Sociology 1001 Exam 1
Functionalism
- (macro) cohesion, sees society as working together within the boundaries of similar norms and values in order to stay connected - Practices and institutions - addresses potential societal problems: institutions are about addressing societal problems (insurance, social security) - General agreement on core values and norms: Individuals conform to the rules of society because of a collective conscience (the reason we don't completely drift apart from one another) - Deviance and conflict arise from social strains: society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals - understanding society and larger global structures - Sees society as a cohesive system - Criticisms of functionalism - unable to explain changes in society + assumes that if the institution seem to be functioning smoothly, everything is fair/equal/justice
Symbolic Interaction
- (micro) understanding details of everyday life, meaning making, interaction and communication - Stimulus: asserts that people interpret meanings to a stimulus before they react (stimulus - interpretation - response) - Interpretation (and reinterpretation): asserts that social interaction is based on the constant interpretation and reinterpretation of situations - Socially constructed meanings: Meanings assigned to objects are socially constructed - Variation of meanings: different groups assign different meanings to the "same" object, events, and symbols, etc. - Transformation: established meanings are always subject to transformation (what it means to be a woman in the 1950's is not what it means to be a woman today)
Science
- A way to explain how things work
Social Behavior
- Actions and responses that stimulate individuals from one to another - Any stimulus that responds to past-present-or future, real or imagined, itself or any other organism -Humans are reflexive and can respond to themselves
Social Institution
- An established and organized system of social behavior with a recognized purpose. Groups of roles assemble to form institutions - Church: church member, church member, church member, altar boy, priest - Family: Mother, father, child, child - School: Homeroom teacher, main teacher, student, student, student, student - Social relationships can be made across social institutions
Behavior
- Any change in the energy of a living organism (to include feelings, cognition, perceptions and evaluations, or physiological responses such as blushing, etc.)
Kamy Cunningham Article "Barbie doll culture and the American waistland"
- Barbie is an anti-clone for every woman who wishes to be more than surface deep but she is alter ego ideal for American men - Women feel they have to be thin in order to be worthy - What message is Barbie sending about what beauty is? - Barbie has a virgin/***** paradox - Barbie creates unrealistic standards and expectations for women
Is capitalism bad according to Marx and Engels?
- Capitalism is neither good nor bad, it is a means of production - Capitalism is a system based off exploitation - Capitalism follows the previous mode of production....
Class consciousness vs. false consciousness
- Class consciousness: Ability of a particular class to understand the common position within a stratified system - False consciousness: Allows you to believe you are in a different class than you are (ex. credit cards)
In class documentary
- Documentary is about how teenagers have been able to make a name for themselves on social media - By talking about things they like, going outside the social norms, or showcasing a talent - Likes are a currency and can be translated into fame and popularity (even by association) - Social media fame can even lead to sponsorships which leads to money
Max Weber
- German sociologist and political economist - Known for: protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism, economy and society - Weber believed that Marxist theory was too simplistic, reducing all to a single economic cause
Basics of all good research
- Identify the problem/issue - Identify independent and dependent variables - Read - Plan - Funding
Experimental Design
- If a variable under Y conditions, what happens to Z - Quantitiative - Pros: Systematic/control, easier to get $$$, easier to conduct. hypothesis testing - Cons: Not in depth, artificially setting affects results (Hawthorne Effect) (people may act differently knowing they are being studies), are labs real life or...?, Reliance on college students, ethics (previous "unethical" experiments)
Paul Colomy Article "Three sociological perspectives"
- Micro vs. Macro - Symbolic, functionalist, and conflict perspective
Macro, Meso, Micro
- Micro: investigating the local (social groups, regions, smaller concepts within sociology and everyday life) - Meso: institutional level (education, religion, work) - Macro: larger societal picture (United States, particular social issues at the global level)
Culture
- Norms and values - Beliefs, knowledge, customs, ideology, morals, practices, norms, values - Culture is shared (Collectively experienced and agreed upon), Culture is learned (Culture is not natural), Culture taken for granted (We seldom disagree or question our cultural beliefs and practices because they are so normal to us), Culture is symbolic (We ascribe meaning to various symbols), Culture varies (Varies by time and space) - Values - ideals of a culture - Norms - rules that govern behavior in society - Values and norms are related in that values justify the norms of society
Field research
