A. The Amish

B. BehaviorC. Conflict TheoryD. DevianceE. EducationF. FunctionalismG. Geimenshaft and GesselshaftH. Harry HarlowI. Illegitimate Opportunity TheoryJ. Jane AddamsK. KohlbergL. LanguageM. MertonN. NormsO. Out Group Vs. In GroupP. Patterns of ConflictQ. Quantitative and QualitativeR. ReligionS. Symbolic Interactionism

T. Thomas TheoremU. Upper and Under ClassV. ValuesW. Wealth X. Xenophobia Y. Your Looking Glass Self Z. Zimbardo Prison Experiment

Kyle Whitney’s Alphabet Book

A IS FOR Amish

• The Amish represent the meaning of the word subculture.

• They are a group of people with set values and goals placed with in the dominant culture of post industrial America.

• They are accepted by the dominant culture.

B IS FOR Behavior

• One of the major research points for sociologists is the study of behavior within groups.

• Behaviors are the accepted actions, rituals, and manners of a group.

• Sociologists study group behaviors to understand why people interact differently in certain social settings.

C IS FOR Conflict Theory

• The conflict theory is the belief that people interact based on competition.

• Karl Marx explained this competition as a struggle between the poor and the rich.

• The ongoing struggle drives change and innovation.

D IS FOR Deviance

• Deviance is behavior that violates a norm. Each society decides what is deviant based on its morals.

• It is always considered a threat to society.

• However, a society needs deviance to classify its norms, promote social change, and create unity.

E IS FOR Education

• The meaning changes with society.• In a preindustrial society, education was

used to teach skills, values, enough literacy to read the bible, addition, and subtraction.

• In the industrial society, it was used to transition students to a factory model by use of bells and direct instruction to create a factory like environment.

• The post industrial society teaches computer skills, social skills, and problem solving to prepare students for their future careers and personal lives (consumer, health).

F IS FOR Functionalism

• Functionalism is the societal structure that assigns specific jobs to several individuals that work as a unit towards a common goal.

• Because of this interdependence, a change in one part of the society creates a domino effect that changes the society as a whole.

G IS FOR Gemeinshaft and Gessellshaft

• Gemeinshaft: This term is related to Mechanical solidarity. It includes an intimate community like a farming village in which ideas and beliefs are common.

• Gesselshaft: This term is related to Organic solidarity. It includes a factory like model in which workers are related by the common goal but do not have shared values or beliefs.

• These terms were developed by the famous sociologist, Emile Durkheim, who studied trends in society and what held society together.

H IS FOR Harry Harlow

• This man wanted to study the case of Nature vs. Nurture.

• The main premise of the debate was deciding whether individuals needed food or comfort more.

• Harlow conducted an experiment in which he put a wire monkey with food in a cage and a soft, cloth monkey next to it. He then observed a rhesus monkey within the environment to see if the monkey gravitated more to the one with food or the one that was soft.

• His results showed that the monkey spent the majority of his time cuddling with the soft model, proving that nurture was more important than nature.

I IS FOR Illegitimate opportunity theory

• This theory was developed by Cloward and Ohlin.• Developed the idea that Social classes have

different opportunities for crime. • They concluded that the urban poor participated

in crimes known as hustles. Examples of hustles are drug dealing, robbery, gambling, and prostitution.

• They concluded that the upper class participated in larger scale and economic crime like insider trading, tax evasion, and embezzlement.

J IS FOR Jane Addams

• Jane Addams is a commonly forgotten sociologist.• She worked to help the urban poor and to bridge

the gap between the powerful and the powerless.• Her greatest achievements were the invention of

daycare, citizenship classes for immigrants, and the hall house.

K IS FOR Kohlberg

• This man studied the moral development sequences of boys aged from infants to adults.

• His concluded that from age 0- 6 boys did not have a concept of right or wrong. From ages 7-10, they were in a pre-conventional stage in which they were learning rules.

• From ages 10 and over they were in the conventional stage in which they were learning norms and values.

• Adulthood included higher level thinking and more evaluated behaviors.

L IS FOR Language

• Languages help share the past, present and future of culture.

