Sociology Week 1-7 – Flashcards

- Man needs to understand history to understand himself - Sociology helps us understand: 1) the structure of society, 2) where one's society stands in human history and the changes that are occurring in it, 3) what type of people prevail in one's society - Sociological imagination: understand historical scene (history) in terms of its meaning for the inner life (bioigraphy) and the external career of a variety of individuals (society) - We are a product of history, biography, and society - "The personal troubles of milieu" and "the public issues of social structure" - Troubles are personal, issues are public

- Credit card is an icon and symbol of American culture (seen in names and in logos) - Pros: convenient, increase spending power, can be used anywhere, smooth out consumption, safer to carry, better job of organizing finances, cash economy is expensive - Cons: spending beyond means, going into debt (esp new generation growing up on credit), - Debt reflected in citizens AND in nation - Represents affluence, mobility, and ability to overcome obstacles in pursuit of goals

- Sociology: "an invitation to look behind the scenes of the social world--a passport, as it were, to a different way of viewing life"

- By understanding how social forces influence your life, you can exert creative control over your own life - What are people doing with each other here? What are their relationships to each other? How are these relationships organized in institutions? What are the collective ideas that move men and institutions? - "The sociologist lives in society, on the job and off it. His own life, inevitably, is part of his subject matter."

- Sociology casts an intellectual net that provides an approach to understanding social life - Social sciences examine human relationships and focus on the social world objectively; OVERARCHING social science - Uses juvenile delinquency to explain how each different kind of social science (history, political science, economics, anthropology, psychology, sociology) would approach phenomenon - Argot: special language (anthropology) - Sociologists tend to personality and stress effects of social class - Norms: behaviors that people expect of others - Study patterned relationships: recurring aspects of human behavior - Focus on 1) group membership (institutions of society, customary arrangements used to solve perennial problems) ---> STRUCTURAL sociology, and 2) face to face interactions (what people do when they are in each other's presence) ---> INTERACTIONAL sociology - Qualitative vs quantitative sociology

- A vaginal examination desexualizes but also depersonalizes - Patient represents a vagina disassociated from a person - Repersonalizing stage: from pelvic back to person - Medical profession has taken steps to establish dramaturgical ritual that will ensure the continued sacredness of the vaginas of its female patients - Doctor can approach the sacred w/o violating taboos by desexualizing the vagina by dissociating it from the person and elaborately defining it as just another organ of the body

- Major activities of sociologists: 1) Empirical research, 2) Constructing a theoretical base - Theories of sociology: 1. Symbolic interactionism: symbols are the key to understanding attitudes & behavior (human beings have a self, people construct meanings and act on them, people take into acct the possible reactions of others and adjust behavior accordingly) 2. Functionalism: society consists of many different parts that contribute to stability of society 3. Conflict theory: society consists of many parts that are in conflict

1. Select the topic 2. Define the problem 3. Review the literature 4. Formulate a hypothesis (predicts a relationship between or among variables) 5. Choose a research method (surveys, secondary analysis of data already collected by others, documents, experiments, unobtrusive measures, participant observation) 6. Collect the data 7. Analyze the results 8. Share the results

ASK ABOUT THIS READING - Best way to learn about research is through hands on experience gained by conducting a study - Systematic research allows for control of personal biases, going beyond personal experience and casual observation, and letting us check on each other - We should be mindful of where our knowledge came from - Sociological mindfulness and mindful skepticism

- 20 people selected and randomly assigned to prisoner or guard - Guards put on shifts and prisoners "kidnapped" by police - 2 week studies cut short to 6 days - Guards and prisoners took on characteristics w their roles (guards were aggressive, prisoners were submissive) - An attempt to explain the condition of our penal system and dehumanizing effects upon prisoners and guards (dispositional hypothesis) - Environment of arbitrary custody had great impact upon the affective states of both guards and prisoners and on the interpersonal processes between and within the role groups

- Many more variables than talent contribute to success - Genetic differences and socioeconomic access to resources demystify talent - "Innate talent" as something that one is born with is a useless concept used to mystify the systematic, methodical and disciplined practice of otherwise mundane habits - Key is to work smarter - The jump from one level to the next one comes not from quantitative improvements (i.e. doing more of the same thing, or doing it faster), but from qualitative shifts such as new and different techniques, attitudes and practices - The primary psychological barrier to achieving it is to get over the sheer mundanity of it - The cult of talent is actually harmful because it obscures the true, achievable (but mundane) path to excellence - Incentive (esp. intrinsic) inspires excellence

