Sociology Exam 2– Review SheetIntroduction to Sociology
101
Exam date: December 2, 2021
Professor Michelle M. Camacho
Format:
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75 Multiple-Choice Problems
5 Short answer questions
1 Long answer question
Our second exam will cover
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Lectures & discussion
Film clips
In class exercises/activities
Chapters 7 Stratification; Ch 8 Gender; Ch 9 Race; Ch 10 Poverty; Ch 14 Education
Theorists: Rousseau, Malthus, Ferguson, Miller, Hegel, Marx, Grosz, McIntosh
Concepts:
Stratification
Social mobility
Equality of Opportunity
Equality of Condition
Equality of Outcome
Estate systems
Caste
Class systems
Status-hierarchy systems
Meritocracy
Dialectic relationship
World system theory
Sex and gender
Biological determinism
Biological essentialism
“One sex” model (ancient Greece)
Gender reassignment
Intersexual
Mobius strip as it relates to Grosz’s theory
Third gender categories (cross-culturally)
Femininity, Masculinity
Baby names
Poverty
Culture of poverty
Absolute Poverty
functional illiteracy
Lyndon Johnson’s model of addressing poverty
“Perverse incentives”
key feature of the PRWORA policy
negative income tax experiment
Race as a social construct
Racism
Colonialism
Immigration Act of 1924
scientific racism
Eugenics
Craniometry
ethnocentrism
Phrenology
Nativism
Justifications of slavery
Great Chain of Being
Racialization group changes over time
ethnocentrism
“one drop” rule
Miscegenation
Knapsack of privilege
Assimilation
residential segregation
“passing”
collective resistance
code-switching
institutional racism
You do not need to know “symbolic ethnicity”
Sociology of Education
Functionalist vs conflict perspectives on
education
Coleman Report
Tracking
Credentialism
Guided pathways
affirmative action
SAT test scores & correlates
IQ
“stereotype threat”
“color-blind racism”
Native American boarding schools
Pecking order (1st, 2nd etc born) + educational
outcomes
Catholic school students’ success
Brown v. Board of Education
Lemon Grove incident
Plessy v. Ferguson
Human capital
Social capital
Cultural capital
CHAPTER 3
Culture and Media
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
•
Do mass media create social norms or
merely reflect them? Culture is like two
mirrors facing each other: it simultaneously
reflects and creates the world we live in.
•
Click here to watch the paradox animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
3.1 Definitions of Culture
Culture = Human – Nature
•
Culture: The sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in
addition to beliefs, behaviors (except institutional ones), and practices;
everything but the natural environment around us.
•
The term culture has also been used to refer to the distinction between
what is natural and what is modified or created by humans (culture).
•
Culture is always a relative concept; we cannot talk about culture without
reference to the global world.
Culture = (Superior) Man – (Inferior) Man
•
As colonialism led to interaction with non-Western
peoples, Europeans realized that alternative ways
of living existed and questioned the culture they
had previously taken for granted.
•
Ethnocentrism: The belief that one’s own culture
or group is superior to others and the tendency to
view all other cultures from the perspective of
one’s own.
3.2 Material versus Nonmaterial
Culture
Material versus Nonmaterial Culture
• Nonmaterial culture: Values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.
• Material culture: Everything that is a part of our constructed,
physical environment, including technology.
• Nonmaterial culture and material culture have a bidirectional
relationship; they both affect each other.
• Cultural lag: The time gap between the appearance of a new
technology and the words and practices that give it meaning.
Culture Shock and Code Switching
• Culture is what feels normal to us but is actually socially produced;
it is what we do not notice at home but would spot in a foreign
context.
• Culture shock: Doubt, confusion, or anxiety arising from immersion
in an unfamiliar culture.
• Code switch: To flip fluidly between two or more languages and sets
of cultural norms to fit different cultural contexts.
Language, Meaning, and Concepts
• Language is an important part of culture.
• According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in linguistics, the language
we speak directly influences (and reflects) the way we think about
and experience the world.
• Concepts such as race, gender, class, and inequality are part of our
culture as well. In some cases, when opposing concepts come into
contact, one will necessarily supplant the other.
Ideology
•
Ideology: A system of concepts and relationships; an understanding of
cause and effect
•
Ideology is embedded within an entire series of suppositions, and if you
cast aside some of them, they will no longer hold together as a whole.
•
Ideologies can shatter. The fall of the former Soviet Union, for example,
marked not just a transition in government but also the shattering of a
particular brand of Communist ideology.
Studying Culture
•
Cultural relativism: Taking into account the differences
across cultures without passing judgment or assigning
value.
•
Interpreting cultural relativism can be difficult when
local traditions conflict with universally recognized
human rights.
•
Cultural scripts: Modes of behavior and understanding
that are not universal or natural.
•
Margaret Mead introduced the idea that cultural
scripts shape our notions of gender.
Subculture
•
Subculture: The distinct cultural values and behavioral
patterns of a particular group in society.
•
Historically, a subculture has been defined as a group
united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and
shared meaning specific to the members of that group
and distinctive enough to distinguish it from others
within the same culture or society.
Culture Effects: Give and Take
•
Values: Moral beliefs.
•
Culture affects us by shaping our values; an example of this process is
how America’s individualistic culture encourages a belief in equal
opportunity that is more fiction that reality.
•
Norms: How values tell us to behave.
•
Socialization: The process by which individuals internalize the values,
beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of
that society.
Reflection Theory
• Reflection theory: The idea that culture is a projection of social
structures and relationships into the public sphere, which serves as
a screen onto which the film of the underlying reality of social
structures of a society is projected.
• A Marxist version of reflection theory argues that cultural objects
reflect the material labor and production relationships that went
into making them.
Examples of magazines covering Immigration
• Taken from book by Leo Chavez
• COVERING IMMIGRATION:
• POPULAR IMAGES AND THE POLITICS OF THE NATION
3.3 Is the Media “hegemonic”?
Hegemony
•
Hegemony: A condition by which a dominant group uses its power to
elicit the voluntary “consent” of the masses.
•
Hegemony stands in contrast to domination, or getting people to do what
you want through the use of force.
•
The concept of hegemony is important for understanding the impact of
the media. Are people molded by the culture in which they live or do
they actively participate in shaping the world around them?
3.5 Media Effects
Four Categories of Media Effects
•
Media effects can be placed into four
categories according to their duration and
intention:
•
Short-term and deliberate: advertising
•
Long-term and deliberate: a campaign
•
Short-term and unintentional: violence in the
media encourages violent behavior
•
Long-term and unintentional: prejudices,
stereotypes, desensitization to violence
3.6 Mommy, Where Do
Stereotypes Come From?
Racism in the Media
•
The media can create, reinforce, and
perpetuate racist ideologies and stereotypes
based on ethnicity, gender, religion, and
other factors.
•
These acts of racism and stereotyping can
be intentional or unintentional, and they
can manifest subtly or overtly.
Racism in the Coverage of Hurricane Katrina
•
An example of this was the difference in
wording used to describe survivors of
Hurricane Katrina.
•
A Black survivor was described as “looting
a grocery store” while a pair of White
survivors were described as “finding
bread and soda at a store.”
Sexism in the Media
•
Two frequent critiques of the media
centers on the representation of women:
•
Glamorizing and perpetuating unrealistic
ideals of feminine beauty
•
•
Publishing images of violence against women
Some advertisers are responding to these
criticisms with new approaches.
3.7 Political Economy of the
Media
Consumer Culture
• Consumerism: The steady acquisition of material possessions, often
with the belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved.
• America is often described as a consumer culture.
•
This is reflected in sales that thrive on major holidays.
•
Through the vending of brands, goods, and possessions, we are being
sold a self-image, a lifestyle, and a sense of belonging and self-worth.
Advertising and Children
•
Advertising is an increasing presence
in middle and high schools.
•
The result of such advertising is the
creation of a self-sustaining consumer
culture among children.
•
This culture is different for low-income
and high-income families.
Allison Pugh Interview
•
Allison Pugh describes how
“corporate marketing to children is a 2
2 billion dollar industry.”
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Culture Jams
•
Culture jamming: The act of turning media
against themselves
•
This is part of a larger movement against
consumer culture and consumerism, based
on the notion that advertisements are a
form of propaganda.
•
The satirical Joe Chemo ad is one example.
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• Which of the following is an example of material culture?
a. Buddhist temple
b. music website
c. English garden
d. all of the above
Review Question 2
• Ideology can be described as
a. an aspect of material culture.
b. a system of concepts and relationships that guides an individual or
large group.
c. an extreme point of view on a given topic.
d. none of the above
Review Question 3
• Cultural scripts are
a. modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural.
b. a type of role playing that helps people learn about different cultures.
c. a type of study developed by sociologists to catalog cultural differences.
d. patterns of behavior that can be found in almost all cultures.
Review Question 4
• Examples of media include
a. television, websites, and radio.
b. books, magazines, and ancient scrolls.
c. records, cave paintings, and streaming video.
d. all of the above
Review Question 5
• True or false? The globalization of the media has spread American
culture around the world.
a. true
b. false
Discussion Questions
• In your opinion, does the media impact culture? If so, how?
• Does the media create culture, simply reflect culture, or both?
Sociology on the Street
• How can we make assumptions about people before we even meet
them?
• What assumptions do you make if you know a person’s name?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 3 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e Full Edition.
