Sociology Exam 2 Study guide

Popenoe

1. Families have changed for the worse since the 1960’s. Nonmarital births have increased, which indicated underlying social problems such as, child poverty, adolescent pregnancy, substance abuse, and juvenile crime.

2. Children need a “mother and father” caretakers to be role models for areas of life. Ex: Dad- Disciplinarian, Mom- Emotional nurturing and connection.

Stacy

1. The “Traditional American family from the 1950’s is a dated and oppressive institution. Perpetuates segregation of the sexes by taking men from the household, and forcing childcare onto the women.

2. Post modern family; men no longer need to be the bread winners

What are several alternatives to monogamy?

Polygamy (Either partner can have 2+ spouses), Polygyny (Men can have 2+ spouses), and Polyandry (women can have 2+ spouses)

Why have rates of polygamy declined in contemporary society?

Social and economic conditions such as, more democracy, less arranged marriages, views on marriage have changed for more desire and companionship, human rights protection for women (polygyny is disadvantageous for women)

According to the functionalist perspective, what are the two main functions of family?

2 main functions of family, Primary socialization (teaching cultural norms, and behavior to children) and Personality stabilization (marriage assists its adult members emotionally).

How do symbolic interactionist approaches to studying family differ from functionalist approaches?

Functionalists study families by emphasizing stability and maintaining the current social order; Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the contextual, subjective nature of family interactions, power relations, and interpersonal communication.

Briefly describe changes in family structure in the United states since the 1960’s.

Same sex couples, Child-Free couples, Single Parent households, Repartnering and stepparenting in families, divorce and separation, nonmarital childbearing, and cohabitation have become more common than the traditional nuclear family since the 1960’s, however, divorce rates have “leveled off”

What differences have researchers detected when comparing the children of gay and straight parents.

The children of gay or lesbian couples are by no means at a disadvantage compared to children of straight couples, the only notable difference is that children of gay couples are more likely to buck stereotypical male-female behavior.

Kinberg on living alone

More Americans are happily choosing to live their lives on their own. Living alone can promote freedom, personal control, and self-realization, all prized aspects of contemporary life.

Merton’s Deviance Typology

He located the source of crime to within the very structure of American society. Anomie is the strain put on individuals behavior when accepted norms conflict with social reality. People react in different ways to their goals. Conformists accept cultural goals and accept the institutionalized means, Innovators accept cultural goals but reject institutionalized means, Ritualism, rejects cultural goals and accepts the institutionalized means (no benefit but puts in work anyways), Retreatism rejects cultural goals and the institutionalized means. Rebels find new goals using new means. 

Target Hardening

Making it more difficult for criminals to commit crimes by minimizing their opportunities to do so and by intervening in potential crime situations. Lowers crime in some aspects but can also just displace crime to other areas.

Ianni’s Black Mafia

Mafia engage in crimes to make a “quiet and determined push towards respectability” Mafia members wanted the American dream but found themselves barred from the institutions available to other citizens so they used illegal activities and invested the profits into legal activities and integrated with society. Black mafia members however struggled with expanding beyond their neighborhoods and amassing sufficient wealth to reinvest in legitimate economy. Black Mafia became overly dependent on the drug trade and was unable to diversify its criminal activity in the same way as the Italian mafia. Partly because increased punitive action from the federal government and difficulty to form connections with white politicians.

Pager’s Marked

Prison boom from 100 inmates per 100,000 people to 486 per 100,000 people. Difficulties that former inmates face when attempting to find jobs upon release. Whites are more preferred over black people for hiring, nonincarcerated people are more preferred over incarcerated, but incarcerated whites are more preferred than incarcerated black people.

Garland’s Peculiar institution

Political institutions and historical processes that explain the continued use of the death penalty. The reason it remains despite having declined in usage is because of the local control of using the death penalty and the political dominance of small groups.

