Concepts Test
-- Finals
Study Guide
[Revised: August 29, 2010]
Concepts Test
-- Finals [Revised: August 29, 2010] |
1. Identify and employ various
research designs
and their appropriate application to the study of social life.
scientific method
The scientific method is a systematic, organized series of steps that ensures maximum objectivity and consistency in researching a problem (Schaefer and Lamm, 1992:35). The following are some components of the scientific method.
A percentage is a proportion, or rate, based on 100. Use of percentages allows one to compare groups of different sizes. For example, if we are comparing contributors to a town's Baptist and Roman Catholic churches, the absolute numbers of contributors could be misleading if there were many more Baptists than Catholics living in the town. With percentages, we could obtain a more meaningful comparison, showing the proportion of persons in each group who contribute to their respective churches (Schaefer & Lamm, 1992: 36).
A hypothesis usually states how one aspect of human behavior influences or affects another. We call these aspects or factors variables. A variable is a measurable trait or characteristic that is subject to change under different conditions (e.g., income, gender, or religion).
independent vs. dependent variables
Variables may be independent or dependent. Independent variables in a hypothesis are those that influence or cause changes in another variable. The dependent variables are those variables believed to be influenced by the independent variable (Schaefer & Lamm, 1992:38). For example, in the statement, "The more education people have, the more likely they are to vote." In this example education is the independent variable and voting is the dependent variable because increased voting depends on the level of education.
A theory is a set of ideas [generalizations] supported by facts. Theories try to make sense out of those facts. Social scientists seldom accept theories as laws. Often they are not considered totally true. Furthermore, the subjects they attempt to explain (i.e., people and social institutions) are variable.
A hypothesis is a speculative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. It is, in essence, an educated guess. It specifies what the researcher expects to find. To be considered meaningful, a hypothesis must be testable; that is, capable of being evaluated.
The simultaneous occurrence of two or more variables is known as a correlation. A correlation exists when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable. Correlations are an indication that causality may be present; they do not necessarily prove causation.
Large populations are too big to study in most cases. The researcher, therefore, needs to look at a small subset of the population. We call this subset a sample. The trick is to make sure that the characteristics of the sample closely parallel the characteristics of the larger population. In other words does the sample truly represent the larger population.
The mean, or average, is a number calculated by adding a series of values and then dividing by the number of values. For example, to find the mean of the numbers 5, 19, and 27, we add them and divide by the number of values that is 3. The mean would then be 17.
The median is the midpoint or number that divides a series of values (which are ranked in ascending or descending order). Eleven students who completed the first test had scores of 48, 57, 64, 68, 68, 70, 78, 84, 90, 92, and 95. The median for this distribution of scores is70.
With surveys, the researcher asks questions of people either face-to-face in interviews or by using a questionnaire. The advantages are that data collection is more systematic (you ask the same questions of every person). And because it is systematic and generally more condensed, the researcher can question many more people. Some surveys, like the Census, question millions of people. Findings may be generalizable to larger populations. There are, however, numerous drawbacks to the survey. When relying on a survey questionnaire, much information is lost. Facial expressions are not recorded. Environmental considerations are missed (e.g., what was the weather like when the survey was taken. Or, what was the characteristics of the location where the interview takes place). Furthermore, information can be lost because the interviewer failed to ask the right question.
Case studies are in depth studies of one group or individual. Its advantages are that the researcher can study individuals in-depth in their natural setting (e.g., at home, at work, playing, etc.). Case studies provided volumes of information such that at the end of the study the researcher has a thorough understanding of the individuals involved in the study. Drawbacks to the case study include the fact that social scientist cannot usually investigate many cases because of time constraints. Another problem with the case study is that the results are often not generalizable to the population at large.
participant observation
Participant observation is involvement by the researcher, either known or unknown, with the group under observation. An example of participant observation might be a researcher studying Appalachian culture by living with the people under investigation for a long time. The researcher may sleep in the same house as the people being investigated. He or she would engage in the same activities as the people being studied. By using participant observation, the researcher is able to gather a broad body of information of the groups being studied including their needs and social characteristics. A significant drawback to this style of research is that one cannot generalize the findings to larger populations. It's also very time consuming.
Existing data refers to government records (such as the Census), personal documents (such as letters or diaries), or mass communication (published books, the news, movies, Facebook pages). The advantages are that the data is generally easy to get. They already exist and can be found in most university libraries or online. Much existing data are standardized, thus making it easier to compare one set of data with another. Problems associated with using existing data are that the researcher must use the format provided. For example, a researcher studying poverty would be frustrated with the census before 1970 because there was no poverty rate information documented before 1965.
