Class 1 - 01/06/2024:

• Micro-level sociology: a level of sociology that looks from a bottom-up view - from one-to-one interactions to the smaller blocks of society

• Macro-level sociology: a level of sociology that looks at society top-down - from looking at society as a whole to the larger-scale social structures

• Functionalism: the idea of society functioning as a living organism - macro-level - individual parts work together as a whole ex. government as systems, organs are the states and local depts, and cells are the government workers.

• Emile Durkheim: founder of sociology #1 and added on to functionalism

• Manifest functions: the intended and main point of the job/reason to do what you do

• latent functions: the side-effects or extra things that are not seen as main but come with the manifest function

• Dynamic equilibrium: homeostasis on a functional level in society - everyone works as a whole to keep society running

• Common Consciousness: the idea that people who live in the same society have the same ideals and beliefs and need for stability

• Anomie: societal dysfunctions when some people from smaller groups of a society do not have the same common consciousness as the larger groups - different ideals of the two

• Flaws of Functionalism: ignores inequalities and oppression while being overly optimistic about society - can’t account for social conflict, extreme politics, or social changes

• Conflict theory: society as a competition for power, money, and wealth - groups compete for this power and society is the resource - macro-level

• Karl Marx: founder of sociology #2 and laid the foundation for conflict theory - ideas of capitalism

• Wealth - power - prestige in Class struggle: the imbalance between those who control production(factory owners) and those who provide labour and production(factory workers)

• Class Consciousness: members of a lower social class are aware of the exploitation happening to them as a group

• False consciousness: lack of awareness of the exploitation happening to the group, only as individuals

• Flaws of Conflict Theory: not all individual problems are a group problem, some societies live in democracies, ignore personal issues on a micro-scale, too focused on economics

• Max Weber: founder #3 of sociology and was a conflict theorist but disagreed with Marx - said conflict comes from more than just money

• Rationalism: increasing rules to increase more effective ways of how a society works

• Bureaucracies: those who create the rules and enforce them - administer the laws of society

• Symbolic Interactionism: people act towards things based on meaning - 1-1 interactions, micro-level - any social thing that provides meaning ex. language, symbols, writing, etc.

• George Herbert Mead: brought the idea of a generalized attitude of a large group - me vs I - founder of social psychology

• Looking glass-self: the self is made from the interaction and perception of others - 3 stages:

  • Imagine how we appear to others

  • Imagine how we appear to others based on their observations of us

  • we develop feelings about ourselves based on the imagined judgement of others

• Generalized other: the idea of “what would others think” - an idea of a group of people

• “I” vs “Me”: me = object pronoun and I = subject pronoun; I develop first due to being group-oriented and I arise after when you develop internally. Thinking is a conflict between Me and I.

• Social constructionism: Reality is not inherent but socially constructed - can be both micro or macro level - social constructionists say that everything in the world is made from societies

• Social Construct: anything that appears natural but people accept it as an invention by society ex. childhood(can vary different from different societies)

• Socialization, values and norms: socialization leads to the process of how people internalize values, norms, and beliefs of their society to learn how to function along with the society ex. gender roles

• Feminist theory: treatment of women vs. men - equal rights movements - 3 waves

• First-wave feminism: 1900s, focused on the right to vote, own property, wages

• Second-wave feminism: 1960-70s, focused on gender equality, equal pay, sexual de-stigmatization

• Third-wave feminism: 1980s, focus on intersectionality, how different social identities like gender and race interact

• intersectionality: how different social identities interact

• Glass escalator/glass ceiling theory: The glass escalator is how men usually get faster into jobs and higher positions than women. The Glass ceiling is a metaphor that there is an invisible ceiling that prevents certain people from rising above a level

• Rational choice theory: goals are chosen rationally by seeing both the costs and benefits to make decisions - the goal is to maximize benefits - can be micro or macro

• Exchange theory: individuals respond to rewards and punishments and the goal is to maximize rewards - can be micro or macro

• Exchange-rational theory: the combination of the two theories

Class 2 - 15/06/24:

• Research methods: Valid conclusions from the experiment, study design, flaws in design, making predictions, IV and DV, correlations

• Two types of Study designs:

  • Experimental: manipulates variables and looks at cause and effect; has a population from which a group of participants is taken and has variables(IV and DV), random sampling, random assignment, measurements, and tests the hypothesis

  • Non-experimental: Variables are not directly manipulated - cannot infer cause or effect but may look at correlation

• Between Subjects vs. within subjects: between is comparing from different people while within is comparing results from the same people

• Quantitative: numerical statistical analysis

• Qualitative: descriptive; describing what was done or how a participant reacted

• Mixed methods: using two or more methods, including qualitative and quantitative measures

• Repeated measure: taking identical measurements at different times → must be at the same time, preferably by the same researcher so it doesn’t affect the research

• Quasi-experimental method: quasi → partial, almost, researchers do manipulate the IVs but there is no control group → looks at the same group but at different times

• Comparative methods: cane be quasi, but non-experimental → use multiple pre-existing groups and compare them to each other(no control group)

• Looking for flaws in design: how could the study be improved? The best way is to look at the design type, the weaknesses and strengths of that type

• Internal validity: does the study measure what it says it measures?

