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MCAT Psych/soc > Ch 11 - Social Structure and Demographics > Flashcards

Ch 11 - Social Structure and Demographics Flashcards

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1
Q

sociology

A
  • study of society
  • macrosociology - large groups and social structure
  • microsociology - small groups and the individual
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2
Q

social structure

A
  • system of people within a society organised by a pattern of relationships
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3
Q

Theoretical approaches

A
  • no single unified perspective
  • functionalism - structure and function of each part of society
  • conflict theory - how power differentials are create and how they contribute to order
  • symbolic interactionism - how symbols are used in interactions and communications
  • social constructionism - how social constructs arise and the reality forms
  • rational choice theory - decision making using pros and cons
  • exchange theory - interactions in groups, individual behaviors for anticipated rewards and avoids punishment. Also behaves for group approval and avoids group disapproval
  • feminist - explain social inequalities based on gender, subordination of women
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4
Q

Functionalism

A
  • functionalism - structure and function of each part of society
  • parts of society must work together
  • function - beneficial consequence of people’s actions; keep balance
    • manifest function - intended to help system
    • latent function - unintended positive effect; can arise from manifest functions
  • dysfunctions - harmful consequences of people’s actions; cause imbalance
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5
Q

conflict theory

A
  • Karl Marx
  • how power differentials are created and how they contribute to maintaining social order
  • differentials can lead to dominance
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6
Q

symbolic interactionism

A
  • how individuals interact and share understanding of words, gestures, and symbols
  • symbols - key to understanding world view and communication
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7
Q

social constructionism

A
  • how individuals form social reality and how social constructs occur
  • how parts of society are defined
  • ex - money is just paper but society made it valuable
    • work ethic, acceptable dress, gender roles
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8
Q

rational choice theory

A
  • decision making by individual, based on benefits vs harms
  • exchange theory - choices in groups. still use pros vs cons but also consider group approval
    • more likely to behavior for approval of the group
    • exchange theory is a branch of rational choice theory
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9
Q

Feminist theory

A
  • attempts to explain social inequalities due to gender
  • gender roles, sexuality, financse, social mobility
  • objectified - women viewed as sexual objects by men
  • glass ceiling - women having a more difficult time then men reaching top level admin positions
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10
Q

Social institutions

A
  • well established social structures that dictate behavior and relationships. fundamental parts of culture
  • family - reproduce, socialize and protect children
  • education - knowledge
  • religion - life/death, connect with creator
  • government - social order, enforce laws
  • economy - money, goods, services
  • medicine - heal sick and injured, care for dying
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11
Q

Family

A
  • social institution
  • influenced by culture, vlaues, beliefs, practices, race
  • family defined differently in many places
  • patterns of kinship - how the family relates
    • many different patterns
  • coupling, spouses over time, parenting
  • domestic violence
  • elder abuse
  • child abuse
  • mandated reporter - required to report signs of elder/child abuse
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12
Q

Education

A
  • social institution
  • source of knowledge
  • hidden curriculum - transmit social norms, attutudes, beliefs
  • teacher expectancy - teachers receive what they expect from students
    • believe in students will give greater results
    • self fulfilling prophecy
  • education is connected to the medicine institution
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13
Q

religion

A
  • social institution
  • pattern of social activities organized around a set of beliefs and practices about existence
  • religiosity - how religious someone is
  • sect - religious group that has broken off of the parent religion
    • in extreme cases may be a cult
  • secularizes - move away from religion
    • the world is secularizing and moving towards science/rationality
  • fundamentalism - strict adherence to religion
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14
Q

Government and Economy

A
  • both are social institutions
  • influence other institutions like education, family, and healthcare
  • types of govt - democracy or representative democracy, monarchy, dictatorship, theocracy (power by religious leader)
    • most operate under charismatic authority - leader with compelling personality
  • capitalism vs socialism
  • division of labor - supported by capitalism, tasks are assigned to skilled individuals. promotes efficiency
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15
Q

healthcare

A
  • institution of society
  • life course approach to health - comprehensive view of patients history beyond immediate symptoms
  • sick role - patient not responsible for condition
    • less prominent now, more focus on diet, exercise, lifestyle
  • 4 tenets of medical ethics
    • beneficence - act in patients interest
    • nonmaleficence - do no harm, avoid treatment with greater harm than good
    • patient autonomy - respect patient choices and decisions about healthcare
    • justice - treat patients equally, distribute resources fairly
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16
Q

