midterm

Question 1

What is sociology and why do we study it?

Answer 1

sociology is the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large; sociologists study all aspects and levels of society

We study it because it is not only a way to study society but to also improve it. It also teachers people ways to recognize how they fit into the world and how others perceive them

Question 2

What is the sociological perspective?

Answer 2

it is the concept that the individual and society are inseparable. It is impossible to study one without the other.

Question 3

What is the sociological imagination?

Answer 3

It states that we must separate ourselves from the familiar reality of our personal circumstances, and view social issues from a broader context

Question 4

Why do we need theories?

Answer 4

Theories are needed to show why facts occur; they involve ‘constructing abstract interpretations’ that can be used to explain a wide variety of empirical situations

Question 5

Founding fathers and their theories?

Answer 5

August Comte: French, coined the term “sociology” in age of turbulent revolutionary France, thought that sociology needs to create knowledge that will allow us to predict and intervene in social life (positivism), saw society as having a disease and sociology being the medicine

Emile Durkheim: French, wanted to make sociology an academic discipline, thought that sociology needs to discover social that can explain society in a scientific manner, thought that different types of societies generate different types of suicide, organic and mechanical societies, social cohesion is important, anomie, as societies modernize there is anomie, social environment is more important than you, functionalist

Karl Marx: German, wrote Communist Manifesto, lived during a period of radical unrest, changes in society are drive by process of collective class struggle (conflict theory), bourgeoisie (revolutionary class) and proletariat (working class), the group that was once oppressed will become the oppressor (bourgeoisie will create its own end and the proletariat will take over, wants a classless society

Max Weber: German, wrote in response to Marx, three main dimensions of class situation (relationship of a person to particular market): class (economics), status (social), and party (politics), rooted in constructivism, king of probability, symbolic interactionism

Question 6

Theories and their explanation?

Answer 6

Functionalism: sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals in a society

Conflict theory: looks at society as competition for limited resources

Symbolic interactionism: micro level theory on relationships among individuals in a society, examines how social life depends on the ways we define ourselves and others, as well as our relationship

Constructivism: extension of symbolic interactionism which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be

Question 7

Foundations of society?

Answer 7

Culture: shared, beliefs values and practices of a social group, it is fluid and dynamic, product of people in a society, five common components: symbols, language, values, and beliefs, norms, material culture

Social institutions: government, education, religion (patterns of beliefs or behaviors focused on meeting social needs)

Family: earliest agent of socialization and enculturation

Education: shapes roles in society and can help maintain peace

Question 8

What is the sociological research method?

Answer 8

Ask a question, research existing sources, and formulate a hypothesis (scientific method) or you can use surveys, field research, participant observation, ethnography, case study, or secondary data analysis

Question 9

How does culture impact humans and social identity?

Answer 9

culture is a defining feature in a person’s identity, contributing to how they see themselves and groups with which they identify, it shapes the way in which we work and play and affects our values thus our social identity and how we function in society

Question 10

what are cross-cultural encounters?

Answer 10

dealing with comparison between 2 or more different cultures

Question 11

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 11

evaluating or judging another culture based on how it compares to their own norms; putting own culture as “normal” and another as “weird”; narrows our perspective and leads to stereotypes and nationalism,

Question 12

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 12

practice of assessing a culture by its own standards

Question 13

How do we develop a sense of self?

Answer 13

the Self is a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self-awareness and self image, it emerges from social experience and interactions; sometimes having to take the role of the other; children first start off by imitating and then they take the role of the other

Development: Sensorimotor, Pre-operational, Concrete operational, Formal operational

Question 14

Socialization?

Answer 14

is the process by which people learn characteristics of their group’s norms, values, attitude and behaviors

First level: family, day care, close friends
Second level: school, group interactions, conformity
Third level: college, work, marriage, own family

All of these depend on context such as family, geographic location, and class situation

Question 15

Education?

Answer 15

The goal of education is to provide knowledge and skill through personal development of physical, social, intellectual, and emotional abilities. Also, to enforce the hidden curriculum like implicit academic, social, and cultural messages, unwritten rules and unspoken expectations, and unofficial norms, behaviors and values.

Question 16

Reason behind differences among education systems?

Answer 16

The major factors affecting education systems are the resources and money that are utilized to support those systems in different nations. As you might expect, a country’s wealth has much to do with the amount of money spent on education.

The value placed on education, the amount of time devoted to it, and the distribution of education within a country also play a role in those differences.

In the United States, researchers noted that educational resources, including money and quality teachers, are not distributed equitably.

Question 17

Ethnomethodology?

Answer 17

How we make sense of our interactions with others

Question 18

Life course?

Answer 18

instability of apparently fixed life stages, life stages are essentially socially constructed

Question 19

Culture, education, and family according to functionalism, marxism, and symbolic interactionism

Answer 19

Functionalism
Culture: View it as a reflection of societies’ values, serves many functions, an emergent web of representations, holistically encompassing the deep- set value, belief, and symbolic systems of a natural collectivity, culture works to fulfill society’s needs

Education: focuses on how education serves the needs of society through development of skills, encouraging social cohesion and sorting of students, focuses on the role of schools is to prepare students for participation in the institutions of society.

Family: creates well-integrated members of society and instills culture into the new members of society. It provides important ascribed statuses such as social class and ethnicity to new members. It is responsible for social replacement by reproducing new members, to replace its dying members.

Marxism
Culture: is a social product, social tool, and social process resulting from the construction and use by social groups with diverse social experiences and identities, including gender, race, social class, and more

Education: education aims to legitimize and reproduce class inequalities by forming a subservient class and workforce. Education also prepares children of the capitalist ruling class (the bourgeoisie) for positions of power.

Family: as essentially a conservative institution that helps to preserve capitalism. They also weaken the position of individual workers in relation to the boss.

Symbolic Interactionism:
Culture: as highly dynamic and fluid, as it is dependent on how meaning is interpreted and how individuals interact when conveying these meanings. Interactionists research changes in language.

Education: focuses on social interaction in the classroom, on school playgrounds, and at other school-related venues. Social interaction contributes to gender-role socialization, and teachers’ expectations may affect their students’ performance.

Family: as a site of social reproduction where meanings are negotiated and maintained by family members. role making and role identity