Sociology Lecture Notes - Social Structures

Unit 1: What is Sociology? 4/2/25 - Objectives: ​ Sociologists study the social world ​ The social structure is the social framework in which we live, and it is made up of the microlevel, the mesolevel, and the macrolevel ​ Sociologists emphasize the power of the social structure...

Unit 1: What is Sociology? 4/2/25 - Objectives: ​ Sociologists study the social world ​ The social structure is the social framework in which we live, and it is made up of the microlevel, the mesolevel, and the macrolevel ​ Sociologists emphasize the power of the social structure over the individual and their agency What is sociology? ​ The study of the social world, social facts (products of human interactions, ex: hand shakes), social patterns (similarities and differences influenced by environment), social structure (social framework in which we live) ​ A science How do sociologists think about society? ​ They study the 3 levels of the social structure: ○​ Macrolevel (institutions, cultural beliefs, big patterns); biggest level; collect big data on many ppl or big organizations ○​ Mesolevel (groups); look at how experiences differ by group ○​ Microlevel (interactions, the self); ex: how student and teacher react ​ Also study interactions between the social structure: how they affect each other ○​ Ex: we decide to stop shaking hands today and the social structure is altered ​ Sociologists emphasize social structure over agency ○​ Agency: free will ○​ Social structure has more of an impact on us than we think Sociologists study: ​ Groups, Culture, Inequalities, Social change, Institutions, Networks, Interaction, Identities ○​ Study them across time and space How do we learn? ​ Research shows that active learning, or activities that promote student engagement, are more effective than traditional lecture Article: “The Allure of Transactional Intimacy in Sugar Dating” - Lena Gunnarsson ​ Authors’ research question: what is the deeply rooted reason for why sugar babies seek this type of interaction within the precarious conditions of contemporary intimacy ​ Level of the social structure: micro, because it is the interaction between two individuals, and macro ​ How it shows power of social structure over agency: this neoliberal rationality has seeped into more domains of life, which has resulted in women viewing intimacy as a transaction and they seek it to gain control over the flows of intimate interaction in light of the gendered insecurities and vulnerabilities of the contemporary society 4/4 Assigned Reading: p. 3-13 of Mills 1959 The Social Imagination ​ Men feel trapped in their everyday lives because they don’t think they can overcome their troubles within this world ​ The shaping of history now outpaces the ability of men to orient themselves in accordance with cherished values ​ What men need and what they feel they need is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on ​ The Social imagination: Journalists and scholars need a quality of mind that will help them to use information and develop reason to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and what may be happening within themselves. ​ Mills defines the sociological imagination as the ability to "grasp the connection between history and biography" and to understand how personal troubles are linked to public issues. ​ suggests that the sociological imagination involves understanding history, biography, and social structure. ​ Those who have been imaginatively aware of the promise of their work have consistently asked 3 sorts of questions: ○​ 1. What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? ○​ 2. Where does this society stand in human history? ○​ 3. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period? ​ There is always the urge to know the social and historical meaning of the individual in the society and in the period in which he has his quality and his being ​ Mills emphasizes the importance of understanding the social context in which individuals live, arguing that personal problems are often shaped by broader societal forces. ​ Contemporary man’s self-conscious view of himself as at least an outsider, if not a permanent stranger, rests upon an absorbed realization of social relativity and of the transformative power of history ​ Troubles: within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others ​ Issues: regarding matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life ​ Ex: Employment ○​ If one man is unemployed, it is personal trouble ○​ When 15 million men are unemployed in a nation of 50 million employees, that is an issue ​ The condition of uneasiness and indifference is the signal feature of our period. Many great public issues as well as many private troubles are described in terms of 'the  psychiatric', often in a pathetic attempt to avoid the large