Final Flashcards
Define Socialization
The lifelong social experience by which individuals develop their human potential and learn culture
Define Personality
A person’s fairly consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting
The biological sciences: the role of nature
Initially, Europeans linked cultural differences to biology
The social sciences: the role of nurture
behaviourism holds that behaviour is not instinctive but learned
What can isolation (being cut off from the social world) cause?
permanent developmental damage
Six researchers that have made lasting contributions to our understanding of human development***:
- Sigmund Freud
- Jean Piaget***
- Lawrence Kohlberg
- Carol Gilligan
- George Herbert Mead
- Erik H. Erikson
Freud’s model of personality:
Id: Basic Drives
Ego: Efforts to achieve balance
Superego: culture within
Id and Superego are in constant states of conflict, with the ego balancing the two
Contributions Freud made that were notes by sociologists:
- Internalization of social norms
- Childhood experiences have lasting effects
Define Cognition:
How people think and understand
Jean Piaget’s stages of development:
- Sensorimotor stage: sensory contract understanding
- Preoperational stage: use of language and other symbols
- Concrete operational stage: perception of casual connections in surroundings
- Formal operational stage: abstract, critical thinking
Critical Review for Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
- Different from Freud, viewing the mind as active and creative
- Cognitive stages are the result of biological maturation and social experience
- Do people in all societies pass through piaget’s four stages?
Define moral reasoning:
the ways in which individuals judge situations as right or wrong
What are the three stages in moral development (Lawrence Kohlberg)
- Preconventional: Young children experience the world as pain or pleasure
- Conventional: Teens lose selfishness as they learn to define right from wrong in terms of what pleases parents and conforms to cultural norms
- Postconventional: Final stage, considers abstract ethical principles
Critical Review of Lawrence Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
- Like Piaget, viewed moral development as stages
- Many people don’t reach the final stage
- Research limited to boys, generalized to population
Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Gender and Moral development compared:
boys and girls moral reasoning
The difference between boys and girls moral reasoning (Carol Gilligan):
- Boys develop a justice perspective (formal rules define right and wrong)
- Girls develop a care and responsibility perspective (personal relationships define ethical reasoning)
- Girls are socialized to be controlled and eager to please
Critical Review of Carol Gilligan’s Theory of Gender and Moral Development
- Does nature or nurture account for the differences in males and females
- Many feminists do not agree with essentializing differences
- Male and female morals will probably become more similar as more women enter the workplace
Define Self:
The part of an individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image
- develops only from social interaction
Social experience is:
the exchange of symbols
Understanding intention requires:
imagining the situation from the other’s point of view
- By taking the role of the other, we become self-aware
The looking-glass self: who represents a mirror in which we see our selves?
- other people represent a mirror in which we see ourselves
The looking-glass self: what is our self image based on?
How we think others see us
Mead’s I and Me:
the I (subjective element is in constant interplay with the Me (objective element)
Development of the self: Play
taking the roles of significant others (like parents)
Development of the self: Imitation
Infants mimic behaviour without understanding intentions
Development of self: Games
Taking the roles of several others at once and following the rules
Development of self: Generalized other
Widespread cultural norms and values we use as a reference in evaluating ourselves
Critical Review of George Herbert Mead’s Theory of the Social Self
Mead doesn’t allow biological elements
Erik H. Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development
Stage 1- Infancy: trust (vs mistrust)
Stage 2- Toddlerhood: autonomy (vs doubt and shame)
Stage 3- Preschool: initiative (vs guilt)
Stage 4- Preadolescence: Industrious (vs inferiority)
Stage 5- Adolescence: Gaining identity (vs isolation)
Stage 6- Young adulthood: Intimacy (vs isolation)
Stage 7- Middle adulthood: Making a difference (vs self-absorption)
Stage 8- Old Age: Integrity (vs despair)
Critical Review of Erik Erikson’s Eight stages of Development
- this theory views personality as a lifelong process and success at one stage prepares us for the next challenge
- Critics: not everyone confronts the challenges in the same order
- Not clear if failure to meet one challenge predicts failure in other stages
Four Agents of Socialization
- The family
- The school
- The peer group
- The mass media
The family is:
The most important agent of socialization (Primary socialization agent)
- a loving family produces a happy and well-ajusted child
- Gender socialization
Important factors involving the family as an agent of socialization
- Parental attention is very important (bonding and encouragement)
- Household environment (stimulates development)
- Social Status (like social class of ethnicity
Four parenting styles are:
- Authoritarian
- Authoritative
- Neglectful
- Permissive
Describe Authoritarian parenting style:
Parents set many rules, not the best parenting style, children are never given the opportunity to make choices so when they grow up they don’t know how to make their own decisions.
