Sociology Exam Prep - Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple choice questions that will appear on the exam -​ Concept of the sociological imagination: coined by C. Wright Mills -​ Social problems are a result of institutions failing to adapts during social and economic shifts: A view held by functionalists -​ Marx argued that culture is s...

Multiple choice questions that will appear on the exam -​ Concept of the sociological imagination: coined by C. Wright Mills -​ Social problems are a result of institutions failing to adapts during social and economic shifts: A view held by functionalists -​ Marx argued that culture is shaped by the ________ relationships of dominance and subordination between social classes in society: material -​ Culture comes from individual face-to-face interactions and what people communicate to each other through these interactions: a view held by symbolic interactionists -​ Cultural change and uncertainty may create social disorganization and strain, leading to deviance and crime: a structural functionalist view -​ This type of socialization is the acquisition of knowledge and skills needed to participate beyond the context of the family: secondary -​ The social system in which men predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property: patriarchy -​ Social inequality only serves the dominant group in society, maintaining the status quo that privileges their interests: a view held by conflict theorists -​ The establishment by higher income countries of formal political control over lower income areas, usually accompanied by the exploitation of local economic resources and peoples: colonialism Short answer question that will appear on the exam ​ What is the sociological imagination? Who coined the term? What does it mean to practice it? How might the sociological imagination help inform our analysis of anxiety, or other mental health issues? -​ A term coined by C. Wright Mills -​ The sociological imagination is the ability to perceive the societal causes of individual experiences and issues. It is the ability to think outside the accepted wisdom and common routines of daily life -​ Sociological imagination means applying imaginative thinking to the asking and answering of sociological questions; eg, individual actions have social consequences, AND causes -​ Practicing the sociological imagination -​ Looking beyond personal explanations -​ Looking at how social forces shape personal experiences -​ Applying the sociological imagination to mental health -​ Viewing mental health issues not as a personal issue, but as a sociological phenomena -​ Factors such as social expectations, and social media can influence mental health issues such as anxiety First Term 1.​ Inspiring the sociological imagination Society -​ A group of people who occupy a particular territorial area, feel themselves to constitute a unified and distinct entity, and in many respects, share a common set of assumptions about reality The Sociological imagination -​ A way of thinking that connects personal troubles with broader social issues -​ The ability to perceive the societal causes of individual experiences and issues Social institution -​ Governed by established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behaviour -​ Eg, the family, education, religion, economic and political structures Status -​ The relative rank that an individual holds, with attendant rights, duties, and lifestyle, in a social hierarchy based upon honour and prestige Quantitative vs Qualitative research -​ Quantitative -​ Concerned with discovering facts about social phenomena -​ Usually measured through statistical analysis -​ Qualitative -​ Concerned with understanding human behaviour from the respondents perspective -​ Usually measures through interaction via observation or interview 2.​ Measuring the real world sociologically Population vs sample -​ Population -​ A complete group of units to which the results are to be generalized -​ Sample -​ A subset of the population of interest in a study, reducing the number of participants to a manageable size 3.​ Cultures as ways of seeing reality Patriarchy -​ The social system in which men predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property 4.​ Making infants into social beings through socialization Socialization -​ The lifelong social learning a person undergoes to become a capable member of society, through social interaction with others, in response to social pressures, and internalization of norms Primary vs secondary socialization -​ Primary socialization -​ When children learn the behaviours, attitudes, and actions appropriate for individuals -​ Secondary socialization -​ The acquisition of knowledge and skills needed to participate as a member of a smaller group within the larger society, behavioural patterns reinforced by the agents of socialization Impression management -​ A conscious or subconscious process in which a person works to shape other peoples’ perceptions of themselves Agents of socialization -​ The individuals, groups, or institutions that form the social situation in which socialization takes place -​ Eg, home and family, schooling, workplace, peer groups, mass media 10. Familias, age groups, and social patterns close to home What is the family -​ Any social unit, or set of social relations, that