econ 303 essay

SOC 201 – Final Study Sheet

This is a study sheet and not an all-inclusive review. A majority of what you need to know is on here but you are also responsible for the materials covered in the readings that we did not discuss in class, as well as the films, and online articles. I suggest you study the reviews at the end of each chapter in the book, and take the practice tests. Good luck!

What is the difference between sex and gender? What is sexuality? Sexual orientation?
Sex: The biological classification of individuals as males and females.
Includes, genitals, hormones, chromosomes
Gender: the social identities attributed to women and men but it cannot be understood at the individual level alone.
Sexuality is comprised of one’s behavior, identity and orientation
In other words, it’s who you are being with sexually, how you identify sexually, and who you are attracted to sexually (sexual preference)
Sexual orientation refers to a person’s romantic and emotional attraction to another person.
The norm in all societies is heterosexuality
Bisexuality refers to sexual attraction to people of both sexes.
Asexuality means no sexual attraction to people of either sex.

Do most sociologists feel that sexual orientation is a product of society or biology?
Sexual orientation refers to a person’s romantic and emotional attraction to another person.
The norm in all societies is heterosexuality
Bisexuality refers to sexual attraction to people of both sexes.
Asexuality means no sexual attraction to people of either sex.
Combination of both

Who are intersexuals?
If we live in a world where there are ONLY two sexes, where do these other individuals, known as intersexuals, fit?
Intersexuals - is a term used to describe a person whose sex chromosomes, genitalia, and/or secondary sex characteristics are determined to be neither exclusively male nor female

Explain how there has been a medicalization of intersexuals?
Kallmann syndrome - a condition in which the pituitary gland does not stimulate to release the hormones required for testicular growth, resulting in undescended testes and a micropenis.
Turner’s syndrome – instead of “XX” chromosomes, only “X” is present and functioning

What is transgendered? Who are transsexuals? What does this process entail?
Transgender – someone who doesn’t identity with body they were biologically born into.
People who were assigned a gender, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves.
Transgender does not imply any form of sexual orientation (e.g. homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual).
Transsexual people are people who desire to have, or have achieved, a different physical sex from that which they were assigned at birth.
This transition includes:
Hormone replacement therapy
Sex reassignment surgery as adults
M to F
F to M

Describe the hierarchy involved in the sex industry.
Transsexual people are people who desire to have, or have achieved, a different physical sex from that which they were assigned at birth.
This transition includes:
Hormone replacement therapy
Sex reassignment surgery as adults
M to F
F to M

Describe the academic debate about sex workers being empowered or victimized.
Victimization
WHISPER
PRPs
Empowerment
COYOTE
PONY

Central Arguments
Prostitution must be understood as an institution created by patriarchal structures to control and abuse women
No woman chooses prostitution and all prostitutes are victims
The very fact that women live under patriarchal conditions ensures that prostitutes do not choose prostitution.
Central Arguments:
Not all prostitution is forced prostitution
Prostitution is often voluntarily chosen.
It is legitimate service work and should be respected as such
To deny a woman the option to work as a prostitute, under conditions of her own choosing, is a violation of her civil rights

Discuss the legalities of prostitution within the U.S.
Historically, the U.S. legal system has responded to prostitution primarily through containment arrests and jail time
This strategy does little to reduce the number of street prostitutes or provide protection to them

What is the difference between crime and deviance?
Deviance is defined as the recognized violation of cultural norms.
Crime is the violation of a society’s formally enacted criminal law.
Which occurs more frequently?
All crimes are deviant, but not all deviance is a crime

What is one way our society tries to regulate people’s thoughts and behaviors?

What are the three social foundations of deviance?
Deviance, like conformity, is shaped by society.
There are three social foundations of deviance:
Deviance varies according to cultural norms.
People become deviant as others define them that way.
Both norms and the way people define rule breaking involve social power.

