Instructor’s Manual (Lecture Notes Only) For
Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach Fourteenth Edition By James M. Henslin
Contents Chapter 1
The Sociological Perspective
1
Chapter 2
Culture
13
Chapter 3
Socialization
21
Chapter 4
Social Structure and Social Interaction
31
Chapter 5
Social Groups and Formal Organizations
39
Chapter 6
Deviance and Social Control
48
Chapter 7
Global Stratification
56
Chapter 8
Social Class in the United States
66
Chapter 9
Race and Ethnicity
75
Chapter 10
Gender and Age
85
Chapter 11
Politics and the Economy
97
Chapter 12
Marriage and Family
109
Chapter 13
Education and Religion
119
Chapter 14
Population and Urbanization
131
Chapter 15
Social Change and the Environment
141
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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective Chapter Summary This chapter explains what sociology is. The sociological perspective focuses on the connection between biography and history. This chapter discusses the origins of sociology with a focus on European sociologists writing about the Industrial Revolution and how sociology came to exist in the United States. It also explores the contributions and debates of sociologists within the United States, including the debate between pure sociology and social reform. The first half of the chapter explains three main perspectives of sociology—symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory. The importance of thinking about theory and research working together is also highlighted. The second half of the chapter demonstrates a basic understanding of sociological research methods, starting with why it is important to study social behaviors even though some people consider these topics to be common sense. The chapter demonstrates and explains the stages and different types of research designs that sociologists can use. The author then provides a brief discussion on the considerations for gender in research and research ethics. The chapter ends with a discussion of the contention between research and social reform and also the influence of globalization on the field of sociology and how the author believes these two ideas could shape sociology in the future. Learning Objectives LO 1.1: Explain why both history and biography are essential for the sociological perspective. LO 1.2: Trace the origins of sociology, from tradition to Max Weber. 1.4 LO 1.3: Trace the development of sociology in North America, and explain the tension between objective analysis and social reform. LO 1.4: Explain the basic ideas of symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory. LO 1.5 Explain why common sense can’t replace sociological research. LO 1.6 Know the eight steps of the research model. LO 1.7 Know the main elements of the seven research methods. LO 1.8 Explain how gender is significant in sociological research. LO 1.9 Explain why it is vital for sociologists to protect the people they study and discuss the two cases that are presented. LO 1.10: Explain how research versus social reform and globalization are likely to influence sociology. 1 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
Chapter Outline A. The Sociological Perspective 1.1 Explain why both history and biography are essential for the sociological perspective. 1. This perspective is important because it opens a window onto unfamiliar worlds and offers a fresh look at familiar ones. It allows us to gain a new view of social life. 2. The sociological perspective is an approach to understanding human behavior by placing it within the social context that surrounds it. a) The center of the sociological perspective examines how people are influenced by their society—or the group of people who share a culture and a territory. b) The sociological perspective stresses the broader social context of behavior by looking at individuals’ social location—jobs, income, education, gender, race– ethnicity, health, and age—and by considering external influences—people’s experiences—which are internalized and become part of a person’s thinking and motivations. c) The sociologist C. Wright Mills claimed that the sociological perspective enabled us to grasp the connection between history (the broad stream of events that each society is located in) and biography (your experiences within a specific historical setting). 3. This perspective enables us to analyze and understand both the forces that contribute to the emergence and growth of the global village and our unique experiences in our own smaller corners of this village. B. Origins of Sociology 1.2 Trace the origins of sociology, from tradition to Max Weber. 1. Sociology developed in the middle of the nineteenth century when social observers began to use scientific methods to test their ideas. The following three factors led to its development: a) The social upheaval as a result of the Industrial Revolution, which led to changes in the way people lived their lives. b) The political revolutions in America and France, which encouraged people to rethink their ideas about social life. c) The development of imperialism—as Europeans conquered other nations, they came in contact with different cultures and began to ask why cultures differ. d) These three factors led to a questioning of traditional answers, which created a desire to apply scientific methods to find answers to the questions being raised about the social world. 2. Auguste Comte coined the term “sociology” and suggested the use of positivism— applying the scientific approach to understand the social world—but he did not utilize this approach himself. Comte believed that this new science should not only discover sociological principles, but should then apply those principles to social reform. 3. Herbert Spencer viewed societies as evolutionary, coined the term “the survival of the fittest,” and became known for social Darwinism. Spencer was convinced that no one should intervene in the evolution of society and that attempts at social reform are wrong. 4. Karl Marx, whose ideas about social classes and class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat laid the foundation of the conflict perspective, believed that class 2 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
conflict is the key to human history. Marx believed that the conflict and struggle would end only with a revolution by the working class. 5. Emile Durkheim played an important role in the development of sociology. One of his primary goals was to get sociology recognized as a separate academic discipline. He was interested in understanding the social factors that influence individual behavior; he studied suicide rates among different groups and concluded that social integration—the degree to which people are tied to their social group—is a key social factor in suicide. 6. Max Weber was one of the most influential of all sociologists, raising issues that remain controversial even today. Disagreeing with Karl Marx, Weber defined religion as a central force in social change (i.e., Protestantism encourages greater economic development and was the central factor in the rise of capitalism in some countries). a) The Protestant belief system encouraged its members to embrace change. b) Protestants sought “signs” that they were in God’s will; financial success became a major sign. The more money they made, the more secure they were about their religious standing. c) Weber called this behavior the Protestant ethic; he called their readiness to invest capital to make more money the spirit of capitalism. C. Sociology in North America 1.3 Trace the development of sociology in North America, and explain the tension between objective analysis and social reform. 1. In the early years of sociology, men dominated the field because rigidly defined social roles prevented most women from pursuing an education. a) Women were supposed to devote themselves to the four Ks: Kirche, Küche, Kinder, und Kleider (church, cooking, children, and clothes). b) Few people, male or female, attained education beyond basic reading, writing, and math, but most higher education was reserved for men. c) The few early female sociologists included Marion Talbot, an associate editor for the American Journal of Sociology for thirty years. Others went beyond sociology, such as Grace Abbott, the chief of the U.S. government’s Children’s Bureau, and Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a cabinet position. d) Most early female sociologists viewed sociology as a path for social reform. Academics who viewed it as the opposite distanced themselves from female sociologists. e) Harriet Martineau studied social life in both Great Britain and the United States. While her original research has been largely ignored by the discipline, she is known for her translations of Comte’s ideas into English. 2. African American professionals also faced problems. a) W. E. B. Du Bois was the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard. He conducted extensive research on race relations in the United States, publishing one book a year on this subject between 1896 and 1914. b) Despite his accomplishments, he encountered prejudice and discrimination in his professional and personal life. When he attended professional sociologists’ meetings, he was not permitted to eat or stay in the same hotels as the White sociologists.
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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
c) Frustrated at the lack of improvements in race relations, he turned to social action, helping to found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) along with Jane Addams and others from Hull-House. 3. Jane Addams is an example of a sociologist who was able to combine the role of sociologist with that of social reformer. a) In 1889, she co-founded Hull-House, a settlement house for the poor, and worked to bridge the gap between the powerful and powerless. b) Sociologists from nearby University of Chicago visited Hull-House frequently. c) She is one of two sociologists (both of them women) to have won the Nobel Peace Prize; she was awarded this in 1931. 4. Many other early North American sociologists combined the role of sociologist with that of social reformer. For example, University of Chicago sociologists Park and Burgess studied many urban problems and offered suggestions on how to alleviate them. By the 1940s, as sociologists became more concerned with establishing sociology as an academic discipline, the emphasis shifted from social reform to social theory. a) Talcott Parsons developed abstract models of society to show how the parts of society harmoniously work together. b) Countering this development was C. Wright Mills, who urged sociologists to get back to social reform. He saw the emergence of the power elite as an imminent threat to freedom. 5. The debate over the proper goals of sociological analysis—analyzing society versus reforming society—continues today. a) Some sociologists view the goal of sociology as understanding the social world without the goal of applying this knowledge to reform. This is referred to as basic (or pure) sociology. b) Applied sociology aims to use sociology to solve problems. One of the first attempts at applied sociology was the founding of the NAACP. i. Today, applied sociologists work in a variety of settings. ii. Applied sociology goes back to the roots of sociology. c) In an effort to pursue a social reform agenda, the American Sociological Association is now promoting public sociology with the goal of influencing politicians and policy makers. This is considered a middle ground between research and reform. D. Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology 1.4 Explain the basic ideas of symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory. 1. Central to the study of any science is the development of theory. A theory is a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work. It is an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another. Sociologists use three major theories—symbolic interactionism, functional analysis, and conflict theory—to observe and interpret social contexts, relationships, and realities in distinct ways. 2. Symbolic interactionism views symbols, things to which we attach meaning, as the key to understanding how we view the world and communicate with one another. a) Through the use of symbols, people are able to define relationships to others; to coordinate actions with others, thereby making social life possible; and to develop a sense of themselves. 4 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
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b) A symbolic interactionist studying divorce would focus on how the changing meanings of marriage, divorce, parenthood, and love have all contributed to the increase in the rate of divorce in U.S. society. The central idea of functional analysis is that society is a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together. a) To understand society, we must look at both structure (how the parts of society fit together to make up the whole) and function (how each part contributes to society). b) Robert Merton used the term “functions” to refer to the beneficial consequences of people’s actions to keep society stable, and “dysfunctions” to refer to consequences that undermine a system’s equilibrium. Functions can be either manifest (actions that are intended) or latent (unintended consequences). c) In trying to explain divorce, a functionalist would look at how industrialization and urbanization both contributed to the changing function of marriage and the family. According to conflict theory, society is composed of groups competing for scarce resources. a) Karl Marx focused on struggles between the bourgeoisie (the small group of capitalists who own the means of production) and the proletariat (the masses of workers exploited by the capitalists). i. Contemporary conflict theorists have expanded this perspective to include conflict in all relations of power and authority. ii. Just as Marx examined conflict between capitalists and workers, many feminists analyze conflict between men and women. iii. Divorce is seen as the outcome of the shifting balance of power within a family; as women have gained power and try to address inequalities in their relationships, men resist. Each perspective provides a different and often sharply contrasting picture of the world. However, sociologists often use all three perspectives because no one theory or level of analysis encompasses all of reality. The perspectives differ in their level of analysis. Functionalists and conflict theorists provide macro-level analysis because they examine the large-scale patterns of society. Symbolic interactionists carry out micro-level analysis because they focus on the smallscale patterns of social life. Research cannot stand alone any more than theory can stand alone. Theories need to be tested, which requires research. And research findings need to be explained, which requires theory. Sociologists combine research and theory in different ways.
E. Doing Sociological Research 1.5 Explain why common sense can’t replace sociological research. 1. We cannot depend on common sense or “what everyone knows” because common-sense ideas may or may not be true, which is why we need research to test these ideas. 2. To understand social life, we need to move beyond common sense. F. A Research Model 1.6 Know the eight steps of the research model.
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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
1. Henslin identifies eight steps in the scientific research model. This is an ideal model, but in the real world of research, some of these steps may run together or may even be omitted. a) Selecting a topic is guided by sociological curiosity, interest in a particular topic, research funding availability, and pressing social issues. b) Defining the problem involves specifying what the researcher wants to learn about the topic. c) Reviewing the literature uncovers existing knowledge about a topic. It helps narrow down the problem and identifies what areas are already known and what areas need to be researched, and it provides ideas about what questions to ask. d) Formulating a hypothesis involves stating the expected relationship between variables based on predictions from a theory. Hypotheses need operational definitions, or precise ways to measure the variables. e) Choosing a research method is influenced by the research topic and the questions that need to be answered. f) Collecting the data involves concerns over validity, the extent to which operational definitions measure what was intended, and reliability, the extent to which data produce consistent results. Inadequate operational definitions hurt reliability. g) Analyzing the results entails using specific techniques to test your hypothesis (if there is one). h) Sharing the results involves writing a report and then sharing that report with the scientific community. G. Research Methods (Designs) 1.7 Know the main elements of the seven research methods. 1. In conducting research, sociologists choose between seven research methods (or research designs): a) Surveys involve collecting data by having people answer a series of questions. i. The first step is to determine a population (the target group to be studied) and select a sample (individuals from within the target population who are intended to represent the population to be studied). Random samples are those in which everyone in the target population has the same chance of being included in the study. A stratified random sample is a sample of specific subgroups (e.g., freshmen, sophomores, juniors) of the target population (a college or university) in which everyone in the subgroup has an equal chance of being included in the study. ii. The respondents (people who respond to a survey) must be allowed to express their own opinions so the findings will not be biased. iii. The researcher must consider whether to make the questions closed-ended (questions that are followed by a list of possible answers to be selected by the respondent) or open-ended (questions that respondents answer in their own words). iv. It is important to establish rapport, or a feeling of trust between researchers and respondents. b) In participant observation (also called fieldwork), the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what happens in that setting. 6 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
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A dilemma of participant observation is determining how much participant observers should get involved in the lives of the people they are observing. c) In case studies, researchers focus on a single event, situation, or individual. The purpose is to understand the dynamics of relationships and power or even the thinking that motivates people. i. Generalizability is an issue for case studies since the researcher only focuses on one event, situation, or individual. Few sociologists use this method because of this. d) Secondary analysis is the analysis of data already collected by other researchers. However, because the researcher did not directly carry out the research, they cannot be sure that the data were systematically gathered and accurately recorded. e) Analysis of documents means that researchers obtain information from sources, including books, newspapers, diaries, bank records, police reports, immigration files, and records kept by various organizations. The term documents is used broadly and includes video and audio recordings and social media sites. f) Experiments are especially useful for determining cause and effect. i. Experiments involve independent variables (factors that cause a change in something) and dependent variables (factors that are changed). ii. Experiments require an experimental group (subjects exposed to the independent variable) and a control group (subjects not exposed to the independent variable). g) Unobtrusive measures involve observing social behaviors of people who do not know they are being studied. H. Gender in Sociological Research 1.8 Explain how gender is significant in sociological research. 1. Because gender can be a significant factor in social research, researchers take steps to prevent it from biasing their findings. 2. Gender can also be an obstacle to doing research, particularly when the gender of the researcher is different from that of the research subjects and the topic under investigation is a sensitive one. I. Ethics in Sociological Research 1.9 Explain why it is vital for sociologists to protect the people they study and discuss the two cases that are presented. 1. Ethics are of fundamental concern to sociologists when it comes to doing research. Although sociologists are expected to follow ethical guidelines that require openness, honesty, truth, and the protection of research subjects, their studies can occasionally elicit great controversies. 2. The Brajuha research created considerable controversy and legal complications over the protection of subjects. He had field notes that might have shed light on a criminal investigation, but due to the promise of confidentiality, he refused to turn the notes over. 3. Laud Humphreys generated a national controversy by misleading subjects when conducting sensitive research about bisexual men’s personal lives. He vigorously defended his research but eventually stated that he should have identified himself as a researcher. 7 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
J. Trends Shaping the Future of Sociology 1.10 Explain how research versus social reform and globalization are likely to influence sociology. 1. To understand the tension between social reform and social analysis, sociologists have found it useful to divide sociology into three phases. a) In the first phase, which lasted until the 1920s, the primary concern of sociologists was to improve society. b) During the second phase, from the 1920s until the 1960s, sociologists focused on developing abstract knowledge. c) In the third (current) phase, sociologists seek ways to apply their research findings. d) Despite being able to identify three phases, each of which has been characterized by a different position on reform versus analysis, consensus has never been complete on which approach is better. 2. Globalization is a second major trend destined to leave its mark on sociology. a) Globalization is the breaking down of national boundaries because of advances in communications, trade, and travel. b) Globalization is likely to broaden the scope of sociological analysis as sociologists look beyond the boundaries of the United States in considering global issues. 3. Globalization is one of the most significant events in world history. This book stresses the impact of globalization on our lives today. Figures 1.1: Suicide of Americans Ages 18–24 1.2: The Forgotten Sociologists 1.3: Comparing Basic and Applied Sociology 1.4: Call-Back Rates by Race–Ethnicity and Criminal Record 1.5: U.S. Marriage, U.S. Divorce 1.6: Western Marriage 1.7: The Research Model 1.8: The Experiment Tables 1.1: Three Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology 1.2: How to Read a Table 1.3: Three Ways to Measure “Average” 1.4: Closed- and Open-Ended Questions 1.5: Cause, Effect, and Spurious Correlations Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 1.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Gender Discrimination How do you think relations between men and women have changed since Harriet Martineau did her research? 8 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
J 1.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Participant Observation From Sudhir’s experiences, what do you see as the advantages of participant observation? Its disadvantages? Do you think that doing sociological research justifies being present at beatings? At the planning of drive-by shootings? SW 1.1 Shared Writing: Theoretical Perspectives Of the three theoretical perspectives, which one would you prefer to use if you were a sociologist? Why? SW 1.2 Shared Writing: Misleading the Subject Some sociologists think that researchers should be able to mislead subjects to get unbiased results as long as the subjects aren’t getting hurt. If the researchers can’t deceive them, the subjects are likely to perceive the purpose of the research and shape their behavior, leading to invalid results. For example, twelve female college freshmen and twelve male college freshmen are brought into a room to get their opinions about football. They discuss football. The sociologists really aren’t interested in their opinions about football. What they are doing is analyzing flirting behavior: the women’s and men’s facial expressions, their body language, and their words. If these subjects were told the real purpose of the research, it would change their behavior. What is your opinion? Why? Special Features • Down-to-Earth Sociology: W. E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk • Cultural Diversity in the United States: Unanticipated Public Sociology: Studying Job Discrimination • Down-to-Earth Sociology: Enjoying a Sociology Quiz—Testing Your Common Sense • Down-to-Earth Sociology: Testing Your Common Sense—Answers to the Sociology Quiz • Down-to-Earth Sociology: Google and the Perversion of Science: How Not to Do Research • Down-to-Earth Sociology: Gang Leader for a Day: Adventures of a Rogue Sociologist Lecture Suggestions ▪
To understand peoples’ behavior, sociologists look at their social location in society. Ask students to identify the corners in life they occupy by describing their jobs, income, education, gender, race–ethnicity, health, and age. Have them explain how each of these elements influences their self-concept and behavior. Then have them select two or three elements to change (for example, gender and race–ethnicity) and describe what differences may exist in their self-concept and behavior if they occupied this social location.
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Using the symbolic interactionist perspective, have the students evaluate the sociology course and its instructor. They should identify the symbols that are a part of the course and the meanings that they each apply to those symbols. Initially, have the students make their own 9 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
lists that include symbols and meanings and then share them with the class in a group discussion. ▪
The introduction of sociology as “the study of society” created a social upheaval in the nineteenth century that destroyed many traditions and social norms. Among these were challenges to religion and the divine right of kings. During the 1960s, the feminist perspective challenged other traditions such as the family and the role of women. What traditions and social norms in today’s society are being challenged in a similar manner?
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Herbert Spencer is credited with developing the “survival of the fittest” concept and the philosophic approach known as social Darwinism. The idea behind this approach was that societies evolve from primitive to civilized and that helping primitive societies interferes with the natural process of either evolving or becoming extinct. As an example, nations like the United States have for decades intervened in sub-Saharan African countries in an attempt to fight AIDS and end poverty with little success. Have students discuss their thoughts on this subject and whether aid to poor societies actually helps them or simply creates dependency.
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Conduct a class exercise on selecting an appropriate research topic. Initially, have a student propose a general topic, and then have other students recommend changes to clarify and narrow the topic until it is an appropriate beginning point for a research project. Building on the selection made as an appropriate research topic, walk the class through the other seven stages of the research process, gathering student input on each step. This part of the exercise can include a homework assignment where teams of students are assigned to gather additional input on each stage of the process. Obviously, this assignment is only a familiarization exercise and does not qualify as fulfilling all aspects of the research process.
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Pointing out that sociologists conduct research on almost every conceivable area of human behavior, ask students to try to conceive of some areas of human behavior that may be beyond the reach of sociologists. Are there any such areas? If they cannot think of any such areas, ask them to consider and discuss the following question: “Is human behavior so predictable that all aspects of it are researchable?”
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Ask students to identify the operational definitions in the following statements and discuss what, if anything, may be wrong with them: (1) Smoking is bad for people’s health; (2) Poverty causes crime; (3) Children who watch more than three hours of television a day tend to be more hyperactive than other children; and (4) Alcohol consumption is related to spousal abuse. Afterward, ask students to try to transform each of the four statements into a testable hypothesis with precise operational definitions.
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Have students imagine they are conducting research about date rape on university campuses. Then ask them the following questions: Which research method or methods would be most conducive or least conducive to such a study? Why? If you were to use interviews in your study, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of employing closed-ended questions? How about open-ended questions? In conducting the interviews, what would you do to try to establish good rapport with your subjects? Finally, no matter which research 10 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
method you choose, what are some of the ways gender may affect the viability of your study? What, if anything, can you do to minimize its effects? Suggested Assignments ▪
Have students attend a local conference to observe the field from within the sociological community. Afterward, students could write a reflection on what they experienced and if any particular elements sparked their interest.
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Assign students to choose a film that illustrates one of the three sociological perspectives and to write a brief report on how that film illustrated the perspective. A few examples of the film and the perspective(s) it illustrates include Shrek (symbolic interactionism), Antz (functionalism), Titanic (the conflict perspective), or Apollo 13 (a case can be made for this film as illustrating any of the three perspectives). Other films may also be used, depending on their subject matter and plots.
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W. E. B. Du Bois was a forerunner in promoting racial equality. Have students write a paper that reflects how they think Du Bois would respond to the current state of race relations and what his reaction would be to the current NAACP if he were still alive.
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Have students select a topic of personal interest. Then have them collect scholarly research articles on their topics. Be sure to review what constitutes “scholarly.” The students should write reports summarizing the major findings on their topics and discuss how common sense could not replace the sociological understandings provided by research.
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Assign a visit to the university library to come up with a list of journals that would accept articles devoted to sociological research. For each journal chosen, instruct the students to copy the submission requirements for the journal and to make an effort to determine if the journal accepts research articles authored by undergraduate students. Require each student to compile a list of five journals with the accompanying data on submission requirements. Lead a discussion on students’ findings. Collect the assignments, and ask for volunteers to separate the duplicate journals submitted and to develop a folder of the journals selected along with the criteria for submission. A one-page summary for each journal chosen should be prepared for this purpose.
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After refining an appropriate research topic, separate the class into two groups. Assign one group to conduct a literature review in the traditional manner by physically visiting the library and using library resources such as the author index and the subject index. Have the other group conduct a literature review using only the computer. Following the exercise, discuss the advantages of each method of conducting the review.
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After viewing Stanley Milgram’s research video Obedience, lead a class discussion on the ethical issues of this study. In small groups, have students develop research plans including an initial research question that would better protect the subjects. Each group should share its plan with the class and lead a discussion on the challenges in studying sociological phenomena while protecting subjects. 11 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
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Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
Chapter 2: Culture Chapter Summary This chapter examines how culture shapes our orientation to life. Culture includes many components such as gestures, language, values, norms and sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos. Sociologists promote cultural relativism to understand and appreciate cultures other than our own. Subcultures and countercultures exist within cultures. Subcultures have their own cultures, but do not push against the mainstream culture. For example, teenagers could be considered a subculture. Countercultures, however, go against the mainstream culture. This chapter also discusses sociobiology and examines the relationship between genes and human behavior; most sociologists consider genes to be an inadequate explanation of behavior. The chapter ends with a discussion of technology and how it plays a crucial role in changing culture across space. With the increased flow of technology, cultural diffusion has increased, shifting cultural norms from one country to another. On the other hand, cultural lag occurs when a cultural practice lags behind a technological change. Conversely, cultural leveling describes the process of countries becoming more similar to one another culturally. Learning Objectives LO 2.1 Explain what culture is, how culture provides orientations to life, and what practicing cultural relativism means. LO 2.2 Know the components of symbolic culture: gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos; also explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. LO 2.3 Distinguish between subcultures and countercultures. LO 2.4 Discuss the major U.S. values and explain value clusters, value contradictions, value clashes, how values are lenses of perception, and ideal culture versus real culture. LO 2.5 Explain why most sociologists consider genes to be an inadequate explanation of human behavior. LO 2.6 Explain how technology changes culture and what cultural lag and cultural leveling are. Chapter Outline A. What Is Culture? 2.1 Explain what culture is, how culture provides orientations to life, and what practicing cultural relativism means. 1. The concept of culture is sometimes easier to grasp by description than by definition. All human groups possess culture, which consists of the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects passed from one generation to the next. 2. Culture can be subdivided into material culture and nonmaterial culture. 13 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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a) Material culture—things such as jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, machines, clothing, eating utensils, hairstyles, and clothing. b) Nonmaterial culture—a group’s ways of thinking (including beliefs, values, and assumptions) and common patterns of behavior (including language, gestures, and other forms of interaction). 3. Culture provides a taken-for-granted orientation to life. a) We assume that our own culture is “normal” or “natural”; in fact, it is not natural, but rather is learned. It penetrates our lives so deeply that we take it for granted, and it provides the lens through which we perceive and evaluate things. b) It provides implicit instructions that tell us what we ought to do and a moral imperative that defines what we think is right and wrong. c) Coming into contact with a radically different culture produces culture shock, which challenges our basic assumptions. d) An important consequence of culture within us is ethnocentrism, using our own culture (and assuming it to be good, right, and even superior) to judge other cultures. It is functional when it creates in-group loyalties but can be dysfunctional if it leads to discrimination against those who are different. 4. Although all groups practice some forms of ethnocentrism, people can also employ cultural relativism, the practice of understanding a culture on its own terms without assessing its elements as any better or worse than one’s own culture. a) Because we tend to use our own culture as the standard, cultural relativism presents a challenge to ordinary thinking. b) At the same time, this view helps us appreciate other ways of life. c) Robert Edgerton suggested developing a scale for evaluating cultures on their “quality of life.” He argued that those cultural practices that result in exploitation should be judged as morally inferior to those that enhance people’s lives. B. Components of Symbolic Culture 2.2 Know the components of symbolic culture: gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos; also explain the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. 1. Sociologists sometimes refer to nonmaterial culture as symbolic culture, because symbols are the central component of nonmaterial culture. Symbols include gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and mores. 2. Gestures, or using one’s body to communicate with others, are shorthand means of conveying messages without using words. a) People in every culture use gestures, although gestures and their meanings differ; confusion or offense can result because of misunderstandings over the meaning or misuse of a gesture. b) Experts disagree over whether any universal gestures exist. They tend to vary considerably around the world. 3. Language consists of a system of symbols that can be put together in an infinite number of ways to communicate abstract thought. Each word is a symbol to which a culture attaches a particular meaning. Language is important because it is the primary means of communication between people.
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a) It allows human experience to be cumulative; each generation builds on the body of significant experiences that is passed on to it by the previous generation, thus freeing people to move beyond immediate experiences. b) It provides a social or shared past. We are able to discuss past events with others. c) It provides a social or shared future. Language allows us to plan activities with one another. d) It allows shared perspectives (i.e., ideas about events and experiences). e) It allows shared, goal-directed behavior. Common understandings enable us to establish a purpose for getting together. 4. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that not only does language express our thinking and perception, but language actually shapes them because we are taught not only words but also a particular way of thinking and perceiving. Rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, our very language determines our consciousness. 5. Values are the standards by which people define good and bad, beautiful and ugly. Every group develops expectations regarding the “right” way to reflect its values. 6. Norms are the expectations of “right” behavior that develop out of a group’s values. 7. Sanctions are the positive or negative reactions to the way people follow or break norms. Positive sanctions (a money reward, a prize, a smile, or even a handshake) are expressions of approval; negative sanctions (getting fired, a frown, or harsh words) denote disapproval for breaking a norm. 8. To relieve the pressure of having to strictly follow the norms, some cultures have moral holidays—specified times when people are allowed to break the norms and not worry about being sanctioned. Mardi Gras is an example of a moral holiday in our society. 9. Some societies have moral holiday places, locations where norms are expected to be broken. An example would be red-light districts where prostitutes are allowed to work the streets. 10. Folkways are norms that are not strictly enforced, such as passing on the left side of the sidewalk. Breaking them may result in a dirty look. 11. Mores are norms a culture believes to be essential to core values and therefore insists on conformity to them. A person who steals, rapes, or kills has violated some of society’s most important mores. 12. Norms that one group considers to be folkways another group may view as mores. A male walking down the street with the upper half of his body uncovered may be violating a folkway; a female doing the same thing may be violating a more. 13. Taboos are norms so strongly ingrained that even the thought of them is greeted with revulsion. Eating human flesh and having sex with one’s parents are examples of such behavior and tend to span cultural boundaries. C. Many Cultural Worlds 2.3 Distinguish between subcultures and countercultures. 1. Subcultures are groups whose values and related behaviors distinguish its members from the larger culture. a) Each subculture is a world within the larger world of the dominant culture. It has a distinctive way of looking at life, but remains compatible with the dominant culture.
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b) U.S. society contains thousands of subcultures. Some are quite broad (teenagers), while others are narrow (body builders). Some ethnic groups form subcultures, as do certain occupational groups. 2. Countercultures are groups whose norms, beliefs, and values place it in opposition with the broader culture. a) The dominant culture often perceives countercultures as a threat because they challenge the culture’s values; for this reason, the dominant culture will move against a particular counterculture to affirm its own core values. For example, the Mormons challenged the dominant culture’s core value of monogamy and were driven out of several states before settling in Utah. D. Values in U.S. Society 2.4 Discuss the major U.S. values and explain value clusters, value contradictions, value clashes, how values are lenses of perception, and ideal culture versus real culture. 1. Because the United States is a pluralistic society made up of many different groups, competing value systems are common. Some sociologists, however, have tried to identify some underlying core values in the United States. a) Sociologist Robin Williams identified ten core values: individualism (success due to individual effort); achievement and success (especially, doing better than others); hard work; efficiency and practicality; science and technology (using science to control nature); material comfort; freedom; democracy; equality (especially of opportunity); and group superiority. b) Henslin updated Williams’s list by adding education, religiosity (belief in a Supreme Being and following some set of matching precepts), and romantic love. 2. Some values conflict with each other. Full expressions of democracy, equality, racism, and sexism cannot exist at the same time. These are value contradictions, and, as society changes, some values are challenged and undergo modification. 3. Values are not independent units; value clusters are made up of related core values that come together to form a larger whole. In the value cluster surrounding success, for example, we find hard work, education, material comfort, and individualism all bound together. 4. A cluster emerging in response to fundamental changes in U.S. society is made up of the values of leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, and youthfulness. Another emerging value is concern for the environment. a) The emergence of leisure is reflected in the huge recreation industry that exists today. b) Self-fulfillment is expressed through the “human potential” movement and by the popularity of self-help books and talk shows. c) While physical fitness is not a new value, it is emphasized more today, as evidenced by the interest in organic foods, weight, and diet, and the growth in the number of health clubs and physical fitness centers. d) Today, being young has taken on a new urgency, perhaps because of the generation of aging baby boomers who are trying to deny or at least postpone their biological fate. e) Our history suggests a lack of concern for the environment; the environment was generally viewed as a challenge to be overcome. However, today a genuine concern exists for protecting the environment.
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5. Change is seen as a threat to the established way of life, something that will undermine people’s present and their future. Today’s clash in values is often so severe that the term “culture wars” has been coined to refer to it. 6. Values and their supporting beliefs may blind people to other social circumstances. Success stories blind many people in the United States to the dire consequences of family poverty, lack of education, and dead-end jobs. 7. Ideal culture refers to the values, norms, and goals that a group considers ideal. What people actually do usually falls short of this ideal, and sociologists refer to the norms and values that people actually follow as real culture. E. Sociobiology and Human Behavior 2.5 Explain why most sociologists consider genes to be an inadequate explanation of human behavior. 1. Sociobiologists argue that, as a result of natural selection, the basic cause of human behavior is biology. a) Just as the physical characteristics and instinctual behavior of animals are the result of natural selection (i.e., those genetic traits that aid in survival tend to become common to a species, while those that do not tend to disappear), so is human behavior. b) Edward Wilson has argued that religion, competition and cooperation, slavery and genocide, war and peace, and envy and altruism can all be explained by sociobiology. c) Most sociologists reject this claim. Unlike other species, humans are capable of reasoning and abstract thought. F. Technology in the Global Village 2.6 Explain how technology changes culture and what cultural lag and cultural leveling are. 1. Central to a group’s material culture is its technology. In its simplest sense, technology can be equated with tools. In its broadest sense, technology also includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools. a) The emerging technologies of an era that make a major impact on human life are referred to as new technologies. The printing press and the computer are both examples of new technologies. b) The sociological significance of technology is that it sets the framework for the nonmaterial culture, influencing the way people think and how they relate to one another. 2. Not all parts of culture change at the same pace; “cultural lag” was William Ogburn’s term for material culture changing first and nonmaterial culture lagging behind. 3. Although for most of human history cultures have had little contact with one another, there has always been some contact among groups, resulting in groups learning from one another. a) This transmission of cultural traits is called cultural diffusion; it is more likely to produce changes in material culture than in nonmaterial culture. b) Cultural diffusion occurs more rapidly today, given the technology. c) Travel and communication unite the world to such an extent that the “other side of the world” has all but disappeared. This is leading to cultural leveling, where cultures become similar to one another. 17 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Figures 2.1: Gestures to Indicate Height, Southern Mexico Tables None Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 2.1 Journal: Apply It to Your Life: Core Values List your three most important values. Explain how you learned each. Then explain how each value is related to some other value (is part of a value cluster). J 2.2 Journal: Apply It to Your Life: Cultural Relativity What is your opinion about eating toasted ants? Flies? Fried frog legs? Maggot cheese? Puppies and kittens? Brains scooped out of a living monkey? If you were reared in U.S. society, more than likely you think that eating frog legs is okay; eating ants or flies is disgusting; and eating maggot cheese, monkey brains, horses’ heads, and cats and dogs is downright repugnant. How would you apply the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism to your perceptions of these customs? SW 2.1 Shared Writing: Subcultures What subculture are you a member of? Why do you think that your group is a subculture and not a counterculture? What is your group’s relationship to the mainstream culture? SW 2.2 Shared Writing: Why the Dead Need Money How has your culture shaped your ideas about death and the relationship of the dead and the living? Special Features • Cultural Diversity around the World: Why the Dead Need Money • Cultural Diversity around the World: You Are What You Eat? An Exploration in Cultural Relativity • Standards of Beauty • Cultural Diversity in the United States: Race and Language: Searching for Self-Labels • Looking at Subcultures • Thinking Critically about Social Life: Are We Prisoners of Our Genes? • Sociology and the New Technology: When Tradition Meets Technology: The Bride Price Lecture Suggestions ▪
Ask students to provide specific examples of how the material cultures in China, Iran, and 18 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Ethiopia may differ from the material culture in the United States. Where do they obtain the information they have about the material cultures in China, Iran, and Ethiopia? Then ask them how much confidence they have in their sources of information, and why. In considering this last point, have students think about and discuss the ways a “source” country’s own material and nonmaterial culture might consciously and/or unconsciously distort the information it provides about another country’s culture. ▪
Examining the concept of ethnocentrism, ask students to list some of the groups to which they currently belong. Then have them identify the ethnocentric tendencies of these groups and discuss in what ways these ethnocentric tendencies may be functional and/or dysfunctional to the group as a whole and its members in particular.
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Send students on a scavenger hunt throughout campus to search for elements of culture. When they return, have them connect what they found with the material from the chapter. They can then synthesize this information into a general statement about the culture of their campus. Have students share and compare their discoveries.
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Considering the concept of culture shock, ask students to share an instance or instances when an encounter with a significantly different culture challenged their cultural assumptions. In which ways did the culture shock force them to reevaluate or change their own ways of thinking? Did the effects of the culture shock lead to any long-lasting and/or profound changes in their own cultural attitudes and, if so, do they now view those changes as a positive or negative experience?
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Have students list some norms, folkways, and mores of American society. Then discuss the importance of these in American culture. Do any of them seem silly, irrelevant, and so on? If their parents/grandparents were to make this list, would it look the same or different? What do these differences imply about the social changes that have taken place in our society? Has cultural leveling influenced any of these changes?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Ask students to log on to the internet and connect to three major newspapers available online from countries other than the United States. Have them spend at least fifteen minutes per paper examining as many features, stories, and advertisements as they can. From their examination, ask them if they can deduce any core values of the countries where the newspapers are published. Furthermore, ask them to consider how those core values may or may not differ from some of the “American” core values identified by Robin Williams and James Henslin. Then have students report their findings to the class while discussing to what extent newspapers, as examples of material culture, may or may not be indicative of their producing society’s nonmaterial culture.
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Require each student to attend a cultural activity of an ethnic or racial group apart from their own and write a short paper on their impression of the experience. Students should record all the observations of material and nonmaterial culture they can observe.
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Have students participate in or lead a multicultural event. They could prepare different foods, generate lists of diverse music, provide examples of artwork from many cultures, and so on.
