SOC Study Guide

Study Guide Chapter 1
1) The study of human society
Patters of interaction between individuals; individuals and groups; between different groups.
2) Macro: Larger society: social structures & how they are related to each other Micro: Within very small groups; even thought of as intra individual; relationships between individuals and social structures
3) Sociological thinking should analyze our own assumptions about society; sociological thinking should question those things we feel are “natural” (nature)
4) Sociological Imagination: to fully understand individual’s personal troubles. Understand the connections between our ‘ordinary’ day to day lives and larger society.
C. Wright Mills
Important to acknowledge that humans are born into a pre-existing society
Pre-existing society has expected roles. (Roles: behaviors expected from a particular status)
5) No. Seemingly individual roles are imbedded within a framework of multiple roles and social networks.
6) Social Identity: Who we think ourselves to be, socially, impacted by groups we associate with.
7) Karl Marx - historical materialism – the economy is the most important institution in a society; class conflict is behind all change; conflict is good because it brings about needed change.
8) Max Weber also felt that prestige and power were also important.
9) Durkheim thought conflict is not good – not good is society is unstable.
10) Structural functionalist (macro- larger societal concept), power conflict (macro- larger societal concept), symbolic interactionist (micro- more intimate), feminist theory
11) Structural Functionalism: Concerns: social organizations and how it’s maintained Assumptions: stability, harmony, slow evolution Power Conflict: Concerns: stress and conflict in society Assumptions: competition, structural inequalities, social change from conflict
12) Symbolic Interactionism: Symbolic: importance of symbols. Interactionism: through interaction we determine how symbols are created, maintained and negotiated.

Study Guide Chapter 2
1) Deductive Approach
Starts w/ a theory
Hypothesis
Empirical observations
Analyzes the data collected through observation to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory (use the findings from data to determine if hypothesis is supported or not)
2) Inductive Approach
Empirical Observation
Forms a theory
Determines if a correlation exists by noticing if a change is observed in two things simultaneously
3) Causality: Idea that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another factor
Correlation: Two things change together, but one does not necessarily cause the other
4) Variables: Dependent Variable: outcome that a researcher is trying to explain Independent Variable: measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable.
5) Hypothesis: Proposed relationship between two variables, represented by either the null hypothesis or an alternative hypothesis
6) Feminist Methology is different because: Treats women’s experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources. Promotes social science that may bring about policy change to help women. Is as conscious of the role of the researcher as that of the subjects being studied. Not an attempt to exclude perspective of men; rather acknowledges that the male perspective has been the norm; we now need to also include the female perspective.

Study Guide Chapter 3
1) Culture is defined as a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices.
Communication is important to pass culture. Not of the natural environment. One way of looking at culture is to make a distinction between ‘of humankind’ and the natural environment. Humankind refers to that which is created or modified by humans.
2) Material Culture: Our constructed environment (how we have adapted, modified, created ‘items’)
Non-Material Culture: values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms
Yes because we use non-material culture to assign meaning to material culture items.
3) Cultural Relativism: idea that we should recognize differences across cultures without passing judgment on or assigning value to those differences
Ethnocentrism: not seeing culture as relative. Using one’s own cultures values, norms, attitudes to ‘measure’ other cultures. With one’s culture always at the top; other cultures are at least ‘lesser than,’ devalued, ‘un-civilized,’ just plain wrong.
4) Cultural Scripts: modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural, but that may strongly shape beliefs or concepts held by a society.
5) Subcultures: A group united by sets of concepts, values, traits, and/or behavioral patterns that distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.
6) Values: what is considered desirable, not desirable; good, bad; right, wrong (basis for norms)
Norms: share expectations of behavior; based on values.
7) Socialization: a set of processes that continue throughout a person’s life
8) Reflection Theory: states that what is presented to the public through media is a reflection of current culture
9) Media: means of transferring information in a form that doesn’t require face to face interaction
Mass Media: any form of media that reaches the mass of the people.
Hegemony: refers to the impact of media on culture and how people and societies shape, and are shaped by, the dominant culture
10) To instill an attitude, idea, habit by frequent repetition to a social group and allows a dominant group to maintain dominant position
11) Stereotypes: over generalizations that are applied to all persons within a category. Media frequently reinforces stereotypes.
12) The 6 companies affect the information and messages communicated to the public.
13) Children do not always distinguish between reality and fantasy (advertisements are a type of fantasy)

