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Introduction to sociology 3e

created May 22, 2024updated May 26, 202431 min read

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“society refers to a group of people who live in a definable community and share the same culture” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 110)

“Before the Industrial Revolution and the widespread use of machines, societies were small, rural, and dependent largely on local resources.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 111)

“Hunter-gatherer societies demonstrate the strongest dependence on the environment of the various types of preindustrial societies.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 111)

“Pastoral societies, such as the Maasai villagers, rely on the domestication of animals as a resource for survival.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 111)

“Horticultural societies formed in areas where rainfall and other conditions allowed them to grow stable crops.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 112)

“agricultural societies relied on permanent tools for survival.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 113)

“The ninth century gave rise to feudal societies. These societies contained a strict hierarchical system of power based around land ownership and protection.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 113)

“individual behavior was not the same as collective behavior and that studying collective behavior was quite different from studying an individual’s actions.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 115)

“Durkheim called the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society the collective conscience.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 115)

“Durkheim also believed that social integration, or the strength of ties that people have to their social groups, was a key factor in social life.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 116)

“Preindustrial societies, Durkheim explained, were held together by mechanical solidarity, a type of social order maintained by the collective conscience of a culture.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 116)

“In industrial societies, mechanical solidarity is replaced with organic solidarity, which is social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 116)

“Anomie—literally, “without law”—is a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 116)

“For Marx, society’s constructions were predicated upon the idea of “base and superstructure.” This term refers to the idea that a society’s economic character forms its base, upon which rests the culture and social institutions, the superstructure. For Marx, it is the base (economy) that determines what a society will be like.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 116)

“Alienation refers to the condition in which the individual is isolated and divorced from his or her society, work, or the sense of self.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 118)

“Alienationfromtheproductofone’slabor.An industrial worker does not have the opportunity to relate to the product he labors on.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 118)

“Alienationfromtheprocessofone’slabor.A worker does not control the conditions of her job because she does not own the means of production.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 118)

“Alienationfromothers.Workers compete, rather than cooperate.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 118)

“Alienationfromone’sself.A final outcome of industrialization is a loss of connectivity between a worker and her occupation.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 118)

“Taken as a whole, then, alienation in modern society means that an individual has no control over his life.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 119)

“False consciousness is a condition in which the beliefs, ideals, or ideology of a person are not in the person’s own best interest.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 119)

“In order for society to overcome false consciousness, Marx proposed that it be replaced with class consciousness, the awareness of one’s rank in society. Instead of existing as a “class in itself,” the proletariat must become a “class for itself” in order to produce social change (Marx and Engels 1848)” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 119)

“Society, he believed, was split between owners and laborers. Status, on the other hand, was based on noneconomic factors such as education, kinship, and 4.2 • Theoretical Perspectives on Society 10” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 119)

“religion. Both status and class determined an individual’s power, or influence over ideas. Unlike Marx, Weber believed that these ideas formed the base of society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 120)

“Weber’s analysis of modern society centered on the concept of rationalization. A rational society is one built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 120)

“The symbolic interactionism theory, the third of the three most recognized theories of sociology, is based on Weber’s early ideas that emphasize the viewpoint of the individual and how that individual relates to society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 120)

“the culmination of industrialization, rationalization, and the like results in what he referred to as the iron cage, in which the individual is trapped by institutions and bureaucracy” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 120)

“they argued that society is created by humans and human interaction, which they call habitualization. Habitualization describes how “any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern, which can then be … performed again in the future in the same manner and with the same economical effort” (Berger and Luckmann 1966)” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 122)

“This is an example of the process of institutionalization, the act of implanting a convention or norm into society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 122)

“Thomas theorem which states, “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 122)

“Roles are patterns of behavior that we recognize in each other that are representative of a person’s social status.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 123)

“Sociologists use the term status to describe the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to their rank and role in society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 123)

“self, a person’s distinct identity that is developed through social interaction” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 134)

“The Functionalist perspective is a big-picture, macro-level view that looks at how different aspects of society are intertwined.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 160)

“People who happen to be in the same place at the same time but who do not interact or share a sense of identity—such as a bunch of people standing in line at Starbucks—are considered an aggregate, or a crowd.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 161)

“Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into rankings based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and power.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 249)