According to Durkheim, when is deviance not “bad”?
- Emile Durkheim made the surprising statement that there is nothing abnormal about deviance, and, in fact, it performs four essential functions:
1. Deviance affirms cultural values and norms.
2. Responding to deviance clarifies moral boundaries.
3. Responding to deviance brings people together.
4. Deviance encourages social change.
Either instigates or eliminates criminal laws
E.g. segregation

Explain Merton’s Strain theory. And include each type. There is a disjuncture for people between cultural goals and institutional norms. This creates a BLOCKED OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE for some They experience a strain Who would this most likely be? Groups adapt to their balance of means/ends through:
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion

What is labeling theory?
The symbolic-interaction approach explains how people define deviance in everyday situations.
Labeling theory is the assertion that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions.
Labeling is an act that stresses the relativity of deviance

What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance?
Primary deviance refers to passing episodes of norm violation
When certain norm violations provoke slight reaction from others and have little effect on a person’s self-concept
E.g. underage drinking
Secondary deviance is when an individual repeatedly violates a norm, is labeled, and begins to take on a deviant identity.
E.g. “the alcoholic”

What is stigma? What are the three types Goffman identifies?
Physical characteristics are often a form of deviance.
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity captures some of how we rank-order stigma based on behavior (Goffman 1963).
A stigmatized person is a “blemished” person who is “disqualified from full social acceptance”
Stigma – signs that expose something about a person
Goffman’s three types of stigma:
Body
Character
Tribal

How do the three sociological approaches view deviance?
- The key insight of the structural-functional approach is that deviance is a necessary element of social organization.
The symbolic-interaction approach explains how people define deviance in everyday situations.
The social-conflict approach links deviance to social inequality: who or what is labeled “deviant” depends on which categories of people hold power in a society.

What are the three types of crime?
- property ,violence, victimless crime

What sociological explanations help us understand crime trends?
The key insight of the structural-functional approach is that deviance is a necessary element of social organization.
The symbolic-interaction approach explains how people define deviance in everyday situations.
The social-conflict approach links deviance to social inequality: who or what is labeled “deviant” depends on which categories of people hold power in a society.
Issues to consider when studying crime:
Age – crime rates peak in late teens and fall as people age
Gender – Men are arrested more than twice as often as women for property crimes. In the case of violent crimes, the disparity is even greater, with a five-to-one ratio.
Class – crime is more widespread among people of lower social position

What are the four elements of the CJS? Describe each, include the 4 reasons to punish.
Prison
Court
Police

What is stigma?

What are the three types of stigma? Give an example for each one.
Physical characteristics are often a form of deviance.
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity captures some of how we rank-order stigma based on behavior (Goffman 1963).
A stigmatized person is a “blemished” person who is “disqualified from full social acceptance”
Stigma – signs that expose something about a person
Goffman’s\ three types of stigma:
Body
Character
Tribal

Stigma can range from _______________ to _________________, and vary by __________________ and ____________________.
Stigma also varies by time and culture
Being a Christian in the U.S. carries little stigma
Being a Christian in the Middle East carries greater stigma
Being Muslim in U.S. carries greater stigma
Being Muslim in Middle East carries little stigma

Define normals.
“Normals” – those who do not possess the stigma
“Normals” interpret everything about the stigmatized person in light of a single trait
This establishes and differentiates in-group and out-groups

What are some of the effects of stigma on a person?
The stigmatized are usually ostracized, devalued, rejected, scorned and shunned.
They experience discrimination, insults, attacks and are even murdered
Those who perceive themselves to be members of a stigmatized group often experience psychological distress and many view themselves contemptuously (Heatherton, et al., 2000).
Furthermore, the experience of being stigmatized may take a toll on self-esteem, academic achievement, and other outcomes
Ex - Average weight women have higher self-esteem than overweight women.
Interactions between the stigmatized and non-stigmatized are often uneasy
Stigma initiates a judgment process that colors impressions and sets up barriers to interaction (E.E. Jones et al. 1994)
Non-stigmatized individuals often pressure stigmatized people to conform to inferior identities
A person in a wheelchair who is discouraged from undertaking certain activities
The anticipation of discomfort can lead people to arrange their lives to avoid mixed contacts (Goffman 1963)
Research shows that people terminate interaction sooner, are more inhibited, and are more rigid when interacting with a physically disabled person than with a physically normal person
Highly stigmatized persons generally take one of two paths:
Resist or reject their stigmatized status
Internalization
Stigma may also be successfully concealed
Goffman called this passing
In this situation, the stigmatized individual focuses on managing her identity - the concealing and revealing of information to pass.
Ex – Some African-Americans who were light skinned “passed” as white during Slavery in the U.S.
“Quicksand and Passing” by Nella Larsen

