Review Sheet - Exam 1

Question 1

Social-conflict theory:

Answer 1

Culture maintains inequality. Emphasized how capitalism is integrated in culture and society. Ignores the way that cultural patters integrates members of society.

Question 2

Gender-conflict theory (feminist-theory):

Answer 2

Hegemonic masculinity. Culture is inherently gender. ‘’Man and wife - not man and woman’’.

Question 3

Race-conflict theory:

Answer 3

The study of society that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories. ‘’White privileged man’’.

Question 4

Structural-functionalist theory:

Answer 4

(Durkheim). Culture is a positive aspect of society that brings us together. How culture operates to meet human needs. You could say Super Bowl is a part of structural functionalism. This approach looks at both social structure and social functions. Functionalism addresses society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. Ignores minorities. Ignores diversity. That we all wants to be a part of something. Ignores social change.

Question 5

Interpretative sociology:

Answer 5

(Weber). Interpretive sociology, the study of society that focuses on discovering the meanings people attach to their social world. Focuses on people’s understanding of their actions and their surroundings. Qualitative data.

Question 6

Symbolic interaction:

Answer 6

Symbolic interaction is a micro-level orientation, a close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations. At the micro-level, a sporting event for example is a complex, face-to-face interaction. Symbolic interaction does not focus on race, gender and sexuality in the same way.

Question 7

Critical sociology:

Answer 7

Critical sociology, by contrast, is the study of society that focuses on the need for social change. “Should we have this much inequality?” or “Should society exist in its present form?” Critical sociology emphasizes instead that sociologists should be social activists in pursuit of greater social equality. For example, papers that have been written before in sociology that led to reforms helping women becoming more equal to men.

Question 8

Triangulation:

Answer 8

When you use one or more research methods in a single piece of research.

Question 9

Ethnography:

Answer 9

Anthropologists use participant observation to study other cultures, calling the method fieldwork and their study/research results a ethnography.

Question 10

Elements of culture:

Answer 10

Social organization (social institutions), customs and traditions, history religion, language, arts and literature, forms of government, economic systems (free market economy, mixed economy etc), symbols.

Question 11

Subculture vs. Counterculture:

Answer 11

Subculture refers to cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s. Comic Con is subculture. They reject the status quo. Counterculture are anti-mainstream societies. KKK, Occupy Wall St.

Question 12

Symbols:

Answer 12

Religious symbols, materialistic symbols, sports symbols, materialistic symbols (Nike, Adidas, McDonalds)

Question 13

Cultural relativism vs. Ethnocentricism:

Answer 13

The alternative to ethnocentrism is cultural relativism, the practice of judging a culture by its own standards. Cultural relativism can be difficult for travelers to adopt: It requires not only openness to unfamiliar values and norms but also the ability to put aside cultural standards we have known all our lives.

Question 14

Sociobiology (Criticism):

Answer 14

Darwinism. Theory of evolution. Survival of the fittest. ‘’White privileged man should be the president’’. Emphasizes biology rather than society. Sociobiology could be used to support sexism and rasism.

Question 15

Structural-functionalism and culture:

Answer 15

Consider the Amish farmer plowing hundreds of acres on an Ohio farm with a team of horses. His farming methods may violate our cultural value of efficiency, but from the Amish point of view, hard work functions to develop the discipline necessary for a highly religious way of life. Long days of working together not only make the Amish self-sufficient but also strengthen family ties and unify local communities.

Question 16

Social-conflict theory and culture:

Answer 16

The social-conflict approach stresses the link between culture and inequality. Any cultural trait, from this point of view, benefits some members of society at the expense of others. Social-conflict analysis ties our cultural values of competitiveness and material success to our country’s capitalist economy, which serves the interests of the nation’s wealthy elite. The culture of capitalism further teaches us to think that rich and powerful people work harder or longer than others and therefore deserve their wealth and privileges. It also encourages us to view capitalism as somehow “natural,” discouraging us from trying to reduce economic inequality.

Question 17

Cultural capital:

Answer 17

Wealthier parents are more likely to push their children to achieve, and they also typically provide their daughters and sons with an extensive program of leisure activities, including sports, travel and music lessons.

Question 18

Key American values (Explain and give examples):

Answer 18

Because U.S. culture is a mix of ways of
life from other countries all around the
world, it is highly diverse. Even so, the
sociologist Robin Williams Jr. (1970)
identified ten values that are widespread
in the United States and viewed by many
people as central to our way of life:

Equal opportunity, achievement and success, material comfort, activity and work, practicality and efficiency, progress, science, democracy and free enterprise, freedom and racism and group superiority.

Question 19

Cultural artifacts:

Answer 19

Cultural artifact (or social artifact) is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology, ethnology, and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. A hammer, Martin Luther King ‘‘I have a dream’‘-speech etc.