Sociology 1101 Preliminary Exam Study Guide - Concepts and Definitions

Why is Durkeim considered one of the first academic sociologists?

because he established a successful college department of it

How and why did Durkheim die?

His son and students were killed in WW1 which broke his heart and he died of a broken heart (Stroke)

What are the two types of society included in his theory of the division of labor?

Primitive/Traditional and Modern/Complex

Primitive/Traditional Society

mechanical solidarity

punitive law

common property

high integration: altruistic

high regulation: fatalistic

Modern/ Complex Society

organic solidarity

restitutive law

private property

low integration: egoistic

low regulation: anomic

held together by respect for the contributions we all make to social system

What is the mechanism of social change in Durkeim's theory?

Division of labor

What is the master category of human identity in a modern/complex society?

Person's occupation: people want to know what others contribute to our society

How did Durkheim use the stability of suicide rates in his use of sociology to understand what was commonly thought of as a deeply individual and psychological experience?

Since rates were stable, suicide must be a result of structural patterns, collectively shared experiences. Suicide invents sociology as a social science (exception of extreme cases)

By studying suicide statistics, Durkheim discovered an interesting relationship pattern between different religious groups. What was the pattern? How did Durkheim explain the pattern using sociology?

Jewish: most connected and closely integrated, lowest suicide rate

Catholic: also very connected and closely integrated, next lowest rate

Protestant: least connected, more individualistic, highest rate

What are the two basic structural conditions in Durkheim's study?

Social integration: how connected a person is to groups

Social Regulation: how strong or weak ar the rules that govern behavior

What are the 4 types of suicide?

Fatalistic: too much regulation, not enough individual freedom (slavery, prisoners)

Altruistic: too much integration, not enough individual independence (cults soldier)

Anomic: too little integration, isolated, too much individual freedom (lottery winners)

Egoistic: too little regulation, too much individual independence (elderly & shut-in)

How are the types of suicides connected to Durkheim's two-society model?

Fatalistic/Altruistic: more common in primitive society

Anoimc/Egoistic: more common in modern society

What are the three characteristics of social facts?

External to individuals: exist outside of individual consciousness; imposed on them by society

Coercive: exert social pressure that compels people to conform to the established norms of society

Collective: not limited to specific individuals but apply to society as a whole

In class example of social fact

Collective conscience

Collectively shared framework of meanings unifying force within society; shared understanding of social norms; people come together as dynamic groups to share resources and knowledge; "hive mind" "group mind" "mass mind"

Which U.S. CEO connected to which mega-corporation used Oldenburg's 3-place theory as the foundation for their corporate mission?

Schultz CEO of Starbucks; tried to build a corporate mission around the basic ideas of the third place theory

Why does Oldenburg have to make up the name "the third place" in his theory?

To differentiate it from the first place (home) and the second place (work). There is no word in English to describe it, which adequately shows the problem.

What are the 3 places in their proper order? Why are they in this order? Briefly describe what happens in each place.

Home: sleep, eat and wait until it is time to go to the other two places, parental authority causes resentment; wives and husbands feud; sibling rivalry; stress builds

Work: spend a lot of time here; source of strain and stress; supervisors supervising makes workers resent them; boredom;

The Third Place: look for it wherever we can find it: shopping mall, scheduling activities

Why is a healthy third place so important according to Oldenburg, and Durkheim before him?

Without one, we have to turn elsewhere to treat our stress; drugs, alcohol, prescription anxiety meds

Home is not relaxing; parental and sibling stress

Ideal characteristics of healthy third place

Convenient location- within walking distance, cars are isolation machines

Free or very inexpensive: money should not be gatekeeping

Conducive for free/easy conversation: talking makes stress buildup from home/work reduced

How are residential college campuses interesting examples of Oldenburg's theory of social places?

They are "live-work-play" communities; everything is walkable and within reach; expensive to attend but inexpensive to experience day to day

Healthy third place at Cornell

Libe Slope: free and accessible by walking, very conducive for free and easy conversation

Great Lawn in Central Park (another example one not on campus)

Olmstead- architect of Central Park and Cornell

Why are suburban shopping malls not healthy third places?

built for shopping not hanging out

all about getting you to spend money and move around

How is status attainment connected to Durkheim's theory of society?

For Durkheim, the division of labor is the mechanism of social change; it is what drives society forward and separates us into distinct occupations; status attainment is the result of the division of labor in society as different occupations result in different levels of honor/respect

Def. "life chances"

Any and every opportunity to be successful in our social system;

Why is occupational attainment about more than just financial success?

