MCAT Behavioral Science - Social Structure and Demographics

Chapter 11

Sociology

study of society, how we create society how we interact within and change society how we define what is normal and abnormal

Micro Level of Sociology

Family groups, local communities

Meso Level of Sociology

Organization, institution, ethnic subculture

Macro level of sociology

National and International Systems

Theoretical Approaches to Society

Analyze and explain aspects of human social behavior through many models

Symbolic Interaction

Attempts to understand human action and interaction by studying symbols we use to communicate

Social Constructionism

attempt to understand society through study of scoeities social constructs

Rational Choice Theory

Humans make rational choices to further their own self interests

Conflict Theory

Understand society by examining the inevitable conflicts between groups in society

Structural Functionalism

Each group in scoeity has a role to play in overall health and operation of society

Feminist Theory

Critiques the institutional power structrues that disadvantage women in society

Social Construct

any idea that has been created and accepted by people in a society

Function

Contribution made by that group to a system

Manifest Function

Intended consequence of the actions of a group within society

Latent Function

Organization of institution has unintended but benefical consequences

Dysfunction

Negative consequences of existence of an institution organization or interaction

patriarchal

Men seeking to preserve their position of power over women through societal privalege and institutional discrimination

Glass Ceiling

Process that limit progress of women to highest job positions because of invisible social barriers to promotion

Glass Escalator

Invivslbe social forces push men up to higher position

Social Institutions

Well established social structures dictate certain patterns of behavior or relationships are accepted as fundamental part of culture

Spousal Abuse

Include physical violence, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and financial abuse

Elder Abuse

Neglect of older relative phsyical psychological and financial abuse can occur

Child Abuse

Neglect, physical sexual psychological abuse towards children

Goal of Education

Provide population with set of skills that will be useful to them or society

Hidden Curriculum of Education

Transmitting social norms, attitudes, beliefs to students

Teacher expectancy

Teachers tend to get what they expect from students

Religon

Pattern of social activities organized around a set of beliefs and practices that seek to address meaning of existence

Religosity

How religous one considers self to be, includes strength of religous beliefs engagement in religous practices and attitudes about religon itself

Denomination

Share beliefs and practices, but not others

Church

Large universal religous group and to the building in which congregation group meets

Government

Systematic arrangement of political and capital relationships activites and social structures affect rule making, representation individual in society right privelleges division labor, production of goods and services

Democracy

Allows every citizen a political voice through electing representative to office

Monarchies

Include royal ruler although ruler’s powers may be limited by presence of constitution, parliamentary system or legislative body

Dictatorship

System where single person holds power and usually includes mechanism quell threats to this power

Theocracy

System where power is held by religous leader

Capalist

Free market trade and laissez faire policies, success of failure in buisness driven by consumerism with as little intervention from government as possible

Division of Labor

Specific components of a larger task are separated and assigned to skilled and trained individuals

Socalist

Industries as collective shared business and compensation is provided based on work contribution of each indivdual to the system

Medicalized

defined and treated as medical conditions

Illness Experience

Ways in which people define and adjust to changes in health

Social Epidemiology

Study of effects of institutions, social structures and relations on health

Beneficence

Physican has responsibility to act in paitents best interest

Nonmalefilence

do no harm, physician has responsibility to avoid treatments or interventions in which the potential for harm outweighs the potential for benefit

Respect for Paitent Autonomy

Physician has a responsibility to respect paitents decisions and choices about their own health care

Justice

Physician has responsibility to treat similar paitents with similar care adn to distribute healthcare resources fairly

Culture

Encompasing the entire lifestyles of a given group

Material Culture

Physical items one associates with a given group

Artifact

Material items that they make, posses and value

Symbolic Culture

Focuses on ideas that represent a group of people

Values

What a person deems important in life, dictates one’s ethical principles and standard of behavior

Belief

Something an indvidual accepts to be true

Cultural Barriers

When cultural difference impedes interaction with others

Norms

Societal rules that define boundaries of acceptable behavior

Ritual

Formalized ceremonies usually involves specific material objects, symbolism and additional mandates on accepted behavior

Demographics

Statistics of population that are mathmatetical application of sociology

Life Course Perspective

Considering individual’s age and cumulative life experiences when analyzing their personality social status health and other social metrics

Ageism

Prejudice or discrimination based on a persons age

Age Cohorts

Grouping of individuals based on age

Dependency Ratio

Ratio of number of members of population that are not in the work force to the number of members in the workforce

Youth Ratio

Number of people under fifteen divided number people called 15-65

Age Dependency Ratio

Number of people over 65 divided by number of people 15-65

Stable Population

When populations fertility rate and mortality rate remain relatively consistent over long periods of time, distribution of population among age cohorts remain fairly consistent

Sex

Biological Category

Gender

Societies notions of feminity, masculinity and other sexual identities

Gender Roles

Expected behavioral traits associated with particular sex

Gender Identity

Individual adopt behaviors project the gender individual wishes to portray

Gender Segregation

Separation individuals based on percieved gender

Gender Inequality

Intentional or unintentional empowerment of one gender to the detriment of others

Gender Stratification

Inequality in access to social resources based on gender

Racialization

Social process in which racial groups are associated with specific attributes or characteristics

Race

Socially constructed groupings of people based specifically on inherited phenotypic characteristics

Ethnicity

Grouping of people on shared language, cultural heritage, religion, national origin

Symbolic Ethnicity

Specific connection to one’s ethnicity in which ethnic symbols and identity remain important, even when ethnic identity does not play a significant role in everyday life

Sexual Orientation

Direction of one’s sexual interests

Heterosexual

Attraction individuals of different sex

Bisexual (or Pansexual)

attraction members multiple sexes

Homosexual

Attraction individuals of the same sex

Kinsey Scale

Describes sexuality on scale 0 to 6 with 0 representing exclusive heterosexuality and 6 representing exclusive homosexuality

Generational Status

Refer to place of birth of specific person or that person’s parents

Intersectionality

Interplay between multiple demographic factors

Demographic Shifts

Changes in makeup of population over time

Population Density

Number of people per square kilometer of land

Population Pyramids

Histogram of the population size various age cohorts

Fertility Rate

Children per Women per Lifetime

Birth Rate

Children per 1000 people per year

Mortality Rate

deaths per 1000 people per year

Migration Rate

Immigration vs Emmigration rate

Immigration

Movement into new geographic spaces

Emmigration

Movement away from geographic space

Pull Factor

Positive Attributes of new location attract new residents

Push Factors

Negative attributes of old location encourage existing residents to leaeve

Demographic Transition

Specific exampe of demographic shift that occurs as a country develops from a preindustrial or agrarian society to economy more centered on manufactoring

Demographic Transition Theory

Link between economic development and demographic shift in four stages

1st Stage Demographic Transition

Pre industrial society, birth and death rates both high, stable population

Stage 2 Demographic Transition Theory

Economic process leads to improvement of health care, nutrition, sancation, wages, decrease death rate, total population increases

Stage 3 demographic Transition

Shift from agricultural to industrial cause birth rates to drop. As birth and death rate equates population growth hits inflection point and levels off

Stage 4 Demographic Transition

Birth and death rates are both low, resulting in relative constant total population

Fifth Stage

Birth rates drop and fall below death rate leading decline in total population

Mathusian Theory

Exponential growth of population can outplace growth food supply but social degradation and disorder

Social moevement

Organied to promote or resist change