Chapter 4 Flashcards
What are the two levels of analysis that sociologists use?
Macrosociology and microsociology
What is macrosociology?
Level of analysis which focuses on broad features of society.
What types of sociologists use macrosociology?
Conflict theorists (analyzing social class) and functionalists (analyzing how groups are related to one another).
What is microsociology?
Level of analysis which focuses on social interaction
What types of sociologists use microsociology?
Symbolic interactionists
Analyzing a group of homeless men’s rules/codes for getting along, how they divide up money, wine, relationships with girlfriends, family, friends, where they spend their time, their language and pecking order is an example of what level of analysis?
Microsociology
Analyzing a group of homeless men’s location in the U.S. social class system i.e. how their low status means many opportunities are closed to them, is an example of what level of analysis?
Macrosociology
True or false: Both approaches are necessary to understand life in society.
True
___ ____ refers to the typical patterns of a group, such as the usual relationships between men and women or students and teachers. It is the framework of society that was laid out before you were born.
Social structure
What is the sociological significance of social structure?
It guides our behavior.
What people do when they are in one another’s presence; includes communications at a distance.
Social interaction
Analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationships of groups to one another; usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists.
Macrosociolgy
Analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction; typically used by symbolic interactionists.
Microsociology
The framework of society that surrounds us; consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior.
Social structure
Large numbers of people who have similar amounts of income and education and who work at jobs that are roughly comparable in prestige.
Social class
True or false: Social structure tends to override our personal feelings and desires.
True
Behaviors are logical depending on where people find themselves in their ___ ____. Whether it be that of a student or homeless person, “natural” and “normal” depend on this.
Social structure
The differences in our behavior are not because of our biology (race, sex, etc.) but to …?
Our location in the social structure.
What are the major components of social structure?
Culture Social class Social status Roles Groups Social institutions Includes material objects that a group uses.
Sociologists use the term ____ to refer to a group’s language, beliefs, values, behaviors, and even gestures.
Culture
The broadest framework that determines what kind of people we become i.e. if reared in Chinese, Arab, or U.S. culture, we will grow up to be like most Chinese, Arabs, or Americans.
Culture
A significantly important social structure component, one which influences not only behaviors, but also attitudes and ideas and relates to similar income levels is called …?
Social Class
The position that someone occupies in a social group - whether it be prestigious or low-ranking, this provides guidelines for how we are to act and feel.
Status, also called Social Status
___ ___ is the term used to refer to ALL of the statuses or positions you occupy simultaneously such as being a daughter, student, girlfriend, and sister all at once.
Status set
What is the involuntary status which is given to you at birth such as sex, race-ethnicity, social class inherited from your parents as well as statuses such as daughter, niece, etc? And can change later in life?
Ascribed status
What is the voluntary status which is earned as a result of your efforts such as a student, spouse, lawyer, or drop-out, ex-spouse, or de-barred lawyer?
Achieved status
All the statuses or positions that an individual occupies
Status set
A position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life
Ascribed status
Positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity on the individual’s part; can be either positive or negative achievement
Achieved status
Indicators of status, especially items that display prestige but can be either positive or negative (wedding rings to symbolize marriage, CONVICTED DUI bumper sticker)
Status symbols
A status that cuts across all other statuses that an individual occupies such as being female, being wealthy, or disfigured. They take center-stage no matter what other statuses you hold.
Master status.
Ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others; also called status discrepancy. It upsets our expectations/norms that come with our statuses. Example: a 14-year-old college student or 40-year-old woman dating a 19-year old.
Status inconsistency
The behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status.
Role
What is the difference between status and role?
You occupy a status, but you play a role
The ___ of a student is to attend class, take notes, do homework, and take tests.
Role
The sociological significance of roles is that …?
They lay out what is expected of people
The many roles played among individuals create ___.
Society
Consists of people who interact with one another and who feel that the values, interests, and norms they have in common are important. To remain a member in good standing, we need to show that we share those characteristics.
Groups
The organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs
Social institution
Some examples of social institutions which hold their own basic needs, groups and organizations, status levels, values, and norms are the social institutions of
Family Religion Education Economy Medicine Politics Law Science Military Mass Media
Replacing members, socializing new members, producing and distributing goods and services, preserving order, and providing a sense of purpose are all part of the social institution view of the ___ ___.
FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE of social institutions
The social institution view which stresses that powerful groups control our social institutions, manipulating them in order to maintain their own privileged position of wealth and power.
The CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE of social institutions.