issues and problems of modern society ​ It is now the social scientist's foremost political and intellectual task—for here the two coincide—to make clear the elements of contemporary uneasiness and indifference ​ the social sciences are becoming the common denominator of our cultural period, and the sociological imagination our most needed quality of mind. 4/4/25 - Objectives: ​ The sociological imagination is the capacity to consider how people’s lives (including our own) are shaped by the social facts that surround us ​ The sociological imagination helps us understand the power of the social structure over the individual and their agency What makes a good neighbor? ​ Being considerate ​ Respecting others space What is the sociological imagination? ​ Sociologists should have a quality of mind in order to understand society ​ “The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical sense in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals.” - C. Wright Mills ​ The capacity to consider how people's lives (including our own) are shaped by the social facts that surround us ○​ We can't understand ourselves if we don't understand our history ○​ Personal troubles are individual problems that are linked to public issues that exist outside of individuals ​ EX: Japanese internment (1942-1945) ○​ Executive order 9066 allowed forcible removal ○​ Forcible removal of 120K Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast Social structures to make better neighbors ​ Good fences make good neighbors ​ Bigger parking spaces ​ Soundproof walls ​ Common areas Fast Fashion ​ Fashion industry is complex because higher ups choose trends that trickle down and affect all sorts of people  ​ Fast fashion: cheap clothing that uses ideas from more expensive brands and celebrity culture and turns them into garments quickly to meet consumer demand ○​ Ex: Shein (the most successful fast fashion company) added between 2,000 and 10,000 individual styles to its app each day between July and December of 2021 Fashion and the environment ​ Fast (and even slow!) fashion is not cost-free to the environment: ○​ The fashion industry is responsible for releasing more than 10% of the world’s carbon emissions ​ The # of items produced by Shein’s 6,000 factories churns out the same amount of CO2 as approx 180 coal-fired power plants (6.3 million tons per year) ○​ A quarter of returned clothing is thrown away, creating 6 billion pounds of landfill waste per year What structures make fashion so bad for the environment? ​ Expectations of consumers: instant gratification (encouraged by marketing by influencers); buy-it-all, return-it-later policies ​ Lack of regulation: companies are not required to track their practices or make their practices transparent ​ Capitalism: a social and economic system that prioritizes profit over the environment ○​ Use of virgin polyester (a cheap material created using petroleum) ○​ Expense of “reverse logistics” - returns cost the brand lots of money ○​ Brand dilution - giving clothing away to countries for free makes it less desirable Takeaway: while we might individually try to make environmentally friendly choices (e.g. with what we wear and where we shop), these are public issues, not personal troubles! Solving the fashion industry’s environmental problem would require structural change 4/7 Assigned Reading: TMS Appendix B ​ Sociology is a social science so sociologists pose research questions that can be answered empirically ​ Sociological theory: empirically based explanations and predictions about relationships between social facts ​ Sociological research methods: scientific strategies for collecting empirical data about social facts ○​ Biosocial research: investigating the relationship between sociological variables and biological ones ​ Investigate relationships between social variables and biological ones ​ Ex: body shape and size, condition of people’s skin, hair, and teeth; hormone levels, gene expression ○​ Comparative methods: collecting and analyzing data about 2+ cases that can be usually contrasted  ○​ Computational sociology: extracting and analyzing data using computers ○​ Content analysis: counting and describing patterns of themes in media ○​ Ethnography: carefully observing naturally occurring social interaction, often as a participant (qualitative) ○​ Field experiments: testing a hypothesis under carefully controlled but otherwise naturally occurring conditions ○​ Historical sociology: collecting and analyzing data that reveal facts about past events ○​ In-depth interviews (qualitative): conducting intimate conversations with respondents ○​ Laboratory experiments: testing a hypothesis in a neutral setting under carefully controlled conditions ○​ Social networks analysis: mapping social ties and exchanges between them ○​ Spatial analysis: layering data on a landscape divided