SOCI 200 Exam 2

This set is for the second exam of SOCI 200.

Social Self

developed by George Herbert Mead and it is the concept of becoming yourself through interaction. Who you become in terms of yourself is not biologically predetermined; personality, preferences, ideas, etc. are constructed and shaped by communication with both others and your self

• Taking the role of the other–viewing ourselves from an external viewpoint; part of how we develop ourselves

the looking-glass self

we know ourselves through the looking-glass of others that mirror back to us impressions we create; coined by Charles Horton Cooley

• we portray ourselves in a way that we think people will interpret positively, and if they do not, then we change the way we act (constant need for approval)

• we experience an emotional reaction—such as pride, embarrassment, shame, or confidence—and build our self-image based on those perceived judgments

Significant others

individuals close enough to us to have a strong capacity to motivate our behavior, not limited to intimate relationships

Reference groups

others whose social positions and preferences make them especially relevant to our sense of worth; they share certain things with us like age, interests, tastes

Role models

a specific individual who exhibits specific influence over others and acts as a reference for how to act

Generalized other

unspoken knowledge of what is appropriate and what is not; the idea that we are taught things from birth on what’s right and wrong—to the point where we just know

Presentation/performance of self

the concept that we are always on stage and have a need for approval; we manage the multiple faces we show others

Social interaction

• Context - people persistently take context into account, meaning is constructed by drawing on social context

• Conversation patterns demonstrate social competence - movements and silence also covey information; attempts to soften rejection and help each other retain a more positive sense of self; when simultaneous talk occurs, someone bows out quickly; there are patterns to who bows out first and who interrupts, related to age, gender, and power differences

• Emotions - performances for specific purposes, specific display content varies by context

  • Collective effervescence - the intense energy, euphoria, and sense of unity that people feel when they gather for a shared purpose or ritual

Self-presentation in a digital age

digital performance of self (curating posts to manipulate self to gain approval from people)

• Impression management - more apparent online

• Front stage - where an interaction actually takes place, the image/performance you want people to see

• Back stage - where one prepares for an interaction; the more private moments/who you actually are

• Possible miscommunication - you have cues from people when you interact with them in person, which you don’t have online; people send small signs of explanations to clarify their meaning

Connecting through media

• Ways to bring about a co-presence and have conversations with others

• Ways to arrange actual face-to-face meetings

Socialization

how we learn things; it is so second-nature that you don’t remember where you learnt it from

• the process by which individuals come to understand the expectations and norms of their groups as well as the various roles they transition into over the life course and how to behave in society or in particular social settings.

Resocialization

learning to adapt to new social norms and values

Agents of socialization

people, groups, institutions, and social contexts that contribute to our socialization

• Family

  • Children can be taught to think highly and negatively of themselves, they are aware of how their parents feel about them through social cues

    • Parents can imprint their beliefs on their children; parents can imprint their phobias on their children

  • Children can learn hate from their parents towards race; they learn about social class

• School

• Peers

• Work

• Media (this affects socialization in America because it is large-scale)

  
  

Social structure

framework of society, forces external to your individual self that are affecting you

• when social structures break down, so does social order

• key components: roles and hierarchies

• social institutions

Social institutions

organized systems of rules, roles, and relationships that a society creates to meet its basic needs and maintain order

• religion, education, economy, families, politics, criminal justice, health, global institutions

Social hierarchies

any relationship between individuals or groups that is unequal and provides members of one group more status and power than others

• Significant and enduring societal positions ordered from high to low

• Grant some individuals and groups higher status and more power than others

Status

a social position that a person holds

Status set

all the statuses a person holds at a given time

Ascribed status

a social position a person receives at birth or takes involuntarily later in life

Achieved status

a social position a person takes on voluntarily that reflects personal ability and effort

Master status

a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s life; the primary social position that has exceptional importance for an individual's identity, often overshadowing all other characteristics and shaping their entire life course

Status group

introduced by Max Weber, process by which individuals get together and form groups—typically share characteristics or attributes

