Sociology 001: Socialization, Deviance, and Social Structure Study Guide

Course Logistics and Midterm Announcements

• Midterm Exam Date: Wednesday, May 6th, during regular class time.

• Exam Format:   - 50 minutes to complete.   - 52 total questions: 25 multiple-choice, 25 True/False, and 2 matching questions.   - The exam is in-class, closed-book, and administered via Canvas.   - Students are required to bring a fully-charged laptop or tablet.

• Policies:   - Attendance must be recorded with a section TA before leaving the lecture hall; failure to do so voids the score.   - Failure to appear results in a score of zero; make-ups require valid documentation.   - Testing at the SDRC testing center requires a request via R’Ability at least 10 days in advance.

• Coverage: The exam covers both lecture slides and readings from Week 1 to Week 6 (Deviance).

Introduction to Sociology: The Sociological Eye

• The Sociological "Flip":   - Peter Berger (1929–2017) defines sociology as a perspective that makes us see the world we have lived in all our lives in a new light, resulting in a transformation of consciousness.   - Trick 1: Seeing the strange in the familiar and the familiar in the strange.     - De-naturalizing everyday reality to recognize beliefs or practices rooted in power dynamics or arbitrariness.     - Empathizing across differences and recognizing social/historical reasons behind unfamiliar practices.

• A Skeptical Stance: Berger refers to sociological thought as part of Nietzsche’s "art of mistrust," asserting that "things are not what they seem."

• The Sociological Imagination:   - Concept by C. Wright Mills (1916–1962).   - Defined as a "quality of mind" that allows individuals to see the interconnection between personal experiences and larger, invisible social forces.   - Three Essential Questions:     1. What is the structure of this particular society as a whole?     2. Where does this society stand in human history?     3. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and period?

• Personal Troubles vs. Public Issues:   - Personal Trouble: Occurs when something valued by an individual is threatened and is privately felt within immediate surroundings.   - Public Issue: Occurs when something valued by the public is threatened; these are events involving social life beyond individual experience.   - Example: Voter Suppression: Carol Anderson (2018) in One Person, No Vote explores how Voter I.D. laws in Alabama are experienced as personal troubles yet reflect broader public issues of systemic inequality.

Sociology as a Discipline

• Definition: The systematic study and explanation of societies (macro level), social groups (meso level), and social interactions (micro level).

• Origins: Emerged in the early 19th century as a response to social problems caused by the Industrial Revolution.

• Historical Theory: Alienation under Capitalism (Karl Marx):   - People are separated from the products of their labor.   - People are separated from the process of production.   - People are separated from their essence as human beings.   - People are separated from other producers.

• Key Definitions:   - Social Context: The external reality formed by interactions between individuals, ranging from micro (family) to macro (nation).   - Social Structure: The way relationships between individuals and/or groups are organized.   - Culture: A shared system of meaning (beliefs, values) or worldview existing in a society.

• Sociology vs. Other Disciplines:   - Biology: Focuses on nature, organ systems, and metabolism. Sociology focuses on nurture and the external social realm.   - Psychology: Focuses on internal mental processes and emotions. Sociology focuses on external environments.   - Economics: Focuses on rational individual behavior; sociology focuses on the social actor.   - Anthropology: Focuses on "other" cultures; sociology focuses primarily on contemporary, own-society institutions.

• Émile Durkheim on Suicide (1897): Found that suicide rates were higher for Protestants than Catholics, attributing this to "social solidarity" rather than internal individual factors.

• Social Science and Categorization:   - Empirical Evidence: Information collected through observation or investigation to support a claim.   - Generalization: Statements based on empirical evidence that characterize objects within a category, defining similarities and differences.   - Stereotype: An oversimplified, judgmental, and exaggerated description applied to every person in a category that does not change with new evidence.

Sociological Research Methods

• Goal: To resolve puzzles and find explanations for new phenomena, perspectives, or questions.

• The Scientific Method: The systematic pursuit of knowledge involving problem formulation, data collection via observation/experiment, and hypothesis testing.

• Research Structure: Introduction (The Gap/Puzzle) → Background (Literature Review) → Methods (Data Collection/Analysis) → Findings (Answering Questions) → Discussion/Conclusion (Summary and Limitations).

