MCAT p/s 5 - Individuals and Society, Perception, Prejudice, and Bias, Social Behaviour, Social Interactions, Culture, Social Inequality

Self-concept

• how someone thinks about/perceives/evaluates themselves

• “Self-identity/awareness”

• Based on self-esteem and self-efficacy

• 2 parts:

  • Existential self

  • Categorical self

• Carl Rogers - 3 components:

  • Self-image

  • Self-esteem/worth

  • Ideal-self

Self-image, self-esteem/worth, ideal-self

• 3 components of self-concept according to Carl Rogers (Humanistic Theory)

• What we believe we are, how much value we place on ourselves, what we aspire to be

Existential Self

Part of Self-Concept

• Most basic part

• Sense of being separate and distinct from others

• Awareness that self is constant/consistent throughout life

Categorical self

Part of Self-Concept

• Comes after existential self (realize they’re separate)

• Awareness that even though we are separate, we exist in a world with others and everything has properties

• Age, gender, skills, size, traits, comparisons, careers

Social Identity Theory

• Theory that develops self-concept further

• 2 parts:

  • Personal identity

  • Social identity

• How we categorize ourselves and others:

  1. All humans categorize ourselves and others to understand objects and identify them

  2. Identification - adopt identity/role, emotional significance, sense of belonging

  3. Social Comparison - to maintain self-esteem

Self-efficacy

• Belief in one’s abilities to succeed in a situation

• Developed by Bandora (dissatisfied with idea of self-esteem)

• 2 types:

  • Strong - recover quickly from setbacks, strong sense of commitment, enjoy challenges

  • Weak - focus on failures, avoid challenging tasks, lose confidence easily

• Determined via 4 sources:

  1. Mastery of experience

  2. Social modelling

  3. Social persuasion

  4. Psychological responses

• Can have low-self esteem, but high _______, vv

Psychosexual Theory

Theory of Development (personality)

• Freud

• Childhood = most important stage for personality development

• Most personality develops by age 5

• Influences later behaviour in life

• 5 stages

  • If issues - fixation

    1. Oral

    2. Anal

    3. Phallic

    4. Latent

    5. Genital

Oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital

Stages of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

Oral stage

Stage 1 of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• 0-1 y/o

• Libido centered around mouth

• Sucking, eating, tasting

  • Derives pleasure via oral stimulation

• Infant dependent on caregivers, develop sense of trust

• If fixation: issues with dependency, aggression, smoking, biting fingernails, thumb sucking, overeating

Anal stage

Stage 2 of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• 1-3 y/o

• Centered around ____

• Toilet training, development of control/independence, feel capable and productive

• If fixation: problems with orderliness/messiness

Phallic stage

Stage 3 of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• 3-6 y/o

• Discover difference btw males and females

• Oedipus/Electra’s complex

• Develop similar characteristics as same sex-parent

• If fixation: homosexuality, exhibitionism

Latent period

Stage 4 of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• 6-12 y/o

• No focus on libido

• Period of exploration, intellectual pursuits, social interactions

• Important in development of social/communication skills

• Concerned with peer relationships, hobbies, play w/ same gender children

• Fixation doesn’t lead to adult fixation

Genital stage

Stage 5 of Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• 12+ y/o

• Develop sexual interests

• Before, focus on individual needs, now focus on needs of others

• No adult fixation - Mentally healthy

• Establish balance between various life areas

Psychosocial Development Theory

Theory of Development (personality)

• Erikson

• Personality/identity develops through whole lifespan

• Each stage depends on overcoming a conflict/crisis

• 8 stages

  1. 0-1 y/o

     • Crisis: trust vs mistrust

     • Virtue: hope

  2. 1-3 y/o

     • Crisis: autonomy vs shame/doubt

     • Virtue: will/independence

  3. 3-6 y/o

     • Crisis: initiative vs guilt

     • Virtue: purpose

  4. 6-12 y/o

     • Crisis: industry vs inferiority

     • Virtue: self-esteem/competence

  5. 12-20 y/o

     • Crisis: identity vs role confusion

     • Virtue: fidelity

  6. 20-40 y/o

     • Crisis: intimacy vs isolation

     • Virtue: relationships/love

  7. 40-65 y/o

     • Crisis: generativity vs stagnation

     • Virtue: sense of care for others

  8. 65+ y/o

     • Crisis: integrity vs dispair

     • Virtue: wisdom, closure

Sociocultural Cognitive Development Theory

Theory of Development (cognition)

