Sociology

What are some examples of the tensions between family rights/privacy and social institutions' responsibilities? (micro-macro connection, pp. 35-36)

.One such conflict between values in a society involves the cultural value of family privacy. Contemporary U.S. life is built on the assumption that what a family does in the privacy of its home is, or at least should be, its own business. Family life, many people believe, is best left to family members, not to neighbors, the government, the courts, or other public agencies.

What defines a group? (p. 27 and key terms) What is the challenge of "triads"? (p. 27) How are primary groups and secondary groups different from one another? (p. 28 and key terms)

A group is a set of people who interact more or less regularly with one another and who are conscious of their identity as a group. Your family, your colleagues at work, and any clubs or sports teams to which you belong are all social groups.The smallest group, of course, is one that consists of two people, or a dyad.Although triads might appear more stable than dyads because the withdrawal of one person needn't destroy the group, they develop other problems. If you're one of three children in your family, you already know that triads always contain the potential for coalitions—where two individuals pair up and perhaps conspire against the third.

What defines an organization? (p. 28 and key terms)

At an even higher level of complexity are social units called organizations, networks of statuses and groups created for a specific purpose.Organizations contain groups as well as individuals occupying clearly defined statuses and taking on clearly defined roles.Large, formal organizations are often characterized by a hierarchical division of labor. Each person in an organization occupies a position that has a specific set of duties and responsibilities, and those positions can be ranked according to their relative power and importance.

How is a status different from a role? (pp. 25-26 and key terms) What is an achieved status? What is an ascribed status? (pp. 25-26 and key terms)

But here we're talking about a status as any socially defined position a person can occupy: cook, daughter, anthropologist, husband, regular blogger, electrician, Facebook friend, shoplifter, and so on. Some statuses may, in fact, be quite prestigious, such as prime minister or president. An ascribed status is a social position we acquire at birth or enter involuntarily later in life. Our race, sex, ethnicity, and identity as someone's child or grandchild are all ascribed statuses. As we get older, we enter the ascribed status of teenager and, eventually, old person.An achieved status, in contrast, is a social position we take on voluntarily or acquire through our own efforts or accomplishments, such as being a student or a spouse or an engineer.

How do sociologists define the word "society"? (p. 20 and key terms)

Formally, sociologists define society as a population living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members are subject to the same political authority.whatever their form, contain both forces for stability, which he called "social statics,"

In the excerpt on the "Economics and Politics of Food" what are "pouring rights" and what institutions are interacting in the dynamics of pouring rights? (pp. 32-33)

One of the most controversial marketing strategies in the soft drink industry is the "pouring rights" agreement, in which a company buys the exclusive right to sell its products in all schools in a particular district. For instance, Coca-Cola paid the Rockford, Illinois, school district $4 million up front and an additional $350,000 a year for the next 10 years to sell its beverages in the schools (cited in Philpott, 2012).Besides the lump sum agreed to in the contract, companies frequently offer school districts cash bonuses if they exceed certain sales targets. Hence, it is in the district's financial interest to encourage students to consume more soft drinks. In light of such incentives, ethical implications and health concerns become secondary. Indeed, many school districts justify these agreements by saying that soft drinks pervade the culture and students will drink them anyway, so why not get some benefit?

What is globalization? (p. 37 and key terms) What are some benefits of increased globalization and what have been some costs (p. 37)*note, this discussion will be developed in further chapters!

One such force with deep implications for contemporary society is globalization, the process through which people's lives all around the world become increasingly interconnected—economically, politically, environmentally, and culturally (see Chapter 9 for more detail). For instance, representatives of 170 countries recently signed a global deal that would phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons—a substance used in cheap air conditioners that is linked to global climate change. While the move was meant to address the serious consequences of global warming, it had the effect of denying millions of poor people in India—one of the planet's hottest countries—the one affordable appliance they could buy to ease their heat-related suffering (E. Barry & Davenport, 2016).

Be able to recognize and provide an example for all of the components of the social structure (Exhibit 2.1, page 32)

Refer to diagram in chapter 2

Know the general position (key concepts and main assumptions) of the perspective of structural functionalism (pp. 38-39, Exhibit 2.2) Be able to recognize in an example the difference between a manifest and latent function (p. 39, Exhibit 2.2 and key terms)

Social institutions are structured to maintain stability and order in society. Manifest functions are the intended, obvious consequences of activities designed to help some part of the social system. For instance, the manifest function of going to college is to get an education and acquire the credentials necessary to establish a career. Latent functions are the unintended, sometimes unrecognized, consequences of actions that coincidentally help the system. The latent function of going to college is to meet people and establish close, enduring friendships. In addition, college informally teaches students how to live on their own, away from their parents.Dysfunctions Social stability

Know the general position (key concepts and main assumptions) of the symbolic interactionist perspective (Exhibit 2.2 and pp. 40-41)

Society is structured and maintained through everyday interactions and people's subjective definitions of their worlds.Symbolic communication Social interaction Subjective meaning. In contrast, symbolic interactionism attempts to understand society and social structure through an examination of the microlevel interactions of people as individuals, pairs, or groups. These forms of interaction take place within a world of symbolic communication. A symbol is something used to represent or stand for something else (Charon, 1998). It can be a physical object (like an engagement ring, standing for betrothal), a characteristic or property of objects (like the pink color of an equal sign, standing for same-sex marriage rights), a gesture (like a thumb pointed up, standing for "everything's OK"), or a word (like the letters d-o-g, standing for a particular type of household pet, or M-o-k-o-l-o-d-i, standing for my particular pet).