• For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 4
Socialization and the
Construction of Reality
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• The most important aspects of social
life are those concepts we learn
without anyone teaching us.
• Click here to watch the paradox
animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
4.1 Socialization: The Concept
What is Socialization?
•
Socialization is the process by which individuals
internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a
given society and learn to function as a member
of that society.
•
One example of socialization is the way young
children are taught in school to raise their hand
when they want to speak.
4.2 Limits of Socialization
Limits of Socialization
• Socialization cannot explain everything about a person’s
development and personality.
• Biology is also a very important component of who a person is.
• It is the combination of biology and social interactions that makes us
who we are.
4.3 Theories of Socialization
Charles Horton Cooley
• Cooley theorized that the “self”
emerges from our ability to assume
the point of view of others and
imagine how those others see us.
George Herbert Mead (1 of 2)
•
Mead developed a theory about how the social self develops over the
course of childhood.
•
Infants know only the I, but through social interaction they learn about
me and the other.
•
Children develop a concept of the generalized other, which allows
them to apply norms and behaviors learned in specific situations to
new situations.
George Herbert Mead (2 of 2)
•
Mead stressed the importance of
imitation, play, and games in
helping children recognize one
another, distinguish between self
and other, and grasp the idea that
other people can have multiple
roles.
Discussion Questions
• Think of a sport or a game you played as a child that involved
taking on roles.
• What were the roles involved in the game?
• Did playing roles help you better understand the self and the
other?
• If it did, how so? If it didn’t, why not?
4.4 Agents of Socialization
Families
•
For most individuals, the family is the original source and the primary
unit of socialization.
•
Socialization is a two-way street: Information doesn’t always flow from
the older to the younger family members.
•
For example, the children of immigrants are likely to socialize their parents into
the dominant culture of their current country.
•
Socialization in the family can be affected by various demographics.
Social Class and Family Socialization
• Parents of different social classes socialize their children differently.
• Middle-class parents are more likely to value independence and
self-direction in their children, whereas working-class parents
prioritize obedience to external authority for their children.
• Sociologist Annette Lareau conducted an ethnography to study how
parents transmit these values to their children.
Annette Lareau’s Findings
•
Lareau found that middle-class parents are more likely to engage in
“concerted cultivation.”
•
They structure their children’s leisure time with formal activities and reason with
them over decisions in an effort to foster their kids’ talents.
•
Working-class and poor parents are more likely to engage in the
“accomplishment of natural growth.”
•
They give their children the room and resources to develop but leave it up to the
kids to decide how they want to structure their free time.
Interview: Annette Lareau
•
Lareau explains that parenting
strategies vary by social class, and
points out that it is unclear whether
these differences affect the long-
term outcomes of children.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Discussion Questions
•
You have just learned about Annette Lareau’s classification of parenting
styles.
•
What might a weekend look like for a family with parents who follow the
“accomplishment of natural growth” approach with their children?
•
What might a weekend look like for a family with parents who follow the
“concerted cultivation” approach with their children?
School
•
For children entering school, the primary locus of socialization shifts to
include reference groups such as peers and teachers.
•
Schools teach us basic behavioral norms, and when students resist those
norms, many parents and teachers turn to medication.
•
Schools also perpetuate social class advantages through socialization.
•
Private prep schools indoctrinate the students who attend them into a world of
social status and privilege.
Interview: Fadi Haddad
•
Haddad treats children who have
been referred to him because their
parents or teachers think they have
attention-deficit hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD).
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Peers
•
Peers are particularly strong agents of socialization in adolescence,
because adolescents spend a great deal of their free time in the
company of their peers.
•
Peer groups usually expect some sort of conformity from their
members—a phenomenon called peer pressure—and these
expectations can either reinforce of contradict messages taught at
home.
Adult Socialization
• Adult socialization refers to socialization that occurs in adulthood
as we take on new roles and jobs.
• Resocialization is the process by which one’s sense of social
values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately,
through an intense social process.
Erik Erikson
•
Erikson established a theory of human development that identifies
eight stages that span a person’s lifetime.
•
He believed each stage involves a specific conflict that the person must
resolve in order to move on to the next stage.
•
If we do not successfully navigate the tension inherent to a particular
stage of development, we are headed for problems later on thanks to
our “unresolved issues.”
Erik Erikson’s Social-Psychological Stages
Stage
Age
Key Relationship(s)
Characterized by
Virtue Earned
1
Infant
Mother
Learning how much to trust people.
Hope
2
2-4
Parents
Learning autonomy.
Will
3
5-8
Family
Initiative vs. guilt.
Purpose
4
9-12
School
Where do I fit in the world?
Competence
5
13-19
Peers
Who am I?
Fidelity
6
20s-40s Friends, Spouses
Struggle to make connections with others.
Love
7
40s-50s Child-raising, Career
Generativity: the struggle to avoid stagnation.
Care
8
60+
Integrity: feeling pride or despair about one’s
life accomplishments.
Wisdom
Life Accomplishments
Discussion Questions
• Answer the following questions about your assigned stage of development.
•
What tension must be resolved at this stage? What are some examples of
how a child or adult might learn to resolve this tension?
•
What virtue does the person emerge with if this tension is resolved? Do
you agree that this virtue correlates with this tension? Why or why not?
•
Do you agree with Erikson’s stages of development? Why or why not?
•
Are there any changes you would make to Erikson’s system?
Total Institution
•
A total institution is an institution in
which one is totally immersed and
that controls all the basics of day- today life; no barriers exist between
the usual sphere of daily life, and all
activity occurs in the same place and
under the same single authority.
4.5 Social Interaction
Merton’s Role Theory: Status and Roles
• A status is a position in society that comes with a set of
expectations.
• Roles are the behaviors expected from a particular status.
• Role conflict occurs when the roles associated with one status
clash with the roles associated with a different status.
• Role strain occurs when roles associated with a single status clash.
Discussion Questions
• Have you ever experienced role conflict or role strain?
• Describe the role(s) involved and how it felt.
Merton’s Role Theory: Types of Statuses
•
There are several types of statuses.
•
A status set refers to all the statuses one holds simultaneously.
•
An ascribed status is one we are born with that is unlikely to change.
•
An achieved status is one we have earned through individual effort or
that is imposed by others.
•
A person’s master status is a status that seems to override all others
and affects all other statuses that he or she possesses.
Gender Roles
• Gender roles sets of behavioral
norms assumed to accompany one’s
status as masculine, feminine, or
other.
• Gender theorists argue that gender
roles can be more powerful and
influential than other roles that
Discussion Questions
• How would your life differ if you were born a different sex?
• What parts of your life would remain the same?
Interview: C. J. Pascoe
•
Pascoe talks about the use of the
term “fag” by high school boys. She
argues that the term is used to police
the boundaries of masculinity and is
not primarily about sexuality.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
4.6 The Social Construction of
Reality
The Social Construction of Reality
• Social construction refers to how people give meaning or value to
ideas or objects through social interactions.
• The social construction of reality is an ongoing process that is
embedded in our everyday interactions.
Symbolic Interactionism
•
Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions.
•
This theory suggests that the social construction of meaning is a process:
1. We act toward ideas, concepts, and values on the basis of the meaning that
those things have for us.
2. These meanings are the products of social interaction.
3. These meanings are modified and filtered through an interpretive process.
Dramaturgical Theory
• Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory is the view of social life as
essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on
metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets.
• Each actor’s goal is to make a positive impression on others. How
we do this will differ based on the setting.
• Face: The esteem in which an individual is held by others.
Ethnomethodology
•
Ethnomethodology means the “methods of the people” and is an approach to
studying human interaction that focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our
world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a mutually shared social
order.
•
Harold Garfinkel developed a method for studying social interactions, called “breaching
experiments,” which involved having collaborators exhibit abnormal or atypical
behaviors in social interactions in order to see how people would react.
Discussion Questions
• Propose an idea for your own breaching experiment.
• What would you do?
• How would you expect people to react?
The Internet and Interaction
• The Internet has created new types of social interaction that
don’t incorporate the verbal and visual cues people are
accustomed to relying on.
• It has also changed society by creating new types of crimes
and new methods of communication.
Maintaining the Social Construction of Reality
• Because our reality is socially constructed, an unexpected change
in that reality can be upsetting, frustrating, or just plain
incomprehensible.
• We all have a stake in maintaining consensus on shared meanings
so that our society can continue to function smoothly.
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• In social development theory, the “self” can be defined as
a. the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same
person.
b. the person’s sense of agency, action, or power.
c. the identity of a person as perceived by others.
d. all of the above
Review Question 2
• According to George Herbert Mead’s stages of development,
children learn to recognize an “other” through
a. formal games.
b. imitation.
c. playing informally with other children.
d. none of the above
Review Question 3
• Which of the following is an example of a total institution?
a. an elementary school
b. a sports team
c. a convent
d. a political party
Review Question 4
• Which of the following theories argues that people’s choices about how
to act are based on shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions?
a. symbolic interactionism
b. functionalism
c. dramaturgical theory
d. postmodernism
Review Question 5
• Harold Garfinkel is well known for
a. developing the theory of impression management.
b. creating breaching experiments.
c. investigating the armed forces as a total institution.
d. his analysis of socialization agents.
Discussion Questions
• Who and what socialized you, and how was it done?
• In what ways are you a socializing agent?
Sociology on the Street
• Why does breaking social norms make others
uncomfortable or even hostile?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out
more: digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 4 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e.
