Sociology Exam 1

sociology

• is the systematic study of human social life, groups, societies and the social context in which behavior occurs.

• is a way of thinking:

  • human lives are embedded in historical, social, and normative contexts

  • not everything is caused by “private troubles” — public issues are often very important

  • social structures and social context matte

sociological imagination (Mills 1959)

• human lives are the intersection of “biography” and “history” 

• social context: personal problem vs public issue

• “quality of mind that makes it possible to understand the larger meaning of our experiences”

personal troubles (mills) 

______ of the miliue: occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others

public issues (mills)

______ of social structure: have to do with matters that transcend these local environments … and have do with the organization of … the institutions of a society as a whole.

social structure

• frameworks that constrain and permit behaviors

• underlying regularities and patterns

• given societies coherence

• “ways in which rules and norms of everyday life come patterns that shape and govern social interactions

social construction of reality

• “an idea or practice that a group of people agree exists. It is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted.”

• ask yourself: “how are things that we take to be natural socially constructed?”

• creating meaning through social interaction

• compared to natural, self-evident, biological phenomena

developing a sociological perspective

• how are things that we take to be natural socially constructed?

  • people tend to see their own way of thinking doing as natural

  • what people see as natural, sociologist see as created by human beings

  • what people think and do are products of culture and history.

pink is for boys, blue is for girls

• pink is a more decided, stronger color which is more suitable for the boy

  • pink was seen as a toned-down version of strong red — so essentially red for babied (associated with men)

• blue is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl

  • blue is associated with the Virgin Mary — so seen as pure, maternal, virtues

When/why did the colors of pink and blue roles switch?

• World War II

  • many young men went to war so women had to fill mens role at home

  • why there was red in proganda to show that women were capable of doing things that men could do

  • women then stopped doing mens job once the men came bacl

Maime Eisenhower

• loved the color pink and wore this rhinestone studded dress to his inauguration

• her husband was inaugurated in 1953

  • was a five star general in WW II

• “Ike runs the country, I turn the pork chops.”

  • men runs the job while women tended the homes

• colors helped women be seen as quaint

• funny face (1957)

  • strongly advistered that pink is a color that girls should wear

    • men wore white in the video

    • very girls, free for man (dolled up)

    • get back to the kitchen (pink sink)

  • the one in charge is not in pink because if boos, wear nice dress but not pink (strong)

  • pointing our social construct of what colors you should wear

auguste comte (sociological thought)

• french philosopher who coined the term sociology 

• believed accurate observation and description are highest form of knowledge 

• scientific knowledge can be used to improve people’s lives 

• model after physics (“social physics”) 

• first person to see that this is seen as a science 

emile durkheim (sociological thought)

• “father of sociology”

  • founded first European sociology department

  • founded first major European journal of sociology

max weber (sociological thought)

• created an influential journal in Germany

• University of Chicago: First sociology department in the US

• by 1959, sociology one of the five major social sciences

• sociologistis make you think big picture

growth of urban population in US

• in 1790, 98% rural population while 8% was urban

• there was lots of change in 1870 to 2015 → saw large rise in urban populations

• People were moving to rural areas because of the Industrial Revolution

  • lots of factories were opening so more people were moving to get more money/job opportunities

industrialization

• growth of factories and production of large-scale goods

• immense social changes

• RECORDING

urbanization

• growth of cities in the late nineteenth century

• shift from agriculture to manufacturing

• opportunities for people to mobilize collectively

social theory

• why might A and B be related

• explanation

  • if this happens, then this happens

    • prediction

• hypotheses that come true

• systemic ideas about the relationship between individuals and societies

  • some seek to explain universal features of all societies

  • others apply to a single topic, such as within race, gender, or religion

• sociology has multiple and often competing social theories

  • different lens to look at something

  • help you’re different

  • putting on different glasses

three common themes of social theory  

• What is the nature of the individual? How does the individual act in the context of society? 

• What is the basis for social order? What is that hold societies together?

