Socl 3601 02/09/2014
Socl 3601
02/09/2014
1/17 3 Major Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology: Macrolevel views of society Structuralfunctionalism: look at different parts of society, how they’re connected to each other, and how each part provides a function to maintain the society as a whole. How change in one part causes changes in other parts to restore the balance and maintain a healthy society. Conflict Theory: roots in Karl Marx. Took communist and socialist ideas and put them in broader perspective. Pillars of Marx ideas: economic determinism regard economic system as most important part of society. Economic system determines shape and form of all other institutions. Democratic ideas. Good idea to have small nuclear family structure and develop education system. Historical materialism if economic determinism determines shape and form of society, then every area of history can be shown by dominance of economic system. Major and noteworthy historical change occurs when economic system is replaced. Systems based on agriculture. In Dark Ages decline in economic activity. New form of agriculture, feudalism. Feudalism dominated Europe as populations grew. Start to see the rise of free market capitalism. Corvee labor labor that you owed the government, part of your taxes. Work for gov’t for free. Military and political leader benefit from this. Serfs agricultural peasants bound to the land by law. Bourgeoisie collect profit. Proletariat getting very little for their labor. Marx believed serfs would over throw bourgeoisie. Microlevel view of society Symbolic Interactionism: most important perspective. George H. Mead. Nothing gets done unless people coordinate efforts. Emphasizes symbols and meanings. Society is possible by the creation and manipulation of significant symbols (ex. Flags, crosses, gestures, language). Through language, we can coordinate activities, talk about abstract ideas, talk about people/things not immediately present, reflect on our part, and plan for our future. Refuted behaviorism behaviorism is stimulus and response. Grew from animal psychology. Rewarded for socially desirable, punished for undesirable. Revised by B.F. Skinner with operant conditioning. Exchange Theory: every interaction involves some sort of exchange. Cost benefit analysis. If rewards outweigh costs/risks, more likely to engage in behavior. Takes into account that we can make choices. Drawbacks of Exchange Theory doesn’t take emotions into account, people don’t value rewards the same. 1/22 Social Learning Theory: Albert Bandura. Talks about 3 different ways we learn: 1. Internalizing what we are explicitly taught 2. System of rewards/punishments 3. Ability to engage in vicarious learning. Sets apart from the rest. We don’t know how it will work for us so we want to try it. Depends on circumstances, people involved, and prompt. How children learn to swear.
*Dramaturgy: Erving Goffman. Describes social life in terms of a stage. When we’re in the presence of other people, we present a character (as an actor on stage presents to an audience). We need audience to believe who/what we say we are because if they don’t, the interaction will not go smoothly. Labeling Theory: Howard Becker. Similar to Dramaturgy, not as important. Process of labeling and what happens when we label. We label because we think it tells us something about someone. Labels change interactions. Can result in selffulfilling prophecy when someone makes a prediction about someone else and it changes how people interact with that person and how person interacts with world around them, causes prophecy to come true. Most prominent in study of education and deviance. To understand human behavior, we must keep in mind we’re biological organisms trying to survive in a physical environment. Sociobiology, 1975, Edward O. Wilson Synthesis between natural and social sciences. Discusses Exchange Theory. Human behavior is about reproducing our genes. Organisms are genes’ attempts to express themselves more efficiently. Alpha male biggest male drives away male rivals and gains access to all females. Sperm is a constantly renewable resource. Try to reproduce as many copies of their genes as possible. Desire to dominate species. For women, eggs are not renewable resource. 2024 are highest fertility ages. Over 35, complications become more common. Females look for “best” set of genes to combine with her genes. May not be legit because: extremes people go to to prevent pregnancy, laws men implement to keep women monogamous. Historically, epidemic diseases have been #1 killer; culturally, we make vaccines. Biologically, humans are unable to fly; culturally, we build machine/airplanes. Biology needs to be taken into account. Walking upright is survival advantage by raising line of vision (can spot danger and food sources more easily). Hair on head protects scalp from the sun. Cool down faster because we are not covered in hair. Can run longer than any other mammals. # different types of teeth because we can eat plants and animals. 1/27 Anteaters can only eat ants. Humans are not specialized. Can adapt to most any environment. World openness and plasticity not restricted to one type of environment or climate. Variation in human existence. Disadvantage weak instincts. Takes humans long time to develop/walk. Must learn how to survive in physical and social environments from other people. Not capable of surviving on our own. *Interaction is fundamental to survival.* Feral children deprived of normal human contact in early years of life. “Feral” Latin word referring to wild dogs. “feral children” are wild children. Amount of deprivation determines overall amount of development. Show no emotion, shallow cognitive development, physical development of about 1012 year old. We MUST learn from other people. Every society has common stock of knowledge knowledge society has accumulated over the course of history. (Ex. AtlAtl is a tool for throwing a spear).
