Sociology Notes PDF

WEEK 1: Mental model Level of integration in social networks CONCEPTS STRUCTURE & AGENCY Skill Building Key points/terms/questions - for exam Concept: more specific Concepts in the textbook is key term Concepts 1. Links up other things 2. Creates mental model 3. ? Pier Bourdieu A soc...

WEEK 1: Mental model Level of integration in social networks CONCEPTS STRUCTURE & AGENCY Skill Building Key points/terms/questions - for exam Concept: more specific Concepts in the textbook is key term Concepts 1. Links up other things 2. Creates mental model 3. ? Pier Bourdieu A sociology experiment third edition shamus khan TEXT KEY CONCEPTS Social vacuum Cost and benefit of behaviors Crowds Identities Behavioral expectations Priorities Violence We are irrational Actions are determined by the people around us  Chapter 1: Introduction MY NOTES Kai Cenat protest outbreak ○ 300 people calm at first ○ Slowly as word spreads gets out of control Sociologist Mark Granovetter ○ Individual behavior can be influenced by actions ○ Some only need a little bit of provocation Social Vacuum ○ Where we can rationally think through consequences Violence is a collective process that occurs from a common set of emotions We react to the actions of others in the crowd. Sociology: the study of how societies are organized and how the organization of a society influences the behavior of the people living in it Sociological Imagination - C. Wright Mills The capacity to think about our own personal experience in relation to larger social forces that influence every aspect of our lives, whether they are visible to us or not. (E.g. picking out your name. It seems like a private thing your parents do but it is actually in the social context) The Industrial Revolution and How it Shaped Sociology Revolution: it wasn’t just the economies that had changed every aspect of their lives were transformed Early sociology was interested in how communities rapidly changed Division of Labor Adam Smith thought that division of labor was the most important factor in the wealth of nations. If jobs were divided up individuals could do what they are best at and trade the surplus. They’d be dependent on each other but the community would have more products to trade as a result of that social dependency. Karl Marx Societies are based on social conflict. Social conflict: a struggle between groups that have differing interests and needs. Basis of conflict was the ownership and distribution of goods and resources -> economic relationships To understand a society you needed to look at how things were made. Changes to societies come about because of social conflicts over how things are made and distributed. Hegel Hegel believed that history consisted of a dialectic (an ongoing struggle between opposites) as humanity progressed toward true freedom and self-understanding. Introduced the idea of alienation Marx worked on alienation in the industrial workforce Central Conflict in an Industrial Capitalist Society it is between two key groups, classes: Owners(capitalists): own important resources like factories and determine how workers do their jobs  Workers: only truly own their labor or capacity to work, they sell this to capitalists for wages. Capitalists want to accumulate more wealth for themselves. Therefore, they organize work where workers receive lower wages for their labor. The capitalist strategy is to put workers in competition with each other. Workers want higher wages X capitalists want to pay less -> class conflict This class conflict defines capitalist society. Class conflict defines are politics, culture, our families Marx was a relational sociologist. Individuals are defined by their relationships with others and with social institutions such as the economy. Alienation: the feeling of being disconnected from others, from work, and even from our own sense of humanity. One of the core problems with capitalism is that workers are alienated. Since they have to compete with one another for jobs, they are alienated from each other. Alienated by the labor process. Don’t have control over what they make -> alienated over what they produce. Emile Durkheim Interested in the emergence of capitalism and its effects on society Structural Approach: forces that both impact individual behavior and are produced by that behavior. Marx thought of the division of labor as the way in which economic production was divided into more and more specialized tasks. Durkheim was more interested in society as a whole. He argued that it was important to see how people in a society were connected. He called the patterns of these connections solidarity. Older and simpler societies are defined by mechanical solidarity. Mechanical solidarity makes people feel can make people feel more integrated Society is extremely cohesive and people are highly integrated with one another. Can give us a sense of purpose and place. Because we feel important to other people BUT they can be fragile because one part is removed and the mechanical society won’t work again. Organic solidarity Organic societies are far more resilient they are less reliant on the individual members. One member removed and the society can still work BUT sense of uselessness for individuals in this society Integration: how tied you are as an individual to others TOO INTEGRATED -> feel trapped NOT INTEGRATED ENOUGH -> sense of not belonging Regulation:all groups have both formal and informal rules We call these rules norms, or expectations for our behavior Anomie: Having too little regulation Max Weber Methodological Individualism: to make sense of the world it is often necessary to focus on the individual Sociology should look at social action The kind of understanding sociologists generate is interpretive. Culture: Weber means the values that people hold and that ultimately guide their social actions. He suggests that particular values created kinds of actions that led to the emergence of capitalism. Conclusion: Weber’s approach to sociology means looking closely at the actions of individuals, and asking what meanings they attach to those actions Bureaucracy: an essential feature of modern economies What sets bureaucracy apart? 