Exam 1

Question 1

Attribution

Answer 1

refers to how you locate (or attribute) the cause of a particular behavior

Question 2

Dispositional Attribution

Answer 2

attributions of someone’s behavior to individual-level decisions (often made to strangers)

Question 3

Situational Attribution

Answer 3

attributions of someone’s behavior to factors outside and beyond the individual (often made to ourselves/friends)

Question 4

Sociology

Answer 4

the systematic study of the human relationship between individuals and society

questions the issue of CHOICE and emphasize the role of SOCIAL FORCES

Question 5

The focus of sociology is on both:

Answer 5

micro-level: individuals
macro-level: institutions

Question 6

Which gender is more likely to commit suicide?

Answer 6

Males are more likely to commit suicide.

Question 7

Women’s rates of suicide peak at ages 45-54 and then decrease for the remainder of their life expectancy. Why could that be?

Answer 7

• menopause
• social role of mother has passed

Question 8

Men’s rates of suicide steadily increase with never peaking at a specific age, but consistently increases from ages 10-14 to 65+. Why could that be?

Answer 8

• life purpose didn’t pan out
• social circle at a loss

Question 9

What ethnicity had the highest rates of suicide?

Answer 9

For both male (33.6) and female (11.0) American Indian/Alaskan Native Non-Hispanics have the highest rates of suicide as opposed to American Indian/Alaskan Native Hispanics with the lowest rates of suicide.

Question 10

Émile Durkheim

Answer 10

a “founding father” of modern sociology

classified types of suicide

all types concern change in social life rather than individual psychology

Question 11

Fatalistic (hopeless) Suicide

Answer 11

suicide that occurs because of harsh life conditions that an individual feels will never improve

example: an individual with a life sentence to prison

Question 12

Anomic (normlessness) Suicide

Answer 12

suicide that occurs because of a sudden disruption of norms and order in one’s everyday life

example: natural disaster, war, economic changes, global pandemic

Question 13

Egoistic (weak connections) Suicide

Answer 13

suicide occurs when group, family, or community ties are weak or de-emphasized

social bonds go down then suicides go up

example: suicide in sparsely populated areas

example: male specific - they retire and lose all “friend” connections with coworkers

Question 14

Altruistic (strong connections) Suicide

Answer 14

suicide that occurs when an individual’s ties to a group are too strong

example: military brotherhood one man sacrifices his own life for the benefit of others in the troop

Question 15

Key Point: Durkheim

Answer 15

Durkheim’s classical studies of suicide illustrate how very personal decisions (to take one’s life) can be influenced by social forces much larger than the individual

key focus of sociology - how social forces shape individual lives

Question 16

Nature

Answer 16

“we are who we are because we’re born that way”

Question 17

Nurture

Answer 17

“we are who we are because of the way we were treated while frowning up”

Question 18

Socialization

Answer 18

the process by which members of society learn what is expected of them and what they can expect from others
- roles, responsibilities, and obligations

Question 19

Roles

Answer 19

“a set of rights, obligations, behaviors, and duties that people occupying a certain position are encouraged to perform”

Question 20

Role Strain Stress

Answer 20

from having to fulfill single role

example: strained in the role as a student having to complete a full course load of work

Question 21

Role Conflict

Answer 21

from having more than one role that are coming into conflict

example: a woman as a caregiving mother and remote worker coming into conflict as she attempts to cook dinner for her family and finish work emails

Question 22

Status

Answer 22

“position that individuals within society occupy”

two types: ascribed and achieved

Question 23

Ascribed Status

Answer 23

assigned to someone

example: sex, race

Question 24

Achieved Status

Answer 24

acquired by someone

example: convicted felon, sports captain, college graduate

Question 25

Agents of Socialization

Answer 25

we are socialized into and by key groups and institutions studied by sociologists

Question 26

Social Class

Answer 26

“one’s economic position in the stratification system, especially one’s occupation, which strongly determines and reflects one’s income and wealth”

Question 27

Race

Answer 27

“a symbolic category based on phenotype and ancestry and constructed according to specific social and historical contexts, that is miser of mixed as a natural category” race is a socially constructed concept not a biological component

Question 28

Ethnicity

Answer 28

“shared meanings” that are produced and reproduced in interaction with groups” example: shared diet, fashion, language, rituals, religions

Question 29

Sexuality

Answer 29

concern sexual orientation, expression, and behavior sexuality is experienced as a spectrum