Power

the ability to influence the behavior of others

Privilege

the ability or right to have access to opportunities or claims/rewards

Dominant groups

use social closure to try to monopolize opportunities or rewards

Subordinate groups

subjected to inferior status and limited opportunities

Population size

influence social hierarchy because of the relative size of competing groups

Role

a position within an institution or organization that comes with specific social expectations for how to behave and be treated

• Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status

Role set

a number of roles attached to a single status

Role conflict

when two or more discordant demands are placed on individuals, rendering them unable to fulfill their own or others’ expectations

• Conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses

Role strain

tension among the roles connected to a single status

Deviance

behavior that goes against the norm

• Statistically deviant - rare or uncommon

• Socially deviant - behavior that violates social rules

Labeling theory (societal reaction theory)

focuses on how people react to deviance and crime; a person's identity and behavior are significantly shaped by the terms or "labels" assigned to them by society

• Negative label - social stigma

• Positive label - social approval

Howard Becker and his beliefs

wrote Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance

• Deviance is a social construction

• Deviance is in the eye of the beholder

• Deviance is a process/interaction

• Deviance is not homogenous (varies due to factors like place, time)

• Differential labeling

• Differential enforcement

Social construction

a theoretical view that knowledge is socially created

Self-fulfilling prophecy

a false label/assumption can become the truth

• Wilkins, 1965: Watched

• DeCoster & Heimer, 2001: Troublemakers

Deviant status

the recognized social position or label given to an individual whose actions, beliefs, or traits violate cultural or formal social norms

William Chambliss - the Saints and the Roughnecks

William Chambliss’s classic study, The Saints and the Roughnecks, compares two groups of high school boys who engaged in similar amounts of delinquent behavior. It demonstrates that deviance is not inherent to an action, but is socially constructed based on community perceptions, class status, and labeling.

Deviance as a Social Construction: Both groups committed roughly the same amount of delinquency, yet only one was labeled "deviant." Society defined deviance not by the act itself, but by who committed it.

Which Group is More Deviant? Quantitatively, both engaged in similar amounts of delinquency. However, the Saints’ acts were often more dangerous (e.g., removing road construction signs), while the Roughnecks committed more local theft.

Why Are They Judged Differently?

Visibility: The Saints had cars and money, allowing them to travel outside their neighborhood to commit acts away from local authorities. The Roughnecks lacked transport, making their delinquency highly visible on local street corners.

Demeanor: When confronted by police, the Saints acted polite, apologetic, and repentant ("good boys making a mistake"). The Roughnecks were hostile, cynical, and defensive, which reinforced officers' negative perceptions.

Bias: Community bias was driven by social class. The Saints came from upper-middle-class families (seen as having "bright futures"), while the Roughnecks were working-class (assumed to be "heading for trouble"). These initial labels became self-fulfilling prophecies in adulthood

IN CLASS Rios: Stealing a Bag of Potato Chips and Other Crimes of Resistance

• Environment lacking social and cultural capital

• Development of alternative social and cultural capital

• A person who doesn’t grow up around these things learns them through media and can mislearn what is appropriate and inappropriate in certain settings

• Manager’s bias - treating someone differently, even if it is subconsciously done

• Resistance identities - identities created by subordinated populations in response to oppression (intertwined with self-fulfilling prophecy)

HOMEWORK Rios: Stealing a Bag of Potato Chips and Other Crimes of Resistance

In Stealing a Bag of Potato Chips and Other Crimes of Resistance, sociologist Victor M. Rios examines how marginalized Black and Latino youth develop creative survival strategies and engage in non-normative behaviors as a form of defiance against systemic criminalization and a search for dignity.

• Organic Capital: The creative collection of non-mainstream cultural and social skills that marginalized youth develop to survive, navigate poverty, and prevent violence when traditional pathways to success are blocked.

• Misrecognition: The process in which mainstream adults and authority figures misunderstand or fail to recognize marginalized youth's genuine attempts to behave professionally or courteously, often misinterpreting these efforts as deviant or disrespectful.

• Resistance Identities: Identity traits and behaviors formed by subordinated groups in response to oppression and exclusion, often functioning by rejecting or "excluding" the institutions that excluded them in the first place.