William I. Thomas The Thomas Theorem: if men define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences. (Ex. How you react to an illness determines how you go about treating it) Why society needs people to share the same definitions in aspects such as driving, law, etc. How societies get citizens to internalize common stock of knowledge Peter Berger’s 3 Step Process: 1. Externalization Person A has a certain definition of something and tells Person B about it. 2. Objectification Person B receives the definition and understands. Now the definition is shared between 2 or more people. 3. Internalization Person B internalizes the definitions and accepts it as their own from that point on. Just because one step takes place doesn’t mean all will take place. Prerequisites for this process to take place: 1. Means of communication 2. Cognitive abilities 3. Social experience 1/31 George H. Mead Symbolic Interactionism: tried to answer “how are human societies possible?” Possible through our ability to create and manipulate symbols and language. Also tried to answer: What makes us human? What about human existence differentiates us from other species? Our ability to have a self. Can step outside and visualize ourselves as an object. We can think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Visualize ourselves in a variety of different situations and reflect on the past/history. We are not born with a “self”, takes many years to develop. Requires advanced cognitive abilities and man years of social experience. 2 Part of the “Self”: The “I” Us when we’re doing something. Active part of the self. The “Me” Self as an object. Where we can step outside ourselves and visualize/think about what/why we’re doing something and how it affects other people. The reflexive nature of interaction how I treat you depends on how you treat me. Takes into account other people’s emotions and how we respond. (Ex. Thinking about how to respond “me”, responding “I”). 3 Stages of Development: 1. The Imitation Stage Imitate other people without understanding of what they’re doing or why. Primary focus on our own physical needs. Usually until age 4ish. 2. The Play Stage Start to understand roles. Certain classification of people (ex. moms and dads). Usually until age 9ish.
3. The Game Stage Understand complex relationships between roles (ex. teacher can be teacher and mom). Recognize roles in patterned relationships to others. Can now take the role of the other ability to understand that a person in a different position than we are sees things differently and is affected by those things (put ourselves in someone else’s shoes). Can now take the role of the generalized other ability to understand society’s expectations of people and how they differ depending on the type of person and position they are in. “What will other people thing of me?” Can now think introspectively ability to look inside ourselves. Can think about what we’re doing, why, and how well. What it means for our future, how it will affect others. Around the age of 1415, start asking ourselves philosophical questions, “who am I?”, etc. Continuous ongoing process between the stages of development Does not happen automatically Charles Horton Cooley The LookingGlass Self: come to know who we are through our interpretation of the actions of others toward us. Others are constantly giving us feedback of why they want us to be and how well we are fulfilling those expectations (known as reflected appraisals). Includes verbal actions. David Kenny social psychologist. Tried to test reflected appraisals. Found “modest” results. Affected some but not others at all. Only valuable as developmental theory, doesn’t mean much for adults. Opinions held by our primary groups are most important to us, disregard bystanders opinions. 2/3 Oppositional codes: how members of different groups of society distinguish themselves (ex. men vs women, LSU students, religious groups, gangs). Conspicuous consumption Thorstein Veblen: involves consuming cultural artifacts whose primary purpose is to show standing in society. Describe things in society primary consumed by upper class that are a means to shown how wealthy they are and how much they can afford to waste. Distinguish ourselves through the way we speak (ex. “primer”. An educated upper class person could argue this is pronounced “primer” when it is clearly “primeer”. Using oppositional code). Differences between black and white speech: Physiological differences structural differences in anatomy of the mouth. Not commonly used. African origin African American speech reflects the characteristics of languages spoken in West Africa. Maintained within African American subculture. Should be considered separate dialect of English. “Ebonics”, but preferred term is African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Studies find this goes against African origin.
Walter Wolfram’s Ocracoke Island Study studied generational differences in speech. Thought he would prove African origin but found no speech difference in older African Americans. Only younger generations that went to school after desegregation exhibited speech differences. Left with explanation of oppositional codes. Dr. William Labov 2004, Do We Speak American? Founder of sociolinguistics. Found geographic differences in speech are becoming stronger. Growing influences of mass media should cause this difference to go away but does not. Found AAVE is an urban phenomenon. Labov says differences are becoming stronger and are a phenomenon of the 2 nd half of the 20th century. Confirms the idea of oppositional codes. 2/5 The Linguistic Poverty Hypothesis lower class people swear more often than middle/upper class people because they lack the vocabulary to express themselves in more acceptable ways. Historically, swearing has been more prevalent in upper and lower class males. Backlash comes from middle class. Geoffrey Hughes Swearing. Books about swear words how they developed, what they mean, how meanings change. “Flyting” males would try to outdo each other by insulting one another. Most original/swear words would win. Found primarily in the upper class, would write insults down so participants had to be literate. As education increases, swearing should decrease but it is rising. Religion more conservative religions swear more because they consist of more lower class people. These religions have the strongest taboos against swearing, making it to where they cant express themselves at all. The SapirWhorf Hypothesis (“Linguistic Relativity”) describes how language influences the way we think. Language not only reflects a culture but influences/directs that culture. Language developed over history to express society’s ideas/how we think. Features of any language all evolve around society’s worldview “cognitive ordering of the universe”. Language pushes us to think the way our society thinks. Can constrain our thinking by making it difficult/impossible to think in ways that are foreign to our society (ex. explaining virginity to a society that sees children having sex as acceptable). Manu spiritual body/force. Call upon Manu to nourish their bodies before meals. Sioux= “Wakan”, Iroquois= “Orenda”, Algonquin= “Manitou”. Translated ideas as the great spirit, Native American concept of God. Types of Societies by Tools and Technology: (In order from most “primitive” to most “advanced”) Hunting and gathering strong affective bonds. Personal relationship with everyone in the group. Low specialization and low division of labor. Low stratification. Shared norms and values (strong collective conscience). Emphasis on collectivity (“what is good for us?”).
