HSP3U1: Sociology - Test

What is sociology?

The study of human social behaviour, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society

What does sociology examine?

Examines the relationships between people and the social structures that we develop

What does sociology also try to understand?

How society as a whole influsences our thoughts, feelings and actions

Medical sociology

How medical care is organized and delivered in hospitals and other places

Political sociology

The structure and function of political systems

Globalization in sociology

The implication of the spread of technology and the development of a global village

Social movements and collective behaviours

How people gather in groups to achieve their goals

Social stratification

How societies are organized into distinct groups according to their social or economic class or characteristics

Social identities

How race, class, ability, gender and sexual orientation affect peoples lives. Kimberle Crenshaw and intersectionality theory

Social institutions

How institutions like the family, education, religion, and politics affect peoples lives

Gerontology

Ageing and the elderly

Cultural Sociology

How social groups and societies develop cultural practices and institutions

Historical sociology

How social groups and societies influences historical events

Religion

How religious organizations and institutions operate and the impact they have on society

Criminal sociology

Crime and crime prevention

The origins of Sociology

The Age of Enlightenment was followed closely by two other great historical changes

Socialization

Process by which a person learns the behavioural patterns, skills and values of their society

Where does sociology occur?

occurs in every culture

process of socialization

basic skills, socially accepted goals, and roles and behaviours

Basic skills

how to take care of yourself

Socially accepted goals

employment or marriage

Roles and behaviours

how to act in specific conditions

Categories of socialization

Primary socialization, Secondary socialization, Anticipatory socialization, resocialization

Primary socialization

The process of learning basic skills needed to survive in society

Secondary socialization

The process of learning how to behave appropriately in group situations

Anticipatory socialization

The process of learning how to plan the way to behave in a new situation

Resocialization

The process by which old behaviour, or negative behaviour, is transformed into new or socially acceptable behaviour

Abnormal Socialization

If the crucial socialization that occurs in the first years of life is missing, this results in rather disastrous consequences for children

Agents of socialization

The people and institutions that shape an individual's social development are known as

Different levels of socialization

The primary agent of socialization and Secondary agents of socialization

The primary agent of socialization

Family

Secondary agents of socialization

School/workplace, peers, media, religion

What is social behaviour

The interaction among members of the same group responding to external (occur outside someone) and internal stimuli (occurs inside someone)

What influences our social behaviour

Family, media, culture

Family

1st social interaction is with their immediate family. Families teach a child how to act and the skills to act appropriately in their absence.

Media

Creates new forms of human communications and gives access to how others around the world live

Culture

Shaped by the history and laws of a country, what people watch and what we listen to. We view the rest of the world form our cultural perspective. Can be confluence by more than one culture

What is conformity

The process by which an individual will alter or change his or her thoughts, feelings and behaviour to meet the expectation of a group or authority figure

Groupthink

The effect of collective pressure on the decision-making abilities among the members of a group

who was group think studied by?

Irving Janis in 1972

What did Janis identify?

He identified symptoms for the participants in groupthink such as pressure, self-censorship, morality, stereotypes, and mind guard

reasons for conformity

To fit with a group (Asch - Normative conformity)
Because they believe the group is better informed than they are (Asch - informational conformity)
When the person or group has a high status
When the person or group is attractive
When the person is able to offer rewards or punishments
When the person or group is trustworthy or an expert

The line experiment

Aim and Procedure - Solomon Asch

Aim

To investigate how social pressure from a majority group could affect a person willingness to conform

Procedure

50 male students using a line judgement task are asked put a naive participant in a room with seven confederates (people who are working in the experimenter)

Who is Soloman Asch

He was a Polish psychologist and a pioneer in social psychology

what did Soloman Asch conduct?

Conducted various experiments on conformity

what did he aim?

