Chapter 2- Textbook Flashcards
1
Q
What is a theory?
A
A statement that tries to explain how certain facts or variables are related in order to predict future events
2
Q
Who are the classical sociological theorists?
A
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Charles De Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
3
Q
What was Thomas Hobbes contribution to classical sociological theory?
A
That individuals are the building blocks of society, the appropriate role of government is to preserve individuals self-interest while protecting everyone from each other’s natural self-serving inclinations.
4
Q
What did Hobbes suggest about people?
A
That people are responsible for creating the social world around them and that society could be changed through conscious reflection.
5
Q
Who was one of the first theorists to view people as responsible and accountable for the society they created?
A
Thomas Hobbes
6
Q
What is Hobbes’ natural state?
A
His conception of the human condition before the emergence of formal social structures.
-Believed that people are motivated by self-interest and the pursuit of power.
7
Q
What would have life in the natural state have been like according to Hobbes?
A
Brutal (humans as animals). Constant state of fear.
8
Q
What did Hobbes argue in Leviathan?
A
People are naturally rational and to get peace and protection they would enter collective agreements and give up some of their autonomy to authority. He believed that the collective has the responsibility to overthrow a corrupt gov’t.
9
Q
What did John Locke argue?
A
That God was responsible for the emergence of society and gov’t. People are born a “blank slate”
10
Q
In what ways did Locke disagree with Hobbes?
A
Disagreed with Hobbes assertion that people in a natural state were so fearful that the need gov’t to protect them. Viewed emergence of state as more about preserving an individuals right to maintain property.
Disagreed with Hobbes’ belief that society was the result of human agency, believing that God was responsible.
11
Q
In what ways did Locke agree with Hobbes?
A
Agreed about state being overthrown if they failed.
12
Q
What was Locke’s contribution to classical sociological theory?
A
advocacy of individual freedom
13
Q
What did Charles De Montesquieu suggest?
A
that people never existed without society and that people were defined and created by society.
14
Q
In De Montesquieu’s Persian Letters, what was it the first clear example of?
A
the sociological perspective
15
Q
What was the Spirit of the Laws by De Montesquieu about (what did he state)? What are the idea types? What are the 3 types of governments he categorized?
A
-That laws define the spirit of the people.
Ideal types: classic or pure forms of a social phenomenon
1) the Republic (democracy and aristocracy)
2) the Monarchy
3) Depotism
16
Q
What was the spirit behind each of the 3 types of government?
A
Republic- virtue
Monarch- honour
Depotism- fear
17
Q
De Montesquieu believed the true nature of society was not___but what it wants___
A
- what it is
- to become
18
Q
What was De Montesquieu’s contribution to classical sociological theory?
A
his appreciation for cultural diversity and his comparative methodology which allowed social scientists to analyze various social phenomena cross-naturally.
19
Q
What did Rousseau believe that natural state was?
A
was a primitive state before laws or morality–did not believe it was an awful existence, but one where people existed in symbiotic and idyllic relationship based on equality.
20
Q
What did Rousseau believe a perfect society would mirror?
A
our natural state so when social arrangements were inconsistent with this we suffered social problems.
21
Q
What did Rousseau believe was the inspiration for moving past the natural state and into social arrangements?
A
population pressure–we had to work together to meet our material needs.
22
Q
What did Rousseau believe about people who were gifted? What did this lead to?
A
People who were gifted prospered –> inequality –> need for gov’t –> people needed to be protected from each other (like Hobbes saw).
23
Q
True or false: people enter into Rousseau’s social contract as free and equal individuals?
A
true
24
Q
Society must keep government___or they will undermine individual autonomy (acc. Rousseau).
A
-accountable
25
What was Rousseau's contribution to classical sociological theory?
His analysis of the social contract and his belief in the autonomy of the individual.
26
What did the Enlightenment represent? When was it?
1650-the French Revolution (1989-1799).
| -Challenged religious thinking and represents the intellectual movement
27
Who were the Philosophes?
French philosophers (main group of enlightenment thinkers) who advocated critical thinking and practical knowledge. They build on the natural sciences and brought any attempt to limit free thinking and expression.
28
What did the Philosophes and Enlightenment promote?
human agency
29
What did the Enlightenment lead to? Why was this significant to sociology?