1. Division of labor 2. There is a hierarchy, chain of command 3. Members of bureaucracies get paid a fixed salary according to their position 4. Employees usually work full-time and the resources they use in their work belong to the organization, not them. Their work life is separate from their private life. 5. functions according to written documents such as handbooks and policies 6. a strict disciplinary system that covers employees’ conduct and states when and how they can be punished or fired Jane Addams W.E.B. Du Bois Thorstein Veblen Status can detach from economic production. It is not about how make it but how you display your status with what you buy wear and own. Class Notes Sociology in Historical Context INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION With the industrial revolution both a boom in the population With the industrial revolution we get People start moving closer together Capitalism Modern medicine Industrialization Pros: tech & innovation Cons: division of labor & inequalities Why do things change? → driving question of sociology  Thinkers & Theories Marx Durkheim Weber Scientific Approach Historical Materialism Structural Methodological How things are made Individualism Scientific How do people make Relational sense of their lives Relationship between classes Social action Dialectic Theory of Change Class conflict Social Structure Culture which turns (the driving force in Solidarities values into actions society) Integration and regulation Concern for Alienation within Anomie from lack of Bureaucracy and individuals capitalist system of norms rationalization wage labor Famous Work Das Kapital The Division of Labor The Protestant Ethic The Communist in Society and the Spirit of Manifesto Elementary forms of Capitalism Religious Life E.G. working in retail Marx would say you were being exploited and you were being alienated Durkheim would say you can work at the GAP for a few hours and then go outside and feel connected to society. The division of labor makes you feel more connected to society. Weber would say that you are replaceable in the system and that bureaucracy is an iron cage and you cannot get out.  WEEK 2: Chapter 3 Social structure: the boundaries people confront as they make decisions about their individual and collective actions. Resources: things we may have or that we acquire, such as money, education, and status, which are valuable or allow us to accomplish goals. Social statuses: or a person’s or group’s socially-determined positions within a larger group or society. A person can hold more than one social status e.g. race, class, education, sex Achieved status: results at least in part from your efforts. E.g. Occupation, level of education, class, and marital status are generally achieved statuses Ascribed status: assigned to you by society without regard for your unique talents, efforts, or characteristics; this often happens at birth. E.g. race, ethnicity, sex, and age place people in social hierarchies or ranking systems Ascribed statuses such as race or sex are difficult to change, but their social meanings can be transformed. Your social status is closely related to your life chances, or opportunities to provide yourself with material goods, positive living conditions, and favorable life experiences. Appearance is an individual choice that impacts how we feel about ourselves. According to Max Weber, your social status is closely related to your life chances ○ E.g. low-income students are less likely to get graduate degrees Social role Is a set of expectations about the behavior and attitudes of people who occupy a particular social status. Can contribute to society by enabling us to anticipate the behavior of others and to adapt our own accordingly. Role Conflict Inconsistency between two or more roles we fulfill. Groups Social Group: two or more people with similar values and expectations who interact with one another regularly. Norms: Our social interactions take place within groups and is and is influenced by the group’s norms. The rules and expectations by which a group guides the behavior of its members. Normative: Behavior that meets these rules and expectations (norms) are normative. Networks We also build connections with others outside the group. Social Network: a series of social relationships that links a person directly to the individuals. Manuel Castells: digital technologies have reformed social networking, now we keep up with each other through social media. Social Institutions Organize a central domain of social life Examples: mass media, government, the economy, family, the healthcare system, education system. Social institutions often maintain the existing set of social patterns. Individual Agency: our ability to act given the structural rules and resources that impact our behaviors. Self-concept: the thoughts and feelings we have of ourselves as physical, social, and emotional beings The Twenty Statements Test (TST): is used to find how people identify themselves Socialization: the experiences that give us an identity and teach us the values, morals, beliefs, and ways of acting and thinking that are expected in our society. Mead recognized that our identities are constructed through the social influences that we encounter in our daily lives. ○ How we develop a sense of identity is through how others perceive us ○ Generalized other: norms & values of the larger culture. E.g. dressing up like your peers on the first day of school  Looking glass self: the way our perception of how others see us affects our sense of self. Agents of Socialization E.g. The example of your first day of high school focuses on two influential factors that help shape your identity: the peer group and school. The peer group & school are agents of socialization. Resocialization: When social expectations shift and we encounter a new set of group rules that guide our behavior, we often experience resocialization, the process of adopting new social norms and identities. Hetero-normative masculinity: the dominant, widespread ideas of what it means to be a straight man This includes displays of endurance, toughness, strength, the ability to control emotions, and sexual success with women Total Institutions: Sometimes we experience dramatic resocialization, greatly changing how we behave, what we think, and how we view ourselves. Groups of people are largely cut off from the wider society and their lives are largely controlled by the institution E.g. Military boot camps, prisons, mental institutions, and religious training organizations all commonly function as total institutions Individual Agency & Social Structure Sociological Imagination: Micro Sociology: focuses on individual identities and small-scale interactions with others. Macro Sociology: focuses on individual identities and small-scale interactions with others. Symbolic Interaction: studies human interaction by focusing on the words and gestures that people use and the meanings they create about the world individuals act toward things based on the meanings those things have for them Structure of opportunity Reflexivity Class Notes Thinkers are Individuals Relationship between SOCIAL STRUCTURE and INDIVIDUAL How should we think about the mechanisms that relate structure to the individual? Norms Status & Roles Networks Symbolic Interaction NORMS Example Norm: Turning your back in the elevator. Breach: Stares, weird looks, judgment, make others feel uncomfortable, nothing Follow: nothing, feels normal Breach: try to make it right & resolve the issue E.g. saying oops or my bad when dropping something to signal you did it unintentionally