The experiment offers a high degree of exactness because one can control everything in a laboratory setting. Variables can be precisely studied. The natural sciences and Psychology use
sthis approach most often. It is easier to define independent and dependent variables in experiments. As a result, it is also easier to determine cause and effect. One disadvantage with the experiment in studying social phenomena is that the environment is contrived. People do not normally carry out their lives in a laboratory setting. Ethical issues may also arise when performing experiments on people. The Nazi death-camp experiments represent extreme instances of ethical violation. Even in ordinary, university-type experiments deception and misinformation are often employed. Many consider these ethical violations.
2. Demonstrate an
understanding of the major
theoretical perspectives employed in the discipline.
The sociological perspective is an approach to understanding behavior by placing behavior within its broader social context.
The sociological imagination involves understanding one's own situation in terms of conditions that are laid down in the past. C. Wright Mills, an American sociologist, notes that all of our life chances are shaped by the intersections of our own personal biographies and history.
Understanding society from a functionalist perspective is to visualize society as a system of integrated parts where all the parts act together even though each part may be doing different things. Each part is necessary for the survival of the system. A primary purpose of all parts (institutions like the police, the mass media, education, religion, the family) is to encourage consensus and stability. Functionalists contend that social systems tend toward balance. Functionalist theory is macro in nature in that it explores very large social relations such as relations between classes, institutions, or nation states.
Conflict theorists see society less as a cohesive system and more as an arena of conflict, contradictions, and power struggles. Instead of people working together to further the goals of the "social system," people are seen achieving their will at the expense of others. Social change occurs as people seek shares of scarce resources, resources such as power, prestige, or wealth. Most social institutions serve the interests of the powerful. Change occurs as people, groups, and institutions confront contradictions in objective and subjective reality. For example, ideology suggests that everyone has an equal chance at economic advancement, but very few poor people rise very far within the class structure. Violence sometimes results from inequality and as people compete for scarce resources. Karl Marx was a conflict theorist who saw class conflict as the engine that drives human history. Conflict theory is also a macro theory with heavy emphasis on relationships between social classes or other large groups of people (e.g., racial and ethnic groups).
The scope of investigation for these sociologists is very small. Interaction is generally face-to-face and addresses “everyday” activity. Interactionists are interested in the way individuals and small groups act toward, respond to, and influence one another in society. This perspective is not interested in macro-institutions like the economy and nation-states. The interactionist perspective is decidedly micro in nature. It explores small-scale social relationships like those between individuals or within small groups (e.g., families).
3. Demonstrate an
understanding of
how social class affects individual life chances.
Poverty
Poverty in the United States "officially" refers to people who fall below the "official poverty line." In general, however, poverty is a complex subject that depends on not only official definitions, but on the perspectives of people as well as the physical location of people.
One common perspective on poverty is to compare the percentage (or rate) of people in poverty from one group or another. When one explores rates of poverty, one is often directed toward the high poverty rates of women with children (no husband present) or the high poverty rates experienced by people of color.
When one explores the actual numbers of poor people, one finds that the race of the majority of poor people is white. Whites have a lower proportion of people in poverty than other racial groups, but because there are so many more whites in U.S. society, their lower poverty rate still translates into larger numbers of poor people.
When one investigates poverty by age, one learns that children (under age 18) are most likely to be poor. On the other hand, people who are 65 years old and older are least likely to be poor. (At least this is the perspective based on the "official definition of poverty." Many of the elderly live slightly above the poverty line so they are technically not poor, but they are still in need.)
Feminization of Poverty
Women represent a growing proportion of the poverty population. Much of the poverty experienced by women occurs in households headed by women with dependent children. The trend whereby a growing majority of poor households are headed by women is called the feminization of poverty.
Culture of Poverty
The culture of poverty is a theory which argues that the poor have fundamentally different values and lifestyles from the rest of society and that those differences cause their poverty. The theory suggests that the poor develop different values and lifestyles as a mechanism to cope with poverty. However, as those new values are passed from generation, the poor become "trapped" in the culture of poverty because of those new traits.
People who occupy the same layer of the socioeconomic hierarchy are known as a social class. Social class can be based on income, education, or occupational prestige, or combinations of all of these.
Capitalism is an economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production so that personal profits are derived through market competition and without government intervention (Kendall, 1998:308).
