Sociological Perspective Social location: corners in life that people occupy bc of their place in a society Manifest function: if an action is intended to HELP some part of a system Latent function: unintended consequences that HELP a system adjust Gemeinschaft (“intimate community”): term used by Durkheim to describe village life, the type of society in which everyone knows everyone else Instrumental leader (task-oriented leader): tries to keep the group moving toward its goals Expressive leader (socioemotional leader): increases harmony & minimizes conflict in a group (Offer sympathy, crack jokes, stimulate personal bonds, usually more popular) Democratic leader: 1 who leads by trying to reach a consensus (Outlines the steps to reach goal, discussions, Friendlier & looked for approval; work at a steady pace (Best type) Laissez-faire leader: 1 who leads by being highly permissive (goofing off) Conflict theory: the struggle for scarce resources by groups in society; the elites use their power to control the weaker group (Key terms: inequality, power, conflict, competition, exploitation) Functional analysis: relationships among parts of society & how they’re functional or dysfunctional (Key terms: structure, functions (manifest/latent) equilibrium) Gender & Age Multicultural feminism: analyze the interlocking oppressions minorities, women, women of color & other oppressions individuals face Radical feminism: perspective that calls for radical reordering of society in which male supremacy (patriarchy) is eliminated in all social & economic contexts Liberal feminism: focuses on women’s ability to maintain their equality through their own actions & choices – emphasis on making the legal & political rights of women equal to men Glass escalator: refers to the way men are put on a faster track to higher positions in female dominated fields such as education, nursing, social work, even ballet Glass ceiling: the mostly invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing to the executive levels at work, regardless of achievements and qualifications Disengagement theory: the view that society is stabilized by having the elderly retire disengage from their positions of responsibility so the younger generation can step into their shoes (pensions) Activity theory: the view that satisfaction during old age is related to a person’s amount & quality of activity (C perspective: stress that equilibrium b/w competing groups is only a temporary balancing of oppositional forces, one that can be upset at any time (social security) Culture Ethnocentrism: a tendency to use our own group’s way of doing things as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals Culture shock: the disorientation that ppl experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture & can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life Cultural relativism: the way we try to understand a culture on its own terms Cultural lag: a group’s material culture usually changes first, with the non-material culture lagging behind Cultural diffusion: the spread of cultural traits from 1 group to another; includes both material & nonmaterial cultural traits Cultural leveling: a process in which cultures become more & more similar to 1 another Resocialization: the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, & behaviors to match their new situation Deviance: refer to any violation of norms (for rules or expectations) Deviance undermines predictability, the foundation of social life Negative Sanction: An expression of disapproval for deviance (ranging from shaking your head to prison) Positive Sanction: an expression of approval for following norms, ranging from smiles to getting a raise) Norms: rules & expectations by which a society guides the "right" behavior of its members Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: it is our language that determines our consciousness & hence our perception of objects, events, experiences Folkways: norms that are not strictly enforced Mores: norms that are strictly enforced bc they are thought essential to core values Subcultures: groups of ppl who occupy some small corner in life, such as an occupation, tend to develop specialized ways of communicating with 1 another.a world within the larger world of the dominant culture Socialization Agents of socialization: ppl/groups that affect our self-concept, attitudes, behaviors, or other orientations toward life (family, peers, & mass media influence ideas of gender) Social integration (social cohesions): degree to which members of a group/society are united by shared values & other social bonds Degradation ceremony: an attempt to remake the self by stripping away the individual’s current identity & stamping a new 1 in its place (shaving the head, examinations, uniform, take personals) Marriage & Family Patriarchy: men-as-a-group dominating women-as-a-group; Endogamy: the practice of marrying w/in one’s own group (F Perspective): Family fulfills 6 needs of societal survival: 1) economic production 2) socialization of children 3) care of the sick/aged 4) recreation 5) sexual control 6) reproduction Romantic love: mutual sexual attraction & idealized feelings about one another If there are mutual interests, there are 2 components: first is emotional, feeling of sexual attraction & the 2nd is cognitive, a label that we attach to our feelings propinquity (spatial nearness) Homogamy: tendency of people who have similar characteristics to marry one another Family orientation: the family in which a person grows up (Intimacy is greater in a dyad than a triad) Education F Perspective: Social integration: inclusion: helping people to become part of the mainstream of society; also called mainstreaming Cultural transmission of values: the process of transmitting values from one group to another (in education, the ways in which schools transmit a society’s culture, esp core values) Social placement (Talcott Parsons): a function of education – funneling people into a society’s various positions Gatekeeping: the process by which education opens & closes doors of opportunity; another term for the social placement function of education Tracking: the sorting of students into different programs on the basis of real or perceived abilities S Perspective: Self-fulfilling Prophecy- organically false assertion that becomes true simply bc it was predicted Grade inflation: higher grades given for the same work; general rise in students grades w/o increasing in learning Social promotion: passing students to the next level w/o mastering basic materials C Perspective: school reproduces social class structures Rich kids receive tools to maintain their dominance, while they prepare the children of the poor for lower-status positions Religion – 3 elements (1. Beliefs that some things are sacred 2. Practices (rituals) 3. Moral community (church)) Sacred: aspects of life having to do w/ the supernatural that inspire awe, reverence, deep respect, even fear Profane: aspects of that life that are not concerned w/ religion but instead are part of ordinary, everyday life S Perspective: rituals: help to unite people into a moral community C Perspective: Karl Marx: For oppressed workers, religion is like a drug that helps addicts forget their misery – by diverting thoughts toward future happiness in an afterlife, religion takes the workers eyes off their suffering in the world, reducing the possibility that they will overthrow their chains by rebelling against their oppressors (religion legitimates social inequalities F Perspective: Functions: emotional comfort, social solidarity(unite believers that share values), guidelines for everyday life, social control, ultimate meaning Spirit of Capitalism This study source was downloaded by 100000788858945 from CourseHero.com on 05-17-2022 20:17:38 GMT -05:00 (max weber): desire to accumulate capital & constantly reinvest Protestant ethic: ideal of a self-denying, highly moral life accompanied https://www.coursehero.com/file/39959493/Final-Exam-Cheat-sheetdocx/ by thrift & hard work Cult: new religion w/ few followers, whose teachings & practices put it at odds w/ the dominant culture/religion Church: highly bureaucratize & mainstream (enforce rules & control finances) Ecclesia (state religion): a religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where the one begins & the other leaves off (part of cultural identity) Race & Ethnicity Discrimination: an action of unfair treatment directed against an individual/group Racism: Prejudice & discrimination on the basis of race Prejudice: an attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way Contact theory: the idea that prejudice & negative stereotypes decrease & racial-ethnic relations improve when people from diff racial-ethnic backgrounds, who are of equal status, interact frequently Individual discrimination: negative treatment of one person by another (face-to-face) Institutional (systemic) discrimination: negative treatment of a minority group that is built into a society’s institution scapegoat: an individual or group unfairly blamed for someone else’s troubles (gender, age & immigrants) Authoritarian personality: the odor for people who are prejudiced & rank high on scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect for authority & submissiveness (S Perspective) Selective perception: seeing certain features of an object or situation, but remaining blind to others Deviance & Social Control (S Perspective) Differential association (Edwin Sutherlands): From the different groups we associate with, we learn to deviate from or conform to society’s norms (families that are involved in crime tend to set their children on a lawbreaking path) Labeling Theory: the labels people are given affect their own & others’ perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity (significance of reputation on deviance) Social Control theory: a group’s formal & informal means of enforcing its norms Control Theory : idea that 2 control systems – inner & outer controls – work against our tendencies to deviate (inner: conscience, religious principles, morals; Outer: family, friends, police) - Stronger our bonds w/ society, the more effective our inner control (bonds are based off attachments, commitments, involvements, & beliefs) (F Perspective) Strain Theory (Robert Merton): strain engendered when a society socializes large # of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success), but withholds from some the approved means of reaching that goal 4 deviant paths: innovators (accept goals of society but use illegal means to reach them Ritualism: people who start wanting the goals but become discouraged & give up Retreatism: reject both the cultural goals & institutionalized means of achieving them Rebellion: convinced that their society is corrupt, rebels & reject both Horatio Alger myth: the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if he/she tries hard enough White Collar crime: crimes that people of respectable & high social status commit in the course of their occupations (banks paying billions for lawbreaking) Corporate Crime: crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation C Perspective: Criminal justice system: the system of police, courts, & prisons set up to deal w/ people who are accuses of having committed a crime (designed by the powerful to maintain power & privilege & oppression for the poor) Politics & Economy Authority: power that people consider legitimate as rightly exercised over them Coercion: power that people do not accept as rightly exercised over them Traditional Authority: authority based on custom Rational-legal (bureaucratic) authority: authority based on law or written rules & regulations Charismatic authority: authority based on an individual’s outstanding traits, which attract followers Routinization of Charisma: transition of authority from a charismatic lead to either traditional or rationallegal authority Universal citizenship: the idea that everyone has the same basic rights by virtue of being born in a country (or by immigrating & becoming a naturalized citizen) Totalitarianism: a form of gov’t that exerts almost total control over people Specialinterest group: people who think alike on a particular issue and can be mobilized for pollical action Lobbyists: people who are paid to influence legislation on behalf of their clients Political action committees (PAC): to solicit contributions from many, & then hand over huge sums to politicians Convergence Theory: the view that as capitalist & socialist economic systems, each adopt features of the other, a hybrid (or mixed) economic system will emerge (on one hand, capitalists Pluralism (functionalist): the diffusion of power among many interest groups that prevents any single group from gaining control of the gov’t Democratic (welfare) socialism: a hybrid economic system in which the individual ownership of business is mixed with the state ownership of industries though essential to the public welfare Capitalism: economic system built around the private ownership of the means of productions, market competition & the pursuits of profit Laissez-faire capitalism: “hands off” capitalism, meaning that the gov’t doesn’t interfere in the market (private citizens owns means of production & pursue profits Socialism; economic system built around the public ownership of the means of production, central planning, & the distribution of goods without a profit motive Post-industrial: serve sector so large most people work in it, vast surplus of goods, more trade, wider variety/quantity of goods(w/ technology advancing, blue collar & farming went down) Industrial: Conspicuous consumption: change from the thrift, savings, & investments of the protestant ethic to showing off wealth through spending & the display of possessions Roles Vs status (occupy a status, but play a role) Ascribed status (involuntary): a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life Achieved status (voluntary) Master status: status that cuts through all other statuses (gender, race, age wealth) Status inconsistency (status discrepancy): ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others Roles: the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status Social Institutions: the standard or usual ways that a society meets its basic needs F Perspective of institutions: replacing members, socializing new members, providing sense of purpose, preserving order. C Perspective: powerful groups control our social institutions, manipulating them in order to maintain their own privileged position of wealth and power (preserve social order) Role performance: the ways in which someone performs a role Role conflict: conflicts that someone feels b/w roles bc the expectations are at odds with 1 another Role strain: conflicts that someone feels within a role Thomas theorem: “if ppl define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” (Importance of social construction of reality) Ethnomethodology: the study of how ppl use background assumptions to make sense of life Halo effect (good): type of bias In which our overall impression of a person influences how we feel and think about his/ her character (one aspect makes the whole more attractive) study source was downloaded by 100000788858945 fromInsane CourseHero.com on 05-17-2022Use 20:17:38 GMT -05:00 The This promise: C. Wright Mills Ex-Convict: Devah Pager Places: Rosenhand of poverty: Gans Racist Mind: Ezekiel Chrisan: Schlosser Beauful: Katz https://www.coursehero.com/file/39959493/Final-Exam-Cheat-sheetdocx/ Argot: specialized vocabulary used by a parcular social class, groups or subcultures Age cohorts: generaons is a good way to measure This study source was downloaded by 100000788858945 from CourseHero.com on 05-17-2022 20:17:38 GMT -05:00 https://www.coursehero.com/file/39959493/Final-Exam-Cheat-sheetdocx/ Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