People may police the norm, that it is not part of the norm People intentionally break norms to gain attention In all these cases the norm gets reinforced. STATUS Roles: we all play roles that have prompts, scripts and we follow roles on the scenes Role conflict: when your not sure which role your in Example: A: Where are you going? B: Out A: What are you going to do? B: Nothing The things we say only make sense in the context of our role Networks: connections between individuals Networks can provide us: 1. Information 2. Resource 3. Support Symbolic Interaction Words and gestures people use & meanings they make out of the word Blumer: 1. Human beings act toward ideas, concepts and values based on the meaning that those things have for them. 2. These meanings are products of social interactions 3. Meanings are modified through an interpretive process. Sociological Literacy #1 What sociology looks like “in the wild” Sociology engages in social problems such as poverty, drug use etc. Focuses on the broader social Qualitative Literacy for Recognizing Sociological Thinking: ○ Evidence of cognitive empathy (can you understand why the person is making the decisions they are making) ○ Attentiveness to out-group heterogeneity bias (if you are from a different group there is an inclination to believe that people from the other group are more similar) ○ Clarity of the case (that the person knows what they are arguing) #2 How to apply a sociological perspective “Personal troubles of milieu and public issues of social structure” #3 How to think about AI  Drawbacks: flawed information, replaces difficult thinking, smooths over complexity, gives averaged thinking, lacks specificity Benefits: Strong summaries when given context, nearly infinite examples, interactive WEEK 3: Chapter 5: Culture Culture broadly, is everything we make and consume—including our ideas, attitudes, traditions, and practices—beyond that bare necessity. Émile Durkheim allows us to think about how much of social life works via culture: symbols (material or immaterial objects that groups affix meaning to), deployed through rituals (routinized and significant group activities), give a community its specific character. Ex: Music festivals Material culture: physical goods, often placed in an economic system Symbolic culture: beliefs, values, language. Collective Representations - Durkheim: He described how a set of images and words can represent a particular culture; the purpose, or function, is to create social order and cohesion. For Durkheim, religion separates symbols into categories of sacred and profane Constructing social boundaries between people who recognize a set of collective representations as worthy of reverence and those who do not. His work points to the importance of culture in shaping social life Ex of collective representations today: American collective representations → baseball, the “Stars and Stripes,” apple pie, College collective representations → mascot or a motto, colors, iconic uni building Values Approach High culture: Made for and enjoyed by elite groups.​​ High culture was “fine art,” often hidden from the masses Ex: oil paintings, ballet, the opera, fancy cuisine, Popular culture (mass/low culture): heavily produced and commercialized goods made for and consumed by a large audience The Industrial Revolution allowed us to mechanically reproduce cultural goods for broader society. High culture → elite and upper-middle-class tastes, exceptional quality, Popular culture → pleasure, the mundane, and the masses. Way of Life Approach From Max Weber to 1950s American sociologist Talcott Parsons, social scientists learned to approach culture as a unified system of values (moral beliefs) and norms (rules and expectations by which a group guides the behavior of its members). Code-switching: adopting a set of informal rules and manners that are appropriate in a specific setting Ex: some kids would embrace the slang, manner, and clothing of the street to avoid being ridiculed on their blocks, and then adopt the norms of middle-class culture at school to succeed in the eyes of their teachers. Cultural Toolkit: sets of beliefs, values, and attitudes that we learn to use in different situations. We use the cultural tools that solve particular problems or help us in the specific situation we’re facing People get to pick how to use culture (beliefs, language, values) Culture is a Cycle Production, Consumption, and Re-Making of Culture. Culture industries: The mass production of cultural goods requires a vast system of people and organizations Corporate Consolidation: the acquisition of smaller corporations by larger ones has created a more uniform symbolic and material cultural landscape 50 corporations owned 90% of the media; now just six companies own over 90% of the U.S. media market: 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Disney, Universal, WB, Sony Corporate interest in expanding markets has led to a commodification of ethnicity Diversity Capital: the practice of corporations like Target and Toyota supporting cultural institutions (e.g., the National History Museum of African American History and Culture) in order to improve their reputations and imply they value racial diversity. Corporations like Coca-Cola and Merrell Lynch invest in the National Museum of the American Indian to cultivate branding indigeneity in order to appear to support indigenous peoples. Consuming Culture Conscious Consumption - Veblen Gaining prestige by exhibiting valuable cultural goods, which implies to others that you are wealthy. Ex: to display wealth, buying a bright yellow $100,000 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Subcultures: a group that holds values and engages in activities that separate members from the wider society subcultures like goths give us a sense of how people repurpose and remake culture  Subcultures take and adapt existing cultural items and behaviors and reuse them. Goths Ex: goths repurpose British Victorian-era styles & contemporary punk DIY Subcultures offer characteristics “ways of life” subcultural groups offer freedom of behavior Subcultures allow us to see how culture is remade Subcultural activities may also be co-opted by popular culture. Ex: goth was an explicit rejection of commercialization and popular culture, yet it was eventually repackaged into consumerist culture as a popular mall chain How Culture Works How Culture Creates Inequalities Cultural Capital - Bourdieu non-economic resources (knowledge, skills, behaviors) that are useful in a particular sphere of social life Institutional cultural capital → as a degree from a particular university Embodied cultural capital → your manner, style, ways of acting Objectified cultural capital → your clothes, material objects Ex: high school students participating in certain types of extracurricular activities (student government, chess club) have greater success getting