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

Amanda Sociology Final

Terms

undefined, object
copy deck
Predestination and the idea of a calling
Weber - "Protestant Ethic"
Draws upon Calvinist Doctrine that not everybody is saved, the 'elect' get in to heaven.
Applies 'interpretation' critically to the effects of Calvinism on work ethic - work ethic is a reaction to the protestant 'moment of terrible inner lonliness,' they are prompted to look for signs of their own slavation, and financial success in a capitalist system becomes one of those signs.
The Iron Cage
Weber 'The Protestant Ethic'
increasing rationalization of of human life shifts principles of living from value-oriented to goal oriented organization and action. Thus, life becomes more and more like an iron cage of rule-based, rational control.
Socialism and Communism
Developed from Marxist Ideology
Both emphasize shared ownership in reaction to Marx's condemnation of private ownership and its intrinsic capitalist ties.
Blase Attitude
Simmel "The Metropolis and Mental Life"
a shared oulook and mindset of city dwellers
a result of overstimulation
characterized by thinking more with the head than with the heart, a development of 'intellectuality.'
False Consciousness
Marx
people can be mistaken about their personal motivations and interests
this was Marx's response to why workers comply with Capitalist oppression: they have been socialized into the ideology of the Bourgeoisie, especially through Christianity and 'delayed gratification'
Culture
difficult to define
'cultural differences' 'cross cultural comparison'
activity that shapes peoples' lives, "a way of life"
uniting, common sense of values/beliefs, associated norms
cultures cause different groups of people to react differently to the same stimulants
Social Facts
Durkheim and Sociological Methodology
-defining characteristic of sociology is to explain phenomena in terms of groups rather than individuals: ex- Durkheim's approach to suicide attempted to correlated individual suicide to larger social facts
- social facts are external constraints/pressures on behavior
Class
-Marx defined class as determined by an individual's relationship to the means of production
-Davis and Moore claimed that stratification is necessary, therefore class in unavoidable
-traditionally determined by income, wealth, status, authority
Ideology
-values that are prevalent
-have some of Merton's latent/manifest functions
-Marx: whose interests do ideologies serve?
Crises of Overaccumulation
Marx
Capitalism's structural contradictions doom the system to fail in a 'crisis of overaccumulation.' Businesses have to pay workers the least to be successful, and sell workers the most. Eventually, a point will be reached where too much is produced and no one can buy.
Ideal Type
Weber coined the term and pioneered its use
-response to criticism concerning his generalizations about Catholicism and Protestantism
- a construction that cpatures a certain point of reality, used to describe and represent pronounced differences between separate social groups for comparitive purposes.
Verstehen
Weber
-means 'interpretation' or 'understanding'
-associated with methodological approaches that Weber developed
-repudiation of 'cause and effect' social thought
-emphasis on understanding/interpreting the influence of human thought on historical social development
McDonaldization
Ritzer 'McJobs'
a set of organized principles - including efficiency, uniformity, predictability, and control - that play an important part in today's society.
Mcjobs involve a series of simple tasks that should be done efficiently in a calculated period of time and are repeated day in and day out - these jobs have little meaning for the worker.
-Emphasis on efficiency leaves little time for personalization of the part of the worker or customer
-Customer being brought into the labor force: self-serve gas station, atms,
Urbanity and Cosmopolitanism
Wirth "Urbanism as a Way of Life"

This fact [of heightened individual mobility, coupled with fluctuating status among diverse groups, leading to acceptance of instability and insecurity ‘as a norm’] helps to account, too, for the sophistication and cosmopolitanism of the urbanite. No single group has the undivided allegiance of the individual. The groups with which he is affiliated do not lend themselves readily to a simple hierarchical arrangement’ (415).
Species-Being
Marx - 'Theory of Alienation'

as humans, our species is our object. we want to plan our lives. capitalism involves a loss of control over our activities and plans, and a consequence is alienation

wikipedia: alienation principally refers to some estrangement (Entfremdung) between persons and their human nature. When people's ‘being does not correspond to their essence’ they are alienated, while actualization (its opposite) is ‘the extent to which the human being as species being, as a human being, has become herself and grasped herself’
Alienation
Marx - 'Theory of Alienation'
the separation of things that belong together, i.e. human separation from human nature is a result of capitalism

