Chapter 9: Social Stratification

Almost every society in the course of human history has separated its members on the basis of certain characteristics. There is a division of society into categories, ranks, and classes. That is what will be discussed below.

That division of society is called social stratification. Divisions based on such individual characteristics, abilities, and behaviors lead to social inequality, the unequal sharing of scarce resources and social rewards. In a caste system, scarce resources and social rewards are distributed on the basis of ascribed statuses. Exogamy is the marriage outside one's own social category. Endogamy is the marriage within one's own social category. In a class system the distribution of scarce resources and rewards is determined on the basis of achieved statuses. According to the followers of Marx, the owners of the means of production in a capitalist society are called the bourgeoisie. The workers who sell their labor in exchange for wages are called the proletariat. Social class is defined as a grouping of people with similar levels of wealth, power, and prestige. An individual's wealth is made up of his or her assets and income. Power is the ability to control the behavior of others, with or without their consent. Prestige is the respect, honor, recognition, or courtesy an individual receives from other members of society. The socioeconomic status is a rating that combines social factors with the economic factor of income. Functionalists view stratification as a necessary feature of the social structure. Their explanation assumes that certain roles in society must be performed if the system is to be maintained. Conflict theorists see competition over scarce resources as the cause of social inequality. Conflict theorists that follow Marx say that stratification comes from class exploitation. Some sociologists try to blend the two theories together to make a general synthesis.

In the reputational method, individuals in the community are asked to rank the community members based on what they know of their characters and lifestyles. The subjective method, individuals are asked to determine their own social rank. The objective method, is when sociologists define social class by income, occupation, and education. There are social classes everywhere, even in the United States. In the USA, you have the upper class, the upper middle class, the lower middle class, the working class, the working poor, and the underclass. Social mobility is the movement between or within social classes of strata, it is also an important feature of the open class system. Horizontal mobility refers to the movement within a social class or stratum. Vertical mobility is the movement between social classes or strata. Intergenerational mobility is a status differences between generations in the same family, it is a special form of vertical mobility. Individual effort often plays a major role in a person's movement up the social-class ladder. Downward mobility can result from such personal factors as illness, divorce, widowhood, and retirement or from changes in the economy.

Poverty is seen as a standard of living that is below the minimum level considered adequate by society. In the United States, the minimum income is called the poverty level. In the USA, the age group with the highest percentage of poverty is children. The sex with the highest percentage is women. The race and ethnicity with the highest percentage are the African Americans and the Hispanics. Life chances is the likelihood that individuals have of sharing in the opportunities and benefits of society. Life expectancy refers to the average number of years a person born in a particular year can expect to live. Certain behaviors also vary depending on social class. Divorce rates are higher among low-income families than among other segments of the population. How the USA government responds to poverty, varies just a little. Most of the time the government will create programs to help out the poor, like the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The government uses transfer payments to redistribute money among various segments of society.

As you can see social stratification is used in a similar way to deviance, it divides people. This is not always good, however, for people will be considered more or less depending on their social class or position. Poverty is a huge problem worldwide that many different countries are trying to solve today.  

Chapter 8: Deviance and Social Control

These next couple things are an example of what? a) continuously talking to oneself in public, b) drag racing on public streets or highways, c) regularly using illegal drugs, d) a man wearing woman's clothing, and e) attacking another person with a weapon. All of these are things that people don't expect to see in public. It is not considered “normal” to do any of the above five things.

Behavior that violates significant social norms is called deviance. The above five things are forms of deviance. A stigma is a mark of social disgrace that sets the deviant apart from the rest of society. The social functions of deviance are the classifying of norms, unifying a group, diffusing tension, promoting social change, and providing jobs. Criminologists are the social scientists who study criminal behavior. Strain theory views deviance as the natural outgrowth of the values, norms, and structure of society. Anomie is the situation that arises when the norms of society are unclear or are no longer applicable. Strain theory and anomie are part of the functionalist perspective. Conflict theorists believe that competition and social inequality lead to deviance. Control theory explains deviance as a natural occurrence. Cultural transmission theory explains deviance as a learned behavior. The concept of differential association refers to the frequency and closeness of associations a person has with deviant and non-deviant individuals. Techniques of neutralization act as a block on the controls that discourage deviant behavior. Labeling theory focuses on how individuals come to be identified as deviant. Primary deviance is nonconformity that goes undetected by those in authority. Secondary deviance results in the individual being labeled as deviant is usually accompanied by what Harold Garfinkel called a degradation ceremony. Control theory, cultural transmission theory, and the ones below them are all part of the interactionist perspective.

