Chapter 2- Lecture Flashcards
What is a theory?
a statement that tries to explain how facts or events are related in order to predict future events
What did Thomas Hobbes believe?
People are responsible for creating they social worlds.
What was Hobbes’ natural state?
How humans existed prior to the emergence of social structures.
- motivated by pursuit of power and self-interest
- people were brutal; constant state of fear
What did Hobbe’s believe about religion?
a group comfort
How did Hobbes’ suggest people eliminate fear?
give up a certain amount of agency to allow things to be done for them. Suggest that we allow gov’t to police us so that we would not kill.
Why were the churches worried about what Hobbes had to say?
he believed we had our own rights and thoughts and beliefs that were different from god. Monarchs and churches were worried–idea of being our own person. Not doing what they said.
Who believed that God was responsible for the emergence of society and gov’t?
John Locke
What is tabula rasa? Who thought of it?
John Locke
people are born as blank slates.
John Locke believed that people had a right to what 4 things?
self-preservation and private property, individual autonomy, and freedom
What did John Locke try to link and balance?
make a link and balance between individuality and religion
What did John Locke believe about gov’t?
that it was more about maintaining individual rights than stopping violence.
What did Charles Montesquieu believe about society and people?
people never existed outside or without society; humans created and defined by societ
Montesquieu believed that___define the spirit of the people? What are the three types?
- laws
- republic, monarchy, and depotism
What did Montesquieu appreciate?
cultural diversity and comparative methodology
What did Montesquieu believe defined society?
laws
Who created the social contract idea?
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
What is the social contract?
people existed in symbiotic and idyllic relationships in the natural state.
How did Rousseau believe that people can achieve their potential?
only through society
True or false: Rousseau believed that people were perfectible?
True
How do we enter the social contract?
as free individuals
What did the enlightenment challenge?
years of christian teachings
Who were the Philosophes?
advocated critical thinking and practical knowledge and built on natural sciences.
- challenged beliefs sided in tradition
- resulted in the ability of masses to challenge their oppressors
What was sociology born out of?
the conservative reaction against enlightenment
What do Conservatives believe about society?
it is not the product of individuals, rather an entity in itself.
What are the 10 parts of the conservative reaction?
- society exists on its own
- society produces the individual
- individuals simply fill positions
- smallest unit of social analysis is the family
- parts of society are interrelated and interdependent
- change is a threat
- social institutions are beneficial
- modern social changes create fear and anxiety
- emphasis on seeming irrational factors
- return to social hierarchies and healthy competition
What are some examples of seemingly irrational factors?
Honour killings
- ability to control their women occurs legally through honour killings.
- Canadian society rejects this
- how do we integrate these people in mainstream Canadian society
- do we assimilate them? Do they acclimate?
- they feel lost and cling to what they know when they arrive
What is functionalism?
- social world is a dynamic system of interrelated and interdependent parts.
- social structures exist to help people fulfill their wants and desires
- overrides individuals because individuals are supposed to keep it going
What do functionalists believe human society is similar to?
an organism–when it fails to work together the “system” will fail
True or false: functionalists believe that society must meet the needs of the majority?
true
When was functionalism the dominant theoretical paradigm?
between the 1920s and the early 1960s.
Functionalism is a ___theory? What does this mean?
- systems theory
- all about the system, very little about the people
Who are the main functionalist theorists?
- Herbert Spencer
- Emile Durkheim
- Robert Merton
How coined the term survival of the fittest? What does this mean and how does it apply to society?
- Spencer
- Justifies why only the strong should survive
- societies evolve because they need to change in order to survive.
- environmental pressures allow beneficial traits to be passed onto future generations.
What was Spencer concerned with?
overpopulation and competition for resources
What is Spencer’s term, social Darwinism?
draws upon darwin’s idea of natural selection; asserts societies evolve according to the same principles as biological organisms
What is the laissez-faire approach (Spencer)?
opposes regulation of or interference with natural processes
-Society will seek its own level and we should just let it happen
What did Durkheim believe about human action?
originates in the collective rather than in the individual
What is the collective conscience that Durkheim described?
