Sociology Exam 3 Flashcards

System by which a society ranks and categorizes people in a hierarchy

Social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences

Social stratification carries over from generation to generation-trait of societies not individuals

Social stratification is universal but variable-what and how a system is unequal varies

Social stratification involves not just inequality but beliefs as well-defined as “fair”

Change in position within the social hierarchy

The belief that if people work hard and play by the rules, they will have a chance to get ahead

Equality of opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, or religion

Some people are owned by others

People’s status is determined at birth (ascription)

Closed: allows little change in position (birth determines one's destiny)

People’s status is based on the ownership and control of resources and on the type of work they do (achievement)

Open: permit much more social mobility

mobility blurs class distinctions

Probabilities of benefiting or suffering from the opportunities or disadvantages one’s society offers

Cultural beliefs that justify particular social arrangements, including patterns of inequality

Inequality is not only inevitable but also necessary for the smooth functioning of society

The greater the functional importance of a position, the more rewards a society attaches to it: more talent, training, etc.

Inequality is the result of conflict

Differences in resources serve the interests of some and harm others

Inequality is useful only to some people; it is not inevitable

Values and beliefs tend to be ideological; they reflect the interests of the more powerful members of society

Social stratification is rooted in people’s relationship to the means of production

People who own and operate factories and other businesses in pursuit of profit

Working people who sell their labor for wages

The experience of isolation and misery resulting from powerlessness

Workers get poorer and poorer and have little control of what they make or other aspects of life

Social standing affects everyday people with different social position

Keep their distance from one another and behave differently-shape our lives

well-off convert some of their income to extravagant consumer goods

The personal traits and social positions a culture attaches to being male or female

If gender is based on biological differences, people everywhere should define "feminine" and "masculine" the same

Belief that one sex is innately superior to the other

Justifies patriarchy

A form of social organization in which males dominate females

Pattern found almost everywhere in the world

Attitudes and activities that a society links to each sex

Men expected to be leaders and women expected to be supportive

Gender does not operate alone

Disadvantages linked to race and gender combine to produce low social standing

Functions to organize social life

Complimentary roles for family units to carry out various tasks

Men and women come together to form families

Micro-level focusing on face-to-face interaction in everyday life

Opens space to make change

Involves differences not just in behavior but in power relations

Similarity between how traditional ideas about gender benefit men and the oppression of racial and ethnic minorities benefits whites

Endorses social equality of men and women

Seeks to eliminate violence against women

Advocates giving women control over their reproduction

Equal opportunity for both sexes within the existing society

Gender equality will come about replacing capitalism with socialism

Eliminate the concept of gender itself and create an egalitarian, gender-free society

Race is foundation of identity and a basis for social inequality

Socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important

skin color, hair texture, facial features...

group identity; must be recognized in some way by its own members or by others as a distinct group, or at least having some characteristics common

Without social recognition, will not be identified as race

Every race is generally regarded as being somehow different in appearance from other races

Fluid historically changing

Something that was invented by Europeans in 18th century

Fixed and universal

18th century

physical attributes became part of the definition of race

19th century

rank races according to stage of evolution

not correct at all

People who are generally recognized by themselves or others as a distinct group

Based entirely on social or cultural characteristics

A social characteristic that passes from generation to generation

People define themselves as members of an ethnic category that have a distinctive identity

Common ancestors, language, religion

Any category of people distinguished by physical or cultural difference that a society sets apart and subordinates

Based on race, ethnicity, ability, etc.

Share a distinct identity-visibility

Experience subordination-disadvantage

Any group that is assigned an inferior status in society

A group that has less that its proportionate share of wealth, power, and social status

Minority group members are discriminated against by those in the majority

Any group that is dominant in society

Enjoys more than a proportionate share of the wealth, power, or social status in society

Any communication that is specifically intended to influence the attitudes, beliefs, or behavior

Speech, movie, book, this course: designed to impart info is not an example of this

Does not attempt to change people's attitudes

Bring about learning and impart information

Latent effect of changing people's minds; teach rather than persuade

Combine aspects such as education, intergroup contact, and therapy

Set up situation in which people experience discrimination so they learn about feelings

Feudalism

Peasants were required to work the land of a noble in exchange for military protection and other services

Class

Status

Power

Minimum level of subsistence that no family should be expected to live below

Floating standard of deprivation by which people at the bottom of a society are judged to be disadvantaged in comparison with the nation as a whole

Long-term poor people who lack training and skills

Position of each person is influenced by his or her achieved status

There is little or no possibility of individual social mobility

upwards and downwards

common among white males

Education, gender, and race are important factors in one's upward mobility

Social stratification based on personal merit

Based on birth and personal merit/achievement

Ongoing social mobility/blurring social categories

Rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people

SImplified description applied to every person in some category

Belief that one racial category is innately superior or inferior to another

How closely people are willing to interact with members of some category

Marriage
Deportation

Process by which a society defines itself by what it is not

Prejudice springs from the frustration among the already disadvantaged

Prejudice is a personality trait within individuals who usually have little education and strict, distant parents

All cultures have some sort of prejudice inherent in their makeup

Even minorities have people they are prejudiced against

Prejudice is a tool used to divide and control the people

Colonial History

Actions based on prejudice

Built in to institutional operations

Brown vs. Board of Education

Distinct but roughly equal

Mosaic

Minorities gradually adopt patterns of dominant culture

Dress, language, religion, values

How you act to get a job

Physical and social separation of people

Segregation by law

Segregation by custom

Systematic killing of one category of people by another

Rwanda, Sudan, Bosnia, Nazi Germany