SOC 101 MIDTERM REVIEW

Theory of Mind

the recognition that other minds exist, followed by the realization that we can try to imagine others’ mental states.

looking glass self

looking-glass self, the self that emerges as a consequence of seeing ourselves as we think other people see us

generalized others

magined members of specific social groups. Generalized others represent types of people, with a greater or lesser degree of specificity: teenagers, musicians, NASCAR lovers, dog people.

self fulfilling prophecy

a phenomenon in which what people believe is true becomes true, even if it wasn’t originally true.

social facts

values, cultural norms, and social structures that transcend the individual and can exercise social control. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim defined the term

socialization

that lifelong learning process by which we become members of our cultures.

signifier

things that stand for other things

binaries

categories we see as opposites or otherwise in opposition

associations

ideas that have nothing special in common except for the fact that they’re connected by a third idea

categories

subsets of things that we believe are sufficiently similar to one another to be considered the same

symbolic structure

a constellation of social constructs cnnected and opposed to one another in overlapping networks of meaning 

cultural objects

things like stop signs

cultural cognitions

red means stop

cultural practices

most of us stop at stop signs

cultural bodies

When our foot moves to the brake reflexively when we see a stop sign coming, it’s because our body has been culturally conditioned to respond in that way.

social learning

the transmission of knowledge and practices from one individual to another via observation, instruction, or reward and punishment

dual inheritance theory

the idea that our genetic evolution influences our cultural evolution, and vice versa

subcultures

subgroups within societies that have distinct cultural ideas, objects, practices, and bodies.

cultural values

notions as to what’s right and wrong. Values reflect moral commitments about the way things should be.

cultural norms

shared expectations for behavior.

agents of socialization

families, schools, peers, religion, media, work, military

interpersonal socialization

active efforts by others to help us become culturally competent members of our cultures. From politeness to potty training, through modeling and explicit instruction, others teach us how to get along in a complicated cultural world.

self-socialization

active efforts to ensure we’re culturally competent members of our cultures. As children, we’re eager copycats, mimicking the things that adults, older siblings, and fellow children do. As we get older, we watch our peers for clues as to how to be liked, envied, or feared.

social networks

webs of ties that link us to each other and, through other people’s ties, to people to whom we’re not directly linked.

informal ties

friends

formal ties

immediate family members

weak ties

following people on instagram

strong ties

best friends and family members

homophily

our tendency to connect with others who are similar to us.

cultured capacities

taught to respond physiologically to a socially constructed reality.

culture-as-value-thesis

we’re socialized into culturally specific moralities that guide our feelings about right and wrong

culture-as-rationale-thesis

the idea that we’re socialized to know a set of culturally specific arguments with which we can justify why we feel something is right or wrong.

cultural relativism

This is the practice of noting the differences between cultures without passing judgment.

social identities

the socially constructed categories and subcategories of people in which we place ourselves or are placed by others.

distinction

active efforts to affirm identity categories and place ourselves and others into their subcategories.

positive distinction

the claim that members of our own group are superior to members of other groups.

minimal group paradigm

the tendency of people to form groups and actively distinguish themselves from others for the most trivial of reasons 

social identity theory

people are inclined to form social groups, incorporate group membership into their identity, take steps to enforce group boundaries, and maximize positive distinction and in-group success 

invent 

how sexuality became an identity

divide

how we separate people into races

stereotype

how men and women are cast as different

perform

How we learn to act our age

rank

how we came to value thinness and fear fat

heteronormativity

the promotion of heterosexuality as the only or preferred sexual identity

race

a socially meaningful set of artificial distinctions falsely based on superficial and imagined biological differences. (race is a social fact)

psychological wage

a noneconomic good given to one group as a measure of superiority over other groups.

blood quantum rule

a law limiting legal recognition of American Indians to those who have at least a certain level of Indigenous ancestry.

gender binary

This is the idea that people come in two and only two types: masculine men and feminine women.

