Term Exam 1 Flashcards
This deck is based on all materials covered in the first third of Ken Caine's SOC 100 class. Material here comes directly from the study guide, which covers overlap between textbook and lecture. (213 cards)
1
Q
What is the fifth dimension and what does it mean to live in it?
A
Living in the social dimension deepens our understanding of the 3rd- and 4th-dimensions.
2
Q
How does Brym define sociology?
A
The study of human action in a social context.
3
Q
What is determinism?
A
The belief that everything in our life happens the way it does for a specific reason.
4
Q
What is volunteerism?
A
The belief that we alone control our destiny.
5
Q
What does higher education do?
A
- Make life meaningful
- Guarantee a good job
- Provides a place to learn and discover
6
Q
What is the sociological approach?
A
The idea that the relations we have with others both creates opportunities and limits our thoughts and actions.
7
Q
Who wrote “Suicide” and what did it examine?
A
Emile Durkheim examined three levels of social solidarity in society and its effects on the suicide rate.
8
Q
What is social solidarity?
A
Sharing of beliefs, values, and morals in society.
9
Q
What did Durkheim’s study suggest?
A
The higher the social solidarity, the lower the suicide rate.
10
Q
What is anomic suicide?
A
Suicide as a result of lack of education or normlessness.
11
Q
What are the steps to Durkheim’s approach to research?
A
- Identify important behaviour
- Identify social forces that influence behaviour
- Identify changes that can improve human welfare relative to behaviour
12
Q
What is Steckley’s definition of sociology?
A
The systematic study of society.
13
Q
In what three ways is sociology distinct?
A
- It is concerned with society
- It examines society as totalities
- Gives explanation, analysis, and debate about contemporary life
14
Q
What is Dr. Caine’s definition of sociology?
A
The social science that studies the development, structure, and functioning of human societies.
15
Q
Why study sociology?
A
You achieve a greater understanding of:
- The social world
- One’s self
- Others
16
Q
Who posited the sociological imagination and what is it?
A
C. Wright Mills posited it as the connection between our private lives and the world in which we live.
17
Q
How does Lupe Fiasco represent the sociological imagination?
A
He observes, through critical questioning, life in the ghetto, and connects it to larger societal problems.
18
Q
What does bell hooks assert about critical thinking?
A
It is at the heart of life transformation.
19
Q
How is Cameron Russell’s sociological imagination different from Lupe Fiasco’s?
A
Russell’s comes from a place of privilege and Fiasco’s comes from one of disadvantage.
20
Q
What is Cameron Russell’s key argument?
A
That one cannot unpack legacies of oppression when you’re the beneficiary.
21
Q
What happens without a sociological imagination?
A
Social problems become seen as private problems, detached from larger issues.
22
Q
What is a social location?
A
A person’s location in life comprised of factors like their race, sexuality, gender, etc.
23
Q
What is intersectionality?
A
The idea of overlapping systems of oppression and advantage.
24
Q
What is disproportionate representation?
A
Overrepresentation of specific groups in statistics.
25
What did Confucius contribute to sociology?
The idea of role-modelling in leadership.
26
What did Ibn Khaldun contribute to sociology?
A systematic approach to studying societies.
27
What dramatic social changes brought about modern sociology?
The industrial revolution and urbanization.
28
Who founded modern sociology and when?
Thomas Malthus in the 19th-century.
29
Who was the first sociologist and when did he coin the term?
August Comte in 1839.
30
What is positivism?
A research method, posited by Comte, based on experiment, measurement, and observation.
31
Who was the first woman sociologist and what were her major contributions?
Harriet Martineu's major contributions included:
- Translation of August Comte's work
- Study of American society between 1834-36
- Systematic study of women's roles in society
32
Who influenced Herbert Spencer and what term did he coin?
Charles Darwin and August Comte inspired his "survival of the fittest."
33
Who were the big three sociologists?
- Max Weber
- Emile Durkheim
- Karl Marx
34
What was Max Weber's biggest contribution?
The Protestant Work Ethic and its relation to the rise of modern capitalism.
35
What was Emile Durkheim's biggest contribution?
