SOCI 205 Mackin Exam 1

What is structure?

Structure is those factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc.) that determine or limit an agent and his or her decisions.

What is anomie?

Anomie is one of those concepts in the field of Sociology that can be applied in a variety of ways. Coined by French Sociologist Emile Durkheim in his 1897 study "Suicide", anomie refers to a sense of normlessness, resulting in individual detachment and disconnection from other members of a group or society at large. Life is meaningless.

What is status?

Status: The social honor or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of society.

What is social mobility?

Social mobility: movement of individuals or groups between social positions.

What is triangulation?

Using more than 1 method to answer a question

Conflict School of Thought

Conflict (Marx & Weber)

Resources (e.g. wealth, power) unevenly distributed

Society is divided in terms of class (economic) or status (e.g. race, gender)

These divisions lead to conflict

More likely to focus on inequality.

This is the predominant belief held amongst Sociologists

Functionalist School of Thought

Functionalism (Durkheim)

Society is made up of parts that carry out functions that contribute to the whole.

Order is the normal state of society.

A consensus is the foundation of social order.

Symbolic Interaction School of Thought

Symbolic Interactionism (Weber & Mead)

Exchange of symbols through social interaction

George Herbert Mead

One's sense of self develops through interactions with others.

Interactions with others teach individuals how to act, say, think.

Mills and Sociological Imagination

Coined by Mills. The term is used in introductory textbooks in sociology to explain the nature of sociology and its relevance in daily life. "The vivid awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society."

Berger and Debunking

Sociological debunking is the act of going beyond the surface understanding to dig into the deeper meaning and give room to alternative implication of common beliefs.

What is agency?

In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.

What is social construction?

The concept or perception of something based on the collective views developed and maintained within a society or social group. How you view something/do things because of your life experiences, etc.

Ethics in Research: Tuskegee Study

Study used to find research to justify syphilis treatment in blacks. The study initially involved 600 black men - 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. The study was conducted without the benefit of patients' informed consent. Researchers told the men they were being treated for "bad blood". In truth, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their illness. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance. Although originally projected to last 6 months, the study actually went on for 40 years.

What happened in the Scientific Revolution?

People realized that there are scientific laws to the physical world. It's not all supernatural.

Industrialization

Began in England in the mid 18th century.

Changed from an agricultural society to more industrial/urban.

Trading was a big thing before Industrialization, as well as subsistence farming ("common-land" was a thing).

Technological advances are huge.

Huge increase in production and efficiency. Needed more raw material to keep up.

Urbanization

Massive amount of people move to the cities.

Long hours in huge factories.

Women and children were preferred for factory jobs.

Working conditions were horrible. "The Dark Satanic Mills"

Enlightenment

An intellectual movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries marked by a celebration of the powers of human reason, a keen interest in science, the promotion of religious toleration, and a desire to construct governments free of tyranny.

Solidarity (Emile Durkheim)

Solidarity: Trust.

Mechanical Solidarity: traditional societies;

Organic solidarity: interdependence of society's different parts and shared values.

Rationalization (Weber)

The replacement of traditions, values, and emotions as motivators for behavior in society with rational, calculated ones.

Is sociology a science?

A Science unlike the natural sciences (a social science).

Sociological research is scientific research based on empirical evidence/investigation.

Causation and Correlation

Correlation: Simultaneous variation in two variables (we tend to take about this one)

Ex: Death by drowning and ice cream sales are positively correlated (because of summer).

Causation: Change in one factor results in change in another

Variables

Controls

Help us screen out other influences

Ex: Parents sue Ozzy Osbourne over son's suicide.

Independent Variable

Ice Cream Ex: the seasons

Produces an effect on the other variable

Dependent Variable

Affected by the independent variable

The Variable we are trying to understand

Ice Cream Ex: deaths by drowning

Ethnography (Research Method)

Participant observation, interviews

Generates rich, deep data

Criticism: Typically not generalizable

Surveys (Research Method)

Generate a lot of data from large numbers of people

Appropriate for statistical analysis

Can be "thin" or superficial

Form and wording can affect the results

"Principle of form resistant correlations"

Experiments (Research Method)

Control conditions to establish cause and effect

Criticism: Hard to replicate findings from controlled settings in natural settings

Upshot: Context more important than the characteristics of individual subjects

Slavery (System of Stratification)

Ownership of others as property

Caste System (System of Stratification)

One's social status is given for life

Ascription: Determined at birth and doesn't change.

