Sociology 1301 (Introduction to Sociology)
SOCIALIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION--Section 5
I.
Socialization is the lifelong process whereby we learn our culture, develop a sense of self and
become functioning members of society
A) Some Theoretical Perspectives on Socialization
1) The Nature vs. Nurture question or heredity versus environment and culture as
determinants for behavior
a) Sociobiology—a term “coined” by Edward O. Wilson from Harvard--addresses the
question of how human behavior is determined, but is rooted in the nature side of the
question involving a biological examination of social behavior
1. an example of the idea is that incest taboos can be seen as cultural universals
suggesting the potential of a behind the scenes biological mechanism
2. However, in terms of cultural behavior anthropologists (such as Heider) suggest
that it is learned and not biological
3. Kornblum (65)notes that when this theory is applied to humans both social
scientists and biologists object
4. Edward O. Wilson argues that the opposition to his theory is rooted in the
“autonomy of the social sciences…and the strength and power of the antigenetic
bias that has prevailed as a virtual dogma since the fall of Social
Darwinism”(social survival of the fittest)
5. Montagu agrees with Pastore that those holding conservative political views
tend to believe in the power of genes over the environment whereas those
holding liberal political views tend to believe in the power of the environment
over genes
6. Lindsey and Beach note that empirical support for sociobiological arguments for
human behavior are weak (critique)
7. However, despite weak arguments biology cannot be entirely ruled out as a
factor in human social behavior
2) Symbolic interactionism and the development of the self
a) The self can be seen as the unique sense of identity that distinguishes each individual
from all other individuals
b) In sociology the emphasis is on social identity or the part of the self built through
participation in social life
c) A major theorist in symbolic interactionism is Charles Horton Cooley
1. A descriptive quote from Cooley is “The imaginations people have of one
another are the solid facts of society” (Collins etc. 173)
2. Cooley’s looking glass self is essentially a special way that we view ourselves
3. This viewing of the self has 3 dimensions
a. we imagine our appearance or image in the eyes of the other (how others
see us prior to judgement)
b. we imagine some judgement of that appearance (ideas formed about us)
c. we experience some sort of self-feeling such as pride or humiliation
4. The looking glass self can be summarized as “I feel about me the way I
think you think of me” (Collins etc. 173)
5. Collins & Makowsky note that Cooley “was breaking new ground by locating
the self in consciousness rather than in behavior and therefore felt free to unload
his mind of positivist baggage”—empirical testing is difficult if not impossible
6. What does this theory imply about Racism and the development of self
(“outsider” minorities etc.)
d) A second major symbolic interactionist theorist is George Herbert Mead who saw the
social self as a dynamic and changing transaction between the individual and others
1. Mead claimed that the self is made up of 2 components
a. The “I” or that aspect of the self that is spontaneous, creative, and impulsive
and even unpredictable and that refers to a personal identity (a spontaneous
phase i.e. it just reacts)
The “me” or a socialized self that makes you concerned about how others
judge you (a conditioned phase i.e. it is learned)
c. The “I” is ultimately an individual response to the organized attitudes of
others
d. The “I” and “me” interact to guide behavior
e. The sphere of the “I” is what Mead called the present or the “now” while
the “me” refers to past attitudes
f. This means that the “I” at the moment it exists is simultaneously drawing
upon the “me” i.e. the past
g. Once the “moment” or “now” of the “I” is past then the material is added to
the “me” since the “I” only exists in the present
h. Essentially the “me” is always a part of the “I” and the “me” is constructed
from past “I”
2. Mead’s other major contribution is the “generalized other” or a stage where an
individual is finally able to relate to him or herself according to the attitude of
the whole community
3. The Generalized other is developed in 3 stages
a. The preplay stage (preparatory in the book) is the earliest phase of selfgenesis where a child’s baby talk reflects an inability to make an object of
itself (only a subjective reality)
A. However, it is suggested that Mead objected to the idea of direct
imitation because it did not explain how people made objects of
themselves (contrary to Lindsey and Beach)
b. During the play stage children assume the vague personalities that populate
their minds allowing the mind to develop by assuming the roles of its heroes
A. despite the view in Lindsey and Beach that these people are significant
others the advent of modernity allows them to be derived from mass
communication such as TV etc.
c. In the game stage the child ceases taking discrete roles and to be ready to
take on the roles of everyone in the game and to understand how the roles
interrelate
4. A problem with Mead’s research is that ideas such as the “I,” “me” and
“generalized other” are too vague to quantify, however, this could be a covert
critique of positivistic sociology
Freudian socialization or psychosexual development (Introductory lectures on
psychoanalysis—Sigmund Freud 326) [stages]
1. Oral (0-1)
a. the mouth plays a key part in this stage
b. Freud states that “the sexual activity of sensual sucking” belongs to this
stage (327)
c. Fixation at the oral stage may lead to aggressive oral habits such as sarcasm
or verbal hostility in later life (Rubin and McNeil-Psychology 333)
d. Dependency and trust begin at this stage
2. Anal (2-3)
a. Focus is on the anal and the act of defecation
b. The main psychological issues are giving and holding back, cleanliness and
messiness & resistance and compliance
c. Successful clearance of this stage leads to a flexible, generous, tidy (not
fastidious) adult
d. If a child gets his way he/she may be messy, negative and attempt to
dominate others
e. Freud’s early writings suggested that this period and the prior one (and
possibly the then non-existent phallic stage) can be seen as ‘pregenital.’
f. Sadistic and anal instincts are present in the ‘pregenital’ stage
3. Phallic (3-5)
b.
e)
Beginning in the 3rd year a child’s sexual life shows much agreement with
an adults
b. Sex organs are the focus of attention
c. Sexual attraction to the opposite sex parent and envy toward the same sex
parent takes place
d. In the text the Oedipal complex (conflict over desire for the mother and
replace the father) and castration anxiety are a part of this stage for boys
e. Rubin and McNeil note that the Oedipus complex sounds far-fetched, but
that Freudians would claim that the conflict is so full of threat and anxiety
that adults banish it from their consciousness
f. The Electra complex occurs when women are attracted to the father as a
love object because the penis is the more desirable sexual organ
g. Rubin and McNeil (psychologists) differ from Lindsey and Beach on the
resolution of the conflict
A. Rubin and McNeil claim that the resolution involves the female
deciding to identify with her mother and find another man to replace
the father/sex object
B. Lindsey and Beach claim that it is the desire for a male child (penis)
that is the resolution
h. Rubin and McNeil note that this theory seems “strained”
4. Latency (6-11)
a. a halt and retrogression in sexual development rakes place starting in the 6 th
to the 8th year of development
b. This period may also be absent and does not necessarily bring any
interruption in sexual interests or activity
c. This period also involves infantile amnesia or a forgetting which veils our
earliest youth (its sexual aspects)
d. A goal in Freudian psychoanalysis is to bring the earlier stages back into
our memory
5. Genital (adolescence)
a. Puberty brings the reawakening of sexual interest
b. Sexual Energies are focused on the sexual organs
c. Freud did not say much about this stage because he held the view that if you
passed through the earlier stages you would be o.k. (Rubin and McNeil 336)
6. It is noted that if a child receives too much or too little gratification at one of the
stages sexual impulses may become fixated or focused on that stage
Social learning theory focuses directly on people’s behavior and is not concerned
with underlying traits or motives like psychoanalysis--Freud
1. The issue of “cross-situational” consistency
a. This is the idea that people behave in accordance with underlying traits in a
wide range of situations (Rubin and McNeal 339)
b. Mischel reviewed hundreds of studies of such traits as dependency,
masculinity-femininity and self-control and concluded that our behavior is
not very consistent across situations
c. He concluded that our behavior is more determined by the demands of the
situation that we are in (DOUBLE CHECK in a new psy. book)
d. This does not mean that there is no consistency in our behaviors across
situations
2. Mischel claims that the social learning approach seeks to explain both the
consistency and inconsistency in 2 ways
a. focusing on the mechanisms by which patterns of behavior are learned
b. focusing on the situations in which learning takes place
3. Mischel suggests that based on this approach, people are most likely to behave
in ways that have been reinforced in the past
4. In the process of generalization, the same response is made to separate but
similar stimuli
a.
f)
a.
