This site is 100% ad supported. Please add an exception to adblock for this site.

Sociology Terms from MU Sociology 1000

Start Studying!

Terms

undefined, object
copy deck
What are the three main perspectives of sociology?
1. Structural-Functional
2. Conflict
3. Interactionist
Describe the Structional-Functional Theory
The structural-functional perspective emphasizes macro-level social structures that
constrain social behavior and permit societies to be cohesive and maintain social
control.
Describe the Conflict theory
The conflict perspective emphasizes fundamental differences in interests as reflected
in social class, race, and other forms of inequality.
Describe the Interactionist Theory
The interactionist perspective emphasizes social interaction as the means by which
people communicate, form a sense of self, and find meaning in their everyday lives.
What is sociology?
Sociology encourages people to see the world more broadly with the sociological
imagination to recognize that often their personal problems turn out to be reflections
of social problems.
Define:

Bourgeoisie
(capitalists)—those owning the means of production, including land, raw
materials, forests, factories, and machines.
Define:

bureaucracy
an organization based on rationality, having a clear division of labor,
written rules and regulations, impersonality, hierarchical lines of authority, and
selection and promotion based on competence
Define:

verstehen
the subjective understanding of individual participants anchored in a context
of shared cultural ideas.
Define:

Protestant work ethic
a disciplined work ethic, rational approach to life, and an
emphasis on this world.
Define:

sociological imagination
the capacity for individuals to understand the relationship
between their individual lives and broad social forces that influence them.
Define:

social structure
an enduring, relatively stable patterns of social behavior.
Define:

rationalization of society
the transition from a society dominated by tradition to one
dominated by rationality.
Define:

proletariat
(workers)—people who sell their labor to capitalists for wages.
What are the differences between micro-level and macro-level analysis?
micro-level=analyses focusing on individuals

marco-level=analyses focusing of social structures
Who is August Comte?
-Born in Frace
-Heavily influenced by the Frech Revolution
-Proposed applying the scientific methods used in natural sciences to the social sciences
-He call this Positivism
What is positivism?
August Comte's theory of applying the scientific methods sued in the natural sciences to the social sciences.
The idea of the sociological imagination came from _____?
C. Wright Mills
Name four classic sociologists
Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Mead
What are some of the recurrent themes in sociology?
Social Control, The Social Construction of Reality, Inequality, Social Structure, Knowledge, Social Change
How powerful is social control? An example of how it effects you?
According to Durkheim social control is very powerful because society has internalized the social control to believe it is the right thing to do.

Exampe=posture photos
What is the social construction of reality?
-people offer a definition of the situation
-competing definitions are reconciled to produce a negociated order
-reality is not directly experience by individuals so much as it is socially constructed

EX:is a mother taking pictures of her four year old son naked a crime?
Who is George Herbert Mead?
-Son of New England minister
-Taught at the University of Chicago
-Developed Symbolic Interacitonist Perspective
-Believed people can interact by taking the role of the other
How does suicide related to social structures?
social structures constrain behavior...even behavior we feel is highly individual. Suicide is largely influenced by social factors.
Who is Emile Durkheim?
-conducted a classic study that found suicide to be related to social integration of individuals in the larger society

-developed the structural-fuctional theory
Who developed the structural-functional theory?
Durkheim
What is social inequality? Where is it?
There is inequality both within societies and between societies.

EX: Top 10% of US owns 91% of securities; income in US is hundreds of times larger that in other countries
Who is KArl MArx?
-born in Germany, lived in Britain
-influenced by industrial revolution
-developed the conflict theory
Who developed the conflict perspective?
Marx
Bourgeoisie and proletariat relate to which sociological perspective?
Conflict Theory
What is social change?
it is a pervasive aspect to social life.
-some occurs more quickly in some societies than in others...Why?
Who is Max Weber?
-German son of protestant entrepreneur
-argued modern life was experiencing increased rationality
-protestant work ethic encouraged capitalism
-social life based on the rational action guided by subjective understanding in shared cultural ideas (VERSTEHEN)
Verstehen was a concept developed by ____________?
Weber
How we should act in class is an illustration of what concept?
social structures/socialization
our idea of what a classroom is is an illustration of what concept?
social construction of reality
What are the FIVE standards of scientific knowledge?
1. emprically testable
2. falsifiable
3. reproducible
4. valid
5. generalizeable
Joe has a horse able to count the number of people standing nearby for up to 10 people. When Joe asks the horse the number is always correct. But when anyone else asks, it is wrong. Which standard of scientific knowledge does this example not meet?
Reproducable
How does sociology differ from the natural sciences?
1.subjective experience (verstehen)
2.reactivity
3.ethical issues in human study
What is subjective experience (verstehen)?
-people experience life subjectively
-to understand people's actions we must understand what their acts mean
What is reactivity?
the extent to which humans being studied respond to the research process or researcher by changing their behavior, unintentionally or intentionally.
What is the Hawthorne Effect?
Researchers looked a productivity in a factory, changing various factors such as seating arangement, temperature, etc. However, no mater what they changed productivity increased. The key factor was the researchers presence.

THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT refers to the unintended effects on behavior produced when people are aware they are being studied.
The Tuskeegee Syphilis Study is an example of what?
ethical problems when studying humans
What are some standards for the treatment of human subjects?
-research should be of benefit to the subject and should NOT HARM them
-risks should be outweighned by ptential benefits
-risks should be minimized
-privacy of subjects should be protected by guaranteeing confidentiality
-selection of subjects shouldb efair
-informed consent must be documented.
In a study, what is a SAMPLE?
a sample is a subset of members of the population rather than the entire population
What is a convenience sample?
A convenience sample is a sample of people selected b/c they are easy to find
What is a quota sample?
a sample including specific numbers of cases in various subcategories
What is a probability sample?
A sample in which each case in the population has some known probability of being included and all segments of the population are represented.
What is a study in which researchers watch subjects to see how they behave in various circumstances?
An Observational study
What is a systematic observation?
a formal, quantitative method in which researchers typically develop a systematic set of codes and use them to code each even observed and analyze the results
What is a study in which a researcher participates in and is directly involved in the lives of those he or she is studying?
Participant observation
Define:

Ethnography
a typically detailed descriptive account summarizing and interpreting a culture or a collection of people studied
What are the benefits of social surveys?
-least expensive of research prcedures
-more representative sample
-larger sample

negative:
-researcher has no control over extraneous variables
What is culture?
Culture is a combination of ideas, behaviors, and material objects that people have created and adopted for carrying out necessary tasks of daily life.

Culture is pervasive, influencing virtually every aspect of our lives. We depend on culture for directions as to how to behave, for shelter, food, work, and meaning in our lives.
What is material culture
material culture includes all the art, architecture, technological artifacts, and material objects created by a society. This includes the factories, highways, automobiles, computers, records, books, toys, skyscrapers, nuclear waste depositories, polluted rivers, and junkyards that are the products of modern societies.
What is nonmaterial culture?
nonmaterial culture consists of everything about culture that is not part of the material culture including symbols, values, beliefs, norms, attitudes, and language.
What are symbols? Examples?
Samples are arbitrary signs that stand for something.

EX: money, credit cards, university ID, peace sign.
What are values?
values are standards of desirability, rightness, or importance in a society. They indicate whether something is good or bad, important, unimportant, attractive or unattractive. Values are not neutral. They are positive or negative
What are norms?
Norms are expectations for behavior.

l Norms often apply to social roles that people are playing more than to the individuals themselves. For we expect a mother will care for her children. We expect this of any person who is a mother, not just a particular person.
What are rules governing everyday conduct that are not considered to be morally important and are not strictly enforced?
– Conventions of dress such as wearing a tie to church, polite behavior such as men opening the door for women, saying “ple
Folkways
What are serious norms for important activities having a strong moral imperative and strictly enforced.
– Someone who kills someone else, rapes a woman, or steals is violating a more and will likely be sanctioned.
Mores (pronounced “mor-ays”) or taboos,
Who was the sociologist who found that people adopt norms as their own? What is this concept called?
Emile Durkheim was the first to identify the tendency for people to internalize norms—adopting the norm as their own.
– For example, when a person violates an important norm such as by cheating a friend, even if other people are not aware of the violation, the individual will feel their own internal guilt.
What is the dominant culture?
The dominant culture in a society is the culture that takes precedence over other cultures in activities or events involving people from many categories of the population.

