First Half of Soc

What is sociology?

The study of society or people “doing things together”

What are sociologists interested in?

All aspects of society; groups of people who shape their lives in pattern ways that make them distinguishable from other groups.

Institutions

Structures in our society, like education, economics, and politics-that help us better understand social relationships

Sociological perspective

A way of looking at the world through a sociological lens

Beginner’s Mind

Clearing one’s mind of stereotypes, expectations, and opinions so that we can be more receptive to our experiences.

Culture shock

• Sense of disorientation that you experience on entering a new environment.

• Can be where behaviors typical to one society or culture are strange in another.

Sociological Imagination

Quality of mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our particular situation in life and what is happening at a social level.

Microsociology

Level of analysis that examines small-group interactions to see how they impact larger institutions in society

Macrosociology

Level of analysis that examines large-scale social structures to determine how they impact groups and individuals

What makes up the macro-micro continuum?

Society, culture, social institutions, social inequality, groups, roles, socialization, interaction, and self.

Theories

Abstract propositions that explain the social world and make predictions about future events.

What are theories also known as?

Approaches , schools of thought, perspectives, or paradigms

Paradigms

• Sets of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that make up way of understanding social reality.

• The way things work, essentially.

Structural functionalism

• A school of thought.

• Views society as an ordered system of interrelated parts, or structures, which are the social institutions that make it up (family, education, politics, the economy).

• Each meet the needs of society by performing specific functions for the whole system(society)

Conflict Theory

• Sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change.

• Power and inequality central to this theory.

What are the three main focuses of conflict theory?

• A materialist view on society

• Critical stance towards existing social arrangements

• Dynamic model of historical change

Symbolic Interactionism

• Sees interactions and meaning as central to society.

• Assumes meanings are not inherent but more so created through interaction.

• The way in which we use status differences to categorize ourselves and others

• Our clothing, speech, gestures, possessions, friends, activities, and so on provide information about our socioeconomic status.

What are the basic tenets of Symbolic Interactionism?

• We act towards things based on their meanings

• Meanings are not inherent instead, negotiated.

• Meanings can change

Social Facts

• Ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are external to individuals.

• Coercive; apparent but not obvious.

• “Subject matter” of sociology

What is an example of a Social Fact?

Think of social norms, laws, beliefs… so language, marriage, and religion

How do we think sociologically?

We use our sociological imagination which allows us to uncover social facts of society.

Paradigm shift

Change in the way we think about some aspect of life

Spurious correlation

Relationship that seems to exist between 2 variables but is caused by some external/intervening variable.

Ethnography

• Studying people in their own environments in order to understand the meanings they give to their activities.

• Provides a thick description of the setting observed.

Participant observation

Researcher both observes and becomes a member in a social setting

What are the 2 steps of Ethnography?

• Researcher participates in & observes a setting

• Makes written account (field notes) of what goes on there

Deductive approach

Forming a hypothesis first and then testing to see whether it is accurate

Inductive Approach

Beginning with specific observations and then forming broad generalizations from them

Interviews

• Direct, fact-to-face contact with respondents.

• Generate large amts of qualitative data.

• A target population of interest is identified and then a sample of people are typically chosen to be contacted from that population.

Surveys

Questionnaires administered to sample of respondents selected from target population

Looks at large-scale social patterns and employs statistics and other mathematical means of analysis

Probability Sampling

Helps obtain a sample that reflects characteristics of members of the target population

Unobtrusive measure

• Does not disturb the setting or subjects under study.

• Example is existing sources (data produced for another reason but can be used for social research)

Comparative Historical Research

• Analysis of different regions and time periods.

• Cultural artifacts like literature, paintings, newspapers, and photographs are analyzed

Content Analysis

Identify and study specific variables or themes that appear in text, images, or media

Code of Ethics

• Developed by American Sociological Association

• Helps researchers avoid bias and adhere to professional standards.

• Protects respondents from harm

Culture

• Entire way of life of a group of people.

• Includes language, standards of beauty, hand gestures, styles of dress, food, and music.

• Learned by generations through communication

It may be hard to see our own culture. What does that do?

Makes it difficult to recognize the extent to which it shapes and defines who we are.

Ethnocentrism

When people use their own culture as standard to evaluate another group/individual, leading to the view that cultures other than their own are abnormal.

Cultural Relativism

• Process of understanding other cultures on own terms rather then through judgement.

• See others more objectively

What are the two categories of culture?

Material and Symbolic culture

Material culture

Objects associated with a cultural group, such as tools, machines, utensils, buildings, and artwork

Symbolic Culture

• Ways of thinking (beliefs, values, and assumptions)

• Ways of behaving (norms, interactions, and communications)

• Allows communication through signs, gestures, and language

Language

• Communication system through vocal sounds, gestures, & written symbols

• Significant component of culture because it is primary means of communication

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Structure of language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience. (How we see things)

Values

Shared beliefs about what a group considers worthwhile or desirable; they guide the creation of norms

Norms

• Rules regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable and appropriate within a specific culture, time period, or situation.