• Vygotsky

• Children learn through active, hands-on processes

• 4 elementary mental functions: attention, sensation, perception, memory

  • Develop into higher mental functions - independent learning and thinking

• Parents/caregivers/cultural beliefs/language/attitudes responsible for development of higher function of learning

  • Requires:

    • Cooperative collaboration with MKO (more knowledgable other)

    • Zone of proximal development

    • Language

• Social interaction important for cognition

Moral Development Theory

Theory of Development (cognition)

• Kohlberg

• Right vs wrong

• Moral reasoning develops with cognition

• Heinz dilemma

• 3 stages of moral reasoning each with 2 levels - 6 levels total

  1. Pre-conventional

     • Obedience vs punishment

     • Individualism and exchange or Self-interest

  2. Conventional

     • Societal norms

     • Law and Order

  3. Post-conventional

     • Social contract

     • Universal ethical principle

Social Behaviourism

• Developed by George Herbert Mead

• The mind and self-emerge through the process of communicating with others

• Occurs through 3 stages:

  1. Preparatory stage

     • Interaction through imitation

     • Begin to communicate with others and use symbols

  2. Play stage

     • More aware of social interactions

     • Pretend play

     • Role-taking

     • Consider attitudes, beliefs, behaviours of those close to them

  3. Game stage

     • Start to understand attitudes, beliefs, behaviours of “generalized other”

     • Others have multiple roles, opinions

     • Only concerned with reactions of significant others

     • Development of I and Me

       • Me = Socialized and conforming aspect of self

       • I = spontaneous, less socialized component of the self

       • Actual self = balance of I and me

Looking glass self

• Term developed by Charles Cooley

• Describes process by which socialization shapes our self-image and self-concept

• Idea that a person’s sense of self develops from interpersonal interactions with others

• 3 steps:

  1. How do I appear to others?

  2. What must others think of me?

  3. Revise how we think about ourselves

• Not actually being influenced by opinions of others, but what we imagine the opinions of other people to be

Attribution theory

• How we explain behaviours of others around us by breaking down our understanding/explanation of their behaviours to factors about them, and factors related to their environment/surroundings

  • Internal (dispositional attribution) - about them

  • External (situational attribution) - environment

• Error = assigns too much weight to internal vs external factors as cause of behaviour

Co-variation model

• Model related to Attribution Theory

• 3 cues:

  1. Consistency (time)

     • Consistency is high = attribution to internal factors

  2. Distinctiveness (situation)

     • Distinctiveness of a situation = attribution to external factors

  3. Consensus (people)

     • Consensus of people = attribution of external factors

Fundamental attribution error

• Over attribution of others behavior to internal causes

• Occurs when a person assigns too much weight to internal causes rather than external factors when looking for causes of another person’s behavior

Stereotype threat

• Exposure to a negative stereotype surrounding a task can actually cause decrease in the performance of an individual performing task

Stereotype, prejudice, discrimination

• Prejudice is made up of 3 components

  • Cognition ( ____ ) - fundamental underlying thought, overgeneralized belief

  • Affect ( ____ ) - emotional component

  • _______ - capacity to carry out a behavior and act on prejudice

Social stigma

• Stigma fuelled or associated with stereotypes, prejudices, discrimination

• Associated with a behavior, identity, or other attribute that is considered deviant by others

Self stigma

• Type of stigma where an individual can internalize all the negative stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory experiences they’ve had, and may begin to feel rejected by society, avoid interacting with society

Halo effect

• Tendency people have inherently good/bad natures, rather than looking at individual characteristics

• Ex. If we have an overall positive first impression, we start to analyze all their skills based on our overall first impression rather than just skills. They get an overall boost in each of their skills because of our impression

• Often happens with celebrities and attractive people

Ethnocentrism

• judging someone else’s culture from the position of your own culture

  • Viewing our own culture to be superior to that of others

  • Can lead to cultural bias and prejudice

  • Using one’s own cultural standards, such as norms and values, to make judgements about another culture

Cultural relativism

• Practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one’s own culture

  • Opposite of ethnocentrism

• No absolute right or wrong, but we have different cultures which are themselves valid

Xenocentrism

• Judging another culture as superior to one’s own culture

Cultural imperialism

• The deliberate imposition of one’s own cultural values on another culture.

