Sociology Semester Review
Culture - the way that we think, things we believe, and how we act and the ways that is passed from one generation to the next
Material Culture - the physical objects that separate groups of people
Nonmaterial Culture - (symbolic culture) common patterns of thought and behavior that represent separate groups
Subculture - more specific set of values and behaviors that further distinguish people from a larger culture
Counterculture - a subculture that challenges aspects of the larger culture it is a part of
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis - from Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf and it proposes the idea that language influences the way that we think and view situations and people
Ethnocentrism - using ones own knowledge and ways of thinking and acting to judge other people and groups and their behaviors (tends to lead to more negative thoughts about other people/groups)
Cultural relativism - trying to understand a different culture other than your own without a form of judgement for cultures other than your own
Values - peoples individual opinions that define what is considered good or bad, right or wrong, worthy or unworthy, etc.
Norms - basic expectations that are held to people to maintain values
Taboo - a norm that is so strictly upheld that violating it people will loathe you for breaking it
More (MORE-ay) - norms that going against are considered wrong as they go against values of the group
Folkway - norms that are able to me messed with/not very strict
Moral Holiday - brief moments where norms are suspended and things formerly considered not okay are acceptable (culturally agreed upon)
Criminal Justice System
Parts and Functions
Police - enforce laws, maintain public order, investigate crimes
Courts - determine guilt, protect those accused, interpret laws
Corrections (jails, prisons, parole, probation) - punish offenders, rehabilitate, deter future crimes
Function - used to maintain social order and reinforce norms
Problems and limitations - racial and socioeconomic bias, mass incarceration, recidivism (high reoffense rates), overcrowding in prisons, unequal access to legal defense
Alternatives to the present system - restorative justice, community service, rehabilitation programs, diversion programs, decriminalization of minor offenses
Rabble, Crime and Jail - cycle of poverty and crime, community based intervention, violence interruption, impact of labeling, lack of opportunity
Rabble - a group of individuals within a subculture that go against conventional norms and ideals. Typically looked down upon by the larger society
The Interrupters - focus on removing violence from Rabbles and giving them opportunities for the future
Development of the self and how it relates to deviance
Cooley’s Social Mirror - People always get social feedback, Older you get more feedback you have and it all influences a concept of yourself. How you learn to be a good moral person.
Mead imitation/play/game stages -
1. Imitation stage - copying behaviors without understanding the why
2. Play Stage - taking on specific roles and understanding that each person has one
3. Game Stage - Understanding multiple roles and the expectations that come with those roles and the way that those roles interact to meet societal expectations
I vs. me - self as subject (significant others are the only ones that matter, things that happen to me are the only thing that matter) vs self as object (view is centered on others, part of something bigger, worry about generalized other). Not aware of norms vs. aware of norms
Freud’s Id, Ego, Superego
Id - Unconscious and represents our most animalistic instincts. Consider as devil shoulder.
Superego - Moral internalization of norms and values of your society. It aims for perfection and making all the right decisions. Consider as angel shoulder.
Ego - Rational middle group between Id and Superego. What decisions we make and how that impacts our life. Each persons level of influence from id or superego defines whether they deviate or not
Deviance
Definition - Behavior that violates social norms
Norms of appearance - the norms around physical appearance from the way you look to the things you wear
Norms of behavior - rules on how to act
Involuntary memberships - memberships that you’re a part of without choice (race, sex, age) and affect how deviance is perceived.
