SOC 101 Final Exam - see ipad screenshots for additional quiz questions

Stratification

Systematic inequalities between groups of people that are ranked and arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships and puts people into social strata (leads to significant life outcomes)

Social class

A social class is generally defined as a group of individuals who share a similar economic position based on income, wealth, education, and occupation (determines our life chances for people who share a similar strata)

Weber’s three Ps

Property (class), Prestige (status), Party (power)

Property

the value of everything a person owns

Status groups struggle

over the resources of prestige and esteem

Party groups struggle

over political power

Wealth

property minus debt

Marx and Engels vs Weber

objective and relational, class is defined from a political and economic perspective. Weber’s is subjective gradational and from an individual standpoint

Income

The steady stream of money that a person receives

Weber’s Classes

Groups of people who have similar life chances (material items, services, medical care, and cultural products that we obtain via income and wealth)

Weber’s status

The prestige linked to one’s class status (how highly your career is respected, lifestyle)

How we rank the prestige of occupations

1) how much it pays

2) how much education is required to get it

3) how much abstract thought it requires

4) how much self-direction a person has in carrying it out

Status inconsistency

Graduate college but you are a barista

Party groups

groups organized to obtain power and control for their members

Erik Olin Wright

Proposed a class system with six instead of three categories, and introduced the concept of contradictory’s class locations

Social mobility

the ability to move between social classes: four types are intragenerational social mobility (in a generation), intergenerational (between generations), absolute mobility (up or down in absolute terms like a salary raise), relative mobility (how you move up or down social position relative to the rest of society)

Structural mobility

shifts in the economic structure

Housing choice voucher program

could help millions of poor families find stable housing

Socioeconomic status is determined by

income, wealth, level of education, occupational status

Wealth

most important factor for getting ahead in the system of stratification

GNI index

A statistical measure used to compare inequality across countries

South

highest poverty rate

Social inequality

a disparity in money, power, prestige, or another resource

Social stratification

the systematic ranking of different groups of people in society

Highest income:

White man w an associates degree

quiz question fact:

African americans are disproportionately poor, but whites make up the numerical majority of poor people

Functionalist theory of stratification

What function does inequality serve for the greater good of society?

Davis and Moore: Occupations need to be stratified, because the most important jobs require more work so they must be paid well to motivate people to do them. Many exceptions to this rule, Melvin Tumin disagrees.

Functionalist perspective on poverty

Culture of poverty: poor people remain poor because their lifestyle perpetuates poverty (uneducated)

Looks to the structural factors in a society that perpetuate poverty.

Conflict theory on social stratification

Asks whose interests are being served at the expense of others by any system of inequality.

Critiques the system of stratification becuase they reflect the ability of some social groups to overpower others, protecting their wealth while perpetuating other groups poverty.

Political ideology

A system of thought that explains why power is distributed within society in the way that it is, designed to justify the maintenance of the current system of power differentials

Inequality for all by Robert Reich

expose on our widening economic gap. Too much income inequality stagnates the economy. The gap has occurred because of tax policies, large corporations, technology, and globalization (all components of our political economy).

globalization hasn’t reduced the loss of jobs for americans.

Big companies are not designed to generate new jobs in the US, they are designed to create profits

United states economy

Disproportionately high income and wealth inequality

Political Economy

The large scale analysis of markets and the social systems they exist within

Capitalist economies

Lead to economic inequality and exploitation, but overall standards of living tend to rise over times

Socialist economies

Economies in whcih workers collectively own economic organizations, there is little or no private industry

Creative destruction

The displacement of older businesses and forms of employment as innovative businesses enter the marketplace and improve goods and services

Education

The transmission of society’s norms, values, and knowledge base by means of direct instruction

major agent of socialization

Providing all children with access to good education is close to a fundamental right

Functionalist perspective of education

We changed from small to big organic societies, which fractured collective consciousness. Marx believed this would lead to different world views, Durkheim argued there would be less social solidarity. Mass education helps counter this.

Formal education socializes people into the norms, values, and skills necessary for society to thrive, and it functions to ensure stability and social integration of diverse populations.

Manifest functions of education: transmission of knowledge and skills, follow school norms to follow society norms, sorts students into their appropriate adult roles

Latent functions of education: keeping watch over children, socialize peers, enact/enforce gender roles. Can also provide students with the knowledge and ability to become self-directed, active, engaged citizens

Controversial function: gatekeeping, sorting students for various levels of jobs

Conflict perspective of education

Education trains people int the dominant values, norms, skills, habits of society

rejects functionalist notion that the system of education is based on meroticracy— the belief that the system is fair and provides all students with an equal opportunity to succeed. Instead, they argue that the educational system reproduces the social class structure perpetuating the social divisions of society.