l The dominant culture often is so pervasive that it is not questioned by most societal members but is taken for granted.
What is a subculture?
A subculture is a culture containing many elements of the dominant culture, but having unique features that distinguish its members from the rest of the population.
What is a counter culture?
A counterculture is a subculture that challenges important elements of the dominant culture such as beliefs, attitudes, or values and seeks to create an alternative lifestyle.
l Examples of countercultures in the United States include beatniks in the 1950s, hippies in the 1960s, and skinheads and militias in the 1990s.
What is the perspective that recognizes the contributions of diverse groups to our society and holds that no single culture is any better than all the rest.
multiculturalism
What is the view that your own culture is the standard against which other cultures can be judged right or wrong
ethnocentrism
What is a social structure?
Social structure consists of the regular patterns of social interaction and persistent social relationships, expectations attached to positions and relationships, the distribution of people among social positions, and the distribution of social rewards.

Social structures link the individual to the broader society, at the same time enabling individuals to influence social life, while constraining their actions.



-The greatest constraint shaping social interaction comes not from the individuals who are interacting but from their place in the social structure as indicated by their social statuses and roles.
What is a socially recognized position in a social system. Social status may be defined in many ways: by occupation, by education, by family position, by age, by race, by gender, and so on.



–Examples include street sweeper, Pre
A social status
What is an ascribed status?
ascribed status is a status into which individuals are assigned without regard for their actions, desires, or abilities

–e.g., male, female, young, old, black, white, son, daughter.
What is an achieved status?
An achieved status is a social status acquired through an individual's own actions

–e.g., college student, married person, physician.

–Is being a criminal an achieved status? It is not a desired status, but it is one the person usually earned by virtue of their actions. An achieved status does not have to be intentional.
What is the difference between an achieved status and an ascribed status?
You have little or no control over an ascribed status, whereas an achieved status is something you earn through idividual actions
What is a position so important it dominates all other statuses in the individual’s status set, for both the individual holding the status and others?

Prestigious occupational statuses often provide this for people occupying those statuses.
A master status
Define:

manifest status
A manifest status is the status that defines or structures the role set for a particular situation. For example, when a patient seeks help from a physician the status of the physician which is most relevant to the interaction and that should most affect it is the status of "physician." This may be contrasted with a latent status
Define:

latent status
A latent status is any status formally defined as irrelevant to a situation and which should have no bearing on interaction. For example, the status of "woman" is or should be irrelevant for the performance of a person's role as "physician." However, it may influence behavior nonetheless.
What is a social role?
A social role is a set of expectations for anyone occupying a particular social status.

lRole expectations may be for behaviors, attitudes, values, or beliefs.

Roles are attached to social statuses, not to individuals.
This consists of actions by an individual occupying a social status that are based on the role the person is playing and the role of the person with whom they are interacting.
A role performance
What is role strain?
Role strain occurs when it is difficult to meet the expectations of a single role.

–For example, a father may be unable to support his family financially.
When does role conflict occur?
Role conflict occurs when different roles have incompatible expectations for the individual holding both of those roles.

–For example, a parent should help their children succeed, while a teacher should treat all students fairly. Hence, if you are the teacher of your children you may be expected to experience role conflict or a “conflict of interest.”
What is role segregation?
Role segregation refers to attempts to avoid occupying statuses requiring specific individuals to be role partners for more than one role we are practicing--e.g., teachers avoiding romantic involvement with students.
What is role distance?
Role distance is a separation of one’s self from the role one must play. It is a strategy to separate identity from action.

–For example, a mother giving her child medicine she knows the child does not like might say “this will hurt me more than it hurts you.”
What are the functions of roles?
Roles help members of a society predict the behaviors of others.

–For example, students can predict that most teachers will give tests.

Roles often provide clear expectations for how someone should act.

–For example, students should try not to snore loudly during lectures.

Roles can provide a model for generalizing behavior from one setting to another.