• For more resources, please visit: digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 6
Social Control and Deviance
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• It is the deviants among us who hold
society together.
• Click here to see the paradox
animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
6.1 What Is Social Deviance?
Victor Rios Interview (1 of 2)
• In this interview, Victor Rios
discusses his research on gangs and
the policing of Black and Latino
boys.
• Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Victor Rios Interview (2 of 2)
• Victor Rios discusses how opportunities helped him “make it out of
the ghetto.”
• He points out that it took luck and opportunity, and not just hard
work, to keep from becoming one of the gang members that he now
studies.
What Is Social Deviance?
• Social deviance is any transgression of socially established norms.
• Minor transgressions of these norms can be described as informal
deviance.
• Formal deviance, or crime, involves the violation of laws.
6.2 Functionalist Approaches to
Deviance and Social Control
Social Cohesion
• Social cohesion refers to
the way people form social
bonds, relate to each
other, and get along on a
day-to-day basis.
Types of Solidarity
• Émile Durkheim theorized that social cohesion is established
through one of two ways:
•
Mechanical or segmental solidarity: Social cohesion based on the
sameness of society’s parts or members.
•
Organic solidarity: Social cohesion based on the differentness and
interdependence of specialized parts or members.
Types of Justice
•
Punitive justice focuses on making
violators suffer and thus defines the
boundaries of acceptable behavior.
•
Rehabilitative justice examines the
specific circumstances of individual
transgressors and attempts to find
ways to rehabilitate them.
Discussion Questions
• Do you think we have more punitive justice or rehabilitative justice
in the United States?
• What are the pros and cons of each type?
Social Control
•
Social control is the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance in
individuals.
•
Normative compliance is the act of abiding by society’s norms or simply
following the rules of group life.
•
Formal social sanctions are rules or laws prohibiting deviant criminal behavior.
•
Informal social sanctions are unspoken rules and expectations about the
behavior of individuals.
Discussion Questions
• Think about the social control that guides behavior on your college
campus.
• What is an example of a formal social sanction that students are
expected to obey?
• What is an example of an informal social sanction that students are
expected to obey.?
A Normative Theory of Suicide
•
Durkheim sought to explain how social forces beyond the individual
shaped suicide rates. He believed that suicide was an instance of social
deviance.
•
Social integration is how well you are integrated into your social group or
community.
•
Social regulation refers to how many rules guide your daily life or, more
specifically, what you can expect from the world on a day-to-day basis.
A Normative Theory of Suicide
•
Egoistic suicide: Suicide that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social
group.
•
Altruistic suicide: Suicide that occurs when one experiences too much social
integration.
•
Anomic suicide: Suicide that occurs as a result of insufficient social regulation.
•
Fatalistic suicide: Suicide that occurs as a result of too much social regulation.
A Normative Theory of Suicide
Robert Merton
•
Robert Merton’s strain theory argues that deviance occurs when a society fails
to give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals.
•
The strain in strain theory arises when the means don’t match up to those
ends; hence, Merton’s theory is also called the “means-ends theory of
deviance.”
•
When someone fails to recognize and accept either socially appropriate goals or
socially appropriate means (or both), they become a social deviant.
Strain Theory: Conformists
• Conformists accept the goals of a society and the means of
achieving them.
Strain Theory: Ritualists
• Ritualists are not interested in a society’s goals, but they do accept
the means of achieving them.
Strain Theory: Innovators
• Innovators accept the goals of a society, but they look for new, or
innovative, ways of achieving them.
Strain Theory: Retreatists
• Retreatists accept neither a society’s goals nor the means of
achieving them.
Strain Theory: Rebels
• Rebels don’t accept the goals of the society or the means of
achieving those goals, so they create their own goals using new
means.
Discussion Question
• Do you think that people change between these basic types
throughout their lives or remain consistent? Why do you think so?
6.3 Symbolic Interactionist
Theories of Deviance
Symbolic Interactionists
• Symbolic interactionists take a micro view of society, examining the
beliefs and assumptions people bring to their everyday interactions
in order to find the causes or explanations for deviance.
Labeling Theory
• Labeling theory: People see
how they are labeled and
accept the label as “true.”
• People behave the way they
think someone with their
label should behave.
Deviance
• Primary deviance: The first act of rule breaking, which may result in
the rule breakers being labeled “deviant” and thus influencing how
people think about and act toward them
• Secondary deviance: Acts of rule breaking that occur after primary
deviance and as a result of a person’s new, deviant label and
people’s expectations of them
Stigma
• Stigma: A negative social label that changes one’s behavior toward a
person while also changing that person’s self-concept and social
identity
• There are serious consequences concerning the opportunities that
are or are not made available to people who are stigmatized.
Devah Pager Interview
•
Devah Pager discusses the racism
and stigmas that men with a
criminal record face in the job
market.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Discussion Questions
• How has society’s reaction to the use of marijuana changed in
recent years?
•
Is there still a stigma associated with it? Explain.
Broken Windows Theory of Deviance (1 of 2)
Broken Windows Theory of Deviance (2 of 2)
• Philip Zimbardo proposed the broken windows theory of deviance.
•
The theory explains how social context and social cues affect the way
individuals act.
•
People who would not exhibit a certain behavior in one social context
might do so in another context where the behavior seems more
permissible.
6.4 Crime
Types of Crime
• Street crime: Crimes committed in public and often associated with
violence, gangs, and poverty.
• White-collar crime: Crimes committed by a professional against a
corporation, agency, or other business.
• Corporate crime: A type of white-collar crime committed by the
officers or executives of a company.
Discussion Questions
• Can you think of an example of street crime?
• Can you think of an example of white-collar crime?
• Can you think of an example of corporate crime?
Challenges in Measuring Crime
• It can be difficult to measure crime rates over time, for a variety of
reasons.
•
Changes in how crimes are defined
•
Fluctuations in whether people report crimes
•
In the case of murders, improvements in medical technology
6.5 Crime Reduction
Deterrence Theory
• Deterrence theory is a philosophy of criminal justice based on the
notion that crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and
benefits.
• When a person who has been involved in the criminal justice system
reverts to criminal behavior, this is called recidivism.
Total Institution
•
A total institution is an institution in
which one is totally immersed and
that controls all the basics of day-today life; no barriers exist between the
usual spheres of daily life, and all
activity occurs in the same place and
under the same single authority.
Marc Ramirez Interview
•
Marc Ramirez explains how the
prison system fails to rehabilitate
prisoners and prepare them to
reenter society.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Foucault on Punishment
• Foucault argued that penal systems have evolved from a focus on
punishing the body to one on reforming the soul.
• He argued this was linked to modern practices of surveillance.
• Foucault used the imagined architectural design of the panopticon
as a metaphor for this march toward total surveillance and control.
Foucault’s Panopticon
•
Panopticon: A circular building composed
of an inner ring and an outer ring
designed to serve as a prison in which the
guards, housed in the inner ring, can
observe the prisoners without the
detainees knowing whether they are
being watched.
The U.S. Criminal Justice System
• Frank Allen argues that since the 1890s, there has been a change in
the United States from a more rehabilitative sense of justice to a
more punitive one. This is evidenced by historically high rates of
incarceration.
Figure 6.4 Size of the U.S. Prison Population,
1980-2016
Figure 6.5 Number of Executions by Race
Discussion Questions
• What is the role of prison? Is it punishment or rehabilitation?
• Does going to prison make offenders more likely or less likely to
reoffend in the future?
Jacqueline Stevens Interview
•
Marc Ramirez talks about the
conditions of ICE detention and the
lawsuits she has initiated to change
them.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• Informal social sanctions are
a. enforced by overt punishments.
b. understood by members of a social group without being openly
expressed.
c. established through discussion and consensus of the group.
d. too weak to have any effect on deviance.
Review Question 2
• Which of the following is an example of informal deviance?
a. paying for a meal in a restaurant with pennies, nickels, and dimes
b. telling the hostess of a dinner party that you disliked the main dish
c. dyeing your hair purple and orange
d. all the above
Review Question 3
• Which of the following is an example of rehabilitative justice?
a. attending parenting classes while in prison
b. mandatory monthly drug tests for five years after being paroled on a
drug offense
c. entering a work-training program after being released from prison
d. both a and c
Review Question 4
• The type of social cohesion that is based on interdependence and
characterizes modern society is known as
a. segmental solidarity.
b. mechanical solidarity.
c. organic solidarity.
d. social integration.
Review Question 5
• __________ refers to crimes committed by a professional against a
corporation, agency, or other business.
a. Primary deviance
b. Corporate crime
c. Secondary deviance
d. White-collar crime
Sociology on the Street
• Formal and informal social sanctions allow people to coexist with
strangers in crowded public spaces. When do people break these
sanctions, and how do others enforce sanctions?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 6 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e Full Edition.
• For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 7
Stratification
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• Inequality is the result of
abundance.
• Click here to see the paradox
animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
7.1 Views of Inequality
What Is Stratification?
• Stratification refers to the hierarchical organization of a society into
groups with differing levels of power, social prestige, or status and
economic resources.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
•
In the 18th century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
argued that private property creates social
inequality, which ultimately leads to social
conflict.
•
Social equality: A condition in which no
differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status
based on nonnatural conventions exist.
Adam Ferguson and John Millar
• Adam Ferguson and John Millar agreed with Rousseau, but they also
argued that inequality is good because it means that some people
are getting ahead and creating assets (a form of wealth that can be
stored for the future).
