Sociology Midterm Review PDF

Lecture 1 - Intro of sociology What is sociology - The systematic study of human behaviour in social context - The study of all things human - About people interacting with other people - Understanding why people do what they do - The power of context on you People + Society = ho...

Lecture 1 - Intro of sociology What is sociology - The systematic study of human behaviour in social context - The study of all things human - About people interacting with other people - Understanding why people do what they do - The power of context on you People + Society = how we live our lives Sociological imagination - The awareness of the relationship between personal experiences and the wider society Private troubles and Public issues - Troubles are private and relate to the individual - Issues are public and relate to the wider society as a whole We create society, but society also creates us - Freedom is constrained by our responsibilities, roles, where we live, how much money we make - Social relations affect our thoughts and feelings, influence our choices, limit our actions, and shape who we are Doing sociology 1. Seeing the general in the particular 2. Seeing the strange in the familiar Sociological Imagination - The quality of mind that enables one to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures The four levels of social structure 1. Microstructures - Patterns of intimate social relationships formed during face-to-face interaction - Ex family and friendship cliques 2. Mesostructures - Patterns of social relations in organisations that involve people who are not often intimately acquainted and who often do not contact face-to-face - Ex. Social organizations like colleges and government bureaucracies 3. Macrostructures - Overarching patterns of social relations that lie above and beyond mesostructures - One macro structure is patriarchy the system of power relations and customary practices that help to ensure male dominance and economic political and other spheres of life 4. Global structures - The fourth level of society that surrounds and permeates us - Ex. Economic relations among countries and patterns of worldwide travel and communication Durkheim - Argued that human behaviour is influenced by ‘social facts’ or the social relations in which people are embedded - He illustrated his argument in a famous study of suicide Suicide  - Durkheim’s theory of suicide states that the suicide rate declines and then rises as social solidarity increases Parsons - Argue that society tends to be in a state of equilibrium - it does so when the family successfully raises new generations or schools are able to teach students the skills and values they need to function as productive adults Merton - Criticized Parsons argument - Propose that social structures may have different consequences for different groups and some of those consequences may be disruptive or have dysfunctions Marx - Argued that major socio-historical changes are the result of conflict between societies main social classes - Believe that capitalism would produce such misery and collective power among workers that they would eventually take control of government and create a classless society in which production would be based on human need rather than profit Weber - Criticized Marx’s work - Argued that economic circumstances alone do not explain the rise of capitalism - Regarded the growth of bureaucracy and the overall ‘rationalisation’ of life as the defining characteristics of the modern age Martineau - Was called the first woman sociologist and first feminist - She was a leading advocate of voting rights and higher education for women and of gender equality in the family Functionalism Theory - Hold that (1) human behaviour is governed by stable patterns of social relations or social structures, (2) the most important thing we can know about social structures is having me social stability or failed to do so, and (3) social structures are based mainly unshared values Conflict Theory - Holds that (1) human behaviour is governed by social structures, (2) social structures are characterised by inequalities of wealth and power, and (3) members of privileged and subordinate groups engaged in a continuous struggle to increase the advantages one at the expense of the other so social structures sometimes rupture and transform Interactionism Theory - Hold that (1) human behaviour is governed by the meanings people attached to other people and to do things in their social environment, (2) other people and things become meaningful in the course of interpersonal communication, and (3) people create their own social circumstances and do not merely react to them Feminism Theory - Hold that (1) the system of male domination of women is the most important social structure affecting a person's opportunities in life, (2) male domination and female subordination are determined not by biological necessity but by structures of power and social convention, and (3) Feminist theories are inclined to examine the operation of patriarchy in both macro and micro level settings Research Cycle  1. Formulate question 2. Review existing research literature 3. Select a method (each method has strengths and weaknesses) 4. Collect data 5. Analyze data 6. Report results Surveys - A data collection method in which people are asked questions about their knowledge attitudes or behaviour either and face-to-face or telephone interview or by completion of questionnaire Field Research - The systematic observation of people in their natural setting Lecture 2 - Culture Culture is essential