HSB Exam Review Sheet Introduction to Social Sciences What is anthropology? Examines the development of the human species and human cultures throughout the world Anthropologists try to live with the group that they are studying, often for extended periods What is sociology? Looks at the development and structure of human society and how it works Examines how people act in group situations Use statistical analysis as one of their basic research tools to explain human behaviour What is psychology?
Study of people’s feelings, thoughts and personality development Goal is to discover the underlying triggers or causes of human behaviours Interested in incidents in people’s pasts that influence them How does each answer questions regarding social change? Anthropology: Sources of cultural change: 1. Invention: a new product, idea, social pattern that affect the way people live 2. Diffusion: spread of ideas, methods, tools from one culture to another through trade/migration/war 3. Discovery: something previously unknown to a culture
An anthropologist would focus on the process of enculturation – by which members of a culture learn and internalize shared ideas, values and beliefs. According to one system of classification, culture is made up of four parts: 1. Physical environment – the length of winter affects the number of jackets Canadians buy 2. Level of technology – a busy metropolitan area would have more need for a rail system than a rural farm community 3. Social organization – how the culture is organized, it’s kinship system, how labour is divided 4.
Systems of symbols – objects, symbols, trends, anything that identifies a person as a member of a particular culture Psychology: Questions asked: * What must people do to successfully change their behaviours? * What factors make behaviour-modification programs successful? * Do most people need help changing behaviour or can they be self-changers? Strong links between attitudes – what people think – and behaviours – what they do. Cognitive consistency – wanting to avoid attitudes that conflict with each other Cognitive dissonance theory – state of having inconsistent actions and thoughts and will act to try and get around the inconsistency
Sociology: Explaining social change: From decaytheory that social change can be seen as caused by decline or degeneration where all societies begin in an ideal state and become more materialistic and less spiritual From cycles of growth and decayvariation on previous theory of decay, societies do not head inevitably toward destruction but go through cycles of growth and decay From progress social change occurs as a result of the phenomenon of progress where each new society builds on experiences of its predecessors and social institutions change as a result
Reductionist – a single factor was at work causing change Determinist – a specific factor will determine the nature of the social change it causes Karl Marx * Famous sociologist determinist * Believed that the struggle for economic power between competing social groups determined the nature of social institutions and the way in which they would change * Believed that those with power would fight to the death to keep it
Patriarchy – a place designed for the convenience of men, ruled by men and women are simply allowed to live in it Norms – customary types of behaviour To the sociologist, social change might be defined as “any observable difference or modification in social organization or patterns of behaviour over time”. Sociologists tend to look at the four aspects of social change in their studies: 1. Direction of change – is it positive/negative, who says? 2.
Rate of change – is the degree of change slow/medium/fast? What factors are affecting this rate? 3. Sources – what factors are behind the influences of change I na society a. Exogenous – from another society into this one b. Endogenous – coming from within the society itself 4. Controllability – to what degree can the social change be controlled or engineered * Social Science Theories School of Thought| Famous People| Criticism| Anthropology Schools of Thought|
FunctionalismA belief that society is a logical institution that functions in the best interests of the majorityInstitutions: established laws, practices and customs| -Bronislaw Malinowski-Margaret Mead| -Presents cultures as more stable than reality-Downplays negative | StructuralismAll cultures develop rules that are logical structures based on oppositesBinary opposites: seeing things in terms of 2 forces that are opposite| -Claude Levi Strauss| -Overemphasize logic and stability| Cultural MaterialismExplanation of a culture derived by examining members decision regarding human reproduction and economic productionDeterminism: types of technology and economic methods that are adopted always determine the type of society that developsMaterialism: Technological and economic factors are the most important ones in molding a society| -Marvin Harris-Carol Ember-Stephen Sanderson| -Try to establish laws that apply to all cultures and their development-observe cultures through biased eyes| Anthropology Psychology School of Thought| Famous People|
Psychology Schools of Thought| Psychoanalytic TheoryThe unconscious mind can be unlocked by dream analysis and hypnosisId: encourages us to seek physical satisfactionSuperego: prompts us to do the moral thingEgo: referee between the two| -Sigmund Freud| BehaviorismBy identifying the factors that motivate human behaviour, psychologists can predict and control it – they can treat patients the problem behaviorsBenjamin Spock * Encouraged parents to be loving, flexible and supportive * That a permissive approach to child rearing, rather than a strict one, would result in a successful, well-adjusted adults, criticized to be too permissive| -John B.