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Chapter 3: Socialization Chapter Summary This chapter explores different ideas and theories as to how we are socialized from birth to adulthood. The chapter starts with the debate between nature and nurture, suggesting that socialization is a combination of the two and that extreme cases such as feral children can provide insight into the socialization process. The chapter then explores Cooley’s idea of looking-glass self, Mead’s theory of role taking, and Piaget’s theory regarding reasoning to further explain our socialization. Then it discusses how the development of personality and morality and socialization into emotions are part of how society makes someone human. It then focuses on socialization into gender and the different agents of socialization, such as family, neighborhood, school, peer groups, mass media, and the workplace. The section on resocialization discusses how over our lives we experience the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors, which can also occur in total institutions, such as prisons or the military, where resocialization is slightly more extreme. The chapter also examines the life course and how we experience different socialization throughout it. The chapter ends by examining how socialization is not predetermined and we are not prisoners of socialization. Learning Objectives LO 3.1 Explain how feral and isolated children help us understand that “society makes us human.” LO 3.2 Use the ideas and research of Cooley (looking-glass self), Mead (role taking), and Piaget (reasoning) to explain socialization into the self and mind. LO 3.3 Explain how the development of personality and morality and the socialization into emotions are part of how “society makes us human.” LO 3.4 Discuss how gender messages from the family, peers, and the mass media teach us society’s gender map. LO 3.5 Explain how the family, the neighborhood, school, peer groups, and the workplace are agents of socialization. LO 3.6 Explain what total institutions are and how they resocialize people. LO 3.7 Identify major divisions of the life course, and discuss the sociological significance of the life course. LO 3.8 Understand why we are not prisoners of socialization.
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Chapter Outline A. Society Makes Us Human 3.1 Explain how feral and isolated children help us understand that “society makes us human.” 1. There has been and continues to be considerable debate over whether “nature” (heredity) or “nurture” (social environment) most determines human behavior. 2. Studies of feral and isolated children indicate that although heredity certainly plays a role, it is society that makes people “human.” People learn what it means to be and, consequently, become members of the human community through language, social interaction, and other forms of human contact. a) Feral (wild) children have occasionally been found: children living in the woods who may have been raised by wild animals. These stories lead one to wonder what humans would be like if left untouched by society. b) Isolated children show what humans might be like if secluded from society at an early age. Isabelle is a case in point. Although initially believed to have had a mental impairment, when she was given intensive language training, she began to acquire language, and, in only two years, she had reached the normal intellectual level for her age. Without language, there can be no culture or shared way of living. c) The case of Genie—the 13-year-old who had been kept locked in a small room for years—demonstrates the importance of timing in the development of “human” characteristics. 3. The Harlows’ studies of monkeys reared in isolation achieved similar results. They concluded that isolation for longer than six months causes a more difficult adjustment. 4. Babies do not “naturally” develop into social adults; although their bodies grow, human interaction is required for them to acquire the traits we consider normal for human beings. The process by which we learn the ways of our society, through interaction with others, is socialization. B. Socialization into the Self and Mind 3.2 Use the ideas and research of Cooley (looking-glass self), Mead (role taking), and Piaget (reasoning) to explain socialization into the self and mind. 1. People are not born with an intrinsic knowledge of themselves or others. Rather, as the theoretical insights of Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget demonstrate, they develop reasoning skills, a sense of self, and they take the role of the other, through social observation, contact, and interaction. a) Charles H. Cooley (1864–1929) concluded that our sense of self develops from interaction with others. He coined the term “looking-glass self” to describe this process. i. According to Cooley, this process contains three steps: (1) we imagine how we appear to those around us, (2) we interpret others’ reactions (how they evaluate us), and (3) we develop a self-concept. ii. A favorable reflection in the “social mirror” leads to a positive self-concept, while a negative reflection leads to a negative self-concept. iii. Even if we misjudge others’ reactions, the misjudgments become part of our self-concept. 22 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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iv. This development process is an ongoing, lifelong process. 2. George H. Mead (1863–1931) pointed out that play is critical to the development of a self. In play, we learn to take the role of others—to understand how someone else feels and thinks and anticipate how that person will act. a) Mead concluded that children are first able to take only the role of significant others (parents or siblings, for example); as the self develops, children internalize the expectations of other people and eventually the entire group. Mead referred to the norms, values, attitudes, and expectations of people “in general” as the “generalized other.” b) According to Mead, the development of the self goes through stages: (1) imitation (children initially can only mimic the gestures and words of others); (2) play (beginning at age 3, children play the roles of specific people, such as a firefighter or the princess); and (3) team games (beginning roughly when they begin school, children become involved in organized team games and must learn the role of each member of the team). c) He distinguished the “I” from the “me” in development of the self: the “I” component is the self as subject, the active, spontaneous, and creative part of the social self (for instance, “I shoved him”), while the “me” component is the self as object, made up of the attitudes internalized from interactions with others (for instance, “He shoved me”). d) Mead concluded that not only the self, but also the mind, is a social product. We cannot think without symbols, and it is our society that gives us our symbols by giving us language. 3. After years of research, Jean Piaget (1896–1980) concluded that there are four stages in the development of cognitive skills. a) The sensorimotor stage (0–2 years): Understanding is limited to direct contact with the environment (touching, listening, seeing). b) The preoperational stage (2–7 years): Children develop the ability to use symbols (especially language), but they do not understand common concepts such as size, speed, etc. c) The concrete operational stage (7–12 years): Reasoning abilities become much more developed. Children now can understand numbers, causation, and speed, but have difficulty with abstract concepts such as truth. d) The formal operational stage (12+ years): Children become capable of abstract thinking and can use rules to solve abstract problems. 4. Conclusions that Cooley, Mead, and Piaget came to regarding the self and reasoning appear to be universal. However, there is no consensus about the universality of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. Some people never appear to reach the fourth stage. a) The content of what we learn varies from one culture to another; having very different experiences and the thinking processes that revolve around these experiences, we cannot assume that the developmental sequences will be the same for everyone. C. Learning Personality, Morality, and Emotions 3.3 Explain how the development of personality and morality and socialization into emotions are part of how “society makes us human.” 23 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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1. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) believed that personality consists of three elements: id, ego, and superego. a) The id—inborn drives for self-gratification—demands fulfillment of basic needs such as attention, safety, food, and sex. b) The ego balances between the needs of the id and the demands of society that suppress it. c) The superego—the conscience we have internalized from social groups—gives us feelings of guilt or shame when we break rules and feelings of pride and selfsatisfaction when we follow them. d) Sociologists object to Freud’s view that inborn and unconscious motivations are the primary reasons for human behavior, for this view denies the central tenet of sociology—that social factors shape people’s behaviors. e) Feminist sociologists have been especially critical of Freud. According to Freud, females are inferior, castrated males. 2. Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg concluded that humans go through a sequence of stages in the development of morality. a) Kohlberg’s stages include the following: i. The amoral stage is when the child does not distinguish between right and wrong. ii. The preconventional stage is when the child follows the rules to stay out of trouble. iii. The conventional stage is when the child follows the norms and values they have learned. iv. The postconventional stage is when the child reflects on abstract principles of right and wrong, using these principles to judge behavior. b) Critics of Kohlberg argue that although preconventional and conventional stages apply around the world, most societies do not have a postconventional stage of reasoning. c) When conducting research with babies, some studies find that babies prefer “good” puppets over “bad” puppets, suggesting that babies have an inborn sense of morality. d) If babies do have an inborn sense of fairness, it indicates that, like language, morality is a capacity hardwired in the brain. 3. Emotions are not simply the result of biology; they also depend on socialization within a particular society. a) Psychologist Paul Ekman concluded that everyone experiences six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. b) The expression of emotions varies according to gender, social class, culture, relationships, and settings. c) Socialization not only leads to different ways of expressing emotions but even to expressing what we feel. 4. Most socialization is meant to turn us into conforming members of society. We do some things and not others as a result of socialization. When we contemplate an action, we know the emotion (good or bad) that would result; thus, society sets up controls on our behavior.
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D. Socialization into Gender 3.4 Discuss how gender messages from the family, peers, and the mass media teach us society’s gender map. 1. By expecting different behaviors from people because they are male or female, society nudges boys and girls in separate directions from an early age, and this foundation carries over into adulthood. 2. Analyzing gender was once much simpler than it is now. Gender is now much more fluid, and we take into account people who identify as transgender, an umbrella term that includes nonbinary self-identities, such as agender, not identifying as male or female; bigender, identifying as both male and female; and gender fluid, a gender identity that changes with time or circumstance. 3. Parents begin the process; sometimes it is done purposefully. 4. Toys and play also play a role in gender socialization. Boys are more likely to get guns and “action figures,” and girls are more likely to get dolls and jewelry. Play is also approved or disapproved by parents based on gender roles—boys are expected to get dirtier and be more defiant and girls to be daintier and more compliant. 5. Research examines the relationship between gender messages and same-sex parents but is still in its infancy, so everything is preliminary. 6. Peer groups, individuals of roughly the same age or linked by common interests, also play an important role in gender socialization by teaching one another what it means to be male or female. 7. The mass media, forms of communication directed at large audiences, reinforce society’s expectations of gender in many ways: a) On television, male characters outnumber females and are viewed as more important. b) In cartoons, girls used to be portrayed as less brave and more dependent, but this has shifted. It is now common for female characters to be violent. c) Video games reflect the message of male dominance because main characters are mostly male and most females are portrayed in a sexy manner, but some games are starting to reflect current sex roles. d) The depiction of gender roles in anime is far from simple; some forms of anime depict young women in violent roles or little girls and women being sexually exploited. E. Agents of Socialization 3.5 Explain how the family, the neighborhood, school, peer groups, and the workplace are agents of socialization. 1. Human beings learn how to think, behave, and act through agents of socialization—those people or groups that influence our self-concept, attitudes, behavior, emotions, or other orientations toward life. 2. The family is the first group to have a major impact on who you are, and it establishes your initial motivations, values, and beliefs. a) Research by Melvin Kohn examined social class differences in child rearing. The main concern of working-class parents often is that their children stay out of trouble. These parents also tend to use physical punishment. In contrast, middle-class parents are more likely to reason with their children than to punish them physically. They
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focus more on developing their children’s curiosity, self-expression, and self-control. Greater stress on working-class families also leads to harsher parenting. b) Play also differs by social class; working-class parents focus on letting their children develop naturally, whereas middle-class parents guide play to accomplish goals such as learning how to be a team player through participating in a sport. The neighborhood has an impact on children’s development. Some neighborhoods are better places for children to grow up than other neighborhoods. For example, parents in affluent neighborhoods are more educated, are less likely to become unemployed, and are surrounded by much less crime and violence, and their ties with their neighbors are stronger. Schools serve many manifest (intended) functions for society, including teaching skills and values thought to be appropriate. Schools also have several latent (unintended) functions. a) At school, children are placed outside the direct control of friends/relatives and exposed to new values and ways of looking at the world. They learn universality, or that the same rules apply to everyone. b) Schools also have a hidden curriculum—values not explicitly taught but inherent in school activities. For example, the wording of stories may carry messages about patriotism, democracy, justice, and honesty. c) Schools also have a corridor curriculum—where students teach one another values outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, these values are often not positive. For example, they include racism and sexism, among other things. d) Conflict theorists note that schools teach children to take their place in the work force. Children of the wealthy go to private schools, where they acquire the skills and values appropriate to their eventual higher positions, while children of working-class parents attend public schools, where they are rarely placed in college-prep classes. One of the most significant aspects of education is that it exposes children to peer groups. a) It is almost impossible to go against a peer group, where the cardinal rule is to conform or be rejected. As a result, the standards of peer groups tend to dominate our lives. The workplace is a major agent of socialization for adults; from jobs, we learn not only skills, but also perspectives on the world. We may engage in anticipatory socialization, learning to play a role before actually entering into it and enabling us to gradually identify with the role.
F. Resocialization 3.6 Explain what total institutions are and how they resocialize people. 1. Resocialization refers to the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors. Resocialization in its most common form occurs each time we learn something contrary to our previous experiences, such as going to work in a new job. It can be an intense experience, although it does not have to be. 2. Erving Goffman used the term “total institution” to refer to places such as boot camps, prisons, concentration camps, convents, and some military schools—places where people are cut off from the rest of society and are under almost total control of agents of the institution.
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a) A person entering the institution is greeted with a degradation ceremony, which may include fingerprinting, shaving the head, photographing, banning personal items, and being forced to strip and wear a uniform. In this way, their current identity is stripped away, and a new identity is created. G. Socialization through the Life Course 3.7 Identify major divisions of the life course, and discuss the sociological significance of the life course. 1. Socialization occurs throughout a person’s entire lifetime, which is called the life course or the stages of life from birth to death. Each stage affects our behavior and orientations, and also life courses differ by social location—social class, race–ethnicity, and gender, for example, map out different worlds of experience. There are several stages in the life course. 2. Childhood (birth to about age 12): In earlier times, children were seen as miniature adults who served apprenticeships. To keep them in line, they were beaten and subjected to psychological torture. Industrialization changed the way we see children. The current view is that children are tender and innocent, and parents should guide the physical, emotional, and social development of their children while providing them with care, comfort, and protection. 3. Adolescence (ages 13–17): Adolescence is a social invention. Economic changes resulting from the Industrial Revolution brought about material surpluses that allowed millions of teenagers to remain outside the labor force while at the same time increasing the demand for education. Adolescence is associated with insecurity, rebellion, and inner turmoil. 4. Transitional Adulthood (ages 18–29): Adult responsibilities are postponed through extended education such as college. Even after college, many young people are returning to live with their parents to live cheaply and establish their careers. 5. The Middle Years (ages 30–65): This can be separated into two intervals. a) Early Middle Years (ages 30–49): People are surer of themselves and their goals in life than earlier, but severe jolts such as divorce or losing a job can occur. For U.S. women, it can be a trying period, as they try to “have it all”—career, family, and so on. b) Later Middle Years (ages 50–65): A different view of life emerges, including trying to evaluate the past and coming to terms with what lies ahead. Individuals may feel they are not likely to get much further in life, while health and mortality become concerns. However, for most people it is the most comfortable period in their entire lives. 6. Older years (about age 65 on): This can also be separated into two intervals. a) The Transitional Older Years (ages 65–74): People today who enjoy good health think of this age as an extension of their middle years. Most people in this stage are sexually active, but the higher their education and financial resources, the more sex they have—and the more they enjoy it. They also begin to feel that “time is closing in” on them. b) The Later Older Years (age 75 or so): Growing frailty, illness, and eventually death mark this period.
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H. Are We Prisoners of Socialization? 3.8 Understand why we are not prisoners of socialization. 1. Sociologists do not think of people as robots who are simply the result of their exposure to socializing agents. Although socialization is powerful and profoundly affects us all, we have a self, and the self is dynamic. It allows us to act on our environment. 2. In this way, each of us is actively involved even in the social construction of the self. Our experiences have an impact on us, but we are not doomed to keep our orientations if we do not like them. We can choose to change our experiences by exposing ourselves to other groups and ideas. Figures 3.1: How We Learn to Take the Role of the Other: Mead’s Three Stages Tables None Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 3.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Boot Camp Do you think that the Marines are unfair when they punish an entire platoon for the failure of an individual? J 3.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: The Sworn Virgins Apply functionalism: How was the custom of sworn virgins functional for this society? Apply symbolic interactionism: How do symbols underlie and maintain a woman’s shift to becoming a man in this society? Apply conflict theory: How do power relations between men and women underlie the custom of sworn virgins? SW 3.1 Shared Writing: Agents of Socialization Which two agents of socialization have influenced you the most? Try to pinpoint their influence on specific attitudes, beliefs, values, or other of your orientations to life. SW 3.2 Shared Writing: Taking the Role of the Other Have you ever put yourself in the shoes of another person to better understand how they feel and think or to anticipate how that person will act? What did you learn from doing this? Special Features • Down-to-Earth Sociology: Heredity or Environment? The Case of Jack and Oskar, Identical Twins • Down-to-Earth Sociology: No More Mr. Potato Head • Cultural Diversity around the World: When Women Become Men: The Sworn Virgins 28 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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• • • • • •
Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape—Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: Changing Images of Women in the Mass Media Cultural Diversity in the United States: Immigrants and Their Children: Caught between Two Worlds Down-to-Earth Sociology: Gossip and Ridicule to Enforce Adolescent Norms Down-to-Earth Sociology: Boot Camp as a Total Institution Applying Sociology to Your Life: Stretching Adolescence: Postponing Adulting Applying Sociology to Your Life: The Sociological Perspective and Your Life Course
Lecture Suggestions ▪
While acknowledging that both “nature” (heredity) and “nurture” (environment) play a role in determining human behavior, conduct a class debate over which one most does so. Ask students to present the best evidence that they can think of—from personal observation or experience, or from what they have learned about human behavior in their classes—to support one position or another.
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Have students make a list of their own personality traits, and then ask them to address the following questions: How much, if at all, has your personality changed from the time you were in elementary school? What specific people and/or events most shaped your personality over the last fifteen years of your life? In terms of personality, which parent are you most like—your mother or your father—and in what ways? After students consider these questions, ask them to discuss how, if at all, their answers may help to shed light on the “nature” versus “nurture” debate.
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Lead a discussion on the university as a total institution. Request students who attended private schools and those who have been in the military to also address their experiences of each respective institution as being a total institution. What were the functional advantages of the total institution? Could any of the institutions addressed, or could even your own university, be a successful operation if it did not embrace the total institution concept to some degree? Why or why not?
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Many states in recent years have changed their laws so that children who commit violent crimes, such as murder, can be charged as adults. Thinking about Piaget’s findings on how children develop reasoning skills, ask students to discuss the following: How old do you think a person needs to be to know the difference between right and wrong and to know that murder is wrong? What should be the youngest cutoff age to hold someone who kills another person legally responsible for the crime of murder?
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At the center of sociology lies the notion of determinism. Lead a discussion or debate between students on the following questions: What is determinism? Can determinism be real? If determinism is real, can we have free will?
Suggested Assignments
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▪
Assign students to view at least one Disney movie outside of class. As they watch, have them make observations on how these films present gender. They should take written notes on these observations. Then have students bring their notes to class to compare with other students. Discuss the findings and their social implications and how this reflects the idea of media reinforcing gender socialization.
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Have each student compose a diagram that features a circle in the center that represents them. Around the circle, have the student list the various social institutions that have had an impact on their development. The students should list the institutions that have had the greatest impact on them closest to their circles. Next, have students draw two arrows between the circles that represent them and the social institutions. One arrow will point from the circle to the institution and the other from the institution to the circle. The thickness of the arrow will represent the degree of influence the student has had on the institution or the influence the institution has had on the student.
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If your university has a day-care center for the children of faculty, staff, and students, explore the possibility of students spending an hour or two at the center to observe the children. If no day care is available, have students observe at another location frequented by children (i.e., park, zoo, public swimming pool, and so on). The students should take notes on how the children respond to gender socialization, the cues that are presented to them that suggest specified behavior based on gender, and other observations related to gender-based behavior. Have the students take notes and report their observations back to the class.
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Give students a chance to observe what goes on in a total institution. Arrange a field trip to a penitentiary, including a tour of the prison grounds and interviews with prison officials and, if possible, prison inmates. In preparation for the trip, discuss with students all the things they should look for and ask about when they arrive at the total institution. What kind of resocialization occurs when inmates first enter the penitentiary? How much freedom do inmates have, if any, within the confines of the penitentiary? Is there a degradation ceremony that inmates are forced to undergo in their first days at the penitentiary? What is the penitentiary doing, if anything, to resocialize longtime inmates to life outside of the total institution; and what are those inmates doing, if anything, in terms of anticipatory socialization to prepare themselves for their release? Finally, do the prisoners themselves have a resocializing effect on incoming prisoners and their own degradation ceremony? Have students write a reflection paper on what they discovered and how it connects to the course materials.
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Chapter 4: Social Structure and Social Interaction Chapter Summary This chapter examines the differences between macrosociology and microsociology, focusing on theories for each. It explains the importance of connecting both views of research to better understand the social world. It discusses the significance of social structure and several components of social structure including culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions, and it provides two answers to the question of what holds society together. On a micro level, the chapter also examines symbolic interactionists and their perspectives, including a discussion of dramaturgy. The chapter also explores ethnomethodology and the social construction of reality and ends by reiterating the importance of using both macrosociology and microsociology. Learning Objectives LO 4.1 Distinguish between macrosociology and microsociology. LO 4.2 Explain the significance of social structure. LO 4.3 Be able to identify the major components of social structure: culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. LO 4.4 Explain the significance of social institutions, and compare the functionalist and conflict perspectives on social institutions. LO 4.5 Explain what holds society together. LO 4.6 Discuss what symbolic interactionists study. LO 4.7 Explain why life is like a stage according to dramaturgy; be ready to explain role performance, sign-vehicles, teamwork, and becoming the roles we play. LO 4.8 Explain what background assumptions are and how they are an essential part of social life. LO 4.9 Be able to apply the social construction of reality to your own life. LO 4.10 Explain why we need both macrosociology and microsociology to understand social life. Chapter Outline A. Levels of Sociological Analysis 4.1 Distinguish between macrosociology and microsociology. 31 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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1. Sociologists use two levels of analysis, macrosociology (focusing on broad features of society) and microsociology (focusing on social interactions). 2. Functionalists and conflict theorists tend to use the macrosociology approach, while symbolic interactionists are more likely to use the microsociology approach. Although most sociologists specialize in one approach or the other, both approaches are necessary for a complete understanding of social life. B. The Sociological Significance of Social Structure 4.2 Explain the significance of social structure. 1. To better understand human behavior, we need to understand social structure. It refers to a society’s framework, consisting of the various relationships between people and groups that direct and set limits on human behavior. 2. The sociological significance of social structure is that it guides people’s behaviors. 3. A person’s location in the social structure (their social class, social status, the roles they play, and the culture, groups, and social institutions to which they belong) underlies their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors. People develop these perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors from their place in the social structure, and they act accordingly. C. Components of Social Structure 4.3 Be able to identify the major components of social structure: culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. 1. The major components of social structure are culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. 2. Culture refers to a group’s language, beliefs, values, behaviors, and gestures. It includes the material objects used by a group. It determines what kind of people we will become. 3. Social class is based on income, education, and occupational prestige. Large numbers of people who have similar amounts of income and education and who work at jobs that are roughly comparable in prestige make up a social class. 4. Social status refers to the positions that an individual occupies. A status may carry a great deal of prestige (judge or astronaut) or little prestige (convenience store clerk or waitress at the local truck stop). Statuses provide guidelines for how we are to act and feel. a) Status set refers to all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies. i. Ascribed statuses are positions an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life as part of the life course. Examples include race– ethnicity, sex, social class of parents, and teenagers and senior citizens. ii. Achieved statuses are positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity (or lack of effort or activity) on the individual’s part. Examples include becoming a college president or a school dropout. b) Status symbols are signs that people who want others to recognize that they occupy a certain status use. For example, wearing a wedding ring to announce their marital status. c) A master status—such as being male or female—cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies. d) Status inconsistency is a contradiction or mismatch between statuses such as ranking high on some dimensions of social status and low on others. A 14-year-old college student is an example. 32 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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5. Roles are the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status. The individual occupies a status, but plays a role. Roles are an essential component of culture because they lay out what is expected of people, and, as individuals perform their roles, those roles mesh together to form the society. 6. A group consists of people who interact with one another and typically share similar values, norms, and interests. When we belong to a group, we yield to others the right to judge our behavior. D. Social Institutions 4.4 Explain the significance of social institutions, and compare the functionalist and conflict perspectives on social institutions. 1. Social institutions are society’s standard ways of meeting its basic needs. a) The family, religion, law, politics, the economy, education, science, medicine, the military, and the mass media are all social institutions. 2. Functionalists and conflict theorists differ in how they see social institutions. a) Functionalists view social institutions as established ways of meeting group needs (or functional requisites), such as replacing members, socializing new members, producing and distributing goods and services, preserving order, and providing a sense of purpose. b) Conflict theorists look at social institutions as the primary means by which the elite maintains its privileged position. E. Changes in Social Structure 4.5 Explain what holds society together. 1. Our society is being transformed by new technology, changing values, and contact with cultures around the world. 2. Many sociologists have tried to find an answer to the question of what holds society together. 3. Emile Durkheim found the key to social integration (also known as social cohesion), the degree to which members of a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds, in the concepts of mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is a collective consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks, while organic solidarity is a collective consciousness based on the interdependence brought about by an increasingly specialized division of labor—that is, how people divide up tasks. 4. Ferdinand Tönnies analyzed how intimate community (Gemeinschaft) was being replaced by impersonal associations (Gesellschaft). Gemeinschaft is a society in which life is intimate: a community in which everyone knows everyone else, and people share a sense of togetherness. Gesellschaft is a society dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest. 5. These concepts are still relevant today, helping us understand contemporary events such as the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. F. Symbolic Interaction 4.6 Discuss what symbolic interactionists study.
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1. Symbolic interactionists focus on how people establish meaning and how they communicate their ideas. They are interested in how people view things and how this affects their behavior and orientations to life. Included within this perspective are studies of stereotypes, personal space, eye contact, smiling, and body language. a) Stereotypes are used in everyday life. First impressions are shaped by the assumptions one person makes about another person’s sex, race–ethnicity, age, height, body shape, and clothing. Such assumptions affect one’s ideas about the person and how one acts toward that person. This, in turn, influences how that person acts toward you, which then affects how you react, and so on. Most of this selffeeding cycle occurs without your being aware of it. b) Personal space or “personal bubble” refers to the physical space that surrounds us and that we claim as our own. The amount of personal space varies from one culture to another. Anthropologist Edward Hall found that North Americans use four different distance zones: (1) intimate distance (about 18 inches from the body) for lovemaking, comforting, hugging, intimate touching, and protecting; (2) personal distance (from 18 inches to 4 feet) for friends, acquaintances, and ordinary conversations; (3) social distance (from 4 feet to 12 feet) for impersonal or formal relationships; this zone is used for things such as job interviews; and (4) public distance (beyond 12 feet) for even more formal relationships such as separating dignitaries and public speakers from the general public. c) We protect our personal space by controlling eye contact. d) Smiling and appropriate times to smile vary by culture. For example, Germans view smiling as a form of flirting, whereas in the United States we expect most service workers to smile. e) Body language, the ways people use their bodies to give messages to others, is something we learn to interpret as children. G. Dramaturgy: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 4.7 Explain why life is like a stage according to dramaturgy; be ready to explain role performance, sign-vehicles, teamwork, and becoming the roles we play. 1. Dramaturgy is the name given to an approach pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage. a) Impression management is the idea that we make efforts to manage the impressions that others receive of us. b) According to Goffman, socialization prepares people for learning to perform on the stage of everyday life. The front stage is where people give performances. The back stage is where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances. c) Role performance is the particular emphasis or interpretation that an individual gives a role, the person’s “style.” Role conflict occurs when the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectations of another role—in other words, conflict between roles. Role strain refers to conflicts that someone feels within a role. d) Three types of sign-vehicles are used to communicate information about the self: (1) social setting—where the action unfolds, which includes scenery (furnishings used to communicate messages); (2) appearance—how a person looks when they play their
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role, and this includes props that decorate the person; and (3) manner—the attitudes demonstrated as an individual plays their roles. e) Teamwork, when two or more people work together to make sure a performance goes off as planned, shows that we are adept players. f) When a performance doesn’t come off, we engage in face-saving behavior, or techniques used to salvage a performance (interaction) that is going sour. A facesaving technique that might be used is studied nonobservance, in which a behavior might be completely ignored so that neither person will face embarrassment. g) We tend to become the roles we play. Some roles become part of our self-concept. For some in roles such as a marriage, police work, or the military, the role can become so intertwined that leaving it can threaten a person’s identity. H. Ethnomethodology: Uncovering Background Assumptions 4.8 Explain what background assumptions are and how they are an essential part of social life. 1. Ethnomethodology is the study of how people use commonsense understandings to make sense of life. a) Ethnomethodologists try to uncover people’s background assumptions, which are your ideas about the way life is and the way things ought to work. These assumptions give us basic directions for living everyday life. b) Harold Garfinkel founded the ethnomethodological approach. He conducted experiments, called “breaching experiments,” asking subjects to pretend that they did not understand the basic rules of social life to uncover others’ reactions and break background assumptions. I. The Social Construction of Reality 4.9 Be able to apply the social construction of reality to your own life. 1. Symbolic interactionists contend that reality is subjectively created by people’s perceptions of “what is real.” People define their own realities and then live within those definitions. The social construction of reality refers to the use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real. a) The Thomas theorem (by sociologists W. I. Thomas and Dorothy S. Thomas) states, “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” b) Therefore, our behavior does not depend on the objective existence of something, but on our subjective interpretation or our definition of reality. c) James Henslin and Mae Biggs conducted research to show that when physicians are performing gynecological exams, they will socially construct reality so that the vaginal exams become nonsexual. J. The Need for Both Macrosociology and Microsociology 4.10 Explain why we need both macrosociology and microsociology to understand social life. 1. To understand human behavior, it is necessary to grasp both social structure (macrosociology) and social interaction (microsociology). 2. Both are necessary to understand social life fully because each adds to our knowledge of human experience. 35 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Figures 4.1: Team Positions (Statuses) in Football 4.2: Social Institutions in Industrial and Postindustrial Societies 4.3: How Self-Fulfilling Stereotypes Work 4.4: Role Conflict and Role Strain Tables None Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 4.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Master Status What is your number one master status? Why is this a master status? How does it influence your life? J 4.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Influence of Social Structure How does social structure influence your life? To answer this question, you can begin by analyzing your social statuses. SW 4.1 Shared Writing: Background Assumptions Give an example of how your background assumptions influence your behavior in some instance. SW 4.2 Shared Writing: Stereotypes Stereotypes have a deep influence on how we react to one another. Instead of beauty, consider body shape, gender, and race–ethnicity. How do you think these characteristics affect those who do the stereotyping? How do you think these characteristics affect those who are stereotyped? Special Features • Down-to-Earth Sociology: College Football as Social Structure • Cultural Diversity in the United States: The Amish: Gemeinschaft Community in a Gesellschaft Society • Through the Author’s Lens: Vienna: Social Structure and Social Interaction • Down-to-Earth Sociology: Beauty May Be Only Skin Deep, But Its Effects Go On Forever: Stereotypes in Everyday Life • Thinking Critically about Social Life: “Nothing Tastes as Good as Thin Feels”: Body Images and the Mass Media 36 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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•
Applying Sociology to Your Life: Getting Promoted at Work: Making Impression Management Work for You
Lecture Suggestions ▪
Have students identify their locations in the social structure in terms of culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions. Then, looking at each of these components, ask them to provide at least one example of how these components have influenced their current perceptions, attitudes, and/or behaviors. Also, have them discuss which of these components has had the most impact on their current perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
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Have students draw up a list of all the statuses they currently occupy and then address the following questions: How many of the statuses on your list are ascribed? How many of them are achieved? What statuses on your list, if any, would not have made your list a year ago? Five years ago? Which of the statuses on your list is most prestigious? Least prestigious? Can you identify and describe any status inconsistencies on your list? Finally, of all the statuses on your list, which one would you identify as your master status? Why?
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To illustrate the concept of stereotyping, show the class five mug shots of ordinary people (or, better yet, very accomplished people) while telling students that you got the mug shots from the “Wanted” section of the Sunday paper. Ask them to carefully examine each of the photos and then, using facial features or any other helpful cues they can find, try to match as best they can each of the photos with the particular crimes for which these people are “wanted”: murder, rape, drug possession, embezzlement, and forgery. After students match the photos with the crimes, have them discuss what particular cues they looked for and how those suggested, one way or another, which particular person may have committed which particular crime. Afterward, reveal to students the “catch”—how, as it turns out, none of the photos are of people wanted for crimes. Point out how students—believing the “worst”— created evidence (i.e., seeing criminal features and/or cues where none existed) that turned ordinary people’s faces into “criminal faces.” Follow this up with a discussion of the uses and misuses of stereotyping and profiling. (Note: Getting really “bad” mug shots helps with this exercise. Even so, a few students may catch on, realizing that the photos are not really pictures of “wanted criminals.” If some students catch on and/or refuse to participate in an exercise that asks them to try to associate facial appearances with criminal behaviors, compliment them for resisting the urge to stereotype and use their resistance as a “teachable moment.”)
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To illustrate the “distance zones” of personal space, have each student pair up with someone else in the room (preferably someone they do not know well). One pair at a time, have students come up to the front of the room and, standing 10 feet apart, casually talk to one another. As they continue to talk, ask them to move closer to one another in the following increments: 5 feet apart, 1 foot apart, 6 inches apart, and 2 inches apart. As their “distance zone” collapses, have them express how it feels; in what ways it is affecting their abilities to continue their conversations; and, equally important, how it is affecting their comfort levels. (Most likely, once the students close to within a foot or so of one another, they will break out laughing and be unable to continue the exercise; it will be interesting to see just how many of 37 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
the students will be willing or able to continue talking to each other from 6 inches and, even less likely, 2 inches apart!) Afterward, discuss how perceptions of personal space vary from culture to culture and how people of all cultures, in different ways, try to protect their personal bubbles. ▪
Looking at the major social institutions in industrial societies, ask students to choose the two that they think are most influential. How so? Then ask them to choose the two they think are least influential. Again, how so? Continuing to think about social institutions, have students address the following questions: Can American society continue to function without some of the major social institutions, especially because of the decline in the traditional family, which some would argue is the foundation of society? If so, which one or ones? At this point in your life, which two social institutions are the most important and/or influential to your dayto-day existence? Which are the least important and/or influential? Twenty years from now, which two will be the most and least important in your life?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Explore the geographic area within a reasonable distance of the university for a community that Durkheim would classify as an example of mechanical solidarity and Tönnies would classify as an example of Gemeinschaft. The Amish would serve as a good example. Other groups also qualify. Ask the students to visit one of these areas, make observations, and report back to the class on their findings.
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Have students visit the local mall or a similar place where large numbers of people congregate for a variety of reasons. Have them make a chart that lists Hall’s “distance zones.” Instruct the students to wander about the mall for an hour or so to observe human interaction. List the interactions observed under the proper distance zones. Then summarize the findings and report to the class. Which distance zones were most represented? Which were the least represented? Why?
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Encourage students to attend a social gathering such as a university-sponsored dance or a party, or to spend a few hours in a coffee house or club where they can observe people coming and going. Have them write a paper applying the principles of dramaturgy to their observations and to emphasize how stereotypes influenced the individuals observed.
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Instruct students to think of a group with which they have had no personal contact, but about which they have personal opinions or about which they know the opinions of others. Each student should write a page or two on this group, including a profile of its perceived membership, what the group does, and why the student has not been a part of it. Then have the student informally participate in a service, meeting, or program that the selected group may be sponsoring and that is open to the public.
