Final Exam Flashcards
(121 cards)
1
Q
Define the sociological perspective
A
Understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context
2
Q
Define the sociological imagination
A
Described by Mills as “it enables us to grasp the connection between history and biography.”
3
Q
Who are the major sociologists who originally developed the field of sociology
A
Comte Spencer Marx Durkheim Weber Du Bois Addams Wright Mills
4
Q
What did Comte believe?
A
Suggested we apply the scientific method to the social world, known as POSITIVISM. He named this new science “sociology”
5
Q
What did Spencer believe?
A
Believed sociologists should not guide social reform. He championed Social Darwinism, letting societies experience survival of the fittest.
6
Q
What did Marx believe?
A
Believed the engine of human history is class conflict. Society is made up of 2 classes: Bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the proletariat (workers).
7
Q
What did Durkheim believe?
A
Believed in social integration, the degree to which people are tied to their social groups, people who had weaker ties to their social groups were more likely to commit suicide.
8
Q
What did Weber believe?
A
Believed religion was the central force in social change. Protestants sought financial success as a sign that God was on their side. Weber called this the Protestant ethic, and believed it brought about Capitalism.
9
Q
What did Du Bois believe?
A
Believed that racism was wrong. He was an outspoken African-American sociologist, and a critic of the US state department.
10
Q
What did Addams believe?
A
Combined the role of sociologist with that of social reformer. Strove to bridge the gap between the powerful and the powerless.
11
Q
What did Wright Mills believe?
A
Believed sociologists should get back to social reform. Analyzed the role of the power elite in US society.
12
Q
What are the 3 major theoretical perspectives on sociology?
A
Symbolic Interactionism
Functional Analysis
Conflict Theory
13
Q
What is Symbolic Interactionism?
A
A theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another.
14
Q
What is Functional Analysis?
A
A theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society’s equilibrium.
15
Q
What is Conflict Theory?
A
A theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources.
16
Q
What level of analysis does symbolic interactionalism use?
A
Microsociological (examines small-scale patterns of social interaction)
17
Q
What level of analysis does Functional analysis use?
A
Macrosociological (examines large-scale patterns of social interaction)
18
Q
What level of analysis does Conflict theory use?
A
Macrosociological
19
Q
What was the focus of analysis of symbolic interactionism?
A
Face-to-face interaction, how people use symbols to create social life
20
Q
What was the focus of analysis of functional analysis?
A
Relationships among the parts of society, how these parts are functional or dysfunctional
21
Q
What was the focus of analysis of conflict theory?
A
The struggle for scarce resources by groups in a society, how the elites use their power to control the weaker groups
22
Q
What are the steps of sociological research?
A
- select a topic
- define the problem
- review the literature
- formulate a hypothesis
- choose a research method
- collect the data
- analyze the results
- share the results
23
Q
What are the most common research methods used by sociologists?
A
Surveys Participant observation (fieldwork) Case study Secondary analysis Analysis of documents Experiments Unobtrusive measures
24
Q
Define survey
A
The collection of data by having people answer a series of questions
25
Define Participant observation (fieldwork)
Research in which the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what is happening in that setting
26
Define Case study
An intensive analysis of a single-event, situation, or individual
27
Define Secondary analysis
The analysis of data that have been collected by other researchers
28
Define Analysis of documents
The analysis of written sourches or archival material that provide data
29
Define experiment
The use of control and experimental groups and dependent and independent variables to test causation
30
Define Unobtrusive measures
Ways to observe people who are not aware they are being studied
31
What is culture?
The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next
32
What are the main components of culture
Gestures, values, norms, and sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos
33
What are the 3 types of norms?
Folkways
Mores
Taboos
34
Define folkways
norms that are not strictly enforced
35
Define Mores
norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or the well being of the group
36
Define Taboos
a norm so strong that it brings exterme santions, even revulsion if violated.
37
Define Dominant culture
The established language, religion, values, ritual, and social customs. These practices are a norm for the society as a whole.
38
Define subculture
The values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture, a world within a world
39
Define counterculture
A group whose values, beliefs, norms, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture.
40
What is the difference between real and ideal culture?
Ideal culture refers to the values, norms, and goals that a group considers ideal, worth aiming for. Sociologists call the norms and values that people actually follow real culture.
41
Define cultural lag
Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations.
42
Define cultural diffusion
The spread of cultural traits from one group to another; includes both material and non-material cultural traits.
43
Define cultural leveling
The process by which cultures become similar to one another; refers especially to the process by which western culture is being exported and diffused into other nations.
44
What is the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativity.
