Sociology 201 Midterm 1

Sociological Imagination

An individual uses their sociological imagination when they can perceive problems as the result of individual behavior's within the context of larger social processes

C. Wright Mills

\-Wrote “The Sociological Imagination”

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\-Argued that people tend to interpret social problems as a result of individual character flaws

Durkheim and Sociological Imagination

\-The **sociological imagination** is illustrated in Emile Durkheim's (1858-1917) study on suicide (1897)

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He sought out the social causes of suicide and rejected the idea that it was the result of psychological disorder

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\-Durkheim questioned whether psychology was capable of fully explaining suicide - Using various European government data and hospital records he found that there was **no relationship** between mental disorders and suicide

Which Groups did Durkheim Determine were more Engaged in Suicidal Behavior then Others?

Sex (males), religion (Protestants), marital status (single)

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Commonality: Social Solidarity

Social Solidarity

Social solidarity refers to the degree to which members share beliefs and values and the intensity and frequency of their interaction

4 Types of Social Solidarity

Altruistic, Egoistic, Fatalistic, Anomic

Altruistic

\-there is no separation between the person and society \~Too much integration in society

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\-NOBLE

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\-E.g. Japanese Fighter pilots would run out of fuel or have machine failure and would think "If I am going to die, I am going to cause as much damage as possible (turn plane into a bomb).

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\-Terrorism

Egoistic

\-no integration into society whether by choice or not. Closest to psychological cause of suicide - Too low of integration in society

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E.g. School Shooter

Fatalistic

\-someone's life is so controlled by rules that the person would no longer live - Too High of Regulation

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E.g. Citizen in North Korea, Prisoner (Guilty or Innocent), Inescapable Cult, Patient in a Psych ward

Anomic

\-absence of regulation (all of society - economy) - too low of regulation

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\-E.g. Nations going to war, there is fear of being captured, an anarchic state, people see no other choice. Indigenous child were told they would be taken to residential schools.

 

 -Culture at risk of being destroyed 

Why is Durkheim’s Study Insightful?

It demonstrates:

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* There is something unique about sociology

 

* The causes of suicide are partly social

 

* The study of social forces need not preclude biological or psychological forces

Who was the First Sociologist?

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) is often considered the first well-known sociologist

What is Sociology?

\-"the systematic study of human behaviour"

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\-It is the study of powerful social forces

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\-It looks at Social Variables, Social Institution, and Social Interactions

 

\-Sociologists will examine units as small as the individuals and as large as multinational corporations

Why Study Sociology?

* Studying sociology helps you obtain a greater understanding of the social world, which encompasses the social practices, attitudes, and institutions that surround us.

 

* It can also help you to better understand yourself in terms of whether you follow or do not follow patterns of social behavior predicted by sociological variables.

 

* Sociology helps you develop an understanding about others around you in the multicultural and generally diverse social world that is Canada, as well as in the smaller social worlds of neighborhoods, classrooms, social media sites, pubs, and workplaces.

 

* In a more global aspect, Sociology helps you better understand the larger world of nations and their social institutions.

Henry Giroux

* explains what happens when we fail to exercise our sociological imagination. He comments on the lack of sociological imagination in the post-9/11 political posturing of George W. Bush, Giroux warned that "democracy begins to fall and political life becomes impoverished when the society can no longer translate private problems into social issues"

 

* **Without** sociological imagination, the individual, not society, becomes the primary focus of blame. The sociological imagination **enables** us to see an individual's circumstances in the context of broader social forces that affects us all and warrant our attention.

Sociological Promises

1. Sociology promises to help us think critically

 


2. It promises to explain why we act the way we do

 


3. It reveals the possibilities of human action

 


4. It shows us the correct route to induce positive social change

Confucius

* the earliest person whose recorded writings reflect a true sociological imagination

 

* He believed it was better for leaders to engage in moral practices that modelled the principles they wanted their citizens to follow them to overuse laws to enforce morality.