Led to the American and French Revolutions. Significance to sociology --> less to do with fostered personal freedoms and quality --> more to do with ensuring the social turmoil would never ensue again.
30
Who challenged Enlightenment thinking? What did they believe?
- Conservatives
| - Believed society is not the product of individuals, but an entity in itself.
31
What are the ten propositions of Conservative Reaction Thinking?
1. Society exists on its own with its own laws and is independent of individuals.
2. Society, not individuals, are the most important unit of social analysis, it produces the individual, not the other way around.
3. Individuals are not the basic unit of social interest; society consists of components such as roles, relationships, structures, and institutions, and individuals only fill those positions.
4. Smallest unit of social analysis is the family.
5. The parts of society are interrelated and independent.
6. Change is a threat to individual and society.
7. Social institutions are beneficial to individuals and society.
8. Modern social changes are disorganizing elements that create fear and anxiety and need to be diminished.
9. Traditional elements of social life are important to society and offer stabilizing influence.
10. Return to social hierarchies are good for individual and collective because they promote system of status and reward which reinforces principles the healthy competition is a good thing.
32
What two theories is sociological theory separated into?
Macro --> conservative, sees behaviour as predictable (European Classical Theory)
Micro --> individual, Enlightenment, sees behaviour as creative (North America)
33
What is functionalism?
- Structures and their associated function
- View the world as a system of interrelated and interdependent parts. Social structures exists to help people fulfill their wants and desires.
34
What is an example of functionalism?
A good education will make it easier to get a well paying job (expression of our value system --> wealth). Therefore, post-secondary is a function in that is makes this possible, and universities are structural (buildings, employees, policies, etc.).
35
How do functionalists view human society? What is this perspective referred to as?
As being similar to an organism--perspective referred to as the organic analogy: the belief that society is like an organism with interdependent and interrelated parts. Society, like an organism, wants to maintain homeostasis.
36
According to functionalists, what happens when society does not meet the needs of the majority?
It is sick and must make adjustments to return to a state of equilibrium.
37
Arguably, functionalism can be linked to the work of ____(social forces, facts, laws), and___(that hard science should be applied to the social world), and to the _____movement, as well as ____ (describe fully how social systems were achieved from interruptions; functionalist insights similar to Comte, but also that people were integrated because of common interest).
- Ibn Khaldum
- Auguste Comte
- Conservative Reaction
- Vilfredo Pareto
38
Who were he leading functionalist theorists?
- Herbert Spencer
- Emile Durkheim
- Talcott Parsons
- Robert K. Merton
39
Who coined the term survival of the fittest? What does it mean?
Spencer
| Interpretation of biological principles to justify why only the strong should survive
40
What was the application of the principles of biological evolution to human societies referred to as?
Social Darwinism
41
What did Spencer believe would become a problem?
overpopulation--competition over resources--why he coined the term 'survival of the fittest'
42
What is Darwin's term natural selection?
the biologically based principle that environmental pressures allow certain beneficial traits to be passed onto future generations.
43
What is Darwin's concept of evolution?
the biological process by which genetic mutations are selected for and against through environmental pressures. Spencer says that societies can be selected for as well.
44
What is social darwinism?
spencer's assertion that societies evolve according to the same biological principles as do biological organisms.
45
How did Spencer employ a functionalist approach?
by suggesting that societies evolve because there is a reason for the changes (ex. survival)
46
What is laissez-faire?
a point of view that opposes regulation of or interferences with natural processes--why many believed that no interference should take place to correct the fact that some were better off than others.
47
Why are sociologists critical of Spencer's approach?
- justification for colonial expansion by rich and powerful
- how would he explain the fact that some rich children maintain their advantage with none of their parent's attributes
- equates evolution with processes and over time society will improve, but are we really improving (ex. climate change)?
48
What did Durkheim believe that individual behaviours are inspired by?
collective social forces
49
Durkheim believed: culture and society exist___of the individual, are___of the individual, and___the individual (external forces).
- outside
- independent
- outlive
50
What is collective conscience?
Durkheim's concept highlighting the totality of beliefs and sentiments that are common to the average person in society.
ex. language predates all of us, influences our world perception, and will outlive all of us.
