Test 1 Flashcards
Sociology is scientific. What does that mean.
Particular way of knowing about the world or a study of ways of knowing
Empiricism
knowing about the world by looking at it
What is the difference between highly empirical and less empirical?
High: pain/hurt
Less: Seeing pain/hurt
Thinking
Truth is best obtained through logic, you do not find truth by looking at the world because the world is deceptive
Science- the best way to know about the world is to look at the world itself.
- There is no truth until you test it
- It cant depend on whose looking
- Generally true everywhere and always
Feeling as it relates to empiricism
Faith-to believe without evidence
Art, Music, Lit-Artists and authors trying to create an empiracle reality
-Person trying to share something seen or felt.
Sociology looks at the social world ________________.
Empirically
It seeks to know about society by looking at data.
Science is __________ because it describes how the world is
Descriptive
Prescription is to _______ as Description is to___________
Prescription is to SHOULD as Description is to IS
Science says, this is how things are related, and then the SHOULD comes in.
-Science says exercise will make you fit
if you want to be fit you SHOULD exercise, if you want to be a Sumo wrestler you shouldnt
Sociology is Scientific, but it is also_____________.
Social
Reductionism
Everything is in parts and wholes, if the whole is too complex, break it down
This is humans default approach to the world
Durkheim wrote _______________. What did it argue?
Le Suicide. 1881 or 1882
It argued that the act of committing suicide might have might have to do with more than just the individual
What did Durkheim discover when he studied suicide data?
Suicide is not distributed randomly an that some groups were more likely to commit suicide.
What Variable effected suicides and why?
AGE- everyone around you gets old, friends die, lonely, Health issues, money-when you quit working you quit eating
URBAN/RURAL LIVING-Urban city dwellers much more likely
- RELIGION-jews rarely committed suicide because they werent welcome and stuck together
- minorities have low suicide rates
GENDER-men were more likley
-If a man was single he was more likely to commit suicide, but if a woman was single she had more freedom and was less likely
MARITAL STATUS-If a man was single he was more likely to commit suicide, but if a woman was single she had more freedom and was less likely
MORAL DENSITY- Not having close ties puts you at risk
Moral Density
Having meaningful ties to a group
/What does Durkheim conclude?
The most personal decision someone could make would be pushed by social things.
What did Durkheim argue regarding patterns?
When you see a pattern, there is always a reason
What did Durkheim mean when he said “Social Facts”?
Social Forces
Social Fact
Social Force- Things that are bigger than you that don’t change because you wish them to
Things decided outside of you by social group
What are some examples of Mundane social facts?
LANGAUGE YOU SPEAK- that is socially determined
THE WAY YOU DRESS-that is what society determines is ok
WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG-ultimate social fact
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
ECONOMIC STATUS
Sui Generes
Of its own origin
Something that cannot be reduced into parts
You can understand how different sciences are related by treating them like….
Different levels of reality.
The whole of what one group studies might be a part of what another group studies
Emergence of science chart
Biology-Cells-------> Chemistry-Compounds and molecules -----> Physics-atoms -----> Particle physics- parts atoms are made of -----> Sociology-group behavior -----> Phycology-Behavior
Emergence
The whole is different from the sum of the parts
The properties are irreducible
Wholes have properties that the parts do not
Example: H20 Hydrogen=gas Oxygen=gas H20=liquid
Life is an _______________________.
Emergent Property
Why?
Individuals in groups behave different from when they are by themselves.
Groups have
different behavioral properties than the people that make them up
PDG
Prisoners Delima Game
What was discovered when single persons played the Prisoners Delima Game vs when they played with a group?
People who would cooperate by themselves would usually defect every single time in a group setting
Discontinuity effect
difference in behavior of people by themselves versus being in a group.
What makes parts and wholes different?
Structure, how you put things together changes what they are
Individual social behavior
What YOU do when youre with other people
- doing things because you’re going to be with others
- Things you do to learn to talk to someone (watching show)
- interactions and preparing for social interactions
What are the two types of Group Social Behavior?
Collective and Aggregate
Collective Group
Group who does something together/ doing a task as a group
Aggregate Group
Group who has something in common but may not do something together
Usually dont know each other
-USA students, Males in Alabama
Social Phenomena
Things only groups have or require
Examples of Social Phenomena
Police, Law enforcement, Social Control, moral code, education
There is nothing that cant be studied by _______________.