• Crimes of Resistance / Deviant Politics: Minor law-breaking or disruptive acts (such as stealing a 25-cent bag of chips or intentionally breaking rules) carried out not primarily for material gain, but as deliberate acts of protest to contest unfair authority, claim dignity, and challenge punitive systems.

• Criminalization: The social process through which non-criminal behaviors, styles, or marginalized individuals are targeted, labeled, and treated as inherently deviant or criminal by institutions like schools, businesses, and police.

• Cultural Capital: The social skills, mannerisms, standards of dress, and cultural knowledge that individuals draw upon to demonstrate status and successfully navigate mainstream social institutions.

Tattoos and deviance

• Shifts in deviance and social acceptability over time

• Acceptance varies by people, tattoo location, and tattoo meaning

Kang and Jones Article: Why Do People Get Tattoos?

According to the article, while popular perceptions often view tattoos as signs of rebellion or faddishness, sociologists analyze tattooing as a complex social practice influenced by media, consumer culture, and group dynamics through which individuals construct identity, navigate autonomy, and mark social transitions.

• Body Politics: The ways in which social power dynamics, norms, and cultural expectations influence how people perceive, control, and regulate the human body.

• Consumer Culture & "Supermarket Era": The influence of mass media, pop culture, and commercial availability on turning cultural practices—like tattooing—into accessible choices driven by market consumption.

• Subculture: A cultural group within a larger culture that holds distinct beliefs, practices, or values separate from the mainstream majority.

• Rites of Passage: Social rituals or symbolic acts that mark an individual's transition from one social status or stage of life to another, such as entering adulthood or marriage.

• Gender Norms: Culturally defined social expectations regarding appropriate behavior, appearance, and roles for men and women.

• Agency vs. Social Structure (Autonomy): The interplay between an individual's capacity to act independently and express self-determination (agency) versus the broader cultural and institutional forces (social structures) that constrain or redefine those actions.

Lee Article: The King of Compton

In "The King of Compton," sociologist Jooyoung Lee uses the story of a street dancer named Tick-a-Lott to illustrate how street dancing serves as an alternative identity path and protective social network for young men growing up in gang-impacted neighborhoods.

• Art Worlds: Howard Becker's concept demonstrating that artistic expression relies on a dense, supportive social network—such as peers, teachers, and school administrators—rather than just individual talent.

• Identity Formation and Appraisal: The idea that self-identity is built through a dynamic process of self-evaluation and social recognition, where receiving positive feedback from others validates an individual's role.

• Alternative Social Pathways / Rites of Passage: Community-level identity options (such as dance or Hip Hop) that offer youth respect and status outside of gang involvement.

• "Play Labor": A concept introduced by Robin D.G. Kelley describing how marginalized youth utilize creative talents and informal skills as a potential avenue for upward economic mobility when formal labor market options are limited.

• Cultural Appropriation and Commodification: The process by which underground or localized cultural practices (e.g., popping and locking) are adopted, mass-produced, and commercialized by mainstream media and Hollywood.

• Deindustrialization: The economic shift marked by widespread job loss in urban centers, which impacts the structural opportunities and choices available to local youth.

Moral Entrepreneurs

Howard Becker - looked at how things become deviant and looked at the rule creators/moral crusader

• They make it their business to change how society thinks about something:

• agenda/vested interests

• Force morals

• dominant/powerful

• Labeling

• Create fervor

Tiger Article: Race, Class, and the Framing of Drug Epidemics

In "Race, Class, and the Framing of Drug Epidemics", Rebecca Tiger argues that while public discourse often frames the opioid crisis as a white, middle-class health issue receiving compassionate care rather than criminalization, class inequality actually exposes poor rural white users to the same punitive criminal justice and medical controls historically used against marginalized racial groups.

• Social Control: The mechanisms, strategies, and institutions—such as the criminal justice system, drug courts, and drug treatment programs—that societies use to regulate individual behavior and enforce conformity to social norms.

• Criminalization: The social process through which specific behaviors or groups of people (e.g., poor white drug users or people of color) are defined, targeted, and treated as illegal or criminal by state institutions.