“An individual’s place within this stratification is called socioeconomic status (SES).” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 249)

“In most societies, stratification is an economic system, based on wealth, the net value of money and assets a person has, and income, a person’s wages or investment dividends.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 251)

“other important factors influence social standing. For example, in some cultures, prestige is valued” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 251)

“Parents tend to pass their social position on to their children. People inherit not only social standing but also the cultural norms, values, and beliefs” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 251)

“Closed systems accommodate little change in social position. They do not allow people to shift levels and do not permit social relationships between levels.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 251)

“Closed systems include estate, slavery, and caste systems” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 251)

“Open systems are based on achievement and allow for movement and interaction between layers and classes.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 251)

“The caste system determines all aspects of an individual’s life: occupations, marriage partners, and housing. Individual talents, interests, or potential do not provide opportunities to improve a person’s social position.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 252)

“Every culture has an ideology that supports its system of stratification” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 252)

“A class system is based on both social factors and individual achievement.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 252)

“A class consists of a set of people who share similar status based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and occupation.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 252)

“People have the option to form an exogamous marriage, a union of spouses from different social categories. Exogamous marriages often focus on values such as love and compatibility.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 252)

“Though social conformities still exist that encourage people to choose partners within their own class, called an endogamous marriage” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 252)

“Meritocracy is a hypothetical system in which social stratification is determined by personal effort and merit. The concept of meritocracy is an ideal because no society has ever existed where social standing was based entirely on merit.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 253)

“While a meritocracy has never existed, sociologists see aspects of meritocracies in modern societies when they study the role of academic and job performance and the systems in place for evaluating and rewarding achievement in these areas.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 253)

“Sociologists use the term status consistency to describe the consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across the factors that determine social stratification within a lifetime.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 253)

“primogeniture, a law stating that all property would be inherited by the firstborn son” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 254)

“the Pew Center defines classes based on the median household income. The lower class includes those whose income is two-thirds of the national median, the middle class includes those whose income falls between two-thirds and twice the median, and the upper class includes those whose income is above twice the national median (Kochhar 2015).” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 255)

“One sociological perspective distinguishes the classes, in part, according to their relative power and control over their lives” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 255)

“People of old money, firmly situated in the upper class for generations, have held high prestige.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 256)

“Just like the middle and upper classes, the lower class can be divided into subsets: the working class, the working poor, and the underclass. Compared to the lower middle class, people from the lower economic class have less formal education and earn smaller incomes.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 258)

“Class traits, also called class markers, are the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 259)

“Social mobility refers to the ability of individuals to change positions within a social stratification system.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 259)

“Upward mobility refers to an increase—or upward shift—when they move from a lower to a higher socioeconomical class. In contrast, individuals experience downward mobility when they move from higher socioeconomic class to a lower one.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 259)

“It is not uncommon for different generations of a family to belong to varying social classes. This is known as intergenerational mobility.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 259)

“Structural mobility happens when societal changes enable a whole group of people to move up or down the social class ladder. Structural mobility is attributable to changes in society as a whole.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 260)

“standard of living, the level of wealth available to acquire the material necessities and comforts to maintain a specific lifestyle. The country’s standard of living is based on factors such as income, employment, class, literacy rates, mortality rates, poverty rates, and housing affordability.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 260)

“Rising from lower classes into the middle-class is to achieve the American Dream. For this reason, scholars are particularly worried by the shrinking of the middle class. Although the middle class is still significantly larger than the lower and upper classes, it shrank from 69 percen in 1971 to 51 percent in 2020. argue the most significant threat to the U.S.’s relatively high standard of living is the decline of the middle class” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 260)

“a worldwide phenomenon known as the “feminization of poverty”—which acknowledges that women disproportionately make up the majority of individuals in poverty across the globe and have a lower standard of living” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 260)

“Absolute poverty is an economic condition in which a family or individual cannot afford basic necessities” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 260)

“Relative poverty is an economic condition in which a family or individuals have 50% income less than the average median income. This income is sometimes called the poverty level or the poverty line” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 261)

“Global stratification compares the wealth, status, power, and economic stability of countries across the world. Global stratification highlights worldwide patterns of social inequality” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 261)

“Poverty levels have been shown to vary greatly across countries. Yet all countries struggle to support the lower classes.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 262)

