Chapter 2, textbook Flashcards
(32 cards)
What was Lombroso’s main idea regarding crime
- he suggested that criminals were atavists
- >that there were evolutionary throwbacks whose biology prevented them from conforming to society’s rules
What are positivist sociological theories concentrated on
- fundamentally interested in explaining why people act a particular way
- they seek generalizable, universally applicable laws
- > seek cause and effect relationships in the form of statistical relationships
- > look for those variable that are associated with a particular behaviour or outcome
How is positivist theories and social control related
-positivist theories lay the groundwork for those individuals who are seeking more effective social control or improvement of society
Contrast latent functions from manifest functions
Latent functions
->functions that are unintended and unrecognizable
Manifest functions
->functions that are intended and recognized
How is deviance functional according to Durkheim
1) he believed that a certain level of deviance enhances social order and increases social solidarity
2) deviance identifies what the moral boundaries are in a society
3) Tests societies boundaries
- >may demonstrate what rules no longer work or need improvement on
4) Deviance serves as a way of reducing social tensions
- >eg; when there is a scapegoat(takes pressure off as a whole)
- >when individuals engage in small acts of minor deviance that acts as a safety valve to let off some steam
What kind of solidarity did Durkheim say society had before industrialization
- society had mechanical solidarity
- >society was bonded together by likeness or by a collective commitment to conformity
What kind of solidarity did Durkheim say society had after industrialization
- society had organic solidarity
- > society was bonded together by difference or interdependence through a highly specialized division of labor
- interactions in this society are somewhat impersonal
- > based primarily on our dependence on others
- > a collective way of thinking from mechanical solidarity is replaced by individualism
What did Merton link anomie to
- Merton linked anomie to strain
- > merton suggested that deviance originated not only from an individual but also from the structure of society itself
- there is an imbalance between culturally prescribed goals and legitimate means
- > resulted in a “deinstutionalization of the means”
- > attaining the institutionalized goals has become more important than how one attains them
What are institutionalized goals
- they are the goals that are culturally exalted
- > the ones we are supposed to want to achieve
- > eg; in North America, we aspire to include wealth, status/power, and prestige
- > the qualities that make up “success”
What are the five different ways to adapting to the gap between goals and the means?
1) Conformity
- >individual accepts instutionalized goals and the legitimate means to achieve them
- >eg; go to school find a job, work hard, etc
2) Innovation
- >individuals accepts the instutionalized goals but rejects the legitimate means to achieve them
- >eg; selling drugs
3) Ritualism
- >given up or reduced instutionalized goals but continues to engage in legitimate means
- >eg; someone who doens’t think they’ll get anywhere but continues to engage in the legitimate mans
4) Retreatism
- >people both reject the instituionalized means and the legitimate means
- >given up on goals and do not go through the motions anymore
- >eg; alcohol or drug addiction
5) Rebellion
- >reject instutionalized means and the legitimate means
- >unlike retreatists, they substitute new goals and new means
- >they have a vision of a different world and act to bring that vision to life
What was Cloward and Ohlin’s take on deviance
- like Merton, they suggest the way society is structured results in differential access to legitimate opportunities
- > but it also results in differential access to illegitimate opportunities
- > some people have more access to illegitimate opportunities than others
What does Agnew state about strain
- strain can be produced by a variety of processes
- strain creates a negative affect(negative emotions) such as anger, depression or anxiety
- > likely to create a negative effect if it is unjust, severe and if the individual lacks control over the situation
What are the different coping strategies individuals can use to alleviate strain
1) Coping strategies
- >transforms the way they think about the strain
- >instead of thinking about one bad exam grade, they can see it as a learning experience
2) Emotional coping strategies
- >may be defivant or conforming in nature
- >eg; using alcohol or drugs or talking to a friend about it
3) Behavioural coping
- >deviant or non-deviant in nature
- >eg; plagiarizing to get a good mark after a bad one or working to get better at the craft
What is a middle class measuring rod
-it is a standard set out by the school system that lower-class boys find difficult to live up to
What is a school’s emphasis on that the lower class boys find a hard time adjusting to
-Delayed gratification, politeness and the value of hard work
- delayed gratification may mean their reward is taken away
- toughness is valued over politeness
- they may see their parents work hard but no progress is achieved
What is meant by the term status frustration
- when lower class students are unable to succeed according to the standards in the classroom
- > they experience a situation similar to strain
- > this strain is referred to as status frustration
Name the different functionalist theorists mentioned in this chapter
- Durkheim
- > deviance can be functional at a certain level
- > but too much deviance occurs when society is changing too rapidly and anomie is created
Merton
->strain created by the gap between institutionalized goals legitimate means of achieving those goals
Cloward and Ohlin
- > structure of society creates differential access to legitimate opportunities
- > but they expand to apply it to illegitimate opportunites as well
Agnew
- > strain creates negative emotions
- > coping strategies to deal with those emotions may result in deviance
Cohen
- > structural inequalities in the school system
- > serves as the impetus for deviance
What are criticisms of the functionalist logic to deviance
- they are teleological(related to goals)
- > in that the emergence of social instutions is explained in terms of the functions they serve
- > for example, we know family exists to socialize children
- > but why is family needed, if there are other institutions that also exist for socialization
-they are tautological(circular)
Do functionalists ignore the social and historical circumstances from which functions in society emerge?
- yes
- > they ignore some of the sociohistorical circumstances that give rise to specific family forms of particular education curricula
- note they may also have “conservative bias”
- > certain things like racial inequalities, gender inequalities and low wages for the working class can be justified on the basis of being “functional”
What does it mean for the androcentric bias on functionalists
- this bias lies in the fact that functionalist theory was largely developed on the basis of the male experience
- > female experiences were either ignored or presumed to be similar
What is the basis of the differential association theory
- deviant behavior is learned through the same process by which conforming behavior is learned
- > central to the learning process is the direct interaction and communication that occurs in small and intimate groups
-within these groups, individuals learn techniques(skills ) and motives(reasons) for specific behaviors
What are the four ways that can affect what we learn through differential exposure to deviant and conforming behavior
- frequency
- > more frequency=more influence on our learning
duration
->longer duration have more of an influence than shorter duration
priority
->intimate groups with which we interact with earlier in our lives have a greater influence on our learning
Intensity
->the more important a group is to use the greater its influence on our learning processes
What is the difference between kynd and unkynd
- kynd are prosocial behaviors
- unkynd are threatening behaviors or talking someone down
Based on Hunt’s analysis, what are positive evaluations of kynd norms associated with
1)Frequency
2) Intensity
- >the extend to which an individual has close friends within that subculture
3) Priority
- duration does not impact kynd norms
