how did he use "The Matthew Effect" to explain hockey and individual success?
Social organization like cut-off dates affect individual success. People who already have advantages are able to gain even more advantages. So those who are the oldest in the cut off groups will be stronger, faster, and smarter therefore will receive more attention and coaching and picked for better teams, play more games, and so on. So by starting off with this advantage, they receive more advantages.
INTERgenerational mobility
The changes in social positions across two or more lifetimes within the same family unit.
What is power?
The ability to achieve desired goals despite the opposition of others.
Discrimination
The action of denying an individual or group of people material goods or opportunities based on a categorical status.
Manifest function
The expected and intended outcomes of a part of the social system.
What is doing gender?
The idea that in Western culture, gender, rather than being an innate quality of individuals, is a psychologically ingrained social construct that actively surfaces in everyday human interaction.
What is cultural relativism?
The idea that using another culture's perspective will aid in understanding the reasons behind the culture's behaviors without making judgments.
What is social construction of reality?
The notion that people define what is real and what is not real through social interaction within social institutions.
INTRAgenerational mobility
The personal changes in social positions within an individual's lifetime.
What is presentation of self?
The process of people attempting to appear a certain way by using symbols and gestures.
What is a literature review?
The process of reading as many studies as possible on a particular area of interest in order to understand the main theories, methodologies, findings, and conclusions of the topic.
What did Karl Marx argue?
The social environment, particularly the economy, affects people a lot. It is the base to everything else because it provides the basic necessities of life, argues there is a superstructure that relies on the economy, and bourgeois (owners) have power over proletariats (workers).
What is a master status?
The social status of a person that dominates all of the other statuses in the individual's mind or the minds of other people and through which the person will be evaluated in terms of what role he or she is suppose to play in society.
What is triangulation?
The strategy of using different research methods to collect data on a single topic.
Role strain
The stress of having a social status that has very demanding roles.
Latent function
The unexpected and unintended outcomes of a part of the social system.
Examples of individual solutions to the problem of gender inequality.
Vote, volunteer, recognize position in society, etc.
Do social institutions create socially recognized gender symbols (pink for women and blue for men)?
Yes
Are 100,000 college students victims of alcohol-related sexual assault each year?
Yes.
Are surveys good research methods for representing a large population?
Yes.
Are the social services sector popular for sociology graduates?
Yes.
Can there be more than two categories for sex.
Yes.
Do whites have a median net worth over 10 times that of Blacks and Latinos?
Yes.
Does a norm have to have a sanction attached to the behavior?
Yes.
Is race based on ideas about biology rather than actual biology?
Yes.
