Ascribed Status
A social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control
Examples: age, sex, race
Achieved Status
A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort
Examples: education, occupation, outcome
Master Status
The most important status a person occupies. This status has the tendency to ebb and flow.
Status Symbols
Material signs that inform others of a person's specific status. These symbols can be good or bad.
Example: wedding ring
Role
A set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status.
PLAY the behavior expectations for a status position
Role Expectation
A group's or society's definition of the way that a specific role ought to be played.
(IDEAL)
Role Performance
How a person actually plays a role.
(REAL)
Role Conflict
A situation in which incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.
Examples: military women or female athletes
Role Strain
A condition that occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies
Incompatible within a single status
Example: a working mom
Role Exit
A situation in which people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity
Disengage from important status
Examples: ex-convicts, ex-nuns, retirees, etc.
Social Groups
A group that consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and a feeling of interdependence.
Dyad=smallest social unit
Primary Group
A small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.
Examples: family, close friends, etc.
Secondary Group
A larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more-impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.
Examples: schools, churches, corporations, etc.
Social Solidarity
Refers to a group's ability to maintain itself in the face of obstacles (adversity/compete). It exists when social bonds, attractions, or other forces hold members of a group in interaction over a period of time. (strong or weak bonds influence)
Social Networks
A series of social relationships that links an individual to others. Can help people of middle- and upper-class levels get jobs.
(The Strength of Weak Ties-Book: Granovetter "Getting a Job")
Formal Organization
A highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain task or achieving specific goals; require many.
-generally-rules-procedures-status limits
Examples: colleges, corporations, or the government
Social Institutions
A set of organized beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will attempt to meet its basic needs.
-"Traditions"
-a way of thinking about things; not buildings
Five Essential (survival) Needs
1. Family-reproduce (including early care)
2. Economy-produce/distribute goods/services
3. Education-teach technology and socialize
4. Polity-decision-making and protection
5. Religion-provide/maintain purpose/meaning
Functional Perspective of Social Institutions
Like institutions-believe they perform 5 essential tasks:
1. Replacing members
2. Teaching new members
3. Producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services
4. Preserving order
5. Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose
-general assumption of
Conflict Perspective of Social Institutions
-Emphasis on maintenance of domination
-believe compliance is result of self-interest, or the threat of cohesion
Social Interaction and Meaning
Different meaning perceptions based on...
1. Social Construction of Reality
2. Ethnomethodology
3. Dramaturgical Analysis
4. The Sociology of Emotions
5. Nonverbal Communication
Social Construction of Reality
The process by which our perception of reality is shaped largely by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience.
-what (wo)men think is real, is real in its consequences (Thomas)
Ethnomethodology
The study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.
-interaction=based on SHARED ASSUMPTIONS
-breaching experiments (Garfinkel)-Classic: Elevator
Dramaturgical Analysis
Erving Goffman's term for the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation
-Impression Management
-Face-Saving
-Front Stage and Back Stage
(civil attention, and the interaction order)
Impression Management (presentation of self)
Erving Goffman's term for people's efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.
Face-Saving Behavior
Erving Goffman's term for the strategies we use to rescue our performance when we experience a potential or actual loss of face.
Front Stage and Back Stage
Front Stage=the area where a player performs a specific role before an audience.
Back Stage=the area where a player is not required to perform a specific role because it is out of view of a given audience.
The Sociology of Emotions
-Feeling Rules=appropriate for status and role
-Emotional Labor=based on occupation
-"Erving Goffman's Stigmatization Theory and the Homeless
Nonverbal Communication
The transfer of information between persons without the use of speech
-face/eyes/touch
-Personal Space
Personal Space
The immediate area surrounding a person that the person claims as private
Aggregate
A collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time, but share little else in common.
Category
A number of people who may never have met one another, but share a similar characteristic, such as education level, age, race, or gender.
Types of Groups
1. Charles Cooley-Primary and Secondary
2. William Summer-Ingroups and Outgroups
3. Reference Group
Primary and Secondary Groups
-Charles Cooley
-Primary group=a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time (significant others)
-Secondary group=a larger, more specialized group in which members enga
Ingroups and Outgroups
-William Summer
-Ingroup=a group to which a person belongs and with which the person feels a sense of identity
-Outgroup=a group to which a person does not belong and toward which the person may feel a sense of competitiveness or hostility
Reference Group
A group that strongly influences a person's behavior and social attitudes, regardless of whether that individual is an actual member.
Instrumental Groups
Task-oriented groups that people form to met needs to fulfill a goal not attainable by one person.
Expressive Groups
Groups formed to meet emotional needs, especially those involving self-expression and support from family and friends
Group Characteristics and Dynamics
1. Group Size
2. Group Conformity
Group Size
1. Dyad
2. Triad
Dyad
A group composed of two members.
Principle of Least Interest
Triad
A group composed of three members.
Structural Power (alternatives)
Group Conformity
The process of maintaining or changing behavior to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or other group.
1. Solomon Asch
2. Stanley Milgram
3. Groupthink
Soloman Asch
-"Card Experiment"
-33% chose to conform
-Asch's research assistants tried to influence participants to pick Line 1 or 3 as the match fro the line in the other card.
-Many went along rather than risk the opposition of the "group.
Stanley Milgram
-Obedience to Authority
-Ethics of research "deception"
-Shock people to lethal limits,because of influence
Groupthink
The process by which members of a cohesive group arrive at a decision that many individual members privately believe is unwise.
