Sociology Final

Study Guide

Soc 1 Final Exam Study Guide (W25) Sigmon

Week 6: Deviance

1. What is ‘deviance’?

   1. Any behavior departing from the range of conduct regarded as normal within a social context or society 

2. How does Robert Merton (a functionalist) explain the occurrence of deviant behavior?

   1. Functionalist theories argue that crime occurs when the aspirations of individuals and groups do not coincide with available opportunities”

3. According to Merton, what are the five possible types of responses to cultural goals and

institutional means?

1. Conformity (T/F)

2. Innovation (T/F)

3. Ritualism (T/F)

4. Retreatism (T/F)

5. Rebellion (new means new goals)

4. How do differential association theorists explain deviant behavior?

   1. People learn to be deviant based on their exposure to and association with others involved in deviance. “The more we associate with people whose behavior is deviant the greater the likelihood that our behavior will also be deviant.”

5. According to Howard Becker, how do individuals become users of marijuana for

Pleasure?

1. Through social interaction with other people who engage in it and explain the process of communicating techniques effects and motives for smoking weed.

2. The steps are

   1. Learning smoking technique

   2. Learning to identify effects

   3. Learning to define effects as pleasurable 

6. How do labeling theorists explain the occurrence of deviant behavior?

   1. Deviant behavior is a consequence of the labels assigned to people 

7. According to David Rosenhan, how does the label of ‘mentally ill’ influence hospital

staff’s perceptions of admitted pseudo-patients?

1. Once the label of mental patient is applied all subsequent actions become interpreted within the context of this label.

   1. This is due to the experiment of 8 sane patients admitted to various mental hospitals to act mentally ill and once they were there to act normal once they were discharged they were labeled as schizophrenic remission.

8. According to William Chambliss, who are the Saints and the Roughnecks? How does Chambliss account for the Roughnecks’ adulthood deviance?

1. Saints: Rich, White, Well Dressed and Mannered.

2. Roughnecks: Poor didn’t have good grades

3. Both committed the same acts of trouble yet: saints were considered good students and good boys while roughnecks were considered a bunch of bad boys headed for trouble by teachers due to their activities. Later saints graduated from college high school and even med school (7) while the roughnecks ended up in jail, gambling, and being murderers. 

4. The roughnecks came out like this bc they internalized the attitudes of society. 

9. What is ‘primary deviance’ and ‘secondary deviance’?

1. Occurs when an individual committed a nonpatterned act of deviance initial use of a controlled substance the initial act of theft the initial act of aggression

2. Secondary deviance occurs when a person labeled deviant accepts the label as a part of his or her identity and as a result, begins to act in conformity with that label.

10. What are the three premises of labeling theory?

    1. Application of deviant label

    2. Internalization of a deviant self-concept

    3. They act accordingly

11. How do control theorists, such as Travis Hirschi, explain the occurrence of deviant

Behavior?

1. The strength of attachment to conventional significant others serves as a control to an individual’s impulse to behave in a deviant or nonconforming way, insinuating that the risk of losing the approval of rule-abiding significant others limits behavior to conventional lives. Therefore, the reason for deviancy is the lack of significant others, traditional activities, inability to be a part of an organized society, and acquiring goods, reputation, and prospects. But if someone were to have all of this they’d be less likely to be deviant because they risk losing the things they have acquired whether it's losing social standing, etc. Many people don’t have time or the opportunity to be deviant because they have other involvements.

Week 7: Government

12. According to Max Weber, what is ‘power’?

    1. Power is the ability of an individual or group to achieve its goals despite the resistance of others.

13. According to Max Weber, what is ‘rational-legal authority’?

    1. Domination is legitimated based on legally enacted rules and the right of those with authority under those rules to issue commands.

14. According to pluralists, how is political power distributed and exercised in liberal

Democracies?

1. Continual bargaining on policy, among numerous groups, represented differences, thereby dividing power, all groups have some effect on policy but none dominate the mechanisms of government, the status of the group can always be challenged, and groups compete coexist, and share in the exercise of power.

15. How is a ‘balance of power’ between social groups sustained by civil, political, and social

rights associated with citizenship?