Sociology
What did Peter Berger write and what did it argue?
Invitation to Sociology
Argued that the things that sociology studies are the things people are interested in anyway. There is usually more to what you’re interested in and sociology can help you look more deeply at it.
Peter Berger said that people should
Go beyond the taken for granted and question “why?”
When Berger travelled over seas, what did he realize?
Traveling changes the way you see the world and causes something called Culture Shock
Much like traveling, Sociology has the same ability to produce ____________ because it _________________.
Culture Shock because it leads you to ask bigger questions
Ex. Why do people care so much about sports
Berger tells us we should…..
“look a little closer”
Mills tells us to
Think of sociology as self defense
Mills argues that…
Social problems can sometimes manifest themselves as Personal troubles
Personal Troubles
Trouble that only affects you
Tripping or being unable to study
Social Problem
Personal trouble that comes from something that is not just about you
- poor pavement, it wasnt your fault that you tripped
Mills says that most of the things we experience are
a reflection of something out of our sight and until we learn to make thos connections we are in no postion to defend ourselves
Connecting History and Biography
Every biography is located within a history, which influences the Biography
What two things do structures do?
- enable certain actions or activities
2. constrain certain actions or activites
What are some examples of Social Structures, what do they constrain or enable
FAMILY
-enables: happy more fufilled life, children
-contraints: rules
INSTITUTIONS (like USA)
-enables:education, opportunity
-contrains: your life, jobs, activities
MARKETS
-enables: you to buy things so you dont have to make your own
-contrains:affordability, which goods you can have, supply
Once you become a part of a market, what is your biggest constraint
You dont have the option to participate anymore and you cant opt out
Once your civilization goes to a market economy you cant opt out
What are some examples of markets and why….
JOBS-you are selling your labor, and somebody is buying your labor
-how you get paid is a result of the demand of what you do and the supply of people who do it
MARRIAGE- customer and seller in the dating market
-still affected by supply and demand, your value depends on what you have to offer
What does Social Delima do?
Studies behavior by causing a delima, provides for an easy way to see the power of structures
Example of studying Social Delima?
Ultimatum Game- take it or leave it
Reciprocity says that
People care very deeply about fairness and are willing to take nothing to punish other people, which makes us not rational.
Contingency
What happens to you is a function of what you do and what somebody else does
Most things we do in the social world are _______________.
Contingent
What do you discover when playing the Prisoners Delima Game?
No matter what the other person does, you do better to deffect
Dominant Response
A response that no matter what the other person does, its better for you
Surprisingly not the one most people do
(DEFECT)
Optimal Response
Both cooperate
Rational Trap
By doing what is best for you, you end up in a trap
PDG is about
Structure. By changing structure, peoples answers change
Structure determines you
Behavior
The Commons game is an example of
A collective action problem, if people stay content with a small amount, they have an endless supply of money.
However greed and fear take over
Garret Hardin worried that
There would be a population explosion and we would run out resources.
Garret Hardin argued that
Technology (like birth control) cannot solve the population problem because peoples interest is not in using birth control, but in having babies
Hardin said that the population problem….
was not a technology problem but a human problem
The Commons delima game found that
The solution isnt technology, but changing behavior
What did Adam Smith write and what did it argue
The Invisible Hand, it argued that if everyone worked just to improve themselves, this creates economic wealth for everyone, and everyone succeeds.
—-created capatalism
What did Hardin argue in reference to the invisible hand?
He argued that everyone doing whats best for them would be a disaster
This is how the commons delima game was created.
—public farm area story (common pasture)
**By doing whats best for me, I screw it up for me and everyone else because everyone else is going to be tempted to do the same thing
What is a big temptation that everyone has?
To become a free-rider
Free-Rider
Someone who wants the advantage of something without contributing
Public Good
Things everyone has whether paid for or not
Private Good
Something that is just yours
Collective action problem examples
Arms Control, Grades,Neighbors, Vaccines
How can you solve a Collective action problem?
Small numbers of people (2-7) because they can closley watch each other and have enough interest to make you comply
Add private goods to public goods- Donating money and getting something in return
Why dont contracts usually work?