• Can be formal (laws or rules) and unwritten/unspoken

Folkway

Loosely enforced norm that involves common customs, practices, or procedures that ensure smooth social interaction and acceptance

More

Norm that carries moral significance, is closely related to the core values of a group, and often involves severe repercussions for violators

Taboo

Norm engrained so deeply that even thinking about violating that for most people, it evokes strong feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion

Sanctions

Positive or negative reactions to ways that people follow/disobey norms, including rewards for conformity and punishments for norm violators

Social Control

Made up of the formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus increase social cohesion

Multiculturalism

Values diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds and thus encourages the retention of cultural differences within society, rather than assimilation.

Socialization

• Process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group.

• Begins in infancy and lasts throughout the lifetime.

• Language facilitates it

Self

• Our experience of a personal identity that is separate and different from all other people.

• Believed to be created and modified through interaction with others over the course of one’s life.

Charles Cooley

Believed that sense of self depends on seeing oneself reflected in interactions with others

Looking-glass self

Notion that the self develops through our perception of others’ evaluations and appraisals of us

George Herbert Mead

Expanded on Cooley’s ideas

Believed self created through social interactions & process starts in childhood as children acquire language skills

According to George Herbert Mead, what are the three stages of development of self?

• Preparatory Stage

• Play Stage (taking role of particular other)

• Game Stage (In which children learn to take the perspectives of the generalized other)

Thomas Theorem

• We encounter ambiguous situations every day, many meanings are possible.

• The way we define each situation, becomes its reality

Erving Goffman

Believed meaning is constructed through interaction

Dramaturgy

Compares social interaction to the theater, where individuals take on roles and act them out for an audience

Impression management

A process, much like a “game”, where we work to control the impressions others have of us.

Agents of Socialization

• Social groups, institutions, and individuals that provide structured situations where socialization occurs.

• Major agents: Family, schools, peers, the media

How is family an agent of socialization?

Single most significant agent of socialization in all societies and teaches us the basic values and norms that shape our identity.

How is school an agent of socialization?

Provides education and socializes us through hidden curriculum that teaches us many of the behaviors deemed important later in life

Hidden Curriculum

Values and behaviors, such as punctuality, neatness, discipline, hard work, competition, and obedience, that students learn indirectly over the course of their schooling.

How are peers agents of socialization?

Provide very different social skills and often become more immediately significant than the family, especially as children move through adolescence.

How is the media an agent of socialization?

Has become important because it often overrides the family and other institutions in instilling values and norms.

Resocialization

Process of replacing previously learned norms and values with new ones as a part of a transition in life.

Total institution

• An institution (such as a prison, cult, or mental hospital) that cuts individuals off from the rest of society so that their lives can be controlled and regulated.

• Dramatic form of resocialization takes place here

Status

Position in society that comes with a set of expectations.

Ascribed Status

One we are born with that is unlikely to change

Embodied Status

One that is located in our physical selves

Achieved Status

One we have earned through our individual effort or that is imposed by others.

Roles

Set of behaviors expected from a particular status.

Role Conflict

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

Role Strain

Occurs when roles associated with a single status clash

Role Exit

Where a person disengages from a social role that was central to them. Caused by role strain or role conflict.

Emotion work

Process of evoking, suppressing, or managing feelings to create a public display of emotion

Saturated self

Idea that self is now developed by multiple influences chosen from a wide range of media sources

Deviance

Behavior, trait, or belief that departs from a norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group.

What function does Deviance serve in society?

A positive social function by clarifying moral boundaries and promoting social cohesion.

Social Control Theory

• Theory developed by Travis Hirschi to explain crime

• Increase Conformity

• Decrease Deviance

Structural Strain Theory

• By Robert Merton

• Goals in our society that people want to achieve but cannot always reach, which creates stress (or strain)

Merton’s Typology of Deviance

Theories of Deviance and Interactions

Interpersonal relationships and everyday interactions influence meanings and understandings of deviance.

Differential Association theory

• A symbolic interactionist perspective developed by Edwin Sutherland

• States that we learn deviance from interacting with deviant peers

Labeling Theory

• Deviance caused by external judgements (labels) that change person’s self-concept and the way in which others respond to that person

• “Labeling” can lead to self-fulfilling prophecy

Stereotype Threat

Self-fulfilling prophecy in which the fear of performing poorly and thereby confirming stereotypes about one’s social group causes people to perform poorly

Stereotype Promise

Self-fulfilling prophecy in which positive stereotypes lead to positive performance outcomes

Crime

Violation of a norm that has been codified into law

Deterrence

Preventing crime with the threat of harsh penalties

Retribution

Retaliating or taking revenge for a crime that has been committed

Incapacitation

Removing criminals from society by imprisoning them

Rehabilitation

Reforming criminals so that they may reenter society

Positive Deviance

• An act that is outside the norm but may actually be heroic rather than negative.

• Ex: taking a stand against an unjust law or unfair practice.

Social Institutions

• Systems and structures that shape the activities of groups and individuals in society.

• Can’t “visit” it. It’s a structure, not a place.

• Ex. Politics, education, and religion are examples of institutions

Who rules America?

Pluralism. Power Elite. Interest Groups

Pluralism

A system of political power in which a wide variety of individuals and groups have equal access to resources and power

Power Elite

• Coined by C. Wright Mills

• A relatively small number of people who control the economic, political, and military institutions of society