Exam 1 study Qs Flashcards
*What is meritocracy?
- a social system in which success is determined by merit.
- in a social system, people earn rewards in proportion to their efforts and abilities.
*What are the elements of the American dream discussed by McNamee and Miller? (4)
- Home ownership
- Better opportunities for the next generation
- Chance to get rich
- Secure and comfortable retirement
- Home ownership
*What is the recipe Americans believe will result in this dream? (4)
- Innate talents & abilities
- The right attitude
- Working hard
- Moral character (?)
- Innate talents & abilities
*What non-merit factors do McNamee and Miller claim shape people’s chances for achieving economic success? (7)
- inheritance
- social capital
- cultural capital
- education
- luck
- racism
- sexism
- inheritance
*What is the pattern of intergenerational transmission of wealth found in the chart shown in lecture?
???????
*What are the different types of inheritances that people receive from their parents? (5)
- High standards of living (food, clothing, shelter, stable home, sense of security)
- Educational opportunities (human capital)
- Inter vivos (between living people) gifts
- Safety nets
- Cultural and social capital
- High standards of living (food, clothing, shelter, stable home, sense of security)
*What is capital?
- stored value that can be used to produce more value
*What are economic, human, cultural and social capital?
*Economic: Money and other financial assets.
Human: The value of education and other training.
Cultural: Knowledge of cultural (and subcultural) norms, values and beliefs.
Social: Resources linked to social networks.
*How can forms of capital be converted into other ones?
*Parents can make economic and educational contributions to their children, but also provide social and cultural capital.
-if you have a high human capital and work hard for a good education, you may eventually become a doctor and that means you have a high economic capital too because you will have a lot of money.
?
*How can strong ties and weak ties lead to employment opportunities?
*Resources are linked to social networks, social networks offer access and information
-because its who you associate yourself with that allows for these opportunities; if you hang around doctors, you may become motivated to become someone with a high salary job. If you hang around drug dealers, you may be motivated to sell drugs.
?
*Why does education often fail to promote social mobility?
*Although our education system is supposed to promote social mobility, children from economically advantageous backgrounds have educational advantages too.
*How were 21-year-olds in the 1970s in a different place in their life course than are 21-year-olds today?
*1970s: Married or about to be married, Caring for a newborn or expecting one, Working a long-term job or being a full-time mother.
Now: Is five or more years away from marriage and family,
May have several more years of schooling ahead,
Expects frequent job changes, The transition to adulthood today is more “complex, disjointed, and confusing”.
*What is the “life course”?
Does does it differ from the biological life cycle?
*a series of socially constructed life stages that give meaning to different parts of the biological life cycle.
As people go through their biological life cycle, they also go through a series of socially constructed life stages (a “life course”) That give meaning to different parts of the biological life cycle, which vary culturally and historically
*How do social institutions shape the life course?
Societies construct life courses with different stages people are expected to pass through
family, economic, military, religious, shape the meaning of life course stages
*How does the life course in modern societies differ from the life course in more traditional ones?
*-Traditional societies had simpler life courses than modern ones and shorter transition from child to adult.
*What role do marketers play in defining the life course?
*In the US today, Marketers create new stages of the life course to sell products (toddler, tween)
*What is “emerging adulthood”?
- -a new period of life for young people in the United States and other industrialized societies, lasting from the late teens through the mid- to later twenties
- Traditional markers of adulthood— marriage, children, stable career—are delayed
- Neither “extended adolescence” nor “young adulthood”
- List and describe the six major factors that have contributed to the development of emerging adulthood.
- Growth of higher education
- The American college is the emerging adult environment
- Designed for the independent explorations that are at the heart of emerging adulthood
- Delay in age of marriage
- Economic changes undermining possibility of stable, lifelong careers
- Pushes youth toward extended schooling,delayed marriage, and, arguably, a general psychological orientation toward maximizing options and postponing commitments - Increase of family resources extended to young adult children
- “These resources help support emerging adults’ freedom to take a good, long time before settling down into full adulthood.” - Availability of effective birth control
- people have freedom to have sex with whomever because the risk of getting pregnant is low - Absolute moral relativism
- (derived from poststructuralism and postmodernism); suspicion about the truth of “meta-narratives” (big stories) about religion, nationalism, science, and so on
*What are the components of what Christian Smith calls the “dark side” of emerging adulthood?