ethnography

A

study of cultures and customs

17
Q

material culture

A
  • artifacts - material items
  • explore meaning of objects
  • objects can be syymbolic
18
Q

symbolic culture

A
  • aka nonmaterial culture
  • ideas that represent the culture
  • mottos, songs, catchphrases
  • association of ideas
  • culture lag - slow change in symbolic culture
    • change sometimes due to material (technology)
      • smartphones reduce privacy, young people ok with public personal info
19
Q

language as a part of culture

A
  • used to transmit culture
  • spoken, written, signed symbols
20
Q

Parts of Culture

A
  • values - dictate ethical principals and standards of behavior
  • belief - something an individual accepts as true
  • cultural barriers - cultural differences that impede interactions with others
  • norms - societal rules
  • ritual - prescribed order of events and routine
21
Q

evolution and culture

A
  • culture may influence evolution
    • ex. cattle farming - more milk - mutation for milk digestion is favorable - humans evolve to digest milk after adolesence
  • culture used to pass down information from generation to generation
  • creates loyalty and allegiance
22
Q

demographics

A
  • stats of populations
  • math applications of sociology
  • age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, immigration status
23
Q

age - demographic

A
  • america is aging
  • ageism - prejudice/discrimination based on age
24
Q

gender - demographic

A
  • social construct that is typicall associated with biological sex
  • gender discrimination
  • gender segregation
25
Q

race and ethnicty demographics

A
  • race - social construct based on phenotypes and superficial traits
  • racialization - definition and establishment of a race
  • racial formation theory - racial identity if fluid
    • political, economical, social factors
  • ethnicity - sort people by cultural factors
    • language, nationality, religion
  • symbolic ethnicity - specific connections to the ethnicity
    • connection may not be in everyday life
    • ex. holidays, festivals, rallies
26
Q

sexual orientation - demographics

A
  • heterosexual
  • bisexual
  • homosexual
  • kinsey scale - rate sexuality
    • one is totally heterozexual
    • six is completely homosexual
    • most people in between
  • LGBT people have specific medical demographics
    • high rate AIDS in gay men
    • less STD testing in gay women
    • trans use street hormones
27
Q

immigration - demographics

A
  • intersectionality - when multiple demographic factors combine to cause discrimination
  • hard to receive healthcare as immigrant
    • language barrier
    • lack of understanding of system
    • fear of deportation
28
Q

demographic shifts and social changes

A
  • changes in population over time
  • population pyrmids - used to understand and visualize populations
    • ex. age and sex
  • fertility, mortality, migration
  • social movements
  • globalization
  • urbanization
29
Q

fertility, mortality, migration

A
  • fertility rate - average number of children born per woman and her lifetime
    • in US its trending down but still greater than 2
  • mortality rates - number of deaths per unit time
    • deaths per 1000 per year
  • crude rate - total rate of population, use mortality and fertility
  • migration = immigration - emigration
    • immigration - movement into new geographic space
      • pull factors
    • emigration - movement away from geographic space
      • push factors
  • immigration increases diversity
30
Q

Demographic transition

A
  • changes in birth and death rates over time from preindustrial to industrial economy
  • demographic transition is an example of demographic shift
  • stage 1: preindustrial - high birth and death rates
  • stage 2: improve healthcare, food, sanitation, wages. Lower death rate
  • stage 3: improve contraception, less agriculture, more industry. Lower birth rate
  • stage 4: industrialized society, birth and death rates are low
31
Q

Malthusian theory

A
  • exponential growth of population ca outpace growth of food supply
  • third world countries industrialize and the population growth causes mass starvation
    • death phase in bacterial growth
32
Q

social movements

A
  • promote or resist social change
  • relative deprivation - decrease in resources or representatino relative to the past or to society as a whole
  • proactive - promote social change
  • reactive - resist social change
33
Q

globalization

A
  • integrate global economy with free trade and tapping foreign markets
  • decrease geographical constraints
  • positives such as food availability year round
  • negatives such as terrorism, pollution, civil unrest
34
Q

Urbanization

A

dense populations creating pull for migration

  • creation of cities
    • urban societies are linked to health challanges, sanitation, air quality, environmental hazards, violence, infectious disease, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity
  • ghettoes - racial, ethnic, religious minorites are concentrated due to inequalities
  • slum - extremely densely populated with low quality of housing and sanitation

MCAT Psych/soc (12 decks)

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