Question 30

Sex

Answer 30

“the process occurring at birth or even prenatal yet by which people are identified as male or female”

Question 31

Gender

Answer 31

the social expectations associated with being male or female in society often justified in terms of alleged biological differences messner study: how kids learn gender

Question 32

Messner Study

Answer 32

children being separated into boys (sea monsters) and girls (barbie girls) team cultural level: symbols of team names structural level: male coaches viewed as foundation of sport “soccer moms” not viewed as critical despite putting in more for the team interactional level: boy wasn’t seen as boyish enough

Question 33

Social Influence

Answer 33

the impact of other people and institutions on our behavior influence affects how we make decisions, how we feel, how we perform

Question 34

Development of the Self

Answer 34

looking-glass self (Cooley 1902) we use other people’s reactions toward us as looking glasses (mirrors) in which we see ourselves and determine our self-worth also known as double-consciousness

Question 35

Experiment Terminology

Answer 35

subject: individual participating in the study confederate: individual who is part of the study research team (unknown to subject)

Question 36

Asch Conformity Experiment

Answer 36

a majority of the people will conform to the rest of the group publicly despite obviously wrong answer just to not depart from the popular consensus but if asked to write it down they will write the right answer

Question 37

Milgram Experiment

Answer 37

classical social psychology experiment designed to test the role of social influence and authority individual: - learner’s (confederate): someone who is supposed to memorize a list of words - teacher (subject): someone who tests the learner set up: - shock machine: 30 different levels 15v increments - if learner misses a question, teacher must shock the learner

Question 38

Feedback from Learner

Answer 38

- 75v grunt - 120v loud complaint - 150v refers to heart condition demands to be released - 285v agonizing scream silence

Question 39

Conducting Experiement

Answer 39

if the teacher (subject) doesn’t want to shock the learner, an authority figure states that they should continue if the teacher refuses 4x, they are labeled as a defiant subject and the voltage is recorded

Question 40

Results

Answer 40

no defiance until 150v, but only 6/40 disobeyed at this point 65% of participants in a group of 40 went all the way to 450v when the experiment was run with women there was a similar result of 65% other countries had similar findings about 2/3 went to the highest voltage

Question 41

Key Points

Answer 41

social influence is a strong force in society, especially when: - the authority is legit - the victim is remote - the task is escalating

Question 42

Eugenics Movement

Answer 42

based on social darwinism: a philosophy and “progressive” movement seeking the improvement of society through the elevation of “fit” members and the elimination of “unfit” members

Question 43

Proposals to “Improve” Population

Answer 43

“positive” eugenics - encourage for to reproduce • pure sire method: temporarily allows polygamy grants one for fit to reproduce with multiple fit females “negative” eugenics - eliminate the unfit • limit migration • euthanasia • sterilization

Question 44

Buck v. Bell

Answer 44

Supreme Court permitted forced sterilization of those deemed “feeble-minded” as public health measure - “three generations of imbeciles is enough” (Carry Buck case) - foundation for the 1st Nazi sterilization law in 1933

Question 45

Effects of Sterilization

Answer 45

class: working class age: reproductive age race: varied by region

Question 46

Research Ethics Codes

Answer 46

Nuremberg Report (1947) - “voluntary, well informed consent of human subject” - no unnecessary physical or mental suffering Belmont Report (1997) - respect for persons (autonomy) - beneficence (benefits) - justice

Question 47

Empirically-Based Social Science

Answer 47

based on “assumption that answers to questions about human behavior can be ascertained through controlled, systematic observations in the real world” contrasted with individual observations

Question 48

Samples & Populations

Answer 48

population- the community under study sample - a selection of individuals from the community under study representative - the degree to which the characteristics of the sample reflect those of the population

Question 49

Quantitative

Answer 49

numeric information about social life example: likert scale survey data

Question 50

Qualitative

Answer 50

nonnumeric information about social life example: interviews, historical analysis

Question 51

Types of Methods

Answer 51

- experiments - surveys - longitudinal studies - content analysis - participant observation (ethnography) - in-depth interviews - focus group

Question 52

Obtrusive & Unobtrusive Research

Answer 52

obtrusive: directly observe people’s lives and seek their perspective (via interview) unobtrusive: observe materials that people leave behind (existing data like documents) introduces the question of reactivity bias

Question 53

Types of Variables

Answer 53

hypothesis: a prediction about the relationship between 2 variables variables: “any characteristic, attitude, behavior, or event that can take in 2+ values or attributes (can vary)

Question 54

What is the relationship between gender and life expectancy?