People are tempted to be selfish
How can you make a contract work?
Make it piggyback off of something else
- a larger entity that makes it work like a punishment or a fine
What is the ultimate solution to a collective action problem?
Government…anything that solves a CAP is a form of government
How does government solve CAP problems?
Food safety regulations
Toy safety
Transportaion
Legal system
What is a map of a social network?
Sociogram
Epidemiology
Study of infectious disease
What can network mapping help stop?
epedimics
Your location in the networkaffects the likelyhood of you getting a disease
You can become more powerful by
filling a structural hole
Fixers
People who bring seperate clicks together
each person on a map is called a ______________ the ties between them are called______________.
Node, Link
Who was the first person to argue that the network mattered?
Simmel
Diad
Two people connectiod to eachother
Triad
Three people connected to eachother
In what three ways are Diads and Triads different, besides network shape.
Intamacy, Triads= each link competition for attention
Accountability- diads have high accountabillity
Interdependance (how much they need each other)
—-Diads =compromise
—-Triads=polotics
What are the two types of network Densities?
Nominal-bare minimum
Saturated- Everyones connected
—most networks are in between
In what two ways do nominal and saturated groups differ?
Decision Making and Group Think
Who makes better decissions?
Nominal
Nominal groups have what advantage over saturated groups?
They usually have more outside strong ties
Usually saturated groups know everyone and are very much alike.
Which group is more likely to talk about the task?
Nominal
Group Think
Prefer to be light than to be right- when somebody says something stupid people support it instead of shutting it down
What are the guidlines on how to make better decissions?
- Leader should never state their preference
- Committy should not be friends, keep moving people in and out
- someone should be randomly assigned to be devils advocate
What are your morals dependant on?
How responsible you feel for an action
Horizontal Diffusion
Other people around who could be responsible
–firing squad.
Vertical Diffusion
There are people higher than me that are responsible
- -customer service
- -Mylai
Low density groups tend to….
Diffuse responsibilty
Amoral and practical
High density groups tend to
Concentrate responsibility
- -hypermoral
- -Justify in moral terms
- able to enforce eachothers morality
Micro Structure
Small Group
Macro Structure
Large Group
Great Transformation
Change in social practices, technology but biggest of all, a change in structure
–Shift in saturated, to nominal groups
Modern societies are
non-saturated-People know people but not everyone knows everyone
Germein Schaft
Communtity- groups who live together, do things together, etc
Gessel Schaft
Society- group who live in the same place or have certain things in common
Why did the transformation happen?
In earopean society around 1000, infant mortality started to increase
the chances were better that children would grow up to be adults, but society was not set up for this
Premogenature
Oldest male child gets everything
Other children were forced to new cities or trade and industry
Urbanization
Creation of cities
What did Lewis Wirth study?
What happens to people when they move out of high density networks to low density networks
A bigger population size meant that there was more
Diversity
Segmentation
Everyone knows just a small selection of people
Urban communities are always segmented
Population Density
A lot of people in a small amount of space
In regard to cities, Simmel wanted to know
What made people so rude
Cities tend to cause what
Sensory Overload
Cities assault us, people have to learn to filter things out to keep their sanity, and reduce connections to the bear minimum
The city makes you
Blase
Blase
Seeming rude, unfriendly, or uncaring
Cool-nothing bothers you
Urban areas tend to be very
Specialized, there are so many people that the chances of people wanting your product are pretty high
Competition ….
Forces you to specialize
Cities value
Heterogeneity- differences
Relativism
Just because someone is different doesnt mean you van cut them off
People have to figure out a way to live together
Heterogeneity or Urban Enviroments creates
Tolerance
Formalization
Creates organization to do the things that need to be done
In larger groups it gets harder to settle situations informally, formalization assigns people a job
Bureacracy
Means of organizing an organization
In the modern world everything is a bureacracy because we live in a formalized society
Weber said that the three elements of bueracracy are
Rules-Creates a degree of predictability for citezens, owners, and employees
Roles- company cares about roles not people, roles can be filled
Records- Lots of file cabinets-buearacracy
What is sociology?
Sociology is the scientific study of social behavior and social phenomena
