DSoc 1101 Study Guide PDF

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Sociology aims to expand your understanding of human

1)Sociological Imagination behavior and the social world 2)Social Construction of Reality • The Socratic Argument- yourself- personal 3)Conformity and Deviance o the deep extent to which you are shaped by society 4)The Looking Glass Self • The “Patch Adams” arguments- clients5)Nature/ Nurture/ Structure professional 6)Social Structure and Inequality • The “C.W Mills” argument- the world7)Conflict vs Consensus Perspectives societal success 8)Hidden Functions of Institutions 9)Economic, Social and Cultural Capital 10)Cultural Relativism

What is Sociology? Four approaches Formal Definition Content Visual definition Definition by comparison: To Natural sciences/other Social sciences Possible Causes of Human Behavior Nature- Innate, things inside your body “Features”- External, traits you can see from outside Nurture- How you are raised, family, social circles that shape you Structure- Broader society, societal constraints or opportunities Sociology tends to focus on broader level- Nurture and Structure

The ‘invisible’ hand of society- A Sociol ogical Twist- connection btwn you and the social world. Society has multiple fingers in your

The Looking Glass Self- Knowing ourselves Two (Imperfect but Complementary) Sources of SelfKnowledge

Sociological Imagination- ability to connect specific connections between society and you Imagination- capacity for form/invent new ideas, images or connections that are not readily perceived… not present/obvious to the senses or to other people

Societal impression 1st problem- inconsistent- Societa mirror is different than physical mirror, Can be inconsistent from different people’s viewpoints 2nd- unfair judgement 3rd- superficial 4th- often inaccurate- other people may have diff ideas of your abiliti than you actually have Part II- Impression management

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION Reality is defined by society What we see depends on what our culture trains us to see Why? Simplify reality Conceal ugly aspects of life Dominate How? Three Aspects of Social Construction Category-thinking: reduce diversity by fitting people into a few categories; Pick arbitrary cutoff lines (intelligence) Assign value/ enforce labels: Decide what is worthy and what is not (sane/insane) Objects, events, categories do not have meaning in themselves. They are given meaning by societies; i.e., these meanings are constructed rather than natural. Constructing these meanings/ labels often involves One-dimension thinking, Category-thinking, Arbitrary cutoffs, Value ascription / value judgment Active social construction of reality is meant to : Simplify reality, Impose a specific world view/dominate other groups.

Usually society gets people to focus on one aspect or to think about things in a small about of categories to simplify reality Conformity- tendency to take the shape of your surroundings Conformism- extreme version to adopt behavior that is prescribed by your group Asch Experiments- length of bars ppl pick fake answers before you (RL ex police lineup) Anchoring- tell ppl a fact they tend to agree / priming studies- subtle ads ppl buy more, overt less The Milgram experiment- prisoner shock Why conform? short run perceived Costs of Deviance: Economic, Social (excluded), Psychological (feel bad) longer run Internalization of values/ Socialization- we don’t see the costs anymore we think it’s our ow Post-hoc rationalization 4 sources of differences in individual outcomes: Nature, Features, Nurture, Structure Their relative importance can be studied: Biographies, Personal experiments, Twin s Competing Explanations of Human Behavior (In Theory): Four Concentric Circles, The Focus of Different Social Sciences, Historical Trends in Focus, Impli Consensus perspective- optimistic aka functionalist - Center on social circles- friends, family Conflict perspective- pessimistic aka critical- Tend to focus on broader social issues- remote