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Chapter 5: Social Groups and Formal Organizations Chapter Summary This chapter discusses primary groups, such as families, and secondary groups, such as professional organizations. It also discusses in-groups, or people we view as similar, and outgroups, or people we view as different, and how these associations can perpetuate social inequality and discrimination. The chapter then discusses reference groups and how we compare ourselves to reference groups. Social networks are another important group, and the chapter explores how we can examine how connected we are by thinking about our own contacts, but also about contacts of friends of friends. The chapter then examines bureaucracies, their characteristics, and how they may be dysfunctional. The “hidden” corporate culture, worker diversity, and the idea that technology is a part of everyday life and is leading to increased monitoring is also discussed. The chapter then moves on to group dynamics, discussing how dyads are more intimate but less stable, how triads are a little more stable but present new problems, and how larger groups provide more stability, but are much less intimate. Different types of leaders are also discussed, including those who are instrumental, expressive, authoritarian, democratic, and laissez-faire. The chapter ends by thinking about how group processes can lead to detrimental outcomes such as peer pressure, authority, and groupthink that sway our ideas away from the truth to conformity. Learning Objectives LO 5.1 Discuss the main characteristics of primary groups, secondary groups, in-groups and outgroups, reference groups, and social networks. LO 5.2 Summarize the characteristics of bureaucracies, their dysfunctions, and goal displacement. LO 5.3 Discuss the “hidden” corporate culture and worker diversity. LO 5.4 Explain how bureaucracy and technology are coming together to produce a maximum security society. LO 5.5 Be familiar with the effects of group size on stability, intimacy, attitudes, and behavior; types and styles of leaders; the Asch experiment on peer pressure; the Milgram experiment on authority; and the implications of groupthink. Chapter Outline A. Groups within Society 5.1 Discuss the main characteristics of primary groups, secondary groups, in-groups and out-groups, reference groups, and social networks. 1. Sociologists distinguish between aggregates, categories, and groups. A group refers to people who think of themselves as belonging together and who interact with one another. An aggregate is made up of individuals who temporarily share the same physical space but do not have a sense of belonging together. A category is a collection of people who have 39 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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similar characteristics. Unlike groups, the individuals who make up categories do not interact with one another or take each other into account. Sociologist Charles H. Cooley used the term primary group to refer to groups characterized by cooperative, intimate, long-term, face-to-face relationships. a) The group becomes part of the individual’s identity and the lens through which life is viewed. b) It is essential to an individual’s psychological well-being, as humans have an intense need for associations that promote feelings of self-esteem. Secondary groups are larger, more anonymous, and more formal and impersonal than primary groups, and are based on shared interests or activities. a) Members are likely to interact on the basis of specific roles, such as president, manager, worker, or student. b) Secondary groups tend to break down into primary groups within the larger group, such as friendship cliques at school or work. The primary group serves as a buffer between the individual and the needs of the secondary group. c) Voluntary associations are special types of secondary groups. They are made up of volunteers who organize on the basis of some mutual interest. Key members (inner circle) often grow distant from the regular members. d) Within voluntary associations, an inner circle of individuals keeps itself in power by passing the leadership positions among its members. Robert Michels coined the term “iron law of oligarchy” to refer to the tendency of this inner circle to dominate the organization by becoming a small, self-perpetuating elite. e) Some are disturbed because when an oligarchy develops, many people are subsequently excluded from leadership because they don’t reflect the inner circle’s values or background. f) If the oligarchy gets too far out of line with the membership, it runs the risk of a grassroots rebellion. Groups toward which individuals feel loyalty are called in-groups, while those toward which they feel antagonism are called out-groups. a) The division is significant sociologically because in-groups shape your perception of the world, your views of right and wrong, and your behavior. b) In-group membership leads to discrimination, hatred, and even murder. c) Sociologist Robert K. Merton identified a double standard produced by this: the behaviors of members of an in-group are seen as virtues, while the same behaviors of members of an out-group are viewed as vices. d) Dividing the world into “we” and “them” can sometimes lead to acts directed against the out-groups. Reference groups are the groups we use as standards to evaluate ourselves, whether or not we actually belong to those groups. a) They exert great influence over our behavior; people may change their clothing, speech, and other characteristics to match what the reference group would expect of them. b) Having two reference groups that clearly conflict with each other can produce intense internal conflict. Social networks consist of people linked by various social ties. Clusters, or factions that form within large groups, are called cliques. Cliques, family, friends, and acquaintances can all be bases for social networks. 40 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Instructor’s Manual for Henslin, Essentials of Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 14/e
a) Interaction takes place within social networks that connect us to the larger society. b) Stanley Milgram did an experiment that demonstrated how small our social world really is; he found that social networks are so interrelated that almost everyone in the United States is connected by just six links. This research might have different findings based on how the researchers conduct it. c) One reason it is so difficult to overcome social inequality is that our social networks contribute to inequality because the barriers that divide us into separate worlds are primarily based on social class, gender, and race–ethnicity. B. Bureaucracies 5.2 Summarize the characteristics of bureaucracies, their dysfunctions, and goal displacement. 1. Bureaucracies, formal organizations, shift the emphasis from traditional relationships based on personal loyalties to the “bottom line” to achieve more efficient results. 2. Sociologist Max Weber identified the essential characteristics of bureaucracies, which help formal organizations reach their goals, as well as grow and endure. These characteristics include the following: a) Separate levels, with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward b) Division of labor c) Impersonality and replaceability d) Written communications and records e) Written rules 3. Bureaucracies tend to take on a life of their own. Goal displacement occurs when an organization adopts new goals after the original goals have been achieved and the organization has no reason to continue. a) The March of Dimes is a classic example of this. b) It was originally formed to fight polio, but when that threat was eliminated, the professional staff found a new cause: birth defects. c) With the possibility of birth defects someday being eliminated as our knowledge of human genes expands, the organization has adopted a new slogan—“Stronger, healthier babies”—which is vague enough to ensure its perpetual existence. 4. Although bureaucracies are the most efficient form of social organization, they can also be dysfunctional. a) Red tape, or the strict adherence to rules, results in nothing getting accomplished. b) Bureaucratic alienation, a feeling of powerlessness and normlessness, occurs when workers are assigned to repetitive tasks so the corporation can achieve efficient production, thereby cutting them off from the product of their labor. c) To resist alienation, workers form primary groups and band together in informal settings during the workday to offer each other support and validation. They also personalize their workspace with family photographs and personal decorations. C. Working for the Corporation 5.3 Discuss the “hidden” corporate culture and worker diversity. 1. Self-fulfilling stereotypes in the “hidden” corporate culture
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a) Rosabeth Kanter’s organizational research demonstrates that the corporate culture contains hidden values that create a self-fulfilling prophecy that affects people’s careers. b) The elite have an image of who is most likely to succeed. Those whose backgrounds are similar to the elite and who look like the elite are singled out and provided with better access to information, networking, and “fast-track” positions. Workers who are given opportunities to advance tend to outperform others and are more committed. c) Those who are judged to be outsiders and experience few opportunities are less motivated and don’t perform as well. 2. Diversity in the workplace a) With more than half of the U.S. workforce being minorities and women, dealing with diversity in the workplace is inevitable. b) Most large companies have diversity training to help employees work successfully with others of different backgrounds. c) Advances in virtual reality (VR) may transform diversity training by allowing people to “be” in different places or situations. D. Technology and the Maximum-Security Society 5.4 Explain how bureaucracy and technology are coming together to produce a maximum security society. 1. One of the most ominous aspects of bureaucracy is the potential to use its organizing capacity along with the power of the microchip to create a police state. 2. We seem to be moving toward a maximum security society with cameras monitoring the workplace, smartphones broadcasting our location, and with the National Security Agency’s vast spy network crisscrossing the nation. E. Group Dynamics 5.5 Be familiar with the effects of group size on stability, intimacy, attitudes, and behavior; types and styles of leaders; the Asch experiment on peer pressure; the Milgram experiment on authority; and the implications of groupthink. 1. To better understand how different groups work, sociologists study group dynamics, or the ways in which individuals affect groups and the ways in which groups influence individuals. a) The study of group dynamics focuses on group size, leadership, conformity, and decision-making. b) Sociologists recognize a small group as one that is small enough for everyone in it to interact directly with all the other members. 2. Georg Simmel (1858–1918) was one of the first sociologists to extensively study group size and the relationship between group members. As Simmel noted, the size of the group is significant for its dynamics. a) A dyad is a social group containing two members. It is the smallest and most fragile of all human groupings. Marriages, love affairs, and close friendships are examples: if one member loses interest, the dyad collapses. b) A triad is a group of three persons—a married couple with a first child, for example. Triads basically are stronger than dyads but are still extremely unstable. It is not uncommon for coalitions to form in which there is alignment of some members of the 42 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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group against another. Often, one member becomes an arbitrator or mediator because they always try to settle disagreements between the other two members of the group. c) As more members are added to a group, intensity, or intimacy, decreases and stability increases, for more linkages exist between more people within the group. The group develops a more formal structure to accomplish its goals, for instance by having a president, treasurer, and so on. This structure enables the group to survive over time. d) Research by Darley and Latané found that as groups grow larger, they tend to break into smaller groups, people are less willing to take individual responsibility (diffusion of responsibility), and they interact more formally toward one another. 3. A leader may be defined as someone who influences the behaviors, opinions, or attitudes of others. a) People who become leaders use networks effectively, adapt quickly to changing situations, and are outgoing, determined, and self-confident. They also are perceived by group members as strongly representing their organization or their values, or as able to lead a group out of a crisis. b) There are two types of group leaders. Instrumental (task-oriented) leaders try to keep the group moving toward its goals, reminding the members of what they are trying to accomplish. Expressive (socioemotional) leaders are less likely to be recognized as leaders but help with the group’s morale. These leaders may have to minimize the friction that instrumental leaders necessarily create. c) There are three types of leadership styles. Authoritarian leaders give orders and frequently do not explain why they praise or condemn a person’s work. Democratic leaders try to gain a consensus by explaining proposed actions, suggesting alternative approaches, and giving “facts” as the basis for their evaluation of the members’ work. Laissez-faire leaders are very passive and give the group almost total freedom to do as it wishes. d) Psychologists Ronald Lippitt and Ralph White discovered that the leadership styles produced different results when used on small groups of young boys. Under authoritarian leaders, the boys became either aggressive or apathetic; under democratic leaders, they were more friendly; and under laissez-faire leaders, they were notable for their lack of achievement. e) Different situations require different leadership styles. 4. Groups have a significant degree of influence over people’s opinions and behavior. a) A study by Dr. Solomon Asch indicates that people are strongly influenced by peer pressure and have a need to belong. Asch was interested in seeing whether individuals would resist the temptation to change a correct response to an incorrect response because of peer pressure. b) Asch held cards up in front of small groups of people and asked which sets of cards matched; one at a time, they were supposed to respond aloud. All but one of the group members was a confederate, having been told in advance by the researcher how to answer the question. c) After two trials in which everyone answered correctly, the confederates intentionally answered incorrectly, as they had previously been instructed to do. d) Of the fifty people tested, 33 percent ended up giving incorrect answers at least half of the time, even though they knew the answers were wrong; only 25 percent always gave the right answer despite the peer pressure. 43 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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5. Dr. Stanley Milgram sought to determine why otherwise “good people” apparently participated in the Nazis’ slaughter of Jews and others. Milgram’s experiment showed how difficult it is for individuals to challenge people in positions of authority. a) He conducted experiments in which one person (the “teacher”) was instructed to administer an electric shock to the other person (the “learner”) for each wrong answer given to certain questions and to increase the voltage of the shock after each wrong answer. b) In fact, the “learner” was playing a role, intentionally giving wrong answers but only pretending to be receiving an electrical shock. c) Since a person in apparent authority (scientist, white coat, university laboratory) continually stated that the experiment had to go on, most of the “teachers” gave in to that authority and continued to administer the “shocks” even when they appeared to produce extreme pain. d) The scientific community was disturbed not only by Milgram’s findings, but also by his methods. Associations of social researchers accordingly adopted codes of ethics to require that subjects be informed of the nature and purpose of social research, and almost all deception was banned. 6. Sociologist Irving Janis coined the word “groupthink” to refer to situations in which a group of people think alike and any suggestion of alternatives becomes a sign of disloyalty. Even moral judgments are put aside for the perceived welfare of the group. a) The Asch and Milgram experiments demonstrate how groupthink can develop. b) U.S. history provides examples of governmental groupthink: presidents and their inner circles have committed themselves to a single course of action (e.g., refusal to believe the Japanese might attack Pearl Harbor; continuing and expanding the war in Vietnam) even when objective evidence showed the course to be wrong. The leaders became cut off from information that did not coincide with their own opinions. c) Groupthink can be prevented only by ensuring that leaders are regularly exposed to individuals who have views conflicting with those of the inner circle. Specifically, we need to encourage and circulate research results that provide the greatest number of options for decision-makers to consider in an atmosphere of free expression and academic freedom. Figures 5.1: The Typical Bureaucratic Structure of a Medium-Sized University 5.2: The Effects of Group Size on Relationships 5.3: Asch’s Cards Tables None Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 5.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Reference Groups What is one major reference group that you have? How is it influencing you? 44 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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J 5.2 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Can You Be Like Cody? Could you be like Cody and shoot people in cold blood—just because others tell you to pull the trigger? J 5.3 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Diverse Social Networks How can we create diversity in our social networks? SW 5.1 Shared Writing: Peer Pressure Asch’s experiments illustrate the power of peer pressure. How has peer pressure operated in your life? Think about something that you did, despite not wanting to, because of peer pressure. SW 5.2 Shared Writing: Virtual Reality Diversity Training If virtual reality does transform perspectives, reduce prejudice, and create shared understandings, do you think employers should require their workers to participate in this training? Why or why not? Special Features • Categories, Aggregates, Primary and Secondary Groups • Applying Sociology to Your Life: The New World of Work: How to Keep a Paycheck Coming in the New Global Marketplace • Applying Sociology to Your Life: Do Your Social Networks Perpetuate Social Inequality? • Down-to-Earth Sociology: The McDonaldization of Society • Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape: Virtual Reality and Diversity Training • Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape: Welcome to the SS (Security State): On the Way to Secure Slavery (SS)? • Through the Author’s Lens: Helping a Stranger • Thinking Critically about Social Life: If Hitler Asked You to Execute a Stranger, Would You? The Milgram Experiment Lecture Suggestions ▪
Ask students to talk about the power of peer pressure while addressing the following questions: How is peer pressure different in college than in high school? Was there more peer pressure or less peer pressure in high school? Looking at the clothes you wear, the products you buy, the car you drive (or hope to drive someday), and the forms of entertainment you enjoy—how many of these are the result of truly independent choices versus the influence, at least to some degree, of peer pressure?
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In an effort to solicit quality feedback from students (and not just gripes), lead a discussion on which aspects of college life are the most bureaucratic and tend to alienate students. Be careful to concentrate on the service provided and not on personalities. Following each example offered by a student, ask the rest of the class if the assessment made is valid. Then seek suggestions on how the service could be improved.
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Ask students to consider why voluntary associations seem to flourish in America. What is it about American society and/or the American people that most accounts for the proliferation of voluntary associations in the United States? What functions do voluntary associations serve, and what can and/or should the U.S. government do, if anything, to help voluntary associations? If you feel the U.S. government should assist voluntary associations, should it assist all voluntary associations or just some? If only some, which ones, and why?
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Ask students to share some of their personal experiences of working for corporations. Ask them if they noticed some of the hidden values that Rosabeth Moss Kanter identified in her organizational studies of corporations. If so, have students address the following questions: Did these hidden values personally benefit you or hurt you? How? Also, if these values were truly “hidden,” how is it that workers were able to identify them in the first place?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Conduct a half-hour field trip walking around the campus. Ask students to look for and note any “signs” of peer pressure in action. These can include clothes, products, foods, games, activities, verbal interactions, forms of popular culture or entertainment, or anything else that is currently “in” on campus because young people think it is “cool.” If you want to make the exercise even more engaging, turn it into a contest. Give students a half-hour to race around campus and compile a list of as many “signs” of peer pressure as they can find. Afterward, have students meet back in the class, share their lists, and finish by awarding a small prize to the student with the biggest list.
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Instruct students to attend a meeting or participate in an activity on campus where they can observe small-group interaction. They should take notes on the group dynamics, paying attention to the intimacy of group activity based on group size, the stability of the groups, and other observations. Students should also take note of the leadership styles demonstrated by the activity’s actual leader, as well as those of the other leaders who emerge during the exercise.
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Identify the leader of a major student organization, such as the student government association or a local elected official, and invite them to class to discuss leadership. Ask the leader to include an assessment of their own leadership style; ask whether or not they consider leadership to be more of an art or a science, justifying the conclusion. Following the presentation, ask the students to write a reflection on whether or not they agree with the speaker’s assessment of their leadership style and why.
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Conduct a small-world phenomenon exercise using the class. Develop a list of ten to fifteen people. Include several other students you may have had in a previous class, nationally known politicians, entertainers, and other famous people. Make up a sheet to distribute to the class 46 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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that includes the names of the “targets” and a series of columns next to the names that signify “I have heard about this person,” “I have personally seen this person in concert or performing in their official capacity,” “I have met this person,” and “I personally know this person.” Have each student make five copies of their sheet and distribute them to friends or acquaintances to complete. Set a date for the class to review and analyze the results. ▪
Arrange a class tour of the county courthouse, or encourage students to tour it on their own. Simply walking the halls and sitting in on parts of a public trial will be a good experience, demonstrating many aspects of formal organization and bureaucracy in action. Have students compare the observable features of the bureaucracy as listed by Weber to what they observe, and write a reflection.
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Assign students to call their hometown town councils and request a copy of the minutes of the last council meeting. Afterward, have them report the following information to the class: How successful were they in obtaining the minutes? If unsuccessful, what accounted for that lack of success? If successful, how long did it take to obtain the minutes? How many people did students have to speak to before they were able to obtain the minutes or were told, for certain, that they could not have them? How helpful or unhelpful were the various people with whom they were in contact? What signs of bureaucratic alienation did they encounter, if any, in their quest for the minutes?
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Have students spend an hour walking around the college campus searching for and recording as many signs of dysfunctions of bureaucracy as they can find. Tell them to explore, for example, the registrar’s office, bursar’s office, dean’s office, library, cafeteria, and even the college web page for such signs of dysfunctions of bureaucracy. Ask them, as well, to collect any paperwork, such as applications, rules, and forms, that illustrate the dysfunctions of bureaucracy. After the hour has ended, have students return to the classroom and share the results of their “field trips.”
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Chapter 6: Deviance and Social Control Chapter Summary This chapter examines deviance and how it relates to norms. It discusses different disciplines— sociobiology and psychology—and how they view deviance and why sociologists critique these approaches. The chapter then focuses on symbolic interactionist perspectives such as differential association theory, control theory, and labeling theory. Next, the chapter examines different theories that fall within the functionalist perspective, such as strain theory. It then discusses the conflict perspective and how social class is related to the criminal justice system and how the system is oppressive. The chapter continues by discussing punishment and how it is unequally doled out based on geography, race–ethnicity, gender, and class status—specifically focusing on the death penalty. It also discusses recidivism and how people are likely to go back to prison. It ends with the medicalization of deviance and how we increasingly attribute crime and behavior to illnesses. Learning Objectives LO 6.1 Summarize the relativity of deviance, the need for norms, and the types of sanctions. LO 6.2 Contrast sociobiological, psychological, and sociological explanations of deviance. LO 6.3 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to deviance by explaining differential association, control, and labeling. LO 6.4 Apply the functionalist perspective to deviance by explaining how deviance can be functional for society, how mainstream values can produce deviance (strain theory), and how social class is related to crime (illegitimate opportunities). LO 6.5 Apply the conflict perspective to deviance by explaining how social class is related to the criminal justice system and how the criminal justice system is oppressive. LO 6.6 Be able to discuss street crime and imprisonment, the three-strikes laws, the changing rate of violent crime, recidivism, bias in the death penalty, the medicalization of deviance, and the need for a more humane approach. Chapter Outline A. What Is Deviance? 6.1 Summarize the relativity of deviance, the need for norms, and the types of sanctions. 1. Sociologists use the term deviance to refer to any violation of norms (or rules or expectations). From a sociological perspective, deviance is relative. Definitions of “what is deviant” vary across societies and from one group to another within the same society. a) People do not have to do anything to be considered deviant. Stigma refers to characteristics that discredit people such as norms of appearance, ability, or involuntary memberships. 48 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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b) Because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to some is not deviant to others. This is true even for criminal deviance, the violation of rules that have been written into law. 2. Norms make social life possible by making behavior predictable. Without norms, social chaos would exist. Deviance is seen as threatening because it undermines predictability. Thus, social control (the formal and informal means of enforcing norms) is necessary for social life. 3. When a norm is violated, sanctions are imposed. a) Sanctions can be either negative or positive. b) Negative sanctions, which reflect disapproval of a particular behavior, range from frowns and gossip for breaking a folkway to imprisonment and capital punishment for breaking a more. c) Positive sanctions, from smiles to formal awards, are used to reward conformity. d) Most negative sanctions are informal. B. Competing Explanations of Deviance: Sociobiology, Psychology, and Sociology 6.2 Contrast sociobiological, psychological, and sociological explanations of deviance. 1. Biologists, psychologists, and sociologists have different perspectives on why people violate norms. a) Psychologists and sociobiologists explain deviance by looking within individuals; sociologists look outside individuals. b) Sociobiologists’ explanations focus on genetic predisposition. Previous and abandoned theories include the “XYY” theory (an extra Y chromosome in men leads to crime) and body type (“squarish, muscular” people are more likely to commit street crimes). c) Psychological explanations focus on personality disorders (e.g., “bad toilet training,” “suffocating mothers,” and so on). Yet these do not necessarily result in the presence or absence of specific forms of deviance in a person. d) Sociological explanations search outside the individual. Social influences such as socialization, subcultural group memberships, or social class (people’s relative standing in terms of education, occupation, income, and wealth) may “recruit” some people to break norms. C. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective 6.3 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to deviance by explaining differential association, control, and labeling. 1. Symbolic interactionists focus on the idea that we are thinking beings who act according to how we interpret situations. 2. Differential association is sociologist Edwin Sutherland’s term to indicate that those who associate with groups oriented toward deviant activities learn an “excess of definitions” of deviance and thus are more likely to engage in deviant activities. a) The key to differential association is the learning of attitudes and behaviors favorable to following the law or breaking it. Some groups teach members to violate norms (e.g., families involved in crime may set their children on a lawbreaking path; some friends and neighborhoods tend to encourage deviant behavior; even subcultures
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contain particular attitudes about deviance and conformity that are learned by their members). b) The computer has also opened easy access to arenas of life previously hidden and accessible only with difficulty. Sociologists have begun to study how this can impact people’s orientations to conformity. c) Symbolic interactionists stress that people are not mere pawns because individuals help produce their own orientation to life and their choice of association helps shape the self. 3. According to control theory, everyone is propelled toward deviance, but a system of controls works against these motivations to deviate. a) Sociologist Walter Reckless described two complementary systems of controls. Inner controls are our capacity to withstand temptations toward deviance and internalized morality, fear of punishment, and desire to be good. Outer controls involve people (e.g., family, friends, and the police) who influence us not to deviate. b) Travis Hirschi noted that strong bonds to society, based on attachments, commitments, involvements, and beliefs, lead to more effective inner controls. 4. Labeling theory is the view that the labels people are given affect their own and others’ perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior either into deviance or into conformity. a) Sociologists Gresham Sykes and David Matza use the term “techniques of neutralization” to describe the ways of thinking or rationalizing that help people deflect (or neutralize) society’s norms. These are (1) denial of responsibility (“I didn’t do it”); (2) denial of injury (“Who really got hurt?”); (3) denial of a victim (“She deserved it”); (4) condemnation of the condemners (“Who are you to talk?”); and (5) appeal to higher loyalties (“I had to help my friends”). b) Most people resist being labeled deviant, but some revel in a deviant identity (e.g., motorcycle gangs who are proud of getting in trouble, laughing at death, and so on). c) Labels can be powerful. To label a teenager a delinquent can trigger a process that leads to greater involvement in deviance. To avoid this, some judges use diversion. For example, instead of sending them to reform school or jail, they assign them to social workers and counselors. d) William Chambliss’s study of the Saints (troubled boys from respectable middle-class families) and the Roughnecks (boys from working-class families who hang out on the streets) provides an excellent illustration of labeling theory. The study showed how labels open and close doors of opportunity for the individuals involved. e) How labels work is complicated because the labels are connected with self-concepts and reactions that vary from one individual to another. D. The Functionalist Perspective 6.4 Apply the functionalist perspective to deviance by explaining how deviance can be functional for society, how mainstream values can produce deviance (strain theory), and how social class is related to crime (illegitimate opportunities). 1. Emile Durkheim stated that deviance, including crime, is functional, for it contributes to social order in three ways. a) Deviance clarifies moral boundaries (a group’s ideas about how people should act and think) and affirms norms. 50 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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b) Deviance encourages social unity (by reacting to deviants, group members develop a “we” feeling and collectively affirm the rightness of their own ways). c) Deviance promotes social change (if boundary violations gain enough support, they become new, acceptable behaviors). 2. Sociologist Robert Merton developed strain theory to analyze what happens when people are socialized to desire cultural goals but denied the institutionalized means to reach them. a) Merton used “anomie” (Durkheim’s term) to refer to the strain people experience when they are blocked in their attempts to achieve those goals. b) The most common reaction to cultural goals and institutionalized means is conformity (using lawful means to seek goals society sets). c) He identified four types of deviant responses to anomie: innovation (using illegitimate means to achieve them); ritualism (giving up on achieving cultural goals but clinging to conventional rules of conduct); retreatism (rejecting cultural goals, and the means to achieve them); and rebellion (seeking to replace society’s goals). d) Merton either did not recognize anarchy as applying to his model or he did not think of it. In either case, the angry anarchist wants to destroy society. e) According to strain theory, deviants are products of society. 3. Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin developed illegitimate opportunity theory to explain why social classes have distinct styles of crime. a) They suggest that these differences are due to differential access to institutionalized means. b) Illegitimate opportunity structures are opportunities for crimes such as robbery, burglary, or drug dealing that are woven into the texture of life. These structures may result when legitimate structures fail. c) This alternative door to financial gain includes robbery, burglary, drug dealing, prostitution, pimping, and gambling. To those growing up poor, the “hustlers,” such as pimps and drug dealers, are often seen as role models because they are some of the few who come close to the cultural goals of success. d) White-collar crime (crimes that people of respectable and high social status commit in the course of their occupations) results from an illegitimate opportunity structure among higher classes. Such crimes exist in greater numbers than commonly perceived and can be very costly, possibly totaling several hundred billion dollars a year. They can involve physical harm and sometimes death. 4. There have been some recent changes in the nature of crime. A major change is the growing ranks of female offenders. As women have become more involved in the professions and the corporate world, they too have been enticed by illegitimate opportunities. E. The Conflict Perspective 6.5 Apply the conflict perspective to deviance by explaining how social class is related to the criminal justice system and how the criminal justice system is oppressive. 1. Conflict theorists note that power plays a central role in defining and punishing deviance. 2. The criminal justice system directs its energies against violations by the working class; while it tends to overlook the harm done by the owners of corporations, flagrant
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violations are prosecuted. The publicity given to this level of white-collar crime helps stabilize the system by providing evidence of fairness. 3. The law is an instrument of oppression, a tool designed to maintain the powerful in privileged positions and keep the powerless from rebelling and overthrowing the social order. When members of the working class get out of line, they are arrested, tried, and imprisoned in the criminal justice system. F. Reactions to Deviance 6.6 Be able to discuss street crime and imprisonment, the three-strikes laws, the changing rate of violent crime, recidivism, bias in the death penalty, the medicalization of deviance, and the need for a more humane approach. 1. Reactions to deviance in the United States include everything from mild sanctions to capital punishment. 2. Although the United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population, it holds about 21 percent of the world’s prisoners. a) One in forty Americans aged 15 and over, 6.5 million people, is on probation or parole, or in jail or prison. b) About 39 percent of all prisoners are younger than 35. c) Almost all prisoners are men. d) Black Americans are disproportionately represented in prison. e) For about the past thirty years or so, the United States has followed a “get tough” policy. The “three strikes and you’re out” laws were one of the most significant changes. Unfortunately, these laws have had some unintended consequences. 3. Violent crime has dropped for several reasons. a) Judges have put more and more people in prison, and legislators passed the threestrikes laws. These are only two reasons why violent crime dropped. b) Some other suggested reasons include higher employment, a lower birth rate, an aging population, and even abortion. c) There was a decline in violent crime; however, an unexpected surge in violent crime, the highest two-year increase in U.S. history, is still with us. 4. A goal of prisons is to teach people that crime does not pay, but this has largely failed. a) We measure this by the recidivism rate—the percentage of released prisoners who are rearrested. b) Within just two years of getting out of prison, over half (54 percent) of released prisoners have been rearrested. In just three years, two of five (39 percent) are back in prison. 5. The death penalty is the most extreme and controversial measure the state can take. Many argue that there are biases in the use of the death penalty. These reflect geography, social class and gender biases, as well as racial and ethnic biases. a) Geography. The death penalty is not administered evenly. b) Social class. It is rare that a rich person is sentenced to death, but about half of prisoners on death row have not finished high school. c) Gender. Women are less likely to be on death row and even less likely to be executed. d) Race–ethnicity. Black offenders are much more likely to be executed compared to White offenders.
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6. The medicalization of deviance is the view of deviance as a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians. a) Thomas Szasz argued that mental illness is simply problem behaviors: some forms of “mental” illnesses have physical causes (e.g., depression caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain), while others are responses to troubles with various coping devices. b) Szasz’s analysis suggests that social experiences, and not some illness of the mind, underlie bizarre behaviors. c) Being mentally ill can sometimes lead to other problems like homelessness, but being homeless can lead to unusual and unacceptable ways of thinking that are defined by the wider society as mental illness. 7. With deviance inevitable, one measure of society is how it treats its deviants. a) The larger issues are how to protect people from deviant behaviors that are harmful to their welfare, to tolerate those that are not, and to develop systems of fairer treatment for deviants. Figures 6.1: How Safe Is Your State? Violent Crime in the United States 6.2: How Much Is Enough? The Explosion in the Number of U.S. Prisoners 6.3: How Fast They Return: Recidivism of U.S. Prisoners 6.4: Recidivism by Type of Crime 6.5: Executions in the United States 6.6: Who Gets Executed? Gender Bias in Capital Punishment Tables 6.1: How People Match Their Goals to Their Means 6.2: Women and Crime: What a Change 6.3: Comparing Prison Inmates with the U.S. Population Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 6.1 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Explanations of Deviance Which of the three explanations of deviance do you prefer and why? J 6.2 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Sanctions Without revealing a lot of personal information, what sanctions have you ever experienced or had leveled against you for what act? How did those sanctions work? Were they effective or not? SW 6.1 Shared Writing: Crime in the United States What do you think should be done about the U.S. crime problem? What sociological theories support your view? SW 6.2 Shared Writing: Techniques of Neutralization 53 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Consider how you might be using these same techniques of neutralization. Choose two and write about how you have used them. Special Features • • • • • • • • •
Cultural Diversity around the World: Human Sexuality in Cross-Cultural Perspectives Down-to-Earth Sociology: Shaming: Making a Comeback? Applying Sociology to Your Life: “How Does Social Control Theory Apply to You?” Applying Sociology to Your Life: How Do You Use Techniques of Neutralization to Protect Your Self Concept? Thinking Critically about Social Life: The Saints and the Roughnecks: Labeling in Everyday Life Down-to-Earth Sociology: When Gangs Take Over Thinking Critically about Social Life: Sexting: Getting on the Phone Isn’t What It Used to Be Thinking Critically about Social Life: What Should We Do About Repeat Offenders? The “Three Strikes” Laws Down-to-Earth Sociology: The Killer Next Door: Serial Murderers in Our Midst
Lecture Suggestions ▪
Discuss the various dress styles that students observe on campus. What do students consider to be the norm for class attendance? At one extreme, what do they consider to be “underdressed”? At the other, what would characterize being “overdressed”? What sanctions, both formal and informal, accompany being “underdressed” or “overdressed”?
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Break students into small groups and ask each group to create a list of the five most deviant acts they can imagine. Ask each group to consider which cultural values they employed in creating their list. Which cultural and/or personal biases affected their choices to include or exclude the items they selected for their list? What justification is present to define the items on the list as deviant? What gives society the right to define these items as deviant and impose negative sanctions on violators? Finally, can they think of any other cultures in the world and/or groups in American society that might consider one or more of the items on their list to be “perfectly normal”?
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Discuss the sanctions, both positive and negative, that professors use to maintain social control of their classrooms. Of the various methods identified, discuss the specific purpose behind the sanction and its effectiveness. What is the best method of social control a professor can use to ensure students arrive to class on time? What is the most appropriate sanction a professor can use to encourage students who are not doing well in a course to improve? What is the best sanction a professor can use to see that their class remains orderly?
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Thinking about the relativity of deviance, ask students to address the following points: What is deviance? Who gets to define deviance? What gives certain people the authority and/or power to define deviance? How do definitions of deviance differ from culture to culture, group to group, and time period to time period? 54 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Ask students whether they consider the following behaviors to be deviant: suicide, abortion, homosexuality, prostitution, and drug use. If so, on what basis? If not, why? Pressing students further, ask them to come up with specific circumstances for each of these behaviors that might affect whether it constitutes deviance or acceptable behavior.
Suggested Assignments ▪
Have each student write a one-page description of the most deviant behavior they have ever experienced or to which they have been personally exposed. Have them include in their essays why the act was considered deviant, whether it harmed anyone (including the individual responsible for the deviant act), and how observers reacted to the deviant act. Advise students they may wish to use discretion in revealing any personal information they would feel uneasy sharing. Use each example in an appropriate manner, not disclosing any information that would expose the author of the paper.
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Have the class create a list of at least five behaviors considered minor offenses of social norms, such as tattoos, wearing jogging pants to church, talking on your cell phone at a restaurant, and so on. Then have students interview at least twenty people asking how deviant they would rank each behavior on a scale of 1–5 and noting each subject’s age, race, and gender. Compile the data as a class, and create diagrams to analyze the results.
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Ask students to find and download examples of deviance on the internet. Then have them meet in small groups to share their “deviant material” with each other while addressing the following questions: What functions do these materials provide for society? What harm might these materials do to society and/or its individual members? What should the U.S. government do, if anything, to regulate these materials or control who has access to them? What do these materials say about which groups have power and which do not have power in American society? What do these materials say about how much deviance occurs in the privacy of people’s minds and homes? Is there any difference between deviant thoughts and deviant behaviors? If so, what is the difference? Finally, can deviant thoughts lead to deviant behaviors? Even if they can, do you think most people who have deviant thoughts act on them? Are we becoming so regulated as a society that we are now making thoughts illegal?
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Instruct students to watch a television show that portrays deviant behavior, such as “professional” wrestling, COPS, or another show that depicts violence, infidelity, or unusual behavior. Have them analyze the behavior featured. Does it appear to be real, or is it a fabrication for the purposes of entertainment? Assuming the behavior is real, what theory might be appropriate to explain it? Why is the American viewing public so preoccupied with such shows and behavior? If students are capable, have them tape the shows they watch and edit them to share with the class before discussing them.
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Chapter 7: Global Stratification Chapter Summary This chapter covers several aspects of global stratification. The first part of the chapter examines the different types of systems of social stratification including slavery, caste, estate, and class systems. The chapter then discusses the different theoretical views regarding class—specifically focusing on Marx and Weber and then introducing more contemporary points of view such as functional and conflict theories. The chapter then examines how elites keep themselves in power, including a discussion of ideology and how it allows leaders to maintain control without having to use force. The author then provides an example comparing Great Britain and how it reproduces inequality to the Soviet Union, where inequality persisted based on a different set of criteria—political party status rather than family wealth. A discussion of theories focuses on how inequality occurs between countries. First, the author explores the division of countries into groups, Most Industrialized Nations, Industrializing Nations, and Least Industrialized Nations, and then he examines how colonialism and world system theory explain how this occurred. The chapter continues with a discussion of neocolonialism—maintaining power through international markets and multinational corporations—and how powerful countries’ companies exploit less powerful countries. The chapter ends with a discussion of the imbalance of technological advancement between the Most Industrialized and Least Industrialized Nations and the strains in today’s system of global stratification. Learning Objectives LO 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification. LO 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what determines social class. LO 7.3 Contrast the functional and conflict views of why social stratification is universal. LO 7.4 Discuss the ways that elites keep themselves in power. LO 7.5 Contrast social stratification in Great Britain and the former Soviet Union. LO 7.6 Compare social stratification in the Most Industrialized Nations, the Industrializing Nations, and the Least Industrialized Nations. LO 7.7 Discuss how colonialism and world system theory explain how the world’s nations became stratified. LO 7.8 Explain how neocolonialism, multinational corporations, and technology help to maintain global stratification. LO 7.9 Identify strains in today’s system of global stratification.
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Chapter Outline A. Systems of Social Stratification 7.1 Compare and contrast slavery (including bonded labor), caste, estate, and class systems of social stratification. 1. Social stratification is the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative power, property, and prestige. It applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group. Social stratification affects all of one’s life chances, from access to material possessions and position in society to age at which we die. Although they may differ as to which system of social stratification they employ, all societies stratify their members. The four major systems of social stratification are slavery, caste, estate, and class. 2. Slavery is a form of social stratification in which some people own other people. a) Initially, slavery was based on debt, crime, and war. b) Gerda Lerner noted that women were the first people enslaved through warfare. They were valued for sexual purposes, reproduction, and their labor. c) Slavery could be temporary or permanent and was not necessarily passed on to one’s children. Typically, enslaved people owned no property and had no power; however, this was not universally true. d) The first form of slavery in the New World was bonded labor or indentured service— a contractual system in which someone voluntarily sold their services for a specified period of time; at the end of that time, the individual was freed. e) Given the shortage of indentured servants, American colonists first tried to enslave Native Americans and then turned to Africans, who were being brought to North and South America by the Dutch, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. f) When American slave owners found it was profitable to own enslaved people for life, they developed beliefs to justify what they wanted and to make slavery inheritable. That is, enslaved people’s children could be sold, bartered, or traded. The practice of slavery was written into law. g) Slavery is still practiced in certain parts of the world today, with the most common form being women trapped in forced prostitution. Children also continue to be victims of slavery. 3. In a caste system, status is determined by birth and is lifelong. a) Ascribed status is the basis of a caste system. Caste societies try to make certain that boundaries between castes remain firm by practicing endogamy (marriage within their own group) and developing rules about ritual pollution, teaching that contact with inferior castes contaminates the superior caste. b) Although abolished by the Indian government in 1949, the caste system remains part of everyday life in India, as it has for almost three thousand years. This system is based on religion and is made up of four main castes that are subdivided into thousands of specialized subcastes, or jati. The lowest caste, the Dalit, are known as the “outcastes” and were formerly known as the “untouchables.” If higher castes are contaminated by the “untouchables,” then an ablution (washing ritual) is required. c) South Africa’s caste system was called apartheid and was based on the separation of the races. By law there were four different racial castes, and the law specified where people could live, work, and go to school. While this system has been dismantled by 57 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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the government following decades of international protest, its legacy continues to haunt South Africa. Whites still dominate, and Blacks remain uneducated and poor. Political violence has been replaced by old-fashioned crime. d) A racial caste system developed in the United States when slavery ended. Even in the earlier part of this century, all Whites were considered higher than all Blacks and separate accommodations were maintained for the races in the South. During the Middle Ages, Europe developed an estate stratification system consisting of three groups, or estates. a) The first estate was made up of the nobility, who ruled the country. b) The second estate consisted of the clergy, who not only owned vast tracts of land and collected taxes from commoners, but also set its seal of approval on rulers. Members of the nobility practiced primogeniture, allowing only firstborn sons to inherit land, so that their vast land holdings wouldn’t be divided into small chunks. c) The third estate was made up of commoners, known as serfs. They were born into this estate and had few opportunities to move up. d) Women belonged to the estate of their husbands. A class system is a form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions. a) Initial social class position is based on that of one’s parents (ascribed status). b) With relatively fluid boundaries, a class system allows for social mobility, or movement up or down the social class ladder, based on achieved status. No matter what system a society may use to divide people into different layers, gender is always an essential part of those distinctions within each layer. On the basis of gender, people are sorted into categories and given differential access to rewards. Social distinctions have always favored males. In every society, men’s earnings are higher than women’s, and most of the world’s illiterate are women. There is now a global superclass with interconnections among the world’s wealthiest people. Almost all are White, and, except as wives and daughters, few women are part of the global superclass.