There are at least four key characteristics of alienated labor:
The worker is alienated from the product of her labor (alienation of the thing).
The worker is alienated from the act of production within labor (self-alienation).
The worker is alienated from her species-being.
Each worker is alienated from her fellow workers.
Disenchantment
Weber
Describes the character of a modernized, secular society where scientific fact is more valued than belief
Specialization and the Division of LAbor
Industrialization fosters specialization.
Specialization fosters individualization (‘this specialization makes one individual incomparable to another’) but also interdependence.
Interdependence seems to place the individual at the mercy of external forces, of a ‘social-technological mechanism’.
The Sociological Imagination
C Wright Mills
A Special way to engage the world, recognizing that personal problems are often widely shared by others, and actually social issues
-Encouraged collective action to change the world in some way
3 Questions that the sociological imagination leads sociologists to ask
1. what is the structure of this society? within it, what is the meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and change?
2. Where does this society stand in human history? How does it differ from other periods? What are its characteristic ways of history-making?
3. What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and this period?
7 Stages of the Research Process
Calhoun, Keller, Light 'Methods of Sociological Research'
1. Define the problem
2. Review the literature on the subject
3. From Hypothesis
4. Choose a research design
5. collect appropriate data
6. analyze said data
7. draw conclusions

does raymond fuller call cassie a dyke?
Stratification
Davis and Moore 'Principles of Stratification'
A stratified societs in a layered society in terms of access to important resourcesl socioal inequality in regards to wealth, power and prestige
-argument that stratification MUST be functional since it persists in all societies
-solves the problem of motivation
-an unconsciously evolved device that insure the most qualified people fill the most important positions: rewards
Rewards In A stratified society
Davis and Moore
-rewards: things that contribute to sustenance and comfort, things that contribute to humor and diversion, things that contribute to self-respect and ego
Symbolic Interactionism
Goffman 'Presentation of Self'
A way to analyze social situations in terms of how large groups of people come to agree on what is going on, what is 'reality'
The Dyad and the Triad
Simmel 'The Dyad and the Triad'
Dyad=human relationship with 2 members
Triad=3 members
The dyad is a relationship that has a special character: two people is the maximum that can know and keep a secret, the dyad is the only social grouping that isnt greater than the sum of its parts, secession of either would destroy the whole, intimacy = reason for cheif seat of jealousy

triad, the addition of the third person can have a stabilizing effect, difficult for more that two people to obtain a 'uniform mood'
Functionalism
Durkheim 'Functions of Crime'
theory that all elements of a cluture are functional in that they serve to satisfy culturally defined needs of the people in that society or the requirements of that society as a whole
The Generalized Other
Erving Goffman 'The Presentation of Self'
the generalized notion that a person has of the common expectations that others have about actions and thoguhts w/in a particular society. any time an actor tries to imagine what is expected of them, they are taking on the perspective of the generalized other.
concept used in the social sciences, especially in the field of 'symbolic interactionsim' - reality as a collective hunch, to understand peoples' behavior we must understand the symbolic worlds they inhabit

