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71 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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SOCIALIZATION
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: the process whereby people learn, through interaction with others, that which they must know in order to survive and function within their society
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Primate studies, by Harry Harlow
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-Monkeys raised in isolation from others did not develop normal behavior; the longer the isolation, the worse the behavior
-Need for social interaction, or else learning capacity is lost and normal behavior is impossible |
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TABULA RASA
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their entire personality is a product of interactions with others
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Looking Glass Self
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socialization process helps us develop a self-image
-Content of messages a child gets from others, and the child’s interpretation of these messages -Excessive criticism can hurt self-esteem, which affects role performance |
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Sigmund Freud
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First to suggest that behavior and personality as the product of the interaction between nature and nurture
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AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION
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people and institutions that influence the development of people’s attitudes, beliefs, self-images, and behavior
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The Family
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Most important for socialization in early years
-Influence is often lifelong -Social class/cultural capital: working class less likely to expose kids to museums |
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Schools
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Critical role in children’s knowledge, self-image, understanding of reality, and mode of reasoning
-Teach students beliefs and values of their society |
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Religion
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Powerful influence on values and beliefs of parents and children
-Specifies what is right and what is wrong for those who participate |
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Peers
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-Influence is greatest in junior high and high school
-Often a very high value placed on conformity -Greatest effect on dress, speech, entertainment preferences, and leisure activity |
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The Media
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Television, the Internet, and other media has become increasingly influential
-People are more likely to feel the need to be entertained all the time |
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How Socialization Works
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1.Selective Exposure
2.Modeling 3.Reward and Punishment 4.Nurturance and Identification |
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Selective Exposure
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-Children are exposed to desirable behaviors and attitudes and shielded from those deem undesirable
-Schools attempt to expose children to ideas supporting core cultural values; media reinforces them |
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Modeling
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Observing, then imitating behavior of significant others
-Behavior is repeated until it becomes a habit -We end up developing attitudes and beliefs that support the behavior |
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Reward and Punishment
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-Significant others show approval for imitation and repetition of desired behaviors and attitudes
-Peers reward conformity and punish nonconformity |
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Nurturance and Identification
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-IDENTIFICATION: positive feelings toward the individual that lead child to want to be like that person
-More effective if the child identifies with agent of socialization |
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Conflicting Agents and Stress
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-One strategy is to try to do part of what each agent wants
-Another is to cite the demands of one agent as a reason not to do fulfill another’s demands |
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Conflicting Agents and Choice
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-Conflicts may be stressful, but they also help teach us how to make choices
-Help us develop beliefs, values, and skills in many areas of life |
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Conflicting Agents and Social Change
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-Messages of different agents of socialization act as a source of social change
-New messages from one agent that conflict with those from mainstream society can eventually become part of the mainstream (Civil Rights movement) |
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TOTAL INSTITUTIONS
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Any group or organization that has almost total, continuous control over the individual
-Often leads to resocialization |
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RESOCIALIZATION
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Attempt to erase the effects of the individual’s previous socialization and instill an new set of values, habits, and beliefs
-Military, prisons, religious cultures |
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Ordinary Socialization vs. Total Institutions
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1.Total institution seeks to eliminate effects of previous socialization
2.Individual self-interests or wishes are ignored in favor of objectives of total institution 3.No competition with other agents of socialization 4.Some total institutions use fatigue and physical brutality as additional ways of wearing people down |
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Functionalist Perspective on socialization
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Socialization process preserves and meets societal needs
-Provides knowledge to each generations about adaptation to a society’s physical and social environment -Teaches norms and values that are essential to solidarity and cooperation |
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Conflict Perspective on socialization
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Socialization process helps the wealthy and powerful preserve and pass on their advantages
-Teaches people to accept, not challenge or question, the ways of their society -SOCIAL CHANNELING: prepares children of the wealthy and powerful for lives of wealth and power by teaching them the values, beliefs, behaviors, and information they will need for such life |
