Kyle Whitney’s Alphabet Book
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
L.
M.
N.
O.
P.
Q.
R.
S.
The Amish
Behavior
Conflict Theory
Deviance
Education
Functionalism
Geimenshaft and Gesselshaft
Harry Harlow
Illegitimate Opportunity
Theory
Jane Addams
Kohlberg
Language
Merton
Norms
Out Group Vs. In Group
Patterns of Conflict
Quantitative and Qualitative
Religion
Symbolic Interactionism
T. Thomas Theorem
U. Upper and Under Class
V. Values
W. Wealth
X. Xenophobia
Y. Your Looking Glass Self
Z. Zimbardo Prison Experiment
IS FOR Amish
• The Amish represent the
meaning of the word
subculture.
• They are a group of people
with set values and goals
placed with in the
dominant culture of post
industrial America.
• They are accepted by the
dominant culture.
IS FOR Behavior
• One of the major research
points for sociologists is the
study of behavior within
groups.
• Behaviors are the accepted
actions, rituals, and manners of
a group.
• Sociologists study group
behaviors to understand why
people interact differently in
certain social settings.
IS FOR Conflict Theory
• The conflict theory is the belief
that people interact based on
competition.
• Karl Marx explained this
competition as a struggle
between the poor and the rich.
• The ongoing struggle drives
change and innovation.
IS FOR Deviance
• Deviance is behavior that violates a
norm. Each society decides what is
deviant based on its morals.
• It is always considered a threat to
society.
• However, a society needs deviance to
classify its norms, promote social
change, and create unity.
IS FOR Education
• The meaning changes with society.
• In a preindustrial society, education was
used to teach skills, values, enough
literacy to read the bible, addition, and
subtraction.
• In the industrial society, it was used to
transition students to a factory model by
use of bells and direct instruction to
create a factory like environment.
• The post industrial society teaches
computer skills, social skills, and problem
solving to prepare students for their
future careers and personal lives
(consumer, health).
IS FOR Functionalism
• Functionalism is the societal structure
that assigns specific jobs to several
individuals that work as a unit towards a
common goal.
• Because of this interdependence, a
change in one part of the society creates
a domino effect that changes the society
as a whole.
IS FOR Gemeinshaft and
Gessellshaft
• Gemeinshaft: This term is related to
Mechanical solidarity. It includes an
intimate community like a farming village
in which ideas and beliefs are common.
• Gesselshaft: This term is related to
Organic solidarity. It includes a factory
like model in which workers are related
by the common goal but do not have
shared values or beliefs.
• These terms were developed by the
famous sociologist, Emile Durkheim, who
studied trends in society and what held
society together.
IS FOR Harry Harlow
• This man wanted to study the case of Nature vs.
Nurture.
• The main premise of the debate was deciding
whether individuals needed food or comfort
more.
• Harlow conducted an experiment in which he put
a wire monkey with food in a cage and a soft,
cloth monkey next to it. He then observed a
rhesus monkey within the environment to see if
the monkey gravitated more to the one with food
or the one that was soft.
• His results showed that the monkey spent the
majority of his time cuddling with the soft model,
proving that nurture was more important than
nature.
IS FOR Illegitimate opportunity
theory
• This theory was developed by Cloward and Ohlin.
• Developed the idea that Social classes have
different opportunities for crime.
• They concluded that the urban poor participated
in crimes known as hustles. Examples of hustles
are drug dealing, robbery, gambling, and
prostitution.
• They concluded that the upper class participated
in larger scale and economic crime like insider
trading, tax evasion, and embezzlement.
IS FOR Jane Addams
• Jane Addams is a commonly forgotten sociologist.
• She worked to help the urban poor and to bridge
the gap between the powerful and the
powerless.
• Her greatest achievements were the invention of
daycare, citizenship classes for immigrants, and
the hall house.
IS FOR Kohlberg
• This man studied the moral development
sequences of boys aged from infants to adults.
• His concluded that from age 0- 6 boys did not
have a concept of right or wrong. From ages 7-10,
they were in a pre-conventional stage in which
they were learning rules.
• From ages 10 and over they were in the
conventional stage in which they were learning
norms and values.
• Adulthood included higher level thinking and
more evaluated behaviors.
IS FOR Language
• Languages help share the past, present and
future of culture.