• Medicalization: The process by which non-medical issues, such as substance addiction, come to be defined and treated as medical conditions or diseases.

• Intersectionality: The theoretical framework examining how social categories—specifically race and socioeconomic class—intersect to shape individuals' social status and their exposure to systemic power or punishment.

• Drug Scares / Moral Panics: Intense, widespread social panics constructed around drug use, where media narratives and public fear exaggerate threats to social order and reinforce existing racial or class biases.

• Classism & Socioeconomic Status: Discrimination based on social class, determining how wealth, poverty, and social position dictate whether a drug user is exempted from or subjected to punitive control.

Winchester Article: The Good, the Bad, the Social

In "The Good, the Bad, and the Social," Daniel Winchester and Steven Hitlin argue that while humans may have a biological capacity for morality, a sociological perspective is essential to understand how moral values, norms, and commitments are learned, practiced, and shifted across different cultures and social contexts.

• Moral Order: The taken-for-granted, shared assumptions and social guidelines that make everyday interactions predictable and prevent anxiety-ridden chaotic situations.

• Norms: Socially approved rules and expectations that guide everyday conduct by defining what is considered appropriate or inappropriate behavior in a given situation (such as riding an elevator).

• Values (or "Thick" Moral Concepts): Deeply held ideals—such as justice, freedom, autonomy, and care—that orient identities and actions, embraced by groups because they are inherently meaningful rather than just routine rules.

• Social Institutions: Established networks of social structures (e.g., family, religion, law, medicine, government) that actively shape and redefine moral commitments and beliefs over time.

• Culture War: The division of a society into opposing factions due to conflicting, deeply rooted moral values surrounding key social issues like sexuality, education, and family.

• Socialization / Moral Acquisition: The process by which individuals learn moral understandings through social relationships, local communities, and interactions rather than being born with them.

Cates Article: Poverty Delivered

In "Poverty Delivered," sociologist Jeff Cates draws on nearly three years of ethnographic field notes, interviews, and financial records as a delivery driver to reveal how the rent-to-own (RTO) industry exploits low-income consumers by locking them into predatory financial cycles through inflated prices and steep late fees.

• Predatory Inclusion: The process where marginalized or low-income individuals are granted access to middle-class goods and services, but under unequal, costly conditions that ultimately strip them of wealth.

• Working Poor: Individuals who maintain regular employment but whose low wages keep them near or below the federal poverty threshold, making them vulnerable to unexpected financial shocks.

• Usury / Subprime Lending: The practice of extending high-interest credit to individuals with low income or poor credit scores who lack access to traditional banking institutions.

• Lender of Last Resort: An institution that provides credit to individuals or businesses when no other mainstream options (like traditional bank loans) are available, often used to justify exorbitant fees.

• Ethnography / Participant Observation: A qualitative research method where a sociologist embeds themselves within a community or workplace to observe and record daily interactions and organizational behavior firsthand.

Streib Article: How the Privileged Fall

In How the Privileged Fall, Jessi Streib demonstrates that downward mobility among upper-middle-class youth often stems from unequal parental transmission of key resources, leading disadvantaged youth to adopt identities that pull them away from institutions necessary to preserve their social status.

• Social Mobility (Downward Mobility): The movement of individuals or groups down the socio-economic ladder. The article highlights that nearly half of white youth born to college-educated, upper-middle-class parents experience downward mobility as adults by not attaining equivalent educational or occupational status.

• Social Reproduction: The processes and structures through which social positions, privilege, and class status are passed down from one generation to the next.

• Class Structure & Stratification: The hierarchical organization of society into distinct socio-economic groups or classes based on wealth, income, education, and occupation.

• Cultural & Social Capital (Parental Resources): Non-financial assets transferred from parents to children that influence achievement and life chances. The article breaks these down into three primary forms:

  • Financial Resources (Money): Direct access to funding for quality education, safe neighborhoods, and opportunities that enhance resume-building.

  • Academic Knowledge: Lessons and educational support provided at home that give children an academic head start in school.

  • Institutional Knowledge: Familiarity with navigating complex institutional systems—such as schools, universities, and workplaces—to secure advantages and advocate for oneself.