• What are the circumstances or conditions under which societies changes?  

fathers of sociological theory

• Emile Durkheim

• Karl Marx

• Max Weber

emile durkheim (sociological thought)

• 19th c. France 

• “social facts”: people can be studied just as natural science can be studied 

• interested in social order 

  • how do things work the way the do?

  • constrain or facilitate things

• researcher exemplar: Suicide (1897)

• think social world

  • it can be studied

  • social fact

Durkheim’s Suicide (1897) study

• found that suicide rate in Europe in the late 19th century was highly patterned (didn’t just happen randomly): 

  • unmarried > married

    • judged by society if you are unmarried

  • childless > parents

    • no purpose

  • protestants > catholics

    • protestants feel more lonely and isolated

    • seen as a sin for catholics

• “If suicide were purely an act of individual desperation, then we would not expect to see noticeable changes in rates from year to year, or society to society.”

  • socialogical differences

  • animy (look up what is)

  • private private problem or public issue?

    • social factors

  • less connected, more alone

  • less responsibility/purpose

  • having greater community lead to better mental health

Karl Marx (origins of sociological thought) 

• Industrial Revolution in Europe 

• “all human history thus far in the history of class struggles” 

• interested in economic inequality, class struggle

• false class consciousness 

  • the poor dont realize they are being exploited

    • need to join together to revolt (need to unify)

      • then they can overcome false class consciousness

• communism

  • wealth shared, no private property

• capitalism

  • rich exploites the poor

• bourgeoisie

  • rich people, owners of production, the capitalists or business owners.

• the wage laborers who lack ownership of the means of production and must sell their labor to live

• now:

  • social safety nets in place but huge wealth gap between rich and poor

• examples of this:

  • strikes

    • mobilize and rebel to remedy it

  • March on wallstreet

    • large movement of people who are not the 1% on wallstreet 

      • referred to the income disparity in the US and economic inequality in general 

      • encampments there

    • not effective although it did raise awareness

      • short-term presence

      • lacked clear leadership

Max Weber (origins of sociological thought)

• late 19th/early 20th century Germany

• tecnological and scientific development

• “rational society,” where social and economic life is based on efficiency and technical knowledge

rationalization of society (created by weber)

• refers to the process by which modern society has increasingly become concerned with:

  • efficiency

  • predictability

  • calculability

  • dehumanization

• marx could see it as another way to exploit people

• deikhiem

  • technology would increase efficiency and social order

  • more efficient

  • but we would not have human interactions

efficiency (rationalization of society)

• achieving the maximum results with a minimum amount of effort

  • example: fast food

    • food received fast and you can eat a lot of food

    • no work involved

    • get a huge meal

    • increased with technology (DD and no human interaction)

    • can eat quicker.

predictability (rationalization of society)

• a desire to predict what will happen in the future

  • fast food example

    • you know what is on the menu

    • no variability

    • know what it is based on looks

    • prices are pretty much the same

    • location, look, price, nutrition facts the same

calculability (rationalization of society)

• a concern with numerical data, i.e. statistics and scoring 

  • fast food example

    • looking at what being served at a rapid rate

    • nutrition facts

    • average wait time

    • account → track your orders

    • amount of people coming in

    • cost of employees

dehumanization (rationalization of society)

• employing technology as a means to control human behavior 

  • order online or on tablet, no human interaction

  • everything is thought of in profit

McDonaldization moderan example of Weber’s theory of rationalization 

• “it is the fast-food restaurant that today best represents and leads the process of formal rationalization and its basic components — efficiency, predictability, quantfication, control, through the substitution of nonhuman for human technology…”Ritzer

  • before fast food

    • grow and make own food

    • home cooked on dinner table

functionalism 

• core assumptions 

  • society is greater than sum of its parts

  • all social institutions contribute to balance and continuation of society

  • balances status quo

  • every organ has its own function → when everything does what it is meant to, it works/run smoothly

    • every part has its functions RECORDING

• Historical roots

  • Parsons and Merton, 1950s United States

• what are “functions"?”