As an example if Joe hits his kid brother and gets a candy bar and avoids
punishment for the behavior he is likely to do it again in a similar situation
b. However, social learning theory does not suggest that the child will be
aggressive all of the time
5. the process of discrimination is where an individual learns to discriminate
between situations in which a particular sort of behavior is to be rewarded and
when it is not
a. if Joe hits his older brother he may get a bloody nose i.e the situation is
different from hitting the younger brother
6. Social learning theory suggests that an individual can have several different
characteristics such as hostility, independence, passivity and dependence
a. This individual would not be seen as inconsistent and social learning
theorists would emphasize the individual’s adaptability and flexibility
7. Social learning theory also includes behavioristic/cognitive (based on observable
behavior—tabula rasa) theory
a. This theory refers to modeling and other sorts of learning that do not depend
on direct rewards or reinforcements
b. According to the behaviorist perspective behavior is shaped by people’s
expectations of reward or punishment in a given situation
c. This relates directly to the idea of some individuals that people going to
prison is a discouragement to crime
8. A critique of social learning theory not in the text is that by examining only
behavior and not attitudes, these theorists have ended up with a theory of
personality that ignores the person
9. A response to this critique is that social learning theory is moving toward an
image of the person that stresses learning from experience and responding
flexibly to situations
g) Cognitive Theory
1. According to Piaget (1952; Piaget and Inhelder, 1958) an individual’s cognitive
abilities progress through 4 stages in infancy and childhood—6 “substages” also
exist for the sensorimotor period
a. sensorimotor (birth-2) –the world is examined through his senses and motor
activities, but knowledge is limited to what the child can directly see and do
A. Stage 1-(0-1 mth.) A child is born with a number of sensormotor
mechanisms (or reflexes), but because of Piaget’s interest in changes
that occur rather than the inherited traits this stage is not examined
much
B. Stage 2 (1-4 mths.)-Primary circular reactions occur (primary because
they are centered on the infant’s body and circular because they are
endlessly repeated). (Phillips on Piaget 23 etc.)
1a. The child becomes centered on objects, but they have no
permanence so when an object disappears from his vision it ceases
to exist (ex. Peek-a-boo)
C. Stage 3 (4-8 mths.) secondary circular reactions develop where the
center of interest is not on the body’s actions, but on the environmental
consequences of those actions (shaking a rattle to hear the noise)
D. Stage 4 (8-12 mths.) a key difference at this stage is that the infant can
now perceive objects other than himself as causes (evidence for this is
waiting for parents to do things for him/her suggesting a cause other
than himself)
E. Stage 5 (12-18 mths.) Tertiary circular reactions develop where the
child is actively involved in experiments to discover new properties of
objects and events (a child no longer waits to be helped, but actively
solicits help)
F. Stage 6 (18-24 mths.) or the invention of new means through mental
combination involves the idea that children are capable of not only
II.
establishing cause and effect, but also of foreseeing the effect of a
cause
b. preoperational (2-6) the child can think about things even when unable to
see or touch them
c. concrete operational (6-12 yrs.)—mental representations are more flexible
and the child learns to solve problems through logic and reasoning (not
direct action)
d. formal operational stage (12 on)—the child or adolescent can consider
theories and imagine possibilities not within their own experience
h) Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning
1. Kohlberg revised and extended Piaget’s ideas by studying the reasoning of
adolescents and adults as well as children
2. The three proposed stages (pg. 125-Table 5.1 in the text) to compose an
invariant and universal sequence of development
3. He posits that all individuals go through the stages in order, but some do not
reach the third stage of morality even as adults {transparency (6 stages/3
levels}
4. Gilligan sees this system as reflecting male morality since women are more
involved with interpersonal caring and communication rather than impersonal
systems of rights (males)
i) Erikson and psychosocial development
1. Erikson was initially a disciple of Freud and it was Freud’s theory of
psychosexual development that inspired him create his psychosocial
development system
2. Erikson, however, expanded his theory to include adults and took into account
the impact of society on development
3. His system of polemics reflects both the successful and unsuccessful
development at a given stage.
4. He did not see his system as rigid and thought that we all tend to work on these
8 challenges or crises throughout our lives (the stages are listed on pg. 129 table
5.3 in the text)
B) Agents of socialization are the people, groups, and social institutions that provide the critical
information needed for children to become fully functioning members of society
1) these agents do not often act independently of one another
2) the main agents are the family, education, peers and the media
3) There are many other agents such as religion, workplaces, professional associations and
prisons
Erving Goffman understood social interaction by looking at it as a play being acted out on a stage
or a dramaturgical approach
A) There are two main reasons that Goffman offers to explain why life is like theater
1) The idea that being able to control the reality other people see is a weapon available to
almost anyone for raising one’s status, power or freedom (Collins etc. 242)
a) an example is aristocrats using wealth to inspire deference
b) Also employees may protect themselves from bosses by restricting encounters to
carefully guarded “frontstages”
c) Frontstage refers to behaviors people expect while “backstage” refers to actions
that are publicly hidden
2) The second reason is that performances are necessary if there is to be a clear, consistent
and recognizable social reality
a) essentially situations are constructed through symbolic communication, therefore,
social life must be expressive
b) In a variant of Durkheim’s “collective conscious” (group thought or common moral
order) Goffman thinks in terms of millions of little social realities that come into
existence whenever people are together
c) With these social realities we not only construct characters and statuses for others to
see, but we also construct the large organizations that we think of as permanent
Sociology 1301 (Introduction to Sociology)
DEVIANT BEHAVIOR—Section 6
I.