into fine-grained segments ○​ Standardized surveys: using a questionnaire designed to elicit analyzable data ○​ Time-use diaries: having participants self-report their activities at regular intervals over at least 24 hours ​ Qualitative research methods vs quantitative research methods ​ Human research subjects: collecting data from people ​ Correlations: observed relationships between variables ○​ Can be positive (as one variable changes, the other changes in the same direction) ○​ Can be negative (as one variable changes, the other changes in the other direction) ​ Causation: when a change in one variable produces a change in the other ​ Spurious: a correlational relationship is caused by a 3rd variable ​ Different research methods tap into different levels of analysis, or focus of the investigation ​ Generalizable: attributable to the whole population from which the sample was drawn ​ The answers produced by one method can often prompt research that uses another ​ Using more than one research method, or mixed methods, to help sociologists get answers to research questions is sometimes called triangulation, or the strategy of seeking an answer to a question from multiple angles ​ Operationalization: a process by which researchers define their variables and decide how to measure them ○​ Ex: defining or measuring age ○​ Ex: defining what a hookup is ​ Research ethics: a set of moral principles that guide empirical inquiry ○​ Informed consent ○​ confidentiality ○​ Vigilant about following ethical guidelines when vulnerable populations are being studied  ○​ Institutional review boards ​ Professional ethics: a set of moral principles that guide sociologists’ everyday activities ​ Good sociological theory is built upon good description, subsequently tested and refines using multiple methods, and the resulting theory is generalizable ​ As long as there are people to study, there will be sociology to do 4/7/25 - Objectives: ​ Because it is scientific, sociological research is falsifiable, theoretical, empirical, objective, and communal ​ Deductive research starts with and tests theory; inductive research starts with data and builds theory ​ Sociologists choose their method based on their research question ​ Sociologists must follow certain guidelines to make sure their research is ethical Sociology is a science ​ Science is… ○​ Falsifiable: can be tested and shown to be false ○​ Theoretical: makes general explanations (“theory”) ○​ Empirical: is based on data ○​ Objective: attempts to be free from bias ○​ Communal: is shared and challenged in the scientific community The Research Circle ​ You can begin the research circle in different places (with general explanation/theory or with an observation/data) Deductive research vs inductive research ​ Deductive research: start with a theory (top of circle), make a hypothesis, and test it ○​ General explanation/theory ○​ Making predictions/hypotheses  ○​ observations/data ○​ Identifying patterns ​ Inductive Research: make observations (bottom of circle) to identify patterns and build theory ○​ observations/data ○​ Identifying patterns ○​ General explanation/theory ○​ Making predictions/hypotheses Quantitative vs qualitative methods ​ Quantitative methods: numerical data ○​ 1. Experiments- compares the experimental group to the control group to determine the effect of one variable on an outcome ​ Pro: can establish causality ​ Con: might not be applicable outside the carefully controlled lab ○​ 2. Surveys- collects analyzable data through a questionnaire ​ Pro: very versatile and can be generalizable ​ Con: cannot establish causality ○​ 3. Social network analysis- maps social ties (e.g., between people, groups) and exchanges between them ​ Pro: offers a birds-eye view of social interaction ​ Con: doesn’t tell us much about the nature of that interaction ○​ Great for answering who and what ○​ Usually used for deductive research ○​ Usually analyzed through statistics ​ Qualitative methods: non-numerical data ○​ 1. Interviews- intimate conversation between researcher and research subject ​ Pro: captures in-depth information about thinking and experience ​ Con: assumes reports are accurate when they may not be ○​ 2. Ethnography (observation)- careful observation naturally occurring social interaction ​ Pro: allows in-depth look at how social life happens ​ Con: only sheds light on the field sites studied ○​ 3. Content analysis- analyzes media (e.g., newspaper articles, TV shows) for themes ​ Pro: allows in-depth look at cultural portrayal of topic ​ Con: only sheds light on what we have access to, and we can’t ask follow-up questions ○​ 4. Surveys (sometimes) ○​ Great for answering why ○​ Usually used for inductive research  ○​ Usually analyzed through coding Research ethics ​ Informed consent ​ Confidentiality (identity only known to researcher) ​ Risks < benefits 4/9 Assigned Reading: Koch and Dougherty 2023 “Tattoos, Religiosity, and Deviance among College Students” 1.