Mead 'the self
-the second stage in development of the self is viewing oneself in terms of the generalized other
the self as a social process: a person is a person because he belongs to a community
Manifest and Latent Function
Merton 'manifest and latent functions'
manifest: the consequences of social behaviors and functions that are familiar, planned, and generally recognized
latent: the consequences of social behaviors that are unfamiliar, unplanned, and widely overlooked.
Presentation of Self
Goffman 'presentation of self'
There are two kinds of communication: expressions given and expressions given off - this primarily concerned with the latter
-exchanges can be assymetrical: the observers witness two streams of communication while the observee is conscious of only 1
-society is organized around the principle that an individual who posseses certain social characteristics has a moral right to expect that others will value and treat him in an appropriate way
-a second principle is that individuals present themselves honestly
-'an individual will have many motives for trying to control the impression that others receive of the situation'
-dramaturgical approach 'the world's a stage'
Qualitative vs Quantitative Methods
Calhoun 'methods of sociological research'
two types of sociological research
quantitative: sociologists count the instances of some social phenomena and try to relate them to other factors in statistical terms
qualitative: sociologists use verbal descriptions, first hand observations, and sometimes pictures to interpret the meanings of social actions or to analyze patterns of social life in detail.
Reliability vs Validity
sociological studies must be assessed in terms of both
-validity: the degree to which a study measures what it is attempting to measure.ex: the degree to which durkheim acutally measured social integration by using factors like marriage rates

reliability: the degree to which a study yields the same results upon repetition
Socialization
Kilbourne 'Advertising'
socialization is the process by which an individual becomes a competent member of society
kilbourne clasim that socialization is a process that constitutes more than what your parents tell you to think and feel. she wuestions how advertising factors into this development of self.
Anomy
Durkheim ' anomy and modern life'
a reaction against or retreat from the social norms and expectations understood by members of a society
-Durkheim might argue that anomy is a natural phenomena of collective peoples

The nineteenth century French pioneer sociologist Durkheim borrowed the word from the French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau and used it in his book Suicide (1897), outlining the causes of suicide to describe a condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values (referred to as normlessness), and an associated feeling of alienation and purposelessness. He believed that anomie is common when the surrounding society has undergone significant changes in its economic fortunes, whether for good or for worse and, more generally, when there is a significant discrepancy between the ideological theories and values commonly professed and what was actually achievable in everyday life.
In Durkheim's view, traditional religions often provided the basis for the shared values which the anomic individual lacks. Furthermore, he argued that the division of labor that had been prevalent in economic life since the Industrial Revolution led individuals to pursue egoistic ends rather than seeking the good of a larger community.
Broken Windows Thesis
if we crack down on petty neighborhood crime, crime at all levels will be reduced. areas where public order is not controlled are vulnerable to criminal invasion. In response to fear, people will avoid each other, further weakening controls..
Conspicuous Consumption
Merton
example of manifest and latent functions
manifest function of consumption: practical use
latent function of consumption: indication of wealth
Importance of Method
Babbi
methodology is important, it helps us predict human behavior
Key Points:
How To Read Sociological Texts
Erdmans
question, don't just accept
what are they leaving out?
stating a conclusion without premise 'begs the question'
Key Points:
What do sociologists do?
sociology is concerned with the comparitive study of social institutions

the sociologist is someone who states the obvious with an air of discovery

only societies reflexively capable of modifying their institutions in the face of accelerating social change will be able to confront the future with any confidence

sociologists have more impact on the world than the natural sciences
Historical Materialism
associated with Marx, not acutally coined by him

-rewards: things that contribute to sustenance and comfort, things that contribute to humor and diversion, things that contribute to self-respect and ego
Functional Integration
How tightlly knit is a particular social group? Study of the function/social effect of community bonds
Social Constructionism
Brodkin - how did jews become white folks (and beyond)
The focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans. Socially constructed reality is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process; reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions.