Social life is segregated.

Intimate relationships are restricted to members of one's own caste

E.g. anti-miscegenation laws

Class (System of Stratification)

More fluid, mobility is possible

Positions are partly achieved

Contrast w/ascription

Economically based

Bourdieu's Theory of Cultural Capital

According to Bourdieu, cultural capital comes in three forms—embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. One's accent or dialect is an example of embodied cultural capital, while a luxury car or record collection are examples of cultural capital in its objectified state.

Class

A social class is a group of people of similar status, commonly sharing comparable levels of power and wealth. In sociology, social classes describe one form of social stratification.

Life Chances (Weber)

A person's opportunities for achieving economic prosperity

The accumulation of disadvantage over decades significantly impairs health.

Intergenerational Mobility

Intergenerational mobility refers to any changes in a family's social position between generations.

Income

Income - pay for services completed

Wealth

Wealth - income plus all other assets

Education and Stratification: Non-Biological Explanations

Coleman's study of between-school effects in American education (1960s)

Highly segregated schools

Gaps in achievement tests

Schools more similar than expected in terms of resources (this was a surprise).

Achievement depends on condition of home, neighborhood, and peer environment (another surprise).

Family background and non-school factors determine educational and occupational attainment

Only reforming schools will have very minimal/minor effects

Non-school stuff matters way more because kids aren't in school much at all compared to real life

People with more money have a leg up academically, socially, etc

Education and Stratification: Biological Explanations

IQ is biological

Problems with twin studies:

Very small sample

Similar settings

IQs of genetically similar groups change over time

Disadvantages do poorly

Group rankings change

Individual IQs can change

Teacher's Self Fulfilling Prophecy

When a teacher sees a student as an achiever, the teacher might use more complimentary language, offer after-school help, call on him or her more often, or even smile more. All this positive feedback is bound to help the student flourish. If, however, the teacher does not believe this student will be a success, the teacher might discipline the student more frequently, prevent the student from attempting a task, or approach the student with suspicion after an absence. These negative responses can easily promote underachievement.

What were key events that affected Sajan's life chances?

-where she was born

-dropping out of school at 10

-her Father dying

-married young

-had children young

-no technology (not even shoes)

What would've happened if Sajan's father didn't die?

She could've afforded to remain in school.

What would've happened to Nicole if her father had died when she was 10?

She would've remained in school, and had a relatively normal life.

What is Paxton's general argument on trust?

Trust in individuals is going down but trust in institutions is going up.

What's one factor that explains the decline in trust?

generational replacement

Why should we be careful about claiming that trust is in

decline?

Key characteristics of a social experiment

Contrived conditions

A few hundred participants (usually college students)

Comparison of two groups very similar

Follow up studies

Key findings of Robber's Cave Experiment?

Hostility between groups develops spontaneously when individuals within a group work together and then compete as a team against another group.

An overreaching cooperative task that requires contributions from both groups for success reduces inter-group conflict (finding water).

Key findings on the research on the make-believe jail?

Brutal behavior of prison guards is not due to them being psychologically predisposed to brutality but because they are guards.

Key findings of the research of Steele on stereotype threat?

Scores on standardized tests depend not only on students' ability to answer, but also on what they expect the consequences of their test cores to be (ex: being compared to other students or just getting a test to show them the level of normal difficulty).

What is a sample?

A subset of the population being studied to collect research

What is probability sampling?

A probability sampling method is any method of sampling that utilizes some form of random selection.

Why did Gallup do a better job than Literary Digest of predicting the outcome of the presidential election of '36?

He used many fewer cases but a better method. He used quotes in choosing respondents in order to represent different economic strata, whereas the Literary Digest has worked mainly from phone and car ownership lists (wealthy people).

How does form and wording of a survey affect the results?

