SOCI 101 Midterm 1 Review

Sociology

Study of society, how it’s organized, and how that organization influences populations’ behavior

Ex. markets, small group behavior, attitudes, voting behavior, customs and traditions

Thinking Like a Sociologist

Why do we do things this way? — Use data to discover how society works, overcoming biases

Sociological Imagination

Looking at the intersection of our personal stories with the larger social context

Historical Context for Sociology

Sociology was created as a product of rapid urban growth and industrialization, and people trying to explain the corresponding rapid social change + its consequences.

Marx

German thinker living in late 1800s, and believed all societies throughout history were based on social conflict. Believed in 2 distinct social classes, the Capitalists and the Proletariat (Workers), who each suffer from “alienation”

Alienation

Proposed by Marx - Competition and a separation from the final product (experienced by workers) or its making (experienced by capitalists) will cause societal breakdown

Emile Durkheim

French Sociologist desiring a “focus on social facts” who emphasized solidarity and how people in a society are connected. Proposed Mechanical and Organic solidarity as kinds of social cohesion. Coined “Anomie”

Mechanical Solidarity

People are tightnit and highly integrated (pre-industrial and traditional societies) This can feel trapped or fragile

Organic Solidarity

Organization of society is less tight and more interdependent, can be industrial or postindustrial.

Anomie

The breakdown of collective moral values in the absence of integration and regulation.

Max Weber

Proposed that we need to look at individuals and the meanings they make of their own behavior. He claimed that our values influence our behavior, and that the values we’ve inherited allow us to develop our economic system.

Norms

Expectations of behavior that are shared with others, unspoken or unwritten, or learned from others. These are variable to each society

Resources

Things we have or acquire such as money, education, and status

Status

A person or group’s socially determined positions within a large group or society. Can be ascribed or achieved

Role

Set of expectations concerning the behavior and attitudes of people who occupy a social status.

Role Conflict

Conflicting expectations or demands from different roles in your life

Life Chances

Opportunities to provide yourself with favorable goods or life experiences. This is determined to a significant extent by status. The higher class you are, the more likely you are to access or afford these goods and life experiences

Groups

Two or more people with similar values and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis

Networks

Series of social relationships that link a person directly to other individuals and indirectly to even more people (Small World Hypothesis - we are all roughly six degrees of separation apart from anyone else)

Institutions

These provide people with resources, but unique for imposing rules on us → organize a central domain of central life

Agency

Our capability to act given the structural rules and resources that impact our behaviors - the choices that individuals make and the actions they ultimately take.

Generalized Other

Internalized expectations from broader society that guide our behavior

Looking Glass Self

The way our perception of how others see us affects our actions and sense of self

Socialization

The way that we learn our sense of self and how to be a member of society

Functionalism

Proposed by Durkheim → society is a machine → incorporates concepts of manifest and latent function (purpose is explicitly stated or understood, like a rain dance, or purpose is an unstated function, like a rain dance being for solidarity, respectively)

Conflict Theory

Proposed by Marx → Institutions and social rules are designed to reward certain social groups with status, resources, and increased life chances.

Social Reproduction

Someone born into poverty is expected to remain poor

Symbolic Interactionism

A focus on everyday interactions, how we maintain the interaction order, and define the situation.

Structure of opportunity

distribution of resources and opportunities across society that shapes the choices individuals make

Spurious Relationship

2 variables appear to be connected, but this connection isn’t causal and instead driven by a 3rd thing influencing both.

External Validity

the degree to which the results of a study can be applied to other situations, people, or groups.

Sociology of Culture

study of culture we do, make, or consume (cultural-consumption and production)

Cultural Sociology

study of the culture we have (cognition, morality, affect, decision-making)

Material Culture

Physical components of culture, including cultural artifacts like clothing, jewelry, artwork, and architecture

Non-Material Culture

Intangible aspects of culture like cultural performances and practices (dance, music, beliefs and religions)

Conspicuous Consumption

Coined by Thorstein Veblen, claiming that we have time and money to spend on unnecessary things as a means of showcasing said time and wealth

Status Symbols

Things we buy of higher value are external shows of status through wealth

Highbrow Culture

Ornate, high-minded, or potentially pretentious aspects of culture. Those with wealth likely to consume this kind of culture, whereas low income are unlikely. Not only a matter of money but also taste.

Popular, Lowbrow Culture

Easily accessible cultural elements for the masses.

Cultural Omnivore

Usually elites, who can consume both highbrow and popular culture. Ultimately consuming a large variety of culture, with a broad taste (might go to the opera and watch the superbowl)

Cultural Univore

Namely those who are non-elites, who can’t access highbrow culture. They consume a narrow amount of culture with a more limited taste.

Production of Culture

Society decides its culture; art becomes popular, famous, and valuable not only because of individual genius but because a network of artists, gallery wonders, and critics and audiences develop a taste for it (proposed by Howard Becker)

Corporate Consolidation

Fewer production companies due to larger corporations buying them out.

Public Culture

Culture that exists largely outside of us, and while we can internalize it, it remains external.

Narratives

A story we tell about the way something works (the American Dream)

Frame

Ways of understanding or arguing an issue to make it make sense (think protest movements)

Personal Culture

Culture internal to individuals but it’s something we can articulate, something we’re conscious of.