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INCOME
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the amount of money that a person or family receives over some defined period of time
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WEALTH
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total value of everything a family owns, minus any debts owed
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As countries modernize and industrialize, their inequalities tend to decrease
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*The U.S. has greater income inequality than virtually all other industrialized nations*
-The gap between rich and poor is widening in the U.S. -Top 10% get more than 16 times what the bottom 10% get |
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Wealth is even more unequally distributed than income
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-Median white household is 16x as wealthy as African American, 11x as wealthy as Hispanic
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SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY
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the frequency with which people move up and down in the society’s economic hierarchy
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OPEN STRATIFICATION SYSTEM
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People can easily move up or down in the societal economic hierarchy
-Achieved statuses have substantial influence over attained status |
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CLOSED STRATIFICATION SYSTEM
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A society with very low mobility
-Ascribed status largely determines a person’s social position throughout life |
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CASTE SYSTEM
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Formally defined and unequal groupings that are determined by birth and are not subject to change
-Ascribed statuses completely determine your entire life; achieved status means nothing -India’s caste system was based on religion and lasted until 1948 |
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RACIAL CASTE SYSTEM
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Caste system in which caste membership is determined by race
-APARTHEID: South Africa’s racial caste system, which was abolished in 1990s -Whites, Blacks, Asians, and “colored” (mixed race) -Jim Crow laws made segregation legal in the south |
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ESTATE SYSTEM/FEUDAL SYSTEM
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Status is determined by land ownership, often accompanied by some sort of formal title
-High status groups own land, and the rest of the population generally works for them -Plantation ownerships in U.S. south during slavery (also a racial caste system) |
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CLASS SYSTEMS
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Both achieved and ascribed statuses have significant effects on income, wealth and social position
-People can move up or down depending on schooling and success of economic and personal decisions |
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SOCIAL CLASS/ SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS
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One’s position within the system of income and wealth inequality
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The Marxian Definition of Social Class
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-CLASS STRUCTURE: two classes of people, including the ruling class (those who owned means of production) and the subordinate class (those who did not)
-CAPITALIST SOCIETY: any industrial society where means of production are privately owned -BOURGEOISIE: class that owns the capital, meaning productive capacity (factories, mineral resources, land, or money that can be converted into these things) -PROLETARIAT: those who do not own capital but work for those who do -PETIT BOURGEOISIE: small business owners, small store owners who produce marginal income and do the work themselves |
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CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
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Awareness and identification with the social class to which we belong
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The U.S. is less class conscious than other industrialized societies
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-The wealthy tend to refer to themselves as “middle class” so they don’t acknowledge the extent of inequality in the U.S
-It’s in the class interest of the wealthy to promote the idea that class doesn't matter and we can all make it if we work hard enough |
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People in the U.S. are treated harshly for questioning that the accepted system is
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-Police, military, and private security companies have been hired to interfere with strikes
-Hiring strikebreakers is commonplace -Media mocks working class protestors |
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POVERTY
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Having a very low income and standard of living
-RELATIVE POVERTY: low compared with others -ABSOLUTE POVERTY: lacking resources to pay for basic necessities of life |
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Poverty in the U.S.
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-Uses an absolute definition
-Poverty level was set in the 1950s -Annually adjusted to account for inflation, but not differences in costs of basic needs |
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Groups with a relative lack of power overall are more likely to be poor
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-Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians
-Women and those in female headed families, children -Those living in central cities and rural areas |
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DEINDUSTRIALIZATION
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Decline in the importance of heavy industry as a source of employment
-Stuck in inner cities, poor minorities deal with multiple consequences of poverty |
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Consequences of Poverty: Life is more difficult for poor people
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-Shorter lives, more illness (physical and mental), poor or limited medical care
-Lower levels of personal happiness -Greater risk of dying in infancy -Less educational attainment -Unsafe neighborhoods |
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Functionalist View of Poverty/Economic Stratification
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Economic stratification exists because it meets society’s needs for productivity and motivating people
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The Conflict View of Poverty/Economic Stratification
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Socioeconomic inequality exists because the wealthy and powerful benefit from it and have enough power to make the social system work to protect their interests
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Is Stratification Really Functional?
