Sociology Unit 1 exam

What is sociology

Science of society; critical to human experience

Social Facts

Products of human interaction with persuasive or coercive power that exists externally to any individual

Who coined social facts

emile durkheim

Examples of social facts (3)

1. Marriage

2. Education

3. Shaking hands

Enthography

The study of an entire social setting through extended and systematic fieldwork

Research Ethics? 3 rules?

1. Respect

2. Beneficence

3. Justice

Set of moral principles that guide empirical inquiry

The Sociological imagination

The capacity to consider how peoples lives are shaped by social facts around us

DuBois Importance

Understood that in order to convince the majority about racial equality he would need credible quantitative data; used statistics

Sociological Sympathy?

The skill of understanding others as they understand themselves

Who coined the phrase sociological sympathy

Martineau

Why is sociological sympathy important? (2)

1. Without it, a sociologist cannot collect data on society

2. only way to be impartial

The National Research Act? Year signed?

Ethical studies should follow the three moral principles; 1974

Nuremberg Code states?

Human experimentation is only justified when it benefits society and is carried out ethically

Examples of Unethical Studies

1. Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Experimented on black people to find cure for syphilis; withheld that cure was found to continue unpromising experiments

2. Standford prison experiment: legitimacy up for debate

3. Nuremburg trials: unethical human experiments; often resulting in death

Culture

Differences in groups’ shared ideas, objects, and practices

Socialization

The lifelong learning process by which we become members of our cultures; become culturally confident because of this

Culturally Competent

Able to understand and navigate our cultures with ease

Social Construct? What do they stem from?

An influential and shared interpretation of reality that will very across time and space

Stem from social construction

Social Construction

The process by which we layer objects with ideas, fold concepts into one another, and build connections between them; the way society constructs meanings

Social facts are products of?

Social Construction

Examples of Social Constructs?

1. things that stand for other things: Cross, Emojis, rings

2. Subsets of things: Pets (subset of animals), Blouse (Subset of shirts)

3. Association: Rainbows (LGBTQ), Roses (love)

4. Sequences: XoXo, get married, buy house, have kids

5. Heirarchy’s: better to be young than old

Symbolic Structure

A constellation of social constructs connected and opposed to one another in networks of meaning

Cultural Objects? ex?

Natural items given symbolic meaning; stop signs

Cultural Cognitions? ex?

Shared ideas; red means stop and green means go

Cultural Practices

Habits, routines, and rituals

Cultural Bodies

Culturally influenced shapes, sizes, and processes

Social Learning

The transmission of knowledge and practices from one individual to another via observation

Dual Inheritance theory

Notion that humans are products of the interaction of genetic and cultural evolution

Cultural Evolution? Ex

Practices that guide how we complete eating, housing, and reproduction; Cooking

Culture Shock

Cultures are so diverse that traveling between them can be shocking

Adaptation through Socialization

Process by which we become culturally competent in a new environment

Beliefs, Values, and Norms?

1. Beliefs: Ideas about what is true and false

2. Values: Notions as to what’s right and wrong

3. Norms: Shared expectations for behavior

Agents of Socialization (6)

1. Families

2. Schools

3. Religion

4. Mass Media

5. Work

6. Peers

Types of socialization (3)

1. Interpersonal Socialization: Active efforts by others to help us become culturally competent members of our own culture

2. Self-Socialization: Active efforts we make to ensure were culturally competent

3. Subcultures: Subgroups within societies that have distinct cultural Ideas, objects, and practices

Social Ties? Social Networks?

1. Social Ties: The connections between us and others

2. Networks: Webs of ties that link us through each other

Homophily

Our tendency to connect with others who are similar to us; represent a social connection

Social Network Analysis

A research method that involves the mapping of social ties

Mass Media

Mediated communication intended to reach many people

Media Socialization

The process of learning how to be culturally competent through our exposure to media

Culture as value thesis

Idea that were socialized into culturally specific moralities that guide our feelings about right and wrong

Culture as rationale thesis

Idea that were socialized to know a set of culturally specific arguments with which we can justify why we feel something is right or wrong

Ethnocentricism

The practice of assuming that one’s own culture is superior to the cultures of others

Cultural Relativism

The practice of noting the differences between cultures without passing judgement

Embodying Culture Example

Beauty is centered around thinness → people go to gym to work out

Key concepts of culture and construction (4)

1. Culture is socially constructed

2. Cultures are ever changing and evolving

3. We are socialized through many agents to fit into the norms of culture

4. When cultures shift and change this can be unsettling

Social Identities

Socially constructed categories of people in which we place ourselves or others

Are identities a social Construct?