Explain Falk’s two categories of stigma.
Gerhard Falk (2001) describes stigma based on two categories:
Existential Stigma: stigma deriving from a condition that the person did not cause or over which he has little control
Example????
Achieved Stigma: stigma that is earned because of conduct and/or because they contributed heavily to attaining the stigma in question
Example????

Goffman argues there is a temporal element to stigma. What are the two phases?
The individual can encounter two distinct social atmospheres when not yet stigmatized (Goffman):
He is discreditable--his stigma has yet to be revealed, but may be revealed at some point either intentionally or by accident
He is discredited--his stigma has been revealed and thus it affects not only his behavior but the behavior of others.

What are ways a stigmatized person can cope with it?
People with stigma often use drastic coping strategies to establish the most favorable identity possible
One strategy is to try to hide the stigmatizing condition
Ex 1 – people who are hard of hearing may learn to read lips or otherwise interact with people as if they could hear perfectly
Ex 2 - Those with bodily stigmas may opt for surgical remedies
Petrunik and Shearing (1983)
Common public reactions to stutters include pity, condescension, ridicule and impatience
Some stutterers hide their stigma by avoiding speaking situations or by not using particularly troublesome words
Others structure situations so that someone else does the talking
Another coping strategy (when one’s condition is not observable) is to use a policy of selective disclosure and concealment
Ex – infertile women
When a stigma cannot be hidden, some people use self-deprecating humor to relieve the tension felt by the non-stigmatized
Ex – Comedian Ralphie May
Some people with stigmas boldly call attention to their condition by mastering areas thought to be closed to them or by organizing a movement to counter social oppression
Ex – Fat movement, called National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance
These individuals embrace their disabilities as a vital and important part of their identity
They want the world to adapt to their needs

Overcoming the problem of stigma cannot be accomplished solely through individual impression management or collective demonstrations
Long-lasting improvements can be accomplished only at the societal level through the alteration of cultural beliefs about the nature of stigma (Link et al. 1991)

What is race? Ethnicity?
Race is a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important
Appeared among human ancestors as a result of living in different regions of the world
Variety of racial traits is the product of migration
We think of race in biological terms, but it is a socially constructed concept
What does this mean?
Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage
People define themselves as members of an ethnic category that have a distinctive identity
Common ancestors
Language
Religion
Like race, ethnicity is socially constructed
Race is constructed from biological traits and ethnicity is constructed from cultural traits
People play up or down ethnicity depending on whether they want to fit in or stand apart
E.g. Ethnicity of Syrian but white as race

Why are racial categories harmful?

What are minorities? What are the two characteristics?
Minorities are any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates
Based on race, ethnicity, or both
Two important characteristics
Share a distinct identity
Experience subordination
Not all members of a minority category are disadvantaged
Usually make up a small proportion of a society’s population
Exceptions are blacks in South Africa and women in the U.S.