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1.Some of the better-paying, prestigious jobs might not really be more critical to society than others
2.Wealth is distributed more unequally than income, and a large share of wealth is inherited 3.Training required for better paying jobs is highly rewarding 4.Highest-paying jobs often carry considerable nonmaterial rewards |
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Race is socially constructed
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-Social agreement matters much more than biological fact
-Both racial and ethnic groups must be socially recognized as distinct groups -No one gene for race |
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RACISM
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any attitude, belief, behavior, or social arrangement that has the intent or the ultimate effect of favoring one racial or ethnic group over another
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IDEOLOGICAL RACISM/RACIST IDEOLOGY
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The belief that one race is natural superior (or inferior) to another
-Attempts to prove that whites were more intelligent than others -Justifies the exploitation of the minority group -Hitler’s “master race” |
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PREJUDICE
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Racist thinking
-Responding entirely on the basis of someone’s race or ethnicity |
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STEREOTYPE
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Exaggerated belief concerning a group of people
-Can be positive or negative, but even the positive ones are a mixed blessing |
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DISCRIMINATION
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acting on negative prejudices
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INSTITUTIONAL DISCRIMINATION
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Occurs whenever widespread practices and arrangements within social institutions have the intent or effect of favoring one race over another
-School segregation, denying voting rights to blacks in the U.S. South until the 1960s -RACIAL STEERING: showing white customers houses in white neighborhoods -Teachers often expect less achievement from black and Hispanic students |
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SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
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People are prejudiced because they grow up in prejudiced environments
-Those who learn this way change their attitudes and beliefs when they move to an environment with non-prejudiced significant others |
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COGNITIVE-DISSONANCE THEORY
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If behavior changes, attitudes will often change to become consistent with new behavior
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INTERNAL COLONIALISM THEORY
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-COLONIALISM: a powerful country establishes control of a foreign area and its people
-INTERNAL COLONIALISM colonialism happens within the borders of the colonizing country -Colonized people are either isolated or forced to assimilate -This theory focuses on inequalities and conflicts between rather than within racial groups |
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MARXIST THEORY
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-Holds that racism exists mainly because it benefits the ruling economic class
-Workers are divided by race, ensuring that employers will not have to confront a unified workforce -Blacks were recruited for “good jobs” up north without being told that they were strikebreakers -Racial inequality hurts white workers more than it helps them: lower wages, weaker unions |
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ASSIMILATION
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Differences between groups are reduced so that the different groups share a common set of values and a common social structure (alleviates racism)
-Economic motivations are also important in creating systems of racial inequality -Assimilation occurs more readily among immigrant minorities (who have chosen to enter a society) than colonized minorities (who have no choice in the matter) |
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PLURALISM/MULTICULTURALISM
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Social and cultural characteristics are shared in common throughout a society, but differences among groups also exist and are accepted
-Differences are seen as a source of unity and pride for groups victimized by discrimination -Black Power and Afrocentrism; Chicanismo and Brown Power |
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U.S. has experienced a lot of racial and ethnic inequality and conflict
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-Africans were brought here as slaves
-Mexican Americans were created by the conquest of a large area of northern Mexico -Puerto Rico became a U.S. colony after the Spanish-American War of 1898 -The entire U.S. was Indian territory before the arrival of the Europeans |
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Colonized minorities have the greatest systematic disadvantage in U.S.
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-African Americans, most Hispanic or Latino Americans, Native Americans or American
-All have been systematically exploited for their labor, their land, or both |
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Slavery
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Imposed on African Americans by wealthy, landowning elite who sought cheap labor
-Did NOT become slaves because colonists were prejudiced against them -Prejudices became stronger after slavery became institutionalized |
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Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans
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Became part of U.S. through military conquest
-Mexican Americans then were treated as a cheap source of labor -Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory |
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American Indians
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Attacked and displaced from their land
-Whites’ desire for land was the major reason for these attacks |
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African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans remain in a disadvantaged position in the U.S.
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The most advantaged position in the U.S. has always been held by whites from northern and western Europe
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AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
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Special efforts by employers to increase the number of minority or female employees, or by colleges to increase the number of minority or female students
-Special recruitment efforts, considering race along with other factors |
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Is Affirmative Action Reverse Discrimination?
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Opponents argue:
-Preferences constitute discrimination that gets in the way of hiring the most qualified person -Devalues minority achievement |
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It is unfair not to have affirmative action because, without it, minorities do not really have equal opportunities
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-Lingering effects of past discrimination have left minorities at a disadvantage
-Deliberate discrimination continues to happen on a daily basis |
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Some say affirmative action should be implemented on the basis of class rather than race
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-This approach causes the number of minority students admitted to fall significantly
-Standardized tests favor white students |
