SOCIAL STUDIES

On the Edge of Society

What does it mean to
belong?
● In the dictionary “belong” is a verb that refers to the state of being someone or something’s
property

● Another definition is to be a member or to be a part of a certain group or organization of

some sort

● Belonging is commonly used in the society, where people are included or excluded because
of a certain trait or characteristic that makes them belong within that group of people

● An example would be belonging to the WSC community, the people in that group all share
a similarity which is joining WSC which allows them to belong in that group
 What does it mean
for a group of people
to be marginalized?
● Marginalized is a term that refers to the treatment of people or groups in ways that make
them feel insignificant or peripheral

● Nowadays this term is often used to refer to the treatment of groups who are shunned
from normal society ad are often left on their own

● Most groups are marginalized because they are different or has beliefs that differ from what
is considered “normal” in the society

● These marginalized people are often in a powerless and unimportant position in the
society
Is it always better to
be included than to
be excluded?
● To be included means to be a part of something, in this case a certain group of people

● To be excluded means that you are denied access to be a part of something due to several
different reasonings. One could be because you don’t share the same trait that everyone
else in the group has

● This would depend on what group you are included in or what group you are excluded from

● There are some groups that you would want to be a part of, such as being in a group with ur
friends

● But there are also some groups that wouldn’t be as great to join like a group of bullies

● Would you rather be included in a group of bullies ot to be excluded from it

 Who decides who
belongs in a certain
group?
● The people inside the group often decides who can and can’t be a part of said group

● In most cases if not all, there are several characteristics one must have in order to be a part
of a certain group

● Some groups are defined by their physical appearance, intelligence, or other notable
characteristics

● So the people in the group decides if the person who wants to join the group qualifies or
not based on whether or not they have the defining characteristics of that group

● An example would be the group of popular kids in school, there are some characteristics
that you need to have in order to be a part of that group
Is it always wrong to
exclude people from
a group?
● It depends on the group and whether inclusion will being more harm than exclusion

● An example would be if we exclude a painter from a group of athletes it isn’t wrong because
the painter does not belong in a group of athletes. Since there are several characteristics of
an athlete that a painter does not have

● Although in modern day society, it is wrong to exclude minorities or other oppressed

groups from the general public. Like how it is wrong to not call someone part of the general
public if they have a different skin color or religion
 Injunctive Norms
• Injunctive norms refer to the perception of a person on what is and what is not right
• Perceptions of what is approved and disapproved by others

• And example is if you think that other people would consider tax fraud as something
that is morally wrong, you would perceive an injunctive norm

• It is also often referred to as the moral norm because a person’s behavior will depend
on their morals which is governed by what they think is acceptable or not to the
community
 Proscriptive Norms
• The proscriptive norm refers to things that you are expected NOT to do but are less
strict and firm in nature

• It may differ from culture to culture and there are some proscriptive norms is one
culture which contradicts one in another culture

• This norm basically forbids or restricts something

• Some basic proscriptive norms are PDA, littering, etc

 Crowds vs Mobs
Crowd: A large number of people that is
gathered together in an unorganized manner
Mobs are basically crowds that are quick to take
action that engages them in violence that the
crowd most unlikely to engage in.
 Tuckman Model
● The Tuckman Model outlines 5
stages that a group will go
through the longer that group
stays together

● The model states that as the

maturity and ability of the
team grows, relationships are
established and the leader
changes their style to adapt to
the new team dynamics
● Forming

○ The group has just been made and members come together in order to decide on their goals
and tackle tasks in order to achieve it

○ There is very little cohesion between members and the leader still needs to give lots of
instructions and answer questions regarding, opportunities, goals, etc

○ Members prefer to work alone and make progress as individuals

○ Discussion within the group focuses on the specifics of the task as well as how to align group
members to one another

○ In order to move on to the next stage, all group members must be willing to let go of
comfortable topics and tasks and admit that conflicts will arise
● Storming

○ Most comprehensive and most troublesome of the 5 stages

○ At this stage, members come to trust and confide in one another allowing them to accomplish
a massive amount of task in a more cohesive and efficient manner

○ Although at this stage, several members also start their “quest for power” attempting to
secure slower positions to the leader as possible

○ The quest for power can cause conflicts to arise

○ In order to move on to the next stage, the group needs to resolve these conflicts

○ The leaders in this stage needs to redirect the focus of the group to completing the goal
instead of trying to fight one another and to make sure that the relationships between group
members are well
● Norming