Thomas Malthus
• Thomas Malthus viewed inequality favorably, but only as a means
for controlling population growth.
• He thought a more equal distribution of resources would increase
the world’s population to unsustainable levels and ultimately bring
about mass starvation and conflict.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
•
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel viewed history in terms of a master–slave dialectic.
•
Dialectic: A two-directional relationship, following a pattern in which an original statement or
thesis is countered with an antithesis, leading to a conclusion that unites the strengths of the
original position and the counterarguments.
•
Hegel argued that notions of inequality are constantly evolving in a larger historical arc.
•
He saw this as a trajectory that would eventually lead to equality for everyone (or very
nearly everyone).
Karl Marx
•
Marx’s theory of history, dialectic materialism, posited that social change
emerged from groups’ struggle for the control of economic resources.
•
Dialectic materialism: A notion of history that privileges conflict over economic,
material resources as the central struggle and driver of change in society.
•
He believed that eventually the contradictions inherent in capitalism
would lead the working class to rise up and overthrow the system.
Structural Functionalism
• Inspired by Durkheim, structural functionalism is a theory in which
society’s many parts—institutions, norms, traditions, and so on—
mesh to produce a stable, working whole that evolved over time.
• According to this theory, inequality is functional (i.e., plays an
important role) in society because it helps allocate the best people
to the most important roles.
Conflict Theory
• Conflict theory: The idea that conflict between competing interests
is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general.
• Conflict theory is rooted in Marxism and views the social world
through the lens of group conflict over resources.
• Stability is maintained through domination and power, not
consensus.
Discussion Questions
• Do you think inequality in society is necessary or inevitable?
• Why or why not?
7.2 Standards of Equality
Equality of Opportunity
•
Equality of opportunity: The
idea that everyone has an equal
chance to achieve wealth, social
prestige, and power because the
rules of the game, so to speak,
are the same for everyone.
•
Example: antidiscrimination
laws
Equality of Opportunity in Bourgeois Society
• Equality of opportunity is the standard model for what
equality means in a bourgeois society.
• Bourgeois society: A society of commerce (modern
capitalist society, for example) in which the maximization
of profit is the primary business incentive.
Equality of Condition
•
Equality of condition:
The idea that everyone
should have an equal
starting point.
•
Example: Affirmative
action
Equality of Outcome
•
Equality of outcome: The idea that each player must end up with the same
amount regardless of the fairness of the “game.”
•
Under equality of outcome, nobody earns more power, prestige, and wealth by working
harder; the only incentive is altruistic.
•
Free rider problem: The notion that when more than one person is responsible
for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk
responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight.
7.3 Forms of Stratification
Four Ideal Types of Stratification
1. Estate system
2. Caste system
3. Class system
4. Status hierarchy system
•
Some sociologist also propose a
fifth ideal type: an elite mass
dichotomy.
Estate System
• The estate system is a politically based system of stratification
characterized by limited social mobility.
• In such a system, laws are written in a language in which rights and
duties separate individuals and distribute power unequally.
• This was primarily found in feudal Europe from the medieval era to
the 18th century, and in the American South before the Civil War.
Caste System
•
The caste system is a religion-based system of stratification characterized
by no social mobility.
•
Caste societies are stratified based on hereditary notions of religious
purity.
•
An example of the caste system is found in India, where the varna system
rooted in Hinduism was reinforced by British colonialism and prevails to
this day despite its constitutional abolition almost 70 years ago.
Class System
•
The class system an economically based hierarchical system characterized
by cohesive oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility.
•
Among sociologists, there is no consensus about the precise definition of
class, but unlike other systems, a class system implies an economic basis
for the fundamental cleavages in society.
•
Class is a relational concept, and class identity does not correspond to an
individual, but rather corresponds to a role.
Class System: Proletariat vs. Bourgeoisie
• Karl Marx felt that society was divided strictly into two classes—the
proletariat, or working class, who sells its labor to the bourgeoisie,
or capitalist class.
Class System: Proletariat vs. Bourgeoisie
•
To expand upon the two-class model,
Erik Olin Wright developed the concept
of contradictory class locations, the
idea that people can occupy locations
in the class structure that fall between
the two “pure” classes defined by
Marx.
Class System: Max Weber
•
Max Weber’s concept of class is that of a group based on the common life
chances or opportunities available to it in the marketplace.
•
In other words, what distinguishes members of a class is that they have
similar value in the commercial marketplace in terms of selling their own
property and labor.
•
For Weber, class is gradated, not relational.
Status Hierarchy System
•
The status hierarchy system is a system
of stratification based on social prestige.
•
This prestige can be linked to different
things, such as occupation, lifestyle, or
membership in certain organizations,
but sociologists have most often studied
occupational status.
Table 7.1 The Relative Social Prestige of
Selected U.S. Occupations
Elite–Mass Dichotomy System
•
The elite–mass dichotomy system is a system of stratification that has a
governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold the power of society.
•
Vilfredo Pareto thought that the masses were better off in such a system
because he believed in a meritocracy where the most skilled and talented
people would reach the governing elite.
•
Meritocracy: A society where status and mobility are based on individual
attributes, ability, and achievement.
Criticism of the Elite–Mass Dichotomy System
•
C. Wright Mills argues the elite–mass dichotomy is neither natural nor
beneficial for society.
•
He argues there are three major institutional forces in modern American
society where the power of decision making has become centralized:
economic institutions, the political order, and the military order.
•
For Mills, the elite are simply those who have most of what there is to
possess—money, power, and prestige—as a direct result of their
positions in society’s great institutions.
Discussion Questions
• Which system of stratification do you think is most applicable to the
U.S. today? Is there more than one system that seems relevant?
Why?
• Think about the elite-mass dichotomy system. Do you agree more
with Pareto’s analysis or with Mills’ analysis? Why?
7.4 How Is America Stratified
Today?
Socioeconomic Status
•
Socioeconomic status: An individual’s position in a stratified social order.
•
Sociologists use the term to refer to any measure that attempts to classify
groups, individuals, families, or households in terms of indicators such as
occupation, income, wealth, and education.
•
Income: Money received by a person for work, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or
government assistance), or from returns on investments.
•
Wealth: A family’s or individual’s net worth (i.e., total assets minus total debts).
Upper and Middle Classes
•
Upper class is a term for the economic elite. One defining characteristic is
their source of income, most of which comes from returns on
investments than rather than wages.
•
Middle class is a term commonly used to describe those individuals with
nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line.
•
This is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the U.S., where
broad swaths of the population consider themselves middle-class.
Figure 7.1 Distribution of Net Worth in the
United States, 2016
Poverty
•
Poverty has an official, government definition, but there are also less
official categories, such as “working poor” and “nonworking poor”
(sometimes called the “underclass”).
•
The reality is much less rigid—poverty is a state that families usually shift
in and out of throughout their history, and often a clear distinction does
not exist between the working class and the poor.
•
In 2018, the poverty line for a family of four was $26,200.
Michael Hout Interview
•
Michael Hout discusses his research
on social inequality and describes
why the number of college graduates
has stalled since the 1970s.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Discussion Questions
• Does inequality still exist in the United States today?
• How is the situation changing?
7.5 Global Inequality
Trends in Global Inequality
•
If we take a broad view of history, global
income inequality has increased
dramatically in the last few centuries.
•
Tremendous global inequalities have
emerged through the combination of
colonialism and unequal development.
Jeffrey Sachs Interview
•
Jeffrey Sachs explains how
educating young women is key to
allowing Africa to undergo a
demographic transition.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
.
7.6 Social Reproduction versus
Social Mobility
Social Mobility
•
Social mobility: The movement between different positions within a system of social
stratification in any given society.
•
Horizontal social mobility means a group or individual transitioning from one social
status to another situated more or less on the same rung of the ladder.
•
Vertical social mobility refers to the rise or fall of an individual (or group) from one
social stratum to another.
•
Vertical mobility has two directions: upward/ascending and downward/descending. It
also has two forms: individual or group.
Structural and Exchange Mobility
•
Structural mobility is mobility that is inevitable from changes in the
economy, such as the expansion of high-tech jobs in the past 20 years.
•
Exchange mobility occurs when mobility results from the swapping of
jobs; individuals trade jobs such that if one person is upwardly mobile it
necessarily entails someone else being downwardly mobile.
Status-Attainment Model
•
The status-attainment model is an approach that ranks individuals by
socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and
that seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in
more desirable occupations.
•
Research shows that parental education and net worth, not occupation
or income, best predict children’s educational and other outcomes.
Discussion Questions
• What are some recent examples of how structural mobility operates
in the United States?
• Are there any recent examples of downward structural mobility?
Class-Based Affirmative Action
•
A result of race-based affirmative action policies is that the most
disadvantaged minorities are not helped and intraracial stratification is
enhanced.
•
Class-based affirmative action could address these inequalities within
minority (and majority) communities.
•
However, the implementation of such a policy would lead to difficulties
when attempting to measure and verify students’ social class.
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• Which of the following is an example of an asset?
a. a projected salary increase
b. a piece of property
c. a person’s human capital
d. all the above
e. none of the above
Review Question 2
• Which of the following standards of equality was key to the
arguments of civil rights leaders in the 1960s?
a. equality of opportunity
b. equality of condition
c. ontological equality
d. equality of outcome
Review Question 3
• C. Wright Mills sees the consolidation of power among a small
number of institutions and leaders as
a. the natural result of a meritocracy.
b. the best possible way for a society to function.
c. a necessary evil for the smooth functioning of society.
d. harmful to the interests of the masses.