into elite colleges, where admissions officers are likely to value that kind of cultural capital. Cultural capital might function in one social sphere and not in another Fields: contexts where a kind of cultural capital is exchanged, like a profession, a community, or a class of people People vary in how much control they have over who belongs and what kinds of culture they value within the field. Bourdieu compared it to a field in a sport. Each sport has its own “rules of the game” through which players compete. The better a player learns the specific rules of the game, and how they work in the field, the better their chances for success. Habitus: Our habitus is our learned dispositions, a set of tendencies organizing how we see the world and act within it. Ex: With little thought we wait for traffic to stop, look both ways, and cross. It’s a kind of second nature that is only apparent when something goes wrong (a distracted driver) or we travel to another country with different norms (traffic comes from the right at a crosswalk, not the left as in the U.S.). ​ The things skills you have in fields can lead you to have cultural capital. Weber - distinguished between a class (groups who share a similar position based on income, wealth, education, and occupation) & status (the social designation of honor) status group: a collection of people who share similar characteristics that a community has given a certain level of prestige Ex: a high-status clique (social group) of popular kids who wore a certain style of clothes and makeup, and a lower-status clique that listened to a particular type of music. Symbolic Boundaries: the ways people separate each other into groups (through traditions, styles, tastes, classifications) These boundaries generate feelings of group membership, lend an emotion-fueled sense of belonging, and help us grasp the wild diversity of social life by placing other people into categories. Durkheim → how culture generates social cohesion Max Weber → Culture can also differentiate, pulling us apart Boundary Work: Creating and maintaining distinctions and limiting membership and access to resources Paradoxically boundary work—and even conflict—creates groups and solidifies group cohesion Passionate sports rivalries foster a strong sense of in-group belonging Cultural Omnivore: many people differentiate themselves by knowing a lot about many cultural spheres Ex: might talk about wine or classical music, but can discuss Budweiser and Beyoncé, too. Omnivores speak of high culture and popular culture with equal ease. Cultural Jam Ex: McDonalds (American culture) offering squid ink black burgers and Maharaja Macs in Japan and India Culture moves, spreading beliefs and practices across groups Culture is always a combination, where the parts can harmonize and conflict with each other, often obscuring history. Globalization: When intercultural communication and the exchange of ideas and values reaches such an international scale, integrating political and economic systems McDonaldization: the trend toward driving out local cultures, replacing them with standardized products Rationalization (Weber): increased efficiency, predictability, and control Cultural Imperialism: The imposition of a dominant group’s material and symbolic goods. The most recognizable worldwide brands tend to be owned by American and Western corporations Cultural Appropriation: when members of a dominant culture adopt the cultural goods (e.g., ideas, symbols, skills, expressions, intellectual property) of other groups for profit. This disconnects the product from the history and community from which it emerged and reduces the chances that those groups can benefit from the culture they produce Culture Jamming: the practice of raising awareness around issues of McDonaldization, corporate consolidation, and cultural imperialism through informal and often illegal guerilla (independent and unauthorized) marketing campaigns. Global Commodity Chain: international production, distribution, and marketing system of corporations, laborers, and consumers This system is largely hidden: Few people have any idea where their products come from, leaving most consumers unconcerned by the gross inequalities between them and the laborers on the other side of the system.  Class Notes How would you map culture 1. Values & norms 2. Habitus & field 3. Economic Relations Beliefs, Language, Values ↔ NORMS ↔ ACTION (Symbolic culture) People act in accordance with their culture Downside is that very little way out Means of production influence culture. They are: BELIEFS, LANGUAGES, VALUES Marx: the ruling class has power Code switching: changing the way u act according to your social setting Habitus & Field - Bourdieu Why does economic inequality persist? HABITUS, FIELD, CULTURAL CAPITAL Different from the toolkit idea Habitus and field: It takes time, not actively making decisions With toolkit, you are actively making decisions Socialization: your culture produces your norms Habitus: your body takes autopilot, not concisely present all the time The things that we like was taught to us at a young age ○ E.g. food & music Cultural capital effects economic capital Cultural Production (Marx) & Consumption (Veblen) Cultural production is made by a lot of people Consumption Material production of the thing changed the way people consume it ○ Hiphop WEEK 4 Chapter 2: Research Methods Audit Study: Research experiment in which researchers match participants on key characteristics. Ex: Devah Pager - An audit study showed that having been in prison hurt job applicants’ chances of being hired, even when they were otherwise similar to other applicants. Method: A systematic study design. Skepticism: a key element of the scientific method; scholars constantly search for evidence that claims about the social world are wrong Confirmation bias: Tendency we all have to look for and accept information that reinforces what we already believe We become too confident that our opinions are right, making it harder for us to correct mistaken beliefs. Echo chamber: A space where we interact primarily with people or information that holds or reinforces our existing beliefs. Ex: social media platforms social media sites bring together groups based on their content preferences  we’ll end up in digital spaces—referred to as filter bubbles—with people who generally agree with us Research Ethics Human Subjects: conducting research on people Nuremberg Code: outlined basic ethical principles for research on people The international outrage at the brutal Nazi experiments on human subjects led to the establishment of the code people who take part in research must voluntarily consent to do so; they cannot be forced. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Experimented on black men in Alabama 1932-72 looked at how the symptoms of syphilis developed over time if left untreated Many people died because of this experiment Created distrust in the medical system & officials Informed Consent: all human subjects must be informed about the research project including any likely risks, before they agree to participate. Vulnerable Populations: Groups that may need additional protections or considerations in order to give informed consent Ex: children, prisoners, Data: Qualitative: aren’t numbers; they usually reflect general themes and might include transcripts from interviews, survey questions that ask people to ex-plain something in their own words, or detailed notes from visiting a particular place to observe it Quantitative: come in the form of numbers and reflect quantities or amounts Experiment: a research method in which characteristics or behaviors are carefully controlled Survey: sets of questions that subjects answer Structured interviews: you have a set of questions to ask, and they may be similar to an in-person survey. Unstructured or open-ended interviews are more like a conversation. Unstructured interviews generally allow participants to respond at greater length and are more flexible than structured interviews Participant Observation: the researcher spends time among a group, directly observing and participating in that social world Ex: sociologist Rachel Sherman worked at the front desk of two expensive hotels in the U.S. to study how the hotels ensure that their wealthy guests feel pampered. Historical Analysis & Content Analysis: These methods involve analyzing existing sources (such as Analysis of historical records, media stories, or episodes of TV shows) to find key themes. Ex: Sociologists Erin Hatton and Mary Nell Trautner completed a content analysis of Rolling Stone cover photos, looking at how men and women were sexually objectified by the magazine. In his study of suicide, Émile Durkheim used historical death records from towns across France to see how frequently suicide occurred Content analysis can help us identify recurring themes that are hard to see when we look at just one instance (for example, we can see patterns in objectification of women by  looking at magazine covers over many years that might not be evident if we looked at just one issue). A weakness of both methods is that you’re stuck with the data that exists, whether or not it includes all the information you’d like. Designing a Research Project Research Question: a question about a research topic that we can reasonably answer Unit of analysis: Item observed in a study (ex: individual people, cities, neighborhoods, apartment complexes, nations) Variable: a factor or characteristic that has more than one possible value. Covariation: Relationship between variables Independent Variable (X): Variable that causes a change in another Dependent Variable (Y): A variable that changes in response to another Hypothesis: Statement about how variables are expected to relate to each other Population: The entire group of interest in a study Operationalization: Defining variables into measurable items Selecting a Sample Sampling: how social scientists select representatives of their population Ethnography: an in-depth qualitative study of a social group and the group’s culture Sampling Frame: how you determine who will be contacted to be part of your sample ○ Ex: randomly selecting from a telephone book, voter list, or mailing list, or randomly dialing phone numbers ○ If you use phone listings, you won’t be able to access people who have unlisted phone numbers, people who don’t have phones, or people who only have cell phones. Generalize: The goal of a random sample is to get a sample that is truly representative of the larger population. That allows you to generalize your conclusions, or apply them to a larger population outside of the group you studied Non-random sample: A sample in which not every member of the population has a chance of being selected Nonresponse bias: Non-representativeness in a sample caused by patterns in who does and doesn’t respond Correlation & Causation Ex: Relationship between how much time the father spend w/ their kids & the kids health Independent variable (x) → time kids spend with their father Dependent variable (y) → kids’ health Correlation: they are related in some way Causation: evidence that the independent variable caused the change in the dependent Just because there is a correlation, there does not have to be causation Direction of the relationship: which variable affects the other We may think that X causes Y, but maybe it’s the reverse: Y could be causing X In our example, we might think that children are healthier because their fathers spend time with them but it could be the other way around Casual Relationship: one where causation exists, not only correlation Spurious Relationship: one where it looks like there’s a connection between two variables, but in reality some other variable we haven’t taken into account is affecting both our independent and dependent variables. Validity & Reliability Validity: Whether questions accurately measure the intended characteristic Social Desirability Bias: the tendency for subjects to give answers that they think are socially acceptable Ex: Do you have racist attitudes toward other groups? people are aware that it’s generally unacceptable to be racist. Even if people hold extremely negative views of certain racial or ethnic groups, they are very reluctant to identify as racist. Reliability: in addition to asking how valid our research is, we must ask about the reliability of our observations, or the consistency of the measurements  Class Notes 1. Choose research question 2. State your hypothesis 3. Gather data 4. Analyze your data 5. Come to your conclusions 1. Formulating a Research Question Picking a sociological topic Drafting a research question Picking your variables Generating your hypothesis 2. Designing Your Research Study Operationalizing your variable Deciding on a method Selecting a sample Types of Sociological Attention Inductive: Observation → theories Folk theory: The theory of the people we study buried in common sense and sometimes elaborated into ideology The way the people think about their lives Ex: knocking on wood, zodiac signs The social construction of reality: people make reality Ex: time Deductive: theory → observation Constant comparison: observation ↔ observation WEEK 5 Chapter 4: Class, Inequality & Poverty Social class social class has a significant impact on our lives social class influences our goals and aspirations, our potential and possibilities, our lifestyle choices and habits, and even our health and well-being. Despite its significance, social class often goes unacknowledged We often don’t recognize the effects of social class until we interact with people who have different economic resource social class is invisible in plain sight. Unlike characteristics such as race and gender, which are more obvious and easier to see and