for… - Our individual survival - Our communication with other people Society vs Culture Society - A group of people who interact, usually in a defined territory, and share a culture Culture - A sum of socially transmitted practices, languages, symbols, beliefs, values, ideologies that people use to deal with real life problems Why do we need culture 1. To understand how to behave in society 2. To learn right from wrong 3. It benefits the group How do we learn culture 1. Interaction 2. Observation 3. Imitation We learn our culture through socialization Material vs non-material culture Material - physical or tangible creations - The physical objects, resources, and spaces that people use to define their culture Non-material - abstract or intangible human creations - The creations and abstract ideas that are not embodied in physical objects Language and Sapir-Whorf - How we view the world is influenced by our thoughts - But our thoughts are limited by language - Therefore language influences reality - So people who speak different languages may have a different reality Language and culture are very connected Strong hypothesis - Our language determines our world Weak hypothesis - Our language influences how we wee the world Norms - Rules or standards of behaviour 9rules need consequences) - May be contested (not everyone agrees) Sanctions - The social tools for enforcing norms Positive sanctions - A reward for behaviour that is in line with the norm (promotion, reward, recognition) Negative sanctions - Reaction to alert a person that they violated a norm (scolding, shunning, punishment) 3 types of norms 1. Folkways - Informal, unwritten rules that govern society - Ex. eat your food with a fork or greeting people - May be violated without serious consequences 2. Mores - Rules that govern moral and ethical behaviour; the difference between right and wrong - Religious doctrines (no sex before marriage) - Strongly held norms that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture 3. Taboos - Norms so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable - Ex. cannibalism, incest, murder - Violating it results in extreme disgust or expulsion from the group or society Abstraction - The human capacity to create general ideas or ways of thinking that are not linked to particular instances Cooperation - The human capacity to create a complex social life by Sharon resources and working together Production  - The human capacity to make and use tools. It improves our ability to take what we want from nature Dominant culture - Helps rich and powerful categories of people exercise control over others Subordinate culture - Contests dominant culture to varying degrees Ethnocentrism - The tendency to judge other cultures excessively by the standard of your own Multiculturalism - A federal government policy that promotes and funds the maintenance of culturally diverse communities thus strengthening the tend toward cultural diversification Cultural relativism - The belief that all cultures have equal value Rites of passage - Cultural ceremonies that mark the transition from one stage of life to another or from life to death - Ex. Baptisms, confirmations, weddings, funerals Postmodernism - Culture characterised by an eclectic mix of cultural elements from different times and places the erosion of authority and the decline of consensus around core values Consumerism - Tendency to define ourselves in terms of the goods and services we purchase Subculture - A set of distinctive values, norms, and practices within a larger culture Countercultures - Subversive subcultures that oppose dominant values and seek to replace them Lecture 3 - Socialization Socialization - How you function in a group - How the world is helping shape who you are - People learn their culture (norms) - How we interact with each other - Who we are and what we need to know to survive in society - Process is lifelong, never ending Agents of socialization  - Someone or group ho is socializing you - They teach pretty much everything we need to know to participate in society 2 types of agents of socialization 1. Primary - most basic learning Family - Language, eating, hygiene, dealing with emotions, gender roles - How smart am I? How loved am I? (a sense of who you are) 2. Secondary Education/schools (or is it primary?) - Manifest functions: visible obvious intentions of school ➔ Academic skills, workplace skills (math, reading, writing) - Latent functions: hidden/unintended ➔ Cooperate with strangers, punctuality, accountability, time management, respect for authority Peer groups - Peer pressure, gender, music, style Religion - Gender, sexual behaviour, family, responsibility, after life Media - Expectations from life, values, how we see ourselves Workplace - Punctuality, procedures, specialized language, team building, how to succeed, your boss is not your friend Roles - Socially recognized positions - Ie. student, sister - With each role, you occupy a mindset and perform corresponding actions and behaviours The Self - A set of ideas and attitudes about who one is as an independent being - The totality of our beliefs and feelings about ourselves - Physical self, active self, social self, psychological self The looking glass self - How we see ourselves evaluated by others “I am not what I think I am, and I am not what you think I am; I am what i think you think I am” 1. When we interact with others, they gesture and react to us 2. We imagine how we appear to them, then we imagine what judgement/evaluation they are making of us 3. From these judgements, we develop a self concept or