51
Durkheim appreciated that studying the ___ ___directly was impossible because shared experience is not a thing, but he believed that you could study what he called ___ ___.
- collective
- conscience
- social
- facts
52
What are social facts?
general features that exist on their own and are independent of individual manifestations. ex. laws, beliefs, morals.
-creation of human action but not the intended consequence of them
53
What is the significance of social facts/
that they are evidence of the collective conscience: since we cannot see it, we study reflections of it --> the social facts.
54
What was an example of Durkheim's positivist methodology and belief that individuals are influenced by the collective?
his analysis of suicide rates.
55
What is altruistic suicide?
too much integration
56
What is anomic suicide?
not enough regulation
57
What is egoistic suicide?
not enough integration
58
What is fatalistic suicide?
too much regulation
59
What is anomie?
a state of formlessness that results from a lack of clear goals and may result in higher suicide rates.
-doing everything right with no rewards
60
Besides suicide, what else is Durkheim known for?
his analysis of how societies grow and change over time. The idea that the collective conscience increases over time and that early society was more individually oriented; harsh and strict.
61
What is mechanical solidarity?
describes early societies based on similarities and independence (independence of each other because largely self-sufficient).
62
What is organic solidarity?
describes later societies organized around interdependence and the increasing division of labour (depend on the collective to meet needs) ---> more likely to suffer from anomie even though we are freer.
-no longer the choice to coexist, we need each other to survive
63
Who coined the terms mechanical and organic solidarity?
Durkheim
64
What is social action theory?
Parson's framework attempting to separate behaviours from actions to explain why people do what they do.
65
For Parson, what are behaviours?
the results of an active and inventive process.
| -saw people as actors that played the role of individual or collective.
66
What is Parson's four step process to explain people's motivation and goals?
1) actors are motivated to achieve a goal as defined by the cultural system in which they live.
2) actors must find the means to achieve their goals
3) actors need to face the challenging conditions that stand in the way of achieving their goals
4) actors must work within the social system to achieve their goals
67
What are the four function imperatives (AGIL) that are required for a social system to maintain homeostasis acc to Parson's?
1. Adaption: the social system must be able to gather and distribute sufficient resources and adjust to changes in its environment. Social institutions responsible for responding to adaption problems are economic, political, legal, religious, education, and family.
2. Goal Attainment: the system needs to establish clear goals and priorities. The central question goal attainment must answer for the social system is how to use legitimate power to implement social decisions . The agency responsible for this is the political system.
3. Integration: the system needs to maintain solidarity while allowing the aspirations of subgroups. Rules must be applied equally. Promoting social control begins within get family, but extends to schools, mass media, church organizations, and the legal system.
4. Latency: the system needs to motivate individuals to release their frustrations in socially appropriate ways; and to the imperatives of tension maintenance and pattern maintenance.To achieve equilibrium, the social system must find ways to motivate individual actors and provide them with opportunities to release their frustrations in socially sanctioned ways. Regulating actors tensions is often managed by family, religion, education, and sports.
68
What is tension maintenance?
recognizes the international tensions and strains that influence all actors
69
What is pattern maintenance?
involves socially appropriate ways to display tensions an strains
70
Who coined the term manifest and latent function?
Robert Merton
71
What are manifest functions?
the intended consequences of an action or social pattern
72
What are latent functions?
the unintended consequences of an action or social pattern
73
What is Merton's contribution to sociological theory?
further our understanding of the functionalist theory by stressing that social structures have many functions
-his analysis of manifest and latent functions and his caution that functionalist theorists need to recognize that "functional" varies from person to person
74
In what ways can we critique functionalism?
- correctly assumes the changes in one area of society may lead to changes in another, how can functionalism account for social changes when the organisms natural state is homeostasis?
- overemphasizes the extent to which harmony and stability actually exists in society
- say the status quo is desirable yet we all know that change is badly needed at times.
75
What is conflict theory based on?
the assumption that society is grounded on inequality and competition for resources
76
What are the two basic principles that all conflict theories share?
1) power is the core of all social relationships and is scarce and unequally divided among society members
2) social values and the dominant ideology are vehicles by which the powerful promote their own interests at the expense of the weak
77
Why two types of inequality did Rousseau argue there are?
1) natural or physical inequality- based physical differences established by nature (ex. strength)
2) moral or political inequality- inequality based human classification of valuable things (ex. money, social status).
