Chapter 6: Deviance

Out of Robert Merton's list of five personality types—conformist, ritualist, innovator, retreatist, and rebel—all but one is a deviant by Merton's definition.

True

What, in broad terms, is the definition of social deviance?

any transgression of socially established norms

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 educator?

as a rebel

Which of the following are necessary for a behavior or characteristic to be defined as deviant?

groups reactions, norms

The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance is an example of what stigma-related concept?

in-group orientation

passing a law that states that anyone committing fraud will be imprisoned for a minimum of twenty years

incapacitation

In the United States, imprisonment as a method of punishment was rare until what century?

19th century

The latest crime statistics in the United States suggest that eighteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds make up about ______ percent of the population but account for ______ percent of criminal arrests, while people sixty-five and older make up more than ______ percent of the population but account for less than ______ percent of arrests.

9, 20, 16, 2

Which of the following hypothetical scenarios are examples of social control in the United States?

parents often reminding their young children not to pick their nose, compulsory schooling laws for high school-aged students

the first act of rule breaking

primary deviance

Violent Crime

rape, robbery, murder, aggravated assault

Scandinavian and Nordic countries have prisons based on what type of punishment model?

rehabilitation

passing a law that states that first-time offenders for any violent crime will be submitted to a psychological evaluation and given mental health treatment

rehabilitation

a label that alters self-concept and social identity

secondary deviance, stigma

Which term, coined by Robert Merton, is based on the W. I. Thomas theorem that "if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences"?

self-fulfilling prophecy

The Amish

shunning

According to Erving Goffman, when one is labeled a deviant and experiences stigma, what does that individual acquire?

spoiled identity

Maria is the school chess champion and is invited to compete at a regional tournament. An opponent tells Maria that men are naturally better at chess than women. Upon hearing this, Maria becomes upset and worried about her performance and subsequently loses her first match. What has Maria just experienced?

stereotype threat

Which Greek word does "stigma" come from?

tattoo

Applied social interactionist theory to the dynamics of total institutions

Erving Goffman

Which of the following situations is an example of deviance avowal?

A man admits to his family that he is a smoker, and even if he quits, he will always be a smoker because the addition is lifelong.

Although the term often references race, which of the following is also an example of "passing"?

A man with wrist scars from an attempted suicide covers them by wearing long sleeves, even in the summer.

Which of the following statements about crime and gender have been supported by data from the last decade?

As women gain power in the labor market through education and income, crime rates among women rise to match those among men more closely.

What former method of punishment is now associated as a voluntary mark of pride among some African Americans?

Branding

Americans

Breast augmentation

Brazillians

Butt augmentation

Embraces socially acceptable goals and the means to achieve those goals

Conformist

The year 1991 saw the highest homicide rate in U.S. history, at 9.8 per 100,000 persons or 24,700 murders. Since then, the number has declined to 4.5 per 100,000 persons, or 14,196 murders in 2013.

Correct

Street Crime

Crime that has a smaller financial impact.

White Collar Crime

Crime that is committed in a different setting, Crime that does not involve force, Crime that is committed by a different group of people.

According to Émile Durkheim, which of the following are functions that deviance performs?

Deviance can help clarify moral boundaries, Deviance can promote social cohesion

Using labeling theory, place in order from first to last the stages by which a student, named Evan, assumes the role of social deviant.

Evan is late for school twice in one week, The school principal publicly calls Evan a truant, Evan's teachers and friends start to treat him as a troublemaker, Evan comes to think of himself as a rule breaker, Evan begins to break rules on a regular basis, Evan's behavior reflects his view of himself as a rule breaker.

Someone who admits that he has a problem, such as alcoholism, but wants to shake the stigma associated with it and change his life for the better is experiencing tertiary deviance.

False

The term "deviant" refers to a moral, not a social, judgment.

False

The Padaung

Neck stretching

Applied labeling theory to the question of how deviance begins

Howard S. Becker

Embraces socially acceptable goals but rejects the means to achieve those goals

Innovator

The Suri

Inserting plates to enlarge the lower lip

Which of the following are examples of Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory?

Justin begins using drugs regularly after hanging out with a group of peers who pressured him to do so. / Shanice finds some classmates defacing the women's bathroom with spray paint and joins in.

Researchers in a psychology experiment (Rosenhan 1973) applied labeling theory to the diagnosis of schizophrenia in a psychiatric setting. What was the experimental design?

Non-Schizophrenic persons first feigned mental illness, then reverted to normal behavior . The goal was to see how doctors would interpret the change.

According to Robert Merton, which of the following factors make someone a social deviant?

Not recognizing or not accepting socially approved goals, Failure to recognize and accept socially approved means of achieving one's goals

A psychology experiment (Rosenhan 1973) applied labeling theory to the diagnosis of schizophrenia in a psychiatric setting. What were the results?

Patients initially diagnosed with schizophrenia were kept under observation for several weeks, despite behaving normally all that time, An initial diagnosis of schizophrenia tended to color the medical staff's interpretation of patients' later behaviors.

rejects both socially acceptable goals and the means to achieve the goals; wants to change or destroy the social order

Rebel

Rejects both socially acceptable goals and the means to achieve the goals; does not participate in society

Retreatist

Embraces socially acceptable means but rejects the goals

Ritualist

Developed strain theory as a functionalist account of social deviance

Robert Merton

In labeling theory, what is the difference between primary deviance and secondary deviance?

Secondary deviance is an eventual effect of primary deviance, which is the initial deviant behavior.

Classify the following statements about deviance as either true or false.

What is considered deviant can vary across different cultures, What is considered deviant can change over time

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 on the social dynamics of large populations.

Property Crime

burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny

Native Americans

banishment from the community

Which of the following are currently considered deviant behavior throughout all regions of the United States?

cannibalism, cyberbullying

A sociologist believes that students with less money or connections who are caught plagiarizing are punished harshly and have fewer options afterward, whereas students with more financial or social resources can either transfer to another school or rely on their parents for help. What theoretical perspective does this thinking represent?

conflict theory

passing a law that states that anyone caught stealing an item or items valued at $1000 or more will have one hand cut off

deterrence

Colonial Americans

flogging, branding

What is the theory that explains the existence of social phenomena by the functions they perform?

functionalism

A citizen group sends letters to the governor of a southern state and asks her to reconsider stopping the execution of a man on death row convicted of murdering a police officer. The governor declines, stating that the purpose of the criminal justice system is to remove this convicted murderer from society so that everyone else can be protected. What type of justification for punishment is used by the governor?

incapacition

Offered a functionalist theory of the causes of suicide

Émile Durkheim