Intro to Sociology Test #4

Question 1

Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 1

Created by Sigmund Freud
This theory emphasizes childhood and sexual development as permanent influences on a person’s identity and how society is upheld through the transformation of human instincts.
Freud uses his idea of the unconscious mind to explain that unconscious energy is the source of conscious thoughts and behavior. Then, he explains that the mind has three systems: ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO. Lastly, he argued that humans must find socially acceptable ways of channeling these instincts which in turn creates social order. This means that we agree to norms and sanctions that infringe on personal freedom but ultimately serve to protect the well- being of the group.

Question 2

SELF

Answer 2

the individual’s conscious, reflexive experience of a personal identity separate and distinct from others

Question 3

ID

Answer 3

composed of inborn drives, is the source of instinctive psychic energy, its main goal is to achieve pleasure and to avoid pain in all situations

Question 4

EGO

Answer 4

the realistic aspect of the mind that balances the forces of the id and the superego, operates on the basis of reason

Question 5

SUPEREGO

Answer 5

has two components (the conscience and the ego-ideal) and represents the internalized demands of society, inhibits the urges of the id and encourages the ego to find morally acceptable forms of behavior, develops as a result of parental guidance usually in the form of the rewards and punishments we receive as children
Conscience - keeps us from engaging in socially undesirable behavior
Ego ideal - upholds our vision of who we believe we should ideally be

Question 6

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Answer 6

four distinct stages of the development of the self between birth and adulthood, according to Freud; personality quirks are a result of being fixated, or stuck, at any stage (the 1st-3rd stage is between 1 and 5 years old where some people may get stuck or fixated on something causing personality traits that affect adulthood, the 4th stage is around 12 years old, but few people successfully complete this final transition to maturity)

Question 7

LOOKING-GLASS SELF

Answer 7

the notion that the self develops through our perception of others’ evaluations and appraisals of us

Question 8

PREPARATORY STAGE

Answer 8

he first stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self where in children mimic or imitate others

Question 9

PLAY STAGE

Answer 9

the second stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self wherein children pretend to play the role of the particular or significant other

Question 10

PARTICULAR OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER

Answer 10

the perspectives and expectations of a particular role that a child learns and internalizes

Question 11

GAME STAGE

Answer 11

the third stage in Mead’s theory of the development of self wherein children play organized games and take on the perspective of the generalized other

Question 12

GENERALIZED OTHER

Answer 12

the perspectives and expectations of a network of others (or of society in general) that children learn and then take into account when shaping their own behavior

Question 13

DUAL NATURE OF THE SELF

Answer 13

the idea that we experience the self as both subject and object, the “I” and the “me” (I is subject, me is object)

Question 14

Examples of Psychoanalytic Theory

Answer 14

For example, the unconscious urge to defeat your rival/enemy causes you to make the conscious decision to work harder at your job to outshine your coworker.
Examples of the 3 mind systems: The ID may urge you to slack off at work to avoid stress. The ego may urge you to tell yourself “Okay, this time the other guy got the job, but if I keep trying, I’m bound to get that promotion eventually.” The superego may suppress the urge to kill your competitor and keep you working toward getting a raise in socially acceptable ways.
Example of how psychological makeup creates social order: There are many constructive ways of expressing sexual energy. We can redirect it toward creative pursuits in order to produce great works of culture, commerce, or science. Likewise, aggressive instincts can find appropriate outlets in competitive sports, politics, and even video games.

Question 15

The Looking Glass Self

Answer 15

created by Charles Cooley
Cooley was a member of the Chicago School of Sociology and wrote a poem that said “Each to each a looking-glass, Reflects the other that doth pass.” Cooley believed that we all act like mirrors to each other, reflecting an image of ourselves to other people, and there is no sense of self without society. We act like mirrors to each other in these 3 steps.
1) We imagine how we look to others, not just physically but how we present ourselves.
2) We imagine other people’s judgment of us.
3) We experience some kind of feeling about ourselves based on our perception of other people’s judgments. We respond to the judgments that we believe others make about us, without really knowing for sure what they think.

Question 16

Mind, Self, and Society

Answer 16

created by George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead is also a member of the Chicago School of Sociology and he laid the groundwork for symbolic interactionism. He believed that the self is created through social interaction and this process starts in childhood as children begin to learn language. The acquisition of language skills coincides with the growth of mental capacities, including the ability to think of ourselves as separate and distinct and to see ourselves in relationship to others. It is seen through these stages.

Preparatory stage - Starts under the age of three where children lack a completely developed sense of self so they imitate or mimic others without fully understanding the meaning of their behavior
Play stage - at the age of three where children start to play or pretend to be different characters like “mommy,” “firefighter,” “princess,” or “doctor,” they internalize the perspectives and expectations of those particular others and begin to gain new perspectives in addition to their own
Game stage - during early school years children start to participate in organized games that have rules where they must simultaneously take into account the roles of all the other players, making them internalize the expectations of the generalized other for themselves and to evaluate their own behavior which reflects the attitudes and expectations of society as a whole

Question 17

CRIME

Answer 17

a violation of a norm that has been codified into law

Question 18

CRIMINOLOGY

Answer 18

the systematic scientific study of crime, criminals, and criminal justice

Question 19

UNIFORM CRIME REPORT (UCR)

Answer 19

an official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI’s official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies, shown to be a flawed system

Question 20

VIOLENT CRIME

Answer 20

crime in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery

Question 21

PROPERTY CRIME

Answer 21

crime that does not involve violence, including burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson

Question 22

CYBERCRIME

Answer 22

• crime committed via the internet, including identity theft, embezzlement, fraud, sexual predation, and financial scams