 

* "If you use laws to direct the people, and punishments to control them, they will merely try to evade the laws, and will have no sense of shame"

Ibn Khaldun

*  the first person to carry out a systematic study of sociological subjects and set his thoughts down in writing

 

* He examined various types of societies and their histories, cultures, and economies.

 

* Cyclical rise and fall of powerful tribes and nations

How did Sociology Development?

Sociology became an area of academic interest in nineteenth-century Europe, specifically in France, Germany and Britain. It developed in response to the dramatic social changes taking place at that time:

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1. The Scientific Revolution/The enlightenment

 


2. The rise of the Nation-State (democratic revolutions)

 


3. The ill effects of the Industrial Revolution (the application of scientific techniques to the work process

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\-People began to wonder whether Europe's cities could cope with such tremendous population growth.

Critical Thinking

* Critical thinking is an essential aspect of sociological thinking.

 

* Critical thinking means using careful observation to arrive at conclusions about our social world rather than base our understanding upon authority, casual observation, illogical reasoning etc.

Micro-Level Sociology

examines individual behaviour

Macro-Level Sociology

occurs at the national level (study of social institutions)

Global-Level Investigation

 investigations of international phenomenon (i.e. multinational corporations)

Functionalism

* In a nutshell, functionalism examines the factors that hold together.

 

* Functionalism examines "norms"; social rules that people are expected to follow 

Anomie

* Lack of social bonding results in **"anomie"**; a feeling of normlessness or without purpose

 

* Anomie may lead to social problems including suicide.

Hobbes and Functionalism

* Hobbes = "everyone against everyone"

 

* Greedy people make sense, selfless do not. This can be explained by norms.

 

* Justifies why people would not take a bag of money

 

* The norms we create are a manifestation of all society

Conflict Theory - Marx

\-delineate two groups in any given society at any given point in

time: the **bourgeoisie** and the **proletariat** (the rich and the poor respectively).

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\-These two groups compete for control of the means of production (things that create wealth in society). Conflict theories examine the forces that pull society apart.

 

\-In such societies, some people will feel alienated - Alienation refers to things that naturally go together but are separated 

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\-conflict as the driving force behind all major social change over times

What did Marx Believe about Capitalism?

* Capitalism = people naturally compete, unnaturally separates us 

 

* Marx compared the process of commodity production to stealing because the worker is never paid the **full "value"** of what she/he creates

 

* The process is similar to a pimp/prostitute relationship

Conflict Theory - Weber

* Weber also looked at the forces pulling apart society but he believed that capitalism was but one of several factors that influenced social behaviour.

 

*  He also examined **political** and **religious influences** upon human behaviour.

 

* Sociologists often claim that Weber was involved in a lifelong debate with Marx’s ghost.

 

*  Best known for “Verstehende sociology”

How did Sociology Spread to North America?

\-the arrival of millions of immigrants, the development of cities and urban life, and the growing impact of technology on the daily lives of individuals - spurred the growth of sociology.

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\-Social change happened fast in the United States, which was undergoing a rapid transition from an essentially rural society to a nation of fast-growing urban centre’s revolving around industry and commerce.

Chicago School

Social scientists were inspired to study the new ways that Americans were living, working, and sharing space, and one of the country's oldest sociology departments, at the University of Chicago, arose primarily as a way of understanding the problems associated with the rapid immigration of thousands of Europeans to the American city.

Chicago School Sociologists

* **Robert Park** = his research was focused on the concept of human ecology, which views the city as the main habitat for the human species, the same way that an African jungle may be home to the needle-clawed bushbaby or the Senegal parrot.

 

* **Ernest Burgess** = In his research in criminology, he developed a 21-point scoring system to measure the likelihood that an inmate on parole would reoffend. He also introduced a rubric foraging the strength of a marriage; neither love nor affection were among the variables taken into account in this system.

 

* **Jane Addams** = Addams is recognized for her accomplishments as an activist, author, community organizer, university lecturer, and public intellectual, a leading figure in what was termed the Progressive Era.

