soc 200-unit 1 terms and concepts
W.I. Thomas
"If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
3 experiments of conformity
-Asch experiment: actors planted in a group influenced others to give wrong answers -Stanford prison experiment: people take roles seriously -Milgram experiment: subject chose to administer painful electric shock when told to.
Erving Goffman
-Dramaturgy -Impression management
Sigmund Freud's 3 components of self
-Id: the biological, pleasure-seeking drive -Ego: logical center that restrains the Id -Super ego: takes into account the demands of society; what does society say I should do?
George Herbert Mead's 3 stages of development
-Prepatory (mimicking) -Play (taking on various roles/perspectives) -Game: role of "generalized other." Taking on the role of entire culture.
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development
-Sensorimotor (0-2). Integrating senses and action. No symbol comprehension, only imitation.- Pre-operational (2-7). Egocentric. Cannot take on other perspectives.- Concrete operational (7-11). Causal connections. Things can have multiple simultaneous descriptors (i.e. a father is also a son). Formal operational (11+). Abstraction, metaphors.
material vs symbolic culture
-Symbolic: values, behaviors, beliefs, language. Examples: signs, logos. -Material: physical objects
3 types of norms ranked
-Taboos: universal, deeply ingrained in thinking, violation induces disgust -Mores: great moral significance. All laws are mores; not all mores are laws .-Folkways: loosely enforced norms for smooth, everyday interactions
Karl Marx
-conflict theory -capitalism causes conflict between bourgeois and proletariat
Emile Durkheim
-structural functionalism -conducted a study on suicide with social isolation (those who were isolated had higher suicide rates) -coined term anomie
Origin of Sociology
18-19th century. Occasioned by rapid change during industrial revolution.
spurious correlation
3rd variable causing correlation between 2 other variables
symbolic interactionism
A micro-level theory in which meaning is generated by interaction between people through symbols
groupthink
A situation in which group members seek unanimous agreement despite their individual doubts
Resocialization
Adult socialization often requires the replacement of previously learned norms and values with different ones
Crimes and Punishments
America: imprisonment Amish: Stunning Native Americans: Total banishment Colonial America: Flopping
Talcott Parson
American Functionalist For society to survive there must be social cohesion
Central American values and Christian values
American values: -achievement -effectiveness -technology -material comfort -progress Christian Values: -hospitality -simplicity -faithfulness -peace -community
grounded theory
An inductive method of generating theory from data by creating categories in which to place data and then looking for relationships among categories
Group
At least 2 people who share an attribute and identify with one another
Passing
Attempting to remove stigma by presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group you belong to
Robert Putnam
Bowling Alone Book -argues that we no longer practice the type of civic engagement that builds democratic community and keep anomie at bay
primary vs seondary
Charles Horton Cooley Primary: deep feelings of belonging (i.e. family, close group of friends) Secondary: only together for an activity (i.e. colleagues, sport team)
culture war
Clashes over what the dominant norms should be.
self
Conscious awareness that one's identity is distinct from others
values
Core beliefs you hold regarding what is right and fair in terms of our actions and our interactions with others.
Cultural diffusion, cultural leveling, cultural imperialism
Cultural diffusion:Cultural change can also occur when different groups share their material and nonmaterial culture with each other Cultural leveling: occurs when cultures that we were once distinct become increasingly similar to one another Cultural Imperialism: the imposition by one usually politically or economically dominant community of various aspects of its own culture onto another nondominant community.
David Matza, Leila Rupp, and Verta Taylor
David Matza: naturalism? Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor: Drag Queen
Deviance and conflict theory
Deviance is created by powerful people who make the rules and marginalize "deviants," thus creating inequality Richard Quinney
Deviance and Structural Functionalism
Deviance serves a function by clarifying moral boundaries and promoting cohesion.It prevents anomie. Sub theories: Social control theory Structural strain theory
culture shock
Disorientation due to lack of knowledge about norms of a different culture.
Social Network
Duncan Watts the social ties radiating outward from the self that link people together
Dyad and Triad
Dyad: the smallest possible social group consists of only two members triad: three person; slightly more stable because the addition of a third person means that conflicts two members can be referred by the third
Differential association theory
Edwin Sutherland's hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our associations with deviant peers
Herbert Spencer
English philosopher and sociologist who applied the theory of natural selection to human societies (1820-1903) Coined the social darwinism (survival of the fittest)
Stigma
Erving Goffman Stigma leads to exclusion physical, moral, tribal
structural functionalism
Everything in society has a function. Things may have a latent or manifest function. They may also have a dysfunction (negative or adverse function). solidarity, mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity Robert Merton and Talcott Parson
Interviews
Face-to-face with open-ended questions
Agents of socialization in America
Family, friends, peers, media, schools
The strength of weak ties
For jobs, weak ties (people who not close to you; mutual friends) are the ones who help you get positions.