Watson-Benjamin Spock| Learning TheoryHumans are born with little instinct but much learning potential, by controlling the way in which humans learn behaviour, society can have an influence on personalities. Stimulus-response: if subject is properly stimulated it will give the appropriate responseAlfred Bandura * Learning is more complicated that stimulus-response effect * Experimented on young children * Showed films of people hitting or petting a balloon-like doll called Bobo * Children were placed alone in a room and observed * Children’s behaviour closely resembled that they saw in the film * Concluded that learning is a modeling experience * When humans observe behaviour, they are more likely to practice it| -Ivan Pavlov- B. F. Skinner| Sociology School of Thought| Famous People| Criticism|
FunctionalismRole of sociologists is to explain these systems in terms of their role in enabling human society to function| -Bronislaw Malinowski| -Presents cultures as more stable than reality-Downplays negative | Neo MarxismTo understand society, must understand economic system. Institutions in society have been created to benefit the rich and increase the rich-poor gap. | -Bertell Ollman| -explanation is limited-downplay attempts to achieve greater harmony| Symbolic InteractionismHumans have complex brains and little instinctive behaviour. Can interpret the stimuli and attach meaning to them| -Charles Cooley| -ignores role of society’s institutions as influence on personal experiences| Feminist TheoryWomen have been traditionally disadvantaged because men have discriminated against them. Much of society’s value system is sexist.
Liberal: basic social institutions need to be more welcomingMarxian: low wages for women contributed to capitalist classRadical: men have exploited women’s child-bearing role, led to systematic oppression of women, society is a patriarchySocialist: try to separate issues of oppression that are a result of patriarchy and result of capitalism| | -overemphasize gender as key determinant in society| InclusionismRecognize the ethnic diversity within societies by studying the experiences of all ethnic groups and rejecting the urge to judge as the majorityAssimilationist: belief that culture of the majority would gradually absorb racial and ethnic minorities through public institutions such as schools| -Peter Li-Kathy Megyery| | * * Concepts * Traditional cultural values * Impediment to change * Worldview – picture of reality James Scott + participant-observations community in Malaysia with an agricultural community * The owners of the farms wanted to replace the poor workers with machines * Workers didn’t like the idea of being out of work Positive reinforcements * Rewarding of people who display what society considers good behaviour Negative enforcements * Punishment of people who do something of which society disapproves Behaviour modification * Theories of psychologists attempting to determine the methods that can successfully change or modify problem human behaviour * Neurosis versus psychosis * Neurosis – where sufferers experience high levels of anxiety in managing their daily lives * Eg: panic attacks, phobias, OCD Psychosis – the individual has lost touch with the real world, suffers from delusions, needs treatment to get life back to normal * Eg: paranoia – suffers from irrational thoughts of persecution or foreboding, schizophrenia – complex disorder that leads to feelings of distress and social isolation, anti-social personality disorder – habitual pattern of rule-breaking and harming others Elite groups * Skilled and educated people with access to development funds, and who are in a position of influence Modernizing elites * Einstadt’s term for people who create significant social change and influence the directions in which it goes Participation observation A methods of studying in which anthropologists live with their subjects for a long time, participate as a group or community members and record their observations San of Africa * Hunter gathering people who lived in central southern Africa, nomadic and travelled to collect food * Mid-1960s countries of Botswana and Namibi were created by Britain * Border of two nations were fenced, fence ran through territory of nomadic San * Land laws were created and gave rights to owners to keep others off their property * The San had no concept of private land ownership and the social change destroyed the tribe Interaction * Contact with other cultures Incorporation * Acculturation through free borrowing of ideas and symbols from one culture to another Directed change Acculturation through dominance of one culture over another, forcing the defeated to change aspects of its culture, or its entire culture Cultural evolution * The principle, now disproved, that all human societies and cultures develop in a regular series of predictable stages Tension and adaptation * The structural functionalists’ belief that social change results from a process of tension between one aspect of society and the rest Accumulation * The belief that social change results from the growth of human knowledge from generation to generation Diffusion of innovation * The sociological theory that social change is caused by the emergence of innovations in the society Status The term used to describe our position within an institution Hierarchy * A ranking of authority and power Role * A particular set of behaviours that we must follow in order to be recognized as an actor Norms * Customary types of behaviour; specific rules that outline what is considered to be standard behaviour for a role Values * The beliefs of a group that provide standards for members’ behaviour * Deviance * Any behaviour that is different from the societal norm Deviance and Robert Merton’s Social Strain Typology Conformists * Accept the cultural goal of their society as well as the means to attain the goal * Will abide by rules set by society Ritualists Will accept the means or standards necessary to achieve end goal * May not accept cultural goals of society * Will not be richest/most successful among peers Innovators * goals are in line with society * will not accomplish said goals using acceptable channels and traditional means * ability to establish new modes of behaviour and standards within a field * lead or dominate market as a result Retreatists * individuals who are chosen to disengage from mainstream culture altogether * do not agree with common goals of society and prefer to live among groups of like-minded individuals * disenfranchised with society and believe that they are not represented in the social or cultural goals of the group Rebels share much in common with retreatists, openly reject cultural goals of society * do not isolate themselves * attempt to change society and challenge cultural norms and goals * can become violent and lead to revolution * Advocacy research * Research that assumes that the researcher will retain complete control over he research and then become an advocate for the group being studied Participatory research * Research in whish the subject group participates in deciding what the foals and methods of the study should be, and how the findings should be used Paradigm * The set of rules and conditions stored in the brain, and used to interpret and understand sensory experience Paradigm shift A dramatic shift in the set of rules and conditions stored in the brain to interpret and understand sensory experience Conformity * The pressure to adopt the views and beliefs of those around you Alienation * A feeling that one does not share in the major values and goals of society Anomie * Durkheim’s term to describe the condition of the industrial worker who seemed to be without any roots or norms as they struggled daily to survive Racism * Negative attitudes and accompanying behaviour based on the assumption that one race is inherently superior to another Stereotypes * False or generalized beliefs about a group of people that result in categorizing members without regard for individual difference Discrimination Inequitable treatment of people based on their race, gender, nationalist, language, faith or sexual orientation Systematic discrimination * Describes a systems that favours one or some groups over others in terms of hiring, benefits, promotions, and pay incentives Genocide * The most extreme forms of systematic discrimination by which deliberate attempts are made by authorities at mass murder of any national, ethnic, racial or religious group Prejudice * A set of opinions, attitude and feeling that unfairly case a group and its members in a negative light without legitimate reasons Ethnocentrism * The learned belief held by people who feel that their cultural group is superior to other cultural groups Capitalist/capitalism An economic system dependent on private investment and profit making Lumenproletariat * Marx’s term for unemployed people Proletariat * Marx’s term to describe working people Bourgeoisie * Marx’s term for those who owned property Subjective validity * Social psychologists’ term for the virtual universal belief that our attitudes are right and proper Normative influence * A psychology term to describe the pressure to conform to the positive expectations of others Informational influence * A psychology term to describe the human desire to accept that the information another admired person tells us is valid Cultural pluralism * When smaller cultural groups in a society maintain their individual identities Value free inquiry Making a statement about the leader’s ability to sway people and change society Poverty: low-income cut-off line * A measurement used by the Canadian government to judge wealth, the poverty line Income inequalities: the gap between the rich and the poor, wage gap between men and women * Rich are really rich, poor are really poor, this gap is growing constantly; women get less money than men, glass ceiling Functional repercussion * The logical and predictable outcome of a given situation Conditions for social movements 1. Social Conduciveness * The environment must be social movement friendly * Social movement arises as people come to think their society has some serious problems. 2. Structural Strains A second condition promoting the emergence of a social movement is the presence of conflicts, ambiguities, and discrepancies within a society. People begin to experience relative deprivation when their society fails to meet their expectations 3. Generalized Beliefs * A general recognition that there is a problem and agreement that something should be done to fix it. 4. Precipitating Factors * One or more significant events must occur to galvanize people into action 5. Mobilization of participants for action * Once the first four conditions exist, widespread concern about a public issue sets the stage for collective action in the form of rallies, distributing leaflets, and building alliances with sympathetic organizations * * Theorists *
Carl Jung – collective unconsciousness, personal unconscious, introverts/extroverts Personal unconscious: mythic symbols, product of our own history Collective unconscious: Introverts: sense of well-being comes from within and may have few close friends Extroverts: use their psychological power to draw closer to other people and rely on others for their sense of well-being Erik Erikson – theory of development 1. Trust vs. mistrust 2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt 3. Initiative vs. guilt 4. Industry vs. inferiority 5. Identity vs. identity confusion 6. Intimacy vs. isolation 7. Generatively vs. stagnation 8. Inferiority vs. despair 9. Despair vs. hope and faith Piaget – cognitive development theory 1. Sensory motor – aware of surroundings 2. Association – meaning 3. Concrete operations – rationalization 4.
Formal operations – acting on reasoning and rationalizing Freud – psychosexual theory * Believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages during which the pleasure-seeking energies of the Id become focused on certain erogenous areas * If these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality * Fixation may occur if certain issues are not resolved B. F. Skinner – operant conditioning * Skinner boxes * Pigeons were trained to peck at a disk that would give them food * Stimulus-response effect * Leon Festinger – conformity study * People can’t be convinced to do something they don’t agree with *
Albert Bandura – bobo doll * There was a doll in a room, adults would either attack it or leave it alone * The kids who watched adults attack it would do so as well Peggy McIntosh: White Privilege * People of Anglo-European descent carry an invisible, weightless knapsack of skin-colour privileges that the bearer takes for granted John Ogbu: Subordinate Cultures Subordinate cultures: refers to American minority groups, such as immigrants, African-Americans and other racial groups * Calls them subordinate because he believes that minority groups are at a disadvantage in society Ivan Pavlov – classical conditioning * Experimented with dogs Trained them to salivate at the sound of a bell * Kholberg – moral development theory 1. Morals linked to punishment 2. Happy to pursue individual interests 3. Morals based on those around them 4. Morals based on laws in society 5. Human rights above the law 6. Individual will sacrifice self for human rights Carlo DiClemente’s Stages of Change for Behaviour Modification 1. Precontemplation: Denial, Refusal (I don’t have a problem) 2. Contemplation: Questioning (Do you think I should do something about the problem? ) 3. Preparation: Investigation (What is my problem doing to m health? ) 4. Action: Commitment (I’ve got to keep doing this, or I’ll never change) 5.