Molotch’s Against security

Study to determine if the securitization of numerous public spaces has made the U.S. a safer society or less safe, and more fearful? Discovered that our efforts to weed out deviants may be ineffective but also makes it more difficult to live together in society

Rios’ punished

Describes experiences of young Black and Hispanic American men, and how they have negative interactions with police being a regular occurrence. Temporary detainment policies such as the stop and frisk policies contribute to the mass criminalization of marginalized young people.

Braithwaite’s types of shaming

suggested that shaming practices can take 2 forms reintegrative shaming and stigmatized shaming. Stigmatized shaming, is when the criminal is labeled a threat to society and is treated like an outcaste. Reintegrative shaming is people central to the criminals immediate community are brought to court to state condemnations of offenders behavior

How do the changing racial categories used in the census help demonstrate race is socially constructed?

The change in racial categories variation over time for people from the same geographical region, shows that race is socially constructed because one person would be racially constructed as one race, but then 5 years later they can change races due to views of an area or culture by Americans.

How does colorblindness maintain racial inequality?

the colorblind do not recognize the many ways they benefit from their race, and can not work on solutions to solve racial inequalities they do not believe exist.

Provide 1 example of white privilege. What does McIntosh mean by an invisible weightless knapsack?

An example would be less negative experiences with police and their racial profiling to be innocent. The invisible weightless knapsack means the white man gets more tools and opportunities given by society without being noticeable or being a burden while still getting the advantages.

What is microaggression? Why is this idea problematic to some?

Microaggressions are small insults or disrespect towards people of color often done by well meaning whites. This can be viewed as problematic because microaggressions encourage victim mentality and encourages people to jump to negative conclusions.

Massey and Denton’s American Apartheid

segregated residential areas still exist in many United States cities, with many other forms of legal segregation such as prohibition of interracial marraige.

According to Castles and Miller, which four trends are likely to characterize migration in the near future?

1. Acceleration- more migration across borders

2. Diversification- many new reasons for people to migrate

3. Globalization- more countries are senders and recipients of migrants

4. Feminization- a growing number of women are migrants.

Boras vs. Simmons on immigration

Boras believes that the US has attracted lower quality immigrants with less education and fewer marketable skills, and they rely on welfare which negatively impacts the US economy, and large scale migration of less skilled immigrants harms economic opportunities for less skilled natives.

Simon believes that recent immigration has had a positive effect on the US economy by paying taxes and getting less social services. He also believes that wanting to keep out immigrants is purely prejudice.

How can studies of gender around the world contribute to the argument that gender is socially constructed?

The fact there are no “universal” gender roles where men ALWAYS do one task in society and women ALWAYS do another task. Also, the varied views that gender is not binary is represented in several cultures around the world.

What are the key ideas of liberal feminism? What are the criticisms of this perspective?

Liberal feminism sees gender inequalities as rooted largely in social and cultural attitudes. Focusing on establishing equal opportunities for women through legislation. Critics say they have been unsuccessful in dealing with the root cause of gender inequality and do not acknowledge the systematic nature of women’s oppression.

Glassdoor’s study of college Majors

Women dominated majors like social work, nursing, and healthcare administration; whereas men dominated engineering and computer science which have higher salaries which contributes to the gender pay gap.

Williams on glass escalators

Men in predominantly women dominated fields were singled out and promoted disproportionately in high numbers. They have to work to not be promoted/ stay in place.

Glass cliff

women are promoted to higher positions during times of crisis or turmoil when chances of failure are more likely.

Flexibility Stigma

men face a stigma if they take parental leave, cut back on their hours, or take family-friendly work in order to balance child care with paid employment.

How do inequalities in the home, especially with regard to housework and childcare reflect larger gender inequalities in society?

The spouse with a lower paying job tends to do more housework, thus women are more likely to be doing housework and childcare because they are often paid less than men, which decreases employment and promotional opportunity which furthers the likelihood to be working at home.

Discuss at least two reasons why women and sexual and gender minorities are so often targets of gender based violence.

Men are socialized to regard women as sex objects and to have a sense of sexual entitlement, which may encourage sexual conquest. Also, war has instances of rape when the enemy is conquered to dehumanize the victims and break apart families, and to serve as ethnic cleansing.