78
For conflict theories, society is no a___system operating for the benefit of the whole (as it is for functionalists) but rather a system based on ___and___.
- homeostatic
- tension
- struggle
79
Who ar etc leading conflict theory theorists?
marx and engels
80
Who was Marx's view on society defined by?
philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
81
What are dialectics?
Hegel's view of society as the result of oppositions, contradictions, and tensions from which new ideas and social change can emerge.
-believed conflict theory was positive, in short
82
What is idealism?
Hegel's belief that the human mind and consciousness are more important in understanding the human condition than is the material world.
-what people think about rather than what they build
83
Why did Marx reject Hegel's idealistic philosophy?
as dismissive of interaction between material and social worlds
84
What was Engels interested in?
the plight of the working class
85
What did Engels publish?
Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). Had idea that poor would rise up against he rich.
86
What is Marx's Base/Superstructure Model?
To see how Marx saw relationship between material and social elements of society.
87
What is Marx's Base?
the material and economic foundation for society, made up of the forces of production and the relations of production.
88
What are the forces of production?
the physical and intellectual resources a society has with which to make a living (tools, machines). Influences type of society and lives of individuals.
89
What are the relations of production?
The relationship between workers and owners needed to exploit the forces of production. Relationship based on power the defines society's use of assists and social relations between classes.
90
What was Marx's definition of a social class?
a group who share similar relationship to labour and who are aware of their conflict with other classes.
91
What was Marx's definition of a class conflict?
when the interests of one class are in opposition to another
92
What are Marx's definitions of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie?
p- workers
| b- the owners of the means of production
93
What is Marx's definitions of alienation?
maoists concept to describe the process by which workers lack connection to what they produce and become separated from themselves and other workers.
-Ex. transition from self-sufficiency to having to work for someone else (Industrial revolution)
94
What relationship was Marx focused on?
the relationship between workers and owners
95
What is exploitation?
The difference between what workers are paid and the wealth they create for the owner.
96
What is Marx's Superstructure/
All of the things that society values and aspires to be once its needs are met (ex. religion, politics, law).
-In essence, it is what Durkheim called the collective conscience.
97
What did Marx say collective manifestation spring from?
Our relationship with the physical world as experienced through the base of society.
98
What did Marx investigate to understand how social values develop?
The role of ideology in society
99
What is ideology?
A set of beliefs and values that justify and support the ruling class of a society.
100
Dominant ideology of society is one that maintains what?
The ruling elite
101
What is false consciousness?
Belief in and support for the system that oppresses you.
102
What is class consciousness?
Recognition of domination and oppression and collective action to change it.
103
What are the critiques of conflict theory?
- tends to diminish the areas of our lives were we experience an uncoerced consensus about things we feel are important
- Conflict theorists fail to acknowledge that must struggle today is not about personal desire for power, but is institutionalized (ex. political elections)
- criticized for its insistence on the primary and driving role of economics and material interpretations of social life --> forces of production and relation too narrow
- focuses too much on macro-level issues--doesn't investigate individual
104
Who named symbolic interactionism?
Blumer
105
What do symbolic interactionists emphasize?
That society and all social structures are nothing more than the creations of interacting people and they can, then, be changed (Thomas Theorem).
106
What is the Thomas Theorem?
Assertion that things people define as real are real in the consequences.
107
What are the 7 fundamental principles of symbolic interactionism?
1. unlike other animals, human beings have the capacity for thought.
2. human thinking is shaped by social interaction.
3. in social settings, people learn meanings and symbols that allow them to exercise capacity for thought
4. meanings and symbols enable people to carry on human actions and interactions.
5. people are able to change meanings and symbols given their interpretation of social situations.
6. unique ability to interact with themselves. examine different course of action and select then with the most advantages and disadvantages.
7. patterns of action and interaction make up groups and societies.
108
Why is symbolic interactionism distinct from other two theories?
microsociological orientation
109
What does symbolic interactionism highlight?
the important ways in which meanings are created, constructed, mediated, and changed by members of a group or society. Our perceptions, values, and meanings are the result of mediated experiences with the people we meet each day.
110
Who are the leading theorists in symbolic interactionism?