Schools make society less fair.

we need to address racial segregation and funding issues in education

Symbolic interactionism and education

labeling theory, the hidden curriculum

The hidden curriculum

a set of unspoken or implicit rules and values that students learn while attending schools (socialization into the values, norms, and procedures of a culture)

Latent functions of education

Sifting and sorting functions: education is a selection process and schools function as gatekeepers depending on a student’s cultural capital

Teaches students not to question the legitimacy of our institutions, especially patriotism and capitalism

reinforces the notion that our society is based on a meritocracy

teaches us to perform our work roles with out question and accept that we have to compete with our coworkers to get ahead

Human capital theory

We make investments in ourselves (education, training, etc.). The greater our investment, the greater our rewards (grades, higher wage jobs)

Formal education

education that occurs within an academic institution, such as schools

mass education

the extension of formal schools to wide segments of the population

Public education

a universal education system provided by the government and funded by tax revenue rather than student fees

Credential societies

like the US: access to desirable jobs and social status depends on the possession of a certificate or diploma certifying the completion of a formal education

Labeling theory

Pygmalion effect: students see themselves through their teachers eyes and begin performing accordingly

David Mosenki (2015)

Found that the intersection of class and race in schools led to greater inequalities, and schools that had a few more students of color received lower funding than schools that were 95-100% white

achievement ideology

argues that anyone can succeed through education and hard work

opportunity gap

there are distinct differences in opportunities and resources available (ie in schools)

educational differences

education is closely related to how likely you are to marry, your marital happiness, the type of person you select as a spouse, the age of having children, and likelihood of divorce.

ethnicity

cultural and historical identities

race

the secondary characteristics that differentiate us from one another- socially constructed by the dominant group to create a hierarchy and divide (skin color)

race isn’t real in the biological sense, but is very much real in that it has significant social consequences for both dominant and subordinate groups

prejudice vs discrimination

prejudice: thoughts

discrimination: action

social construction of race

1) it varies from culture-to culture,

2) it varies over time

3) it can vary over one's lifetime

4) variations can exist in any one culture at any one time by race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, education, region, and religion

one-drop rule

designated anyone with "one drop" of Black blood, Black by definition; thus, creating a bi-racial system. Other countries were not limited by this rule and defined race by a combination of ethnicity, color, and class; for example, in Brazil, a darker-skinned person could be identified as White by virtue of their class position

explicit bias

a prejudice (good or bad) we are openly and consciously aware of

implicit bias

an association our minds make between seemingly unrelated things that we are not aware of

arises through socialization and neighborhood settings, through education and media exposure, as we are all continuously exposed to stereotypical scripts about different groups. As we are exposed to information, whether correct or not, our brains create schemas—cognitive networks of information.

implicit bias has three characteristics:

1) it operates at the subconscious level;

2) they can run counter to our conscious beliefs

3) they are rapid and automatic mental associations our brains make before we are consciously aware of them.

Schemas

filter new information that we receive by evaluating it and assimilating it into our existing schemas. Information that is relevant to us and fits a schema previously held us, is processed quickly. We don't even "think" about it. Whereas, information that does not relate to an existing schema is more likely to be ignored because it doesn't fit.

Attitudes

personal, gut-like feelings we have as an individual: A general like or dislike, a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" reaction.

stereotypes

widely-shared perceptions about the personal characteristics, tendencies, or abilities of individual members of a particular group—usually negative, but not always. Stereotypes are used to appeal to our prejudices (preconceived beliefs, attitudes, or opinions about members of another group) that influence our behaviors.

Locher identified three cognitive mistakes our brains make

conservation error, collective liability, and the fundamental attribution error—each operating outside our conscious awareness. To summarize, what we have learned from our exposure in the environment is stored in our schemas and when we are tired or busy, hungry or angry, we often make a snap, unconscious judgement or decision based on our implicit biases.

racism

as a set of beliefs, ideologies, or institutional practices that are based on the idea that one racial group is biologically or culturally inferior to another group and that reproduces racial domination and exploitation" (287). Importantly, racism is a system, like all isms—classism, sexism, heterosexism—which means it is more than an individual or group of individuals. It is a social structure that unfairly disadvantages some individuals or groups, while advantaging other individuals and groups based on what we've come to define as race by those secondary physical characteristics that make us distinct from one another.

three levels of racism:

institutional, personally-mediated (prejudice and discrimination) racism, and internalized racism.