What is racism?
Racism is the belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another
Powerful and harmful form of prejudice
Existed throughout world history
Widespread throughout U.S. history
Today, overt racism has decreased because of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words “Not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
Remains a serious problem
Some still argue that certain racial and ethnic categories are smarter than others

Describe the different theories of prejudice.
Scapegoat theory
Prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged
Poor whites (working class) versus Mexicans
Scapegoat is a person or category of people, typically with little power, whom other people unfairly blame for their own troubles
Minorities often are used as scapegoats
They have little power
Usually are “safe targets”
Scapegoat theory
Prejudice springs from frustration among people who are themselves disadvantaged
Poor whites (working class) versus Mexicans
Scapegoat is a person or category of people, typically with little power, whom other people unfairly blame for their own troubles
Minorities often are used as scapegoats
They have little power
Usually are “safe targets”
Authoritarian personality theory - Extreme prejudice is a personality trait of certain individuals
Conclusion supported by research
Indicated that people who show strong prejudice toward one minority are intolerant of all minorities
Authoritarian personalities
Rigidly conform to conventional cultural values
See moral issues as clear-cut matters of right and wrong
Opposite pattern also found to be true
People who express tolerance toward one minority are likely to be accepting of all
Cultural theory
Claims that although extreme prejudice is found in certain people, some prejudice is found in everyone
“Culture of prejudice”
Taught to view certain categories of people as “better” or “worse” than others
Conflict theory
Proposes that prejudice is used as a tool by powerful people to oppress others
Another conflict-based argument
Minorities encourage “race consciousness” to win greater power and privileges

What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?
Discrimination
Unequal treatment of various categories of people
Prejudice refers to attitudes
Discrimination is a matter of action
Positive or negative
Subtle to blatant
Bias built into the operation of society’s institutions
Schools, hospitals, police, workplace, banks
People are slow to condemn or recognize institutional prejudice
Often involves respected public officials and long-established traditions
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
Legally desegregated schools
Still, most students in U.S. attend schools that are overwhelming one race
Prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other because:
Situations that are defined as real become real in their consequences
Stereotypes
Real to people who believe them
Real to those victimized by them

Describe the different stages of the prejudice cycle.
Prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other because:
Situations that are defined as real become real in their consequences
Stereotypes
Real to people who believe them
Real to those victimized by them

Describe how discrimination and prejudice affect racial and ethnic groups? Pick one as an example.
Prejudice and discrimination reinforce each other because:
Situations that are defined as real become real in their consequences
Stereotypes
Real to people who believe them
Real to those victimized by them

Why are Asians considered the “model minority” group? What does Lee argue about this perspective?
Asian Americans, in spite of the fact they are not the dominant/majority group in society, fare better in terms of social indicators of wealth, education and poverty rates. Why?
What does Lee’s article suggest?
“Hyper Selectivity” in Contemporary Asian Immigration
The most educated immigrate
Positive Stereotypes and “Stereotype Promise” Hyper-selectivity has produced positive stereotypes of Asian Americans, which, in turn, can generate “stereotype promise”—viewed through the lens of a positive stereotype can enhance performance.
Self-fulfilling Prophecy:
Enhanced performance of Asian Americans supports the “Asian American exceptionalism” construct - a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Reproduction of Inequality: These processes operate to reproduce inequalities at the high end of the educational distribution
Students perceived to be high-achievers (regardless of actual performance) are tracked into high-level classes and rise to the occasion, thus “proving” the initial presumption of their ability.

What is xenophobia?

What is gender? Gender stratification? Matriarchy? Patriarchy? Sexism?
Gender
Refers to the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male
Gender is a dimension of social organization
Gender involves a hierarchy
Gender Stratification
The unequal distribution of wealth, power, and privilege between men and women
Matriarchy (“Rule of Mothers”)
A form of social organization in which females dominate males
Rarely documented in human history
Patriarchy (“Rule of Fathers”)
A form of social organization in which males dominate females
Pattern found almost everywhere in the world
Sexism
The belief that one sex is innately superior to the other
Justification for patriarchy

What are some of the costs of sexism?
The Costs of Sexism
Limits the talents and ambitions of half the human population – women
Masculinity in U.S. culture encourages men to engage in high-risk behaviors
Masculinity is linked to:
Accidents, suicide, violence, and stress-related diseases
Type A Personality
Cause of heart disease and almost a perfect match with behavior U.S. culture considers masculine
As men seek control, they lose opportunities for intimacy and trust

