Sociology Chapter 4 Review Terms and Information PDF

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Sociology Chapter 4 Review Terms and Information Socialization: The Self and Social Identity The Personal–Social Identity Continuum: refers to the range of traits you possess that emphasize the way you see yourself as a unique individual on one end and those that underscore your membership in a group on the other end. Precisely which traits stand out the most to you at any given time can vary across contexts. Auxiliary Traits: refer to other characteristics that a person associates with a particular master status. Self-Concept: refer to the totality of various traits, feelings, and values that underlie our own unique personalities and preferences (Schieman, 2007). Socialization: the lifelong process through which people learn about themselves and their various roles within society and in relation to one another. Socialization includes learning the norms, values, and language of a shared culture, as well as the knowledge, understandings, and experiences that help shape our Social Identities: (who we are in terms of the social groups we consider ourselves to be a part of) Personal Identities: (the ways we consider ourselves to be unique individuals). From a sociological perspective, this learning is contingent on other people—that is, it is a function of social interaction. Biological Determinism: the belief that all human behaviour is controlled by our genetic makeup. Behaviourism: a school of thought centred on external influences and attributed to psychologist John B. Watson, who claimed that all behaviour was the result of learning: “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select— doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors” (Watson, 1924, p. 82). B.F. Skinner (1938) later developed “radical behaviourism” (also known as “behaviour analysis”), which similarly downplayed the importance of biology but also emphasized how learning is a function of the consequences that follow behaviour. Bio-ecological theory of human development: which stresses the importance of human agency and considers human development to be an ongoing, evolving, and reciprocal process between individuals and their wider structural environments?

Mead’ Mead’ss Stages in the Deve Development lopment of the Self

Shortly after birth, an infant is able to recognize significant others. A baby also begins to see him or herself as an object—an entity that exists with fingers and toes that can be moved around and even put into a mouth. In this preparatory stage, babies do little more than imitate others. For example, an infant will wave “bye-bye” in response to someone else waving “bye-bye.” In the next stage, called the play stage, children start to take on the role of others. Here, a child begins to see that people exist in relation to one another. A common form of play at this stage is to play “house,” where the child takes on the role of one other person in a household, such as pretending to be “the mommy.” Or a child might scoop and dump with a toy truck, pretending to be a “worker,” or place items in a toy basket, pretending to be a “shopper,” or place fake food in a little pot, pretending to “cook supper,” in response to seeing road construction crews, going on trips to the grocery store, and/or observing parents prepare meals on a daily basis. A child during this phase can only focus on one role or perspective at a time (e.g., “I am the shopper” or “I am the mommy”). However, the child can switch back and forth between roles and demonstrate an understanding of temporal order (e.g., a child pretends to be a cook to make a meal and then, when the meal is ready, pretend to be the person at the table eating the meal) (Angus, 2007). It is not until the game stage that a child is able to take into account several different roles simultaneously. Mead (1934) used the analogy of a baseball game to explain how the actor in the game stage must be able to understand different roles and perspectives and be able to think about them simultaneously before making a move. For example, a batter will need to consider the score, the inning, and the various players and their relative positions (e.g., on the bases) before making a decision about where to throw a ball retrieved while in play. The ability to engage in role taking and account for multiple perspectives at once is what Mead meant by the socialized self or the “generalized other.”

The Looking-Glass Self: refers to the sense of ourselves that we develop based on our perceptions of how others view us. Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929) proposed that people in our lives serve as a “looking glass” (a historical term for mirror) (Cooley, 1902). When we interact with them, we “see” ourselves reflected back. There are three core components to the looking-glass self (Yeung & Martin, 2003).

For instance, if we think our parents consider us intelligent, capable, and attractive, we will come to see ourselves in the same way; similarly, if we think they perceive us as incompetent and unattractive, we begin to see ourselves that way as well. Note that it is the perceived judgment of others that is significant. Hence, we may incorrectly believe that our parents consider us incompetent, and this will still become incorporated into our looking-glass self. In addition, when others identify us on the basis of master statuses such as sex or ethnicity, which they then associate with certain auxiliary traits, our own identities may be affected by the assumed accompanying auxiliary traits. For example, if parents continuously act in an overly protective manner towards a daughter who is “vulnerable” and “needs protection,” that daughter may come to view herself as vulnerable and in need of protection. Agents of Socialization: are the groups, social institutions, and/or social settings that have the greatest amount of influence on the developing self. Principal agents of socialization include the family, the school, the peer group, and the mass media. Other important agents of socialization can include parenthood, the workplace, religion, sports, marriage, and correctional services (e.g., prison, probation, and parole).

The F Family amily Self-Esteem: is an evaluation of one’s self-worth, parents who engage in favourable interactions with their children (e.g., smile at them, encourage them, show approval) help instill high selfesteem in their offspring. Conversely, parents who often show indifference or behave in disparaging ways (e.g., ignore or constantly criticize their children) are likely to instill a sense of low self-worth, making their children feel unloved or unlovable (Duff & Peace, 2013).