Adam Smith is the "godfather of laissez-faire capitalism" (Eitzen, 1986:26).
a. Private Ownership of Property
Individuals are encouraged to own not only private possessions, but the capital to buy more possessions (see Eitzen and Baca-Zinn, 1998:356-57).
b. Pursuit of Maximum Profit
Individuals are encouraged to maximize their personal gains. Seeking personal gain is morally and socially appropriate. It's the position of Adam Smith that this has many beneficial consequences for Americans.
c. Free Competition
This is the element that keeps profit seeking in check. In a competitive society, if one agent raises prices too high, then others will step in to sell goods more cheaply. Fraud is thus weeded out and the market is stabilized.
d. Laissez-faire Government
Laissez-faire government is a government that does not intervene in the economy.
e. Capitalism: A Well-Balanced System?
How does a society hang together in a scenario where everyone is pursuing their own interest? Adam Smith argues the capitalist economy maintains integrity because someone will provide whatever is needed. As demand increases for a product, the potential to make profit will increase. The potential of earning profit will encourage someone to produce those commodities that are in demand.
Competition acts as an economic regulator. Competition not only regulates the supply of desirable commodities, it also ensures that prices remain fair and product quality remains high.
Capitalism regulates wage levels in much the same way as it regulates production and prices. If wages are too high, someone else will rush in to work for a lower wage. If wages, on the other hand, are too low, employees will seek better jobs. The law of the marketplace ensures a self-regulating economy. This is the philosophy behind free enterprise. The economic system of Adam Smith is not egalitarian, because through competition someone wins and someone loses. Grass roots capitalism is, however, fair when all competitors have essentially the same economic base.
A caste system is a rigid system of inequality with almost no movement from one stratum to another. A well-known society with a caste system is India. People are born into a particular caste, and remain in that caste the entirety of their lives. Caste membership determines your occupation, social interaction, power, and education. No amount of achievement will change your caste position. Because one’s position in a caste system is fixed at birth, it is often referred to as a “closed system” of stratification.
The class system is an open form of stratification based primarily on economic criteria. The boundaries between classes are more flexible than with the caste system. Individuals can move around within the class system based on merit. Their status can improve or decline. Class membership depends, at least in part, on characteristics which the individual can control. Because one’s social class position can be changed, it is referred to as an “open system” of stratification.
Social mobility refers to the movement from one class to another. An example of upward social mobility would be Jimmy Carter, the son of a peanut farmer, becoming president of the United States. Class systems presumably have much greater mobility between classes that does the caste system where there is presumably little or no social movement up or down the class (caste) structure.
In Marxist terminology, "a class consists of all the people who share a common relationship to the means of production" (1989:172). Those people who control the means of production (whether that means factories or slaves or land) make up the dominant class. Those who work for the dominant class (slaves, peasants, industrial laborers)are the subordinate class. This relationship is both unequal and exploitative in that the dominant class takes unfair advantage of the subordinate class.
Weber's position on class refers to layers based on more than just economic concerns. He includes wealth (economic), power, and prestige. Gilbert and Kahl have updated Weber’s model, incorporating education and occupation as measures of social class.
The division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige is social stratification.
Wealth consists of income and assets. Appelbaum & Chambliss (197:134) defines income as "the amount of money a person or household earns in a given period of time (usually a year)." Wolff (in Skolnick and Currie, 1997:99) describes assets as consisting of all forms of "financial wealth such as bank accounts, stocks, bonds, life insurance savings, mutual fund shares and unincorporated business; consumer durables like cares and major appliances; and the value of pension rights." Wolff (1997:99)continues to say that from these sources, one should subtract liabilities such as "consumer debt, mortgage balances, and other outstanding debt."
Power, as defined by Max Weber, is the ability to mobilize resources and to carry out one's will and achieve one's goals in spite of resistance from others. It is an inevitable part of everyday life.
Prestige refers to the ability to impress or influence. It differs from power in that it is based less on political position. Prestige correlates with charisma. A prestigious person has a reputation based on brilliance, achievements, or on character.
The probabilities concerning the fate an individual may expect in life are called life chances.
Gender stratification, cuts across all aspects of social life, cuts across all social classes, and refers to men and women's unequal access to power, prestige, and property on the basis of their sex.
Henslin (1999:278) suggests that researches can assign people to various social classes based objective criteria involving wealth, power, and prestige. Some objective indicators can include occupation, educational level, number of dependents, type of residence, infant mortality, and life expectancy rates.