• It allows people to interact by sharing ideas, knowledge, and plans for the future.

• It allows people to share perspectives. • This is the basis of culture because it allows

communication and therefore creation.

M IS FOR Merton

• There are 5 steps to deviance.• The first is conformity in which people follow

norms and do what they are supposed to in society.

• The second is innovation in which people try to achieve society’s goal but deviate from the original way to do it.

• The third is ritualism in which people still follow the rules of society but see no success.

• The fourth is retreatism when people give up and leave society.

• The fifth is rebellion when people form a new goal.

N IS FOR Norms

• A Norm is a guideline for behavior.• It is a somewhat unspoken rule on how to

conduct oneself in social situations. • Examples include raising one’s hand in school

and wearing jeans.• At certain times, norms are abandoned. These

times are called moral holidays. (Marti Gras, New Years, Spring Break parties).

O IS FOR Out Groups and In Groups

• The Out Group is a group of people that are not within any of an individual’s group.

• If a person is apart of an organization that was formed for people who don’t smoke, then anyone who smokes is apart of the out group.

• In groups and out groups are more easily identified in high school movies with the “popular” kids and the “geeks”.

P IS FOR Patterns of Conflict

• Patterns of conflict include a large scale starting with absolute rejection of a group by another in form of genocide, population transfer, internal colonialism, segregation, assimilation, and eventually acceptance.

• Functionalists believe the conflict is triggered by a dysfunction caused by racism which creates instability.

• Conflict theorists believe it is caused by a dominant group controlling the minority with prejudice.

• Symbolic interactionists believe it is caused by parents teaching prejudice and language separation.

Q IS FOR Quantitative and Qualitative Research

• Quantitative research is data gathered by numbers such as how many hours the average teenager sleeps.

• Qualitative research usually deals with emotion or an observation gained through the 5 senses.

R IS FOR Religion

• Religion is an institution of society that has set beliefs and practices.

• A religion usually has a set of sacred material things that have symbolic meaning within that group.

• Religion can sometimes push change in society as with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.

S IS FOR Symbolic Interactionism

• This is the theory developed by Cooley and Meade to explain society.

• It defines the use of symbols as the rules of society; teaching one how to act based on the meaning of the social situation.

• It also defines mutually understood symbols as the driving force behind interaction.

T IS FOR Thomas Theorem

• “If you believe it to be true, you will act upon that truth”

• This is the idea that people act based on their perceived environment.

U IS FOR Upper and Under Class

• Social class is defined by a person’s wealth, power, and prestige.

• There are 5 levels of social class. • The capitalist, the upper middle, the middle,

the worker, the working poor, and the under class.

• The class of one’s parents, one’s education, and one’s decisions, eventually determine one’s social class.

V IS FOR Verstehen

• Verstehen is the definition of the Sociological imagination.

• Its translation means “to put oneself in another’s shoes”

• This means that one cannot be judgmental of the actions of another group. Instead, one must try to understand why members of a group act the way they do.

WIS FOR Wealth

• Wealth is determined by how much property a person owns.

• It is one of the tree defining fields of social class.

• The wealthiest 10 percent of the population own 70 percent of the property.

• The wealthiest 1 percent of the population own 33 percent of the property.

X IS FOR Xenophobia

• Xenophobia is the basis for discrimination. • It is the fear of people from other countries

or foreigners.• A perfect example of xenophobia is the

“Native Americans” of the 19th century who believed incoming immigrants would eventually destroy American culture.

Y IS FOR Your Looking Glass Self

• This is a tangent of symbolic interactionism developed by Charles Cooley.

• The looking glass self is the idea that one bases his/her actions on how he/ she wants to be viewed in society.

• The idea is that an individual will use society as a mirror to understand what actions are acceptable and which actions are not.

Z IS FOR Zimbardo Prison Experiment

• This experiment was used to prove the Thomas theorem.

• It occurred at a college in which students were given roles to play. Students were assigned to act as prisoners or guards.

• Eventually, the “prisoners” planned an escape and the “guards” brutally put it down.

• The experiment was a success in terms of proving the theory, but a failure in terms of ethics.