• Common threats to internal validity:

  • Impression management: participants adapt their responses based on social norms → they know that the researcher is testing them and behave in the way they think the researcher wants them to

    • The best way to counter this is using double-blind

  • Confounding variables: Extraneous variables not accounted for in the study

  • Lack of reliability: measurement tools do not measure what they should, or lack consistency

  • Sampling bias: bias to whom is picked to participate; not a valid look at the population

  • Attrition effects: participant fatigue, drop-outs

• External validity: can the study be applied to the real world, the general population

• Threats to external validity:

  • Experiment doesn’t reflect the real world: lack of generalizability

  • Selection criteria: too restrictive criteria of participants(sample is not representative)

  • Situational effects: the presence of laboratory conditions, the researcher in the room, affects the outcome of the study

  • Lack of statistical power: sample groups are highly variable

• Validity: does it measure what it claims to measure

• Reliability: is the research consistent and will the results be the same when performed again? Commonly used instruments are highly reliable

• Social institutions: a set form that governs people's behaviour by setting values, norms, and values for them in an organized manner.

  • Stability helps fight against anomie

• Education: if everyone is equally educated, then their opportunities for socioeconomic success are equal → not true everywhere

• Ways that education supports equality: more education less inequality, more pay equality

• Ways education supports inequality:

  • Hidden curriculum: unintentional lessons about norms, values, beliefs

  • Teacher expectancy: students want to match what the teacher expects of them

  • Educational segregation a gap between children of high-income families vs low-income families and the level of education they receive differs

  • Educational stratification: separation of students based on their level of success

• Family: relates individuals by a socially defined set of relationships, like birth, marriage, and adoption → most families strive to do five things which are reproduction, protection, socialization, affection, and social status; follows functionalism

• Religion: involves beliefs and practices related to the sacred

• Government: makes and. enforces rules and regulates relations with other societies - economy depends on the production, and distribution of goods and services

• The iron law of Oligarchy: all forms of organization develop oligarchic ways → rule by a small group ex. government

• Weber’s “Rational”: rules keep increasing, and so more bureaucracy to enforce them

  • Weber’s ideal bureaucracy is one with a hierarchal structure, division of labour, written rules and expectations, officials hired based on performance, impersonality

• McDonaldization: principles of the ideal bureaucracy applied to the private sector of society ex. everything is standardized, predictable, quantified, total control, replaced by tech, etc.

• Medicalization: is the process through which human conditions are defined and treated as medical conditions; mental health, ADHA, depression, and pregnancy outlooks have all changed through the years

• Process of medicalization: new information and discoveries, changing social attitudes, development of new medications and treatments

• Sick Role: those who are ill have rights and obligations to perform

• Availability vs. Accessibility: is the resource available? Can you get or have support to obtain the resource?

• Institutional discrimination: When a social structure engages in discriminatory practices against a group/individual

• Social epidemiology: study of social determinants of health and use of social concepts to explain patterns in health

• Social condition: social determinants of health ex. availability, access, etc

• Social isolation: the near-complete lack of contact with others in society

• Socioeconomic gradient in health: there exists a proportional increase in health and health outcomes as status increases

• Demographics: Major factors are age, immigration status, gender, and race

• Two main types of demographics: Malthusian and transition model:

  • Malthusian: unchecked population growth would excess quickly lead to overpopulation and catastrophes

  • Demographic transition theory: societies transit from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates

  • 3 stages, pre-industrial, industrial, post-industrial

• Race: dividing people by physical characteristics

• Ethnicity: a population group whose members identify with each other by the basis of culture and shared traditions

• Socioeconomic status: the standing or class of an individual or group - measured by education, income, and occupation. SES can affect segregation types ex. residential, environmental, food deserts, social

• SES three variables: Power, Poverty, Prestige

• Social stratification: the idea that some things don’t change based on the family you are born to. very poor may remain very poor, and very rich will remain rich

  • Caste system: based on status by birth - lower is worse

  • Class system: status by birth and merit

  • Meritocracy: higher ability to move up, depends more on effort

• Social mobility: determined by your physical capital, social capital, and cultural capital

• Social interaction: defined position in society

  • Master status: dominates

  • Ascribed status: assigned to you by society regardless of your efforts

  • Achieved statues: one that you have earned

• Role conflict: conflict in multiple roles with different expectations

• Roles strain: when there is tension in the expectations of a single role

• Role exit: transition from one role to the next

• Primary group: who you are close to; usually small

• Secondary group: the goal-oriented type; usually bigger

• In-group: who you belong to

• Out-group: who you don’t identify with

• Reference group: who a group compares themselves to

Class 3 - 22/06/24:

• Identity