​ What were the authors’ research question(s)? a.​ Is the number of tattoos a person has related to religiosity? b.​ Is the number of tattoos associated with deviance such as binge drinking, marijuana use, and having multiple sexual partners? c.​ Are people with religious tattoos more associated with elevated religiosity than those with no tattoos or non-religious tattoos? d.​ As compared to persons with no tattoos or non-religious tattoos, are religious tattoos associated with lower rates of binge drinking, marijuana use, and sex with multiple partners? 2.​ Did the authors use a quantitative or qualitative method to answer their question? a.​ This study utilizes data from a sample of 3,525 students at 12 colleges and universities across the United States. b.​ A survey (quantitative) 3.​ Which method did the authors use (experiment, survey, network analysis, interviews, ethnography, content analysis)? a.​ Used surveys (quantitative) b.​ Three deviant behaviors served as dependent variables in our analysis. 4.​ Do you think this was deductive or inductive research? a.​ Deductive research - started with hypotheses 5.​ What did the authors conclude about their research question(s)? a.​ tattoos have no connection to religiosity among respondents in our sample (denies hypothesis 1) b.​ tattoos and deviance appear to fit together, with deviant behaviors increasing in likelihood as the number of tattoos increases (supports hypothesis 2) c.​ the religiously tattooed are highest in all three measures of religiosity (support hypothesis 3) d.​ respondents with religious tattoos do not eschew these deviant behaviors. Those with religious tattoos are like those with no tattoos only regarding binge drinking. For all other forms of deviance examined, respondents with religious tattoos and non-religious tattoos both significantly differ from those with no tattoos (denies hypothesis 4) 4/9 - Objectives ​ Ethnographers write field notes of their observations, which become the evidence for their claims. Practicing Ethnography ​ Ethnography is careful observation of naturally occurring social interaction (qualitative) ​ Ethnographers are usually “participants,” meaning they gain access to a site, and participate in it as they make their observations ​ Ethnographers take careful notes about what they observe ​ These “field notes” become the evidence for their claims Practice observing and taking field notes: The Lost Daughter - movie clip ​ Woman 2 seems very concerned and uncomfortable in the interaction. Woman 1 is trying to be comforting by giving an anecdote from her own experiences, and tries to reassure woman 2 that the issues will be resolved. The daughter of woman 2 (it seems) is very distraught because she can't find her doll and the rest of the family is trying to comfort her. They are all on a dock at a lake it seems, and I am not sure what the relationship between the two women is. Based on the interaction, it seems like the young girl was missing and they just found her. Woman 2 seems like she is not very comforted by her interaction with woman 1. Unit 2: From the Macro to the Micro 4/11 Objectives ​ Culture is the differences in a group’s shared ideas, as well as the objects, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas ​ Social constructs are influential and shared interpretations of reality that vary across time and space ​ Socialization is the lifelong learning process by which we become members of our culture What is Culture? ​ Culture: the differences in a group’s shared ideas, as well as the objects, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas ○​ Beliefs: ideas about what is true and false ○​ Values: notions as to what’s right and wrong ○​ Norms: shared expectations for behavior ​ It covers what might differ from place to place, including… ○​ Cultural objects, or items we give symbolic meaning to ​ Ex: american flag which stands for our country’s values ○​ Cultural cognition, or shared ideas and values ​ Ex: rosie the riveter which signifies patriotism ○​ Cultural practices, or habits, routines, and rituals that people frequently perform ​ Ex: Pledge of allegiance ​ Culture also includes social constructs, or influential or shared interpretations of reality that vary across time and space ○​ Members of the same culture generally share similar social constructs  ​ Social construction is the process through which social constructs emerge, where we layer objects with ideas, fold concepts into one another, and build connections between them ○​ Ex: peace sign, what counts as food ​ Types of social constructs: ○​ Signifiers: things that stand for other things (emojis, a thumbs-up) ○​ Categories: subsets of things that we believe are sufficiently similar to one another to be