Social Inequality

social inequality, types of biases and studies

Intra-generational mobility

change in social class happens in person’s own lifetime

Intergenerational mobility

change in social class btwn generations (i.e. parent and son are working class)

Absolute poverty

An absolute level at which if you go below, survival is threatened. Minimum level of resources a human being needs to survive. This level no matter where you are

Relative poverty

in developed countries, use a different marker – a % level below the median country of the country. (i.e. in US, instead of $1-2 a day, median income is above $80/day). Not about survival, but low income → exclusion

Social reproduction

people w/ rich parents end up wealthy

Social capital

the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively

Cultural capital

non-financial social assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means. (i.e. education, intellect, style of speech, dress, or physical appearance) Refers to knowledge, skills, education, and similar characteristics that are used to make social distinctions and that are associated with differences in social status

Social stratification

categorization of people into strata based on occupation, income, wealth/social status, or derived power (upper/middle/low class)

4 principles of social stratification

1. defined as a property of a society rather than individuals in society

2. reproduced from generation to generation

3. is universal (in every society) but variable (differ in time/place)

4. involves quantitative inequality and qualitative beliefs and attitudes abt social status

Spatial mismatch

opportunities for low-income people in segregated communities may be present but farther away, and harder to access. Gap between where people live and where opportunities are

Theory of Intersectionality

calls attention to how identity categories intersect in systems of social stratification. (i.e. an individual’s position within a social hierarchy is determined not only by his or her social class, but also by his or her race/ethnicity). it proposes that we need to understand how all these discriminations can simultaneously exist

Hindsight bias

the inclination, after an event has occurred, to see the event as having been predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it

Normalcy Bias

causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects

Reconstructive bias

related to memory. Most research on memories suggests that our memories of the past are not as accurate as we think, especially when we are remembering times of high stress

Attrition bias

when participants drop out of a long-term experiment or study

Social desirability

how people respond to research questions

Implicit bias

attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual’s understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness

Cognitive bias

tendency to think in certain ways, often cause deviations from a standard of rationality or good judgment.

Internal validity

extent to which a causal conclusion based on a study is warranted. Confounding factors often impact this

External validity

Whether results of the study can be generalized to other situations and other people. sample must be completely random, and all situational variables must be tightly controlled

Randomized controlled trial

people studied randomly given 1 of the treatments under the study, used to test efficacy/side effects of medical interventions like drugs

Experimental study

manipulation of variables (independent/dependent variables)

Quasi-experimental design

similar to experimental design but lacks random assignment, describes effect on specific cohort of the population

Clinical trial

highly controlled interventional studies

Case-control study

observational study where 2 groups differing in outcome are identified and compared to find a causal factor. (i.e. comparing people with the disease with those who don’t but are otherwise similar)

Longitudinal study

data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time, can take years or decades. follows variables over a long period of time to look for correlations

Cohort study

following a subset of population over a lifetime. (a group of people who share a common characteristic) can be classified as retrospective (looking back) or prospective

Cross-sectional study

look at a group of different people at one moment in time