Sociology of Deviance and Stigma

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering deviance definitions, theoretical conceptions, research methodologies, and Erving Goffman's sociological framework of stigma.

Deviance

The violation of social norms.

Norms

Rules of behavior that guide people's actions and self-presentations.

Folkways

Everyday norms based on customs, tradition, and etiquette that do not generate much uproar if violated.

Mores

'Moral' norms that may generate more outrage if broken, such as overt racism.

Law (as a norm)

Considered the strongest category of norm because it is backed by official sanctions.

Normative / Positivist Conception of Deviance

A perspective that assumes there is a general set of norms of behavior, conduct, and conditions on which society agrees.

Social Constructionist / Relativist Conception

A perspective holding that deviance is constructed through the interactions of those in society; behavior is not inherently deviant but becomes deviant when defined as such.

Critical Conception of Deviance

A perspective that critiques the social system, asserting that the normative understanding of deviance is established by those in power to maintain and enhance that power.

ABC's of Deviance

Adler & Adler's framework stating that people can be labeled deviant through Attitude, Behavior, or Condition.

3 S's of Deviance

Adler & Adler's three categories through which deviance can be perceived and interpreted: Sin, Sickness, and Selection.

Medicalization Model (Sickness)

An explanation of deviance emerging in the first half of the 20th century where behaviors are prospected by medical interests for potential monetary gain, shifting deviance from immoral to 'beyond their control.'

Selection (The S's)

The perception that deviance is intentional and within the person's control, meaning people choose to engage in it.

Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills's concept that the only way to truly understand an individual's experience is to first understand the societal, institutional, and historical conditions the individual is living under.

Deductive Research

Research where questions originate from a theoretical perspective, hypotheses are created, and data are gathered and interpreted to determine if hypotheses are supported.

Inductive Research

Research that begins with a research question, gathers observations or data, identifies common themes, and builds theory from the ground up ('grounded theory').

Functionalism

A macro-level theory that views society as a system of interconnected parts working together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium.

Symbolic Interaction

A micro-level perspective asserting that society is built from face-to-face interactions where people create meaning through symbols, viewing deviance as a label given through interaction rather than a property of an act.

Commitment Ceremony

A highly public and dramatic process (such as a criminal trial or verdict announcement) by which an individual identified as deviant is negatively labeled and experiences an enduring status change.

Anomie

'Normlessness'; conceptualized by Durkheim as a breakdown in social regulation and by Merton as a mismatch between culturally approved goals and the legitimate means to achieve them.

Strain Theory (Merton)

A macro-level theory positing that American culture pushes everyone toward material success, but legitimate means are unequally available, generating strain that leads to deviance.

Innovation (Merton)

A mode of adaptation where an individual accepts cultural goals but rejects legitimate means, turning to acts like drug dealing, fraud, or theft.

Ritualism (Merton)

A mode of adaptation where an individual rejects cultural goals but continues to accept legitimate means, such as a bureaucrat just going through the motions.

Retreatism (Merton)

A mode of adaptation where an individual rejects both cultural goals and legitimate means, withdrawing from society (such as addicts).

Rebellion (Merton)

A mode of adaptation where an individual rejects and replaces both societal goals and legitimate means with new ones, characteristic of radical movements.

Differential Opportunity Theory

Cloward & Ohlin's theory stating that illegitimate opportunities are unequally distributed, meaning the delinquent subculture formed depends on the neighborhood's opportunity structure.

General Strain Theory

Agnew's micro-level theory focusing on an individual's emotional reaction to strain—especially anger—where deviance functions as a coping mechanism.

Institutional Anomie Theory

Messner & Rosenfeld's macro-level theory stating that the American Dream prioritizes economic success, allowing the economy to dominate other institutions and weaken their social control.

Negative Deviance

Heckert & Heckert's category referring to under-conformity to societal norms that receives negative evaluations.

Deviance Admiration

Heckert & Heckert's category referring to under-conformity or non-conformity that is positively appraised.

Rate Busting

Heckert & Heckert's category referring to over-conformity to societal norms that is negatively evaluated.

Positive Deviance

Heckert & Heckert's category referring to over-conformity to societal norms that receives positive reactions.

Physical Deviance

The most visible type of deviance, consisting of violations of aesthetic norms and physical incapacity.

Ascribed Status

A social status assigned at birth or by others that is not chosen, such as race, sex, or age.

Achieved Status

A social status earned or acquired through individual effort or choice, such as an occupation, education, or criminal record.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A committee developed to protect human research subjects, researchers, and the host university or organization.

Internal Validity

The condition in experimental research where variables are planned, controlled, and executed consistently so no extraneous factor explains the results.

External Validity

The ability to generalize and apply research findings to outside settings and the 'real world.'

Content Analysis

A research method involving reviewing records of communication to systematically search, record, and analyze themes and trends.

Operationalization

Defining and selecting items so they can be categorized consistently and replicated by other researchers.

Reliability

The consistency of a measure, indicating whether different researchers would obtain identical results using the exact same procedures.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

Secondary data program developed by the FBI in the 1930s gathering statistics from nearly 17,000 police agencies on violent and property crimes known to police.

Triangulation

The research strategy of combining multiple methods to gain a complete understanding of a research topic.

Stigma (Goffman)

A discrepancy between virtual and actual social identity that reduces an individual with an undesirable attribute from a whole person to a tainted one.

Virtual Social Identity

The normative assumptions and demands society makes about what an individual ought to be.

Actual Social Identity

The real category, character, and attributes an individual can be proved to possess.

Normals

People who do not depart negatively from the particular societal expectations in question.

Discredited Stigma

A stigma whose differentness is already known or immediately evident, making the individual's primary issue managing tension in interaction.

Discreditable Stigma

A stigma whose differentness is neither known about nor immediately perceivable, making the individual's primary issue managing undisclosed information.

Abominations of the Body

One of Goffman's three types of stigma, consisting of physical deformities.

Blemishes of Individual Character

Goffman's stigma category inferred from traits like weak will, unnatural passions, or records of mental disorder, addiction, imprisonment, and radical political behavior.

Tribal Stigma

Stigma derived from race, nation, and religion that can be transmitted across lineages and equally taints all members of a family.

The 'Wise'

Normal persons whose circumstances make them intimately acquainted with and sympathetic to the secret lives of stigmatized individuals, granting them courtesy membership in the group.

Moral Career

The developmental sequence of learning experiences an individual undergoes regarding their stigma and the corresponding changes in their self-conception.

Social Information

Reflexive, embodied information about an individual's abiding characteristics conveyed through physical expression in the immediate presence of observers.

Stigma Symbols

Signs that are effective in drawing attention to a debasing discrepancy between virtual and actual social identity.

Disidentifiers

Signs intentionally employed to break up an otherwise coherent discreditable picture in a favorable direction, casting doubt on the validity of a negative virtual identity.

Personal Identity (Goffman)

The assumption that an individual can be differentiated from all others and that a single, continuous record of social facts and biography can be attached to them.

Passing

The management of undisclosed, discrediting information about one's actual social identity in order to appear normal.

Covering

Techniques used when a stigma is already known to make it less obtrusive, reducing interference with interaction without hiding the failing.

Voluntary Disclosure

Intentionally shifting from discreditable to discredited by revealing one's stigma, allowing the individual to manage the social situation instead of information.