Social interaction/Structure/Control Flashcards
Differential Association
process through which exposure to attitudes FAVORABLE to criminal acts lead to the violation of the rules.
Gemeinschaft
- Smaller, Close-Knit Communities
- Ferdinand Tönnies
- Social control maintained through informal means, such as moral persuasion, gossip, and even gestures. This works because people genuinely care how others feel about them.
- Little social mobility from generation to generation.
Gesellschaft
- Impersonal mass society
- Ferdinand Tönnies
- Self interest dominates, and little shared values between members.
- Relationships governed by social roles that grow out of immediate tasks, such as purchasing something.
- Social control through formal, legal means.
- Social change is an important aspect of life.
Primary Group
Small group characterized by intimate face to face association and cooperation.
Ex: gangs, household, convent, sorority
Secondary Group
Formal, impersonal group where there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding.
Distinction between primary and secondary groups not always clear cut.
Social Networks
A series of relationships that links a person directly to others, and through them indirectly to still others.
Encompass all the routine social interactions we have with other individuals.
Does NOT include online social networks
Elements of Social Structures
- Statuses
- Social Roles
- Groups
- Social Networks
- Social Institutions
Social Institutions
Organized patterns of belief and behavior centered on basic social needs, such as replacing personnel (family) and preserving order (the government)
Formal Organization
Group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency.
Bureaucracy
A component of formal organizations that uses rules and hierarchical rankings to achieve efficiency.
Characteristics of Ideal Bureaucracy
- Division of Labor
- Hierarchy of Authority
- Written Rules and Regulations
- Impersonality
- Employment based on technical qualifications.
Classical Theory of Formal Organizations
(Scientific Management Approach)
1. Management attempts to achieve maximum work efficiency through scientific planning, established performance standards, and careful supervision of workers and production.
2. Workers motivated entirely by economic rewards
3. only the physical constraints on workers limit their productivity.
Mechanical Solidarity
- solidarity formed due to the lack of division of labor, from the fact that everyone performs roughly the same types of work each day.
- Since there is little specialization, there are few social roles.
- Because people have few options for what to do with their lives, there is little concern for individual needs. The group is the dominating force in society.
Organic solidarity
- Solidarity in a society with high division of labor, where individuals are specialized so much, that they rely on the skills and specializations of other people to survive.
- Durkheim called it “organic”, because the individual’s are interdependent on each other like the organ systems in the body.
Sociocultural Evolution
- Gerhard Lenski
- Long-term social trends resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection.
- As technology changes, so does a society.
3 stages of socio-cultural evolution
- Pre-Industrial (hunter-gatherer, horticultural, agrarian)
- Industrial
- Post-Industrial
- Postmodern
Postindustrial Society
Economic system engaged primarily in the processing and control of information. Main output is services, NOT manufactured goods.
Postmodern society
Technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied with consumer goods and media images. Culture crossing national borders (various food and music)
Deviance
Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. Helps to define the limits of proper behavior.
Can be a wide range of behaviors, from being alcoholic, not sitting in assigned seat, being overweight, or speaking out against any dominant cultural idea.
Stigma
- Coined by Erving Goffman
- Term used to describe the labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups.
Conformity
Going along with our peers (individuals of our own status who have no right to direct our behavior)
Obedience
Compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure.
Informal Social Control
Actions used to casually enforce norms. Smiles, Laughter, raised eyebrow, ridicule, spanking children.
Formal Social Control
Social control carried out by authorized agents (police officers, school administrators, employers, military, management).
Used as last resort when socialization and informal social control methods don’t work.
Anomie Theory of Deviance
(Robert Merton) posits 5 types of Behavior or basic forms of adaptation:
1. Conformity
If won’t conform, then a form of Deviancy below:
2. Retreatism
3. Innovation
4. Ritualism
5. Rebellion
Helps us understand Deviance as a socially created behavior.
Retreatist
Form of Deviancy in Merton’s Anomie Theory of Deviance:
Person retreats from both the goals and means of society (drug addicts, vagrants)
Innovators
Form of Deviancy in Merton’s Anomie Theory of Deviance:
Accepts the goals of society but uses improper means (theft)
Ritualist
Form of Deviancy in Merton’s Anomie Theory of Deviance:
Abandoned the goal of success but has become compulsively committed to the institutional means (work becomes simply a way of life rather than a means to the goal of success)
Rebels
Form of Deviancy in Merton’s Anomie Theory of Deviance:
People attempting to create a new social order, instead of accepting the current one.
Labeling Theory
- Howard Becker
- Also called “societal-reaction approach”
- Does not explain why certain people become deviant, but why they come to be VIEWED as deviant by OTHERS.
- Focuses more on regulators of social control (psychologists, police officers, judges) rather than deviants themselves.
- These agents play an important role in creating the deviant identity by deciding who is deviant.
Social constructionist Perspective
According to this perspective, deviance is the product of the culture we live in. Focuses on the decision-making process that creates the deviant identity.
5 functional prerequisites for a society
- Replacing Personnel
- Teaching New Recruits
- Producing and Distributing goods and services
- Preserving Order
- Providing and Maintaining a sense of purpose