Sociologists typically insist that social categories that we think of as fundamental, as unchanging essences that are a part of our human nature--e.g., race, gender, sexuality--are in fact historically and culturally variable. They are ‘socially constructed’ rather than fixed and enduring features of our nature or of the universe.
Thesis: Brodkin 'How did Jews Become White Folks'
The end of WWII marked a dramatic turnaround in discrimination against Jews, which had been ‘part of a broader pattern of late-nineteenth-century racism against all southern and eastern European immigrants, as well as against Asian immigrants’.
But ‘[i]t was not an educational epiphany that made those in power change their hearts, their minds, and our race. Instead, it was the biggest and best affirmative action program in the histor of our nation, and it was for Euromales’ (275).
Hernstein and Murray's 'The Bell Curve'
The authors claim that intelligence is becoming the decisive factor in explaining social stratification.
Most of our most central social problems--crime, poverty, etc.--can be explained in terms of differences in intelligence.
p.s. There are races, with heritable traits, and they differ consistently in intelligence.
Instrumentalism
Wirth 'Urbanism'
It becomes more effective to treat people as an ends, not a means

urbanites meet people in highly segmental roles
Urbanism and Anomie
Wirth 'urbansim'

Whereas the individual gains, on the one hand, a certain degree of emancipation or freedom from the personal and emotional controls of intimate groups, he loses, on the other hand, the spontaneous self-expression, the morale, and the sense of participation that comes with living in an integrated society’ (413).
Heterogeneity in cities
Wirth
Heterogeneity ‘[breaks] down the rigidity of caste lines’ and so complicates the class structure.
One is simultaneously in and out of favor in myriad groups; the accompanying fluctuating status leads urbanites to accept instability and insecurity ‘as a norm’.
Suburbanization, Malls, Edge Cities
Edge Cities represent the third wave of our lives pushing into new frontiers in this half century. First, we moved our homes out past the traditional idea of what constituted a city. This was the suburbanization of America, especially after World War II’.

Then we wearied of returning downtown for the necessities of life, so we moved our marketplaces out to where we lived. This was the malling of America, especially in the 1960s and 1970s’.

‘Today, we have moved our means of creating wealth, the essence of urbanism--our jobs--out to where most of us have lived and shopped for two generations. That has led to the rise of Edge City’--Joel Garreau, Edge City (1991), p. 4.
Zimbardo Study
Broken Windows

1969 - put a car in bad neighborhood, destroyed. put a car in affluent neighborhood with broken window, destroyed.
Leroi ' A Family Tree In Every Gene'
race as shorthand for genetic diversity
4 claims as to why race matters:
1. recognizing race would remove the dysjunction between government and scientists - government denies race but people recognize it
2. we can treat people better medically if we recognize race
3. the population is used to the concept
4. aesthetics - by defining race genetically we'll know why people look as they do
4 Arguments for Androgeny as an Ideal
Ferguson - andorgeny = genderlessness
1. male/female sex roles are socialized, not biological
2. gender roles are not socially desirable in the present day, no longer needed
3. elimination of sex roles affords the best chance of love relations between equals. ideal love relationships are impossible now because of production, reproduction, and socilization of children in terms of sexuality.
4. elimination of sex roles and development of andorgenous human beings is best way achieve the most intense/satisfying social relationships between men and women.
'sex' 'gender' 'sex dimorphism' 'gender role' 'traditional society'
Richard Udry
sex= the biological classification of male/female
gender = relationship between biological sex and gender behavior
sex dimorphism = behavior controlled by sex hormones (most related to reproduction)
gender role = range of acceptable behavior that differs by sex in a certain behavioral domain
traditional society = where strong gender norms are in place, a sex-typed social system
Popenoe's Three Arguments
1. fathering is different from mothering
2. father's are indispensable for the good of children and society
3. our growing national fatherlessness is a disaster in the making
Longman 'The Return of the Patriarchy'
The populations of the advanced societies aren’t reproducing their populations at a rate sufficient to sustain economic growth and military supremacy.
‘Even with a fertility rate near replacement level’, Longman frets, ‘the United States lacks the amount of people necessary to sustain an imperial role in the world’.
Only patriarchy provides men with the necessary motivation to be fruitful and multiply, and to stick around to help with the resulting task of child-rearing.

Deck Info

53

permalink