Soc 100 - Midterm Prep

Topics, Concepts, and specific readings likely on the Midterm: 

Side Note: 

Film: The Joker (Sociological perspective of it) will be on the midterm. 

Review the required assigned readings and multimedia  

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOOPDY_jMC8 (8:44)

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Main Point: 

IMPLICIT BIAS: Implicit Bias is the process of associating stereotypes or attitudes towards categories of people without conscious awareness

• These unconscious biases can play out in our decision-making: 

• Verna Myers-Implicit Bias

Verna Myers 2014 TEDx talk addresses the systemic violence and prejudice faced by young black men in America.

• Combat ingrained biases and stereotypes. 

**Verna Myers – What is a bias? – Biases are stories we make up about people before we know who they actually are.

Get out of denial – stop trying to be good—we need real people. I had an old roommate tell me one time that I’m “real” and I think that is what happens when you become a sociologist

• When things get hard we tend to lean on our biases “fast moving plane in the sky, I want a guy”

• Who are you afraid of? Who is your default? Who do you trust? Who do you feel implicitly connected to?

• 70 percent of white people prefer white and 50 percent of black people prefer white.

• Our brain automatically associates.

• Color blindness is a false ideal – racial difference is changing peoples possibilities, keeping them from thriving, causing early death.

• She is trying to we cannot pretend not to see color and the impact of color on people within a society.

• She is saying to go look for disconfirming data that will prove that in fact your old stereotypes are wrong. Go looking for your bias.

• Move toward your biases instead of away from them (referring to young black men) – you have to be conscious and intentional.

• Walk toward your discomfort. Expand your social and professional circles. Who’s in your circle? Who’s missing? Create the kinds of friendships that actually cause you to see the holistic person to go against the stereotypes

• When we see something, we have to have the courage to say something, even to the people we love. “Grandma, we don’t call people thant anymore…it isn’t true that he deserved that. No one deserves that.”

• No matter how much we say we are not biased, we are, all of us. We have feelings of superiority, causing us to embed those further into our institutions and our society and generations, 

C. Wright Mills-Sociological Imagination-Reading

• A quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our individual circumstances and larger social forces 

• C. Wright Mills, coined this term, said to understanding social life, we must understand “The intersection between biography and history” 

• History must be accounted for to understand people’s social lives. 

• The sociological imagination searches for the link between micro and macro level of analysis: 

This is the intersection of biography and society (social structure and historical context).

A sociological imagination and learning to ask good questions involve moving beyond making broad generalizations about people toward well-developed ideas and complex theories. Our ability to ask hard questions, instead of just accepting easily available answers (or stereotypes), is the hallmark of a good sociological imagination. Examining common sense ideas and questioning things we take for granted are some good ways to actively engage our sociological imaginations.

Social Norms: Accepted, encouraged and practiced forms of behavior within societies, often perpetuated by social institutions (schools, jails, churches) and media (news, internet, entertainment). 

The Looking Glass Self Theory

Charles Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Theory suggests that the individual Self is developed through our perceptions of others evaluations and appraisals of our identity. 

Cooley further believed that the sense of self is also developed through the viewing of oneself reflected in the interactions of others 

This theory affirms that us humans respond to and seek positive reinforcement from others, utilizing them as a “mirror” for ourselves

What is the Social Structure, and how does it shape and determine social behavior, etc.

The social structure is a comprehensive concept used to navigate the fixed and enduring ideologies within the social landscape. 

(This includes social norms, rules, roles and hierarchies as well as institutions)***

These social structures work in conjunction to shape the behavior of individuals in societies by informing them of what is acceptable, expected and necessary for said society to work as a whole while simultaneously enforcing (police, taxes, etc.)  these values 

What are social institutions? provide examples.

Social institutions are the manifestations of social structure represented through government, law, education, religion, family, the economy and mass media 

These institutions are in place to formulate, perpetuate and project social order. 

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Micro and Macro Levels of Sociology

Side Note: 

Level of analysis that give us different ways of looking at a common subject: 

Microsociology: 

• The level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and structures of society. 

• A microsociological analysis might look at the interaction between a cashier amd a shopper. 

Macrosociology: 

• The level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals. 

• A macrosociological analysis might look at the economy and how it impacts consumer behavior. 

3 Major Sociological Theories and Paradigms (Symbolic Interactionism, Structural Functionalist, and Conflict Theory)

• Theories: 

Abstract propositions that explain the social world and make predictions about the future. 

• Referred tp as approaches, schools of  thought, perspectives, or paradigms. 

• Paradigms: 

Paradigms are broad theoretical perspectives. A set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way of understanding social reality. 

• Structural functionalism: Macro sociological theory which characterizes society as small individual parts that make up a functional whole, each part must maintain its role in order to ensure the equilibrium and health of said society. 

• Social Construct Theory: Macro sociological theory regarding the social organization and changes in terms of the conflicts built within the social institutions.The theory is deeply rooted into the discourse of class and power, focussing on what causes conflict within these societies. (ex. Workforce tends to emphasize the value of men’s work over women’s, resulting in conflict between the two parties) 

• Symbolic interactionism: Micro sociological theory concerned with small groups and individual interactions. Argues that individuals and society are the products of social interactions, based on language, gestures, etc. The theory presumes that people acquire a sense of who they are through interactions with others.

Side Note: 

You do not need to memorize the offshoot theories, just note there are offshoots to these theories (e.g.

feminist theory, queer theory, critical race theory, etc.)