Relativity of deviance - relies on culture, time period, situation, power
Norms
The role they play in society - provide order and predictability, reduce chaos, maintain social structure, guide behavior
Socialization
Agents of socialization - family, school/government, peers, media, workplace (they all teach norms and values)
Nature - biology and genetics and how that affects behavior
Nurture - environment and social influences and how that affects behavior
Why it matters for deviance - If with bad genetics or nurtured in a way that leads to deviance
Three Theories and Deviance
Conflict Theory - laws that benefit powerful elites, crime often results from inequality, poor are more likely to be punished
Functionalism
Illegitimate Opportunity - not everyone has equal access to criminal opportunities (access to deviant networks and neighborhood structure)
Strain Theory - strain occurs when people can’t achieve culturally approved goals through legitimate means
Four types of deviants
Innovations - people who accept the goal but use an illegitimate way to try and reach it
Ritualism - people who give up on the goal but continue to go through the motions and hold on to conventional rules of conduct
Retreatism - people who reject the goal and the culturally appropriate way of achieving that goal and therefore find a means to distract themselves or “give up”
Rebellion - people who reject the goal and the culturally appropriate way of achieving that, but find it is their job to find new goals for society
Symbolic Interaction - focuses on small scale interactions and meanings
Control - inner and outer controls create strong social bonds that reduce deviant behavior
Differential Association - crime is learned through interaction. Being a part of different groups can define how well you conform to norms vs how much you deviate from those norms
Labeling - ways a person is labeled gets internalized and since other treat them differently, they are more likely to act accordingly to those labels
Criminal Justice and Race
Views on police relations with Black citizens
Symbolic interaction: Everyday interactions between police and citizens shape perceptions of trust and hostility
Functionalism: the system is meant to maintain order and dysfunctions (bias, profiling) create instability
Conflict theory: Police reflect the interests of the dominant group
Minority Groups
Four classifications
Elephants in the room: very big group that is underpowered and typically hard to categorize (ex. Hispanic/Latinos)
Ghosts: loooooong history in the country who are mostly forgotten and have little to no current power or help (ex. Native Americans)
Historical Minority: long history in the country and are the traditional “foil” (opponent) for the dominant group (ex. Blacks)
Model Minority: seen as most successful and feel a pressure to conform and struggle to attain power and maintain identity (ex. Asians)
Race
Racial identity/awareness (Ashley Doane)
Low sense of identity: numerical majority with great power that faces no discrimination; similarity to “national identity”
High sense of identity: numerical minority with less power that faces discrimination; different from “national identity”
How race is determined/assigned
Based on physical traits and socially assigned categories
Ethnicity
Based on shared culture, language, ancestry, traditions
Minority vs. dominant groups
Minority: groups singled out for unequal treatment based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.
Dominant group: those who are not singled out (doesn’t have to be the majority)
Racism
Definition - someone who has the cultural/economical/political power to oppress and belittle someone else
Use of the phrase - some people define it as individual prejudice while others define it structural and systematic
Racism as a spectrum
Overt- are superior and should/do run the nation
Passive- its its gods will that races have wound up where they are
Subconscious - racial stereotypes “im not racist but…”
Denial - “I don’t see color” slavery/segregation no longer exists
“Woke Justification” - “love will win” “There’s only one race-the human race”
Prejudice vs discrimination
Prejudice - an attitude; a prejudging of some sort, usually in a negative way
Discrimination - unfair treatment directed against someone
Individual - carried out person to person based on perceived characteristics (likely violent)
Institutional - built into society’s laws and all over the place (less violent)
Social Movements
Proactive vs. reactive
Proactive - promote social change
Reactive - resist social change
Levels of membership
Inner core - those most committed to the movement and running it
The committed - less committed than the inner core, but detrimental to be successful as a movement
The less committed - least committed but still involved in the movement. Participation is more out of convenience
Sympathetic public - sympathy for the movement/cause by aren’t committed to it
Hostile public - the movement’s values goes against their own and they want to stop the social movement
Disinterested movement - either unaware of the movement or do not care about it
6 different kinds of movements
Alterative - seeks to alter only some specific aspects of people
Redemptive - seek to change people totally, to redeem them
Reformative - seeks to reform some specific aspects of society
Transformative - seeks to change society totally, to transform it
Transnational - emphasis on some condition around the world, instead of on a condition in a specific country
Metaformative - goal to change the social order not just of a country or two, but of a civilization, or even of the entire world
Systemic Racism
What it is and how it comes to exist\
A form of racism is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or organization. It can be latent and/or left from previous generations