What is Deviance
A) Lindsey and Beach claim deviance consists of behavior, beliefs, or conditions that are viewed
by relatively important segments of society as serious violations of important norms
1) Lindsey and Beach mention that there are major and minor violations of norms although
minor violations are not usually noted
2) Kornblum sees it differently and claims that people such as “whistle-blowers” violate
norms (a possibly positive violation of norms)
3) Kornblum differentiates between 2 different types of norm violation
a) Deviance is behavior that violates the norms of a society
b) A deviant person is someone who violates or opposes society’s most valued norms
especially those valued by elite groups. (transsexuality, criminals)
1. People in this situation become devalued.
c) Brinkerhof and White would probably define Kornblum’s “deviance” as
“nonconformity”
B) Lindsey and Beach note that deviance should be separated from crime which is a violation of
a formal statute enacted by a legitimate government (not exactly the same as Kornblum’s
deviant person in the sense that it is more specific)
C) The absolute view of Deviance
1) Hills claims that the absolutist perspective is shared by the largest and most influential
segments of the public
2) In this view “fundamental human behavior may be classified as inherently proper or,
conversely, self-evidently immoral, evil, and abnormal” (Hills 8)
a) For the absolutist no normal, decent person would join a deviant group or engage in
a deviant lifestyle
3) The absolutist engages in essentializing behavior where a label applied to the deviant is
seen as pervasive and essential to the person’s entire character (a master status)
4) This essentializing is, of course, based on stereotypes
D) The Relative nature of Deviance
1) Lindsey and Beach note that Deviance is relative in the sense that what is regarded as
deviant in one society may be accepted or honored in another
a) Deviance can vary over time (lotteries), place (language in the military vs. church),
class (illegitimate children) gender and culture
b) Lindsey and Beach also argue that the prior issues suggest that no behavior is
inherently deviant and that deviance is a cultural universal (in every society)
2) Hills claims that this relativist perspective is held in some manner by many contemporary
sociologists and challenges the absolutist view (9)
a) Relativists see deviance as a matter of human evaluation and differential power
b) Deviance is seen as created through collective human judgements
E) Deviance and Social Control
1) Social control refers to measures taken by members of a society intended to encourage
conformity to Norms
a) Formal social control involves efforts to control deviance made by people such as
police officers who seek to punish nonconformity (negative sanctions) and reward
obedience {transparency on deviance in the U.S.}
1. The coercion suggested by formal control is often seen as ineffective as the sole
means of social control
b) Informal social control involves positive and negative sanctions applied through
friends and family
2) Blackwell claims that the process of socialization is more important than coercion for
social control and that people come to identify with the values and norms of a social
system
3) Lindsey and Beach note that conformity (non-deviance) often arises from the
internalization of norms through moral socialization (people desire to avoid guilt)
II.
4) Fundamental to the idea of conformity is the belief that social systems and their norms
are legitimate and therefore binding on the participants (Blackwell 288)
Why Do People Deviate?
A) The earliest view of deviance is that people violate important norms because they are demon
possessed, evil or “bad people”
1) This is essentially a religious or moralistic idea as was the notion that people would be
punished by God for breaking rules (Old Testament)
B) In the 1700s individuals involved in the Enlightenment (Caesare Beccaria & Jeremy
Bentham) thought deviance could be explained as an exercise of free will
1) The idea behind classical theory or rational choice theory is that deviants weigh the costs
and benefits of deviance and decide to deviate or not based on that assessment
2) This theory fell into disuse in the 1800s with the rise in positivistic thinking based on the
social sciences
C) Two generalized conceptions of why people deviate exist that Gibbs refers to as the “older
and “newer” perspectives
1) In the older view it was commonly assumed that there is something inherent in deviants
that distinguishes them from non-deviants
2) The initial suggestion was that there was a Biological basis for criminal behavior
a) Cesare Lombroso in 1911, claimed to have proven that criminals were throwbacks to
primitive, aggressive human types {trans. Biological theories}
1. He further postulated that criminals could be recognized by physical features
like prominent foreheads, shifty eyes and red hair
2. His theory has been thoroughly repudiated by modern research
b) William Sheldon, in the 1940s, claimed that body type was associated with crime
1. He thought human beings could be classified into three body types
a) ectomorphs or thin people
b) endomorphs or soft fat people
c) mesomorphs or people with well defined muscles were the most likely to be
engaged in criminal activities
c) Richard J. Herrnstein and James Q. Wilson offer a modern biological view and
conclude that biology and social environment can combine to produce criminals
1. A study by Deborah Denno supports this view with the finding that a
disproportionate number of people who became criminals had histories of child
hood hyperactivity (a genetically transmitted condition)
2. However, Marvin Wolfgang suggests that hyperactivity studies tend to focus on
poor neighborhoods and that the hyperactive in wealthier families are not so
often associated with criminal careers
3. Lindsey and Beach note that some theories focus on other learning disorders as a
source of criminal behavior
d) Several problems exist for the biological view
1. Some argue the theories overstate the importance of genetics
2. Some argue that there are problems with the methodology because excessively
small samples are used and prison populations (ignores society as a whole) are
not reflective of a random sample
3) A second part of the “older view” is the analytical perspective
a) This view sees criminal acts as much more than a violation of legal norms and
suggests that they are injurious to society
b) This moves the onus of crime from the actor in the biological idea to the acts which
can be seen as criminal
c) Garofalo tried to take a first step towards defining crime independently of legal
criteria (analytically)
1. Garofalo developed the idea of “natural crime” or acts which violate prevailing
sentiments of pity and probity
2. However, Gibbs notes that due to cultural relativity that there is probably no act
that violates sentiments of pity and probity in all societies
d) Sellin proposed to abandon legal criteria altogether in favor of “conduct norms”
based on the idea that laws vary by society making a purely legal definition of crime
unsuited to scientific inquiry
1. However, laws and “conduct norms” are both subjective and based on individual
societies
4) The newer perspective contradicts both the biological and analytical perspectives
5) It suggests that the idea of deviant behavior varies by society and social group and is (as
suggested earlier) based on cultural relativism
6) Other theories on deviance
a) Psychological explanations
1. The (mentioned previously) biological theories and psychological theories both
see something wrong with the individual and see this differentness as the root of
conflict between the individual and society (Sagarin, Deviants and deviance 89)
2. Sagarin claims that Psychological theory suggests that there may or may not be
differences based on inborn factors (biology is always inborn)
3. Lindsey and Beach note that psychological views do not see deviance as inborn
(psychopaths may be an exception)
4. Deviance is seen by some as rooted in psychopathologies
a. Gluecks tested this idea of mental illness out on 500 “good” boys and 500
“bad boys”
b. The 500 “good boys” were found to be conformist, neurotic (symptoms of
anxiety, hysteria, obsessions and compulsions), anxiety-ridden and felt unloved
c. The 500 “bad boys” while hedonistic, distrustful, aggressive and hostile
were also socially assertive and felt they could manage their own lives
d. In summary, the delinquents did not have more serious personality
problems than the “good boys”
5. Freud’s psychoanalytic approach is based on several factors (Sagarin)
a. this approach suggests that an individual frequently commits acts of
deviance based on unconscious motivations, desires and impulses
b. Criminals often seen as having damaged or weak egos
c. Deviance can also occur due to inadequate superegos that are unable to
restrain the aggressive and antisocial drives of the id.
d. This theory implies that deviant people are neurotic, psychotic or mentally
ill
6. The cognitive school of psychology assumes that deviants fail to reach more
advanced stages of moral reasoning
7. Social learning theories suggest that all behavior including deviance is learned
through social interaction (Interactionist perspective) {trans.Theories-culttran}
a. They assume that some people become deviant through the process of
socialization
b. One social learning theory is Sutherland’s differential association theory
where deviant behavior is learned through interaction with other deviants in
a social context where deviance is seen as acceptable
c. Akers’ addendum of differential reinforcement suggests that norm violating
behavior may be positively rewarded or negatively sanctioned (friends
praise or pan an action)
8. Personality theory involves a search for personality traits that are
disproportionately present among deviants such as aggressiveness or inability to
defer gratification
a. The personality school looks at the deviator and only secondarily at society
as the source of difficulty (deviance)
b. This perspective sees personality and temperament (even when inborn) as
modifiable, correctable and controllable
c. Personality theory emphasizes prevention and individual rehabilitation
through psychotherapy (Sagarin 89)
9.