  • manifest

  • latent

• critques

  • emphasis on balance, status quo

  • does not ask “for whom” is something functional?

manifest content to functionalism

• obvious and intended purposes of institutions, practices and behaviors

• EXPLICIT

• traditional family 

  • everyone gets fed 

  • balance, makes family work

• school

  • learns basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic),

  • bells: train students like factory workers, left over from factory’s → know when to go to class to class

functionalism example

• tradition 1950s family (nuclear family)

  • they would say everything is going well, nothing has to change

  • children learn their role through their parents

  • wife has a tradition role

    • cooking, cleaning, and serving the meal

  • man is bringing in the income by working

    • if he leaves, he will be financially stable

  • children follow parents footsteps

    • daughter wants to be like her mother

    • son wants to be like his father 

  • tradition → way its supposed to be 

  • positive

  • passed down for generations (longavity) 

  • not value free

  • all members are smiling 

  • 2 kids

  • boy and husband in suit 

  • very white

• prosetusion

  • they would say it provides an income, and that if it works, the person paying is getting pleasure while the other is getting money/working 

  • could help family 

    • man gets pleasure that wife does not want to give 

  • Marx would say its explotation

  • could also not be function because it destroys a traditional family 

latent content of functionalism

• not obvious or unintended purpose of institutions, practices, and behaviors

• IMPLICIT

• traditional family

  • women serving men

  • help kids know role

  • continue oppression

• School

  • making friends, form relationships (social development), social norms, free safeplace for kids (e.g. aftercare), provides breakfast and lunch

rational choice theories

• historical roots

  • reinforcement theory

  • early psychologists including Skinner and Pavlov

  • humans engage in behaviors to maximize rewards and minimize consequences

  • not always everything is a rational choice

    • its what i want to do, not what i have to do

• core assumptions

  • humans seek to maximize rewards and minimize punishments

  • humans will engage in behaviors that are punished (or where rewards are removed)

• critques

  • humans viewed as overly rational and calculating

  • ignores human ingenuity, creativity, agency, emotion and irrationality

• example

  • thinking about getting someone a gift

  • irrational

    • going to casino

    • tip at the end

  • more rational to tip at the beginning but we tip in the beginning because you would get better service

symbolic interactionism 

• core assumptions 

  • symbols are the basis of human communication

  • human interaction requires a ‘shared definition of the situation.'

  • social behavior is emergent and interactive, not pre-determined

  • macro:

    • larger scale theory (institution)

    • more constrained

• micro

  • individual theory (more constrained)

• smiling → your happy 

• Symbols are critical to understand what is going on 

• historical roots 

  • social theorists like G.H Mead and Blumer were opposed to notions of “empiricism” (learn through our senses) and “facts”

• critiques 

  • neglects social structures and persistent structured inequalities 

  • over-emphasizes human need for cooperation and shared understandin 

• cons: 

  • have to have a shared understanding

• ex: 

  • meanings change (a place to sit)

    • actions depend on meaning 

      • sit underneath a tree because it provides shade

  • people have different meaing 

    • one would say that they saw a tree as shdae 

    • saw tree as a place to get bit my ants 

  • smaller scale: 

    • how a person might read another persons gender

conflict theories 

• emphasize the role of power and oppression 

• marxism 

  • conflict between factory owner and workers

  • tension

  • marx said to come to together

  • about economics

• Feminism and Feminist Theory

  • gender relations and gender inequality are central to the study of society

  • intersection of gender, race, and social class in social strartification and inequality

    • why do women make less money than men when they work the same job?

    • intersecuality:

      • other stratifies

      • hispanics make 52 cents to $1 that men make

scientific method 

• the standard for acquiring and dverifying empirical (scientific) knowledge 

  • sociology = science

• why is it so important?

  • creates systemic a body of study

  • what do you now not have?