Personal Declarative Culture

Ideology or values (if we internalize a narrative, it can become an ideology)

Personal Non-Declarative Culture

Skills and Schemas (networks of stereotypes or beliefs)

Utilitarian Individualists

American cultural value system; Maximize own self-interests

Expressive Individualists

American cultural value system; Guided by feelings or intuition, what makes them happy

Religious Individualists

American cultural value system; Follow what they see as god’s wishes

Civic individualists

American cultural value system; Committed to enhancing the welfare of others, broader responsibility to the community.

Settled Dispositions Model

Our core beliefs are inculcated via socialization

Active updating model

Our views and behavior depend on the situation, and have much variation over the course of our lives.

Cultural Capital

Something that you have that you can use to get something else. Categorized into institutional (degree/title), embodied (accent, something within us), objectified (material capital)

Field

sphere where that capital can be exchanged.

Habitus

Learned dispositions which come from social structure but lead us to act in predictable ways.

Taste

cultural things that can help or hinder inclusion in particular groups or interactions

Symbolic Boundaries

Society can draw invisible lines between groups and populations

Marx Social Class Model

Social class is a relationship with the means of production. Rich own the means of production, while the working class do everything else.

Weber’s Model of Social Class

3 components to this social class model; class (market position like skills and credentials), status (social honor and prestige), party (ability to influence others via political power)

Bourdieu’s Model of Social Class

Social class model claiming that forms of capital establish class; economic capital, social capital (who you know), cultural capital (embodied, objectified, and institutional).

Gilbert’s model of social class

Social class model better at looking at the US; somewhat contemporary. Capitalists (top 1%) → Upper Middle Class (14%) → Meddle Class (30%) → Working Class (15%) → Working Poor (15%) → Underclass (15%).

Class origin

Class you’re born into

Class Destination

the class you belong to at the end of your life.

Mobility Table

from a sociological study on social stratification showing upward/downward mobility.

Class Reproduction

class of origin is the same as the class of destination.

Absolute mobility

Whether living standards in a society have improved or worsened overall. Trend is upwards in the US.

Relative Mobility

Whether an individual’s position in society has improved relative to the one they started in. Trend is average in the US, though it is a draw for many immigrants.

New Gilded Age

the current era of economic inequality, social injustice, and political dysfunction in the United States

Wealth

Assets (savings, property, and investments) – liabilities (loans, mortgages, other debts). Disparity in people’s wealth leads to wealth inequality.

Gini Index

mathematical formula to determine the equitable distribution of wealth in a country

Elite Socialization

the study of how a small group of people with power and privilege shape society

Relative Poverty Measures

Poverty measure through taking a relative slice of a population to study, and dividing them into quintiles by income distribution. the US has extreme relative poverty rates

Cantril Ladder

Measure of income and wealth distribution by asking people to place themselves on a ladder.

Absolute poverty measures

An official poverty measure, like the Supplemental Poverty measure (which incorporates essentials like shelter, rent, clothing, and cellular), or the World Bank’s international poverty line.

Social Construction

Varies across time and place, and reveals something that is less natural and biological, but has some sociocultural component.

Sex

Ascribed at birth (anatomy, physiology, genetics and hormones), but can still be socially constructed

Gender

Perceived, usually linked with gender norms. Socially constructed.

Gender Norms

Unspoken, unwritten rules dictating how individuals should behave, dress, and present themselves.

Gender Socialization

Ascribing symbols to gender, like pink and blue or glitter and guns.

Gender Systems

Types of gender categorization, which can include the gender binary, trichotomy, or a spectrum.

Gender Essentialism

Fixed ideas and preconceptions leading to gender functionalism, which is ascribing social roles to gender.

Gender complementarity

the idea that men and women have different but complementary strengths and qualities

Hegemonic Masculanity

Gender norms for men are narrowly policed.

Precarious Sexuality

Straight men are more likely to be categorized as gay or bisexual than straight women are, following an experiment surveying people’s opinions on the sexuality of others on the basis of gender and relationship history.

Intersectionality

No one is defined by one aspect of their identity, and how the combination of multiple identities can influence discrimination or privilege.

Matrix of Domination

Systems of oppression and privilege combine and compound in additive or multiplicative ways.

Stalled Gender Revolution

Progress in women’s rights has slowed or stopped.

Gender Wage Gap

Less pay for women; usually starts in hiring practices, and leads to an ultimate disparity in wealth accumulation for women.

Gender Devaluation

General bias against women in the workplace leads to a lack of value for their work. Work done by a man is valued more than the same work done by a woman.

Motherhood Penalty

Women with children are valued less; women without children only make 7% less than men, while mothers make 22% less than men. This is attributed to mothers being deemed less committed, less competent, while fathers are deemed more committed and competent for their fatherhood.

Cognitive Labor

the mental work involved in managing a household, which includes anticipating needs, making decisions, and monitoring results

Race

System to classify groups of people based on phenotypic traits

Ethnicity

People who share some common culture, religion, history, or ancestry shared by a group of people

Race Essentialism

the belief that race is a biological trait that determines a person's characteristics and abilities

Hypodescent

the practice of classifying people with mixed-race ancestry as belonging to the lower-status racial group

Panethnicity

Large ethnic label which encompasses many smaller but diverse subgroups

Naturalization Act of 1790

The first federal law to establish rules for US citizenship, limited citizenship to free white people who had lived in the United States for at least two years