SOC 3200 lec notes

What is social stratification?

The ways individuals or groups are ranked in society, involving differences in power, status, prestige, resources, and opportunities.

What are the important social statuses in stratification?

Ascribed status, achieved status, social class, race/ethnicity, gender, age, and sexual orientation.

What are the three perspectives on social stratification?

1. Symbolic interactionism 2. Social structure and personality 3. Group processes

How is inequality produced in everyday interactions?

Through who people interact with, listen to, value opinions from, and who gets leadership positions.

What is 'othering' in the context of social stratification?

A process where higher-status people define themselves as superior and lower-status people as inferior.

What is oppressive othering?

When higher-status groups define lower-status groups as deficient or inferior.

What is defensive othering?

When lower-status individuals respond to negative stereotypes by presenting themselves as exceptions.

What does 'doing gender' mean?

The idea that gender is continually produced through everyday behavior and is performed according to cultural expectations.

What is borderwork?

Creating social and physical boundaries between boys and girls.

What is intersectionality?

The concept that social statuses such as race, gender, and class intersect to create distinct experiences of inequality.

What is the Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment?

A model that describes the interaction between early cognitive ability and social background in determining life outcomes.

What is social capital?

The trust, support, information, and resources available through relationships.

What is direct exchange in social capital?

A situation where two people exchange resources directly with each other.

What is generalized exchange?

A situation where a person gives something to someone without expecting an immediate return, requiring trust.

What does Status Characteristics Theory explain?

How people's social characteristics affect their status within groups and how larger social inequalities enter small-group interactions.

What are diffuse status characteristics?

Characteristics that apply across many different situations, such as gender, race, age, and education.

What are specific status characteristics?

Characteristics that matter mainly in particular situations, such as knowledge of basketball during a basketball-related task.

What are status expectations?

Expectations group members develop about who is likely to be competent, which can become self-reinforcing.

What is the difference between status and power?

Status refers to respect and esteem based on individual characteristics, while power is the ability to control outcomes or overcome resistance.

What is the Looking-Glass Self according to Charles Horton Cooley?

A three-step process where individuals develop a sense of self by imagining how they appear to others, imagining their judgment, and developing a self-feeling based on that judgment.

What are the stages of role-taking according to George Herbert Mead?

1. Preparatory Stage 2. Play Stage 3. Game Stage 4. Generalized Other

What are primary agents of socialization?

Family and peer groups, which communicate norms and expectations.

What are the primary agents of socialization?

Schools, Mass Media, and the Workplace.

What is socialization?

The process through which individuals learn and internalize the norms and values of their society.

What is resocialization?

The deliberate process of stripping away existing social roles and replacing them with newly learned norms and behaviors.

Who pioneered the Sexual Script Theory?

John Gagnon.

What does Sexual Script Theory emphasize?

Human sexual behavior is learned and organized through social 'scripts' operating at cultural, interpersonal, and intra-psychic levels.

What are the three levels of sexual scripts according to Gagnon?

Cultural/Historical Scripts, Interpersonal Scripts, and Intra-psychic Scripts.

What is the stance of Gagnon on biological essentialism?

He rejected the idea that human sexuality is driven solely by biological drives, emphasizing the role of social context.

What is the difference between sincere and cynical performers according to Goffman?

Sincere performers believe in their performance, while cynical performers do not and use the performance for ulterior motives.

What is the 'Front' in Goffman's theory?

The standardized expressive equipment used during a performance to define the situation.

What are the components of Personal Front?

Appearance and Manner.

What does 'Dramatic Realization' refer to?

The need for performers to highlight unseen aspects of their work to make their competencies visible to the audience.

What is the dilemma of expression vs. action?

The energy required to display competence can distract from actually performing the task.

What does 'Idealization' in performances mean?

Performances exemplify the officially accredited values of society, presenting an idealized social standard.

What is 'Secret Consumption'?

Concealing actions or habits that violate official standards to maintain an idealized front.

What is 'Audience Segregation'?

Maintaining separate audiences to prevent conflicting roles or contradictory fronts from overlapping.

What are 'unmeant gestures'?

Minor accidental cues that audiences interpret as signs of a fake performance.

What is 'Definitional Control'?

Mobilizing behavior to convey a specific impression and influence the definition of the situation.

What is a 'working consensus' in interactions?

A shared surface agreement where individual differences are temporarily suppressed to maintain harmony.

What are defensive practices in performance?

Strategies used by performers to safeguard their projections during interactions.

What are protective practices in audience behavior?

Actions taken by audience members to save a performer's definition of the situation if a breach occurs.

What is the primary focus of social psychology?

The systematic study of people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in social contexts.

What methods do social scientists use to test theories?

Observation, surveys, experiments, and other forms of research.

What is macrosociology?

The study of social phenomena at a large scale, including structural functionalism and conflict theory.

Define microsociology.