A critique of psychological theories suggests that defiant destructive youths may
grow up to be model citizens
b) Sociological explanations of deviance focus on the external social environment as a
cause of deviance
c) Social control theories contend that deviance is normal and conformity must be
explained (Interactionist perspective) {trans. Theories}
1. Hirschi’s Social Bond theory suggests that people do not engage in deviance
because they have a strong social bond
a. Examples would be parents, schools, churchs or institutions aligned with
conformity (Thompson and Hickey 178)
2. Reckless’ containment theory utilizes inner and outer containment
a. Inner containment refers to what occurs during the socialization process
where an individual internalizes the norms, attitudes, values and beliefs of
his/her culture
b. Outer containment refers to agents of social control such as teachers,
parents, police etc.
d) Another interactionist perspective is labeling where an individual has the designation
“deviant” placed on them and their devalued identity influences their subsequent
behavior {trans. Theoretical and theories}
1. Labels may be gained in 3 ways
a. self-labeling (ex. Gang members)
b. labels are informally given by family and friends (ex. whores)
c. formal labeling involving public degradation (criminal trials)
2. Lemert analyzed how being labeled deviant may shape later behavior(primary
and secondary)
a. Primary deviance occurs when an individual violates a norm and is viewed
as deviant, but rejects the deviant label and maintains themselves as a
conformist
b. Secondary deviance takes place when the deviant label is internalized and a
deviant role is assumed
3. Becker developed a career model of deviance that demonstrates how the
application and internalization of the deviant label leads to increased and
continued deviance
a. the possible creation of a master status can occur
4. Schur claims that a process called role engulfment can take place where
someone becomes so absorbed in their deviant identity that it shapes virtually all
of their subsequent behavior
e) The structural-functionalist approach (WHAT 201 L&B) {trans. Theoretical func.}
1. There are 4 important positive functions of deviance
a. Boundary setting—a difference exists between formal and actual
boundaries for behavior and we find the real boundaries by observing those
who deviate
b. The solidarity function—society unites against deviance
c. The Warning function—when a type of deviance becomes more common it
sends a message that something is wrong in society
d. The innovation function—deviance can be functional in promoting social
change
e. A 5th function not in the text is providing a contrast effect where conformity
assumes meaning only because it is contrasted with deviance
2. 3 dysfunctions of deviance (Lindsey and Beach) and 2 additions
a. it causes problems for social life because it reduces the certainty that others
will obey norms (our lives are less predictable)
b. if deviance is rewarded it reduces people’s willingness to act according to
the rules
c. deviance is a problem because it is costly
d. social order is disrupted
e. norms may be threatened (a corollary to #1)
An early version of the structural-functionalist approach to deviance espoused
by Herbert Spencer is as a form of social pathology
a. A social pathology is a problem that potentially threatens the survival of
society because in terms of the organic analogy (fun. As human body) one
part of an entity affects all the other parts
b. Spencer’s approach became the basis for strain theory or the view that
deviance arises because of tensions or strain experienced by people because
of their position in the social structure
4. Durkheim (functionalist) sees a lessening of the collective conscious as resulting
in anomie {trans. Theories—anomie}
a. anomie can be seen as a state of social strain (Merton), normative confusion
or a rapid change in norms where people’s behavior is no longer
constrained by conventional norms
5. Robert Merton expanded Durkheim’s functionalist views into an anomic/strain
theory that focuses on deviance as resulting from social structural factors
limiting the ability of people or a “blocked opportunity structure”
a. People who become blocked experience anomie because they are not sure
how to behave—Merton calls this strain {trans. Merton typology}
b. People may seek to reduce strain in 5 different ways
1. conformity--where one accepts and pursues socially accepted goals
while accepting and using culturally approved means (not deviant)
2. innovation—one accepts and pursues socially accepted goals and
rejects or finds unavailable culturally approved means (deviant)
3. retreatism—rejects and does not pursue socially accepted goals and
rejects and does not use socially approved means (deviant)
4. ritualism—rejects and does not pursue socially approved goals and only
appears to accept culturally approved means (confuses the means with
the goals) (may be deviant)
5. rebellion—rejects and replaces with deviant goals and rejects and
replaces deviant means (deviant)
6. Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin (Miller is discussed in Lindsey and Beach) expanded
on Merton’s theory and developed the idea of deviant subcultures (retreatists
and rebels)
a. blocked opportunities may lead to the formation of deviant subcultures that
provide increased social status through illegitimate means (deviance)
Conflict theories of deviance (WHO 200 L&B) {trans. Theoretical}
1. Conflict theories of deviance arise when groups with power attempt to impose
their norms and values on less powerful groups
2. Thompson and Hickey note that modern conflict theories focus on power and
concentrate on the origin of norms and their enforcement rather than on the
behaviors of individuals
3. Marx focuses on economic inequality and the differential power between social
classes
4. Modern conflict theorists focus more on the role that power plays in creating
and enforcing the rules of society which ultimately defines deviance and
conformity
5. Power theories explain deviance in 2 ways
a. those in power have more opportunity to make and enforce norms
A. The Pyrrhic defeat theory suggests that as long as crime rates are high
and prisoners are not rehabilitated that fear for personal safety and
property remain high
B. This focus allows the elites to avoid scrutiny in terms of who makes the
laws, how they are enforced and why the poor and powerless tend to be
more subject to laws than the wealthy
3.
f)
b.
because of higher power only a few people have the power to commit
certain types of deviance
A. This can be referred to as elite deviance and includes white collar crime
and other deviant acts perpetrated by those in power
B. The conflict perspective focuses the basic social structure and identifies
social inequality as a major explanation for this type of deviance (fraud,
political corruption etc.)
Sociology 1301 (Introduction to Sociology)
ECONOMIC STRATIFICATION—Section 7
I.
II.
This chapter is about economic stratification which involves the division of society into 2 or
more social classes
A) a social class can be defined as a category of people who share a common position in a
vertical hierarchy of differential reward
1) vertical hierarchy –do drawing
B) This chapter also deals with global stratification or the division of the nations of the world
into richer and poorer categories
C) Brinkerhof & White argue that 3 conditions need to exist for stratification
1) there must be 2 or more categories of unequal access to scarce but desirable resources
2) the inequality must be institutionalized or backed up by long standing norms about what
should be
3) the inequality is based on membership in a category (upper class) rather than on
individual characteristics
Legitimating Stratification
A) In order to identify social classes (a topic soon to be discussed) sociologists have used 3 main
methods
1) the earliest method used was the reputational method which asked selected members of a
group to rank people in their community
2) the second is the subjective method that asks people to locate themselves in the class
system
3) the last is the objective method which assigns individuals to social classes on the basis of
more objective measures
a) One of the objective approaches is to rank individuals by socioeconomic status
1. Socioeconomic status can be defined as a ranking that combines income,
occupational prestige, level of education and neighborhood to assess class
ranking
B) Thompson and Hickey (199-201) suggest that there are 5 major class groupings in the U.S.
