Module 2 - Mind, Self And Society

Question 1

What did Durkheim believe in regards to what sociology is?

Answer 1

Sociology is the study of social facts in society.

Question 2

What did Weber believe in regards to what sociology is?

Answer 2

Sociology is the interpretation of the subjective meanings in individual social action.

Question 3

Social Interaction:

Answer 3

Our actions, interactions, and reactions to one another in the context of social relations. Social relations can be positive and negative. Not negative as in “wrong” or “bad,” but a lack of action.

Question 4

The Looking-Glass Self

Answer 4

Constructed by Charles Horton Cooley, an idea that we form an idea of ourselves based through the eyes of other. We begin to understand how other people understand us, forming a perspective of ourself. He thought that humans were born only with the potential to have a self. It would only emerge in the context of social interactions.

Question 5

George Herbert Mead:

Answer 5

Took Cooley’s ideas and expanded them on self, mind, and society. He thought the mind is emergent; all meanings emerge out of interactions or “conversations of gestures”, meaning it is not innate, the self is emergent; out of interactions, and that society is emergent out of interactions. He thought language formed the mind, which allows for conscious role taking and choosing of interaction, which forms the self. Therefore, the mind is the pre-condition for the emergence of self. Unlike Durkheim, he felt that the society was shaped by human interaction, just as much that human interactions were shaped by society.

Question 6

The Self:

Answer 6

A sense of identity that each individual possesses. Mead thought the self emerges in the context of interactions: From the standpoint of other group members and from the standpoint of the generalized other. He also thought the Self becomes stable over time, our elementary selves coalesce into a united self later on as they develop.

Question 7

The Two Phases of the Self:

Answer 7

According to Mead, the “I” and the “Me” are the two phases of self. The “I” is subjective, active, experiencing, and spontaneous. The “I” is uncertain and only exists in that moment of responding. Conversely, the “me” is objective, reflective, experienced, and conformist.

Question 8

How does role playing affect the emergence of the self?

Answer 8

Children must develop essential skills to be effective members of society and develop a sense of self as this is not an innate capacity.

Question 9

How did Mead believe the stages of development of the self through roleplaying existed?

Answer 9

There is the imitative stage, play stage, and game stage. In the imitative stage, under two years old, there is an inability to see self as separate from the other. During the play stage, they adopt roles of significant others, eg. parents (playing family), storybook heroes (dressing up in superhero imagination). During the game stage, children begin to internalize the generalized other and learn their own place.

Question 10

Role Strain:

Answer 10

A situation that can occur when there is tension among the various roles attached to a status or even between the roles attached to different statuses. For example, being a father and a soldier, Christian and gay, or even just being both an immigrant and a Canadian.

Question 11

How is the ‘self’ capitalized on?

Answer 11

The self-help industry: books, workshops, yoga, resort retreats.

Question 12

How is the ‘self’ a site for social inequality?

Answer 12

The ‘self’, it’s formation and transformation, is a major site of social inequalities. The rich go to “self”-improvement resorts. What do the poor do? Do all people have equal opportunities to develop their “self”? NO!

Question 13

Socialization:

Answer 13

Socialization is an ongoing, life-long process that helps shape an individual who is able to function in society; that is an individual who understands and can perform their roles. It is especially intense during childhood but might continue into adulthood and even old age. It involves the person who is being socialized as well as the people and agents who carry out the socialization.

Question 14

Social Roles:

Answer 14

Every member of society has various “roles” to play in their social interactions. These include: “Father”, “Neighbour”, “Patient”, “Elderly Person”, “Boss”, “Employee”, “Drug-Dealer”, “Criminal”, etc.

Question 15

Resocialization:

Answer 15

Immigrants for example, have to relearn how to socialize in new settings and culture.

Question 16

What are some of the agents of socialization?

Answer 16

Family, religious institutions, schools, mass media, and peer groups.

Question 17

How do mirror neurons show that humans are born as a blank-slate, or born social?

Answer 17

Mirror neurons fire off signals to mirror other people’s reactions and mechanisms. Monkey-see, monkey do. The brain mirrors the movements of others that it sees, indicating that humans are born inherently to copy and learn from others in a social setting. As well, children learn to speak, walk, and think, by watching others do something.

Question 18

Attachment Theory:

Answer 18

Care, social stimulation, and affection are crucial in infancy. The importance of close, intimate contact with the mother. Babies are passive. They receive attention from their mother and follow their cues.

Question 19

Theory of Intersubjectivity:

Answer 19

Babies are active participants. The infant is able to learn the patterns of human behaviour. Intersubjective development occurs across a spectrum between mutuality and separateness.

Question 20

Pierre Bourdieu:

Answer 20

Came up with the idea of habitus and cultural capital.