Horticultural very simple hand tools but could engage in small scale agriculture. Villages are usually larger than hunting/gathering. Agrarian practiced agriculture on a large scale. Domesticated animals to help with work. Produced far more food, fed more people. Built massive irrigation projects. Built up surplus of food. Creation of the centralized government, Ancient Mesopotamia. Needed ways to keep track of crops, roots of civilization. More occupations created, could afford standing army, used armies to conquer weaker neighbors. Incorporated different ethnicities. No sense of shared norms/values, which leads to the creation and implementation of laws. High degree of stratification. 80% of population working in agriculture. Modern Industrial improvements to the steam engine, much more practical, could build large factories and cities. Machines could work more efficiently, especially in agriculture. 2.7% of the population works in agriculture. High specialization and division of labor. People you see on a day to ay basis are strangers not connected by strong affective bonds but by instrumental bonds (need other people for what they can do for us). No sense of shared norms/values (weak collective conscience). Think in terms of the individual (“what is good for me?”). Ralph H. Turner “The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse”. Says different societies produce different types of people. Institutionals people who look to societies tradition norms/values to use as a measuring step for what type of person they should be. Believe norms/values are embodied by society’s institutions. Try to find self fulfillment by achieving goals defined by the institution. Most are bureaucratic and rather resistant to change. Change takes place slowly in preindustrial societies, but occurs rapidly in modern society. Cultural lag technology changes faster than society’s norms/values and they cant keep up. Impulsives produced by cultural lag + emphasis on the individual. Break through institutional constraints. Want to find out who they are, not who other people think they should be. More opportunities provided in modern societies. Want to try new things, process of trial and error. Turner sees transformation to modern society as a positive shift. Notes that it is from impulsives that we get cultural advancement and innovations. If all we produced was institutionals, Turner believes society would be stagnant. Turner’s positive view on this shift is the minority view, most see it as negative. John Hewitt Dilemmas of the American Self. Also sees the shift as positive. In his book, he criticizes Americans for trying to turn everything into a dichotomy (ex. right/wrong, yes/no). Hewitt believes rural/smalltown America is somewhat synonymous with conformity and oppression. Have some features of preindustrial society, very conservative. Someone that doesn’t fit in can find themselves in an oppressive atmosphere. Hewitt believes Modern Urban America=freedom. We have obligation to plan lives on a larger stage, we can make a difference in society. 2/10
David Reisman and Nathan Glazer 1956, The Lonely Crowd. Popular bestseller. As we become a modern urban society, we are surrounded by more people, mostly strangers. Modes of conformity how society tries to control people’s behavior. Ensure people follow norms/values. Internalization of norms is major factor in social sanction. Reisman believes society mostly produces “tradition directed” people. Similar to institutionals. Look to society for norms/values and for guidance. Common in preindustrial societies. Most important means of social control for a traditiondirected person is shame. Tend to be very conservative. In times of rapid change, societies produce innerdirected (or autonomous) people. People who are driven to go beyond what everyone else has does. Tend to have narrow, simple minded focus, high goals, and standards. Have trouble keeping friends and marriages, but don’t care because they view them as secondary. Internal means of social control for innerdirected people is guilt. Guilty if they don’t achieve goals or if they waste time. Industrialization has changed us from nation of producers to consumers. Show we’re successful by how much we consume. Otherdirected people look to others to measure their own level of success. Internal means of social control is anxiety. This anxiety is relived through crass consumerism (engaging in consumption of goods to show success). Christopher Lasch, 1978, The Culture of Narcissism. Always trying to make ourselves feel good. Feeling good=doing things the right way, according to Lasch. Louis Zurcher, 1979, The Mutable Self. Looks at social aspects of Reisman’s otherdirected self. Says we’re always trying to fit in and gain other people’s approval. Social chameleons. Says we spend so much time trying to be what other people want that we lose our true selves. C. Wright Mills: starts off one of his books with the statement “At any moment in any man’s life can be designated by the intersection of biography and history”. World events shape how we are. Erving Goffman Dramaturgy huge turning point in history of sociology. Ideas were controversial. Introduced most concepts to the field of sociology. 2/12 Dramaturgy is the study of interaction, not a theory of self. Working consensus about what is going on and who the other participants are. Goffman influenced by Georg Simmel (see supplementary sheet). Idealization/Impression management Goffman. Describes our efforts to control the info we give to other people. We tend to present an idealized version of ourselves to others. Critics say Goffman encourages being deceitful. Some of our performances simply involve tact. Try not to offend other people’s sensibilities. Tend to incorporate values of society into our act. We need other people to believe we are competent members of society. Our front:
Personal front how we present our bodies to other people; physical appearance and body decoration, how we walk, talk, mannerisms. Setting involves physical objects that we arrange around us in order to foster a given impression. Show he/she has the right to play a particular role (ex. dr. office, certificates, diplomas). Show that a particular performance takes place in a certain area (ex. the classroom). 2/14 Front stage regions places we can expect an audience so we know we have to put on a show. People will make judgments. Backstage regions places we can exclude the audience, keep others out. Step out of character and relax. “Dirty work” every show requires certain preparations and we don’t want others to see because they will know it’s a show. Our performances are not solo, they are in conjunction with people. Teams put on a show for people. Interactional citizenship who has the right to go where and do what. Formal and informal rules (ex. not allowed in other sexes bathroom). It is not an impersonal management strategy, make assumptions of peoples identities. Goffman if we see someone in a place, we assume they have the right to be there. Back channel communication expressions given. Body language, eye contact, expressions, and verbal (“haha”). Vital to keep interaction going. Giving permission for interaction to continue. Collusive Communication try to communicate something to a few people in the group but not everyone. Don’t want others to know what we are talking about. Shows someone else in the group that they aren’t included in the situation. Attribution theory we know people based on what we know about them. “Know” what we think we know can be based on personal experience or based on widely social attitudes (cultural stereotypes). The more we know, the better idea of the person we have. Implicit Personality Theory how we assume certain memories into categories that share common characteristics. We create social categories because it tells us something about a person. Causal Attributions: Internal causations attribute a person’s actions and result of these actions to personal characteristics External causations attribute a person’s actions and the result of those actions to forces that lie outside of that individual. 2/17 The Fundamental Attribution Error describes how we judge ourselves as individuals differently than we judge others as individuals. We attribute our success to internal causes and our failures to external causes. For others, we attribute their successes to external causes and their failures to internal causes. Reluctant to give credit and quick to blame.
The Ultimate Attribution Error occurs when we apply this type of thinking to groups. Ingroups groups we’re a part of (LSU). Attribute success to internal causes and failure to external. Outgroups groups we don’t belong to or oppose. Attribute success to external causes and failure to internal causes. Labeling Theory Howard Becker. Process of labeling, how people come to have labels. (Discussed briefly earlier). Selffulfilling prophecy label someone and make a prediction. This label affects how people treat the person and how the person interacts with the world. Changes cause prediction to come true. Denotative meaning of a word what the word literally stand for (Ex. tree, a pic of a tree) Connotative meaning our affective response. Charles Osgoode’s Semantic Differentials: how words makes you feel. Fell on 3 dimensions: Evaluation good/bad Potency strong/weak, powerful/powerless Activity active/passive David Heise and Neil McKinnon Affect Control Theory. Rate words based on these 3 dimensions. EPA Profiles refer to the ratings. (Evaluation, potency, activity). Range from 4 to +4. EPA profiles represent society’s fundamental sentiments. Put ratings into program called INTERACT. Can enter ABO statement (actor>behavior>object) Actor engages in behavior towards an object (can be a person). (Ex. mother>bakes cookies>for kids). Program will predict what will happen next. Interactions cause transient sentiments (passing emotional responses). Fundamental sentiments – transient sentiments = deflection. Small difference is ideal. When difference is very large, we have to work to bring them back together. Must redefine the behavior or relabel the actor. Study guide: Basic viewpoints of major theories Symbolic Interactionism (behavior, exchange, social learning theory, dramaturgy) know basic premise Humans as biological creatures: how sociobiology explains human behavior. We are unique, what does it mean from human relationship w/ environment? Feral children World openness/ plasticity Common stock of knowledge, how we absorb, 3 steps Symbolic interactionism (2 Q’s Mead tried to answer and the A’s) 2 parts of self 3 stages of development before we have a self
Final stage attributes that we couldn’t do before Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Oppositional codes, different forms Black/white speech differences. Wolfram and Labov Linguistic poverty hypothesis Basic premise of SapirWhorf hypothesis Different types of societies Turner Institutional and impulsive John Hewitt what comparisons did he make between modern and rural America? Reisman The Lonely Crowd. Internal means of social control for each type. What does The Lonely Crowd mean for behavior in modern society? Culture of Narcissism Dramaturgy what is it? Why do we do it? Impression management different strategies Attribution theory basic premise Implicit personality theory 2 types of causal attributions Attribution errors (ingroups and outgroups) Affect control theory Denotative meaning/connotative meaning Osgoode’s Semantic differentials EPA profiles Transient sentiments Fundamental sentiments
02/09/2014
02/09/2014
02/09/2014