*unable to engage in moral reasoning captive to consumerism routinely intoxicated suffering from hurts and regrets from their sexual experiences civically and politically disengaged
(morality, consumerism, disengagement)
*How are both the promises of emerging adulthood and the “dark side” connected to the features of the stage?
*Both the promises of emerging adulthood and the “dark side” are connected to the features of the stage.The opportunity to explore different futures also involves the opportunity to make mistakes and the possibility of focusing on the self to the exclusion of responsibility to others.
*Define the social construction of reality and institutionalization.
*The social construction of reality: The process by which humans assign meaning to the world
Institutionalization: The process by which humans create standard patterns of meaning that allow reoccurring joint action (social arrangements).
*What two worlds do people live in? What do these have to do with the social construction of reality?
- The physical world
- The world of meaning
- The physical world
- Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them.
- Meanings are constructed by people
*What are the three stages in the social construction of reality? How were colors used in class to illustrate these stages?
*1. Categorizing: placing parts of the world into groups
-Dividing the continuous color spectrum into discrete
colors
- Naming: attaching symbols (‘X’) to those categories
- Giving names to the colors
- Typifying: Characterizing what a typical ‘X’ is like (i.e., story telling about ‘X’)
- Giving meaning to colors
*What does it mean to say that time is socially constructed?
*humans give it meaning; we construct time
- How did early societies organize time before the construction of abstract time concepts?
- Why is having shared meanings of time important for organizing social life?
- How did early societies organize time before the construction of abstract time concepts?
*1. Early societies had no abstract time concepts. Time was organized by activities.
- Shared meanings of time allow people to make plans into the near or distant future.
- allow people to coordinate their behaviors
*What time unit did Eviatar Zerubavel claim was a major attempt to break away from nature? Why did he claim this?
*[The week’s] invention was one of the first major attempts by humans to break away from being prisoners of nature and create artificial worlds of their own, and therefore ought to be regarded as one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of civilization.
*How do units of time illustrate that meanings are not inherent?
- -Since meanings are not inherent, many meanings systems are possible. Meanings differ through time and space
- Weeks have ranged from two to 19 days
- Some cultures have more than one weekly system
*How does the week illustrate how social constructions (a) allow easier social coordination, (b) impose constraints on social life, and (c) shape how we experience the physical world?
*A. All sorts of activities are organized around the week: work, recreation, family life, dating, socializing, shopping, worship, sleeping, eating.
B. Consequences of the week include less productivity on Monday and Friday, higher rates of absenteeism, sickness and suicides on Mondays, higher rates of homicides and auto accidents on weekends.
C. We also experience days of the week differently.
*What is the Thomas Theorem?
*The Thomas Theorem: “If [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.”
“What time is it?” is a part of every “definition of the situation”
*What does the Guugu Yimithirr language illustrate about how meanings direct and organize our attention and thoughts?
*Meanings (and their symbols) direct and organize our attention and thoughts
-Guugu Yimithirr speakers and cardinal directions
We think in weeks
*Define calendrical contrast and give an example from lecture.
- Symbolic group boundaries created by calendar usage.
- ex. Jews, Christians and Muslims distinguished themselves by their weekly holy day
*What were the two modern attempts to replace the seven-day calendar?
Why does our calendar not have “blank” or “fixed” days?
- French Revolutionaries attempted to institute a 10-day week (1793-1805)
- The Soviet Union introduced a five-day week (1929-1931) and then a six-day week (1931-1940).
- French Revolutionaries attempted to institute a 10-day week (1793-1805)
Efforts to introduce calendars with “fixed” days and “blank” days have been defeated by religious objections
The failures suggest the resilience of traditions, especially religious ones
- Explain the history of clock time.
- Why is it important in modern society?
- How does clock time influence the way we think?
- Explain the history of clock time.
- First clock-like regulation of time was in monasteries
- Monasteries also introduced the use of bells to mark time
- Cities built their own bell towers to organize city life
- Eventually, mechanical clocks rang bells at standard intervals
- Early factory managers asserted the right to control the bells
__________________________________________________ - Clock time is required for the complex organization needed for mass production and other bureaucratic activities
- Clock time also organizes school, eating, shopping, sleeping etc.