- Groups influence our thoughts and behavior even when we are alone, and expand or limit our personal choices and even the content of our minds - Individual behavior is motivated by the influences and tensions affecting the individual at a particular point in time and in a particular social situation - Reality of groups supported by the consistency of group development regardless of individual member characteristics and influence on individual behavior - Macro: the actions of groups expand or limit our chances for physical and psychological survival

- Describes the meaning and importance of primary groups by examining the military unit - Primary group: small group that persists long enough to develop strong emotional attachments between members, at least a set of rudimentary, functionally differentiated roles, and a subculture of its own - Characteristics: face-to-face association, the unspecialized character of the association, relative permanence, small number of persons involved, relative intimacy prevailing among the participants - Example: crucial role that primary groups play in maintaining military morale and effectiveness - German army units did not win because the integrity of the primary groups could not be maintained throughout the war (separation and regrouping of survivors), and soldier fights to protect the primary group / live up to expectations of fellow group members

- Status: social position an individual holds within a group/social system - Role: set of expectations about behavior assigned to particular social status - Cliques in schools have hierarchy, are exclusive, and function as bodies of power - Modes of inclusion linked to the critical power of leaders in making vital group decisions - Techniques of inclusion: recruitment, application, friendship realignment (towards people in central positions), ingratiation (currying favor with people in group) - Techniques of exclusion: out-group subjugation, in-group subjugation (to exert dominance), compliance, stigmatization (within the clique), expulsion - Dynamics of inclusion and exclusion work together: inclusion is central to cliques' foundation of attraction, and exclusion is central to cliques' bases of cohesion. Luring and keeping

- Those who have more authority and control define what is "normal" and what is deviant - Social norms generally reflect the interests of the rich and powerful (like the status of men), and the privileged attempt to socially construct deviance and crime to their advantage - Study attempted to identify social contexts that link frats to campus rape and promote rape culture - Sexually active men: "studs" vs sexually active women: "sluts" --> men's sexuality is normal --> acquaintance rape is excused because men can't control sexual urges - Group norms (expected patterns of behavior) differed between high risk and low risk frat houses - Faceless victims (women that the frat brothers didn't know) were at highest risk of rape - Frat system intensifies "groupthink syndrome" by solidifying identity of in-group and creating us/them atmosphere

- Some types of social progress have led to decrease in social interaction - Mobile society: moving away from jobs, intimate relationships, geographical areas - Increase in percentage of U.S. population living alone (10% in 2000) - added to by divorce and commuter marriage - Modern technology has led to less face-to-face communication - Social homogeneity: cities arranged into neighborhoods by social class and race due to choice/economic means/discriminatory behaviors - Separation of family members from each other, less quality time together - Architecture of isolation (more affluence --> homes and goods promote social isolation) - Implications: voter apathy and less election participation, social relations worse in public places, focus on themselves and less community (i.e. opposition to welfare)

- Culture: total way of life commonly followed by the members of a society - Society's culture can lead to an understanding of human behavior, is learned, each society transmits the rules informally and formally - Disadvantages: groups can elaborate certain aspects of culture beyond survival value, therefore not promoting physical value - Distinctive way of life that is handed down as the social heritage of a people supplies a set of skills and a set of blueprints for human relations

- Culture of fear leads to serious problems remaining ignored even though they are the reasons behind the dangers that we fear the most (poverty correlates w child/drug abuse and crime) - Immense power and money await those who tap into our moral insecurities and supply us w symbolic substitutes

- Racial and gender stereotypes of the dominant culture influence our thinking about Asian Americans - Gendering of ethnicity cast Asian American men and women as both AND neither masculine and feminine - AA men: asexual and threats to white women, barbaric villains to sexless sidekicks, Yellow Peril discourse (desexualization results in internalized racism) - AA women: exotic, mysterious, fetishized, often pitted against Western women - White male/Asian female much more common than Asian male/white female due to patriarchal values - Solution: reconstructing our image by correcting histories, fighting exoticization