- Qualitative - Pros: In-depth, research flexibility, subjectivity/objectivity, Naturalistic, easily modified - Cons: Small samples hard(er) to generalize, Issues of rigor - snow-ball sampling hard to interpret findings, subjectivity/objectivity, Hard to get $$$ (often $=0), hard to conduct fieldwork
Surveys
- Quantitative (accounts for 40% of sociology research) - Pros: Systematic samples, large samples, Easier to get $$, Ready-made questions, Good for simple issues - Cons: Not in depth, assumes constancy of issues, Questions cannot be all inclusive, Limited complex matters. Subjects may misclassify
Quantitative vs. Qualitative research
- Quantitative: research using regression, surveys, numbers - Qualitative: intimate micro-level - understand how an entire social unit operates in its own terms
Role Strain
- Refers to a person's decision to choose between normative expectations and anticipations within a role
Role Conflict
- Refers to a person's decision to choose one role over another - Ex. at work and your kid is sick at school - do you stay at work or go check on your child (parent vs. businessperson)
Todd Schoepflin Article "Attention in everyday life"
- Role of attention in everyday life - In a healthy society we aim to share attention - Gender socialization is a factor in attention giving and getting
Vicki Abt and Mel Seesholtz Article "The shameless world of Phil, Sally, and Oprah: Television talk shows and the deconstructing of society"
- Social order cannot be derived from the laws of nature and only exists as a product of human activity - Norms, values, and judgmental expressions create limits on social behavior - Television is rewriting our cultural scripts, altering our perceptions, our social relationships, and our relationships to the natural world - Tv talk shows offer a world of blurred boundaries and increasingly bizarre stories are constructed to maintain audience share - Rather than being mortified or ashamed or trying to hide their stigma guests willingly discuss their child molesting, sexual quirks, and criminal records to seek understanding - The hidden message is that the way to get on tv is to be as outrageous and antisocial as possible - Media is instrumental in shaping how we view society - Changing what we see as norms and culture
C. W Mills Article "The sociological imagination"
- Sociological imagination - Troubles vs. Issues - Sociologists ask these main questions: 1.) What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? 2.) Where does this society stand in human history? 3.) What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period? - We don't recognize institutional or societal problems - we look at individual problems -I am socialized in a particular context, in a particular country, etc. - The longer I stay in this particular context, the greater the likelihood that I embrace the ideas that come about (perspective becomes limited)
What is sociology?
- Sociology is devoted to discovering the general in the specific - the science of patterns of human social behavior - Use of scientific method to understand and interpret repetition commonality of human social behavior - Institutions interacting with people, people with groups, groups with global systems, etc. - Sociology is about understanding why and how individuals interact and communicate within a society - Most of us go through life with very limited ideas about how the world operates - We can call this "narrow mindedness" which just means "limited exposure"
Peter Berger Article "Sociology as a passion to understand"
- Sociology is not a practice but an attempt to understand. It is very different from social work - A Sociologist is a person intensively, endlessly, and shamelessly interested in the doings of men - Sociologists lives in society on the job and off of it - Not everyone is cut out to study sociology you must be passionate - Don't study sociology if you just want everything to be as you learned it in Sunday School - Use scientific method to the extent its possible - try to be as unbiased as possible - Peter Berger said it is most important to collect data, be unbiased, and make a strong analyses - Debate in sociology on whether to use findings to apply and practice in daily life
Horace Miner Article "Body ritual among the Nacirema"
- The Nacirema are a North American group living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carbib and Arawak of the Antilles - The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease - Mans only hope to avert these characteristics is through the use of powerful influences of ritual and ceremony - While each family has at least on shrine, the rituals associated with it are not family ceremonies but are private and secret - Nacirema have a hoor and fascination of the mouth, the condition of which is believed to have a supernatural influence on social relationships - Daily ritual performed only by men - lacerating the surface of the face with an instrument - Ritual performed only by women 4 times a month - women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour - Conception is very infrequent - When pregnant, women dress to hide their condition
"The a academy of future science faculty: randomized controlled trial of theory-driven coaching to shape development and diversity of early-career scientists" Article
- The Unites States and undoubtedly successful, talented, and creative but lacks diversity - A rare opportunity arose to develop and test our coaching intervention through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009
Communist Manifesto
- The bipolar relationship of class any society can be divided into two main groups of people - proletariat: working class - bourgeoisie: upper class - History of class struggles - Limitations: Is Class Everything? ***Race ***Gender