Review Question 4
• Socioeconomic status can best be defined as
a. an individual’s position in a status hierarchy system.
b. the level of social mobility individuals experience in their lives.
c. an individual’s position in a stratified social order.
d. the total of an individual’s assets.
Review Question 5
• The __________ system is a politically based system of stratification
characterized by limited social mobility.
a. estate
b. class
c. caste
d. elite–mass dichotomy
Sociology on the Street
• People whom you would consider rich may not think of themselves
in that way. If this label is relative, what does it mean to be rich?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 7 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e Full Edition.
• For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 8
Gender
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• How do we investigate inequality between
men and women without reinforcing binary
thinking about gender?
• Watch the animated short about the
gender paradox at:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
8.1 Let’s Talk About Sex Gender
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
• Sex refers to the perceived biological differences that society
typically uses to distinguish males from females.
• Gender denotes a social position—namely, the set of social
arrangements built around normative sex categories.
• Sexuality refers to desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and
behavior.
8.2 Sex: A Process in the Making
Sex: A Process in the Making
• The study of gender boils down to seeing how nature and nurture
overlap and shape each other.
• Essentialist arguments explain social phenomena in terms of
natural, biological, or evolutionary inevitabilities.
• In contrast, sociologists think of the nature-behavior relationship as
a two-way street.
8.3 Gender: What Does It Take to
Be Feminine or Masculine?
Making Gender
• Gender establishes patterns of expectations for people, orders our
daily lives, and is one of the fundamental building blocks of society.
• We acquire our gender identity through socialization.
• Rigid boundaries are imposed to maintain a gender order, but if we
look at how gender systems vary, we can expose those boundaries
as social constructions.
Nonbinary Gender Configurations
•
Not all cultures have a gender binary.
•
Androgynous: Neither masculine nor
feminine.
•
The Navajo have three genders: masculine
men, feminine women, and the nadle.
•
Hijras in India are another example of
nonbinary people.
Transgender People
•
The growing social awareness of transgender people in our own society
helps us break out of binary thinking about gender, since we tend to
assume everyone is cisgender.
•
Transgender: Describes people whose gender does not correspond to
their birth sex.
•
Cisgender: Describes people whose gender corresponds to their birth
sex.
Amos Mac Interview
•
Amos Mac shares his experiences
as a transgender man.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
.
Gender Differences Over Time: Femininity
•
Ideals about masculinity and femininity are historically contingent.
•
One example is historical change in defining ideal feminine beauty: The
Rubenesque women of the 17th century were voluptuous beauties who
would be considered overweight by today’s high-fashion standards.
•
Definitions of ideal masculinity have also changed, though this can
sometimes be harder to notice because of hegemonic masculinity, the
condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance
and privilege is invisible.
Gender Differences Over Time: Masculinity
•
Ideal masculinity in the 1700s was linked to kindness, intellect, and poetry.
•
In 1963, Erving Goffman described the masculine ideal of mid-20th-century
America as a young man who is “married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual,
Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of good complexion,
weight and height, and [with] a decent record in sports.”
•
Modern masculinity has come to include concepts like the metrosexual male
and “hybrid masculinities”.
Discussion Question
• What characteristics and traits are associated with ideal femininity
and ideal masculinity in contemporary society? Give examples.
8.4 Theories of Gender Inequality
Feminism
• Feminism is a social
movement to get people to
understand that gender is
an organizing principle in
society and to address
gender-based inequalities.
Second-Wave Feminism
• At the start of the second wave of the feminist movement in the
1960s, theorists scrambled to find an answer to the “woman
question”:
•
What explains the nearly universal dominance of men over women?
•
What is the root of patriarchy, a system involving the subordination of
femininity to masculinity?
Rubin’s Sex/Gender System
• Rubin’s sex/gender system challenged the assumption that because
women’s subordination occurred everywhere, it must be fulfilling
some societal function.
•
Rubin argued that women are treated like valuable property whose trade
patterns strengthen relations between families headed by men.
•
This sex/gender system is not natural, but rather a result of human
interaction.
Parson’s Sex Role Theory
•
According to sex role theory, men and women perform their sex roles as
breadwinners and wives/mothers because the nuclear family is the ideal
arrangement in modern societies for fulfilling the function of reproducing
workers.
•
This structural functionalist approach to gender:
•
Assumes gender differences exist to fulfill necessary societal functions
•
Does not allow for the possibility that other structures could fulfill the same
function or that structures change throughout history
Psychoanalytic Theories of Gender
• Psychoanalytic theories focus on individualistic explanations for
gender differences as opposed to societal ones.
• They support the idea that there are natural differences between
men and women that dictate how they behave.
Conflict Theories
•
Conflict theories focus on power and argue
that patriarchal capitalists benefit through
systems that subordinate women.
•
Socialist feminists, also known as radical
feminists, argue that the root of all social
relations, including relations of production,
stemmed from unequal gender relations.
Interactionist Theories
•
Interactionist theories focus on “doing gender.”
•
West and Zimmerman argue that gender is not a fixed identity or role that we
take with us into our interactions. Rather, it is the product of those interactions.
•
To be a man or a woman is to perform masculinity or femininity constantly.
•
In this social constructionist theory, gender is a process, not a static category.
Intersectionality
•
Black feminism points out the importance of intersectionality, the idea
that it is critical to understand the interplay between social identities
such as race, class, gender, ability status, and sexual orientation, even
though many social systems and institutions (such as the law) try to treat
each category on its own.
•
Intersectionality establishes that “woman” is not a stable or obvious
category of identity.
Matrix of Domination
•
Matrix of domination: Intersecting domains of oppression that create a
social space of domination and, by extension, a unique position within
that space based on someone’s intersectional identity along the multiple
dimensions of gender, age, race, class, sexuality, location, and so on.
•
This idea was proposed by Patricia Hill Collins, who used it to explain how
Black women face unique oppressions that are not experienced by White
women.
Postmodern Theories
• Postmodern theorists question the whole notion of “woman” as a
separate, stable category.
• They also question the value and appropriateness of Western
scholars applying their cultural logic to the study of non-Western
societies.
Discussion Question
• Which theory of gender inequality do you find most convincing?
Which do you find least convincing? Why?
8.5 Growing Up, Getting Ahead,
and Falling Behind
Sexism
• Sexism: Occurs when a person’s sex or gender is the basis for
judgment, discrimination, or other differential treatment against
that person.
Differences between Men and Women
• What accounts for the wide range of statistical differences between
men and women?
•
Essentialists refer to natural sex differences.
•
But sociologists are apt to call these same differences “deceptive
distinctions,” meaning distinctions that arise because of the particular roles
individuals come to occupy.
Figure 8.2 Increase of Women in the
Workforce, 1970-2017
Sexual Harassment
• Although women are legally entitled to enter all lines of work, they
routinely face sexual harassment.
• Sexual harassment: An illegal form of discrimination revolving
around sexuality that can involve everything from inappropriate
jokes to sexual “barter” (where victims feel the need to comply with
sexual requests for fear of losing their job) to outright sexual assault.
Preventing Sexual Harassment
• A report by the National Academies of Sciences argues that
organizations must take steps to prevent three forms of harassment:
•
Gender harassment: sexist hostility and crude behavior
•
Unwanted sexual attention: unwelcome verbal or physical sexual advances
•
Sexual coercion: when favorable professional or educational treatment is
conditioned on sexual activity
Figure 8.3 Pay Discrepancy Based on Gender
•
Women have
consistently been
paid less than
their male peers,
earning about 81
cents to every $1
of a man’s wage.
Glass Ceilings, Glass Escalators
•
The glass ceiling refers to an invisible limit on
women’s climb up the occupational ladder.
•
Kanter argues this is due to a cultural conflation of
authority with masculinity.
•
The glass escalator refers to the accelerated
promotion of men to the top of a work
organization, especially in feminized jobs.
Ashley Mears Interview
•
Ashley Mears talks about gender
inequality and the wage structure
in the modeling industry.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
8.6 Sociology in the Bedroom
Variations in Human Sexuality
•
Much as with gender differences, sexual
practices vary across time and place,
supporting the notion that sexuality is as
much a social construct as gender is.
•
There is enormous variation in how
humans have sex and what it means to
them.
Sexual Identities
• Homosexual: The social identity of a person who has sexual
attraction to and/or relations with people of the same sex.
• Bisexual: An individual who is sexually attracted to both
genders/sexes.
• Heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexuality is the default or
normal sexual orientation, from which other sexualities deviate.
Paula England Interview
•
Paula England discusses her
research on hook-up culture and
romantic relationships among
college students.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
.
Hook-ups
•
Hook-up culture has largely replaced dating as the route to romance on college
campuses around the country.
•
A hook-up means “something sexual happens, that ‘something sexual’ is not
always intercourse, often in fact [in] the majority of cases it isn’t, and there is
no necessary implication that anybody’s interested in a relationship, but they
might be interested.”
•
Dating is infrequent, but it is not completely dead. It is “charged with more
meaning now, and it’s more likely to be leading to a relationship.”
Figure 8.4 Percentage of High School Students
Who Have Had Sex, 1991-2017
•
Contrary to common
perception, the
percentage of high
school students who
have had sex has
declined over the past
couple of decades.