**Social Class and Ethnicity: John Porter**

* Titled of his book plays on the term cultural mosaic, a metaphor frequently used to characterize Canada's multicultural society. A mosaic is a type of artwork composed of many small tiles that lend different colors to the picture. A society that is a cultural mosaic is one "in which racial, ethnic, and religious groups maintain a distinct identity, rather than being absorbed into a 'melting pot'

 

* A 'melting pot' encourages the "rapid assimilation of recent immigrants into their new society".

 

* Porter coined the term **vertical mosaic** to describe the situations he observed in Canada, in which systemic discrimination produced a hierarchy of racial, ethnic, and religious groups.

3 Early Women Sociologists

**-Annie Marion Maclean**

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\-**Aileen Ross**

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\-**Helen C. Abell**

**Annie Marion Maclean**

* Was the first Canadian woman to obtain a PHD in sociology.

 

* Maclean pioneered the sociological study of working women, especially in *Wage-Earning Women,* which was based on a survey of some 13,500 women.

 

* She conducted her research in department stores, in "sweat shops" factories, and among hop-pickers in rural Oregon.

**Aileen Ross**

* First women to be hired as a sociologist at a Canadian university, taught sociology at the University of Toronto for 3 years before joining the faculty at McGill.

 

* She devoted her books to two of her foremost concerns: women and India.

 

* *The Lost and Lonely: Homeless Women in Montreal* was the first study of homeless women in Canada.

Helen C. Abell

* Called the founder of rural sociology in Canada.

 

* Established a rural sociology research unit in the federal Department of Agriculture.

The Growth of Sociology in Canada

* Sociology did not become a significant area of study and teaching in Canada until the 1960s  and 1970s, as baby boomers entered universities and colleges

 

* During this era of growth in sociology, most of the sociologists hired to teach in Canadian postsecondary institutions were from the United States and Britain

 

* The lack of Canadian sociologists meant that sociology textbooks lacked a Canadian perspective.

 

* When John Hofley was hired to teach sociology at Carleton University in 1966, he saw "very little about Canada in the sociology texts that were available"

 

* Still missing from Canadian sociology textbooks is an adequate representation of Indigenous sociologists

Sociology by Approach

The traditional way of representing different kinds of sociology in introductory textbooks is to break it down into the different approaches sociologists use to pursue their inquiries:

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* Structural Functionalism
* Conflict Theory
* Symbolic Interactionism
* Feminist Theory
* Postmodern Theory

Structural Functionalism

* Functionalism focuses on how social systems in their entirety, operate and consequences.

 

* The work of Durkheim, Merton, and Parsons represents the functionalist approach.

 

* The functionalist approach was fused with structuralism as a way of explaining social forms and their contributions to social cohesion

 

* Ex. Its like learning about the structures of the human body as well as their functions

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic Interactionism examines human behaviour from the micro-sociological level.

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\-looks at the meaning (or symbolism) of our daily social interactions

Symbolic Interactionism Basic 3 Principles

1. Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they have for us.

 


2. This meaning is developed in interaction with others.

 


3. These meanings are modified in an interpretive process (constantly changing).

Durkheim and Social Facts

* **Social facts** = are patterned ways of acting, thinking and feeling that exist outside of any one individual but exert social control over all people.

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* Social facts are a useful way for sociologists to examine larger social forms and how different parts of society function

 

* He found in late-nineteenth century France, certain groups were more likely to commit suicide than others: military officers more then enlisted men, Protestants more then Catholics, and unmarried people more then married people.

 

Social Facts have 3 Essential Characteristics:

1. It was developed prior to and separate from any individual (i.e. no one person invented or is synonymous with it)

 


2. It can be seen as a characteristic of a particular group (young Canadian men, for instance, like to watch sports while drinking beer - a social fact that examines why so many beer commercials feature young men watching sports)

 


3. It involves a constraining or coercing force that pushes individuals into acting in a particular way (like when young men watching sports succumb to "beer pressure" and begin yelling, high-fiving, and displaying other behavior associated with this social fact)

Merton’s Manifest and Latent Functions

* Robert K. Merton, one of the leading American sociologists of the mid-twentieth century and a major contributor to functionalist thinking, identified 3 types of functions: Material, Latent, and Latent Dysfunction

**Manifest functions**

are both intended and readily recognized, or "manifest" (i.e. easily seen)

Latent Functions

largely unintended and unrecognized

Latent Dysfunction

unintended and produce socially negative consequences

What is Conflict Theory Based On?