If an interviewer presents a limited set of alternatives, most respondents will chose one, rather than offering a different alternative of their own.

They can be too general (ex: "The Abortion Problem).

What are some solutions to the wording problem?

To keep wording constant (form-resistant correlations).

Is job discrimination dead?

No--it has just become underground and more sophisticated.

What is social audit research?

Social audits--sending a pair of people (2) which are the same in every way except that one thing in which you want to test (ex: race).

What are advantages of social audit research (v. surveys

&/or self-reports)?

What are the results of social audit research on

discrimination?

The results of "social audits" suggest that the actual frequency of job discrimination against blacks is even higher than blacks themselves realize.

How do discriminating employers deny opportunities to

minority job-seekers?

discriminating employers do not explicitly deny jobs to blacks; rather, they use the different phases of the hiring process to discriminate in ways that are difficult to detect. In particular, when comparable resumés of black and white testers are sent to firms, discriminatory firms systematically call whites first and repeatedly until they exhaust their list of white applicants before they approach their black prospects. They offer whites jobs on the spot but tell blacks that they will give them a call back in a few weeks. These mechanisms mean that white applicants go through the hiring process before any qualified blacks are even considered.

What is the paradox of health care (and spending) in the

US?

Will increasing access to health care improve health of

the poor?

The experience of the United Kingdom suggests that improving access alone is unlikely to solve the problem.

Does being poor make you sick? (or is it the reverse?)

The author states, "the accumulation of disadvantage over

decades significantly impairs health." Being sick plays a part in poverty, but only a part.

What are the three facts about "Inequality in the Long

Run"?

1) Whereas income inequality was larger in Europe than in the United States a century ago, it is much larger in the United States now.

2)Second, we observe the same "great inequality reversal" between Europe and the United States when we look at wealth inequality rather than income inequality. That is, the share of total net private wealth owned by the top 10% of wealth holders was notably larger in Europe than in the United States one century ago, while the opposite is true today.

3) If we look at the evolution of the aggregate value of wealth relative to income, we also find large historical variations, again with striking differences between the United States and England.

Marx V. Kuznets view of inequality. Who's right? Marx or Kuznets?

Marx: The dynamics of private capital accumulation

inevitably lead to the concentration of income and wealth in ever fewer hands.

Kuznets: The balancing forces of growth, competition, and technological progress lead in later stages of development to reduced inequality and greater harmony among the classes.

To summarize: Inequality does not follow a deterministic process. In a sense, both Marx and Kuznets were wrong. There are powerful forces pushing alternately in the direction of rising or shrinking inequality. Which one

dominates depends on the institutions and policies

that societies choose to adopt.

What does the author mean when he says, "...poverty

& welfare use are as American as apple pie."

Most Americans will experience poverty during

Why is the risk of poverty so high?

1) Time--over the years people face many unanticipated events.

2) Little government help to tide over families during financial emergencies.

3) Failure of the labor market to provide enough jobs that pay enough.

What does the author propose as a solution?

Improve our "safety net"-- fix the labor market that fails to produce enough decent paying jobs, and social policies that are unable to pull individuals and families out of poverty when unforeseen events occur.

What are the three stylized models to

explain (extreme) income inequality?

1) First, we could have huge inequality because individuals vary hugely in their productivity.

2) Second, we could have huge inequality based largely on luck.

3) Third, we could have huge inequality based on power.

the top .1% consists mainly of _____?

business executives.

What is the common sense or conventional wisdom

about schools & inequality?

That schools are the main source of inequality. This is wrong because home life plays a much more substantial role in the development of children that school life.

What is the upshot, i.e. main conclusion, of Seasonal

Comparison Research?

Schools are not the source of inequality.

Gaps in skills grew during the summer when school was out.

What would happen to inequality (e.g. would it

increase or decrease) if we lived in a world with no

schools at all?

It would increase.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory of Child Development

Personality is formed through conflicts among three fundamental structures of the human mind: the id, ego, and superego.

Mead's Symbolic Interactionism Theory of Child Development

Mead says believes that children and blanks pages on which society writes its rule of behaviors and beliefs through socialization.