Discussion Questions
• How do college students engage in romantic relationships today?
• Do you see evidence of hook-up culture on campus?
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• __________ is what we, as a society, make of biological sex
differences between males and females.
a. Sexuality
b. Gender
c. Patriarchy
d. Cisgender
Review Question 2
• __________ is a nearly universal system involving the subordination
of femininity to masculinity.
a. Patriarchy
b. Sexism
c. Matriarchy
d. Hegemonic masculinity
Review Question 3
• Michel Foucault argued that the development of homosexuality as a social
identity was related to
a. changes in the nineteenth century about the notion of the ideal man.
b. the development of scientific disciplines and a desire to monitor and
categorize people and their behavior.
c. the development of the field of psychoanalysis.
d. society’s need to establish cohesion by identifying deviant “others.”
Review Question 4
• Sexual harassment is an illegal form of discrimination that can be manifested
through __________, with the intent of making a person, usually a woman, feel
uncomfortable or unsafe, particularly in a work setting.
a. inappropriate jokes
b. sexual assault
c. requests for sexual favors
d. all the above
Review Question 5
• Women working in male-dominated professions often find that there are
__________ opportunities for advancement, and men working in femaledominated professions often advance __________ their female colleagues.
a. limited; more slowly than
b. limited; as quickly as
c. ample; as quickly as
d. limited; more quickly than
Discussion Questions
• What are some examples from your own life where you or those
around you “perform” or “do” gender?
• How would others react if you or someone you know suddenly
stopped doing these things?
Sociology on the Street
• Internet dating is a major resource for people looking for potential
partners, with a seemingly unlimited pool. What are the similarities
and differences between dating online and dating in person?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 8 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e Full Edition.
• For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 9
Race
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
•
Race as we know it has no
deterministic biological basis, yet it is
so powerful that it can have life-ordeath consequences.
•
Click here to see the paradox
animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
9.1 The Myth of Race
Race
•
Race can be defined as a group of people who share a set of characteristics—
usually physical ones—and are said to share a common bloodline.
•
Race is largely a social construction rather than a fixed biological or natural
reality, and racial classifications have changed greatly over time.
•
One example of this is the development of “Whiteness” as a concept that
initially only included certain European ethnicities before it became the broader,
more inclusive category it is today.
Racism
• Racism is the belief that members of separate races possess
different and unequal human traits.
• Racist thinking is characterized by three key beliefs:
•
Humans are divided into distinct bloodlines and/or physical types.
•
These bloodlines or physical traits are linked to distinct cultures, behaviors,
personalities, and intellectual abilities.
•
Certain groups are superior to others.
Maria Abascal Interview
•
Maria Abascal discusses changing
intergroup relations and the
redefining of racial groups in the
context of the anticipated decline of
the White majority.
•
Click here to watch her interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
9.2 The Concept of Race: From
the Ancients to Alleles
Scientific Racism (1 of 2)
•
Scientific racism: Nineteenth-century theories of race that characterize a
period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and
classifications of race.
•
Scientific racism was rooted in ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s own
culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other
cultures from the perspective of one’s own.
•
The true goal of this pseudoscience was to justify imperial exploits by
automatically classifying nonwhites as abnormal, improper, and inferior.
Scientific Racism (2 of 2)
•
Scientific racism included many types of pseudoscience, including phrenology
and physiognomy.
•
Some people, like Reverend Minister Samuel Stanhope Smith, believed skin
colors were like suntans, and that racial differences were a product of the
climate. While incorrect, this view embodied some ontological equality.
•
Ontological equality: The philosophical and religious notion that all people are
created equal.
Social Darwinism
•
Social Darwinism: The application of
Darwinian ideas to society—namely, the
evolutionary “survival of the fittest.”
•
Herbert Spencer popularized the notion that
some groups or races had evolved more
than others and thus were more fit to
survive and even to rule other races.
Eugenics
•
Eugenics: The science of genetic lines and the inheritable traits they pass
on from generation to generation.
•
Eugenicists claimed that traits could be traced through bloodlines and
bred into populations (for positive traits) or out of them (for negative
traits).
•
Eugenics quickly became a way for racists to justify immigrant exclusion
in the name of improving the “stock” of the nation.
Nativism
•
The concept of new, objectionable immigrants and “native” desirable
immigrants was the crux of nativism.
•
Nativism: The movement to protect and preserve indigenous land or culture
from the allegedly dangerous and polluting effects of new immigrants.
•
Madison Grant epitomized the spirit of nativism when he argued that not
restricting the immigration of southern and eastern Europeans meant “race
suicide” for the White race (1916/1936).
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
•
Bhagat Singh Thind was an Indian Sikh who,
according to the Supreme Court, did not qualify
as a “free White person” despite being a member
of the U.S. Army in World War I and being
classified as a “Caucasian”.
•
This was because the inclusion of dark-skinned
immigrants like Thind threatened the commonly
accepted notion of Whiteness.
Cross-Racial Interactions
•
The one-drop rule, which evolved from U.S. laws forbidding
miscegenation, was the belief that “one drop” of Black blood makes a
person Black.
•
The application of this rule was intended to keep the White population
“pure” and lumped anyone with Black blood into one category.
•
Miscegenation is the technical term for a multiracial marriage.
DNA Testing
•
Today DNA testing is used to
determine people’s racial makeup,
and while this process may be more
accurate on some level than
nineteenth-century racial measures,
it still supports the notion of fixed,
biological, racial differences.
Discussion Questions
• As the saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” How do
eugenics and physiognomy contradict this saying (with regard to
people)?
• Are the principles behind these pseudosciences still with us today?
•
If so, in what capacity?
9.3 Racial Realities
Racialization
•
Racialization is the formation of a new racial
identity, in which new ideological boundaries
of difference are drawn around a formerly
unnoticed group of people.
•
An example of this is the discrimination faced
by Muslims and Sikhs in the wake of the
9/11.
Jen’nan Read Interview
• Jen’nan Read discusses her
research on the experience of
Muslims in the United States.
• Click here to watch her interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayas
k7.
9.4 Race versus Ethnicity
Race versus Ethnicity
•
Race is externally imposed, involuntary, usually based on physical
differences, hierarchical, exclusive, and unequal.
•
Ethnicity, one’s ethnic quality or affiliation, is voluntary, self-defined,
nonhierarchical, fluid and multiple, cultural, and planar (not as closely
linked with power differences).
•
An ethnic identity becomes racialized when it is subsumed under a forced
label, racial marker, or “otherness.”
Symbolic Ethnicity
• Symbolic ethnicity is a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the
rights and duties of citizenship but in the sense of identifying with a
past or future nationality.
• For later generations of White ethnics, it is something not
constraining but easily expressed, with no risks of stigma and all the
pleasures of feeling like an individual.
The Privilege of Symbolic Ethnicity
•
The differences between race and ethnicity underscore the privileged position
of White people in America, who have the freedom to pick and choose their
identities.
•
Nonwhite Americans are often immediately classified as racially different based
on their physical features, and they lose the agency to choose their ethnic
identity.
•
For these people, ethnicity becomes racialized—subsumed under a forced
identifier, label, or racial marker of “otherness”.
9.5 Racial Groups in the United
States
Native Americans
•
In 2018, people claiming at least some Native American ancestry
numbered about 5.6 million.
•
Only about one-fifth of Native Americans live in a designated American
Indian area.
•
Native Americans rank among the worst in terms of high-school dropout
rates and unemployment, which go hand in hand with poor health
outcomes such as alcoholism, suicide, and premature death.
African Americans
•
In 2018, about 12.7 percent of the American population was Black.
•
The median income of African Americans as a group is roughly 62.8
percent that of Whites.
•
Among men ages 25 to 39, Black men are imprisoned 2.5 times and 6
times as often as Hispanic men and White men, respectively.
•
Sociologists today are beginning to study how new Black immigrants are
fracturing the holistic conception of “African American.”
Latinxs
•
Latinx refers to individuals who trace their ancestry back to Latin America.
•
Hispanic means descended from (or identifying with) Spanish-speaking
populations (including from Spain itself).
•
In 2018 Latinxs made up approximately 18 percent of the population.
•
In 2018, the majority of Latinxs in the United States were from:
•
Mexico (about 61.9 percent)
•
Puerto Rico (about 9.7 percent)
•
Cuba (4 percent)
•
Dominican Republic (3.5 percent)
Asian Americans
•
The term Asian American is very broad, encompassing diverse and
sometimes clashing peoples from East Asia and Southeast Asia.
•
Asians and mixed-Asian U.S. residents comprise 6.7 percent of the
population and are the fastest-growing racial group in the country.
•
Asian Americans are unique among minorities because of their high
average socioeconomic status, but this obscures the very high poverty
rates faced by certain ethnic groups.
Middle Eastern Americans
•
“Middle Eastern” refers to people who come from places as diverse as the
Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories.
•
Today about 2.1 million Americans report Arab ancestry, and even more
Americans have a Middle Eastern heritage because not all Middle Easterners
are Arab.
•
Widespread misunderstandings about Middle Easterners derive, in part, from
their negative stereotyping in the mainstream media.
9.6 The Importance of Being
White
The Importance of Being White
•
“White” is a flexible label that has expanded
over time to include many formerly nonwhite
groups such as Jews, Irish, and Italians.
•
Peggy McIntosh argues that whiteness is an
“invisible knapsack of privileges” that puts
White people at an advantage, just as racism
places nonwhites at a disadvantage.