1/17 3 Major Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology: Macrolevel views of society Structuralfunctionalism: look at different parts of society, how they’re connected to each other, and how each part provides a function to maintain the society as a whole. How change in one part causes changes in other parts to restore the balance and maintain a healthy society. Conflict Theory: roots in Karl Marx. Took communist and socialist ideas and put them in broader perspective. Pillars of Marx ideas: economic determinism regard economic system as most important part of society. Economic system determines shape and form of all other institutions. Democratic ideas. Good idea to have small nuclear family structure and develop education system. Historical materialism if economic determinism determines shape and form of society, then every area of history can be shown by dominance of economic system. Major and noteworthy historical change occurs when economic system is replaced. Systems based on agriculture. In Dark Ages decline in economic activity. New form of agriculture, feudalism. Feudalism dominated Europe as populations grew. Start to see the rise of free market capitalism. Corvee labor labor that you owed the government, part of your taxes. Work for gov’t for free. Military and political leader benefit from this. Serfs agricultural peasants bound to the land by law. Bourgeoisie collect profit. Proletariat getting very little for their labor. Marx believed serfs would over throw bourgeoisie. Microlevel view of society Symbolic Interactionism: most important perspective. George H. Mead. Nothing gets done unless people coordinate efforts. Emphasizes symbols and meanings. Society is possible by the creation and manipulation of significant symbols (ex. Flags, crosses, gestures, language). Through language, we can coordinate activities, talk about abstract ideas, talk about people/things not immediately present, reflect on our part, and plan for our future. Refuted behaviorism behaviorism is stimulus and response. Grew from animal psychology. Rewarded for socially desirable, punished for undesirable. Revised by B.F. Skinner with operant conditioning. Exchange Theory: every interaction involves some sort of exchange. Cost benefit analysis. If rewards outweigh costs/risks, more likely to engage in behavior. Takes into account that we can make choices. Drawbacks of Exchange Theory doesn’t take emotions into account, people don’t value rewards the same. 1/22 Social Learning Theory: Albert Bandura. Talks about 3 different ways we learn: 1. Internalizing what we are explicitly taught 2. System of rewards/punishments 3. Ability to engage in vicarious learning. Sets apart from the rest. We don’t know how it will work for us so we want to try it. Depends on circumstances, people involved, and prompt. How children learn to swear.
*Dramaturgy: Erving Goffman. Describes social life in terms of a stage. When we’re in the presence of other people, we present a character (as an actor on stage presents to an audience). We need audience to believe who/what we say we are because if they don’t, the interaction will not go smoothly. Labeling Theory: Howard Becker. Similar to Dramaturgy, not as important. Process of labeling and what happens when we label. We label because we think it tells us something about someone. Labels change interactions. Can result in selffulfilling prophecy when someone makes a prediction about someone else and it changes how people interact with that person and how person interacts with world around them, causes prophecy to come true. Most prominent in study of education and deviance. To understand human behavior, we must keep in mind we’re biological organisms trying to survive in a physical environment. Sociobiology, 1975, Edward O. Wilson Synthesis between natural and social sciences. Discusses Exchange Theory. Human behavior is about reproducing our genes. Organisms are genes’ attempts to express themselves more efficiently. Alpha male biggest male drives away male rivals and gains access to all females. Sperm is a constantly renewable resource. Try to reproduce as many copies of their genes as possible. Desire to dominate species. For women, eggs are not renewable resource. 2024 are highest fertility ages. Over 35, complications become more common. Females look for “best” set of genes to combine with her genes. May not be legit because: extremes people go to to prevent pregnancy, laws men implement to keep women monogamous. Historically, epidemic diseases have been #1 killer; culturally, we make vaccines. Biologically, humans are unable to fly; culturally, we build machine/airplanes. Biology needs to be taken into account. Walking upright is survival advantage by raising line of vision (can spot danger and food sources more easily). Hair on head protects scalp from the sun. Cool down faster because we are not covered in hair. Can run longer than any other mammals. # different types of teeth because we can eat plants and animals. 1/27 Anteaters can only eat ants. Humans are not specialized. Can adapt to most any environment. World openness and plasticity not restricted to one type of environment or climate. Variation in human existence. Disadvantage weak instincts. Takes humans long time to develop/walk. Must learn how to survive in physical and social environments from other people. Not capable of surviving on our own. *Interaction is fundamental to survival.* Feral children deprived of normal human contact in early years of life. “Feral” Latin word referring to wild dogs. “feral children” are wild children. Amount of deprivation determines overall amount of development. Show no emotion, shallow cognitive development, physical development of about 1012 year old. We MUST learn from other people. Every society has common stock of knowledge knowledge society has accumulated over the course of history. (Ex. AtlAtl is a tool for throwing a spear).
