Inquizitive MCAT Foundational Concept 7: Biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors influence behavior and behavior change.

Identify the distinguishing features of a symbolic interactionist theory of social deviance.

Features:

-a recognition of the impact of assigning labels to behaviors and to people

-a focus on individual psychology rather than the social dynamics of large populations

Not Features:

-a search for the functional importance of a person's behavior in relation to the rest of the social group

In broad terms, what is the definition of social deviance?

transgression of socially established norms.

Identify each behavioral sanction as either formal or informal.

Formal:

-a parent explains to a child that the law requires kids to go to school

-a police officer directs traffic near the venue of a major sporting event

Informal:

-an adult scowls and shakes her head at a child, not hers, playing roughly in a store aisle with toys pulled off the shelves

-a paramedic shouts at a patient to slow down in the hospital parking lot

formal

rules or laws prohibiting deviant criminal behavior such as murder, rape, and theft. These sanctions are formal, overt "expressions of official group sentiment"

informal

unwritten rules of social life. the ways we keep each other in check by watching and judging those around us.

Social control

the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance, the act of abiding by society's norms or simply following the rules of group life.

Two categories: formal social sanctions and informal social sanctions

An educator, disgusted with standardized testing and teaching methods, decides to start a charter school that doesn't give students grades and encourages creative thinking over rote learning.How would Robert Merton's strain theory of deviance classify this character?

As an innovator.

The innovator accepts conventional goals (education) but not the means (standardized testing and methods).

Strain Theory

when a society holds out the same goals to all its members but does not give them equal ability to achieve these goals.

Conformist

A conformist accepts both the goals and strategies to achieve those goals that are considered socially acceptable. Like purse a better lifestyle through a better education, deliberate cultivation of the right social network, and hardwork.

Ritualist

accepted society's acceptable means, but rejected society's goals. Like still going to college, but taking minimal notes, just enough to still get a passing grade.

Rebel

rejects both traditional goals and traditional means but wants to change

Innovator

social deviant who accepts socially acceptable goals but rejects socially acceptable means to achieve them. Like wanting to be rich and famous but dont have the right resources or attitude.

Retrealist

Does not participate in society - rejects social means and goals.

A student in a large lecture class discovers that some of his classmates have formed a secret online group in which they are passing around a copy of an upcoming exam. The group invites the student to join.Identify the likely and unlikely responses to this invitation, according to Solomon Asch's study of group norms.

He will be more likely to join the group if it is quite large or if many of his friends are involved.

Match each description of a society or social group to the type of suicide that, according to Durkheim, would be most common among its members

- a new age cult in which members live, work, and socialize only with one another. (altruistic)

-an urban setting with few community or religious institutions and little contact between neighbors (egoistic)

- an economic recession wipes out savings and throws millions of people onto unemployment (anomie)

- members of a society are forced to stay inside their homes every day due to a pandemic (fatalistic)

Social integration

refers to the degree to which you are one with your social group or community.

Social regulation

refers to how many rules guide your daily life and what you can reasonably expect from the world on a day-to-day basis - tomorrow will look like today, and yesterday looked like today

anomie

"without norms" - a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness

Identify the elements of the broken windows theory of deviance.

-Deviance is a self-reinforcing spiral.

-Deviance is a response to social context and local cues.

A psychology experiment (Rosenhan, 1973) placed pseudo-patients in psychiatric hospitals to observe how doctors would treat patients who initially reported signs of schizophrenia but acted normal after admittance.Identify the findings that supported labeling theory.

-Seemingly normal reports of feelings and behaviors were reinterpreted as signs of mental disorder.-Once the pseudo

-once the pseudo-patients received a diagnosis of schizophrenia, no amount of "normal" behavior could remove that diagnosis.

A psychology experiment (Rosenhan, 1973) applied labeling theory to the diagnosis of schizophrenia in a psychiatric setting. Identify the results of this experiment.

- Patients initially diagnosed with schizophrenia were kept under observation for an average of almost 3 weeks, despite behaving normally all that time.

-An initial diagnosis of schizophrenia tended to color the medical staff's interpretation of patients' later behaviors.

Identify the examples urban theorist Jane Jacobs would consider as the eyes and ears of the street.

-kids playing on the sidewalk, keeping watch for a parent's return from work

-a shopkeeper writing down the license plate numbers of cars driving too fast

Organic Solidarity

which characterizes modern society—social cohesion is based on interdependence

Mechanical Solidarity

characterized premodern society—was based on the sameness of the individual parts

Match the different punishments for lawbreakers to a society characterized by either mechanical solidarity or organic solidarity.

organic solidarity

-sentencing a lawbreaker to a mental health facility

-forcing a lawbreaker to perform community service

mechanical solidarity

-exiling a lawbreaker from the community

-having a lawbreaker physically punished in a public forum

Identify each aspect of a school-age child's upbringing according to the characteristic parenting style.

