chapter 11: social structure

Question 1

Functionalism

Answer 1

society as a living organism, each part of society must work together in harmony; manifest functions: intended function of an institution; latent functions: unintended positive consequences

Question 2

Conflict Theory

Answer 2

how power differences are created and contribute to social order; dominance of a particular group; competition for shared resources and how resources are distributed among society

Question 3

Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 3

study of the way individuals interact through a shared interaction of words, gestures, and symbols; symbols are the key to how we view the world and communicate

Question 4

Social constructionist

Answer 4

how individuals put together their social reality; humans work together to agree on significance of concepts; things have value/meaning as a result of the meaning we as society give them; impacted by norms of a given time

Question 5

Rational choice theory

Answer 5

an individual carefully considers all of the possible rewards and punishments of each social action and chooses the option that has the highest benefit-harm ratio

Question 6

exchange theory

Answer 6

focuses on interactions within a group; individual will carry out certain behavior because of anticipated rewards and avoid behaviors because of anticipated punishments; behaviors approved by others will be reinforced

Question 7

Important topics concerning family institution

Answer 7

divorce rates largely increased but recently started decreasing slightly; domestic violence= #1 cause of injury to women; elder abuse observed across all classes, mostly neglect by caretaker; child abuse-most commonly neglect-common sign is broken femur

Question 8

Education

Answer 8

hidden curriculum: transmitting social norms & beliefs; teacher expectancy- teachers tend to get what they expect from students, if believe that students can rise to a challenge, more likely for them to succeed; low socioeconomic status associated with decreased quality of education

Question 9

Religion

Answer 9

fundamentalism: strict adherence to religious practices; society continues to secularize, shift away from religion; religion may play a role in patient’s coping mechanisms

Question 10

theocracy

Answer 10

power is held by religious leaders

Question 11

Material Culture

Answer 11

meaning of objects within a given society; physical items one associates with a given group; creates a shared sense of identity, loyalty, and belonging in a group; ex. American flag, school mascot

Question 12

Symbolic Culture/ nonmaterial culture

Answer 12

focuses on ideas that represent a particular group; slower to change than material culture-culture lag

Question 13

ageism

Answer 13

prejudice or discrimination on basis of a person’s age

Question 14

Racial formation theory

Answer 14

racial identity is fluid and dependent on political, economic, and social factors of the time

Question 15

ethnicity

Answer 15

sorts people by cultural factors, language, nationality, religion; not always on display compared to race with is always on display

Question 16

symbolic ethnicity

Answer 16

a specific connection to one’s ethnicity in which ethnic symbols and identity remain important, even when that ethnicity isnt largely recognized in everyday life; ex. embracing Irish roots on St. Patrick’s Day

Question 17

Kinsey scale of sexual orientation

Answer 17

scale of 0-6, where 0 represents exclusive heterosexuality and 6 represents exclusive homosexuality; most of population falls somewhere between the two, rather at an extreme

Question 18

LGBT population

Answer 18

higher risk of STDs only because receive less screening for diseases; higher prevalence of anxiety and depression

Question 19

Migration

Answer 19

included immigration (into new location) and emigration (away from old location); motivated by pull factors (positive attributes of the new location) and push factors (negative attributes of the old location)

Question 20

Demographic transition

Answer 20

type of demographic shift that involves changes in birth and death dates in a country as it develops from preindustrial to industrial economic system; preindustrial has high birth and death rates; industrial introduces better healthcare and wages-lowers death rate, also improves contraceptives available-lowers birth rate

Question 21

Malthusian theory

Answer 21

exponential growth of a population can outpace growth of food supply and lead to social disorder; Malthusian catastrophe: prediction that third world countries will have population growth that exceeds food production, resulting in starvation

Question 22

Social movements

Answer 22

either proactive (promote social change) or reactive (resist social change); work to correct what is perceived as social injustice

Question 23

globalization

Answer 23

process of integrating the global economy with free trade and tapping into foreign markets; increased with improvements in global technology

Question 24

Urbanization

Answer 24

migration to cities, increase fueled by economic opportunities in cities in recent decades

Question 25

relative deprivation

Answer 25

decrease in resources, representation, or agency relative to the past or in comparison to the whole of society

Question 26

intersectionality

Answer 26

oppressive institutions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another