How do schools, the family and media help socialize people according to their gender roles?
Gender shapes human feelings, thoughts, and actions
Children learn quickly how society defines male and female by age 3
Gender roles (sex roles)
Attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex
Men expected to be leaders and women expected to be supportive
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
Important because answer involves not only sex but the likely direction of a child’s life
Welcome of infants into the world
Pink for girls; blue for boys
Female world revolves around cooperation and emotion
Male world puts a premium on independence and action
Research demonstrates that young children tend to form single-sex play groups
Teacher and parents help socialize children to separate according to gender
Peer groups teach additional lessons about gender
Male games reinforce masculine traits of aggression and control
Female peer groups encourage interpersonal skills of communication and cooperation

What are some examples of gender stratification?
Gender involves more than how people think or act
It is about social hierarchy
59% of women in the work force; 72% work full-time
Factors that have changed the U.S. labor force
Decline of farming
Growth of cities
Shrinking family size
Rising divorce rate
More than half of all married couples depend on two incomes

What are the explanations for why women earn less money than men?
U.S. Department of Labor
High concentration of women in two types of jobs
Administrative work (“pink-collar jobs”)
Service work (food, child care, and health care)
Men dominate most other job categories
Gender stratification in everyday life is easy to see
What are examples?
Women are kept out of certain jobs by defining some kinds of work as “masculine”
Fewer women higher in the corporate world
Women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by men
Differences are greater among older workers
Older working women have typically have less education and seniority
First reason women earn less in the type of work they do
Still think of less-important jobs as “women’s work”
Supporters of gender equality
Propose a policy of “comparable worth”
Second cause of gender-based income inequality
Society’s view of family
U.S. culture gives more of the responsibility of parenting to women
Pregnancy and raising small children keep many young women out of the labor force
Third factor is discrimination against women
Because it is illegal, it is practiced in subtle ways
Glass ceiling prevents many women from rising above middle management

What is the second shift? What is sexual harassment?
Housework presents a cultural contradiction in the U.S.
Essential for family life
Little rewards for doing it
In U.S. and around the world
Care of home and children are “women’s work”
Labor force reduced the amount of housework, but the share done by women remains the same
Sexual harassment refers to comments, gestures, or physical contacts of a sexual nature that are deliberate, repeated, and unwelcome
Most victims of sexual harassment are women
Our culture encourages men to be sexually assertive and see women in sexual terms
Most people in positions of power are men who oversee the work of women
Sexual harassment is sometimes obvious and direct

What are some examples of violence against women? What is the structural functionalism, social conflict, and symbolic interaction view on gender?

What is feminism? What are the three types?
The advocacy of social equality for women and men, in opposition to patriarchy and sexism
“First wave” of American feminist movement in the 1840s
Main objective was obtaining the right to vote
“Second wave” of feminism arose in the 1960s
Sexual freedom for women (birth control)
Continues today
Basic Feminist ideas
Working to increase equality
Expanding human choice
Eliminating gender stratification
Ending sexual violence
Promoting sexual freedom
1. Liberal – female subordination is rooted in a set of customary and legal constraints which block women’s entrance into the workforce
Goal: to change policies and beliefs
Solution: to gain equal rights and opportunities under the law
2. Marxist feminists: think gender inequality is due to capitalism
Goal: to change policies and beliefs by getting rid of capitalism
Solution: overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with socialism
3.Radical feminists: blame the patriarchal system for gender oppression
Goal: to overcome/change what it means to be female in our society
Solution: we can’t reform the current system we need to form a new one
Dissention among feminists - Many different perspectives on gender inequality
Many different solutions
“too many cooks in the kitchen” – less unity
Divisions across race/ethnic/class lines
Need to incorporate men

ž
What is social change?
The transformation of culture and social institutions over time

What are the four major characteristics of social change?
Four major characteristics
Social change happens all the time
Cultural lag
Material culture (things) changes faster than nonmaterial culture (ideas and attitudes)
Social change is sometimes intentional but often unplanned
Social change is controversial
Some changes matter more than others
Culture and change
Three important sources of cultural change
Invention produces new objects, ideas, and social patterns
Discovery occurs when people take notice of existing elements of the world
Diffusion creates change as products, people, and information spread from one society to another
Material things change more quickly than cultural ideas