1) The upper class has incomes of $500,000 a year or more and constitutes about 1% of the
population
a) members of the upper class may have a net worth in the millions to billions of dollars
b) They dominate corporate America and have a great influence over the nation’s
political educational, religious and other institutions
c) Members of the upper class have a strong sense of solidarity and “consciousness of
kind” that stretches across the U.S. and exists at a global level
d) This group can be subdivided into old money, a group with an elite heritage (many
generations) and New Money who have made their money more recently
2) The second type is the Upper Middle Class that composes around 15% of the population
and includes corporate executives, physicians, attorneys etc.
a) many Upper Middles have household incomes of $100,000 or more and advanced
college degrees
b) For much of America this group is the elite because in smaller towns they are the
wealthiest group
3) The third group is the lower-middle class consisting of 33 percent of the population
a) these individuals often worked their way through college (community or State
University)
b) They are teachers, bank employees, midlevel supervisors etc. with household
incomes from $30,000-75,000 and have less decision making power than upper
middle class professionals
4) The fourth group is the working class
a) They compose 30% of the population and include both blue-collar and clerical
workers who work for low wages in unpleasant and sometimes dangerous
environments under close supervision
b) These workers have household incomes from $16,000-$30,000
c)
III.
For them job security is tenuous, few have more than a High School education and
they are often demeaned by others for their jobs
d) Unemployment can drop them into the lowest class
5) The 5th group is the lower class
a) this group includes the poor who make $16,000 or less per year and constitute about
14% of the population
b) However, if all those who lose their jobs in any given year are counted the number of
this group is probably closer to 20%
c) Most work at jobs that are erratic, pay minimum wage and have no benefits
d) Many members of this group are classified as living below the poverty line and may
be chronically unemployed, homeless or on “welfare”
C) The highest level of individuals in a given society have an ability to shape how people think
this ability can be seen as seen as an ideological hegemony
1) Hegemony refers to a term developed by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and is a
concept referring to a certain type of dominance (Blackwell 141)
2) It refers to the idea that a ruling class legitimates its position and secures the acceptance if
not outright support of those below it
3) The power of coercion is unstable, therefore, the ruling class must create and sustain
accepted ways of thinking about their world that define their dominance as reasonable,
fair and in the best interests of society
4) Essentially, Agents of socialization reinforcing the system are utilized to create an
acceptance of a world view that leads them to see their relative lack of success as natural
and proper (L&B252)
D) Classism
1) Classism refers to an ideology that legitimates economic inequality
2) Classism can be seen as leading to 2 important conclusions
a) the wealthy deserve to be wealthy
b) the poor are responsible for their own poverty
3) It promotes a stereotypical way of thinking and suggests that the poor are lazy and
immoral
4) Religious and philosophical teachings can justify this stratification and subsequent
inequality
Systems of economic stratification
A) Lindsey and Beach argue that historically systems of structured social inequality have varied
B) However, sociologists do see 2 major types of inequality
1) Closed systems are based on ascribed statuses and permit little if any social mobility
a) India’s caste system with wealthy Brahmins and poor untouchables
2) Open systems focus on achievement and allow a lot of upward and downward mobility
a) the United States
3) It should be noted that these types of systems are ideal types
a) some societies are almost closed, but no society has ever been anywhere near open
(draw on board line segment and points)
C) Simon Kuznets developed a theory to show how inequality changes as societies develop
toward a postindustrial period (TRANS. Kuznets curve)
1) In a verbal rendition of the curve on pg. 256
a) Hunting and gathering societies were dominated by mechanical solidarity with little
specialization
b) Their life was dominated by reciprocity or the idea that food and other resources
were exchanged among kinsmen, balancing out periodic shortages that may afflict
any individual or nuclear family in a band
2) Pastoral societies
a) These groups have some surplus wealth
b) They are more socially complex than hunting and gathering societies and have a
multitude of statuses
3) Horticultural societies
a)
IV.
It is in horticultural societies that social stratification emerged and in a political sense
chiefdoms developed to help the new elites keep their advantages
b) Moderate surpluses are produced and individuals usually live in permanent
settlements allowing for accumulation of material goods
c) This can encourage differential wealth, power and prestige among individuals and
groups
d) It suggests that there is an actual difference between pastoralists and horticulturalists
despite the combination of the two on the Kuznets curve
1. This refers to the idea that pastoralists should be seen as having a bit less social
inequality than horticulturalists
2. It should be noted in terms of pastoralism and horticulture that it is simply
harder to acquire the wealth needed for stratification without sedentarism
4) Agrarian societies
a) these societies are characterized by high levels of structured social inequality
b) Cultivation of fields using animals power (and plows etc.) allowed the production of
huge surpluses over time
c) Surpluses allowed for specialization and classes such as priests, warriors craftsmen
etc. began to emerge
d) The gap between rich and poor increased and gender inequality rose as well (women
were consigned to the domestic sphere and men were in the public sphere)
5) Industrial societies
a) industrialization combines with high food surpluses to allow for greater urbanization
(In the U.S. 98% of the population is fed by 2%)
b) Lindsey and Beach suggest that this urbanization allows workers to concentrate and
demand reforms
c) Occupational roles proliferate and become more specialized
d) Thompson and Hickey claim that occupation not religious affiliation largely defines
how people see themselves and how others respond to them (classes) {TRANS. PoWhite}
e) The main reason that inequality declines in this society is the need for highly
educated workers (education helps the poor to respond to their poverty better)
f) Lastly, great increases in production allow for the wealthy to be more willing to
allow the lower classes a better standard of living without having to sacrifice
themselves
6) In post-industrial societies Lindsey and Beach claim that Kuznets might be wrong and
that (since the 1970s) economic inequalities have increased in these nations {TRANS. To
Post Industrial society)
Explaining Stratification
A) Deficiency Theories of stratification tend to explain differences in property, power and
prestige as the direct consequence of individual variations in ability
1) Lindsey and Beach claim that they are not really sociological because they focus on
personal troubles and not social issues
2) This type of theory and particularly Social Darwinism was popular in the 1800s and its
main advocate was Herbert Spencer
a) In this theory social development parallels natural evolution with competition
between various groups (ethnic, class etc.) supplying a process whereby progress is
made by the victory of superior groups over inferior and less “fit” groups (Blackwell
288)
b) However, the specific aspect of social inequality is viewed from the idea that the rich
are the “fittest” to survive and thrive
c) Blackwell sees their idea on social inequality as problematic because it is based on
the assumption that fitness is based on what fitness is supposed to explain (wealth)
d) Simply put the wealthy are wealthier because they are more fit, and the evidence of
their greater fitness is their wealth
3) Kottak notes (124) that even scientists bring up doctrines of innate superiority
a)
One of the best known examples is Jensonism (named for educational psychologist
Arthur Jenson) which claims that African Americans on average, perform less well
on tests than Euro-Americans and Asian Americans
b) Jensonism claims that blacks are hereditarily incapable of performing as well as
whites do.
