Midterm 1

Question 1

4 Types of Suicide

Answer 1

Durkheim

1. Egoistic: highly independent; no goals outside of the self is meaningless; inclination to suicide decreases as number of burdens increase; insufficient integration
2. Anomic: lack of regulation/limits during a period of rapid change; enhances sense of freedom, recklessness, and unforeseen failure because of new environment/collapse of existing social standards; insufficient regulation
3. Fatalistic: occurs when individuals are kept under tight control and high expectations from society; excessive regulation
4. Altruistic: committed for the sake of others; deals with honor, morality, duty, obligation, etc.; excessive integration

Question 2

2 Types of Solidarity

Answer 2

Durkheim

1. Mechanical: collective consciousness that leads to automatic unity or rehearsal of motion; easily fractures when separated from the collective conscious so the individual dies
2. Organic: interdependence leads to modern individual (collective consciousness exerts less influence) and involves moral obligation (specialization that promotes autonomy); division of labor creates a solidarity greater than that of mechanical solidarity

Question 3

Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Answer 3

Durkheim

religion creates two realms of sacred vs profane; division created by rituals and symbols; dual nature of humanity to be consistent and unchanging in daily life but erratic and expressive during rituals

1. Role of Rituals: experience of exaltation via new environment/setting; groups are able to come together in solidarity due to symbols
2. Role of Symbols: fundamental connection that exists outside of rituals and within daily life; create exaltation within an individual without the participation demanded by rituals

Question 4

Various Definitions of Institutions + Components

Answer 4

1. Bellah: pattern of suspected action of individuals or groups enforced by social sanctions → criticized institutions creating situations where individuals feel that their own effort is not enough; prompted the change of such institutions
2. Goffman and Total Institutions: see Goffman section
3. Scott: comprised of regulative, normative, and cultural cognitive elements that, together with associated activities and resources, provide stability and meaning to social life

Components: rules that make an institution what it is and have roles defined by such rules; sanctions (rewards or punishments) that enforce the rules; purposes that justify (and guide) institutional choice; moral codes (normative) and cultural practices; formal (laws) and informal (moral obligations) BUT norms and laws work together to uphold/maintain the ideals/goals of an institution; purposes influence an institution’s choices (goals that transcend any physical needs)

Question 5

The Good Society

Answer 5

Bellah et al.

institutions shape the individual by placing structures, standards, etc. that prioritize efficiency and create norms for success → a good society comes from infusing individuals with moral values

1. Moral Component: institutions exist in order to support the common good and serve the public → create patterns and norms for individuals to adhere to in order to be “successful”
2. Paradox of Modern Individualism: in modern societies, the individual is considered sacred by everyone (collective conscious of appreciating the individual) BUT individuals also undermine any form of collective consciousness → collective conscious is shared to preserve the importance of individuals; individuals believe that institutions impinge on their freedom but it is only through institutions that they recognize their freedom

Question 6

Why Nations Fail

Answer 6

Acemoglu and Robinson

1. Argument: institutions that are extractive/absolutist much change in order to become inclusive/pluralistic; economic and political institutions shape incentives of people in society
2. Extractive Institutions: limited mobility creates a disincentive to progressive individualism; typically has a absolutist (centralized power) or dictatorship; extracts resources from the public to benefit the elite few; engenders less investments from businesses and therefore the economy stagnates
3. Inclusive Institutions: creation of incentives through opportunity; typically has a pluralistic (power sharing) political institution; large emphasis on education and technology leads to higher potential for progressive inventions
4. Invisible Institutions: effective institutions that individuals take for granted; typically primordial and enduring → Americans think they hate institutions because basic ones are readily available and allow us to think ourselves as autonomous

Question 7

Asylums

Answer 7

Goffman

1. Total Institutions: place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals are cut off from the wider society for appreciable periods of time and together lead an unenclosed, formally administrated round of life → designed for disacculaturation and subsequent reorganization/resocialization of an individual; emphasis on “mortification” process in which the cumulative degradation of the individual as a result of institutional processes is accompanied by the internalizing of the imposed degradation
2. Primary Adjustments: patient’s adherence to regulatory regime that is established by the total institution
3. Secondary Adjustments: emphasized more in the readings because this type of adjustment deals more with the self in that the individual attempts to reclaim themselves from the oppression of the total institution; practices that do not directly challenge the stagg but allow inmates to obtain forbidden satisfaction or to obtain permitted ones through forbidden means; essentially resistance in covert measures → eg. make-dos are a way to modify the life programmed in order to counter institutional regimes

Question 8

Motherhood Penalty

Answer 8

Correll et al.

