Social Structure and Demographics Flashcards
1
Q
Levels of Sociology
A
- Sociology: Study of society. Studied at three different levels.
- Micro Level: Consists of family groups and local communities.
- Meso Level: Consists of organizations, institutions, and ethnic subcultures.
- Macro Level: Consist of national and international systems.
- Symbolic Interactionism, Social Constructionism, and Rational Choice (Exchange) Theory explain Micro-level and Meso-level phenomena.
- Conflict Theory, Structural-Functionalism, and Feminist Theory explain Macro-level phenomena.
2
Q
Symbolic Interactionism
A
- Symbol: Any object, image, sound, or action that carries meaning to humans (such as traffic signs, emojis, sacred emblems, spoken words or meaningful grunt, body language, hand gestures, etc).
- Symbolic Interactionism: Assumes that (1) humans act toward symbols based on the meanings that those symbols carry, (2) the meanings symbols carry come from social interaction, and (3) humans interpret the meaning of symbols, and this interpretation influences action. Lower animals simply respond to stimuli (dog baring teeth always interpreted as symbol of aggression by other dogs), but humans have the capability to interpret this stimulus first then react (thumbs up gesture can signify approval directly or disapproval sarcastically, depending on how another person interprets it).
- Cannot be used to describe Macro-level structures, like cultural norms or class interactions.
3
Q
Social Constructionism
A
- Social Construct: Any idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society.
- Social Constructionism: Study of society’s social constructs; can be applied to Symbols (like the peace sign which originally indicated support for nuclear disarmament specially but which now signifies peace and freedom in general), abstract ideas (like concept of honor and justice which rely on group agreement), and physical items (like money which has no inherent value but is viewed as valuable by society).
- Cannot account for Macro-level phenomena, because different societies will have different social constructs.
4
Q
Rational Choice (Exchange) Theory
A
- Rational Choice Theory: Humans makes rational choices (engage in rational decision-making) to further their own self-interests; an individual carefully considers all of the possible rewards (accolades, honor, prestige, social approval) and punishments (embarrassment, humiliation, sanctions, stigmatization) of each social action and chooses the option that results in the greatest social benefit.
- Social relationships evaluated using reciprocity and balance; people stay in relationships because they get something from the exchange, and they leave relationships when there are more social costs than benefits (Exchange Theory).
- Cannot explain charitable, illogical, unselfish, or altruistic behavior.
5
Q
Conflict Theory
A
• Capitalism: Economic system in which individuals and corporations, rather than governments, own and control the Means of Production (property, machinery, factories, or any other means of creating a saleable good or service).
- Conflict Theory: Examines inevitable conflicts between the bourgeoisie (capitalist class that controls the means of production) and the proletariat (worker class that performs manual labor). Bourgeoisie class holds power over the proletariat class, and the disparity in power and resources between these two groups leads to the worker class overthrowing the capitalist class to form a new classless society.
- People in lower-status positions who recognize this power differential and see that others share a common dissatisfaction can organize to form Interest Groups through which they can use tools such as protesting or voting to enact change and equalize power; the powerful in society aim to maintain the status quo, and the powerless attempt to enact change through disruption and revolution.
- Can be expanded to examine any conflict between powerful groups and powerless groups (such as conflict between dominant religious group and oppressed religious group).
- Cannot be used to describe social cohesion, cooperation, and altruism.
6
Q
Structural-Functionalism
A
- Structural-Functionalism: Each group in society plays a role in the overall health and operation of society; each social group’s role is its Function (contribution made by that group to the system).
- Manifest Function: Intended consequence of the actions of a group within a society.
- Latent Function: Unintended but beneficial consequences.
- For example, annual meetings of medical societies have the manifest function of educating a group of physicians and sharing research findings but also have the latent function of creating stronger interpersonal bonds between physicians and providing a sense of identity for the group.
- Dysfunctions: Negative consequences of the existence of an institution, organization, or interaction.
- Cannot be used to describe social change nor can it explain how individuals interact within a group.
7
Q
Feminist Theory
A
- Feminist Theory: Describe society as inherently patriarchal, with men seeking to preserve their position of power over women through societal privilege and institutional discrimination.
- Glass Ceiling: Processes that limit the progress of women to the highest job positions because of invisible social barriers to promotion.
- Glass Elevator: Invisible social force that pushes men up to higher positions even in cases where men do not seek to climb the job ladder; especially prevalent for men working in traditionally female occupations.
8
Q
Social Institutions
A
• Social Institutions: Well-established social structures that dictate certain patterns of behavior or relationships and are accepted as a fundamental part of culture.
- Family: Most basic institution closely tied to the individual and hopes to meet many of the individuals most basic needs (food, shelter, intimacy, emotional and physical security) especially when young. Described by different Patterns of Kinship in different cultures (Continental Americans call dad’s brother “uncle” while Hawaiians call them “cousin”). Domestic Violence (most common cause of injury to American women), Elder Abuse (caretaker of elderly individual most commonly abuser), Child Abuse (physician considered Mandated Reporter for child abuse and elder abuse).