16. What are ‘interest groups’?

    1. Any organization that attempts to persuade elected officials to consider its aims when deciding on legislation

17. According to Seymour Martin Lipset, what are the five fundamental tenets of American

political culture that serves to limit and check the concentration of political power?

1. Liberalism: Liberty, equality, and property

2. Individualism: Independence and Self-reliance

3. Populism: Appeals to ordinary people

4. Meritocracy: Ability determines social standing

5. Antistatism: Distrust of goverment

18. According to the majority of Americans, what is the biggest threat facing the country?

    1. Big government

19. According to sociologists, what is a ‘nation-state’?

    1. A nation-state is composed of people with a common identity that ideally includes a shared culture language and feelings of belonging and a state a political apparatus or government that rules over a territory. Associated with the rise of nationalism.

20. According to pluralists, how do news media organizations operate in the U.S.?

    1. While not a political power the press or fourth estate has considerable influence in shaping public perception on political issues News agencies operate within a free market to compete against each other for audiences. The media impacts public sentiment through the production and circulation of info therefore utilizing the power of persuasion. But it also cannot reward or punish people for not taking information to heart. 

21. According to conflict theorists, such as Karl Marx, how does wealth translate to political

Influence?

1. Funding for special interest groups

2. Funding for lobbyists

3. Funding for political campaigns

4. Funding for policy institutes or think tanks

22. What is ‘lobbying’?

    1. Is the act of persuading influential officials to vote in favor of a cause or otherwise lend support to the aims of the interest group

23. What was the legal result of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)?

    1. The court overturned restrictions on unlimited corporate and union spending expressly advocating the election or defeat of candidates.

24. How is money donated to political campaigns being spent?

    1. The candidates, national parties, and super PACs spend the bulk of their campaign cash on advertising, mail, staff, and fundraising.

25. According to Karl Boggs and Karl Marx, how has the rise of corporations impacted the

modern democratic state?

1. Elites now exercise far more control over the state than the state over the elite.s

26. According to C. Wright Mills, who is the ‘power elite’?

    1. By the power elite, we refer to those political, economic, and military circles which as an intricate set of overlapping cliques share decisions having at least national consequences. In so far as national events are decided, the power elite are those who decide them.

27. How is power exercised by those who occupy the top positions of these ‘great

Institutions’?

1. Power is exercised by the decisions they make that affect the everyday worlds of ordinary men and women.

Week 8: Class

28. How do sociologists define ‘class inequality’?

    1. The difference between populations in income, wealth, educational attainment, occupational status, and lifestyle

29. What is ‘class stratification’?

    1. The hierarchical arrangement of social groups based on their access to wealth power and status within a society. 

30. How are class systems different from older forms of social stratification?

    1. They don’t fix people for life in specific social positions as the older systems of stratification did (class system compared to now)

31. What is ‘social mobility’ and what are two types of social mobility?

    1. The upward or downward movement of individuals and groups among different class positions

32. What is ‘intergenerational mobility’ and ‘intragenerational mobility’?

    1. Refers to social movement across generations where children are compared with their parents and grandparents

33. What is ‘income’ and how has the income distribution in the U.S. changed since 1945?

    1. Income: money received regularly through work or investments. Income distribution has been different since 1945 a large middle class characterized American Society but since the 1970s (1975) income inequality has been increasing drastically. Death of the middle class slightly increased in the upper and large increase in the lower. 

34. What does ‘wealth’ refer to and how do trends in wealth inequality parallel those with

income inequality?

1. Wealth: an abundance of valuable possessions or money typically measured in terms of net worth ( the total market value of an individual or household minus debt and liabilities) It takes money to make money. Households with lower incomes and less wealth are more likely to rely on credit or loans to pay for living expenses. 

35. What is the state of debt in the U.S.?

    1. Americans' household debt including credit cards mortgages auto loans and student loans is at a new time high of 18.04 trillion dollars

36. What does ‘educational attainment’ refer to and how does it correlate with income?

    1. The level of education reached correlates to income as the more educated you are the higher you are expected to be paid therefore making educational attainment one of the strongest predictors of occupation, income, and wealth

37. What is ‘occupational status’?

    1. indicators of class standing; public opinion decides occupational prestige

38. According to Lisa Keister, what are two primary paths through which ‘success’ is inter-

generationally transmitted?