considered the same (“pets”, “blue”, “blouses”) ○​ Binaries: categories we see as opposites or otherwise in opposition ○​ Associations: ideas that have nothing special in common except for the fact that they’re connected by a third idea (rainbows and flags = LGBTQIA pride) ○​ Sequences: ideas arranged into a specific chronological order (outline, draft, edit) ○​ Hierarchies: ideas placed into ranked relationships (mammals are more important than insects) ​ Symbolic structure: a constellation of social constructs connected and opposed to one another in overlapping networks of meaning How do we become “culturally competent”? ​ Socialization is the lifelong learning process by which we become members of our culture ​ Socialization teaches us beliefs (ideas about what is true and false), values (notions as to what is right and wrong), and norms (shared expectations for behavior) ​ It includes: ○​ Interpersonal socialization: active efforts by others to help us become culturally competent members of our cultures ○​ Self-socialization: active efforts we make to ensure we’re culturally competent members of our culture ○​ Media socialization: the process of learning how to be culturally competent through our exposure to media ​ Agents of socialization: environments where we learn culture ○​ Families- usually our first source; influence beliefs and values ○​ Schools- socialize us to listen to authority, follow rules, take turns, show up on time ○​ Peers- peers shape how we think, what we think is cool, who we think is cute, how we spend our time ○​ Religion- religious faith can be a source of values, beliefs, and practices ○​ Mass media- reinforces what we learn elsewhere, and media teaches is about things people experience firsthand ○​ Work- we must adjust to the norms, values, and beliefs typical of people in our profession  ○​ Military- individuals are subject to assertive and all-encompassing socialization aimed at transitioning them into life as a member of the armed forces How do sociologists think about culture? ​ Culture exists on the macrolevel ​ We can't opt out of culture, but we can influence it ​ Cross-cultural comparison: sociologists compare beliefs, values, and norms across place and time to examine how cultures vary and change ​ Subcultures: sociologists examining subgroups that have distinct cultural ideas, objects, practices and bodies Hookup culture on campus ​ Sociologist Lisa Wade asked 101 first-year college students to submit weekly journal entries about sex and dating on campus ​ Also did 21 interviews, analyzed survey data and essays from college newspapers, and visited 24 different campuses ​ She found that “hookup culture” was common and built into higher education itself ​ “Hookup culture” refers to a culture that encourages casual sex ​ Wade argues that hookup culture plays a large role on American college campuses because it’s embedded in higher education institutions and student interactions: ○​ Parties happen outside of class time ○​ Parties are held at large off-campus houses near residence halls, where nearly all students live, making them convenient ○​ Students retell hookup stories after partying ○​ Residential colleges are “total institutions” that separate students from wider society and provide all their needs, including leisure needs Hookup culture at UCI? ​ 68% of students at UCI said they spent 0 hours partying 4/14 Assigned Reading: TMS Chapter 6 - Organizations, Institutions, and Structures ​ Premodern thought: a belief in supernatural sources of truth and a commitment to traditional practices ​ Historians describe this transition to living in larger and more complex societies as a shift from a premodern to a modern era ​ Rationalization: describes the process of embracing reason and using it to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of human activities ​ Comparative Sociology: collecting and analyzing data about 2+ cases that can be usefully compared and contrasted ○​ inquiries can be small, as in a comparison of two siblings, or they can be quite large, as in a comparison of three countries ○​ excellent for asking whether social forces reliably produce predicted outcomes  ​ Social organizations: formal entities that coordinate collections of people in achieving a stated purpose ○​ Have clear goals, often “mission statements” ○​ Involve divisions of labor, tasks broken down into smaller parts and distributed to individuals who specialize in narrow roles ○​ Bureaucracies: organization with formal policies, strict hierarchies, and impersonal relations ​ Postmodern thought: rejects absolute truth (whether supernatural or scientific) in favor of countless partial truths, and it denounces the narrative of progress ○​ Postmodern thinkers change the nature of themselves at will, are comfortable with internal inconsistencies, and their identities are