does what families are popularly imagined to do 6. Social stratification and economic inequality Concepts about class -​ Class -​ The division of people into social groups based on the distribution of material resources and power -​ Class consciousness  -​ A sense of shared identity due to an awareness of a similar economic position -​ Upper, middle, lower classes LICO -​ The method used to measure low income in canada that identifies income thresholds below which a family will likely spend a larger proportion of its income on necessities than an average family of a similar size Gini coefficient -​ A measure of the inequality in the distribution of income among households within a country, as compared to a theoretical country of similar attributes but where everyone had the same income, or where there was perfect inequality Poverty line -​ A agreed upon income at which a standard of living that is considered ‘acceptable’ should be affordable 9. Understanding global inequality World systems theory -​ Developed by Immanuel Wallerstein -​ ‘World system’ refers to the transnational division of labour, which divides the world into core, semi-periphery, and periphery countries. -​ The west has used advantages to gain control over most of the world economy -​ Core states -​ Industrial, wealthy states that control or manipulate semi-peripheral, and peripheral states -​ Peripheral states -​ Low income, less able to exert political influence countries that are subject to the control or manipulation by core states Second Term 7. Gender inequality and gender domination Gender -​ The social construction of what men and women should be in terms of appearance, behaviours, preferences, social roles and expectations Sex -​ The biological markers of males and females Gender inequality -​ Differences that exist in income, education, and other opportunities based on a person's gender or sexual orientation Masculinity -​ A social construction of gender and includes such stereotypical male behaviors and attitudes such as being strong, brave, and rational, and more willing to take risks Femininity -​ Social construction of gender that includes such stereotypical behaviours and attitudes such as being emotions;, caring, nurturing, and risk avoidant Transgender -​ Describes a distinction between the gender that individuals identify with and the biological sex they were identified with at birth. 8. Racialization and the construction of social marginality Prejudice vs discrimination -​ Prejudice -​ An attitude -​ An attitude that judges a person according to his or her groups real or imagines characteristics -​ Discrimination -​ An action -​ Unfair treatment of people because of their group membership Race -​ A social construct used to distinguish people in terms of one or more physical markers, usually with profound effects on their lives -​ Can lead to scapegoating, perpetuating social inequality Ethnic group -​ Comprised of people whose perceived cultural markers are deemed socially significant The vertical mosaic -​ John Porter -​ Canada is racially and ethnically stratified  -​ The people with the most power and privilege are of british origin; immigrants who arrived later have less power and privilege Racism -​ The belief that a visible characteristic of a group, such as skin colour, indicates group inferiority and justifies discrimination 5.​ The social construction of deviance and crime Deviance vs crime -​ Deviance -​ Occurs when someone departs from a norm and evokes a negative reaction from others -​ Crime -​ A deviance that breaks the law Formal vs informal punishment -​ Formal punishment -​ Takes place when the judicial system penalizes someone for breaking the law -​ Informal punishment -​ Involves a mild sanction that is imposed during face to face interaction, not by the judicial system Norms codify crimes -​ Norms codify crimes, in that deviance from norms is seen as unusual, and can be considered criminal Self report surveys -​ Respondents are asked to report their involvement in criminal activities, either as perpetrators or victims Victimization surveys -​ Surveys in which people are asked whether they have been victim of crime Moral panic -​ Marshall McLuhan, Stanley Cohen -​ Results from social concern over an issue that provokes intense feelings and fears -​ A result of moral entrepreneurs who influence a group to adopt folk devils who threaten social order  -​ Eg, 9/11 Merton’s deviance typology -​ Deviant behaviour results from tension between cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them Labelling theory -​ Deviance results not so much from the actions of the deviant as from the response of others, who label the rule breaker as deviant Different types of crime -​ White-collar crime -​ Comprises of illegal acts and misdeeds of middle and upper class members of the business world -​ Street crime -​ Crimes associated with the public and individual offenders working alone or in small groups rather than large crime structures, such as shoplifting, vandalism, homicide etc Routine activity theory -​ Victimization results when a (1) motivates individual finds a (2) vulnerable person who is regularly in a dangerous place without the (3) presence of a trusted guardian Restorative justice -​ A set of approaches to criminal punishment aimed to ensure that the criminal takes