Chapter 6 InQuizitive Questions
A psychology experiment (Rosenhan, 1973) applied labeling theory to the diagnosis of schizophrenia in a psychiatric setting. What were the results?
-An initial diagnosis of schizophrenia tended to color the medical staff's interpretation of patients' later behaviors. -Patients initially diagnosed with schizophrenia were kept under observation for an average of almost 3 weeks, despite behaving normally all that time.
What does Durkheim hypothesize will happen over time as a society becomes more and more fully modern in character?
-One may expect the death penalty to entirely disappear. -The ratio of organic to mechanical social sanctions will increase.
In this picture, taken in 1944, a mob marches through the streets of Paris two French women accused of collaborating with the Nazis. This event illustrates a couple of points Durkheim makes about the function of social sanctions. What are those points?
-Social sanctions reinforce the boundaries of acceptable behavior. -Social sanctions bring people together as they act to deal with offenders.
How, according to Conley, does the deviant member of a society end up contributing to the strengthening of the social fabric?
-The deviant member publicly reminds everyone of the line between what is acceptable and what is not. -The other members of the group join together in order to punish and/or rehabilitate the offender.
How does the terrible treatment of prisoners held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2005 mirror the results of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment, done more than 30 years earlier?
-Unchecked authority leads to abuse of power. -Uncertainty in stressful situations leads to abuses. -Social expectations help foster abusive environments.
What are the distinguishing features of a symbolic interactionist theory of social deviance?
-a recognition of the impact of assigning labels to behaviors and to people -a focus on individual psychology rather than the social dynamics of large populations
What would be likely applications of the broken windows theory of social deviance?
-graffiti-proofing walls with a wash-off coating -a crackdown on petty crime, like drinking in public
Which of the following would be recommended by differential opportunity theory as a way of reducing crime?
-kids playing on the sidewalk, keeping watch for a parent's return from work -a shopkeeper writing down the license plate numbers of cars driving too fast
In labeling theory, what is the difference between primary deviance and secondary deviance?
Secondary deviance is the after effect that follows the initial deviance
The graph shows the number of persons executed in the U.S. each year from 1976 to 2012, and also the racial breakdown. Based on this information, what can be said about Durkheim's views on modern versus premodern punishment? A stacked bar graph describes "Number of Executions and Race of Prisoners Executed, 1976-2012."
The graph suggests that the death penalty has ore staying power than Durkheim would have expected.
What are the documented results of "scared straight" programs to keep young people from ending up in jail as first offenders?
Young people who go through scared straight programs are more likely to break the law.
Bentham called his design for a prison the panopticon. What does that word mean?
all-seeing
What, in broad terms, is the definition of social deviance?
any transgression of socially established norms
According to Erving Goffman (1961), a total institution is distinguished by "a breakdown of the barriers separating [the] three spheres of life." What, according to Goffman, are the three spheres?
play work sleep
An educator, disgusted with standardized testing and teaching methods, decides to start a charter school that doesn't give students grades and encourages creative thinking over rote learning. How would Robert Merton's strain theory of deviance classify this character?
rebel