• Development of “in” and “out” groups

In-group favouritism

• We favour/friendly to people in our own group

• But, to out-group, neutral–we don’t give them favours we do to our in-group

Out-group derogation

• We are super friendly to our in group, but not friendly to out group–we discriminate

• Happens if we feel that the out group is threatening to undermine in group’s success

Kin selection

• People act more altruistically towards those more closely related to them

• Gives evolutionary advantage, passing on genes

Reciprocal altruism

• People more likely to act altruistically with the expectation that they will receive some benefit in return in the future

• We feel more obliged to help someone else if they have helped us

Cost signalling

• Altruism, although costly, benefits the altruist by allowing them to establish a “reputation”; one that allows him her or her to say, “look how great I am. I’ve contributed to people who are less fortunate!

Role strain

• When you can’t carry out all obligations of a status

• Causes individual to be pulled many directions by one status

• Ex. a student has to write two papers, five reading assignments, give a speech, two lab reports in one week

Role conflict

• Conflict/tension between two or more different statuses

• Statuses compete for one’s time

• Ex. someone who’s is a parent, friend, husband, and worker

• Defined as the stress that people feel when they are confronted within compatible role expectations across different social statuses they occupy

Role exit

• When an individual stops engaging in a role previously central to their identity and the process of establishing a new identity

Primary groups

• Closest members of the group to you

• Close intimate long-term relationships

• Give a sense of belonging and loyalty and shared identity

• Not in it for some sort of goal

Secondary groups

• Formal, impersonal, temporary, and business-like relationships, based on a limited purpose/goal

• Usually short-term and see infrequently

Dramaturgical approach

• Sociological perspective developed by Erving Goffman

• Views social interactions as performances, like a theatrical play, where individuals act out roles and manage impressions for an audience

• 2 parts:

  • Front stage - when in a social setting

  • Back stage - more private areas of life, when act is over, can be yourself and do what makes you feel comfortable

• Impression management = attempt to control how others see us on the front stage

  • Work on it on the backstage

Utilitarian organization

Type of Organization

• Members are paid/rewarded for their efforts

• Ex .Businesses and government jobs, and universities(receive diploma in exchange for your time)

Normative organization

Type of Organization

• Members come together through shared goals

• Ex. religious groups or MADD

• Positive sense of unity and purpose

Coercive organization

Type of Organization

• Members don’t have choice about membership

• Ex.people in a prison, or the military

• Usually highly structured and have very strict rules

Foraging

• The search for food in animal’s environment

• Can’t survive or reproduce without it

• Takes lots of time and E to find food

• Goal is to get highest energy yield while expending least amount of energy

• Can be solitary or in a group

Random Mating

• All individuals within a species are equally likely to mate with each other

• Mating not influenced by environment/heredity or any behavioral/social limitation. Ensures a large amount of genetic diversity

Assortative Mating

• Non-random mating where individuals with certain phenotypes/genotypes/similarities/genes/physical appearance tend to mate with each other at a higher frequency

• Can lead to inbreeding and the passing on of harmful recessive traits

Non-Assortative Mating

• Situation where individuals with different or diverse traits mate with higher frequency than with random mating

Inclusive fitness

• Concerns the # of offspring an animal has, how they support them, and how offspring support each other

• Thinking about fitness on a larger scale–evolutionary advantageous for animals to propagate/survival of closely related individuals and genes in addition to themselves

Macrosociology

• Large scale perspective, looking at big phenomena that affect big portion of population

• Social structures and institutions, whole civilizations/populations

• Looking for patterns and effects the big picture has on lives on small groups

• Broad social trends in cities, and statistical data

• Poverty, war, health care, world economy

Functionalism

• Comes from macrosociology

• Looks at society as a whole and how institutions that make up the society adapt to keep society stable and functioning

Conflict theory

• Comes from macrosociology

• The idea society is made of institutions that benefit powerful and create inequalities

• Large groups are at odds until conflict is resolved.

