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164 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Durkheim’s Theory of Suicide
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Durkheim argued that the suicide rate declines and then rises as social solidarity increases.
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Social solidarity
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Social solidarity refers to (1) the degree to which group members share beliefs and values, and (2) the intensity and frequency of their interaction.
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Social structures
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Social structures are relatively stable patterns of social relations
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Three levels of social structures:
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Microstructures, Macrostructures, and Global Structures
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Microstructures
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Microstructures are patterns of relatively intimate social relations formed during face to face interaction: Family, friends
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Macrostructures
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Macrostructures are overarching patterns of social relations that lie outside and above your circle of intimates and acquaintances: Patriarchy
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Patriarchy
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Patriarchy is the traditional system of economic and political inequality between women and men
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Global Structures
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Global structures are patterns of social relations that lie outside and above the national level: international organizations, trade, economics, etc.
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sociological imagination
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The sociological imagination is the quality of mind that enabless a person to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures
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Three modern revolutions
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The Scientific Revolution, the Democratic Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution
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The Scientific Revolution
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The Scientific Revolution began around 1550. It encouraged the view that the workings of society were based on solid evidence, not just speculation
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The Democratic Revolution
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The Democratic Revolution began in around 1750. It suggested that people are responsible for organizing society and that they could therefore solve social problems
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The Industrial Revolution
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The Industrial Revolution, often regarded as the most important event in world history since the development of agriculture and cities, refers to the rapid economic transformation that began in Britain in the 1780s. It involved the large-scale application of science and technology to industrial processes, the creation of factories, and the formation of a working class
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Theories
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Theories are tentative explanations of some aspect of social life that state how and why certain events are related
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Research
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The process of carefully observing reality to assess the validity of a theory
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Values
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Values are ideas about what is wrong and right
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Functionalism (Durkheim)
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Stresses that human behavior is governed by relatively stable social structures. It underlines how social structures maintain or undermine social stability. It emphasizes that social structures are based mainly on shared values or preferences. And it suggests that re-establishing equilibrium can best solve most social problems.
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Dysfunctional consequences
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Effects of social structures that create instability
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Manifest functions
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Visible and intended effects of social structures
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Latent functions
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Invisible and unintended effects of social structures
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Conflict Theory (Marx)
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generally focuses on large macrolevel structures and shows how major patterns of inequality in society produce social stability in some circumstances and social change in others
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Class conflict
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the struggle between classes to resist and overcome the opposition of other classes (Marx's theory)
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Symbolic Interactionism (Weber, Mead, and Goffman)
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focuses on interaction in microlevel social settings and emphasizes that an adequate explanation of social behavior requires understanding the subjective meanings people attach to their social circumstances.
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Social constructionism
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argues that apparently natural or innate features of life are often sustained by social processes that vary historically and culturally
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Feminist Theory (Martineau and Addams)
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claims that patriarchy is at least as important as class inequality in determining a person’s opportunities in life. It holds that male domination and female subordination are determined not by biological necessity but by structures of power and social convention. It examines the operation of patriarchy in both micro and macro settings. And it contends that existing patterns of gender inequality can and should be changed for the benefit of all members of society
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The Postindustrial Revolution
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refers to the technology-driven shift from manufacturing to service industries and the consequences of that shift for virtually all human beings
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Globalization
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the process by which formerly separate economies, states, and cultures become tied together and people becoming increasingly aware of their growing independence
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Filtering sociological research occurs in four stages:
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Values, Theories, Previous research, and Methods
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Different types of unscientific thinking
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Knowledge bases on: tradition, authority, casual observation, overgeneralization, selective observation, qualification, illogical reasoning, ego-defense, premature closure of inquiry, and mystification
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The Research Cycle
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(1) Formulate a research question, (2) Review the existing literature, (3) Select a research method, (4) Collect data, (5) analyze data, and (6) publish the results
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Four Ethical Considerations