In every society without exception, the family is the first and often the most important agent of socialization. Children are the offspring of parents, and this family unit is part of a biosocial system that is designed to love, protect and care for them (Grusec & Davidov, 2007). Families also provide most aspects of early socialization, from language acquisition to what and how to eat, personal grooming, and wider societal expectations regarding how to behave. Many of the lessons learned are based on observations made during family routines and rituals. Society places the responsibility for children in the hands of their parents, who also have the authority to make decisions on their behalf and who are expected to maintain long-term relationships with them. From a functionalist perspective, the family’s role is to provide support (e.g., love, protection, economic well-being) and guidance along the path to becoming productive and responsible adult members of society. Effective parenting enhances child attachment and improves child outcomes; by contrast, dysfunctional parenting impedes socialization and causes insecure attachment in children Parents also play a central role in helping an infant develop interpersonal trust. This attitude also affects self-worth as it involves the perception that one can trust and rely upon others who have his or her best interests at heart. Children who have low self-esteem and low interpersonal trust have later problems developing secure attachments in adulthood. As adults, they tend to adopt fearful and avoidant interaction styles that inhibit their ability to maintain meaningful close relationships (Duff & Peace, 2013).

The School When apart from their families, children spend much of their time in school, where they learn to read and write, along with various other lessons based on processes of socialization. For example, within the class environment, students learn from their teachers and classmates about personal management (e.g., how to cooperate with others, respect the rights of others, assume personal responsibility, and work independently). Social interactions with teachers and peers play a central role in the transmission of cultural values and norms that are deemed important. Because schools tend to reinforce existing structures, processes, and practices in society, they also help maintain the differential treatment of particular social groups based on gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity (see later chapters). This is, in part, achieved by teachers’ prior expectations about their students’ abilities and their subsequent behaviours towards students as a function of these expectations (Wentzel & Looney, 2007).

The Peer Group Another primary agent of socialization is the peer group—a group of individuals who share particular characteristics such as grade level at school, age, and extracurricular activities (e.g., sports). Peers enact various socializing functions, teaching us to share, to think about the well-being of others, and to be a good sport even when we lose a game. We learn through our interactions with peers

what it feels like to be accepted or rejected. Also, the peer group is a principal source of social comparison, in that individuals evaluate their own appearance, merit, and abilities in comparison to others (Festinger, 1954). For example, based on the class average for a mid-term exam, you can determine whether you are below average, average, or above average in your ability to demonstrate your knowledge of sociology relative to your peer group. Similarly, comparisons with peer groups inform us whether we are “good-looking,” “fat,” “smart,” “short,” or “athletic.” The peer group also exerts a great deal of influence over individuals, who are pressured to conform to group expectations regarding appearance, activities, and views of others; sometimes this culminates in inappropriate forms of exclusion and aggression, including bullying. It is worrisome that 40 percent of Canadian students are likely both to be bullied (i.e., as victims) and to bully others (i.e., as aggressors) (Craig & Edge, 2012). As shown in Figure 4.4, this level of bullying has remained constant for several years. Bullying takes a variety of forms, including verbal bullying (e.g., name calling, spreading rumours, making negative references to one’s culture), social bullying (e.g., excluding others from a group, humiliating others with public gestures), physical bullying (e.g., hitting, shoving, destroying another’s belongings), and Cyberbullying (i.e., using the Internet or text messaging to intimidate, put down, or make fun of someone) (Bullying Canada, 2014).

Media Media are communications formats that target mass audiences in print (e.g., newspapers, magazines, books) or electronic format using audio and/or images (e.g., movies, radio, television, the Internet). Some consider the media to be the most influential socialization agent of our time, trumping even the family, given that they now permeate all aspects of our lives (including families) and will continue to do so throughout our lives (e.g., see Bereska, 2014; Katz, 1999).

Canadians spend more than 40 hours on the Internet each month; that is almost double the global average (Canadian Internet Registration Authority, 2013). While on the Internet, they engage in any number of activities: watching television, viewing YouTube videos, using social media (Facebook, Twitter), texting and e-mailing others, listening to the news, shopping, and banking, playing games, and possibly even committing criminal activities— all of which are socializing influences. The media are often highly beneficial, for they connect us with others, help maintain social relations, inform us about important local and international events, and provide us with entertainment. However, as you will learn in a later chapter, the media are not neutral—media companies are profitbased and construct reality and shape our perceptions in particular ways so that we come to believe certain messages (e.g., about politics, gender, violence, and consumerism), often with negative implications and outcomes both for individuals and for society as a whole.