The degree to which members of a group or a society are united by shared values and other social bonds; also known as social cohesion.
Social integration
Well known sociologist who founded social integration, mechanical solidarity, and organic solidarity.
Emile Durkheim
Durkheim’s term for the unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks. This type of society tolerates little diversity in behavior, thinking, or attitudes; their unity depends on sharing similar values.
Mechanical solidarity
The splitting of a group’s or society’s tasks into specialties; the result is the dispersion of people into different groups that develop different ideas about life from people who belong in other groups.
Division of labor
Durkheim’s term for the interdependence that results from the division of labor; as part of the same unit, we all depend on others to fulfill their jobs, just as different organs depend on one another to do their individual jobs in the body to survive.
Organic solidarity
The change to ___ ____ changed the basis for social integration.
Organic solidarity
The change from mechanical solidarity to ____ solidarity allows our society to tolerate a wide diversity of orientations to life and still manage to work as a whole.
organic
A type of society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness.
Gemeinschaft (Guh-MINE-shoft)
A type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest.
Gesellschaft (Guh-ZELL-shoft)
The sociologist who coined the terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.
Ferdinand Tonnies
___ ____ sets the context for what we do, feel, and think, and ultimately, then, for the kind of people we become.
Social structure.
Some important aspects of social interaction include …?
Stereotypes Personal space Eye contact Smiling Body Language
Aspects of social interaction is an area of study for
Symbolic Interactionists
Assumptions of what people are like, whether they are true or false.
Stereotypes
The ways in which people use their bodies to give messages to others.
Body language
A special area of symbolic interactionism; an approach, pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage; also called dramaturgical analysis
Dramaturgy
People’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them
Impression management
Place where people give performances; you are on it when you deliver your “lines”. Example: waving at friends from a car, where a teacher stands to give a lecture
Front stage
Places where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances i.e. the car mirror to check your makeup
Back stage
The ways in which someone performs a role; showing a particular “style” or “personality”. For example, if you are a happy or diligent daughter or student, or otherwise
Role performance
Conflicts that someone feels between roles because the expectations are at odds with one another
Role conflict
Conflicts that someone feels within a role such as being a straight-A student while trying to not make classmates look bad at the same time.
Role strain
The term used by Goffman to refer to how people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate information about the self.
Sign-vehicle
The difference between role conflict and role strain is that role conflict is conflict ___ roles, while role strain is conflict ___ a role.
Between, within
To communicate information about the self, we use three types of sign vehicles. What are they?
Social setting
Our appearance
Our manner
Sign vehicle - where the action unfolds
Social setting
Sign vehicle - your hair to say “I’m serious/sexy”, also clothes, jewelry, car, etc. and each can change per role that you play
Appearance
Sign vehicle - the attitudes you show as you play your roles. When you show that you are angry or in good humor, you are indicating what others can expect of you.
Manner
The collaboration of 2 or more people to manage positive social impressions jointly i.e. laughing at your boss’s not-funny joke to help your boss give a good performance.
Teamwork
Techniques used to salvage a performance (interaction) that is going sour such as remarking a loud grumbling stomach or using studied nonobservance (ignoring) the growl.
Face-saving behavior
True or false: We tend to become the roles we play.
True. Roles become incorporated into our self-concept, especially roles for which we prepare long and hard and that become part of our everyday lives.
A woman heeding the advice to not carry a handbag, to place her hands on the table instead of in her lap, show less skin, and wear makeup that does not need to be reapplied during the day in order to get promoted at work is an example of …?
Impression management
The study of how people use background assumptions and commonsense to make sense out of life.
Ethnomethodology
A dentist pulling out a pair of scissors to cut your hair during your appointment goes against your
ethnomethodology
Ethnomethodologists explore ___ ____, the taken-for-granted ideas about the world that underlie our behavior. Most of these assumptions, or basic rules of social life, are unstated. We learn them as we learn our culture, and it is risky to violate them.
Background assumptions
Who is the founder of ethnomethodology?
Harold Garfinkel
William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas’ classic formulation of the definition of a situation: “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
Thomas theorem
For a vendor selling watermelons and cutting them with a filthy knife, germs do not exist. To an American customer, germs do exist. This is an example of the …?
Thomas theorem
The use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real such as growing up with a doctor father teaching you that microbes are real. Growing up in a third-world family would create the opposite reality - that microbes do not exist. The learned ways of looking at life based on our social setting.
Social construction of reality
To understand human behavior, we must know how people define their
reality
