Sociology Final Exam

Status

Position that you occupy within the social structure which is closely linked to social class.

Achieved status

Position that you earn or do something to attain.

Ascribed status

Position in society that you do not attain but you inherit.

Status role

Behavior of a specific status.

Role expectations

Anticipated behaviors for a particular role.

Role performance

Degree to which a person plays the role in a manner we expect.

Role conflict

Phenomenon occurring when one is forced to choose between the competing demands of multiple roles. A phenomenon

Role strain

What we feel when the demands of a role are difficult for us to satisfy.

Hunting and gathering societies

Society in which everyone had to be involved in the production of food.

Agricultural societies

Wealth is connected to land and food production in these societies.

Industrial societies

Society in which complex machines replace human labor.

Postindustrial society

Society in which the economy is based on services and technology.

Hidden curriculum

Lessons taught in school that are unrelated to academic learning.

Impression management

Management of the impression that the performer makes on others.

Stigma

Mark of disgrace associated with a particular status, quality, or person.

Discredited stigma

A stigma that cannot be hidden from oth

Discreditable stigma

A stigma that can be concealed from others.

Mead’s “I”

The active spontaneous part of the self.

Mead’s “me”

The objective part which questions how others might interpret our actions.

Looking-glass self

The process by which individuals develop their self-concept based on their understanding of how others perceive them,

Total institutions

Places in which the most effective forms of resocialization can occur because they isolate people from outside influences so they can be controlled.

Social mobility

The ability to change social classes.

Horizontal mobility

Refers to moving within the same status category.

Vertical mobility

Involves moving from one social class to another.

Intragenerational mobility

When an individual changes social standing, especially in the workforce.

Intergenerational mobility

The change that family memebers make from one social class to the next through generations.

Structural mobility

When social changes affect large numbers of individuals.

Exchange mobility

Concept suggesting that, within the US each social class contains a relatively fixed number of people.

Davis and Moore’s inequality explanation

Stratification is inevitable and aids in the functioning of society. Society has important positions that must be filled and the more important the position, the greater the reward.

Melvin Tumin’s inequality explanation

Social inequality is rooted in a system that is more likely to reward those who come from the higher classes and who have the resources to obtain better jobs.

Gini Coefficient

Measures income inequality within a population.

Wealthy percentage of total wealth

Refers to extreme wealth concentration. Those in the top 1% hold most of the world’s wealth.

Income distribution

Relates to how income is arranged, sociologists often look at quintiles of the population.

The poorest 20% of the US population

Earns 3.4% of all income.

The top 20% of the US population

Earns 50% of all income.

The top 5% of the US population

Earns 6x as much income as the top 20%.

Wealth distribution

Includes stocks, bonds, and many other items.

Increased

Wealth inequality has ___ over time.

Civil religion

A binding force that holds society together through political and social issues.

Cult

New religious movements led by charismatic leaders with few followers.

Sect

Religious groups that have enough members to sustain themselves and go against society’s norms.

Church

Large highly organized group of believers.

Theocracy

State religion that is formed when government and religion both work together to shape society.

Functional perspective on religion’s role

Religion binds community together, strengthen's norms, and provides meaning and stability.

Durkheim’s definition of religion

Religion binds the community together through rituals and tradition.

Weber’s protestant ethic

In order to show God’s favor it was necessary to work hard which also promoted individualism and capitalism.

Marx’s view on religion

Viewed religion as a tool of the wealthy to mislead the poor and mask oppression.

Christian nationalism

Political ideology and cultural framework merging American and religious identities, asserting the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.

2.1%

Percentage of all married couples get divorced in any given year.

10-12%

The percentage of all adult Americans who are divorced.

Sociological reasons for the high divorce rate

Residential mobility, ongoing redefinition of family and gender, ease of filing for a divorce, longevity and social acceptance.

1900 median married age

25.9 for men and 21.9 for women.

1950s median married age

22.8 for men and 20.3 for women.

2009 median married age

28.1 for men and 25.9 for women.

Important factors for marital satisfaction

Spending time doing activities you both enjoy, perception that household labor is fair, and affection.

Murstein theory of mate selection

A three-stage theory of marital choice. Stimulus stage, value stage, and role stage.

Homogamy

Marriage between people with similar backgrounds such as religion, race, class, geographical background, or age.

Gray divorce

A trend of rising divorce rates for couples over 50 after long marriages.

Personal commitment

A desire to stay married based on love and marital satisfaction.

Moral commitment

A feeling to stay married based on moral attitudes.

Structural committment

A feeling of constraint based on alternatives, social pressures.

Nuclear family

Household consisting of a husband, wife and children.

Functional view of marriage and family

Stresses how family is related to other parts of society and how it contributes to the well being of society.

Filter theory

A funnel process where people narrow potential partners through three main filters: social demography, similarity of attitudes and complementarity.

Exchange theory

States that people seek to maximize rewards and minimize costs.

Stimulus stage

Initial phase of attraction.

Value stage

Couples move past initial attraction to assess beliefs, attitudes and interests.

Role stage

Committed partners assess if their future life pans and the roles they play are compatible and mutually fulfilling.

Death penality

Reserved for most serious crimes, costs more than lifetime incarceration, not a general deterrent and continues to be administered in a biased manner.

6

The U.S. incarceration rate is ___ times higher than Canada.

13

The U.S. incarceration rate is ___ times higher than Japan.

Differential association theory

Emphasizes that criminal and deviant behavior is learned.

U.S. murder comparisons to other countries

The U.S. has the highest murder rate in the industrialized world- 3 times higher than most advanced democracies.

War on drugs

Starting in the 70s, to reduce illegal drug use, production, and trafficking through prohibition, military aid and strict laws.

Reckless’ crime theory

Argues that all human behavior is controlled by external and internal forces. He called this containment theory.

Hirschi’s social bonding theory

Proposes that people don’t commit crimes because they have strong social bonds to conventional society, not because they’re “inherently bad” but because they have much to lose.

Attachment

The social bond that refers to our relationship with conforming people.

Commitment

The bond that refers to the level of dedication a person has toward conventional things.

Belief

A person’s conviction toward conventional things.

Involvement

The social bond that refers to the level of activity in conventional things.

Gottfredson and Hirschi self-control theory

Criminals have low self control. They seek short term rewards and ignore long-term consequences.

Reintegrative shaming

An effort to bring an offender back into the community after punishment.

Stigmatized shame

A permanent label given to an offender, which could increase the chances of reoffending because the guilty person is forever labeled.

Age crime curve

Crime is over-represented among young persons.

Paradigm

A theoretical framework through which scientists study the world.

Functionalism

A theoretical paradigm that defines society as a system of interrelated parts.

Conflict theory

A theoretical framework that views society as an unequal system that brings conflict and change.

Symbolic interactionism

A theoretical framework that focuses on how people interact with others in their everyday lives.

August Comte

Coined the term sociology and also stated thinking about the functionalist paradigm.

Proletariat

Refers to members of the poor working class.

Bourgeoisie

Refers to members of the capitalist class.

Correlation

Is an indication that one factor might be the cause for another factor.

Causation

The relationship between cause and effect.

Random sample

A group of subjects arbitrarily chosen from a define population.

Mean

An average.

Median

Refers to the midpoint in a distribution of numbers.

Mode

Refers to the most common value in a distribution of numbers.

Ethnocentrism

Occurs when a person uses his or her own culture to judge another culture.

Communitarian beliefs

Center on the idea that individuals are deeply connected to their communities, which shape identity and values, arguing for a balance where the common good and community well-being take precedence over unchecked individualism.

Feral children

Children isolated from human contact, lacking critical socialization.