Social facts, which have three characteristics:
- Developed separate from you as an individual
- Characteristic of a particular group
- Constraining or coercing force
36
What was Karl Marx's biggest contribution.
His conception of political economy as being the most important factor in society.
37
What were the three main approaches to sociology?
- Structural Functionalism
- Conflict Theory
- Symbolic Interactionism
38
What does structural functionalism mean?
As a biological analogy for society, that society consists of structures and the functions that each structure performs.
39
What did Robert Merton contribute to sociology?
The idea of functions that structures can produce.
40
What were Merton's three functions?
- Manifest functions
- Latent functions
- Latent dysfunctions
41
What are manifest functions?
Functions that are both intended and easily recognized.
42
What are latent functions?
Functions that are unintended.
43
What are latent dysfunctions?
Functions that are unintended with negative consequences.
44
What does conflict theory suggest?
That core to all society is conflict.
45
What are the Four C's to conflict theory?
- Conflict
- Class
- Contestation
- Change
46
What is symbolic interactionism?
Posited by Weber, it looks at the meaning of individual's daily social interaction.
47
What did G. H. Mead posit?
- Socialization
- The development of self
- Social roles
48
Why is Herbert Blumer significant?
He coined the term "symbolic interactionism."
49
What did Erving Goffman posit?
The dramaturgical analysis, which involves the sociology of everyday life.
50
What are total institutions?
Posited by Goffman, a place where a great number of similarly situated people cut off from the wider community together lead an enclosed, round of life.
51
What is feminist theory?
A sociological approach, rooted in conflict theory, dedicated to addressing discrimination against women.
52
What did Dorothy Smith contribute to sociology?
Standpoint theory, which states that all information is developed from the partial standpoint of the researcher.
53
What is first-wave feminism?
A campaign for civil and political rights.
54
What is second-wave feminism?
A campaign for public and private rights.
55
What is third-wave feminism?
A campaign for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ and racialized individuals.
56
What is postmodern theory?
A sociological approach, rooted in conflict theory, that seeks to include a diverse set of marginalized voices.
57
What is a totalizing discourse?
Any narrow, dominant claim, as posited by Michel Foucault, about how knowledge is achieved.
58
What is an archaeology of knowledge?
Posited by Foucault, an examination of how discourses develop and truths are distorted over time.
59
What ideas did Michel Foucault posit?
- Totalizing discourse
| - Archaeology of knowledge
60
What is micro-sociology?
Examination of a small group.
61
What is macro-sociology?
An examination of society and institutions as a whole.
62
What are three sociological audiences?
- Professional
- Policy
- Public
63
What is professional sociology?
Sociology geared toward specific problems.
64
What is policy sociology?
Sociology that generates data.
65
What is public sociology?
Sociology that aims to make sociology more accessible to the public
66
What are the four key distinctions of Canadian sociology?
- French/English relations
- Western development
- Class-ethnicity
- Blurred line between sociology and anthropology
67
What did Carl Dawson contribute to Canadian sociology.
- First professional sociologist in Canada
- Founder of McGill sociology department
- Writer of the first Canadian sociology textbook
68
What did Everett Hughes contribute to Canadian sociology.
An examination of the ethnic division of labour.
69
What did Horace Miner contribute to Canadian sociology?
Demonstrated the blurred distinction between sociology and anthropology in Canada.
70
What did John Porter contribute to Canadian sociology.
The vertical mosaic of racial hierarchy.
71
What did Harold Innes contribute to Canadian sociology.
The Staples Theory of natural resources.
72
What did S. D. Clark contribute to Canadian sociology.
The father of a Canadian approach to sociology involving history.
73
What is research methodology?
A system of methods a researcher uses to gather data on a particular question.
74
What does the insider voice provide?
Information from the subject being studied from their subjective experience.
75
What does the outsider voice provide?
Privilege to decide over the authenticity of the insider perspective. This was previously thought to be the best perspective.
76
What is qualitative research?
Close examination of uncountable characteristics.
77
What does ethnography do?
Describe and explain the behaviour, values, beliefs, and practices of participants in a given cultural setting.
78
How is ethnography studied.