Based on the "4 C's":

 

* Conflict
* Class
* Contestation
* Change

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* This approach is based on the idea that conflict exists in all large societies.

Total Institution

* "a range of institutions in which whole blocks of people are bureaucratically processed, whilst being physically isolated from the normal round of activities, by being required to sleep, work, and play within the confines of the same institutions"

 

* Ex. Psychiatric Hospitals, Prisons, Army Barracks, Boarding Schools, Concentration Camps, Monasteries and Convents

Feminist Theory

* Feminism is hard to pin-down with a tidy, hard and fast definition

 

* Feminism tackles centuries of patriarchy, a social organization in which men hold political, cultural, and social power

 

* You do not have to be a women to be feminist but you do have to accept that recognizing a female perspective is absolutely critical to forming an accurate appraisal of the roles women play in society.

Harriet Martineau

wrote many articles on the social condition of women. Her feminist thinking can be seen in her comparison of women to slaves.

**Dorothy Smith**

* experienced firsthand the kind of systemic sexist discrimination that would become the subject of her first work.

 

* She developed standpoint theory directly out of her own experience as a women discriminated against by male colleagues in the academic community. Her standpoint theory challenged traditional sociology's preference for objective as opposed to subjective research and analysis.

 

* She argued that knowledge is always developed from a particular lived position or "standpoint"

 

4 Concepts of Feminism

1. Patriarchy, a system of male domination should be examined

 


2. Patriarchy is the result of social forces rather than biological imperative

 


3. Patriarchy should be explored at the **microlevel** and the **macrolevel** of inquiry

 


4. Patriarchy should be eliminated

First Wave of Feminism

* liberal Feminism

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* is associated chiefly with the campaign for civil and political rights, specifically the rights to vote and hold political office, which began in the nineteenth century.

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* Ex. Canada's "Famous Five", a group of social leaders and activists who petitioned to have women recognized as "persons" under British and Canadian law in the early twentieth century.

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* After the first wave, the women's movement began to gain new life during the civil rights movement that began in the 1960s, fueled by the fight for equality in the home and in the workplace, including equal opportunities for employment and pay.

**Second-wave feminism**

differed by tackling not just public rights - like the right to take a job in traditionally male -dominated professions - but also private rights, including reproductive rights and freedom from domestic violence

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\-Social Radical

**Third-wave feminism**

* is associated with the campaign for social justice for women left out of the more mainstream agenda of second-wave feminism, traditionally set by white women from middle and upper-middle class backgrounds.

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* It represents the interests of LGBTQ2 women, as well as women from racial and ethnic minorities and women living in poverty.

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* Post-modern

Postmodern Theory

* Existing theories have been unsuccessful in explaining life in contemporary societies

 

* They are anti-theory

 

* Theories are merely constructions or narratives

 

* Focuses on consumerism, the explosion of information systems and oppression

 

* All theories are biased

 

* Socially constructed Races - White is everything that is "good" and black is everything is "bad" - made for power

**Totalitarian Discourse**

is any universal claim about how knowledge or understanding is achieved.

**Discourse**

 a conceptual framework with its own internal logic and underlying assumptions that may be readily recognizable to the audience. A discourse involves a distinct way of speaking about some aspect of reality. \[Use of the term\] also suggests that the item under discussion is not a natural attribute of reality but socially constructed and defined.

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ex. **The American Dream**, the idea that success, in terms of wealth, fame or social prestige, can be achieved by any determined, hardworking American citizen, regardless of their "race", ethnicity, social class, gender, or degree of ability. The dark side is the "American Nightmare" is that if you fail it is because you have not worked hard enough or wanted it enough.

