SOC100 Midterm

What is sociology?

The systematic study of society, social life, social change, social causes and consequence of human behaviour.

Sociologists study these societal connections at what levels?

• Social actions of individuals and groups

• Collective representations, ways of cognitively organizing the world

• Larger structures such as economy and the government

Sociology is different than other disciplines because of continuous cycle between theory and what methods?

Empirical and quantitative methods

What is empirical evidence?

Evidence obtained through scientific observation and experience

Positivist

Approach to theorizing that emphasizes explanation and prediction.

What do positivist approaches believe in?

knowledge can be developed objectively and without bias.

Foundation of sociology is in the relationship between:

Social forces (macro level)

Personal choices (micro level; agency)

Agency

Ability of individuals to make choices and act independently that shape their lives and social world.

Sociological imagination

Ability to perceive interconnections between individual experiences and larger sociocultural forces.

Who defined sociological imagination as a concept that articulates the relationship between “personal troubles” and “public issues of social structure”?

C. Wright Mills (American sociologist)

The quote: “Men make their own history, but they
do not make it as they please; they
do not make it under self-selected
circumstances, but under
circumstances existing already, given
and transmitted from the past.” is by who?

Karl Marx, one of the founding fathers and sociology, articulated the relationship between structural and agency.

Who are the main founding fathers of sociolgy?

Auguste Comte

Max Weber

Emile Durkheim

Karl Marx

What does the term “life chances” refer to and who termed it?

"Life chances" refers to the opportunities individuals have to improve their quality of life and achieve success based on their social status, and it was termed by Max Weber.

Strange in the familiar

Instead of assuming people’s actions are determined solely by personal choice, looking for ways that society shapes those choices.

General in the particular

The broader social patterns reflected in the actions of individuals

Three approaches to theory

1. positivist approach

2. interpretive approach

3. critical approach

Positivist approach focus on…

Objective explanation and prediction

Interpretive approaches focus on…

ways people understand themselves others and world around them. Assume no objected explanation and rather focus on people’s different understandings of the world.

Critical approaches focus on…

role of “power” in shaping social relations of domination and subordination.

What are the five sociological perspectives?

1. functionalism

2. conflict

3. symbolic interactionism

4. feminism

5. postmodernism

Functionalism

Concerned with how social order is maintained especially during times of significant societal change. (macro and positivist)

Manifest functions vs latent functions vs latent dysfunctions

1. intended functions that particular structures are meant to fulfill

2. unintended functions that have positive impact

3.  unintended functions that have negative impact

Emile Durkheim is associated with which sociological perspective?

Functionalism perspective

Emile Durkheim believed role of sociologists is to study…

social facts

Material vs. Non-material social facts

Refers to values, norms, institutions, and structures that exist outside of individuals but exert social control over them.

1. Tangible reality (money, government)

2. Intangible (morals, norms, values)

Who coined the term “anomie” and what does it refer to?

Emilie Durkheim; refers to traditional norms deteriorate, processes of social control decline, and institutions become dysfunctional. Arise during times of rapid social change.

“people become unregulated because breakdown of old norms, leading to…”

anomic suicide; proposed by Emile Durkheim to explain societal reasons that can lead to suicide

Conflict Perspective

Conflict theorists propose society is characterized by conflict and competition over scarce resources (macro, critical approach)

Karl Marx is associated with which sociological perspective?

Conflict perspective

What Marx believe regarding the bourgeoise and proletariat?

1. The proletariat experiences alienation from the product of their
   labour, the productive process, other workers, and their own humanity.

2. Bourgeoisie make profit out of proletariat’s labour by extracting surplus value

3. Believed schoalrs should engage in praxis

Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives

Focuses on how individuals create and interpret meaning through social interactions (Micro and interpretivist approach)

Erving Goffman is associated with which sociological perspective?

symbolic Interactionalist persepctive

Erving Goffman proposed the theory of ___, which conceptualized social life like a theatre, where there is a ___ and a ___

Dramaturgy; front stage (public performance given); back stage (private, unfiltered self)

Who theorized total institutions and what does it refer to?

