Deviance Dsc Ch 1

Question 1

What are Norms?

Answer 1

Ave rules of behaviors that guide people’s actions.

Question 2

1st type of norm: Folkways

Answer 2

Folkways are everyday norms that do not generate much prior if they are violated.
Example: standing too close to someone while speaking on picking one’s nose.

Question 3

2nd type of norm :What are Mores?

Answer 3

Moves are “moral” norms that may generate more outrage if broken.

Question 4

3rd type of norm: law

Answer 4

It is the strongest norm because it is backed up by official sanctions ( or a formal response).

Question 5

Social constructionist conception

Answer 5

The theory that people develop knowledge of the world in a social context, and that much of what we perceive as reality depends on shared assumptions.

Question 6

Critical conception of deviance

Answer 6

Critical The normative understanding of deviance is established by those in power to maintain and enhance their power. Instead of focusing on individual types of deviance, this conception critiques the social system that exists and creates such norms in the first place.

Question 7

What is Substantive Definition?

Answer 7

Deviance is defined through the social meanings collectively applied to people’s behavior or conditions, which is rooted in the interaction between individuals and social groups.
Those who have the power to make and apply rules onto others control the normative order. The politically, socially, and economically dominant groups enforce their definitions onto the downtrodden and powerless.
Deviance is thus a representation of unequal power in society.

Question 8

ABC’s of Deviance

Answer 8

The ABCs of Deviance
Attitudinal: includes religious and/or political extremism; mental illness

Behavioral:
may be intentional or inadvertent; (examples include kinky sexual behavior, violating dress codes, laughing at funerals)

Conditional:
depends on multiple factors (such as class, race, gender, height, weight, etc.)

Question 9

Achieved Deviant Status Definition

Answer 9

Achieved Deviant Status: earned through some action deemed deviant by society.

Question 10

Ascribed Deviant Status definition

Answer 10

Ascribed Deviant Status: based on something acquired at birth (racial status, socioeconomic status, congenital physical disability).

Question 11

What is Taboos? Definition

Answer 11

It’s something that people feel strong about. Something that people cringe at; Example: Cannibalism.

Question 12

What is “Admired Deviant”?

Answer 12

People look up to them Example, a student who smokes..he’s popular.

Question 13

Absolutist Perspective definition

Answer 13

The absolutist perspective holds that in all societies and at all times certain forms of behavior will be considered deviant.
• Implications:
– All societies would develop rules that proscribed
certain forms of behavior
– The study of deviance would concentrate on why
people break certain rules.
ABSOLUTELY ALWAYS WRONG!

Question 14

Relativist Perspective definition

Answer 14

Different societies at different times develop different ways of seeing the same form of behavior
• Implications:
– Studying deviance would mean focusing on understanding
the way rules are created in any society
– It would be pointless to look for “causes” of deviance, as
the rules themselves are relative
– There can be no “causes” of deviance to be found “within
the individual”

Question 15

Social Power Perspective definition

Answer 15

Deviance is defined through the social meanings collectively applied to people’s behavior or conditions, which is rooted in the interaction between individuals and social groups.
• Implications:
-Studying deviance involves the examination of power relationships
Who has the power to label an individual or group as deviant
Who lacks the power to avoid being labeled deviant Deviance represents unequal power within society

Question 16

Social Power Transition: Rites of tradition

Answer 16

Societies have various ceremonies for their members when they take on provisional roles (e.g. student, soldier)
Example: A student getting accepted to university and then graduating.

Question 17

Self-fulfilling Prophecy definition

Answer 17

Example; WOULD YOU RENT A ROOM TO A MENTALLY ILL PERSON OR A CONVICT?
Reintegration is unlikely for someone labeled as deviant.
Nothing has happened to cancel out the stigmas imposed by commitment ceremonies (i.e., a trial with guilty verdict, a diagnosis of mental illness, etc)
The community’s apprehensions reduce a “deviant’s” chances of a successful ‘return home’
Such apprehensions are reasonable

Many ex-convicts return to crime after leaving prison
Many mental patients require further treatment after initial hospitalization.

Question 18

What is Conflict Theory? (Elite)

Answer 18

The Conflict perspective and the evidence amassed in support of it offer the best starting point concerning a causal theory of elite deviance.

-Elite deviance, in all its forms, constitute a major social problem for American society and much of the world as well.
•Notions of elite wrongdoing, white-collar crime, and related concepts are now the focus of intense debate in the social sciences.

Question 19

(Elite) Which did did C. Wright Mills believe that was the dominant institutional structure?

Answer 19

C. Wright Mills proposed that the dominant institutional structures of American life constitute a power elite of the largest corporations, the federal government, and the military.
These dominant institutions are headed by elites, people whose positions within organizations have provided them the greatest amounts of wealth, power, and prestige of any such positions in the nation. Immediately below this power elite is a subgroup of corporations, other legislators and the mass media.

*

The power elite consists of the top leaders of the largest corporations, the most powerful generals and admirals of the armed forces, and certain elite politicians—the president, the president’s cabinet, and senior members of Congress who chair the major committees.

Question 20

(Elite) Who are the Political Elite?

Answer 20

• Corporate managers, owners (super-rich individuals and families), and directors are, for the most part,
  members of the American upper class.

-Membership in the upper class is
typically measured by such indicators as:
(1) one’s name in the Social Register, an exclusive list of influential persons published in major U.S.
cities and containing the names of about 138,000 persons;
(2) attendance at elite private secondary schools and universities;
(3) membership in exclusive social clubs and annual attendance at upper-class vacation
retreats.