1. Wealth: Direct transfers of wealth from parent to child inter vivos and postmortem transfers

2. Education: Successful parents also tend to provide relatively high education for children but education is a critical component of the wealth accumulation process it translates into wealth via work experience and financial literacy. 

39. According to Karl Marx, how does the exploitation of wage labor lead to the production

of ‘surplus value’ and growing economic inequality?

1. Wage labor: The market value exceeds the wages of what workers are paid for their labor. This extra surplus value is the source of profit that capitalists put into their use. (The main idea is you working for your money (wage labor) and getting paid less than what your work is worth creates a (surplus value) that goes to the capitalist. )

40. What is the difference between ‘absolute poverty’ and ‘relative poverty’?

1. Absolute Poverty: that a person or family does not have access to food, housing, or health care ( basic physiological needs)

2. Relative Poverty: Being poor as compared with the standards of living of the majority (lower middle class) (or middle class to high-class comparison)

41. According to Max Weber, how do differences in people’s skills and credentials lead to

differences in compensation?

1. People skills and credentials have variable market values leading to differences in compensation. 

42. According to Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, how is social stratification beneficial to

Society?

1. The rewards and their distribution become a part of the social order and thus give rise to stratification. High requirements should require high rewards/, therefore, creating stratification.

43. According to Claude Fischer et al., what ultimately determines the degree of economic

inequality in American society?

1. People social environments

44. What is required to promote and achieve ‘full opportunity’?

    1. Policies that would promote it include extensive public investment.t

Week 9: Gender

45. According to sociologists, what is ‘gender inequality’?

    1. The difference in the status power and prestige that women and men have in groups collectivities and societies

46. What is the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’?

    1. Sex refers to physical differences in the body whereas gender concerns the psychological, social, and cultural differences.

47. What is ‘gender role socialization’?

    1. The process through which we learn about male and female roles and practices from socializing agents

48. What is ‘biological essentialism’?

    1. Differences between men and women are natural and inevitable consequences of the intrinsic biological natures of men and women.

49. According to Paula England, how has social change to the gender system in the U.?

Have they been uneven and asymmetrical?

1. While women have far greater opportunities today the devaluation of the “traditionally feminine” persists There has been little change in the devaluation of traditionally female activities and jobs the tendency to devalue and badly reward activities and jobs traditionally done by women has incentivized women's movement into positions and activities previously limited to men.

50. What is ‘gendered job segregation’?

    1. The concentration of men and women into select occupations due to beliefs about appropriate jobs for men and women

51. How is ‘gendered job segregation’ related to the ‘gender wage gap’?

    1. As women are discriminated against in higher sectors they make less money and are deemed as less as well when more women join the workforce their appreciation for the job title comes with less pay. 

52. What is the ‘gender wage gap’?

53. What is the ‘androcentric pay scale’?

    1. A strong correlation exists between wages and the gender composition of a jo.b

54. What is the ‘devaluation hypothesis’?

    1. Women are paid less because the work they perform is socially defined as less valuable than the workmen perform

55. According to Paula England, what two co-occurring trends have defined the gender

system in the U.S.?

1. Gender egalitarianism (gender equality) and gender essentialism (gender dictates identity roles.

56. According to the Pew Research Center, what are the different ‘pressure points’ for

American men and women?

57. What is the ‘ideology of intensive motherhood’?

    1. Mothers should be the primary caretakers of their children

    2. Child rearing should include copious amounts of time, energy, and material resources

    3. Giving children these things takes priority over all other interests desires and demands

58. What is the ‘motherhood penalty’?

    1. Women feel pressured to choose family-friendly occupations and jobs that permit flexible hours and career paths.

    2. Further researchers have found that mothers are 44% less likely to be hired than non-mothers

59. What is the ‘employer selection hypothesis’?

1. Employers often rely on gender stereotypes when making decisions related to hiring or job assignments.t

60. According to Caitlyn Collins, what normative conflict do mothers experience?

61. According to the ‘human capital hypothesis,’ what differences between men and women

account for the inequality in pay?

1. Inequalities in pay occur due to differences in the kind of amount of human capital men and women acquire – levels of education, continuous work experience, and job-related skills.

