Core 5

Understanding Culture,
Society, and Politics Notes
By: Yiela Lim (11 - Loyola)
Social Group

People who interact with one another and believe that what they have in
common is significant.

Groups that exist within society

Primary Group ➢ A small social group whose members share

personal and lasting relationships

○ Cooperative
○ Intimate
○ Long-term
○ Face-to-face

Secondary Group ➢ A large impersonal social group whose members

pursue a specific goal or activity

○ Relatively temporary
○ More anonymous
○ Formal
○ Impersonal
○ Based on interest/activity

Groups that we identify with or dislike

In-Group A social group toward which a member feels respect and

loyalty

Out-Group A social group toward which a person feels a sense of

competition or opposition

Networks A web of weak social ties

Reference Groups A social group that serves as a point of reference in

making evaluations and decisions​

Effects of Group Size on Relationships

What is a leader?

A leader is someone who influences the behaviors, opinions, or attitudes of

others.

Two Types of Leaders

Instrumental Leaders ➢ Group leadership that focuses on the

completion of the tasks
➢ Concentrates on the performance tasks
➢ Successful
➢ Instrumental leaders enjoy more respect

Expressive Leaders ➢ Group leadership that focuses on the group’s

well-being
➢ Concentrates on building primary ties
➢ Successful
➢ Expressive leaders generally receive more
personal affection

What helps the groups maintain efficiency at what they do?

Rationality The idea that efficiency and practical results should
dominate human affairs

Formal Organization Large secondary groups organized to achieve their

goals efficiently

Utilitarian Organization One that pays people for their efforts

Normative Organization Pursues some goal thought of as morally worthwhile

Coercive Organization Membership is involuntary and forced membership

as a form of punishment or treatment

Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy keeps the organizations stable. It is also a formal organization with

a hierarchy of authority and a clear division of labor, emphasis on impersonality
of positions and written rules, communications, and records.

The Drawbacks of Bureaucracies

Bureaucratic Ritualism A focus on rules and regulations to the point of

undermining an organization’s goals.

Bureaucratic Inertia The tendency of bureaucratic organizations to

perpetuate themselves.

Individuals and Individuals

Economy

Important Functions ➢ Assesses the behavior of society to efficiently

that the economy allocate scarce resources based on the supply
fulfills and demand
➢ Efficiently manages the wealth and resources
of a country especially when it comes to the
production and consumption of goods and
services
➢ Displays a division of labor, in which people
earn income by specializing in what they
 produce and then use that income to
purchase the products they need or want

How important the ➢ Improves the quality of life and living

economy is to our standards of the individuals
group ➢ Provides the needs and wants of the society in
order to sustain people within it
➢ Allows the effective use of scarce resources in
producing valuable commodities to be
distributed among people in society

Consequences of the ➢ The people’s demand would outstrip the

economy breaking supply of food, gas, and other necessities. If
down the collapse affects local government
➢ Scarce resources become harder to obtain,
causing the price of goods and services to
increase
➢ Social chaos, social unrest, bankruptcies,
reduced trade volumes, currency volatility,
increased unemployment, and breakdown of
law and order will occur

Politics

Important ➢ Creating laws, regulations, and standards for

functions acceptable conducts or behavior
politics fulfills? ➢ Controlling the allocation and distribution of
commodities and funds among the population
➢ Creating systems for appointing political leaders
which are used to establish long-term plans and
protocols

Importance of ➢ Can affect one’s access to education, healthcare, as

politics at a well as other materials
personal level ➢ Implying that one fundamental function of politics
is to establish laws that could also affect one
lifestyle and choices. As these policies influence
one’s actions or mindset.
➢ Some politicians do not value human rights,
especially freedom of speech. An individual’s voice
and opinion can easily be silenced by the wrong
leaders. Thus, making it affect the public on a
personal level.
Major ➢ Countries wouldn’t flourish, since there is no
consequences in person-in-charge who would tackle the problems
case politics will the country is faced with. There would be no
break down organization and unity; therefore, this would also
contribute to the country’s instability economically,
politically, and socially.
➢ Makes laws and regulations cease to exist.
Increasing conflicts will arise disrupting the peace,
resulting in the country’s downfall.
➢ No democracy, no functional governments, and no
leadership.