Erving Goffman; places where people are segregated from the outside world and therefore must take on a specific social role and identity.

Feminist Perspective

• Micro: how individuals make choices, carry out everyday activities, interact with partners, socialize children

• Macro: how the structure of society can change, sometimes through social movements

Androcentric

male-centered

Dorothy Smith theorized that since men and women have occupied different positions in society, they have also developed distinct ___

Standpoints

Dorothy Smith is associated with which sociological perspective?

Feminism

Two types of postmodern perspectives

1. Skeptical postmodernism: propose social changes have created chaos that we cannot make any social understanding of the world

2. Affirmative postmodernism: proposes that due to societal upheavals, cannot rely on grant, overarching theories of society or broad categorizations of people

Sociologists working in this type of postmodernism deconstruct what is perceived as knowledge:

Affirmative postmodernism

Michael Foucault is associated with which sociological perspective?

Postmodernism

What did Michael Foucault argue about discourse and power?

• argued that power is expressed through discourse (debate?): ways of talking about social phenomenon, or the body of knowledge about that phenomenon

Positivist vs interpretivist approaches to family

1. Canadian census defines a family as parents/guardians and children living in the same dwelling

2. Take into account how people actually describe family; look at fictive kin

Fictive kin

people who are not related by blood, marriage, or adoption, but feel attached to one another and perform some of the same functions of a traditional family

1. ___ are the means for creating verifiable knowledge.

2. ___ provide a larger context of explanation for that knowledge

3. ___ enables us to evaluate and extrapolate that knowledge

1. Empirical research methods

2. Sociological theories and concepts

3. Critical thinking

Intrinsic cognitive load

refers to the inherent complexity of material being learned; cannot be eliminated

German cognitive load

the mental effort required to build connections between new information and existing knowledge; where we learn and retain knowledge; can be increased by actively engaging with material

Engaging our ___ means that we look for the ways those choices are intertwined with larger sociocultural forces

sociological imaginations

Prescriptive vs proscriptive norms

1. behaviors expected for one to perform

2. Rules outlining behaviors expected for one to refrain from doing

Folkways are informal norms based on accepted traditions for the ___

Generalized other

What are the 7 common unifying Canadian values?

1. Equality and fairness in a democratic society

2. Belief of consultation and dialogue

3. Importance of accommodation and tolerance

4. Support for diversity

5. Compassion and generosity

6. Attachment to Canada’s natural beauty

7. World image: commitment to freedom, peace, and nonviolent change

Who coined the term “internalization of norms?”

Emile Durkheim

True or False

Functionalists contend that shared cultural values are the foundation of society and what holds it together.

True

Talcott Parsons is…that believes culture is a generalized system of …

functional theorist; internalized symbols and meanings, along with role expectations (norms) and general values

True or False

Postmodernists emphasize the changing nature of society and believe that there is a one single unified Canadian Culture.

False; they believe there are many different countercultures and subcultures that make up Canadian culture

Symbolic interactionists are interested in how individuals communicate through…

 words, expressions, gestures, and clothing to create shared meanings.

What is the primary facilitator of culture?

Language

What did Ann Swidler argue about culture?

Culture influences action by providing a “tool kit” of habits, skills, and styles from which people construct “strategies of action?”

People have more cultural capacities than those they actually use. They draw on their ___ in particular situations

cultural “tool kit”

True or False

Youths from poor communities have same cultural tool kits from middle class youth but have different values.

False; Swidler suggests rather than having different values, youths from poor communities have different cultural tool kits from middle class youth.

What is popular culture?

well-liked everyday practices and products that are most desired by the masses

Richard Peterson used the term ___ to describe those of high social standing who enjoy high culture and are likely to participate in non-elite activities.

cultural omnivores

Cultural relativism

Ability to understand another culture in its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be coherent and meaningful

Ethnocentrism

Tendency to believe that one’s cultural beliefs and practices are superior and should be used as standard

What is the relationship between subculture and counterculture?