Involve honor and respect

Society (Collective consciousness) includes a hierarchical ranking system for prestige (social ranking)

we grant more respect to people higher in the occupation rankings (doctors, professors)

What is a common synonym for "inequality", often used by scholars connected to research in the sociological process called status attainment?

Stratification: when people are ranked hierarchically along some dimension of inequality

Inequality: unequal rewards and opportunities in any society

What was the title and major finding of the controversial study? (pertaining to status attainment)

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life

Central finding: IQ is the most powerful determinant for success/ lack thereof in American society

If inequality is the result of IQ, inequality is the result of the natural order where the smartest are on top and less smart are at the bottom; not much can be done to change this natural order

Why was this finding insulting to American sociologists?

Because they spent the last 80 years studying outcomes for success in society

These two scholars claimed that they must have missed IQ

"Since the late 1950s, an entire school of research has devoted itself to explaining economic outcomes" (page 71 from reading)

What is the status attainment model?

Covers factors that go into status, income, occupational outcomes

Income/ occupation outcome is the sum of these factors

Respondents education

Parents education (strong correlation between income)

Parents income

Family composition (1 vs 2 parent household, size of family, number of children)

Neighborhood effects (crime)

Local economic factors (weak or strong local economy)

Gender

Race/ethnicity

Tech skills

IQ

Unknown “luck” factors (i.e. Bill Gates is your college roommate and helps you to succeed)

two types of factors included in status attainment model

Family of origin influences and environment

Replication study

A study that attempts to reproduce the findings of an earlier study; helped counter claims of Bell Curve by reducing noisy interference using stats

What are the two statistical datasets used by the authors of both studies?

Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT); which includes an IQ test

National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY): participants interviewed multiple times as they age (parents’ socioeconomic status)

By matching data across both of these studies, historical and statistical portrait of their lives can be studied

How do the two tables on p. 100 settle the debate between the two studies?

Family origins and environment are much stronger influences on someone's life than IQ.

How is Durkheim's framework related to the study of the suburban community?

There is a lack of social integration; weak ties between community members even within the same family; cult of individualism

What are the sociological factors embedded in the community studied by Baumgartner?

Class: most people in Hampton were white collar middle class; few members of working class

Gender- men don't have authoritative control over family; women more likely to reach out when issue arose

Race: mainly white

People in the community lacked a third place; home was the primary location for leisure.

How do people solve their differences and relationship strain?

Moral Minimalism- avoidance, negotiation, deprivation, mediation through family, dropping the conflict

What are the coping techniques for interpersonal relationship tension in the family in the upper middle class suburban home?

Everyone retreats to their own section of the home because they are larger; in order to avoid interaction, private ownership of property among family members is common

Def. Moral Minimalism

restrained response to grievances; avoidance of conflicts; preferred not to confront things

Why does she describe the institution of the family as weak?

Family ties are weak

There is an institution, they live in these homes but within them, they practice individualism

What kind of comparative frameworks does she use?

compares what is happening in suburban communities to others around the world

Looking at other developed/undeveloped societies for examples of how people deal with stress and strength

Compares hamptons theory of moral minimalism to other cultures that publicly address all issues even private ones

Social groups in Hampton were compared with each other

How are gender, class, age, and status in play in the community?

Gender:

Women will request intervention more and network with other stay at home moms (turn to third parties) and exhibit outward signs of emotional distress more than men

Men prefer to be left isolated

Age:

“Light violence”; young children get spanked

Kids will use violence against each other;

Collective conscious is opposed to violence

Parents initially have some power over young children but loose it as they age

Class:

Most people were white collar middle class; few members of the working class; cannot engage in some of the same coping techniques as the other higher classes; their homes are smaller; kids do not have the same life experience / will not likely go to college and are stuck in the home; Families often live together in the same area, relatives are close by and may aid in mediation;

Are the residents of the community in favor of therapy?

No; they don't want anyone interfering in their conflicts, but is someone is had really bad signs of emotional distress they will hire one

Do they call the police? Why or why not?

Blue-collar workers more tempted to call the police; seriousness of offense is irrelevant

When kids get into trouble Blue Collar and White Collar kids; Blue collar parents want their kids to be punished and white collar kids' parents show up and deny that their kids did anything wrong

How is individualism in play? She sometimes refers to this using a synonym for individual atomization.

family members isolating to rooms

What is the Chicago School of Sociology? Briefly, dates, research method, theory history

sociological analysis of everyday life

1982-present

research methods: maps and interviews (participant observation and interviewing about thoughts/experiences)

anthropological techniques

theory periods- natural ecology to evolutionary modeling, concentric ring phase of development, and rise of symbolic interactionism

members of the school were influenced by Durkheimian sociology and often focused on norms (collective conscience), social integration (social networks), and social regulation (formal and informal).