set of feelings and ideas about who we are (self image) The Pygmalion effect Social Isolation Socially isolated children do not have typical self identities - Can not care for own basic needs - Have limited sensory abilities - Have limited or no language skills - Ex. Genie Wiley Total institutions Settings in which people are isolated from the larger society and are under strict control and constant supervision of specialized staff - Prisons - Armies - Cults Resocialization - Aimed at breaking the individual down to their most basic self to create submissive individuals - Uniforms, numbers instead of names, strict control or behaviour and schedule, formal rules and routines, degrading treatment, isolation from rest of society ‘I’ - According to Mead, the subjective and impulsive aspect of the self that is present from birth ‘Me’ - According to Mead, the objective component of the self that emerges as people communicate symbolically and learn to take the role of the other Significant others - People who play important roles in the early socialization experiences of children Generalized other - According to Mead, a person's image of cultural standards and how they apply to him or her Primary socialization - The process of acquiring during childhood the basic skills needed to function in society. Primary socialization usually takes place in the family Secondary socialization - Socialization outside the family after childhood Thomas theorem - “Situations we defined as real become real in their consequences” Anticipatory socialization - Learning the norms and behaviours of the roles to which one aspires Lecture 4 - Social interactions Social interactions - Involves people communication face to face or via computer, acting and reacting in relation to other people - Structured around norms and roles - What happens when we meet? Laughter - Males do more laugh getting - Females laugh more - The way people laugh and laughs are not random Emotion - women and laughter - It is often a sign of who has higher or lower social status Roles Socially recognized positions - Student, sister, friends, sales associate Status and role - We occupy a status ⇒ a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain rights, privileges, and restrictions - We perform a role ⇒ a role is a set of expected behaviours associated with a particular status - We abide by a norm (generally) ⇒ a norm is a generally accepted way of doing things Role Conflict - When two or more statuses held at the same time, place contradictory role demands on a person - Ex. daughter and employee - mom needs help Role Strain - When incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies - Ex. mother must be loving and disciplinarian Master status - The most important status a person occupies - It largely determines a person's social position Dramaturgical analysis (Goffman) Views social interaction as a sort of play in which people present themselves so that they appear in the best possible light - There is no single self, just the collection of roles we play in various social contexts - Front stage vs back stage Embarrassment (gross and stone) - Embarrassing moments are a type of ‘social pain’ - A form of societal feedback: make you feel bad about your social mistakes so you don't repeat them again 1. Obedience - Compliance with social pressure, usually to someone in authority 2. Conformity - Adjusting behaviour to bring it in line with a group standard 3. Foot in the door - Complying with a small request makes you more likely to comply with a larger request later Obedience to authority experiment (Milgram) - Researched the degree to which people will administer pain to others in an effort to conform - “Ordinary people become agents to carry out actions that contradict their fundamental morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority” - “An instrument no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions” Milgram’s experiment - Told his subjects that they were taking part in a study on punishment and learning - The experimental subjects were told to administer a 15-volt shock for the man’s first wrong answer and then increase the voltage each time he made an error - Milgram’s experiment suggests that when people are introduced to a structure of authority, they are inclined to obey those in power Conformity The process of maintain of changing behaviour to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or group - Say they see something they don't - Do something they would otherwise be unwilling to do Asch experiment - 33% chose to conform by giving some wrong answer - 40% give wrong answers in half the trial - Experiment shows how group pressure creates conformity Why do people conform 1. Normative social influences - You don't believe you want to be accepted 2. Informational social influences - You believe it to be correct. You rely on other people's judgement to inform your own Groupthink A phenomenon where people tend to conform with group decisions to avoid feeling outcast, leading to errors in decision making Bystander effect Do not offer help because people feel no responsibility WHY? - We all want to belong - We all want to be part of the ‘in group’ - There are consequences to being different Emotional management - The act of obeying ‘feeling rules’ and responding appropriately to situations Reference group - A group of people against who individuals evaluates their own situation or conduct Primary group - Social group in which norms, rules, and statuses are agreed on but are not put into writing. Social interaction leads to strong emotional ties. - It