Describe Authoritative parenting style: (Known as the best option)
According to parenting experts, this is the best style. Kids are involved in decision making. Parents are still very much in control and have expectations, but the child is also provided with a voice and can make decisions. Works really well because it is fluid, kids learn to be resilient. e.g.. bowling bumpers
Describe Neglectful parenting style:
The people who don’t really like their children, maybe didn’t want them but ended up pregnant. May come from, illness, poverty. They don’t care to have a relationship with their kids.
Describe Permissive parenting style:
The mom or dad that wants to be the best friend. Permissive parents are afraid that their children aren’t going to like them so they follow their kids around and the kids call the shots. Not considered a good parenting style because children are not challenged. Parents are likely to let their kids off the hook. Permissive parents still keep track of where their kids are and generally show up. They generally allow underage drinking, party with teenagers. The kid generally turns into a little shit.
The school allows people to:
- Experience diversity (racial and gender clustering)
- Gender socialization continues (from grade school through college, gender-linked activities are encountered)
- Hidden curriculum (informal, covert lessons)
- First bureaucracy (rules and schedule)
The Peer group is:
- A social group whose members have interests, social position and age in common
- Parts trump peers every time
Anticipatory socialization is:
learning that helps achieve a desired position (trying different activities, dressing differently, travelling)
The peer group gives you:
- A sense of self beyond the family
- Peers often govern short-term goals while parents influence long-term plans
The Mass Media:
Impersonal communications aimed at a wide audience
The mass media in regards to television:
- Canadian children watch television well before they learn to read
- The average Canadian watches 21 hours of tv per week
- television renders children less likely to use their imaginations
What is the Mass Media’s goal?
The Mass Media’s goal is to make you feel unhappy with yourself and your belongings so you will buy the products they are advertising (consumerism)
Define Cohort:
A category of people with a common characteristic, usually their age.
Each stage of life is:
linked to the biological process, but it is also socially constructed
Define Total Institution:
A setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and manipulated by an administrative staff
Three characteristics of a total institution according to Erving Goffman:
- Staff supervise all daily life activities
- Environment is standardized
- Formal rules and daily schedules
Define Resocialization:
Radically changing someone’s personality by carefully controlling the environment
What are the parts of the two part process used for resocialization?
- Staff erode inmates
- Staff rebuilds personality using rewards and punishments
- This can leave people institutionalized, without the capacity for independent living
Define Social Interaction
the process by which people act and react in relation to others (through interaction, we create the reality in which we live)
Define Social structure
any relatively stable pattern of social behaviour
Define Status:
- A social position that a person holds (someone can hold multiple status’ at the same time. e.g. a teenage girl, daughter to her parents, sister to her brother, student, goalie on her hockey team)
Define Ascribed status:
A social position a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life (e.g. race, class, age group)
Define Achieved Status:
A social position a person assumes voluntarily that reflects ability and effort (e.g. an honour student, and olympic athlete)
Define Master Status:
A status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person’s entire life (e.g. Justin Trudeau had master status because his dad was PM and people expected him to become PM at some point, and he did.) (e.g. occupation, a recognizable family name, gender for women, negative sense: disease, disability, age)
Define Role
Behaviour expected of someone who hold a particular status (A person holds a status and performs a role)
Define Role Set
A number of roles attached to a single status (e.g. a professor’s role includes being a teacher, colleague, and researcher)
Define Role Conflict
Conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses (e.g. police officer who catches her own son using drugs at home (mother and police officer)
Define: Role Strain
Tension among the roles connected to a single status (e.g. manager who tries to balance concern for workers with task requirements)
Define Role Exit
Becoming an “ex”: disengaging form social roles can be very traumatic without proper preparation.
The process of role exit:
- Doubts form about ability to continue with a certain role
- Examination of new roles leads to a tipping point when one decides to pursue a new direction
- Learning new expectations associated with new role
- Past role might influence new self
Who tends to have more difficulty with role exits?
