Ohio University Sociology 3000 Exam 2 Prep

Cooley’s 2 social functions in relation to “The Looking Glass Self”

1. How one imagines one looks to other people.

2. How one imagines the judgment of others based on how one thinks they view them.

According to Mead, what are the three stages of an individual's Self-development through socialization?

1. Play (Interacting with family members) 

2. Game (Interacting with peers) 

3. Generalized Other (Interacting with the larger community) 

According to Mead, what 2 factors make up the SELF?

1. “I”, which is spontaneous, inner, creative, and subjective,

2. “Me”, which is the organized attitudes of others and the broader community.

According to Mead, what the mind do?

Mind is a mental capacity of using significant symbols, and interpreting symbols or gestures – a type of behavioral response that emerges out of interaction with others in social context. 

According to Mead, what does the self do?

Self emerges out of the capacity of using symbols and taking the roles of others. 

According to Mead, what does the society do?

Society is built upon the process of role-taking and assuming the perspective of “generalized other”

According to Freud, what is the Id?

The human basic instinctual drive, which is considered unconscious.

According to Freud, what is the Ego?

A person’s conscious efforts to balance the innate pleasure-seeking drives and the regulations of society.

According to Freud, what is the Superego?

A person’s internalized values and norms. Simply put, it represents the conscience.

Mead’s views on the individual’s attachment or conformity to society

Individual’s attachment to society is through the development of self in three-stage process of interaction (Play, Game, and generalized Other)

Freud’s views on the individual’s attachment or conformity to society

Individual’s attachment to society is through Ego meditating with ID in line with the demand of Superego.

The Basic Breakdown of Symbolic Interactionism

Humans are the symbol creators and use symbols to communicate with one another. Human Interacting by taking the role of the generalized other. Society is thus constructed through the role taking process, which makes social order possible. 

The difference between Symbolic Interactionism and other Theories

Mead’s vision of society is not a vision of social structure (like the other sociologists). It is instead constructed through the symbolic interaction of consistency of individual behavior. 

According to Parsons, what is a social system?

Society is composed of various subsystems or institutions (like family, education, economy, and politics), each with specific functions that contribute to the stability and survival of the larger social system.

Parsons’ AGLI and what each letter represents.

• Adaptation (A): The economic system adapts by providing resources and adapting to environmental changes.

• Goal Attainment (G): The political system sets and achieves societal goals.

• Integration (I): Social institutions like law and norms work to maintain social cohesion and prevent conflict.

• Latency or Pattern Maintenance (L): The family, education, and religion reinforce values and norms to sustain the culture and transmit it to new generations.

According to Parsons, what is Social Action?

behavior by individuals or groups that is intentional and oriented toward achieving specific goals within a social context. In his framework, social action is not merely instinctual or random behavior; it is purposeful and influenced by the values, norms, and expectations of society. Actions are organized into three modes or realms: social system, personality system, and cultural system.

According to Parsons, what are the three major subsystems?

Social system, personality system, and cultural system

According to Parsons, what are Pattern Variables?

A dichotomy that describes alternatives of action between which each person (or group) has to choose in every situation. The actions are shaped by the three systems. 

According to Merton, what are manifest functions?

These are the intended, explicit, and recognized functions of a social action, institution, or process. They’re outcomes that society expects or plans.

According to Merton, what are latent functions?

The unintended, implicit, and often unrecognized functions of a social action, institution, or process. These are the outcomes that are not initially obvious or planned but still play a significant role in society.

An example of Merton’s manifest function and latent function

The “manifest” function of anti-gambling legislation may be to suppress gambling, its “latent” function to create an illegal empire for the gambling syndicates. 

According to Durkheim, what is anomie?

The breakdown of a normative system.

According to Merton, what is the strain theory?

A social structure that’s holds out the same goals to all its members without giving them equal means to achieve them.

How does Merton’s Strain Theory apply to deviant behavior?

Since the social structure that’s holds out the same goals to all its members without giving them equal means to achieve them, it is the lack of integration between that the culture calls for and what the structure permits that causes deviant behavior. Deviance then is a symptom of the social structure.

What is Hawley’s Theory of Socio-Ecology?