A crime is any act that is labeled as such by those in authority, is prohibited by law, and punishable by the government. There are five main categories of crime. Violent crimes consist of murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Crimes against property consists of burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Victimless crimes consist of prostitution, illegal gambling, illegal drug use, and vagrancy. White-collar crimes are those of individuals of high social status in the course of their professional lives and commit crimes like misrepresentation, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, price fixing, toxic pollution, insider trading, and political corruption. Lastly is organized crimes like drug trafficking, illegal gambling, unfair labor practices, hijacking of merchandise, and loan-sharking. A crime syndicate is a large-scale organization of professional criminals that controls some vice or business through violence or the threat of violence. Once a crime has been committed and reported, it falls under the jurisdiction of the criminal-justice system. The power to decide who is actually arrested by the police is referred to as police discretion. Many people charge that the high rate of arrests among African Americans is a result of police use of racial profiling. After the police, and a person is arrested, they go to court. Plea bargaining is the process of legal negotiation that allows an accused person to plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for a lighter sentence. The sanctions used to punish criminals are called corrections. There are four major functions of the corrections: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and social protection. Recidivism is the term for repeated criminal behavior. The juvenile-justice system is for juveniles, or offenders under 18. this system is like the criminal-justice system but less harsh for the people are not adults yet.

So as we can see deviance can have consequences. Deviance can cause people to do things that are unacceptable and cause them to go to jail for small amounts of time or for life. It is wise to think about what you do before you do it in order to not cause trouble in the future. 

Chapter 6 and 7: The Adolescent and Adult in Society

Adolescence and adulthood vary in a couple ways. Here it will discuss how they vary starting with adolescence and ending with adulthood.

Adolescence can be defined as the period between the normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood. Puberty is the physical maturing that makes an individual capable of sexual reproduction. Adolescence is not universal, but puberty occurs in all human societies. There are five characteristics of adolescence, the first is the biological growth and development as kids enter adolescence. Second is undefined status, the adolescent expectations are quite vague. Then comes the increase of decision making, many make their own decisions. Then comes increased pressure, like from those around them might expect things from them at a certain time, at any time. And lastly the search for self, where they are mature enough to think about themselves and about what they want out of life. Anticipatory socialization involves learning the rights, obligations, and expectations of a role to prepare for assuming that role in the future.

Dating, or the meeting of people as a romantic engagement, is most commonly found in societies that allow individuals to choose their own marriage partners. Courtship differs from dating in that courtship's express purpose is eventual marriage, while dating may lead to eventual marriage. Homogamy is the tendency of individuals to marry people who have social characteristics similar to their own. Dating has a couple different functions, one is that it is a form of entertainment. Another is that it is a mechanism for socialization. Dating also fulfills certain basic psychological needs like conversation and companionship. It also helps individuals attain status and finally spouse selection becomes an important issue. Here are two types of basic dating patterns. One is the traditional way, where the man asks the girl, he was expected to pay for the expenses and set up the time and day of the event. The second way is the contemporary dating pattern, where there are no set stages of dating. The Amish begin dating at age 16 and around that time the Amish men received their own courting buggy, of horse drawn carriage. This is part of the contemporary pattern, for it can change over time. As with so many other social phenomena, the norms governing sexual behavior vary widely from society to society. Th rate of teenage sexual activity has gone up, but has dropped a little in this decade. There are influences on early sexual activity, mainly by social factors. There are many consequences of early sexual activity, like carrying around a child at age 15 for example.

A drug is a substance that changes mood, behavior, or consciousness. In the recent years the public has become increasingly alarmed over the social consequences of drug abuse. The rate of teen drug use in some areas has gone up and other areas has gone down. The influence on drugs is mainly people around them who do drugs as well. Teenage attitude towards drugs are more negative than positive but they still do them. The social problem of teenage drug and alcohol abuse has led to another big problem: teen suicide. Social integration is the degree of attachment people have to social groups or to society as a whole. There are seven predictors of teenage suicide, alcohol/drug use, triggering events, age, sex, population density, family relations, and cluster effect.