Maintenance: Transition (I must find other ways to deal with my problems) 6. Termination: Completion (I don’t have to work at this anymore. I just don’t want to go back to my old ways) W. E. B. Du Bois * Showed academics need to adopt a broad focus and examine experiences of all people * Black advocate Immanuel Wallerstein Elite groups: skipped and educated people who have access to development funds and are in a position of influence * Many regions remained poor because of lack of effective leadership * Europe became rich through colonialism Emile Durkheim and Suicide * Deterioration or collapse of social relationships and/or overbearing social relationships * Chose suicide as a remedy
Altruistic suicide: closely integrated with group and commits suicide for benefit of the group, dying for the greater cause Egotistic suicide: not supported by social group, overpowering sense of personal responsibility, lead to guilt and failure, ostracized, isolated, helpless Anomic suicide: responds to social change negatively, no clear way to act, confused and meaningless life Emile Durkheim and Conformity and Alienation Alienation: a feeling that one does not share in the major values and goals of society Anomie: Durkheim’s term to describe the condition of the industrial workers who seemed to be without any roots or norms as they struggled daily to survive. He believed that they could not reach their full human potential when so many aspects of their lives were controlled by external forces.
Anarchist: people who try to destroy the society in which they live through armed struggle, hoping to build a purer society on the ruins of the old one Conformity: where people tend to adopt the values of the society in which they life, pressured by forces that drive us to accept societal values * Society would be disorganized, uncooperative, and uncertain * conformity allows society to work as a cohesive group * without conformity, society would also be more open and welcome to new ideas Norm: standard behaviour Subject Validity: social psychologists’ term for the virtually universal belief that our attitudes are right and proper Deviance: any behaviour that is different from the societal norm Theodor Adorno
Authoritarian Personality: intolerant people who are quick to judge things as either right or wrong, good or bad * Opposite of tolerant personality * Quick to judge as right or wrong, good or bad * Low tolerance for ambiguity Ambiguity: situations that can be interpreted in more than one way * Favour their own ethnicity over others (ethnocentrism) * Adorno concluded that this personality was formed during childhood as a result of bigoted parenting Gordon Allport In-groups and Group Norms * Occurs from childhood, belong to certain groups and develop loyalties * Membership in reference groups (those with whom they have close ties) offer psychological rewards (belonging and identity) * Adopt the group norms of their reference group Group Norms Theory of Prejudice Out groups are any groups seen as a direct threat or being in direct contrast to the reference groups with which people have identified * In group members learn to direct their frustrations and hostility toward out-group members * The group norms theory of prejudice explains that people develop prejudices against others who don’t fit into the mainstream culture Children and Prejudice * Children learn prejudice in two ways 1. Adopting it – from the family or cultural environment 2. By developing it – based on how they are raised by parents * * Videos: * * The Iceman Murders – Richard Kuklinski * Contract killer for the mob * Occupy Movement * 99% demanding that their rights be heard the 1% are ridiculously wealthy * Bryan Stevenson * Black men being arrested everywhere * Why is this * * Hate groups: * Heritage Front * Canadian neo-Nazi white supremacist group, called themselves a “white separatist group” * Dedicated to maintaining European traditions and values in society * End non-white immigration, employment equity and multicultural programs Resistance Records * Music record business used to promote white supremacist hate messages * Close ties with Heritage Front The Northern Hammerskins * Violent and best organized neo-Nazi group still active in United States * Many popular racist rock bands * Formed in Dallas, Texas The KKK/Neo-Nazism post World War II ideology that promotes white supremacy and specifically anti-Semitism Aryan Nations * a white supremacist or “white Christian separatist” religious organization * Federal Bureau of Investigation has called Aryan Nations a “terrorist threat” * * * Current Affairs: * * Alcoholism * more and more people are dependant on alcohol * readily avail to teens * accepted in teens society * leads to poor health, etc. * Violence in the media * tv shows, video games, news * School shootings * Conneticut elementary school shooting * Attawapiskat * Chief on hunger strike * Demanded that Ottawa address aboriginal treaty rights and a meeting between her and Harper