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(1) The right to safety, (2) the right to privacy, (3) The subject's right to confidentiality, and (4) the right to informed consent
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Four Main Methods of Sociological Research
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(1) Field research, (2) Ethnographic research, (3) Participant observation, and (4) Exploratory research
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Hypothesis
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Unverified but testable statements about the relationship between two or more variables
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A grounded theory
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An explanation of events not based on speculation but on the controlled scrutiny of objects
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Four Methodical Problems
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Reliability (consistent results), Validity (actually measures what it's supposed to), Generalizability (exists outside the specific case), and Causality (cause and effect relationship errors)
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Experiment
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An experiment is a carefully controlled artificial situation that allows researchers to isolate hypothesized causes and measure their effects precisely
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Randomization
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Randomization involves assigning individuals to groups by chances processes
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Experimental group
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The group that is exposed to the independent variable
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Control group
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The group that is not exposed to the independent variable
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Dependent variable
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The presumed effect in the cause and effect relationship
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Independent variable
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The cause in the cause and effect relationship
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Field experiment
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When the sociologist introduces the independent variable themselves
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Natural experiment
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When the independent variable is introduced to one of the groups in the normal course of life
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A survey
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People are asked questions about their knowledge, attitudes, or behavior, either in face-to-face or telephone interview or in a pencil and paper format
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A sample
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the part of the population that is in interest to be researched
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A population
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the entire group about which the researcher wants to generalize
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Voluntary response sample
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a group of people who chose themselves in response to a general appeal
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Representative sample
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a group of people chosen so their characteristics closely match those of the population of interest
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Convenience sample
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Choosing the people who are easiest to reach
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Probability sample
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the units have a known and nonzero chance of being selected; respondents are chosen at random
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A sampling frame
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a list of all the people in the population of interest
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Three ways to administer a survey
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(1) the mailing out of a questionnaire, (2) face to face interview, or (3) telephone interviews
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Two types of survey questions
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(1) Close-ended question: a list of permitted responses, or (2) Open-ended questions: answer in their own words
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Four threats to the validity of surveys
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(1) Undercounting some categories of the population, (2) Non-response, (3) Response bias: dishonesty, and (4) Wording-effects: the way questions are phrased
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Fiona Kay and John Hagan (1998) [Lawyer experiment]
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Compared male and female lawyers. They found an association between gender and promotion
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Association
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An association exists between two variables if the value of one changes with the value of the other
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Four conditions of causality:
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(1) Time order criterion: independent variable occurs before the dependent variable, (2) Association criterion: existence of a correlation between independent and dependent variables, (3) Spuriousness criterion: the effect resulted from the cause and not from some other factor, and (4) Rationale criterion: existence of a mechanism or process linking the cause and effect
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A contingency table
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A contingency table is a cross-classification of cases by at least two variables that allows you to see how, if at all, the variables are associated
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Culture
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the sum of practices, languages, symbols, beliefs, values, ideologies, and material objects that people create to deal with real-life problems
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High culture
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High culture is culture consumed mainly by upper classes
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Popular culture (or mass culture)
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culture consumed by all classes
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Abstraction
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Abstraction is the capacity to create general ideas or ways of thinking that are not linked to particular instances
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Symbols
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things that carry a particular meaning, including the components of language, mathematical notations, and signs
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Cooperation
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the capacity to create a complex social life by establishing generally accepted ways of doing things and ideas about what is right and wrong
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Norms
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generally accepted ways of doing things
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Production
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the human capacity to make and use tools. It improves our ability to take what we want from nature
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Material culture
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comprises the tools and techniques that enable people to get tasks accomplished
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Non-material culture
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composed of symbols, norms, and other intangible elements