Through fieldwork and ideally through participant observation.
79
What is institutional ethnography and who posited it?
Dorothy Smith posited institutions having two sides with unique data:
- Ruling interests
- Experiential data
80
What are ruling interests?
The interests of the organization.
81
What are ruling relations?
Relations activated when workers follow rules and practices.
82
What is experiential data?
Data from workers (informants) in an organization outside of management.
83
What did Aileen Ross study?
Women's shelters in Montreal.
84
What are case studies?
Research design that takes a single case or a few select examples as its subject.
85
Who conducted a study of "Toddlers and Tiaras" contestants and what did it conclude?
Hillary Levy Friedman concluded that participation in the contest ensures success later in life.
86
What were the four keys to success on the community-based policing on the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg reserve?
- A stable political environment
- Good relationships with the provincial police
- Strong relationships with youth
- Training
87
What are narratives?
The stories people tell about themselves, their situations, and others around them.
88
What do narratives help accomplish?
- Give importance to disadvantaged voices
- Deeply understand situations
- Include stories of the researcher
89
What is content analysis?
The study of cultural artifacts and analyzing the themes they reflect.
90
What are two distinct properties of content analysis?
- Not specifically created to be studied
| - Data is preexisting and non-interactive
91
What is the goal of NoHomophobes?
To show the prevalence of casual homophobia.
92
What content analysis did Goffman perform?
A study of the way advertisements are directed toward males and females.
93
What is discourse analysis?
An approach to analyzing conversations, speech, text, and symbolic events. There are two types:
- Analyzing discourse as it is properly understood
- Taking a broader definition of text
94
What does Foucault's genealogy analyze?
It takes a broader definition of text and traces the origins of contemporary genealogy.
95
What is quantitative research?
Research on social elements that can be measured.
96
What is statistics?
A science that involves the use of numbers to map social behaviours and beliefs.
97
What do operational definitions do?
Transform abstract concepts into concrete, observable, measurable, and countable concepts.
98
What is a Market Based Measure?
A way to create an operational definition for the poverty line.
99
What are variables?
Concepts with measurable traits and characteristics that can vary or change.
100
What is an independent variable?
What we use to manipulate the environment.
101
What is a dependent variable?
The variable that is affected by the idependent.
102
What is correlation?
When two variables are associated more frequently than by chance.
103
What is direct/positive correlation?
When variables increase or decrease together.
104
What is negative/inverse correlation?
When variables increase or decrease in opposite directions.
105
What is cauastion?
Linking effects to causes.
106
What is spurious reasoning?
When you see a correlation and falsely assume causation.
107
What questions can you ask to analyze statistics?
- What are the sources?
- How was the number produced?
- What interests does the number serve?
- What is the operational definition involved?
108
What are the four principles of research ethics?
- Voluntary participation
- Informed consent
- Anonymity and confidentiality
- No unnecessary harm
109
What research ethics did Laud Humphrey's "Tearoom Trade" violate?
All research ethics principles.
110
What are the steps to the scientific method?
1. Observation
2. Research question
3. Background research
4. Hypothesis
5. Research design
6. Gather data
7. Analyze data
8. Revise hypothesis or present results
111
What is social structure?
The way society is organized of different parts.
112
What is culture?
Systems of behaviours, beliefs, knowledge, practices, and values including material items.
113
How is culture contested?
There is no agreement on what constitutes a culture.
114
What does authenticity mean in reference to culture?
Asking if a representation of culture is true to a specific cultural group.
115
What are some traditional social institutions?
- Economy
- Family
- Politics
- Education
- Religion
116
What are some contemporary social institutions?
- Science and technology
- Mass media
- Sport
- Military
- Medicine
117
What is the structural functionalist perspective on culture?
Culture integrates people into groups.
118
What is the conflict theory perspective on culture?
Culture serves the interests of powerful groups.
119
What is the symbolic interactionist perspective on culture?
Culture creates group identity from diverse cultural meanings.
120
What are cultural universals?
According to structural functionalism, these are common features found across all societies.
121
What is cultural adaptation?
The process by which environmental pressures are addressed through changes in practices, traditions, and behaviours.