–For example, college students can expect to be treated in much the same way in one large lecture class as they were treated in similar large lecture classes in the past.
What is social interaction?
lSocial interaction consists of the process through which people affect one another through actions, interpretations of actions, and responses to actions.



lFrom the moment we enter this world to the moment we leave it we are interacting with other people.



lWe cannot not interact. Even sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of strangers, we communicate through eye contact, body language, posture, hand gestures, clothing, and demeanor. We signal an unwillingness to talk by burying our face in the outdated magazine we aren’t really reading. Or we signal our willingness to engage in idle chat by meeting their eye gaze.
What are the 4 "C's" or types of social interaction?
–Conflict

–Competition

–Coercion

-Cooperation
What is interaction among people or groups in which they act together to achieve a common goal which might not be achievable acting alone?
Cooperation
What is conflict?
Conflict is the opposite of cooperation. It is the struggle for a limited resource having value to different participants and often requiring the defeat or subdual of others to achieve the goal. Georg Simmel (1955) identified four common types of conflict: wars, intragroup conflict; many forms of litigation (legal conflict settled in the courts), and ideological conflicts.
This occurs when one person or group forces its will on another, based on the threat of physical force or violence
Coercion
What is competition?
Competition is conflict but the interaction is governed by rules limiting the conflict and achieving the main goal of individual success is more important than defeating or subduing opponents.
What are some examples of nonverbal gestures?
Thumbs up, peace sign, etc.

The meanings of these can vary from society to society.
What did a study by Stephen Thayer in 1988 find about personal contact in other countries
London ranked lowest number of touches per hour, then US, Paris, and the most was Puerto Rico. Paris and Puerto Rico had number shockingly higher than London or the US.
What study tested a self-fulfilling prophecy by showing how the physical attractiveness of a female can lead men to treat her differently; leading her, in turn, to act in a manner consistent with that stereotype
Mark Snyder's 1977 study of men on the telephone with women of whom they had been given a photograph which they rated as attractive or unattractive.
What is the dramaturgical perspective?
The dramaturgical perspective views social life using the metaphor of actors playing roles on a stage (Goffman, 1959). In this perspective, much of human behavior can be understood as a deliberate attempt to manage the impressions other people have of us.
In the dramaturgical perspective, what is a "front stage" situation?
A Front-stage setting refers to occasions or encounters in which people are in the presence others whom they would like to impress favorably (an “audience”).

–a young man on a first date (his date is his audience),

–a waitress serving meals in a restaurant (the customers are her audience), and

–a student attending a classroom lecture (the teacher is the student’s audience).
In the dramaturgical perspective, what is a "back stage" situation?
back-stage setting refers to times and places when the people a person wishes to impress favorably are not present. In a back-stage setting, people do not have to engage actively in efforts at impression management. Instead, they can relax, “be themselves,” and do things they might not want members of the audience to see.



lExample back-stage settings might include

–a young man camping with male friends (where a female date is not present),

–a waitress in the restaurant kitchen (where the customers cannot see or hear her), and

–the student relaxing with friends in a dorm room (where the teacher is not present).
Who developed the dramaturgical perspective?
Erving Goffman (1959)
What is emotional labor?
Emotional labor is a type of work activity requiring the worker to display particular emotions in the normal course of providing a service.

–Airline attendants are often required to wear a smile on their face in the presence of customers (passengers) as are receptionists, nurses, hotel desk clerks, and cocktail waitresses.
What did T.R. Young find in his T-Shirt as Self-Expression study?
Young and his class found the tee shirts worn by college students to reflect several broad themes

·Brand Names—Camel cigarettes, expensive shoes, sports equipment, up-scale clothing stores, and a wide range of beers. As Young put it, this provides “testimony to the success of the advertising industry to colonize the very bodies of their victims.”

·Status Claims—Tee shirts displaying exotic places such as Central America, Europe, Asia, and Hawaii were quite common, showing that the person is well-traveled and, by implication, of a high enough social status to afford to travel.

·Moral messages—These messages ranged from religious tee shirts proclaiming some Christian faith to expressions of pop philosophy such as “life is a beach” or “party until you die” to statements evoking brotherhood, sisterhood, and ecological or population concerns.

