Sociology Midterm Chapter 4- Socialization

What is Nature vs. Nurture?

• Nature: Traits you inherit from your parents, such as eye color or genetic characteristics.

• Nurture: Traits shaped by your environment, upbringing, education, and experiences.

What is the Functionalist Theory’s application to socialization?

means that socialization teaches people society’s rules, values, and norms so society can function smoothly

What is the Conflict Theory’s application to socialization?

means that people learn society’s values and rules in ways that can benefit powerful groups and maintain inequality

What is Robert Merton’s Role Theory?

explains that people behave in certain ways based on the social roles they have in society

What is a status?

a position in society that comes with a set of expectations

What is an ascribed status?

is one we are born with that is unlikely to change

What is an achieved status?

is one we have earned through individual effort or that is imposed by others

What is Role Theory?

Roles are the behaviors expected from a particular status

Ex: A person who is a teacher is expected to teach students, grade assignments, and maintain classroom rules.

What is a Master status?

a status that seems to override all others and affects all other statuses that one possesses

Ex: Master status = The role or identity people most associate with you.

What is the Social construct of reality?

means that people create shared ideas about what is normal, true, or acceptable through social interactions and culture.

How do the media and consumerism play along?

• Advertisements, play a large role in the maintenance of consumerism

• The belief that happiness and fulfillment can be achieved through acquisition of material possessions

What are Sociological Questions about the media?

• How do people create media and what biases are involved in that creation?

• How does the media reflect the culture in which it exists?

• How do individuals and groups use the media to change culture?

What are the limits of socialization?

cannot explain everything about a person’s development and personality

What are the agents of socialization?

• Families

• School

• Peers

• The media

• Other social institutions

• Prison

• Workplace

• Sports

• Religious practices

What is structure vs. agency?

is the debate about whether people's lives are shaped more by society (structure) or by their own choices (agency)

What is Role conflict?

occurs when the roles associated with one status clash with the roles associated with a different status

What is Role strain?

•  occurs when roles associated with a single status clash

• Either of these may lead to role exit

What are gender roles?

Set of behavioral norms associated primarily with males or females in a given social group of system

What do gender theorists argue?

that gender roles can be more powerful and influential than other roles that people fill

What is the Dramaturgical Theory?

compares everyday life to a theater, where people act differently depending on who they are around.

Ex: You may act professional and serious during a job interview but relaxed and silly with your friends.

What are the two examples of Dramaturgical Theory?

• Front stage:  waitresses, customers, hostess

• Backstage: in kitchen, chefs, washers, more chaotic

What is Ethnomethodology?

A method for studying social interactions by acting critically

What are breaching experiments?

unspoken (out of the norm) actions made

Ex: screaming and running out of class, wearing a suit to the tully

Who discovered Ethnomethodology?

Harold Garfinkel- 1950s and 1960s