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Three types of norms
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Folkways, Mores: core norms that are essential for survival, Taboos
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Cultural relativism
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the belief that all cultures have equal value
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The rights revolution
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the process by which socially excluded groups struggled to win equal rights under the law and in practice beginning in the second half of the twentieth century
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Rites of passage
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cultural ceremonies that mark the transition from one stage of life to another (baptisms, confirmations, weddings) or from life to death (funerals)
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Postmodernism
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characterized by an eclectic mix of cultural elements and the erosion of consensus
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Rationalization
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the application of the most efficient means to achieve given goals and the unintended, negative consequences of doing so
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Consumerism
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the tendency to define ourselves in terms of the goods we purchase
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Subculture
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a set of distinctive values, norms, and practices within a larger culture
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Counterculture
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Subversive subculture
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Socialization
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the process by which people learn their culture—including norms, values, and roles—and become aware of themselves as they interact with others
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A role
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the behavior expected of a person occupying a particular position in society
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Spitz’s test of socialization
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Orphanage versus prison home. Orphans had less contact with social stimuli. The importance of childhood socialization
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Freud's Theory
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The Self (your ideas and attitudes about who you are), the Id (demands instant gratification), the Superego (repository of cultural standards), the Unconscious (repressed memories), and the Ego (balances conflicting needs of pleasure seeking Id and restraining Superego)
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Cooley's Symbolic Interactionism
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The "looking-glass self": From other people’s interactions with us, we make evaluations about ourselves
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Mead's Theory of Socialization
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(1) the I (subjective and impulsive part of self), and (2) the Me (objective component that takes emerges through interaction
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Significant others
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people who play important roles in the early socialization experiences of children
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The generalized other
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according to Mead, a person’s image of cultural standards and how they apply to him or her
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Piaget's four stages of development
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(1) Sensimotor, (2) preoperational, (3) concrete operational, and (4) Formal operational
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Kohlberg's theory of children's 3-stage development of moral reasoning
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(1) preconventionial stage (distinguish right from wrong based on gratification), (2) conventional stage (teenagers thing about right and wrong with considerations to if it will please their parents and teachers), and (3) Postconventional (whether the laws of society or authorities are good moral principals)
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Vygotsky's theory of socialization
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Ways of thinking are determined by your culture and social institutions you grow up in
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Gilligan and gender difference
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Demonstrated that sociological factors help explain differences in the sense of self that boys and girls usually develop
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Primary socialization
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the process of acquiring the basic skills needed to function in society during childhood
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The hidden curriculum
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The hidden curriculum in school involves teaching obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms
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Self-fulfilling prophecy
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an expectation that helps bring about what it predicts
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Peer group
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comprises people who are about the same age and of similar status as the individual
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Status
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refers to a recognized social position an individual can occupy
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Self-socialization
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Self-socialization involves choosing socialization influences from the wide variety of mass media offerings
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Gender role
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the set of behaviors associated with widely shared expectations about how males and females are supposed to act
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Resocialization
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Resocialization occurs when powerful socializing agents deliberately cause rapid change in person’s values, roles, and self-conception, sometimes against a person’s will
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Initiation rite
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a ritual that signifies the transition of the individual from one group to another and ensures his or her loyalty to the new group
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Three state process of initiation
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(1) ritual rejection (rejection of old ways), (2) ritual death (degradation, disorientation, and stress), and (3) ritual birth (acceptance of new culture)
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Total institutions
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settings in which people are isolated from the larger society and under strict control and constant supervision of a specialized staff
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Das Prison Experiment
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Radically altering your social setting and your self-conception and patterned behavior are also likely to change
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Adult socialization is necessary for four main reasons
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(1) adult roles are discontinuous, (2) some adult roles are largely invisible, (3) some adult roles are unpredictable, (4) adult roles change as we mature
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Anticipatory socialization
