Exam 1 Flashcards
Central Insights of Sociology
- We are all thoroughly interconnected
- Things are not always as they appear
- We make assumptions that often go unquestioned
- What we learn in the context of our culture
C. Wright Mills
The sociological imagination
Sociological methods of knowing
Systematic
Comprehensive
Group effort
Sociological methods of knowing
-systematic
This is deliberate and organized.
There is a need to define what things mean.
Sociological methods of knowing: comprehensive
Big picture
The Sociological Imagination
“Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” C. Wright Mills.
How does society shape out individual experiences and our perceptions of those experiences.
Making the connection between the big picture and the induvial.
The Sociological Imagination
How do we know what we know?
- At the everyday ordinary level, what we see and hear and what we don’t see and hear
- Our socialization
Problems with our knowing at the everyday ordinary level
- Faulty generalizations and assumptions from a single case
* Affected by our prevailing myths and stereotypes
Sociological methods of knowing: Group Effort
when studies replicated= more complete view
Dependent variable
Effect
Independent Variable
Cause
Field Experiments
There are no controlled settings
-An example of this would be something like faking a heart attack on the streets of CA and seeing who helps. The IV would be faked heart attack. The DV would be the people passing by ignore
Surveys
- phone interview
- Face to face
- observation
- existing sources
- previous studies
Survey: Mail
- lease expensive
- More anonymous
- More time to respond
- Can do a lot in a short time
Survey: Phone Interviews
Folks may not have time
Survey:Face to Face
- In depth, in person
- Very costly
- Can clarify questions and answers’
Survey: Observation
- Nothing changed by researcher
- Detached-need to make assumptions
- Participant-affect group behavior
Survey: Existing sources
- Census
- News media
- Film Footage
Surveys: Previous studies
- Benefit from others insights and findings
- Build on existing knowledge
Quantitative vs Qualitative Approach
Quantitative
-Numbers are percent’s, ratios, sophisticated
-Number of panels, square feet, visitors
Qualitative
-Characteristics, attributes, worth
-Why folks make a panel
-Impact of a visit to quilt
THE POINT
interaction is structured, ordered, scripted and patterned
Status
- A position we occupy that defines our relationship to someone else
- Born into relationships with others
- Involves hierarchy
Master Status
- Most important status as perceived by others
- Usually based on occupation
Achieved status
- You did something to get there
- Not always positive
Ascribed Status
- You find yourself there
- By birth or involuntarily later in life
Roles
Behavior that you do in relationship to a status PLAY a role
Role Conflict
Student/parent
Role Strain
Competing demands coming from within the same role
Groups
- Structured interaction (sheriff and sheriff)
- A common culture is shared
- Involves status and roles over a long time
Aggregates
People in the same place at the same time. Remember that interactions are structured, ordered and scripted.
Primary Groups:
- Small, informal
- extended interaction
- intimate, mutually supportive
- emotional ties and attachments
Secondary Group:
- Larger
- Temporary
- Superficial
- Task Oriented
- More impersonal and formal
Institutions
- Large scale, serve a purpose for society
- Channel Behavior
Society
- A population that occupies the same territory
- Is subject to the same political authority and shares a common culture
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
MACRO and MICRO
Macro
The big picture
Understanding behavior at the structural level
Society, culture, institutions
Micro
Small Picture
Understanding the behavior at the individual level
Communication styles in dyads
ORDER MODEL (functionalism)
Macro theory- emile durkhiem
Society
one entity with different parts that work for the good of the whole.Each part has a function and If a part becomes non functional, it will cease to exist
The order model emphasizes
cohesion, consensus, cooperation, reciprocity, stability, persistence, the contribution of and equilibrium among society’s institutions
CONFLICT MODEL (Critical Theory)
Macro- Karl Marx
Conflict theory is a theory propounded by Karl Marx that claims society is in a state of perpetual conflict due to competition for limited resources`
Inequality
resources and rewards are unevenly distributed and cause serious consequences in individuals life.
Who benefits from conflict model?
Social systems are not neutral and some groups benefit from existing conditions. Change is promoted and if it eliminates oppression and exploitation. Activist orientation.
Symbolic interactionism
a micro approach Up close, everyday, ordinary Small group interaction World is constructed through symbols Meaning is contextual- V sign Reality based on subjective interpretation
THE THOMAS THEROREM
that which we treat as real becomes real in its consequences
THE DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH
Erving Goffman
Categories of human behavior
Front stage behavior- public
Aligning actions- what do we do when our image is blown
Backstage behavior-private
Doing sociology from an SI perspective
ETHNOMETHODOLOGY: the study of the methods and techniques used by people to make sense of the world
Non material elements of culture
- Norms Continuum: Not all norms are the same
- Folkways are informal rules and minor infractions and sanctions
- Mores are more formal/serious and more severe negative sanctions
- Taboos are the most serious-cannibalism and are very rare
Values
general notions/feelings about what’s good and bad or right and wrong.
Sanctions +/- pressure on us to stay in line.
Rewards for conformity (positive)
Punishments for non-conformity (negative)
Symbols/language
Words=symbols
Carries of meaning=contextual
Symbols are not just about intellect
Charged emotionally
The linguistic relativity hypothesis- sapir and whorf
- Words predispose us to perceive the world in certain ways
- Culture is a lens/filter= it organizes what we see
Ethnocentrism
is the universial tendency to deprecate the ways of other people from other societies as wrong, old fashioned, immoral and think of the ways of ones own group as superior.
Cultural Relativism
looking at the practices and beliefs of another culture relative to that culture.