Discussion Question
• According to author Nell Irvin Painter, “The foundation of white
identity is that there isn’t any. You’re just an individual.” How does
this illustrate the uniqueness of “White” as a racial category?
9.7 Intergroup Relations
Theories of Assimilation (1 of 2)
•
Robert Park’s concept of straight-line assimilation offered a universal and
linear model for how immigrants assimilate: they first arrive, then settle
in, and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenous country.
•
Milton Gordon’s alternative model suggests that immigrant populations
pass through (or stall in) seven stages of assimilation: cultural, structural,
marital, identification, attitude reception, behavior reception, and civic
assimilation.
Theories of Assimilation (2 of 2)
•
Harold Isaacs (1975) noticed something that these theories of assimilation
could not explain: People did not so easily shed their ethnic ties.
•
Clifford Geertz (1973) explained this persistence as a matter of primordialism—
that is, the strength of ethnic ties resides in deeply felt or primordial ties to
one’s culture.
•
On the other hand, Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan reasoned that ethnic
identification persisted because it was in an individual’s best interest to
maintain it.
Pluralism
• Pluralism, in the context of race and ethnicity, refers to the
presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in
one society, with no one group being in the majority.
• A culturally pluralistic society has one large sociocultural framework
with a diversity of cultures functioning within it.
• This is the premise of multiculturalism in America.
Segregation
•
Segregation: The legal or social practice of separating people on the basis
of their race or ethnicity.
•
Segregation was the official policy in the United States, particularly in the
South, until the 1960s.
•
Although it has been illegal for over 40 years, there is still ample evidence
of segregation in American society today, particularly in schools, housing,
and prisons.
Figure 9.3 Index of Racial Dissimilarity
Conflict Relations
•
The final paradigm of race relations is conflict
relations, when antagonistic groups within a
society live integrated in the same neighborhoods,
hold the same jobs, and go to the same schools.
•
Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people
based on racial, ethnic, or religious traits.
9.8 Group Responses to
Domination
Group Responses to Domination
• There are four ways in which groups respond to oppression.
•
Withdrawal
•
Passing
•
Acceptance
•
Resistance
Withdrawal
•
An example of withdrawal is the Great Migration of the mid-twentieth
century in the United States.
•
Many Black people moved from the rural Jim Crow South in search of
jobs and equality in the industrialized urban North and West.
•
This had mixed results: some Black communities prospered economically
and educationally, resulting in events like the Harlem Renaissance, but
others faced hostility, exploitation, violence, and poverty.
Passing
• Another response to racial oppression is passing, or blending in with
the dominant group.
• Passing can occur through physical changes, like altering one’s hair,
lightening or darkening one’s skin, and plastic surgery.
• It can also occur through language, such as changing one’s name
from “Schmidt” to “Smith” to assimilate.
Acceptance vs. Resistance
•
Another response is acceptance, whereby the oppressed group feigns
compliance and hides its true feelings of resentment.
•
In this case, the oppressed group often learns to “code-switch,” in which
they act one way in the presence of the dominant group, and another
way in private among their subaltern.
•
Collective resistance: An organized effort to change a power hierarchy on
the part of a less powerful group in a society.
9.9 Prejudice, Discrimination, and
the New Racism
Prejudice and Discrimination
• Prejudice: Thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group,
which lead to preconceived notions and judgments (often negative)
about the group.
• Discrimination: Harmful or negative acts (not mere thoughts)
against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category,
without regard to their individual merit.
Merton’s Chart of Prejudice and
Discrimination
New Kinds of Racism
•
As overt racism declines, scholars are beginning to find traces of a new kind of
racism gaining ground.
•
This new kind of racism replaces biology with culture and presumes that there
is something fixed, innate, and inferior about nonwhite cultural values.
•
Color-blind racism: The view that racial inequality is perpetuated by a
supposedly color-blind stance that ends up reinforcing historical and
contemporary inequities, disparate impact, and institutional bias by “ignoring”
them in favor of a technically neutral approach.
9.10 How Race Matters: The Case
of Wealth
Equity Inequality
•
Equity inequality captures the historical
disadvantage of minority groups and the way
those disadvantages accrue over time.
•
Average household net worth in 2016:
•
African Americans: $17,100
•
Latinxs: $20,600
•
Whites: $171,000
Institutional Racism
• Institutional racism: Institutions and social dynamics that may seem
race neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups.
• These institutions can include but are not limited to the criminal
justice system, workplaces, and schools.
9.11 The Future of Race
The U.S. Census
•
For the first time ever, the 2000
Census allowed respondents to
check off more than one box for
racial identity.
•
About 9 million people selfidentified as multiracial by
checking more than one race box
in 2010.
Jennifer Lee Interview
•
Jennifer Lee explains how
sociologists think about race and
describes the differences between
race and ethnicity.
•
Click here to watch her interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
.
Discussion Question
• Do you agree with Lee that the “color line” in the United States is
between Black people and others, rather than between White
people and others? Why or why not?
Kevin Lewis Interview
•
Kevin Lewis analyzed data from an
online dating site to identify how
access to a wider network of
people affects interracial dating.
•
Click here to watch his interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
.
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• Ethnocentrism is
a. the notion that ethnic ties are fixed in a deeply felt connection to one’s
homeland culture.
b. the idea that we should recognize differences across cultures without passing
judgment on, or assigning value to, those differences.
c. the judgment of other groups by one’s own standards and values.
d. the adoption of a symbolic ethnicity for certain holidays or cultural events.
Review Question 2
• How was the one-drop rule related to laws forbidding miscegenation in the United
States?
a. The one-drop rule reinforced antimiscegenation laws because any offspring of a mixedrace union would be categorized as Black.
b. The one-drop rule was a precursor to formal laws forbidding miscegenation.
c. When antimiscegenation laws were struck down in the courts, the one-drop rule was
an informal way of enforcing the same policy.
d. all the above
Review Question 3
• A pluralistic society is one in which
a. numerous distinct cultures engage and coexist peacefully within one large sociocultural
framework.
b. numerous distinct cultures live within the same political boundaries but do not
interact.
c. numerous distinct cultures live within the same political boundaries but may
experience great tension and inequality.
d. numerous distinct cultures vie for power and domination within one large sociocultural
framework.
Review Question 4
• __________ is the least explored, and perhaps the most striking, of the
disparities in social outcomes between Blacks and Whites in the United
States.
a. Income disparity
b. The high incarceration rate among Blacks
c. The wealth gap
d. The difference in educational attainment
Review Question 5
• The “new racism” couches its rhetoric in terms of __________
between groups rather than __________.
a. religious differences; intellectual differences
b. learned differences; innate differences
c. behavioral differences; physical differences
d. cultural differences; physical differences
Discussion Questions
• Have the four forms of intergroup relations been prevalent in the
United States?
• How have minority groups in the United States responded to racial
domination?
• What do you think is the future of race and ethnicity in the United
States?
Sociology on the Street
• Decades after real estate segregation (or “redlining”) became illegal,
many Americans still live in communities that are highly segregated
by race and/or socioeconomic status. How does unofficial
segregation occur?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 9 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e Full Edition.
• For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 10
Poverty
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• How do we help the poor without
creating perverse incentives that
induce more poverty in the long run?
• Click here to watch the paradox
animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
10.1 The Culture of Poverty
What Is Poverty?
•
Poverty can be defined as a condition of deprivation due to economic
circumstances that is severe enough that people in this condition cannot
live with dignity in their society.
•
At the core of the debate about poverty in America is the question of
whether poverty is the cause of social ills such as crime, poor educational
outcomes, divorce, and so on or whether it is their result.
Poverty in Recessions
•
During a recession, poverty rates may be higher.
•
A recession is a period of economic decline lasting half a year or more.
Individuals may become unemployed, forcing them to cut back on
expenses. Businesses may close because no customers shop there.
•
As a result, more people lose jobs because the businesses they work for
are closing. Thus, recessions often have wide-ranging and severe impacts
on a society.
The Culture of Poverty
•
The culture of poverty theory argues that poor people adopt certain
practices, which differ from those of middle-class, “mainstream” society,
in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances.
•
While it may be true that reliance on welfare generates a sense of
helplessness and dependency in some people, there are also structural
reasons why it can be difficult to transition from welfare to work.
Mario Luis Small Interview
•
In this interview, Mario Luis Small
discusses the culture of poverty
thesis.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
.
Negative Income Tax (1 of 2)
• In the negative income tax experiment, the government gave checks
to low-earning households in order to ensure that they had a
certain minimum amount of income available. Once the households
crossed the predetermined earning threshold, they were expected
to start paying “positive” taxes.
•
Control group: Received their welfare checks or their wages as before.
•
Treatment group: Received a guaranteed check.
Negative Income Tax (2 of 2)
•
In the treatment group, many women left their marriages because they were
no longer financially dependent on a man.
•
Unemployment spells increased in duration.
•
According to analyst Jodie T. Allen, a negative income tax might not be able to
lift families out of poverty, but it could give them a lot more leisure time.
•
Recently, the idea of a universal basic income (a close cousin of the negative
income tax) has made a resurgence in some progressive political quarters.
The Underclass
•
Underclass: The notion, building on the culture of poverty argument, that
the poor not only are different from mainstream society in their inability
to take advantage of what society has to offer but also are increasingly
deviant and even dangerous to the rest of us.
