Final Flashcards
Define social construction
When society constructs the aspects of society, such as race, gender class etc.
Define prejudice
To prejudge someone negatively based on inadequate information
Discrimination
Unequal treatment that gives advantages to one group of people over another without justifiable cause
Racism
The belief that one race is inherently superior to another
Achieved status
A position in a social system that a person attains voluntarily, to a considerable degree, as the result of his or her own efforts.
- work for it yourself
Ascribed status
A position in a social system, assigned to a person from birth, regardless to his or her wishes.
- born with it
Stereotypes
Exaggerated, distorted, or untrue generalizations about categories of people that do not acknowledge individual variation
Status hierarchy
A ranking of social positions according to their perceived prestige or honor
Social role
Set of expected behaviors that are associated with particular statuses
Dramaturgy
Studying social life as a theater
Goffman
Homophily
People are attracted to those that are similar to themselves
Stanley milgram experiment
People asked to electrocute people through a wall
Everyone did it because “authority” said so
- people will do whatever they are told
Endogamy
Pick people like you
Exogamy
Pick people unlike you
Groupthink
A form of uncritical thinking in which people reinforce a consensus rather than ask serious questions or thoroughly analyze the situation
Norms
A culture’s rules and expectations for appropriate behavior
What do we define as normal?
The powerful defines normal
Deviance
Behavior that does not conform to basic cultural norms and expectations
Collective conscience
The shared norms, beliefs, and values in a community
Durkheim
When do you become an alcoholic?
When someone labels you as one
Stigma
The shame attached to a behavior or status that is considered socially unacceptable
Negative!
Strain theory
A theory that emphasizes that the strain or pressure on those who lack the means to achieve culturally defined goals leads them to pursue deviant routes to success
(Robert K. Martin)
Secondary deviance
Deviant behavior that is a response to the negative consequences of labeling
Loner deviance
The activities of individuals who commit deviant acts without the social support of other participants
(Marth)
Differential association theory
Deviance is learned through interaction with other people involved in deviant behavior
(Edwin Sutherland)
Control theory
Our behavior is regulated by the strength of our connection to major social institutions, including family, school, and religion.
- our behavior is regulated by our social institutions
- the more connections you have in society, the less likely you are to be deviant
Karl Marx says we have
False consciousness
- we don’t know we’re laborers
Capitalists
Those who sells goods
Working class
Those who sell labor
Bourgeoisie
Marx’s term for capitalists
Petite Bourgeoisie
The lower middle class
Class mobility
The ability to move from one social class to another
Structural mobility
Shift in available occupations changes the class system as a whole
- coal miners
Individual mobility
When someone’s class changes without the entire class structure changing
Conspicuous consumption
Lavish spending, done to compete for status with others.
Thorstein Veblen
Feminization of poverty
A trend in which women made up an increasingly large share of the poor
Social capital
Relationships that are potentially economically valuable resulting from membership in a group
- knowing the right people to get what you want
Cultural capital
Various types of knowledge, skills, and other cultural resources.
WASPS
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
- if you’re not a wasp, you’re black
Pluralism
A + B + C
Different race and ethnic groups coexist equally in society
Amalgamation
A + B + C -> D
When the dominant group A and the minorities join to become a new group
Assimilation
A + B + C -> A
When the minorities adopt the culture of the dominant group A
Segregation
A + B + C -> A + B + C
When ethnic groups remain separated and unequal
Genocide
A - B - C -> A
When minority groups are killed in order to leave just group A left
Sex
Biological distinction
Male Females Interested Asexual Transsexual
Gender
Socially constructed expectations of men and women
A role!!
Man
Woman
Transgender
Sexuality / sexual identity
Person’s sexual desires/behaviors
Heterosexual Homosexual Bisexual Asexual Pansexual
Why are men stronger than women?
Because men have been raised to engage in “male” activities and women don’t
Gender identity
A person’s identification as a women, man, or transgender.
Gender expression
How you express your gender through clothing, hair, body language etc.
Sexism
One sex is superior to the other
Who constructs gender first?
Family