Ethnocentrism is the use of one's own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors.
Cultural relativity is trying to understand a culture on its own terms, not ours.
45
What is socialization?
The process by which people learn the characteristics of their group- the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for them.
46
What are the agents of socialization?
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Family
Neighborhood
Religion
Day Care
The School
Peer Groups
The Workplace
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47
Who established the main theories of socialization?
Mead, Cooley, Freud
48
What was Cooley's theory of socialization?
Believed in the looking glass self
49
What is the concept of the looking glass self?
1. We imagine how we appear to those around us
2. We interpret others' reactions
3. We develop a self-concept
50
What was Mead's theory of socialization?
We learn to take on the role of one another, to understand how someone feels and thinks so you anticipate how that person will act.
51
What was Freud's theory of socialization?
He believed in the development of personality through the id, ego, and superego
52
What is the id?
Freud's term for our inborn basic drives
53
What is the ego?
Freud's term for a balancing force between the id and the demands of society
54
What is the superego?
Freud's term for the conscience; the internalized norms and values of our social groups
55
Describe lifelong socialization
Socialization through the life course, such as through childhood, adolescence, transitional adulthood, the middle years, the older years. Since we live in a period of rapid social change, we can expect changes that will send life course in unexpected directions
56
What is re-socialization?
The process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behavior. Most resocialization is voluntary, but some can be involuntary.
57
What is a total institution?
A total institution is a place that is almost completely controlled by those who run it, in which people are cut off from the rest of society and the society is mostly cut off from them.
58
Give an example of a total institution?
Boot camps, prisons, convents, religious cults, military schools, etc.
59
Define social structure.
The framework of society that surrounds us; consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior.
60
What is the difference between a status and a role?
A status is the position that someone occupies in a social group. A role is the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status.
61
Define status set
All the statuses or positions that an individual occupies
62
Define master status
A status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies
63
Define status symbol
Indicators of a status, especially items in that display prestige
64
Define status inconsistency
Ranking high on some dimensions of status, and low on others.
65
What is the difference between ascribed and achieved statuses?
An ascribed status is a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life. An achieved status is earned, accomplished, or involve some effort on the individual's part.
66
What is the difference between a social group and category?
A group is made up of people who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant. A category is made up of people working together to achieve a common purpose (ex// football team).
67
What is the difference between primary and secondary groups?
A primary group is a small group characterized by intimate, long-term, face-to-face association and cooperation. A secondary group is a larger, mroe temporary, anonymous, formal, and impersonal group based on some interest or activity.
68
What is the difference between in-groups and outgroups?
An in-group is a group toward which one feels loyalty. An out-group is a group toward which one feels antagonism.
69
Define "social networks"
The social ties radiating outward from the self that link people together.
70
Define bureaucracy
A formal organization with a hierarchy of authority and clear division of labor; emphasis on impersonality of positions and written rules, communications, and records.
71
What is one advantage and one disadvantage of a bureaucracy?
Advantage:More work is accomplished through the division of labor.
Disadvantage: Bureaucracies are impersonal
72
What is are the differences between dyads and triads?
A dyad is the smallest possible group, consisting of two persons, tend to be unstable, are gnerally focused on both individuals, can easily collapse. A triad is a group of 3 people, are strained, generally stronger than a dyad, are eventually more stable.
73
What is the difference between instrumental and expressive leadership styles.
An instrumental leader is an individual who tries to keep the group moving toward its goals. An expressive leader is an individual who increases harmony and minimizes conflict in a group.
74
What is an authoritarian leader?
An individual who leads by giving orders
75
What is a democratic leader?
A leader who leads by trying to reach a consensus.
76
What is a laissez-faire leader?
An individual who leads by being highly permissive.
77
What is the main finding of Asch's experiment?
In our land of individualism, the group is so powerful that most people are willing to say things that they know are not true.
78
Define deviance.
The violation of norms.
79
What is the difference between how functionalism and conflict theory explain deviance?
Functionalists believe deviance is functional for society, by affirming norms and promoting social unity and social change. Conflict theorists believe the group in power imposes its definitions of deviance on other groups.
80
What is the medicalization of deviance?
The medical profession has attempted to medicalize forms of deviance, claiming they represent mental illnesses. Ex// homeless people.
81
What is functionalism?
Believes deviance is functional to society by affirming social norms and promoting social change.
82
What is the labeling theory?
The view that the labels people are given affect their own and others' peroceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity.
83
What is the differential association theory?
Edwin Sutherland's term to indivate that people who associate with some groups learn an "excess of definitions" of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant.
