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152 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Chapter 8
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Social Institutions: Family and Religion
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Social Institution
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Organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on general basic needs
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Functionalist View on social institutions
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Replacing personnel
Teaching new recruits Producing and distributing goods and services Preserving order Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose |
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Conflict View on social institutions
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Major institutions help maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and groups in a society
Social institutions such as education are inherently conservative Social institutions operate in gendered and racist environments |
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Interactionist View on social institutions
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Social institutions affect our everyday behavior
Social behavior is conditioned by roles and statuses we accept, the groups we belong to, and institutions within which we function |
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Family:
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set of people related by blood, marriage (or some other agreed-upon relationship), or adoption who share the primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society
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Nuclear Family
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larger family groups are built (Married parents with their unmarried children)
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Extended Family
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family in which relatives such as grandparents, aunts, or uncles live in same home as parents and their children
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Monogamy:
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form of marriage in which one woman and one man are married only to each other
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Serial Monogamy:
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when a person has several spouses in his or her lifetime, but only one spouse at a time
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Polygamy:
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when an individual has several husbands or wives simultaneously
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Polygyny:
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marriage of a man to more than one woman at a time
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Polyandry:
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marriage of a woman to more than one husband at the same time
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Kinship:
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state of being related to others
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Bilateral Descent
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both sides of a person’s family are regarded as equally important
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Patrilineal descent:
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only the father’s relatives are important
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Matrilineal descent
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only the mother’s relatives are significant
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Three authority patterns of families:
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patriarchy, matriarchy, and egalitarian family
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Patriarchy:
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males are expected to dominate in all family decision making
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Matriarchy:
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: women have greater authority than men
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Egalitarian family
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: family in which spouses are regarded as equals
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Functionalist View on families. Family serves six functions for society:
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Reproduction
Protection Socialization Regulation of sexual behavior Affection and companionship Provision of social status |
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Conflict View on family
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Family reflects inequality in wealth and power found within society
Throughout most of human history—and in a wide range of societies, husbands exercised power and authority within the family View the family as an economic unit contributing to social injustice |
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Interactionist View on family
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Focuses on the micro level of family and other intimate relationships
Interested in how individuals interact with each other, whether they are cohabiting partners or longtime married couples |
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Durkheim's classic definition of religion
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Durkheim viewed religion as collective act; religion includes many forms of behavior in which people interact with others
Acknowledged religion is not the only integrative force; nationalism or patriotism may serve the same end |
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Religion and Social Support: What does this do?
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Through its emphasis on the divine and the supernatural, religion allows us to “do something” about calamities we face.
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Religion and Social Support: What does religion provide for individuals in society?
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Religion encourages us to view personal misfortunes as relatively unimportant in broader perspective of human history
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Religious Rituals:
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practices required or expected of members of a faith
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Religious Experience
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feeling or perception of being in direct contact with ultimate reality or of being overcome with religious emotion
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Religious beliefs:
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statements to which members of a particular religion adhere
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Components of religion
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Primarily an interactionist view
Religions have elements in common Beliefs, rituals, and experience Sacred VS Profane |
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Protestant ethic
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Weber argued that followers of John Calvin, a leader of the Protestant Reformation, emphasized a disciplined work ethic, this-worldly concerns, and rational orientation for life
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why is religion an agent of depoliticization ?