Men tend to have more difficulty with role exits than women. Women tend to have more webs of interest (diversified), so when they leave a job or work situation it tends not to be as traumatic.
Define: The social construction of reality
The process by which people creatively shape reality through symbolic-interaction
Define Social Interaction
a complex negotiation of reality: everyday situations involve some agreement with what is going on, but interests and intentions can affect perceptions (e.g. family formation)
Define the Thomas Theorem:
Situations we define as real become real in their consequences
Define Ethnomethodology:
the study of the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings (e.g. break the rules and observe reactions, rules about responding to “how are you?”)
Reality building: Class and Culture.
- Interests and social background affect our perceptions (e.g. people who live in different parts of a city experience it in different ways)
- People around the world have different realities (e.g. people have different meanings for specific gestures)
Define Dramaturgical Analysis:
The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance
Define: The presentation of self or impression management
A person’s efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others (e.g. medical students wear their white coats and adopt the cloak of competence)
Role performance includes:
- Stage setting
- Use of props: costumes, tone of voice, gesture
(e. g. doctor office.)
(e. g. “front region” and “back region” (you put on a show, a costume) (If you go to a job interview this would be front region, whereas the back region is behind the scenes, maybe like how you act at home)
Define Non-verbal Communication:
Communication using body movements, gestures, and facial expression rather than speech
Body Language:
smiling, eye contact, gestures
Define Body language and deception:
unintended body language can contradict our planned meaning
Define: Personal Space
The surrounding area over which a person makes some claim to privacy
Idealization:
We construct performances to idealize our intentions
Define: Embarrassment:
Discomfort following a spoiled performance
- Goffman: Embarrassment is “losing face”, Tact is helping someone “save face”
(e. g. an audience often overlooks flaws in a performance, allowing the actor to avoid embarrassment )
The biological side of emotions: Six basic emotions exist and people everywhere use the same facial expressions to show them:
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Anger
- Fear
- Disgust
- Surprise
The cultural side of emotions:
- Culture plays an important role in guiding human emotions
- Culture provides rules for display of emotions
- Cultures guide how we value emotions
- We construct emotions, called emotional management
Language:
- Communicates not only a surface reality but also deeper levels of meaning
- Language defines men and women differently
Define Power regarding language
men refer to things they own as “she” and women traditionally take the man’s name in marriage
Define Value regarding language
What has greater value, force, or significance is treated as masculine
Define attention regarding language
Directing greater attention to masculine endeavours
Foundations of humour:
A contrast between conventional and unconventional realities- the greater the opposition, the greater the humour
The function of humour:
Humour can act as a safety valve (e.g. “it was just a joke”)
Humour and Conflict:
Humour can oppress others (e.g. “put down” of disadvantaged or advantaged”
A sense of humour allows us to ___________________
Assert our freedom and prevents us from being prisoners of reality
Define social groups
Two or more people who identify and interact with one another
State two types of non-groups:
Category: this with a status in common, such as ethnicity or occupation
Crowd: non-interacting group, such as an audience
Define Primary Group
A small social grow whose members share personal and lasting relationships (e.g. friends from preschool and elementary school, you grow up with these people, they know a lot about you)
Define Secondary Groups
Large and impersonal groups whose members pursue a specific goal or activity
Characteristics of a secondary group:
- Weak emotional ties
- Little personal knowledge of each other
- People look to one another strategically
- Part of a secondary group could turn itself into a primary group (e.g. a sports team. Relationships can intensify and strengthen over time and you may become a primary group)
Characteristics of a primary group:
- First groups we experience
- Shape attitudes, behaviour, and identity
- Provide economic and other assistance
- Are bound by emotion and loyalty
Define: Dyad
- A two member group
- Very intimate, but unstable given its size
Define: Triad
- A three member group
- More stable than a dyad and more types of interaction are possible
Define: Instrumental leadership
Focuses on the completion of tasks
Which groups turn inwards?
Large groups turn inwards
- members have relationships among themselves
- May promote separatism
Which groups turn outwards
Heterogeneous groups turn outwards
- Diverse membership promotes interaction with outsiders
Define: Networks
Webs of weak social ties
- people with occasional contact
- Can be a powerful resource to find a job or become established
Max Weber’s key elements of bureaucracy:
- Specialization
- Hierarchy of offices
- Rules and regulations
- Technical competence
- Impersonality
- Formal, written communications
Define: Bureaucratic alienation
Potential to dehumanize individuals
Define: Bureaucratic inefficiency and ritualism
Preoccupation with rules to the point of interfering with meeting goals
Define: Bureaucratic inertia:
Perpetuation of the organization
Define: Oligarchy
Rule of the many by the few
How does scientific management work?
