Sociology 1 Midterm 1

What are institutions? (start of chapter 1)

Refer to longstanding and important practices (like marriage, families, education, and economic markets) as well as the organizations that regulate those practices (such as government, the legal system, etc.), which play a role in shaping people’s lives.

Who coined the term “sociological imagination”?

C. Wright Mills

What is sociology?

The study not of individuals, but the study of how we live together; studies societies and the social worlds that individuals inhabit.

Sociological imagination

the capacity to think systematically about how many things we experience as personal problems (debt from student loans, competing demands from divorced parents, or an inability to form a rewarding romantic relationship), are also experienced by other people

What does a sociological imagination challenge?

It challenged very basic impulses: to simplify a complex world, we often assume that things around us are somehow inevitable or natural. Examples: marriage, race and ethnicity

What does it mean to be a social being?

We are connected to others in a variety of ways; we are part of complex social networks

What are stereotypes?

Faulty generalizations about individuals based on what we think we know about the groups they are members of.

What are social environment/social influences?

Factors that affect an individuals chances at life. This includes economic and cultural conditions, in which infants will grow up will affect possible opportunities.

What are some examples of social influences that can impact a baby’s life?

• Immediate family, parental education, wealth and income

• Environment

• Education

• Religion

• Workplace

What are some broader contextual factors that can influence a baby’s life?

• The country in which he/she is born

• The period in history in which he/she is born

What is social interaction?

the way people act together; it is governed by social norms, which are the basic rules that help us know what is and is not appropriate to do in any situation

What is social structure?

It captures the “ways in which the rules and norms of everyday life become enduring patterns that shape and govern social interaction.

What are the two key components of social structure?

Social hierarchies and insitutiitions

What are social hierarchies? (end of chapter 1)

a set of important and enduring social positions that often grant some individuals and groups higher status and more power than others

The field of sociology is historically rooted in which major social shift? (extra chapter 1)

industrialization, urbanization, and immigration

What is a social theory? (start of chapter 2)

Social theories are systematic ideas about the relationship between individuals and societies

Who was Karl Marx?

He proposed a materialistic explanation of sociology (unequal distribution of capital). Class division between bourgeoisie and proletariat. He thought the way humans produce the things they need to live is the essential foundation of society.

According to Marx, what are the defining features of how society works?

The economic system and human relationships.

The term “sociology” was first used by who?

French philosopher Auguste Comte

What is economic surplus?

Producing more goods than needed to meet their minimum physical needs

What are social classes?

Groups of people who share a similar set of economic interests

Marx and his frequent collaborator Friedrich Engels divide history into which three different eras based on the modes of production?

Ancient societies (based on slavery), Feudalism (in largely agrarian societies with a small landowning class), and Capitalism (in which economies are organized around market-based exchange)

Each mode of production consists of which two parts?

The forces of production and the social relations of production

What are the forces of production?

The technological and productive capacity of a society

What are the social relations of production?

How people relate to each other for the purposes of producing goods

What are the main divisions of capitalism classified by Marx?

The bourgeoisie and the proletariat

What is class conflict?

tensions resulting from internal dynamics of capitalism

According to Marx, what would happen to capitalism?

Capitalism would increasingly polarize society into a very small bourgeoisie and a very large working class; craftsmen and small producers would disappear

Why did Marx believe that capitalism would be overthrown through revolution?

rising capitalist class demanded economic freedoms that did not exist under feudalism

Why would communist revolution take place?

It would take place because capitalists would drive down the wages of workers too far, and because capitalism brought workers together and made them conscious of themselves as a class

What does class conflict result from?

It results from the internal dynamics of capitalism

What is socialism?

The social, collective, or public ownership and control of means of production rather than private ownership

What did Marx and Engels anticipate from the capitalist economy?

Marx and Engels anticipated the spread of the capitalist economy to the entire world

According to Durkheim, what does sociology examine?

Sociology examines a force in the world that is objective and exists independently of our ability to control it.

What is social solidarity according to Durkheim?

It is what holds societies together.

What are social facts?

They are regularities and rules of everyday life that every human community has

What are Durkeim’s types of solidarity?

mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity

What is mechanical solidarity?

It is when individuals are tied to one another by kinship and tribe membership

What is division of labor?

It is the specialization of tasks

What is organic solidarity?

It is a very extensive division of labor and mutual dependence among people can be found

For Durkheim, what was religion?

Religion is a human creation.

What was Max Weber concerned with?

Weber was concerned with explaining human behavior and interpretive sociology.

What is interpretive sociology?

Sociology is a science concerning itself with the interpretive understanding of social action”

What are Weber’s different types of social action?

Instrumental rationality, value rationality, affectual motives, and traditional motives

What is instrumental rationality?

Behavior orientated toward gaining or achieving some specific reward.

What is value rationality

Behavior guided by a belief in some ultimate value, regardless of rewards.

What are affectual motives?

Action that is guided by positive or negative emotions.

What are traditional motives?

Action guided by a belief in following established traditions.

What is Weber’s definition of power?

a person’s ability to achieve his or her objective even if someone else wants to prevent it

What is Weber’s definition of authority?

he capacity to get people to do things because they think that they should abide by the commands of people above them

What is traditional authority?

Legitimacy arising out of tradition. Common in societies with rigid social structures, like those in aristocratic Europe in the Middle Ages

What is charismatic authority?

Legitimacy that arises out of the perception that a leader is endowed with special powers or gifts

What is legal-rational authority?

Legitimacy based on explicit rules. Most obviously displayed in the rise of one of the pillars of modern life: bureaucracy

What are status groups?

groups of people with similar kinds of attributes or identities such as those based on religion, ethnicity or race

What are stratification system?

those inequalities between groups that persist over time

What is social closure?

The process by which groups seek to monopolize opportunities or rewards

What was a key feature of modern societies according to Georg Simmel?

A key feature of modern societies is the widening of the social circles of which we can become members.

What is social distance?

How close individuals within groups are from one another.

What is network analysis?

the study of how individuals are connected and the consequences of those connections

What was W.E.B. Du Bois’s overriding concern?

His overriding concern was the problem of race and racial inequality in U.s. society.

What did W.E.B Du Bois challenge?

He challenged that racial inequality was not rooted in biological differences but rather manufactured in U.S. society.

What is racism?

The assumption that member of a racial group are inherently inferior to other races

What did W.E.B Du Bois investigate?

He investigated the lives of African Americans: how the black poor survived on low incomes; how marriages and families were organized; and how privileged blacks viewed poor blacks

What did W.E.B. argued differentiated whites and blacks? (end of chapter 2)

He argued that many differences between blacks and whites could be attributed to the lack of educational opportunities for blacks

What are the steps to answering a research question? (start of chapter 3)

1) Formulate a research hypothesis

2) Predict the relationship between the independent and dependent

variables

3) Find existing data or collect new data

4) Analyze the data

5) Draw conclusions

What are examples of ethical issues of sociology?

• Lack of Informed Consent

• Invasion of Privacy and Breach of Confidentiality

• Psychological or Physical Harm

What are qualitative methods?

relies on words or detailed interviews with informants, direct observations, historical records, or even pictures as data

What are quantitative methods?

relies on numerical data and usually employs statistical methods to test a hypothesis regarding the relation between an independent variable and a dependent variable

What is ethnography?

A research method involving direct observation of individuals lives

What is comparative-historical?

a qualitative method of analysis examining a social phenomenon over time or in different places

What is social desirability bias?

people tend not to give answers that they perceive to be undesirable by the interviewer or inappropriate

What are the challenges of collecting data?

• Sociologists cannot interview everyone

• Problems with non-response

What is sampling?

the process of identifying the subjects a researcher will study

What is reliability?

refers to the “repeatability” or “consistency” of a particular variable or measurement

What is validity?

refers to the accuracy of the measure

What is correlation vs. causation?

Correlation means two variables move together, while causation means one variable directly makes the other variable change

What is spuriousness?

a relationship in which two factors seem to move in the same direction not because one causes the other, but because they are both caused by a third factor

What are the types of data?

Cross section data and longitudinal data

What are field experiments? (end of chapter 3)

It apply methods of experimental design within a naturally occurring social context

What is race vs. ethnicity? (start of chapter 13)

Race reflects deep-seated, inherited, and innate characteristics

Ethnicity a system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived cultural similarities

What is an essentialist view vs. constructivist view?

Essentialist view: It presumes that an individual’s racial identity depends on fundamental and innate characteristics that are deep-seated, inherited, and unchangeable

Constructivist view: holds that racial categories are social creations not biological facts; they can also change over time

What is social construct?

a social phenomenon that was invented by human beings and is shaped by the social forces present in the time and place of its creation

What is racism?

the belief that human traits and abilities are determined by race, leading to the assumption that one specific race is naturally superior to another

What is prejudice?

are negative beliefs or attitudes held about entire groups; they involve the prejudgments of individuals based on stereotypes

What is discrimination?

involves actions rather than beliefs. It includes any behavior that harms individuals or puts them at a disadvantage on the basis of their group membership

What is individual discrimination?

an intentional act carried out by an individual or small group

What is institutional discrimination?

occurs when the actions or policies of organizations or social institutions exclude, disadvantage or harm members of particular groups

What is affirmative action? (end of chapter 13)

was developed later as a tool to combat racial inequality; it was first used by the Nixon administration to ensure that minority-owned businesses would have an opportunity to compete for government contracts

What is gender? (start of chapter 14)

the way in which social forces structure how being male or female affects what is expected of you, how you are treated, what opportunities you have, and the results for individual men and women

What is sx?

Refers to biological differences

What is the social construction of gender?

The entire system of social processes that create and sustain gender differences and gender inequality

What is patriarchy?

A gender system in which men have more power than women

What are gender stereotypes?

beliefs about a group that are often untrue or exaggerated as a description of the group

What is gender revolution?

The long-term transformation in gender roles, norms, and structural inequalities

What is occupational sex segregation?

Measures the extent to which men and women are employed in different occupations:

What is sexual attraction socialization?

Social norms regulate fine details about what appearances are seen as sexually appealing or disgusting

What is sexual orientation?

refers to whether individuals are attracted to members of the other sex, the same sex, or both

What is sexual minority?

refers to anyone who is not heterosexual or who is transgender

What is heteronormativity?

situation where the culture and institutions send the message that everyone is heterosexual, or at least that this is the only normal way to be

What is cohabitation? (end of chapter 14)

term used for individuals who live together as an unmarried couple