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Keeps people from seeing their lives and societal conditions in political terms
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Religion and Social Control: A Conflict View
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Marx argued religion impeded social change by encouraging people to focus on other-worldly concerns rather than their poverty or exploitation
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Chapter 9
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Social Institutions: Education, Government, and the Economy
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Sociological Perspectives on Education: Functionalist View: Manifest function:
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Transmission of knowledge, bestowal of status
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Sociological Perspectives on Education: Functionalist View: Latent Functions:
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transmitting culture, promoting social and political integration, maintaining social control, and serving as an agent of change
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Sociological Perspectives on Education: Conflict View
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Education is an instrument of elite domination
Schools socialize students into values dictated by the powerful, schools also stifle individualism and creativity in the name of maintaining order and that the level of change they promote is relatively insignificant |
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The Hidden Curriculum
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Standards of behavior in schools that are deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in schools
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Credentialism
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An increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field
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Bestowal of Status
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Schools tend to sort students according to their social class backgrounds
Schools can reinforce class differences by putting students in tracks |
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Tracking:
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practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of their test scores and other criteria
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Sociological Perspectives on Education
Feminist View |
In the United States, like many other social institutions, has long been characterized by discriminatory treatment of women
Aspire to be housewives |
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Treatment of Women in Education
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In 20th century, sexism in education showed up in many ways:
Textbooks with negative stereotypes Pressure to prepare “women’s” work Unequal funding |
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Sociological Perspectives on Education
Interactionist View |
Labeling and self-fulfilling prophecy – if we treat people in particular ways, they may fulfill our expectations
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Teacher-Expectation Effect:
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The impact that a teacher’s expectations about a student’s performance may have on the student’s actual achievements
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Education: Schools as Formal Organizations
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Schools are compared to business firms in that they are controlled by some outside force – a market of potential students
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Bureaucratization of Schools
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Weber noted five characteristics of bureaucracy, all of which are evident in most schools:
Division of Labor Hierarchy of Authority Written Rules and Regulations Impersonality Employment Based on Technical Qualifications |
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Teachers: Employees and Instructors
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While teachers’ academic assignments have become more specialized, the demands on their time remain diverse and contradictory
Burnout is a result of stressors: between a ¼ and 1/3 of new teachers quit within their first 3 years of teaching Students take economic considerations into feelings about the attractiveness of teaching |
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Politics
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struggle for authority and power
Who gets what, when and how |
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Power
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Ability to exercise one’s will over others
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Sources of power in political systems include:
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force and and influence
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Force
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Actual or threatened use of coercion
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influence:
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Process of persuasion - authority
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Types of Authority
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Authority: power that has been institutionalized and is recognized by people over whom it is recognized
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Traditional Authority
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legitimate power is conferred by custom and accepted practice
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Legal-Rational Authority:
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power is made legitimate by law
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Charismatic Authority:
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power is made legitimate by leader’s exceptional personal or emotional appeal to his or her followers
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Who Rules in the United States?
Power Elite Models |
Society ruled by a small group of individuals who share a common set of political and economic interests
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Mills Model
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Described a small group of military, industrial, and government leaders who controlled the fate of the U.S.
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Domhoff’s Model
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Stresses roles played by elites of corporate community and leaders of policy-formation organizations
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Pluralist Model
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Many conflicting groups within the community have access to government officials, so that no single group is dominant
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Economic Systems
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A society’s system for producing, distributing, and consuming goods and service will depend on its level of development and its political ideology
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Capitalism
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Economic system in which the means of production are held largely in private hands. Main incentive for economic activity is the accumulation of profits
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Capitalism: Laissez-faire:
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businesses could compete freely with minimal government intervention
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Capitalism: Monopoly:
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exists when a single firm controls the market
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Socialism
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means of production and distribution are collectively rather than privately owned
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Communism:
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refers to economic system under which all property is communally owned and no social distinctions are made on the base of people’s ability to produce
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The Changing Face of the Workforce
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Sociologists and labor specialists foresee a workforce increasingly composed of women and racial and ethnic minorities
A more diverse workforce means relationships between workers are more likely to cross gender, racial, and ethnic lines |
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Deindustrialization
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Systematic, widespread withdrawal of investment in the basic aspects of productivity such as factories and plants
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Downsizing:
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reduction taken in a company’s workforce as part of deindustrialization
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E-Commerce
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increasing – doing business via Internet (eg. Amazon.com)
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Contingency Workforce:
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notion of “temping”/part-time work
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micro-financing:
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Lending small sums of money to the poor so they can work their way out of poverty.