- Identify all operations in a task and time needed to perform them
- discover ways to perform them more efficiently
- Provide guidance and incentives to perform job more efficiently
Basic Principles of McDonald’s
Efficiency: Customers do part of the work
Predictability: Do it according to a plan
Uniformity: Same product everywhere
Control through automation: Humans are the most unreliable factor
Sexuality is not simply a matter of biology, it is ____________
- constructed by society and is an important part of our everyday lives
- found everywhere - on campus, in the workplace, in advertising, and in the mass media
Primary sex characteristics are:
The genitals
Secondary sex characteristics are:
Other bodily differences that distinguish mature males and females
Intersexual People:
People whose bodies, including genitals, have male and female characteristics (Hermaphrodites)
Transsexuals:
People who feel they are one sex even though biologically they are the other
Examples of Cultural Variation regarding sex
- showing affection
- sexual positions and practices
- regulation of openness and timing of sexuality also varies
Define: the incest taboo
The norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives is found in every society
When was “the pill” made widely available?
1969
Has premarital sex (within Canada) gained approval?
Yes, this has happened over the last 20 years
What differences to men and women have in the meaning attached to sex?
- Males are more likely to endorse the fun aspect of sex
- Females endorse the love aspect
There is greater sexual contentment in countries with greater sexual equality. T of F
True
85% of people condemn extramarital sex. T or F
True
Why would Durkheim not be happy with divorce?
Because it causes conflict within society
Define: Sexual Orientation
Person’s romantic and emotional attraction to another person (a product of society, a product of biology)
Define: Heterosexuality
sexual attraction to someone of the other sex
Define: Homosexuality
Sexual attraction to someone of the same sex
Define: Bisexuality
Sexual attraction to people of both sexes
Define: Asexuality
No sexual attraction to people of either sex
There is greater acceptance of homosexuality in Canada than the U.S. T of F
True
Define: Homophobia
Dread of close personal interaction with gays, lesbians, or bisexuals
Define: Pornography
Sexually explicit material that causes sexual arousal; its value causes debate.
- Possession of child porn is an offence
- Traditionally criticized on moral grounds
Define: Prostitution
Selling of sexual services
Types of Prostitution
- Call girls and boys: elite workers who arrange own dates by telephone
- Sex workers in “massage parlours”
- Streetwalkers (most victimized)
Define: Sexual Assault
A violent act that uses sex to hurt, humiliate or control another person
Latent functions of prostitution:
sex for those without access and in loveless marriages
Critical Review of Structural functional analysis regarding sexuality
patterns of sexuality are varied over time and around the world
Structural functional analysis says what about sexuality?
Culture and social institutions regulate with whom and when people seek to reproduce
Symbolic Interaction Analysis: Global comparisons:
Great diversity in acceptance patterns
Symbolic Interaction Analysis: Social construction of sexuality:
Great change in sexuality patterns. (E.g. virginity and sex education)
Critical Review of symbolic Interaction Analysis regarding sexuality:
Some patterns are less variable. e.g. men see women in sexual terms more than vice versa
Social Conflict and Feminist Analysis: Sexuality reflecting social inequality
- Female prostitutes are arrested more than male “johns”
Social Conflict and Feminist Analysis: Sexuality creating social inequality
- pornogrpahy shows men’s power
- Sexuality degrades women in a patriarchal society
- Described as a sport (scoring) or violence (banging, or hitting on)
Define: Queer Theory
A growing body of research findings that challenges the heterosexual bias in Western society
Critical Review of Social conflict analysis in terms of sexuality
- sexuality is not a power issue for everyone; it can deepen commitment
- The approach does not take into account that societies have taken steps towards reducing inequality such as less harassment in the workplace, and more acceptance of gays and lesbians
Define: Deviance
The recognized violation of cultural norms
Define: Crime
The violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law
Define: Social Control
Attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behaviour
Define: Criminal Justice system
a formal response by police, courts, and prison officials to alleged violations of the law
The Biological Context of Deviance: what did early studies show?