Different Sociological Perspectives on Human Behavior (Application to Crime) Consensus Differential association- People in a large society also belong to different sub-groups that may have their own sub-culture. If the norms in your subculture differ from the norms in the broader culture, you might violate (without meaning to, or because you must choose) the norms of the broader culture; In this case, the nurturing from your subculture is what gets you in trouble. The larger society is not being specifically unfair to you. Rather, it simply enforces the norms of the broader culture and it indiscriminately applies sanctions to everyone who breaks its rules. Anomie- Norm confusion or normlessness ~ confusion created when social norms of behavior tend to conflict, are changing or are not clearly spelled out. Social control- Most people are occasionally tempted to commit crimes, but some are better able to resist the temptation. They have two types of restraints: internal controls (by conscience, values, integrity); and outer controls (such as family and friends) Conflict Labeling- Criminal behavior” is a (contestable) label that is arbitrarily attached to some behaviors; “Behaviors are criminal only because society labels them as such;” Laws are arbitrary Interactionist- Criminal behavior as a reaction to pre-existing injustices, Instead of focusing on these initial, unjust action, mainstream society will focus only on the reaction from the oppressed. Robinhood Structural opportunities- The structural environment is deficient or stacked against poor people. For the poor, opportunities are scarce (e.g. jobs in poor communities) or there are macro-economic incentives, laws, or broad social norms that are stacked against the poor (e.g., prison industrial complex) Attribution- Group biases in the attribution of crime, Jurys (and the broader public are more likely to exonerate people whose experience they can relate to

What we’ve called “structure” so far can be seen as a set of “large institutions” (organizations or practices) that surround us. Each of these institutions affects us; Each has important roles. Overt/obvious/official functions- what they tell the world it’s for OR hidden/latent roles- It helps understand why some “seemingly useless” institutions/practices continue to exist- Roles that societies do not acknowledge, b/c these functions don’t seem noble/ nice. Poverty- overt (none), hidden- Make sure the dirty work of society is done, Free leisure time for the middle class, Create jobs for service organizations, Give the barely non-poor a sense of relative privilege The elite “do-gooders” who profess to want to make the world a better place do in fact: Only work to feed their egos, Preserve the status quo by sustaining the idea of a benevolent elite, Preserve the status quo by drowning the voices that call for more profound (and presumably needed) social change Broadly speaking, ‘capital’ refers to assets or resources that can be used to produce value for your personal fulfilment or for making the world a better place Historically, this notion was initially restricted to material capital (money or physical assets BUT: Human capital ~ Education, health, and various skills (including ‘soft’ skills)- Stock of personal knowledge, abilities, and skills that you can use to produce value Social capital: sum of resources (actual or virtual) accruing to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of relationships Cultural- non-financial assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means. Ex: intellect, style of speech, dress, physical appearance, mannerisms, tastes, pedigree Cultural Relativism- evaluating something relative to something else off of 2 references point: your own culture (not good) OR the local circumstances Most cultural practices have a reason BUT There may be a lag where the reason they used to do it is gone but they are so accustomed to doing it they keep on doing it Cultural relativism: refraining from snap judging other cultures based on our own cultural standards - Opposite- ethnocentrism: (tendency to make (negative) judgements about societies using one’s own as reference Sensitivity- (as a first reaction) refrain from judging without info just b/c the culture is different; but later on you can critically evaluate Why Consider Cultural Relativism?- A Global World, Sensitivity, Understanding other cultures, Understanding one’s own culture TASTES, NORMS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, LANGUAGE Self-Understanding: (having understood the logic behind the other’s cultural practice, one can begin to explore if in fact the same logic applies to us and can explain our own cultural practices)

Lake woebegone effect- ppl think they are above the average Demographic Reproduction-process of replenishing a society’s population. It should ideally avoid both overly rapid growth and decline, while achieving some balance in age and sex composition

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• The three drivers of this process are : fertility, mortality and migration • Fertility (adds) to the total population. It is measured by TFR (# births/woman), with 2.1 as a key threshold. Fertility choices represent both economic forces (costs and benefits of children) and cultural norms. • Mortality (subtracts) to the total population. It is gauged by life expectancy. • Migration (adds or subtracts) depending on direction of flows. Theories of migration evolved from physical arguments to economic and to greater incorporation of cultural arguments Societies must have enough members to function As people die, they must be replaced This replacement process = demographic reproduction; We must Add ENOUGH members … but not TOO MANY (Goldilocks equilibrium) Add the right members (sex and age) • Numbers and growthconsumer markets, military power but pressure on resources and servicesGoldilocks principle • ‘Goldilocks’ point for fertility ~ 2.1 births per woman

