Sociology Exam

Sensitive period for cultural learning

9-12

Great Rewiring Outcomes

Social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction

NEET

not in education, employment, or training

WEPT

We-ness, place, time

Sociological perspective (Peter Berger)

• See general social patterns in the behavior of particular individuals

  • Unique view of society (manifest/latent functions)

Manifest function

Intended effects

Latent function

Unexpected effects

Gentrification

M- more money for city, L- more demands from city

Sociological imagination (C. Wright Mills)

the ability to switch back and forth between the individual viewpoint and the sociological viewpoint.

Separate personal troubles/biography from social issues or history

Understand connection between biography and larger social/historical context

Sociological curiosity

• the desire to seek out the social context and connections between our own experiences and broader cultural institutional, political and economic arrangements. (Jerry Jacobs)

Advantages of sociological lens

• Challenge impulse to see aspects of life as inevitable or natural

• See diversity in america and elsewhere

• Highlight social marginality/inequality

• Draws attention to social problems and change

• See connection: self & society

Scientific revolution (mid 1500s - late 1700s)

Belief in science, challenged traditional forms of authority and knowledge

Economic revolution (mid 1700s - mid 1800s)

• Industrialism and capitalism

• Political revolution (late 1700s - 1800s)

• More democratic values and standards being adopted

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

• Positivism; social statics (structures) and social dynamics (processes)

• Envisioned sociology as vehicle for reform

• Karl Marx (1818-1883)

• Class conflict/struggle

Social Perspective/Paradigms

• set of fundamental assumptions that guides thinking

  • People hold differing opinions about social worlds

  • Attend to some things, miss others

  • Different social experiences affect assumptions

  • Ex. Derek Black KKK family

Structural-Functionalism

• Macro-oriented (large-scale) paradigm

• Society and complex system, interdependent parts

• Promote social stability & order

• System seeks equilibrium

Conflict

• Macro/middle range issues

• Society: structured system based on inequality

• Groups struggle over scarce resources

Symbolic interactionism

• Focuses on micro activity

• Society is the product of everyday life experiences

• Key assumptions:

  • Humans act toward things based on the meanings things have for them

  • Meanings merge from social interaction

  • Meanings modified/negotiated by people in social meanings

Role taking vs role making

• Role taking: put ourselves in someone else’s shoes

• Role making: how we embrace a role, shape it, and make it our own

• Looking-glass self (Charles Horton Cooley)

• Mirror is a stand in for society

• Description phase

  • Describing the circumstances

• Judgment phase

  • Understanding of how the circumstances are going/self-assessment

• Emotional response

  • How you feel about the situation

Berger and Luckmann’s ideas

• Externalization

  • Create institutions & rules that govern interaction

• Objectification

  • See arrangements as not having a human connection

  • “Reification”

• Internalization

  • Internalize socially constructed reality, become part of subjective self

Framework

• Scientific sociology (positivistic)

  • Observable empirical patterns

• Interpretive sociology

  • Meanings attached to social worlds

• Critical sociology

  • Need for social change

  • Agent for change

Religiosity

 level of significance of religion to a person or society

Conditions for cause and effect to be considered

• Correlation exists: variable change

• Independent (causal) variable precedes dependent variable in time

• No evidence third variable responsible for a spurious correlation between two original variables

• No observer/Hawthorne effect

  • People change their behavior because someone is watching you

covert vs overt

c- hidden o- open

Culture

• Material

  • Things made and used

• Nonmaterial

  • Ideas, values, and beliefs

DO NOT CONFUSE CULTURE WITH SOCIETY

• Society refers to a group of people, interacting in a given territory, who are guided in their daily lives by their culture

Elements of culture

Symbols, language, values

Folkways vs mores

f- less serious offenses, m- morally significant

• Self as subject (“I”)

• All thought and action originated with this part of the self, impulsive

• Self as object (“ME”)

• Guiding the action by taking on “the role of the other” (wider society), creates self-consciousness

• Act: functional unit of conduct, snippet of experience embedded in larger act(s)

Resocialization

Radical altering of a person’s personality in a total institution

Features of “WE-NESS” (Charles Horton Cooley)

• Affinity & sense of group belonging

• Connected to something bigger than self

• Emotional & psychological elements

• Dynamic over time

• Generates positive & negative outcomes

• Deep dyadic we-ness

• Interpersonal bond (social psychological)

• Mutual awareness, couple identity

• Interdependencies (romantic, external, internal, formal)

• Assigned meanings (rights, obligations, expectations)

• Personalized cultural capital- bonding, trauma, team sports

• Often embedded in other networks

ideational we-ness

• emphasize shared beliefs/ideas

• Core feeling of we-ness connected to beliefs/ideas- Collective/shared identity/thought community

• Intergenerational theme- Moral standing (public good), The Good Ancestor

spontaneous we-ness

•  in the moment, unplanned, can be triggered by ideational we-ness, can trigger dyadic we-ness

We-ness Motivating Forces

• Shared genetic heritage

• Family love

• Romantic love

• Companionship

• Calling out social injustice

• Celebrating lofty ideals

• Targeting a shared enemy

• Sharing pain and suffering

• Mentoring affection- Generativity

• Sharing a practical goal

instrumental vs task-oriented leadership

expressive vs. interpersonal dynamics/team chemistry

5 Social Domains

primary groups, civic/community groups, thought communities, leisure, play, & sports, paid work

Economic determinism

 reflects the interest many sociologists had in the thought of Karl Marx, such as the idea that social differentiation and class conflict resulted from economic factors.

Human ecology

emphasized the impact of climate and geography on the evolution of those societies that flourished in temperate zones.

Mechanical solidarity

 a sentimental attraction of social units or groups that perform the same or similar functions, such as preindustrial self-sufficient farmers

Organic solidarity

an interdependence based on differentiated functions and specialization as seen in a factory, the military, government, or other complex organizations.

Third place

 a generic designation for a variety of public places that host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work. (ex. tavern)

ascribed vs achieved status

involuntary vs voluntary

master status

•  defines us in our totality, overarching, shapes who we are as a person overall ex. Born again Christian views life through the Christian perspective

Role Conflict

 two or more statuses (ex. Police officer catches her own son using drugs at home (police officer & mother))

Role Strain

involves a single status (ex. Office manager tries to balance concerns for workers with task requirements)

Role Exit Process

• Doubts: ability to continue

• Critical analysis of current roles

• Turning point: decide to pursue new direction

• Learn new expectations for new role

• Ex. wife does a critical analysis of whether she should leave her husband, turning point when he hits her in front of her kids

Key Dimensions of Primary Relationships

• Frequency- how often individuals engage in exchanges

• Strength- intensity of exchanges (perhaps most important)

• Diversity- different types of exchanges

• Duration- length of episodes

Major Types of Interdependencies

SBPR

• Sexual exchange permitted

Extrinsic

• Money, goods, services

Intrinsic

• Friendship (companionship & emotional intimacy)

Formal

• Genetic link (bio parent & child) or law (marriage & adoption)

• Quasi-formal (step-parents)

Relationship development

• Formation

• Maintenance/change

• Dissolution

Dialectics

 decision-making strategies, amount of control, negotiation styles

Concept creep

the expansion of psychological concepts in two directions: smaller cases or new, broader cases

Safetyism

safety trumps everything else no matter how unlikely the danger

What are the four main types of collective response according to Haidt?  

1. No smartphones before year 10

2. No social media before 16

3. Phone-free schools

4. Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence