Sociology Final Exam 11-15

Traditional Authority

Authority based on custom

Rational-Legal Authority

Authority based on law or written rules and regulations; also called bureaucratic authority.

EX: cops, judges

Charismatic Authority

Authority based on an individual's outstanding traits, which attract followers.

EX: Hitler

The Transfer of Authority

Elect a new president, religious leaders, pope resigning, etc.

Monarchy

A form of government headed by a king or queen.

Democracy

A government whose authority comes from the people; the term, based on two Greek words, translates literally as "power to the people"

Direct Democracy

A form of democracy in which the eligible voters meet together to discuss issues and make their decisions.

Representative Democracy

A form of democracy in which voters elect representatives to meet together to discuss issues and make decisions on their behalf.

Citizenship

The concept that birth (and residence or naturalization) in a country imparts basic rights.

Dictatorship

A form of government in which an individual has seized power.

Oligarchy

A form of government in which a small group of individuals holds power; the rule of the many by the few.

Lobbyists

People who are paid to influence legislation on behalf of their clients.

Special-Interest Group

A group of people who support a particular issue and who can be mobilized for political action.

People who think alike on a particular issue.

These people get around laws

Political Action Committee (PAC)

An organization formed by one or more special-interest groups to solicit and spend funds for the purpose of influencing legislation

Checks & Balances

The separation of powers among the three branches of U.S. government--legislative, executive, and judicial--so that each is able to nullify the actions of the other two, thus preventing any single branch from dominating the government.

Ideologies of Capitalism and Socialism & Criticisms of Capitalism and Socialism

Each perceives the other system as one of exploitation.

*Capitalism leads to social inequality.

Socialism does not respect individual rights.*

What's the single most predictor of voting?

People thinking their vote counts

Democrats

Working class or ethnic minorities

Deeply committed support legislation that transfers income from those who are richer to those who are poorer.

Republicans

Wealthier people or higher class

Oppose legislation that transfers income from those who are richer to those who are poorer.

War

Armed conflict between nations or politically distinct groups.

Terrorism

The use of violence or the threat of violence to produce fear in order to attain political objectives.

Family

Two or more people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption.

Nuclear Family

A family consisting of a husband, wife, and children

Extended Family

A family in which relatives, such as the "older generation" or unmarried aunts and uncles, live with the parents and their children

Family of orientation

The family in which a person grows up

Family of procreation

The family formed when a couple's first child is born.

Blended Family

A family whose members were once part of other families.

Endogamy

The practice of marrying within one's own group

Exogamy

The practice of marrying outside of one's group.

Incest Taboo

The rule that prohibits sex and marriage among designated relatives.

Functions of the Incest Taboo

Helps families avoid role confusion.

Helps parents socialize children.

Also forces people to look outside the family for marriage partners.

A Gendered Division of Labor

Husbands still take the primary responsibility for earning the income and wives the primary responsibility for taking care of the house and children.

This falls into "traditional" families.

The Social Channels of Love and Marriage

The most highly predictable social channels are age, education, social class, and race-ethnicity.

EX: a Latina with a college degree whose parents are both physicians is likely to fall in love with and marry a Latino slightly older than herself who has graduated from college. Similarly, a girl who drops out of high school and whose parents are on welfare is likely to fall in love with and marry a man who comes from a background similar to hers.

Adultolescence

"Transitional Adulthood"

A term that refers to a period following high school when young adults have not yet taken on the responsibilities ordinarily associated with adulthood.

What culture of families has the highest percentage of 2 parent families?

Asians

What culture of families has the lowest percentage of 2 parent families?

African Americans

What makes a couple lease likely for divorce?

See Table 12.2: What reduces the risk of divorce

Some college

Affiliated with a religion

Parents not divorced

Age 25 or over at marriage

Having a baby 7 months or longer after marriage

Annual income over $25,000

Mandatory Education Laws

By 1918, all U.S. states had these laws requiring children to attend school, usually until they completed the eighth grade or turned 16, whichever came first.

Universal education and Industrialization

Both occurred at the same time. The economy was changing from farm to factory, and as political and civic leaders observed this transformation, they recognized the need for an educated work force. They also feared the influx of "foreign" values and looked at public education as a way to "Americanize" immigrants.

Functionalists & School Education:

Manifest Functions

To teach knowledge and skills.

Cultural transmission of values, a process by which schools pass on a society's core values from one generation to the next.

Social Integration

Inclusion/Mainstreaming

Functionalists & School Education:

Latent Function

Inclusion/Mainstreaming

Helping people to become part of the mainstream of society.

Gatekeeping

The process by which education opens and closes doors of opportunity.

Another term for the social placement function of education.

Tracking

The sorting of students into different programs on the basis of real or perceived abilities.

The Conflict Perspective: Perpetuating Social Inequality

Conflict theorists examine how the educational system reproduces the social class structure.

Schools perpetuate the social divisions of society and help members of the elite maintain their dominance.

The Hidden Curriculum

The unwritten goals of schools, such as teaching obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms.

Helps to perpetuate social inequalities.

EX: Schools for the middle class stress "proper" English and "good" manners. Teachers in inner city schools allow ethnic and street language in the classroom.

Tilting the Tests: Discrimination by IQ

Biased, measured acquired knowledge and intelligence.

One consequence of this bias to the middle-class experience is that the children of the poor score lower on IQ tests.

The RIST Research

After only 8 days in the classroom, the kindergartner teacher felt that she knew the children's abilities well enough to assign them to three separate worktables. She assigned the "fast learners" to table 1 closest to the front of the room and the "slow learners" to table 3 in the back of the classroom. Investigating further, Rist found that social class was the underlying basis for assigning the children to the different tables. Middle-class students were separated out for Table 1, and children from poorer homes were assigned to Tables 2 and 3.

The Bottom Line: Family Background

The end result of unequal funding, IQ testing, and the other factors we have discussed is this: Family background is more important than test scores in predicting who attends college.

How do Teacher Expectations Work?

Teacher expectations produce gender and racial-ethnic biases.

Girls and Asian Americans average higher grades.

Rise of Mediocracy was obtained how?

Dumbing things down.

EX: Students aren't smarter--grading is just easier.

Religion has Three Elements

Beliefs

Practices

A moral community

Beliefs

That some things are sacred (forbidden, set apart from the profane)

Practices

(Rituals) centering on the things considered sacred.

Moral Community

(A church) resulting from a group's beliefs and practices

Rituals

Ceremonies or repetitive practices.

In religion: observances or rites often intended to evoke a sense of awe of the sacred.

Cosmology

Teachings or ideas that provide a unified picture of the world.

Cult

A new religion with few followers, whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion.

Sect

A religious group larger than a cult that still feels substantial hostility from and toward society.

Church

Highly bureaucratized--probably with national and international headquarters that give direction to the local congregations, enforce rules about who can be ordained, and control finances.

Ecclesia

A religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where the one begins and the other leaves off.

Also called a state religion.

Fertility Rate

The number of children that the average woman bears.

the world's overall fertility rate is 2.4, which means that during her lifetime, the average woman in the world bears 2.4 children.

To compute the fertility rate of a country, demographers analyze the government's records of births.

Fecundity

The number of children that women are capable of bearing.