“In order to determine the stratification or ranking of a country, economists created various models of global stratification. All of these models have one thing in common: they rank countries according to their economic status, often ranked by gross national product (GNP).” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 262)

“Even within specific fields, layers are stratified, members are ranked, and inequality exists” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 263)

“Davis-Moore thesis, which argued that” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 263)

“the greater the functional importance of a social role, the greater must be the reward. The theory posits that social stratification represents the inherently unequal value of different work. Certain tasks in society are more valuable than others (for example, doctors or lawyers). Qualified people who fill those positions are rewarded more than others.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 264)

“Davis and Moore stated that, in most cases, the degree of skill required for a job determines that job’s importance. They noted that the more skill required for a job, the fewer qualified people there would be to do that job.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 264)

“Many scholars have criticized the Davis-Moore thesis. In 1953, Melvin Tumin argued that it does not explain inequalities in the education system or inequalities due to race or gender.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 264)

“Conflict theorists are deeply critical of social stratification, asserting that it benefits only some people, not all of society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 264)

“Stratification, conflict theorists believe, perpetuates inequality” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 264)

“oday, while working conditions have improved, conflict theorists believe that the strained working relationship between employers and employees still exists. Capitalists own the means of production, and a system is in place to make business owners rich and keep workers poor. According to conflict theorists, the resulting stratification creates class conflict.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 265)

“In most communities, people interact primarily with others who share the same social standing. It is precisely because of social stratification that people tend to live, work, and associate with others like themselves, people who share their same income level, educational background, class traits and even tastes in food, music, and clothing.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 265)

“To symbolically communicate social standing, people often engage in conspicuous consumption, which is the purchase and use of certain products to make a social statement about status.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 265)

“racial profiling—the use of race alone to determine whether detain or investigate someone” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 302)

“A human race is a grouping of humankind based on shared physical or social qualities that can vary from one society to another.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 302)

“the social construction of race is a more accepted way of understanding racial categories.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 302)

“race is not biologically identifiable and that previous racial categories were based on pseudoscience; they were often used to justify racist practices” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 303)

“Ethnicity is based on shared culture—the practices, norms, values, and beliefs of a group that might include shared language, religion, and traditions, among other commonalities” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 303)

“In some cases, ethnicity is incorrectly used as a synonym for national origin, but those constructions are technically different. National origin (itself sometimes confused with nationality) has to do with the geographic and political associations with a person’s birthplace or residence. But people from a nation can be of a wide range of ethnicities, often unknown to people outside of the region, which leads to misconceptions” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 303)

“Louis Wirth (1945) defined a minority group as “any group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 304)

“the term subordinate group can be used interchangeably with the term minority group, while the term dominant group is often substituted for the group that represents rulers or is in the majority who can access power and privilege in a given society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 304)

“being a numerical minority is not a characteristic of being a minority group; sometimes larger groups can be considered minority groups due to their lack of power” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 304)

“According to Charles Wagley and Marvin Harris (1958), a minority group is distinguished by five characteristics: (1) unequal treatment and less power over their lives, (2) distinguishing physical or cultural traits like skin color or language, (3) involuntary membership in the group, (4) awareness of subordination, and (5) high rate of in-group marriage. Additional examples of minority groups might include the LGBTQ community, religious practitioners whose faith is not widely practiced where they live, and people with disabilities.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 304)

“Scapegoat theory, developed initially from Dollard’s (1939) Frustration-Aggression theory, suggests that the dominant group will displace its unfocused aggression onto a subordinate group.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 304)

“racism can contribute positively to the functioning of society by strengthening bonds between in-group members through the ostracism of out-group members.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 306)

“Rose (1951) suggested that dysfunctions associated with racism include the failure to take advantage of talent in the subjugated group, and that society must divert from other purposes the time and effort needed to maintain artificially constructed racial boundaries.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 306)

“How can racism and discrimination contribute positively to society? Nash (1964) focused his argument on the way racism is functional for the dominant group, for example, suggesting that racism morally justifies a racially unequal society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 306)

“some interactionists propose that the symbols of race, not race itself, are what lead to racism” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 306)

“Herbert Blumer (1958) suggested that racial prejudice is formed through interactions between members of the dominant group: Without these interactions, individuals in the dominant group would not hold racist views.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 306)