responsibility for his or her actions and that the victim, criminal, and the community are all restored to a healthy state 14. Mass and social media in a global age Mass media  -​ A collection of media organizations that mass communicate information through a variety of media technologies, eg television New media -​ Media characterized by a decentralized process of content creation and distribution, eg the internet Social media -​ Media characterized by the sharing of user generated content, such as texts, photos, or comments, through online interaction Dominant ideology -​ Relates to mass media -​ Refers to the ideas, values, and norms shares by the majority in a given society, thus it often denotes the beliefs of the dominant class Canadian radio-television and telecommunications commission (CRTC) -​ An independent governing body funded by the canadian government with the goal of fulfilling the media needs and representing the media interests of canadian citizens Cultural imperialism -​ How media plays into cultural imperialism -​ Media allows for ideologies to spread (globalize) -​ The increased interaction between nations and the increasingly global marketplace introduces products and services to new parts of the world where they had not previously been. These products and services also import cultural values and beliefs. 11. Experiences in schools and formal education Applying education to functionalism -​ Emphasis on the manifest functions; providing children with basic skills in literacy and numeracy -​ Prepares people to be informed citizens, critical thinkers Applying education to conflict theory -​ Emphasis on latent functions -​ “Hidden curriculum” teaches students their proper place in society according to their gender and social class  -​ School is a place where people are trained to endure the boredom and subordination of alienating work Human capital theory -​ wage differences in society reflect differences in the value different workers bring to a job, in terms of skill, education, and work experience; incomes vary depending on the amount of time and effort put into education The functions of education -​ Latent functions -​ Unintended functions -​ Creates youth culture, marriage market -​ Custodial, and surveillance -​ “School dissent” -​ Maintains wage levels -​ Manifest functions -​ Intended functions -​ Makes industrialism possible, which causes convergence among societies Meritocracy -​ The myth of meritocracy -​ The ruling class uses the myth of upward mobility through merit to justify social inequality -​ Schools teach students to hold themselves accountable for success and failure through the idea of meritocracy -​ any system of rule or advancement where the rewards are strictly proportioned to accomplishment, and all people have the same opportunity to win these rewards Credentialism -​ Belief in or reliance on academic or other formal qualifications as the best measure of a person's intelligence or ability to do a particular job 12. Work and the economy Economy -​ The institution that organizes the production, distribution, and exchange of goods and services -​ Consists of: -​ Primary (agriculture) -​ Secondary (manufacturing)  -​ Tertiary (service) Division of labour -​ Refers to the specialization of work tasks -​ The more specialized the work tasks in a society, the greater the division of behavior Primary vs secondary labour market -​ Primary labour market -​ Composed mainly of highly skilled, well-educated workers. They are employed in large corporations that enjoy high levels of capital investment -​ Secure, high wage, generous benefits -​ Secondary labour market -​ Contains a disproportionately large number of women and members of ethnic minorities, particularly recent immigrants. Employees in the secondary labour market tend to be unskilled and lack higher education -​ Insecure, low pay, meagre benefits Unions -​ Organizations of workers that seek to defend and promote their members interests -​ Improves working conditions, higher wages, more worker participation in industrial decision making for their members Capitalism -​ The world's dominant economic system -​ Private ownership of property -​ Competition in the pursuit of profit Communism -​ Named by Karl Marx to describe a classless society, which he believed would emerge out of capitalism -​ Public ownership of property -​ Government planning Democratic socialism -​ Characterized by government ownership of some basic industries and substantial government intervention in the operation of the market Oligopolies  -​ Giant corporations that control part of an economy 13. The power of religious ideas and institutions Religion vs spirituality -​ Religion -​ Any system of beliefs about the supernatural, and the social groups that form around these beliefs -​ Spirituality -​ An openness to, or search for ‘sacred’ aspects of life, where the sacred is broadly defined as that which is set apart from the ordinary, or profane, and worthy veneration Religiosity -​ The sum of all various aspects of religious activity, dedication, and belief one finds in a group or society Secularization -​ The steadily dwindling influence of formal religion in public life -​ The process of secularization -​ The process whereby, especially in modern industrial societies, religious beliefs, practices, and institutions lose