Answer 54

gender has an effect on life expectancy if you’re a woman, you’re more likely to live longer than if you are a man this is an example of a relationship but one in which causality cannot be determined only by gender

Question 55

Spurious Relationship

Answer 55

a case in which 2 variables may not be related but seem to be associated with one another because of the presence of a 3rd variable ice cream sales ~> crime rate - when ice cream saws increase, the crime rate increases - 3rd variable present: warmer weather both increases desire for ice cream and the summer gives ample opportunity for school aged children to commit crime

Question 56

Describing Data

Answer 56

probability: the likelihood of a given outcome disparity: difference between groups disproportionality: difference between outcome and proportion of population - over/underrepresented

Question 57

Joel Best

Answer 57

naïve, cynical, and critical approaches assumes statistics are proportionate to society and doesn’t account for all situations we see a number, numbers are real and authoritative and see that as credible we need to question statistics and not take them for as they are cynical says statistics should never be trusted people are always lying don’t like the ones that don’t correspond to their worldview critical is what we should all be: - healthy doubt/skepticism • definitions (operational definition) what is happiness? • how are they measuring/ sampling what they’re studying who are they asking if they’re happy? • who paid for the resources? who’s funding the study giving us these statistics? - we see their value but also register their limitations

Question 58

Theory/Theoretical Approach

Answer 58

theory: “set of statements or propositions that seeks to explain…particular aspects of social life” - can be narrow or broad in focus - like glasses or a lens t draw our attention to aspects of social life - not predictions

Question 59

Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 59

key argument: meaning is produced and reproduced through social interaction between individuals (micro) when teacher asks a question and student raises hand interaction reinforces the idea of educators being superior and student being inferior dramaturgy - life is a stage we are all actors trying to manage impressions reinforced by normals example: embarrassment highlights when things go wrong with interactions

Question 60

Conflict Perspective

Answer 60

key argument: the various institutions in society promote inequality and conflict among groups in society (macro) example: the economy as an institution - thrives in inequality - bourgeoise: upper class (properties) - proletariat: working class (laborers)

Question 61

Structural Functionalism

Answer 61

social institutions are structured to maintain stability and order in society (macro) manifest function latent function example: we all benefit from college degrees even if we don’t personally uphold one

Question 62

Manifest Function

Answer 62

intended, obvious consequences of activities that contribute to maintenance of a social system example: university as an institution intended function mission statement to educate that contributes to society

Question 63

Latent Function

Answer 63

unintended, often unrecognized, consequences of actions that help a social system example: university as an institution unintended function learning responsibility of being an adult taking care of self that benefits the community you take part in example: career after graduation

Question 64

Durkheim’s Definition

Answer 64

Punishment is “a passionate reaction, graduated in intensity, which society exerts through the mediation of an organized body over those of its members who have violated certain rules of conduct”

Question 65

Passionate Reaction

Answer 65

Durkheim argues that emotion, especially vengeance, was a key component historically in punishment vengeance - “destroy [what] was a threat to us” - reciprocal process of violence

Question 66

Society Exerts

Answer 66

social level punishment “if it is society alone which exercises repressions, it is because it is harmed even when the harm is done to individuals, and it is the attack upon society which is repressed by punishment”

Question 67

Organized Body

Answer 67

court of law court represents the organization of a given society ms reaction to a violation the reaction of society is, therefore, organized and not diffuse

Question 68

Violated Rules

Answer 68

a violation occurs when common consciousness is threatened penal law - origins of religious laws rights of community over rights of individuals

Question 69

Key Points

Answer 69

punishment “continues to play useful role but that is not the one ordinarily perceived” manifest function of punishment is to punish the person who violated the conduct latent function of punishment is more important according to Durkheim to reinforce societal values “common consciousness” punishment is above all intended to have its effect on honest people

Question 70

Paradox: Crime is Normal

Answer 70

community of saints - even if we were to get rid of all the cruelest offenses we would redefine lighter offenses as particularly cruel example: making wrinkles in your clothing a crime

Question 71

Sociological Imagination

Answer 71

the ability to see the details of our own lives on the context of larger social structures as opposed to merely personal choices or personal troubles

Question 72

Independent Variable

Answer 72

race, gender, class

Question 73

Dependent Variable

Answer 73

educational outcomes, life expectancy