- Education: Includes not only the information and cognitive skills students learn but also Hidden Curriculum (social latent function) of transmitting social norms, attitudes, and beliefs to students, and allowing opportunities for peer socialization. Teacher Expectancy refers to the idea that teachers tend to get what they expect from students; teacher who plays high demands on student but who also believes that her students can rise to the challenge will more often see students succeed (self-fulfilling prophecy) than a teacher who places the same demands but doubts that the students can achieve them.
- Religion: Pattern of social activities organized around a set of beliefs and practices that seek to address the meaning of existence. Religiosity refers to how religious one considers himself to be and includes strength of religious beliefs, engagement in religious practices, and attitudes about religion itself. Each major religion is broken into Denominations (Sunni and Shia are Islamic denominations). Sect refers to religious group that has chosen to break off from parent religion (Amish is sect of Christianity). Cult is a sect that has taken on extreme or deviant philosophies. Contemporary society deals with Modernization (relaxing historical practices), Secularization (moving from world dominated by religion toward rationality and scientific thinking) and Fundamentalism (strict adhering to religious code).
- Government and Economy: Systematic arrangements of political and capital relationships, activities, and social structures that affect rule making, representation of the individual in society, rights and privileges, division of labor, and production of goods and services. Many government systems built around Charismatic Authority (leader with a compelling personality). Democracy allows every citizen a political voice through election of representatives to office. Monarchy includes a royal ruler though the ruler’s power may be significantly limited by a constitution, parliamentary system, or other legislative body. Dictatorship is a system where a single person holds power and usually includes mechanisms to quell threats to his power. Theocracy is a system where power is held by religious leaders.  Capitalist economies focus on free market trade and laissez-faire policies, are driven by consumerism with little central governing intervention, and encourage division of labor (which promotes specialization and efficiency); Socialist economies treat large industries as collective shared businesses where compensation is provided based on the work contribution of each individual into the system and profit is distributed equally to the workforce.
- Healthcare and Medicine: aimed at maintaining improving the health status of the individual, family, community, and society by increasing access to care, decreasing healthcare costs, preventing diseases before they occur, associating patients with primary care physician, decreasing Paternalism (doctor making executive decisions without patient input), and placing importance on Life Course Approach to Health (maintaining and considering a comprehensive view of a patient’s history beyond the immediate presenting symptoms). Some entities in Italy considered diseases are now considered normal part of human condition (such as homosexuality and transgenderism) while others have been Medicalized (now defined and treated as medical conditions, such as hoarding disorder and binge eating disorder). Illness Experience refers to the ways in which people, rather than doctors, define and adjust to changes in their health (such as HIV patient living full and productive life). Social Epidemiology is the study of the effects of institutions (legislation and economic inequality), social structures (race and SES), and relationships on health. Physicians are expected to adhere to four key tenets of medical ethics: Beneficence (responsibility to act in the patient’s best interest), Nonmaleficence (do no harm, responsibility to avoid treatment/interventions in which potential harm outweighs potential benefit), Respect for Patient Autonomy (responsibility to respect patients’ decisions and choices about their own healthcare), Justice (responsibility to treat similar patients with similar care and to distribute healthcare resources fairly).
9
Q
Culture
A
• Ethnography: Study of cultures and customs. Ethnographic Methods are experimental methods used to study the ethnicity of culture of a group.
- Culture: Beliefs, behaviors, actions, and characteristics of a group or society of people; group’s entire lifestyle. Two different categories (material and symbolic cultures).
- Material Culture: Associated with Artifacts; physical items one associates with a given group, such as artwork, emblems, clothing, jewelry, ceremonial objects, foods, buildings, and tools. Example is American flag and baseball, which is used to reinforce a sense of belonging via shared American citizenship). Most often visible during ceremonies, such as birthdays, weddings, funerals.
- Symbolic Culture: Associated with ideas that represent a group of people; ideas may be encoded in mottos, songs, catchphrases, or themes pervasive in the culture. Examples are “free enterprise” or “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in US. Symbolic culture often drawn upon by governments in times of war and crisis to rally people to action.
- Cultural Lag: Symbolic culture is usually slower to change than material culture. American culture still prizes individuality and privacy (Symbolic Culture), but the development of smart phones and social media (Material Culture) push toward a more community-oriented and less private world.
- Language, Values, Beliefs, Norms, Rituals are all critical to understanding and transmitting culture.
- Cultural Barriers: Occur when a cultural difference impedes interaction with others (such as Asian patient in US whose culture dictates that family makes medical decisions on his behalf but American belief prioritizes patient autonomy whenever possible).