Types of Formal Organization
1. Normative
2. Coercive
3. Utilitarian
Normative Organizations
We voluntarily join these organizations when we want to pursue some common interest or gain personal satisfaction or prestige from being a member.
Examples: political parties, ecological activist groups, etc.
Coercive Organizations
Associations people are forced to join.
Examples: boot camps, prisons, etc.
Utilitarian Organizations
Organizations we join voluntarily when they can provide us with a material reward.
Bureaucracy
An organizational model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules and procedures, and impersonality in personnel matters.
Rationality
The process by which traditional methods of social organization, characterized by informality and spontaneity, are gradually replaced by efficiently administered formal rules and procedures.
Ideal Characteristics of Bureaucracy
1. Divison of Labor
2. Hierarchy of Authority
3. Rules and Regulations
4. Qualification-based Employment
5. Impersonality
Informal Side of Bureaucracy
Those aspects of participants' day-to-day activities and interactions that ignore, bypass, or do not correspond with the official rules and procedures of the bureaucracy.
Iron Law of Bureaucracy
-Robert Michels
The tendency to become a bureaucracy ruled by a few. The people with power, use it to increase their power.
The Magical Number of Seven
There should be one person in charge, followed by 2 under them, and then 2 from each of those 2 (making 4). This equals seven main people in charge in which the people branch off of.
Deviance
Any behavior, belief, or condition that violates significant social norms in the society or grow in which it occurs.
Behavior-Belief-Condition
-Based on "beliefs" or "deviation from the mean"
-Crime is not necessarily deviant (highway speeding)
-Deviance
Who Defines Deviance?
-NOT inherent in specific behavior or person.
-SOCIALLY defined and relative to the situation
-Crime
-Juvenile Delinquency
Crime
Behavior that violates criminal law and is punished by the criminal justice system.
-use of force or fraud in pursuit of self-interest
-Defined via political power(flu)
Juvenile Delinquency
A violation of law or the commission of a status offense by young people.
-"Status Offense" (Ascribed Status)
Social Control
Systematic practices that social groups develop in order to encourage conformity to norms, rules, and laws and to discourage deviance.
Internal/External Agents of Social Control
-Internal=internalized beliefs (via socialization)
-External=sanctioned by others
(criminal justice system)
Formal/Informal Agents of Social Control
-Formal=Police, Court, and Correction systems
-Informal=Family, Friends, General Public
What causes deviance? Is it good?
-Durkheim
-Anomie
-Deviance is universal and serves 3 functions
Anomie
A social condition in which people experience a sense of futility because social norms are weak, absent, or conflicting. Lack of social integration.
3 Functions of Deviance
1. Deviance clarifies rules-affirms/clarifies meaning
2. Deviance unites group-solidarity is reinforced
3. Deviance promotes change-exposes "problems
Strain Theory
-Merton
The proposition that people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have access to culturally approved means of achieving those goals.
-Goal and Means=not aligned
-Goal=American Dream
Modes of Adaptation
1. Conformity
2. Innovation
3. Ritualism
4. Retreatism
5. Rebellion
*"innovation" is crime, is a rational response to blocked means.
Conflict Perspectives on Deviance
1. Deviance and Power
2. Deviance and Capitalism
Deviance and Power
Laws (and norms) are defined by those with power, and do not represent consensus of right or wrong.
Example: Marijuana Laws-Medical Marijuana
Deviance and Capitalism
Laws (and norms) protect the power and privilege of the rich and economically powerful people and corporations.
Example: Laws that restrict collective bargaining (ex: unions)
Symbolic Interaction Perspectives on Deviance
1. Differential Association/Differential Reinforcement
2. Control Theory
3. Labeling Theory
Differential Association
-Sutherland
The proposition that individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with persons who are more favorable toward deviance than conformity.
-Focuses on social processes
Differential Reinforcement
-Akers
The proposition that suggests that both deviant behavior and conventional behavior are learned through the same social processes.
-Focuses on sanctions (positive/negative)
Control Theory
-Social bonds/Social integration
-Reckless and Hirschi-"Restraint" theories
-Social Bond Theory
-Social bonds/ties/Integration
Social Bond Theory
The proposition that the probability of deviant behavior increases when a person's ties to society are weakened or broken.
Social Bonding Consists of...
1. Attachment-seek approval of significant others
2. Commitment-to conventional "lines of action"
3. Involvement-in "conventional" activities
4. Belief-in the legitimacy of values and norms
Labeling Theory
The proposition that deviance is a socially constructed process in which social control agencies designate certain people as deviants, and they, in turn, come to accept the label placed upon them and begin to act accordingly.
-primary, secondary, and tert
Primary Deviance
The initial act of rule breaking
Secondary Deviance
The process that occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant accepts that new identity and continues the deviant behavior.
Tertiary Deviance
Deviance that occurs when a person who has been labeled a deviant seeks to normalize the behavior by relabeling it as nondeviant.
How the Law Classifies Crime
-Misdemeanor and/or felony (similar to folkways and mores)
-Crime- a. Personal (Violent)
b. Property
c. Public Order
d. Enterprise (occupational, corporate, organized)
e. Political (terrorism, state-sponsored)
Crime Statistics
a. Uniform Crime Report (UCR)
b. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
c. Self-Reports
Street Crime and Criminals
a. Gender/Sex-men offend at higher rates
b. Age-age curve (13-25; peak at 16-18; 16 personal and 18 property)
c. Social Class-propensity the same, magnitude varies
d. Race-propensity the same; magnitude varies (i.e. SES)