Midterm 3: deck 1 Flashcards
-strain
What is the million dollar question for strain? (1)
Which causal sequence is accurate?
-does strain cause deviance or does deviance cause strain?
What historical events contributed to sociologists studying strain within crime and deviance? (1)
- WW1 and the Spanish Flu
- after the stock market crashed during the dirty 30s
What is the general definition of anomie? (1)
-without purpose or normlessness
What two meanings did Durkheim give to anomie? (1)
- an anomic division of labour (societal)
- an anomic mental state of an individual
Who was considered the father of sociology? (1)
-Durkheim
What did society transition from and too according to Durkheim? (1)
-mechanical solidarity to organic solidarity
What was mechanical solidarity? (1)
-people in the simplest societies are bonded due to their similarities
Where was organic solidarity found and what was it? (1)
- a characteristic of modern industrial societies
- it is created through people feeling they must work to keep the system working for everyone
Is the transition between mechanical and organic solidarity smooth? (1)
- No
- Durkheim believed all societies struggled to transition between the two
What is the natural result of the transition from mechanical to organic solidarity? (1)
-anomie
As the division of labour grows, what will cause social problems according to Durkheim? (1)
-human greed and desire
What must be done to human beings to control their greed and self-interest and prevent anomie? (1)
- social institutions morally constrain human desires
- humans have to be regulated and controlled
What did Durkheim believe about Marx’s causal order? (1)
-that Marx reversed the primary causal order
What causal order did Durkheim believe in? (1)
-anomie caused class conflict
How did Marx see causal order? (1)
- class conflict generated anomie
- also called alienation
Did Durkheim believe psychology alone could explain suicide? (1)
- no
- he tried to explain it with sociology
- because he wanted sociology to be a separate science
What are the four types of suicide? (1)
- anomic
- egoistic
- altruistic
- fatalistic
How did Durkheim argue that suicide could not be explained with psychology only? (1)
-because social groups significantly impact the likelihood of suicide
Which suicide had too strong integration? What is an example of someone? (1)
- altruistic
- terrorist, war hero
Which suicide had too strong regulation? What is an example? (1)
- fatalistic
- slaves
Which suicide had too little integration? What is an example? (1)
- egoistic
- protestant, single
- “cult of the individual”
Which suicide had too little regulation? What is an example? (1)
- anomic
- Indigenous people and the absence of their culture
What does social solidarity include? (1)
-integration and regulation
What time period was Merton writing in? (1)
- 1930s and later
- economy was bad
What were the categories in Merton’s strain theory? (1)
- conformity
- innovation
- ritualism
- retreatism
- rebellion
What two indicators did Merton’s Strain theory look at to categorize things? (1)
- acceptance of culturally induced goals
- ability to achieve culturally induced goals
Why did Merton believe cultural goals caused deviance and crime? (1)
- society pressured everyone into the same American dream
- however, many people couldn’t achieve this
What was the conformist? (1)
- accepts societies pressures and can achieve their goals
- thus, not criminal or deviant
What was the innovator? (1)
- wants the dream but can’t live it
- they innovate by deviating (selling drugs) to live a better life closer to their goal
What was the ritualist? (1)
- rejects the American dream but could achieve it
- lack ambition which is somewhat deviant
What were rebels? (1)
- do not accept the American dream and want to replace it (with communism for example)
- deviant
Why did Agnew develop general strain theory? (1)
-to explain why males more frequently committed crime and deviance
What did Agnew’s general strain theory argue? (2)
- males and females experience the same strain
- however, males respond differently to it
How did Agnew’s general strain theory relate to Merton’s? (1)
-Agnew expanded on Merton’s to include biology and physiology
What three types of strain did Agnew talk about? (1)
- inability to achieve positively valued goals
- removal or threat to remove positively valued stimuli
- to threaten someone with negatively valued stimuli
What did Agnew say women were more likely to do when they couldn’t achieve their goals? (1)
- be self-destructive
- worry about their anger (shame)
What did Agnew say men were more likely to do when they couldn’t achieve their goals? (1)
- more likely to do crime
- less likely to be concerned with hurting people
What were the problems with strain theory? (5)
- Merton never looked at corporate crime
- Does everyone have unity of goals?
- capitalism is absent
- few appropriate punishments specified
- ignored the importance of labelling and learning
Why did Durkheim believe rapid social change produced deviant behaviour? (1)
-because people were unregulated
What did Merton say deviance was the result of? (1)
-social strain
What was Agnews biggest contribution to strain theory? (1)
- strain needs to include psychological strain
- believed strain to be gendered
What was the reatrist?
-rejects American dream and couldn’t get it if they wanted to