62. According to Kathleen Gerson, what is the ‘new gender divide’?

    1. Men's desire to protect work prerogatives collides with women's growing desire for equality and need for independence.

Week 10: Race and Ethnicity

63. How do sociologists define ‘racial and ethnic inequality’?

    1. The difference in the wealth, status, and power that dominant and minority racial and ethnic groups have within a society 

64. What is a ‘minority group’?

    1. Disadvantaged members of a society compared to a dominant group

65. How do ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ differ?

    1. Strictly biological terms refer to a population within a species that is distinct in some way, especially a subspecies. 

    2. Ethnicity refers to a set of cultural qualities that characterize a population's shared language religion or history.y 

66. Why is ‘race’ a highly contested concept?

    1. There is no biological evidence of clear-cut races or fundamental differences among humans.s 

67. What is an ‘ethnic group’?

    1. A group whose members share a distinct awareness of a common cultural identity 

68. How do sociologists measure racial and ethnic inequality?

    1. Variations in average socioeconomic outcomes among racial and ethnic groups commonly measure racial and ethnic inequality.

69. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest rate of unemployment?

    1. Black

70. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest poverty rate?

    1. Black

71. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest high school dropout rate?

    1. Hispanic

72. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest rate of formal educational attainment?

    1. Asian

73. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest household median income?

    1. Asian

74. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest homeownership rate?

    1. White

75. Which racial/ethnic group has the highest household median wealth?

    1. Asian

76. According to Thomas Shapiro, what is the importance and utility of ‘wealth’?

77. What are the incarceration rates of Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics?

    1. The incarceration rate of black Americans is 5 times higher than white Americans 

       1. Black (33%)

       2. White (30%)

       3. Hispanic (23%)

78. How do sociologists define ‘racism’?

    1. Racial attitudes and behaviors expressed in terms of discomfort and uneasiness

79. How do racial ‘prejudice' and racial ‘discrimination’ differ?

    1. Prejudice refers to negative attitudes held toward members of racial and ethnic groups

    2. Discrimination refers to behaviors that deny these members opportunities and resources 

80. What is ‘individual discrimination’ and ‘institutional discrimination’?

    1. Occurs when an individual member of a racial or ehtnic group is intentionally treated unfavorably

81. What is ‘overt racism’ and ‘aversive racism’?

    1. Overt Racism: Refers to explicit and undisguised racial prejudices and discriminatory behaviors

    2. Aversive Racism: Racial attitudes and behaviors expressed in terms of discomfort and uneasiness

82. According to Devah Pager, what is the effect of race on employer callbacks?

    1. Based on the preferences and hiring decisions of employers, Pager found that “race continues to play a dominant role in shaping employment opportunities, equal to or greater than the impact of a criminal record

83. According to William Julius Wilson, what structural change contributed to the economic

the decline of black inner-city communities?

1. Structural changes in the US economy during the 1970s contributed to the economic decline of black inner ciy communites (stagflation) high inflation

2. The transition from a manufacturing economy to a service economy resulted in massive industrial layoffs where black males were overwhelmingly employed in manufacturing industries

84. How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact employees with varying levels of education?

    1. This compares with only 23% of those without a four-year college degree. Similarly, while a majority of upper-income workers can do their work from home, most lower- and middle-income workers cannot.

85. How did the COVID pandemic affect the median wealth of different racial and ethnic households?

    1. Low-income workers were less likely to have the option of teleworking Fully 62% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or more education say their work can be done from home. This in turn is Black and Latinos as they have the lowest paying jobs (median household incomes)

86. According to Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, what is the ‘success frame’ for 1.5- and second-generation Chinese and Vietnamese Americans?

    1. Getting straight A’s graduating at the top of one class gaining admission to an elite college or top university earning a graduate degree and working in one of four high-status professions. There’s a clear class divide between workers who can and cannot telework. 

87. Why is this success frame so consistent among Chinese and Vietnamese Americans?

Interviewees?

1. Important changes in US immigration law led to new socioeconomic profiles of immigrants after 1965 Asian immigrants were more highly educated than their predecessors Among Asian immigrants 25 64.61% had at least a bachelor's degree this group serves as a resource for working-class coethnics who come to adopt their aspirations. Lastly, parents play a significant role in socializing their children to internalize the success frame.