define, Stratification: a system that puts categories of people into a hierarchy ○ Social class is a form of stratification ○ Religion, gender, wealth, and race are common foundations for stratification Social Class: a group of individuals who share a similar economic position based on income, wealth, education, and occupation  Indicators of Social Class ○ Income: Amount of money an individual earns from employment or investments. ○ Wealth: Total amount of money that you have, or would have if you sold off all of your assets. ○ Education ○ Occupation Dennis Gilbert’s model of the class structure Relies on income, education, and occupation (not wealth bc hard to measure) PRIVILEGED CLASSES #1 Capitalist (top %1) makes money from the things they own: businesses, real estate, stocks, and bonds. usually do not gain their tremendous wealth from their annual salary. super-rich because the things they own (their wealth) bring them a continual stream of lucrative profits #2 Upper Middle Class (14-15% of the population) Well-educated individuals rely on their high incomes from jobs to catapult them into this category. Typical jobs: business managers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, and some small business owners. Sub-category at the top of the upper-middle class called the working rich: ○ relatively small in size, this group includes individuals whose annual incomes are well into the six-figure range ○ One of the main features that distinguishes this group from the capitalist class is that the working rich rely on their salaries to maintain their class position MAJORITY CLASSES #3 Middle Class likely to have a high school diploma and some college experience work as teachers, nurses, master craftspeople (plumbers, electricians, carpenters), and lower-level managers. #4 Working Class probably completed high school or a trade school typically work as office support (secretaries and administrative assistants), retail sales workers, factory workers, or low-paid craftspeople LOWER CLASSES #5 Working Poor typically employed in insecure and low-wage jobs such as janitorial and cleaning services, manual labor, landscaping,restaurant support (fast food, wait staff, line cooks), and other service industries are more likely than social classes above them to face financial insecurity and instability bc jobs don't provide benefits. encounter unpredictable and inflexible work schedules, putting them in stressful and precarious situations since their income may vary from week to week #6 Underclass part-time workers, unemployed, or may have inconsistent and unreliable work opportunities (such as seasonal work that is only available for part of the year) Many rely on public assistance benefits their financial insecurity forces this group to rely on public assistance to help pay for food, shelter, and clothing, receive less government benefits than the majority and privileged classes. Social Mobility Upward Mobility: occurs when someone moves from a lower social class position to a higher one (e.g. American dream) Downward Mobility: dropping into a lower social class ○ Reasons: being laid off, choosing to pursue a less lucrative career path than your parents, making bad financial decisions, or getting divorced, recession Social Inequality The distinction between ascribed and achieved social class status is particularly relevant when we try to understand social inequality. Cumulative advantages: built-up benefits and resources, that allow people to increase their wealth. Racial wealth gap: the difference in accumulated wealth between different races and ethnicities. Meritocracy: a system where personal responsibility and individual effort are the sole determinants of success, decades of research clarify that some individuals have an easier path to financial success than others. GINI index: Statistical measure used to compare inequality across countries looks at how family income is distributed in a country Everyone has the same income - GINI score 0 (equality) One person had an income - GINI score of 1 (inequality) Countries are given a score from 0 to 1 based on this Poverty & Homelessness Absolute poverty: People without basic necessities (shelter, food, clothing) Poverty threshold / poverty line: establishes the minimum income level that the federal govern-ment says is required to buy the basic necessities of life Relative Poverty: takes into account the relative economic status of people in a society by looking at how income is distributed; those in the lowest income brackets would be considered poor in comparison to others in their society. Characteristics of the poor: Poverty is not an equally shared experience. In the U.S., several characteristics place some groups at more risk of poverty than others: 1. Household type: If you are in a household headed by a single mother, you are much more likely to be poor than those in married-couple or single-father families. 2. Education: There is a high rate of poverty among adults who have not completed high school. People without high school degrees are more than six times as likely to be poor as those who have completed college. 3. Paid work: Those with no income are substantially more likely to be poor than are those who earn even low incomes. The risk of poverty falls as someone’s attachment to the labor market increases. Put simply, working for pay (especially high pay) is a poverty-prevention tool. 4. Disability status: For people aged 18 to 64 with a disability, the 2021 poverty rate was 25%, which amounted to more than 3 million people living in poverty. The unemployment rate is high for individuals with disabilities. Even if their disabilities don’t prevent them from working, they may face transportation challenges getting to work or encounter employers who are hesitant to hire people with disabilities. 5. Race: The poverty rate is approximately two times higher for African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans than it is for Whites and Asian Americans. One factor in the racial poverty gap is unemployment. 