Now adulthood will be explained. The life patterns of adult males and females in American society are somewhat different. A life structure is the combination of statuses, roles, activities, goals, values, beliefs, and life circumstances that characterize an individual. There are three basic eras of adulthood: early adulthood ages 17-39, middle adulthood 40-59, and late adulthood 60-75+. The early adult transition occurs between the ages of 17-22. Entering the adult world is between the ages of 23-27. Then the age 30 transition which is from 28-32. These first three periods of the early adulthood era is called the novice phase. The last stage of early adulthood is the settling down period between 33-39. a mentor is someone who fosters an individuals development by believing in the person, sharing the person's dreams, and helping that person achieve those dreams. The midlife transition is between the ages of 40-44. All of this was the male life pattern. There are three phases of the female life pattern. First she leaves the family, then she enters the adult world, where she might get married and have kids, and lastly she enters the adult world again, where they may get a job again after having sent her kids to school.

The labor force consists of all individuals age 16 and older who are employed in paid positions or who are seeking paid employment. A profession is a high-status occupation that requires specialized skills obtained through formal education. Unemployment is the situation that occurs when a person does not have a job but is actively seeking employment. The unemployment rate is the percentage of the civilian labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment. There are many different occupations in the United States, these different occupations include: executive, administrative, managerial, professional specialty, technical occupations, sales workers, administrative support occupations, service occupations, precision production, craft and repair workers, operators, fabricators, laborers, farming, forestry, fishing, transportation and material working. The nature of work is changing, for example, farming used to be 35 percent of the population, now it is 27 percent are farmers and manufacturers included. Opinion polls and social-science research indicate that the vast majority of workers in the United States, regardless of what the do, are satisfied with their jobs.

The field of gerontology studies the process and phenomena of aging. Sociologists are most interested in social gerontology which is the study of the nonphysical aspects of the aging process. There are three different groups of older people, the young-old, 65-74, the middle-old, 75-84, and the old-old, 85+. As change continues, older people must adjust to retirement. As an individual ages, body cells begin to die. So they body will start to wrinkle and look older. The brain may not work as it used to. Diseases can occur, including Alzheimer's disease, an organic condition that results in the progressive deterioration of brain cells. For middle-old and the old-old, the issues of dependency and death take on increasing significance. For many older Americans, retirement is accompanied by a feeling of freedom.

So as you can see adolescence and adulthood are very different from each other. It is all a matter of time before a person will go from an adolescent to an adult. We must remember that as adolescents we have to respect the adults around us no matter their age.   

Chapter 5: Socializing the Individual

When people think of personality, they think of a person's social skills or social appeal. It is sometimes used to describe someone's specific characteristics or as an explanation for people's achievements or failures.

            To social scientists, personality is the sum total of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values that are characteristic of an individual. Some sociologists say that heredity, the transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to children, is what determines personality and social behavior. An instinct is an unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern. Sociobiology is the systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior. An aptitude is capacity to learn a particular skill or acquire a particular body of knowledge. Birth order can change how people's personalities are, which is the order in which we were born. Parental characteristics can also influence personality. The cultural environment in which a person lives also influences personality. When people are isolated as kids, that can also influence personality. Feral children, wild or untamed children, can result from isolation. There was the case of Anna and Isabelle where both girl were treated similarly wrong during childhood but one had a happier ending than the other. Another case was that of Genie, who had a terrible childhood and never recovered from it. Sociologists have also studied institutionalization, where they studied how children are in orphanages or hospitals. They found out that human interaction is very important in young childhood to help social and psychological development.

            The interactive process through which people learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of a society is socialization. Your self is your conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society. John Locke believed that we acquire our personalities as a result of our social experiences and that we are born without personality. Charles Horton Cooley had the looking-glass self as part of his theory, it refers to the interactive process by which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others. George Herbert Mead believed we not only see ourselves in others but we actually take on or pretend to take the roles of others. The act of role-taking forms the basis of the socialization process by allowing us to anticipate what others expect of us. The people closest to us a considered significant others. The internalized attitudes, expectations, and viewpoints of society is the generalized other. According to Mead, the self consists of two parts, the I which is the unsocialized part and the me which is the socialized part.

            The term agents of socialization is used to describe the specific individuals, groups, and institutions that enable socialization to take place. The family is the most important agent of socialization in almost every society. A peer group is a primary group composed of individuals of roughly equal age and similar social characteristics. Peer groups are usually very influential. School also plays an important part in socialization. The mass media are instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact between those sending the information and those receiving it. The mass media plays a huge part in socialization as well. A total institution is a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and are subject to tight control. Resocialization involves a break with past experiences and the learning of new values and norms.

            As you can see, personality can be influenced by a number of different factors. There are many ways for a person to become who they are based on who they hang out with and what they watch along with who their family is. It is a mix of all the above, that is what influences a person to become the person he/she is today. Socialization is also pretty huge in society and what influences it is also huge, from family to the media.