Microsociology

• Face to face interactions, families, schools, other social interactions

• Interpretive analysis of the society, look at sample of society and how individual interactions would affect larger groups in society

Symbolic interactions

• Comes from microsociology

• Social theory that focuses on the individual and significance they give to objects, events, symbols, etc. in their lives

Social epidemiology

• The contribution of social and cultural factors to disease patterns in populations (the social determinants of a disease)

• Emphasized how social factors, such as class or race/ethnicity, affect the distribution of disease and health

Functionalism

• A system of thinking based on ideas of Emile Durkheim that look at society from large-scale perspective, and how each part helps keep society stable

• Society is heading towards equilibrium

• Macro-sociological analysis, with a broad focus on social structures that shapes society as a whole

• Balance between institutions and social facts (ways of thinking and acting formed by society that existed before any one individual and will still exist after any individual is dead)

• a change to production/distribution/coordination will force others to adapt to maintain stable state society

• Problem: focuses entirely on institutions without regard for individual

Social Constructionism

• Argues that people actively shape their reality through social interactions/agreement–it’s something constructed, not inherent

• Things are social products made of the values of the society that created it

• Theory that knowledge is not real, and only exists because we give them reality through social agreement–nations, books, etc. don’t exist in absence of human society

• Can be:

  • Weak

    • Social constructs dependent on brute facts and institutional facts

  • Strong

    • Dependent on language and social habits

    • all knowledge is social construct and there are no brute fact hat just exist

• Difficulty explain natural phenomena that don’t depend on human action

• Berger and Luckman

Symbolic Interactionism

• Examines small scale social interactions, focusing attention on how shared meaning is established among individuals or small groups

• Explains social phenomena in terms of the meanings that they hold when people interact with one another

• Developed by George Herbert Mead

• Continued by Herbert Blumer - 3 tenants:

  • We act based on meaning we have given something

  • Different people assign different meanings to things. We give meaning to things based on social interactions

  • The meaning we give something isn’t permanent

• Problem: restricted to small interactions, doesn’t ask same questions that large-scale sociologists do

Feminist Theory

• Look at world from macro-perspective, originated from conflict theory by looking at inequalities in society

• Examines women’s social roles/experience in education, family, and workforce

• Women face discrimination, objectification, oppression, stereotyping

• Different types:

  • Gender differences

  • Gender inequality

  • Gender oppression

  • Structural oppression

• Not an attempt to replace men–different perspective on society to point out inequalities that exist between men and women due to institutions of society

Rational Choice Theory

• People not only motivated by money, but do what’s best to get better

• Main assumption is the idea that everything people do is fundamentally rational to maximize personal gain

• People act in self-interest, driven by personal desires and motivated by goals

• People calculate the cost and benefits of each action and choose the one with the best outcome for themselves

• 3 main assumptions:

  • Completeness (every action can be ranked)

  • Transivity

• Independence of irrelevant alternatives

Exchange Theory (Exchange-Rational Choice Theory)

• Application of rational choice theory to social interactions

• Used to study family relationships, work relationships, partner selection, parenting, etc.

• Behavior of individual in interaction can be figured out by comparing rewards and punishments

• Assumptions:

  • People seek to rationally maximize their profits, behavior resulting in a reward is likely to be repeated

Conflict Theory

• How societies change and adapt over time through conflict

• Two opposing positions would merge to create a new society where both are content.

• Ex.Class struggle of 19th century Europe

Life Course Theory

• Aging is a social, psychological, and biological process that begins from time you born till time you die

• A holistic perspective that calls attention to developmental processes and other experiences across a person’s life

Age stratification theory

• suggests age is a way of regulating behavior of a generation

Activity Theory

• Looks at how older generation looks at themselves

• Certain activities or jobs lost, those social interactions need to be replaced so elderly can be engaged and maintain moral/well-being

Disengagement Theory

• Older adults and society separate, assumes they become more self-absorbed as they age

• Separation allows for self-reflection

• But considers elderly people still involved in society as not adjusting well, which is debatable

Continuity Theory

• People try to maintain same basic structure throughout their lives overtime.