The study of individual interactions and their effects on social psychological processes.

What is meso-level data analysis?

Analysis conducted at the group or organizational level.

Who is associated with psychoanalysis?

Sigmund Freud, who emphasized the role of conscious and unconscious processes.

What does symbolic interactionism study?

How people negotiate the meaning of social life during their interactions.

What are the three core principles of symbolic interactionism according to H. Blumer?

1. Meanings arise through social interaction. 2. People use meanings to guide behavior. 3. People interpret interactions.

What is the sociological imagination?

The ability to see personal lives in the context of larger societal structures.

What is ethnomethodology?

A theory and method of inquiry that examines how individuals construct social reality.

What are breaching experiments?

Methods of violating social order to assess how people construct social reality.

Define agency in sociological terms.

The ability to act and think independently from social constraints.

What is the social construction of reality?

The process by which symbols and language give meaning to objects and people.

What is framing in social psychology?

The process by which individuals transform the meanings of situations using cognitive structures provided by society.

What are social scripts?

Series of appropriate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors expected in a given social frame.

What are social forces?

Ways in which society compels individuals to act according to external norms.

What is cognitive sociology?

The study of how society influences thinking processes.

What defines small groups in social psychology?

Groups of two or more individuals, typically between 2 and 20, engaging in direct interactions.

What is the difference between primary and secondary groups?

Primary groups are close relationships (family, friends), while secondary groups are formed for specific goals (coworkers, teammates).

What is a hypothesis in social research?

A specific, testable prediction about how variables will relate.

What is the independent variable (IV)?

The variable expected to cause or produce a change.

What is the dependent variable (DV)?

The variable expected to change as a result of the independent variable.

What does operationalization mean?

Turning an abstract theoretical concept into something measurable.

Give an example of operationalization.

Measuring stress by the number of negative life events or a person's rating of role strain.

What is the measurement of stress?

The number of negative life events or a person's rating of role strain.

What is the difference between a population and a sample?

Population is the larger group researchers want to understand; sample is the smaller group actually studied.

What is a probability sample?

A sample where participants are systematically selected to represent the population.

What is a random sample?

Participants are randomly selected from the population.

What is a convenience sample?

A sample using people who are readily available.

What is a cluster sample?

The population is divided into clusters, and participants are selected from those clusters.

What does reliability in research refer to?

Whether a research method produces consistent results when used repeatedly.

What does validity in research refer to?

Whether the research actually measures what it is supposed to measure.

What is qualitative research?

Research focusing on depth and meaning rather than numerical measurement.

What is field research?

Research where observers directly observe people's behavior in a natural setting.

What is participant observation?

The researcher becomes part of the group being studied.

What are in-depth interviews?

Interviews where researchers ask open-ended questions and allow participants to explain their experiences.

What is a focus group?

Semi-structured interviews with small groups, usually around 6-15 people.

What is quantitative research?

Research using numbers and statistical measurement to study thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

What is statistical significance?

Helps determine whether a relationship observed in a sample is likely to represent a real relationship in the population.

What is the purpose of random assignment in experiments?

To make groups similar before the experiment, helping to determine if the independent variable caused the observed change.

What is mixed-method research?

Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in research.

What is social stratification?

The ways individuals or groups are ranked in society based on power, status, prestige, resources, and opportunities.

What are ascribed and achieved statuses?

Ascribed status is assigned at birth; achieved status is earned through actions.

What is symbolic interactionism?

A perspective examining how people construct and reproduce inequality through everyday interactions.

What is 'othering'?

A process where higher-status people define lower-status people as inferior.

What is 'doing gender'?

The idea that gender is produced and performed through everyday behavior.

What is defensive othering?

When lower-status people respond to negative stereotypes by presenting themselves as exceptions.

What are the five steps in developing a research project?

1. Assess theory and literature, 2. Develop research questions, 3. Choose research methods, 4. Conduct data analysis, 5. Report results.

What are the advantages of qualitative research?

Provides detailed information, studies people in natural environments, and helps understand meanings and experiences.

What are the disadvantages of quantitative research?

May miss the complexity of experiences and oversimplify concepts.

What is a secondary data analysis?

Analyzing data that someone else previously collected.

What is a survey in research?

A method using questionnaires to measure variables.

What does 'doing gender' refer to?

The performance of gender roles and the accountability for those roles in social interactions.

What is 'borderwork' in the context of gender?

Creating social and physical boundaries between boys and girls.

What does 'intersectionality' argue?

That social statuses such as race, gender, and class intersect and create distinct experiences of inequality.

What is the Wisconsin Model of Status Attainment?

A model that outlines the process from social background to occupational status through aspirations, ability, and education.

Define 'social capital'.

The trust, support, information, and resources available through relationships.

What is the difference between direct exchange and generalized exchange?

Direct exchange involves two people exchanging resources directly, while generalized exchange involves a chain of exchanges without immediate reciprocation.