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Anticipatory socialization involves taking on the norms and behaviors of the role to which we aspire
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Virtual community
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an association of people, scattered across the country, continent, or planet, who communicate via computer and modem about a subject of common interest
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Bureaucracy
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a large, impersonal organization comprising many clearly defined positions arranged in a hierarchy. A bureaucracy has a permanent, salaried staff of qualified experts and written goal, rules, and procedures. Ideally, staff members always try to find ways of running the bureaucracy more efficiently
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Social network
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a bounded set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material or emotional resources. The patterns of exchange determine the boundaries of the network. Members exchange resources more frequently with one another than nonmembers. They also think of themselves as network members. Social networks may be formal (defined in writing), but they are more often informal (defined only in practice)
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Contrast of community and society
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Tonnies: a community is marked by intimate and emotionally intense social ties, whereas a society is marked by impersonal relationships held together largely by self-interest
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Dyad
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a social relationship between two nodes or social units: intense and intimate, need both to live only one to die
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Triad
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a social relationship among three nodes or social units: not as intense or intimate, restricts individuality, majority could outvote one, allows for factions
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Social group
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comprises one or more networks of people who identify with one another and adhere to defined norms, roles, and statuses
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Social category
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comprises people who share a similar status but do not identify with one another
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Primary groups
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, norms, roles, and statuses are agreed on but are not put in writing. Social interaction leads to strong emotional ties. It extends over a long period, and involves a wide range of activities. It results in group members knowing one another well
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Secondary groups
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larger and more impersonal than primary groups. Compared with primary groups, social interaction in secondary groups creates weaker emotional ties. It extends over a short period, and it involves a narrow range of activities. It results in most group members having at most a passing acquaintance with one another
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Solomon Asch’s experiment
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Conformity: likelihood increases as group size does, status affects likeliness, culture matters, appearance of unanimity affects
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Groupthink
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group pressure to conform despite individual misgivings
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Bystander apathy
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as the number of bystanders increase, the likelihood of any one bystander helping another decreases because the greater the number of bystanders, the less responsibility any one individual feels
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In-group
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people who belong to a group
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Out-group
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people who are excluded from an in-group
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The Robber’s Cave Study
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Competition between two groups arbitrarily, only ended with shared task
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Reference group
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comprises people against whom an individual evaluates his or her situation or conduct
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Imagined communities
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“Imagined communities” are imagined because you cannot possibly meet everyone in it but are communities because people believe strongly in their existence and importance
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Formal organizations
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secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives
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Four main criticism against bureaucracies
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Dehumanization, bureaucratic ritualism, oligarchy, and bureaucratic inertia
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Laissez-Faire leadership
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leadership allows subordinates to work things out largely on their own, with almost no direction from above. It is the least effective type of leadership
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Authoritarian leadership
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demands strict compliance from subordinates. Authoritarian leaders are most effective in crisis, such as a war or the emergency room of a hospital
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Democratic leadership
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offers more guidance than the laissez-faire variety but less control than the authoritarian type. Democratic leaders try to include all group members in the decision-making process, taking the best ideas from the group and molding them into a strategy with which all can identify. Outside crisis situations, democratic leadership is usually the most effective leadership style
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Organizational environment
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comprises a host of economic, political, and cultural forces that lie outside an organization and affect the way it works
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Societies
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collectivities of interacting people who share a culture and a territory
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Foraging Societies
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are societies by which people live by searching for wild plants and hunting wild animals. Such societies predominated until about 10,000 years ago. Inequality, the division of labor, productivity, and settlement size are very low in such societies
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Pastoral and Horticultural societies
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(1) Horticultural societies are societies in which people domesticate plants and use simple hand tools to garden. Such societies first emerged about 10,000 years ago
(2) Pastoral societies are societies in which people domesticate cattle, camels, pigs, goats, sheep, horses, and reindeer. Such societies first emerged about 10,000 years ago |
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Agricultural societies
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societies in which plows and animal power are used to substantially increase food supply and dependability as compared with horticultural and pastoral societies. Agricultural societies first emerged about 5000 years ago
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Industrial societies