Culture refers to material and non-material knowledge and actions- Stock of knowledge and behaviors characteristic of a particular group of people, and transmitted through the process of socialization and designed to integrate individuals into a group Cultural relativism: idea that one cannot judge any culture as being better (in a moral sense) than another Cultural diffusion: Process in which the culture of a group spreads into or (freely) into another group Cultural hegemony: process in which the culture of a group gets imposed to another group Cultural assimilation: situation in which members of an (immigrant) population blend into the culture of their new country Cultural enclave(s): situation in which different cultures –generally associated with different ethnic groups– coexist in a country or city, without coming into mutual contact Cultural melting pot: situation in which two or more cultural groups come together and end up forming a “synthetic” culture that combines elements of all the initial groups Competing Views on Inequality Three related –but distinct- challenges 4 taxonomies of theories about how/why societies change Inequality, Equity, Social Mobility Possible? • Humanitarian Argument- Even if we deserve to have more, we must put • Tax #1: Economic vs Sociological vs Demographic … ourselves in the shoes of the deprived . Less inequality- when more middle class and shorter distance • Economic- Many Mozarts are wasted if society does not give the poor an • Tax #2: Consensus vs. Conflict explanations opportunity to develop their talent (because they are forced every day to worry • Tax #3: Generational, age and period effects about where the next meal will come from) • Tax #4: Behavioral vs compositional change • Political- If we don’t give everyone a minimum level of economic security and social recognition, then we are going to face political protests all the time. Period effects result from external factors that equally affect all age groups at a particular calendar time. • Social-Psychological : Making other people feel inferior robs them of their selfesteem and destroys their humanity. Self-actualization The essence of decomposition is understanding how micro behaviors aggregate to shape macro-level outcomes and change therein. Decomposition analysis- Behavioral vs. Compositional Effects Method to measure if social change is due to change in population composition (compositional effect) or actual change in behavior of aggregate (behavioral effect) Does not clarify causality • • • • • •