experimental, playful ○​ Ex: the gig economy (more short-term jobs) ​ Social institutions: widespread and enduring patterns of interaction with which we respond to categories of human need ○​ An idea (that’s the category of need) and a related set of formal and informal practices (these are the patterns of interaction) ○​ Health is a modern institution that rests on the idea that we should be able to live without illness, injury, or pain to the greatest degree possible; practices involve formal orgs with bureaucracies and informal everyday practices (hospitals, urgent-care clinics, health insurance companies, etc) ○​ social institutions socialize us into their ideologies (shared ideas about how human life should be organized) ​ Monopoly, for example, teaches us to play greedily ​ Social structure: the entire set of interlocking social institutions in which we live ○​ The social structure, then, doesn’t merely offer us opportunities; it offers us a specific mix of opportunities and constraints. ○​ The features of our lives that determine our mix of opportunities and constraints is described as our structural position ○​ Social stratification: a persistent sorting of social groups into enduring hierarchies 4/14 Objectives: ​ Institutions are widespread and enduring patterns of interactions with which we respond to categories of human need. They are collective solutions to personal problems, ones that span whole societies ​ McDonaldization is the process by which more and more parts of life are made efficient, predictable, calculable, and controllable by nonhuman technologies ​ Institutions uphold specific ideologies, or shared ideas about how human life should be organized, and can create and sustain inequality What are institutions?  ​ Institutions are widespread and enduring patterns of interactions with which we respond to categories of human need. They are collective solutions to personal problems, ones that span whole societies ​ Important characteristics of institutions: ○​ Formal and informal practices ○​ Hierarchy and roles ○​ Divisions of labor ○​ Rationalized Formal and informal practices ​ Formal practices are requirements, rules, regulations, etc that are part of the institution ○​ Education → truancy rules, requirement to attend school until age 16, dress code ​ Informal practices are similarly built into the institution as norms, but are not required ○​ Education → back-to-school shopping, parent carpool practices, trends in what to wear to school Hierarchy and roles ​ Institutions include roles (or a person’s particular job or function) that are organized into hierarchies, which grant certain roles power over others ​ Ex: school hierarchy- students at the bottom, then TAs, professors, and administrators at the top Divisions of labor ​ Institutions break complicated tasks down into smaller parts and distribute them to individuals to complete Rationalized ​ Rationalization is the process of embracing reason and using it to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of human activities ​ A term used by sociologist Max Weber (pronounced VAY-but) to describe modern organizations, or formal entities that coordinate collections of people in achieving a stated purpose ​ Institutions consist of rationalized organizations ○​ Education → schools, school districts, universities McDonaldization: the escalation of rationalization ​ The process by which more and more parts of life are made efficient, predictable, calculable, and controllable by nonhuman technologies ○​ Efficiency ○​ Predictability ○​ Calculability ​ Education → standardized testing How do sociologists think about institutions? ​ Macrolevel  ​ Institutions uphold specific ideologies, or shared ideas about how human life should be organized ○​ Education → obedience to authority, that education is a public good (or not), national identity ​ Because we can’t easily opt out of them, institutions also constrain what behaviors we see as possibilities! ○​ What alternatives to Education might exist? The Economy: The rise of gig work ​ When an institution changes, our lives change too! ○​ The great recession 2008-2009 ○​ New technologies ​ Giving rise to the “gig economy”! The reality of gig work ​ An economic Policy institute report showed… ○​ 14% of gig workers earned less than the federal minimum wage ○​ 29% earned less than the state minimum wage ○​ 19% went hungry because they could not afford enough to eat ○​ 30% used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program (SNAP) ​ In reality, these gig companies deny their workers basic protections through misclassifying their workforce The State and inequality ​ On Jan 29, 2025, the Laken Riley Act passed. The law requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain (without the opportunity to post bond) unauthorized immigrants who have admitted to, or charged with or convicted of theft, assaulting a police officer, or a crime that results in death or serious bodily injury ​ Critics say this violates the right to due process - a right everyone (including undocumented immigrants) has ​ Why might this violate due process? How does this law create inequality? 