122
What is dominant culture?
The culture that holds political and economic power and is able to impose its values on a given society.
123
What are minority cultures?
Those cultures outside the mainstream.
124
What is a subculture?
A shared set of cultural beliefs that differ from but are ot in opposition to the norm.
125
What is a counterculture?
A subculture in opposition to the dominant culture in some way.
126
What is high culture?
The culture of the elite, associated with the arts.
127
What is popular culture?
The culture of the majority, created by the people who consume it who also have agency to interpret it and use it.
128
What is mass culture?
Culture created those in power for the masses, who don't have agency over it.
129
What is cultural capital?
An idea, posited by Bordieu, that is a set of skills and knowledge needed to acquire sophisticated tastes.
130
What is a simulacra?
Posited by Baudrillard, cultural images and stereotypes that are produced and reproduced as commodity.
131
Why are simulacra important?
They help to examine capitalism and consumerism.
132
What is decipherment?
Looking at a text for the definitive interpretation. The mass culture approach.
133
What is reading?
Looking at the text as you see fit. The popular culture approach.
134
What are values?
Standards used by a culture to describe abstract qualities.
135
What is ideal culture?
The culture people believe exists.
136
What is actual culture?
The culture that actually exists.
137
What two things are noteworthy about a comparison of American and Canadian values?
- The US is far more patriarchal
| - There is a growing disconnect in the two countries' values
138
What are norms?
Rules or standards of behaviour that people are expected to adhere to.
139
What are sanctions?
Rewards or punishments for upholding or violating norms. They may be positive or negative.
140
What are William Sumner's three kinds of norms?
- Folkways
- Mores
- Taboos
141
What are folkways?
Rules of etiquette.
142
What are mores?
Formally codified norms that musn't be broken.
143
What are taboos?
Norms that if violated are viewed as revolting.
144
What are symbols?
Aspects of cultures that take on great meaning in society.
145
What is the significance of Baltej Dhillon?
- He is the first turban-wearing RCMP officer
| - He wears his cultural symbol while in a symbolic role for Canadians
146
What is the significance of the hijab to young women?
It is contentious, as some believe it to be constraining, while some see it as liberating. This proves that symbols can be contested.
147
What is ethnocentrism?
Holding up one's culture as the standard to which all other cultures should be judged.
148
How was the Potlatch a victim of ethnocentrism?
It existed contrary to European's ideas of religion and the Protestant Work Ethic, and was thus banned in 1884.
149
What is eurocentrism?
Taking a primarily European or western viewpoint to address others.
150
What is Manfred Steger's cultural globalization?
The intensification and expansion of cultural flows across the world.
151
What is cultural relativism and why is it sometimes problematic?
The ability to judge past figures and events in their proper historical context. It may become problematic when analyzing horrible historical practices.
152
What is presentism?
The inability to judge figures of the past in their proper historical context.
153
What is sociolinguistics?
The study of language as part of culture.
154
What does the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis posit?
The existence of linguistic determinism.
155
What does linguistic determinism state?
That the way we understand the world is shaped by the language we speak.
156
Why do we study culture?
Helps us clear up misconceptions and raise understandings about other cultures.
157
What three things do sociologists seek to identify according to Brym?
- Important or interesting behaviour
- Specific social forces
- Larger institutional, political, or other change
158
Why, according to C. Wright Mills, do sociologists study what they do?
To help people understand what they are and what they can become in particular social and historical contexts.
159
How many African American men are missing and why?
1.5M, due to violence.
160
How do these missing men affect the hip-hop music?
Allows for themes of death and violence to permeate the genre.
161
Where does hip-hop have its origins?
In the civil rights movement.
162
What was the result of shocking social conditions following the civil rights movement?
New shocking musical form.
163
How did the emergence of gangster rap change hip-hop?
Converted rebellion into mass consumption--commodified dissent.
164
What are the three approaches to obtaining "street cred?"
- Embrace the white, middle-class audience
- Return to the hood, street-tough
- Stage gun battles for public consumption
165
What are the three failed promises of hip-hop?
- Develop a sense of black male identity
- Move upward in an unequal system
- Become empowered
166
What is the important take-away from "Masculinity in a Bottle?"
