Exam 1 - SOCI

Chapter 1-3

Sociology

study of how individuals shape and are shaped by society

efforts to understand and help control the impact of major societal changes

What is the primary difference between a micro and a macro level of analysis?

A micro level of analysis focuses on an individual or small groups, while a macro level of analysis focuses on the larger societal forces at play

Before a job interview, you prepare by practicing several responses to questions typically asked during interviews. Erving Goffman would point out that you are a social actor performing ______.

back stage.

Why is it important for voting citizens to understand the principles of sociology?

If they have a better understanding of how society works, they will make better decisions.

Sociological Eye

enables you to see what others may not notice

ability to recognize impact society has on us/awareness helps promote societal change

deeper meanings of situations and patterns

ex: gender bias, gender patterns

Duality of sociology

Individuals both influence and are influenced by society

What is one of the benefits of a sociological perspective?

learning how to work more effectively with members of different cultures

Which question could best be answered through a sociological study?

What social inequalities are created by environmental racism?

Sociological Imagination

originally developed to describe how individual lives relate to social forces

connecting personal experiences to larger social patterns

relationship between individuals and society

ex: college expenses —> social pattern

Generalizations

statements, backed by evidence, used to describe groups of people or things in overall terms with understanding there’s exceptions

Stereotypes

negative predetermined ideas about groups

justifies discriminatory treatment

not based on scientific evidence

ex: all women are bad drivers; asians are good at math; All Catholics come from very large families.

Good generalizations

based on social scientific research

describe, not judge

descriptions change with new data

ex: asians score higher on SAT’s comapred to other ethnicities

2 core commitments

use sociological eye to observe social patterns

take action to challenge those patterns

Theory

a set of ideas used to explain how or why certain social patterns occur

Theoretical perspective

groups of theories that share certain common ways of “seeing” how society works

have much in common

Structural Functionalism

a view of modern societies as consisting of interdependent parts of working together for the good of the whole

Social institutions

set of statuses and roles that focus on one central aspect of society

work together to form social structures

ex: athletes, go to practice, interaction, etc.

Dysfunctions

unintended consequences of behavioral patterns

ex: schools not properly preparing us for real life (finances)

Latent functions

secondary — all the other ‘good’ things

ex: school can make friends

Manifest functions

obvious intended purpose

ex: schools are for learning and prep

Conflict Theory/Conflict Perspective

Tensions and conflicts arise when resources, status, and power are not distributed equitably; these conflicts then become the driving force for social change

Karl Marx and Communism

society enters communist stage

societal institutions start disappearing

all citizens are equal

there would be no social levels

Bourgeoisie

rich/wealthy

own companies/land

need workers to make products

In Karl Marx’s advanced capitalism stage, a person who works in a textile factory would be considered a member of the ______.

proletariat

(workers; most of society)

Lumpenproletariat

chronically unemployed (out of work for a significant amount of time)

ex: homeless, people in prison

False consciousness

proletariat did not understand how they were being mistreated and misled by the owners of the means of production.

True consciousness

proletariat are aware of how they are being mistreated and misled.

Social construction

Holds that every society creates norms, values, objects, and symbols it finds meaningful and useful.

Symbolic Interaction

Viewing society as a social construction, continually constructed and reconstructed by individuals through their use of shared symbols.

Looking-glass self (cooley)

role of other in one’s development

reacting to feedback

influence of primary groups

ex: someone’s attire

Dramaturgy Theory (Golfman)

presentation of self

social actors, social scripts, props

back stage vs front stage

Front stage

performance around other people

concerned how other people view us

Research

systemic process of data collection for the purpose of producing knowledge

Ethics

informed consent

IRB

confidential vs anonymous

Qualitative

categorical data

descriptive data

Quantitative

numbers from data

What type of research produces results that are directed at gaining fundamental knowledge about an issue?

basic

Applied Research

designed to produce results that are immediately useful in relation to some real-world situation.

Surveys

collect data through a set of prewritten questions respondents are asked to answer

Interviews

Collect data by asking respondents questions in person, over the phone, or via a video chat app. allow more in-depth responses than surveys because researchers can ask follow-up questions

Participant-observation

Observing action and interaction while participating as part of the social context being studied

Ethnography

Research that systematically studies how groups of people live and make meaning by understanding the group from its own point of view

Content analysis

When researchers use texts and systematically categorize elements of those texts on the basis of a set of rules

Scientific Method

A systematic process of steps that takes researchers from the development of a research question through the collection and analysis of data

Sharleen is conducting research on drug abuse among upper-class, suburban individuals. Currently she is reading past studies to determine which areas of the issue have yet to be explored. On which step of the scientific process is Sharleen?

literature review

Hypotheses

Predictions about the expected findings of research, typically about the relationships between specific phenomena under study in the research project

Sampling

selecting respondents for inclusion in a study

Random sampling

equal probablity of selection

Non-random sampling

unequal probability of selection

ex: surveys, specific classes

Population

All the people or things that meet the criteria for participation in a study from which researchers select a sample

Generalizability

findings apply to population

can the findings be true for population

Reliability

The extent to which research results are consistent

ex: seeing how certain people react to the same song

Validity

Whether research results accurately reflect the phenomena being studied

Steve is trying to gather data on what the students at his high school think about the quality of the lunch provided by the cafeteria. He won’t be able to get every student’s feedback, so he will gather responses from a sample. In this situation, what is the study’s population?

all of the students at Steve’s high school

Paulo is a full-time student who is struggling to pay for his classes. Which action could he take that would demonstrate a strong sociological imagination?

lobby the government to decrease education costs for everyone

Causation

Whether a change in one variable causes a change in another variable

August Comte

French philosopher who gave sociology its name, envisioned that sociology would be the “queen science” that could help steer society safely through great changes

C. Wright Mills

developed the concept of the sociological imagination to describe how our individual lives relate to social forces

W. E.B. Du Bois

one of the founders of sociology, used sociological tools to show how society works and to fight racism

first large-scale, empirical sociological research in the United States, with the clear goal of refuting racist ideas about African Americans

Albion Small

founder of the first accredited department of sociology in the United States

Durkheim mechanical vs. organic solidarity

• Mechanical solidarity: Preindustrial societies → unity comes from similarity (similar jobs, beliefs, religion).

• Organic solidarity: Industrial societies → unity comes from interdependence; people have different/specialized jobs but depend on each other.

• Society is like a living organism → each part has a function and must work together for social order/stability.

Samuel is a sociologist who believes every society creates norms and values it finds meaningful, but also that different groups of people have access to different rewards. To which perspective do Samuel’s beliefs best align?

conflict theory

Tova is a fourteen-year-old girl living in Baltimore. As she has reached her early teens, she recognizes that she is a distinctive individual with unique opinions, preferences, and habits. In other words, Tova has developed a sense of ______.

self

Which is the reason that individuals work to promote society’s interests instead of their own?

social solidarity

According to Émile Durkheim, smaller, preindustrial societies operated with ______ solidarity, because most people did similar types of labor and had similar beliefs.

mechanical

Which term best describes how socially constructed culture becomes learned and internalized?

socialization