Aimed to demonstrate the influence of group pressure on opinions

Stanly Milgram

social psychologist who is best-known to this Experiment conducted on obedience in the 1960s

Obedience Experiment

Being told to do something by a higher authority would cause them to go against their own morals and beliefs

Philip Zimbardo

he is best known for his prison experiment in the 1970s

what did Philip Zimbardo look at

he looked at compliance and how a person's societal role influenced how they conform to their environment and the power of groupthink

Compliance

People in authority offer rewards or hand out punishments to make others conform to their wishes

Collective behaviour

Behaviour of a large number of people rapidly and randomly behave in one way. Loosely connected, short term norms

Reasons for small group collective behaviour

Sets out guidelines for social roles and establishes guidelines for appropriate behaviour. These behaviours are called norms. Is responsible for imposing sanctions for proper and improper behaviour

Sets out guidelines for social roles

In formal groups rules that govern these roles may be very explicit and written into a code. The role an individual has in a group is typically attached to a specific function. Most of us readily accept the roles expected by a group because we have practiced the roles as part of our socialization

Establish guidelines for appropriate behaviour

These behaviours are called norms. We rely on them to keep order. Groups develop norms that reflect those of society to help govern their members as well. Although norms vary from group to group, the underlying purpose of group norms is the same: To keep order and ensure a certain level of behaviour

What is responsible for imposing sanctions for proper and improper behaviour

Most groups impose informal sanctions such as a word of caution for unwanted behaviour or a pat on the back for doing something right. More formal sanctions, such as expulsion or imprisonment, are extremely rate among groups

Crowds

Large numbers of people, in close proximity, gathered for a specific reason

Why do sociologists study crowds?

To better understand the nature of collective and group behaviour and to examine what happens when large groups living in society come together in a variety of instances and for a number of reasons

A conventional crowd

Large groups of people gathered for a clear purpose who display the expected behaviour for that situation

A casual crowd

A group of people who do not appear to have a common goal other than being in the same location at the same time

Expressive crowd

A large number of people at an event who display emotion and excitement

Acting crowd

A group of people fuelled by a single purpose or goal

Contagion Theory

assumes that individuals act irrationally as they come under the hypnotic influence of a crowd. Collective behaviour scholars now believe that collective behaviour is much more rational than contagion theory assumed.

Convergence theory

assumes that crowd behaviour reflects the preexisting values and beliefs and behavioural disposition of the individuals who join the crows.

Rational Decision Theory

argues that everyone has a threshold of when and how they will participate

Value-added theory

argues that collective behaviour results when several conditions exist, including structural strain, generalized beliefs, precipitating factors, and lack of social control. All these conditions must exist for collective behaviour to occur.

The bystander effect

A concept in social psychology used to explain how the larger the number of people in a group, the less likely it is that individuals will stop to help someone in an emergency

four mechanisms that may come into play, leading to the bystander effect

Self-awareness, Social cues, Blocking mechanisms, Diffusion of responsibility

Self-awareness

When an individual feels there is an audience, their actions may be inhibited because of the fear of making a fool of themself in front of others

Social cues

People look others for cues of how to behave. So, if no one acts, it reinforces the notion that no one should act

Blocking mechanisms

In an emergency situation where there are a lot of people around, someone stepping in to act (for example, to help a victim) can actually block others from doing so

Diffusion of responsibility

People assume that someone else will help so they don't have to

Macrosociology

An approach of sociology that analyzes social system and populations on a larger scale. Concerned with studying society as a whole. Examine larger social institutions that individuals belong to, such as a country or a place of worship

Microsociology

The study of small groups and individuals within a society. Interested in understanding the bases of social actions and interaction among individual members
Concerned with the role and interactions an individual or small group of people may have in society

Structural Functionalism

States that a society is stable when social institutions (family, religion, school, politics...) meet the needs of its citizens

Conflict Theory

Views society as different groups competing for power and limited resources

main theorists for conflict theory

Karl Marx

What did karl Marx do?

Believed concern over meeting survival needs is replaced by concern over making a profit, the hallmark of a capitalist system

main theorists for structural functionalism

Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, and Talcott Parsons,

Symbolic interactionism

Studying human interaction at a micro level

Theorists

Max Webber, Charles Cooley, George Mead, C. Wright Mills

Feminist Sociology

Examine gender inequality and how men control women's lives

Major theorists

Dorothy Smith, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Judith Stacey, M.N Srinivas

Max Weber

German scholar Max Weber believed that social life is rife with examples of conflict and cohesion. In his writings, he laid out a theory he called Rationalization

C. Wright Mills

Sociologist who was influenced by both Marx and the conflict school and Weber's ideas.
Most influential work was developing the concept of social imagination

Dorothy Smith (1926-)

Canadian sociologist and contends that women have long been marginalized in society. Smith argues that sociologists should develop that discipline of sociology so it is capable

M.N Srinivas

Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas is one of the most noted scholars on Indian sociology in the 20th century. His work focused on the caste system in India