4/16 Assigned Reading: TMS Chapter 3 1.​ What are social identities? What purposes do social identities serve? ​ Social identities are the socially constructed categories and subcategories of people in which we place ourselves or are placed by others ○​ Can be private, deeply personal, and profoundly intimate ○​ Our cultures invent them, provide the subcategories, and give them meaning and value ​ Purposes: ○​ Sense of self: they help people understand who they are in relation to others ○​ Social belonging: they connect individuals to groups, offering community, culture, and support ○​ Organization of society: social identities help society categorize and structure people, which can affect access to resources, power, and rights  2.​ What does it mean for social identities like sexuality and race to be socially constructed? ​ Socially constructed means identities are not biologically fixed or natural but instead, society creates and maintains categories and gives them meaning ○​ Race is not rooted in genetics in any meaningful way, and what counts as racial categories have changed over time and vary by culture ○​ Sexuality may have biological elements, but the labels and their meanings are shaped by culture and history 3.​ What does it mean for people to “do” their identities? Give an example. ​ “Doing” an identity means performing it through everyday actions, choices, and behavior that align with social expectations for that identity. This idea comes from symbolic interactionism, which sees identity as something we continually express through interactions. ○​ ex: a man might “do masculinity” by avoiding emotional expression, speaking assertively, or lifting weights—because those are behaviors associated with being a man in many cultures. 4.​ How do stereotypes and prejudice develop out of identities? ​ Stereotypes and prejudice emerge when society attaches fixed, oversimplified beliefs to certain identities. These beliefs often become ingrained and guide how people perceive and treat others—even if the individual doesn't actually fit the stereotype ○​ Ex: A stereotype might be that Asian students are always good at math. ○​ Prejudice comes in when people act on these beliefs, treating individuals unfairly or making assumptions based on their group membership. 4/16 Objectives: ​ Social identities are the social constructed categories and subcategories of people in which we place ourselves and are placed by others ​ We use social identities to coordinate action and for rewards, like belonging and self-esteem ​ Identities create and reinforce inequality What are social identities? ​ Social identities are the social constructed categories and subcategories of people in which we place ourselves and are placed by others ​ In the US… ○​ Race and ethnicity ○​ Gender ○​ Age ○​ Sexuality ​ Performing our identities: taking on actions to fulfill the role of our identities ○​ We perform our identities because others expect us to and/or it brings us joy  ​ Social identities are socially constructed: they are a shared interpretation that vary across time and space Socially constructed and socially meaningful ​ Even thought identities are socially constructed, they are still socially meaningful ​ They affect how we see ourselves, how we act, how others see us, and how others treat us ​ Social identity theory says that people are inclined to form social groups, incorporate group membership into their identity, take steps to enforce group boundaries, and maximize positive distinction and in-group success ​ Why? ○​ For rewards, like belonging and self-esteem ○​ To coordinate action: Ridgeway argues that certain identities act as primary cultural frames for coordinating social relations ​ We need to coordinate with others to get what we want and need ​ To coordinate with one another, we need a shared knowledge to categorize the self and the other and anticipate how each of us will behave ​ To manage coordination in real time, this knowledge needs to be simplified Coordinating action ​ In the US, there are 3 primary cultural frames: gender, race, and age ​ Research shows: ○​ We instantly categorize people we interact in therms of these 3 identities ○​ These identities are associate with cultural beliefs about how people in one category are likely to behave compared to those in a contrasting category ○​ We use these categories to “frame” our interactions with the person and coordinate action ​ The shared knowledge we use to coordinate action consists of: ○​ Stereotypes: clusters of ideas attached by social convention to people