• Quantitative Methods:   - Survey Research: Collects data via questionnaires to identify trends/patterns in large populations. Use of standardized questions is crucial.   - Existing Data (Secondary Analysis): Using data already collected by others (e.g., U.S. Census, GSS, World Values Survey).

• Qualitative Methods:   - Observation (Ethnography): Collecting data via field notes (can be participant or non-participant).   - In-depth Interviews: Open-ended questions allowing respondents to speak at length.   - Content Analysis: Systematic inference from "social artifacts" like diaries, social media, or advertisements.

• Experiments:   - Ideal for identifying causal relationships between independent and dependent variables.   - Lab Experiments: More control but artificial setting.   - Field/Audit Experiments: Real-life situations (e.g., sending fictitious job applications to test for the "Motherhood Penalty").

• Ethical Issues:   - Studies like the Milgram Obedience Experiment and Stanford Prison Experiment led to modern Ethics Codes.   - Institutional Review Boards (IRB): Oversight committees ensuring human subject protection.   - Key Ethical Pillars: Informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality.

Social Structure, Norms, and Social Interaction

• Status: Social positions assigned by society.   - Ascribed Status: Given at birth (e.g., race, sex).   - Achieved Status: Acquired through effort (e.g., student, husband).   - Master Status: A status that overrides all others.

• Role: Behaviors and "scripts" appropriate to a status.   - Role Conflict: Occurs when roles of different statuses conflict (e.g., being a mother vs. a full-time professional).

• Norms: Shared rules of behavior in a particular context.   - Folkways: Norms for routine or casual interaction (right vs. rude).   - Mores: Norms with great moral significance (right vs. wrong, e.g., prohibition of murder).

• Social Control: Formal and informal sanctions used to enforce norms.   - Positive Sanctions: Rewards (smiles, affirmations).   - Negative Sanctions: Punishments (fines, looks of disapproval).

• The Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo, 1971):   - 24 students played prisoners and guards in a simulated jail.   - Study was halted after 6 days because subjects could no longer differentiate between the roles and their real selves.   - Demonstrated the "Power of the Situation."

• Dramaturgical Analysis (Erving Goffman):   - Front Stage: Where performances follow social scripts for an audience.   - Back Stage: Where individuals retreat from expectations to prepare, rehearse, or show "true" selves.   - Impression Management: Strategically presenting self through dramatization and idealization.   - Face-work: Actions taken to maintain "face" (positive social value). Mutual acceptance is a basic ritual of interaction.

Culture and the Social Construction of Reality

• Definitions of Culture:   - Matthew Arnold: "The best that has been thought and known."   - Clifford Geertz: "Webs of significance."   - Ann Swidler: A "tool kit" or repertoire of symbols and practices.

• Levels of Culture:   - Explicit Culture: Observable, deliberate behaviors (art, religion, fashion).   - Implicit Culture: Taken-for-granted automatic processes.

• Habitualization: Frequent repetition of actions into patterns (Society as "habit").

• Reification: Apprehending human products as if they were something other than human (e.g., natural laws).

• Example: The Seven-Day Week (Zerubavel): The 7-day week is a social construction with no basis in natural phenomena but is maintained for social order. Attempts by the Soviet Union and post-Revolution France to change it failed because the culture was too embedded.

• Ethnocentrism vs. Cultural Relativism:   - Ethnocentrism: Seeing one's own culture as the "right" way.   - Cultural Relativism: Understanding beliefs and activities in terms of the subject's own culture.   - Example: The Nacirema (Horace Miner): A satirical description of 1950s American practices (e.g., "holy-mouth-men" for dentists, "latipso" for hospitals) to highlight ethnocentric biases.

Cultural Views of Death

• Philippe Ariès' Four Stages of Death:   1. Tamed Death (Middle Ages): Death is natural, familiar, and a public event.   2. One’s Own Death (Later Middle Ages–17th C.): Personalization and focus on judgment.   3. Thy Death (18th–19th C.): Dramatized and sentimental mourning.   4. Forbidden Death (20th C.–Present): Death is ugly, professionalized, hidden in bureaucratized settings (hospitals/funeral homes), and sanitized.

• The "Fifth Stage": Modern movements for "Death with Dignity," including hospice care and physician-assisted suicide.