- ——————————————————————————————— - Clock time (and capitalism) led to thinking about time as a quantity and commodity
- We save, spend, waste and invest time
*How has the power to construct time changed? Illustrate this with examples from lecture.
- Some people, groups and institutions have more power than others to construct reality and are more likely to win conflicts over meaning systems.
- Gregory XIII instituted the Gregorian calendar in 1582 to deal with problem of placing Easter
- Capitalist firms (e.g., railroad companies) and governments created international time zones
- “Leap second” dispute pits astronomers against computer programmers
*What does it mean to say animals are socially constructed?
- Animals get placed into categories (which are given names) like pet, food, vermin, endangered and so on.
- is the dog a “mans best friend” or food?
Animals are typified (stories are told about them)
Meanings of animals are institutionalized in public policies
People actively make meaning in their lives.
People give meaning to animals to promote/ prevent social change and to tell stories about themselves, including ones connected to social class, gender and race.
*What are Herbert Blumer’s three premises of symbolic interactionism?
- People act toward things based on the meanings those things have for them
- These meanings arise out of interaction with other people
- These meanings are modified through interpretation as people deal with the things they encounter
- People act toward things based on the meanings those things have for them
*The lecture covered several disputes over the meaning of animals, viz., pigeons, dogs (pets vs. food), horses (food vs. American icons), wolf hunting, fox hunting, dog fighting, and cute (vs. ugly) animals used to promote conservation. Describe the conflict over each of these cases, How do the stories told about animals connect to people’s identities? How do these conflicts connect to important social statuses like race, class and gender?
*people associate with animals based on their status. people with high social status are more likely to be associated with animals that society finds beautiful and well-liked and people with low social status are more likely to be associated with animals that society finds gross or ugly.
*Define self-fulfilling prophecy.
*Assumption or prediction that in itself causes the expected event to occur, thus seeming to confirm the prophecy’s accuracy
*Who coined the term “Self-fulfilling prophecy”?
*Robert K. Merton
*Explain Self-fulfilling prophecy’s connection to the Thomas Theorem and the social construction of reality.
- -The self-fulfilling prophecy is an example of the Thomas Theorem and illustrates how human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them
- Self-fulfilling prophecies have had serious consequences throughout human history and continue to shape people’s lives
- Self-fulfilling prophecies may result in labels (positive or negative meanings) sticking to people
- Explain how each of these phenomena can be an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy:
(1) psychiatric diagnoses
(2) bank run
(3) the inevitability of war
(4) racism
(5) Clever Hans
(6) tracking
*1. PSYCHIATIC DIAGNOSIS:
–Such labels, conferred by mental health professionals are as influential on the patient as they are on his relatives and friends, and it should not surprise anyone that the diagnosis acts on all of them as a self-fulfilling prophecy.
–If you are told you have a mental disorder
(when you do not) and it affects everyone around you, it might actually drive you insane
- BANK RUN:
- -Modern banks have only a small percentage of deposits available in cash (fractional- reserve banking).
- -A “bank run” occurs when depositors begin withdrawing money because they believe the bank will fail. This belief may result in an actual bank failure.
- -Multiple banks runs can result in a systemic banking crisis, such as the Great Depression - INEVITABILTY OF WAR:
- -Belief in the inevitability of war can lead to war.
- -Leading up to World War I, European nations armed and mobilized to prepare for the inevitable war.
- -Each nation wanted to be in a position to attack, rather than be attacked (cult of the offense). - RACISM:
- -Integrated schools and libraries made it difficult for African Americans to gain academic achievements, which served as evidence to their intellectual inferiority. - CLEVER HANS:
- -Clever Hans gave public performances doing arithmetic, working with fractions, calculating dates, and other mental feats. Some of the questions were submitted to Hans in writing.
- -Investigation showed that Hans could only answer questions if the questioner knew the answer and Hans could see him. No fraud was involved. - TRACKING:
- -The practice of tracking in widespread in the U.S. education system, (academic, general & vocational tracks; gifted programs)
- -Research shows that factors such as class, race, gender, appearance, room size, teaching preferences, etc. affect track assignment
*Give the details of the Clarks’ doll experiments
*The Clarks’ doll experiments suggested that black children internalized negative stereotypes about their race.