-Max Weber
-Georg Simmel
-George Hebert Mead
-Charles H Cooley
Erving Goffman
111
What did Max Weber place an emphasis on?
Verstehen
112
What is Verstehen?
Weber's term for a deep understanding and interpretation of subjective social meanings.
- Understanding the meaning of an action from an actors point of view
- Actors engage with others to organize world and give meaning
113
According to Simmel, what was society?
Society was not living thing nor an abstract creation of the intellect. Society was the summation of human experience and its patterned interactions.
114
Who coined the term formal sociology?
Simmel
115
What is formal sociology?
Simmel's theory that argues that different interactions, once isolated from they content, can be similar in form.
116
What did suggest about the "social organism"?
That is is not an organic individual, but "a social group of individual organisms".
-The individual exists as a member of a social organism and their actions can only be understood in the context of social actions that involve other individuals.
117
What is society the result of?
individuals defining themselves through social acts
118
When does Mead believe the concept of 'self' emerges?
once individual actors reflect on themselves as objects and their actions as a result of social processes.
119
According to Mead, what is the difference between 'Me' and 'I'?
I- the unsocial part of the self--spontaneous, impulsive.
| Me- the socialized part of the self--monitors actions of 'I'--judgemental--reflects the values and attitudes of society
120
The __represents the response to the actions of other, and the__controls the response of the__.
- I
- Me
- I
121
What did Cooley believe was the best way to examine the world?
sympathetic introspection
122
What is sympathetic introspection?
Cooley's concept of the value of putting yourself into another person's shoes and seeing the world as he/she does.
123
What is the looking-glass-self?
Cooley's belief that we develop our self-image through the cues we receive from others.
124
What are the three components to the looking-glass-self?
1. imagine how we appear to others.
2. imagine how others would judge that appearance.
3. reflect on that image and develop self-feeling
125
What does Cooley believe the self-fulfilling prophecy is?
A prediction that, once made, causes the outcome to occur--we become the kind of person we believe others see us as.
126
What did Goffman study?
Interactions between small groups.
127
What is Goffman's concept of dramaturgical analysis?
sees the 'self' as emerging from he performances we play and how the other actors relate to us.
in other words, the self does not exist, but is rather a function of the social interaction and how they interpret the signs and signals we convey.
both actors influenced by signals they are sending and receiving, both influenced by histories, experiences, and the role they are playing.
128
What are the critiques of symbolic interactionism?
- fails to acknowledge how difficult it is to change long-established social arrangements.
- does not account for the importance of social structures and institutions in defining t world (class, education level, minority status, etc.).
129
Who were the female sociologists that focused on social equality and activism?
- Mary Wollstonecraft (marriage was legal form of prostitution, educate boys and girls together to achieve equality).
- Harriet Martineau (translated Comte's works into english, published Society in Americana and How to Observe Manners and Morals, one of the first books to explore sociological methodology)
- Annie Marion Maclean (first Canadian women to receive a PhD in sociology, role as women as age workings, understand the plight of the working class).
130
Who were the contributors of visible minorities?
Anna Julie Cooper (focus on race, gender, education, etc., born a slave).
Ida Wells-Barnett (efforts to understand the experience black women because instrumental to the contemporary concept of intersexuality)
W.E.B DuBois (most influential black sociologist, double consciousness)
131
What is DuBois concept of double consciousness?
The divided identity experienced by American blacks
132
For DuBois, what did American racial inequality deflect attention away from and towards?
the critiques of white racial dominance and towards nonracial social concerns like class inequality, politics, and cultural nations.
133
Who were the non-western scholars who contributed to sociology? Why did their work receive a limited profile in Canada?
Exploring colonial racism.
Frantz Fanon (racism generates harmful psychological constructs that blind the minority to the oppression and alienation; language-when traditional language is replace, the colonized begin to support the culture of the colonizers).
C.L.R Hames (Beyond a Boundary--reflection of his experience of cricket and its links with British imperialism in Trinidad; explored damage and suffering caused by slavery; The Black Jacobins book--revolutionary potential of masses).
George Padre (gave voice to exploited and oppressed working class with his works The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers, and How Britain Rules Africa; radicalized Caribbean working class).
Because these writers work focused on the oppression resulting from colonialism, their work received limited profile in Canada and the U.S.