• Identity Formation: How individuals define themselves and their goals based on their social experiences and available resources. Youth who lack high levels of parental institutional knowledge often form identities—such as focusing primarily on family life or adopting a rebellious persona—that align with their current resources rather than seeking out institutions that promote class reproduction.

• Hereditary Meritocracy / Open vs. Closed Class Systems:

  • An open class system allows for mobility based on individual achievement.

  • A closed class system restricts movement, preserving privilege across generations.

  • Streib argues that while downward mobility is often cited as evidence of an open system, it is actually a reflection of deeper inequality and resource disparities existing even within the upper-middle class.

Van Stee: No PLace Like Home

During COVID-19 campus closures, college students' experiences of parental support diverged sharply along social class lines, leading upper-middle-class students to rely on their families through privileged dependence while working-class students navigated precarious autonomy by supporting themselves and assisting their families.

• Social Class: The grouping of individuals in a stratified hierarchy based on socioeconomic factors such as parents' education, occupation, and income.

  
  

• Privileged Dependence: A pattern observed in upper-middle-class students who feel entitled to their parents' financial, academic, and emotional resources, allowing them to rely heavily on family support during crises.

  
  

• Precarious Autonomy: A pattern among working-class students who must operate with financial and personal independence out of necessity, often taking on adult responsibilities while navigating systemic vulnerabilities.

  
  

• Social Inequality: The existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society, as highlighted by disparities in housing security, financial stability, and access to learning technology during the pandemic.

  
  

• Intergenerational Obligation vs. Entitlement: Class-based differences in family norms, where working-class students often feel an obligation to care for or financially protect their parents, whereas upper-middle-class students feel entitled to draw upon their parents' guidance and financial security.

Thomas Article: Medicalizing Racism

In "Medicalizing Racism", sociologist James M. Thomas examines how viewing racism as an individual psychological illness rather than a systemic, social problem masks institutional inequalities and hinders structural solutions.

• Medicalization: The process by which social or behavioral issues come to be defined, diagnosed, and treated as medical or psychiatric conditions.

  
  

• Individualism vs. Structuralism: The tension between framing social issues around individual bad attitudes versus examining the systemic, institutional networks of power that perpetuate inequality.

  
  

• Institutional / Covert Racism: Embedded social policies, practices, and structures that disadvantage minority groups and maintain racial hierarchies, even in the absence of overt personal prejudice.

  
  

• Authoritarian Personality: A psychological framework proposing that extreme prejudice and hatred stem from deep-seated, rigid personality structures rather than social learning or structural factors.

  
  

• Sick Society Model: An epidemiological perspective framing social problems—such as segregation and systemic prejudice—as pathologies affecting the mental health of an entire community or society.

  
  

• New Racism: Post-civil rights era forms of racial inequality that are subtler and often masked by "post-racial" narratives or framed strictly as abnormal individual behavior.

Daniels Article: The Algorithmic Rise of the Alt-Right

In “The Algorithmic Rise of the “Alt-Right”,” Jessie Daniels demonstrates how modern White nationalist movements leverage digital platforms and search engine algorithms to mainstream racist ideology while operating within a tech industry guided by a color-blind, "race-less" ethos.

• White Supremacy: An ideology and system of racial dominance asserting that White people are superior and should hold political, social, and economic control over other racial groups.

  
  

• White Nationalism / Alt-Right: Social and political movements that seek to create and maintain a White ethno-state, using newly updated media tactics and subcultural symbols to advance their goals.

  
  

• Systemic / Institutional Racism: Patterns of discrimination and racial inequality embedded in historical practices, institutions, and modern technological infrastructure.

  
  

• Color-Blind Racism / Ideology of Color-Blindness: The belief or assumption that ignoring race creates equal conditions, which in practice conceals racial inequalities and allows tech platforms to overlook how their tools are exploited.

  
  

• Social Movements: Collective efforts by groups of people to promote or resist social, political, or cultural change.

  
  

• Overton Window: The range of ideas, policies, or topics tolerated and accepted in mainstream public discourse at any given time.