Early studies show relationship of criminal behaviour with head shape (Lombroso) and body size (Sheldon), but they were faulty
The Biological Context of Deviance: what do studies say now?
Now studies show people’s overall genetic composition in combination with social influences account for variation in in criminality
The Biological Context of Deviance: Critical Review
Why are some kinds of behaviours defined as deviant and not others?
Define: Containment theory:
Individual factors like the ability to cope with frustration and identifying with cultural norms and values are related to fewer problems with police
Critical Review of Personality Factors:
The most serious crimes are committed by those whose psychological profiles are normal
The functions of deviance: Structural-Functional Analysis: Durkheim’s Basic Insight
- Deviance affirms cultural values and norms
- Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries
- responding to deviance brings people together
- Deviance encourages social change
Define: Merton’s Strain Theory
Deviance depends on the extent to which society provides the means to achieve cultural goals
Define: Conformity
Uses approved means
Define: Innovation
Strain between cultural goals and opportunities to get them; people may use illegitimate means (e.g. crime)
Define: Ritualism
INNER REJECTION OF CULTURAL GOAL
Define: Retreatism
Dropping out
Define: Rebellion
Seek new cultural goals
Where does Deviance arise from?
Deviance or conformity arises from the relative opportunity structure that frames a person’s life
Critical evaluation of structural-functionalism analysis regarding deviance:
communities do not always come together in reaction to crime, not everyone seeks success, and attention is focussed on the poor
Define: Labelling theory
Deviance and conformity result from how society responds to people’s actions
Define: Primary and Secondary Deviance
some violations are minimal (primary); but if labelled by people as a deviant, a person may adopt the identity (secondary)
Define: Stigma
A powerful negative label that greatly changes a person’s self-concept and social identity
Define: Retrospective labelling
interpreting someone’s past in light of present deviance
Define: Projective labelling
a deviant identity is used to predict future action, such as repeated molestation
Define: Medicalization of Deviance
The transformation of moral and legal issues into a medical condition (Alcoholism or sexual promiscuity are defined today as illnesses)
Define: Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory
- A person’s tendency toward conformity or deviance depends on the amount of contact with other who encourage- or reject conventional behaviour
- Learning any behavioural pattern is a process that takes place in groups
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Conformity linked to which 4 types of social control?
- Attachment
- Opportunity
- Involvement
- Belief
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Define Attachment
Strong social attachments encourage conformity
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Define Opportunity
Access to legitimate opportunity produces conformity
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Define Involvement
Time and energies linked to “legitimate” activities inhibits deviance
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Define Belief
Strong belief in conventional morality and respect for authority inhibits deviance
Hirschi’s Control Theory: Critical Review
- Some kinds of behaviours are universally condemned
- Research on consequences is inconclusive
- Some seek a deviant label
Deviance and Inequality: Social-Conflict Analysis: Deviance and Power
- Norms or laws reflect interests of rich and powerful
- Powerful have resources to resist deviant labels
- Belief that norms and laws are natural and good masks political character
Deviance and Inequality: Social-Conflict Analysis: DEVIANCE and capitalism: Who is labelled deviant?
- Those who threaten private property
- Those who cannot or will not work
- People who resist authority
- People who challenge the status quo
Define: White Collar Crime
Crimes committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations (e.g. fraud, bribery, and embezzlement)
Define: Corporate crime
Illegal actions of a corporation or people acting on its behalf
Define: Organized crime
A business supplying illegal goods or services
Deviance and Inequality: Social-Conflict Analysis: Critical Review
- Laws exist to protect the environment, workers, and consumers, not just rich
- Deviance does not just exist in capitalist societies
Define: Hate crimes
A criminal act against a person or person’s property by an offender motivated by racial or other bias
Deviance and Gender Have:
- more stringent normative controls on women
- strain due to gender-based inequality
- Men and women’s behaviour judged differently
Define: Crime
Violation of criminal laws involving an act and criminal intent from willful conduct to negligence
3 Types of crime are:
- Violent crimes
- Property crimes
- Victimless crimes
Define: violent crimes
Crimes against persons
Define: Property crimes
Crimes against property
Define: Victimless crimes
violations without readily apparent victims (e.g. drug laws)
Define: Victimization surveys
asking a representative sample of Canadians their experience with property and violent crime
Define: Police
primary point of contact between population and criminal justice system
What do courts determine?