Front vs back stage
Front stage -we play a role and use impression management to craft the way we come across to other people -what we present to others Back stage -we can let down our guard and be ourselves -the real us ex: -front stage is the way we dress and behave at school or work, and back stage is how we dress at home
Labeling Theory
Howard Becker The labels people give you are a self-fulfilling prophecy. If people say you are deviant, you will begin to act deviant.
George Herbert Mead's theory of Self
I and Me. I: spontaneous, unsocialized, doesn't care about what other thinks Me: objective and restrained. The Generalized Other.
Ideal culture vs real cultures
Ideal: the norms and values that members of a society believe should be observed in principle, and real culture Real: the patterns of behvaior that actually exist
Deviance: Symbolic Interactionism
Interpersonal relationships and everyday interactions affect how you understand deviance. Sub-theories: -Differential association theory -Labeling -Stigma -Passing -in-group orientation
Dramaturgy
Life is a stage with a script given by culture, each person playing a role
Charles Cooley
Looking glass self: We are what we think people think we are. We base ourselves on our perception of other's judgment of how we appear to them.
Mark Granovetter Matt Hoffman and Lisa Toerres David Pedulla and Devah Pager Nicholas Christaki and James Fowler
Mark Granovetter: -findings show the importance of weak ties for things like job hunting because the types of weak ties we have can determine the type of jobs we can get Matt Hoffman and Lisa Toerres -women are simply less likely than men to hear about job leads and women who do hear about job leads are more likely to pass along that information to men David Pedulla and Devah Pager -The key factor was that black applicants had less effective network searches than white candidates. Nicholas Christaki and James Fowler -provide another example of how transmission happens between individuals belong to similar social network
George Ritzer
McDonaldization (mechanization of society) the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world
consequential strangers
Melinda blau and Karen Fingerman people we might not think of as mattering much to our sense of happiness or well-being but who nonetheless play an important role in our other fragmented postmodern lives
ethnography
Participant observation. You become part of a group to understand it from the inside. rapport thick description autoethnography reflexivity
sanctions
Positive or negative reactions to how people conform/do not conform to norms.
psychosexual stages
Proposed that between infancy and adulthood, the personality passes through four distinct psychosexual stages of development stage 1-3: occurs between stages 1-5; people usually don't remember what happened but it sets the stage for the rest of one's adult life stage 4: begins around the age of twelve Only a few people successfully complete this final transition to maturity sub terms: -oral fixation -anal retentive
deviance avowal
Ralph turner when some potential deviants may actually initiate the labeling process against themselves or provoke others to do so
Experiments
Rarely used method. Formal tests where variables can be controlled. Experimental group: receives treatmentControl: no treatment
Carol Gilligan
Research assistant to Kohlberg. Moral development is different for girls. -Boys: justice, ruled -Girls: caring, responsibility
In-groups vs out-groups
Robert Merton In-group: you identify with and are loyal to them Out-group: you feel hostile towards them
Role conflict, Role strain, Role exit
Role conflict: difficulty in satisfying the requirements or expectations of multiple roles Role strain: difficulty in satisfying multiple requirements of the same role Role exit: dropping of one identity for another
norms
Rules regarding acceptable/appropriate behavior for certain situations
Peter Berger
Seeing the general in the particular.How people are influenced by general forces. How patterns arise.
Culture
Set of beliefs, values, behavior, and objects that define a people's way of life.
Lawrence Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development
Similar to Piaget. -Pre-conventional: what feels good/bad -Conventional: what we are told, what pleases cultural norms -Post-conventional: Abstract judgments (i.e. it is illegal, but is it wrong?)
social control theory
Social bonds decrease deviance and crimes, and increase conformity
contagion
Social people are more likely to have friends who are also social, increasing probability of spread you have complete control over those you directly connected to, but you don't have much control over people you are indirectly connected to
Social Conflict Theory
Society is shaped by inequality and power struggles, such as between race and gender.
C. Wright Mills
Sociological imagination: The ability to see the impact of social forces (public issues) on individuals, especially their private lives (personal troubles). Marginalized people and those who lived through social crises are more likely to have sociological imagination. personal issue becomes public issues
structural strain theory
Strain is caused when people cannot meet the goals of society. Society/culture has goals, as well as acceptable means to achieve them. -Accept goals, accept means: conformity -Accept goals, reject means: innovation -Reject goals, accept means: ritualism -Reject goals, reject means: retreatism -New goals, new means: rebellion
Erving Goffman and deviance
Studied stigma as a result of deviance. Stigma leads to exclusion of an individual. "spoiled identity"
Socialization
The process of learning and internalizing culture. It is facilitated through language and lasts through one's lifetime.