○ The groups at this stage are not out of the storm yet

○ Although the relationship between the members have been developed allowing the asking of
assistance in certain task or the receival of feedback in other tasks, there are still some tasks
that may provide conflict

○ It is during this stage that the leader needs to be perceptive towards areas of conflict and
resolve them quickly or the group will go back to the Storming stage

○ It’s in this stage that the team gets to realize why the leader was put in charge and respect for
authority is introduced
● Performing

○ A team at this stage is essentially fully mature and ready to face its tasks with no friction and
hard work ethics

○ Thanks to the processes and structure set up by the leader, the team at this stage is close to
completing the entire objective and fulfill the goal

○ At this stage, the leader does not need to direct or assist the group anymore

○ The group members can safely delegate the jobs on their own without the assistance of the
leader
● Adjourning

○ Added in 1975 by Tuckman, this step isn’t an extension of the model, but rather an additional
part to the fourth part once it has concluded

○ After the group’s task has been completed, the group no longer need to remain together and
the group terminates their cooperation here

○ The leader is free to find another project and start a group on and the members can
congratulate themselves and each other for reaching the goals and objectives

○ However, at this time groups may go through some friction, as insecure group members or
those with strong relationships refusing to part ways
 Seceder Model
● This model simply shows how the desire to
be different than the average can lead to the
formation or more groups in a population

● And as the “average” tends to shift as time

passes there will be more and more groups
that will form with the desire to be different
from the rest
 Swarm Behavior
● It is a collective animal behavior(coordinated
behavior), in which animals of similar species
group together and move to either a certain
point or move in a certain direction

○ Ex. migration

● Swarming for specific Animals:

Flocking(Birds), Herding(Tetrapods/four
legged animals), Schooling(fish)
 Homans’ Theory
● This theory, attempts to explain the dynamics of group formation

● There are three elements in group formation that are interrelated to one another:

○ Activities: The assigned tasks people have to work

○ Interactions: The required interactions takes place when a person's activity

is affected by another person's activity

○ Sentiments: Feelings and attitudes people have for others

● Relationship: “The more activities persons share, the more numerous will be there
interactions and the stronger will be their shared activities and sentiments, and
the more sentiments people have for one another, the more will be their shared
activities and interactions.”

● Interaction is the key element

● Developed by George C. Homan, founder of behavioral sociology(social processes

which exist outside social structures because they are spontaneous)
 Herd Mentality
- It is a description where people can be influenced by a great
crowd in an emotional level rather than believing based on a
rational perspective.
- Basically, decision making that is based on the majority
- Effects:
- Deindividualization The loss of self awareness and
conscious resistance
- Examples:
- A sheep just follows the flock no matter where the
herd is going
- Otherwise known as mob mentality, pack mentality, and
gang mentality
 Dominant Culture
● Any cultural practice that is dominant in a certain society

● The dominant culture is the one that often controls the law, political stage,
educational institutes, business practices, and even creative expression

● A common example is the US. The cultures that are considered dominant in the
US, such as speaking English, set the norm for an entire society and are indirectly
responsible for marginalizing the cultures which do not fit with them
 Counterculture
● Way of life that goes against the norms set by society
● This can be put on marginalized people or minority groups whose cultural practice
isn’t believed to be what it should be by the public opinion (or dominant culture)

● A common example would be the hippie subculture during the 1960s and 1970s in
America and Britain
Asch Paradigm
Crutchfield Situation

Richard S Crutchfield, 1955, meant to improve on Asch Paradigm

Separated respondents and didn’t need many actors
Respondents thought they were giving the last answer and
could see the answers of others via lights
Experimenters controlled all lights
Respondents couldn't see each other
Still conformed but less than in Asch
Conformity