“The Promise” begins by describing the feeling of entrapment and powerlessness that men feel through two paths. They feel trapped by the ordinary routine of their lives but powerless to change it due to the rapid change of society. Then Mills goes on to say that in order to what sense of the chaos of change in their lives, people need to use their sociological imagination to question what is happening in a more broad sense, using three categories of questions: society’s structure, society’s role in history, and the qualities of people who succeed in society. “On Being Sane in Insane Places” describes a study where normal, sane people faked psychological illness to be admitted to different hospitals. After being admitted the pseudopatients returned to their normal behavior. During the experiment they found that the sane patient was not detected by the staff; but interestingly other patients questioned the pseudopatient’s presence. When the pseudopatient displayed any behavior like boredom, note-taking, or anger over mistreatment, the staff attributed it to the diagnosis rather than environmental causes. The Type II error of misdiagnosing a healthy patient with illness is much more detrimental in psychological causes. This highlights the importance of mislabeling patient diagnosis and the contribution of environment to patient behavior. “If Hitler Asked You to Electrocute a Stranger, Would You? Probably” describes the Stanley Milgram experiment where a "teacher" participant were instructed to administer electric shocks to the "learner" to study the level of obedience people would follow. He discovered that people were much more obedient than he thought and would continue to shock the “learner” even when confronted with exclamations of extreme pain. An interesting observation he made is that when the experiment was done at Yale versus in a more untrustworthy place more people tended to obey to extreme due to the prestigious reputation of Yale. In “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”, discusses how people act in different ways in society to present a version of self in different situations. While in some ways we present ourselves in a way the situation calls for, like taking on a professional manner at work; sometimes people carefully cultivate a certain aura by purposefully using their actions to show the social world an appearance that may not be true. For example, a girl may arrange for calls to be made to her phone in order to show her friends that she is popular enough for others to want to call her. In “The Importance of Being Beautiful”, discusses the phenomenon of more attractive people being able to advance easier and faster than less attractive people. Different examples are used to explain this; one is "person perception," which is the ways that physical attractiveness affects all parts of your life. One study that was described I found particularly concerning. University students were asked to be “evaluators” and were given a scenario were a young child had hurt a sleeping dog and a picture with either an attractive or homely child. Based on just the picture the responses were found to describe the attractive child’s cruelty as a “bad day” and the homely child as regularly misbehaving and a “bratty” child. “Extreme Isolation” discusses two cases of a child being deprived of basic care and stimulation. One child, Anna, never made full progress but the other child “Isabelle” did. They were looking to see why Anna did not develop as quickly and thought it may have been her genetics from her low-intelligence mother or because of her neglect. This brings in the idea of nature vs nurture that we discussed in class. They attempted to compare the case of Anna again “Isabelle” proposing the idea that with a mother classed as a “moron” nature may have been the cause of Anna’s low development. But another factor may have been through nurture, because “Isabelle” may have been able to make greater progress as she was given more intensive care and rehabilitation earlier than Anna. In “Learning to be Male” Henslin describes the development of a male. First he describes how even from before birth parents already push the idea of gender norms onto their child with the color blue to toy trucks and allowing rougher play. Then he goes on to talk about how that development changes during puberty and how boys have to change their previous concept of how to act in order to appeal to the girls that they previously scorned. This introduces the idea of artificiality and the idea we discussed in class and in previous readings that we present a certain image in order to appeal to society. Like in this case of boys gentling their actions and being more polite towards girls. In “Learning to be Female” Eder discusses societal judgement of girls’ appearances. Their appearances on judged and commented on from their peers in school to adult figure, leading to body image issues. Also the media, like television and magazines, shows the ideal woman as an unattainable beauty and sets a ridiculously high bar for young girls and they are often destroyed trying to meet these standards. Eden discusses different situations where societal expectation affects behavior towards girls and how this leads girls to value their appearance more than their accomplishments. For example in Barbara Ehrenreich's “Nickel & Dimed” even though she had a good baseline of good health and a nest egg of income, she still couldn’t sustain herself on a minimum wage job. In order to have enough money to live she had to take two jobs but the labor was took too much energy and even she got tired easily leading to an even harder time keeping up. And she only did this for a short period of time. I imagine that actually living in a low-income lifestyle becomes even harder psychologically when you don’t have the hope of going back to a better life like Ehrenreich did. In “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All” Gans describes 13 functional uses of poverty. Of which are the “dirty work” low-wage labor pool, subsidize life for the affluent, creates jobs for those that serve the poor, creates a market for goods that other don’t want, used as deviants to uphold conventional norms, offer vicarious participation to the more affluent in uninhibited activities, cultural function, guarantees status in hierarchical society, aid upward mobility of groups just above poverty, keep the rich busy with charity work, absorbs the costs of growth of American society, stabilize the political process, and uphold conventional norms in politics. However there are many more dysfunctions of poverty than there are functional uses and this reading goes on to suggest possible alternatives to the functions of the poor. The problem is that if poverty was eliminated, it would be at a cost to the more affluent and since the affluent are the ones with the power to make these changes it is not something that is likely to happen. “Kindergarten as Academic Boot Camp” raises the idea that even from the time of early schooling we are being trained to function as obedient citizens that fit the mold through systematic socialization. It describes a model classroom where the children are bound to a certain structure with no opportunity to independently create activities or to question the reason of seemingly illogical structures imposed by adults in charge. However, the author points out that within the “holes” of structure the children create informal groups like they will in the future in the workplace. So kindergarten not only prepares children for future higher levels of schooling but also for the future bureaucratic structure of the workplace. “Moving Up from the Working Class” discusses how the social class that we grow up in continues to influence our lives into adulthood even if we mov...