Christmas Exam 2021 Flashcards
Utilitarianism
Maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain - Jeremy Bentham
Adam Smith’s assumptions
People have relatively stable wants and needs
People are “self-regarding”
People try to maximize benefits and minimize costs
People may make mistakes but these will be random and they are not systematically bad
The Fundamental Error of Attribution
- We overestimate the role of dispositional factors on behaviour
- We underestimate the influence of situational factors
Pluralistic Ignorance
Occurs when people believe that their private attitudes and beliefs are different from the majority, even though their public behaviour is identical
Private Goods vs Public Goods
Private: products or purchases whose consumption by one individual prevents others from using it e.g. doughnut
Public: contributions that members of a group make which individuals cannot be excluded from and which is non-rivalrous
Who coined the term “sociology” and when?
Auguste Compte, around 1830
Social Facts
Ways of acting, thinking, feeling which are general throughout a particular society and that are able to exercise an external constraint over its members
Social Facts vs Individual Facts (according to Durkheim)
They are not the same because:
- Social facts are general and practiced by a number of people
- Social facts exist independently of the actions of a particular individual
- It constrains the individual/limits freedom of choice
Durkheim’s Social Structures and their Modern Names
- Collective representations (institutional and normative - beliefs, values and norms)
- Collective relationships (relational - social ties which lead to interdependence of behaviour - social networks)
Collective Conscience
The set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society
Durkheims Two Roles of Norms, Beliefs and Values
- Constraining and coercive - sanctions for not conforming, narrowing perception and priming
- Structuring and facilitating - providing certainty and coordinating
Emergence
The existence or formation of collective behaviours - what parts of a system do together that they would not do alone
By changing the arrangement of units, you can change the overall system attributes (e.g. carbon –> diamond or graphite)
Durkeim’s Typology of Suicide
Two axes:
- Integration - weak ties (egoistic) to strong ties (altruistic)
- Norm - no rules (anomic) to many rules (fatalistic)
Ultra-Sociality
The ability of humans to cooperate in large group of genetically unrelated individuals
Collective Effervescence
Euphoric feeling you get from acting in a collective (synchronous movements)
The Sacred vs The Profane
The Sacred - imbues certain objects with special “divine” meaning, desecrating the sacred provokes disgust and repugnance
The Profane - the day to day world of everyday objects and human need, can be altered, traded or destroyed, utilitarian
The Different Bases of Morality
- Care/Harm - based on empathy, makes us sensitive to signs of suffering
- Fairness/Cheating - sensitivity to signs of cheating or exploitation in coop. or collab. situations
- Loyalty/Betrayal - sensitivity to signals that others don’t have the interests of our group in mind
- Authority/Subversion - sensitivity to signs of rank and status and if people are behaving properly
- Sanctity/Degradation - based on disgust
3 Forms of Affiliation
- Ascribed - defined at birth i.e. race, gender, ethnicity
- Status - defined by perceived attributions of superiority, inferiority and equality i.e. class, education, caste, income
- Common Interests - members by choice i.e. church, hobbies, union
What does social interaction do?
Builds trust and a sense of obligation
Shapes the flow of resources and ideas
Contributes to social norms and beliefs
Influences sense of identity
Allports Contact Hypothesis
Intergroup contact only reduces prejudice and supports social integration if:
- The participants have the same status level
- They have at least some common goals
- These goals can only be reached by cooperation
- Integration is supported by respected authorities
Bonding vs Bridging Ties
Bonding - within groups
Bridging - between groups
Group Segregation Index
No. Group Bonding Ties / No Group Bonding + Group Bridging
Endogamy vs Exogamy
End. - marriage within groups
Exog. - marriage outside of group
Homophily
The preference to mix with those of like characteristics (can be more rewarding due to similar interests, values etc., requires less effort, less chance of conflict etc.)
Transitivity
The extent to which the relations that relate two nodes that are connected by an edge are transitive
If A and B are friends, and B and C are friends, then A and C are likely to be friends (inverse also true)
Minimal Group Paradigm
Henri Tajfel
Proposes that the minimal condition for group biases is simply being a member of a group
Social Identity Theory
Henri Tajfel
Argues that people’s self esteem derives not only from our own status and accomplishments but also from the groups to which we belong - by boosting group status we boost our own status
Ethnic Diversity
EDj = 1 - E(from i=1 to N) Pij^2
0 - 0.1: low, e.g. Japan, South Korea, Portugal
0.9-1: high, e.g. Uganda, Liberia
Three Types of Integration
Economic - education, employment, income
Cultural - language, religion, values, behaviours (e.g. diet)
Social - inter-marriage, friendship, similar organisations
Determinants of Integration
Ethnic Group Effects:
1.Ethnic Origin Conditions - gender role attitudes, religious practices, migration motives, language
2. Ethnic Community Conditions - interactions with host society
Destination Effects:
1. Integration or “multicultural” policies in the host country
2. Institutional conditions
Marx vs Hegel
Marx:
Rejected the notion that ideas determine social life - instead believed that ideas are the products of social and economic structures
Hegel:
Argued purpose of human existence was a search for truthful understanding of human consciousness
Two Components of the Material Basis of Life or Mode of Production (according to Marx)
- Forces of Production - use resources such as energy, raw materials, tools and machines
- Relations of Production - people engage in economic relationships and cooperate to produce the goods
Marx’s Base-Superstructure Model
Base: economy, forces of production, relations of production
Superstructure: politics, social order, science, religion, family, culture, education , state etc.
The two have a dialetical relationship
Modernisation Theory
Holds that as countries become more wealthy and educated they also become more individualistic and analytical
The Rice Theory
Rice cultivation and production requires more functional interdependence than other forms of production - explanation for why “modern” societies such as Japan and Korea are still collectivistic
Weber’s Explanatory Strategy
Existing social facts –> individual meaning and social interactios –> new social fact