Informational - We believe others know something we

don’t
Normative - We just want to be part of the group, we
don’t want to be on the outside
Referential - We are conforming to the stereotypes
and biases that we are aware of
 Black Sheep Effect
• A member of the family or group who is
regarded as a disgrace to them
• Tendency of group members to judge
likeable ingroup members more positively
and atypical ingroup members more
negatively than comparable outgroup
members
 Stanford Prison Experiment
• Conducted from August 14th - 20th 1971
• Done by a research group led by Psychology Professor Philip Zimbardo
• Investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle
between prisoners and prison officers
• After the experiment, they were able to conclude that people will readily conform to
the social roles they are expected to play
• The experiment was abandoned within 6 days and many prisoners left mid
experiment
• Many “prisoners” were subjected to psychological abuse by “prison officers”
 Stanford Prison Experiment
• Experiment:
• 24 students who were selected based on their psychological stability were randomly assigned the role as “prisoner” or “prison officer”
• The students would engage in a two week prison simulation, in a section of the basement in Jordan Hall(Stanford Psychology Building)
• There was a small corridor for the prison yard
• There was a closet for solitary confinement
• Zimbardo took the role as Superintendent, which is a high ranking police officer
• “Prison Officers” were instructed not to physically hurt any of the “Prisoners” but instead to make them feel powerless
• Each participant was given clothing that was related to their role.
• Prison Guards were given mirrored sunglasses to avoid eye contact and wooden batons
• Prisoners were given uncomfortable uniforms and chains around their ankles
• Guards were instructed to call prisoners by their prison numbers not their names
• The “Prisoners” were arrested at their homes, under charges of “armed robbery”
• They were fingerprinted and had mugshots taken
• Each “cell” held three prisoners each.
 Robber’s Cave
• It was an experiment which proved realistic conflict theory which is the concept that negative prejudices, group
conflicts, and stereotypes are the result of competition
• Conflict theory: Two or more groups/individuals that compete for a limited amount of resources
• Experiment:
• Two groups of 11 boys. Each boy had a white middle class background, had two parents, and didn’t know
each other
• The group of boys were brought to Robber’s Cave State Park Oklahoma(Boy Scout of America Camp),
where they were unaware of the other groups existence
• On the first week, each group bonded with each other through different activities(ex. Swimming and
hiking)
• The boys created names for their groups. There were the Rattlers and the Eagles
 Robber’s Cave
• In the second week, the two groups engaged in competitive activities like tug of war, the winning team
was awarded with medals and trophies.
• When the Rattler’s one, they placed their flag on the field and threatened to harm any Eagle that
bothered the flag.
• The situations were then intensified. If one group came to the picnic late the other group would eat their
food.(As one group benefit the other group loses)
• The prejudice began as taunting and name-calling but soon became physical. The Eagles burned the
Rattlers Flag, which the Rattlers responded by raiding the Eagles cabins. The researchers had to seperate
them physically
• Criticism: The competition is artificial and does not reflect real life, and the sample only included white
12 year old boys, and did not include, other genders or races.
• Conducted by sociologist Muzafer Sherif, a Turkish-American psychologist
 Social Mobility
• The movement of individuals, families, and households between
social strata in a given society
• Key Terms:
• Social Strata: Essentially its the grouping of a society based
on socioeconomic power(income, occupation, wealth, social
power, and political power)
• Open Stratification System: It is social mobility which is is
given to an achieved status characteristics, which means
that it is chosen and earned. We have some control over our
social status. Open Stratification varies in different societies,
which is a theory that we will explore later.
 Just World Fallacy
• It is the cognitive bias(an assumption) that a person's actions will bring consequences that are morally
fair.
• People who do noble actions will be rewarded while evil actions will be punished
• This cognitive bias occurs because people tend to rationalize(a defense mechanism, in which
our brains justifies the odd) people's misfortune.
• Ex. “They deserve it,” “what goes around, comes around,” “you got what was coming to you,”
“everything happens for a reason”
• It is the belief that there is a universal force which restores moral balance in the world
• This includes concepts of, cosmic justice, destiny, divine providence, and karma
• There is a lot more to this Fallacy, check wikipedia to find a more in depth understanding to
how the theory developed.
 Redlining
• The systematic denial of various services to specific communities
• These services include: Financial services(Banking and insurance), healthcare, and supermarkets
• It is often selective to certain races, ethnicities, and religions
• There are two methods of Redlining
• Direct: Which is to straight up deny services simply because of race, ethnicity, or religion
• Indirect: To raise the price of these services to a point where this specific community cannot afford these services
• For supermarkets, besides an increase in prices of certain products, the supermarkets were placed strategically far
away from these communities making it particularly difficult for these communities to access these supermarkets
• Reverse Redlining: Though it sounds like the opposite of redlining, it is actually when a lender or insurance, locates
themselves within these redlined communities, and charge more for their services because there is no competition
• It was coined in 1960 by sociologist John McKnight
• Originally redlined areas were communities where banks would not invest in simply because of demographics
• This was the black/african american communities during the 1960s
• Certain people were blacklisted by banks(blacklisting is a method in which people were identified as untrustable)
 Redlining
• It started with the National Housing Act of 1934 or otherwise known Capehart
Act and the Better Housing Program established by the FHA(Federal Housing
Administration)
• This commissioned a 1935, “residential security map” created by
Home Owners’ Loan Corporation
• The Residential Security Map, outlined real estate security levels in 239 cities
around the United States
• There were four security levels marked by colors and letters
• Type A(Green) = Desirable for lending purposes
• Type B(Blue) = Still Desirable for lending purposes
• Type C(Yellow) = Declining
• Type D(Red) = Risky
• The Type D marked areas were either old or black communities
• There are a lot more examples, explore yourself.
 Gini Index
• It is a measure of inequality based on the wealth distribution of a
countries residents.
• It’s a measure of statistical dispersion(How stretched or squeezed a
certain distribution is).
• It was developed by Italian sociologist and statistician Corrado Gini.
• Otherwise known as the Gini coefficient and Gini ratio.
• It originated from a paper called “Variability and Mutability”
• There are factors which create errors in the Gini Index which include:
• Aging Populations
• Baby Boomers
• Its based on the Lorenz Curve
 Gini Index
• A Gini coefficient of zero represents a society with perfect equality, while a Gini
coefficient of one represents a society with perfect inequality.
• A Gini coefficient of zero represents a society where everybody has the same income
and consumption while a Gini Coefficient of one represents a society where only one
person has all the income and consumption.
• It is possible to achieve a Gini Index of above one, however this is only possible if there
are members of given society who hold negative income, thus making it unlikely
• Currently the country with the lowest Gini Index is Slovenia with 0.24 while the country
with the highest Gini Index is China with 0.49.
• In 2008-2009 the country with the highest Gini Index was South Africa with 0.7
 The Great Gatsby Curve
• The relationship between inequality and intergenerational social immobility
• Basically, it shows the relationship between the concentration of wealth to the ability for the next generation to move
up the socioeconomic ladder compared to their parents.
• The curve shows that poor families are less likely to move up socioeconomic status in countries where income
inequality is high.
• A high income inequality means that the income was held in less hands.
• It was named after Jay Gatsby the character in the Novel, “The Great Gatsby.”
• The Great Gatsby is a story of how Jay Gatsby went from a Bootlegger(Alcohol Smuggler) into a man living in the
wealthiest society in Long Island
• Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Countries like Norway, Denmark and Finland had higher levels of socioeconomic mobility because there was a lower
level of inequality while countries like Brazil and Chile had lower levels of socioeconomic mobility because there were
higher levels of inequality
 Eugenics
- To achieve the perfect humanity by changing the human genes
- Improving the genetics of human race.
- People from the era of the 19th century of the US, believed that
people that has a high social standing was because of their genetics
and people who are poor was believed to be caused by their
‘undesirable’ genetics.
- CRISPR
 Mansplaining
- A word used by feminists to silence men and
prevent them from learning that men actually have
problems too and that their point of view isn't the
only one
- Example:

