our identities

What are social identities according to sociologists?

Categories such as race, citizenship, gender, sexuality, class, age, disability, religion, and body size that carry significant societal weight.

What is the concept of intersectionality?

Having multiple social identities that interact with each other.

Who is Henri Tajfel and what significant concept did he develop?

A Jewish sociologist who developed the minimal group paradigm, illustrating how humans form groups over trivial reasons.

What does positive distinction refer to in group formation?

Members of our own group are superior to others, leading to in-group bias.

How did urbanization contribute to the emergence of sexual identity?

It provided freedom\ that allowed for the formation of subcultures, contrasting with the surveillance of small communities.

What is the difference between race and ethnicity?

One is based on physical attributes perceived culturally, while the other is defined by collective memories of shared history and culture.

What are the 'one-drop rule' and 'blood quantum rule'?

States anyone with any trace of black ancestry is considered black; restricts legal recognition of Natives based on documented ancestry.

How are gender and stereotypes related?

Socially conventional ideas are attached to those identities related to biology.

What does 'doing age' refer to?

How individuals act according to societal stereotypes based on their chronological age.

What historical change led to the stigmatization of fatness in America?

The doubling of crop production in 1900.

Who coined the term intersectionality?

Kimberle Crenshaw.

What do status beliefs relate to in terms of prejudice?

They can contribute to the creation of it, because it is a learned behavior.

How can content analysis and computational sociology be used in studying identity?

One counts and describes patterns in media, while the other uses computers to analyze large-scale data and interactions.

Why is race considered a social fact rather than a biological difference?

The identification and categorization of it is socially constructed and vary across cultures.

What role do controlling images play in stereotypes?

They make injustice seem normal and inevitable, contributing to how people perceive certain groups negatively.