• As they age people make decisions that preserve that structure and use it to adapt to external changes and internal changes of aging

Gender schema

• Theory that explains how individuals should be gendered in society

• How sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture

• What constitutes male/female characteristics and how stereotypes become ingrained in the society

• Cognitions regarding what constitutes sex identity is a ____ ______

Gender script

• What we expect males and females to do

• Organized information regarding the order of actions that are approximate to a familiar situation

Suburbanization

• Movement away from cities to get a larger home (American dream), but commute for work can be long and harder to get quick medical help

• However, suburbs form their own economic centres and become independent to cities they border

Fertility

Factor of Population Growth Rate

• Natural ability of human beings to have babies, which add to the population

• Measure birth rate by # of births/1000 people per yr

• or _____ rate # number of births a woman is expected to give birth to in her child bearing years

  • Average = 2.1

(#births + #immigration) / 1000

Total population increase rate

Fecundity

• the potential reproductive capacity of a female

• Affects population growth rate

Migration

Factor of Population Growth Rate

• Number of people moving permanently (to live, work, and eventually die) into/out of countries

• Doesn’t change total people on planet but does change # of people living in a region/country

• Immigration/Emigration

  • Net ______ = immigration - emigration

• People are moving to industrialized countries for potential for better life. Move for political reasons (become refugees), for jobs, or wanting to live somewhere foreign.

Mortality

Factor of Population Growth Rate

• Death, decreases population

• Death rate = #deaths / 1000 people

Population pyramid

• Graphs the age and sex distribution of a population

• Males/Females on x-axis and increasing age on y-axis

• Stationary/constrictive = low birth/death rates

• Expansive = high birth and death rates

Stationary/constrictive population pyramid

• Population pyramid indicating low birth and death rates in population

Expansive population pyramid

• Population pyramids indicating high birth rate and high death rates

Constrictive period

• Fewer young people than old people (in developed countries)

• Mortality rate of country with lots of old people does not compare well with a country where people are dying young from disease

(#death + #Emigration)/1000

Total population decrease rate

Life-table/mortality table

• When you break mortality rate by age

• Tells you probability someone will die given their age which can vary from country to country

Internal migration

• Move within same country

• Doesn’t change population of a country, but can effect economics/culture of a country

• Large factor in urbanization (movement from rural to urban areas)

Growth rate

• (Total Population Increase–Total population decrease)/(Initial Population)*100

• (Births + Immigration–Deaths–Emigration)/(Initial Population)*100

• Can be calculated as Current Population–Initial Population / (Initial) * 100

• How much population of a country grows or shrinks over a period of time

• Can be negative for some countries, but globally positive

Demographic transition

• Theory of economic development and pop change that suggests that economic changes, specifically industrialization affect the relationship between the fertility and mortality rates in a society

• Stabilization usually occurs in industrialized/developed countries

• Affected by immigration into developed countries

  • Increases fertility, decreases mortality

  • Usually healthy people migrating

• Population growth occurs rapidly because the mortality rate falls before the fertility rate does. Over time, the fertility rate also falls, thus stabilizing a lower rate of population growth

• Shift from high birth and death rate to low death and birth rate as country becomes industrialized

  • 5 stages

1. High birth and death rates. Stable population.High Stationary Pyramid

2. High birth rate and declining death rates (better sanitation and foodsupply). Increase in population. Population of older people increases.Early Expanding Pyramid

3. Lower birth rates (contraceptives, and social values changing) andsometimes continueddecline in death rates. Population stops growing asquickly. Late expansive pyramid

4. Birth rates and death rates balance. Population stabilizes. Lots ofpeople because of all the growth in 1-3. Low-Stationary Pyramid

5. Speculative Stage; population could remain stable, increase, ordecrease(decrease=constrictive pyramid). Less births and more deaths

