Coakley Chapter 1

Question 1

What is sociology?

Answer 1

The study of social worlds that people create, maintain, and change through their relationships with each other.

Question 2

What is social worlds?

Answer 2

Identifiable spheres of everyday actions and relationships.

Question 3

What are the aspects of social life?

Answer 3

1) The values and beliefs that we use to make sense of our lives
2) Our everyday actions and relationships
3) The groups, organizations, communities, and societies that we form as we make choices, develop relationships, and participate in social life

Question 4

What is society?

Answer 4

A relatively self-sufficient collection of people who maintain a way of life in a particular territory.

Question 5

What is culture?

Answer 5

The shared ways of life and shared understandings that people develop as they life together- influences relationships and social interactions.

Question 6

What is social interaction?

Answer 6

Consists of taking each other into account, and in the process, influencing each others feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Question 7

What is social structure?

Answer 7

The established patterns of relationships and social arrangements that take shape as people live, work, and play with each other. Basis for order and organization in society

Question 8

What is the definition of sport?

Answer 8

Physical activities that involve challenges or competitive contests.

Question 9

What is physical culture?

Answer 9

Includes all forms of movement and physical activities that people in particular social worlds create, sustain, and regularly include in their collective lives.

Question 10

How are defintions of sport in the United States more exclusive?

Answer 10

They give priority to formally organized competitive activities, which means that other forms of sport (walking) won’t receive as much political or financial support as elite professional sport (may be related to obesity rates and general health)

Question 11

What are social constructions?

Answer 11

Parts of he social world that are created by people as they interact with one another under particular social, political, and economic conditions.

Question 12

How are sports socially constructed?

Answer 12

The kinds of sports that exist and gain popularity tell us about the values and orientations of those who play watch and sponser, as well as tell us about those who have power in that social world.

Question 13

What are contested activities?

Answer 13

Activities for which there are no timeless and universal agreements about what they mean, why they exist, or how they should be organized.

Question 14

How are sports contested activities?

Answer 14

Sport has one of two primary purposes: to benefit general health and wellbeing, and to push the limits of human ability and demonstrate high performance. Who should the funding go to in this case? Which one is more of a sport?

Question 15

What is the sociology of sport?

Answer 15

A subdiscipline of sociology and physical education that studies sports as a social phenomenon.

Question 16

What is the great sport myth?

Answer 16

Sport is essentially pure and good, and that is transferred to all who participate in it- sport builds character.

Question 17

Why does the great sport myth pose a problem for sociology?

Answer 17

Because it assumes sport is good, it assumes there is no need to study them for the purpose of making them better.

Question 18

What is one way that sociological knowledge can be negative for sports industries?

Answer 18

Can inform football coaches that they can effectively control young men and get them to sacrifice their bodies by threatening their masculinity and telling them it’s for the good of the team. Makes them dependent on the coaching staff.

Question 19

What are some of the reasons women don’t see sports as appropriate activities for them?

Answer 19

1) Women less likely than men to have time, freedom, money, cultural permission
2) Women have little or no control of facilities where sports are played or the programs there
3) Less access to transportation and less freedom to move without fear
4) Often expected to take full responsibility for needs of family members
5) Most sports programs are organized by men and around the values, interests, and experiences of men.

Question 20

What is social capital?

Answer 20

The social resources that link us to social worlds

Question 21

How can sport increase social capital?

Answer 21

By creating opportunities for people to have conversations, form relationships, and enhance status when talking about games, teams, coaching decisions etc. This broadens social networks and increases social capital.

Question 22

What is an ideology?

Answer 22

A shared interpretive framework that people use to make sense of and evaluate themselves, others, and events in their social worlds. Most serve the interest of particular categories of people.

Question 23

What are the 4 ideologies that influence how sports are organized and who controls and participates in them?

Answer 23

1) Gender Ideology
2) Racial Ideology
3) Social Class Ideology
4) Ableist Ideology

Question 24

What is a gender ideology?

Answer 24

Interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to define masculinity and femininity; identify people as either male or female, evaluate forms of sexual expression, and determine the appropriate roles of males and females in society.

Question 25

What are the 3 central ideas and beliefs around the dominant gender ideology?

Answer 25

1) Human beings are either male or female
2) Heterosexuality is nature’s foundation for human reproduction; other expressions of sexual feelings, thoughts, and actions are abnormal.
3) Men are physically stronger and more rational than women- therefor can assume positions of power.

Question 26

What is a racial ideology?

Answer 26

Interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to classify human beings into categories assumed to be biological and related to attributes such as intelligence, temperament, and physical abilities.

Question 27

What are the 3 major ideas and beliefs of racial ideology?

Answer 27

1) Human beings can be classified into races on the basis of biologically inherited or genetically based characteristics
2) Intellectual and physiological characteristics vary by race, with white people being intellectually and morally superior to black people and all people of colour
3) People classified as white have only white ancestors, and anyone with one or more black ancestors is classified as a black person

Question 28

What is social class ideology?

Answer 28

Interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely accepted and used by people to evaluate their material status; explain why economic success, failure, and inequalities exist; and what should be done about economic inequalities in a group or society.

Question 29

What are the 3 major ideas and beliefs surrounding social class ideology?

Answer 29

1) 1) All people have opportunities to achieve economic success
2) The United States is a meritocracy where deserving people become successful and where failure is the result of inability, poor choices, or lack of motivation.
3) Income and wealth inequality is normal and inevitable because some people work hard, develop their abilities, and make smart choices and others do not.

Question 30

What is Ableist ideology?

Answer 30

Interrelated ideas and beliefs that are widely used to identify people as physically or intellectually disabled, to justify treating them as inferior, and to organize social worlds and physical spaces without taking them into account.

Question 31

What are the 2 major ideas and beliefs surrounding ableist ideology?

Answer 31

1) All people can be classified as either enabled or disabled
2) People with a disability are inferior to and more needy than enabled people.

Question 32

What is ableism?

Answer 32

Attitudes, actions, and policies based on the belief that people perceived as lacking abilities are inferior and therefore incapable of full participation in mainstream activities.