William I. Thomas The Thomas Theorem: if men define situations as real, then they are real in their consequences. (Ex. How you react to an illness determines how you go about treating it) Why society needs people to share the same definitions in aspects such as driving, law, etc. How societies get citizens to internalize common stock of knowledge Peter Berger’s 3 Step Process: 1. Externalization Person A has a certain definition of something and tells Person B about it. 2. Objectification Person B receives the definition and understands. Now the definition is shared between 2 or more people. 3. Internalization Person B internalizes the definitions and accepts it as their own from that point on. Just because one step takes place doesn’t mean all will take place. Prerequisites for this process to take place: 1. Means of communication 2. Cognitive abilities 3. Social experience 1/31 George H. Mead Symbolic Interactionism: tried to answer “how are human societies possible?” Possible through our ability to create and manipulate symbols and language. Also tried to answer: What makes us human? What about human existence differentiates us from other species? Our ability to have a self. Can step outside and visualize ourselves as an object. We can think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Visualize ourselves in a variety of different situations and reflect on the past/history. We are not born with a “self”, takes many years to develop. Requires advanced cognitive abilities and man years of social experience. 2 Part of the “Self”: The “I” Us when we’re doing something. Active part of the self. The “Me” Self as an object. Where we can step outside ourselves and visualize/think about what/why we’re doing something and how it affects other people. The reflexive nature of interaction how I treat you depends on how you treat me. Takes into account other people’s emotions and how we respond. (Ex. Thinking about how to respond “me”, responding “I”). 3 Stages of Development: 1. The Imitation Stage Imitate other people without understanding of what they’re doing or why. Primary focus on our own physical needs. Usually until age 4ish. 2. The Play Stage Start to understand roles. Certain classification of people (ex. moms and dads). Usually until age 9ish.
3. The Game Stage Understand complex relationships between roles (ex. teacher can be teacher and mom). Recognize roles in patterned relationships to others. Can now take the role of the other ability to understand that a person in a different position than we are sees things differently and is affected by those things (put ourselves in someone else’s shoes). Can now take the role of the generalized other ability to understand society’s expectations of people and how they differ depending on the type of person and position they are in. “What will other people thing of me?” Can now think introspectively ability to look inside ourselves. Can think about what we’re doing, why, and how well. What it means for our future, how it will affect others. Around the age of 1415, start asking ourselves philosophical questions, “who am I?”, etc. Continuous ongoing process between the stages of development Does not happen automatically Charles Horton Cooley The LookingGlass Self: come to know who we are through our interpretation of the actions of others toward us. Others are constantly giving us feedback of why they want us to be and how well we are fulfilling those expectations (known as reflected appraisals). Includes verbal actions. David Kenny social psychologist. Tried to test reflected appraisals. Found “modest” results. Affected some but not others at all. Only valuable as developmental theory, doesn’t mean much for adults. Opinions held by our primary groups are most important to us, disregard bystanders opinions. 2/3 Oppositional codes: how members of different groups of society distinguish themselves (ex. men vs women, LSU students, religious groups, gangs). Conspicuous consumption Thorstein Veblen: involves consuming cultural artifacts whose primary purpose is to show standing in society. Describe things in society primary consumed by upper class that are a means to shown how wealthy they are and how much they can afford to waste. Distinguish ourselves through the way we speak (ex. “primer”. An educated upper class person could argue this is pronounced “primer” when it is clearly “primeer”. Using oppositional code). Differences between black and white speech: Physiological differences structural differences in anatomy of the mouth. Not commonly used. African origin African American speech reflects the characteristics of languages spoken in West Africa. Maintained within African American subculture. Should be considered separate dialect of English. “Ebonics”, but preferred term is African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Studies find this goes against African origin.
Walter Wolfram’s Ocracoke Island Study studied generational differences in speech. Thought he would prove African origin but found no speech difference in older African Americans. Only younger generations that went to school after desegregation exhibited speech differences. Left with explanation of oppositional codes. Dr. William Labov 2004, Do We Speak American? Founder of sociolinguistics. Found geographic differences in speech are becoming stronger. Growing influences of mass media should cause this difference to go away but does not. Found AAVE is an urban phenomenon. Labov says differences are becoming stronger and are a phenomenon of the 2 nd half of the 20th century. Confirms the idea of oppositional codes. 2/5 The Linguistic Poverty Hypothesis lower class people swear more often than middle/upper class people because they lack the vocabulary to express themselves in more acceptable ways. Historically, swearing has been more prevalent in upper and lower class males. Backlash comes from middle class. Geoffrey Hughes Swearing. Books about swear words how they developed, what they mean, how meanings change. “Flyting” males would try to outdo each other by insulting one another. Most original/swear words would win. Found primarily in the upper class, would write insults down so participants had to be literate. As education increases, swearing should decrease but it is rising. Religion more conservative religions swear more because they consist of more lower class people. These religions have the strongest taboos against swearing, making it to where they cant express themselves at all. The SapirWhorf Hypothesis (“Linguistic Relativity”) describes how language influences the way we think. Language not only reflects a culture but influences/directs that culture. Language developed over history to express society’s ideas/how we think. Features of any language all evolve around society’s worldview “cognitive ordering of the universe”. Language pushes us to think the way our society thinks. Can constrain our thinking by making it difficult/impossible to think in ways that are foreign to our society (ex. explaining virginity to a society that sees children having sex as acceptable). Manu spiritual body/force. Call upon Manu to nourish their bodies before meals. Sioux= “Wakan”, Iroquois= “Orenda”, Algonquin= “Manitou”. Translated ideas as the great spirit, Native American concept of God. Types of Societies by Tools and Technology: (In order from most “primitive” to most “advanced”) Hunting and gathering strong affective bonds. Personal relationship with everyone in the group. Low specialization and low division of labor. Low stratification. Shared norms and values (strong collective conscience). Emphasis on collectivity (“what is good for us?”).