with specific identities ​ Controlling images: pervasive negative stereotypes that serve to justify or uphold inequality; a subset of stereotypes ○​ Status beliefs: collectively shared ideas about which social groups are more or less deserving of esteem; these associate stereotypes with high or low status ​ THE PROBLEM: cultural beliefs about different groups sort them into a hierarchy and create and justify inequality Prejudice and discrimination (problem) ​ Prejudice: attitudinal bias against individuals based on their group membership ​ Discrimination: prejudicial behavior based on group membership ​ Both allow group members to protect their feeling of positive distinction and their resources and power  ​ Ex: policies put in place by elite universities effectively limited how many Jewish students would be admitted, including interviews as part of application process Enforcing group boundaries (problem) ​ Excluding people from groups also protects the group’s resources and power ​ Ex: psychologists found that white participants who were high in social dominance orientation (they have a preference for group-based hierarchy and inequality) were more likely to categorize Black-white biracial individuals as Black when told that Black people had made significant gains in business, education and politics Identity performance (problem) ​ When we perform our identities, those performances can reinforce inequality ​ Ex: tradwives take on hyper-traditional gender roles in heterosexual relationships and sell this image to others ​ How do the tips in this video reinforce women’s lower status compared to men? 4/18 Objectives: ​ Social interaction is guided by social rules. Breaking social rules may result in sanctions ​ Sociologists study interaction through symbolic interactionism, dramaturgy, and ethnomethodology ​ Our understandings of ourselves are shaped by the feedback we receive from others in interaction How does social interaction work? ​ Social interaction is the moments we share with other people ​ We coordinate social interaction through: ○​ Social rules: culturally specific norms, policies, and laws that guide our behavior ○​ Folkways: loosely enforced norms (separate right from rude) ​ Ex: don’t ask a woman her age ○​ Mores: tightly enforced norms that carry moral significance (separate right from wrong) ​ Ex: lying ○​ Taboos: social prohibitions so strong that the thought of violating them can be sickening (stronger than mores) ​ Ex: cannibalism ○​ Policies: rules that are made and enforced by organizations ​ Ex: academic policies that tell us we can't cheat ○​ Laws: rules that are made and enforced by governments ​ Following and breaking social rules ○​ We follow social rules out of habit or convenience, because we enjoy doing so, its convenient, to be courteous and because when we break them (breaching), we may be sanctioned  ​ Social sanctions: reactions by others aimed at promoting conformity (giving someone a nasty look when they ask a rude question) ​ Whether we’re sanctioned depends on the context and our own identities ​ How is social interaction studied? ○​ 1. Symbolic interactionism: the theory that social interaction depends on the social construction of reality ​ We respond to the meaning we give interaction ​ The meaning of interaction is produced through the interaction; it does not exist in and of itself ​ Meaning is negotiated in interaction ○​ 2. Dramaturgy: the practice of looking at social life as a series of performances in which we’re actors on metaphorical stages ​ To perform, we use roles, scripts, costumes, props, and sets ​ Front stage: a public space in which we are aware of having an audience ​ When we are most performative ​ Back stage: private or semi-private places in which we can relax or rehearse ​ Where you can relax or rehearse ​ Impression management: our efforts to control how we’re perceived by others ​ We choose a face, or a version of ourselves that we want to project in a specific setting, and do face-work to establish and maintain our face ​ Our faces vary by setting! (ex: vary by friend group) ○​ 3. Ethnomethodology ​ Ethnomethods are the culturally specific background assumptions we use to make sense of everyday life ​ Ethnomethodology is the research aimed at revealing these assumptions ​ Ethnomethodology often makes use of breaching experiments, were people purposefully break social rules ​ Social interaction and the self ○​ We each have a self-narrative, or a story we tell ourselves about the origin and likely future of ourselves ○​ Our understanding of ourselves is shaped by the feedback we received from the people around us ○​ The looking-glass self: the self that emerges as a consequence of seeing ourselves as we think other people see us (informed by feedback from others) ○​ Sociologists think about interaction and the self on the microlevel