You do not need to memorize specific theorists!

Class Consciousness, Dramaturgy

Dramaturgy: 

• Developed by Erving Goffman 

• All life is like acting 

• People engage in impression management

Class Consciousness: 

• Marx argue that the only way to change the status quo is for the masses to attain class consciousness. 

• The recognition of social inequality on the part of the oppressed, leading to revolutionary action. 

Eight Steps in the Sociological Research Process: 

1. Chosose a research topic: 

• pick a subject or issue to study 

2. Dvelop a research Question or Questions: 

• form a clear question to guide the study. 

3. Review the literature: 

• study academic articles and past research on the topic 

4. Formulate a hypothesis: 

• Make an educated guess about the relationship between variables. 

5. Develop the research design: 

• Plan how to collect, measure, and analyze data. 

6. Collect data:

• Gather information using surveys, experiments, or observations.  

7. Analyze data and draw conclusions: 

• Examine findings using statistics (quantitative) or patterns/themes (qualitative) 

8. Disseminate research findings: 

• Publish or present results so others can learn and build on the research. 

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Research Questions, Hypotheses, Independent and Dependent Variables

• Research Question: 

An direct question that leads to answers that are available for further study and peer review 

• Hypothesis: 

After collecting initial research for said question, an educated guess, or hypothesis, is made in order to navigate how the independent and dependent variables may relate to one another. 

• Independent variables: 

Variables (or subjects) deliberately manipulated to test the response in the experiment

• Dependent variables:

 Variables whose value is determined by the independent variable. 

• Example: If researchers wanted to determine if social media use lowers grades within high schools, Social media would therefore be the independent variable, while grades become the dependent. 

Qualitative, Qualitative, and Mixed-Methods Research Methods

• Qualitative Data: Take as their unit of analysis words, pictures, photos, or any other type of information that comes to a researcher in non-numerical form

  • Collect data on many variables over an extended period of time, often in naturalistic settings, and are able to gain insights that quantitative research is unable to produce

    • Examples : unobtrusive and participant observation,interviews, case studies, ethnography, and content analysis

• Quantitative Data: Social phenomena explained by analysis of statistical data

  • Focuses on specific unit of analysis: the object, article, thing or person being studied and quantified

  • Doesn’t provide space for participants understanding of situation or individual experiences 

• Mixed-Method Research: Relies on both quantitative and qualitative research methods

  • Researcher collects and analyzes both quantitative and qualitative in order to draw conclusions about a social phenomenon

Social Research Ethics

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Counterculture and Subcultures

Counterculture: 

• When a subculture expresses values or beliefs in direct opposition to the dominant group’s values, it becomes a counterculture. 

• Sometimes countercultures can merge with and change the dominant culture. 

Subculture: 

• Groups with common interest 

• A subset of the dominant culture, distinct values, beliefs, norms. 

• Groups held together by common cultural or genetic ties. 

Side note: 

Subcultures tend to exist harmoniously within the larger society. They interact with the dominant group but maintain their distinctive values, norms, and lifestyles. Subcultures include skateboarders, vegetarians, and college students.

Countercultures tend to exist separately from the dominant culture in many ways. They generally openly reject society’s values, so it would be difficult for them to interact within that culture. Example include religious extremists and white supremacists

Culture of War AND Culture of Rape

• Anthony J. Marsella article The United States of America: Culture of War expresses the belief that the U.S has adopted a culture that glorifies, justifies and thrives off of the ideology of War. This can be seen represented through the deeply competitive nature of society, as conflict results in hierarchy which in turn produces value. 

Side note: 

Culture wars: 

Clashes within mainstream society over the values and norms that should be upheld. 

• Cultural conflict does not always come from the extreme margins of society; it can also emerge from within the mainstream.

• Culture wars are mainly waged over values and morality and the solutions to social problems.****

Culture of rape: 

• is a culture in which sexual violence is treated as the norm and victims are blamed for their own assaults. It's not just about sexual violence itself, but about cultural norms and institutions that protect rapists, promote impunity, shame victims, and demand that women make unreasonable sacrifices to avoid sexual assault.

• rape culture has its roots in long-standing patriarchal power structures that were designed to benefit men

• Rape culture pressures women to sacrifice their freedoms and opportunities in order to stay safe, because it puts the burden of safety on women's shoulders, and blames them when they don't succeed.

• Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. 

• Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.

• That’s how rape functions as a powerful means by which the whole female population is held in a subordinate position to the whole male population, even though many men don’t rape, and many women are never victims of rape. 

• This cycle of fear is the legacy of Rape Culture.

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Agents of Socialization

**Michelle Alexander-Crime Reading

How do sociologists explain crime and deviance?

Side note: (Macro)

Deviance: 

• A behavior, trait, or belief that departs from a norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group.

Deviance isn’t necessarily bad, just different from what a group considers to be normal. For instance, a woman having a size 13 shoe isn’t bad, but it’s definitely different so it may elicit a reaction from the group that makes up the majority (those with average shoe sizes). When sociologists use the term deviant, they are making a social judgment, not a moral one.

• Whether something is considered deviance depends to some extent on the time period in which it occurred. 

Macro-Level theories of deviance: 

Forms of social control in the criminal justice system (Prisons, Courts, Police) and its associated problems

School-to-Prison Pipeline

• Prison Industrial Complex