Ex: Baby gets attention when they cry so they learn to cry for attention.

Ex: We learn the rules, etc of society by imitating the adults around us.

Functionalists: sexual division of labor

Sexual division of labor: achieve social solidarity and integration

Murdock: Sexual division of labor: most logical and efficient way to organize

Criticisms: Overemphasizes cooperation and consensus and

Ignores power

Gender differences: nature vs. nurture

Nurture: Gender is socially constructed: the learning of gender roles through socialization and interaction with others

How has increased participation of women in labor market

affected the family?

There is a time stretch.

Traditional, Transitional, Egalitarian - why different rates of participation in housework?

Traditional men believe that wives should do the housework but they felt bad that their wives had to go to work and then do all the housework too so the men ended up helping more than they wanted or felt appropriate.

Egalitarian: Men Partaking in second shift was a major factor in happiness of marriage.

When men do housework it makes women less likely to want divorce.

Supermom strategy

Do everything: Work full-time and take care of the house and kids.

End up cutting back time with kids; work; personal time

Not sustainable

Family Myths

Def: A couple's shared understanding of the division of labor in the home that may not reflect practice (ex: upstairs belongs to mom and downstairs to dad, but downstairs in just basement and upstairs is living room, kitchen, bathroom, etc.)

Men: "Help Out" with housework

Putting the kids to bed while mom cleans up, etc.

Family myth assumes women are better at housework and "mothering"

What is the common sense regarding violent video games & aggression?

That violent video games cause people to be more violent--it is wrong.

What is a folk devil?

Folk devil is a person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or the media as outsiders and deviant, and who are blamed for crimes or other sorts of social problems.

What is the conventional wisdom regarding why men are

more likely to be involved in sports than women?

Sports offer men a way to gain masculinity/learn about masculinity, either by playing or watching sports.

Why do sports seem to be more important to men today

(than in the past)?

Are sports "naturally" and "inherently" masculine?

No

Jacobs states, "Despite highly visible

exceptions...most occupations remain skewed

toward either men or women". What are some examples?

Nursing, Teaching, Reception: Female

Construction, Mechanics, Engineers: Male

What are the fields where we see parity (or near

gender parity)?

What does Jacobs mean by the phrase, "segregation within integrated professions"?

In fields formerly dominated by men, women pursue lower status careers.

E.g. women lawyers: family law

E.g. women doctors: pediatrics, family med (not surgery)

Women are more likely to attend college than in

the past. Many celebrate this trend. However,

Jacobs suggests this trend may conceal something

about women's prospects for employment in bluecollar

work. What is he getting at?

This trend reveals that women see fewer opportunities in sectors of the economy that require little or no education beyond high school. This is a crucial reason that women are going to college.

G&J Compare workers in 1970 & 2000: what are the

two sets of Americans the authors discuss?

Men and Women

How does having children affect the number of hours

women work?...men work?

Fathers work more and Mothers work less. This hurts promotion/higher earning prospects for women in the future.

How did having a child change the mothers' lives?

Gives them a sense of purpose.

So, why not marry? Are poor unwed mothers antimarriage?

Women value children but place an even higher bar on marriage (can't find any fit husbands, leads to unwed mothers)

Why do mothers with successful careers "opt out"? Is it

because they want to be traditional stay-at-home moms?

Some women with successful careers "opt out" because since they are mothers they are facing obstacles at work, so they decide to focus on simply being a mother. Not all women/men can do this or have the choice to opt out.

What is the "choice gap"?

Choice gap: difference between decisions women could have made in terms of their careers in absence of caregiving AND decisions they actually make in order to accommodate caregiving realities---double bind, media and women portray heading home as a choice

What is the "Warrior Gene" and why was the media coverage problematic?

WG: genetic differences cause different behaviors

MC is problematic because it publicizes it in a way that glosses over the nuances of what wee knew about genetics as well as sociology.

What is genetic reductionism?

To explain a phenomenon due to the genes. To reduce a behavior to the genes.

What is genetic ascription?

What are the key findings of gene-environment

interactions (GxE) research?

DNA is highly reactive to stress, status, connectedness to other people.