Discrimination

behavior that treats an individual or a group unfairly and racial discrimination is unfair treatment of individuals or groups on account of their socially constructed racial categorization.

institutional racism

Our health care system systematically gives better treatment to whites than to minority groups, even when ability to pay is not an issue; our lending systems systematically deny loans, or demand higher interest rates, from some minority groups than from whites, regardless of the borrower’s qualifications; and the criminal justice system delivers harsher sentences for African-Americans than for whites even when both are found guilty of the same crime. 

systemic racism

when the disadvantage in one institution leads to disadvantage in another institution and the effect is cumulative building over the life course. For example, discrimination in the housing market can lead to disadvantage in educational opportunities which could then lead to disadvantages in the job market or the criminal justice system. This is exemplified in the school-to-prison pipelineLinks to an external site. (infographic) that disproportionately disadvantages African Americans. This is also referred to as cross-institutional advantage and disadvantage when people are positively or negatively served across multiple institutions.

group threat theory

Herbert Blumer (1955), this theory identifies an out-group as a threat to the perceived in-group's social, political and/or economic position in society. In his words, "race prejudice exists basically in a sense of group position rather than in a set of feelings which members of one racial group have toward the members of another racial groups. This different way of viewing race prejudice shifts study and analysis from a preoccupation with feelings as lodged in individuals to a concern with the relationship of racial groups

scapegoating

members of the dominant group lash out at members minority groups because they are looking for someone to blame for their misfortune.

functionalism

prejudice and discrimination must serve a purpose, such as by giving a leg up to the group that discriminates.

Conflict theory

focuses on how one group acts to maintain its power against the interests of less powerful groups.

argues that the dominant group exploits minority groups by maintaining what is called a reserve labor force. The idea here is that capitalism, which is run primarily by the dominant group, requires a certain amount of unemployment so that when the system needs workers, they are available. Because minority groups are disadvantaged socioeconomically, they are more likely to be among the unemployed. Conflict theory can also help to explain the conflict between racial groups, such as when African-Americans and Latinos (or any other pair of minority groups) who come into conflict with one another over securing educational or job opportunities for their in-group. 

Symbolic interactionism

focuses on how we learn prejudiced attitudes through social interaction. For example, we may learn such attitudes from our parents and our friends, and then when we find ourselves side by side with the group we’ve been taught not to like, we hone in on any aspects that are consistent with our prejudices. This is called selective perception and is a process through which prejudiced stereotypes steer us to perceive people in certain ways, ignoring when they do not fit the stereotype and paying closer attention when they do fit it.

affirmative action

policies that require organizations or institutions to actively consider an individual's race (or gender) when making important decisions. While many in the U.S. were willing to accept that racial inequality was unfair and undesirable, affirmative action policies, especially in the areas of college admissions and employment, did not receive a warm reception and are still being hotly contested under the guise of 'reverse discrimination.'

sex

the biological difference between males and females

gender

social differences (norms, roles, and bx) associated in a given society w being male or female that we are socialized into from birth

gender being performed

we've taken on a role, similar to an actor, which is important for our identity and that which we want to present to the world.

Performative

on the other hand, "is to say that nobody really is a gender [masculine or feminine] from the start," but that gender is produced and reproduced through our actions (Butler). In the words of Simone de Beauvoir, "One is not born, but rather, becomes, a woman [or man]."

sexism

the prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender

gender gap in pay

women earned 84% of what men earned in 2020 compared to 60% in 1960. Though narrowing, the wage gap is still significant with some groups of women making much more progress than others.

motherhood penalty

the systematic disadvantages in wages, benefits, and other career factors that are associated with motherhood.

fatherhood bonus

men often receive an increase in wages after becoming a parent!

occupational segregation

Men tend to choose occupations that are male-dominated, while women tend to choose occupations that are female-dominated

patriarchy

The word we use to describe this persistent pattern of male advantage

sexuality

who we are physically and emotionally attracted to

socially constructed with societies putting many restrictions on when sexual activity should begin, where and what types of sexual activities are acceptable, and with whom.

double standard of sexuality

girls/women have been held to a higher standard in expressing their sexuality than boys/men

sexual scripts

a set of socially constructed norms, expectations, and beliefs that guide our understanding and expression of sexuality

sexual behavior is not solely driven by biological urges but also by norms and expectations that are learned and internalized

Feminist/Conflict Perspectives on Violence Against Women (and Men)

Functionalists would argue violence against women would have to serve a purpose for society.

feminists argue sexual assault in any form is a method for reinstating men's power and control over women.

Feminists also point to definitions of masculinity (male-identification) which promote aggressiveness and violence.

matrix of domination

a system of social positions in which any individual may concurrently occupy a status (for example, gender, race, class, or sexual orientation) as a member of a dominated group and a status of a member of dominating group. We know that not all men have power vis-a-vis other men, but they have more power vis-a-vis women in their same class and ethnic racial group.