Why is it hard to address and talk about
It is built into institutions and often invisible to the dominant group
Three Theories
How they explain the existence of racism
Symbolic interaction - racism due to selective perception. People tend to see only what they want to see when it comes to race
Functionalism - racism is the latent dysfunction of diversity in society. Sometimes effort to fight discrimination can lead to racism
Conflict theory - powerful elite use racism to divide the masses
White Privilege
Definition - unearned advantages experience by white individuals in society
How it can be over-emphasized or overstated
Not all white people experience economic privilege and class, gender and other factors intersect. Privilege does not mean someone’s life is easy - it means race is not an added barrier
Reification of race - race is socially constructed, but society treats it as biologically real
Prejudice and social forces - socially reinforced through family, meda, education, peer groups, workplace
Social facts - Things that shape behavior
Sociological imagination - connecting personal troubles to bigger societal issues
Verstehen and understanding racism - understanding social behaviors based on reactions and understanding of racism (ex. how different races react to different phrases)
Labeling and symbolic interaction as fulfilling stereotypes - constant labeling and stereotypes that rise from racism can lead a person into believing something in themselves that isn’t true or sets them up for less success in the future
Decline of sex in America
Increase of screen time, delayed marriage, rising anxiety/depressions and shifting social norms
Feminism, history and purpose
Waves:
1st - suffrage/voting rights
2nd: workplace and reproductive rights
3rd: intersectionality
Advocates for gender equality
Feminism, origins of support or resistance to it
Support: women seeking legal/social equality, allied men, progressive movements
Resistance: Traditional gender role beliefs, religious conservatism, fear of social disruption
Gendered Artifacts (what they are and how they affect us)
Objects, symbols, or products coded as masculine or feminine
Reinforces gender norms by socializing people from childhood into expected roles and behaviors
Homosexuality vs. Queerness (progress and limitations)
Homosexuality - term for same-sex attraction
Queerness - broader more political identity challenging all norms
Progress - Marriage equality, antidiscrimination laws
Limitations - Ongoing discrimination, violence, lack of legal protection in many states
Problems and advantages for modern women
Advantages: Greater workforce access, educational attainment, legal rights
Problems: wage gap, double burden, objectification, underrepresentation in leadership
Strength vs. Human Reproduction Theories
Strength theory: men’s physical dominance historically led to power
Reproduction theory: Women’s childbearing role shaped their social position and dependence
Problems and advantages for modern men
Advantages: Wage premium, leadership representation, few domestic expectations historically
Problems: Toxic masculinity pressure, emotional suppression, higher suicide rates, declining educational attainment
Resistance to homosexuality, social vs. primal causes
Social causes: religious teachings, cultural norms, learned prejudice
Primal/evolutionary: some argue heteronormativity is linked to reproductive instincts
The more stable a society is the more likely they are to accept queerness
Sex vs. Gender
Sex - biological and assigned at birth
Primary sex characteristics - obvious traits that definitely mark one as male or female
Secondary sex characteristics - associated with one sex or the other, not a guarantee (still biological)
Gender - social/psychological identity. A spectrum, shaped by culture and self-identification
Sex typing - association with behaviors of one sex or the other
Three theories and gender
Functionalism - gender roles serve social stability
Conflict Theory - gender is a system of inequality and power
Symbolic Interaction - gender is performed and reinforced through daily interactions
Trans identities and how America responds to it
Trans people identify differently from their sex assigned at birth.
American responses are polarized
Growing legal protections in some states
Increasing legislative restrictions in others
Six patterns of gender inequality
Pay gap
Occupational segregation (boy job vs girl job)
Domestic labor imbalance
Underrepresentation in politics/ leadership
Violence against women
Unequal media representation
Sexual deviance (types, our problems/double standards w/ those types)
Pornography - depiction of erotic behavior in film intended to cause sexual excitement
Sex work - anyone providing gratification for money
Nontraditional arousal - deriving strong sexual excitement from objects, items of clothing, or non genital body parts
Field Theory - social behavior shaped by the “field” or environment its in; gender norms differ by the social field
Labeling Theory - Society attaches labels that shape identity; people labeled as gender nonconforming face stigma
Norms vs. values - norms are specific rules of behavior, values are broader beliefs
Reification (VERY significant in gender discussions) - Treating a social construct as if its a fixed/natural thing; gender is reified when people treat it as purely biological rather than socially constructed - makes it harder to challenge inequality
Social forces and conformity - peer pressure, media, family and institutions push people to conform to gender expectations, even when those expectation are limiting
Strain theory - When society’s goals conflict with means available to achieve them, people experience strain - can lead to deviant behavior or identity conflict