Feminist "women are paid 77 cents for every mans

dollar"

A man "well actually every serious study showed

that there more factors than just gender like how
long they worked there and education"

Feminist "Stop mansplaining you patriarchal, loser!"

-
 Gender Pay Gap

• It is the average
difference between the
payment for men and
women who are working
• Women are generally
paid less
 LGBTQ+
• As we all know, this is an initial that is
continually expanding to include more
people in its classifications
• LGBTQ+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, and Queer
• Amongst many others, a longer version of
LGBTQ+ is LGBTTQQIAAP which stands
for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender,
Transsexual, Queer, Questioning, Intersex,
Asexual, Allies, Pansexual
 Toxic Masculinity
• It is a term referred to the certain norms of
male behavior

• Examples like males aren’t allowed to cry

and always needs to be the “dominant
alpha” in every relationship they are in

• Some of these norms tend to create harm

to society and to the man itself

• All males are supposed to stick to these

stereotypes of they will be victimized
 Alien
• A person who is not a citizen of a given country, in other words it means foreigners

• Categories:

• Legal Aliens: Foreigners who are permitted to stay in a country, for example visa holders and
permanent residents

• Resident Aliens: Permission to reside and work in a country

• Non Resident Aliens: Visiting a country, like tourists

• Illegal Aliens: Entered the country through illegal migration

• Enemy Alien: A foreigner from a country that is at war with the host country
Endogamy

Marrying within the limits of a family, ethnicity, or specific culture.

Avoiding relationships with people from different ethnicity, religions and etc.