INTRO TO SOC

Question 1

What is Sociology

Answer 1

The systematic study of society
- include economics, political science, medicine, psychology etc
- best defined as the way we approach problems which is to search for social and structural explanations to the topics we study instead of relying on biological or individual explanations

Ex: teen depression:
- biological explanation: genetic factors at play, hormones, and sexual maturation, time where people experiment with drugs
- individual explanation: something happened in the life of the depressed teen, like an unstable home life, divorced parents, etc

Question 2

Cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 2

When a person is confronted by simultaneously holding a conflicting beliefs, ideas, or values. Usually this occurs when new evidence is presented and a discomfort arises from needing to resolve the contradiction

Ex: this argues that teens experience a great amount of cognitive dissonance from childhood to adulthood, which is accompanied by a realization that many of the values we teach children are not upheld as adulthoods

Question 3

Sociological imagination

Answer 3

Rejecting individual explanations and learning to think sociologically
- it is the ability to connect personal challenges to larger social issues

Question 4

See the general in particular

Answer 4

First general principle
- looks at seemingly individual issues as social issues
- does not unilaterally accept individual or biological explanations instead find structural ones

Ex: anxiety in uni students is not just about academic stress but because of all these social and structural factors like rent, tuition rates, etc that cause stress

Question 5

See the strange in the familiar

Answer 5

Second general principle

• challenge everything: accept very few things as having to be the way they are currently formulated

Ex: shaking hands… why do we shake hands? As a umbilical gesture of respect and friendliness

• related to decline bias

Question 6

Decline bias

Answer 6

• believing that change leads to worsening conditions compared to the past

Question 7

Bias

Answer 7

Being objective based on conclusions or empirically verifiable facts collected with sounds scientific principles rather than personal opinions, feelings, preferences or experiences.

Question 8

Social location bias

Answer 8

• the combination of factors including gender, race, social class, age, ability, religion, sexual orientation, geographic location, etc.
• social location is particular to each individual
• related to anecdotal evidence which is the form of stories of what has happened to you
• people use anecdotal evidence to understand the world around you is to engage in social location bias

Question 9

Confirmation Bias

Answer 9

• the tendency to process info by looking for or interpreting info that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs

Question 10

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 10

• the tendency to attribute observed failings of others to internal factors like their disposition, personality or intelligence

Ex: thinking someone with poor grades is dumb or lazy

Question 11

Self serving bias

Answer 11

Opposite of fundamental attribution error, the tendency to attribute ones own failings to external factors outside of our control rather than taking personal responsibility

Ex: getting a poor grade and thinking the prof is unfair or incompetent

Question 12

Optimism bias

Answer 12

• tendency to view things positively when in a good mood

Question 13

Pessimism bias

Answer 13

• tendency to view things badly when in a bad mood

Question 14

Cultural bias

Answer 14

• perceiving one’s own culture as being normal, and therefore, other cultures as being abnormal