Question 21

Habitus:

Answer 21

A system of durable, transposable dispositions that individuals acquire through their experiences and socialization. It encompasses a set of perceptions, appreciations, and actions that guide how individuals navigate the social world. Habitus is both structured by past conditions and structures present and future practices. It is not a conscious set of rules but a deeply ingrained way of understanding and reacting to the world, often operating below the level of conscious awareness. Habitus provides a framework for individuals to act within the constraints of their social conditions, but it does not fully determine their actions. Individuals exercise agency through the choices they make within the limits set by their habitus. Career choices might be influenced by their habitus, which shapes their aspirations and perceptions of what is possible or desirable. However, individuals can also act in ways that challenge or subvert the expectations embedded in their habitus, potentially leading to social change.

Question 22

Explain how habitus is related to the Kabyle society in Algeria:

Answer 22

The habitus of the Kabyle people shapes their daily practices, social organization, and worldview, deeply rooted in their cultural traditions and economic practices. For example, the spatial organization of a Kabyle house reflects the gender norms and family structure within that society.

Question 23

Explain how habitus is related to the French educational system:

Answer 23

It favors those with a middle-class habitus, which includes a familiarity with dominant cultural codes, modes of expression, and manners that are valued in academic settings.

Question 24

In what ways can socialization suppress individuals?

Answer 24

Socialization often suppresses some of our instincts, desires, or tendencies that are not socially acceptable such as gender expression or sexual orientation. It can also suppress “affects” that are not socially desirable such as aggression in women or tenderness in men, etc. But it can also enable and encourage some desires or tendencies in us: kindness, competitiveness, etc.

Question 25

Goffman:

Answer 25

Goffman focuses on how we interact; the patterns that guide our actions, and the way that we attempt to manage ours as well as others’ perceptions of us. Goffam spent a great deal of time watching others interact, and found that our actions are far less spontaneous and far more scripted than we often believe.

Question 26

What did Goffman believe about face-to-face interaction?

Answer 26

Face-to-face interaction is “the reciprocal influence of individuals upon one another’s actions when in one another’s immediate physical presence.”

Question 27

Goffmans definition of the Backstage:

Answer 27

A place where actions or interactions take place that are not intended for public view but support a public role performance. The backstage is where the performances that are often suppressed on the front stage are allowed to appear. Social actors work to restrict audience access to the backstage.

Question 28

Goffman’s view of social life as a stage:

Answer 28

Social life is like a series of performances given by actors on the stage. These performances are meant to present actors as conforming to or exemplifying existing social norms. Audience decides whether or not the performance is genuine.

Question 29

Goffman’s definition of the Front Stage:

Answer 29

The setting where social performances meant to be seen take place. The front stage defines the situation in a general way for both an audience and a performer.

Question 30

Goffman’s definition of the outside:

Answer 30

Those areas irrelevant to the performance of a particular social role or to a particular social situation.

Question 31

Goffman’s Defenition of a team:

Answer 31

A performance or social interaction requires a team. This is a set of individuals who work together in a single performance and rely on each other.

Question 32

Role distance:

Answer 32

Individuals play many roles on many different teams, and their level of commitment to each role may vary.

Question 33

Face work and Face-saving:

Answer 33

A face is “an image of self, delineated in terms of approved social attributes- albeit an image that others may share, as when a person makes a good showing for his profession or religion by making a good showing of himself.”
Face-work: our attempt to ensure that our behaviours are consistent with the “face”.

Question 34

Impression Management:

Answer 34

Impression management is the activity engaged in by a social actor in order to guard against social faux pas.

Question 35

Techniques for maintaining impressions:

Answer 35

Using personal fronts (props) to make the performance look believable. Institutionalized fronts (widely accepted fronts with fixed meanings for established roles). Maintaining self-control.

Question 36

Social Scripts:

Answer 36

Normalized “scripts” and codes we rely on to mediate our interactions with others. The most obvious of these is language- but it can also include slang, body language, cultural references, etc. Essentially, these are unwritten social norms we follow and these vary from culture to culture.

Question 37

Self-Definition:

Answer 37

Our self-definitions arise out of our reactions to each other. When we move from one set of relationships to another, our self definitions can change dramatically. On small scales, this can be moving from one grade to another in the middle of the year, lifting you out of your normal friendships and changing how others perceive you. On larger scales, this can look like moving from one culture to another- especially when that other culture views race differently than your home culture does.

Question 38

Society as Emergent:

Answer 38

Human interactions create society - the way we interact with each other changes the way a society operates; it is not a fixed thing. If we change our interactions, society will change (society is more fluid than Durkheim imagined it). Society is a process, rather than a final “thing” that is permanent and ever-present. We see this most clearly in times of social change: An oppressed, marginalized, or otherwise forgotten class of people gain better social status/quality of status in their society when members of the society decide to change how they treat them, what they believe about them, and talk about them.

Question 39

Social Faux Pas:

Answer 39

Despite our best efforts, sometimes we fail or do something embarrassing. In other words, we commit social faux pas. Social faux pas include things such as using bad language or anything that is contrary to your role and the ‘face’ you establish in that role.

Question 40

Impression Management Techniques:

Answer 40

Goffman uses ‘impression management’ to refer to the activity engaged in by a social actor in order to guard against social faux pas. Impression management techniques include: Staying in your face and avoiding being distracted, angered, break out laughing in a serious situation. Using personal fronts (props) to make the performance look believable.