Sociology by Audience

**Another way of categorizing sociology is based on the audience for whom the work is intended and how critical the sociologist is.**

 

* 4 Types:

 

* Professional
* Critical
* Policy
* Public

Professional Sociology

* Its audience is the academic world of sociology departments, scholarly journals, professional associations, and conferences

 

* Generates very specific information, often with the aim of applying it to a particular problem or intellectual question

 

* These articles would address specific sociological questions, centering around the key issues of gender, work, culture and the state of sociology in Canada.

 

* Written in technical or specialized language, they target an academic or professional readership, but can usually be read by interested students.

Critical

* "Conscience of professional sociology"

 

* Critical sociology reminds professional sociology…of its value premises and its guiding questions. It also proposes alternative foundations upon which to erect sociological research. In other words, critical sociology is critical in 2 senses, first in bringing professional sociology into alignment with its historical mission and second in shifting the direction of that mission.

 

* Addresses same audience as the professional sociology does but it aims to make sure that professional sociologists do not lose sight of the goals of sociological inquiry, specifically to bring about meaningful social change.

 

* Conflict theory fits into this category

 

* Michael Foucault and Dorothy Smith are known for having examined the production of knowledge in relation to power - which groups in society get their views heard and accepted as true

 

* Foucault = conflict between "scientific experts" and other producers of knowledge, whose voice tended to be drowned out by the former group, Smith discussed conflict in terms of gender relations.

Policy Sociology

* Generating sociological data for governments and large corporations, to be used in developing laws, rules, and long-and-short term plans.

 

* Education, health, and social welfare are 3 main areas that policy sociology serves, but they are by no means the only ones

 

* Ex. A government might commission a study on crime prevention to see whether tougher sentences or better rehabilitation programs are more likely to reduce the rate of criminals reoffending: this would be an example of policy sociology.

 

* Think tanks are policy organizations that try to bring about social change by persuading governments to adopt or amend certain laws

Public Sociology

Addresses an audience that is not part of the academic world of colleges and universities or the political establishment.

3 Key Traits of Public Sociology

1. Ability to discuss even sociological concepts and theories in the English of the college-educated teacher

 


2. Breadth of their sociological interests, which covers much of society even if their research is restricted to a few fields. That breadth also extends to their conception of sociology, which extends beyond research reporting to commentary and in many cases social criticism

 


3. Ability to avoid the pitfalls of undue professionalism.

Theory

 

* A theory is a set of claims about what exists in our social world and the interconnections amongst phenomena

 

* Scientists try to improve and revise theories

Ideology

 

* An ideology is a set of beliefs and the inter-connections that one holds despite evidence to the contrary

What are the 4 Types of Research?

Inductive Research, Deductive Research, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research

Inductive Research

Observations = Generalizations = Theory

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**investigation that begins with the observation of a problem or situation to develop and test theories about it**.

Deductive Research

Theories = Hypothesis = Observations

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begins with a theory, then gathers data and observation to test that theory

Quantitative Research

*  focuses on social elements that can be counted or measured, which then can be used to generate statistics

 

* Used to find patterns governing whole structures or systems, communities

Qualitative

 involves the close examination of characteristics that cannot be counted or measured.

What are the 4 Types of Causality?

Correlation, Temporal Sequence, Non-spurious Relationships, Use of Theory

Correlation

* Correlation refers to the property of being connected.

 

* That is, in order to meet the demands of causality, two variables must be connected.

 

* lemons and limes go together, but one is not caused by the other

Temporal Sequence

* Temporal sequence refers to the proper order of things.

 

* In order to say one thing causes another, it must occur before the other.

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* it is unclear as to whether the chicken or egg came first. Which is cause and which is effect?

 

* The cause has to come before the effect

Non-spurious

* Relationships must be non-spurious in order to meet the demands of causality.

 

* One could illogically infer that since fires and fire engines go together, one must cause the other. Clearly, another variable is the cause of fires.

 

* When another **unrecognized variable** is the cause of a relationship of interest, it is deemed spurious.