The Basic Components of Soc Social ial Structure Socializing forces act on us within a broader social context known as social structure. Social structure is the framework of cultural elements and social patterns in which social interactions take place. Without social structure, you would arrive at your school and have no idea what comes next. There are structural guidelines operating in postsecondary institutions. These interactions include norms (e.g., students attend classes, students are expected to take notes), values (e.g., getting an education is important), and social patterns (e.g., the professor creates a course outline, teaches course content, and evaluates students, who in turn are expected to attend class, complete assignments, and obtain any needed additional help during scheduled office hours). Like cultural elements, social patterns help us make sense of social situations. Patterned social arrangements exist within three main areas of social structure: statuses and roles, social groups, and social institutions.

Statuses and R Roles oles This chapter is concerned with status as it relates to any recognized social position held by an individual in society, a position that exists over time regardless of which individual people happen to occupy that position at any given moment. Statuses include student, professor, caretaker, mother, machinist, prime minister, and brother. A status is a social position in that it exists in relation to others (e.g., a person is a mother because she has a son or daughter, a person is a friend because of his or her bond to another individual, etc.), not because it has some kind of prestige or title attached to it.

A role is the behavioural component of a status. For example, a person with the status “professor” will perform the accompanying role; the behaviours expected here relate to teaching (e.g., preparing notes, giving lectures, holding regular office hours), research (e.g., contributing to the discipline, getting published, presenting conference papers), and service (e.g., participating on university committees). Similarly, the status “student” entails behaviours such as attending class, taking notes, studying for exams, writing papers, and completing assignments on time. We hold statuses, but we enact roles. Statuses and their accompanying roles are essential elements of our identities; they provide us with purpose, fulfillment, and meaning. At the same time, our statuses can create problems and even damage our sense of self. Through anticipatory socialization, individuals learn about the roles associated with a particular status before taking on that status. Controlling for existing social supports, prior life experiences, and other factors such as health, education, and income, Gage and Christensen (2001) found that anticipatory socialization gained from a variety of sources—participating in child care, observing others engaged in child care, taking parenting classes, talking with others about child care (e.g., doctors, nurses, friends, spouses), speaking to parents and relatives, caring for pets—was associated with positive outcomes for males and females making the transition to parenthood. We are born with some statuses (i.e., son or daughter), acquire other statuses over time (e.g., aunt, mother, or grandmother), work to achieve certain statuses (e.g., B.A. graduate, sociologist, master electrician), inadvertently end up with some statuses through our actions (e.g., impaired driver, prison inmate), lose statuses (e.g., widow, unemployed person), and exit some of our statuses (e.g., through divorce or retirement). The sum total of all of the statuses a person holds at any given time is called a status set. Elements of a status set may be incorporated into one’s self-concept, since this comprises some of the ways in which we come to view ourselves on a more consistent basis (e.g., being a wife, a mother, and an associate professor of sociology does play into one author’s sense of who she is). Achieved and Ascribe Ascribed d Statuses

Sociologists also distinguish between statuses that are ascribed and statuses that are achieved. Ascribed statuses are social positions that people inherit at birth or acquire involuntarily over the life course (e.g., male, son, brother, widower). Achieved statuses are social positions that people obtain through personal actions (e.g., husband, graduate, lawyer, criminal). Although the term “status” is neutral when it refers to a social position, particular statuses are not neutral in the sense that some are more important than others. Being a devout Latter Day Saint (i.e., Mormon), for example, may necessitate behavioural guidelines, such as going on a mission at age 19 (if you are a male), that take precedence over other expectations afforded by concurrently held statuses such as those related to friendships, school, or employment.

A master status is the most influential of all of the statuses in a person’s status set. Sociologist Everett Cherrington Hughes (1945) first used the term “master status” to refer to a status that “tends to overpower, in most crucial situations, any other characteristics which may run counter to it” (p. 357). A master status affects both the individual and his or her choices relative to that status, as well as how others accept and interact with that person. Role conflict refers to a situation in which incompatible role demands exist as a result of two (or more) statuses held at the same time. In this case, Taylor is both a student and an employee (i.e., the two statuses); the roles associated with these statuses require her to be in two different places at the same time. Role strain refers to a situation in which incompatible role demands exist within one status. For example, as a student, you will likely experience role strain in the last couple of weeks of class: the “typical” student may be required to complete a research project, prepare for a class presentation, write a paper for one or more courses, and study for final exams.

Social Groups A social group consists of two or more people who share relevant cultural elements and interact with regular frequency. Social groups you might identify with include coworkers, your family, teammates in a sport, your peer group at school, members of your church, and people in clubs you are associated with. Social groups contribute to the social structure by delineating various statuses and roles. For example, there are various positions in retail sales work (e.g. sales associate, assistant manager, manager). A social network is a system of social relationships of varying purpose, relevance, intimacy, and importance. If you use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you are already part of a social network that brings you into contact with family members, close friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and other social groups such as professional associations and charitable organizations. Social F Facilitation acilitation and Social Loafing

Social facilitation is the “tendency for people to do better on simple tasks, but worse on complex tasks, w...