“intersection theory, originally articulated in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw, which suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes (Figure 11.4)” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 307)

“Culture of prejudice refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture. We grow up surrounded by images of stereotypes and casual expressions of racism and prejudice.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 308)

“Prejudice refers to the beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes someone holds about a group. A prejudice is not based on personal experience; instead, it is a prejudgment, originating outside actual experience.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 308)

“discrimination consists of actions against a group of people. Discrimination can be based on race, ethnicity, age, religion, health, and other categories” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 309)

“Individual or Interpersonal Racism refers to prejudice and discrimination executed by individuals consciously and unconsciously that occurs between individuals.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 310)

“Systemic Racism, also called structural racism or institutional racism, is systems and structures that have procedures or processes that disadvantages racial minority groups.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 310)

“Racial Profiling is a type of systemic racism that involves the singling out of racial minorities for differential treatment, usually harsher treatment.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 310)

“Historical Racism is economic inequality or social disparity caused by past racism.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 310)

“Cultural Racism occurs when the assumption of inferiority of one or more races is built into the culture of a society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 310)

“Colorism is a form of racism, in which someone believes one type of skin tone is superior or inferior to another within a racial group.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 310)

(Conerly et al., 2021, p. 311)

“The practice of anti-racism is everyone’s ongoing work that everyone should pursue at least the following (Carter and Snyder 2020): • Understand and own the racist ideas in which we have been socialized and the racist biases that these ideas have created within each of us. • Identify racist policies, practices, and procedures and replace them with antiracist policies, practices, and procedures.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 312)

“Pluralism is represented by the ideal of the United States as a “salad bowl”: a great mixture of different cultures where each culture retains its own identity and yet adds to the flavor of the whole.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 313)

“Assimilation describes the process by which a minority individual or group gives up its own identity by taking on the characteristics of the dominant culture.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 313)

“Assimilation is antithetical to the “salad bowl” created by pluralism; rather than maintaining their own cultural flavor, subordinate cultures give up their own traditions in order to conform to their new environment.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 314)

“Sociologists measure the degree to which immigrants have assimilated to a new culture with four benchmarks: socioeconomic status, spatial concentration, language assimilation, and intermarriage.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 314)

“Amalgamation is the process by which a minority group and a majority group combine to form a new group. Amalgamation creates the classic “melting pot” analogy; unlike the “salad bowl,” in which each culture retains its individuality, the “melting pot” ideal sees the combination of cultures that results in a new culture entirely.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 315)

“Amalgamationin the form of miscegenation is achieved through intermarriage between races” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 315)

“Genocide, the deliberate annihilation of a targeted (usually subordinate) group, is the most toxic intergroup relationship.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 315)

“Expulsion refers to a subordinate group being forced, by a dominant group, to leave a certain area or country.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 315)

“Segregation refers to the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 316)

“distinguish between dejuresegregation (segregation that is enforced by law) and defactosegregation (segregation that occurs without laws but because of other factors).” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 316)

“Sex refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 343)

“Gender refers to behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to being female or male” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 343)

“Characteristics of gender, on the other hand, may vary greatly between different societies.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 343)

“The dichotomous or binary view of gender (the notion that someone is either male or female) is specific to certain cultures and is not universal.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 343)

“A person’s sexuality is their capacity to experience sexual feelings and attraction.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 344)

“A person’s sexual orientation is their physical, mental, emotional, and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male and/or female). Sexual orientation is typically divided into several categories: heterosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the other sex; homosexuality, the attraction to individuals of the same sex; bisexuality, the attraction to individuals of either sex; asexuality, a lack of sexual attraction or desire for sexual contact; pansexuality, an attraction to people regardless of sex, gender, gender identity, or gender expression; omnisexuality, an attraction to people of all sexes, genders, gender identities, and gender expressions that considers the person’s gender, and queer, an umbrella term used to describe sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 344)

“gender role refers to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to look and how they should behave. These roles are based on norms, or standards, created by society.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 346)

“Role learning starts with socialization at birth. Even today, our society is quick to outfit male infants in blue and girls in pink, even applying these color-coded gender labels while a baby is in the womb.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 347)