Innocence or guilt
Define: Plea bargain
legal negotiation in which a persecutor reduced a charge for a defendant’s guilty plea
Define: Retribution
moral vengeance, society makes the offender suffer as much as the suffering caused by the crime
Define: Deterrence
attempt to discourage criminality through punishment
Define: Rehabilitation
A program for reforming the offender to prevent more offences
Define: Societal protection
Rendering offender incapable of more offences either through incarceration or permanently by execution
Define: Community Based Corrections
Correctional programs operating within society at large rather than behind prison walls
Define: Probation
Offender remains under supervision of an officer in the community
Define: Parole
early release to serve remainder of sentence in the community
Define: Sentencing circles
for Aboriginal offenders, included accused, victim, families and other community members
Critical Review of the Criminal Justice System
- TV coverage of sensational crimes makes punishment a public event
- Prisons provide short-term protection, but rehabilitation is unlikely among criminals
Define: Recidivism
subsequent offences by people previously convicted of crimes, is high so deterrence is questionable
What type of society do many think of Canada as?
A middleclass society
List the dimensions of social inequality:
- Income
- Wealth
- Power and Occupational Prestige
- Schooling
Define: Socio-economic status
a composite measure of social position that considers also power, occupational prestige and schooling
Define: Income
Occupational wages or salaries, earnings from investments, and government transfer payments
Define: Wealth
The total amount of money and other assets, minus outstanding debts (distributes even less evenly than income)
Define: Power and Occupational Prestige
- Wealth is an important source of power
- Occupation is a major determinant of income, wealth and power
- Physicians, lawyers ad engineers are ranked near the top prestige
What does education often determine?
labour force participation, occupation, and income
Define: Ancestry (In terms of social class)
Most of the rich gained their position through inheritance
Four social classes in Canada:
- The upper class
- The middle class
- The working class
- The lower class
Social Mobility: Define Upward
with college degree or higher-paying job
Social Mobility: Define Downward
Drop out of school, losing a job, business failure, or divorce
Social Mobility: Define Intergenerational mobility
upward or downward social mobility of children in relation to their parents
Social Mobility: Define Intragenerational mobility
Change in social position during one person’s lifetime
Define: Relative poverty
deprivation of some people in relation to those who have more
Define: Absolute poverty
deprivation of resources that is life-threatening
Who are the main poor people in Canada?
Formerly the elderly, but now children
Reasons why someone might be homeless:
- Mental Illness
- Drug use
- Inability to cope with society
Define: Gender
personal traits and social positions that members of a community attach to being male or female
Define: Gender Stratification
The unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women
Define: egalitarian
believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
Define: Patriarchy
a form of social organization in which males dominate females
Define: Matriarchy
a form of social organization in which females dominate males (has never been documented)
Define: Sexism
belief that one sex is innately superior to the other
How much money do women make compared to men?
Women earn 71 cents for every $1 men earn
Define: Minority
people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates
Who are the victims of family violence?
men and women are both victims, but women suffer more serious injuries
Define: Sexual Harassment
comments, gestures, or physical contact of a sexual nature that are deliberate, repeated, and unwelcome
Define: Pornography in terms of violence against women
Women focus on it as a power issue, other means of controlling women
Gender Stratification: Structural-Functional Analysis: Summarize
- Gender is a means to organize social life
- Modern societies relax gender roles to release talent
Gender Stratification: Structural-Functional Analysis: Talcott Parsons
Men and women have complementary traits by socialization:
- Instrumental: rational, competitive for boys
- Expressive: emotional responsiveness for girls
Gender Stratification: Structural-Functional Analysis: Critical Review
- Ignores many women have worked outside the home because of economic need
- Ignores the personal strains and social costs of rigid, traditional gender roles
- Parsons’ gender “complementarity” assumes that women ought to submit to male domination
Gender Stratification: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Summarize
- Focuses of face-to-face interaction in everyday life
- Gender plays a part in shaping almost all of our everyday experiences
- sex roles define the way a society expects women and men to think and behave
Gender Stratification: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Critical Review
- Gender is a structural dimension of society that is present beyond the immediate control of individuals