·Youth culture—Tee shirts for well-known rock groups or singers popular among students

lBy wearing tee shirts, these students were attempting to manage the impressions other people form of them.
Homans and Blau developed what theory?
social exchange theory
What is the social exchange theory?
Exchange theory analyzes social interaction in terms of valued outcomes to the participants. It assumes people are motivated by self-interest, as measured by rewards and costs of actions and tend to repeat highly rewarded actions and not repeat costly ones.

lActions by one actor can have both costs and rewards for others, hence we can use our own actions to influence how others treat us.

lExchange is not limited to economic goods but characterizes all social interaction. Every act can be assessed in terms of its rewards and benefits for participants.

lThis perspective has been applied to a wide range of interaction ranging from loving relationships in marriages to interactions among multinational corporations to relationships between people of different ages.
What asserts that if you give someone something, you expect them to give you something of equal value in return
the norm of reciprocity
What is socialization?
lSocialization is one of the primary means by which culture including knowledge is passed from one generation to the next.



lSocialization occurs not only in primary and secondary schools and professional schools, but even among countercultures and subcultures engaging in illicit activity
What did Barbara Heyl find in her research of houses of prostitution?
socialization occurs in subcultures...training prostitues, etc. is socialization.
What is the CONFLICT view of socializaiton?
The Conflict View:
Passing on Advantage



lSocialization is the means by which the rich and powerful pass on their advantages to their children.



lSocialization experiences tend to both justify and reproduce the status quo.
What is social channeling?
lSocial channeling is a process of socialization in which children of the rich are prepared for and directed towards positions of privilege in society while children of the poor are prepared for and directed into low prestige positions of subservience
What is The Symbolic Interactionist View of socialization?
socialization is a way of constructing the social self.

There are Four stages
What are the four stages of the symbolic interacitonist view of socialization?
Preparatory Stage—the first stage of child's social development, where behavior is largely imitation of others, with little use for symbols and limited role-taking.

lPlay Stage—here individuals learn to evaluate themselves and other social objects from the point of view of particular significant others, individuals with whom they are interacting such as a mother or father.

lGame Stage—here children learn to take on the role of multiple others at the same time--e.g., several people playing a game.

lAdult Stage—the final stage in which the individual is capable of taking on the role of the generalized other, assessing behavior in terms of the the norms and values of the broad society and responding to abstract principles and symbols.
A Study of Key Events in Work Settings btGundry and Rousseau (1994) concluded. . .
lSocialization in the workplace is important for newcomers to learn the formal and informal rules of conduct and role expectations of the organization’s culture.

lCritical incidents can be potent communicators of an organization’s behavioral norms. Newcomers discover the underlying norms of the organization by trying to make sense of such incidents.

lSometimes the messages conveyed by these incidents may be quite different from the formal socialization and official image the organization wishes to convey to newcomers.
What is the difference between formal and informal socialization?
Formal socialization is any type of socialization that takes place in a social structure meant for that purpose (i.e. school, club, home, etc.) Informal socialization takes place outisde of these structures (friends, parties, etc.)
What is the socialization for dying?
lThe first stage is often denial. They simply cannot believe it is happening to them.

lThe second stage is anger. At that point, they begin to realize it is actually happening to them, but they see it as a gross injustice.

lThe third stage is bargaining. They seek to postpone their death by changing their behavior, looking for new treatments, and even making promises to God.

lThe fourth stage, resignation, is often accompanied by severe depression.

lThe final stage is acceptance in which they come to terms with their death and attempt to make the most of the remaining time available to them to take care of business with relatives and friends before they die.
What is anticipatroy socialization?
Anticipatory socialization is socialization for a status that occurs before the person occupies the status.
What is borderwork? Examples?
Borderwork refers to the interactions between genders that tends to strengthen and perpetuate gender boundaries.



lContests between the sexes (both informal playground games and classroom activities), chasing (most often boys chasing girls), invasions (where boys or girls intrude upon the play of others), and rituals of pollution (in which someone is accused of having “cooties”) are all patterns of interaction through which gender boundaries are often reaffirmed and strengthened. (Barrie Thorne, 1986)



lTypically, those activities lead to girls and boys separating into same-gender teams to compete, chase, and invade or defend playground turf.
Not an actual question, but...