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Chapter 10
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Population, Community, Health, and the environment
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Fertility:
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: level of reproduction in a society
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Demography:
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scientific study of population. Sociologists focus on the social factors that influence population rates and trends
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Malthus’s Thesis of population growth
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He believed that the world’s population was growing more rapidly than the available food supply
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Marx's view of population growth
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saw no special relationship between world population and the supply of resources (including food)
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neo-Malthusian view
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stresses birth control and sensible use of resources
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Studying Population Today. Census:
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counting of a population
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Vital Statistics:
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records of births, deaths, marriages, and divorces gathered through a registration system maintained by government
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Elements of Demography. Birth Rate:
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number of live births per 1,000 population in a given year
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Total Fertility Rate:
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average number of children born alive to any woman, assuming she conforms to current fertility rates
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Death Rate
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: number of deaths per 1,000 population in a given year
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Infant Mortality Rate:
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number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births in a given year
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Life Expectancy
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median number of years a person can be expected to live under current mortality conditions
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Growth Rate:
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difference between birth and deaths, plus the difference between immigrants and emigrants
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Preindustrial Cities
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Had only a few thousand people living within their borders
Characterized by relatively closed class systems and limited social mobility Status usually based on ascribed characteristics, and education limited to elite |
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Why did preindustrial cities remain small:
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Reliance on animal power
Modest levels of surplus Problems in transportation and storage of food Hardships of migration to the city Dangers of city life |
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Industrial City:
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Based on very different principles of social organization than preindustrial cities
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Postindustrial City:
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Global finance and electronic flow of information dominate the economy
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Urbanism:
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relatively large and permanent settlement leads to distinctive patterns of behavior
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Urbanization and Its Consequences
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Urbanization has become central aspect of life in the U.S.
During 19th and early 20th centuries, rapid urbanization occurred primarily in European and North American cities Since WW II, and urban “explosion” has hit the world’s developing countries |
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Functionalist View: Urban Ecology
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focuses on relationships as they emerge in urban areas
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Functionalist View: Human ecology
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interrelationships between people and their spatial settings and physical environments
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Functionalist View: Urban Ecology. Concentric-zone Theory:
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center, or nucleus, of a city is the most highly valued land and each succeeding zone surrounding the center contains other types of land which are valued differently
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Functionalist View: Urban Ecology- Multiple-nuclei theory:
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all urban growth does not radiate out from a central district
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Conflict View: New Urban Sociology
New urban sociology: |
considers the interplay of local, national, and worldwide forces and their effects on local space
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World Systems Analysis:
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: certain industrialized nations hold a dominant position at the core of global economic system
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Health
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State of complete physical, mental, and social well-being
Not merely the absence of disease and infirmity Represents ideal rather than precise condition |
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Functionalist Approach
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Being sick must be controlled so that not too many people are released from their societal responsibilities at any one time
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Sick role:
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societal expectations about attitudes and behavior of a person viewed as being ill
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What are physicians function?
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Physicians function as “gatekeepers” for the sick role.
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Conflict Approach
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Medicalization of society refers to growing role of medicine as major institution of social control. Medicine is a regulating mechanism
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Medical model:
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once medical experts become influential in proposing and asserting public policies, it becomes more difficult for “common people” to join the discussion and exert influence
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Conflict Approach- Inequities of Health Care
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Poor and rural areas tend to be undeserved
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Brain drain
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immigration to U.S. and other industrialized nations of skilled workers, professionals, and technicians desperately needed in home countries
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Interactionist Approach
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-Engage in micro-level study of roles played by health care professionals and patients
-Patients play an active role in the positive or negative outcomes of their health |
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Labeling Approach
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-The designations healthy and ill generally involve social definition by others
-Disagreements have arisen in the medical community over whether a variety of life experiences are illnesses or not |
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Social Epidemiology:
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study of distribution of disease, impairment, and general health status across a population
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Incidence
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number of new cases of specific disorder occurring within given population during stated period of time, usually a year
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Prevalence:
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total number of cases of specific disorder that exist at given time
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Social Class
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Clearly associated with differences in morbidity and mortality rates
Class linked to health by: Crowded living conditions Substandard housing Poor diet Stress Lack of health insurance |
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Social Epidemiology: Race and Ethnicity
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Health profiles of racial and ethnic groups reflect social inequality evident in United States
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Social Epidemiology: Gender
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When compared with men, women experience a higher prevalence of many illnesses, though they tend to live longer
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Social Epidemiology: Age
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Most older people in the United States have at least one chronic illness
Older people especially vulnerable to certain types of mental health problems Older people use more health services than younger people |
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Environmental Problems:
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Air Pollution
Water Pollution |
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Human Ecology
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Interrelationships between people and their environment
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Functions of Human Ecology
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Dunlap suggests the natural environment serves three basic functions for humans:
Provides the resources essential for life Serves as a waste repository Houses our species Three functions compete with one another |
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Global Warming
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Significant rise in the earth’s surface temperatures – greenhouse atmosphere
Still low on policy makers’ list Wildfires, shrinkage of bodies of water, desert expansion, torrential downpours |
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Impact of Globalization
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Good or bad
Polluting companies relocate Incentive to carefully consider the cost of natural resources |
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A Conflict View of Environmental Issues
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Less affluent nations are being forced to exploit their mineral deposits, forests, and fisheries to meet debt obligations
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Environmental Justice
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Legal strategy based on claims that racial minorities are subjected disproportionately to environmental hazards
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Ecological Modernization
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Emerged in the 80s – focused on alignment of environmentally favorable practices with economic self-interest, constant adaptation and restructuring
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Chapter 11
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Social Movements, Social Change, and Technology
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Social Change
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Significant alteration over time in behavior patterns and culture
Example – Music downloads 1999 – “Napster” website – allowed people to download music for free 2013 – where are we now? |
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Social Movements
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Organized collective activities to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society – “collective enterprises to establish a new order of life”
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Relative Deprivation
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conscious feeling of a negative discrepancy between legitimate expectations and present actualities
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What happens before a social movement?
