Soc Midterm Review 2024 PDF

Lecture 1 terms: -​ Sociological imagination -​ Developed by C. Wright Mills (1955, American sociologist) -​ The ability to perceive the underlying societal causes of individual experiences and issues -​ A way of thinking that connects personal troubles wit...

Lecture 1 terms: -​ Sociological imagination -​ Developed by C. Wright Mills (1955, American sociologist) -​ The ability to perceive the underlying societal causes of individual experiences and issues -​ A way of thinking that connects personal troubles with broader social issues -​ The ability to think outside the accepted wisdom -​ Norms -​ Shared expectations/ rules/ guidelines within a society -​ How people act in a certain situation -​ What is considered acceptable in a society -​ Values -​ Deeply held and shared beliefs/ ideals -​ Shared understanding of what a group deems good, or desirable -​ Eg, freedom, equality -​ Society -​ A group of people that occupy a particular area -​ Represents one identity (eg, government) -​ Shares values and norms -​ Social structure -​ Enduring and predictable patterns among people within a society -​ Constraints and shapes people's behavior -​ Eg, government, family, religion -​ Status -​ Relative rank that someone holds within a society -​ Based in a social hierarchy -​ People seek higher status -​ Based on honour, prestige -​ Role -​ Set of connected beliefs, behaviours, rights, norms, and obligations as conceptualized by people in a certain social situation -​ Eg gender roles, workplace roles -​ How someone is expected to fit in  -​ Considered out of the norm if one does not follow their role -​ Guided by social expectations but dynamic -​ Interaction -​ Pattern exchange of information between two or more people -​ Some sort of communication -​ Quantitative -​ Concerned with discovering facts about social phenomenon -​ Usually done through statistical analysis -​ Qualitative -​ Concerned with understanding human behavior via a respondents perspective -​ Done via interview, observation -​ The research process -​ Develop new concepts -​ Measure relationships between them -​ Develop plausible new explanations for new relationships -​ Derive new hypothesis -​ Collect Data -​ Paradigms/ schools of thought -​ Conflict theory: Society is the result of conflict -​ Developed by Karl Marx, Max Weber -​ Society evolves through class conflict -​ One group has more power over the other -​ Classes fight over power, causes society to evolve -​ Functional theory: Society is made up of functioning parts -​ Talcott Parsons, Herbert Spencer -​ Different institutions act like the ‘organs’ of society -​ Different institutions serve different functions, eg: education, which trains the working class -​ Social problems arise when there is dysfunction -​ Feminist theory: Society is made up of conflict that marginalize specific groups -​ Intersectionality:Intersections of multiple forms of oppression -​ Society shaped by patriarchy -​ Women's lives differ from mens, inequality  -​ Symbolic interactionism: Society is made up of interactions -​ Erving Goffman, Charles Cooley -​ Focus on how people interact with each other -​ How people use symbols; how society/ reality is constructed through symbols -​ Culture is fluid, changes -​ Postmodernism: Society is made of multiple interpretations and cannot be reduced to one -​ We cannot understand society through one lens Lecture 2 terms Measuring the real world sociologically -​ Research methods -​ Toolset the sociologist use to learn about, understand and contribute to social life -​ Bias -​ Errors in how we draw conclusions based on observations that may lead to inaccurate knowledge -​ Research process should bypass “common sense” -​ Trustworthy and meaningful insights gained through systematic observation and analysis -​ 5 Main goals in sociological research -​ Enumeration and description -​ Prediction -​ Explanation -​ Debunking -​ Social justice -​ Formulating a research problem -​ Clarity: Formulation of a research question that is easy to understand -​ Specificity: Specific formulation of a research problem avoiding vagueness -​ Feasibility: Question is answerable, doable within reason -​ Literature review -​ Done before engaging in analysis -​ Examining pre existing literature relating to a research problem  -​ Helps one obtain a good understanding of what has been studied in the past -​ Can further help formulate the significance of a study -​ Quantitative methods -​ Rely on numerical values obtained through data collection -​ Eg, Surveys, Experiments, interviews -​ Goal it to make generalizable claims about society -​ Qualitative methods -​ Rely on different kinds of data and narratives other than numerical -​ Eg, interviews, ethnography and participant observation -​ Goal is to make specific claims about a group -​ Population -​ The complete group of units to which the result are to be generalized -​ Sample -​ Subset of the population of interest in a study -​ Reducing the number of participants to a manageable size Lecture 3 terms Cultures as way of seeing reality -​ Culture -​ Accumulation of beliefs, customs, traditions, artefacts, language and values that make up a particular group of people -​ Passed down through generations, evolves over time -​ Helps people understand their own identity -​ Material culture -​ Physical items of a culture -​ Eg, tools, technology, art, buildings etc -​ Immaterial culture -​ Non-physical aspects of a culture -​ Eg, beliefs, values, norms, customs, etc -​ Ethnocentrism -​ Tendency to use one's own culture as a basis for evaluating other cultures  -​ When people see their own culture as the norm, other cultures seem strange to them -​ Language -​ Abstract system of sounds (speech), and/ or gestures which people use to communicate -​ Signs -​ Gestures, artefacts, or words that represent something other than themselves -​ Cultural variation -​ High culture -​ Rich people culture, excludes more than it includes -​ Popular culture -​ Culture of ordinary people -​ Subculture -​ Shares cultural elements of a larger society, but has its own distinctive characteristics -​ Counterculture -​ Rejects the ideas of a society it is based within -​ Organizational culture -​ Opposite of material culture -​ Material culture -​ Cultural capital -​ Includes of body of knowledge and skills that help one get ahead socially -​ Includes learning about and participating in high culture -​ Cultural literacy -​ Things you need to know in order to sound educated in your particular society -​ Etiquette Lecture 4 terms Making infants into social beings -​ Socialization -​ Social learning someone undergoes to become part of society -​ Via interaction with others, response to pressures, internalization of norms -​ Primary socialization -​ Occurs in childhood (mainly with family) -​ Child internalizes basic values and norms/ ideas of the self -​ Secondary socialization -​ Acquisition of knowledge needed to participate within a smaller group in a larger society -​ Needed for individuals to engage in institutions later in life (school, workplace) -​ Life course theory -​ Study of people's lives, structural context, and social change -​ Theoretical approaches to socialization -​ Structural functionalism -​ Institutions help maintain the values and norms of society -​ Transmission of norms and values provides stability -​ Conflict theory -​ Socialization process varies greatly depending on class/ social status -​ Norms/ behaviours provide advantages and constraints -​ Social mobility -​ Feminism -​ Gender roles modeled in the home, via division of labour -​ Question how these roles have affected women -​ Symbolic interactionism -​ Social interactions shape a person's sense of the self -​ Looking glass self (Charles Cooley): Person's self is dictated by how they believe others will perceive themselves -​ We consider how other will see us -​ We analyze how others react to our behavior -​ We develop a self concept based around the judgement of others -​ Impression management (Goffman) -​ People present themselves differently in a private setting (backstage), when compared to in public (frontstage) -​ A conscious or subconscious process in which a person works to shape other people perception of themselves  -​ Agents of socialization -​ Individuals, groups, or institutions that form social situations in which socialization takes place Home and family -​ Primary agent of socialization -​ Parental support, involvement, and guidance are most important -​ Reverse socialization: children socialize parents -​ Reciprocal process: Parents and children socialize each other Lecture 5 terms Families, age groups, and social patterns close to home -​ Family -​ Any social unit, or set of social relations that does what a family is popularly believed to do -​ Longest standing social institution -​ Norms that define a family constantly changing -​ Kin group -​ Refers to a connected group of people by blood, adoption, marriage; they consider each other related to each other -​ Census family -​ Used for statistical measurement -​ Includes two spouses with or without children (live together for more than a year) -​ Or, single parent with one or more never married children -​ Nuclear family -​ Father, mother, and children living in same dwelling -​ Single-parent family -​ One parent raising children -​ Extended family -​ Extends beyond nuclear family -​ Aunts, uncles, etc, living in the same dwelling -​ Common in non-western countries -​ Blended family -​ When one or more partners bring children from previous relationships into a new union -​ Two separate family structures merging into one unit -​ Common law couple -​ Unmarried living together, with or without children -​ Becoming common in North America -​ Sam sex couple -​ Growing in popularity since 60s -​ Cohabitation -​ Two or more people living together, with or without an intimate relationship -​ Theoretical approaches to the family -​ Conflict theory -​ Social reproduction in families supports capitalism -​ Gendered roles maintain workforce -​ Family provides perpetuation of norms that support capitalism -​ Industrialization turned family into a unit of consumption, rather than production -​ Functionalism -​ Family a central institution in society -​ Families provide nurture and socialization -​ Gendered division of labour considered functional -​ Symbolic interactionism -​ How family members interact with each other -​ How they resolve conflicts within the boundaries of their roles in the family -​ Social constructionist: Family ideologies perpetuate values and norms within society -​ Feminist theory -​ Link