They separated colored children from white and the colored children were in the inferior group. The sense of inferiority slows the motivation to learn and deprives them from some of the benefits they would receive in a normal integrated school.
–if the children were told they were dumb, they would believe it and then get bad grades.
*Give the details of Pygmalion in the Classroom
*–Students were given imaginary “Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition”
–Teachers were given randomly generated list of “academic spurters” who would make rapid progress during the upcoming year
–At the end of the year, “spurters” had increased IQs and teachers believed they were better behaved, more intellectually curious, more friendly and had brighter futures
–Why? Teachers spent more time with students and taught them more material, allowed them to talk more, gave them more feedback, were more enthusiastic about teaching them, and showed them more warmth
*give the details of Being Sane in Insane Places
*–Conducted by David Rosenhan
–Research question: Do the characteristics that lead to an “insanity” diagnosis lie within the patient, OR do they reside in the social context?
–In Rosenhan’s study, sane people checked into mental hospitals and found their normal behaviors interpreted as symptoms of insanity
–Their initial diagnosis served as a “label” that shaped the interpretation of their subsequent behavior.
–“Such labels, conferred by mental health professionals are as influential on the patient as they are on his relatives and friends, and it should not surprise anyone that the diagnosis acts on all of them as a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
–Naturalistic Observation; no one knew they were being studied besides the “fake” patients
–Volunteers were put into mental institutions to see what it was like inside each on and to see how the patients were treated
–the patients were treated poorly
Define socialization and understand the points made about it in class. Define resocialization and agent of socialization.
- Socialization: The process through which one learns how to act according to the shared meanings of a particular culture.
- socialization is an active process
- Socialization is a lifelong process
Resocialization: Process of learning new shared meanings when entering a new role or social arrangement
-Socialization is always incomplete and imperfect
Agents of Socialization: Various individuals, groups and institutions who influence socialization
What are the three aspects of society that are internalized during socialization?
- Shared meanings (the meanings that organize society organizing our cognitive processes)
- Others (specific and generalized)
- Roles (= identities)
- Shared meanings (the meanings that organize society organizing our cognitive processes)
Explain Howard Becker’s study “Becoming a Marihuana User,” including its research question, research method, design, and findings.
*Classic study of socialization, published in 1953 (American Journal of Sociology)
Research method: participant observation, 50 interviews
Hypothesis: Any behavior (e.g., marihuana use for pleasure) requires acquiring meanings through social experiences
Findings:
Define looking-glass self, role taking, and generalized other.
*Looking-glass self: Sense of who we are that is defined by incorporating the reflected views of others (Cooley).
Role-taking: Ability to see oneself from the perspective of others and to use that perspective in formulating one’s own behavior.
Generalized other: Perspective of some part of society
*Explain Mead’s theory of the self.
*Mead conceptualized the self as a conversation in which the socialized part of the self can evaluate our desires, impulses & plans from the perspective(s) of society
*What were the three stages in the process of learning to become a marihuana user that Becker discovered?
What are the implications of Becker’s study that were discussed in class?
*STAGE 1: Learning to smoke drug so that it will have a real effect
STAGE 2: Learning to recognize the effects and connect them to drug use
STAGE 3: Learning to enjoy the sensations that are perceived
________________________________________________–
IMPLICATIONS:
1. Agents of drug socialization matter
2. Drug effects vary from culture to culture (e.g., drunken comportment)
3. Treatment involves changing drug meanings
What did the graphs about the internal conversations of Soc 134 students reveal?
*Many people have internal conversations in which they talk to themselves or they imagine talking to other people
What are identities and what aspects of society do they correspond to?
Explain how identities drive behavior and why we require other people to verify our identities.
*Identities are meanings of the self. Identities correspond to... -Statuses/roles in social arrangements -Membership in groups -Qualities
Some identities are more important than others
We require other people to verify our identities (e.g., looking-glass self)
How does Howard Becker define culture and what does it allow us to do? What do the examples of the jazz musicians and Harry Partch illustrate about culture?
Howards Becker defines culture as…Shared meanings allow people to do things together.
-Everyone has an understanding of the way things are done and we think everyone thinks the same way as us; therefore if we all act upon something in the same way then the job will get done.
