10 Sociological Concepts

By: Joel Hunter

The Concepts

Status

Roles

Groups

Bureaucracies

Social Institutions

Deviant Behavior

Norms

Sociological Theory (stereotyping)

Poverty

Race

-Status is a position that a person occupies in a social structure. Ascribed is something you’re born with such as age, race, gender, etc…. Achieved is something you pick up, earn, and receive over time such as skills, education, talent, etc… There are many positions such as family status (father), occupational status (president, lawyer, cop), social status (upper, middle, and lower class). Symbols are sometimes used to help show their status such as wedding rings for marriage, uniforms for cops, and others. This helps us determine people’s status.

Status

For example, in this picture I, Joel Hunter, am known by the red bandana I wear which is a symbol that shows my status, or the gang I am in. My friend Kevin is wearing the blue bandana showing his status in the opposing gang. These small pieces of cloth can show people a lot about who we are, what we do, and help them make other assumptions about us.

“We occupy a status, but we play ……”

…Are the sum total of expectations about behavior attached to a particular social status. Roles give one a particular “duty” such as taking on the role of a family position (mother, father), occupational (cop, firefighter), and others such as a student. They exist independently of their occupants. Regardless, each role has certain minimum expectations. Not every role we obtain is easy as we encounter 3 problems…..

Roles

Role strain- the stress or strain experienced by an individual when incompatible behavior, expectations, or obligations are associated with a single social role

Status inconsistency- a situation in which a person with a particular ascribed status achieves an inconsistent status.

Role conflict- When a person occupies two or more roles and the values or beliefs of each one conflicts with the other

The roles we take on everyday may from time to time stress us out. As shown, I am taking on the role of a student. In college, we get stresses out really easy with all the homework, studying, tests, jobs, and other activities we do. I don’t stay in my student role all day because I would get to stressed out. Everyone takes on many roles a day such as I take on being a son when I talk to my parents, a employee when I work for a company, or even a teacher when I volunteered to teach 2nd graders this past quarter.

a group is one or more individuals with whom we share some sense of identity or common goals and whom we interact within a specific social structure. Cooley believed that there are two groups, primary and secondary. Primary groups would be like family and friends in which intimate interactions take place. Secondary would be a group such as a classroom where the roles are students and teacher. Most are there for the same reason, to obtain a higher level of education, but without intimate interactions. People view you first as a member of that group and only as a person with individual needs. Cooley states in primary groups that is where competition can take place between 2 members. By competition he means self-assertion and various passions occur, but tend to be socialized by sympathy. There are also in groups and out groups. In-groups are groups to which people belong and toward which they feel pride and loyalty. Out-groups are groups to which people do not belong toward which they feel disdain and perhaps hostility.

Groups

It doesn’t take much to be considered in a group. Everyone belongs to one group or another whether we know it or not. In this case, Kevin and I both share the common interest in video games and are here for the same reason. This is an example of a primary group as Kevin is a good friend of mine. Competition does take place within this group but it doesn’t affect us in any way. We are simply here for the same reason, to play video games.

-Bureaucracy is a type of secondary group known as a formal organization in which a group of people band together to achieve a certain goal. Max Weber claimed modern life would come to be increasingly played out in bureaucracies. He also studied and created the ideal type of bureaucracy, or what is left when you strip away things not necessary in one. Some strengths is that there are special divisions of labor, people keep track of what’s going on, who’s hired, fired, promotions, etc. . . Some weaknesses to this is sometimes real life bureaucracies aren’t so pure, as in people bend the rules. They sometimes also lose sight of why and what they are working so hard for because of the procedures and rules they need to abide by.

Bureacracy

BureaucraciesSeattle is huge city filled with bureaucracies (corporations and companies.) It has companies that groups or individuals ban together to achieve a goal such as make money. Within Seattle, people have raking systems to show who does what work, what pay they get, who’s fired, and so on. Max Weber was right when he said in modern times bureaucracies would come to be and expand over the course of time.

-Each society has needs and it’s up to the people within it to meet those needs using the resources given. A social Institution is made up statuses, roles, values, and norms that respond to society needs. One social institution can affect the other as they depend on each other. For example, an economic institution relies on people using their statuses, roles, values, and beliefs to create jobs for individuals to work together and meet society’s needs, but if it fails it could mean the loss of jobs affects the family institutions as they have no money because they lost their job in the economic institution. The 4 natures of social institutions are . . . .

Social Institutions

-Generally unplanned: (Develop Gradually)When faced with a particular problem people try a variety of things to solve them. The best way is a pattern learned over generations to follow. How a society fixes them must fit with their values and norms. For example, social control is a big problem in societies. People act a certain way and we use methods to keep them under control before they get out of hand.

