Recap slides

Question 1

What is the sociological perspective?

Answer 1

The systematic study of society.

Who we are and in which society determines a lot of who we are, who we think we are, and what we do.

Question 2

What is Mills trying to describe with this statement: ‘becoming aware of the relation between ourselves and society’?

Answer 2

The sociological imagination.

Understanding how the way society is affects everything around us.

Question 3

What are the three functions of structural-functionalism?

Answer 3

Robert K. Merton (1910-2003):
* Manifest functions: recognized and manifest consequences

• Latent functions: unrecognized and unintended consequences
• “Social dysfunction”: any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society -> Different for different types of people.

Question 4

What is the critique of structural functionalism?

Answer 4

conservative bias –> ignores structural inequalities and conflicts from a group perspective.

Question 5

How is society seen in the theory of social conflict?

Answer 5

Society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change.

Question 6

What factors create inequality in the theory of social conflict?

Answer 6

Group attributes such as class, race, ethnicity, gender, age –> generate inequality in money, power, education, social prestige.

Question 7

What does the gender-conflict theory study?

Answer 7

Studies social inequality between men and women. Close to Feminism: support social equality between men and women.

Raise awareness of how men are systematically placed over women in social environments: household, workplace, culture, mass media

Question 8

What does the race-conflict study?

Answer 8

Inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories.

Question 9

What is the critique of the conflict theories?

Answer 9

Criticism:
Tends to overlook what keeps society together (values, interdependence)
May lack objectivity at being to close to political goal (ALL approaches are political, they reply)

Question 10

What is the symbolic interaction approach?

Answer 10

A world of symbols constantly generated.

> Reality is constantly (re)created.
Social exchange analysis: an underlying exchange of value.

Criticism: Risks underestimating the influence of culture.

Question 11

What is culture?

Answer 11

Culture (from “cultivate”) is the way of thinking, ways of acting, and material objects that together form a people’s way of life.

Question 12

Describe socialization.

Answer 12

Lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn their culture.

> The sheer expression of our humanity.
Biologically designed to be social.

Question 13

What does a social structure depend on?

Answer 13

cultural patterns of thought and action.

Question 13

What does a human personality depend on?

Answer 13

Depends on social experience: a person’s fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling..

Question 14

Explain the social construction of reality.

Answer 14

The process through which people creatively shape reality through social interaction.

–> Base for the symbolic-interaction approach to sociology.

Question 15

When is a group primary?

Answer 15

Primary group: small social group whose members share personal and lasting (primary) relationships.

> Spend time together
Meaningful interactions
Affect our identity, socialization, attitudes, behavior and beliefs.
An end in itself (personal orientation)
The family.
They help each other in many ways (loyalty).

Question 16

What describes a secondary group?

Answer 16

Secondary group: large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity.

> Secondary relationships: weak emotional intimacy, little personal knowledge (don’t need be cold and unpleasant)
Many are short lived (e.g. students in this course).
Goal orientation.

Question 17

What is social stratification?

Answer 17

A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy.
Inequality among individuals in money, education, health, and power.

1. Is a trait of society, not of individuals.
2. It’s passed down generations.
   Social mobility, a change in position within the social hierarchy, is inherited.
3. Universal but variable
4. It involves not just inequality, but beliefs that legitimize the order of things (ideology).

Question 18

What is the social meaning of race?

Answer 18

a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important.

Result of adaptation to different environments (e.g. Skin color; eye color).

Socially constructed: every society selects relevant traits (skin, facial features… size of the hand?)

Every society assigns different importance, at different times, due to different matters (history, politics…).
> Populations migrate and intermarry constantly. Hard to keep track.

Question 19

What is ethnicity?

Answer 19

a shared cultural heritage.

People define themselves according to common ancestry, language, and religion –> distinctive social identity.

> socially constructed (e.g. Who is a gypsy; who is an Estonian?)
changes with time (getting used to)
Both physical and cultural traits tend to go together, but not necessarily.
People focus more one some parts of their heritage; forget it (some immigrants), try to revive it (Native Americans, people rediscovering their roots).

Question 20

How can you describe minorities?

Answer 20

A category of people distinguished by physical or cultural differences that a society sets apart and subordinates.

Question 20

What is gender stratification?

Answer 20

Unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women.