Chapter 6: Deviance and Social Control

Question 1

Deviance

Answer 1

Variation from a set of norms or shared social expectations. Involves a social audience that defines particular people and behaviors as going beyond the tolerance limits of social norms

Question 2

Positive Functions of Deviance

Answer 2

• indicates extent to which norms are violated w/o a reaction
• members find a sense of community and unite against “common enemy”
• People can escape from convention norms/rid themselves of frustration towards institutions without disrupting entire social system.
• can indicate defects or inadequacies in the existing social organization
• sets in motion steps that lead to social change

Question 3

Dysfunction of Deviance

Answer 3

• disrupt social order, ex: effect of alcoholic father on a family, teachers on strike
• disrupt the will of others to conform (if everyone is refusing to follow the rules and is not punished, less people will conform)
• destroy trust (people become dependent on legal system to define, interpret and enforce laws)
• divert resources, ex: money goes to jails and drug rehab instead of other uses

Question 4

Internal means of control

Answer 4

Learned patterns of control that exist in the minds of individuals and make them want to conform to social norms due to their moral and social codes of behavior.
Factors: self image, self-control, frustration tolerance

Question 5

External means of control

Answer 5

Pressures or sanctions that are applied to members of society by others

Question 6

one’s social self

Answer 6

our definitions of who we are in relation to society in which we live

Question 7

Informal external controls

Answer 7

Positive and negative controls- such as smiling, frowning, and high fives- used to influence behavior

Question 8

Formal external controls

Answer 8

The systems created by society specifically to control deviance

Question 9

Relativistic view

Answer 9

The view that deviance can be interpreted only in the sociocultural context in which it occurs, ex: is a person wearing a bathing suit at a nude beach a deviant?

Question 10

A type of reasoning that implies that social problems are caused by the people facing them

Answer 10

Blaming the victim

Question 11

Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 11

Freud’s theory that the human personality is made up of the id, ego and superego, and that we have 3 layers of psyche: the conscious, preconscious, and subconscious

Question 12

id

Answer 12

pleasure seeking principle, constantly seeking immediate gratification since birth

Question 13

superego

Answer 13

refers to the internalized norms of society, what we typically think of as “conscience” or our “morality principle”

Question 14

ego

Answer 14

sometimes referred to as the “reality principle”, the ego mediates between the drives of the individual (id) and and demands of society (superego) enabling the individual to postpone immediate gratification at times when it may be socially unacceptable

Question 15

The conscious mind

Answer 15

part of mind that we are most aware of and contains our wants, needs and desires

Question 16

preconscious mind

Answer 16

just below the surface of the conscious, can be brought to the surface by a memory or experience

Question 17

subsconcious mind

Answer 17

keeps painful memories repressed and holds our biological desires and urges well below the surface

Question 18

strain theories

Answer 18

Theories of deviance suggesting that the experience of socially induced strain, such as anomie, forces people to engage in deviant activities

Question 19

Anomie

Answer 19

When deviance arises from the incongruence between a society’s emphasis on attaining certain goals and the availability of legitimate, institutionalized means of reaching those goals

Question 20

Anomic suicide

Answer 20

happens when the values of a society or group are confused or norms break down. Making distinctions between the possible and impossible becomes impossible. (Durkheim)

Question 21

Merton’s 5 ways of how people adapt to a culture

Answer 21

Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion

Question 22

Innovator (variety of deviant behavior)

Answer 22

Accept social goals, but reject the acceptable means of achieving them, ex: Students who adhere to values of good grades but cheat to achieve them

Question 23

Ritualist (variety of deviant behavior)

Answer 23

Follow rules rigidly without regard for the ends for which they are designed, ex: office manager that makes employees follow every single policy, no matter how pointless.

Question 24

Retreatist (variety of deviant behavior)

Answer 24

Drastic mode of adaption, where people are only associated with society by living in it. Reject both cultural goals and institutional means
Ex: drug dealers, prostitutes, alcoholics

Question 25

Rebel (variety of deviant behavior)

Answer 25

Withdraw their allegiance from a society they feel is unjust and seek to bring into being a new, greatly modified social structure.
ex: members of revolutionary movements

Question 26

Conflict Theory of Deviance

Answer 26

The strongest group in a society have the power to define weaker groups as “deviant”

Question 27

Cultural Transmission theory

Answer 27

The theory that a community’s deviance may be transmitted to newcomers through learning and socialization

Question 28

Differential association theory

Answer 28

The theory that deviance results when individuals have more contact with groups that define it favorably than those who define it unfavorably. Criminal activity is learned. Reactions with other deviants breed a certain set of behaviors.

Question 29

Social learning theory

Answer 29

(Revision of Sutherlands differential association theory) - The view that deviant and conforming behaviors are strongly influenced by the consequences that follow them. Deviant behaviors are strengthened by positive sanctions.

Question 30

differential reinforcement

Answer 30

The view that the acquisition and persistence of either deviant or conforming behavior is a function of what behaviors have been rewarded or punished. (Concept in Social Learning Theory)

Question 31

Sociocultural learning theories

Answer 31

Theories that deal with the processes through which deviant acts are learned and the conditions under which learning takes place

Question 32

Labeling theory

Answer 32

A theory that emphasizes how certain behaviors are labeled “deviant” and how being given such a label influences a person’s behavior

Question 33

Primary Deviance

Answer 33

involves behavior that violate social norms but is temporary and sporadic

Question 34

Secondary Deviance

Answer 34

involves habitual violation of norms by individuals who not only consider themselves deviants but also are labeled deviant by others

Question 35

Organized Crime

Answer 35

Groups expressly organized to carry out illegal activities

Question 36

Gender Role

Answer 36

the set of expectations associated with being male or female

Question 37

Gender Identity

Answer 37

one’s conception of oneself as male or female