Midterm 1

• What is sociology?

  The study of the human behaviour in a social context
• Microsociology - individual experience and personal choice
• Macrosociology - broader social forces; life, norms, etc
• What is Durkheim theory on suicide?

  Social integration and social regulation are the main factors influencing suicide rates, according to Durkheim's theory.
• Mesosociology - middle level of analysis of groups or organization
• What are the major theories of sociology?

  Symbolic interactionism, Structural functionalist and Conflict (feminism)
• Structural functionalism - interconnected structures: each element influences another element to maintain structure and function
• Symbolic functionalism - elements of social structure: institutions, social groups, statuses and roles. everything has a role
• Symbolic interactionism - focuses on the meaning or symbolism of daily social interaction and the way we communicate
• S-F perspective - elements not working -> dysfunctional -> social problems and vice versa
• What is socialization?

  A lifelong process that involves figuring out/ taught how to be social
• Types of socialization: primary and secondary
• Primary socialization - occurs during childhood
• Secondary socialization - occurs later in life
• People can develop through nature or nurture
• Cooley's looking glass - how you imagine you appear to others, how you imagine others judge your appearance, how you feel as a result (confident)
• What is mead's stage of development?

  Imitating significant other -> pretend to be other people -> complex game taking the role of several people simultaneously -> take role of generalized other
• Mead's representation of self?

  "I" - impulsive, spontaneous, unique, etc

  "Me" - socialized, objective self, generalized other, etc
• Self presentation: front stage (instagram) and back stage (dm)
• Symbolic interactionist theories - Cooley (looking glass self), mead (self and generalized other), I and me, Goffman front stage and backstage
• The family is the first and often most powerful agent of socialization
• Socialization skills from family - manners and social etiquitte, respect, education, truth
• Peer group - social group sharing key characteristics; comparison (social comparison), conformity (peer pressure ) and separation (branching off from family)
• Mass media - exposes people to things that shapes idea, expectations and values
• Education - obeservable gender differences in educational performance due to different socialization
• Opposition position (Fowles) theory - tv is not a schoolhouse for violent behaviour, it is entertainment not instruction
• Resocialization - the process of unlearning old behaviours, attitudes and values when moving into significantly different social environment
• Status - important to understand how people interact; everyone has a status or multiple statues and each status has a role
• Types of social status - ascribed and achieved
• Ascribe status - age, social class, race; no control
• Achieved status - things you can choose
• Master status - most influential of all statues in a person's status set
• Nonmaterial culture - language and symbol, values, norms and sanctions and beliefs
• Symbols are cultural items that hold significance for a culture, it can be tangible or intangible and they can change over time
• Values - collectively shared ideas about how to determine whether something is right or wrong such as equality, justice, fairness
• Norms - rules or standards of behaviour that are expected of a group, society or culture
• Sanctions - rewards or punishment in response to a particular behaviour
• Negative sanction - reaction designed to tell offenders they have violated a norm (glare, eyeroll, ticket, telling someone off)
• Positive sanction - rewards for doing the right thing (smile, high fives, bonus points)
• Folkway - informal norms that govern everyday social behaviour, less serious and carry lightest sanctions; right vs rude