Social Structure Flashcards
What is habitualization?
How any action repeated frequently becomes cast into a person. We construct our own society and we accept it as it is because others have created it before us: habit.
What is institutionalization?
Act of implanting a convention or norm into society
What did Thomas Theorem say?
“If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
People create their own realities
What did Howard Becker (1963) believe?
If one violates a rule it does not mean they are deviant in other respects, but labelling them as deviant makes it difficult for one to conform to other rules.
Who defined concept of self-fulfilling prophecy?
Robert K.Merton
What is a social structure?
Set of social statuses, roles, groups, networks, and institutions that organize/influence people. Boundaries people confront as they make decisions.
What are the two types of structural boundaries?
Rules: expectations for behaving in given situations
Resources: things we may nave or acquire that help us accomplish goals
Two types of rules?
Formal: laws. policies
Informal: norms
Define life chances
opportunities to provide yourself with favourable lfie
Define status.
Person/group’s socially determined positions, places people in social hierarchies, influences resources available
Two types of status?
Achieved status: voluntary, results from some efforts
Ascribed status: involuntary, assigned to you by society, often at birth
Define roles.
Set of expectations about the behaviours of those in particular social statuses, increases social stability (we can anticipate behaviours of others)
Define role strain and role conflict.
Role strain: when one role requires too much (e.g. stressful job)
Role conflict: when multiple rules contradict each other, competing structural rules (e.g. being a student and an athlete)
Define groups.
Consists of two or more people with similar values and expectations who interact on a regular basis, behaviour may be influenced by norms of group, provides resources
Describe two types of groups.
Primary groups: members are not interchangeable, relationships often long-term, close, meaningful
Secondary groups: goal oriented, temporary/impersonal, may have organized structures and rules
Define networks
Series of social relationships that link a person directly to other individuals and indirectly to even more people
Examples: social organizations
Define institutions.
Practices and rules that organize a central domain of social life, guide behaviours and meet basic needs. Can perpetuate inequalities.
examples: education, religion, government
Define agency.
Our ability to act given the structural rules and resources that impact our behaviours
Define socialization
Experiences that give us an identity and teach us values, beliefs, and ways of acting/thinking expected in society
What did George Herbert Mead argue?
Argued sense of self develops from social experiences and interactions in daily life, we form sense of self through eyes of others and the generalized other (values and norms of larger culture that individuals use to guide their actions)
What concept did Charles Horton Cooley form?
Looking-glass self: the way our perception of how others see us affects our sense of self
What are agents of socialization? Name 4 major agents of socialization.
Influential factors that shape your identity
School, peer groups, family, mass media
Define resocialization.
Process of adopting new social norms and identities, dramatic resocialization greatly changes behaviour and sense of self
Give type of dramatic resocialization.
Total institutions: where groups of people are largely cut off from wider society and lives are greatly controlled by institution (e.g. military), behaviours molded to suit institution