• Evolution and Human Culture: Evolution may have selected for the development of culture (as culture serves as a method of passing down information from generation to generation and creates sense of loyalty and allegiance), and culture in turn may influence evolution (some genetic traits may have been favored because of cultural values and beliefs, such as European cultures relying on cattle farming and favoring genes that permit lactose digestion into adulthood).
10
Q
Demographic Categories
A
- Age: Life Course Perspective (considering individual’s age and cumulative life experiences when analyzing their personality, social status, health, or other social metrics, such as general practitioner choosing to conduct additional lung screenings on patient who previously worked in a coal mine); Ageism (prejudice or discrimination based on person’s age, such as older individual being perceived as frail and vulnerable and thus treated with less respect when entering workforce); Age Cohorts (groupings of individuals based on their age or birth year, such as Baby Boomers); Dependency Ratio (quantifies economic burden felt by the working age population 15-65 in order to support portion of population outside of workforce <14 and >65); Stable Population (distribution of the population among the age cohorts remains fairly constant when population’s fertility rate and mortality rate remain relatively constant over a long period of time).
- Gender: Sex (biologically determined); Gender (socially constructed, society’s notion of femininity and masculinity); Gender Roles (expected behavioral traits associated with each biological sex); Gender Identity (projection of gender via adopted behaviors); Gender Segregation vs Gender Stratification (any inequality in access to social resources that is based on gender, occurs due to Gender Inequality).
- Race and Ethnicity: Race (socially constructed groupings of people based specifically on inherited phenotypic characteristics); Ethnicity (shared language, cultural heritage, religion, and national origin, socially constructed); Symbolic Ethnicity (specific connection to one’s ethnicity in which ethnic symbols and identity remain important even when ethnic identity does not play a significant role in every day life, such as Irish Americans celebrating Irishness on St Patrick’s Day but their Irish-American ethnicity doesn’t play a significant role in all other facets of their life).
- Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual, Bisexual, Homosexual; Kinsey Scale (sexuality continuum in which 0 represents exclusive heterosexuality and 6 represents exclusive homosexuality).
- Immigration Status: Generational Status (place of birth of a specific person or that person‘s parents, such as first generation Indian); Intersectionality (interplay between multiple demographic factors especially when it leads to discrimination or oppression).
11
Q
Demographic Shifts
A
- Demographic Shifts: Changes in the makeup of a population overtime; American population has become bigger, older, and more diverse (ethnically and racially). Can be measured by considering Population Density.
- Population Pyramids: Histogram of population size of various age cohorts.
- Increase in average age of American population due to slightly decreased Fertility Rate and drastically reduced Mortality Rate.
- Population continues to grow due to larger net Immigration than Emigration. Migration motivated by both Pull Factors (positive attributes of new location that attract immigrants) and Push Factors (negative attributes of old location that encourage immigrants to leave).
- Demographic Transition Theory: Demographic shift that occurs as a country develops from a preindustrial to an industrial economic system (occurring in developing countries). Mortality rate drops before birth rate; population grows at first while mortality rate drops and then plateaus as birth rates decreases as well. Four Stages.
- Stage 1: Preindustrial society; birth and death rates high, resulting in stable population.
- Stage 2: Economic progress leads to improvements to healthcare, nutrition, sanitation, and wages, decreasing death rates and increasing total population.
- Stage 3: Improvements in contraception, women’s rights, and shift from agricultural to industrial economy (kids go to school to become productive members of society and parents must support kids for longer) cause birth rates to drop and total population to begin leveling off.
- Stage 4: Industrialized society; birth and death rates both low, resulting in relatively constant total population.
12
Q
Malthusian Theory
A
• Malthusian Theory: Exponential growth of population can outpace growth of the food supply and lead to social degradation and disorder; the resulting hypothetical mass starvation is called the Malthusian catastrophe (similar to death phase of bacterial growth).
13
Q
Social Movements
A
- Proactive Social Movements promote social change (such as civil rights movement or environmentalism movement); Reactive Social Movements resist social change (such as white supremacist movement and anti-immigration movement).
- Social Movements motivated by group’s perceived Relative Deprivation (decrease in resources, representation, or agency relative to the whole of society or relative to what the group has previously been accustomed to).
14
Q
Globalization
A
- Globalization: Process of merging of the separate nations of the world into a single sociocultral entity spurred on by improvements in global communication technology and economic interdependence; decreases geographical constraints on social and cultural exchanges.
- Positive effects of globalization include annual availability of foods and produce to world markets.
- Negative effects of globalization include increased pollution and global terrorism.
15
Q
Urbanization
A
- Urbanization: Dense areas of population creating a pull for migration; cities are formed as individuals move into and establish residency in new urban centers.
- Cities rarely have a homogenous population makeup; most cities have areas that are more socioeconomically well-off and others that are more impoverished (ghettos, or in extreme cases, slums).