Marriage and Family

Important functions ➢ Regulate sexual access and activity

that marriage and family
fulfills
➢ Provide an orderly context for procreation
➢ Nurture and socialize children
➢ Ensure economic stability
➢ Ascribe social status, families further
impart affection, care, and adaptive
families

Importance of marriage ➢ Both complicated and challenging

and family on a personal ➢ Times when conflict will be created
level ➢ Disrupts and changes how one perceives
society

Marriage

➢ Provides both individuals a space for

growth
➢ Teaches them how to be flexible to each
new challenge
➢ Must be stable
➢ Must be fully capable and ready

Family

➢ Provides unconditional love and support

➢ Serves as a moral compass to the
individual
➢ Sets the mindset of the young at a young
 age
➢ Will be with their family through whatever
the said individual might experience

Major consequences of ➢ Great impact on the children’s mental

marriage and family health and upbringing
breaking down ➢ Impact on both partners and they might
find themselves in a state of desolation
➢ A broken family will lead to a broken
society. Why? A family is the foundation of
a community and society.

Education

What is Education? ➢ “Important support pillar in society”

➢ Equips people with the knowledge and skills
needed to take on different roles that society
needs in order to run smoothly

Three Important ➢ Nation Building - education shapes a

Functions country’s economy and society
➢ Transmission of culture, skills, and values -
education includes subjects that teach
important skills - all of which are used when
becoming professionals
➢ Socialization - education allows students to
take on societal roles

Importance of ➢ Develops our work ethics

education at a ➢ Enables us, students, to determine our
personal level distinctive interests
➢ Greatly contributes to positive decision
making and producing quality outputs

Major consequences ➢ Unemployment

if education breaks ➢ Poverty Trap
down ➢ Exploitation

Religion

Important Functions ➢ Provides social unity in the form of shared

spiritual beliefs, societal standards in the
 form of religious-based values and
traditions, all of which serve to maintain
social harmony
➢ Makes the person do what is good and right.
Unifies the people in the country and allows
them to help each other.
➢ Offers meaning and purpose to answer any
existential questions

Importance of religion ➢ Built communities that helped the

at a personal level environment.
➢ Regulates behavior
➢ Includes emotional, physical health, spiritual
well-being, personal, marital, and family
happiness

Major consequences if ➢ People will follow the teachings of other

religion breakdowns people instead of the word of deities more
than before
➢ More people will become lost in their lives
with nothing guiding them
➢ Chaos will happen due to people not
knowing who and what to believe because of
many different ideologies
Medicine and Health

Introduction ➢ Provides good health and effective

medicinal care

Important functions ➢ Treats injuries and handles outbreak

diseases
➢ Provides healthcare
➢ Provide necessary information, warning,
and professional advice regarding local,
national, and international health matters

Importance of medicine ➢ Gives updates about the pandemic and

and health on a personal provides necessary warnings and
level precautions lessen the risk of contracting
the virus
➢ Provides ready services for any physical or
mental ailments
➢ Gives us peace of mind and assurance that
there are professionals who will provide
 us with necessary medical attention

Major consequences if ➢ No health support

medicine and health
breaks down
➢ Optimal function of the individuals and
society can’t be achieved.
➢ Rate of people’s risk to diseases will be
high
➢ Increase in the fatality rate

Social Stratification

Systems of Social Stratification

Caste ➢ Social stratification in which people’s

statuses as lifelong conditions determined
by birth

India’s Religious Caste ➢ Based on religion

➢ Existed for almost 3,000 years
➢ Castes are subdivided into thousands of
subcastes
➢ Abolished in 1949
➢ Still persists but is changing gradually

Stratification Universals

The Functionalist View: Davis and Moore’s (1945, 1953) Explanation

Motivating Qualified People
➢ For society to function, its positions
must be filled
➢ Some positions are more important
than others
➢ THe more important positions must
be filled by more qualified people
➢ To motivate the more qualified
people to fill these positions, they
must offer greater rewards

Tumin’s (1953) Critique of Davis and Moore

➢ How do we know that the positions

 that offer the higher rewards are
more important?
➢ Why is stratification not based on
meritocracy?
○ Meritocracy - a form of social
stratification in which all
positions are awarded based
on merit
➢ If stratification is so functional, why
doesn’t it benefit almost everyone?

The Conflict Perspective: Mosco’s (1896) Argument

Class Conflict and Scarce
Resources ➢ No society can exist unless it is
organized, this requires leadership to
coordinate people’s actions
➢ Leadership requires inequalities of
power. Some people lead, while
others follow.
➢ Because human nature is
self-centered, people in power will
use their positions to seize greater
rewards for themselves

Meeting Halfway with Lenski’s (1966) Synthesis

Functionalists and Conflict
Theory
➢ Hinges on the idea of surplus
➢ Functionalism is right when it comes
to groups that don’t accumulate
surplus
➢ Conflict theorists are right when it
comes to societies that accumulate
surpluses