B. What Determines Social Class? 7.2 Contrast the views of Marx and Weber on what determines social class. 1. According to Karl Marx, social class is determined by one’s relationship to the means of production—the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth. a) The bourgeoisie (capitalists) own the means of production; the proletariat (workers) work for those who own the means of production. b) While Marx recognized the existence of other groups—farmers and peasants, a lumpenproletariat, and self-employed professionals—he did not consider these groups social classes because they lacked class consciousness. c) As capital becomes more concentrated, the two classes will become increasingly hostile to one another. d) Class consciousness, or an awareness of a common identity based on position in the means of production, will develop; it is the essential basis of the unity of workers, according to Marx. e) Marx believed that the workers would revolt against the capitalists, take control of the means of production, and usher in a classless society. However, the workers’ unity 58 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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and revolution are held back by false class consciousness—the mistaken identification of workers with the interests of capitalists. 2. Unlike Marx, Max Weber did not believe that property is the sole basis of a person’s position in the stratification system, but rather that property, prestige, and power determine social class. a) Property (or wealth) is an essential element; however, powerful people, like managers of corporations, control the means of production, although they do not own them. b) Power is the ability to control others, even over their objections. Weber agreed with Marx that property is a major source of power. c) Prestige may be derived from ownership of property; however, it also may be based on other factors, such as athletic skills. C. Why Is Social Stratification Universal? 7.3 Contrast the functional and conflict views of why social stratification is universal. 1. According to the functionalist view expressed by Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, stratification is inevitable for the following four reasons: a) For society to function, its positions must be filled. b) Some positions are more important than others. c) The more important positions must be filled by the more qualified people. d) To motivate the more qualified people to fill these positions, they must offer greater rewards. 2. Melvin Tumin was the first sociologist to present a number of criticisms to the Davis and Moore thesis. a) He asked how the importance of a position is measured (e.g., “Is a surgeon really more important to society than a garbage collector?”). Rewards cannot be used to measure the importance of a job; there must be some independent measure of importance. b) He noted that if stratification worked as Davis and Moore describe it, society would be a meritocracy, a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit, but it does not work this way (e.g., the best predictor of college entrance is family income, not ability). c) Finally, he noted that stratification is dysfunctional to many people, thus not functional. 3. Conflict theorists stress that conflict, not function, is the basis of social stratification. Every society has only limited resources to go around, and in every society, groups struggle with one another for those resources. a) Sociologist Gaetano Mosca argued that it is inevitable that society will be stratified by power. Society cannot exist unless it is organized, which requires leadership to coordinate people’s actions. Leadership requires inequalities of power because some people take leadership positions and others follow. It is human nature to be selfcentered; thus, people in positions of power use their positions to bring greater rewards to themselves. b) Marx believed that human history is the history of class struggle; those in power use society’s resources to benefit themselves and oppress others. He predicted that workers would one day revolt against their oppression. 59 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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c) Modern conflict theorists stress that conflict between capitalists and workers is not the only important conflict in contemporary society, but rather, groups within the same class compete for scarce resources, resulting in conflict between many groups (e.g., women versus men). 4. Sociologist Gerhard Lenski offered a synthesis between functionalist and conflict theories. a) Functionalists are right when it comes to societies that have only basic resources and do not accumulate wealth, such as hunting and gathering societies. b) Conflict theorists are right when it comes to societies with a surplus. In such societies, humans pursue self-interests and struggle to control those surpluses. This leads to the emergence of a small elite, which then builds inequality into the society, resulting in a full-blown system of social stratification. D. How Do Elites Maintain Stratification? 7.4 Discuss the ways that elites keep themselves in power. 1. Social stratification is maintained within a nation by elites who control ideas, information, and technology, and use force. a) In medieval Europe, the divine right of kings ideology was developed to control the commoners. This ideology says that the king’s authority comes from God and therefore he and his representatives must be obeyed. This was more effective than coercion, which breeds hostility and lays the ground for rebellion. b) Elites also control information to maintain their position of power. Fear is a common tactic among dictators. c) Technology, especially monitoring devices, helps the elite maintain its position. 2. Underlying the maintenance of stratification is control of social institutions, such as the legal establishment, the police, and the military. E. Comparative Social Stratification 7.5 Contrast social stratification in Great Britain and the former Soviet Union. 1. Great Britain’s class system can be divided into upper, middle, and lower classes. A little over half of the population is in the lower or working class, close to half of the population is in the middle class, and only about 1 percent is in the upper class. Language and speech patterns are important class indicators. Education is the primary way the class system is perpetuated from one generation to the next. 2. The ideal of communism, a classless society, was never realized in the former Soviet Union. Before the Communist revolution, the elite was based on inherited wealth; afterward, it consisted of top party officials, a relatively small middle class, and a massive lower class of peasants and unskilled workers. F. Global Stratification: Three Worlds 7.6 Compare social stratification in the Most Industrialized Nations, the Industrializing Nations, and the Least Industrialized Nations. 1. Until the 1980s, a simple model was used consisting of the First World (industrialized capitalistic nations), Second World (communist or socialist nations), and Third World (any nations that didn’t fit the other categories). A more neutral way of categorizing
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nations is to use terms related to a nation’s level of industrialization: “Most Industrialized,” “Industrializing,” and “Least Industrialized.” The Most Industrialized Nations (United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and other industrialized countries of Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) are capitalistic, although variations exist in economic systems. a) These nations have only 16 percent of the world’s population, but have 31 percent of the world’s land. b) The poor in these nations live better/longer than the average citizens of the Least Industrialized Nations. The Industrializing Nations include the former Soviet Union and its satellites in Eastern Europe. a) The dividing line between these nations and the Most Industrialized Nations is soft; consequently, it is difficult to classify some nations. b) These nations account for 16 percent of the world’s population and 20 percent of the land. c) The people of these nations have considerably lower incomes and a lower standard of living than people in the Most Industrialized Nations; while their access to electricity, indoor plumbing, and other material goods is more limited than those in the Most Industrialized Nations, it is higher than those in the Least Industrialized Nations. In the Least Industrialized Nations of the world, most people live on farms or in villages with low standards of living. a) These nations account for 49 percent of the earth’s land and 68 percent of the world’s population. b) Poverty plagues these nations to the extent that some families live in city dumps. Classifying the nations of the world into these three categories creates certain problems. a) While the oil-rich nations of the world are immensely wealthy, they are not industrialized. How are they classified?
G. How Did the World’s Nations Become Stratified? 7.7 Discuss how colonialism and world system theory explain how the world’s nations became stratified. 1. The theory of colonialism focuses on how the nations that industrialized first got the jump on the rest of the world. a) With profits generated by the Industrial Revolution, industrialized nations built powerful armaments and fast ships and then invaded weaker nations, making colonies of them and exploiting their labor/natural resources. b) Powerful European nations would claim a colony and then send their representatives in to run the government, while the United States chose to plant a corporate flag, letting the corporations dominate the territory’s government. 2. According to world system theory as espoused by Immanuel Wallerstein, countries are politically and economically tied together. a) There are four groups of interconnected nations: (1) core nations, the countries that industrialized first; (2) semiperiphery (Mediterranean area), those countries highly dependent on trade with core nations; (3) periphery (Eastern Europe), countries mainly limited to selling cash crops to core nations, with limited economic
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development; and (4) external area (most of Africa/Asia), countries left out of the growth of capitalism, with few economic ties to core nations. b) The globalization of capitalism—the adoption of capitalism around the world— created extensive ties among the world’s nations. 3. John Kenneth Galbraith argued that some nations remained poor because they were crippled by a culture of poverty, a way of life based on traditional values and religious beliefs that perpetuated poverty from one generation to the next and kept some of the Least Industrialized Nations from developing. 4. Most sociologists prefer colonialism and world system theory. a) The culture of poverty theory places the blame on the victim, focusing on the characteristics of poor nations rather than the structural arrangements that benefit some nations (the Most Industrialized Nations) at the expense of others (the Least Industrialized Nations). b) Each theory only partially explains global stratification. H. Maintaining Global Stratification 7.8 Explain how neocolonialism, multinational corporations, and technology help to maintain global stratification. 1. Neocolonialism is the economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations. a) The Most Industrialized Nations sell weapons and manufactured goods to the Least Industrialized Nations on credit, turning these countries into eternal debtors. They use resources to pay off the debt, thereby preventing them from developing their own industrial capacity. 2. Multinational corporations contribute to the exploitation of the Least Industrialized Nations. a) The Most Industrialized Nations are primary beneficiaries of profits made in the Least Industrialized Nations. b) They often work closely with the elite of the Least Industrialized Nations, many times in informal partnerships that are mutually beneficial. c) In some situations, multinational corporations may bring prosperity to the Least Industrialized Nations because new factories provide salaries and opportunities that otherwise would not exist for workers in those countries. 3. The new technology favors the Most Industrialized Nations, enabling them to maintain their global domination. a) The profits of multinational corporations can be invested in developing and acquiring the latest technology, thereby generating even greater profits. b) Cheap labor in countries such as China and India makes manufactured goods inexpensive and allows for a gain of capital that enables these countries to buy high technology to modernize infrastructure (transportation, communication, utilities, and financial systems). I. Strains in the Global System: Uneasy Realignments 7.9 Identify strains in today’s system of global stratification.
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1. The structure of the global system is under strain at all times. This strain can range from minor threats to the current social order, to large historical shifts that can have a major impact across the globe. Figures 7.1: India’s Caste System 7.2: The Distribution of the Earth’s Wealth 7.3: Weber’s Three Components of Social Class 7.4: Global Stratification: Income of the World’s Nations Tables 7.1: Functionalist and Conflict Views of Stratification: The Distribution of Society’s Resources 7.2: Distribution of the World’s Land and Population 7.3: An Alternative Model of Global Stratification Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 7.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Caste Systems Compare the racial caste system that used to exist in the United States with the religious caste system that currently exists in India. J 7.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Children as Prey Do you think there is anything the Most Industrialized Nations can do about this situation? Or is it, though unfortunate, just an “internal” affair that is up to Brazil to handle as it wishes? SW 7.1 Shared Writing: Why Is Social Stratification Universal? Why is social stratification universal? SW 7.2 Shared Writing: Elites in Power You read about some of the tactics that elites have used or still use to maintain power. In the United States, what tactics do the elites use? How does this compare to the tactics used in medieval Europe, China, and Thailand? Special Features • • •
Down-to-Earth Sociology: Inequality? What Inequality? Thinking Critically about Social Life: Open Season: Children as Prey Through the Author’s Lens: The Dump People: Working and Living and Playing in the City Dump of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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The text describes how all societies use gender as a form of stratification with the distinction always favoring males. Discuss how accurate this statement is in modern Western culture and what issues (other than only their sexual identification) affect the unfavorable stratification of women. In what combination does sex take on a greater significance as a means of stratification?
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Thinking about Max Weber’s three components of social class, ask students to answer the following two questions: If you were forced to choose between Weber’s three components of social class, which component would you choose to have for the rest of your life: property, prestige, or power? Why? How could you use that one component to gain the others?
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Considering the power of ideology, have students discuss how liberal and conservative political ideologies are communicated, disseminated, and propagated. Which specific groups of people benefit the most from these ideologies and which benefit the least? Or is it about equal? Finally, what can those groups of people who benefit the least from these ideologies do to challenge and/or change these ideologies? In what ways, if any, are they doing just that?
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After reading “Thinking Critically about Social Life–Open Season: Children as Prey,” have students discuss poverty in Brazil and death squads for children. Ask students if they think that the United States should get involved as we do in Africa with their AIDS and poverty problems, in Southeast Asia with tsunami relief, and in other parts of the world where terrorism is an ongoing threat to world peace.
Suggested Assignments ▪
Have students make a list of groups of both faith-based and secular organizations they see advertised on television or in magazines that advocate helping children. Have a committee of students make contact with these organizations by mail or email to request additional information, including a description of the type of services they provide and of the specific areas in which they operate. After obtaining the information, have students analyze it in an attempt to determine what percentage of every dollar collected is actually devoted to helping the disadvantaged children. What percentage of every dollar collected goes for administrative costs, advertising, and other expenses or “support service” that is not helping the needy directly? Do Christian or secular organizations seem to be more responsive and allocate a larger percentage of the money collected to helping children?
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Have students organize a formal debate on why social stratification is universal. Ask half the class to articulate the functionalist view of social stratification, and the other half the conflict theory’s view of social stratification. Students from both sides should anticipate the “other side’s” best arguments and be prepared to refute them. Specifically, ask the debating students to take pro or con positions on the following three points: first, social stratification is necessary for societies to exist and prosper; second, the United States functions, overall, as a meritocracy; and third, human beings—driven as they are by human nature—are incapable of ever creating and/or living in a classless society.
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As a take-home assignment, have students evaluate the pros and cons of globalization. They should create a detailed list of each. Have them bring their lists back to class and trade papers with someone. Each student should critique both the pros and cons of the other student. Have the students return the papers and get into groups to discuss their thoughts on the items. Then facilitate a class discussion to debate the potential globalization holds for world peace.
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Assign the following as a research paper. Choosing a country outside of the United States in which an oppressive condition exists, research and write about the following: What is the specific oppressive condition that exists in that country? Which groups of people in that country are most affected by this oppressive condition? How are they affected? What is the dominant religion of that country, and what are their cultural values and beliefs? What are some of the contributing factors, both indigenous and international, that help account for this oppressive condition? What are people doing, both indigenously and internationally, to address, alleviate, and/or eliminate this oppressive condition? What are the people of that nation doing for themselves to address their problems? Finally, note how this “far away” oppressive condition might affect you, and what you can do to participate in the “struggle.”
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Chapter 8: Social Class in the United States Chapter Summary Focusing on the United States, this chapter discusses social class. The first part of the chapter focuses on the components of social class and the differences between wealth and income. The chapter also discusses Marx’s and Weber’s definitions of social class: Marx focused on the ownership of the means of production, whereas Weber’s model incorporates other aspects— property, power, and prestige. Social class shapes differences in life experiences, including physical and mental health, family life, likelihood of education, type of religious affiliation, political affiliation, and likelihood of spending time within the criminal justice system. The chapter examines three types of social mobility: (1) intergenerational—changes in social class between family generations, which include both upward and downward mobility; (2) structural mobility—changes in structure—such as changes in the broader economy, which moves a lot of people up or down in terms of social class; and (3) exchange—where people move up or down the social class ladder but the distribution of people stays the same—or people change positions with one another. Poverty is more likely to occur in certain situations, for example, in the southern regions, in rural areas, among racial minorities, among those with less education, and among women. Dynamics of poverty are important to consider, and sociologists tend to stay away from the culture of poverty explanation as it tends to relate to victim blaming. Many sociologists suggest that deferred gratification is not a cause of poverty, but that poverty is a cause of deferred gratification. The chapter ends with a discussion of the Horatio Alger myth and how it maintains an individualist ideology about poverty. Learning Objectives LO 8.1 Explain the three components of social class—property, power, and prestige; distinguish between wealth and income; explain how property and income are distributed; and describe the democratic façade, the power elite, and status inconsistency. LO 8.2 Contrast Marx’s and Weber’s models of social class. LO 8.3 Summarize the consequences of social class for physical and mental health, family life, education, religion, politics, and the criminal justice system. LO 8.4 Contrast the three types of social mobility, review gender issues in research on social mobility, and explain why social mobility brings pain. LO 8.5 Explain the problems in drawing the poverty line and how poverty is related to geography, race–ethnicity, education, feminization, and age. LO 8.6 Contrast the dynamics of poverty with the culture of poverty, explain why people are poor and how deferred gratification is related to poverty, and comment on the Horatio Alger myth. Chapter Outline 66 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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A. What Is Social Class? 8.1 Explain the three components of social class—property, power, and prestige; distinguish between wealth and income; explain how property and income are distributed; and describe the democratic façade, the power elite, and status inconsistency. a) “There are the poor and the rich—and then there’s us, neither poor nor rich.” This summarizes the level of consciousness most Americans have regarding social class. The fact is that sociologists have no clear-cut, agreed-upon definition of social class. However, most sociologists adopt Max Weber’s components of social class, defining it as a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige. b) Wealth and income are not the same. “Wealth” refers to a person’s net worth, and “income” refers to a flow of money, such as wages, businesses, rent, interest, and royalties. Wealth and income usually go together, but not always; a person may own much property yet have little income, or vice versa. c) Ownership of property (houses, cars, businesses, bank accounts, and so on) is not distributed evenly: 10 percent of the U.S. population owns 84 percent of the wealth, and the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans owns two-fifths of all assets in the United States. d) Income is also distributed disproportionately: the top 20 percent of U.S. residents acquire 52.2 percent of the income; the bottom 20 percent receives 3 percent. a) Apart from the very rich, the most affluent group in U.S. society comprises the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the nation’s largest corporations. Their median income (including salaries, bonuses, and stock options) is about $16 million a year. e) Power is the ability to carry out your will despite resistance. a) Mills coined the term the “power elite” to refer to those who are the big decisionmakers in U.S. society. This group shares the same ideologies and values, belongs to the same clubs, and reinforces each other’s world view. b) Domhoff believes that no major decision in the U.S. government is made without their approval. f) Prestige is the respect or regard people give to various occupations and accomplishments. a) Occupations are the primary source of prestige. Occupations with the highest prestige pay more, require more education, entail more abstract thought, and offer greater autonomy. b) For prestige to be valuable, people must acknowledge it. The elite traditionally have made rules to emphasize their higher status. c) Status symbols, which vary according to social class, are ways of displaying prestige. In the United States, they include designer label clothing, expensive cars, prestigious addresses, and attending particular schools. g) Status inconsistency is the term used to describe the situation of people who have a mixture of high and low rankings in the three components of social class (property, power, and prestige). a) Most people are status consistent; they rank at the same level in all three components. People who are status inconsistent want others to act toward them on the basis of their highest status, but others tend to judge them on the basis of their lowest status. b) One study of thousands of Europeans found that men who are status inconsistent are twice as likely to have heart attacks as men who are status consistent. c) A fascinating social consequence of status inconsistency is that it tends to produce political liberals. College professors are an example. 67 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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B. Sociological Models of Social Class 8.2 Contrast Marx’s and Weber’s models of social class. 1. Although both Karl Marx and Max Weber proposed models of social class, both of these models have been modified to be more representative of the class structure as it now exists. 2. Sociologist Erik Wright realized that not everyone falls into Marx’s two broad classes (capitalists and workers, which were based on a person’s relationship to the means of production). For instance, although executives, managers, and supervisors would fall into Marx’s category of workers, they act more like capitalists. a) Wright resolved this problem by regarding some people as simultaneously members of more than one class, which he called contradictory class locations. b) Wright identified four classes: capitalists (owners of large enterprises); petty bourgeoisie (owners of small businesses); managers (employees who have authority over others); and workers (who sell their labor to others). 3. Using the model originally developed by Weber, sociologists Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl created a model to describe class structure in the United States and other capitalist countries. a) The capitalist class (1 percent of the population) is composed of investors, heirs, and a few executives; it is divided into “old” money and “new” money. The children of “new” money move into the “old” money class by attending the right schools and marrying “old” money. Many in this class are philanthropic. b) The upper-middle class (15 percent of the population) is composed of professionals and upper managers, almost all of whom have attended college or university and frequently have postgraduate degrees. This class is the one most shaped by education. c) The lower-middle class (34 percent of the population) is composed of technical and lower-level management positions. d) The working class (30 percent of the population) is composed of unskilled blue-collar and white-collar workers. Most have high school educations. e) The working poor (15 percent of the population) is composed of relatively unskilled low-paying, temporary and seasonal workers. If they graduated from high school, they probably did not do well in school, or they were high school dropouts. f) The underclass (5 percent of the population) is concentrated in the inner cities and has little connection with the job market. Welfare is their main support if available. g) The homeless are so far down the class structure that their position must be considered even lower than the underclass. They are the “fallout” of industrialization, especially the postindustrial developments that have led to a decline in the demand for unskilled labor. C. Consequences of Social Class 8.3 Summarize the consequences of social class for physical and mental health, family life, education, religion, politics, and the criminal justice system. 1. The lower a person’s social class, the more likely that person is to die at an earlier age than people in higher classes; this is true at all ages. Because medical care is expensive, the higher classes receive better medical care; life is better for those in higher social classes. Social class shapes our lifestyles, such as smoking, being overweight, and using 68 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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2. 3.
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drugs and alcohol, which affect one’s health. Finally, life is hard on the poor, causing their immune systems to weaken and their bodies to wear out faster. The rich have fewer problems and more resources to deal with the problems they do have. Mental health is worse for the lower classes because of stresses associated with their class position. Social class also plays a role in family life. a) Children of the capitalist class are under great pressure to select the right mate to assure the continuity of the family line. Parents in this social class play a large role in mate selection. b) Marriages are more likely to fail in the lower social classes given the challenges of inadequate income; the children of the poor are therefore more likely to live in singleparent households. c) Child rearing varies by class, with each class raising its children with attitudes and behaviors suited to the kinds of occupations they will eventually hold. Lower-class families teach children to defer to authority, as is required in their jobs. Middle-class families encourage freedom, creativity, and self-expression, as is found in their jobs. Education levels increase as one moves up the social class ladder. The change occurs not only in terms of the amount of education obtained, but also in terms of the type of education, with the capitalist class bypassing public schools in favor of exclusive private schools, where children are trained to assume a commanding role in society. All aspects of religious orientation follow class lines. Social classes tend to cluster around different denominations. Lower classes are attracted to spontaneous worship services and louder music, such as that found among Baptists, while higher classes prefer more restrained worship traditions, such as those practiced by Episcopalians. Political views and involvement are influenced by social class. a) The rich and the poor take divergent political paths, with people in lower social classes more likely to vote Democratic, while those in higher classes vote Republican; the parties are seen as promoting different class interests. b) People in the working class are more likely to be liberal on economic issues (more government spending) and conservative on social issues (opposition to abortion). c) Political participation is not equal: the higher classes are more likely to vote and get involved in politics than those in lower social classes. The criminal justice system is not blind to class either. a) The white-collar crimes of the more privileged classes are more likely to be dealt with outside of the criminal justice system, while the street crimes of the lower classes are dealt with by the police and courts. b) Members of lower classes are more likely to be arrested and are more likely to be on probation, on parole, or in jail. More crimes occur in lower-class neighborhoods.
D. Social Mobility 8.4 Contrast the three types of social mobility, review gender issues in research on social mobility, and explain why social mobility brings pain. 1. Unlike other systems of stratification, class is the most fluid, offering opportunities and providing social mobility—both vertically and horizontally along the social class ladder. There are three basic types of social mobility: intergenerational, structural, and exchange.
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a) Intergenerational mobility is the change that family members make in their social class from one generation to the next. As a result of individual effort, a person can rise from one level to another, which is called upward social mobility; in the event of individual failure, the reverse can be true, which is called downward social mobility. b) Structural mobility involves social changes that affect large numbers of people. c) Exchange mobility is movement of people up and down the social class system, but, on balance, the system remains the same. The term refers to a general, overall movement of large numbers of people that leaves the class system basically untouched. 2. Women have been largely ignored in studies of occupational mobility. Studies of social mobility among men indicate that about one-half of sons have moved beyond their fathers; about one-third have stayed at the same level; and about one-sixth have fallen down the ladder. a) As structural changes in the U.S. economy have created opportunities for women to move up the social class ladder, studies of their mobility patterns have appeared. b) One study indicated that women who do move up are encouraged by their parents to get an education. 3. The costs of social mobility include risking the loss of one’s roots. E. Poverty 8.5 Explain the problems in drawing the poverty line and how poverty is related to geography, race–ethnicity, education, feminization, and age. 1. To measure the degree of poverty a family faces, the government established a standard based on family size and income. The model is based on the factor of three times what the average family of a specific size would spend on food. Families making less than the calculated amount are considered to be below the poverty line and entitled to benefits specifically available to the poor. a) This official measure is grossly inadequate as it inflates the amount of money spent on food. It does not take into account if the family has to pay for child care or not. It is also the same across the country, even though the cost of living is higher in some states than in others. b) Any modification of this measure instantly adds or subtracts millions of people and thus has significant consequences. 2. Certain social groups are disproportionately represented among the poor population. a) A common myth is that African Americans crowd the welfare rolls, but statistics demonstrate that there are more poor White Americans than poor Americans in any other racial–ethnic group. b) The poor tend to be clustered in the South, a pattern that has existed for more than 150 years. The poverty rate for the rural poor is higher than the national average. We also see the suburbanization of poverty, as more of the nation’s poor live in the suburbs than in cities. c) The chances of being poor decrease as the amount of education increases. d) Family structure is one of the best indicators of whether or not a family is poor. Most poor families are headed by women. The major causes of this, called the feminization of poverty, are divorce, births to single women, and the lower wages paid to women.
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e) Race is also a major factor. Racial minorities are much more likely to be poor: 7 percent of Asian Americans, 9 percent of Whites, 16 percent of Latinos, and 19 percent of African Americans live in poverty. f) The elderly are less likely than the general population to be poor. Government programs—Social Security and subsidized housing, food stamps, and medical care— slashed the rate of poverty among elderly. However, racial–ethnic poverty patterns carry over into old age, and elderly minorities are more likely to be poor than elderly Whites. 3. Children are more likely to live in poverty than are adults or the elderly. This holds true regardless of race, but poverty is much greater among minority children. F. The Dynamics of Poverty versus the Culture of Poverty 8.6 Contrast the dynamics of poverty with the culture of poverty, explain why people are poor and how deferred gratification is related to poverty, and comment on the Horatio Alger myth. 1. In the 1960s, it was suggested that the poor get trapped in a culture of poverty as a result of having values and behaviors that make them “fundamentally different” from other Americans. a) Poverty is dynamic—it is not people who contentedly sit back on welfare. Dramatic life changes such as divorce, accident, illness, or job loss may create a poverty trigger. b) National statistics indicate that most poverty is short-lived, lasting less than a year. c) Because the number of people who live in poverty remains fairly constant, this means that as many people move into poverty as move out of it. d) Poverty touches more lives than the official totals indicate. 2. In trying to explain poverty, the choice is between focusing on individual explanations or on social structural explanations. a) Sociologists look to such factors as inequalities in education; access to learning job skills; racial, ethnic, age, and gender discrimination; and large-scale economic change to explain the patterns of poverty in society. b) The other explanation is individualistic, focusing on the characteristics of individuals that are assumed to contribute to their poverty. 3. Because the poor don’t see the future as different from the past, they find it difficult to defer gratification—that is, give up things now for the sake of greater gains in the future. Sociologists argue that the behaviors of the poor are not the cause of their poverty but rather a result of their poverty. 4. Because of real-life examples of people from humble origins who climbed far up the social ladder, most U.S. residents (including minorities and the working poor) believe that they have a chance of getting ahead. a) The Horatio Alger myth obviously is a statistical impossibility. Despite this, functionalists would stress that this belief is functional for society because it encourages people to compete for higher positions, while placing the blame for failure squarely on the individual. b) As Marx and Weber both noted, social class affects our ideas of life and our proper place in society. At the same time, the dominant ideology often blinds us to these effects in our own lives. 71 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Figures 8.1: Distribution of the Wealth of Americans 8.2: How the Income of Americans Is Distributed 8.3: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Dividing the Nation’s Income 8.4: Marx’s Model of the Social Classes 8.5: Wright’s Modification of Marx’s Model of the Social Classes 8.6: The U.S. Social Class Ladder 8.7: Physical Health, by Income 8.8: Mental Health, by Income: Feelings of Sadness, Hopelessness, or Worthlessness 8.9: Income of Adult Children Compared with That of Their Parents 8.10: The Declining Rate of Social Mobility 8.11: An Overview of Poverty in the United States 8.12: Patterns of Poverty 8.13: Who Ends Up Poor? Poverty by Education and Race–Ethnicity 8.14: Poverty and Family Structure 8.15: Poverty and Race–Ethnicity 8.16: Poverty, Age, and Race–Ethnicity 8.17: How Does Education Influence Births to Single Women? Tables 8.1: The Five Highest-Paid CEOs 8.2: Occupational Prestige: How Occupations Stack Up Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 8.1 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Winning the Lottery How do you think your life would change if you won a lottery jackpot of $10 million? J 8.2 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Social Class What effects has social class had on your life? (Go beyond possessions to values and how you view life.) How do you think you would see the world differently if you were Larry Ellison, John Castle, Paul Allen, Charles Simonyi, or Mrs. Wayne Huizenga? SW 8.1 Shared Writing: Consequences of Social Class In what three ways is social class having an ongoing impact on your life? SW 8.2 Shared Writing: Your Social Mobility In ten years, do you think your social class will be higher, lower, or the same as that of your parents? Why? Special Features 72 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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• • • • • •
Down-to-Earth Sociology: How the Super-Rich Live Down-to-Earth Sociology: The Big Win: Life After the Lottery Applying Sociology to Your Life: The American Dream and Social Mobility: The Good and the Bad Cultural Diversity in the United States: Social Class and the Upward Social Mobility of African Americans Down-to-Earth Sociology: What Do You Know about Poverty? Ten Quick Checks on What You Think You Know Thinking Critically about Social Life: The Nation’s Shame: Children in Poverty
Lecture Suggestions ▪
Examine Table 8.2, “Occupational Prestige: How Occupations Stack Up.” Ask students why living on public aid carries more prestige than holding positions such as bill collector, janitor, or housekeeper. Why is it that not working at all is more prestigious than being employed? Have students discuss these ideas and beliefs.
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After reading the Down-to-Earth Sociology box, “The Big Win: Life After the Lottery,” have students discuss how their lives would change if they won a lottery for $100 million or more. How would their present personal relationships change? Would they change their courses of study or even drop out of school? What would be their initial “splurge” of spending? Do they feel it may be better to win only a small lottery of several hundred thousand dollars? If they know of anyone who has won a large lottery, have them share with the class how their life changed. Finally, do they believe money can buy happiness? Why?
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Discuss the problems and adjustments a couple must make when each member is from a significantly different social class, such as the son of a working-class electrician dating and marrying the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur from a capitalist class family. What are the advantages and disadvantages for both the man and the woman? What is the probability that such a relationship would occur in the first place? What is the probability that such a relationship can succeed over the long term? If a student is aware of such a relationship, ask them to share the reality of it with the class (without disclosing the true identities of the couple).
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After reading the box on Cultural Diversity in the United States, “Social Class and the Upward Social Mobility of African Americans,” have students address the following questions: First, based on other information they have heard or seen, were students aware that since the 1960s, the number of middle-class African Americans has surged and that today more than half of all African Americans work at white-collar jobs? Were they also aware that upwardly mobile African Americans are often seen as abandoning their culture and that to succeed means to conform to the dominant culture?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Have the class decide on a group project that would help the poor. Select an agency or 73 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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organization that serves the poor, have a team of students contact the organization’s director to advise them of the class’s intention, and ask the director to suggest a variety of ways the class can help. Try to make the project an activity other than raising money and something that will specifically require the students to interface with the people they are serving. At the conclusion of the project, require each participating student to write a one-page reaction paper describing their involvement and the lessons they learned from it. ▪
Have members of the class visit an “exclusive” department store or market that caters to the “rich and famous,” making notes of some relatively common items sold and their price. Also have the investigating students note any unusual items the establishment sells that one would not normally find in a similar establishment that caters to the “average” consumer. What items found in the establishment catering to the “average” consumer are not found in the upper-class establishments? For items sold in both, what are the differences in how the product is advertised, sold, and priced?
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Have the class develop a brief survey on occupational prestige to administer as an interview. Have students pick people they know or have access to at all levels of the “Occupational Prestige” table (Table 8.2). For example, choose a physician, a lawyer, a dentist, a high school teacher, a police officer, a mail carrier, a cabinet maker, an electrician, a truck driver, a waiter or waitress, a janitor, a housekeeper, or any other occupations on the scale. See if their responses follow the book’s rankings. Following the completion of the surveys, analyze them to see how the responses are similar and different.
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Pointing out that no aspect of life goes untouched by social class, give students the following written assignment: “For this paper, you have three jobs to do. First, using Dennis Gilbert and Joseph Kahl’s model of social class, identify your family’s social class position on the social class ladder, while explaining what general factors you are using to place your family in that position, as well as noting any examples of status inconsistency. Second, predict (or imagine) the social class to which you see yourself belonging when you are 40 years old, while noting whether it is the same as or different from your family’s current social class position. Third, consider all of the advantages and/or disadvantages your family’s current social class position provides or poses in helping to determine the social class to which you see yourself belonging when you are 40 years old.”