Conflict and change
Inequality and conflict within a society also produce change
Marx correctly foresaw that social conflict arising from inequality would force changes in every society
Ideas and change
Weber acknowledged that conflict could bring about change
Traced roots of most social changes to ideas
Revealed how religious beliefs of Protestants set the stage for spread of industrial capitalism
Demographic change
Population patterns also play a part in social change
Migration within and between societies promotes change

What are social movements? What is their purpose?
Social movements and change
Social movements: continuous, large-scale, organized collective action motivated by the desire to enact, stop, or reverse change in some area of society
Social movements aim to create social change

What are the different types of social movement activities?
Protesting
Signing petitions
Demonstrations
Donating money
Rioting

What is claims making?
The process of trying to convince the public and public officials of the importance of joining a social movement to address a particular issue
For a social movement to form, some issue has to be defined as a problem that demands public attention
What are examples of movements and their “issues”?

What is an ideology and what functions does it fulfill for a movement?
All successful movements must have an ideology
Ideology is a coherent system of beliefs, values, and ideas that justifies its existence
An ideology fulfills several functions for movements: helps frame the issue in moral terms
It defines the group's interest and helps to identify people as either supporters or enemies
Provides participants with a collective sense of what the specific goals of the movement are or should be
Examples?

Describe the different types of social movements and give an example of each.
Alternative social movements
The least threatening to the status quo because they seek limited change
Their aim is to help certain people alter their lives
Ex – promise keepers
Redemptive social movements
Target specific individuals and seek more radical change
Their aim is to help certain people redeem their lives
Ex – Alcoholics Anonymous
Revolutionary social movements
Most extreme
Working for major transformation of an entire society
Ex – right wing militia groups
Reformative social movements
Attempts to change limited aspects of society but not seek to alter or replace major social institutions
Aim for limited change but target everyone
Ex – U.S. Civil Rights movement

What are countermovements?
Reform movements are always opposed by some people and grounds
These are known as countermovements, which are designed to prevent or reverse the changes sought by an earlier movement.
What is an example of this?

What did Robnett find during her study of African-American women in the Civil Rights movement?
Robnett (1996) found:
AA women functioned as “bridge leaders”
They used interpersonal networks to facilitate recruitment of the rural masses
They weren’t traditional leaders but informal leaders

What is deprivation theory? Mass society theory? Resource mobilization theory? Culture theory? New Social movement theory? Political Economy theory?
Deprivation theory
Social movements arise among people who feel deprived of something
Income, safe working conditions, certain rights…
Relative deprivation
A perceived disadvantage arising from some specific comparison
Ex – some workers get raises while other don’t
Mass-society theory
Social movements attract socially isolated people who join a movement in order to gain a sense of identity and purpose
Resource mobilization theory
Links the success of any social movement to available resources they may have
Money, human labor, mass media
Culture theory
Social movements depend not only on money and other material resources but also on cultural symbols
People must have a shared understating of injustice before they will mobilize
Ex – pictures of 9/11 help mobilize people
New social movements theory
Points out distinctive character of recent social movements in postindustrial societies
Movements are typically national or international in scope and focus on quality of life issues
Natural environment, world peace, animal rights
Political Economy Theory/Political Opportunity
Marxist approach that claims movements arise in capitalistic societies because the system fails to meet the needs of most people
Or, when there is a political “opening” for movements
Use evidence of millions of people in U.S. unemployed, impoverished, and have no health insurance
Example – 99% movement

What are the 4 stages of social movements?
Emergence
Occurs as people think all is not well
Born of widespread dissatisfaction
Coalescence
Social movement defines itself and develops strategy for attracting new members
Leaders decide on tactics and policies
Bureaucratization
Movement becomes established
Depends more on professional staff rather than specific leaders
Decline
Resources dry up; or group faces overwhelming opposition; or members achieve goals and lose interest

3 paradigmns