To survive and adapt to an environment, human populations become differentiated and integrated by a system of mutual interdependence. This is based on these three assumptions: Production, Transportation, and Communication are the variables of society. If production cannot be increased or if the mobility costs of transportation and communication cannot be reduced, then there is an upper limit on the size, scale, and complexity of the system. 

What is Pierre Van Den Berghe’s Theory of Socio-Biology?

Theory that views social evolution as being driven by socio-biological mechanisms that promotes reproductive fitness and produce social solidarity/organization. These driving forces are “inclusive fitness”, “reciprocal altruism”, and “power".”

What is Lenski’s Stages Theory?

Societies evolve over time in response to changes in technology and resource availability. Lenski argued that societal development is driven primarily by technological advancements, which lead to new social structures and cultural patterns.

What are Lenski’s 5 stages of societal evolution?

1. Hunting and gathering societies 

2. Simple horticultural societies 

3. Advanced horticultural societies 

4. Agrarian societies 

5. Industrial societies 

What is Dahrendorf’s Dialectical Theory and how does it compare to traditional conflict theory (Marx & Weber)?

The major class dividing line is between power groups (rather than economic groups), between those who give orders and those who take orders. Instead of property (that is considered the basis of class conflict to Marx), Dahrendorf proposed that power divisions are more fundamental. Here we can see that Weber’s theory of power conflict connects directly with the theory of organizations because it is in organizations that power is mobilized. 

According to Dahrendorf, what are ICAs (imperatively coordinated associations)?

the process of institutionalization involves the creation of imperatively coordinated associations (ICAs) that represent a distinguishable organization of roles characterized by power relations, with some clusters of roles having power to extract conformity from others.

What does C. Wright Mills have to say about power struggles in his book, The Power Elite?

America was not under the control of the individual decision makers, that is the elected officials, but it was actually controlled by three massive, bureaucratic organizations. These 3 were the corporate business establishment, the military bureaucracy of the Pentagon, and the bureaucrats of the federal government. 

According to Randall Collins, what is the Micro-Macro Link?

The encounter and how micro-process (talk and ritual) contributes to the macro processes of class cultures and stratification. Conflict revolves around the control over organizational resources, material resources, and symbolic resources. 

What is the impact of Weber’s work on contemporary conflict theorists?

Each social class has its distinctive culture and outlook on the world, reflecting the social circumstances in which they live. This analysis of class cultures took on considerable refinements with _______’s concept of status groups. The related question is why different classes inhabit different intellectual and moral universes. 

What is the impact of Marx’s work on contemporary conflict theorists in regard to Sex Stratification?

In conflict theory, the concept of sexual property is viewed as the rights of sexual access are appropriated and guarded in just the same way as are the rights to use economic property. The property-like nature controls sexuality itself. 

What are 3 thematic dimensions of Feminist Theory?

1. Objectification: Particularly focusing on sexual objectification. 

2. Oppression: Investigating systems of oppression that affect women. 

3. Patriarchy: Scrutinizing the influence of patriarchal structures. 

According to W.E.B. Du Bois, what is the concept of Double Consciousness?

The internal conflict that Black Americans experience as they navigate a society that views them through a lens of racial prejudice. Described as a feeling of "two-ness," where a person feels divided between their own self-perception and the perception imposed on them by society.

According to W.E.B. Du Bois, what is the concept of “The Veil”?

The metaphorical barrier that separates Black Americans from White Americans. This barrier creates a distorted view, limiting understanding and empathy between races.

What is the central theme of Dorothy Smith’s Standpoint Theory or Institutional Ethnography?

How knowledge and social relations are structured by power dynamics, particularly gender.

What is the central theme of Judith P. Butler’s Queer Theory?

Gender and identity are not binary (male/female) or fixed but instead are fluid, socially constructed phenomenon.

What is the central theme of Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought?

The unique experiences of African American Women and also addressing the intersections between race, class, and gender in shaping the experiences of oppression, power, and inequality.

Based upon Weber’s Influence, what is the Theory of Legitimacy?

Legitimacy does not come out of nowhere, rather it is produced and various kinds of organizations who might produce it might as well be called another aspect of means of mental production.