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Chapter 9: Race and Ethnicity Chapter Summary This chapter examines the relationship between race and ethnicity within the United States and globally. The first portion explores the differences between race and ethnic groups and identifies some myths about race. Next, the chapter covers the differences between prejudice (attitudes) and discrimination (actions), while specifying individual discrimination (by one person) and institutional discrimination (by social institutions such as home loan practices). Next, the chapter examines psychological and sociological theories, including functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism. The chapter continues by discussing some of the negative actions regarding race– ethnicity, including genocide, population transfer, internal colonialism, and segregation, followed by a look at assimilation and multiculturalism. The author then reviews the history and patterns of different ethnic groups, including European Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. The chapter ends with a discussion of the debates surrounding immigration, suggesting the continuance of a multicultural society where all backgrounds are accepted. Learning Objectives LO 9.1 Contrast the myth and reality of race; compare race and ethnicity and minority and dominant groups; discuss ethnic work. LO 9.2 Contrast prejudice and discrimination and individual and institutional discrimination; discuss learning prejudice, internalizing dominant norms, and institutional discrimination. LO 9.3 Contrast psychological and sociological theories of prejudice: include functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionism. LO 9.4 Explain genocide, population transfer, internal colonialism, segregation, assimilation, and multiculturalism. LO 9.5 Summarize the major patterns that characterize European Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. LO 9.6 Discuss immigration, a multicultural society, and the future of racial–ethnic relations. Chapter Outline A. Laying the Sociological Foundation 9.1 Contrast the myth and reality of race; compare race and ethnicity and minority and dominant groups; discuss ethnic work. 1. With more than 7 billion people on the planet, the world offers a fascinating array of human characteristics. Race refers to the inherited physical characteristics that distinguish one group from another. These distinguishing characteristics include a variety of 75 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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complexions, colors, and shapes. Although there have been significant strides in the understanding of race and racial equality, some myths about race are still common. a) It is a myth that there are “pure” races because there are no “pure” races; what we call “races” are social classifications, not biological categories. The mapping of the human genome shows that humans are strikingly homogenous. b) It is a myth that there is a fixed number of races. The classification of race is complex. Some scientists have classified humans into two “races,” while others have found as many as two thousand. c) It is a myth that some races are superior to others. Throughout history are examples of this myth being put into practice. For example, the Holocaust, the massacre in Rwanda, and the “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia. Genocide—the attempt to destroy a group of people because of their presumed race or ethnicity—remains in the world. d) The myth of race makes a difference for social life because people believe these ideas are real and they act on their beliefs. 2. Race and ethnicity are often confused due to the cultural differences people see and the way they define race. The terms “ethnicity” and “ethnic” refer to cultural characteristics that distinguish a people. 3. Minority groups are people singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination. a) They are not necessarily in the numerical minority. Sociologists refer to those who do the discriminating as the dominant group; they have greater power, more privileges, and higher social status. The dominant group attributes its privileged position to its superiority, not to discrimination. b) A group becomes a minority through expansion of political boundaries by another group. Another way for a group to become a minority is by immigration into a territory, either voluntarily or involuntarily. 4. Some people feel an intense sense of ethnic identity while others feel very little. a) An individual’s sense of ethnic identity is influenced by the relative size and power of the ethnic group, its appearance, and the level of discrimination aimed at the group. If a group is relatively small, has little power, has a distinctive appearance, and is an object of discrimination, its members will have a heightened sense of ethnic identity. b) Ethnic work refers to how ethnicity is constructed and includes enhancing and maintaining a group’s distinctiveness or attempting to recover ethnic heritage. In the United States, millions of Americans are engaged in ethnic work, which has challenged the notion that our nation is a melting pot, with most groups quietly blending into a sort of ethnic stew. B. Prejudice and Discrimination 9.2 Contrast prejudice and discrimination and individual and institutional discrimination; discuss learning prejudice, internalizing dominant norms, and institutional discrimination. 1. Prejudice and discrimination exist in societies throughout the world. a) Discrimination is unfair treatment directed toward an individual or a group. When based on race, it is known as racism. It also can be based on many features such as age, sex, height, weight, skin color, clothing, speech, income, education, marital status, sexual orientation, disease, disability, religion, and politics. b) Prejudice is prejudging of some sort, usually in a negative way, and it is an attitude. 76 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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c) Sociologists found that some people learned prejudice after association with certain groups. Racism was not the cause for joining a racist group but the result of their membership in that group. d) It has been found that prejudice against one racial–ethnic group leads to prejudice against others. e) People can learn to be prejudiced against their own groups by internalizing the norms of the dominant group. f) Psychologists found through the Implicit Association Test that we hold biased perceptions of racial groups through the ethnic maps that we have learned in our cultures. 2. Sociologists distinguish between individual discrimination (negative treatment of one person by another) and institutional discrimination (negative treatment of a minority group that is built into society’s institutions). a) Race–ethnicity is a significant factor in getting a mortgage or a car loan. Researchers found that even when two mortgage applicants are identical in terms of credit histories, African Americans and Latinos are more likely than Whites to be rejected. b) In terms of health care, researchers have found that African American mothers are more than three times as likely to die as White mothers, while their children are more than twice as likely to die during their first year of life. c) Unintentional discrimination can be so subtle that no one is aware of it—neither those being discriminated against nor those doing the discriminating. Whites, for example, are more likely than minorities to be given heart bypass surgery. C. Theories of Prejudice 9.3 Contrast psychological and sociological theories of prejudice: include functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionism. 1. Psychological perspectives a) According to John Dollard, prejudice results from frustration; people unable to strike out at the real source of their frustration find scapegoats to unfairly blame. b) According to Theodor Adorno, highly prejudiced people are insecure, intolerant people who long for the firm boundaries established by strong authority; he called this complex of personality traits the authoritarian personality. c) Subsequent studies have generally concluded that people who are older, less educated, less intelligent, and from a lower social class are more likely to be authoritarian. d) Critics stress that the “authoritarian” personality is not really a personality at all, that researchers have simply found that the less educated are more prejudiced. 2. Sociological perspectives a) To functionalists, the social environment can be deliberately arranged to generate either positive or negative feelings about people. Prejudice is functional in that it creates in-group solidarity and out-group antagonism, but dysfunctional because it destroys human relationships. States still find prejudice to be functional today, a tool to reach national goals. b) To conflict theorists, the ruling class systematically pits group against group; by splitting workers along racial–ethnic lines they benefit, because solidarity among the workers is weakened. The higher unemployment rates of minorities create a reserve 77 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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labor force from which owners can draw when they need to expand production temporarily. The existence of the reserve labor force is a constant threat to White workers, who modify their demands rather than lose their jobs to unemployment. Racial–ethnic divisions at work are also encouraged and exploited. This weakens workers’ bargaining power. c) To symbolic interactionists, the labels people learn affect their perceptions, leading to selective perception—they see certain things and are blind to others. Racial and ethnic labels are especially powerful because they are shorthand for emotionally laden stereotypes. Symbolic interactionists stress that people learn prejudices in interactions with others. These stereotypes not only justify prejudice and discrimination, but they also lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy—stereotypical behavior in those who are stereotyped. D. Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations 9.4 Explain genocide, population transfer, internal colonialism, segregation, assimilation, and multiculturalism. 1. Genocide is the actual or attempted systematic annihilation of a race or ethnic group that is labeled as less than fully human. The Holocaust and the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans are examples. Labels that dehumanize others help people compartmentalize; they can separate their acts from their sense of being good and decent people. In short, labeling the targeted group as inferior or even less than fully human facilitates genocide. 2. Population transfer is the forced transfer of a minority group. Indirect transfer involves making life so unbearable that members of a minority then leave “voluntarily”; direct transfer involves forced expulsion. A combination of genocide and population transfer occurred in Bosnia, in the former Yugoslavia, as Serbs engaged in the wholesale slaughter of Muslims, with survivors forced to flee the area. A recent example of a reverse form of population transfer took place in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine and several million Ukrainians fled in fear for their lives. 3. Internal colonialism is a society’s policy of exploiting a minority by using social institutions to deny it access to full benefits. Slavery is an extreme example as well as South Africa’s system of apartheid. 4. Segregation is the formal separation of groups that accompanies internal colonialism. Dominant groups maintain social distance from minorities yet still exploit their labor. It continues today, especially in housing. 5. Assimilation is the process by which a minority is absorbed into the mainstream. Forced assimilation occurs when the dominant group prohibits the minority from using its own religion, language, or customs. Permissive assimilation is when the minority adopts the dominant group’s patterns in its own way and/or at its own speed. 6. Multiculturalism, also called pluralism, permits or encourages racial–ethnic differences. Switzerland is an excellent example of multiculturalism. The French, Italians, Germans, and Romansh have kept their own languages and live in political and economic unity. E. Racial–Ethnic Relations in the United States 9.5 Summarize the major patterns that characterize European Americans, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. 78 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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1. Racial and ethnic terms that are used in the United States are controversial. a) White Americans comprise 59 percent of the U.S. population, with racial and ethnic minorities comprising 38 percent. About 2 to 3 percent claim membership in two or more racial–ethnic groups. b) Minority groups tend to be clustered in areas, so the distribution of dominant and minority groups among the states rarely comes close to the national average. 2. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) established the basic social institutions in the United States when they settled the original colonies. a) WASPs were very ethnocentric and viewed immigrants from other European countries as inferior. Subsequent immigrants were expected to speak English and adopt other Anglo-Saxon ways of life. b) White ethnics are White immigrants to the United States whose culture differs from that of WASPs. They include the Irish, Germans, Poles, Jews, and Italians. They were initially discriminated against by WASPs, who felt that something was wrong with people with different customs. c) The institutional and cultural dominance of Western Europeans set the stage for current ethnic relations. 3. The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” do not refer to a race, but to different ethnic groups. Latinos may be Black, White, or Native American. a) About 37 million people trace their origins to Mexico, 9 million to Central and South America, 6 million people to Puerto Rico, and 2 million people to Cuba. b) While most are legal residents, about 11 million Latinos have entered the country illegally. c) One reaction to massive unauthorized entry into the United States has been welcoming by offering driving licenses or becoming “sanctuary cities.” d) A second reaction is to prevent illegal entry and to locate and remove unauthorized residents. President Trump proposed building a high wall to seal the border. e) Latinos are concentrated in six states (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, and Arizona). f) The Spanish language distinguishes them from other minorities; many Latinos cannot speak English or can only do so with difficulty. Some Anglos perceive the growing use of Spanish as a threat, have initiated an “English only” movement, and have succeeded in getting states to consider making English their official language. g) Latino family incomes are about three-fifths that of Whites, and Latinos are almost twice as likely as Whites to be poor. On the other hand, one of every eight Latino families has an income higher than $150,000 a year. h) Latinos are the most likely to drop out of high school, and they are close to the least likely to graduate from college. With each new edition of this book, the educational levels of Latinos are increasing. i) Although political representation of Latinos is still small, the numbers are increasing. Yet, divisions by national origin prevent political unity. 4. African Americans face a legacy of racism. a) After slavery was abolished, southern states passed Jim Crow laws to segregate Blacks and Whites. In 1896, Plessy v. Ferguson allowed states to require “separate but equal” accommodations for Blacks. Blacks were not permitted to vote in primaries until 1944, but then a law passed that restricted voting only to those who 79 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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could read—which removed the right to vote for many African Americans. Not until 1954 did African Americans gain the legal right to attend the same public schools as Whites. b) The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act heightened expectations for African Americans that better social conditions would follow these gains. Frustration over the pace of change led to urban riots and passage of the 1968 Civil Rights Act. c) Since then, African Americans have made political and economic progress. For example, African Americans have increased their membership in the U.S. House of Representatives in the past thirty years, and their enrollment in colleges continues to increase. About half of all African American families make more than $50,000 a year. In 1989, L. Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia. In 2006, Deval Patrick became governor of Massachusetts. In 2008, Barack Obama became president of the United States and was reelected in 2012. In 2020, Kamala Harris was elected as vice president of the United States. d) Despite these gains, however, African Americans continue to lag behind in politics, economics, and education. There are only four African American senators. Currently, African Americans average only two-thirds of Whites’ incomes, experience twice as much poverty, and are less likely to have a college education. One of every ten African American families makes less than $15,000 a year. e) According to William Wilson, social class (not race) is the major determinant of quality of life. The African American community today is composed of a middle class who took advantage of the opportunities created by civil rights legislation and advanced economically, living in good housing, having well-paid jobs, and sending their children to good schools, as well as a large group of less educated and less skilled African Americans who were left behind as opportunities for unskilled labor declined. They now find themselves living in poverty, facing violent crime and little opportunity for work, and sending their children to poor schools. f) Others argue that discrimination on the basis of race persists, despite gains made by some African Americans. g) Racism still continues to be a part of life. Researchers found that résumés of people with White-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks than those having Black-sounding names. 5. Asian Americans have long faced discrimination in the United States. a) Many people are grouped together as Asian Americans, although this encompasses many nations and different cultures that might not feel any commonalities. b) Chinese immigrants were drawn here by the gold strikes in the West and the need for unskilled workers to build the railroads. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, suspending all Chinese immigration for ten years. c) When the Japanese arrived, they met spillover bigotry, a stereotype that lumped all Asians together, depicting them negatively. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, hostilities toward Japanese Americans increased, with many being imprisoned in internment camps. d) On the average, Asian Americans have higher annual incomes and lower unemployment rates than other racial–ethnic groups. Those most likely to be in poverty, though, come from Southeast Asia. 80 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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e) The success of Asian Americans can be traced to three factors: (1) a close family life, (2) educational achievement, and (3) assimilation into the mainstream. f) Asian American children are the most likely to grow up with two parents. They have very high rates of college graduation. The high intermarriage rate of Asian Americans has enabled them to assimilate into mainstream culture. g) Asian Americans are becoming more prominent in politics. Hawaii has elected several Asian American governors and sent several Asian American senators to Washington. Nikki Haley, the first Indian American woman to be elected a governor, resigned as governor of South Carolina in 2016 to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 6. Due to the influence of old movie Westerns, many Americans tend to hold stereotypes of Native Americans as uncivilized savages and as a single group of people subdivided into separate bands. a) In reality, however, Native Americans represent a diverse group of people with a variety of cultures and languages. Although originally numbering about ten million, their numbers were reduced to a low of 250,000 due to a lack of immunity to European diseases and warfare. Today there are more than four million Native Americans who speak 169 different languages. b) At first, relations between European settlers and Native Americans were peaceful. However, as the number of settlers increased, tension increased. Because they stood in the way of expansion, many were slaughtered. Government policy shifted to population transfer, with Native Americans confined to reservations. c) Today, they are an invisible minority. One-third live in just three states: Oklahoma, California, and Arizona; most other Americans are hardly aware of them. They have the highest rates of suicide and the lowest life expectancy of any U.S. minority. These negative conditions are the result of Anglo domination. d) In the 1960s, Native Americans won a series of legal victories that restored their control over the land and their right to determine economic policy. Many Native Americans have opened businesses on their lands, ranging from industrial parks to casinos. e) About 250 tribes operate casinos, which provide a large amount of income and many jobs. f) Some Native Americans embrace separatism, or the idea that they are separate from the U.S. government. g) Native Americans have formed national and regional organizations, including cooperative organizations and intertribal councils. F. Looking toward the Future 9.6 Discuss immigration, a multicultural society, and the future of racial–ethnic relations. 1. Central to this country’s history, immigration and the fear of its consequences are once again issues facing the United States. The concern has been that “too many” immigrants will alter the character of the United States, undermining basic institutions and contributing to the breakdown of society. a) There is fear that Spanish speakers will threaten the primacy of the English language, that immigrants will take jobs away from native-born Americans, and that newer groups will gain political power at the expense of other minority groups. 81 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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2. The United States has the potential to become a society in which racial–ethnic groups not only coexist but also respect one another—and thrive—as they work together for mutually beneficial goals. 3. In a true multicultural society, the minority groups that make up the United States would participate fully in the nation’s social institutions while maintaining their cultural integrity. Figures 9.1: A Sense of Ethnicity 9.2: Buying a House: Institutional Discrimination and Predatory Lending 9.3: Global Patterns of Intergroup Relations: A Continuum 9.4: Race–Ethnicity of the U.S. Population 9.5: U.S. Racial–Ethnic Groups 9.6: The Distribution of Dominant and Minority Groups 9.7: Geographical Origins of U.S. Latino Americans 9.8: Where Latino Americans Live 9.9: Countries of Origin of Asian Americans 9.10: Projections of the Racial–Ethnic Makeup of the U.S. Population Tables 9.1: Health and Race–Ethnicity 9.2: Indicators of Relative Economic Well-Being 9.3: Race–Ethnicity and Family Income Extremes 9.4: Race–Ethnicity and Education Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 9.1 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: The Future of Racial–Ethnic Categories How do you think that the categories used to group people by race–ethnicity will change in the future? Why? J 9.2 Journal: Applying the Sociological Perspective: The Functionalist Perspective on Shifting Racial–Ethnic Mix To apply the functionalist perspective, try to determine how each racial–ethnic group will benefit from this changing mix. How will other parts of society (such as businesses) benefit? What functions and dysfunctions can you anticipate for politics, economics, education, or religion? SW 9.1 Shared Writing: Exploring Cultural Privilege Can you think of other “background privileges” that come to Whites because of their skin color? (McIntosh’s list contains forty-six items.) Why are Whites seldom aware that they carry an “invisible knapsack”? SW 9.2 82 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Shared Writing: Ota Benga Explain how the concepts of prejudice and discrimination apply to what happened to Ota Benga. Special Features • • • • • • • • • •
Cultural Diversity in the United States: Tiger Woods: Mapping the Changing Ethnic Terrain Down-to-Earth Sociology: Can a Plane Ride Change Your Race? Ethnic Work Down-to-Earth Sociology: The Racist Mind Down-to-Earth Sociology: The Man in the Zoo Down-to-Earth Sociology: Self-Segregation in College Down-to-Earth Sociology: When Segregated Worlds Meet: White, Black, and Others Down-to-Earth Sociology: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack: Exploring Cultural Privilege Cultural Diversity in the United States: The Illegal Travel Guide Cultural Diversity in the United States: Glimpsing the Future: The Shifting U.S. Racial– Ethnic Mix
Lecture Suggestions ▪
Shelby Steele, a Black psychologist, as well as other recognized Black scholars such as Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell, and Black celebrities, have argued that Blacks should move beyond “thinking of ourselves as victims” in an effort to build a positive identity. Ask students what they think of this position, and to explain.
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The lyrics of a patriotic ballad made by actor John Wayne discuss how any American who uses a hyphen to describe their heritage, such as African American, Jewish American, or Italian American is a “divided American” with split loyalties. Do students agree or disagree with this assessment? Have they ever faced a situation in which their loyalties were divided between their racial or ethnic identities and their loyalty as Americans? If anyone has, have them explain the situation and its outcome.
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Considering the history of racism and racial tensions in the United States, ask students why it is so difficult for many people to publicly express their feelings about race relations, particularly in mixed-race settings. Focusing on the “college experience,” ask students how comfortable they are talking about race relations in their classes. Do they tend to express their feelings openly in class when the subject comes up? If not, why not? Why might White students, in general, be reluctant to express their views on race in classes that include Black students? Why might Black students be reluctant to express their views on race in classes in which they are the minority?
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Ask students to discuss whether there is too much attention given to Black–White issues in the United States, or is the current amount of attention given to these issues needed to ensure that racial discrimination against Black Americans does not get “swept under the rug”? Either way, how might other racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, such as 83 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americas, be getting “left out of the picture,” and what can be done to ensure that their needs and/or grievances are equally addressed?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Have students complete a short essay about how they construct their ethnic work. Have them include the racial and/or ethnic heritage they share, the holidays they celebrate, the significance of religion to their ethnicity, foods they identify with, and the ways they dress. Have students who do not have a distinct concept of their ethnic background research this with their parents, grandparents, or other relatives who may be knowledgeable about their family background.
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Have students make a list of all the organizations and programs on campus that can be identified by racial or ethnic affiliation, such as a Black student union, a Latino student union, and so on. Ask them to see if any of these organizations are White only, Black only, Latino only, and so on. For each organization identified, have them collect a pamphlet or description. Some of these organizations may have websites. Next, have students similarly identify racially and ethnically affiliated organizations in their hometowns, in the city where the university is located, or in an adjacent city. Again, have them try to get information on each agency identified. How does the university community compare to the city in terms of number and types of diverse organizations?
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Ask students to surf the internet for ads, television shows, and movies reinforcing racial– ethnic stereotypes. Afterward, have them meet in small groups to share what they found, while addressing the following points: How easy or difficult is it to find racist material on the internet? Which minority groups are the most frequent targets of racist material on the internet, and what are some of the common stereotypes being used against them? Finally, which psychological and/or sociological theories seem to best address the prejudices of the individuals and groups currently disseminating racist material on the internet?
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Organize an ethnic festival on campus where students from different racial and ethnic groups celebrate and share their heritages. The festival can include, for example, ethnic food, music, fashion, art, sports, and games, as well as information about the various groups’ countries of origin. As an interesting side note, ask students to think about and discuss how “White culture” might be represented at the ethnic festival, if at all. Is there such a thing as “White culture”? If so, what constitutes “White” food, music, fashion, art, sports, and games?
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Chapter 10: Gender and Age Chapter Summary This chapter examines gender discrimination, beginning by defining the difference between sex, the biological aspect, and gender, the social aspect. Then it discusses the intersection of biology and sociology and how they need to work together as neither provides a complete picture on its own. Next, the author explores gender discrimination’s origins and the global aspects of violence. The rise of feminism and gender inequality in education are also discussed. The pay gap and the difficulties that women face in breaking the glass ceiling are then focused on in the chapter. The chapter shifts to violence against women and also talks about gender and politics and the implications of women’s fuller participation in the decision-making processes of our social institutions. The second half of the chapter explores the inequalities of aging. The view on the elderly and aging differs across societies and shifted after industrialization. More positive images of the elderly are developing, and theories of old age have taken a more positive tone. The chapter explores several functionalist theories regarding aging: disengagement, activity, and continuity. The chapter also explains the conflict perspective on the beginning of Social Security. The last section of the chapter focuses on creative aging and how it is changing how people view the elderly as well as how the elderly view themselves. Learning Objectives LO 10.1 Distinguish between sex and gender; use research on Vietnam veterans and testosterone to explain why the door to biology is opening in sociology. LO 10.2 Discuss the origin of gender discrimination, and review global aspects of violence against women. LO 10.3 Review the rise of feminism, and summarize gender inequality in education. LO 10.4 Explain reasons for the pay gap and discuss the glass ceiling. LO 10.5 Summarize violence against women: rape, murder, and violence in the home. LO 10.6 Discuss changes in gender and politics. LO 10.7 Understand how attitudes toward the elderly vary around the world; explain how industrialization led to a graying globe. LO 10.8 Discuss changes in perceptions of the elderly. LO 10.9 Summarize theories of disengagement, activity, and continuity. LO 10.10 Explain the conflict perspective on Social Security, and discuss intergenerational competition and conflict. 85 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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LO 10.11 Discuss developing views of aging. Chapter Outline A. Issues of Sex and Gender 10.1 Distinguish between sex and gender; use research on Vietnam veterans and testosterone to explain why the door to biology is opening in sociology. 1. Sex and gender are different. a) Sex comprises the biological characteristics that distinguish males and females, including primary sex characteristics (organs related to reproduction) and secondary sex characteristics (physical distinctions not related to reproduction). b) Gender is a social characteristic that varies from one society to another and refers to what the group considers proper for its males and females. 2. Gender stratification refers to males’ and females’ unequal access to power, prestige, and property. a) Gender is especially significant because it is a master status, cutting across all aspects of social life. b) No matter what we attain in our lifetimes, we carry the label “male” or “female” with us; this label guides our behavior and serves as a basis for distributing property, power, and prestige. 3. Some researchers argue that biological factors (two X chromosomes in females, one X and one Y in males) result in differences in conduct, with men being more aggressive and domineering and women being more nurturing and submissive. 4. The dominant sociological position is that social factors explain why we do what we do. People in every society determine what the physical differences separating men and women mean to them. a) Sociologists argue that if biology was the primary factor in human behavior, then women the world over would all behave the same way, as would men. In fact, ideas of gender vary greatly from one culture to another. 5. That biological factors are involved in human behavior is being acknowledged by some sociologists. Real-life cases provide support for the argument that biology influences men’s and women’s behavior. a) A medical accident led to a young boy being reassigned to the female sex. Reared as a female, the child behaved like a girl; however, by adolescence she was unhappy and having a difficult time adjusting to being a female. In adolescence, the child underwent medical procedures to once again become a male. b) A study of Vietnam veterans found that the men who had higher levels of testosterone tended to be more aggressive and to have more problems. The effect of high testosterone differed based on social classes—those in lower social classes were more likely to get in trouble with the law, do poorly in school, and mistreat their wives—suggesting social factors also play a role. c) Research on the effects of testosterone continues and finds that higher levels of testosterone lead to higher dominance but that winning also produces higher levels of testosterone. The effects also apply to females. The effects of testosterone also differ depending on the social situation. d) Alice Rossi suggested that it is not biology or society but rather nature that provides biological predispositions overlaid with culture. 86 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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B. Gender Inequality in Global Perspective 10.2 Discuss the origin of gender discrimination, and review global aspects of violence against women. 1. Around the world, gender is the primary division between people. Because society sets up barriers to deny women equal access, they are referred to as a minority even though they outnumber men. 2. A patriarchy is a society in which men dominate women and authority is vested in males. The major theory of the origin of patriarchy points to social consequences of human reproduction. a) Since life was short and women were tied to reproductive roles, they assumed tasks around the home. b) Men took over hunting of large animals and left the home base for extended periods of time. This enabled men to make contact with other groups, trade with those other groups, and wage war and gain prestige by returning home with prisoners of war or with large animals to feed the group; little prestige was given to women’s more routine tasks. 3. Violence against women is a global human rights issue. Foot binding, witch burning, forced prostitution, and female circumcision are some examples. 4. Gender inequality is not accidental. Each society’s institutions work together to maintain the group’s particular forms of inequality. C. Gender Inequality in the United States 10.3 Review the rise of feminism, and summarize gender inequality in education. 1. Until the twentieth century, U.S. women did not have the right to vote, hold property, make legal contracts, or serve on a jury. 2. In response to patriarchy, the feminist philosophy was developed. Feminism is the belief that men and women should be politically, economically, and socially equal and that gender stratification must be met with organized resistance. Feminists further believe that biology is not destiny and that stratification by gender is wrong. a) Males did not willingly surrender their privileges; rather, greater political rights for women resulted from a prolonged and bitter struggle waged by a “first wave” of feminists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. b) This movement was divided into radical and conservative branches. The radical branch wanted to reform all social institutions, while the conservative branch concentrated only on winning the vote for women. After 1920 and the achievement of suffrage for women, the movement dissolved. c) A “second wave” of feminism began in the 1960s. As more women gained an education and began to work outside the home, they compared their wages and working conditions to those of men. As awareness of gender inequalities grew, protest and struggle emerged. The goals of this second wave of feminism are broad, from changing work roles to changing policies on violence against women. d) The “third wave” emerged, and three main aspects were apparent. The first is a criticism of the values that dominate work and society. The second is a greater focus on women in the Least Industrialized Nations. The third is an emphasis on women’s freedom to explore sexual pleasure. 87 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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e) Some argue that we are in a “fourth wave” of feminism, while others argue that we are in a postfeminist period. Regardless of what it’s called, this current period is fractured. f) While women enjoy more rights today, gender inequality still plays a central role in social life. 3. There is evidence of educational gains made by women; more females than males are enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, and females earn 57 percent of all bachelor’s degrees and 61 percent of all master’s degrees. a) Almost as many women as men now become dentists, lawyers, and physicians. b) There is still the matter of gender tracking. Men earn 93 percent of associates’ degrees in the “masculine” field of construction, while women are awarded 95 percent of the associates’ degrees in the “feminine” fields of family and consumer sciences. D. Gender Inequality in the Workplace 10.4 Explain reasons for the pay gap and discuss the glass ceiling. 1. One of the chief characteristics of the U.S. workforce is the steady growth in the number of women who work outside the home for wages. a) Today, nearly one in every two paid workers is a woman. b) Geographical factors influence whether women are more likely to work, but we currently have little understanding of why this is the case. c) On average, men start out with higher salaries than women after graduating from college. d) Men earn more than women, even when their educational achievement is the same. U.S. women who work full time average only 76 percent of what men are paid. All industrialized nations have a pay gap. e) Researchers found that half of the gender pay gap is due to women choosing lowerpaying careers. The other half is due to gender discrimination and the “child penalty”—women missing out on work experience while they care for their children. f) Women head only 41 of the nation’s largest 500 corporations. The best chance to be CEO of the largest U.S. corporations is to have a name such as John, Robert, James, William, or Charles. One of the few women to head a Fortune 500 company had a man’s name: Carleton Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard. 2. The glass ceiling describes an invisible barrier that women face in trying to reach the executive suites. a) The child penalty and stereotypes are some of the reasons why women are prevented from reaching the executive office. b) Researchers also find that women are steered into human resources and public relations rather than leadership positions because the men who dominate leadership often assume that women are good at support but less capable than men at aggressive leadership. c) Another explanation for the situation is that women lack mentors. There is some unease with male–female relationships. Some men are predators, but this also makes good men suspect. E. Gender and Violence 88 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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10.5 Summarize violence against women: rape, murder, and violence in the home. 1. Females are more likely to be the victims of males. a) Each year, almost 2.9 of every 1,000 females age 12 and older are sexually assaulted in the United States. b) Most victims are between the ages of 15 to 24 years old and know their attacker. c) Males who are victims of rape also experience devastating consequences. d) Date rape (sexual assault in which the assailant is acquainted with the victim) is common. Most instances go unreported because the victim feels partially responsible, as she knows the person and was with him voluntarily. e) Males are more likely than females to commit murder and be the victim of murder. f) Other forms of violence against women include battering, marital rape, incest, honor killings, and female circumcision. 2. Feminists use symbolic interactionism to understand violence against women. They stress that U.S. culture promotes violence by males. It teaches men to associate strength and virility with violence. Conflict theory argues that men use violence to try to maintain a higher status. 3. To solve violence, we must first break the link between violence and masculinity. F. The Changing Face of Politics 10.6 Discuss changes in gender and politics. 1. Despite the gains U.S. women have made in recent elections, they continue to be underrepresented in political office, especially in higher office. a) There are signs that this pattern is changing. More women are going into law and business, and child care is now more likely to be seen as a mutual responsibility. 2. Trends in the 2000s indicate that women will participate in political life in far greater numbers than in the past. 3. As structural barriers continue to fall and more activities are degendered, both males and females will have greater freedom to pursue activities that are more compatible with their abilities and desires as individuals. G. Aging in Global Perspective 10.7 Understand how attitudes toward the elderly vary around the world; explain how industrialization led to a graying globe. 1. Every society must deal with the problem of people growing old. Societies must decide how to allocate limited resources among their citizens. This ranges from the hunting and gathering societies of the Amazon rainforest to the most advanced nations, such as the United States. This problem of how to address the needs of the elderly is very complex because age alone does not always qualify as the measurement of being old. A society’s definition and treatment of its elderly is socially constructed. Attitudes about the elderly are rooted in culture and vary from one social group to another. a) The Tiwi got rid of the old, decrepit females in their society by “covering them up.” That is, they dug a hole, put the old woman in the hole, and covered her with dirt all the way with only her head showing. Returning in a day or two, they found that she had died. b) The Abkhasians, on the other hand, pay high respect to their elderly. They may be the longest-living people in the world, with many claiming to live past 100. The main 89 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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factors that appear to account for their long lives are diet, lifelong physical activity, and a highly developed sense of community. 2. When a country industrializes, its people live longer. This is the result of technological advances that include more food, a purer water supply, better housing, and more effective ways of fighting diseases that kill children. a) As the proportion of elderly increases, so does the bill that younger citizens must pay to provide for their needs. Among industrialized nations, this bill has become a major social issue. 3. In the United States, the “graying of America” refers to the percentage of older people in the U.S. population. a) Life expectancy, the number of years average people can expect to live, has increased since 1900. b) Life expectancy dropped one to two years because of COVID-19, with Hispanics and African Americans having higher death rates. c) The elderly population is not evenly distributed around the country. d) Although more people are living to old age, the life span, or maximum length of life possible, has not increased. H. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective 10.8 Discuss changes in perceptions of the elderly. 1. The symbolic interactionist perspective examines the “signals,” or labels and stereotypes that people associate with aging. Several factors push people to apply the label “old.” 2. Over time, the meaning of being old has shifted within the United States. a) In the early United States, old age was regarded positively and seen as an accomplishment. b) With the coming of industrialization, the traditional bases of respect for the elderly eroded. More people reached old age, and being elderly lost its uniqueness and honor. Mass education also removed the elderly’s superior knowledge. c) Symbolic interactionism focuses on how we perceive ourselves and others according to our culture. When old age changed from asset to liability, views of younger people changed and so did views of the elderly about themselves. d) Now the meaning of age is shifting again to a more positive view of the elderly and to aging as a new stage of growth, rather than the end of life. e) Swedish sociologist Lars Tornstam developed a theory that as people grow old, they transcend their limited views of life and see things as less black and white—although this theory has limitations. 3. The mass media communicate messages about age, influencing our ideas about the elderly. 4. Symbolic interactionists stress that old age has no inherent meaning. I. The Functionalist Perspective 10.9 Summarize theories of disengagement, activity, and continuity. 1. Functionalists analyze how parts of society work together. One component of society is age cohorts—people who were born at roughly the same time and pass through the life course together.
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2. Elaine Cumming and William Henry developed disengagement theory to explain how society prevents disruption when the elderly retire. a) The elderly are rewarded in some way (pensions) for giving up positions rather than waiting until they become incompetent or die; this allows for a smooth transition of employment. b) For many, disengagement begins during middle age, long before retirement. While not immediately disengaging, the individual begins to assign priority to certain goals and tasks. c) This theory is criticized because it assumes that the elderly disengage and then watch the world go by. d) Others suggest that the elderly exchange one set of roles for another; the new roles, centering around friendship, are no less satisfying than the earlier roles. e) The nature of retirement has also been changing; more often, workers slow down rather than simply stop working. Many never “retire” but simply cut back. 3. According to activity theory, older people who maintain a high level of activity tend to be more satisfied with life than those who do not. a) Critiques of this theory focus on the fact that not all people are the same—what one person finds satisfying may not work for another. 4. Continuity theory focuses on how people continue their roles to adjust to change. a) People from higher social classes have greater resources to cope with the challenges of old age and consequently adjust better. b) People who have multiple roles—wife, author, mother, intimate friend, church member, etc.—are better equipped to handle the loss of a role than are people who do not. c) Critics claim that this theory is too broad; it is seen as a collection of loosely connected ideas with no specific application to the elderly. 5. The broader perspective of the functionalists is how society’s parts work together to keep society running smoothly. The narrower perspective focuses on how individuals adjust to retirement. The research finds that the activities that help the elderly to confirm and to reconstruct their identities promote satisfaction and happiness, leading to a more satisfying retirement. J. The Conflict Perspective 10.10 Explain the conflict perspective on Social Security, and discuss intergenerational competition and conflict. 1. Conflict theorists examine social life as a struggle between groups for scarce resources. Social Security legislation is an example of that struggle. a) In the 1920s, two-thirds of all citizens over age 65 had no savings and could not support themselves. Francis Townsend enrolled one-third of all Americans over 65 in clubs that sought a national sales tax to finance a monthly pension for all Americans over age 65. To avoid the plan without appearing to be opposed to old-age pensions, Social Security was enacted by Congress. b) Initially, the legislation required workers to retire at 65. For decades, the elderly protested. Finally, in 1986, Congress eliminated mandatory retirement. Today, almost 90 percent of Americans retire by age 65, but they do so voluntarily.
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2. Since equilibrium is only a temporary balancing of social forces, some form of continuing conflict between the younger generation and the older appears inevitable. a) The huge costs of Social Security and Medicare have become a national concern, with some arguing that they are guilty of generational theft. K. Looking Toward the Future 10.11 Discuss developing views of aging. 1. Huge numbers of people are becoming elderly, and one consequence is a re-evaluation of what it means to be elderly. This has led to creative aging. 2. Creative aging is a developing meaning of the elderly years as a time of opportunities to pursue interests and creativity, and to enhance the appreciation of life’s beauty and one’s place in it. 3. If this emphasis continues, it will change how the younger people view the elderly and how the elderly view themselves. Figures 10.1: Teaching Gender 10.2: Changes in College Enrollment, by Sex 10.3: College Students, by Sex and Race–Ethnicity 10.4: Gender Changes in Professional Degrees 10.5: Proportion of Men and Women in the U.S. Labor Force 10.6: Women in the Workforce 10.7: The Gender Pay Gap, by Education 10.8: The Gender Pay Gap over Time: What Percentage of Men’s Income Do Women Earn? 10.9: Killers and Their Victims 10.10: Women in U.S. Congress 10.11: The Graying of the Globe 10.12: U.S. Life Expectancy by Year of Birth 10.13: The Graying of America: Percentage of Americans Age 65 and Older 10.14: The Changing Median Age of the U.S. Population 10.15: Life Expectancy in Global Perspective 10.16: As Florida (now Maine) Goes, So Goes the Nation 10.17: Social Security Payments to Beneficiaries 10.18: Health Care Costs for the Elderly and Disabled 10.19: Age and Trends in Poverty Tables 10.1: Rape Victims 10.2: U.S. Women in Political Office Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 10.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Reducing Gender Inequality What do you think can be done to reduce gender inequality? J 10.2 92 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Gender Age Stereotypes Why do you think we have gender age stereotypes? How do you think age stereotypes are changing? SW 10.1 Shared Writing: Gender Gap in Pay Why do you think that the gender gap in pay exists all over the world? SW 10.2 Shared Writing: Changing Perceptions of Old Age How does culture influence people’s ideas about the elderly and when old age begins? Can you identify cultural changes that are likely to affect your perception of when you yourself will “become old”? What cultural changes might influence your perception of the elderly? Special Features • • • • • • • •
Standards of Gender Thinking Critically about Social Life: New Masculinities and Femininities Are on the Way Through the Author’s Lens: Work and Gender: Women at Work in India Cultural Diversity around the World: Female Circumcision (Genital Cutting) Down-to-Earth Sociology: Affirmative Action for Men? Applying Sociology to Your Life: How to Get a Higher Salary Down-to-Earth Sociology: Transgender and Women’s Sports: Where is Equality? Thinking Critically about Social Life: The Cultural Lens: Shaping Our Perceptions of the Elderly
Lecture Suggestions ▪
The selection in Cultural Diversity around the World, “Female Circumcision (Genital Cutting),” discusses the circumcision of young girls as a traditional practice in certain cultures. This custom takes on different forms in different cultures. Often it is supported by women who insist that the custom continue. Others claim it is a form of ritual torture to control female sexuality. Ask students to write an essay discussing this tradition and attempt to explain the gap in public opinion and the persistence of the use of female circumcision despite prohibition in countries such as Egypt.
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In the 1930s, Babe Ruth was making $100,000 a year as a professional baseball player. It took over forty years before a female athlete would earn $100,000 (and that is simply using the raw numbers without adjustment for inflation). Can any student name the female athlete and the sport in which she competed? Is this difference in salaries an example of patriarchy or capitalism in action? Keeping this thought, should the university’s sponsorship of athletic teams be related, to some degree, to the number of people who attend these events, the ability of the event to “pay its way,” the popularity of the sport, and other factors? If so, what would be some considerations college administration would need to address? If athletic 93 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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participation is to be on a purely equal basis by numbers of teams for each sex, is this truly an equitable way for the university to allocate its resources? Explain or defend your position. (By the way, the first $100,000 female athlete was Billie Jean King in tennis). ▪
Ask students to think about and discuss the following: Will there ever be complete equality between males and females in the United States? Should there be? What would constitute complete equality? Do you think the women’s movement is stronger or weaker today than it was in the 1970s? In what ways? In challenging gender stratification, do you think that feminists sometimes exaggerate the problem of sexual inequality in the United States? If so, how? The text offers a few explanations for the origins of patriarchy while ignoring religion. Given that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all patriarchal religions, do you think that the feminist movement is an attack against religion? Finally, what is a feminist? Are you a feminist? If so, why? If not, why?
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Ask students to discuss and/or debate the following: Do you think there will be a woman president of the United States in your lifetime? If not, why? If so, what differences, if any, do you think a woman would bring to the office of the presidency? If the United States had a woman president, do you think that other nations might perceive this as a weakness or as a strength? Finally, the text points out that several nations in the world have women presidents or prime ministers. Ask students to identify how many of these nations are viewed as world economic superpowers and, of those identified, which have female political officials who are really no more than token representatives.
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Ask students to discuss perceptions of aging while addressing the following: As you see it, at what age are people no longer young? What is it, specifically, about this age that makes a person “old”? What are some of the social factors in the United States that have shaped your ideas about the elderly? How often do you think about growing old, and, when you do, do you think about it in a positive or negative light? Finally, if aging were eliminated tomorrow by advances in technology, what do you think would be the perfect age to be, and remain at, for the rest of your life? Why?
