Soc 197 exam 1 terms Flashcards
The study of the mind and behavior
Psychology
The systematic study of social behavior and human groups
Sociology
The systematic study of peoples’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in social contexts
Social psychology
The three ways to use sociological imagination
Seeing the general in the particular, seeing the strange in the familiar and seeing the influence of structure and agency
Seeing the general in the particular
We tend to focus on particular problems or see our problems as particular to ourselves
Seeing the strange in the familiar
It is easy for us to point out aspects of our social life that are familiar or normal to us. But really, when we think about things from an outsider’s point of view, many aspects of our social world can be considered strange
Seeing the influence of structure and agency
We can make our own choices about how to look (agency), but the media is a powerful structure that clearly tells us what looks or body types are considered beautiful in our society (structure)
Individual actions and choices
Agency
Social relationships and institutions that constrain or condition our choices and actions
Structure
3 elements of culture
Symbols, norms, values and beliefs
Anything that carries a specific meaning recognized by people who share a common culture
symbols
A system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another
Language
Rules and expectations for behavior maintained by society
Norms
Culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good or beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living
Values
Specific ideas that people hold to be true
Beliefs
The practice of tuning in to how the social world works
sociological mindfulness
Having a mental inclination to see the world and things in it in a particular way
Bias
The failure to see the social world as humanly made; the tendency to see the human made world as having a will and force of its own apart from humans
Reification
Exists only because of ideas and ways of doing things devised ages ago by human beings struggling to survive
Made of patterns of activity
The social world
Ways we act that are followed from before our time, learned ways to act
Patterns
The world is created based on things that have been followed or made rules by people, everything is created by people, things are the way they are because of people
Socially constructed
We connect with others the way we do because of the context in which we do it. If we are sociologically mindful, we see that we cannot go through the world disconnected from others, no matter how alone we might feel at times
Interdependence
The way we see things, the way others see things
Points of view
Ways in which people interact and communicate with each other
Social interactions
A person’s inability or unwillingness to think critically about, or even perceive the social world
Blind spots
How to think about or perceive reality, learning to see the world as it is for the people themselves in their different categories
The logic of or process of classification
The process of us as humans putting together and separating things we experience into distinct categories; two different types: lumping and splitting
“Islands of meaning”
Grouping “similar” items together in a single mental cluster or category
“Lumping”
Separating in our mind “different” mental clusters from one another
“Splitting”
The process by which a society, culture or group teaches individuals how to become functioning members
Socialization
what goals does socialization teach?
Member skills necessary to satisfy basic needs and defend against danger; individual norms, values, beliefs associated with their culture
The process of learning what is the appropriate behavior as a member of a smaller group within the larger society
secondary socialization
Things that are built by society
Social structure
A system of symbols that members of a culture use for representation and communication
Language
Any object, gesture, or word that becomes an abstract representation of something else
Symbols
The way things have been done that we pick up from society
Tradition
The idea that the individual can only reflect on and form images of themselves through the imaginary adoption of someone else’s perspective
Looking-glass self
Individual imagines how they must appear to someone, imagines how that person must be judging their appearance and behavior, the individual feels pride or shame
Steps of the looking glass self
The subject component; the experience of a spontaneous, active, and creative part of ourselves, somewhat less socialized
I
The object component (how we imagine others see us) - The experience of a norm-abiding, conforming part of ourselves, more socialized and therefore more reliant on others
Me (aka Mine or My)
The part of personality composed of self-awareness and self-image
The self
Non verbal symbols that help people communicate
Gestures
Attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole
Generalized other
Social pressures that force people to do things/make people do things
Social control
Play involves taking on the role of only one other person while games involve taking on the role of many people in a group
Play vs games
Things that we do not intend to come from our actions but do
Unintended consequences
Things that point to, refer to, or represent else
Indexes
The meanings we give to ourselves and announce ourselves
Identity
Knowing how to act to be a safe and useful participant in social life
Self-regulation
Imputations based primarily on information gleaned from the appearance or behavior of others and from the time and location of their action
Social identities
When individuals claim or assert an identity
Personal identities
The primary way in which homeless people announce their personal identity
identity talk
Distancing, embracement, fictive storytelling
3 generic patterns of identity talk
Associational distancing, role distancing, institutional distancing
3 types of distancing
Distancing themselves from associates when they are negatively evaluated
Associational distancing
A self conscious attempt to foster the impression of a lack of commitment or attachment to a particular role in order to deny the self implied
Role distancing
The derogation of the caretaker agencies that attended to the needs of the homeless; Complaining about such settings create psychic distance from the self-implied and secure some level of personal autonomy
Institutional distancing
Role embracement, associational embracement, ideological embracement
3 types of embracement
Typically manifested itself by the avowal and acceptance of street role identities
Role embracement
Reference to oneself as a friend or as an individual who takes his or her own social relationships seriously
Associational embracement
An ideology or an alternative reality and the avowal of a personal identity that is cognitively congruent with that ideology
Ideological embracement
Embellishment and fantasizing
2 types of fictive storytelling
The exaggeration of past or present experiences with fanciful and fictitious particulars so as to assert a positive personal identity
Embellishment
Involves the articulation of fabrications about the speaker’s future
Place the narrator in positively framed situations that seem far removed from, if at all connected to, his or her past and present
Fantasizing
A self identity that arises out of the experience of sudden celebrity and the attending treatment by fans, media, and others
Glorified self
Emerges when team members perceive how others treat them and subsequently form reactions to that treatment
Reflected self
Emerges when team members perceive portrayals of themselves in that national spotlight; this experience causes them to develop more “salient” media selves
Media self
Presentation of self: a person’s efforts to create specific impressions in the mind of others
Goffman’s definition of self
The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance
Dramaturgy
An agreement with others about “what is going on” in a given circumstance
Defining the situation
A shared definition of the situation
Working consensus
The effort to control the impressions we make on others so that they form a desired view of us and the situation
Impression management
When the individual employs strategies and tactics to project their own projections
defensive practices
When a participants employs them to save the definition of the situation projected by another
Corrective practices