1. group that can be differentiated from mainstream culture by its divergent traits

2. type of subculture that strongly opposes core aspects of the mainstream culture

Socialization

lifelong process which people learn about themselves and their various roles in society in relation to one another

Biological determinism

belief that human behavior is controlled by genetic makeup

Behaviorism

School of thought that denies free will; claims all behavior is learned from the environment

True or False

Behaviorism is on the extreme end of “nurture”

True

What is regarded as natural experiments for nature vs. nurture?

Twins; they share 100% of their genes

Socialization is influenced by interplay between ___ preconditions and ___ factors

genetic; environmental

Bioecological theory of human development

Theory that views human development as dynamic process of reciprocal interaction where individuals play important role in shaping their environment in which they develop

True or false

We are born with a sense of self

False; Mead points out that self develops within and through interactions with others

What are the stages in Mead’s development of the self:

1. Preparatory stage

2. Play stage

3. Game stage

What occurs in the preparatory stage of Mead’s development of self?

Recognition and imitation of significant others

What occurs in the play stage of Mead’s development of self?

children start to take on role of others; start to see people exist in relation to one another

What occurs in the game stage of Mead’s development of self?

child is able to take into account several different roles simultaneously

The two parts of Mead’s representation of the Self

“I” - The relatively uninhibited and spontaneous self that is unique to the person

“Me” - Socialized self that acts in accordance with societal expectations

Cooley’s looking-glass shelf

Refers to the sense of ourselves developed based on perceptions of how others view us

True or false

A person with LGSO is more dependent on others’ perceptions for their sense of self

True; CSO is when they are more focused on themselves and less aware of others

What are the four principle agents of socialization?

1. Family

2. School

3. Peer group

4. mass media

What is considered to be the primary socialization agent?

Family

Agent of socialization

Groups, social institutions, or social settings that have the greatest amount of influence on the developing self

What two roles does the school have in being an agent of socialization?

Play central role in the transmission of cultural values and norms that are deemed important.

Also help maintain differential treatment of particular social groups.

Hidden curriculum

Unwritten and implicit norms, values, and beliefs learned in school

What role does the peer group have in being an agent of socialization?

Social comparison: how individuals evaluate themselves based on how they compare to others

Duff and Peace explain that children learn two important attitudes through early interactions with primary caregivers:

1. self esteem

2. interpersonal trust

What are the three types of fathers who take parental leave?

1. Committed - proactive and conscious

2. Conflicted - hold flexible views about men and women’s roles but rigid views about children’s gender socialization

3. Receptive - in between; egalitarian but not as proactive

What experiment did Youngcho Lee conduct?

Interviewed fathers who take parental leave

Howard Becker argued that one learns to become marijuana user through ___

Social interaction

Howard Becker posited that individual is only able to use marijuana for pleasure when they (3 steps):

1. Learn the technique

2. Learn to perceive the effects

3. Learn to enjoy the effects

What is a status?

Relates to any recognized social position held by an individual in society

True or False
A status can be social positions that does not need to exist in relation to others.

False; exist only in relation to others, not because it has prestige or title attached to it.

Ascribed vs. achieved statuses

1.  social positions that people inherit from birth or acquire involuntarily

2. social positions people obtain through personal actions

What is a master status?

Most influential status in an individual’s status set

True or False

Roles are the physical component of status.

False; they are the behavioral component of status.

Role conflict vs. role strain

1. Situation in which incompatible role demands exist as a result of two or more statuses held at the same time

2. Incompatible role demands exist within one status

“We hold ___, enact ___”

statuses; roles

Operationalizing

Process of determining how to measure something; turning abstract concepts into measurable observations

When assessing income, it is first crucial to adjust ___

inflation