  • can also take anecdotes

literature review

• whats already been done

  • see how you voice can fit into the conversation

hyopthesis 

• after you conduct a literature review

• stating a potential relationship between two or more variables

• testable statement linking two or more variables together in a relationship

  • usually framed like “the more X the more Y”

varables

• what we’re measuring and by definition have to vary

  • need to see the relationships

• has independent variable and dependent variable

independent variable

• causes change

• thing looking at (e.g. exam scores)

• causes change in the other one

• comes first (time order)

dependent variable

• the thing that changes because of the other’s presence

  • thing that changed (time studied)

• effected by the other; comes after the other in time

correlation

• a relationship between two variables

  • a ‘co-relation”

causation 

a relationship in which one variable causes another variable to change

spurious correlation

a relationship that seems to exist between two variable, but is actually caused by some external, or intervening variabl

operationalization

• variable must be defined in such a way that can be measured

  • clearly defined

  • how do we define variables that make sense to measure them?

  • who do we want to get data from?

    • make sure data is collected

• you must make sure you have an appropriate sample for your question so you can generalize to population

• make a question more specified

  • how many siblings do you have? include step and half siblings

• data is collected and the hypothesis can be tested

quantitative research

• translates the social world into numbers that can be studied mathematically

  • numbers

• example:

  • surveys, experiments. content analysis

qualitative research

• uses non-numerical dat like texts, interviews, photos, and recordings to help us understand social life 

  • non numerical

• ex:

  • ethnography, participant observation, interviews

  • interactions with sibling and affect on self-esteem

how to collect data

• administer the survey, input the data into SPSS, etc.

• for qualitative research, ask the questions, take the detailed field notes, etc.

analyze data

• what does all the data mean?

• quantitive research:

  • statistical analysis

• qualitative research

  • asl questions, looking for patterns, generating findings

• data is plural and datum is singular

how do we gather data

• there are different ways to collect information about a topic, but each method has benefits and limitations

• when beginning a research project it is important to consider which method will work best 

ethnography

• form of qualitative data

• studying people in their own environments in order to understand the meanings they can give to their actions

• just observing, not participating

• usually happens in two steps

  • the researcher participates in and observes a setting

  • then the researcher makes a written account (field notes) of what goes on there

• qualitive

participant observation

• the research both observes and becomes a member in a social setting

  • be able to observe and experience what it is like in that situation

• qualitative

interviews

• involve direct, face-to-face contact with respondents

• can generate large amounts of qualitative data

  • tell me about your siblings

interview questions

• use open-ended questions or closed-ended questions

• dont make poor questions, leading questions, etc.

  • make questions percise

  • ask follow up questions

    • dont want yes or no questions

  • always need to operalize questions

  • leading

    • I know was there, did you talk to him?

surverys

• quanitive 

• questionnaires that are administed to a sample of respondents selected from a target population. survey research tends to look at large-scale social patterns and employ statistics and other mathematical means of analysis 

• most commonly used research on sociology 

experiments

• not really done in sociology because harder 

  • cant assign children to abusive households

  • very rigorous

issues in sociological research

• the research methods described so far are often applied outside the field of sociology

• some examples include the US Census, political campign offices, business, and market research

• think about ethics

• most sociologist believe that they should not allow their personal beliefs to influence their research 

  • creates bias

• Max Weber and value-free sociology

• code of ethics by American Sociological Association

  • assit researchers avoid bias, adhere to professional standard, and protect respondent from harm

• Laud Humphrey and the Tearoom Trade helped develop a code of ethics

• most universites where research is conducted also have instiutional reviiew board

value-free sociology

• an ideal whereby researches identify facts without allowing their own personal beliefs or biases to interfere

• how likely is this

• look at research hypothesis but cant be completely bias free, just state it and how it might effect research

• bias effect questions asked and which analysis you do

Laud Humphreys and the Tearoom Trade

• studied dynamic of public sex with gay men

• ‘Watchqueen’

  • stood watch while people had sex in the bathroom

• he took license plate numbers down, then went tho their home and interview them and told them he was doing a different study

• 54% of the men were married

• 38% were niether bisexual nor homosexual

• most of the men were successful, well educated, economically stable, and highly praised in the community

• only 14% of the men he observed were homosexual and part of the gay community

• this study was ethically inapporiate because participants didnt know

institutional review board 

• a group of scholars within a university who meet reguarly to review and approve the research proposals of their colleagues and make recommendations for how to protect humans

• have to be okay with the research method employed

sociology uses the scientific method to

understand society

how can research be done?