“The drive to adhere to masculine and feminine gender roles continues later in life, in a tendency sometimes referred to as “occupational sorting” (Gerdeman 2019). Men tend to outnumber women in professions such as law enforcement, the military, and politics. Women tend to outnumber men in care-related occupations such as childcare, healthcare (even though the term “doctor” still conjures the image of a man), and social work.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 347)

“Historically, women have had difficulty shedding the expectation that they cannot be a “good mother” and a “good worker” at the same time, which results in fewer opportunities and lower levels of pay (Ogden 2019).” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 347)

“Gender identity is a person’s deeply held internal perception of one’s gender.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 348)

“Intersex is a general term used to describe people whose sex traits, reproductive anatomy, hormones, or chromosomes are different from the usual two ways human bodies develop.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 349)

“Gender dysphoria is a diagnostic category in the fifth edition of the DiagnosticandStatisticalManualofMentalDisorders(DSM-5) that describes individuals who do not identify as the gender that most people would assume they are.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 350)

“heterosexism, which Herek (1990) suggests is both an ideology and a set of institutional practices that privilege heterosexuals and heterosexuality over other sexual orientations.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 351)

“heterosexism is a systematic disadvantage embedded in our social institutions, offering power to those who conform to heterosexual orientation while simultaneously disadvantaging those who do not” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 351)

“Sexism refers to prejudiced beliefs that value one sex over another. It varies in its level of severity. In parts of the world where women are strongly undervalued, young girls may not be given the same access to nutrition, healthcare, and education as boys.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 355)

“Gender socialization occurs through four major agents of socialization: family, education, peer groups, and mass media” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 355)

“Functionalists argue that gender roles were established well before the pre-industrial era when men typically took care of responsibilities outside of the home, such as hunting, and women typically took care of the domestic responsibilities in or around the home.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 361)

“According to conflict theory, social problems are created when dominant groups exploit or oppress subordinate groups. Consider the Women’s Suffrage Movement or the debate over women’s “right to choose” their reproductive futures. It is difficult for women to rise above men, as dominant group members create the rules for success and opportunity in society” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 361)

“When people perform tasks or possess characteristics based on the gender role assigned to them, they are said to be doing gender” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 362)

“The social construction of sexuality refers to the way in which socially created definitions about the cultural appropriateness of sex-linked behavior shape the way people see and experience sexuality. This is in marked contrast to theories of sex, gender, and sexuality that link male and female behavior to biological determinism, or the belief that men and women behave differently due to differences in their biology.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 362)

“Their more open approach to sex has helped countries avoid some of the major social problems associated with sex. For example, rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease are among the world’s lowest in Switzerland and the Netherlands – lower than other European countries and far lower than the United States (Grose 2007 and Dutch News 2017). It would appear that these approaches are models for the benefits of sexual freedom and frankness” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 364)

“From a functionalist point of view, the purpose of encouraging sexual activity in the confines of marriage is to intensify the bond between spouses and to ensure that procreation occurs within a stable, legally recognized relationship. This structure gives offspring the best possible chance for appropriate socialization and the provision of basic resources.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 366)

“From a functionalist standpoint, homosexuality cannot be promoted on a large-scale as an acceptable substitute for heterosexuality. If this occurred, procreation would eventually cease.” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 366)

“For conflict theorists, there are two key dimensions to the debate over same-sex marriage—one ideological and the other economic. Dominant groups (in this instance, heterosexuals) wish for their worldview—which embraces traditional marriage and the nuclear family—to win out over what they see as the intrusion of a secular, individually driven worldview” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 366)

“Queer Theory is an interdisciplinary approach to sexuality studies that identifies Western society’s rigid splitting of gender into male and female roles and questions the manner in which we have been taught to think about sexual orientation” (Conerly et al., 2021, p. 367)

Notes

Ch. 4: Society and Social Interaction

  • symbolic interactionism: theory concerning individuals & how they relate to society
    • iron cage formed by institutions
    • ”disenchantment of the world” as a result of a rational society (e.g., capitalist)
    • focused on symbols (e.g., language, gestures, artifacts) through which people interact with one another, and how people interpret these symbols in their daily interactions
      • e.g., a bully holding a fist is interpreted differently than a protester holding a fist up high
      • In the symbolic interactionist view of soceity, these symbols influence an individual’s construction of reality & truth