Concerted cultivation:

after-school music lessons, lots of conversation with parents, club league hockey on weekends

Accomplishment of natural growth:

lots of time to hang out with friends

Identify the examples of what Durkheim hypothesizes will happen over time as a society becomes more and more fully modern in character.

-one may expect the death penalty to entirely disappear

-the ratio of organic to mechanical social sanctions will increase

Identify the scenarios in which an adult may need to be resocialized.

- dating after divorce

- being released from prison

Identify the proposed explanations for why middle-class children spend more time in structured activities, and disadvantaged children enjoy more unstructured time.

-Parents socialize their children based on their own experiences, and middle class parents work long hours.

-Structured activities, such as dance and music lessons, cost money and may be out of reach for disadvantaged families.

Identify each principle as either a premodern or modern scheme of social cohesion, according to Durkheim.

premodern:

-everyones life conditions are pretty much the same

-Similarity of parts

-mechanical or segmental solidarity

-Sameness of function: similar members of premodern society have largely similar roles

Modern:

-organic solidarity

-interdependence of parts

-specialization of function: different members of modern society perform different, complementary functions

According to psychiatrist Fadi Haddad, the rise in ADHD diagnoses and subsequent medication of children is due to a lack of flexibility in -, long -, and a lack of access to -, in addition to actual mental health problems.

curriculum, work hours, psychiatrists

primary deviance

the first act of rule breaking that may incur a label of "deviant" and thus influence how people think about and act toward you

secondary deviance

subsequent acts of rule breaking that occur after primary deviance and act as a result of your new deviant label and peoples expectations of you

Stigma

a negative social label that not only changes others behavior toward a person but also alters that person own self-concepts and social identity

broken windows theory of deviance

theory explaining how social context and social cues impact whether individuals act defiantly, specifically, whether local, informal social norms allow deviant actsmajor crimes can be reduced by fighting minor ones.

Social cohesion

social bonds, how well people relate to eachother and get along on a day to day basis

egoistic suicide

suicide that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social groupExample:Albert has no friends and does not feel any emotional connection with his coworkers or even with his own family members. He kills himself because he does not see any point in continuing with his life.

altruistic suicide

suicide that occurs when one experiences too much social integrationExample:Dan, a lieutenant in the Marines, is disciplined and then discharged for leadership mistakes in battle that led to the death of two soldiers in his platoon. Despondent about the deaths of the soldiers and the loss of his military career, he kills himself a few months after his discharge.

fatalistic suicide

suicide that occurs as a result of too much social regulation

Example:Carlotta, sentenced to life in prison for a crime she did not commit, and unable to stand the unvarying daily routine of prison life, hangs herself with a bed sheet.Example:In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, the character Esther sees "the days of the year stretching ahead like a series of bright white boxes...a white, broad, infinitely desolate avenue." What state of mind does this passage describe?

-This is fatalistic because she sees her future as fixed, repetitive and tightly controlled, with no freedom for her ti as she would like

anomic suicide

suicide that occurs as a result of insufficient social regulation

Example: Bernice became wealthy almost overnight as a result of extremely lucky financial investments. She quit her job, spent lavishly on gifts for friends, family, and associates, but finds it impossible to settle into a new, happy, routine. Instead, feeling increasingly disoriented and adrift, she deliberately overdoses on sedatives.

Labeling theory

the belief that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels over time form the basis of their self-identity

Example: student, named Evan, might come to assume the role of social deviant:

1. Evan is late for school twice in one week

2. the school principal publicly calls Evan a truant

3. Evans teachers and friends starts to treat him as a troublemaker

4. Evan comes to think of himself as a rule breaker

5. Evens behavior reflects his view of himself as a rule breaker

total institutions

an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics day to day life, no barriers exist between the usual sphere of daily life and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same single authority.

Factors that make someone socially deviant, according to merton

Factors:

- not recognizing or not accepting socially approved goals

- failure to recognize and accept socially approved means of achieving one's goals

Deterrence theory

based on the idea that individuals make choices based on their calculation of the costs and benefits of that action. In other words, they make rational choices. Given this theory of how crime occurs, deterrence theory focuses on ways to make crime less appealing. These programs focus specifically on how to reduce recidivism, or the act of returning to criminal activity after having spent time in the criminal justice system.

labeling theory:difference between primary and secondary deviance?

Primary deviance leads to labeling, and the labeling in turn prompts secondary deviant behaviorSecondary deviance is an eventual effect of primary deviance, where deviance begins

distinguishing features of a symbolic interactionist theory of social deviance

Features:

- a recognition of the impact of assigning labels to behaviors and to people

- a focus on individual psychology rather than the social dynamics of large populations

identify the functions of social sanctions, according to Durkheim.

Functions:

- Social sanctions bring people together as they act to deal with offenders.

- Social sanctions reinforce the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

master status

a status that dominates other people's perceptions

achieved status

a voluntary statusa status one earns or in some other way acquires

Ascribed status

involuntary statusa status one is born into

In Durkheim's theory of the causes of suicide, what is the definition of social integration?

the extent to which you are part of your social group or community.

The greater the amount of interaction among members of a community, the greater the integration.