Sociology Review:

Chapter 5

1. What is Social Group?

Two or more people who identify and interact with one another; People with a
status in common such as women, African American, homeowners, soldiers,
millionaires, college graduates, and Roman Catholics are not a group but a
category. People in a class are a crowd instead of a group. However,
circumstances might change a crowd into a group.

2. What is an Aggregate?
People in a Bus Stop

3. Primary Group: is a small social group whose members share personal and
lasting relationships.
a) Personal and enduring relationships
b) Strong interaction
c) Few in number
d) Emotional attachment
e) Long term relationship
1. Secondary Group: is a large and impersonal social group whose members
pursue a specific goal or activity.
a) Large and impersonal
b) Limited interaction
c) Lack of emotional involvement
d) Short term relationship
e) Common aim (a class)
1. Reference Group: a social group that serves as a point of reference in making
evaluations and decisions. For example, a young man who imagines his
family’s response to a woman he is dating is using his family as a reference
group.
a) In-Group: a social group toward which a member feels respect and
loyalty.
b) Out-Group: is a social group toward which a person feels a sense of
competition or opposition.
c) In-Group and Out-Group are based on the idea that “we” have valued
traits that “they” lack.
1. Function of groups:
a) Define boundaries (uniforms, language, and skin color).
b) Define Social Reality.
c) Assign Tasks.
d) Set Goals.
e) Offer Leadership and make decisions (through representation).
 f) Control Members Behavior (through conformity, Group think and
obedience).
1. Instrumental Leadership: Focuses on competition of tasks.
2. Expressive Leadership: Focuses on the group’s well-being.
3. Asch Experiment: Conformity; Many of us are willing to compromise our own
judgment to avoid the discomfort of being different, even from people we do
not know. (line test)
4. Prejudice: In-Group Love and Out-Group Hate.
5. Stereotyping: Generalization;
6. Prejudice: Attitude;
7. Discrimination: Action.
8. What is Groupthink and what are its symptoms?
a) Is the tendency to conform to a group’s opinion and silence dissent
b) It occurs only when cohesiveness is high.
c) The superglue of solidarity that bonds people together often causes
their think-progress to get stuck.
1. Milgram’s Experiment: People are likely to follow the directions not only of
legitimate authority but also of groups of ordinary individuals, even when it
means harming another person.
2. Bureaucracy: Design to perform a better task. Page 129
3. McDonalization: page 138.

Chapter 4:
1. Status: a social position that a person hold. Referred as prestige. President
have more status that a professor. Is like a part of our social identity.
Ascribed: is a social position a person receives at bird or takes on
involuntarily later in life.
Achieved Status: A social position a person takes voluntarily that refers
personal ability and effort.
Master: is a status that has special importance for social identity, often
shaping a person’s entire life. A job is a master status since it reveals a great
deal about social background, education, and education. Can be negative and
positive (AIDS).
2. Role: Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status. Holding
the status of student leads you to perform the role of attending classes and
completing assignments.
Role Conflict: is conflict among the roles connected to two or more statues.
For example, a mother that has to work outside home and still have to raise
her children.
Role Exit: is the abandonment of a role.
3. Social Construction of reality: The process through which we shape reality
through social interaction. Financial Pornography is an example.
4. Thomas theorem: Situations that are defined as real are real in their
consequences. For example: Majority says that the minority is inferior,
 causing the minority to get improper education and then become involve in
crime. Afterward, the majority say that they were right with their prejudice
not looking at the right consequence.
a. The reality people construct in their interaction has real consequences
for the future.
5. Dramaturgical analysis:
a. The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance.
b. Status is part in a play.
c. A role is a script.
d. Presentation of self is a person’s efforts to transmit a specific
impression to another.
e. Behavior is not spontaneous but patterned.
6. Performance: Is like the behavior we perform on certain places.
a. Doctor’s office.
b. Class.
c. Bar.
d. Church.
e. Home.
f. It could affect genderly since girls act different than boys in places.
7. Ekman and the six emotion:
a. Happiness.
b. Surprise.
c. Anger.
d. Sadness.
e. Fear.
f. Disgust/contempt
8. Culture defines what triggers an emotion, how to display it and how to
evaluate it.
a. A typical job tries to control the behavior and the emotions of
employees.
b. Therefore we socially construct our emotions.
9. The social constructor of gender is “language”.
a. Language and power: When we attach a female noun to an object we
attach ownership.
b. Language and value: Virtuous is derived from the Latin word vir=man
10.Humor:
a. Humor is found in every culture as a safety valve for potentially
disruptive sentiments.
b. Can be used to humiliate others.
c. It provides a mental escape from a world we do not like.
Chapter 6:
1. Sexuality:
a. It’s not about sex
 b. It is a societal theme found almost everywhere and it shapes some
behavioral patterns: (It is found on campus, work place, media,
clothing, behavior, make-up, nutrition, exercise etc).
2. Gender is cultural:
a. It refers to behavior, power, and privileges a society attaches to being
female or male.
b. Gender is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally
prescribed roles that men and women are to follow
3. Characteristics of intersexuals and transsexual:
a. Intersexual: People whose bodies (including genitals) have both female
and male characteristics.
b. Transsexual People who feel they are one sex even though biologically
they are the other. (Permanent believe, cannot change).

4. cultural variations to sexual practices and modesty:

a. A woman is disturbed taking a bath:
i. Laotian women cover her breasts.
ii.Samoan women cover her Navel.
iii.Sumatran women cover her knees.
iv.European women cover her breasts and genitals.
b. Cultural Variation:
i. Americans kiss in public.
ii.Chinese kiss in private.
iii.French kiss twice.
iv.Belgians kiss three times.
5. Incest Taboo: A norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain
relatives.
a. Generally relatives produce offerings that are mentally or physically
retarded.
b. Also, social organization can be control. Difference between child and
parent.
c. Promotes integrations with the large societies.
6.