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Ask students to discuss the question of how long people should live. As a nation, we are faced with a serious dilemma in the United States over financing Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid while, at the same time, advances in medicine are prolonging life. Research with gene manipulation shows promise of extending life significantly beyond current mortality tables. A problem develops: extending life while financing it at the same time. Should we extend life when we are already experiencing problems caring for the elderly? Should we eliminate retirement or raise the age of retirement? If we do either, would that then create more of a job shortage for younger workers? If so, would we then need to expand government support for the unemployed? At what cost?
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Ask students to discuss the following: At what age and/or under what circumstances should people be forced to retire? How might this vary, if at all, from one job or profession to another? Should older people leave their jobs—freeing these up for younger people—when they can no longer perform adequately? What constitutes adequate performance? Should
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supervisors who judge “adequate performance” make any allowances for age? Finally, at what age do you imagine yourself retiring, and under what circumstances? ▪
Ask students to think about and discuss the following: What advantages do people that are older have over younger people? What advantages do younger people have over people that are older? Should people that are older get special discounts and other privileges because they are older? If so, why? If not, why do you think they get them? Overall, do you think lobbies for older people in the United States are too strong? Do you think they receive a disproportionate share of the nation’s limited resources?
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Ask students to think about how American society views “youth” and “aging,” while addressing the following: In what ways, if any, does American society celebrate and glorify looking young? What accounts for American society’s obsession with youth? Who profits by it? How do they profit by it? Who is hurt by it? How are they hurt? At what age do you think Americans start using “anti-aging” products and/or considering surgery to make them look more youthful? Are you, or anyone you know, using products that purport to slow down or reverse the aging process? What are these products, and why are they being used? Finally, how might a functionalist, a conflict theorist, and a symbolic interactionist explain the popularity of such products and the consequences of that popularity?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Conduct a “show and tell,” asking students to bring to class a large shopping bag containing three or four of their favorite possessions. These can be books, records, stuffed animals, games, magazines, toys, dolls, posters, or anything else that can fit into a large shopping bag. Have each of the students come up to the front of the classroom, present their favorite possessions, and briefly share with the class why these possessions are important to them. During the “show and tell,” ask students to look for and note any gender distinctions and stereotypes between the male students’ favorite possessions and those of the female students. Afterward, have students complete a writing reflection on these gender distinctions and stereotypes while addressing the social and/or biological factors that might account for them.
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Breaking students into small groups, ask them to look for and list as many examples of gender stratification as they can find on their college campus. These can include, for example, the percentage of male instructors versus female instructors; the number of male sports teams versus female sports teams (as well as funding inequities between the sports teams); advertisements, posters, and/or graffiti that objectify or demean women (or, for that matter, devalue femininity); and gender imbalances in different departments or programs (such as more male engineering majors than female engineering majors or more female health sciences majors than male health sciences majors). Afterward, have the groups present and critically analyze their lists.
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Ask students to conduct a research project on different ways the elderly are treated around the world. Compare those to the ways they are treated in the United States. Students can each pick a different country to examine and, afterward, report on the following: What percentage of the country’s population is elderly? How is “old age” defined in the country? Compared to other segments of the population, how financially secure are the elderly in the country? How psychologically and/or emotionally well-off are they? How much political power do they have? Overall, are the elderly respected in the country? How is that respect (or lack of respect) manifested?
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Ask students, either individually or in small groups, to critically analyze Hollywood’s representations of the elderly and report on the following: Compared to other groups in the United States, how often are the elderly included in Hollywood movies? When the elderly are included, how are they depicted? What roles do elderly people typically play, and how do these roles either reinforce or challenge stereotypes about the elderly? How often, for example, are 50-year-olds pictured falling in love in Hollywood movies? Passionately kissing? Taking off their clothes? Having sex? How about 60-year-olds? Or 70-year-olds? What are 50-year-olds, 60-year-olds, and 70-year-olds typically pictured doing in Hollywood movies? And, overall, what might these depictions of older people be “telling” younger people about what it means to grow old?
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As a group project, have students create a documentary video about aging in America. The video should include interviews with younger people on their attitudes about older people and interviews with older people on their attitudes about younger people. If possible, the video should also include interviews with some of the students’ own grandparents addressing the following three questions: First, thinking about all the technological advances, political events, and/or social changes that you have witnessed in your lifetime, which ones have been the most amazing, influential, and memorable for you? Why? Second, what can the United States do to better meet the needs of its older people? Third, if there was a single lesson that you learned from your life that you would like to pass along to younger people as words of wisdom, what would it be?
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Chapter 11: Politics and the Economy Chapter Summary This chapter starts by discussing power, authority, and violence and compares traditional, rational–legal, and charismatic authorities. The chapter then turns to the different types of governments and discusses monarchies, democracies, dictatorships, and oligarchies. The author then discusses different voting patterns based on race, class, and gender. This section ends with a discussion of lobbyists and PACs. The chapter then explores the functionalist and conflict perspectives on U.S. power. It then brings up war and terrorism, discussing why countries go to war and why some groups choose terrorism. The chapter then addresses the transformation of economic systems. The economy has shifted over time from subsistence, or production without much surplus; to pastoral and horticultural, which produced small surpluses and used a division of labor; to agricultural; and finally to industrial and postindustrial. The components, ideologies, and criticisms of capitalism and socialism are discussed. Convergence theory is also highlighted. The author also discusses the globalization of capitalism and the effect that it has had on workers, the divisions of wealth, and the global superclass. The chapter ends with a discussion of whether humanity is headed toward a world political system. Learning Objectives LO 11.1 Contrast power, authority, and violence; compare traditional, rational–legal, and charismatic authority. LO 11.2 Compare monarchies, democracies, dictatorships, and oligarchies. LO 11.3 Discuss voting patterns, lobbyists, and PACs. LO 11.4 Compare the functionalist (pluralist) and conflict (power elite) perspectives of U.S. power. LO 11.5 Explain why countries go to war and why some groups choose terrorism. LO 11.6 Emphasizing inequality, summarize the broad historical shifts in economic systems. LO 11.7 Contrast capitalism and socialism: their components, ideologies, criticisms, and convergence. LO 11.8 Discuss the globalization of capitalism, including its effects on workers, the divisions of wealth, and the global superclass. LO 11.9 Explain how the globalization of capitalism might be bringing a New World Order— and why it might not be. Chapter Outline
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A. Power, Authority, and Violence 11.1 Contrast power, authority, and violence; compare traditional, rational–legal, and charismatic authority. 1. For society to exist, there must be a system of leadership; some people must have power over others. Power can be legitimate or illegitimate. 2. Authority is legitimate power that people accept as right, while coercion is power that people do not accept as just. 3. The government, also called the state, claims a monopoly on legitimate force or violence in society; violence is the ultimate foundation of any political order. 4. Traditional authority (based on custom) is the hallmark of preindustrial societies. When society industrializes, traditional authority is undermined but does not die out. For example, parental authority is traditional authority. 5. Rational–legal authority (based on written rules, also called bureaucratic authority) derives from the position an individual holds, not from the person. Everyone (no matter how high the office) is subject to the rules. 6. Charismatic authority (based on an individual’s personal following) may pose a threat. Because they work outside the established political order and may threaten the established order, the traditional and rational–legal authorities are often quick to oppose this type of leader. 7. Orderly transfer of authority upon death, resignation, or incapacity of a leader is critical for stability. Succession is more of a problem with charismatic authority than with traditional or rational–legal authority because there are no rules for orderly succession. a) To deal with succession, some charismatic leaders will appoint a successor who may or may not be received favorably by the followers. Another strategy is to build an organization. This routinization of charisma refers to the transfer of authority from a charismatic leader to either traditional or rational–legal authority. B. Types of Government 11.2 Compare monarchies, democracies, dictatorships, and oligarchies. 1. A monarchy is a government headed by a king or queen. a) As cities developed, each city-state (an independent city whose power radiates outward, bringing adjacent areas under its rule) had its own monarchy. b) As city-states warred with one another, the victors would extend their rule, eventually over an entire region. As the size of these regions grew, people began to identify with the region; over time, this gave rise to the state. 2. A democracy is a government whose authority derives from the people. a) The original American colonies were small and independent; after the American Revolution, the colonies united and formed a democratic government. b) This was not the first democracy, which existed about 2,500 years ago in Athens. Members of some Native American tribes were able to elect chiefs; in some, women also voted and even held the position of chief. c) Because of their small size, these groups were able to practice direct democracy (eligible voters meet to discuss issues and make decisions). Initially, the colonies and then the states practiced direct democracy because they were small. Representative democracy (voters elect representatives to govern and make decisions on their behalf)
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emerged as the U.S. population grew in size and spread out across the country, making direct democracy impossible. d) Today, citizenship (people having basic rights by virtue of birth or residence) is taken for granted in the United States; this idea is quite new to the human culture. Universal citizenship (everyone having the same basic rights) came into practice very slowly and only through fierce struggle. 3. Dictatorship is government where power is seized and held by an individual; oligarchy results when a small group of individuals seizes power. Dictators and oligarchies can be totalitarian, when the government exercises almost total control of a people. a) The amount of control of monarchies, dictatorships, and oligarchies varies. C. The U.S. Political System 11.3 Discuss voting patterns, lobbyists, and PACs. 1. Since the time of the Civil War, politics in the United States has been dominated by two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. a) The Democrats are often associated with the working class, and the Republicans with people who are financially better off. b) Since each party appeals to a broad membership, it is difficult to distinguish conservative Democrats from liberal Republicans; however, it is easy to discern the extremes. Those elected to Congress may cross party lines because although officeholders support their party’s philosophy, they do not necessarily support all of its specific proposals. c) Third parties do play a role in U.S. politics, although generally they receive little public support. Ross Perot’s United We Stand party is one exception. 2. Voting patterns a) U.S. voting patterns are consistent: the percentage of people who vote increases with age; non-Hispanic Whites are more likely to vote than African Americans, while Latinos and Asian Americans are considerably less likely to vote than either; those with higher levels of education are more likely to vote, as are people with higher levels of income; women are slightly more likely than men to vote. b) The more that people feel they have a stake in the system, the more likely they are to vote. Those who have been rewarded by the system feel more socially integrated and perceive that elections directly affect their lives and the society in which they live. c) People who gain less from the system in terms of education, income, and jobs are more likely to be alienated. d) Voter apathy is indifference/inaction to the political process. As a result of apathy, nearly 40 percent of American voters do not vote for president. e) Today, we recognize a gender gap in voting. Men are more likely to favor Republican candidates, while women are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates. f) There is an even larger racial–ethnic gap in politics; few African Americans vote for Republican presidential candidates. 3. Because the costs of running for political office are so high in the United States, money is a significant factor in American politics. As such, lobbyists and special-interest groups play an influential role in helping political candidates get elected to office. 4. Special-interest groups are people who think alike on a particular issue and can be mobilized for political action. 99 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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a) Lobbyists (people paid to influence legislation on behalf of their clients) are employed by special-interest groups and have become a major force in politics. b) Lobbying has opened a revolving door, where former assistants to politicians and politicians become lobbyists, often working for the companies they once regulated. Congress has made it illegal for former senators to lobby for two years after they leave office—although they get around this rule by becoming strategic advisors. c) Political action committees (PACs) solicit and spend funds to influence legislation and bypass laws intended to limit the amount any individual, corporation, or group can give a candidate. PACs have become a powerful influence, bankrolling lobbyists and legislators, and PACs with the most clout gain the ear of Congress. d) A few PACs represent broad social interests. Most stand for the financial interests of groups such as the dairy, oil, banking, and defense industries. D. Who Rules the United States? 11.4 Compare the functionalist (pluralist) and conflict (power elite) perspectives of U.S. power. 1. According to the functionalists, the state was created because it fulfilled a basic social need. a) People must find a balance between having no government (anarchy) and having a government that may be too repressive, turning against its own citizens. b) The functionalists say that pluralism, the diffusion of power among interest groups, prevents anyone from gaining control of the government. Functionalists believe it helps keep the government from turning against its citizens. c) To balance the interests of competing groups, the founders of the U.S. system of government created a system of checks and balances in which separation of powers among the three branches of government ensures that each is able to nullify the actions of the other two, thus preventing domination by any single branch. d) Our society is made up of many different groups representing special interests, such as women, men, racial–ethnic groups, farmers, factory and office workers, religious organizations, bankers, bosses, the unemployed, and the retired, to name a few. Because these groups need to negotiate and compromise with one another to meet their goals, conflict is minimized. 2. According to the conflict perspective, lobbyists and even Congress are not at the center of decision-making; rather, the power elite make the decisions that direct the country and shake the world. a) As stated by sociologist C. Wright Mills, the power elite (heads of leading corporations, powerful generals and admirals in the armed forces, and certain elite politicians) rule the United States. The corporate heads are the most powerful, as all three view capitalism as essential to the welfare of the country; thus, business interests come first. b) According to sociologist William Domhoff, the ruling class (another term for the power elite) runs the United States. Its members control the United States’ top corporations and foundations; presidential cabinet members and top ambassadors to the most powerful countries are chosen from this group.
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c) The power elite is not a secret group. Their unity comes from the similarity of their backgrounds and orientations to life. Most have attended prestigious schools, belong to exclusive clubs, and are extremely wealthy. 3. While the functionalist and conflict views of power in U.S. society cannot be reconciled, it is possible to employ both. Gilens and Page (2014) reviewed 1,800 policy decisions, and the evidence indicates that the wealthy and business groups are the major influencers of U.S. policy. E. War and Terrorism: Implementing Political Objectives 11.5 Explain why countries go to war and why some groups choose terrorism. 1. Sociologist Nicholas Timasheff identified three essential conditions of war: a) An antagonistic situation exists, with two or more states confronting incompatible objectives. b) There is a cultural tradition of war; because they have fought wars in the past, leaders see war as an option. c) A “fuel” heats the antagonistic situation to the boiling point, so that people move from thinking about war to engaging in it. Timasheff identified seven fuels: revenge, power, prestige, unity, leaders, ethnicity, and beliefs. 2. Behind these “fuels” are the politicians who make the bloody choice to go to war. They sit back and watch it, and some even profit from it. 3. Today, terrorism has become a reality for Americans. a) Terrorism is the use of violence to create fear so that a group can meet its political objectives. b) Suicide terrorism is one of the few options available to a weaker group that wants to retaliate against a powerful country, as in the case of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. F. The Transformation of Economic Systems 11.6 Emphasizing inequality, summarize the broad historical shifts in economic systems. 1. The economy is a system of producing and distributing goods and services. In today’s postindustrial society, this process is radically different than in earlier societies. 2. As societies developed, a surplus emerged that fostered social inequality. a) Earliest hunting and gathering societies had subsistence economies, characterized by little trade with other groups and a high degree of social equality. b) In pastoral and horticultural economies, people created more dependable food supplies. As groups settled down in one location and grew in size, a specialized division of labor developed. This led to the production of a surplus and trade between groups, all of which fostered social inequality. c) The invention of the plow paved the way for agricultural societies. As more people were freed from food production, a more specialized division of labor developed, and trade expanded. This brought even more social, political, and economic inequality. 3. The steam engine in 1765 ushered in industrial societies. a) The surplus (and greater inequality) grew in industrial societies. b) This increased trade among countries.
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c) As the surplus increased, emphasis changed from production of goods to consumption. Sociologist Thorstein Veblen referred to this as conspicuous consumption. 4. In 1973, Daniel Bell noted that a new type of society was emerging; he called this the postindustrial society. According to Bell, postindustrial societies have six traits: (1) a large service sector that most people work in; (2) a vast surplus of goods; (3) extensive trade among nations; (4) a wide variety and amount of goods available to the average person; (5) an information explosion; and (6) an interconnected global village linked by fast communications, transportation, and trade. 5. We may be on the verge of yet another new type of society. a) This new society is being ushered in by advances in two key technologies: the deciphering of the human genome system and artificial intelligence (AI). b) The advancement of these technologies will expand knowledge into more areas. c) This new society may lead to longer and healthier lives. G. World Economic Systems 11.7 Contrast capitalism and socialism: their components, ideologies, criticisms, and convergence. 1. Capitalism has three essential features: (1) the private ownership of the means of production, (2) market competition, and (3) the pursuit of profit. a) Pure (laissez-faire) capitalism exists only when market forces are able to operate without interference from the government. b) The United States today has state (or welfare) capitalism. Private citizens own the means of production and pursue profits but do so within a vast system of laws (market restraints) designed to protect the public welfare. 2. Socialism also has three essential features: (1) the public ownership of the means of production, (2) central planning, and (3) the production and distribution of goods without a profit motive. a) Under socialism, the government owns the means of production, and a central committee determines what the country needs, instead of allowing market forces (supply and demand) to control production and prices. Socialism is designed to eliminate competition, to produce goods for the general welfare, and to distribute them according to people’s needs, not their ability to pay. b) In a socialist economy, everyone in the economic chain works for the government. c) Socialism does not exist in pure form. Although the ideology of socialism calls for resources to be distributed according to need rather than position, socialist nations found it necessary to offer higher salaries for some jobs to entice people to take greater responsibility. d) Some nations (e.g., Sweden and Denmark) have adopted democratic or welfare socialism: both the state and individuals engage in production and distribution, although the state owns certain industries (steel, mining, forestry, energy, telephones, television stations, and airlines), while retail stores, farms, and most service industries remain in private hands. 3. Capitalism and socialism represent distinct ideologies. a) Capitalists believe that market forces should determine both products and prices and that it is good for people to strive for profits. 102 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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b) Socialists believe that profit is immoral and represents excess value extracted from workers. c) These two different ideologies produce contrasting pictures of how the world should be; consequently, each sees the other ideology as a system of exploitation. 4. The primary criticism of capitalism is that it leads to social inequality (a tiny top layer of wealthy, powerful people and an immense bottom layer of poorly paid workers). Socialism has been criticized for not respecting individual rights and for not being capable of producing much wealth (thus the greater equality of socialism actually amounts to almost everyone having an equal chance of being poor). 5. In recent years, fundamental changes have taken place in these two economic systems. Both systems have adopted features of the other. a) That capitalism and socialism are growing similar is known as convergence theory. b) Russia and China both reinstated market forces—private ownership of property became legal, and making a profit was encouraged. In China, “common prosperity” programs are encouraging billionaires to “contribute” to a redistribution of wealth as the economy has slowed. c) Over the years, the United States has adopted many socialistic practices, such as unemployment compensation; subsidized housing, food and medical care for the poor; a minimum wage; and Social Security. d) While leaders in both systems accept certain elements of the other, the reality is that the two remain far from “converged,” and the struggles between them continue, although they are more muted than in the past. H. The Globalization of Capitalism 11.8 Discuss the globalization of capitalism, including its effects on workers, the divisions of wealth, and the global superclass. 1. The globalization of capitalism may be the most significant economic change, one that rivals the Industrial Revolution. It is producing a new world structure, one that integrates the world’s nations into a global production and distribution system. 2. The world is divided into three primary trading blocs: North and South America, dominated by the United States; Europe, dominated by Germany; and Asia, dominated by China and Japan. a) Free trade leads to greater competition, which drives the search for greater productivity. This in turn lowers prices and raises the standard of living. b) Free trade can also be dysfunctional. When businesses move to countries where labor costs are lower, workers in the countries from which the businesses came will lose their jobs, although functionalists point out that this dislocation is temporary. 3. Workers are not having an easy time as they keep facing one disruption after another, while the wealthy do just fine in these challenging times. 4. The income gap has been growing over the years, and it is now greater than it has been in generations due to the transition to a postindustrial economy and the globalization of capitalism. 5. The global superclass has access to the top circles of political power around the world. Research indicates that, as part of the global superclass, twenty to fifty individuals make the world’s major decisions.
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I. What Lies Ahead? A New World Order? 11.9 Explain how the globalization of capitalism might be bringing a New World Order. 1. A New World Order might be ushered in by nations cooperating for economic reasons. 2. There are transformative events that have taken place: a) The founding of the United Nations (UN) after World War II. The United Nations is striving to be the legislative body of the world. It operates a World Court and even has a World Bank. b) The formation of the European Union (EU). The EU weakened when Great Britain left, but with the invasion of Ukraine, it took on exceptional unity. 3. To foresee the future, it sometimes is useful to look at the past. We see that the dominance of a particular nation, an alliance of nations, or a culture always comes to an end. The transition––the decline and ascendancy of nations––will not come without resistance and bloodshed. Figures 11.1: Which Political Party Dominates? 11.2: Power in the United States: The Model Proposed by C. Wright Mills 11.3: The Revolutionary Change in the U.S. Workforce 11.4: Average Hourly Earnings of U.S. Workers in Current and Constant Dollars 11.5: The Inverted Income Pyramid: The Proportion of Income Received by Each Fifth of the U.S. Population Tables 11.1: Who Votes for President? 11.2: How Is the Two-Party Presidential Vote Split? 11.3 Comparing Capitalism and Socialism Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 11.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Perspectives on U.S. Power Compare the functionalist and conflict perspectives on U.S. power. Which perspective do you agree with the most? Why? J 11.2 Journal: Apply This to Your Life: Voting What are the reasons why you vote? What draws you to the party that you support at election time? SW 11.1 Shared Writing: Why Do Countries Go to War? Use the three essential conditions and seven fuels of war proposed by sociologist Nicholas Timasheff to analyze a recent war or “intervention” that the United States has been a part of. SW 11.2 Shared Writing: Information Society 104 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Why are the effects of the information society on the inequalities of the world’s nations likely to be spotty? Special Features • • • • • •
Down-to-Earth Sociology: Who Are the Suicide Terrorists? Testing Your Stereotypes Applying Sociology to Your Life: Your Work and Your Future in the Global Village Cultural Diversity around the World: A Fierce Competitor: The Communist Capitalists Through the Author’s Lens: Small Town USA: Struggling to Survive Down-to-Earth Sociology: Where Is Reality? Workers’ Pay Through the Years Down-to-Earth Sociology: Introducing Your New Rulers
Lecture Suggestions ▪
The opening vignette gives a brief discussion of George Orwell’s book, 1984. The book is about a society’s transformation into a state of total government control over its citizenry—complete loyalty to the state by all citizens. The process begins with socialist policies that sound like they are helping the citizens. For example, what about a national health-care program, homeland security policies, or regulations over industry that govern wages and employee benefits? What happens in the long run is that the government grows until it controls all aspects of life from cradle to grave, from prenatal care and early childhood education that teaches loyalty to the State, to Social Security and retirement benefits and dependency on the State. Of course, everything in between is taken care of as well. All are equal. There is no crime. Unfortunately, the trade-off for this utopia is the loss of freedom, the end of families, and the end of personal and intimate relationships. Ask students if they think the trade-off of love and freedom for equality and security is worth it. If not, how far should the citizenry allow the government to go in creating new policies and programs that lead us in that direction before we also pledge our allegiance to the State at the cost of everything that we truly love and value in life? Do students think that 1984 could happen here? Has it already begun, or is the book just an interesting read?
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Noting how the state claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, ask students to think about and address the following: Does the state truly have a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence? Can you think of any groups who can legitimately use violence against citizens? Finally, what restraints, if any, must the state and its agents work under in their legitimate use of violence? How are these restraints enforced? And who punishes the state and/or its agents if these restraints are violated?
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To illustrate voter alienation and apathy in the United States, conduct a quick classroom survey of how many students can name at least one of their two U.S. senators. How about their congressional representative? State senator and/or representative? Chances are few hands will go up. Then ask students to address the following: Of those of you who were eligible to vote in the last election, how many of you did so? If you did not vote, why not? If you voted, to what degree, if any, do you believe your vote really makes a difference? Why do you think that only half of all eligible voters in the United States vote in presidential elections and only one-third vote in congressional races? Finally, what can the American political system do to encourage voting and/or participation in the political process? 105 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Ask students to think about the three groups that, according to C. Wright Mills, make up the power elite in the United States—top corporate leaders, top military leaders, and top political leaders—and address the following: Do you agree with Mills’s contention that the most powerful of these groups is the nation’s top corporate leaders? If so, why? If not, which group or groups are more powerful? In which ways? Finally, can you include other groups in the United States that Mills did not include in the power elite? If so, which ones, and why?
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Thinking about the concept of conspicuous consumption, ask students to discuss the following: In what ways do Americans practice conspicuous consumption? How much, if at all, do you think the amount and forms of conspicuous consumption vary by gender? By race–ethnicity? By class? By region? By age? What are some of the ways that you engage in acts of conspicuous consumption, and what are some of the social factors that encourage you to do so? Finally, who or what profits by your acts of conspicuous consumption, and how?
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Considering all the social inequality and poverty that exists in the United States, ask students to discuss the following: Why can’t the United States government print up and distribute all the money it wants so everybody can be equally well-off? What would happen if, tomorrow, the United States government printed and sent to every American a legal $100,000 bill? With that $100,000 bill, would poor Americans still be poor? If so, why? If not, why doesn’t the United States government simply print and distribute the money?
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Following up on the above questions, ask students to address these related points: How might issuing more money to more people result in inflation? How might inflation, in turn, result in personal hardship and/or economic instability? If a nation is forced to choose an economic policy that results in high levels of inflation, unemployment, or social inequality, which of these would be most dysfunctional and/or harmful for society? Which of these would be least dysfunctional? Why?
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In 1964, President L. B. Johnson declared a war on poverty and established what are called “great society” policies. The goal was to bring an end to poverty. In the following thirty years, trillions of dollars were spent on socialist policies aimed at eliminating poverty with little, if any, success. In 1994, President Clinton reformed the welfare system in an effort to improve it. Ten years later, trillions more have been invested with little evidence that this program has been successful either. Given these outcomes, ask students if it makes sense to continue these programs. What kind of program do they think would be better? Have students come up with a plan that might combine socialist financial assistance policies with capitalism’s emphasis on individual responsibility.
Suggested Assignments ▪
Conduct a mock election for state or national offices. Develop a ballot that has only the most well-known offices listed. At the end of the ballot, include a short demographics section that includes age, sex, race–ethnicity, marital status, employment status, and income for “voters” to fill out. Have each student in the class distribute and collect five ballots among family and friends. Using an appropriate database computer program, have a student record and then 106 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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summarize the data. What generalizations can be made on the voting pattern of the chosen sample? Are these patterns similar to or different from the national trend? What are some of the drawbacks to this exercise that might skew the results? ▪
During a primary or general election, have students spend two or three hours at a local polling site as observers. In advance, have them prepare a check-off sheet on which they can record the sex, race, and approximate age of the people who come to the polling place. Arrange the observation to be at the times when people are more likely to vote, usually on the way to or from work. After the exercise is completed, have the students tally their results and compare them to the overall demographics of the precinct from which they were gathered. Then, compare the statistics collected to see if they are consistent with the actual voting results from that particular precinct.
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Ask students to keep a journal over the next two days noting all the “exercises of power” they come across, both at the micro and the macro level. These can include, for example, a meter reader writing out a ticket, a bouncer throwing someone out of a bar, or a parent punishing a child. As they record each example, ask them to note the following: Who or what is exercising the power on whom? How is the power being exerted? Is the exertion of that power legitimate or illegitimate? If legitimate, on what authority? If illegitimate, circumventing what authority? After completing their journals, have students list their examples on the blackboard. Then, examining the examples, ask students to think about and discuss the following: Can you discern any patterns in the examples that suggest which groups in America typically get to exert power and which groups in America typically have power exerted on them? Overall, would you characterize most of the examples as exercises of authority or coercion, and what might this say, if anything, about how much power in America is exercised legitimately versus illegitimately? Based on your observations, how do power relationships vary, if at all, between the two levels?
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Ask each of your students to present a short video clip of a charismatic leader in action (e.g., speaking to a large crowd, delivering a televised address, spearheading a big rally), followed up by a three-to-four minute oral presentation addressing the following points: What exceptional qualities make this particular leader charismatic? What special techniques and/or tactics does this particular leader employ in the clip, if any, to fire up their followers? What real or potential threats does this leader pose to the established order? What is it about the times in which this leader lives (or lived) that may be (or may have been) conducive to charismatic leadership? Finally, is this particular leader someone that you, yourself, could imagine believing in, being inspired by, and acting on behalf of? If so, why? Or why not?
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Have students prepare for a formal class debate on the virtues of capitalism versus the virtues of socialism. In class, invite three students on each side to present their best arguments in favor of their preferred system. Allow time for rebuttal and counter-rebuttal, as well as for questions from audience members directed toward the debate participants. Afterward, have the members of the audience vote by secret ballot on two points: First, which side made the more convincing argument? Second, regardless of which side made the more convincing argument, which economic system would you prefer to live under: capitalism or socialism?
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Bring in the game of Monopoly, and ask students about ways the game epitomizes capitalism (equal opportunity and investment). Then break students into small groups and have them think about and discuss the following: Which changes would you have to make to the game of Monopoly to ensure that it adheres to the “rules” of welfare capitalism? After the discussion, assign each group the following task: devise a new game by changing the Monopoly game board and rules to turn it into the game of Socialism.
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Give students half an hour to walk around campus looking for and recording as many examples as they can find of conspicuous consumption. These can include clothes, jewelry, cars, smartphones, Apple watches, and any other “fancy” items or gadgets that people use to show off their wealth or, often, pretensions of wealth. Afterward, share students’ examples and ask them to discuss the following: Looking over the examples, how many of these products are “truly necessary,” and how many are superfluous? How expensive are these products? Were there cheaper versions available that, although less “showy,” could do the same thing? How dependent is the American economy on getting American consumers to buy products that they don’t really need? What accounts for this dependency? Finally, how are American consumers ideologically conditioned to buying things that they don’t really need, and who or what conditions them to do so?
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Chapter 12: Marriage and Family Chapter Summary This chapter examines the changing roles and views of family and marriage. To start, the chapter discusses the similarities and differences between families across cultures. It then explains the different perspectives on the family. Functionalists view the family as fulfilling needs that are basic to the survival of every society. The conflict perspective focuses on the struggle for power between members of the family, specifically husbands and wives. The interactionist perspective focuses on the meanings attached to different activities that the family completes. The next section examines different families based both on race–ethnicity, one-parent families, couples without children, blended families, and gay and lesbian families and how they are similar and different. Then the chapter examines how family life, cohabitation, and elder care have changed over time, including people putting off marriage, the increase in cohabitation, and the “sandwich generation.” The next part discusses statistics about divorce and explains the different ways to establish the statistics. This section also examines research findings on children of divorce, grandchildren of divorce, and the social situations of ex-spouses and remarriage. The chapter ends by discussing the likely future of marriage and family—which will most likely continue in the future. Learning Objectives LO 12.1 Define marriage and family, and summarize their common cultural themes. LO 12.2 Contrast the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives on marriage and family. LO 12.3 Summarize research on love and courtship, marriage, childbirth, child rearing, and family transitions. LO 12.4 Summarize research on families: Black American, Latino, Asian American, Native American, one-parent, couples without children, blended, and gay and lesbian. LO 12.5 Discuss changes in the timetable of family life, cohabitation, and elder care. LO 12.6 Summarize problems in measuring divorce, research findings on children and grandchildren of divorce, fathers’ contact after divorce, ex-spouses, and remarriage. LO 12.7 Summarize the dark and bright sides of family life. LO 12.8 Explain the likely future of marriage and family. Chapter Overview A. Marriage and Family in Global Perspective 12.1 Define marriage and family, and summarize their common cultural themes. 109 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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1. Practices of marriage and family differ around the world. Although every human group organizes its members into families, how families are organized varies greatly from culture to culture. 2. The term “family” is difficult to define because there are many types. a) In some societies, men have more than one wife (polygyny) or women have more than one husband (polyandry). b) In other societies, disciplining of children and providing for their material needs does not characterize a family. As such, a broad definition of family is needed. c) Broadly defined, a family consists of two or more people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption. d) In contrast, a household consists of people who occupy the same housing unit. e) A family is classified as a nuclear family (husband, wife, and children) or an extended family (a nuclear family plus other relatives like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins). f) The family of orientation is the family in which a person grows up, while the family of procreation is the family formed when a couple’s first child is born. A person who is married but has not had a child is part of a couple, not a family. 3. Marriage is a group’s approved mating arrangements, usually marked by a ritual to show the couple’s new public status. a) Many groups have various customs regarding marriage or family. b) Same-sex marriage, for example, is not something new. When Columbus landed in the Americas, some Native American tribes already had same-sex marriages. Then came the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges 2015 decision, which struck down state bans and legalized same-sex marriages throughout the United States. Even sexual relationships don’t universally characterize marriage. 4. Common cultural themes run through marriage and family. a) Patterns of mate selection are established to govern who one can and cannot marry. Endogamy is the practice of marrying within one’s own group, while exogamy is the practice of marrying outside of one’s own group. The best example of exogamy is the incest taboo, which prohibits sex and marriage among designated relatives. Some norms of mate selection are written into law, while others are informal. b) Three major systems of descent (tracing kinship over generations) are (1) bilineal (descent traced on both the mother’s and the father’s side), (2) patrilineal (descent traced only on the father’s side, and (3) matrilineal (descent traced only on the mother’s side). c) Marriage and family are also used to determine rights of inheritance. In a bilineal system, property passes to males and females; in a patrilineal system, property passes only to males; in a matrilineal system (a rare form), property passes only to females. d) Patriarchy is a social system in which men dominate women, and it runs through all societies. No historical records exist of a true matriarchy, a system in which womenas-a-group dominate over men-as-a-group. In an egalitarian society, authority is more or less equally divided between men and women. B. Marriage and Family in Theoretical Perspective 12.2 Contrast the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives on marriage and family. 110 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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1. The functionalist perspective stresses how the family is related to other parts of society and how it contributes to the well-being of society. a) The family is universal because it serves functions essential to the well-being of society: economic production, socialization of children, care of the sick and aged, recreation, sexual control, and reproduction. b) The incest taboo (rules specifying which people are too closely related to have sex or marry) helps the family avoid role confusion and forces people to look outside the family for marriage partners, creating a network of support. 2. Central to the conflict/feminist perspective is the struggle over power; who has it and who resents not having it? a) Throughout history, husbands have had more power, and wives have resented it. b) Historically, the woman’s life was expected to revolve around her home, including the care of the children. This backstage work is called reproductive labor (the work that a wife performs behind the scenes that allows her breadwinner husband to flourish in his more public life). c) Industrialization brought major changes to husband–wife relationships. Today’s wives are considerably less dependent on their husbands for financial security. d) Conflict and feminist theorists view the high divorce rate not as a sign that the family has grown weaker, but as evidence that women have made headway in their millennia-old struggle with men. 3. Using the symbolic interactionist perspective, we can explore how changing symbols (ideas and expectations) underlie marital adjustment. a) Affection, understanding, and compatibility are now considered an essential part of a “healthy” marriage, and we have a difficult time understanding why they weren’t always essential aspects of marriage. b) Children were once viewed as miniature adults, so children have undergone a cultural transformation from learning adult occupations into impressionable, vulnerable, and innocent beings. c) The expectations in parenting have also changed and placed greater responsibilities on parents because we are now expected to nurture children for many more years. d) Marital roles provided clear-cut guidelines for newlyweds, but today, the roles of husband and wife are not clearly defined, and newlyweds are expected to work out their own marital realities. C. The Family Life Cycle 12.3 Summarize research on love and courtship, marriage, childbirth, child rearing, and family transitions. 1. Romantic love is the idea of people being sexually attracted to one another and idealizing one another. a) A study by Dutton and Aron showed that fear can provide romantic love. b) Romantic love has two components: (1) emotional, a feeling of sexual attraction, and (2) cognitive, the feeling we describe as being “in love.” 2. The social channels of love and marriage in the United States include age, education, social class, and race–ethnicity. a) Homogamy is the tendency of people with similar characteristics to marry one another, usually resulting from propinquity (spatial nearness). 111 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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b) Interracial marriage, which has increased sharply, is an exception to these social patterns. About 11 percent marry someone of another race, which totals about seven million couples. c) One of the most dramatic changes is marriages between Black and White Americans. 3. Ideas and views regarding childbirth have also changed with our societal changes. a) Three major events changed the ideal family size: (1) the arrival of the birth control pill, (2) the onset of the sexual revolution, and (3) change in how women view work as a long-term career. b) Marital satisfaction usually decreases after birth. When the last child reaches age 6, marital happiness increases, and then decreases at age 12 or 13. 4. As more mothers today are employed outside the home, child care has become an issue. a) Forty-one percent of preschoolers are cared for by their parents at home. Another 22 percent of preschoolers are cared for by relatives, most commonly the grandparents. Of the other 37 percent not cared for at home or with relatives, the most common arrangement is day care. b) High-quality care is elusive due to the low salaries of day-care workers. c) Nannies have become popular among upper-middle-class parents. A recurring problem is tensions between parents and the nanny. d) According to Melvin Kohn, parents socialize children into the norms of their respective work worlds. Working-class parents want their children to conform to societal expectations. Middle-class parents are more concerned that their children develop curiosity and self-expression. e) Parents who hover over their children are called helicopter parents. This is common among upper-middle-class parents. 5. Later stages of family life bring both pleasures and problems. a) The empty nest is a married couple’s domestic situation after the last child has left home. The empty nest is not so empty anymore. b) With prolonged education and the growing cost of establishing households, U.S. children are leaving home much later or are returning after having left. Sociologists use the term “transitional adulthood” to refer to this major change in how people become adults. A somewhat more popular term is “boomerang children.” c) Women are more likely than men to face the problem of adjusting to widowhood, for not only does the average woman live longer than the average man, but she has also married a man older than herself. The survivor is faced with identity issues of who they are. D. Diversity in U.S. Families 12.4 Summarize research on families: Black American, Latino, Asian American, Native American, one-parent, couples without children, blended, and gay and lesbian. 1. Although there are some variations in family life between White, Black American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American families, the primary distinctions in families result from cultural differences and social class. 2. In Black American families, the upper class is concerned with maintaining family lineage and preserving their privilege and wealth; the middle class focuses on achievement and respectability; poor Black American families face the problems that poverty brings.