Did you review your socialization handouts? What about the other sociology lab handouts?
Just checking...
What are the 5 types of groups?
Primary group
l Secondary group
l Reference group
l In-group
l Out-Group
What is a primary group?
A primary group (first defined by Cooley, 1909) is a group in which people have intimate face-to-face associations that endure for long periods of time.
What type of GROUP is generally small, close-knit, and personal where members have a strong connection and spend much time together?
a primary group
What are examples of a primary group?
families, roomates, childrens' play groups
What is a secondary group?
A secondary group is a group that is large and impersonal, members do not know each other intimately or completely, there are weak ties, and the group typically has a less profound impact on the members.
What type of groups are usually formed for a specific purpose, last a short duration, are larger, and only involve a few activities?
a secondary group
What is an example of a secondary group?
the PTA (Parent Teacher Association)
What is a refrence group?
A reference group is any group a person considers when evaluating his or her actions or characteristics
What type of group is joined when someone is deciding how they might respond to a situation? A person may also wish to belong to a group, but will not or will change their membership over time.
A refrence group.
Someone training to be a lawyer thinks of how his future collegues will view some action he is taking now. These future collegues from what type of group?
A refrence goup.
What is an in-group?
An in-group is a group that members are involved in, and with which they identify
What is an out group?
An out-group is one to which people feel they do not belong. Members of an out-group are rejected or treated in a hostile manner by members of the in-group.
What are group dynamics?
Group dynamics refers to the social processes characterizing groups and the social structures that develop characterizing relationships among people within groups.
What are the two different types of group leadership?
instrumental leadership emphasizing completing tasks and achieving goals and
– expressive leadership that emphasizes group solidarity and morale.
• These two types of leadership are sometimes linked to gender, with females more likely to take expressive leadership in the family and males more likely to assume instrumental leadership (Parsons and Bales, 1955).
What is authoritarian leadership?
authoritarian leadership in which the leader takes personal control and demands compliance from others,
What is democratic leadership?
democratic leadership which involves all members in decision making and pays more attention to expressive tasks, and
What is laissez-faire leadership?
laissez-faire leadership allows the group to find its own way with little influence from the leader and which is usually the least effective at promoting group goals --Ridgeway, 1983.
What is status generalizaiton?
status generalization--members of a group holding the highest status within the group tend to be people who hold higher statuses outside the group as well.
What did Solomon Asch, in a study titled THE EFFECT OF GROUP PRESSURE ON CONFORMITY, find?
One-third (thirty-two percent) of the subjects agreed with the majority and chose the incorrect line.
– This occurred even when the subjects appeared to know they were making the wrong choice.
– When he varied the size of the incorrect majority (which was always unanimous) he found conformity to be least with one other person, greater with two other persons, and greatest with three or more other persons unanimously disagreeing with the subject.

l When the disagreement with the subject was not unanimous, the pressure to conform also dropped drastically.

l He concluded there is a significant tendency for individuals tend to conform to the group judgment.
When does "groupthink" occur?
Groupthink occurs when individual group members oppose the decision of a group but are afraid to speak out against what they perceive to be the group consensus. In such situations, dissensus may be viewed as disloyalty. --Irving Janis (1967)
Groupthink is most common in small cohesive groups with strong leaders.

l Groupthink can be disastrous for groups
– the range of options given serious consideration is narrowed
– options may be ruled out to maintain group cohesiveness
– this can prevent a frank and honest discussion
– the group fails to take advantage of the different perspectives individuals bring to the group.
– The result often is poor decisions
What are two big examples of "groupthink"
Bay of Pigs Invasion: Interviews and memoirs later revealed at least one of the participants in that meeting (Presidential advisor, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.) had reservations about the decision to invade Cuba, but had not spoken up in the meeting (quoted in Janis, 1967:30,40).


Challanger shuttle disaster:
Shortly before the space shuttle, Challenger, was launched and then blew up, engineers and NASA officials held telephone meetings to discuss whether the launch was safe. They were under considerable pressure to launch on time to help assure continued congressional funding (Moorhead, Ference, and Neck, 1991).
What are conjunctive tasks?
Conjunctive tasks are tasks where the performance of the group can only be as good as the performance of the weakest link or weakest member.
What are disjunctive tasks?
Disjunctive tasks are tasks where if any one individual can solve them, then the entire group is likely to solve them as well.
What is a "eureka problem" an example of? Conjunctive or Disjunctive tasks?
A Disjunctive task
a squad of military personnel on an obstacle course. So long as the squad must stay together it can only move as fast as the slowest member.