84
What is the strain theory?
Term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal, but witholds from some the approved means of reaching that goal; one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of an innovative means to attain the cultural goal.
85
What is the control theory?
The idea that two control systems- inner controls and outer controls- work against our tendencies to deviate.
86
What is social stratification?
The division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group.
87
What is the difference between a class and a caste system of social stratification?
A class is a form of stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions. A caste is a form of social stratification in which people's statuses are lifelong conditions determined by birth.
88
How do Davis and Moore explain why people in different occupations have different earnings?
They believe that societal stratification is inevitable, and higher pay goes to those with more demanding positions.
89
How does Weber define social class?
Weber believed social class has 3 components, Power, property, and prestige.
90
How does Marx define social class?
Social class depends on a single factor: people's relationship to the means of production- the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth.
91
What is political ideology?
Beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements, especially in the political world.
92
Define the globalization of capitalism?
The adoption of capitalism around the world. It has created extensive ties among the world's nations, causing production and trade to become interconnected
93
What theories explain the global stratification?
Colonialism, World System Theory, Culture of Poverty, Evaluating the Theories
94
What is the Culture of Poverty theory?
The assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children.
95
What is the World System Theory?
How economic and political connections developed and now tie the world's countries together.
96
Define colonialism
The process by which one nation takes over another nation, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources
97
Define neocolonialism
The economic and political dominance of the Most Industrialized Nations over the Least Industrialized Nations
98
What is social mobility?
The ability to climb the social class ladder.
99
What is the difference between intra- and inter- generational mobility?
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Inter- is the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next.
Intra- is the change in someone's social mobility throughout the course of his or her lifetime.
```
100
What is the difference between income and wealth?
Income is the amount of money an individual makes. Wealth is the value of property and income that an individual possesses.
101
What is status inconsistency?
Ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others.
102
What group in society has the highest rate of poverty?
There are many more poor whites than any other race or ethnicity, because more white people make up the U.S. population than any other race.
103
How does the U.S. government define poverty?
Families whose incomes are less than 3 times a low-cost food budget, because those in poverty are thought to spend 1/3 of their income on food.
104
What are the consequences of one's social class?
It affects the chances of dying early, becoming ill, receiving good health care, and getting divorced. It also affects child rearing, educational attainment, religious affiliation, political participation, crime, and contact with criminal justice system.
105
How is income distributed in the United States?
Unequally. Ethnic minorities, children, households headed by women, and rural Americans are more likely to be poor.
106
What is the sociological meaning of "race"?
A group whose inherited physical characteristics distinguish it from other groups
107
What is the sociological meaning of "ethnicity"?
Having distinctive cultural characteristics
108
What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?
A prejudice is an attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way. Discrimination is an act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or a group.
109
Explain the meaning of minority group with respect to race/ethnicity
People who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.
110
Describe patterns of how minority groups are treated by the dominant group.
Minority groups tend to be treated with prejudice and discrimination.
111
What are the major racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. and their relative socioeconomic status?
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Whites, wealthy
Latinos, poor
African Americans,poor
Asian Americans, wealthy
Native Americans, poorest
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112
What is the sociological meaning of sex?
Sex is biological characteristics that distinguish females and males, consisting of primary and secondary sex characteristics.
113
What is the sociological meaning of gender?
Behaviors and attitudes that a society considers proper for its males and females; masculinity or femininity.
114
Explain Gender roles.
Sets of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex.
115
Define gender stratification.
The unequal access to property, power, and prestige on the basis of sex. Each society establishes a structure that, on the basis of sex and gender, opens and closes doors to its privileges.
116
What is the meaning of "patriarchy"?
A system of society or government in which elder males are in the highest positions, and descent travels through the male line.
117
What is "sexism" and "ageism"?
The discrimination toward an individual or group of individuals based on their gender or age.
118
Describe the nature vs nurture debate on observed differences between men and women
The debate refers to whether differences in the genders are caused by inherited or learned characteristics. Almost all sociologists identify with nurture.
119
What are the trends with gender inequality in the United States
Inequality remains to be a prevalent problem, and has steadily increased or decreased throughout protests.
120
When did the 3 waves of feminism occur, and what were the goals?
First wave: 1920, win right to vote and reform all institutions of society.
Second wave:1960-80: raise women's pay/ change policies on violence against women, legalize abortion
Third wave: 1990: focus on problems of women in Least Industrialized Nations, argue against female stereotypes, emphasis on female sexual pleasure
121
True or false: The concept of age and the age related stages of the life course are socially constructed
True