controlling images

pervasive negative stereotypes that serve to justify or uphold inequality.

status beliefs

collectively shared ideas about which social groups are more or less deserving of esteem.

explicit attitudes

beliefs that we choose to have, or at least know we have.

implicit attitudes

beliefs we have that we’re mostly unaware of, ones that our brains retrieve without our conscious participation.

status elite

People who carry many positively regarded social identities

intersectionality

our lives are shaped by multiple interacting identities.

norm of reciprocity

he idea that people should act toward one another in parallel ways

social rules

culturally specific norms, policies, and laws that guide our behavior.

folkways

Loosely enforced norms

mores

more tightly enforced norms that carry moral significance.

taboos

social prohibitions so strong that the thought of violating them can be sickening.

policies

rules that are made and enforced by organizations.

laws

rules that are made and enforced by cities, states, or federal governments.

social sanctions

reactions by others aimed at promoting conformity.

account

an excuse that explains our rule breaking but also affirms that the rule is good and right

symbolic interactionism

fundamentally, this is the theory that social interaction depends on the social construction of reality.

dramaturgy

the practice of looking at social life as a series of performances in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages.

impression management

efforts to control how we’re perceived by others.

face

a version of ourselves that we want to project in a specific setting, and doing face-work, the effort required to establish and maintain our face.

front stage

a public space in which we are aware of having an audience (we’re most performative in this state)

back stage

in private or semiprivate spaces in which we can relax or rehearse

marked identity

women

unmarked identity

men 

role identity match

men that are scientists

role identity mismatch

women that are scientists

indigenous methodologies

approaches to research partnerships with Indigenous communities that respect their ways of being, knowing, and learning

ethnomethodolgy

research aimed at revealing the underlying shared logic that is the foundation of social interactions. Ethnomethods, then, are a set of culturally specific background assumptions that we use to make sense of everyday life.

breaching

purposefully breaking a social rule to test how others respond.

deviance

behaviors and beliefs that violate social expectations and attract negative sanctions.

social deviance

the violation of norms, including mores, folkways, and taboos.

criminal deviance

crime, referring specifically to acts that break laws.

stigmatization

a process by which physical traits or social conditions become widely devalued. (being fat)

criminalization

collectively defining a trait or condition as criminal.(the history of alcohol)

medicalization

collectively defining physical traits or social conditions as an illness. (brain fag syndrome)

strain theory

the idea that deviance is caused by a tension between widely valued goals and people’s ability to attain them.

ritualist

you’ll take a retail job and work it without any hope that it will ever pay enough to enable you to afford an apartment. simply accept the failure to achieve your goal.

conformist

you’ll take the retail job, but with hope. believing that hard work will eventually bring you a promotion to assistant manager, then manager, and someday a salary sufficient to pay for that apartment.

innovation

involves accepting the valued goals but doing something deviant to attain them.

retreatism

the rejection of valued goals and a decision to opt out of trying to attain them.

rebellion

instead of simply opting out of society altogether, rebellion involves working to change societies by replacing the existing social goals with different ones

differential association theory

the idea that we need to be recruited into and taught criminal behavior by people in our social networks.

social disorganization theory

the idea that deviance is more common in dysfunctional neighborhoods.

neutralization theory

the idea that deviance is facilitated by the development of culturally resonant rationales for rule breaking.

denial of responsibility

a claim that rule breaking is outside of a rule breaker’s control (“it’s not my fault”).

denial of injury

a claim that the rule breaking is allowed because no one is harmed (no one got hurt)

denial of the victim

a claim that any harm that comes is deserved (they were asking for it)

condemnation of the condemners

a rejection of a critics moral authority to judge the rule breaker (you’re just as bad as me)

appeal to higher loyalties

the claim that rule breaking is justified in pursuit of a greater good (i did it for my family)

labeling theory

the process of assigning a deviant identity to an individual

primary deviance

the instance of deviance that first attracts a deviant label

secondary deviance

further instances of deviance prompted by the receipt of the deviant label