W.E Burghardt Du Bois Article "The study of negro problems"
- The phenomena of society are worth the most careful and systematic study - Purpose of this paper concerns the study of societal problems effecting American Negros - failure of an organized group to realize its group ideals 1.) Historical development of the negro problems - A social problem is the failure of an organized social group to realize its group ideals, through the inability to adapt a certain desired line of action to given conditions in life - The negro problem has had a long historical development 2.) The present negro problems - Today, the point at which they fail to be incorporated into tis group life constitute the particular negro problems which can be divided into two parts - Negroes do not share the full national life because as a mass they have not reached a sufficiently high grade of culture - Mass of this race does not reach social standards of the nation with respect to - Economic condition, Mental training Social efficiency 3.) The necessity of carefully studying these problems First we should study the Negro problems in order to distinguish the different and distinct problems affecting this race 4.) The work already accomplished The work done bears but a small proportion of the work still to be done 5.) Program of future study 6.) The proper agents for this work
Troubles vs. Issues
- Troubles: occur within the individual (private matter) (ex. I fail the first exam and 297 pass the exam) - Issues: Transcend individuals (public matter) (ex. 200 students fail the first exam)
Karen Sternheimer Article "Using archival data in sociological research"
- Usually required archival data - something from the past that has been said that we can go back to and examine - Archival data can be information collected for future research or newspapers, magazines, personal journals, and diaries - Useful for studying cultural shifts and to observe changing narratives - Essentially anything from the past can later be useful as archival data
David Embrick Article "Introduction to societies, institutions, and individuals"
- We find very simple explanations to things when really human behavior is anything but simple - Troubles vs. Issues - Sociology is about understanding why and how individuals interact and communicate within a society - Sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two in society
Socialization
- a process in which infants are made to learn and accept the normative expectations and anticipations of her/his/their culture and society
Social Role
- collections of norms associated with position in a group or society - Ex. Person A (father, brother, husband, professor, businessman, pastor)
Sociological Imagination
- enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals - enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society - Allows us to see the relationship between individuals and society - C. W. Mills
Social relationship
- it is within these social roles that we can communicate with one another - Essence of social relationships (and how we are able to communicate) - Ex. Person A (student) - Person B (instructor)
How is society formed?
- normative expectations and anticipations
Manifest vs Latent Content
- school example - Manifest function: learn reading, writing, math - Latent function: make friends, racial identity
Conflict Perspective
- sees society in constant conflict - conflict occurs when people want things that are in short supply - Institutions - maintain stratified order - Institutions and practices promote the interests of the more powerful interest groups in society while subverting the interests of the subordinate group - Dominant ideology serves to preserve the current system of inequality - Social change is better reflected by social movements and collective actions - Limitations of conflict theory - overly deterministic, too much emphasis on "revolutionary" changes, as opposed to understanding society as a series of incremental changes, presumes that everything only benefits the ruling class
Collective behavior
- short or limited social interactions with no clear social boundaries and generates weak or unconventional norms (ex. Rumors, riots, panics, trends)
Groups of Social Roles
- social institutions (also governed by a separate set of normative expectations and anticipations ... how groups would act within a church setting compared to a family setting etc.) - social system
Ethnocentrism
- the belief that one's society is inherently better, more civilized, or more superior to another society
Society
- the cultural practices and norms of a given group of people and its institutions within a geographical location
Subcultures
- the cultures of various groups whose values and norms differ from those of the dominant culture
Social construction
- the meaning assigned to various aspects of a particular culture or subculture, usually by the majority population - When you apply stereotypes and generalizations and categorize them it becomes real - Properties of social construction: fluid and historically contingent, meanings differ between not only different cultures in different countries but may also differ between different cultures within the same country, People determine the meaning and legitimacy of socially constructed concepts - If something is not socially constructed there can be no variation
Countercultures
- the subcultures created as a reaction against the values of the dominant culture
Marxism and conflict theory
-Stratification stems from differences in power between conflicting groups - Economic groups are the most basic and most relevant stratification categories