between nuclear family, and womens experiences with discrimination and inequality -​ Domestic division of labour arbitrary and unequal -​ “Glass ceiling” -​ Patriarchy  -​ Men predominate in roles of politics, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property Lecture 6 terms Social stratification and economic inequality -​ Proletariat (working class) -​ Exchanges labour for wages -​ At the mercy of the bourgeoisie -​ Bourgeoisie (capitalists) -​ Owners of the means of production -​ Hires people, and pays them for their labour -​ Class -​ Division of people into social groups based on division of resources/ power -​ Based on Economic, social, cultural factors -​ Class Consciousness -​ Sense of shared interests and identity that stems from an awareness of a similar economic position -​ Class system​ -​ Hierarchical classification -​ Based on a person's position in their command of the means of production -​ Socioeconomic status -​ Method of ranking people that combines measures of wealth, power, and prestige -​ Social stratification -​ System of inequality -​ Integrates class, status, and domination over others -​ Theoretical approaches to class and economic inequality -​ Structural functionalism -​ Reward systems so that people fill the hardest roles -​ Social stratification recruits and motivates people into key roles  -​ Occupations with don’t require special requirements have lower status and pay, as workers are more replaceable -​ Conflict theory -​ Social inequality only serves the dominant group on society -​ Technology increasingly replaces workers -​ Feminism -​ How social institutions treat men and women differently -​ Struggles and barriers that are unique to women -​ Symbolic interactionism -​ Conspicuous consumption: Purchasing of goods to express class belonging/ status -​ Class distinctions -​ Developing cultural capital -​ Secondary labour market -​ Sectors in the job industry characterized as being low skill, “blue collar”, low pay, mostly in industries -​ Primary labour market -​ Industries that provide high pay, good security, good benefits, and good opportunity -​ Absolute poverty -​ Not having enough income to meet basic survival needs -​ Relative poverty -​ Able to afford survival needs, but poor living conditions -​ Low-income cut off (LICO) -​ Method to measure low income in canada -​ Identifies income thresholds below which a family will likely spend a large proportion of its income on necessities compared to an average family -​ Market basket measure (MBM) -​ Calculates how much a household needs to to meet its needs -​ Low income measure (LIM) -​ Calculates the low income threshold as one half of the median income of a household in a house/ community of a similar size  -​ Gini coefficient -​ Measure of inequality in the distribution of income among households within a country, as compared to a theoretical country of similar attributes where everyone had the same income -​ Poverty line -​ Agreed upon income in which a standard of living that is considered acceptable should be affordable Lecture 7 terms Understanding global inequality -​ Global North -​ Regions of Europe and north america characterized as high income and politically stable -​ Global south -​ Regions of africa, Asia, and latin america characterized as being low income, and more politically unstable -​ Human development index -​ Statistical tool -​ Used to measure and rank a country's level of social and economic development, via life expectancy, human capital, and standard of living (GDP) -​ Globalization -​ Process of increased international influence through economic, cultural, ideological, or technological means -​ Global north builds on their existing advantages -​ Global north increase power through access of markets and resources of Global south -​ Neoliberalism -​ Favours the deregulation of economic markets to establish the goal of free markets -​ State has little power to intervene with the economy -​ Neocolonialism  -​ Former colonial countries maintain their power by dominating language, markets, and cultures of former colonies -​ Global north continues to dominate via historical influence -​ Multinational corporations -​ Large companies with headquarters in global north -​ Produce and sell goods/ services across the globe -​ Theoretical approaches to global inequality -​ Functionalist theory -​ Following smith, and Durkheim -​ Societies evolve and prosper through increased differentiation and cooperation; at the centre of these processes is a ‘market force’ -​ Global inequality if a result of economic inequality -​ Dependency theory -​ Resources flow from periphery states to core states, therefore enriching core states at the expense of periphery states -​ Result of colonialism -​ Newly industrialized countries -​ World systems theory -​ Developed by Immanuel Wallerstein -​ Transnational division of labour divides countries into core, semi-periphery, and periphery -​ West (core states) has used advantages to control the world economy -​ Core states: Powerful, wealthy, and industrialized states that control or manipulate peripheral, and semi peripheral states -​ Peripheral: low income, less able to exert global influence. Subject to core states -​ Semi-peripheral: Middle income, partially industrialized, with some influence on the global community