•
The concept of the underclass was proposed by journalist Ken Auletta in
1981.
Perverse Incentives
•
Charles Murray argued that the underclass thesis was flawed: The poor
are no different from the rest of us; they respond rationally to economic
incentives.
•
Perverse incentives: Reward structures that lead to suboptimal outcomes
by stimulating counterproductive behavior; for example, it is argued that
welfare—to the extent that it discourages work efforts—has perverse
incentives.
An Alternative Thesis?
• Social scientists who disagreed with both arguments found
themselves trapped.
• To argue against the underclass concept, they had to show that the
poor were no different from the rest of us but were merely
responding to a lack of opportunity.
• However, doing so would playing into the perverse incentives thesis.
David Grusky Interview
•
David Grusky asks whether people
would opt out of the labor market if
the United States had a very
substantial safety net.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
William Julius Wilson
•
William Julius Wilson turned the focus from welfare to factors such as
deindustrialization, globalization, suburbanization, and discrimination as the
true causes of urban poverty.
•
In the wake of Wilson’s research, many poverty policymakers created targeted,
work-friendly policies such as the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) replacing welfare.
•
They also focused more on child poverty rather than family or adult poverty.
Changes Created by the PRWORA
•
More responsibility for running welfare programs was shifted onto states.
•
The number of months that a person could receive aid became limited.
•
Components were added to encourage two-parent families and
discourage out-of-wedlock births.
•
Work requirements were implemented for the receipt of welfare,
effectively creating a way to enforce much stricter time limits than the
full 5 years recipients are supposed to have under PRWORA.
Discussion Questions
• In your view, what are some ways in which individuals can attempt
to escape poverty?
• What kinds of barriers might they face in attempting to do so?
What Money Can’t Buy
• In her book What Money Can’t Buy, sociologist Susan Mayer writes
that she found very little evidence to support the widely held belief
that parental income has a significant effect on children’s outcomes.
• She pointed out that while the correlation between family income
and children’s outcomes is indeed huge, it did not necessarily mean
that poverty caused all these social ills.
The Bell Curve Thesis
• In The Bell Curve, Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein argued
that it’s not poverty or education or parenting that ultimately has
the most impact on children’s outcomes, but simply genes.
Moving to Opportunity
•
James Rosenbaum’s study of the Gautreaux Assisted Living Program in
Chicago and the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) study began in 1994.
•
The studies were designed to see if moving to less impoverished
communities might affect the quality of life.
•
The MTO study in particular seemed to show that living in a quieter, less
stressful environment did indeed have very positive effects on children.
Discussion Questions
• Think about the neighborhood or community where you grew up.
How did it shape the opportunities you have had in life?
• What advantages or disadvantages did you face where you grew up?
Matthew Desmond Interview
•
Matthew Desmond discusses his
research on another negative trend
hitting low-income families hard:
eviction.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
10.2 Poverty amid Plenty
Absolute Poverty
• Absolute poverty is the point at which a household’s income falls
below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its
members.
The Poverty Line
• The official poverty line in the United States is calculated using a
formula developed in the 1960s by Mollie Orshansky.
•
The formula estimates food costs for minimum food requirements to
determine whether a family can “afford” to survive.
•
This process can be problematic, as the cost of food has decreased but the
cost of living (rent, utilities, etc.) has increased.
Figure 10.1 Number in Poverty vs. the Poverty
Rate, 1960-2018
Relative Poverty
•
Relative poverty is a
measurement of poverty based
on a percentage of the median
income in a given location.
•
Figure 10.2 shows the cost of
living in different parts of the
U.S. in 2020.
Three Theories of How Poverty Affects
Children
•
It manifests in material deprivations (e.g., lack of adequate food or heat) caused by a
family’s low socioeconomic status.
•
Parenting stress hypothesis: A paradigm in which low income, unstable employment, a
lack of cultural resources, and a feeling of inferiority from social class comparisons
exacerbate household stress levels; this stress, in turn, leads to detrimental parenting
practices such as yelling and hitting, which are not conducive to healthy child
development.
•
“No effect” thesis: genetics are to blame for both the poverty of the parents and their
children’s outcomes.
10.3 Why Is the United States So
Different?
Why Is the United States So Different?
• The United States is much more unequal than any other developed
nation: our rich are much richer than our poor.
• The U.S. also has one of the highest poverty rates (a larger
percentage of the population is below the poverty line) in the
advanced world.
Poverty among Wealthy Countries
Review & Discuss
Review Question 1
• Poverty can best be defined as
a. a household’s income falling below a percentage of the median income in a given
location.
b. the unequal distribution of wealth that results from private ownership.
c. a condition of deprivation due to economic circumstances that is severe enough that
individuals in this condition cannot live with dignity in their society.
d. the point at which a household’s income falls below the necessary level to purchase
food to physically sustain its members.
Review Question 2
• In What Money Can’t Buy, sociologist Susan Mayer challenged the common
assumption that
a. the welfare system encourages dependence on government handouts.
b. many welfare recipients do not want transition to work.
c. poverty directly causes poor health, behavioral problems, and a host of other
problems for children.
d. low-income neighborhoods breed dependence on welfare, crime, and divorce.
Review Question 3
• The __________, as the label was conceived by journalist Ken Auletta, refers to
people who not only are unable to take advantage of what society has to offer,
but also are increasingly deviant and even dangerous to the rest of society.
a. underclass
b. working poor
c. nonworking poor
d. welfare dependent
Review Question 4
• The Gautreaux Assisted Living Program in Chicago and the Moving to Opportunity
study provided opportunities to explore
a. the effects of living in a low-poverty versus a high-poverty neighborhood.
b. how home ownership affects parental employment and children’s education.
c. regional differences in public housing programs.
d. how social conditions come to be a greater determinant of outcomes than
income.
Review Question 5
• The level of income inequality in the United States is
a. lower than that of most other developed countries.
b. higher than that of most other developed countries.
c. higher than that of many developing countries.
d. higher than that of all other developed countries.
Discussion Questions
• What is unique about the extent of poverty in the United States
compared with other countries?
• What factors within the United States might play a role in poverty?
Sociology on the Street
• The average daily food stamp benefit is $4–5, which means that
many people on food stamps must calculate the exact value of each
meal. Do you know how much your meals cost?
• Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Credits
• This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 10 of You May Ask Yourself, 7e Full Edition.
• For more resources, please visit digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
CHAPTER 13
Education
Copyright © 2021 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
•
Although school is supposed to be the
institution in society that provides equal
opportunity, it ends up sorting and stratifying
students by the backgrounds from which they
come.
•
Click here to watch the paradox animation:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7
13.1 Learning to Learn or
Learning to Labor?: Functions of
Schooling
Functions of Schooling (1 of 5)
•
Education is the process through
which academic, social, and cultural
ideas and tools are developed.
•
Unfortunately, not all students
emerge successfully from this
system.
Problems
• Functional illiteracy: the inability to read or write well enough to
function in society
•
Experienced by about 19 percent of the U.S. population ages 16 to 65
• Innumeracy: having insufficient math skills to function in society
•
Experienced by 29 percent of the U.S. population ages 16 to 65
Functions of Schooling
•
The two main functions of schools are to educate students and to socialize
them.
•
Schools teach general skills, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as
specific skills needed for the workplace.
•
Human capital refers to the knowledge and skills that make someone more
productive and bankable.
•
Schools transmit values, beliefs, and attitudes that are important to society.
Tamara Pavasović Trošt Interview
•
Tamara Pavasović Trošt discusses
the role of schools in nationbuilding after the breakup of
Yugoslavia.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Forced Assimilation through Schooling
•
Sometimes the socialization that
takes place in schools is part of a
larger power structure.
•
For example, boarding schools like
the Carlisle Indian Industrial School
were used to strip American Indian
children of their identities.
The Hidden Curriculum
• The nonacademic and less overt socialization functions of schooling
are called the hidden curriculum.
• The hidden curriculum serves to form a more cohesive society but
has also been used to impose the values of a dominant culture on
outsiders and minorities.
Schools as Sorting Machines?
• Schools have been described as sorting machines that place
students into programs and groups according to their skills,
interests, and talents.
• Critics argue that this sorting process is not based solely on merit
and that ultimately it serves to reproduce social inequalities.
Discussion Questions
• What is an example of something you learned through the hidden
curriculum in elementary school?
• What is an example from high school?
13.2 Do Schools Matter?
Studies on Student Performance
• The 1966 Coleman Report showed that differences in achievement
among schools were explained by two primary factors—family
background and peers—rather than by differences in school
resources, as had been expected.
• Since the 1980s, it has been shown that reducing class sizes has a
positive impact on student performance.
Private Schools vs. Public Schools
•
Private school students perform better academically than their peers at
public schools, in part due to academic and behavioral differences.
•
Catholic schools were shown to be the most successful in preparing
students academically.
•
This may be due to large amounts of social capital in the Catholic
community.
Shamus Khan Interview
•
Shamus Khan discusses his research
on elite educational institutions such
as St. Paul’s, the subject of his book,
Privilege: The Making of an
Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School.
•
Click here to watch the interview:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask7.
Discussion Questions
• What roles do families and schools play in young people’s
outcomes?
• Which do you think matters more and why?
13.3 What’s Going On Inside
Schools?
Tracking
• Tracking: A way of dividing students into different classes according
to ability or future plans.
• Tracking is intended to create a better learning environment,
because students’ goals are matched t…