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-People must feel they have a right to their goals
-Must perceive that they cannot attain their goals through conventional means |
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Resource Mobilization:
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ways in which social movement utilizes resources such as money, political influence, access to the media, and workers.
To sustain a social movement, there must be organizational base and continuity of leadership |
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False Consciousness:
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attitudes that do not reflect workers’ objective position
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Gender of Social Movements
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Women find it difficult to assume leadership positions in social movement organizations
Women often disproportionately serve as volunteers in organizational movements Gender can affect the way we view organized efforts to bring about or resist change |
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New Social Movements:
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: organized collective activities that promote autonomy and self-determination, as well as improvements in quality of life
Generally do not view government as their ally in the struggle for a better society |
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All the different approaches to social movements
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Relative deprivation, resource mobilization, and new social movement theory
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Theories of Social Change: Evolutionary Theory
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Views society as moving in a definite direction, generally progressing to a higher state
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Theories of Social Change: Unilinear Evolutionary Theory:
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All societies pass through the same successive stages of evolution and reach the same end
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Theories of Social Change: Multilinear Evolutionary Theory:
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Change can occur in several ways and does not inevitably lead in the same direction
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Theories of Social Change: Functionalist Theory
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Parsons maintained four processes of social change are inevitable: differentiation, adaptive upgrading, inclusion, and value generalization
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Equilibrium Model
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As changes occur in one part of society, there must be adjustments in other parts. If adjustments are not made, society’s equilibrium will be threatened
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Differentiation
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Refers to the increasing complexity of social organizations.
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Adaptive Upgrading
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Social institutions become more specialized
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inclusion
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_____ into society of groups that were once excluded because of factors like gender, race, and social class.
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Value generalization:
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The development of new values that tolerate a greater range of activities.
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Theories of Social Change: Conflict Perspective
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Change has crucial significance, since it is needed to correct social injustices and inequalities
Marx argued that with societal evolution, each successive stage is not an inevitable improvement over the previous one |
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Economic and Cultural Factors
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Efforts to promote social change are likely to meet with resistance
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Vested Interests:
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people or groups who will suffer in the event of social change
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Technology is:
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Information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and desires
Examples: airplane, automobile, fax machine, cell phones, computer |
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Computer Technology
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Last decade witnessed explosion of computer technology in U.S. and around the world
Estimates are that by 2005, the Internet will reach 1.1 billion people Not everyone can get onto the information highway, especially not the less affluent |
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Biotechnology
- Sex Selection |
Advances in reproductive and screening technology have effectively become techniques for sex selection
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Biotechnology- Genetic Engineering
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Genetic engineering may make it possible to alter human behavior
Gene therapy raises staggering possibilities for altering animal and human life forms Debate on genetic engineering escalated when scientists in Scotland cloned a sheep Controversy growing over genetically modified (GM) food |
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Bioterrorism
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Scientists have long recognized that chemical and biological agents can be used intentionally as weapons of mass destruction
Because chemical and biological weapons are easy to use, these agents are a source of increasing concern to governments the world over |
