Social Problem Midterm

What are the 3 myths of creating a social change?

Knowledge leads to change

Change attitude= change behavior

Know what motivates someone to change

What is a social problem?

Threaten values of influential groups

Whats public issues?

Impacts large # of people and typically topic of public debate

Whats personal troubles?

Affects individuals and immediate surroundings

Whats sociological Imagination?

Understand relationship between personal lives and social forces

ie. Biography→history→interaction within society

Social context of social problems: Social conditions that can lead to social problems include

• deviate from social norms

• breakdown of social institutions

• Social and cultural diversity

• exercise of power and authority

Private trouble to public issues are formed when

influential group defines a social condition as threatening its values

condition affect large #

condition can be remedied by collective action

What are the stages of trying ot fix social problems?

1. Transformation- private trouble becomes a public issue

2. Legitimization- issue 1st policy to try and fix

3. Conflict- must adjust policy

4. Alternative systems- find solutions outside of power

Whats an objective reality for social problems?

Acknowledging that a particular social condition exists

Situation that can be measured (unemployment rate, crime rate, economy)

Not sufficient to constitute a social problem

Whats a subjective reality in social problems?

Addresses how a problem becomes defined as a problem

Values play a major role (residential segregation, affordable housing)

What are the 3 perspectives?

Functionalist, interactionalist, conflict

What is functionalist perspective?

Robert K. Merton… Interlocking parts that contribute to operation as a whole on the macro level

Manifest, Latent, Dysfunction

What is the conflict perspective?

Karl Marx… Different groups who struggle with other to attain scarce resources

Ex: Bourgeoisie and proletariat

What is the interactionist perspective?

focuses on everyday social interaction on a micro

Importance of conducting research

Until research has been done to test a theory, it is merely speculative.

Research refers to systematic examination of data

The 5 solutions to social problems?

Prevention

Intervention

Social reform (go to choice)

Reconstruction (refine what the problem is)

Alleviate consequences

Where causing awareness for issues fail?

Leads to no action

wrong audience

Creates harm or not effective

Creates backlash

How to prevent issues with raising awareness…

Target audience as narrowly as possible

Clear call to actions

Use the right messenger

Theory of change

Attractions to declaring war

name your enemy

unity of purpose

defines all enemies and obstacles

Downsides to declaring “war”

Complexity

Victory

Duration

Loss of unit and integrity

What is Life chances?

Opportunities that are shaped by our class, status, and power

Great depression

Government failed to provide health in the 1930s so Pres Hoover was blamed for the economic and social conditions

Beginnings of welfare: Roosevelt

Relief: sent out $ directly

Recover: gave people jobs in public work (roads, bridges, schools)

Reform: created safety nets in case it happened again (Disability, social securtiy)

Restructuring Welfare 60s-70s

reduced poverty while consuming a portion of federal budget and evoking increased public opposition

Social Stratification is

ranking of people into a hierarchy where resources are distributed unequally

What does poverty refer to?

deprivation of resources and uneven distribution of resources

Cultural definition of poverty?

both how many resources people have, but also why they failed to achieve a higher economic level

Relative poverty is?

people are poor relative to some standard that is partially shaped by lifestyle of other citizens

Absolute poverty…

Based on a fixed economic level; when people don’t have the minimum amount of income needed to meet the minimum living requirements needed over a period of time

What goes into absolute poverty?

Only having enough for ones basic needs

Issues of homelessness can be found in

decline in industrial jobs that pay a living wage

Jobs leaving the city where most ppl are located

Contradiction of social welfare

increase in ppl in poverty

decline in low-cost housing

deinstitutionalization

Davis-Moore theory

inequality is needed to induce the most qualified fulfill the roles and lest qualified goes to others SOCIAL DARWINISM

Herber- Gans Theory

Poverty benefits society because someone needs to do the dirty work

Poor is used as a symbol of the UNDERDOG

Conflict theory

divide groups while maintaining a dominant group which often exercises its privileges of power, force, and coercion

Interactionist theory

focuses on how people define themselves and their opportunities through day to day interactions with others

Blaming the victim

Whats a Minority Group?

Members who share distinct cultural and physical characteristics & are denied resources/ power

Define race:

Genetic traits that society has decided is important (hair texture)

Define ethnic group:

People who share cultural and historical heritage and sense of group identity and belongingness

Define Racism:

view certain groups as genetically inferior and or deserve to be dominated/ oppressed

What is explicit racism?

Expressed directly

They are aware of bias

Operates consciously

Ex: I hate black people.

What is implicit racism?