Drives behaviour
- common values, norms, ways of behaving
- expected ways of behaviour (not killing, for ex.)
What are some examples of things that slip away from the collective conscience in SK?
drinking and driving, domestic violence
What are social facts?
General social features that exist on their own and are independent of individual manifestation.
- religion, social activities, laws, roles
- products of the collective conscience
- exist apart from us as humans but we create them and keep them strong
What did Durkheim believe Anomie was?
a state of formlessness that results from the lack of clear goals and creates feelings of confusion that may ultimately result in higher suicide rates.
How does Anomie relate to suicide among Aboriginal peoples?
- certain groups could be more suicide in society
- lack of integration, lack of feeling connected
How much more like are Aboriginals to commit suicide than the rest of Canada? Inuit?
A- twice as likely
I- ten times higher
Ages of 10-19 –> FN youth __to__times more likely to die of suicide.
5 to 6
Over___of death among Aboriginal youth is from suicide.
1/3
Why is there a higher rate of suicide among female physicians?
- male dominated field
- stress from being a mother as well
What is Durkheim’s concept of mechanical solidarity?
describes early societies based on similarities and independence.
What is organic solidarity (Durkheim)?
Describes later societies organized around interdependence and the increasing division of labour.
-We are becoming more and more specialized.
What is an example of the movement from mechanical to organic solidarity?
Monty Python
Why is Durkheim’s theory weak?
Is that it is not just society, there are individuals in it. We are more than just society.
What did Robert Merton believe about social structures?
they have many functions
What does Merton mean by manifest and latent functions?
manifest- the intended consequences of an action or social patter.
Ex. your manifest function is to go to school and learn.
latent- the unintended consequences of an action or social pastern
Ex. while at school you meet your future spouse
What are the critiques of the functionalist approach?
- inability to account for social change
- overemphasis on the extent to which harmony and stability actually exist in society
What does conflict theory believe?
Society is grounded upon inequality and competition. GROUPS!!!!!
What is the core of all social relationships (CT)?
power: scare and unequally divided among society
___ ___and the ___ ___are the vehicles by which the powerful promote their own interest at the expense of the weak.
- social values
- dominant ideology
Conflict theory is rooted in the writings of ___ ___ ___.
- Machiavelli
- Hobbes
- Rousseau
___between large groups is what conflict theory is–who has the___.
- division
- power
What are the two basic principles of conflict theory?
1) poer is the core of all social relationships and is scarce and unequally divided among members of society
2) social values and the dominant ideology are vehicles by which the power promote their own interests at the expense of the weak.
What are Rousseau’s two types of inequality?
1) natural and physical inequality
2) moral and political inequality
Conflict theory challenges___ideas.
conservative
What did Hegel, and therefore Marx, believe dialectics were?
a way of seeing history and society as the result of oppositions, contradictions, and tensions from which social change can emerge.
What is critical thinking, and conflict in conflict theory?
Critical- who do we make it a win win? ability to think clearly and rationally.
Conflict, if handled, well, can lead to social change–compromise. How do you work out power imbalances
What is idealism (CT)?
human mind and consciousness are more important in understanding the human condition than is the material world
- suggested now how we approach the material world, but our thought and how we feel
- material world does not reflect who we are, but our consciousness does
What does Marx believe about interaction between material world and consciousness?
it could change society
What is the base/superstructure?
dynamic relationship between the material and social elements of society.
What is the base?
material an economic foundation for society. Includes the forces and relations of production.
What is the superstructure?
all the things society values and aspires to once its material needs are met. includes religion, politics, law.
-influences the kind of society we will have
What are the relations of production?
workers and owners
Marx: in order for society to get the most from forces of production, people____ ____ ____.
must get along
Social class?
groups that share similar economic realities
Class conflict?
one group is subordinate to another. Interest of one class conflict with another class. Within this theory, this is where conflict lies.
Superstructure?
culture, religious, political, social need –> creative things we have time for when society is properly structured. When society has settled its conflicts.