  
  

• Subculture: A cultural group within a larger culture with distinct beliefs, symbols, and practices (e.g., internet boards like 4chan or Reddit where specific memes and rhetoric develop).

  
  

• Media Ecosystem / Algorithmic Power: The network of media, tech platforms, and algorithms that shape how information spreads, influencing social perception and cultural norms.

  
  

• White Rage / Racial Backlash: A systemic reaction and resistance by White dominant groups against the political, social, or economic progress of marginalized racial groups.

Bueker Article: Radicalized Geography

In her article "Racialized Geographies," Catherine Simpson Bueker explores how Black and Latina students at a wealthy, predominantly White suburban high school experience racialized assumptions about where they belong based on their race, class, and geographic points of entry.

• Racialization of Space: The societal process of linking specific geographic areas or neighborhoods with particular racial groups, creating spatial assumptions about where people "belong" or do not "belong" based on their race.

  
  

• Geographic Misplacement: A form of racialized "othering" where individuals of color in predominantly White spaces are incorrectly assumed to live elsewhere or belong to external commuter/boarding programs, regardless of their actual residency.

  
  

• Imagined Geographies: Stereotyped and generalized assumptions made by dominant groups about urban or non-White neighborhoods, often viewing them as uniformly violent, impoverished, or chaotic.

  
  

• De Facto Segregation: Spatial and social separation of racial groups that occurs through social customs, historical practices, and socioeconomic factors rather than through explicit legal mandates.

  
  

• Intersectionality (Race vs. Class): The ways in which social identities—specifically race and socioeconomic class—interact, demonstrating here that middle- or upper-class status does not fully shield individuals of color from experiencing racial stigma or geographic misplacement.

  
  

• Model Minority / Counter-Stereotyping: Implicit behavioral strategies used by marginalized individuals to counteract negative societal stereotypes by embodying ideal or high-achieving behaviors.

Byron Article: Race and Contemporary Perceptions of Public Accommodations Inequality

Article Summary

Using nationally representative General Social Survey (GSS) data from 2018 and 2021, sociologist Reginald A. Byron demonstrates that Black/African Americans consistently experience higher odds of receiving poorer service in stores and restaurants compared to White Americans both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Asian Americans experienced a significant increase in perceived discrimination during the pandemic.

• Public Accommodations: Private or public entities that offer goods and services to the general public (such as restaurants, retail stores, and hotels). In sociology, these are key spaces where everyday social interactions and inequality occur.

  
  

• Racial Discrimination: The unfair or differential treatment of individuals based on their real or perceived racial or ethnic identity, which can manifest as poorer customer service, false accusations, or verbal harassment.

  
  

• Everyday Discrimination: Subtle, routine, and recurrent experiences of unfair treatment or microaggressions that individuals face in daily life, such as being ignored, monitored, or given inferior service.

  
  

• Multivariate Analysis: A statistical method used by social scientists to analyze the relationships among multiple variables simultaneously, allowing researchers to isolate the impact of race while controlling for potential confounding factors like age, gender, income, education, and geographic region.

  
  

• Cross-Sectional Research: A research design where data is collected from a population or a representative subset at a specific point in time. The study utilizes cross-sectional data from the nationally representative General Social Survey (GSS) in 2018 and 2021.

  
  

• Intersectionality & Social Demographics: The sociological approach of examining how racial status interacts with other social categories and demographic variables—such as age, gender, region of residence, and political ideology—to shape an individual's social experiences.

Inequality

the unequal distribution of valued goods and opportunities

High-end inequality

economic inequality that arises from the highest earning households (e.g. the 1%) and/or forms, pulling away from everyone else

• Bottom 50% of the world’s population (3.8 billion people) has the same total wealth as approximately the 23 richest people in the world

Social stratification

society’s system of ranking categories of people in a hierarchy

Measures of economic inequality

Income - wages or salary from work and earnings from investments

Wealth - the total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debt

Caste System

social stratification based on ascription or birth

• pure caste system - closed because due to birth alone

Class system

social stratification based on both birth and individual achievment

Meritocracy

social stratification based on personal merit

• pure meritocracy - social position depend solely on person’s ability and effort