4) Herrnstein and Murray came out with The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in
American Life (a New York Times Best Seller)
a) Kornblum (122) argues that The Bell Curve claims that inequality in the U.S. is
increasing because of biological differences among various population groups in
these societies {TRANS. Bell Curve}
b) Kornblum further claims that The Bell curve says that growth in occupations
requiring advanced education etc. is creating an environment where certain people
are doomed to fail
c) Again Kornblum notes that their findings are that SOME black and Hispanic
population groups fall below those of whites and Asians
d) Kornblum states that Herrnstein and Murray demonstrate a correlation between what
they term cognitive classes (based on IQ scores) and poverty resulting from inability
to succeed in a demanding economic environment
e) Opposition from social scientists (Kornblum) is based on 3 reasons
1 criticism of IQ as a single measure of intelligence (intelligence is too complex)
2 there is evidence of cultural and middle class biases in the questions used to test
IQ
3 Criticism from scientists that Herrnstein and Murray are treating a correlation
like a causality (because poverty and IQ are correlated does not mean that that
IQ causes poverty)
5) Herrnstein and Murray—their view
a) Murray notes that the book has been attacked as advancing some right wing political
agenda (Murray sees himself as a libertarian and Herrnstein as a liberal who had
become moderately conservative later in life)
B) The functionalist theory of stratification
1) Lindsey and Beach claim that the Davis-Moore Theory is the most influential
functionalist theory
a) They claim that social inequality results from the needs of social systems to have the
most important jobs performed by the most qualified people
b) Since these people are in short supply and must be motivated to undergo difficult
training they must be rewarded accordingly--social inequality results (Blackwell 76)
c) Tumin suggests that this is flawed because money does not motivate all people and
the number of people who want to attend medical school are less than the positions
available
d) Tumin also argues that some low paid (New York) positions like garbage collector
are vital
C) The conflict theory view of stratification
1) Karl Marx
a) Marx argues that stratification originated in the struggle to control the surplus that
accumulated when society moved beyond a subsistence economy
b) Social classes or those who share a common relationship to the means of production
(what is used by society to create wealth) compete against each other
c) He saw 2 main classes
1. the bourgeoisie who were capitalist employers and owners of factories
2. the proletariat who were industrial workers who sold their labor to the
bourgeoisie at a disadvantage
d) To Marx the “evils” (problems with proletariat abuse) of capitalism did not arise
from individuals, but from a system organized in ways that produced evil
consequences
2) Max Weber saw Marx’s view as simplistic and argued that economic status or wealth are
not the only factors and that power and prestige are also basic to the ranking process
a)
V.
Weber believed that differences in wealth led to the formation of classes
1. He defined wealth as including a person’s or family’s total economic assets
b) He saw power as the ability to realize one’s will, even against resistance and the
oppression of others
c) Weber placed great weight on the importance of legitimate power or authority
(Constitution) as opposed “pure” power (Hitler)
1. This can be thought of in terms of the equation Power + Legitimacy =
Authority
d) Weber’s last constituent of the ranking process is prestige which refers to the respect
and admiration people attach to various social positions
1. He saw some people as deserving more respect and honor based on 3 aspects
a. ascribed statuses such as race, gender or ethnicity
b. achieved statuses such as occupation or marital status
c. personal qualities such as holiness or intelligence {TRANS. prestige
rankings in the U.S.}
Global stratification
A) Modernization Theory began in the 1950s as an explanation of how the industrial societies of
Europe and North America developed especially in the area of industrial capitalism
1) The theory developed because of the competition between communism and capitalism
and a desire to convince developing nations that economic development and social justice
were possible under capitalism
2) It assumes that societies develop through predictable stages whereby they become more
complex
3) This development is based on importing technology and the knowledge required to use it
4) The theory is criticized because it ignores social inequality where the rich and powerful
nations have a vested interest in keeping non-industrial societies weak and dependent
both economically and politically
B) Dependency theory is used to explain the failure of non-industrialized nations to develop
economically in spite of investments from industrial countries
1) Dependency theory developed as a critique of the largely unsuccessful modernization
theory
2) This theory sees the world economic system as unequal in its distribution of power and
resources which keeps many nations in a dependent position in relation to the industrial
powers
3) This dependency limits development in developing nations because infusions of
technology and investment will be done in such a way as to continue the dominance of
the wealthy nations
4) Critics claim that dependency theory is overly general and ignores the effects of internal
conditions on local economies
5) Inglehart argues that economic theory predicts that foreign investment and trade enhance
work to enhance the wealth of any country
a) certain jobs will be lost, but that they will be replaced by new jobs that have a higher
productivity than the old ones
b) the increase in productivity leads to greater prosperity and this theory is borne out by
empirical data
C) Wallerstein’s world systems theory sees the worlds nations as integrated into a single system
of capitalistic economic interdependency
1) He divides the world into core states, semiperipheral areas and peripheral areas
a) core states are the most technologically advanced that dominate in the banking and
financial realms of the World Market (ex. Japan, U.S,)
b) Semiperipheral areas are areas where industry and financial institutions are
developed to an extent, but are reliant upon capital and technology from core states
(ex. Spain, Middle east oil producers)
c) Peripheral areas supply basic resources and labor power to the core states and
semiperipheral areas
d) Wallerstein claims that the system is based on various forms of domination and does
not require political repression
e) Kornblum notes that there are drawbacks to this system since nations are not
uniformly developed (coast and interior of P.R.C.)
Sociology 1301 (Introduction to Sociology)
RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES—Section 8
I.
Race Ethnicity and Minority groups
A) race as a social construction
1) Lindsey and Beach believe that “race” is a sociological construct and not biological
2) Similarly, Parrillo sees racial classification as a sociopolitical construct and not a
biological absolute
b) Parrillo says that in the past “race” has been used to as a general term to include
both racial and ethnic groups giving it both a biological and social meaning
c) Recently, ethnic group has been used to include the 3 elements of race, religion and
national origin
3) Historically there are 2 main approaches to race (Kottak 107)
1. racial classification, which is an approach that has been rejected
2. the current explanatory approach, which focuses on understanding specific
differences
4) Kottak (107) claims that a biological race would be a geographically isolated subdivision
of a species.
5) Kornblum (415) sees it similarly when he claims that race is an inbreeding population
that develops distinctive physical characteristics that are hereditary.
