Lecture 9-11 M2 Flashcards
What are the four key concepts?
- social action
- social structure
- culture
- power
What are the basic elements of social structure?
- status
- role
What are the types of social statuses?
- ascribed
- achieved
What is an ascribed social status and an example?
A social status assumed at birth or involuntarily later in life, being a daughter
What is an achieved social status and an example?
A social status one assumes voluntarily and reflects personal ability and effort, being a student
Define status set?
All the statuses a person holds at a given time
Define master status?
A more important social status that shapes ones social identity
Define role?
A behaviour associated with a certain status
Define role conflict?
Incompatible roles of two or more statuses
Define role strain?
Competing incompatible roles of one status
Define culture?
Learned knowledge that is constantly communicated among people who share a common way of life
Is culture inherent at birth?
No, its learned
What does participation in a culture allow for?
Meaningful understanding of ones own actions and actions of others
What is a sociologists definition of power?
The ability of one actor to determine the course of events or the structure of social organization
How can power be exercised?
- directly by force
- indirectly by shaping social structure or culture
What two sociological perspectives relate to power?
- Marx is all about conflict that comes from power
- Goffman and symbolic interactionism and impression management
Define socialization
The lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture
What does socialization link individuals and societies through?
- culture
- structure
When learning culture through socialization, what is a consequence?
Ethnocentrism
What is ethnocentrism?
Judging another culture by the standards of their own culture
What do the words, “social experience,” in the definition of socialization tell us about socialization?
- allows for social reproduction; socialization persists from one generation to the next
- links societies and individuals through structure
What stage of life are people socialized?
From birth to death
What does the words, “develop their human potential,” in the definition of socialization mean?
- without socialization people wouldn’t be able to participate in society
- we know this because of unsocialized children (ANA and GENIE)
What philosophical theory did Mead believe in?
Symbolic interactionism
What does symbolic interactionism say interaction between humans takes place through?
Interaction takes place through symbols and interpretation of meanings
What is a looking glass and who developed the theory?
Looking glass is a mirror and was developed by a symbolic interactionists, Cooley
What is the looking glass self theory?
The image people have of themselves is based on how they believe others see them, others are a mirror which we see ourselves in
What problem did Meads theory of childhood development address?
It addressed the problem of the emergence of the self
Define self
A sense of having a distinct identity separate from other things
Are children born with a sense of self?
No
How does one acquire a sense of self?
Interactions with others beginning in childhood
What are the stages in the development of the self?
- play stage
- game stage
- generalized other
What is a key concept in the 3 stages of development of the self?
Role taking
Define role taking?
Imagining the situation from another persons point of view
What is play stage?
Take the role of a specific person, one at a time
What is game stage?
Take the role of more than one specific person at a time in one situation
What is generalized others?
- use general values and moral rules as referents
- begin to think of what people think of them
- monitor their own behaviour
What do children develop as they move through the stages of childhood development?
The ability to take on an ever-increasing number of roles. This ties directly to socialization as were absorbing culture
What are the agencies of socialization?
- families
- peers
- schools
- mass media
- other socializing agents
What depends on place in social order?
How socialized children are
What does social order include?
-class, gender, race, ethnicity
What is the main socializing agent in all cultures?
Families
How are families socializing agents?
- connects different generations together
- older generations perpetuate norms and values
Define peer
Children of the same age
What is different about family and peers?
Peers is egalitarian where is family is hierarchical
How do peer group settings socialize children?
- learning norms of sharing and equity
- friendship
What are the ways in which socialization at schools occurs?
-formal and hidden curriculum
What is formal curriculum?
Teaches student specific subject matter
What is hidden curriculum?
Transmission from one generation to the next of values and norms (be quiet in class, punctual, etc.)
How do structural functionalists see the hidden curriculum?
- positively
- latent function of schools as socializing agents
- prepare kids for workforce which increases the degree of functional integration of a society
How does social conflict approach view hidden curriculum?
- reproduces social inequality, b/c students are pushed into roles
- example is Paul Willists Marxist experiment
What is Paul Willis’s experiment?
- looked at social mobility
- found workers got working class jobs and middle class got middle class jobs
What does Paul Willis’s experiment highlight?
The ability of a school to socialize children and the long term effects of it. The hidden and formal curriculum
How does the mass media act as a socializing agent?
It influences behaviours and attitudes by providing people with information. It gives info that people normally wouldn’t have
What are the ‘other’ socializing agents?
- day care
- local communities
Why is day care an increasing socializing agent?
-because there is an increasing amount of women working
What are the types of socialization that occur in adulthood?
- desocialization and resocialization
- occupational socialization
- anticipatory socialization
What is desocialization and resocialization?
- first a disruption of previous beliefs and then acceptance of radical new beliefs
- happens under extreme circumstance
- concentration camps
Where is desocialization and resocialization most likely to occur?
- total institutions or carceral organizations
- control by separating
What is occupational socialization and what knowledge does it bring?
- is from a job
- specific job related skills
- values and ethics that apply to the work
- unofficial rules of workplace
- knowledge of how people should relate to each other
What is anticipatory socialization?
Attempts to prepare for a new work role
What culture generally socializes people?
Dominant culture
Is dominant culture always what is socializing people? Give an example?
No, people can be socialized into subcultures, illustrated by socialization and deviance
What is deviance?
Non-conformity to norms and values that are accepted by most in society
What theory is used to explain deviance?
Yes, differential association theory
What is the differential association theory?
Deviants tend to form social bonds with other deviants from whom they learn the deviant norms and values
Based on differential association theory what can be concluded about how deviance is created?
Deviant behaviour is produced by the same socializing processes as conforming behaviour
What did Mead study?
Childhood development
What does culture get transmitted through?
Socialization, it is a process of cultural transmission
What does the word “lifelong,” in the definition of socialization mean?
Socialization can occur from birth-death, not just children are socialized
What is Mead’s “Point of Departure”
- A child is not born with a self
- self is a social construction thus its not possible to be born with it
What theory did Cooley believe in?
Symbolic interactionism
What type of implications do peer groups have?
Lifelong