1. Study Model: had an audit study [individuals asked to survey the strength of an application] and an experimental study [applications sent into real companies]
2. Interpretations: mothers are perceived as less competent and committed to their jobs than non mothers and are therefore less likely to receive callbacks for hiring, start with a lower salary, and are evaluated by harsher work standards
3. Fatherhood Premium: because society typically depicts men as the “breadwinner” of the family, fathers are likely to be more successful in their careers (eg. higher salary, more vacation days) than non fathers
4. Status Characteristic Theory: actors implicitly expect more competent task performances from those with more valued state of a characteristic compared with those with the less valued state

Question 9

Masculine Overcompensation Theory

Answer 9

Willer et al.

can shape political/cultural attitudes

1. Study Model: three surveys [two surveyed only undergraduates but the third was distributed to the general public] that ask individuals to answer questions about social issues after being told that they were the opposite trait (eg. males were told they were “feminine” and females were told that they were “masculine)
2. Interpretations: females do not over exaggerate their femininity when told they were “masculine” → males tended to act more aggressive and dominant when threatened
3. Three Theories:
   3a. Masculine Theory: masculinity in males is desired by society and is therefore embraced
   3b. Identity Theory: when are identities are threatened, the level in which people overcompensate is directly tied to how strongly they adhere to that identity
   3c. Testosterone: hormone that has been identified as being a factor that influences the intensity of masculinity

Question 10

Coming Up Short

Answer 10

Silva

emphasizes that the level and quality of an individual’s schooling is largely predictive of that individual’s future success → claims that education has enormous influence on an individual’s sense of identity, stability, self-reliance, and/or opportunities to grow

1. Argument: millennials of the working class inhabit a mood economy through which they attain the ability to organize their emotions in a narrative of self-transformation
2. Adulthood as a Therapeutic Narrative: cultural “kit” to reorganize thoughts and transform one’s identity as a way of moving forward in life
3. Neoliberal Ideology: equal opportunity through hard work and desire for colorblindness → abolish race and belief of minority “advantages”
4. Mood Economy: requires vigilant self-monitoring and transformation in the emotional sphere in order to achieve happiness and overall wellbeing

Question 11

Socialization and its 3 (Abstract) Issues/Debates

Answer 11

1. Unitary versus Modular: single self versus combination of many things
   1a. Unitary: single self; coherent combinations of experience, capacity, goals
   1b. Modular: combination of many things; many capacities that are deployed in different situations; allows you to assess, confront, and overcome obstacles
2. Deep versus Surface Traits: asks whether people have internalizes or surface traits, and whether or how those traits matter; highlights the interplay of self-identity
   2a. Deep: internalized motives and identities → what we actually want, who we think we are
   2b. Surface: styles, skills, titles → still important because they are constantly appraised by society
3. Enduring versus Malleable: lasting a lifetime versus generational/always changing
   3a. Enduring: consistent parts of a person
   3b. Malleable: aspects of a person that shifts to address different situations
4. LINEUP: unitary/deep/enduring versus modular/surface/malleable → internally, uniformly, and deeply shaped individuals create a society that lasts forever versus superficial, dynamic individuals create a society that is always changing and adapting

Question 12

Passive Learning Models

Answer 12

outdated

1. Conditioning: Skinner’s theory of using rewards and punishments to direct social behavior; also includes Pavlov’s theory of pairing one stimulus with another
2. Indoctrination: inputting moral values and a shared mindset with the rest of society; informs individual on how the world works
3. Imitation: attempt of the individual to emulate another so as to attain the same image

Question 13

Active Seeker Models

Answer 13

more modern

1. Cognitive Developmental Theory (of Gender Socialization): learning of social categories by children, creating the development of a stable mental mass; shifts from seeing categories as unstable to stable, leading to an understanding of cognitive categorizing → creates a cognitive map of the social world that is motivated by a self desire to find your own place in it)
2. George Herbert Mead: observed that children simulate social situations in order to understand the roles of yourself and others around you; refers to the “generalized other” as the understanding of categories that do not directly pertain to you but how they are still related/understood by others through the crossover of interactions
3. Anticipatory Socialization: essentially “active” imitation where individuals driven by an active sense of identity filter what behaviors and knowledge needed in order to function with that sense of (desired) identity

Question 14

Define semiotic codes, the feral barrier, and the Great Gatsby Curve.

Answer 14

Semiotic Codes: study of meaning in cultures that allow individuals to apply their own meanings; dynamic and always changing

Feral Barrier: separation from societal behaviors as a child can each a point where it cannot be overcome again

Great Gatsby Curve: higher income inequality associated with lower intergenerational mobility

Question 15

Tribe or Nation

Answer 15

Edward Miguel

compared Kenya (bad) and Tanzania (good) on how well they unified the country to reflect the abundance of public goods

3 Step Argument: existence of ethnic diversity, existence of ethnic division, and existence of ethnic union or national solidarity can result in a large amount of public goods and public spending

Question 16

Experimental Study on Sex Differences

Answer 16

meta-analysis conducted by Alive Eagly

1. Traits Questioned:
   1a. Altruism: willingness to help others
   2a. Aggression: portraying violent tendencies
   3a. Empathy: ability to provide emotional support
2. Noted that differences were greater if:
   2a. Skills differ → eg. physically demanding jobs were performed by men
   2b. Behavior role (in) Appropriate to Gender → eg. society believes that men are supposed to be more assertive than women and that belief is reflected
   2c. more public → eg. woman will cross their legs in a social setting in order to be perceived as more effeminate
   2d. ALMOST NIL IF THE GAP IS REDUCED