Chapter 1: Thinking About Social Problems Flashcards
Social problems are made up of ___ and ___ components.
Subjective, objective.
What is the objective element of a social problem?
Awareness of social conditions through one’s own life experience and through reports in the media.
What is the subjective element of a social problem?
The belief that a particular social condition is harmful to society, and that should and can be changed.
What are claims making activities?
The strategies and actions that individuals or groups undertake to define social conditions as social problems that require remedy.
In order to be a social problem, there must be a segment of the population that believes…
The conditions diminish the quality of human life.
Spector and Kitsune (2001) describe social problems as the activities of individuals or groups making assertions of grievances and claim with respect to some ___ ___.
Punitive conditions.
What is the definition of a social problem?
A social condition that a segment of society views as harmful to members of society and in need of remedy.
Are social problems static or ever-changing?
Ever-changing as society also changes.
Do all people define social problems as the same thing? If not, give an example.
No, corporal punishment.
What are social facts?
Emile Durkheim refers to the phenomena that occur in the world as objectively identifiable facts, and are the result of social structures.
According to Durkheim, give an example of a social fact, and why.
Suicide rates, because this phenomena is created by social organization rather than individual acts of desperation.
What is an institution?
An established and enduring social organization of social relationships.
What are the 5 traditional institutions?
- Family.
- Religion.
- Politics.
- Economics.
- Education.
What are some contemporary institutions?
Science and technology, mass media, medicine, sport, and military.
What is the largest element of social structure?
Institutions.
What is a social group?
Two or more people who have a common identity and who interact and form a social relationship.
Institutions are made up of ___ ___.
Social groups.
What are examples of positive and negative informal sanctions?
Praise or criticism.
What are examples of positive and negative formal sanctions?
Awards or fines.
What is a symbol?
Something that represents something else.
What is sociological imagination?
A term coined by C. Wright Mills to refer to the ability to see connections between our personal lives and the social world in which we live.
Give an example of a symbol that has two meanings.
The Swastika.
What is structural functionalism?
A sociological perspective that views society as a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole.
Structural functionalism focuses on how each part of society influences and is influenced by…
Other parts.