6. Region: The South has the highest poverty rate, while the Northeast has the lowest. However, differences in poverty rates between regions are narrowing 7. Concentrated neighborhood poverty – High-poverty neighborhoods: are Census tracts where at least 40% of the population is poor. This concentration of poverty is significant in light of the various social problems that exist in high-poverty areas (for instance, crime, underfunded public schools with high dropout rates, social networks that lack connections to good jobs) 8. Child poverty: Working poor (via Bureau of Labor Statistics) – People who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force but whose incomes still fell below the official poverty level Homeless: lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence Point-in-time count: Sheltered homeless: Unsheltered homelessness: Chronically homelessness:  Class Notes 1. Social class, income, and mobility 2. Inequality & Wealth 3. Poverty & Policy Purely meritocratic system: People can move freely among different social classes according to their merits Qualitative methods Inside story Micro-Macro connections Theory building WEEK 6 Chapter 6: Gender & Sexuality Transgender: People whose gender identity and expression are different from what they were assigned at birth. Non-binary: not exclusively masculine or feminine Cisgender: someone whose gender matches their assigned birth Sex: different biological and physiological characteristics of males and female Reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones Gender: socially-constructed characteristics of women and men Nature: biological influences Nurture: social influences Socialization: through socialization, we learn about gender from family, peers, teachers, coaches and other influential people Gender Norms: social definition of behavior assigned to particular sex categories Social construction of gender: refers to how meanings of gender are created through social interaction and social norms. Do gender: we perform actions that produce gender. we do gender in interactions with others, and we take into consideration what is believed to be appropriate for our gender Ex: A girl might be reprimanded for not crossing her legs when wearing a dress. “That’s not ladylike,” a parent might say. Gender binary: the classification system that allows for only two separate gender categories Androgynous: incorporating both female and male characteristics Misgenders or Deadnames: referring to someone by a gender or name with which they no longer identify Bathroom bills: banning trans people from using school or public bathrooms consistent with their gender identity. Gender-affirming care: therapies or treatments, aimed at supporting and affirming an individual's gender identity. Intersectionality: how different types of social relations are linked together in complex ways, creating different experiences for different groups of people Ethnocultural: cultural influences of the ethnic groups we belong to. Gender inequality: where individuals or groups are treated and perceived differently based upon their gender. Feminism: refers to a collection of movements that advocate for equality for all sexes and genders Eugenics: humanity can be improved by encouraging “better” (upper-class white) people to have more children while decreasing births amongst the unfit Buck v Bell: the Supreme Court even held that states had the right to sterilize individuals thought unfit to have children Glass ceiling: a term used to describe both obvious and invisible barriers to advancement that are faced by women and minorities at work Motherhood penalty: the systematic disadvantages in wages, benefits, and other career factors that are associated with motherhood Fatherhood bonus: Fathers’ paychecks sometimes even increase from being a parent Acquaintance rape: a rape or sexual assault that occurs between people who already know each other Victim-blaming: when survivors are viewed as responsible for their own assaults Rape myths: stereo-typed or false beliefs about sexual violence that may excuse or natural Intimate partner violence (IPV): (domestic violence) abuse occurring between current or former spouses, someone they are dating, or romantic partners Proxy violence: harming or threatening to harm someone else, like a child, other loved one, or even a pet, if the victim tries to leave Reproductive Coercion: involves forcing parenthood on an unwilling partner through means ranging from violence to contraceptive sabotage Financial abuse: preventing the victim from working or restricting their access to money they’ve earned Conservatorship: may be granted by a court when an individual is deemed unable to make their own decisions due to an issue like mental illness or dementia Androcentric: they focus mainly on the experiences of men Hypersexuality: extreme in sexual appearance or desire Colonialism: Notions of sexuality rooted in culture have political consequences that continue for generations. Examples: Jezebel Caricature: portrayed Black women as highly sexual and “lusty.” Brute Caricature: portrayed Black men as savage sexual predators Puberty: the process of becoming a sexually mature individual, is a biological event Social and cultural institutions exert social control over sexuality Social control: refers to the way we enforce normative behaviors through social interaction, values and worldviews, and laws Medicalized: a process in which society understands or defines a problem in medical terms. This usually means that we use medical language to describe it and rely on medicine to treat it. Ex: erectile dysfunction medicalization of erectile dysfunction was helpful for some men because it led to the development and marketing of drugs Phallocentrism: A worldview that centers the phallus in both sexual acts and society more broadly. Phallus: Symbolic societal idea of the penis Abstinence-only sex education: students are taught that abstinence is expected of them Comprehensive sex education: stresses the importance of waiting to have sex” Roe v. Wade: 1973 Supreme Court ruling which held that the Constitution guaranteed a right to abortion, at least in the first trimester of pregnancy. Post-viability - The third trimester of a pregnancy. Medication abortion: A series of pills, usually containing the medications mifepristone and misoprosol, that cause an abortion.  Class Notes Norms & rules Laws and organizations form beliefs on gender and sexuality Laws Examples: Abortion, Marriage Organization Examples: prison, sports Uniforms are also generally divided based on gender Intersectionality: Social theory that examines how social relations are inextricably linked ○ black women sewing general motors due to discrimination ○ No law against intersectional gender and race discrimination so the law case was overturned. Roles and Performance Doing gender: is a routine, methodical, recurring accomplishment We all are using scripts of gender and we are always performing Symbolic Interaction Examples: pink - girls, blue - boys Jezebel and Brute caricatures Children toys video: ○ Clothing, names, toys were the symbols that the adults used while playing with children ○ People tend to play with kids differently based on the kids’ gender Boy scouts & girl scouts badges ○ Color distinctions: girls - pink, boys - green ○ Girls “staying fit” with a heart symbol, boy's “personal fitness” with body Androcentrism: Assuming men are the audience Ex: car safety being tested only on men, room temperature decided upon men that wear suits Controlling Images: (it will not be on the exam but helps explain the Jezebel caricature) Images that are circulated and repeated in the media to the extent that they have become normalized and in turn shape how we see the world Ex: world