Sociology 2

Front 1

Social structure organizes social life around relationships that connect people to one another and to systems as well as connecting entire systems to one another. It gives social life its familiar and predictable shape. Social structure is about how social relationships are organized at all levels of social life and it refers to various kinds of distributions in social systems such as how peope are distributed among the various positions found in systems.

Back 1

What is a social structure? What are its “two meanings”? (See page 78). Can you give examples of some social structures, and your position/status within them?

Front 2

Status: The social honor or prestige that a particular group is accorded by other members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life – patterns of behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or negative. Pariah status groups are regarded with disdain or treated as outcasts by the majority of the population (achieved and ascribed)Role: Socially defined expectations of an individual in a given status, or occupying a particular social position. In every society, individuals play a number of social roles, such as teenager, parent, worker, or political leader. They lay out paths of least resistance Role conflict: Role conflict occurs when people are confronted with incompatible role expectations in the various social statuses they occupy. Role conflict can take several different forms. When the roles are associated with two different statuses, the result is known as status strain. When the conflicting roles are both associated with the same status, the result is known as role strain. Ex: A parent may feel conflicting obligations to employers who demand full devotion to the job and children who need to be cared for when they are sick (status strain).

Back 2

You should also review definitions and examples for the following terms we’ve already discussed:

Front 3

Functionalism is a perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society. Kind of like how each part of the body contributes but they each need each other to survive. Functionalism emphasized the importance of moral consensus in maintaining order and stability in society. Moral consensus exists when most people in a society share the same values. Functionalists regard order and balance as the normal state of society

Back 3

What are the basic assumptions of the functionalist perspective?

Front 4

To study an organ such as the heart, we need to show how it relates to other parts of the body. When we learn how the heart pumps blood around the body, we then understand that the heart plays a vital role in the continuation of the life of the organism.

Back 4

Explain how functionalists have used the biological metaphor.

Front 5

Government, Education, Family, Economy, Religion

Back 5

What are the major social institutions found in most advanced societies today? What functions do they seem to serve?

Front 6

Nuclear family is 2 adults with their children as opposed to an extended family which includes uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc. A nuclear family is better because of employment. A lot of business are in competition which means there is a lot of unemployment and therefore people have to move for jobs. This means people need to be mobile and that is easier with a smaller family

Back 6

According to Talcott Parsons, what is the particular functional significance of the nuclear American family?

Front 7

Manifest functions: the functions of a particular social activity that are known to and intended by the individuals involved in the activityLatent functions: functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by the members of a social system in which they occurEx. Hopi rain dance. The Hopi believe that the ceremony will bring the rain they need for their crops (manifest function). But using Durkheim’s theory of religion, Merton argued that the rain dance also has the effect of promoting the cohesion of the Hopi society (Latent function).

Back 7

Distinguish between Merton’s concepts of manifest and latent functions.

Front 8

Many functionalist thinkers unduly stressed factors leading to social cohesion at the expense of those producing division and conflict. In addition, many critics argue that functional analysis attributes to societies qualities they do not have. Functionalists often wrote as though societies have “needs” and “Purposes” even though these concepts make sense only when applied to individual human beings.

Back 8

Describe some of the principal criticisms of the functionalist perspective.

Front 9

Statuses are inherently relational in that they don’t even exist except in relation to each other. You can’t describe what a “manager” “mother”, or a “teacher” is without referring to some other status such as “employee”, “daughter,” or “student”

Back 9

In the section “Structure as Relation”, Johnson says, “Statuses are important in the structure of social life not in themselves, but in the relationships that connect them to one another” (p. 90). Explain what he means.

Front 10

As group size increases, their intensity decreases, while their stability and exclusivity increase. Larger groups have less intense interactions, simply because a larger number of potential smaller group relationships exist as outlets for individuals who are not getting along with other members of the group. Larger groups are also more stable

Back 10

Also in the section “Structure as Relation”, Johnson discusses how adding a new status/position to a given structure radically complicates the structure by multiplying the number of role relationships. Describe, giving an example from your own life, and relate this to GDAC’s discussion of Simmel’s work on the effects of group size in (GDAC, Ch. 5).