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a) Poor men are likely to have few job skills and to be unemployed. As such, it is difficult to fulfill the cultural roles of husband and father. Poor families tend to be headed by females, and single mothers tend to experience high birth rates. Divorce and desertion are also more common among the poor. b) Compared to other groups, Black American families are the least likely to be headed by married couples and the most likely to be headed by women. The women are also more likely to marry men who are less educated than themselves. The effects of social class on families also apply to Latinos. In addition, families differ by country of origin. a) What really distinguishes Latino families is culture—especially the Spanish language, the Roman Catholic religion, and a strong family orientation, coupled with a disapproval of divorce. b) Machismo, the emphasis on male strength and dominance, used to be a characteristic of Latino families. Currently, machismo decreases with each generation. The structure of Asian American families is almost identical to that of White families. a) Because Asian Americans come from many different countries, family life varies considerably, reflecting these different cultures. The more recent the immigration, the closer the family life is to that of the country of origin. b) One study points out that while Chinese and Japanese American families have adopted the nuclear family pattern of the United States, they have retained Confucian values that provide a distinct framework to family life: humanism, collectivity, selfdiscipline, hierarchy, respect for the elderly, moderation, and obligation. c) Asian Americans are more likely to use shame and guilt than physical punishment to control their children’s behavior. For Native American families, the issue is whether to follow traditional values or to assimilate. The structure of Native American families is almost identical to that of Latinos and Black Americans; like others, these families differ by social class. a) Native American families are permissive with their children and avoid physical punishment. b) Elders play a much more active role in their children’s families than they do in most U.S. families; they provide child care and teach and discipline children. There has been an increase in one-parent families. a) This increase mirrors the divorce rate. b) The concern about one-parent families has more to do with their poverty than that they are headed by a single parent. c) Single fathers who have sole custody of their children are growing more common. Although somewhat influenced by race and ethnicity, in general, the more education a woman has, the more likely she is to expect to bear no children. a) The main reason couples choose not to have children is they want to be free to be able to change jobs or do spontaneous things; they want to avoid the expenses of raising a child or the stresses associated with having children. b) Some couples are infertile, but most childless couples have made a choice to not have children—and they prefer to be referred to as “childfree” rather than “childless.” A blended family is one whose members were once part of other families (for example, two divorced people marry, bringing children into a new family unit). Blended families are increasing in number and often experience complicated family relationships. 113 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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9. Many gay and lesbian couples live in monogamous relationships that resemble heterosexual marriages in many respects. Most same-sex couples cohabit before they marry, with female couples more likely than male couples to marry. Their struggles are similar to male–female couples. E. Trends in U.S. Families 12.5 Discuss changes in the timetable of family life, cohabitation, and elder care. 1. Several trends are very apparent in U.S. families. 2. The average age of American brides and grooms is the oldest it has been since records first were kept. a) As a result, the age at which U.S. women have their first children is also the highest in U.S. history. b) While many young people postpone marriage, they have not postponed the age at which they set up housekeeping with someone of the opposite sex. 3. Cohabitation is living together as an unmarried couple and has increased since the 1970s steeply and consistently. a) Commitment is the essential difference between cohabitation and marriage: marriage assumes permanence; cohabiting assumes remaining together “as long as it works out.” b) Comparing couples who did and did not cohabit, sociologists found the opposite of what we might suppose. Couples who cohabit before marriage are about 25 percent more likely to divorce. 4. The “sandwich generation” refers to people who find themselves sandwiched between two generations, responsible for the care of their children and for their own aging parents. These people are typically between the ages of 40 and 55. F. Divorce and Remarriage 12.6 Summarize problems in measuring divorce, research findings on children and grandchildren of divorce, fathers’ contact after divorce, ex-spouses, and remarriage. 1. There are problems when it comes to measuring the extent of divorce in U.S. society. a) Although the divorce rate is reported at 50 percent, this statistic is misleading because with rare exceptions, those who divorce do not come from the group who married that year. b) An alternative is to compare the number of divorces in a given year to the entire group of married couples. The divorce rate for any given year is less than 2 percent of all married couples. c) A third way is to calculate the percentage of all adult Americans who are divorced. d) Another question to ask is what percentage of Americans who marry will divorce? The best estimate is about 40 to 45 percent. e) People on average who marry outside their racial–ethnic groups have a higher divorce rate, but the rate differs based on who marries whom. 2. Divorce is especially hard on children, but some situations make it easier for children to cope. a) Compared with children whose parents are not divorced, children from divorced families are more likely to have behavioral problems, to be depressed, to get poor grades, to drop out of high school, and to get in trouble with the law. 114 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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b) Children adjust better to divorce if they do not have to face other disruptions that uproot them, such as moving, but are able to maintain their sense of belonging to their family, school, friends, and neighborhood. c) Adult children who come from a divorced family have a chance at successful marriage if they marry someone whose parents did not divorce. Those marriages where both husband and wife come from a divorced family are more likely to be marked by high distrust and conflict, leading to a higher chance of divorce. 3. Grey divorce, the divorce of people over the age of 50, is increasing. 4. In terms of remarriage, bringing children into a marriage adds stress, and these couples are more likely to divorce, but if no children are in the picture, the likelihood of divorce is the same as that of first marriages. G. Two Sides of Family Life 12.7 Summarize the dark and bright sides of family life. 1. Spousal battering, child abuse, marital rape, and incest represent the dark side of family life. a) Although wives are about as likely to attack their husbands as husbands are to attack their wives, it is generally the husband who lands the last and most damaging blow. b) More than four million U.S. children are reported to the authorities as victims of abuse or neglect; about 700,000 of these cases are substantiated. c) Marital and intimacy rape is more common than previously thought. Compared to victims of rape by acquaintances or strangers, victims of marital rape are less likely to report it. d) The replacement term to use for marital rape is “intimate partner sexual violence,” which applies to both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. e) Incest is sexual relations between relatives, such as brothers and sisters or parents and children. The most common form of incest occurs between children such as siblings. 2. A study of couples who had been married fifteen years or longer reported these factors in making a relationship successful: having a deep trust of one another, appreciating one another, enjoying leisure activities together, agreeing on how to spend money, getting along with their in-laws, communicating tactfully, and being committed to one another and to their marriage. H. The Future of Marriage and Family 12.8 Explain the likely future of marriage and family. 1. In spite of problems, marriage will continue because it is functional. The vast proportion of Americans will continue to find marriage vital to their welfare. 2. It is likely that cohabitation, births to single women, and the age at first marriage will increase. More married women will join the workforce and continue to gain marital power. Finally, more families will struggle with the twin demands of raising children and caring for aging parents. 3. We will continue to deal with the conflict between the bleak picture of marriage and family painted by the media and the rosy one painted by cultural myths. Sociologists can help correct these distortions through research. Figures 115 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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12.1: Marriages between White and Black Americans: The Race–Ethnicity of the Husbands and Wives 12.2: The Number of Children Americans Think Are Ideal 12.3: The Remarkable Change in Two- and Four-Children Families 12.4: On Our Way to Designer Babies 12.5: Who Takes Care of the Babies and Preschoolers? 12.6: Family Structure: U.S. Families with Children Younger than Age 18 Headed by Mothers, Fathers, and Both Parents 12.7: The Decline of Two-Parent Families 12.8: What Percentage of U.S. Women Ages 40–44 Have Never Given Birth? 12.9: When Do Americans Marry? The Changing Age at First Marriage 12.10: Americans Age 20–24 Who Have Married 12.11: Cohabitation in the United States 12.12: The “Where” of U.S. Divorce 12.13: Who Is Divorced? Increase and Plateau 12.14: The Marital History of U.S. Brides and Grooms Tables 12.1: Common Cultural Themes: Marriage in Traditional and Industrialized Societies 12.2: What Reduces the Risk of Divorce? Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 12.1 Journal: Apply It to Your Life: Cohabitation Have you ever cohabitated with someone? If so, what were your reasons for choosing to do this? J 12.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Arranged Marriage Why do you think that educated Indians still go along with the custom of arranged marriages? What advantages and disadvantages do you see in the Indian system of mate selection? In the U.S. system of mate selection? SW 12.1 Shared Writing: Family Life Apply this chapter’s contents to your own experience with marriage and family. What social factors affect your family life? In what ways is your family life different from that of your grandparents when they were your age? SW 12.2 Shared Writing: Parenting What kind of parent do you think you’ll be? Why? If you are a parent already, how would you describe your parenting? Special Features
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• • • • • •
Cultural Diversity around the World: Arranged Marriage in India: Probing Beneath the Surface Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape: What Color Eyes? How Tall? Designer Babies on the Way Applying Sociology to Your Life: Finding Quality Day Care Applying Sociology to Your Life: What Kind of Parent Will You Be? Applying Sociology to Your Life: “What Are Your Chances of Getting Divorced? The Misuse of Statistics” Down-to-Earth Sociology: Grey Divorce: Momentous Changes During the Elderly Years
Lecture Suggestions ▪
After reading “Cultural Diversity around the World: Arranged Marriage in India,” have students discuss the advantages they see in the Indian approach to love and marriage.
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Given the trends toward higher numbers of divorces and more children born out of wedlock since 1970, ask students to think about and discuss the following: Should the legal system make it more difficult for married couples to obtain a divorce and harder for people to cohabit outside of marriage, especially when children are involved? What can the U.S. government do to strengthen families and marriages in American society? How can the people change the culture to strengthen families and marriages?
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Have students review “The Bright Side of Family Life: Successful Marriages” in their textbooks. Have students discuss why love did not make the list, while other things like having a deep trust of one another did. Based on these findings, have students discuss whether the idea of looking for someone they can trust, rather than a lover, might be a better route to take when seeking intimacy and marriage.
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Ask students how long they think the “sexual high” experienced by some couples when they first meet or start going out can last. At what point in a relationship does the intense sexual chemistry that makes “love” the most exciting thing on earth begin to wear off? Most likely, you will get a range of answers from six months to two years. In light of this range, ask students to consider and discuss the following: If two people who are “madly in love” with one another marry at the age of 23 and the sexual high ends two years later, what will they do for the next fifty years of their married life? In the absence of intense sexual attraction, what keeps most married couples together? And what does this say, if anything, about which factors are the most and least important for a successful long-term marriage?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Ask students to imagine they are getting married next week. Then, as an in-class assignment, have them spend the next half-hour writing a prenuptial agreement that details their expectations for the marriage and, more importantly, their partner’s obligations in the marriage related to the following: (1) financial matters, (2) housework, and (3) child rearing responsibilities. Afterward, have four male volunteers and four female volunteers come up to the front of the room and briefly present what they wrote. Tell the rest of the class to look for 117 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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and be prepared to discuss any significant differences between the prenuptial agreements written by the male students and those written by the female students. ▪
Assign students into pairs and inform them that this is their spouse for the exercise. Ask them to identify where they would like to live and the type of job they plan to have. Then have students research the average income for the area and occupation they chose. Based on their income, have them determine an amount of money they think is reasonable to spend on food for a family of four (two adults and two children). After researching nutritional guidelines, they should create a meal plan for the week and a list of groceries needed to feed the family for the week. Have them visit a local grocery store and calculate the cost of food for that week. The students should then report back to the class their ability/inability to meet their budgets. Be sure to discuss the cost of eating out, varying prices in different areas, and so on.
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Have students contact a day-care center and ask if they can observe the center’s operation for a few hours to fulfill a class assignment. During the observation period, have the students take notes on the types of activities in which the children engage, the degree of supervision provided, and the children’s apparent responses to the activities. After the assignment is completed, have students compare notes and discuss which were the best activities and under what circumstances the best day care observed operates.
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Chapter 13: Education and Religion Chapter Summary This chapter begins by discussing education across the globe. It explains how education reflects a nation’s culture and economy. The chapter describes the functionalist point of view: education provides the manifest functions of teaching knowledge and skills, transmitting values, and enabling social integration. Latent functions of education include gatekeeping, or funneling people into different types of jobs, and replacing family functions, such as child care. From a conflict perspective, the educational system reproduces the social class structure by teaching students a hidden curriculum that will most likely guide them into remaining within their current social strata. From a symbolic interactionist point of view, teachers’ actions create real outcomes and self-fulfilling prophecies for students: if teachers believe students can do well, they do well; if teachers believe they can’t do well, they don’t do well. According to the chapter, many issues within education today need to be rectified, such as grade inflation and social promotion between grades, which needs to be curbed with raising standards. The author also discusses violence in schools. The second section of the chapter covers religion. It starts off by discussing Durkheim’s theory and discussing what is sacred (having to do with the supernatural) or profane (ordinary aspects) and the three elements of religion: (1) beliefs, (2) practices, (3) and moral community. The chapter then applies the functionalist perspective to religion, examining its functions and dysfunctions. The symbolic interactionist perspective interrogates the symbols, rituals, beliefs, experiences, and communities that are part of religion. The conflict perspective is more critical of religion and suggests that it reinforces a society’s stratification system. The chapter then discusses Weber’s analysis and how Protestantism brought about capitalism, with some criticisms from others. The chapter then explores the difference between a cult, sect, church, and ecclesia, including how all religions begin as cults but not all go through the same stages. The author also examines the main features of religion in the United States. The chapter ends with a discussion of the likely future of religion. Learning Objectives LO 13.1 Understand how education is related to a nation’s culture and economy; compare education in Japan, Russia, and Egypt. LO 13.2 Apply the functionalist perspective by explaining the functions of education. LO 13.3 Apply the conflict perspective by explaining how the educational system reproduces the social class structure. LO 13.4 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective by explaining the significance of teacher expectations. LO 13.5 Discuss mediocrity in education, grade inflation, social promotion, raising standards, and violence in schools. LO 13.6 Explain what Durkheim meant by sacred and profane and discuss the three elements of 119 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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religion. LO 13.7 Apply the functionalist perspective to religion: functions and dysfunctions. LO 13.8 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to religion: symbols, rituals, beliefs, and religious experience. LO 13.9 Apply the conflict perspective to religion: opium of the people and legitimating social inequalities. LO 13.10 Explain Weber’s analysis of how religion broke tradition and brought capitalism. LO 13.11 Compare cult, sect, church, and ecclesia. LO 13.12 Summarize the main features of religion in the United States. LO 13.13 Discuss the likely future of religion. Chapter Overview A. Education in Global Perspective 13.1 Understand how education is related to a nation’s culture and economy; compare education in Japan, Russia, and Egypt. 1. Industrialized nations have become credential societies. By this, sociologist Randall Collins (1979) meant that employers use diplomas and degrees as sorting devices to determine who is eligible for a job, even though the diploma or degree may be irrelevant to the actual work. 2. Mandatory education laws requiring children to attend school to a specified age or a particular grade level were enacted in all U.S. states by 1918. 3. Industrialization and universal education occurred at the same time. Since the economy was undergoing fundamental change, political and civic leaders recognized the need for an educated workforce. They also feared the influx of “foreign” values and looked at public education as a way to Americanize immigrants. 4. As industrialization progressed, education came to be seen as essential to the well-being of society. 5. Today, 66 percent of all high school graduates now enter college. Receiving a bachelor’s degree is now more than twice as common as completing high school used to be. 6. A central principle of education is that a nation’s education reflects its culture. Education in the Most Industrialized Nations: Japan. a) Japanese education attempts to reduce distinctions of social class and it reflects a group-centered ethic. b) The scores on national tests determine which high schools they attend, which then influences which colleges they go to. c) Children from richer families are more likely to be admitted to college due to privileges, such as cultural capital (having more highly educated parents, pressure to bring home top grades, and cultural experiences that translate into higher test scores). 7. Education in the Industrializing Nations: Russia 120 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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a) After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the new Soviet government insisted that communist values dominate education, seeing education as a means to build support for the new political system. b) Education, including college, was universal and free, and math and natural sciences were stressed. Education was centralized, with schools across the nation following the same curriculum. c) Today, Russians are in the midst of “reinventing” education. Private, religious, and even foreign-run schools are operating, teachers are allowed to develop their own curricula, and students are encouraged to think for themselves. d) Politicians are more interested in the country’s educational system because it can shape minds, and Vladimir Putin eliminated most publishing competition to install a crony as the publisher of “patriotic” texts that “match Russian values.” 8. Education in the Least Industrialized Nations: Egypt a) In the Least Industrialized Nations, there is little emphasis on formal schooling. Generally, the wealthy have the time and money to receive an education. b) Several centuries before the birth of Christ, Egypt was a world-renowned center of learning. Primary areas of study during this period were physics, astronomy, geometry, geography, mathematics, philosophy, and medicine. After defeat in war, education declined, never to rise to its former prominence. c) Today, qualified teachers are few, classrooms are crowded, and education is highly limited. As a result, one-fourth of Egyptians are illiterate, with more women than men unable to read and write. Those individuals who do receive a formal education attend grade school for six years, and then students are tracked, either going to study technical subjects for three years or going on to high school for three years. Those who score highest on national exams are admitted to college. d) Most learning focuses on memorizing facts, an approach that leaves minds less capable of evaluating life and opens the door to religious extremism. B. The Functionalist Perspective: Providing Social Benefits 13.2 Apply the functionalist perspective by explaining the functions of education. 1. Functionalists use the term manifest function to refer to the positive outcomes that are intended by human actions and latent functions to refer to positive outcomes that were not intended. 2. Education’s most obvious manifest function is to teach knowledge and skills. 3. Another manifest function is cultural transmission of values. Schools in a socialist society stress values that support socialism, while schools in a capitalist society teach values that support capitalism. 4. Schools facilitate social integration by molding students into a more cohesive unit and helping socialize them into mainstream culture. One way that schools promote political integration is through teaching mainstream ideas to immigrants. This forging of a national identity is to stabilize the political system and maintain the status quo. Today, children with disabilities are increasingly being integrated into regular social activities through the policy of inclusion, or mainstreaming. 5. Gatekeeping, or social placement, determines which people will enter which occupations, and is another function of education. Tracking students into particular educational
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curricula supports gatekeeping. Schools facilitate social placement, that is, funneling people into a society’s various positions. 6. Over the years, schools have expanded into a latent function, assuming some of the functions of the family, like child care, sex education, and birth control advice. C. The Conflict Perspective: Perpetuating Social Inequality 13.3 Apply the conflict perspective by explaining how the educational system reproduces the social class structure. 1. Conflict theorists argue that schools perpetuate the social divisions of society and help members of the elite maintain their dominance. 2. The hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten rules of behavior and attitudes (e.g., obedience to authority, conformity to mainstream norms) taught in school in addition to the formal curriculum. 3. Conflict theorists criticize IQ (intelligence quotient) testing because it not only measures intelligence but also culturally acquired knowledge. By focusing on these factors, IQ tests reflect a cultural bias that favors the middle class and discriminates against minority and lower-class students. 4. Because public schools are largely financed by local property taxes, there are rich and poor school districts. Unequal funding stacks the deck against minorities and the poor. 5. Based on research, family background affects the educational system. Those students, regardless of personal abilities, who come from more well-to-do families are not only more likely to go to college but also to attend the nation’s most prestigious schools. 6. Schools not only reproduce social class inequalities, but also those based on race and ethnicity. Whites are more likely to complete high school and go to college than African Americans and Latinos. The educational system helps pass privilege (or lack thereof) across generations. D. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Teacher Expectations 13.4 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective by explaining the significance of teacher expectations. 1. Symbolic interactionists study face-to-face interaction inside the classroom. They have found that expectations of teachers are especially significant in determining what students learn. 2. The Rist research (participant observation in an African American grade school with an African American faculty) found tracking begins with teachers’ perceptions. a) After eight days, and without testing for ability, teachers divided the class into fast, average, and slow learners. b) Rist found that social class was the underlying basis for assigning children to different groups. c) Students from whom more was expected did the best; students in the “slow” group were ridiculed and disengaged themselves from classroom activities. d) The labels applied in kindergarten tended to follow children through school, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy (Robert Merton’s term for an originally false assertion that becomes true simply because it was predicted). 3. Teachers shaped the experiences the students had within the classroom.
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a) George Farkas found students scoring the same on course material may receive different grades: girls get higher grades, as do Asian Americans. b) Farkas used symbolic interactionism to understand this pattern. He noticed that some students signal an interest in what the teacher is teaching; teachers pick up these signals and reward those students with better grades. E. Problems in U.S. Education—and Their Solutions 13.5 Discuss mediocrity in education, grade inflation, social promotion, raising standards, and violence in schools. 1. A variety of factors have been identified as the major problems facing the U.S. educational system today. These problems include mediocrity and violence. 2. Mediocrity refers to being inferior or second rate. There are many examples of how mediocrity plagues our educational system by reducing the rigor of academics. 3. Grade inflation has become a widespread issue; 59 percent of all college freshmen have an overall high school grade point average of an A. A result is functional illiteracy; high school students have difficulty with reading and writing. 4. One way that the educational system has tried to overcome mediocrity is through raising standards. One focus has been raising standards for teachers, because, although most teachers are qualified, some are not. 5. Violence and shootings are an issue at some schools, and it is unlikely that we will return to a time when school shootings are unknown. F. What Is Religion? Durkheim’s Research 13.6 Explain what Durkheim meant by sacred and profane and discuss the three elements of religion. 1. Durkheim drew three main conclusions about religion. a) First, there is no particular belief or practice common to all religions. b) Second, despite diversity, religions develop community that centers on beliefs and practices. c) Third, all religions separate the sacred from the profane. Sacred refers to aspects of life having to do with the supernatural that inspire awe, reverence, deep respect, or fear. Profane refers to the ordinary aspects of everyday life. 2. Durkheim defined religion as having three elements: (1) beliefs that some things are sacred (forbidden, set apart from the profane); (2) practices (rituals) centering on things considered sacred; and (3) a moral community (a church) resulting from a group’s beliefs and practices. a) Durkheim used the word church to refer to any moral community centered on a group’s beliefs and practices regarding the sacred. A moral community is simply a group of people who are united by their religion’s practices. G. The Functionalist Perspective 13.7 Apply the functionalist perspective to religion: functions and dysfunctions. 1. Religion performs certain functions: (1) answering questions about ultimate meaning (the purpose of life, why people suffer); (2) providing emotional comfort; (3) uniting believers into a community that shares values and perspectives; (4) controlling behavior; (5) helping people adapt to new environments; (6) providing support for the government; 123 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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(7) spearheading social change on occasion (as in the case of the civil rights movement in the 1960s); and (8) providing guidelines for life. 2. War and terrorism, as well as religious persecution, are dysfunctions of religion. H. The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective 13.8 Apply the symbolic interactionist perspective to religion: symbols, rituals, beliefs, and religious experience. 1. All religions use symbols to provide identity and create social solidarity for members. For members, these are not ordinary symbols but sacred symbols evoking awe and reverence, which become a condensed way of communicating with others. 2. Religious experience is a sudden awareness of the supernatural or a feeling of coming in contact with God. Some Protestants use the term “born again” to describe people who have undergone a religious experience. 3. Rituals are ceremonies or repetitive practices helping unite people into a moral community by creating a feeling of closeness with God and unity with one another. 4. Symbols, including rituals, develop from beliefs. A belief may be vague (“God is”) or specific (“God wants us to prostrate ourselves and face Mecca five times each day”). Religious beliefs include not only values (what is considered good and desirable) but also a cosmology (unified picture of the world). I. The Conflict Perspective 13.9 Apply the conflict perspective to religion: opium of the people and legitimating social inequalities. 1. Conflict theorists are highly critical of religion. Karl Marx called religion the “opium of the people” because he believed that workers escape into religion. He argued that religion diverts the energies of the oppressed from changing their circumstances because believers focus on the happiness they will have in the coming world rather than on their suffering in this world. 2. Religion legitimizes social inequality; it reflects the interests of those in power by teaching that the existing social arrangements of a society represent what God desires. J. Religion and the Spirit of Capitalism 13.10 Explain Weber’s analysis of how religion broke tradition and brought capitalism. 1. Sociologist Max Weber disagreed with the conflict perspective’s position that religion impedes social change. Weber saw religion as a force for social change, observing that European countries industrialized under capitalism. Thus, religion held the key to modernization (transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies). 2. To explain this connection, Weber wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In it he concluded that: a) The spirit of capitalism (desire to accumulate capital as a duty, as an end in itself) was a radical departure from the past. b) Religion (including a Calvinistic belief in predestination and the need for reassurance as to one’s fate) is the key to why the spirit of capitalism developed in Europe. c) A change in religion (from Catholicism to Protestantism) led to a change in thought and behavior (the Protestant ethic), which resulted in the “spirit of capitalism.” 3. Critics of Weber noted that he overlooked the lack of capitalism in Scotland (a Calvinist 124 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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country) and that the Industrial Revolution originated in England, a non-Calvinist country. 4. Today the spirit of capitalism and the Protestant ethic are by no means limited to Protestants; they have become cultural traits that have spread throughout the world. K. Types of Religious Groups 13.11 Compare cult, sect, church, and ecclesia. 1. A cult is a new religion with few followers that maintains teachings and practices that put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion. a) All religions begin as cults. Cults often begin with the appearance of a charismatic leader (exerting extraordinary appeal to a group of followers). b) Christianity, the most popular religion in the world, began as a cult, as did Islam. c) Each cult meets with rejection from society. The message given by the cult is seen as a threat to the dominant culture. d) The cult demands intense commitment, and its followers confront a hostile world. e) Although most cults ultimately fail because they are unable to attract a large enough following, some succeed and make history. 2. A sect is larger than a cult but still feels substantial hostility from and toward society. a) At the very least, members remain uncomfortable with many of the emphases of the dominant culture; nonmembers feel uncomfortable with sect members. b) If a sect grows, its members tend to become respectable in society, and the sect is changed into a church. 3. A church is a large, highly organized religious group with formal, sedate services and less emphasis on personal salvation and emotional expression. The religious group is highly bureaucratized (including national and international offices that give directions to local congregations). Most new members come from within the church, from children born to existing members rather than from outside recruitment. 4. An ecclesia is a religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where one begins and the other leaves off. a) Ecclesiae are also called state religions. The government and religion work together to try to shape the society. b) There is no recruitment of members as citizenship makes everyone a member. L. Religion in the United States 13.12 Summarize the main features of religion in the United States. 1. In the United States, religious membership varies by social class, race, and ethnicity. 2. About 47 percent of Americans belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque. a) Religion is stratified by social class. Some are “top-heavy,” while others are “bottomheavy.” The most top-heavy are Episcopalians and Jews; the most bottom-heavy are Assembly of God, Southern Baptists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. b) All major religious groups in the United States draw from various racial and ethnic groups; however, people of Irish descent are likely to be Roman Catholics, those of Greek origin are likely to belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, and African Americans are likely to be Protestants. c) Although many churches are integrated, there is still much segregation along racial lines. This is based on custom, not law. Sunday morning between 10:00 a.m. and 125 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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11:00 a.m. has been called “the most segregated hour in the United States.” 3. Characteristics of religious groups in the United States: a) They are diverse. With hundreds of denominations, there is no dominant religion in the United States. b) They are pluralistic and free to worship as they see fit. Government does not interfere with religion. However, if officials feel threatened by a religious group, then they violate their hands-off policy. c) Toleration for religious beliefs other than one’s own are reflected in the attitudes that religions have a right to exist as long as they do not brainwash or bother anyone, and no one claims to be the true religion. While each believer may be convinced about the truth of their religion, trying to convert others is considered obnoxious. d) In the electronic church, televangelists reach millions of viewers and raise millions of dollars. M. The Future of Religion 13.13 Discuss the likely future of religion. 1. Religion continues to thrive in the most advanced scientific nations. 2. Science cannot answer questions about four concerns many people have: the existence of God, the purpose of life, the existence of an afterlife, and morality. 3. Religion will last as long as humanity lasts. Figures 13.1: Educational Achievement in the United States 13.2: Parents’ Income and the Quality of Their Children’s College 13.3: The Funneling Effects of Education: Race–Ethnicity 13.4: Starting Salaries of U.S. College Graduates, BA or BS Degree 13.5: Religious Groups: From Hostility to Acceptance 13.6: Social Class and Religious Affiliation Tables 13.1: Exploding a Myth: Murders at U.S. Schools 13.2: How Americans Aged 18 and Older Identify with Religion Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 13.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: School Shootings How do you think we can reduce school shootings? How about reducing school violence of any sort? J 13.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Religious Freedom What do you think the limitations on religious freedom should be? Should people be allowed to sacrifice animals as part of their religious practices? SW 13.1 126 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Shared Writing: Improving Schools How do you think we can improve U.S. schools? SW 13.2 Shared Writing: Religious Experience If you attend a church, synagogue, or mosque: How does your religion influence your life? How does your religion affect your lifestyle? What decisions would you have made differently if you did not practice your religion? Special Features • • • • • •
Down-to-Earth Sociology: Community Colleges: Facing Old and New Challenges Applying Sociology to Your Life: You Want to Get Through College? Let’s Apply Sociology Thinking Critically about Social Life: School Shootings: Exploding a Myth Through the Author’s Lens: Holy Week in Spain Cultural Diversity in the United States: Human Heads and Animal Blood: Testing the Limits of Tolerance Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape: Changing Religious Practices in the Digital Age
Lecture Suggestions ▪
Ask students to describe the ideal college. Which courses, support systems, and extracurricular activities would it offer? What would its priorities be, and how would it reinforce these priorities in its policies? Then ask students to describe the ideal college teacher. Which skills, qualities, and/or characteristics would they have? And how would these make them an “ideal teacher”? Finally, ask students to describe the ideal college student. Which skills, qualities, and/or characteristics would that person have?
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Have students think about and discuss the following issues related to the “credential society”: Is there too much of an emphasis on credentials in the United States? If so, how might this be harmful? To whom? Have you ever personally benefited from or been victimized by gatekeeping? How? Overall, do you find yourself agreeing more with the functionalist position (gatekeeping exists because society and its members benefit from it) or with the conflict position (gatekeeping exists for the benefit of powerful interests who use it to protect their privileged place in the American social class system)? Why?
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Thinking about George Farkas’s research on the relationship between teachers’ expectations and students’ grades, ask students to consider the following: What are some “signals” students might use to communicate to their teachers that they are good students? From your observations, are female students more likely than male students to use such “signals”? Have you, personally, ever used such “signals” to try to influence your grades and, if so, how well did it work? Finally, how might the sex of a teacher affect, if at all, students’ grades, especially in borderline situations? Are male teachers, for example, more likely to go easier on female students than on male students? Are female teachers, on the other hand, more 127 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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likely to go harder on female students than on male students? If so, what social and/or psychological factors might account for such a “gender effect”? ▪
Ask students to think about and discuss the following issues about grades: Do you feel there is too much or too little emphasis on grades in the American educational system? How are grades functional to the American educational system? And in which ways might grades be dysfunctional? Do you feel that you truly deserve the grades that you have received so far in high school and college? What exactly do those grades measure and/or reflect?
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Conduct a discussion on the changing landscape of religious participation in the United States. Then ask students to consider why these changes have occurred. How has the meaning of religion changed? Does religion still function the same way? What groups’ conflicts have influenced the landscape of religion in the United States?
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Ask students to look at Figure 13.6 and discuss some possible reasons why Jewish people have the highest incomes, levels of education, and occupational prestige of any religion in the United States, as well as why Jehovah’s Witnesses have the lowest. It has been suggested that as social class changes, people change religions. However, Jews are born Jews—they don’t convert to Judaism as their social class changes. Have students discuss whether they think that maybe the sociological assumption of direction is wrong.
Suggested Assignments ▪
Assign each student to make a minimum two-hour observation of one of the following classes: a kindergarten class, a class in one of the primary grades (grades one to five), one from a middle school grade (grades six to eight), an intermediate school class (grades nine or ten), or a high school class (grades eleven or twelve). Specifically, have them observe the manner in which the class is structured, the degree of student interaction, the amount of supervision the students receive, and any noticeable characteristics of the classes observed. Have all the students who observed the same group of classes join together to discuss their findings and make a presentation to the class.
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To enable students to critically analyze the “credential society,” ask them to conduct face-toface interviews with four adults over the age of 40 who are currently employed in professional or upper-management positions. As part of the interview process, they should find out and make a list of all of the credentials that the people interviewed have accumulated in their lifetimes. Then, sorting through number of degrees, certifications, and licenses, they should ask these professionals and upper managers how much of the training that led to those credentials is significantly related to the work they are currently doing. They should also ask how much it cost them (e.g., tuition, fees, and expenses), roughly, to acquire all of the credentials they accumulated in their lifetime, even if they are not currently using them. After conducting their interviews and analyzing the data, ask students to address, from a functionalist perspective, just how functional credentials are for ensuring that the most highly qualified people fill the most important jobs in society. Second, from a conflict perspective, who benefits from and profits by the “credentializing” of society?
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Assign students to make a minimum two-hour observation of a public school class at the intermediate or high school level, as well as a class at the same grade level in a Catholic school. Following this assignment, have the participating students join in a discussion of similarities and differences between the two systems. A spokesperson for the group should then address the class to summarize the observations made.
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In an exercise similar to the one above, assign students to observe both an inner-city school at one of the middle, intermediate, or high school levels and a class of the same level in an upper-class suburban school. The students who participate in this assignment should discuss their observations among themselves and then elect a spokesperson to inform the rest of the class on what they observed. As a part of this exercise, students should address the image they had of the class before observing it, and how the stereotypical view of inner-city and suburban schools affected their observations and conclusions.
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Have students walk around the class and campus looking for and recording as many religious symbols as they can find. Afterward, list all the symbols on the blackboard and conduct a discussion on the following: How common are religious symbols on your campus? Why do you think people find it necessary to display their religious symbols in nonreligious settings? And, what is it that these religious symbols communicate? To whom? And for what purpose?
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Ask students to consider the following: Because in general the Republican Party and religious conservatives are opposed to abortion and the Democratic Party and liberals largely support abortion, do you think that the Democrats and liberals are less religious? Then, after students take a position (for example, yes, Democrats and liberals are less religious), survey students’ own levels of religiosity and political affiliation, as well as their position on the abortion issue. (Because of privacy issues, it is better to do a self-report study on paper with no names). Once you have gathered the data, discuss the findings with the students to test the hypothesis. Did the students who reported being Democrats or liberals support abortion? Did these same students also report lower levels of religiosity? If so, have students discuss why it may be that the more religious you are, the more likely you are to oppose abortion. You might also have students take a random-sample survey of students on campus and compare it with the classroom results. This will also give them some “hands-on” research experience.
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Ask students to team up with a student of a different faith. Each team is to attend two worship services together—one of each team member’s faith. The guest observer should pay close attention to how the congregation mingles before, during, and after the service; the formal or informal nature of the service; the emphasis of the sermon; special robes or garb worn by the minister and members; symbols displayed in the church; rituals performed; and other activities taking place. Following the observation, the guest student should write a summary of what they observed, what they believe the symbols and rituals mean, and the impact the service had. The role of the “host” student is to advise the guest student of any protocol that should be followed and of sacred issues the guest should not violate, such as a non-Catholic receiving holy communion. This exercise is intended as a learning experience and not an encouragement to convert.
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Have several volunteers from class review the television listings for your area and make a list 129 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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of the televangelist programs shown, including the day, time, and channel. Then assign each student to watch one of the programs and write a one- or two-page reaction paper on the program. The paper should include any significant impressions the show made on the student and how the show was similar and different from worship services with which they are more familiar. After the students have handed in their papers, have groups of six or eight students who watched the same program join together to discuss these points. Have them elect a spokesperson to summarize their findings for the rest of the class.