Harry Partch wrote unconventional music that used 42 tones between octaves rather than the standard 12. This required Partch to invent and build new instruments, invent a new musical notation system, and locate and train musicians willing to learn to play entirely differently from the way they had been trained. It took 8 months of work to prepare for a 2-hour concert rather than the 8 hours of rehearsal it would take using standard music.
Ascribed status
social position acquired at birth or taken on involuntarily
Status
named social position
constituent element of social arrangements
Role
set of expectations for a particular status
constituent element of social arrangements
Norm
a rule
constituent element of social arrangements
Achieved status
social position acquired by effort and taken on voluntarily
Role conflict
conflict between roles associated with different statuses
Role Strain
conflict between competing expectations of a role associated with a single status
Define panic. What does research suggest about the existence of panic?
An alleged form of behavior that involves people reacting to a real or perceived threat with irrational, frantic, selfish, and often self-destructive behavior (run away)
Research shows that society continues to guide behavior in extreme circumstances and doesn’t provide evidence for the existence of “panic.”
Recount the basic details about the two disasters studied University of Cincinnati sociologist Norris Johnson.
- Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, May 28, 1977 (165 killed)
- –investigators found multiple violations of law and/or good safety practices, including over-occupancy, insufficient number of (unmarked) exits, no sprinkler system or automatic fire alarm, no fire walls, no evacuation training, bad wiring, built from flammable materials.
- –Lawsuit resulted in $49 million award
- –Nationwide changes in fire codes and enforcement - Who concert “stampede,” Dec. 3, 1979 (11 killed)
- –People began arriving at 1 p.m. for the 8 p.m. concert (because of festival seating). Only 5 of 134 doors were used. Crowd density was tremendous.
- –When door opened people fell to ground in pile 3-5 people deep. People nearby were unable to form protective cordon. People further away were unaware of situation.
- –11 people died of suffocation, not trampling
What abilities may people lose in an emergency situation? Why?
People may lose control of their abilities to perceive, move or communicate
- Smoke or crowding may make it difficult to see
- Dense bodies may make it difficult to move
- Noise may make it difficult to communicate
How does social structure continue to guide behavior in emergency situations? Be specific. Give examples from the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center.
What determined who lived and who died in that attack?
- People escape or die in groups
- People continue to help others
- Gender roles continue to guide action
- People’s occupational roles continue to guide action
Pre-existing norms, statuses & roles continued to guide behavior
- People followed procedures learned from drills
- Cooperation, not competition, guided behavior
- Widespread altruistic behavior to provide assistance
Deaths were determined by location
- North tower: everyone on 92+ died, everyone below lived
- South tower: all but four below 78th lived
What are three negative consequences of the belief that people panic in emergency situations? Give examples of each from lecture
- Disaster victims may receive blame for their own death or injuries
- Early warning systems may be avoided, contributing to insufficient appreciation of danger
- The advantages of improvisation may be ignored
Why do people jump out of burning buildings? Should we think of their behavior as “irrational?” “Panic”?
People jumped to avoid a horrible death from fire and smoke. Nobody survived on the floors from which people jumped.
“Irrational” behavior is often rational for the people in the situation.
Why was the word “tornado” once banned from weather forecasts?
to prevent panic.
What examples were given in lecture of successful improvisation during emergency situations?
Following the 9-11 attacks, approx. 500,000 people were evacuated from Lower Manhattan in an improvised boat- lift.
Duke students Sonny Byrd, David Hankla and Hans Buder drove to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, impersonated journalists, drove to the convention center and shuttled two car loads of people out of the city.
What do sociologists attempt to accomplish when they study “irrational” behavior?
to understand what it means to the people involved and how it is socially structured.
What are the 5 major qualities to emerging adulthood?
- Identifying exploration
- Instability
- Self-Focused
- Feeling in-between
- possibilities
- Identifying exploration
why is meritocracy a myth?
the US economic system is not true because people’s economic life chances are connected to their parents
Sociological imagination
the ability to see the impact of social forces on our individual lives
Durkhiems Suicide study
Durkhiem studies connections between individuals and society
people with weaker ties (widowed, single vs married, kids or not) are at greater risk of suicide
-he called this egoistic suicide
Too strong ties can lead to altruistic suicide
Durkhiem also argued that suicide can result from lack of regulation in a capitalist society
-he called this anomic suicide
sociology
Science of human society (people doing things together)
What is the course theme?
people are both cause and consequence of society