- It also gives men power over women so daily social interaction reflects our society’s gender stratification
- says little about the broad patterns of inequality that “set the rules”
Gender Stratification: Social-Conflict Analysis: Summarize
Friedrich Engels: Gender and Class
- Men gained power over women as the productive technology advanced
- Private property contributed to male domination
- They controlled the sexuality of women to identify male heirs
- Capitalism makes male domination even stronger
Gender Stratification: Social-Conflict Analysis: Critical Review
- This approach regards conventional families as a social evil
- Minimizes the extent to which women and men live together co-operatively and happily in families
- Agrarian societies are typically more patriarchal than industrial-capitalist societies
Define: Feminism
Advocacy of social equality for men and women in opposition to patriarchy and sexism
Basic Feminist Ideas:
- Working to increase equality
- Expanding human choice
- Eliminating gender stratification
- Ending sexual violence
- Promoting sexual freedom
Types of Feminism:
- Liberal feminism
- Socialist feminism
- Radical feminism
- Cultural feminism
- Postmodern feminism
Define: Liberal feminism
Freedom to develop own talents and interests
Define: socialist feminism
Pursue collective (male and female) social revolution with a state-centered economy
Define: Radical feminism
Revolution for an egalitarian, gender-free society
Define: Cultural feminism
Rejects privileged white middle-class feminism that ignores others
Define: Postmodern feminism
Rejects other feminist thought
Critical Review of Feminism
- Ignores evidence that males and females do think and act differently
- Undervalues the crucial and unique contribution women make to the development of children
- Most think women social conflict and feminist analysis advance individually, not by socialist or radical forms
Know for the exam:
Look at summary pages at the end of each chapter and make sure you understand the key concepts.
Know theories
Know theorists (Weber, Marx, Erikson, Etc)
Symbolic interaction
Conflict theory
Structural functional theory
9-10 questions from each chapter on the exam
Gender stratification —> Conflict theory
Define: Family
A social institution that unites people in cooperative groups to care for one another, including any children
Define: Kinship
A social bond based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption
Define: Marriage
A legal relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, sexual activity, and child bearing
Define: Extended family
A family consisting of parents and children as well as other kind (Recognized in pre-industrial societies)
Define: Nuclear Family
A family composed of one or two parents and their children
Define: Endogamy
Marriage between people of the same category
Define: Exogamy
Marriage between people from different categories
Define: monogamy
Uniting of two partners
Define: Polygamy
Marriage between three or more people
- Polygyny: 2 or more women
- Polyandry: 2 or more men
Define: Patrilocality
Married couple live with or near the husbands family
Define: Matrilocality
Married couple live with or near the wife’s family
Define: Neolocality
Married couple live apart from both sets of parents
Critical Review of the functions of the family: Structural Functional Analysis
Glosses over:
- Great diversity of family life
- How other institutions are taking over its roles
- Negative aspects like patriarchy and family violence
Structural Functional Analysis: Functions of the Family: Tasks that the family performs for society
- Socialization
- Regulations of sexual activity
- Social Placement
- Material and emotional security
Social Conflict and Feminist Analysis: Inequality and the Family: What does this approach point out?
- How the family perpetuates social inequality
- Property and inheritance; high class men’s need to identify their heirs
- Patriarchy; To know their heirs, men must control the sexuality of women; own them as property
- Race and ethnic inequality; marriage within group supports racial and ethnic hierarchies
Social Conflict and Feminist Analysis: Inequality and the Family: Critical Review
Ignores that:
- Non-Capitalist societies also have families and family problems
- Families carry out societal functions not easily accomplished by other means
Constructing Family Life: Micro-level Analysis: Symbolic interaction:
Intimacy: etymology means :sharing fear:
- Opportunities for sharing activities helps build emotional bonds
Social Exchange Analysis
- Courtship and marriage as a negotiation to make the “best deal” on their partner
- Terms of exchange are converging for men and women
- Some people are very traditional, they want to stay home and raise the kids and have the husband work, they discuss this before
Constructing Family Life: Micro-level Analysis: Symbolic interaction: Critical Review
Misses the big picture:
- Family life is similar for people in similar social and economic backgrounds
- Working class families tend to be more traditional
Define: Arranged Marriages
family alliances (family or friends introduce people to each other that they think would be a nice couple)
Define: Romantic Love
Affection and sexual passion as the basis for marriage (we tend to marry people like ourselves)
Define: Homogamy (“Like marrying like”)