extends over long period and involves a wide range of activities a result in group members knowing one another Secondary group - Social group that is larger and more impersonal than a primary group. With primary group social interaction and secondary groups create weaker emotional ties  - Extends over a short period and involves a nail range of activities. It results in most group members having at most of passing acquaintance with one another Lecture 5 - Deviance and Crime Deviance - An act or thought which breaks normas and which leads to informal or formal sanctions - Departure from a norm that evokes a negative reaction from others Crime - An act of breaking a more (law) leading to formal sanction or punishment - Deviance that is against the law Deviance (and crime) - All criminals are cultural deviants - Not all deviants are criminals - To be a criminal, you must break the law - Everyone is a deviant… somewhere and somehow Crime and reality - Assumes that laws are unambiguous - Everyone knows they exist - They apply to everyone equally - We all have the choice to respect or break them Social order and deviance - Society creates deviance by expecting, insisting on, and enforcing social order - When you create a category of rules, you create a parallel category of rule breakers Meaning…. - There is nothing inherently deviant or criminal in any act - Society labels it as deviant or criminal to maintain social order and keep people in line Crime and deviance in other places and time Thailand, 2018 - Brittney Schneider and Lee Furlong spray painted the walls of the The Pae Gate - 1 year suspended sentence (up to 10 years) - $4000 fine (up to $40000) Singapore, 1994 - American Michael Fay - Theft of road signs and vandalizing 18 cars  - 4 strokes with a rattan cane Crime and deviance are relative - You can be a ‘deviant’ even when you are engaged in an act that many would find morally right - Whistleblowers (snitch) - Euthanasia Deviance needs you - Deviance and crime are beneficial for society. HUH? Deviance serves three functions 1. Deviance clarifies rules 2. Deviance unites a group 3. Deviance promotes social change (social movements) Crime statistics How do we measure crime 1. Police reports - Information on crime collected by police 2. Victimization surveys - Surveys in which people are asked whether they have been victims of crime Sexual Assault statictics in Canada (2021) - Police reported sexual assault reached its highest level since 1996 - 34,200 reported sexual assaults - 18% increase from 2020 - Rate of sexual assault has been steadily raising for 5 years - In 2019, 6% of sexual assault incidents experienced by those 15 and older has been reported to police Crime and gender - Most crime (80%) is committed by males - Most victims are also male However… - Females are more likely to be victims than offenders - When they are victims of crime, they are more likely to be victims of violent crimes - When they commit crimes, their crimes are likely to be less severe Anomie theory of deviance/strain theory (Merton) - The result of a culture teaching people to value material success, but society failing to provide enough legitimate opportunities for everyone to succeed - We all want the same things, but can we all achieve it? Social bond or social control theory (Hirschi) - Humans have a natural tendency towards deviance - What prevents people from violating norms? - Conformity is generated by social control - Hold up the rewards of deviance and Crime ample therefore nearly everyone would engage in deviance and crime if they could get away with it the degree to which people are prevented from violating norms and laws accounts for variation in the levels of deviant and crime 1. Attachment to other people - Affection from parents - Liking school and caring about teachers 2. Commitment to conventional lines of behaviour  - Conforming protects and preserves what one has, while crime and delinquency put it at risk - Ex. academic achievement 3. Involvement in conventional activities - Walking, sports, doing homework - This evidence doesn't support this aspect 4. Belief in the legitimacy of conventional values and norms - If i commit a crime, i'll get caught Differential Association (Sutherland) - People learn deviance through social interaction with people who favour deviance over conformity Labelling Theory (Becker) - Deviance results not so much from the actions of the deviant as from the response of others, who label the rule breaker a deviant Moral Panic (Cohen) - Society over exaggerating their reactions to events or actions taken place by an individual or group - 5 categories - Street crimes, drug and alcohol consumption, immigration, child abuse, median technologies - A widespread fear, most often an irrational one, that someone or something is a threat to the values, safety, and interests of society Canada's crime rate - Overall, crime has been decreasing since the 1960’s Why - Aging population, shift to community policing, more women in charge And yet - Canada’s prison population is at an all time high The Prison - Punishment, deterrence, revenge, reduction of crime Restorative Justice - Focuses not on punishing but on rehabilitating offenders through reconciliation with victims and the larger community Street crimes - Crimes including arson, break and enter, assault, and other illegal acts that are disproportionately committed by people from lower class White-collar crimes - Illegal acts committed by respectable high status people in the course of work Goals of incarceration - Rehabilitation - Deterrence - Revenge - Incapacitation