This is an example of a conjunctive or disjunctive task?
A Conjunctive task
What actions are actions which benefit others at no benefit, perhaps even at some risk to the individual who takes those actions?
altruistic actions
What were the results of Darley and Latane's experiment involving college students discussing life over an intercom with one or more students, then one of the students having a seizure?
All students who believed they were part of a dyad immediately rushed to help the other person.
– Those told they were in a triad were slower to respond and only 80 percent went to help.
– Of students who thought they were in a group of size six, only 60 percent went to help.
l Darley and Latane concluded those in larger groups experienced a diffusion of responsibility, thinking someone else would help the person
What is a social network?
A social network is a series of social relationships linking individuals directly to other individuals and indirectly to still other individuals.

Links may include group memberships, dyadic friendships, workers, neighbors, and relatives, both casual and intense.

l Social networks can be very limited. Members are often not co-present (in the same place), they may not have common goals, and they may not even perceive themselves to be part of a network.

l Yet, social networks are often used effectively to achieve important goals, such as obtaining social support, advancing a career, and influencing political events.
What do those who see the functional view of networks see?
Functionalists point out that networks can provide social support, information, job opportunities, and serve other important functions for people.
What do those who see the conflict theory of networks see?
On the other hand, conflict theorists argue that rich and powerful people—the elite—are often particularly effective at using social networks to maintain their advantage over other people.
– The elite can use their networks of friends and acquaintances to get jobs other people never hear about, to exert influence over political matters, to intervene when their children get poor marks in school, and in hundreds of other ways to continue to exercise and maintain privilege.
– The restrictive nature of these networks as reflected in the phrase "good-old-boy" network means that many people are excluded from the benefits of these networks, people such as women and minorities.
What is a formal organization?
A formal organization is a form of social organization that is purposefully constructed to meet its goals with maximum efficiency, often consisting of many individuals linked by a collective goal, roles, rules for behavior, and relationships of authority.
What role do formal organizations play in everyday life?
–They dominate business life (corporations are organizations),
–They dominate government (Federal and state agencies are organizations as are congress, the executive office, and the courts),
–They dominate education, entertainment, religion, industry...virtually all aspects of social life.
–We even use formal organizations to regulate other formal organizations (e.g., OSHA--the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or the SEC--the Securities and Exchange Commission).
What is a coercive organization?
A coercive organization uses force to control lower level members of the organization who, in many cases, have little or no personal commitment to the organization. Prisons and mental hospitals are both coercive organizations.
what is a total institution?
total institutions—organizations that regulate every aspect of a person’s behavior.
What is a utilitarian organization?
uses money to control lower level participants. Corporations are obvious examples of utilitarian organizations.
What is a normative organization?
A normative organization uses norms and values of the organization to control lower-level participants. These are usually voluntary associations.
What are voluntary associations?
Voluntary associations are organizations established to pursue common interests whose members volunteer and often even pay to participate.
What is an example of voluntary associations?
intrest groups, churches, fan clubs, Boy Scouts, Democratic Party, AARP, etc.
What is rationalization?
Rationalization, according to Weber, is a pervasive process characterizing modern society in which traditional methods and standards of social organization based on tradition, belief, and even magic, are replaced with new methods and standards of social organization based on objectively calculable scientific criteria.
Whose concept was rationalizaiton?
Max Weber
Have you checked for new group/networking notes on WebCT? He mentioned there might be some...
Go look.
What are the characteristics of a bureaucracy?
⬢a division of labor with every member having special duties,
⬢a hierarchical line of authority clearly defining each member's authority,
⬢written rules & regulations specifying the rights and duties associated with each position or status in the organization and procedures required for each task,
⬢compensatory reward with employment, promotion, and reward based on performance, and
⬢impersonality in the relations among members
What is a bureaucracy?
Max Weber (1922, 1947) coined the term bureaucracy to indicate a formal organization that attempts to maximize efficiency and productivity through the rationalization of work.
Describe the aspect of a bureaucracy "division of labor"
A key strategy for rationalizing work to make it more efficient is a division of labor breaking complex tasks into simpler components and assigning different workers to perform each of those components.

l No single member of the organization performs all tasks. Instead, each member becomes a highly specialized expert, performing only the specific task or tasks within her job description.