Yes

Distinction

Active efforts to affirm identity categories and place ourselves and others in their subcategories

Positive Distinction

The claim that members of our own group are superior to people of other groups

In-group Bias

bias towards members of our own groups and mistreatment of others

Tajfel’s Study proves?

people only need the tiniest reason to form in group bias’

Minimal Group Paradigm

Tendency of people to form groups and actively distinguish themselves from others for trivial reasons

Social Identity theory

people are inclined to form social groups into their identity and maximize positive distinction

Steps on how to construct a social identity

1. Invent

2. Divide

3. Stereotype

4. Perform

5. Rank

Organizational changes that lay foundation for identity changes

1. Urbanization: growing of cities

2. Industrialization: shift to economy based on large scale production

3. WWII: 1 out of 8 males served in war

Sexual Minorities

People apart of LGBTQ+

Steps of distinction in homosexuality

1. Invent: transition between acting homo.. to being homo..

2. Dividing: subcategories within an identity (Bi, LGBTQ+)

3. Stereotyping

4. Doing: the performance of age

5. Ranking/heirarchy

Race

A socially meaningful set of artificial distinctions falsely based on superficial and imagined biological differences

Race is an example of?

a social construct

Psychological wage

A noneconomic good given to one group as a measure of superiority over other groups

One-drop rule? Blood Quantum rule?

1. idea that anyone with a trace of blackness be considered black

2. A law limiting legal recognition of Native Americans to those who have a certain level of indigenous ancestry

Gender

Ideas, traits, and skills that we associate with being biologically male or female

Sex

A reference to physical traits related to sexual reproduction

Gender binary

Idea that people come in only two types: masculine males and feminine females

Intersex? Cisgender?

1. People with physical characteristics of both male and fem.

2. People who are assigned a gender at birth and identify with that sex

Sterotype

Cluster of ideas attached by social convention to people with specific social identities

Content Analysis

A research method that involves counting and describing patterns of themes in media

Doing Identity

Active performance of social Identities

Aging: doing identity? social construct?

there are certain things tailored to certain ages. Partying at 50 in a frat is weird? Yes

Social Identities

The socially constructed categories people place themselves and others into

Conspicious COmpsumption

Spending elaborately on items with sole purpose of displaying wealth

In ranking, a thin body was a display of superior willpower

Stigma

A personal attribute that is widely devalued by members of society

Controlling images

Pervasive negative stereotypes that serve to justify or uphold inequality

Prejudice

Attidutinal bias against individuals based on their membership in a social group

Status

high or low esteem

Status Beliefs

Collectively shared ideas about which social groups are more or less deserving of esteem

Status Elite

People who carry many positively regarded social identities

Intersectionality

The recognition that our lives are shaped by multiple interactions

Krenshaw Lawsuit

Sued general motors for not hiring black women; they lost becasue GM defense was they were hiring white women and black men so they were not discriminating; Krenshaw argued that Black women are shaped not by race or gender, but both

Situationally Specific Identities

Specific identities unhoused people held surrounding being unhoused

Embracement of Social Identities? Role Embracement ex?

1. When individuals accept a social identity and it is congruent with their self identity

2. When unhoused people in the study accepted their roles as street people

Fictive Storytelling Homeless people used

1. Embellishment: A form of fictive storytelling where individuals enlarged and overstated the truth

2. Individuals fabricated the future

Norm

shared expectation for behavior

Social Interaction

An imaginative performance requiring ongoing rapid calculations using inventiveness and predictability

Social Rules

Culturally Specific norms, and laws that guide our behavior; both prescriptive and proscriptive

Folkways

Loosely Enforced norms

Mores? Taboos?

1. Tightly enforced norms that carry moral significance

2. Taboos: Social Prohibitions so strong that the thought of violating them is sickening

Types of Social Rules (2)

1. Policies: Rules that are made and enforced by organizations

2. Laws: Rules that are made and enforced by cities, states, or federal governments

Social Sanctions

Reactions by others aimed at promoting conformity

Account

An excuse that explains our rule breaking but also affirms that the rule is good

Symbolic Interactionism? Who made this theory?

The theory that social interaction depends on the social construction of reality; Herbet Blumer

Blumer’s key ideas of Symbolic Interactionism

1. We don’t respond to reality itself but to the meaning we give it

2. The meaning of reality doesn’t exist prior to human understanding, but is produced through social interaction

3. Meaning is negotiated in interaction

Importance of setting

We only know how to act based on context clues of the situation.

Dramaturgy

The practice at looking at social life as a series of performances in which we are all actors on metaphorical stage

Impression Management? Face?

1. Efforts to control how were perceived by others

2. A version of ourselves that we want to project in a specific setting

Front stage? Back stage?

1. Front Stage: A public space in wich we are aware of having an audience

2. Back stage: Private or semi-private spaces in which we can relax or rehearse

Symbolic Meanings ex? Marked and unmarked identities?

1. Unmarked: Man can refer to only men, but also just a person. Like in the sign

2. Marked: Woman

“Guys” can mean all people, but “girls” never does

What typically remains marked and unmarked

Those unmarked are usually status-advantaged, whereas those who are different are usually marked

Interpersonal Discrimination

Prejudicial behavior displayed by individuals