Ch. 5: Socialization

  • agents of socialization
    • social group agents
      • family
        • Social factors & norm affect how families raise children, e.g., nowadays corporal punishment is not as accepted as a parenting method as it used to be.
        • Families in different circumstances may imbue different values into children (e.g., poorer parents may emphasize conformity while wealthier parents may emphasize judgement and creativity)
      • peer groups
        • socialization via shared & passed down activities
    • institutional agents
      • school
        • manifest function: teach subjects
        • latent function: teach behaviors (e.g., teamwork, read textbooks, etc) and social expectations—the “hidden curriculum”
      • workplace
        • teaches both material culture (how to interact with objects, e.g., operating machinery) & nonmaterial culture (how to interact/collaborate with others, e.g., how to speak to boss)
      • religion
        • enforces certain norms (e.g., gender roles, family)
      • government
        • standardizes concepts such as age norms (adult = 18 y/o, old age = 65 y/o) and roles (taxpayer)
      • mass media
        • propagate both material & nonmaterial culture
  • resocialization: deprecating old behaviors and learning new behaviors as a person enters a different role (e.g., person moves into a senior care center)
    • degradation ceremony: the process of giving up the old role and adapting to te new role

Ch. 6: Groups and Organization

  • The functionalist perspective provides a macro-level view into how different parts of a society interact with each other to form a stable whole.
    • e.g., MeToo movement arose to attract attention to the issue of sexual harrassment.
  • The conflict perspective is a macro-level view of the society that is concerned with the formation inequalities among groups.
    • e.g., MeeToo movement challenges organizations and institutions that protected harrassers in power.
  • The interactionist (symbolic-interaction) perspective is a micro-level view of society that focuses on how groups use symbols to interact with another from day to day.
    • e.g., How does MeToo leaders interact and collaborate with other members of the movement?
  • group: a collection of people with shared identities and interact with one another on a somewhat frequent basis.
  • Not all collections of people are considered a “group” in sociology:
    • aggregate: people in the same place at the same time, but has no shared identities or does not interact (e.g., people in a line)
    • category: people who share traits but don’t necessarily always interact with another (e.g., Millenials)
  • A primary group is a smaller-sized group, whose members interact face-to-face and serve an emotional function—Primary groups serve an expressive function (emotion-oriented), e.g., family
  • A secondary group is a larger, less personal/emotional group that is often related to large institutions (e.g., school); as such, secondary groups serve an instrumental function (task-oriented).
  • In-group: a group to which a person feels a sense of belonging.
    • People may unfairly favor in-group members.
  • Out-group: a group to which a person doesn’t feel like he/she belongs
    • People may feel contempt towards out-groups, e.g., white supremacists towards people of color.
  • A reference group is any group to which a person compares or measures themself by, e.g., a person may measure themself by the peer group that they belong to.
  • dyad: two-member group; triad: three-member group. Smaller groups are more cohesive, and larger groups tend to have less cohesion and more division.
  • categorizing group leaders
    • leadership function
      • instrumental leader (goal-oriented)
      • expressive leader (emotion-oriented)
    • leadership style
      • laissez-faire (lit. hands off) leader
      • authoritarian leader
        • often instrumental leaders
        • beneficial when the leadership decisions require a high-level of expertise
  • conformity: how much an individual complies with group norms, sometimes suppressing their true desire.
  • formal organization (secondary organizations): large, impersonal organizations that are often bureaucracies
    • normative organization (a.k.a. voluntary organization): based on shared interests, e.g., hobby clubs
    • coercive organization: organizations to which people are coerced to enter (e.g., prison, rehabilitation center).
      • Erving Goffman (symbolic-interactionist): most cercive organizations are total institutions which force a controlled lifestyle onto their members.
    • utilitarian organization: organizations that people join for a material reward (e.g., school, workplace)
  • bureaucracy
    • hierarchy of authority
    • clear division of labor
    • explicit rules
    • impersonal
    • often meritocratic
  • Iron Rule of Oligarchy: large organizations are ruled by a few elite members

Ch. 9: Social Stratification in the United States

See annotations

Ch. 11: Race and Ethnicity

See annotations Jesus Christ I wonder how much of this class is just recalling definitions.

Ch. 12: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

See annotations

Graph View

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