SOC Unit 3

What do sociologists call informal rules and guidelines for behavior that are considered acceptable within a group?

folkways

A monetary fine, harsh words, and shaking one's fist are examples of

negative sanctions

A cultural group that exists harmoniously within a larger, dominant culture is called a

subculture

How are informal norms different from formal norms?

Informal norms are implicit and unwritten

How is culture transmitted and internalized?

We learn values and beliefs slowly and incrementally.

Which of the following groups is MOST likely to be classified as a counterculture?

a militia group living in Montana

Although many people believe that expectations for personal space are innate, members of many cultures are accustomed to noticeably less personal space than those of others. This helps demonstrate that people's expectations for personal space are

a part of our culture and, as such, are learned rather than innate.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, some people placed signs with crudely painted skeletons holding cell phones near roadways, usually facing freeway ramps. These signs indicated disapproval of using cell phones while driving, a practice some states have now made illegal. As a result of this social movement

an informal norm has become a law

The article "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" is useful to sociologists because it

challenges people's inability to observe their own cultures.

The French social theorist Jean-François Lyotard described contemporary culture in this way: "One listens to reggae, watches a Western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and 'retro' clothes in Hong Kong." He was writing about postmodernism, but what concept can help explain this mishmash of activities?

cultural diffusion

There are many sushi restaurants in the United States and many McDonald's-style fast-food restaurants in Japan. This is an example of

cultural diffusion

In 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. Fox News and CNN presented vastly different viewpoints of the ACA, appealing to either conservative or liberal viewers, respectively. The media's handling of this law is an example of

culture wars

The tendency to use your own group's way of doing things as the yardstick for judging others is called

ethnocentrism.

What has been achieved when the dominant culture, without the use of force, persuades the rest of society that its beliefs and values are the only or best values?

hegemony

Sociologists refer to the norms and values that people aspire to as ________ culture.

ideal

When Barack Obama's approval ratings were high, polls found that a larger number of people claimed to have voted for him than actually did vote for him. Historians report that the percentage of people who remember voting for any president rises and falls with the president's approval ratings, perhaps because more people believe that they should have voted differently. This belief is an example of

ideal culture

Coca-Cola was first marketed in the 1860s as a patient medicine, designed to offer the energy boost of cocaine without the vices of alcohol. The new beverage was invigorating and popular. Today, however, cocaine is not just banned but widely demonized. This is an example of

mainstream culture once approving of behaviors that are now considered deviant.

Designer labels on purses and logos on shirts are both examples of values.

material culture

It's all too common to see someone driving a car on a busy freeway while cursing and gesturing at another motorist whose poor driving has offended him or her. Cursing and gesturing are an individual's attempt at

negative sanctions

Many American colleges and universities require students to take classes on non-Western cultures. Why do these requirements exist?

to demonstrate the value of multiculturalism and to reduce ethnocentrism