Question 23

WHITE COLLAR CRIME

Answer 23

crime committed by a high-status individual in the course of their occupation

Question 24

*DETERRENCE

Answer 24

an approach to punishment that relies on the threat of harsh penalties to discourage people from committing crimes

Question 25

*RETRIBUTION

Answer 25

an approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge (“getting even”) for the crime

Question 26

*INCAPACITATION

Answer 26

an approach to punishment that seeks to protect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them

Question 27

*REHABILITATION

Answer 27

an approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty

Question 28

CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Answer 28

a collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police, courts, and prisons, that creates and enforces laws

Question 29

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

Answer 29

the death penalty

Question 30

POSITIVE DEVIANCE

Answer 30

actions considered deviant within a given context but later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic

Question 31

*STIGMA

Answer 31

Erving Goffman’s term for any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or group’s identity and that may exclude them from normal social interaction

Question 32

*IN-GROUP ORIENTATION

Answer 32

among stigmatized individuals, the rejection of prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity (ex. NAAFA National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance and NCTE National Center for Transgender Equality are groups that reject the standards marking them as deviant and actively propose new standards where their special identities are considered normal)

Question 33

*PASSING

Answer 33

presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group to which you belong (ex. light-skinned African Americans who sought access to the privileges of whiteness and relief from discrimination by concealing their racial heritage and passing as white)

Question 34

OUTSIDERS

Answer 34

according to Howard Becker, those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from “normal” society

Question 35

DEVIANCE AVOWAL

Answer 35

process by which an individual self-identifies as deviant and initiates their own labeling process, voluntary outsiders (ex. In the Alcoholics Anonymous program, the first step in recovery is for a member to admit that they are an alcoholic)

Question 36

The Study of Crime

Answer 36

The younger the population, the more likely they are to commit a crime. Males are more likely to commit crimes than females. Criminologists found that lower crime rates among women could be explained by their lower status in the power hierarchy. Conflict theorists argued that once women start gaining power in the labor market through education and income, the crime rates among women will then rise to more closely match those among men.

Question 37

Deviance, Cross Cultural Responses to Deviance, & Theories of Deviance:

Answer 37

The norms and group reactions of a particular culture during a particular situation are necessary for a behavior or characteristic to be considered deviant. The boundaries between beauty and deviance are fluid across time and place. The term deviant is used by sociologists as a social judgment, not a moral one. The paradigms functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism can also be applied to deviance.

Question 38

Sociologists are interested in these rule-related topics

Answer 38

How do certain norms and rules become especially important?
Who is subject to the rules? How is rule breaking identified?
What types of sanctions (punishments or rewards) are dispensed to society’s violators?
How do people who ‘break the rules’ see themselves and how do others see them?
How have sociologists attempted to explain rule making, rule breaking, and responses to rule breaking?

Question 39

*David Matza (1969)

Answer 39

introduced a perspective called naturalism which “urged social scientists to set aside their preconceived notions in order to understand deviant phenomena on their own terms,” those studying deviance must appreciate the diversity and complexity of a particular social world, related to term Verstehen by Max Weber which means empathic understanding

Question 40

FUNCTIONALISM

Answer 40

unctionalism argues that each element of the social structure helps maintain the stability of society. **Émile Durkheim came up with a couple of functions of deviance for society.
Deviance can help a society clarify its moral boundaries. We are reminded about our shared notions of what is right when we have to address people’s wrongdoings.
Deviance can also promote social cohesion. People can be brought together as a community in the face of crime or other violations.
Deviance can promote social change. Sociologists argue that some deviants should be considered heroes. “Deviant heroes” refer to individuals who violate norms—and risk the repercussions for doing so—out of an intention to create positive social change.

Question 41

Travis Hirschi’s social control theory

Answer 41

hypothesizes that the stronger one’s social bonds are, the less likely one is to commit crime. Such bonds tend to increase one’s investment in the community and also increase their commitment to that community’s shared values and norms. So, social bonds promote conformity.

Question 42

CONFLICT THEORY

Answer 42

Conflict theorists (who study inequalities of wealth and power) believe that rules are applied unequally and that punishments for rule violators are unequally distributed: behaviors of less powerful groups are more likely to be criminalized than the behaviors of the powerful. American criminologist Richard Quinney theorized that capitalism allows the ruling class to make laws that target the poor. When the poor act out against repression, they become targets for law enforcement, while the rich and powerful remain free to do what they like.

Question 43

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

Answer 43

Symbolic Interactionism: Interactionists consider the ways that interpersonal relationships and everyday interactions shape definitions of deviance.

Question 44

*Differential association theory

Answer 44

It asserts that we learn to be deviant through our association with others who break the rules. This is not an absolute rule in that not all who associate with deviants become deviants themselves, and some deviants have never associated with other deviants.

Question 45

*Labeling theory

Answer 45

It asserts that deviance is a consequence of external judgements or labels that modify the individual’s self concept and change the way that others respond to the labeled person. Labels are not 100% deterministic. (Ex. A man who kills an intruder who is attacking his child may be labeled a hero, while a man who kills a cashier while robbing a store may be labeled a villain. Even though the act of homicide is the same, the way the person who did it is treated differs greatly depending on the label.)
Labeling theory is also concerned with how individuals think of themselves once a deviant label has been applied. If others react to us as deviant, we are likely to internalize that label even if we object to it. Applying deviant labels can also lead to further deviance, as a person moves from primary deviance (the thing that gets them labeled in the first place) to secondary deviance (a deviant identity or career).