Be able to provide an example of values and norms that demonstrates how these are different concepts (pp. 34,36 and key terms)

Sociologically speaking, a value is a standard of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes (Hewitt & Hewitt, 1986). Values represent the general criteria on which our lives and the lives of others can be judged. They justify the social rules that determine how we ought to behave. For instance, laws against theft clearly reflect the value we place on personal property.Norms are culturally defined rules of conduct. They specify what people should do and how they should pursue values. They tell us what is proper or necessary behavior within particular roles, groups, organizations, and institutions. Thousands of norms guide both the minor and grand details of our lives, from the bedroom to the classroom to the boardroom. You can see, then, that norms serve as the fundamental building blocks of social order.

Know the general position (key concepts and main assumptions) of the conflict perspective and the feminist perspective (Exhibit 2.2 and pp. 39-40)

The conflict perspective addresses the deficiencies of structural functionalism by viewing the structure of society as a source of inequality that benefits some groups at the expense of other groups. Conflict sociologists are likely to see society not in terms of stability and acceptance but in terms of conflict and struggle. They focus not on how all the elements of society contribute to its smooth operation and continued existence but on how these elements promote divisions and inequalities. Power Inequality Conflict Dominance.One version of the conflict perspective that has become particularly popular among sociologists in the past few decades is the feminist perspective. Feminist sociologists focus on gender as the most important source of conflict and inequality in social life. Compared with men, women in nearly every contemporary society have less power, influence, and opportunity. In families, especially in industrialized societies, women have traditionally been encouraged to perform unpaid household labor and childcare duties, whereas men have been free to devote their energy and attention to earning money and power in the economic marketplace.Because this perspective focuses so much on struggle and competing interests, it tends to downplay or overlook the elements of society that different groups and individuals share. In addition, its emphasis on inequality has led some critics to argue that it is a perspective motivated by a particular political agenda and not the objective pursuit of knowledge.

What is a social institution? (p. 30 and key terms) What are some examples of major social institutions? (pp. 30 - 31)

When stable sets of statuses, roles, groups, and organizations form, they provide the foundation for addressing fundamental societal needs. These enduring patterns of social life are called social institutions. Family, Education, Economy, politics and law, Religion, Medicine and Health Care, Military, Mass Media.

How are role conflict and role strain different from one another? (pp. 26-27 and key terms)

Whether ascribed or achieved, statuses are important sociologically because they all come with a set of rights, obligations, behaviors, and duties that people occupying a certain position are expected or encouraged to perform. These expectations are referred to as roles. For instance, the role expectations associated with the status "professor" include teaching students, answering their questions, grading them impartially, and dressing appropriately.Sociologists use the term role strain to refer to situations in which people lack the necessary resources to fulfill the demands of a particular role, such as when parents can't afford to provide their children with adequate food, clothing, or shelter.Role conflict describes situations in which people encounter tension in trying to cope with the demands of incompatible roles. People may feel frustrated in their efforts to do what they feel they're supposed to do when the role expectations of one status clash with the role expectations of another. For instance, a mother (who also happens to be a prominent sociologist) may have an important out-of-town conference to attend (status of sociologist) on the same day her 10- year-old son is appearing as a talking pig in the school play (status of parent). Or a teenager who works hard at his job at the local ice cream shop (status of employee) may be frustrated when his buddies arrive and expect him to sit and chat or to give them free ice cream (status of friend).

Be familiar with examples of "social influence" (pp.22 - 23)

Whether we're aware of their doing so or not, other people affect our thoughts, likes, and dislikes. Consider why certain songs, books, or films become blockbuster hits. We usually think their popularity is a consequence of a large number of people making their own independent decisions about what appeals to them. But research shows that popularity is a consequence of social influence (Salganik, Dodds, & Watts, 2006). If one object happens to be slightly more popular than others—such as a particular song that gets downloaded a lot from iTunes—it tends to become more popular as more people are drawn to it. As one sociologist put it, "People tend to like what other people like" (D. J. Watts, 2007, p. 22).

Know the main hypothesis and findings of Milgram's obedience experiment (p. 24-25)

was that some people have traits that predispose them to obey authority, regardless of whether that...