Expressed indirectly

Unaware of bias

Operates sub consciously

Ex: clenching purse when black person walks by

Define: Prejudice

Rigid and unfounded generalization about category of people

Define: Discrimination

Unequal treatment of various categories of people

What are the types of racism:

Internalized

Institutional

Structural

Aversive

Color-blind

Tokenistic fallacy

Microaggression

Othering

What is internalized racism?

blatant… between me and them

Ex: I hate latinas.

Define: Institutional racism

Policies that create different outcomes because of race

Define: Structural racism

Includes institutional and social norms

Define: Aversive racism

Avoiding a certain race

Ex: not sitting by Germans

Define: Color- blind racism

Don’t acknowledge they have different experience (invalidate them)

Ex: we all bleed red

Define: Tokenistic fallacy

Highlight someone successful in that race

Ex: Racism has ended because we have had a black president, so you are just lazy/ using excuses.

Define: Microaggression racism

being passive aggressive or slighted

Ex: I thought you were good at math…said to an Asian

Define: Othering racism

Making someone feel “exotic”

Ex: Can I touch your hair… said to black person

What are the sources of prejudice?

Ethnocentrism

Stereotype

Socialization

Authoritarian Personality

Competition

Define: ethnocentrism

one’s culture is superior than other… USA is #1

What are the X and Y of the stereotype model?

X: competence (able to hurt)

Y: Warmth (does it hurt)

What are the 2 groups of socialization?

Primary: Family values

Secondary: interact with society/ peers

Define: Authoritarian Personality

World is black and white

3 parts of competition in terms of prejudice?

Internal colonialism: oppressed does work bc of exploitation by dom group and dom group benefits

Split labor market theory: 2 groups that are willing to get paid 2 different wages (temu vs amazon)

Scapegoating: Place blame on someone else who can’t fight it

The motherhood penalty:

mothers are less competent and less committed than non mothers

Regardless of gender of evaluators…

the still rated non mothers low

What is one of the most powerful ways to change people behavior

is to leverage social norms (peer pressure, normative behavior, injunctive norms)

Attitude follows behavior

structural unemployment is…

changes necessary for healthy economy but cumulative impact incre unemployment and poverty rate

Social relationships are…

arranged in our institutions, such as economy, polity, edu, and organization of family

Social processes refer to…

the machinery of society that exists to promote ongoing relations between members of the larger group

Laissez-faire racism:

Perception that blacks are responsible for their own eco predicament and therefore undeserving for gov support

What could the gov do to decrease persistent poverty?

• make federal programs more generous/ applicable

• childcare at lower cost

• lower cost of post-secondary education

• Raise minimum wage

• strengthen labor weekend

Functionalist perspective on race…

minority group becomes member of dominant group thus losing their identity

Interactionist believed that race…

is a social construct and is learned through our social interactions

What are the 4 diff combos of discrimination and prejudice?

unprejudiced discrimination

Prejudiced nondiscrimination

Unprejudiced nondiscrimination

Prejudice discrimination

Whats an ascribed statuses

Attributes assigned to people and it represents social positions

Point of gender inequality on Wally Street: Roth

Intentional actions by individuals, result of the hierarchy

Symbolic interactionalist theory is split into two categories…

Stereotype threat: Given stereotype may become a part of one’s identity

Contact hypothesis: Can’t be racist to group if one constantly interacts with them (humanizing them)

Specialized Theory

Movement of jobs from cities leaves blacks unemployed

Define: Workaholic Culture

assumption that the ideal worker has no responsibilities outside of work

What is assumed if an “ideal worker” in advanced capitalist societies?

They have a support person to take care of all nonwork aspects of life.

What do we call the assumption of “ideal workers’ having a support person?

Institutionalized assumption

Gender neutral Assumptions?

Gender profoundly shape structure of work and family

Division of labor in the family informs organization of work

women themselves define caretaker as mother responsibility

women is devoted to family and it trumps all

family function is guaranteed differential effects on male and female workers

What is the expectation of the “ideal worker” in terms of family?

They don’t shift to accommodate family.

Who gets the most $ and why?

Family Male because they are seen as stable and reliable, along with wife is expected to be manager of house.

Social innovations:

form of policy, program, or advocacy that features an untested approach (usually starts at community level but it can grow)

Assessing causality:

variables must be correlated (independent and dependent vari)

variables are non-spurious (there isn’t a hidden variable)

What is a manifest function:

is planned actions/ intent

Latent functions is…

the unplanned positive results

Latent dysfunction is…

unplanned negative results from a policy

Main cause of great depression and great recession

lies in the federal gov actions