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Chapter 14: Population and Urbanization Chapter Summary The chapter begins with a discussion about population growth, contrasting the views of the New Malthusians, who suggest that we will be overpopulated soon, and the Anti-Malthusians, who argue that population growth will decline and enter a new stage. To understand why there are so many children in the Least Industrialized Nations, the author suggests an interactionist approach to think about the values attached to family. He also discusses a conflict approach. Next, the chapter explores the consequences of population growth and explains how demographers use population pyramids to understand populations. It introduces the three demographic variables (birth rate, mortality, migration) and the problems that occur when demographers attempt to forecast population growth. The chapter then shifts to understanding urban environments, from the city to the megaregion, and examines patterns of urbanization. It also presents traditional models of urban growth, providing some critiques such as the specificity of time and place. The chapter covers alienation and community within the city, types of people who live in the city, and how noninvolvement may occur, including the diffusion of responsibility. The chapter ends with the effects of surburbanization, how disinvestment and deindustrialization create negative effects within cities, and the potential of urban revitalization, while considering those that it displaces. Learning Objectives LO 14.1 Contrast the views of the New Malthusians and Anti-Malthusians on population growth and the food supply; explain why people are starving. LO 14.2 Explain why the Least Industrialized Nations have so many children, consequences of rapid population growth, population pyramids, the three demographic variables, and problems in forecasting population growth. LO 14.3 Explain how cities developed, and summarize urbanization from city to megaregion. LO 14.4 Be familiar with the patterns of urbanization that characterize the United States. LO 14.5 Compare the models of urban growth. LO 14.6 Discuss alienation and community, types of people who live in the city, the norm of noninvolvement, and the diffusion of responsibility. LO 14.7 Explain the effects of suburbanization, disinvestment and deindustrialization, and the potential of urban revitalization. Chapter Outline A. Population in Global Perspective 1. The study of the size, composition, growth, and distribution of human populations is called demography. Among its objectives, demography makes an effort to predict world 131 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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population growth and whether or not the planet will be able to support its future population. B. A Planet with No Space for Enjoying Life? 14.1 Contrast the views of the New Malthusians and Anti-Malthusians on population growth and the food supply; explain why people are starving. 1. English economist Thomas Malthus wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) stating the Malthus theorem: population grows geometrically while food supply increases arithmetically; thus, if births go unchecked, population will outstrip food supplies. 2. New Malthusians believe Malthus was correct. The world population is following an exponential growth curve (where numbers increase in extraordinary proportions): 1800, o one billion; 1930, two billion; 1960, three billion; 1975, four billion; 1987, five billion, 1999, six billion; 2011, seven billion, and 2022, 8 billion. 3. Anti-Malthusians believe that the three-stage process of population growth, known as the demographic transition, provides a model for the future. a) They cite the historical experiences of European countries over the last two centuries as an example. b) Stage 1 is characterized by a fairly stable population (high birth rates offset by high death rates); Stage 2, by a “population explosion” (high birth rates and low death rates); and Stage 3, by population stability (low birth rates and low death rates). c) They assert this transition will happen in the Least Industrialized Nations, which currently are in the second stage. 4. Who is correct? Only the future will prove the accuracy of either the projections of the New Malthusians or the Anti-Malthusians. a) The Least Industrialized Nations are currently in Stage 2 of the demographic transition—their birth rates remain high while the death rates have dropped. b) There are signs that birth rates in the Least Industrialized Nations are dropping, but the two sides greet this news differently. The New Malthusians say that the populations in the Least Industrialized Nations will continue to climb, only at a slower rate, while the Anti-Malthusians say that the slow rate is a sign that these nations are beginning to move into Stage 3. c) Population shrinkage (a country’s population is smaller because birth rate and immigration cannot replace those who die and emigrate) is now occurring in some countries like Japan, suggesting a fourth stage to the demographic transition. d) Some Anti-Malthusians predict a “demographic free fall.” Eventually, the world’s population will peak then begin to grow smaller. 5. Why are people starving? a) Anti-Malthusians note that the amount of food produced for each person in the world has increased. People go hungry and starve because particular places lack food, and droughts and wars are the main reason. b) The New Malthusians counter that the world’s population continues to grow, and the earth may not be able to continue to produce sufficient food. c) Recently, famines have been concentrated in Africa. However, these famines are not due to too many people living on too little land.
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C. Population Growth 14.2 Explain why the Least Industrialized Nations have so many children, consequences of rapid population growth, population pyramids, the three demographic variables, and problems in forecasting population growth. 1. There are three reasons poor nations have so many children: (1) the status that parenthood provides, (2) the community supports this view, and (3) children are considered to be economic assets (the parents rely on the children to take care of them in their old age). a) The symbolic interactionist perspective stresses that we need to understand these patterns within the framework of the culture and society in which the behavior occurs, and within this framework, having many children makes sense. b) The conflict perspective stresses that in the Least Industrialized Nations, men dominate women in all spheres of life, including that of reproduction. There is an emphasis on male virility and dominance, including the fathering of many children, as a means of achieving status in the community. 2. There are many consequences of rapid population growth. a) Just to stay even with a doubling population, a country must double the number of available jobs and housing facilities, its food production, its transportation and communication, and more. b) Conflict theorists argue that a declining standard of living poses the threat of political instability. 3. Demographers use population pyramids (graphic representations of a population, divided into age and sex) to illustrate a country’s population dynamics. a) Based on this information, even if the average number of children per woman in Nigeria dropped to 1.6, the same as the United States, the population would continue to grow rapidly. This is because a higher percentage of Nigerian women are of childbearing age. b) Demographers would say that Nigeria’s age structure gives it greater population momentum. 4. Estimated population growth is based on three demographic variables: a) Fertility, measured by the fertility rate (number of children an average woman bears), is sometimes confused with fecundity (number of children a woman is capable of bearing). To compute a country’s fertility rate, demographers use the crude birth rate (annual number of births per one thousand people). b) Mortality is measured by the crude death rate (number of deaths per one thousand people). c) Migration is measured by the net migration rate (the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants per one thousand population). There are two types: movement between regions within a country and movement between countries. “Push” factors make people want to leave where they are living (e.g., persecution, poverty, war); “pull” factors attract people (e.g., opportunities like education). d) Around the world, migration flows from the Least Industrialized Nations to the industrialized countries. The United States admits more immigrants each year than all the other nations of the world combined. e) To escape poverty, millions of people also enter the United States illegally. f) There is a debate as to whether immigrants are a net contributor or a drain on our economy. 133 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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5. The growth rate equals births minus deaths plus net migration. Although this becomes more complicated, and demographers cannot accurately predict population growth due to social factors such as government policies. a) Some countries are concerned about underpopulation and encourage couples to have more children. Other countries, like China, used to have a “one-couple, one-child” policy. b) The primary factor that influences a country’s growth rate is its rate of industrialization—in every country that industrializes, the birth rate declines. Industrialization creates new opportunities for work and makes it more expensive to have children. Status in industrialized areas comes from educational attainment and material wealth and not the number of children within a family. c) Zero population growth refers to women bearing only enough children to reproduce the population. D. The Development of Cities and Urbanization 14.3 Explain how cities developed, and summarize urbanization from city to megaregion. 1. A city is a place where a large number of people are permanently based and do not produce their own food. Small cities with massive defensive walls existed as far back as seven thousand years ago; cities on a larger scale originated about 3500 B.C. as a result of the development of more efficient agriculture and a food surplus. The key to the origin of cities is the development of more efficient agriculture. 2. Most early cities were small, with the notable exceptions of Changan in China and Baghdad in Persia (Iraq). The Industrial Revolution drew people to cities to work. Now the world has about six hundred cities with more than a million residents. 3. Urbanization is the process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities and has a growing influence on the culture. Urbanization continues, and today, 56 percent of the world’s people live in cities. a) The “pulls” of urban life include variety in music, shops, and food; anonymity; and work. b) Another driver in urbanization has been forced urbanization. For example, in China in some cases, authorities send demolition crews to tear down villagers’ houses. c) Metropolis refers to cities that grow so large that they exert influence over a region; the central city and surrounding smaller cities and suburbs are connected economically, politically, and socially. d) Megalopolis refers to an overlapping area consisting of at least two metropolises and their many suburbs. e) A megacity is a city of ten million or more residents. Today there are forty-four megacities, and most are located in the Least Industrialized Nations. f) Megaregions are where megacities have begun to merge into one another. E. U.S. Urban Patterns 14.4 Be familiar with the patterns of urbanization that characterize the United States. 1. In 1790, only about 5 percent of Americans lived in cities; by 1920, 50 percent of the U.S. population lived in urban areas; today, 82 percent of Americans live in urban areas. a) The U.S. Census Bureau divided the country into 274 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), which consist of a central city of at least fifty thousand people and the 134 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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urbanized areas that are linked to it. About three of five Americans live in just fifty or so MSAs. b) As Americans migrate in search of work and better lifestyles, a two-way pattern of migration between regions appears. Today, four of the ten fastest-growing U.S. cities are in the West; six are in the South. Of the ten shrinking cities, six are in the Northeast, three are in the Midwest, and one is in the South. c) As Americans migrate and businesses move to serve them, edge cities have developed (a clustering of service facilities and residential areas near highway intersections). These cities have no heart. d) Gentrification, the movement of middle-class people into rundown areas of a city, is another major U.S. urban pattern. As a consequence of gentrification, the poor are often displaced from their neighborhoods. A common pattern is for the gentrifiers to be White and the displaced to be minorities. e) Suburbanization is the movement from the city to the suburbs. Although in 1920 only 15 percent of Americans lived in the suburbs, today, over half of all Americans live there. An unexpected consequence of racial integration was an increase in suburbanization. Another unexpected change has been the return of Whites to the city. F. Models of Urban Growth 14.5 Compare the models of urban growth. 1. Sociologist Robert Park coined the term “human ecology” to describe how people adapt to their environment (known as “urban ecology”). Human ecologists have constructed four models that attempt to explain urban growth patterns. 2. Sociologist Ernest W. Burgess proposed the concentric zone model. a) The city consists of a series of zones emanating from its center, each characterized by a different group of people and activity: Zone 1 is the central business district; Zone 2 is in transition, with deteriorating housing and rooming houses; Zone 3 is an area to which thrifty workers have moved to escape the zone in transition while maintaining access to work; Zone 4 is more expensive apartments, single-family dwellings, and exclusive areas where the wealthy live; and Zone 5 is a commuter zone consisting of suburban areas or satellite cities that have developed around transportation routes. b) Burgess said that no “city perfectly fits this ideal scheme.” Some cities have physical obstructions, such as a lake, river, or railroad, that cause their expansion to depart from the model. 3. Sociologist Homer Hoyt proposed the sector model, which sees urban zones as wedgeshaped sectors radiating out from the center. a) A zone might contain a sector of working-class housing, another sector of expensive housing, a third of businesses, and so on, all competing with one another for the same land. b) In an invasion–succession cycle, poor immigrants and rural migrants move into a city, settling in the low-rent areas. As their numbers grow, they spill over into adjacent areas. Upset by their presence, the middle class leaves, expanding the sector of lowcost housing.
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4. The multiple-nuclei model, developed by Chauncy Harris and Edward Ullman, views the city as comprising multiple centers or nuclei, each of which focuses on a specialized activity (e.g., retail districts, automobile dealers, and others). 5. Chauncy Harris later developed the peripheral model of urban development to account for more recent changes in the use of urban space. This model portrays the impact of radial highways on the movement of people and services away from the central city to the city’s periphery, or outskirts. It also shows the development of industrial and office parks. 6. These models tell only a partial story of how cities are constructed. They reflect both the time frame and geographical region of the cities that were studied. They cannot explain medieval cities, and they do not take urban planning into account. G. City Life 14.6 Discuss alienation and community, types of people who live in the city, the norm of noninvolvement, and the diffusion of responsibility. 1. Cities provide opportunities but also create problems. Humans have a need for community, which some people have a hard time finding in cities and so experience alienation. 2. Louis Wirth argued that the city undermines kinship and neighborhood, which are the traditional bases of social control and social solidarity. a) Urbanites then grow aloof and indifferent to other people’s problems. In short, the price of the personal freedom that the city offers is alienation. 3. The city can also be viewed as containing a series of smaller worlds, within which people find a sense of community or belonging. 4. Sociologist Herbert Gans identified five types of people who live in the city. a) Cosmopolites—intellectuals, professionals, entertainers, and artists who live in the inner city to be near its conveniences and cultural benefits b) Singles—young, unmarried people who come seeking jobs and entertainment c) Ethnic villagers—live in tightly knit neighborhoods that resemble villages and small towns, who are united by ethnicity and social class d) The deprived—the very poor or emotionally disturbed individuals who live in neighborhoods more like urban jungles than urban villages e) The trapped—(1) those who could not afford to move when their neighborhood was “invaded” by another ethnic group, (2) downwardly mobile people who have fallen from a higher social class, (3) and elderly people who are trapped by poverty and not wanted elsewhere. f) Critiques of this theory include that these categories overlap. This theory also does not include city residents who don’t stand out in any way. 5. Urban dwellers are careful to protect themselves from the unwanted intrusions of strangers. a) They follow a norm of noninvolvement, such as using electronics (i.e., texting or listening to music) to indicate inaccessibility for interaction, to avoid encounters with people they do not know. b) The more bystanders there are to an incident, the less likely people are to help because people’s sense of responsibility diffuses.
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c) The norm of noninvolvement and the diffusion of responsibility may help urban dwellers get through everyday city life, but they are dysfunctional because people do not provide assistance to others. H. Urban Problems and Social Policy 14.7 Explain the effects of suburbanization, disinvestment and deindustrialization, and the potential of urban revitalization. 1. U.S. cities have declined due to suburbanization and disinvestment and deindustrialization. a) As people have moved out of the city, so have businesses and jobs. b) This shift has left people behind who had no choice but to stay in the city. William Julius Wilson notes that this transformed the inner city into a ghetto. Those left behind were trapped by poverty, unemployment, and welfare dependency. c) Suburbanites, preferring that the city keep its problems to itself, fight movements to share suburbia’s revenues with the city. However, the time may come when suburbanites may have to pay for their attitudes toward the city. d) As suburbs age, they become mirror images of the city, leading to a spiraling sense of insecurity, more middle-class flight, and a further reduction in property values. e) COVID-19 brought a lot of unexpected changes to social life. One was a reinvigoration of small towns located not far from big cities. 2. As the city’s tax base shrinks and services decline, neighborhoods deteriorate, and banks begin redlining. That is, they draw a line on a map around problem areas and refuse to make loans for housing and businesses located in these areas. This disinvestment pushes these areas into further decline. a) The development of a global market has led to deindustrialization. Manufacturing firms have relocated from the inner city to areas where production costs are lower. As millions of urban manufacturing jobs are eliminated, inner-city economies are unable to provide alternative employment for poor residents, thereby locking them out of the economy. 3. Social policy usually takes one of two forms. a) Urban renewal involves tearing down buildings and rebuilding in an area. As a result of urban renewal, residents can no longer afford to live in the area and are displaced to adjacent areas. b) Enterprise zones provide economic incentives to encourage businesses to move into the area. Most businesses, however, refuse to move into high-crime areas. c) A highly promising program is part of Congress’ Tax Cut and Jobs Act called Opportunity Zones. Designating an area of the city as an opportunity zone is the opposite of disinvestment. It targets the area’s redevelopment by offering low-interest loans and tax breaks for investments. d) If U.S. cities are to change, they must become top-agenda items of the U.S. government, with adequate resources in terms of money and human talents focused on overcoming urban woes. e) William Flanagan suggests three guiding principles for working out specific solutions to urban problems: (1) scale—regional and national planning is necessary; (2) livability—growth needs to be channeled in such a way that makes city living attractive; and (3) social justice—social policy must be evaluated in terms of its 137 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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effects on people. Finally, unless the root causes of urban problems, such as poverty, poor schools, and lack of jobs, are addressed, solutions will only serve as Band-Aids that cover the real problems. Figures 14.1: How Fast is the World’s Population Growing? 14.2: World Population Growth 14.3: The Demographic Transition 14.4: How Has the Amount of Food Consumed Per Person in the World Changed? 14.5: World Population Growth, 1750–2150 14.6: Why the Poor Need Children 14.7: Three Populations Pyramids 14.8: Changes in Global Fertility 14.9: Countries of Origin of Unauthorized Immigrants to the United States 14.10: A Global Boom: Cities with over 1 Million Residents 14.11: How the World Is Urbanizing 14.12: The World’s 10 Largest Megacities 14.13: How Urban Is Your State? The Rural–Urban Makeup of the United States 14.14: How Cities Develop: Models of Urban Growth 14.15: Urban Growth and Urban Flight Tables 14.1: How Long Will It Take a Country’s Population to Double? 14.2: Extremes in Childbirth 14.3: Country of Birth of the Authorized 26 Million U.S. Immigrants 14.4: The Shrinking and Fastest-Growing Cities Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 14.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Female Infanticide What do you think can be done to reduce female infanticide? J 14.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Food Supply Do you agree with Thomas Malthus’s argument that if births go unchecked, the population will outstrip its food supply? Why or why not? SW 14.1 Shared Writing: Alienation or Community in the City Why do people find alienation or community in the city? SW 14.2 138 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Shared Writing: Urbanization What are the reasons that the world is urbanizing so rapidly? What solutions do you see for this vast flow of migration to the cities of the Least Industrialized Nations? Special Features • • • •
Cultural Diversity around the World: Killing Little Girls: An Ancient and Thriving Practice Through the Author’s Lens: Medellin, Colombia: A Walk Through El Tiro Down-to-Earth Sociology: Reclaiming Harlem: A Twist in the Invasion–Succession Cycle Cultural Diversity around the World: Why City Slums Are Better Than the Country: Urbanization in the Least Industrialized Nations
Lecture Suggestions ▪
Ask students who grew up in the city to critique the material in the text that describes city life and comment on its accuracy. Each student should identify the part of the city where they grew up and be sure to comment on the accuracy of Henslin’s description of the norm of noninvolvement, the sense of alienation they may have felt, and how they personalized their activities. They should also include an observation of the types of people who live in the city according to the typology presented by Herbert Gans.
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Ask students to discuss the Malthus theorem while choosing sides between the New Malthusians and the Anti-Malthusians. In choosing between the two groups, have students defend their positions, as well as speculate on how their own lives would be affected if the opposing side ultimately turns out to be right.
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Considering the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, have students discuss whether it makes sense to rebuild cities that experience these natural events after such devastation, continuing to overpopulate dangerous areas. Keep in mind that, since similar devastation was present, we are talking about New Orleans as much as we are the Least Industrialized Nations.
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Because industrialized societies with free-market economies and educated populations significantly reduce starvation and poverty, what could be done domestically and internationally to help alleviate the problems of starvation and poverty in these nations? Finally, since many people in the United States are against involvement in the affairs of other nations (e.g., Iraq), what responsibilities does the United States have, if any, to intervene in these countries’ indigenous problems while externally providing financial aid and/or massive shipments of food to these countries? In short, what should the United States be doing to help reduce the problems of the world?
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Ask students whether they plan on living in a city after they graduate. For those who prefer to live in a city, ask what most appeals to them about city life. For those who choose not to live in a city, ask what least appeals to them about city life. Generally, students can discuss what their favorite U.S. cities are and why. If they had to pick a single city anywhere in the United States or the world to serve as a role model for all cities to aspire to, which city would they pick and why? 139 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Suggested Assignments ▪
Take the class on a field trip to the nearest large city. If your college is located in a large city, spend an afternoon with students out and about in the city. Walk everywhere and, using the sociological perspective, have your students look for and record the following: (1) gender, social class, race, and ethnicity patterns in the different neighborhoods; (2) areas of gentrification; (3) different models of urban growth; (4) different types of urban dwellers; (5) signs of community and alienation; (6) signs of the norm of noninvolvement and the diffusion of responsibility; (7) evidence of disinvestment and deindustrialization; and (8) evidence of urban revitalization.
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As a term project, have students produce a thirty-minute video comparing and contrasting life in the suburbs with that in the city. Encourage them to be creative while filming the people, sights, and sounds of suburban life and city life through a “sociological lens” that captures the “best” and “worst” of both worlds. At the end of the semester, have students present their videos to the class.
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Discuss with the class ways in which students can make a contribution to reducing the hunger experienced by children living in the inner city. Appoint a committee of volunteers to design a project to enable students to contribute to this effort. One suggestion would be to have each student, on a voluntary basis, skip a specific meal and donate the cost of that meal to the class project. As a symbol of their sacrifice, students may elect to donate the equivalent of some other commodity taken for granted such as the price of admission to the theater, a case of their favorite beverage, or some other expense that they often take for granted. The committee coordinating this effort may wish to publicize the project in the school newspaper and design a way in which other students can participate. At the conclusion of the project, make a cash donation to the agency chosen by the class. Compile a set of statistics as to what that donation represents.
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Give students the following assignment to complete either individually or in small groups: First, determine the metropolitan statistical area in which your college is located. Second, obtain or draw a map of your MSA and identify on the map the central city, edge cities, and suburbs. Third, note any areas on the map that are undergoing gentrification, while marking with arrows any movements of people within the MSA as a result of the invasion–succession cycle. Fourth, identify which model of urban growth the MSA most exemplifies, and draw that model on your map. And fifth, as best you can, place the different types of urban dwellers in the MSA within the different zones or sectors of the urban growth model that you drew on your map.
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Chapter 15: Social Change and the Environment Chapter Summary This chapter begins by examining how social change transforms society. The first part focuses on four social revolutions: (1) the domestication of plants and animals, (2) the invention of the plow, (3) the Industrial Revolution, and (4) the invention of the microchip. Another type of society is emerging based on information. Next, the chapter discusses Gemeinschaft (closely knit) and Gesellschaft (more impersonal). The chapter also addresses capitalism, social movements, and global politics. The next section focuses on theories of social change such as social evaluation, natural cycles, conflict over power and resources, and Ogburn’s theory about postindustrial societies. The author then explores how technology plays a significant role in society and provides several examples of how this occurs. The chapter ends with a discussion of industrialization and environmental problems. Learning Objectives LO 15.1 Summarize how social change transforms society: include the four social revolutions, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, capitalism, social movements, and global politics. LO 15.2 Summarize theories of social change: social evolution, natural cycles, conflict over power and resources, and Ogburn’s theory. LO 15.3 Use the examples of the automobile and the microchip to illustrate the sociological significance of technology; include changes in ideology, norms, human relationships, education, work, business, war, and social inequality. LO 15.4 Explain how industrialization is related to environmental problems; contrast the environmental movement and environmental sociology; discuss the goal of harmony. Chapter Outline A. How Social Change Transforms Social Life 15.1 Summarize how social change transforms society: include the four social revolutions, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, capitalism, social movements, and global politics. 1. The rapid, far-reaching social change that the world is currently experiencing did not “just happen.” It is the result of forces set into motion thousands of years ago. Transforming the course of human history, social change—the alteration of culture and societies over time—is a vital part of social life. 2. When technology changes, societies also change. There have been four social revolutions: the domestication of plants and animals, from which pastoral and horticultural societies arose; the invention of the plow, leading to agricultural societies; the Industrial Revolution, which produced industrial societies; and now we are in the midst of the fourth social revolution, stimulated by the invention of the microchip. Another type of society is emerging based on information. 141 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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3. The shift from agricultural to industrial economic activity was accompanied by a change from Gemeinschaft (small, rural, and slow-changing societies) to Gesellschaft (large, urbanized, and fast-changing) societies. 4. Different sociologists have focused on different forces to explain the changes that took place in society at the time of the Industrial Revolution. a) Karl Marx identified capitalism as the basic reason behind the breakup of feudal (agricultural) societies. He focused his analysis on the means of production (factories, machinery, and tools): those who owned them dictated the conditions under which workers would work and live. This development set in motion antagonistic relationships between capitalists and workers that remain today. b) Max Weber saw religion as the core reason for the development of capitalism: as a result of the Reformation, Protestants no longer felt assured that they were saved by virtue of church membership and concluded that God would show visible favor to the elect. This belief encouraged Protestants to work hard and be thrifty. An economic surplus resulted, stimulating industrialization. c) Modernization (the change from traditional to industrial societies) refers to the sweeping changes in societies brought about by the Industrial Revolution. d) When technology changes, societies change. An example today would be how technology from the industrialized world is transforming traditional societies. 5. Social movements highlight the cutting edges of change in a society. Large numbers of people organize to demand or resist changes. 6. Global divisions of power began to emerge in the sixteenth century; in the eighteenth century, as the Industrial Revolution began, nations that industrialized first exploited the resources of countries that had not yet done so. a) World system theory asserts that because those nations that were not industrialized became dependent on those that had industrialized, they were unable to develop their own resources. b) The world’s industrial giants (the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan—the G7) have decided how they will share the world’s markets; by regulating global economic and industrial policy, they guarantee their own dominance, including continued access to cheap raw materials from the less industrialized nations. c) The G7 allowed Russia to join, creating the G8, but Russia has been put on the blacklist and for now the membership is back to G7. d) For global control, G7 requires political and economic stability, especially in those countries that provide the raw materials that fuel its giant industrial machine. G7’s relationship with Russia has deteriorated too far to salvage a G8 with Russia. However, G7 would like to establish a G8 with China, further isolating Russia and placing China within a sphere of its influence. China has resisted G7’s net, seeking a more independent path. e) The likely outcome of the current challenge to G7 is a major realignment of world powers. f) Africa has become more relevant and needs to be considered by the G7. B. Theories and Processes of Social Change
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15.2 Summarize theories of social change: social evolution, natural cycles, conflict over power and resources, and Ogburn’s theory. 1. Theories that focus on cultural evolution are either unilinear or multilinear. a) Unilinear theories assume that all societies follow the same path, evolving from simple to complex through uniform sequences, for example, Morgan’s theory, which suggested we go through savagery, barbarism, and civilization. b) Multilinear theories assume that different routes can lead to a similar stage of development; thus, societies need not pass through the same sequence of stages to become industrialized. c) Both unilinear and multilinear theories assume the idea of cultural progress toward a higher state. However, because of the crises in Western culture today, this assumption has been cast aside and evolutionary theories have been rejected. 2. Theories of natural cycles examine great civilizations, not a particular society; they presume that societies are like organisms: they are born, reach adolescence, grow old, and die. a) Toynbee proposed that civilization is initially able to meet challenges, yet when it becomes an empire, the ruling elite loses its capacity to keep the masses in line “by charm rather than by force,” and the fabric of society is then ripped apart. b) Oswald Spengler proposed that Western civilization is on the decline; some analysts think the crisis in Western civilization may indicate he was right. 3. Marx’s conflict theory viewed social change as a dialectical process (of history) in which the following occurs: a) A thesis (a current arrangement of power) contains its own antithesis (a contradiction or opposition), and the resulting struggle between the thesis and its antithesis leads to a synthesis (a new arrangement of power). b) Thus, the history of a society is a series of confrontations in which each ruling group creates the seeds of its own destruction (e.g., capitalism sets workers and capitalists on a collision course). 4. William Ogburn identified three processes of social change. a) Inventions can be either material (computers) or social (democracy); discovery is a new way of seeing reality; and diffusion is the spread of an invention, discovery, or idea from one area to another. b) Ogburn coined the term “cultural lag” to describe the situation in which some elements of a culture adapt to an invention or discovery more rapidly than others. We are constantly trying to catch up with technology by adapting our customs and ways of life to meet its needs. c) Ogburn has been criticized because of his view that technology controls almost all social change. People also take control over technology, developing the technology they need and selectively using existing technology. Both can happen; technology leads to social change, and social change leads to technology. In general, Ogburn stressed that the usual direction of change is for material culture (technology) to change first and for symbolic culture (people’s ideas and ways of life) to follow.
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C. How Technology Is Changing Our Lives 15.3 Use the examples of the automobile and the microchip to illustrate the sociological significance of technology; include changes in ideology, norms, human relationships, education, work, business, war, and social inequality. 1. Technology refers to the tools used to accomplish tasks, the procedures necessary to produce tools, and the skills needed to use the tools. a) Technology is an artificial means of extending human abilities. b) Although all human groups use technology, it is the chief characteristic of postindustrial societies because it greatly extends our abilities to analyze information, communicate, and travel. 2. New technologies can reshape an entire society. Five ways in which technology can shape an entire society are: a) Changes in production (e.g., introduction of factories changed the nature of work: people gathered in one place to do their work, were given specialized tasks, and became responsible for only part of an item, not the entire item). b) Changes in worker–owner relations (e.g., workers owned their tools and were independent but with the factory, capitalists owned the tools and machinery, and workers no longer viewed the product as “theirs,” which alienated workers from the product of their labor). c) Changes in ideology (e.g., the new technology that led to the factory stimulated new ideologies such as maximizing profits). d) Changes in conspicuous consumption (e.g., if technology is limited to clubbing animals, then animal skins are valued; with technological change, Americans make sure that their trendy clothing labels are displayed. The emphasis on materialism depends on the state of technology). e) Changes in family relationships (e.g., as men went to work in the factories, family relationships changed; as more women work outside the home, family relationships again are changing. However, new technology is now allowing many to work at home. This may strengthen families). 3. The automobile was one of the greatest inventions to shape U.S. society. a) The Model T was mass produced in 1908. Automobiles were cleaner, more reliable, and less expensive than horses. b) As automobiles became more popular, people began to leave the cities for suburbs where housing was more affordable. The ability to commute led to urban sprawl and the decreased tax base that contributed to the problems many U.S. cities experience today. c) Commercial and home architecture changed as people needed a place to park their automobiles. At first, people parked their cars behind their houses in the stable where they had once kept a horse and buggy. Then garages moved closer to houses and were connected by breezeways. Finally, garages started to be connected and integrated into houses. d) By the 1920s, the automobile was used extensively for dating, and young people were no longer under the watchful eye of parents. e) Women were able to drive as well as men, and this removed them from the confines of the home. It allowed them to participate in areas of social life not connected to the
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home. The automobile permitted shopping at self-serve supermarkets, and, along with the refrigerator, shifted food shopping from a daily endeavor to a weekly one. 4. The microchip is an example of how technology shapes our lives. a) Even when a school lacks personnel to teach certain subjects, students can take courses online. Distance learning courses have the ability to integrate students from around the world. b) In the world of business and finance, computers have made national borders meaningless, as vast amounts of money are instantly transferred from one country to another. c) The way wars are fought has also changed because of computers. d) On a national level, computer technology could perpetuate our current inequalities, or could provide an opportunity for inner city and rural areas to break out of poverty. e) On a global level, the same is true, but on a grander scale. Will this lead to increased inequality or provide an avenue for affluence? D. The Growth Machine versus the Earth 15.4 Explain how industrialization is related to environmental problems; contrast the environmental movement and environmental sociology; discuss the goal of harmony. 1. Not all societal changes are necessarily good. The globalization of capitalism has significantly contributed to environmental problems. a) The Most Industrialized Nations continue to push for economic growth, the Industrialized Nations strive to achieve faster economic growth, and the Least Industrialized Nations, anxious to enter the race, push for even faster growth. b) If our goal is a sustainable environment, we must stop trashing the earth. 2. Industrialization led to a major assault on the environment. While it has been viewed as good for the nation’s welfare, it has also contributed to today’s environmental problems. a) The major polluters of the earth are the Most Industrialized Nations, although the Industrializing Nations also do their share. b) Toxic waste has been dumped onto the land, into oceans, and into lakes. Nuclear power plants are a special problem and could remain lethal for tens of thousands of years. c) Many of our problems today, including acid rain and climate change, are associated with our dependence on fossil fuels. d) There is an abundant source of natural energy—the sun—that would provide low-cost power and therefore help raise the living standards of humans across the globe. Better technology is needed to harness this energy supply. e) The rain forest is of special concern since the forests, at 6 percent of the earth’s land area, are home to roughly half of all the plant and animal species. As the rain forests disappear, so do the native tribes who live there. 3. Concern about the world’s severe environmental problems has produced a worldwide social movement. Political parties, such as the green parties, whose concern is the environment, are formed. Activists in the environmental movement seek solutions in education, legislation, and political activism. a) One concern of the environmental movement in the United States is environmental injustice—how pollution inequitably affects minorities and the poor. Racial minorities and the poor are disproportionately exposed to air pollution, hazardous 145 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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waste, pesticides, and the like. To deal with this issue, environmental justice groups have formed that fight to close polluting plants and block construction of polluting industries. 4. Environmental sociology examines the relationship between human societies and the environment. Its key ideas are (1) the physical environment is a significant variable in sociological investigation; (2) humans are but one species among many that depend on the environment; (3) human actions have many unintended consequences; (4) the world is finite, so there are potential physical limits to economic growth; (5) economic expansion requires increased extraction of resources from the environment; (6) increased extraction of resources leads to ecological problems; (7) these ecological problems place restrictions on economic expansion; (8) the state creates environmental problems by trying to create conditions for the profitable accumulation of capital; and (9) for the welfare of humanity, environmental problems must be solved. The goal is not to stop environmental problems but rather to study how humans affect the physical environment and how that environment affects human activities. 5. If we are to have a world that is worth passing on to the coming generations, we must seek harmony between technology and the natural environment. As a parallel to the development of technologies, we must develop systems to reduce or eliminate technology’s harm to the environment and mechanisms to monitor the production, use, and disposal of technology. Figures 15.1: Marx’s Model of Historical Change 15.2: The Worst Hazardous Waste Sites 15.3: Acid Rain Tables 15.1: Comparing Traditional and Industrialized (and Information) Societies 15.2: Ogburn’s Processes of Social Change Journal Prompts/Shared Writing J 15.1 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Cyber War and Cyber Defense Do you think the United States should insert dormant malicious codes in Russia’s, China’s, Iran’s, and North Korea’s military computers so it can unleash them during some future conflict? If such dormant codes were discovered, what do you think the consequences might be? J 15.2 Journal: Apply the Sociological Perspective: Protecting the Rain Forests What do you think we can do to stop the destruction of the rain forests? SW 15.1 Shared Writing: A Sustainable Environment
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Do you think that a sustainable environment should be a goal of the world’s societies? Why or why not? If so, what practical steps do you think we can take to produce a sustainable environment? SW 15.2 Shared Writing: Effects of Technology In what ways does technology change society? How is technology affecting your life? Special Features • • • • • •
Down-to-Earth Sociology: The Evolution of the Telephone Thinking Critically about Social Life: Cyberwar and Cyber Defense Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape: Weaponizing Space: The Rise of China and the Coming Star Wars Thinking Critically about Social Life: Climate Change and Our Darkening Future Cultural Diversity around the World: The Rainforests: Native Tribes and the Right to Survive Thinking Critically about Social Life: Eco-sabotage
Lecture Suggestions ▪
After reading “Sociology and Technology: The Shifting Landscape: Weaponizing Space: The Rise of China and the Coming Star Wars,” have students discuss the reading question about what happens when other countries develop similar or greater capacities compared to the United States. Debate the idea of mutual deterrence, the idea that each nation with high technology fears an attack from the other, so neither of the two attacks for fear of annihilation.
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Reminding students of the geopolitical realignment of the world powers since World War II that has resulted in a Japan-centered East, a Germany-centered Europe, and a U.S.-centered Western hemisphere, have students discuss the following: What most accounts for these three nations’ economic dominance? How did Japan and Germany, devastated after World War II, become the dominant players in Asia and Europe? Of all the nations in the world, why do these three countries, along with Canada, France, Great Britain, and Italy get to decide the world’s monetary policies? Should there be such an entity as the G7?
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Noting how Oswald Spengler, some seventy-five years ago, proposed that Western civilization had passed its prime, ask your students to address the following: Do you agree with Spengler’s contention? What occurrences in the last seventy-five years support Spengler’s contention? What occurrences challenge it? As you see it, what constitutes a “civilization on the rise”? What constitutes a “civilization in decline”? Finally, if Western civilization is, indeed, destined to decline and eventually die, what do you imagine will replace it? From where will the next “great empire” come?
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As Karl Marx envisioned the dialectical process, a classless society was to ultimately emerge out of the struggle between capitalists and workers. Thinking about this, ask your students to discuss the following: The Cold War was an ideological war between Marxist–socialist communism 147 Copyright © 2024, 2019, and 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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versus capitalism. Given the collapse of the former Soviet Union and China’s recently developed free-market economy, would you say that Marx was wrong? Why wasn’t capitalism defeated in the twentieth century? Can capitalism ever be defeated? Should it be? ▪
Ask students to consider whether any country has an exclusive right to knowledge and/or science. Can a single nation or, for that matter, a small group of nations, stop scientific progress in other nations? On what moral and/or legal grounds can they inhibit or prohibit other countries from developing new technologies that can challenge their monopoly on these technologies? In short, shouldn’t all nations, no matter how rich or poor, have the same rights to technologically advance themselves? If not, why not?
Suggested Assignments ▪
Select a committee of students to assess the university’s recycling efforts. Does the university have a recycling program? If so, how well publicized is it? Is it followed by faculty, staff, and students? In the absence of a recycling program, make it a class project to design one. Plan to publicize class efforts through the school newspaper, school radio station, fliers, and posters. Find a way to measure the amount and types of material the class is responsible for recycling in the specified time period of the project. Develop a formula to estimate what this effort would mean if recycling were practiced on a state or national scale based on the success of the class project.
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As a class project, have students produce a thirty- to sixty-minute videotaped documentary of the pollution and/or environmental abuse they can find on campus and/or in their community. The documentary should include a running narrative commentary, as well as some structured interviews with different people on campus and/or in the community regarding their feelings about the environment. Encourage your students to be as creative as possible in framing and presenting the issues, and in uncovering and exposing the abuse. Once the project is completed, have your class present the documentary to the college community, along with a panel discussion about what can and should be done to better protect and promote the environment.
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Break students into small groups, and have them think about and discuss the following: How did the technological invention of television change the way people in the United States organize themselves? How did it transform the nation’s ideologies and values? Finally, how did it reshape the following social relationships in the United States: between family members, between men and women, and between Whites and non-Whites? Groups should create a visual model of these connections. Afterward, have a spokesperson from each group present their group’s conclusions and visuals to the class.
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