Hypermasculinity hurts both men and women.
167
What is hypermasculinity?
Exaggeration of male stereotypical behaviour, with an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality.
168
How does hypermasculinity hurt both men and women?
Men and women both fall into imagined social norms.
169
What is socialization?
A learning process that involves development or changes in the individual's sense of self.
170
When does primary socialization take place?
During childhood.
171
When does secondary socialization take place?
Later in life.
172
What is the key takeaway from Genie Wiley's story?
That, as a victim of child abuse, she missed critical development periods because a lack of association. She will never recover from this lack of socialization.
173
What is Talcott Parsons' take on socialization?
Structuralist, that it is the end result of the internalization of values and norms.
174
What is Dennis Wrong's take on socialization?
That we can resist socialization, and that internalization can oversocialize the human being.
175
What does biological determinism believe?
That the greater part of who we are is determined by our genes.
176
What are two key beliefs of behaviourism?
- Humans are shaped by their external environment
| - Behaviour can be modified
177
What is Freud's take on socialization?
That it is a balance of the biological and the socio-cultural.
178
What were the three components of Freud's psychoanalysis
1. Id
2. Superego
3. Ego
179
What is the id?
The "instinctive drives," and the driving force of personality.
180
What is the superego?
Polices the id, and governs moral behaviour.
181
What is the ego?
Mediates between the conscious and unconscious, and makes sense of what the individual self does and thinks.
182
What are agents of socialization?
Groups that have a significant impact on a person's socialization.
183
What are Mead's significant others?
Individuals, primarily family and friends, who aid in socizalization.
184
Who are Mead's generalized others?
Attitudes, viewpoints, and general expectations of that society, that aid in socialization.
185
What are the three stages of socialization of children, according to Mead?
1. Preparatory stage
2. Play stage
3. Game stage
186
What is the preparatory stage?
Imitation.
187
What is the play stage?
Child is aware of others' viewpoints.
188
What is the game stage?
Child consider's other's viewpoints.
189
What does Cooley's Looking Glass Self explain?
How the self develops.
190
What are the three components of the Looking Glass Self?
- How you imagine you appear to others
- How you imagine others judge your appearance
- How you feel as a result
191
Who is the first agent of socialization?
The family.
192
What are groups that share key characteristics called?
Peer groups.
193
What is peer pressure?
Social force exerted on people by his or her peers.
194
What does narrow socialization value?
Obedience and conformity.
195
What does broad socialization value?
Individualism and independence.
196
What did Bandura's Bobo Doll experiment demonstrate?
That children are likely to repeat behaviours modeled by adults.
197
What are the two aspects of the social cognitive learning theory?
- Children repeat adult behaviours
| - We can assess the pros and cons of actions
198
What are longitudinal studies?
Long-term studies.
199
What are two theories that explain children and media violence?
- Observational learning
| - Desensitization
200
What is observational learning?
When kids acquire learning scripts from adults.
201
What is desensitization?
When increased exposure to things numbs our natural negative reactions.
202
What is Jib Fowle's assertion about media violence?
That portrayal of violence in the media has no effect on violence rates.
203
What is habitus?
An idea, posited by Bordieu, of class- or socially-acquired characteristics that play a role in socialization.
204
How do teachers effect socialization?
Their social location influences what they teach, therefore, what the children learn.
205
What does Kloepfenstein's research show about black teachers to black students?
That black teacher role-models motivate black students to enrol in higher math classes.
206
What two things does Elkind assert?
- Hurried child syndrome
| - New technology creates a generation gap
207
What is hurried child syndrome?
Children having the same stress levels as adults.
208
What is resocialization?
The process of unlearning old ways and learning new ways in a new environment.
209
When does voluntary resocialization happen?
When someone starts a new part of their life.
210
When does involuntary resocialization happen?
When somehow someone is forced to change.
211
What is a rite of passage?
A ritual or ceremony that denotes a change of status.
212
What is a total institution?
Posited by Goffman, an institution where people are isolated from society and manipulated by administration.
213
What is a degradation ceremony?
Where someone is stripped of their individuality.