their social significance Durkheim’s view of the sacred, and profane -​ Religion is a positive function of society -​ Religion is the set of beliefs and practices separating the profane from the sacred, uniting supporters into a moral community -​ Sacred: objects considered extraordinary and set apart as special -​ Profane: The ordinary, mundane aspects of everyday life Marx’s view of religion -​ Religions support societies dominant ideologies -​ Values from religion benefit only the ruling class and their interests, to the detriment of everyone else -​ A coping mechanism for the working class people: the opium of the masses -​ Religion was a form of false consciousness that justifies the elites' right to rule and distracts people from the real causes of their suffering Totenism -​ Emile Durkheim -​ Found in the most primitive societies  -​ The use of natural objects and animals as symbols of spirituality The three main factors of secularization -​ Social differentiation -​ The process by which a society becomes increasingly complex and diverse -​ Societalization -​ Refers to the way people increasingly connect to an abstract society, and not to a concrete community in which every person knows everyone else -​ Rationalization -​ Represents an effort to explain the world through the logical interpretation of empirical evidence Civil religion -​ The implicit religious values of a nation state as expressed through public rituals, symbols, and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places -​ An organized secular practice that serves many of the same social functions as traditional religion -​ Nationalism is the most common version of civil religion 15. Populations and the natural environment Demography -​ The social scientific study of populations with a particular focus on human populations Malthusian theory -​ Thomas Malthus -​ Proposed that, while the earth's available food increases additively, population increases exponentially -​ Eventually the population will exceed the Earth's available resources, leading to crisis Natural environment -​ All living and nonliving things occurring naturally on earth, excluding humans and the results of human activity Sustainability -​ Allows for the long term use and generation of the earth's resources The cornucopia view of nature -​ Where nature is seen as a storehouse of resources only for the use of humans Social determinants of health Measuring health -​ Infant mortality rate -​ The number of deaths before the age of one for every 1000 live births in a population in one year -​ Morbidity rate -​ The number of people who suffer from particular illnesses per 100 000 members of a population -​ Life expectancy -​ The average age at death of the members of a population is calculated from mortality statistics Biomedical model of health vs behavioural health model -​ Biomedical model of health -​ An approach to health that considers only psychological and genetic factors as relevant to a person's well being -​ Behavioural health model -​ An approach to health that considers the lifestyle choices of the individual as the only factors relevant to a person's well being Social determinants of health (SDOH) -​ The numerous social factors such as income, education, and employment security that affect a person's well being and health The ‘sick’ role -​ Functionalism -​ Being sick is not just a biological condition, but also a social role that serves certain functions -​ People adopt the sick role, and are then exempt from social expectations without being labeled a deviant The commodification of health -​ Conflict theory -​ Capitalism and the pursuit of profit leads to the commodification of health -​ When health is a commodity, the poor are more likely to experience illness caused by things like poor diet, to live and work in unhealthy conditions, and less  likely to have agency to challenge the healthcare system to get the best treatment Social capital in health -​ Social capital is a determinant of health -​ Social capital is the networks, institutions, relationships, people, and norms that shape the quantity of a society's social interaction -​ Social capital contributes to health and results in support of health outcomes Theory of fundamental causes -​ Jo Phelan and Bruce Link -​ Seeks to outline why the association between socioeconomic status and health disparities has persisted over time -​ Diseases and conditions persist among low SES individuals -​ Four key components -​ The cause influences multiple disease outcomes -​ The cause effects disease outcomes through a multiplicity of risk factors -​ The cause involves access to resources that can assist one in avoiding health risks or to minimize the manifestation of chronic disease once it occurs -​ The association between a fundamental cause and health is reproduced over time via the replacement of intervening mechanisms 16. Social movements and collective action Social movement -​ Planned or unplanned gatherings around particular causes Conflict -​ Social movements arise from class conflict Functionalism -​ Social movements emerge when society is unbalanced Feminism -​ Emphasis on social movements for women's rights, and fighting against patriarchy -​ Intersectionality Symbolic interactionism -​ Social movements are shaped by meanings, symbols, and interactions among individuals