Horticultural very simple hand tools but could engage in small scale agriculture. Villages are usually larger than hunting/gathering. Agrarian practiced agriculture on a large scale. Domesticated animals to help with work. Produced far more food, fed more people. Built massive irrigation projects. Built up surplus of food. Creation of the centralized government, Ancient Mesopotamia. Needed ways to keep track of crops, roots of civilization. More occupations created, could afford standing army, used armies to conquer weaker neighbors. Incorporated different ethnicities. No sense of shared norms/values, which leads to the creation and implementation of laws. High degree of stratification. 80% of population working in agriculture. Modern Industrial improvements to the steam engine, much more practical, could build large factories and cities. Machines could work more efficiently, especially in agriculture. 2.7% of the population works in agriculture. High specialization and division of labor. People you see on a day to ay basis are strangers not connected by strong affective bonds but by instrumental bonds (need other people for what they can do for us). No sense of shared norms/values (weak collective conscience). Think in terms of the individual (“what is good for me?”). Ralph H. Turner “The Real Self: From Institution to Impulse”. Says different societies produce different types of people. Institutionals people who look to societies tradition norms/values to use as a measuring step for what type of person they should be. Believe norms/values are embodied by society’s institutions. Try to find self fulfillment by achieving goals defined by the institution. Most are bureaucratic and rather resistant to change. Change takes place slowly in preindustrial societies, but occurs rapidly in modern society. Cultural lag technology changes faster than society’s norms/values and they cant keep up. Impulsives produced by cultural lag + emphasis on the individual. Break through institutional constraints. Want to find out who they are, not who other people think they should be. More opportunities provided in modern societies. Want to try new things, process of trial and error. Turner sees transformation to modern society as a positive shift. Notes that it is from impulsives that we get cultural advancement and innovations. If all we produced was institutionals, Turner believes society would be stagnant. Turner’s positive view on this shift is the minority view, most see it as negative. John Hewitt Dilemmas of the American Self. Also sees the shift as positive. In his book, he criticizes Americans for trying to turn everything into a dichotomy (ex. right/wrong, yes/no). Hewitt believes rural/smalltown America is somewhat synonymous with conformity and oppression. Have some features of preindustrial society, very conservative. Someone that doesn’t fit in can find themselves in an oppressive atmosphere. Hewitt believes Modern Urban America=freedom. We have obligation to plan lives on a larger stage, we can make a difference in society. 2/10
David Reisman and Nathan Glazer 1956, The Lonely Crowd. Popular bestseller. As we become a modern urban society, we are surrounded by more people, mostly strangers. Modes of conformity how society tries to control people’s behavior. Ensure people follow norms/values. Internalization of norms is major factor in social sanction. Reisman believes society mostly produces “tradition directed” people. Similar to institutionals. Look to society for norms/values and for guidance. Common in preindustrial societies. Most important means of social control for a traditiondirected person is shame. Tend to be very conservative. In times of rapid change, societies produce innerdirected (or autonomous) people. People who are driven to go beyond what everyone else has does. Tend to have narrow, simple minded focus, high goals, and standards. Have trouble keeping friends and marriages, but don’t care because they view them as secondary. Internal means of social control for innerdirected people is guilt. Guilty if they don’t achieve goals or if they waste time. Industrialization has changed us from nation of producers to consumers. Show we’re successful by how much we consume. Otherdirected people look to others to measure their own level of success. Internal means of social control is anxiety. This anxiety is relived through crass consumerism (engaging in consumption of goods to show success). Christopher Lasch, 1978, The Culture of Narcissism. Always trying to make ourselves feel good. Feeling good=doing things the right way, according to Lasch. Louis Zurcher, 1979, The Mutable Self. Looks at social aspects of Reisman’s otherdirected self. Says we’re always trying to fit in and gain other people’s approval. Social chameleons. Says we spend so much time trying to be what other people want that we lose our true selves. C. Wright Mills: starts off one of his books with the statement “At any moment in any man’s life can be designated by the intersection of biography and history”. World events shape how we are. Erving Goffman Dramaturgy huge turning point in history of sociology. Ideas were controversial. Introduced most concepts to the field of sociology. 2/12 Dramaturgy is the study of interaction, not a theory of self. Working consensus about what is going on and who the other participants are. Goffman influenced by Georg Simmel (see supplementary sheet). Idealization/Impression management Goffman. Describes our efforts to control the info we give to other people. We tend to present an idealized version of ourselves to others. Critics say Goffman encourages being deceitful. Some of our performances simply involve tact. Try not to offend other people’s sensibilities. Tend to incorporate values of society into our act. We need other people to believe we are competent members of society. Our front:
Personal front how we present our bodies to other people; physical appearance and body decoration, how we walk, talk, mannerisms. Setting involves physical objects that we arrange around us in order to foster a given impression. Show he/she has the right to play a particular role (ex. dr. office, certificates, diplomas). Show that a particular performance takes place in a certain area (ex. the classroom). 2/14 Front stage regions places we can expect an audience so we know we have to put on a show. People will make judgments. Backstage regions places we can exclude the audience, keep others out. Step out of character and relax. “Dirty work” every show requires certain preparations and we don’t want others to see because they will know it’s a show. Our performances are not solo, they are in conjunction with people. Teams put on a show for people. Interactional citizenship who has the right to go where and do what. Formal and informal rules (ex. not allowed in other sexes bathroom). It is not an impersonal management strategy, make assumptions of peoples identities. Goffman if we see someone in a place, we assume they have the right to be there. Back channel communication expressions given. Body language, eye contact, expressions, and verbal (“haha”). Vital to keep interaction going. Giving permission for interaction to continue. Collusive Communication try to communicate something to a few people in the group but not everyone. Don’t want others to know what we are talking about. Shows someone else in the group that they aren’t included in the situation. Attribution theory we know people based on what we know about them. “Know” what we think we know can be based on personal experience or based on widely social attitudes (cultural stereotypes). The more we know, the better idea of the person we have. Implicit Personality Theory how we assume certain memories into categories that share common characteristics. We create social categories because it tells us something about a person. Causal Attributions: Internal causations attribute a person’s actions and result of these actions to personal characteristics External causations attribute a person’s actions and the result of those actions to forces that lie outside of that individual. 2/17 The Fundamental Attribution Error describes how we judge ourselves as individuals differently than we judge others as individuals. We attribute our success to internal causes and our failures to external causes. For others, we attribute their successes to external causes and their failures to internal causes. Reluctant to give credit and quick to blame.
The Ultimate Attribution Error occurs when we apply this type of thinking to groups. Ingroups groups we’re a part of (LSU). Attribute success to internal causes and failure to external. Outgroups groups we don’t belong to or oppose. Attribute success to external causes and failure to internal causes. Labeling Theory Howard Becker. Process of labeling, how people come to have labels. (Discussed briefly earlier). Selffulfilling prophecy label someone and make a prediction. This label affects how people treat the person and how the person interacts with the world. Changes cause prediction to come true. Denotative meaning of a word what the word literally stand for (Ex. tree, a pic of a tree) Connotative meaning our affective response. Charles Osgoode’s Semantic Differentials: how words makes you feel. Fell on 3 dimensions: Evaluation good/bad Potency strong/weak, powerful/powerless Activity active/passive David Heise and Neil McKinnon Affect Control Theory. Rate words based on these 3 dimensions. EPA Profiles refer to the ratings. (Evaluation, potency, activity). Range from 4 to +4. EPA profiles represent society’s fundamental sentiments. Put ratings into program called INTERACT. Can enter ABO statement (actor>behavior>object) Actor engages in behavior towards an object (can be a person). (Ex. mother>bakes cookies>for kids). Program will predict what will happen next. Interactions cause transient sentiments (passing emotional responses). Fundamental sentiments – transient sentiments = deflection. Small difference is ideal. When difference is very large, we have to work to bring them back together. Must redefine the behavior or relabel the actor. Study guide: Basic viewpoints of major theories Symbolic Interactionism (behavior, exchange, social learning theory, dramaturgy) know basic premise Humans as biological creatures: how sociobiology explains human behavior. We are unique, what does it mean from human relationship w/ environment? Feral children World openness/ plasticity Common stock of knowledge, how we absorb, 3 steps Symbolic interactionism (2 Q’s Mead tried to answer and the A’s) 2 parts of self 3 stages of development before we have a self
Final stage attributes that we couldn’t do before Cooley’s Looking Glass Self Oppositional codes, different forms Black/white speech differences. Wolfram and Labov Linguistic poverty hypothesis Basic premise of SapirWhorf hypothesis Different types of societies Turner Institutional and impulsive John Hewitt what comparisons did he make between modern and rural America? Reisman The Lonely Crowd. Internal means of social control for each type. What does The Lonely Crowd mean for behavior in modern society? Culture of Narcissism Dramaturgy what is it? Why do we do it? Impression management different strategies Attribution theory basic premise Implicit personality theory 2 types of causal attributions Attribution errors (ingroups and outgroups) Affect control theory Denotative meaning/connotative meaning Osgoode’s Semantic differentials EPA profiles Transient sentiments Fundamental sentiments
02/09/2014
02/09/2014