• It allows people to interact by sharing ideas,
knowledge, and plans for the future.
• It allows people to share perspectives.
• This is the basis of culture because it allows
communication and therefore creation.
IS FOR Merton
• There are 5 steps to deviance.
• The first is conformity in which people follow
norms and do what they are supposed to in
society.
• The second is innovation in which people try to
achieve society’s goal but deviate from the
original way to do it.
• The third is ritualism in which people still
follow the rules of society but see no success.
• The fourth is retreatism when people give up
and leave society.
• The fifth is rebellion when people form a new
goal.
IS FOR Norms
• A Norm is a guideline for behavior.
• It is a somewhat unspoken rule on how to
conduct oneself in social situations.
• Examples include raising one’s hand in school
and wearing jeans.
• At certain times, norms are abandoned. These
times are called moral holidays. (Marti Gras,
New Years, Spring Break parties).
IS FOR Out Groups and In Groups
• The Out Group is a group of people that are
not within any of an individual’s group.
• If a person is apart of an organization that was
formed for people who don’t smoke, then
anyone who smokes is apart of the out group.
• In groups and out groups are more easily
identified in high school movies with the
“popular” kids and the “geeks”.
IS FOR Patterns of Conflict
• Patterns of conflict include a large scale
starting with absolute rejection of a group by
another in form of genocide, population
transfer, internal colonialism, segregation,
assimilation, and eventually acceptance.
• Functionalists believe the conflict is triggered
by a dysfunction caused by racism which
creates instability.
• Conflict theorists believe it is caused by a
dominant group controlling the minority with
prejudice.
• Symbolic interactionists believe it is caused by
parents teaching prejudice and language
separation.
IS FOR Quantitative and
Qualitative Research
• Quantitative research is data gathered by
numbers such as how many hours the
average teenager sleeps.
• Qualitative research usually deals with
emotion or an observation gained through
the 5 senses.
IS FOR Religion
• Religion is an institution of society that has
set beliefs and practices.
• A religion usually has a set of sacred material
things that have symbolic meaning within
that group.
• Religion can sometimes push change in
society as with Martin Luther and the
Protestant Reformation.
IS FOR Symbolic Interactionism
• This is the theory developed by Cooley and
Meade to explain society.
• It defines the use of symbols as the rules of
society; teaching one how to act based on
the meaning of the social situation.
• It also defines mutually understood symbols
as the driving force behind interaction.
IS FOR Thomas Theorem
• “If you believe it to be true, you will act upon
that truth”
• This is the idea that people act based on their
perceived environment.
IS FOR Upper and Under Class
• Social class is defined by a person’s wealth,
power, and prestige.
• There are 5 levels of social class.
• The capitalist, the upper middle, the middle,
the worker, the working poor, and the under
class.
• The class of one’s parents, one’s education,
and one’s decisions, eventually determine
one’s social class.
IS FOR Verstehen
• Verstehen is the definition of the
Sociological imagination.
• Its translation means “to put oneself in
another’s shoes”
• This means that one cannot be judgmental
of the actions of another group. Instead, one
must try to understand why members of a
group act the way they do.
IS FOR Wealth
• Wealth is determined by how much property
a person owns.
• It is one of the tree defining fields of social
class.
• The wealthiest 10 percent of the population
own 70 percent of the property.
• The wealthiest 1 percent of the population
own 33 percent of the property.
IS FOR Xenophobia
• Xenophobia is the basis for discrimination.
• It is the fear of people from other countries
or foreigners.
• A perfect example of xenophobia is the
“Native Americans” of the 19th century who
believed incoming immigrants would
eventually destroy American culture.
IS FOR Your Looking Glass Self
• This is a tangent of symbolic interactionism
developed by Charles Cooley.
• The looking glass self is the idea that one
bases his/her actions on how he/ she wants
to be viewed in society.
• The idea is that an individual will use society
as a mirror to understand what actions are
acceptable and which actions are not.
IS FOR Zimbardo Prison
Experiment
• This experiment was used to prove the
Thomas theorem.
• It occurred at a college in which students
were given roles to play. Students were
assigned to act as prisoners or guards.
• Eventually, the “prisoners” planned an
escape and the “guards” brutally put it
down.
• The experiment was a success in terms of
proving the theory, but a failure in terms of
ethics.