Typically, determining class from a subjective point of view involves asking someone how they perceive their class position. When people are asked, only a small proportion identify themselves as belonging to the “upper class” or the “lower class”, while the majority of people split almost evenly in identifying themselves as either “working class” or “middle class.”
Class can be determined using the reputational method (Henslin, 1999:253). People identify an individual's social class based on their expert knowledge of their individual's circumstances. The reputational method is limited to smaller communities, where people are familiar with one another's reputation. People at each class level see class differently. They, therefore, carry around different personal pictures of society's classes. People see finer divisions at their own class level, but tend to lump together people who occupy other class levels. For example, People at the top see several divisions of people at the top while they see one large monolithic group of people at the bottom. On the other hand, people at the bottom see several distinctions of poor people, but only one group at the top -- the rich (Henslin, 1999:253).
4. Demonstrate an
understanding of social structure
and how it shapes and influences social
interactions.
The typical patterns of interactions that groups take part in are social structure. Social structure can refer to typical patterns of interaction between men and women or between teacher and student. Social structure can also include institutions such as family, government, and the economy which also characterize the "typical" way relations are carried out between individuals and groups of people.
Roles refer to "expected" patterns of behavior, obligations, and privileges attached to a particular social status.
Status refers to the social positions that exist in society.
Some roles that have to be played contradict other important roles (See Henslin, 1999:108). Here the individual does not know what is expected. We call this "role conflict." Example: The conflict experienced between having to be a mother and having to be a wage earner simultaneously. Example: A student who also works and finds that their boss has changed their schedule such that it conflicts with the class schedule.
Institutions (in Charon, 1986:229) are structures that define the right and correct ways of doing things in society. Institutions help establish and maintain social order. Institutions act as norms. Institutions tend to support the ideology of a society. For example, the educational system (as well as the rest of the institutions) in America support the ideology of democracy and free enterprise.
Master Status is a label that supersedes all other labels. It is the most important of an individual's various statuses. A master status is one that cuts across the other statuses that a person holds.
An achieved status is earned. It's based on merit.
One is born with an ascribed status. Many argue that race and gender are ascribed statuses.
5. Demonstrate an
understanding of cross-cultural differences
and an understanding of the
importance of cultural context.
Culture is the totality of learned, socially transmitted behavior. Culture is all the values, norms, and customs that a people share with one another. Culture is all of the objects and ideas found within a society. Culture is what individuals think is right and important as they interact.
Ethnocentrism, according to Farley (1988:16-17), refers to the tendency to view one's own culture as the norm. This is accompanied by the tendency to judge other individuals or cultures by the standards of one's culture. "Our" truths and values are so central to whom "we" are that it is difficult to accept the possibility that our culture represents only one of many. A particular culture does not represent universal "TRUTH." For example, An American who thinks citizens of another country are barbarians if they like to attend bullfights is demonstrating ethnocentrism. This is not to say that to be proud of one's heritage is inappropriate. On the contrary, a little ethnocentrism is beneficial because of its bonding effect. Ethnocentrism, then, is a double-edged sword. It is beneficial in that it assists in building group solidarity. It is a unifying force. Ethnocentrism becomes a problem when we expect others to become like us.
To accurately study unfamiliar cultures, sociologists have to be aware of culturally-based biases. Max Weber advocates the use of "value-free" Sociology. Value-free means that one should eliminate, as much as possible, bias and prejudice. Weber uses the German idea of "verstehen" to describe the practice of understanding unique culture from the standpoint of others. Cultural relativism is understanding a culture on its own terms. In essence "you have to be able to stand in the other persons shoes." When you can "see" from the perspective of another, then you can better understand that culture.
Norms are established rules of behavior maintained by a society are known as norms. Norms can be laws, but they also can be procedures, morals, customs or expectations. Many times position in social structures determines the definitions of norms. Folkways, mores, and taboos are particular types of norms
Folkways are norms that ordinary people follow in everyday life. Society often tolerates nonconformity with regards to folkways. They are not strictly enforced.
Mores are norms are taken more seriously. Henslin (1999:44) considers them as "essential to our core values." Henslin suggests that we generally insist on conformity when it comes to mores.
Taboos approximate super mores. Henslin (1999:44) argues that taboos are so "strongly ingrained in us that even the thought of a violation is greeted with revulsion." Examples of taboos are Incest and cannibalism.
Each culture has a general consensus of what is worth working for (ends). Values refer to that which we consider important or unimportant, desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly. They guide most of our actions. Values are long range commitments to ends that people share culturally. Values are abstract. Essentially, values describe our "moral" goals in society. And our norms generally uphold and support these values.