Sociology Midterm Flashcards
Interaction: How do you interact with the physical world?
(5)
1) sight
2) hearing
3) smell
4) taste
5) touch
How is a human categorized?
A human is something with specific biological components.
Typification
A process of creating a standard (typical) social construction based on standard assumptions.
*this is something that is projected from humans to the world.
Object
Something on which attention or action is focused on.
Not necessarily a physical thing.
Not primarily in sociology.
We look at things through a conceptual lens
Reality - ones mental thoughts - the idea/concept - reality
Social Construct
An interpreted social phenomenon that was invented by individuals and is shaped by the social forces present in the time and place of its creation.
*Defining things in your own life.
Social Construction of Reality
The interactive process by which knowledge is produced and codified, making it specific to a certain group or society.
MENTAL MODEL
Based on how we define what is going on dictates what we decide to do.
The Definition of the Situation
The process of sense-making required to determine how one should act and to predict how others may act.
Impression Management
A process through which we (consciously or subconsciously) influence the perceptions of others by regulating and controlling the information we give off in social interactions.
Front Stage
A region where one’s performance & behavior is open to judgement by those who observe it.
Expressions Given
Expressions that one gives in order to intentionally convey information.
Expressions Given Off
Expressions that one gives off as a byproduct of behavior presumably exhibited for reasons other than conveying information.
Back Stage
A region where actors can discuss, polish, or refine their performance without revealing themselves to their audience.
The Three Elements to the Self-Concept
(2)
(2) The imagination of their judgement of that appearance. (our appearance).
Self
An organized, stable sense of who you are.
The Three Elements to the Self-Concept
(1)
(1) The imagination of our appearance to another person.
The Three Elements to the Self-Concept
(3)
(3) Some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification.
The “I”
The “I”, the self that is able to act/do things.
(we create an object in terms of action or definition).
Generalized Other
An organized and generalized attitude of a social group.
~ A collection of the generalized social construct which we keep in our head.
~**This does not necessarily mean what we do/already have done, but now we analyze our options. The I, the Me, and the Generalized Other.
The Internal Dialogue
The conversations we have with ourselves in our minds, both verbal (when your thoughts take the shape of our words) and non-verbal (when they are just feelings and attitude).
Internal Dialogue Triangle
Generalized Other - Objectified Self “me” - Agent Self “I”
The “I”
The “I” is the acting subject whose attention is focused on taking actions.
The “Me”
The “Me” is the object of one’s own actions, with attention focused on one’s own real or imagined actions in the eyes of the others.
(1) Preparatory Stage
The Preparatory Stage occurs around ages two or below.
During this stage, children begin to imitate the people around them.
Ex. babies mimicking sounds and faces and actions -this is important in the realization that the babies are just doing what you are doing, they (at that time) do not intentionally know what they are doing with a meaning. * they are gathering the tools that they will need later on.
(2) Play Stage
The Play Stage: Children begin to develop skills in communication through symbols, taking their first steps into role-taking.
*Occurs between the ages of two & six.
~Pretend to make food, play, & imagination.
Starts to contain meaning.
*Play is an essential part of social development and sense of self.
(3) The Game Stage
The Game Stage: Children of about 8 or 9 consider several actual tasks and relationships simultaneously.
- Most children in many different cultures play a game or sport at this stage in their life - building the last of the foundational muscles.
Role Taking
Role Taking is the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined point of view.
Significant Other
Those persons who are of sufficient importance in an individual’s life to affect an individual’s emotions and sense of self.
- Typically some of the first roles we take.
The Looking Glass
Seeing ourselves through our parents influence. We build ourselves by seeing others and how they act towards us.
Integration
The degree to which individuals are connected to their community.
Regulation
The sense of order and direction that society provides.
DOXA
Doxa is the learned, fundamental, deep-founded, unconscious beliefs, and values, that are taken as self-evident universals within a society.
*If you have to label it, it is no longer the Doxa. ~~an UNCONSCIOUS state.
Heterodoxy
The position held by those who want to move away from the old Doxa towards a new belief or way of life.
The Sphere of Opinion
The universe of things that may be openly contested and discussed.
Orthodoxy
The position held by those who wish to return to the original Doxa, in which a belief, truth, or way of life was taken for granted.
Two Categories of Objects
Sacred & Profane
Sacred
Those things that are worthy of awe and special treatment and are not mundane or everyday parts of life.
Profane
Things that are not worthy of awe and special treatment; not devoted to holy or religious purposes; unconsecrated.
Culture
The values, norms and material goods characteristic of a given group.
Culture Shock
The disorientation experienced when coming into contact with a fundamentally different culture.
Material Culture
Includes physical objects that members of a society create, use, and share that influence the ways in which people live.
(Clothes, food, technology, communication).
Non-Material Culture
Made up of the shared set of meanings that people in society use to interpret and understand the world.
Values
Our ideas of what is worthy of seeking in life, what is good or bad, and what is beautiful and ugly.
-could value in terms of money/financial freedom
-we as a society create norms **
Norms
More specific rules and expectations that arise out of our values and tell us what we should, ought, and must do.
4 Types of Norms
1) Folkways
2) Mores
3) Laws
4) Taboos
Folkways
Norms that are not strictly enforced.
Mores
Norms that are seen as essential to our core values, which must be conformed to protect the moral order.
~These things tend to be seen as bad because they may disrupt society.
Laws
Norms that are defined by a political authority that has the power to punish violators.
(cheating on an exam, the university is the authority in this situation).
Taboos
Norms that are so strongly ingrained that even the thought of their violation are greeted with revulsion.
(ex. murder)
**Words can be taboos, racial slurs
cannibalism
incest
Capital
Any factor of production that is not wanted for itself but for its ability to help in producing other goods.
-property, money
Economic Capital
Economic resources such as money or property that can be exchanged or leverage to obtain other goods.
-Can be linked to status as well.
Forms of Capital
-economic
-human
-symbolic
-social
-cultural
Cultural Capital
Wealth in the form of knowledge, tasks, ideas, or competencies that legitimates the maintenance of status and power.
Human Capital
The skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by works, viewed in terms of their value or cost to an organization or country.
-Teaching knowledge, PHD beneficial to universities.
Symbolic Capital
The resources available to an individual on the basis of honor, prestige, or recognition.
(cool points, can use status to get things).
Social Capital
Opportunities or resources gained through the networks to which one belongs.
-not the number of people or resources themselves it is the forms of resources that you gain from knowing them.
Three Types of Cultural Capital
Objectified: objects, often tangible, that can be transmitted directly.
Embodied: consciously acquired or passively “inherited “properties of ones self developed over time.
Institutionalized: recognition received from an institution often through educational degrees or certificates.
Cultural Capital Examples
cultural knowledge-signals-education-ways of speaking-taste in art that can be exchanged for economic, social, or symbolic capital.
Nomos
An individual’s fundamental assumptions about how the universe works, its purpose, and its order.
(the definition of the situation on the cosmic level).
Emile Durkheim
Shows how social forces have an impact on peoples lives.
*studied suicide, religious affiliation
Anomic Suicide
Arises from a lack of regulation, from moral confusion - can come from both good and bad fortune.
Egoistic Suicide
Arises from a lack of integration within a community - prevalent among unmarried males.
Altruistic Suicide
Arises when one is overwhelmed by the goals and needs of a group.
-Rare, except when individuals must sacrifice themselves for the benefit of their group.
Fatalistic Suicide
Arises from too much regulation.
-occurs in overly oppressive societies.
Anomie
A condition which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.
