Social structures

Question 1

Macrosoiology vs. Microsociology

Answer 1

• Macrosociology: looking at the big picture on a large scale
  
  • Functionalism: look at society as a whole and how institution that make up the society adapt to help the society stay stable
  • Conflict theory: institution creates inequalities, groups are ad odds until the conflict is resolved -working-class realizing that they were being taken advantaged of. a society, where one group benefited of another, will create its, own destruction, for the working class to change the way things are (anti-thesis). Struggle of the two sides will have to create a compromise ( middle class)
• Microsociology: face to face interaction small groups.
  
  • symbolic interactionism: small scale view of society explain individuals in society and how they assign meaning to things in order to determine how they will act corresponding to that thing

Question 2

What are social institutions?

Answer 2

• Institution are important to society and the people working within these institutions are replaceable

Imbalance in power:

• Institution can lead to imbalance in power, and when that happen they may need to be redisigned

Question 3

What are social institutions?

Answer 3

1. Education:
   
   1. Hidden curricuulum: it teaches how to be in society but can also set categories for us ie if people are treated differently based on sex.
2. Family:
   
   1. It is a form of kinship- causes certain values to be formed
   2. Marriage: joined together
   3. types of abuse in a family
      
      1. child
      2. spouse
      3. elderly
3. Religion:
   
   1. Secularization: When religion power is decreased and people stop practicing it
   2. Fundamentalism: reactions to secularization when people go back to what they know and back to studying religions again

Question 4

What are powerful social institutions?

Answer 4

1. Goverment: take care of managing the country
   
   1. democracy: with the people’s choice
   2. dictatorship: one man’s choice
   3. communism: community
   4. monarchy: single group
2. Economy:
   
   1. Capitalism: private ownerships of production
   2. Docialism: benefits society as a whole
   3. Division of labour: functionalist approach everyone needs to has a responsibility -labor is valued differently

Question 5

Health care and medicine in society?

Answer 5

1. Medicalizatoin: when something was previously considered normal is now a diagnosis
2. Sick role: you can get a disability pass when you sick and refrain from performing your role, but if you do it too much you will be considered deviant.
3. Delivery of Healthcare: we spend a lot on helping people when they are sick instead of helping to prevent disease. we also focus on children and elderly population
4. IIlness experience: process of being ill, and how different people deal with illness some people who have means experience sickness differently
5. Social epidemiology: look at health via social indicators like race, genderm and income

Question 6

What is functionalism?

Answer 6

• Emile Durkheim
• look at society on a large scale
• believe that society is striving for equilibrium -adapting by finding a new way to cater to customers ( amazon)

Based on a balance between institutions

• Institutions: structures that meet the needs of society
• Social facts: ways of thinking and acting formed by society that will be perceived through any individuals

Believe that society is dependent on every structure that provide a need of society and without it the society will fail

• intended consequences: manifest functions
• Unintended consequences: laten function, indirect effect of the society.

Question 7

How does a society stay together according to Durkeheim?

Answer 7

• Small societies are held together by similarities
• Large society: the individual become interdependent on each others
  
  • if any change happens everyone will be force to adapt
• Social change: threatens the mutual interdependence

Functionalism focus too much on the institution, and not the individual which can be an issue

Question 8

What is social constructionism?

Answer 8

1. People actively shape their reality via social interactions
   
   1. Social construct: everyone agrees to treat a certain way regardless of anything that you have
   2. Social construction: knowledge is not real we only agree that it is
   3. The self is a social construct: we only create the self via interaction with other people, and our reactions to other people
2. Brute fact: the people against social construct states that there are facts that do not change that exist. and that is desn’t account for natural phenomenon is society.

Question 9

What is symbolic interactionsalism?

Answer 9

1. People assign meaning to things and act towards it based on the meaning, or change base on the interaction with the object.

Herbert Blumer:

1. We act towards something based on the meaning we give it
2. Different people assign different meaning to things
3. the meaning we give something isn’t permanent

Question 10

Define the Feminist theory

Answer 10

• originated from the conflict theory

There are four things that women face: discrimination, objectification, oppression and stereotyping

1. Gender differences: they have expectations that keep them down
2. Gender inequalities: the society is varied patriarchial, women are made to be second. Married women have higher stress than unmarried ones
3. Gender oppression: there is an educational gap between men and women, the family structure is set up for men while women becomes their slaves
4. Structural oppression: women’s oppression and inequalities are due to capitalism, patriarchy, and racism.- men are associated with the mind while women are associated with the body

The goal: of the feminist theory is to highlight the inequalities that re still prominent in our society.

Question 11

What is Rational Choice Theory and Exchange Theory?

Answer 11

• Rational choice theory: is a theory that states that people do whatever they do in business in a rational way. They weigh the cost and benefits of anything.
  
  • 3 main assumptions:
    
    • Completeness: all actions are ranked
    • Transitivity: pick what ever is best
    • Independence of irrelevant alternatives: the way I rank things stay the same
• Exchange Theory: believe society is a series of actions between individuals
  
  • sexual selections: preference for one sex for characteristics in individual of the other sex
  • social selection: social conditions and health can affect people reproduction rate
  • Rewards vs. punishments: interactions are determined by weighting rewards and punishments
• Basic principle: you can see a behavior of something in their interaction by how they compare the rewards and punishments in that interaction
• Assumptions: people are made to rationally maximize their behaviors, and will repeat behavior that does that.
• Why we form interaction: to benefit ourselves

Question 12

What are the 6 theories of social theory?

Answer 12

• Functionalism: society is always striving to reach equilibirim
• Conflict theory: how society adjust through conflict
• Symbolic interaction: people behave based on the meaning they associated to things
• Feminist theory: focus on gender inequalities
• Rational choice theory: people always take rational actions especially when pertaining to business
• Exchange theory: people behave with goal to maximize their rewards

Question 13

How to relate social theories to medicine?

Answer 13

1. Functinalism: when people become ill we aim to have them come to a functional state/ equilibrium
2. Conflict theory: wealthier people can pay for the best medical care
3. Social constructionism: we attached different meanings to different behaviours. - stereotypes assumptions
4. Symbolic interactions: doctors-patients relationship, giving meaning to lab coats
5. Feminist theory: medicine is a male-dominated field
6. Rational choice- exchange theories: people who run medical system will make decision that benefits themselves