a) such a subspecies would be capable of interbreeding with other subspecies of the
same species
b) However, geographic isolation would eventually lead to the development of a new
species
6) Kottak (108) says that gradual shifts in gene frequencies between neighboring
populations (no sharp breaks) are called clines
a) C. Loring Brace (Heider 57) claims that early explorers who traveled on land from
Herodotus (5th century B. C. E.) to Marco Polo (14th century) were aware of human
physical variation but were not tempted to think in terms of racial categories because
they had experienced the variations bit by bit in all of the clines
b) However, with the advent of ship voyages in the 15th century which ended in the
discovery of the New World the idea of “races” began to emerge (due to a skipping
of the intermediate populations
c) Lindsey and Beach claim that race as a significant determinant of human behavior
emerged only in the 1700s as a part of the Europeans justification of the colonial
domination of nonwhite people around the world
7) Problems with racial labels
a) the labels do not accurately describe skin color (white and Hispanic can vary)
b) The three initial groupings (Caucasoid, Negroid and Mongoloid) did not cover all
groups, therefore, additional races had to be added
c) Another problem is that phenotypical characteristics on which races are based
supposedly reflects genetic material that is shared and has stayed the same for long
periods of time, but phenotypes do not have to have a genetic basis
d) An example of a non-genetic issue is the initially short statured population of Japan
1 This lack of height was based on diet and as Japanese begin to eat less
traditional foods the average height has begun to increase
8) However, despite the idea of clines defining a people as a race or racial formation still
occurs
a) Lindsey and Beach, therefore, define a race as “a category of people who have come
to be identified as sharing physical characteristics such as skin color that are socially
meaningful” (306)
B) Ethnicity definitions
1) Kottak 151 defines ethnicity as identification with, and feeling part of, an ethnic group
and exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation
2) Lindsey and Beach define an ethnic group as a category of people who are seen by
themselves and others as sharing a distinctive subculture, somewhat different from the
way of life of the dominant group
3) Parrillo 549 sees ethnicity as a cultural concept in which a large number of people who
share learned or acquired traits and close social interaction regard themselves and are
regarded by others as a single group on that basis
4) Kottak (134) notes that members of an ethnic group have shared beliefs, values customs
and norms—which are actual and perceived
5) He also says that members of an ethnic group (not ethnicity) define themselves as special
and different from other such groups because of cultural features
6) Issues surrounding an ethnic group may be a collective name, belief in common ancestry,
a sense of solidarity, and an association with a specific geographical territory
7) Feelings about one’s ethnicity can vary within a country and over time
8) Lindsey and Beach note that generational differences may occur with children from the
3rd and 4th generations consciously trying to recapture identities abandoned by earlier
generations called ethnic work
9) Kottak 134 notes that the importance of ethnic identity may also change during a life
cycle (young people may relinquish and old people may reclaim ethnic identity—or vice
versa)
a) this reestablishment of culture can lead to non-traditional cultural items being
accepted as part of their heritage such as fortune cookies for ethnic Chinese (these
cookies although invented can actually be seen as a part of Chinese-Americaness)
10) Different members of a family may feel differently about ethnicity than their parents or
brothers or sisters
11) Members of an ethnic group may have both shared and differing experiences
12) Individuals also construct their own social identities
C) Minority groups
1) A minority group is defined by its lack of power whether economic, political or simply
the ability to define what it means to be a member of the group
2) Many minority groups are smaller in number than the people who have the majority of
the power known as the dominant group.
3) Parrillo sees the use of the term “group” as problematic because in the sociological
context it usually refers to a small closely interacting set of people
a) He claims the term minority can refer to aggregates of millions of people surpassing
even Cooley’s idea of secondary groups (people interacting on an impersonal basis)
b) Essentially in a “group” of a million people even meeting specific other members of
the group might never take place
4) The phrase “minority group” was first used in World War I peace treaties to protect
certain individuals in East Central Europe (old Austria Hungary), but it was frequently
used as a description of Biological features or national traits (Parrillo)
5) Louis Wirth’s (Chicago school) expansion of early definitions of a minority group (race
and national origin) offers 2 important ideas
a) By examining people by physical and cultural traits he allowed for the inclusion of
the aged, people with disabilities, members of religions and groups with nonconventional lifestyles (gay etc.)
b) He also emphasized the social consequences of minority status in terms of prejudice,
discrimination and oppression
1. Not everyone agrees with Wirth’s ideas, for example, Richard Schermerhorn
claims that the “victimological” approach does not properly explain similarities
and differences between groups
a. ex. One could argue that even prejudice is a two way street where both the
minority and majority can have prejudices (positive—Chinese students or
negative—the Bell curve—Af. Am. etc)
2. Schermerhorn also claims that Wirth does not analyze relations between
majority and minority groups
a.
II.
simply the reactions of the minority groups to prejudice etc. are not
examined
b. the focus on the victims also does not explain all of the relationship since
one could argue that not all are oppressors
c. It also is a is a relationship and is not unidirectional
D) The additive effects of multiple subordinate group membership
1) Lindsey and Beach also bring up the idea of gendered racism or the idea that women
who are members of minority groups can experience high levels of prejudice and
discrimination based on both devalued identities
2) The idea of gendered racism and it is only one type combinations such as ageism,
sexism, disability, ethnicity, non conventional lifestyles and religion can combine into
multiple identities
3) Imagine briefly someone over 60, female, paraplegic, African American, who is both gay
and Jewish and the potential for discriminatory treatment
Prejudice, Discrimination and racism
A) Prejudice is seen by Lindsey and Beach as a negative attitude toward an entire category of
people
1) In my view Webster’s dictionary has a better opinion in this instance where the word is
defined as a “preconceived notion, usually unfavorable”
2) The denotation in my opinion is that it is a preconceived notion and the connotation is
that it is usually unfavorable
3) This is important because it suggests both negative and positive prejudices
4) On the negative end blacks and browns are seen in negative ways
5) In terms of Anglo-Americans there may be overly positive attitudes
a) Randall’s parking lot story in a white area of town
6) Lindsey and Beach claim that prejudice involves 2 components
a) a negative response toward a group
b) a cognitive or intellectual element normally called a stereotype
1. a stereotype is an overgeneralization about a category of people that is applied to
all members of the category
a. blacks and Hispanics and low intellectual levels
b. Chinese, Anglo American, Jewish high intellectual levels
c. It should be noted that even positive stereotypes can be harmful because of
the stress placed on individuals who feel they should live up to them (the
Chinese community)
B) Discrimination is the unequal and unjust treatment of individuals on the basis of their group
memberships
1) In legal/nonlegal terms there are 2 types of discrimination
a) De jure—is discrimination that is required by law or from consequences of laws (Jim
Crow laws)
b) De facto—contains all other types of discrimination and can be seen as customary
discrimination (post Jim Crow laws)
2) Feagin (13) offers the dimensions of discrimination as an explanatory mechanism for the
workings of racism {transparency}
3) The dimensions follow and are used to examine lawful exclusionary practices against
black children in terms of all white schools (1960 and before):
a) Motivation
1. Is prejudice the motivation for the exclusion?
b) discriminatory action
1. what form did the exclusionary practices take (principals may have refused to
admit black children)
c) effects
1. One effect is the poorer education received by black children
d) the relation between motivation and action
e) the relation between action and effects
f) the immediate institutional context
1.
III.