maps, controlling image Ex: handicapped image that portray handicapped people as stationary & not moving Ex: disney characters' construction of bodies unrealistically Ex: women laughing eating alone with salad  WEEK 7 Chapter 7: Race & Ethnicity Race & Ethnicity Census: a count of the entire population Race: a system that humans created to classify and stratify groups of people based mostly on skin tone and other phenotypic characteristics, such as eye shape and hair texture. Ethnicity: refers to common culture, religion, history, or ancestry shared by a group of people Unlike race not always tied to physical characteristics Ethnic groups in the United States include different groups of Hispanic Americans (such as Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Puerto Ricans), Irish Americans, Ghanaian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, and Jewish Americans. Ethnicity is an aspect of identity that can be central to your life or one that only matters in certain situations, like religious services or family parties One-drop rule: A custom that a person who had any African ancestry was classified as Black. Social construct: a concept that humans invented and gave meaning to in order to understand or justify some dimension of the world. Race: System humans created to classify groups of people based mostly on skin tone. Eugenics: the idea that we can actively improve the genetic profile of humans, led to force sterilizations of people labeled as unfit to reproduce. Because of this theory physical characteristics and ethnic distinctions were believed to reflcet psychological and mental abilities. The idea contributed to the holocaust, where nazi germany systematically murdered six million jews between 1941 and 1945 Phenotype: the set of our visible features or char-acteristics, like the color of our skin, hair, and eyes Bias: a tendency to favor or disfavor certain things, regardless of the details of the specific situation Implicit Bias: is the subconscious positive or negative association our minds make between seemingly unrelated things, such as a racial group and a positive or negative attribute. Explicit Bias: bias that we are openly and consciously aware of Internalized Bias: occurs when a person be-longing to a marginalized racial group associates their own group with negative evaluations. Stereotypes: are widely-shared perceptions about the personal char-acteristics, tendencies, or abilities of members of a particular group. Like intelligence, personality, preferences, aggressiveness, or criminality. E.g. Irish are rowdy drunks; Jews are good with money but cheap; Asians are studious and good at math; African Americans are athletic and aggressive Arise for several reasons: ○ Can be myths made up by a group ○ Historical relics from the past ○ superficial associations that are reinforced by the media or politicians Predejudices: preconceived beliefs, attitudes, and opinions about members of a group Group Threat Theory: Argues that prejudices grow stronger if we begin to think of another group as an economic, political, or cultural threat. Ultimate Attribution Error: a tendency to perceive undesirable characteristics or behaviors exhibited by members of another group Cognitive dissonance: a psychological state in which our preexisting ideas do not match what we see with our own eyes. our natural tendency is to avoid the mental conflict and find a way to explain the anomaly Contact Theory: helps explain how interaction with members of other groups affects prejudices. Sociological Approach Towards Stereotypes: Race & Discrimination Audit Study: the careful design of a research project Racial Discrimination: the differential treatment of people based on their presumed racial group membership Negative Racial Discrimination: unfavorable and unjust treatment of a person based on their racial group membership Positive disrcimination: Efforts to rectify historical and current forms of negative discrimination. Racism: a set of beliefs, ideologies, or institutional practices that are based on the idea that one racial group is biologically or culturally inferior to another group and that reproduces racial domination and exploitation White supremacy: a set of beliefs, ideologies, and institutional practices that position White people as superior to other racial groups Institutional racism: refers to the ways that core institutions, like the law, education, and labor market, are embedded with racial biases and practices that reproduce racial inequality Jim Crow: refers to a period in American history between the end of Reconstruction (following the Civil War) in the late nineteenth century and the end of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-twentieth century. Civil Rights Movement: a large-scale, Black-led social movement in the 1950s and ‘60s centered around protest, civil disobedience, and legal battles Affirmative Action: Policies or programs that seek to rectify past discrimination through active measures to ensure equal opportunity now. Reparations: Compensation (typically financial) for and recognition of past harm against specific people or groups of people Trends in Racial Inequality Immigrant selectivity: the process whereby people who immigrate to the U.S. from certain countries have a unique demographic profile compared to the people who stay behind in their home countries Life expectancy: a statistical measure of how long people can expect to live, on average Class Notes  WEEK 8 Chapter 15: Health & Ilness Public Health: Epidemiologists: Morbidity: having a disease Mortality: death Infant Mortality Rate: a measure of deaths during a child’s first year Health inequities: differences in health that are due to unequal social patterns Ilness: the subjective experience of a disease, condition, or set of symptoms Maternal Morbidity: illnesses and disabilities related to preg-nancy or childbirth, Especially treatment of Black women during pregnancy, labor and the postpartum period Pre-existing conditions: Life course: Health: a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease Maternal and Child Health: the field of public health focused specifically on the health of mothers, infants, children, and adolescents; however, the concepts we discuss are rele-vant to any area of disease or illness throughout the life span Demography: the study of patterns in hu-man populations, such as births, deaths, aging, and migration The U.S. is racially and economically segregated, meaning families of different racial or ethnic groups and different socioeconomic status (SES) Socioeconomic Status: a measure of social and economic standing Medical Sociology: focuses on how social control – a society’s efforts to influence behavior and maintain social order – operates through the medical profession, both directly and indirectly. Social Control: Ways societies try to influence members’ behavior to maintain social order.