Forces of production?
-Are the physical and intellectual resources a society has with which to make living; also include labour poor and the means of production.
influence not only the type of society that develops but the lives of the individuals. Ex. what you do for living, societies based on the exploitation of resources
What is alienation (CT)?
the process by which workers are disconnected from what they produce.
What is exploitation (CT)?
the difference between what workers are paid and the wealth they create for the owners.
How is the exploitative nature of labour hidden within capitalism?
within the wage system
What is a ideology (CT)
Set of beliefs and values the support and justify the ruling class of society
What is false consciousness (CT)?
belief in a support of the system that oppresses you.
What is class consciousness (CT)?
recognition of domination and oppression and the collection action that arises in response.
What are the critiques of conflict theory?
- bring to light troubles in society –> they work to even out inequalities and power imbalances but they have fallen short.
- cannot solve all the conflict of the world; overemphasis on economics and power imbalances.
How do people act in symbolic interactionism?
People act towards things based on the meanings those things have for them; and these meanings are derived from social interaction and modified through interpretation.
What is an example of the thomas theorem?
if you are taught you are special, you might internalize that and set it in place and vice versa
-If you define a situation as real, it becomes real i its consequence
In symbolic interaction, how can social structures be changed?
based on meanings we give them
What are Ritzer’s 7 principles of symbolic interactionism?
- humans have the capacity for thought
- human thinking is shaped by social interaction
- People learn meanings and symbols in social settings
- meanings and symbols enable people to carry on uniquely human actions and interactions
- meanings and symbols change dependent upon interpretation
- Unique ability to interact with self
- culmination of interaction and patterns of action make up society.
What is the micro versus macro approach in symbolic interactionalism?
highlights the ways in which meanings are created, constructed, mediated, ad changed by members of a group or society.
What is Max Weber’s verstehen?
A deep understanding and interpretation of subjective social meanings.
- To walk in somebody elses shoes
- Ex. trying to understand immigrants and refugees
What did Georg SImmel believe
Society is the summation of human experience and its patterned interactions.
How are the symbolic interactionist theories?
Georg Simmel Max Weber George Herbert Mead Erving Goffman Charles H. Cooley
Who thought of formal sociology? What is it? Examples?
-Simmel
-Different human interactions can be similar in form.
Ex. muslims praying and christians praying
military and biker gangs
christ on the cross (pierced skin) and the sun dance (pierced skin)
Hasidic jewish males and amish males
In Mind, Self, and Society, Mead believed that the social organism is what?
Is not an organic individual but a social group of individual organisms.
What did Mead believe that the human mind results from?
the individuals ability to reposed and engage with the environment.
Mead: Idean of understanding who you are___to others.
relative
What is Mead’s concept of I and Me?
I-creative and spontaneous
Me- keeps ‘I’ in check
Tensions between ‘I’ and ‘Me’
What is Cooley’s concept of sympathetic introspection
putting yourself in someone else’s shoes
What is Cooley’s concept of the looking glass self?
we develop our self image through themes we receive foremothers.
-if you notice people don’t like your shirt you most likely will not wear it again.
What is Cooley’s concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy?
internalize impressions and as a result become the kind of person we believe others see us as.
-we attempt to control how others see us or shine our true feelings or motivations through exceptions, misrepresentations, or enactment of idealized notions of behaviour
What is Goffman’s concept of dramaturgical analysis? Examples?
The ‘self’ emerges from the performances we play and who the other actors relate to us
Ex. the role you play as an instructor or student
-how you act in school vs
outside of school
In dramaturgical analysis, we attempt to control how others___us.
see
What are examples of “breaking the script” of dramaturgical analysis?
gay men have fallen out of the script (in the eyes of some) because they are not what a “man” is supposed to be.
Who are the marginalized women of social theory?
Wollstonecraft, Martineau, MacLean
Who ar the visible minorities that contributes to social theory?
Cooper, Wells-Barnett, Du Bois
Who are the non-western scholars that contributed to social theory?
Fanon, James, Padmore