The earlier actions were a part of an institutionalized pattern of segregated
education
g) the larger social context
1. Legalized patterns of educational discrimination have been a part of a larger
social context of racial subordination of black Americans in many institutional
arenas
4) Lindsey and Beach suggest that there are 3 basic types of discrimination (309), however,
Feagin’s idea that there are 4 seems better {transparency}
a) The first type is isolate discrimination that refers to harmful action taken
intentionally by an individual member of a dominant group against members of a
minority group (not part of a larger organization or a community)
1. ex. A white police officer beats Hispanic prisoners even though regulations
prohibit this behavior
b) The second type is small-group discrimination refers to harmful actions taken
intentionally by a small number of dominant group individuals against ethnic group
members without the sanction of the norms or rules in a community context
1. ex. KKK
c) Type 3--Direct institutionalized discrimination refers to organization or community
prescribed actions which by intent have a differential or negative impact on members
of ethnic groups
1. ex. Segregation of Jewish individuals in inferior facilities or jobs
d) Type 4--Indirect institutionalized discrimination practices having a negative and
differential impact on members of ethnic groups even though there is no intent in
terms of norms and regulations no harm ethnic group members
1. ex. Seniority practices in fields where minorities have traditionally not been hired
C) Racism can best be understood as an ideology that maintains that one race is superior to
another (L&B)
1) Parrillo sees racism as based on the linkage of biological conditions to sociocultural
capabilities and behavior to show one race as superior
2) Again, the notion of clines largely discredits this idea (gradual change so no “races”)
Theoretical Perspectives on prejudice and discrimination
A) Social Psychological approaches
1) The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
a) Dollard, Miller and Doob (1939) claim that the origin of prejudice is a buildup of
frustration
b) This can be rooted in relative deprivation or a frustration that arises from a lack of
resources or rewards in one’s own standard of living in comparison to those in one’s
society
c) If the individual cannot vent their frustrations on a real cause, the individual feels a
“free-floating” hostility that may be taken out on a scapegoat
d) In Hitler’s Germany it could be argued that economic problems were transferred to
anti-Semitism
2) Projection or the process whereby we attribute to other people behaviors and feelings that
we are unwilling to accept in ourselves
a) Dollard and Halsey noted that southern whites (1930-1940s) claimed that black
males had an uncontrollable sexuality
b) The theory of projection suggests that white males desired black females and that the
attraction was forbidden by society
c) so the forbidden sexuality of the whites was imposed on blacks males
3) Self-Justification involves creating negative perceptions of a person or group to justify
our maltreatment of them
a) ex. Puritans burned “witches” whose refusal to confess proved that they were “evil”
4) Adorno and others claimed that the Authoritarian personality is another factor and is
rooted in harsh parental discipline
a) Parents who demand weakness and submission of their children create insecurity in
their children and may nurture latent hostility toward their parents
IV.
b) This type of personality leads to displaced aggression or hostility directed toward a
powerless group to compensate for feelings of insecurity and fear
B) Symbolic Interactionists tend to argue that the intensity of interactions within a group leads to
in-group members disparaging other groups
1) However, in groups including racially or ethnically distinct others, friendship can
supercede hostility
2) The suggestion is that people learn prejudice and discrimination (or not) from those
around them
3) Groups that need to cooperate often find ways to reduce racial or ethnic tensions
C) Functionalist theories suggest that racism and prejudice exist because they bring benefits of
some kind to some individuals or group members
1) they believe that inequalities derived from prejudice help to maintain a supply of low
wage workers
2) positive functions are created for some people (and not for others)
D) Conflict theories argue that racial and ethnic inequalities emerge in class conflict under
capitalism, but change occurs when subordinated groups resist or rebel (Korny)
1) Lindsey and Beach claim that prejudice and discrimination help powerful groups
maintain their advantages
2) Racial and ethnic groups also compete with one another for scarce resources and the
more intense the competition becomes the more negative the prejudices (and
discrimination) tends to be (L.A. and Hispanics and Blacks fight over labor jobs)
3) For capitalist owners prejudice and discrimination can be very profitable for 2 major
reasons
a) A individual’s feelings of ethnic inferiority enables capitalists to exploit minorities
through giving them the lowest paying, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs
b) immigrants and minorities comprise a “reserve labor force” that can be used when
the economy is expanding and dismissed in recessions (T & H)
4) As a part of the conflict perspective Bonacich argues that both owner exploitation and a
split labor market can fuel ethnic unrest
a) the split-labor market is an economic situation where 2 groups of workers are willing
to do the same work for different wages
1. one labor group is generally higher paid (whites in the U.S.)
2. the second group is cheaper labor usually composed of ethnic groups and
immigrants
3. Bonacich claims that when one ethnic group is cheaper than another, the higher
paid workers can face an economic threat of either wage reduction or job loss
E) Ecological theories explore the processes by which conflict between racial and ethnic groups
develops and is resolved
1) Robert Park (Chicago school) devised a cyclical model to describe intergroup relations in
modern cities
a) Invasion--where one or more groups move into a territory with an established
population
b) Resistance--where the established group tries to defend itself against newcomers
c) Competition--suggests that if one group is not driven out then the two groups
compete for space and social institutions (housing, jobs, recreation areas etc.)
d) Accommodation and cooperation occurs when the 2 groups establish stable patterns
of interaction
e) Assimilation eventually occurs where the 2 groups begin to merge and the cycle
begins again
f) Of course, assimilation and even accommodation may not occur at all or may be
limited
Patterns of Minority-Dominant Group Relations
A) Simpson and Yinger suggest that historical cases of dominant group-minority group
interactions can be classified into one of 6 general categories
1) these categories are: genocide, expulsion or population transfer, open subjugation, legal
protection, assimilation and pluralism
a) genocide- the extermination of large numbers of a minority group (Nazi Germany)
b) expulsion or population transfer refers to either forcing a minority to immigrate
(expulsion) or confining them to a limited territory (population transfer) [Jews,
Native Am.]
c) Open subjugation refers to the idea that no pretense is made that the minority is in
any way equal to the dominant group
d) Legal protection is where the government claims to protect minorities, but
substantial discrimination continues (segregation)
e) Assimilation (Kottak) 141 describes the process of change that a minority group may
experience when it moves to a country where another culture dominates.
1. By assimilating, the minority culture adopts the patterns and norms of the host
culture
2. It is incorporated into the dominant culture to the point that it no longer exists in
an end result called Integration (German Americans)
3. This view of assimilation is where immigrants lose much of their identity is
what Parrillo (54) calls the assimilation (majority conformity) theory and can
simply be put as A+B+C=A
4. Gordon claims that assimilation has several phases (Parrillo 55)
a. Cultural assimilation (acculturation) is an early phase that involves the
change of cultural patterns to those of the host society
b. Marital assimilation—the large scale intermarriage with members of the
majority society
c. Structural assimilation—large scale entrance into clubs, cliques and
institutions of the host society
d. Identificational assimilation—the development of a sense of peoplehood or
ethnicity based exclusively on the host society not one’s homeland
e. Attitude-Receptional assimilation—reaching the point of encountering no
prejudiced attitudes
f. Behavior-Receptional assimilation—reaching the point of encountering no
discriminatory behavior
g. Civic Assimilation—the absence of value and power conflict with the
native born population
5. The amalgamation or “melting pot theory” states that all diverse peoples blend
their biological and cultural differences into an altogether new breed (American)
expressed as A+B+C=D
f) Barth’s definition of a plural society is a society combining ethnic contrasts,
ecological specialization (different environmental responses from different ethnic
groups and the economic interdependence of those groups (ethnic boundaries are
stable and enduring
1. Parrillo 59 suggests that this theory recognizes the persistence of ethnic and
racial diversity and is also known as the accommodation theory represented by
A+B+C=A+B+C
2. Parrillo recognizes 2 types of pluralism
a. Cultural Pluralism—2 or more culturally distinct groups living in the same
society in relative harmony
b. Structural Pluralism—the coexistence of racial and ethnic groups in
subsocieties within social-class and regional boundaries (note social class
working etc., regional Chinatowns)
B) Minority responses to subordination
1) Assimilation—complete acceptance is promised, but it may not be possible for visible
minorities to assimilate (and they may not want to)
2) Pluralism—will the dominant culture use this to play off minority groups against each
other
3) Separatism—some minorities use this and it refers to a policy of voluntary structural and
cultural isolation from the dominant group (L.S.U. and black and white segregation)