Midterm Flashcards

Question

What are cultural universals? Ethnocentrism? Cultural relativism?

Answer 1

A common practice or belief found in every culture The tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others. Understanding that what is considered to be normal is relative to time, location, etc.…

Answer 2

Process of how social experiences shape an individual’s personality, how a person learns about their culture, values, and the norms about acceptable and expected behavior. helps us learn how to interact with others, how we feel about ourselves and others, our belief system. Lifelong process that begins when we are born and doesn’t end until we die

Answer 3

Family Peer Groups Mass Media and Technology Schools Religion and the State Workplace

Answer 4

People with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis. Dominant groups have the power and thus the ability to define social reality. One of the most important aspects of the relationship between dominant and subordinate groups is that the dominant or majority group is able to define a society’s values.

Answer 5

Ascribed Statuses – involuntary, a social status we are born with or into. Race and ethnicity, sex, social class of parents (wealthy, middle class, or poor), birth order, height and other physical attributes including handicaps, religion of parents Achieved Statuses – a status we hold due to choice, effort, merit. marital status, parental status, occupation, level of education, hobbies/activities

Answer 6

Role conflict occurs when the roles associated with one status clash with the roles associated with a different status. Example: the roles associated with being a spouse, parent, employee, student could all clash on a hectic work or school week. Role strain occurs when roles associated with a single status clash. Example: a student could find herself with three exams on the same day.

Answer 7

Entertain Socialize Enforce social norms Confer status Promote consumption

Answer 8

Narcotizing dysfunction: (a dysfunction of the media according to the functionalist perspective). Occurs as a result of the media providing so much information that audiences becomes numb and can end up not acting on the important information People may take in information but not act on it. Viewer fatigue can set in regarding disasters or crises. Media audience can become numb and desensitized to suffering (violence, offensive language, etc..)

Answer 9

Conflict theorists focus on how the media reflects and intensifies many divisions in society. Race, ethnicity, gender, and social class divisions Media are in charge of what is transmitted. Powerful interest groups monitor media content. Powerful groups transmit their ideology through media.

Answer 10

Gatekeeping: refers to how material must move through a number of “gates or checkpoints” before getting to the public. Media is a huge business, and maximizing profits is valued over quality programming. In several countries, the government plays a gatekeeping role.

Answer 11

refers to the fact that low-income groups, racial and ethnic minorities, those in rural areas, and the citizens of developing countries often have a lack of access to the latest technologies.

Answer 12

Cultural transmission: humans learn how to behave in social situations, whether properly or improperly

Answer 13

Behavior that violates or falls outside of cultural norms.

Answer 14

Social control: refers to the techniques and strategies used to prevent deviant behavior in a society Parents Peer groups Government Bureaucratic organizations Informal social control: used casually to enforce norms Smiles, laughter, raised eyebrows, ridicule Formal social control: carried out by authorized agents

Answer 15

penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm If we fail to live up to the norm we may face informal sanctions (fear and ridicule) or formal sanctions (jail sentences or fines)

Answer 16

connection to and strong relationships with members of society leads people to conform to society’s norms

Answer 17

when a person has close ties to family, friends, school, and other social institutions, they are more likely to anticipate and worry about the potential negative reactions if they engage in deviant behavior. Being connected to society, and envisioning the consequences of behavior, are factors that reduce the likelihood of deviance. attachment opportunity involvement belief

Answer 18

Victimless crimes Professional crime Organized crime White-collar and technology-based crime Hate crimes Transnational crime

Answer 19

Social inequality: this is a situation where members of society have different amounts of wealth, prestige, or power Stratification: structured ranking of groups of people that leads to and maintains unequal economic rewards and power in a society. Stratification is described as inequalities among people in society. This ranking can be based on categories, including gender, age, race, ethnicity.

Answer 20

Income: salaries and wages Wealth: inclusive term encompassing all a person’s material assets Education is an important determinant of social class. Education is one of the strongest predictors of one's occupation, income, and wealth. A college graduate will earn more than twice as much as a typical high school graduate over his or her working life; this encourages more people to earn a college degree. Occupation is another determinant of social class and is an important indicator of a person's social status. Occupation is linked with the educational attainment of most wage earners. The majority of white-collar jobs require higher education and place those jobs in a higher income group.

Answer 21

Four general systems of stratification—slavery, castes, estates, and social classes. Slavery: individuals owned by other people, who treat them as property Estate system, or feudalism: peasants worked land leased to them in exchange for military protection and other services Castes: hereditary ranks that are usually religiously dictated and that tend to be fixed and immobile Class system: social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics can influence social mobility Class standing heavily dependent on family and ascribed factors such as race, ethnicity, gender

Answer 22

class--possible to move between classes caste--not possible to move between class

Answer 23

Marx – social class depends solely upon people's relationship to the means of production: the tools, factories, land, and capital needed to produce wealth. Marx saw society as having two classes of people the bourgeoisie (those who own the means of production) and the proletariat (the workers).

Answer 24

Weber believed that property is only part of the issue. According to him, one’s social class is determined by three things: property, power, and prestige. Property - ownership of material items that influences a person's social standing Power - ability to control others, even over their objection Prestige - often derived from property and power as people tend to admire the wealthy and powerful

Answer 25

Social Mobility Vertical – Up or Down the social class ladder Horizontal – sideways movement Intra-Generational (within your lifetime as an adult) Inter-Generational (between generations. You vs. your grandparents for example)

Answer 26

The feminization of poverty refers to the increasing number of women living poverty. About half of the women living in poverty in the U.S. is in that situation due to to divorce, separation, or the death of a husband. The other 50% are economically dependent either on friends, relatives or the welfare system. A primary factor in the feminization of poverty has been the increase in families with women as single heads of the household. Conflict theorists and other observers believe the higher rates of poverty among women are primarily due to the challenges of finding affordable child care, sexual harassment, and sex discrimination in the labor market.

Answer 27

Capitalism is an economic system where the means of production are largely in privately owned and the primary motivation for economic activity is the to accumulate and maximize profits. Within a socialist system the means of production are collectively rather than privately owned. The primary goal of the economic system is to tend to and meet people’s needs as opposed to maximizing profits.

Answer 28

occurs when a foreign power maintains political, social, economic, and cultural domination over a group of people. “Rule by outsiders”.

Answer 29

functionalist approach that believes that modernization and development will ultimately improve the lives of those in developing nations. Despite nations developing at different rates, the development of peripheral nations will be helped and sped up by innovations made available from industrialized nations. Critics of the modernization theory, see the transfer of innovations to lesser developed nations as simply leading to further dominance by more developed nations which leads to exploitation.

Answer 30

Sees that industrialized nations exploit developing countries for their own gain. Though developing countries do advance economically, they remain weaker than and subservient to developed nations. This interdependency provides the opportunity for industrialized nations to continue to exploit developing countries

Answer 31

Prejudice - refers to the beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about a certain group. Prejudice is not based on experience but rather on judgement based on stereotypes about a certain group. Discrimination – refers to the unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a group. (based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.…)

Answer 32

suggests that interpersonal contact between groups can lead to a reduction in prejudice. Basically, familiarity can help break down unfounded negative beliefs and assumptions about a group. Gordon Allport equal status, common goals, cooperation, institutional support.

Midterm Flashcards

(56 cards)