Question 41

Interaction Rituals:

Answer 41

A situation in which two or more people are present with clear boundaries between inside and outside. For instance, when you go to a doctor’s office. There is a literal boundary (the office door and walls). But there are symbolic boundaries as well: those who are included versus those who are excluded. Those who can know about your discussion and those who cannot. You have a common purpose and objective (you’re there to discuss a medical matter). And you share a common emotional experience or set of feelings (for instance, the experience is defined by professional etiquette and a sense of personal and emotional distance from one another).

Question 42

What is exclusionary boundary-work? What is inclusionary boundary work?

Answer 42

Exclusionary: Making a comparison of yourself to what you are PERCEIVED as to exclude yourself from a perceived group. These can include intentional acts meant to set yourself apart from others in your stereotyped group (e.g., excluding the stereotypical poor African-American; “I’m not them, I’m middle-class and I deserve to be in this neighbiourhood”) and conversational acts where you literally or figuratively set yourself apart.
Inclusionary: Acting LIKE the group you want to be ASSOCIATED with, meant to blur the boundaries between yourself and the associated group. (E.g. “Look at how similar we are- I talk and dress and act like YOU, specifically”).

Question 43

Cultural Capital:

Answer 43

Cultural capital refers to taste, style, credentials, knowledge, skills, mannerisms, language, accents, taste, preferences, etc. These are validated by dominant groups in society so individuals can deploy cultural capital to impress people.

Question 44

Who were Adorno and Horkheimer?

Answer 44

The original scholars of this subfield, Adorno and Horkheimer, created the Frankfurt School, whose major focus was on the study of mass media. They coined the term “culture industry” to describe an industrial complex surrounding the production of media and, in turn, the creation of culture. In Adorno’s day, his focus was on an early form of movies. What they wanted to make sense of was mass-production of art and culture.

Question 45

How did the Frankfurt School whew the culture industry?

Answer 45

The Frankfurt school posited that the American culture industry has created the idea called “false consciousness.” They used this term to mean that the culture industry creates a sense of being content with the world around us. It is the idea that you believe certain things and think they are good, but they are actually against our own interest and you don’t realize this. The culture industry creates a system where the proletariat does not realize their own self-interest, tricking us into thinking our oppression is what we want. The culture industry thus creates all these products that places everyone into this complacency. They also focus on how the culture industry transforms all aspects of life in capitalist societies into a form of work - even entertainment becomes work. You are consuming their ideology, paying for subscriptions, and allowing ads to push our consumption.

Question 46

Big Data:

Answer 46

Big data is used to refer to all the info scraped from social media and all these digital platforms. There are people who specialize in getting useful info out of this data for advertisers and social media companies. The reason we have “free” access to social media is because billionaires get something out of it - our attention and data is sold to advertisers. Social media tracks our attention on topics and uses algorithmic data to determine what advertisements are more relevant to us. This information is sold to advertisers to grab a piece of our attention. The raw data is useless by itself, but once it leads to curated advertising, it becomes very useful to companies. This is called targeted advertising, and it is the commodity we are giving and generating for companies when we spend time on social media.

Question 47

Echo Chambers:

Answer 47

Because social-media algorithms are only interested in capitalizing on our attention it creates an echo chamber of content that only reaffirms our beliefs and funnels us into networks of like-minded people. A feedback loop emerges - the more our biases are confirmed, the more we seek out information and internet communities that give us information (false and true) that validates our biases. We get stuck in filter bubbles that only show us filtered content that we want to see.

Question 48

Fragmentation:

Answer 48

When our attention gets split across multiple platforms. Very little vetting occurs on social media for these news sources, which proliferates certain narratives over others. We tend to seek content and news sources that validates our pre-existing beliefs, and we can choose to follow fragmented news sources that only validate our biases.

Question 49

How has attention to social media become commodified?

Answer 49

Social networking sites make money via ad space: companies buy spots on social media sites to put their ads in front of our eyes. In essence, what is being sold is our time and attention of these sites. We become the commodity being bought and sold.

Question 50

How has attention to social media become commodified?

Answer 50

Social networking sites make money via ad space: companies buy spots on social media sites to put their ads in front of our eyes. In essence, what is being sold is our time and attention of these sites. We become the commodity being bought and sold.

Question 51

How has social media promoted the idea of ratings?

Answer 51

We are constantly prompted to rate each other on social media. For example, you rate people on Uber, for food delivery, reviews for restaurants, etc. We expect one another to be the best all the time (i.e., five out of five star reviews); this is kind of inhumane and imposes an expectation of perfection. This can create distress and anxiety.

Question 52

How have algorithms oppressed certain groups of individuals?

Answer 52

It is assumed that AI can take us to a more equal world. This is not the case. Algorithms and AI are trained on human content- so they “learn” our biases. They learn on preexisting data and patterns and reflect on already biased data.

Question 53

How is privacy and surveillance monitored through social media and internet usage?

Answer 53

Social media creates a major surveillance culture. Social media and advertising companies surveil us, we surveil each other, and the masses surveil major public figures.