marriage between people with the same social characteristics
Define: Infidelity
Sexual activity outside marriage; 33% of men and 35% of women report that they have been cheated on
Define: Sandwich generation
Adults have to care for both young and old
Social Class: Working class:
Wives seek men who hold a steady job, do not drink, and is not violent
Social Class: Middle class:
- Wives seek communication
- Children enjoy better health and achieve more than children born to poor parents
Causes of Divorce:
- Individualism on the rise
- Romantic love often fades (or rather, settles)
- Women are less dependent on men
- Marriage is stressful
- Divorce is socially acceptable
Who tends to get divorced:
- Young spouses
- Short courtship
- Few financial resources
- People with divorced parents
- Less religious
- Response to an unexpected pregnancy
- Alcohol or drug related problems
- Two successful careers
define: Blended families
remarriages create them, composed of children and some combination of biological parents and step-parents
Alternative Family Forms: One-Parent Families
- 15.6% of Canadian families
- Single parenthood increases a woman’s risk of poverty
Alternative Family Forms: Cohabitation
- Sharing of a household by an unmarried couple (common law)
- 16.4% of Canadian Families
Alternative Family Forms: Gay and Lesbian couples
- Only 5 countries have extended marriage to same sex couples
- 0.5% of Canadian Families
Alternative Family Forms: Singlehood
- being outside marriage or a common law relationship
- On the increase, now 25% of households
The Family: Looking ahead
- Divorce rates likely to remain high
- Family life will be highly diverse
- Men are likely to play a limited role in childrearing
- Economic changed will be influential
- New reproductive technologies will increase
Define: Education
The social institution through which society provides its members with important knowledge, including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms and values
Define: Schooling
Formal instruction under the direction or specially trained teachers
Schooling in India:
- Many children work, limiting their schooling
- Half the population is literate
- Patriarchy shapes opportunity
Schooling in Japan
- Japan has some of the world’s highest achievers
- Schools foster traditional values
- 96% of young people graduate from high school
- Japanese students outperform Canadian students in mathematics and science
Schooling in Great Britain
- schooling was a privilege of nobility in middle ages
- British law now requires every child to attend school until age 16
- Public schools are what we call private boarding schools, for the wealthy
Schooling in Canada
- By 1920, Canada had compulsory education to the end of elementary school or the age of 16 in most provinces
- More than 270 publicly funded post-secondary institutions
- 15.2% of Canadians had university degrees in 2001
Define: Functional illiteracy
reading and writing skills insufficient for daily living
The functions of schooling: Socialization
- technology simple societies depend on families to transmit their way of life
- Industrialized societies turn to teachers and the schooling system to teach basic skills, values and important cultural lessons
The functions of schooling: Cultural Innovation
- done through research
- faculty at colleges and universities create culture as well as pass it on to students
The functions of schooling: Social Integration
- Schooling moulds a diverse population into one society sharing norms and values
- Canadian educational policies have tried to support equality and unity within diversity
The functions of schooling: Social Placement
- Support meritocracy by rewarding talent as a foundation of future social position
The functions of schooling: Latent functions (unintended)
- provides child care
- reduced competition for jobs
- Helps establish networks and identify partners
The functions of schooling: Critical Review
- The quality of schooling is far better for the rich than for the less well off
- Reproduces the class system
Schooling and Social Interaction: Self-fulfilling Prophesy
- Teacher’s expectations can affect self-image and academic performance
Schooling and Social Interaction: Critical Review
- If students and teachers come to believe that one race is superior to another, the ensuing behaviour will be a self-fulfilling prophecy
-However, people don’t make up beliefs:
They are built into our society’s system of social inequality
Schooling and Social Inequality: Social control:
Teaches compliance, punctuality, and discipline
Schooling and Social Inequality: Hidden Curriculum:
Subtle presentations of political or cultural ideas in the classroom
Schooling and Social Inequality: Standardized testing
transforms privilege into individual merit
Schooling and Social Inequality: Streaming and Social Inequality
Assigning students to different types of programs, frequently according to backgrounds
The skills most in demand and shortest in supply are:
- Ability to integrate and use information
- Adapt to change
- Take reasonable risks
- Conceptualize the future
- Leadership and conflict management
Home schooling
- 2% of North American children are educated at home
- Less popular in Canada then U.S.
- On average, students who learn at home outperform those who learn in schools