Why was Chicago a good city to develop the new social science of sociology?

long considered the essential American melting pot where social classes and races mixed in a rapidly growing Urban setting

Dr. Elijah Anderson

A prominent contemporary sociologist; Professor at Yale; former VP of the American Sociological Association

What is the structure of the society described by Anderson, social classes, economy, history?

Economy: Most people are just barely making enough to make ends meet, people are poor and experience institutional disinvestment

History: Institutional racism was present, there were few resources to grow up and leave so the cycle of poverty perpetuates - redlining

Gender: code of the street is tied to masculinity (treating girlfriend and sneakers the same way), women protected their masculinity through fights and respect. Women were opposed to gun violence

Anderson often notes that most of the residents of the community are working poor

Who are the various groups in the community? How does Anderson compare and contrast the groups in the community?

Descents: middle-class values; try to emulate and make better life for themselves/children

Streets: gave up making better life; sole priority is survival in the present social structure

Yet, something happens in the shared public spaces that affects everyone? How and why does this system of norms take precedence?

kids recognize that they need to know the street norms in order to survive so they have to change the way they act

How is the system reproduced across generations?

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How do the youth of the community experience the system?

Descents: in church, more parental supervision, followed curfew

Streets: no school, would ditch and go to socialize

Kids decided what group they were going to join at a young age; by the time were teens, they had already joined a side

What is the relationship between members of the community and the police?

Street mentality was to distrust the police and the judicial system; they tried to solve their own issues through violence

Formal: judicial, police, courts

Informal: distrust of police

Do some of the youth practice "code switching?" How, when, why?

Eventhough their parents teach them decent values, children adopt street values in order to survive when they're outside of the house; being able to adapt to the environment they're in/ form of protection; makes social mobility tense

How is blame for this system commonly misguided, according to Anderson? (last few paragraphs)

Victim blaming is happening; white tend to blame these communities for racial stereotypes

Missing sociological imagination: ability to ask questions about thes society (history, structure, hierarchy)

Reproduces itself; can not escape the cycle of society looking down on people living in those neighborhoods

How does environmental sociology use the sociological imagination to explore the intersection of the environment and society?

Looks at the state of the planet and how weather events are experienced as sociological influences

Using sociology to explore the institutional consequences of various environmental influences, such as the location of toxic waste in sociological terms, or the consequences of climate change in sociological term

environmental disaster studied by Klinenberg

Chicago Heat Wave of 1995

Who was Joseph Laczko?

Elderly isolated Chicago man living alone in his apartment; no one came to claim the body or his possessions

Was there a public debate over the number of deaths from the disaster? How does Klinenberg deal with this?

Nature of heatwaves can make it hard to tell how someone died; politicians tried to argue that deaths were mostly elderly who were going to die anyways

Why don't the mass media cover heatwaves?

Because they aren't as apparent and obvious as hurricanes and tornadoes; dont' see damage to property

How were the deaths counted? What was the total number of deaths according to Klinenberg?

739 Deaths

Excess deaths: How many usually die versus how many actually died; deaths beyond the “normal” number

How and why did influential politicians in the city try to evade responsibility or coverage of the disaster?

Initial underestimation of the crisis, Lack of preparedness, Blame-shifting onto others, Managing media coverage, Fear of political fallout

How do average heat wave deaths compare to the death rates of other environmental disasters like earthquakes and floods?

Heat waves kill more people

What sociological frameworks were helpful to Klinenberg?

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Why were the neighborhoods of North Lawndale and Little Village important to his study?

The African American (North Lawndale) neighborhood had higher death rates which according to Kleimberg was institutional. They were burned by social structure; at risk individuals didn't have anyone to help them. The Hispanic (Little Village) neighborhood was thriving and not subjected to history of institutional racism.

Describe the structural, historical conditions in each neighborhood and the differential deaths in

African American neighborhood was not as well connected; and burdened by social structure; at risk people didn't have help; not many jobs or healthcare; powerful institutional racism and red lining; no AC/ sub par housing

Hispanic neighborhood: had stronger family ties, elderly were less likely to die; thriving, not subjected to history of institutional racism

Why were there surprises regarding gender in his study?

Men were more likely to die than women due to their lack of connection and a socal network; more elderly women living alone than men but they maintain these connections better

How did his study affect city policy during the next heat wave?

City tried more to keep contact with the isolated elderly and respond more aggressively to problems; decrease mortality rates

What was Klinberg's next study? Who funded the study? What did he call the group he studied? What were his major findings?

Invited to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to continue the study of social isolation. He wrote Going Solo: the rise of singleton (single household) / He continued to use Durkheim's theory of the "cult of the individual."