l This specialized division of labor often leads to members becoming highly skilled and the organization maximally efficient.
Describe the aspect of a bureaucracy "hierarchical line of authority"
l Bureaucracies typically have a clearly defined hierarchical line of authority indicating who is responsible for decisions and who reports to whom.

l These lines of authority are often indicated by organizational charts and they have the positive benefit of clarifying who is responsible for different decisions.

l However, those same lines of authority are sometimes used to hide from making decisions.
What is trained incapacity?
when members of a bureaucratic organization are unwilling to take bold decisions to handle problems in new ways and instead try to solve new problems using old methods (Veblen, 1899).
What is decision avoidance?
Decision avoidance occurs when members of a bureaucratic organization are unwilling to make a decision at all. Instead they try to pass it on to someone else in the organization so they don't have to be responsible for the success or failure.
Describe the characterisitc of a bureaucracy "compensatory reward."
When employees in a formal organization are hired, promoted, and compensated based on their performance and competence this is called compensatory reward.
What is the Peter Principle?
The Peter Principle states that, in organizations, talented people are promoted until they reach a level where they are incompetent. Then they are no longer promoted because they do not excel at their work (Peter and Hull, 1969:25).
an efficient assembly line worker may be promoted to foreman only to find that he is a lousy foreman. But rather than demoting him to assembly line worker again and admitting a mistake was made as well as humiliating him, most bureaucracies simply keep h
The Peter Principle
Describe the characteristic of a bureaucracy "impersonality"?
Impersonality is a bureaucratic norm dictating that officials carry out their duties without consideration for people as individuals.
Describe the characteristic of a bureaucracy "written rules and regulations"
Written rules and regulations specify the rights and duties associated with each position or status in the organization and procedures required for each task. This helps assure everyone equal and fair treatment. Workers know what is expected of them in various circumstances. These written rules and regulations also provide continuity to the organization even as individual actors come and go. These rules and regulations are often found in policy manuals, job descriptions, and worker contracts. Extended too far and applied rigidly, however, rules and regulations can become dysfunctional.
What is goal displacement?
Goal displacement is overzealous conformity to official regulations where their rigid application becomes dysfunctional for the organization (Robert Merton (1968:254-256).
How are bureaucracies self-perpetuating?
– People have a clear economic interest in preserving their jobs.
– In addition, once procedures have become routinized and institutionalized as the accepted way to do things, those tend to be self-perpetuating (Kanter, 1983, Chpts 3 and 4).
– Together, these and other forces act to keep organizations alive long after their initial objective has been accomplished or is no longer relevant.
• Defense programs, congressional subcommittees, and charitable foundations such as the March of Dimes are other examples of this tendency.
What is an informal organizaiton?
We use the term, Informal organization to refer to the flexible, implicit norms governing an organization or group—what people actually do instead of what they are supposed to do (Blau and Meyer, 1971).
What did George Ritzer argue in THE MCDONALDIZATION OF SOCIETY?
He argues that such corporations offer four benefits that have made them far more successful than the nonrationalized organizations they are replacing:
– efficiency,
– quantification,
– predictability, and
– control.

E.g., McDonalds
These can be illustrated for McDonalds.
l Efficiency--There you can expect to get fast, efficient service.
l Quantification--McDonalds, like other rationalized corporations offers packaged products with low prices for large quantities, with quantity substituting for quality as an easy measure of value received.
l Predictability--No matter where in the world you are, when you go in a McDonalds you can expect the hamburgers to be about the same as the last one you had—neither horrible nor delectable, but predictably acceptable.
l Control--Finally, McDonalds offer control over its employees. Customers can expect fast, courteous service with good quality control—the same amount of pickles roughly on the hamburger in Tulsa, Oklahoma as in Beijing, China.
What is the iron law of oligarchy?
l The iron law of oligarchy asserts that even democratic organizations will eventually become ruled by a few individuals (Robert Michels).
l Formal organizations, even voluntary associations with a strong allegiance to democratic principles, tend to become dominated by a small, self-perpetuating group of members. Those members form an elite clique passing power from one member of the inner circle to the next.
Once you get done with this you better go read over the book notes again? OK?
OK?!?!?!
When is your test?
WEDNESDAY AT 1:00!

(do NOT sleep through that. bad deal.)
Start Studying!

Deck Info

169

permalink