Study Guide Chapter 4
1) Set of processes by which individuals acquire the knowledge, skills, character traits that enable them to participate as effective members of society.
2) Adults socialize children, but children often introduce adults to new aspects of culture. Children also participate in their own socialization due to their temperaments (children are frequently treated differently by adults due to temperament differences)
3) Nurture: socialization through interaction
Nature: biological
Both are important, though sociologists put greater emphasis on socialization
4) Isolated Children: common concern – when found these children were not at same development as non-isolated children of the same age
5) I wanting to be creative, spontaneous, use agency (what the I wants to do) (social appropriateness not a concern)
Me more concerned with societal expectations
6) I: spontaneous, creative, active, where agency comes from, what an infant knows
Me: responds to what it considers the expectations of others, attitudes we have of self based on what we receive from significant others, follows societal expectations, what is learned through socialization
7) Within the self, the I and Me have dialect about thoughts, feelings, behaviors
8) Looking Glass Self: our sense of self emerges when we can ‘see’ how (we think) others see us, then imagine how they judge us, then have a feeling of pride or shame.
9) Generalized Other: developed through dialogue between I and Me as well as interactions with others. Allows us to apply norms and behaviors learned in specific situations to new situations.
10) Imitation, play and games help distinguish between self and other.
11) Agents of Socialization: impact children’s socialization.
Family – 2st, most important, not voluntary
School – can include childcare – learning not just ‘knowledge’ but norms
Peers – 1st voluntary
Media – already discussed
12) Total Institutions: controls all aspects of day to day life (prison, military)
13) Resocialization: A change is values, beliefs, norms through an intense social process
14) Roles: rights and obligations expected of a person who holds a specific status Status: a recognizable social position that a person occupies Role Strain: incompatibility between roles expected of a person within a specific status Role Conflict: tension caused by competing demands between 2 or more roles related to different statuses Role Exit: may happen as a result of role strain or role conflict Status Set: all the statuses a person holds at any one time Ascribed status: involuntary status – gained through birth Achieved status: voluntary; usually acquired through some effort Master Status: can be either ascribed or achieved; others interact with that person based on that one status Gender Roles: expected behaviors associated with the status of male or female
15) Reality is socially constructed through social interactions people give, gain meaning to ideas, objects. Embedded in everyday interactions.
16) Symbolic Interactionism: a micro-level theory (w/in small groups) people act according to the symbolic meanings, assumptions shared with others.
17) Impression Management: attempt for each person to make a positive impression on others
Face: the esteem in which an individual is held by others
Back Stage: where we prepare for front stage
Front Stage: when we are presenting ourselves to the audience
18) Ethnomethodology: approach to studying human interaction that focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a mutually shared social order
Breaching Experiments: determine what is normative or not

Study Guide Chapter 5
1) Social Groups: form the building blocks for society and for most social interaction
2) As the group grows, each new member increases complexity of group and groups become more stable (but intimacy is reduced)
3) Dyad: group of two member (most intimate, 2 members mutually dependent; group will not continue unless both members stay in the group) Triad: group of three (group has supra-individual power) a person may decide to leave the group. Continuation of group not dependent on one specific member remaining.
4) Mom and Dad and Baby
5) Dyads and triads exist within a larger structure of other individuals, groups; not isolated
6) Primary groups: family, close friends – intimate face to face, influence attitudes, ideals, tend to be small, loyalty is important, long lasting
Secondary groups: know each other per roles, impersonal, relationships not based on emotions
7) Small World Phenomenon:
8) Asch Test- group conformity. We have tendency to go along with a group.
9) In-groups: group we belong. Also refer to the majority group
Outgroups: group we don’t belong to
Reference Groups: group that helps us understand or make sense of our position in society relative to other groups
10) Social Network: a set of relations- essentially, a set of dyads – held together by ties between individuals
Ties: a set of stories that explains our relationship to the other members of our network
Narrative: the sum of stories contained in a set of ties
11) Embeddedness: the degree to which ties are reinforced through indirect paths within a social network
12) Weak ties can be helpful in that individuals we have weak ties with are embedded in other networks and frequently contribute information we don’t get from close ties (finding a job)
13) Structural Hole: gap between network clusters or even two individuals if those individuals (or clusters) have complimentary resources (ex. Ebay)
14) Six Degrees of Separation: states that each person is connected to every other person by social chains of no more than six people
15) Social Capital: the information, knowledge of people, and connections that help individuals enter, gain power in, or otherwise leverage social networks
16) Network analysis: applying above concepts to real world situations. Look at how groups shape individual behavior
17) Organization: any social network that is defined by a common purpose and has a boundary between its members and the rest of the social world
Organizational culture: the shared beliefs, behaviors within a social group; often used interchangeable with ‘corporate culture’
Organizational structure: ways in which power and authority distributed within an organization