Theories and Theoretical paradigm
Theories: Abstract proposition about how things are and should be Theoretical Paradigm: a set of fundamental assumptions about society that guides sociological thinking
cultural relativism
Understanding another culture on its own terms (opposite of ethnocentrism)
Ethnocentrism
Using one's own culture to judge other cultures as weird/abnormal
positivism
Using the scientific method to study society
impression management
We work to control what other people think of us
deviance
a behavior, trait, belief, or other characteristic that violates a norm and causes a negative reaction
Reference Group
a group that provides standards by which a person evaluates their own personal attributes. reference group may also be one to which we aspire to belong but of which we are not yet a member
rites of passage
a ritual to solidify boundaries between in- and out-groups that creates new identities and new norms. Example: graduation ceremony, hazing
Emotional Labor
a situation in which an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work
Harriert Martineau
advanced work of comet: translated Comte's introduction to positive philosophy into English a sociologist who study and promoted feminist issues full citizenship for women and black people
instinct
animals survive off of instincts. for humans culture is instincts
Saturated Self
claims that postmodern individual tends to have a pastiche personality one that borrows bits and pieces of identity from whatever sources are available -Kenneth Gergen; interactionist
Richard Quinney
conflict theory a sociologist says that the ruling class defines deviant behavior as behavior that threatens their power base.
crowd, category, aggregate
crowd: temporary gathering of people in a public place; members might interact but do not identify with each other and will not remain in contact aggregate: people who happen to find themselves together in a partial physical location; don't form lasting relations category: don't regularly interact with one another or have any common sense of connection other than their status in the category (Korean American)
David Rosenhan
did study in which healthy patients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals and diagnoses with schizophrenia; showed that once you are diagnosed with a disorder, the label, even when behavior indicates otherwise, is hard to overcome in a mental health setting the sticky deviant labels can follow them through their lives, even after they leave the hospital
Edwin Sutherland
differential association theory
dominant culture, subculture, counterculture
dominant: values, norms, and practice of the most powerful group subculture: A particular social group that has a distinctive way of life, including its own set of values and norms, practice, and beliefs, but that exists harmoniously within the large mainstream culture counterculture: Differs from subculture in that its norms and values are often incompatible with or in direct opposition to the mainstream
Methods of sociological study
ethnography interviews experimental surveys existing sources
Copresense
face-to-face interaction or being in the presence of others
Auguste Comte
founder of sociology and positivism
status
is a position in the social hierarchy that comes with a set of expectation ascribed status: the one you are born with embodied status: our physical selves achieved status:the one we have earned through our own efforts master status: a status that seems to override all other in our identities
August Landmesser
joined the nazi party in 1931 because he thought it would help him get employed, and married a Jew, tried to Nazi but was caught at the border. He is sentenced to 2 years of jail time. His wife was sent to the euthanizing center, and he goes to the army and gets killed during the war. he committed an incredible act of deviance but it is positive because he stands up for what he thinks is wrong
Howard Becker
labeling theory
Max Weber
macro sociological theorist value free sociology proposed that modern industrialized societies were characterized by efficient, goal orientated, ruled-governed bureaucracies identified three types of authority -traditional -legal -charismatic
Microsociology vs. Macrosociology
microsociology = focuses on individual face-to-face, everyday social interactions macrosociology = focuses on populations, social systems and structure
Postmodernism vs modernism
postmodernisms: the rejection of the idea of a single, shared understanding of history and society; mini-narriatives modernism: a cultural movement embracing human empowerment and rejecting traditionalism as outdated
Primary, secondary, and tertiary deviance
primary: the thing that gets them labeled in the first place secondary deviance: deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant tertiary deviance: John kitsuse; occurs when the person labeled deviant rejects the notion of deviance entirely and attempts to refine their deviant attributes or behavior as normal
Total institution
prisons, cults, mental hospitals; residents are servered from their previous relations with society, and thier former identities are systematically stripped away and reformed
proletariat and burgeoises
proletariat: workers; those who have no means of production of their own burgeoises: owners; the class of modern capitalist
Deviant Heros
refer to individuals who violate norms and risk the repercussion for doing so out an intention to create positive social change ex: Colin Kapernick who kneeled during the national anthem
anomie
sense of normlessness, disconnect, alienation due to rapid social change
Travis Hirschi
social control theory
solidarity mechanical solidarity organic solidarity
solidarity: unity; present in all types of societies mechanical solidarity: on the basis of shared traditions, beliefs, and experiences organic solidarity: people's bonds were based on the tasks they performed in interdependence and individuals rights
Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou
stereotype promise
Robert Merton
structural strain theory self-fulfilling prophecy (similar to Thomas theorem)
different cultures (videos)
suri-insterting plates brazilian- butt augmentation American-breast augmentation padaug-neck stretching
George Herbert Mead's sociological theory
symbolic interactionism
critical theory
the contemporary form of conflict theory that criticizes many different systems and ideologies of domination and oppression
Jack Katz
the deviant's own in the moment experience of committing a deviant act (aka foreground)
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
the idea that different languages create different ways of thinking language is so important that it influences the way we perceive things
manifest functions
the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern
latent functions
the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern