Sociol 1 midterm 1

Social Construction of Reality by Berger and Luckmann

How do they define our reality

how can we construct our tangible and objective reality

• Theory that suggests humans create their own understanding of reality through their ongoing interactions and communications with others;

• define that our reality is constructed through our interactions with others 

• how can we construct our tangible and objective reality

4 stages of SCR (berger and luckmann)

1. Classification

2. Language

3. Institutionalization

4. Reification

Classification SCR

• We sort individuals and actions into roles or categories as a result we create a shared social knowledge that makes interaction predictable 

• Example; gesture of 4 fingers up as a representative of UCLA, and in doing so there is also a role we defined to it which is showing support and pride to the school 

Language SCR (what does it allow)

• We use language to create terms and communicate about the classifications we made;

• helps us make the “shared” social knowledge shared 

• Social perspective of language; language does not have inherent meaning, but it acquire it when we use a term to describe something and then share that term with someone with the same reference point, which create the meaning out of the shared situation and thus understanding

• As meaning shifts to shared social knowledge we see construction shifting into reality 

Institutionalization SCR

• People act upon and institutionalize classifications within an organization, social system or society as a whole 

• institutionalization= the process of embedding and habituating a conception or behavior such that it becomes widely practiced and accepted (which is done through spreading it in a institution)

• “ any action that is repeated frequently, cast into a pattern and then performed again in the future with the same manner and with the same economical effort”

Reification SCR

• “Making into a thing” of social relations- treating an abstraction as if it were real

• when we forget that society created something; and start treating it as if it’s just the way the world naturally is 

Thomas Theorem and reification of SCR

• If society defines situations as real, they are real in their consequences; our behavior becomes determined by our subjective construction of reality rather than objective reality 

Sociological Imagination  (C. Wright Mills)

The ability to evaluate some part of your life (or others’ lives) and recognize how social forces play a role in how it came to be the way it is

• In other words, lens in which we can see the relationship between the micro and macro issues of society and ourselves ( how macro (societal issues) can be affecting micro (personal issues) 

• allows us to ask if it is individual or structural

examples of macro vs micro

MICRO (Personal Troubles)

• Individual-level issues

• Example: “I lost my job”

MACRO (Public Issues)

• Large-scale patterns

• Example: “Millions are unemployed

Looking Glass Self (Charles Cooley) (how do these function as “mirrors” or “looking glass”)

 The process by which individuals develop their self-concept based on how they believe others perceive them; rather than developing identities in isolation, (process by which people act and react in relation to others) 

• Others function as “mirrors” that reflect our character back to us through their reactions.

3 steps of looking glass self

1. Imagine how you appear to others

2. Interpret others’ reactions

3. Internalize those perceptions into self-identity

What is the conclusion that the looking glass came to

Self-concept is subjective and based on perceived judgments

-seld concepts shifts depending on the mirror (person interacting)

how does the looking glass define identity

fluid construct built on lifetime of perceieved social feedback from interactions

Dramaturgy (Erving Goffman)

Social life is like a performance where individuals manage how they are perceived

Digital Self (Zhao)

answers; How does the looking glass theory shift in a

digital world?

-Self perception increasingly influenced by virtual interactions with people we dont know (anonymity) and who provide partial information (disembodiment)

Corporeal copresence >> telecopresence which is marked by disembodiment and anonymity

disembodiment in digital self theory

the lack of physical cues online and how we develop our self image off of it

anonymity in digital self theory

our interaction with unknonw individuals online

-Non-anonymous people played a huge role in shaping

self-perception prior to online connectivity

• the “others” that Cooley defined in his defintition are people we know and our offline while in the digital context, they are people we dont know

Looking glass self vs. dramaturgy

LGS- self identity based on how we perceive others view us

Dramaturgy- How we use that information to manage self presentation

Impression management (goffman)

Controlling how others perceive you by controlling the information they receive

Sign Vehicles (goffman) (includes what)

Sign Vehicles= props + nonverbal communication 

• Tools used to convey impressions (props, clothing, body language)

• Props; settings/ situation/ place/ objects performers use to manage impressions

Front Stage vs Back

While sign vehicles are improtant, most fundamental distinction is between what the audience sees and what they dont (front and back)

Front Stage:

• Public performance

Back Stage:

• Private self / preparation

Goffman: Saving Face

-the FiNAL GOAL FOR IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

“face” = positive social value claimed during social interaction

Facework:

• Actions taken to maintain that image

Social Structure

Definition:
boundaries people confront as they make decisions about their individual and collective actions

○ Limits choices of some

○ Enables others to make choices not available to all

■ In either case, structure does not determine our actions; it influences the behaviors we choose, INFLUENTIAL BUT NOT DETERMINANT

Rules and Resources in boundaries

Rules: laws, norms, expectations
Resources: things we may have or acquire (e.g., money, education) that have value and allow us to accomplish goal

 money, education, status, identity

5 components of social structure use rules and resources (access) to influence behavior;

Social Status

Social Roles

Social Groups

Social Networks

Social Institutions

1. Social Status

• Position in society

Ascribed Status: assigned at birth (race, gender)
Achieved Status: earned (job, education)

2. Social Roles

• Expected behaviors tied to a status

Role Conflict: competing expectations from multiple roles

3. Social Groups

• Two or more people with shared norms and regular interaction

4. Social Networks

• Connections between individuals that provide access to resources

5. Social Institutions

• Large systems that organize social life (education, government, economy, family)

Glass escalator (williams) (1992)

men (particularly, heterosecual, white) experiencing faster career advancement (relative to women) espeically in WOMEN DOMINATED WORKPLACES

what did williams find about the glass escalator

• any token group in a work setting will likely experience discrimination

• glass ceiling; invisible barriers constraining job advancement

• men in “female professions” faced discrimination, but not in a negative way; PUSHED UP not DOWN; insivisible pressure and advantages pushed them into prestigious roles

social stratification

●society-wide system that puts categories of people into a hierarchy based on factors valuable to the society

■Like rocks, societies have layers.   But layers = people.

• we care about layers b/c society’s resources are distributed unevenly throughout them

categories that society stratifies people on

-feudal

-race

-caste

-social class

socioeconomic status

combination of a person icome, education and occupation

closed vs open social stratidication system (ascribed vs achieved status?)

closed; accommofates litttle change in social position; ascribed status

open=accomodates change in social position; move;ment and interaction between levels allwed '; achieved status

how do sociologists capture class

-objectively; how much money etc

-subjectively; what do YOU IDENTIFY with

-3 class system and 6 class system (gilbert and kahl model)

is it accurate tha social class is purely achieved?

no, there is long standing assumption that social class= achieved + ascirbed

Social mobility and american dream

 Movement between social classes

american dream;  Can move up from ascribed social class to an achieved social class

Intragenerational mobility

change in individual’s social class position within their own lifetime

horizontal intragenerational mobility

○no change in social class position in lifetime  (e.g., manager moving to similar firm)

-also exsists upward and downward

Intergenerational

difference in social class position between family members across GENERATION

-horixontal, upward and downward

What can be done to address stalled upward intergenerational mobility

• dem believe in revising governmental ppolicies

• repub believe in beighborhood chruches and 2 parent household

-OVERALL AN ISSUE OF STRUCTUAL FACTORS LIMITING OPPORTUNITY

“Ticket Price” (Born) (what are the two theories he states mean?; sorokins dissocitative theory and bourdieus cleft habitus)

The emotional, relational, or identity costs associated with upward mobility

●Sorokin’s dissociative theory (estrangement from those “left behind”)

●Bourdieu’s “cleft habitus” (fractured sense of self from disconnected social worlds)

what was the conclusion on born’s ticket price study?

●Interviews 44 upwardly mobile people in Germany & 8 family members

●Finds that:

●Mobile individuals frame their movement as “collective project”

●Family members mostly opposite. Viewed kin’s movement as an individual success story that excludes them

-psychosocial costs on the family invites reconsideration of who pays the ticket price; can be costly to family, irrespective of what mobile individual “pays”

absolute poverty

■minimal requirements a human being needs to survive (i.e., food, shelter, clothing)

relative poverty

■one’s economic position compared with the living standards of the majority in a given society

■> 50% of the median income in country

■Inequality vs. condition of poverty? 

absolute measure of poverty

fixed, inflation adjusted benchmark that is straightfoward to compare and monitor overtime

-uses poverty lines (thresholds) to classify poverty

Poverty lines (US system of absolute measure of poverty)

○minimum income levels that the federal g’ment determines are necessary for different-sized families to afford basic necessities

○Households that fall below respective line = officially poor

what are the issues with the absolute poverty measurement system

1. the official poverty line (disproportionately relies on food costs) is probably too low

2. Deciding who is/isn’t officially poor is more than words & labels It’s a stratifying factor that informs how resources flow (or not) across a social class structure

3. Outdated formula

4. Underestimates poverty

5. Ignores cost-of-living differences between different states

poverty line is more than a label

Its a stratifying factor that determines how resources flow across social classes

OBS VS SPM

Obs- official poverty measure

Spm- supplemental poverty measure

Spm created to provide more accurate measure of poverty but OPS is still adopted since it has past history, adjusted to inflation and tied to legislative programs

why is poberty important for social strat

-structural functionalsm8

○Asserts that society operates like a living organism, each part (organ) contributes to the survival of the whole (body)

○Considers stratification necessary for stable, functional societies

■Unevenly distributed resources motivate the most skilled to take on the “functionality important,” high-skill roles

■Less qualified will naturally slot into roles in bottom

■Through competition and role definition, people come to know their place

structueral functionalism

the functionality of something for the upholding of social structure; i.e poverty exsists because it benefits society

Ballard of the bullet (forest stuart)

 Poverty shapes behavior and opportunities

• Social media = survival strategy

• Higher risks for disadvantaged individuals

what does the ballard of the bullet teach us

1 – Position in broader social class structure

shapes how engage technology; Corner Boys, not a mere hobby, but one of the few viable options for upward mobility and self worth

2 –Position on the socioeconomic ladder;

shapes the stakes of technological engagement; precarious conditions make drillers feel the consequenes of their digital production more deeply than pribledged peers

3 Long-standing inequalities

shape how outside parties

react to different tech users.;

Social class (traditional defintion)

group of individuals who share a similar economic position based on income (+ wealth), education, and occupation  wealth)

Social class Pierre Bourdieu (what did he define social class and capital as)

wanred to understand how cass inequality was reproduced

Refers to capital as; ○all the goods, material and symbolic, that present themselves as rare and worthy of being sought after; connects to scial class as it provides social advantage

-defined different types of capital

economic capital

financial and material assets which can be converted into money, or that which is already monetary

social captial

• Networks and relationships that provide access to resources

• possession of network of relationships or membership that enable access to resources

cultural capital

instruments for the appropriation of symbolic wealth socially designated as worthy of being sought and possessed”

TRANSLATION: knowledge, skills, and experiences valued by society that provide advantages 

3 categories: embodied, objectified, institutionalized 

cultural and social captial are transformed forms of _____

economic capital

types of cultural capital

embodied

objectified

institutionalized

1. long-lasting depositions of the mind and body; internalization of things outside us that become integral to who we are

   e.g. personality, acent/dialect, niche knowledge

2. cultural goods or material objects that have cultural meaning

3. educational credentials or specialized knowledge

why are these different types of captial referred to as “capital”

•B/c operate as a form of currency!

•

•When utilized, can improve individuals’ position

       within social structure… and reverse is also true

•

•HOWEVER, society DOES value some forms of capital

       more, which disadvantages people whose capital is

       unaligned with what (mainstream) society values

Lareau’s Invisible Inequality (findings?)

studied the transmission of class advantages (AKA society aligned capital) to children 

●Parents beliefs about how to rear children translates into action (how actually raise children), and that differs by class

●Thus, these strategies (many of which could be discussed in terms of capital) transmitted from parent to child are NOT equally rewarded by society, and are patterned by social class; Institutions reward middle-class behaviors → reproduces inequality

Concerted Cultivation (middle class) Lareau parenting styles

• Structured activities

• Encourages reasoning and questioning

• Leads to sense of entitlement in institutions

Accomplishment of natural growth (working class/poor) lareu parenting styles

• Less structured

• More independence

• Leads to sense of constraint and deference

Social structure (revised)

the organized pattern of relationships + institutions that shape behavior and access to resources.

key components of social structure

• Status → your social position (e.g., student, doctor)

• Roles → expectations tied to status

• Groups → collections of people (e.g., fraternities)

• Networks → connections that provide opportunities

• Institutions → large systems (education, healthcare, law)

stratidication in social class

Stratification = ranking of people into hierarchical layers

Social Class determined by:

• Income

• Education

• Occupation

• Wealth (important distinction from income)

how does social class affect health of those within the social class

1. Access to Resources

• Insurance, hospitals, specialists

2. Knowledge & Cultural Capital

• Recognizing symptoms

• Navigating healthcare systems

3. Social Networks

• Knowing doctors, getting referrals

4. Institutional Barriers

• Cost of care

• Time off work

5. Built Environment

• Access to:

  • Gyms

  • Parks

  • Rehab facilities

Intersectionality (crenshaw)

A lens through which you can see where

power comes and collides, where it

interlocks and intersects