Classless society

a society without classes or caste system

Social class in America

lack of agreement amongst sociologists

• socioeconomic status - a composite ranking based on various dimensions of social inequality

• Income - wages or salary from work and earnings from investments

  Wealth - the total value of money and other assets, minus outstanding debt

Pew research center

• Uses income, education and occupation

• Upper Class - highest education, highest income, professional/managerial jobs

• Upper middle class - college education, moderate to high income, professional/managerial jobs

• Middle class - some college/associate degree, moderate income, service or sales jobs

• Working class - high school diploma or less, lower to moderate income, skilled/unskilled occupations

• Lower class - limited education, very low income, precarious employment

Distribution of wealth by households (percentile)

Wealth Gap: The difference in accumulated total value of assets (e.g., real estate, savings accounts, stocks, retirement funds) minus debts (e.g., mortgages, student loans) between different groups.

• Think of it as: What you own minus what you owe over a lifetime or across generations.

Distribution of income by households (percentile)

Key Distinction for Exams: Unlike wealth (an accumulated stock of net worth over time), income is a continuous flow of earnings. While income in the U.S. is distributed unevenly (with top percentiles capturing a growing share), it is consistently less unequal than wealth distribution.

Social mobility

a change in position within the social hierarchy

Intragenerational social mobility

a change in social position occurring during a person’s lifetime

Intergenerational social mobility

upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents

Horizontal social mobility

changing jobs in the same class

Structural social mobility

a shift in the social position of large numbers of people due more to changes in society than to individual efforts

Race

a system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived innate physical characteristics

Income gap

the measurable difference in earnings between individuals, households, groups in a society

Poverty gap

the difference between the official poverty line and the actual income of the typical poor household

Ethnicity

a system for classifying people who are believed to share common descent based on perceived cultural similarities

Minority

any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society subjects to disadvantages

Prejudice

any rigid and unfounded generalization about an entire category of people

Racism

the assertion that people of one race are less worthy than or even biologically inferior to others

Discrimination

the unequal treatment of various categories of people

Institutional discrimination

bias built into the operation of social institutions, including the economy, schools, and the legal system

Instutitional racism

racism at work in the operation of social institutions including the economy, schools, hospitals, the military, and the criminal justice system

Symbolic interactionism

a micro-level sociological perspective stating that individuals create, maintain, and change society through face-to-face, meaningful interactions and the shared use of symbols

Negative effects of lack of integration

• Spitz Orphanage Study (1945): Showed that infants deprived of normal social interaction and emotional contact in institutional orphanages suffered severe physical, developmental, and psychological damage (hospitalism).

• Haney Prison Study (2003): Demonstrated that isolating prisoners in solitary confinement leads to severe mental distress, cognitive decline, and long-term psychological harm due to the severe lack of social integration.

• CDC COVID-19 Study (2020): Highlighted how social isolation and lack of community integration during pandemic lockdowns were linked to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and mental health crises.

Interest groups

any formal or informal organization of people who share common goals and work to influence public policy, social decisions, or institutional behavior without running for elected office themselves

Examples of how dominant groups have tried to monopolize/limit opportunities

redlining, voting restrcitions, gerrymandering

Role use

the actual, real-world execution and enactment of a social role, distinguished from the abstract expectations or norms attached to that position

Role theory

a sociological and social-psychological framework suggesting that human behavior is guided by socially defined expectations, norms, and duties tied to specific social positions or statuses

Differential labeling

the sociological and criminological principle where laws, rules, or social norms are applied unequally based on an individual's or group's social, economic, or racial status

Differential enforcement

the idea that laws and social control are applied unequally across different groups of people

Goffman’s spoiled identity

a state where a person's public persona or self is disqualified from full social acceptance because they fail to meet society's normative expectations

Howard Becker’s guide to a successful moral crusade

• societal leaders

• depersonalize

• good story

• time

• separate from rule enforcers
  buttressed by law, custom,

• morality (recall issues)

Systemic racism

where discrimination in one realm can reinforce or produce discrimination in another