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societies that use machines and fuel to greatly increase the supply and dependability of food and finished goods. The first such societies emerged about 230 years ago in Great Britain
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Postindustrial societies
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societies in which most workers are employed in the service sector and computers spur substantial increases in the division of labor and productivity. Shortly after World War II, the United States became the first postindustrial society
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Postnatural societies
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societies in which genetic engineering enables people to create new life forms. Although genetic engineering holds out much promise for improving productivity, feeding the poor, ridding the world of disease, and so on, social inequality could increase in postnatural societies unless people democratically decide on the acceptable risks of genetic engineering and the distribution of its benefits
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Human capital
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the sum of useful skills and knowledge that an individual possesses
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Human capital theory
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stresses the increasing centrality of education as a factor of affecting economic success
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Social capital
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the networks or connections that individuals possess
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Cultural capital
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the stock of learning and skills that increases the chance of securing a superior job
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Low-income cutoff
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Statistic Canada’s term for the income threshold below which a family devotes a larger share of its income to the necessities of food, shelter, and clothing than an average family would, likely resulting in strained circumstances
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Global inequality
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refers to differences in the economic ranking of countries
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Cross-national variations in internal stratification
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differences among countries in their stratification systems
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Gini Index
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a measure of income inequality. Its value ranges from zero (which means that every household earns exactly the same amount of money) to one (which means that all income is earned by a single household)
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Social stratification
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refers to the way in which society is organized in layers or strata
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Ascription based system
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a system in which the allocation of rank depends on characteristics a person is born with
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Achievement bases system
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a system in which the allocation of rank depends on a person’s accomplishments
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Social mobility
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the movement up or down in the stratification system
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Caste system
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an almost pure ascription-based stratification system in which occupations and marriage partners are assigned on the basis of caste membership
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Apartheid
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a caste system based on race that existed in South Africa from 1948 to 1992. It consigned the large black majority to menial jobs, prevented marriage between blacks and whites, and erected separate public facilities for members of the two races. Asians and people of mixed race enjoyed privileges between these two extremes
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Feudalism
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a legal arrangement in preindustrial Europe that bound peasants to the land and obliged them to give their landlords a set part of the harvest. In exchange, landlords were required to protect peasants from marauders and open their storehouses to feed the peasants if crops failed
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Class consciousness
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being aware of membership in a class
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Class (in Marx's terms)
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determined by a person’s relationship to the means of production
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Class (Weber's usage)
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determined by a person’s “market situation”
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Bourgeoisie (in Marx's terms)
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owners of the means of production, including factories, tools, and land. They do not do any physical labor. Their income derives from profits
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Proletariat (in Marx's terms)
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the working class. Members of the proletariat do physical labor but do not own means of production. They are thus in a position to earn wages
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The petit bourgeoisie (Marx's terms)
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the class of small-scale capitalists who own means of production but employ only a few workers or none at all, forcing them to do physical work themselves
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Status groups (Weber)
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differ from one another in terms of the prestige or social honor they enjoy and also in terms of their style of life
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Parties (Weber)
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organizations that seek to impose their will on others
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Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore's Functional Theory of Stratification
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argues that (1) some jobs are more important than others are, (2) people must make sacrifices to train for important jobs, and (3) inequality is required to motivate people to undergo these sacrifices
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Power
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ability to impose one’s will on others: not an all-or-nothing attribute but a social relationship, the exercise of which may cause less-powerful people to become more powerful
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Authority
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legitimate, institutionalized power: rests on moral consent
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Intragenerational mobility
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social mobility that occurs within a single generation
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Intergenerational mobility
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social mobility that occurs between generations
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Socioeconomic Status (SES)
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combines income, education, and occupational prestige data in a single index of a person’s position in the socioeconomic hierarchy
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“Equality of opportunity” versus “equality of condition”
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Equality of opportunity focuses on chances of participation, while equality of condition focuses on chances of succeeding
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