Sociology - Chapter 2 Culture & Construction

Sociology

Cultured Capacities

Our culture influence us to acquire culturally specific skills

Social Network Analysis

The mapping of social ties and exchanges between them

Biosocial Research Methods

Investigate relationships between sociological variables and biological ones

Culture

The word we use to describe differences in groups shared ideas, as well as the objects, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas

Socialization

Lifelong learning process by which we become members of our cultures. We learn the beliefs, values, and norms of the cultures we inhabit.

Culturally Competent

Able to understand and navigate our cultures with ease

Social Construct

an influential and shared interpretation of reality that will vary across time and space

Social Construction

Emerges from social constructs, the process by which we layer objects with ideas, fold concepts into one another, and build connections between them

Signifier

A thing that stands for something else

Categories

A type of social construct, subsets of things that we believe are similar to one another to be considered the same

Binaries

Type of social construct: categories we see as opposites or other wise in opposition

• Good and evil

• friends and enemies

Associations

Type of social construct: Ideas that have nothing special in common except for the fact they’re connected by a third idea

• Rainbows and flags (lgbtq)

• Roses and Diamonds (love)

  • Red and Green (Christmas)

Sequences

A type of social construct: Ideas arranged into a specific chronological order

• outline, draft, edit

• hug kiss fondle

• marry, buy a house, have kids

• soup, main course, dessert

Hierarchies

A type of social construct: ideas placed into ranked relationships

• Nordstrom is higher end than kohls

• Better to be young than old

Symbolic Structure

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

Cultural Objects

Items given symbolic meaning

• Stop signs

Cultural Cognitions

These are shared ideas and values

• Red means stop

Cultural Practices

Are habits, routines, and rituals people usually perform

• Stop at stop signs

Cultural Bodies

Culturally influenced shapes and sizes, capacities, and physiological processes

• when our foot moves to the brak reflexively when we see a stop sign

Social Learning

A Transmission of knowledge and practices from one individual to another via observation, instruction, or reward and punishment.

Cumulative Culture

Humans pass down ideas, behaviors, and objects between generations

Dual Inheritance Theory

Idea that our genetic evolution influences our cultural evolution and vice versa.

Culture Shock

Being in a new place can be energizing or also disorienting.

Subcultures

subgroups within societies that have distinct cultural ideas, objects, practices, and bodies.

Ex. West coast, Midwest, East coast, Gen z, millennials, goth, punk, drag

Cultural Beliefs

Ideas about what is true or false

Cultural Values

Notions as to what is right and wrong

Cultural Norms

Are shared expectations for behavior

Agents of Socialization

Channels of influence through which we become socialized

Ex. Families, Schools, Peers, Religion, Mass Media, Work

Interpersonal Socialization

Involves active efforts by others to help us become culturally competent members of our cultures.

Self-Socialization

Active efforts to ensure we’re culturally competent members of our cultures

Social Ties

The connections between us and other people.

Social Networks

Webs of ties that link us to each other and, through other peoples ties, to people whom we’re not directly linked,

Homophily

Our tendency to connect with others who are similar to us.

Social Network Analysis

Involves the mapping of social ties and exchanges between them

Mass Media

Refers to mediated communication intended to reach not just one or a handful of people, but many

Media Socialization

Includes all the cultural competence we gain through our exposure to media, including books, newspapers, magazines movies etc.

Embodied

Physically present and detectable in the body itself

Cultured Physiques

Bodies formed by what we do to and with them

Cultural Capacities

Our cultures influence us to acquire culturally specific skills (Surfing well known in Hawaii)

Culturally Conditioned

Taught to respond physiologically to a socially constructed reality.

Biosocial Research Methods

Ones that investigate relationships between sociological variables and biological ones.

Culture-as-value Thesis

That we are socialized into culturally specific moralities that guide our feelings about right and wrong.

Culture-as-rationale Thesis

When cultures clash, emotional responses require logical arguments

Biological Determinism

Idea that behavior is controlled by our biology/genetics (Sociologists reject this idea)

Ethnocentrism

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

Culturally Conditioned

When our bodies are taught to respond physiologically to a socially constructed reality

Culturally Competent

Able to understand and navigate our cultures with ease