• either qualitatively (rich, detailed data and thick discriptions) or quantitatively (using data easily converted into numbers) or a combination of both

  • this is tiangulization

    • allows us to have a better sense of what is going on

ethics is important because

it protects human subjects 

culture

• is the values, norms, and material goods characteristics of a given group

  • what defines a given group

• it is a lens through which one views the world and is passed from one generation to the next

  • understand the world

• so tightly woven into the fabric of our lives that we barely acknowledge it

  • “taken for granted” assumptions about how the world works

  • rituals and practives

  • material items

  • give meaning

  • people think of their culture

  • be able to relize somethjing in the culture (RECORDING)

    • you dont see it

• dont understand it and doesnt make sense if we are not in that culture

• could see it as abnormal and different

• through a culture lens, it makes sense

• what does it mean and tell us?

society

• group of people living in a given territory governed by a common political authority and guided by a common culture 

culture

• culture serve as an important source of conformity necessary for a society’s social order

• rite, rituals, practices that create conformity

material culture

• any physical object to which we give social meaning

• physical thing

• helps us understand culture

• gives meaning

• includes the objects associated with a cultural group, such as tools, machines, utensils, buildings, and artwork (spray paint, museums)

• rapidly globalized largely through modern information technology

• really spreading

  • develop a more uniform culture

    • isn’t helpful into defining different cultures anymore

• examples:

  • to us

    • substances are normal to use

    • toothbrush: health and hygiene

    • makeup: appearance

  • fast food:

    • popularity of it because its convient

    • often large as it represents our overconsumption of food

  • indigenous Canadians

    • muktuk: sea mammal blubber

    • signs of indigenous canadians

      • cold (igloo, warm shoes)

      • connecton to animals

      • close to the water

      • resourceful

      • not a lot of technology

      • in synch with animals

      • less emphasis (RECORDING 17 minutes)

nonmaterial/symbolic culture

• the ideas associated with cultural group

• symbols

  • signs (thumbs up)

  • gestures

  • helps us understand and define with culture and country is

  • foundation of what is going on

  • help society function

• example

  • thin people: fasting, social norms of female beauty

  • red light (different meanings)

    • cop lights

      • emergency

      • danger

      • in trouble

      • feeling different for white women and black young man walking down the street at night 

      • fear or safety 

    • red light district 

      • sex workers

    • red light

      • stop

        • know this is stop

language

• often verbal

• a system of communication using vocal sounds, gestures, and written symbols, is probably the most significant component of culture because it allows us to communicate

• so important that many have argued that it shapes not only out communication but our perceptions of how we see things as well (Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)

  • changes how we see things/view the world

  • indegiouns candians

    • have 50 different words for snow and ice

      • see snow and ice differently

• how we read, write, speak influence the world

• futured language

  • less focused on future, more rewards in present

    • i will be doing that tomorrow

  • wont affect me now, will worry about it later

  • less likely to save

  • take care of yourself

• futurerless language

  • future is just as important as present moment

  • account for future more

    • i Be doing it tomorrow

    • future is present

• assign important to words

  • some countries dont have words for fighting or war so they are more passive

• in video, it was studiedL

  • looked at 72-76 less developed and more developed counties

  • matched households

    • can be confident that something was found (less confounding variables)

  • looked at same country that spoke different languages

    • switzerland

      • 3 different langauges 

        • there is a difference in lifestyle with futureless and futured langauge 

values 

• shared beliefs about what a group considers worthwhile or desireable which guide the creation of the other thing 

  • thoughts

• example

  • education

  • family

  • community

  • honesty

norms

• the formal and informal rules regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable and appropriate within culture

• learn in school, home (parents, mother)

• what is acceptable in culture

• example

  • increasing education over time

  • marriage and kids

what do mothers teach kids?

• teach kids to keep tidy (value)

• manners

  • please, thank you, taking shoes off

    • seen in a more positive light

    • form good relationships

    • doesn’t disrupt society

    • good, positive impression