- Socialization: process of learning cultural values and norms, social processes through which an individual becomes integrated into social group by learning culture (norms, values, skills) and roles - Sex doesn't come into play until puberty but sexual feelings/desires/practices have been shaped by gendered norms and expectations long before - Gender is one of the major ways humans organize their lives (but are not attached to biological substratum - we look more similar than most species) - social institution of gender insists that what they do is PERCEIVED as different even if it is exactly the same - Genderbending: bending gender rules / passing between genders actually erodes gender boundaries -

- Entering any new job / social role: process of SOCIALIZATION where you learn the values, attitudes, interests, skills, and knowledge in order to be competent at job - Factors that influence entry: knowledge and accessibility of an occupational alternative, awareness of economic awards, recruitment process involving personal networks, financial need - Anticipatory/on the job socialization: training in dance/entertainment/stripping prior, learned how to interact w customers for profit, manage deviant lifestyle - Limitations: unprepared for dancing on private lives (intimate heterosexual relationships) - Socialization process through interacting w and observing other subcultural members - Social learning theories of deviance: we learn techniques for committing deviance and the rationalizations to help us neutralize violation of normative codes

- Uses the imagery of the theatre in order to portray the importance of human social interaction - Constant observation - Individual acts to express himself and others will have to be impressed - Front, dramatic realization, idealization, negative idealization, mystification, reality and contrivance

- 8 sane people (pseudopatients) secretly admitted to 12 different psychiatric hospitals - Despite public show of sanity, they were never detected: discharged w diagnosis of schizo - Other patients often detected pseudopatients' sanity - Psychiatric label has a life and influence of its own - actions are thought to be derived from pathology rather than environment

- Women acquired deviant identities by modifying self-concepts to conform to societal labels of person w eating disorder - Initially resisted deviant labels but eventually internalized society's views - Primary deviance: start to have symptoms - Secondary deviance: start to live up to society's expectations after being labelled - Most a/b are "model children" - want to please others, upper middle class, female, white, control-oriented

- Working class identities of some law students challenged during time at elite law schools - Societal values, identities, and social roles are learned, not instinctual (SOCIALIZATION) - Class stigma leads to identity problems - Employers are looking for people who can fit in the workplace, not unique (need to conceal) - Students learn to hide their class background in order to manage their identity but experience identity ambivalence - Changing the reasons for becoming a lawyer - not helping their background but instead working for money

http://www.arasite.org/goffstig.html

- Characteristics of the powerful, whatever they may be, are thought to be better than the characteristics of the powerless - Power justifications... NOT to do with logic

- "Schoolgirl" vs "slut" and vigilant watch among girls to maintain middle ground - Male aggression and female defense, sexuality must be suppressed or girls are called "sluts," but boys' behavior are excused

- Choice to pursue/not pursue an athletic career is explicable as a rational assessment of available means to achieve respected masculine identity - Sports: helps construct and legitimize control of public life and domination of women, competition for status among men - "Gender order" - male domination over women may tie all men together, but men share unequally in this domination

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- Race: social construct, power structure - Varies in time and in different societies - Magnified (caricatures) by pop culture - History and development of race related to economic activity (i.e. slavery, working class people)

- Ethnic miracle: success and social mobility of future generations of European immigrants - Came from generational change and assimilation - Symbolic ethnicity: individualistic in nature and w/o social root, chosen for feelings of community - Groups that are racially defined in society often form communities for support - Freedom to pick ancestry and identity not extended to those racially defined in society - Race is arbitrary, but has a social role attached

- Color symbolism: white is good/pure/angelic, black is evil/dark/mysterious - Racial discussions shaped by word connotations - Call to action: be conscious of the words you use

- 46 ordinary and daily ways someone can benefit from white privilege - Priv can be perpetuated because people who benefit refuse to acknowledge it - Uses comparison to men who benefit from male privilege because it is easier to recognize and understand

- Mixed race women prefer to identify w non white / more oppressed identity - Whiteness as an imperialist, supremacist concept - Identify as non-white to reject assimilation and acknowledge of heritage ("acting" as a race) - Race is cultural!

- "Utopic element of aristocratic elegance in boarding school life contributes to the romanticism about the schools" - Boarding school students overwhelmingly high income, professional/managerial families, well-travelled - 3/4 married, only 7% non-citizens, 5% Asians, 4% black - 54% legacy - 9 types: Academy, Episcopal, entreprenenurial, all-girls, Catholic, western, progressive, military, Quaker http://www.immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/IMM/I101227F.pdf