 

* We want non-spurious relationships

Use of Theory

* It is important to conduct research using sociological theory.

 

* Theory is the culmination of knowledge that should be tested.

 

* Used properly, theories open up questions that need to be answered.

 

* By contrast, simply identifying statistical correlations may be illogical

Variables

A variable is a construct (an event or \n attribute) to which we can assign a value (usually numerical).

Independent Variable

An independent variable (i.e. age) causes a change in the dependent variable (i.e. happiness).

Dependent Variable

**a variable (often denoted by y) whose value depends on that of another.**

The Classic Experiment

Considered the “hallmark of scientific in research” because it isolates the in experimental effect.

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The researcher randomly assigns subjects to either an experimental group that experiences the experimental effect or a control group that does not

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\-Thus, it is fair to say that the classical experiment is often effective in terms of reliability but less so in in terms of validity

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\-Critic say that it produces artificial results that do not account for other factors outside the experiment

Survey Research

\-Commonly used in sociology because relatively few people can be asked questions about their experiences, thoughts and beliefs and then the results generalized to a larger population.

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\-Often accurate but will always face questions of validity and reliability.

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\-Cost effective (secondary data analysis)

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\-Needs to be random selection for sample

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\-Reliability = validity, Validity = Accuracy

Field Research

Observation studies simply include the researcher going into the field (often as a member of that group) and recording the behavior of others.

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Allows us to study things often not \\n possible by other means.

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Questions of reliability and validity

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Ethical concerns paramount (i.e. tearoom trade).

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Personal interviews

Agents of Socialization

* Family - Arguably Most Important (at a young age)

 

* Schools

 

* Peer Groups

 

* Mass Media - Arguably Least Important

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\-Affect us whether we accept or reject them

Biological Theorists of Socialization

Wilson, The Harlows

Psychological Theorists of Socialization

Freud, Piaget, Kohlberg, Gilligan

Sociological Theorists of Socialization

Cooley, Mead, Goffman

Wilson

* Pioneered the subdiscipline of sociobiology; the systematic study of how biology affects social behavior

 

* War, Peace, Envy, Competition and Cooperation are believed to be Rooted in our genes

 

* Daly and Wilson cite a study on the gendered nature of sexual jealousy - behavior can be explained by genes

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* Women are genetically prone to relying on males or is it due to social terms?

The Harlow’s

* Studied the effects of social isolation on rhesus monkeys

 

* Isolation at a young age caused fear and hostility when introduced to others later in life

 

* Ex. Anna and Genie

Freud

* Freud believed that our personalities were largely submerged in the unconscious mind

 

* We can only see the tip of the iceberg so to speak (See the surface of the person)

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* he drew attention to sexuality and the developmental processes in people. He revealed that perhaps there is more going on in our minds than even we realize.

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* He described the human mind as being in conflict between deep desires and demands placed upon us by society.

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* Dream interpretation, slips of the tongue, introspection.

ID (Freud)

Demands immediate gratification instinctual, energy driven. **The Pleasure Principle**.

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\-Can not determine our own ID

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Ex. “I want that candy bar no matter what”

Superego (Freud)

The part of the mind that has internalized society's norms. **Personal Conscience**

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Ex. “Stealing is wrong in society”

Ego

Seeks to balance the ID and Superego. **The Reality Principle.**

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Ex. “I guess I will have to save \n money in order to purchase \n the candy bar”

The Iceberg Analogy (Freud)

\-Superego and Ego above the surface

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\-ID is below the surface

What are the Stages of Development? (Freud)

\-oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital.

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\-Failure to progress though each stage will result in personality disorders.

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\-Biology was Destiny

Oral

dependent, smoker, drinker.

Anal

excessively orderly, stubborn, overly generous.

Phallic

homosexuality

Piaget

Children go through stages:

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• Sensorimotor (sensory contact).

• Preoperational (begin to use symbols).

• Concrete operational \\n (take the role of others).

• Formal operational (abstract thought).

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\-Used sociological thinking