• Viviana Zelizer: Pricing the Priceless Child:   - The Useful Child (Late 19th C.): Children were economic assets; child death was met with resignation.   - The Useless Child (20th C.): Children became sentimentally priceless but economically useless; child death is now met with indignation and horror.

Socialization and the Development of Self

• Socialization Definition: The lifelong process of learning the expectations, statuses, roles, and values of a society.

• Cases of Social Isolation:   - Anna and Isabelle (Kingsley Davis): Isolation severely hindered mental progress; Isabelle recovered better due to early intensive interaction.   - Genie: Found at 13; despite physical health recovery, her language development never surpassed that of a young child, proving the necessity of social experience for human development.

• Charles H. Cooley: The Looking Glass Self: Notion that the self is built by observing others' responses to us; society serves as a mirror.

• George Herbert Mead: Development of the Self:   - The "I": The spontaneous, creative individual self.   - The "Me": The social self that has internalized societal expectations.   - Stages of Development:     1. Preparatory Stage: Mimicking others.     2. Play Stage: Acting out specific roles.     3. Game Stage: Taking on multiple roles and understanding the "Generalized Other" (total societal norms).

Gender Socialization and Theory

• Sex vs. Gender:   - Sex: Ascribed status assigned at birth based on biological factors (chromosomes, hormones, anatomy).   - Gender: Socially constructed roles (masculine/feminine) defining expected behaviors.

• Gender Binary vs. Gender Spectrum: Binary assumes two fixed genders; Spectrum includes feminine, masculine, nonbinary, and agender identities.

• Gender Meaning:   - In 1918, pink was for boys (decided, stronger) and blue for girls (delicate, dainty).   - The shift to pink-for-girls occurred around the 1940s due to manufacturer choices.

• Judith Butler: Gender Performativity: Gender is not something you ARE, but something you DO through repeated actions and speech.

• Kimberlé Crenshaw: Intersectionality: A lens for seeing how various forms of inequality (race, sex, class) operate together to exacerbate each other.

Deviance Theories

• Definition: Deviance is norm-breaking behavior, which is relative across space and time (e.g., changing views on marijuana legalization from 12% approval in 1969 to 88% Net Legal in 2024).

• Strain Theory (Robert Merton): Deviance occurs when there is a tension between desired goals (wealth) and access to legitimate means (jobs/education).   - Responses to Strain: Conformity, Ritualism, Innovation, Retreatism, Rebellion.   - Elijah Anderson: Code of the Street: A subculture in inner-city neighborhoods where violence is a means to achieve "Respect" when faith in systemic justice is lost.

• Labeling Theory: Focuses on how society creates deviant labels and how power influences who gets labeled.   - Master Status: The label (e.g., "deviant") becomes the primary identity seen by others.   - Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Labeled individuals begin acting to fulfill societal expectations of that label.   - William Chambliss: The Saints and the Roughnecks: Two groups of boys committed similar acts, but the "Roughnecks" (lower-class) were labeled deviant due to poor visibility and demeanor, while the "Saints" (upper-middle-class) were seen as "good boys" sowing wild oats.

• Midterm Exam Date: Wednesday, May 6th, during regular class time. Please ensure to arrive on time as late entries may not be allowed once the exam begins.

• Exam Format:
    - You will have 50 minutes to complete the exam.
    - There will be a total of 52 questions comprising 25 multiple-choice questions, 25 True/False questions, and 2 matching questions.
    - The exam will take place in-class, is closed-book, and will be administered through Canvas. Please familiarize yourself with this platform prior to the exam.
    - Each student is required to bring a fully-charged laptop or tablet, as no devices will be provided during the exam.

• Policies:
    - Attendance must be recorded with a section TA before leaving the lecture hall after class; failure to do so will result in voiding your score for attendance.
    - A failure to appear without prior notice will lead to a score of zero; any make-up opportunities will require valid documentation to be considered.
    - If you need to take the exam at the SDRC testing center, it is essential to submit a request through R’Ability at least 10 days in advance to secure your spot.

• Coverage:
    - The exam will cover materials from both the lecture slides and assigned readings from Week 1 to Week 6, focusing specifically on the topic of Deviance. It is crucial to review all pertinent materials thoroughly to prepare for the range of question types included in the exam.