Stage 1

Stage of Demographic Transition Model

• High birth rate

  • Limited birth control

  • Economic advantage for more workers

• High death rate

  • Disease/poor nutrition

• Overall stable pop

• Pyramid model = stationary

  • Lots of young ppl, little old ppl

• Ex. most countries prior to 18th century in Western Eu

Stage 2

Stage of Demographic Transition Model

• Beginnings of developing pop/countries

• Still high birth rate

• Lower death rate

  • Availability of food

  • Health and sanitation

• Overall, pop growth

• Pyramid model = early expanding

• Ex. 19th century Western-Europe after Industrial Revolution

Stage 3

Stage of Demographic Transition Model

• Low death rate

  • Still decreasing

  • Better health care

• Lower birth rate

  • Begins to decrease

  • Social trend towards smaller families

• In more industrialized countries

• Slower population expansion and longer lived elderly

• Pyramid model = late expanding

Stage 4

Stage of Demographic Transition Model

• Birth and death rates low and balance each other out

  • Improvement of contraception, women in workforce

  • Career > kids

• Large pop bcs been growing

• Pyramid model = low stationary

Stage 5

Stage of Demographic Transition Model

• Speculative

• World pop forced to stabilize

• Malthusian theorem: run out of ressources, global food shortage, can’t maintain natural ressources for everyone on planet - high mortality rate

• Lack of resources will lead to public health disaster and force population to stabilize–stabilize and then negative growth rate

• Pyramid model = constrictive

  • Fewer young than old

• Some evidence that growth rate could increase - Higher standard of living promote fertility and higher birth rate

Malthusian Theorem

• Theory for stage 5 of demographic transition

• Run out of resources, global food shortage

• We won’t be able to maintain natural resources for everyone on planet → high mortality rate

Anti-Malthusian Theorem

• Theory for stage 5 of demographic transition

• Couples only want to have one child or have children later in life. (low birth rate)

• Better standard of living = smaller families because children are economic burden

• Also, industrialized nations have better education/access to healthcare which contribute to reproductive choices

• China have government policies to slow population growth to preserve their resources

Globalization

• Sharing of culture, money and products between countries due to international trade and advancements in transportation and communication

• Contributed to by economic interdependence, tech advancements

• Allows for:

  • International terrorism

  • Civil unrest

  • Foreign cultures integrated in each country

  • World-economy

Core

Division of world according to World-Systems Theory

(importance of world as a unit rather than individual countries)

• Western Europe and US

• Strong Central Government with enough tax to support it

• Economically diversified, industrialized, and independent of outside control

• Strong middle and working class

• Focus on higher scope production of material goods rather than raw materials

Periphery

Division of world according to World-Systems Theory

(importance of world as a unit rather than individual countries)

• Latin America and Africa

• Relatively weak government, greatly influenced by and depend on core countries and transnational corporations

• Economy focused on narrow economic activity (1 type usually) like extracting raw material

• High percentage of poor/uneducated people and strong upperclass that controls most of economy

• Huge inequalities

Semi-Periphery

Division of world according to World-Systems Theory

(importance of world as a unit rather than individual countries)

• India and Brazil, middle-ground between other 2

• Not dominant in international trade but diversified/developed economy

• Can come either from periphery countries moving up to core countries or core countries declining towards periphery status.

• It is a fluid-model but criticized on being too focussed on core countries and economies and ignoring class struggles and culture of individual countries

Modernization Theory

• All countries follow similar path of development from traditional to modern society

• With some help traditional countries can develop similarly to how today’s developed countries did

• Looks at internal social dynamics as country adapts to new technologies and political and social changes that occurs during adaptation

Dependency Theory

• Rxn to modernization theory

• Uses idea of Core + Periphery countries to look at inequalities between countries

• Periphery countries (3rd world countries) export resources to Core countries (first world)

• Not because they are in an earlier stage of development but because they have been integrated into the world economy as an undeveloped countries

• Don’t have means to become a developed nation

• They will remain poor and dependent on wealthier nations

Hyperglobalist perspective

• Sees globalization as a new age in human histor

• Countries become interdependent and nation states themselves are less important

• Countries become one global society

• Theorists don’t agree if this is good or bad

• Driven by a legitimate process

Skeptical perspective

• Critical of globalization, considers it as being regionalized instead of globalized

• Third world countries aren’t being integrated into global economy with same benefits as first world countries

• Current economy is not leading towards global capitalism

• Transnational corporations still tied to their home countries and national borders remain important

Transformationalist perspective

• Doesn’t have specific cause or outcome

• Believe national governments are changing, perhaps becoming less important but difficult to explain change so simply

• They see the world order is changing

• Just a new world order is being developed

• Many factors that influence change of world patterns but outcome unknown