-Inherently conservative (they change slowly)Institutions are legitimized by both logic and appeals to nature making them hard to change. Any attempt to change them seems like an attack on the nature of the institutions. For example, family institutions have faced the problem same sex marriage. Those who try to get married may be faced with the adversaries through nature and reason to justify their conflict.

-interdependence (one changes another) A change in one institution will affect the other. Example such as women coming from

family institutions and take the jobs helping out the military institution in WWII when men went off to war.

- Statuses, roles, values and norms associated with an institution vary from one society to another. Every society has needs but they differ from other societies. For example, in a government institution, different societies have monarchy, anarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, and others.

Seattle Pacific University is a great example for a social institution. It is a place where students can come and learn to take on statuses, roles, values, and norms. It’s a place where I can contribute to societies needs especially the economic institution because I am majoring in business. The economic institution relies on the education institutions to provide students with the knowledge to help our economy . They are interdependent on each other.

-Deviant behavior is a way people act and break the rules set in a society. Every society has different standards of deviant behavior. Behavior that fails to conform to the rules or norms of the group in question. Over time, some society norms change. The functions of deviant behavior are it provides groups attachments and loyalties, teaches “normal behavior”, and acts as a safety valve. The dysfunctions of it is it’s a threat to social order, can divert valuable resources, confuses norms and values, and undermines the trust of one another. We have all acted in some sort of deviant behavior in our lives whether or not we realize it. Usually when deviant behavior takes place, one acts in a way to break rules we have called norms.

Deviant Behavior

There is no age limit on deviant behavior. It takes place everywhere at all ages. At the playground is a place where some deviant behavior takes place. Greed takes control when children play on toys because they think it’s theirs and they will protect it which leads to deviant behavior. This leads to norms being broken such as a “folkway” norm or a “more” norm depending on how violent the children act.

Rules about behavior are called norms. Every culture that we know of has some sort of norms to keep things under social control. Some are more important than others. The way to judge the importance of a norm is to see the reaction of one to the situation or act. Punishment can vary from a glance of disapproval all the way to death. The three types of norms are . . .

Norms

Folkways- These represent casual norms; or violations that aren’t taken very seriously. An example would be not brushing your teeth at night or eating pizza for breakfast and cereal for dinner. No punishment usually unless it’s a small look of disappointment.

Mores- These are more important norms we should all know about. These norms consist of violent acts in ways we can injure other individuals. For example, assault with a deadly weapon usually ends up as the punishment of jail.

Taboos- The last kind of norms that were added later are taboo norms. They consist of things so deeply held that the thought of one committing them makes people upset. For example, eating human flesh is a major taboo that we hope no one commits.

Everyone not only has acted in deviant behavior. But they have also broken a norm in one way or another. Norms are what keep is in social control and keeps things from becoming an anarchy. This sign is a norm that states a parking violation if someone parks there without a pass. This norm is in between a “folkway” and “more” norm. It is not an act of violence but is more than just a look of disgust from someone. It could result in a fine by the police department, another social institution.

In the past, many sociologists have made theories about different things happening and why they do. One theory we all know of is stereotyping, which I’m sure we all have done before. Stereotyping is when one makes an assumption about another individual based on the appearance about what those people are like. Usually we make those assumptions based off the status we see them obtain, the role they are playing, and even symbols such as clothing or markings on their body. Often we are wrong about the assumption we make which can lead to conflict.

Stereotyping (Sociology Theory)

Your probably wondering why I have a picture of a bus stop…. Well, I personally in my home town have stereotyped bus stops a lot because I know that the majority of the people standing at them are always up to no good and break norms regularly. But coming to Seattle I learned that my assumptions are wrong due to the economy lately and how many people take public transportation to save gas and money.

Poverty is a major issue that we will always deal with in the world we live in. Poverty is a shortage in supplies such as food, shelter, clothing, and others which all determine the quality of life. As said by the government, “to be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around us take for granted.” It’s based on measurements of the food consumption in a day (2,000 calories), and the money we live on in a day(2$ a day is considered poverty). Poverty has dropped 29% in the last 15 years. Poverty has a major effect on life expectancy and will decrease it in significant amounts if not dealt with.

Poverty

Throughout Seattle, poverty is all over as you pass through. The homeless count in Seattle is about 10,000 and is probably rising in these tough times. It’s hard to pass through Seattle without seeing someone living on the street. We don’t know how or why people are there. Could be financial reasons, medical reasons, and many others. Poverty is all over the United States and is a major issue that needs to be dealt with.

…is defined as a category of people who are defined as similar because of a number of physical characteristics. Within certain cultures, there are minorities which experience different and unequal treatment compared to some other group, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination. Problems with race is usually prejudice against individuals. It can result in a negative or positive irrationality attitude towards another human or group. Along with this is discrimination which is unfair treatment to individuals who are assumed to belong to a certain group. Society is structured in such a way that people’s values and experiences are shared by a prejudiced social order. The functions and dysfunctions are. . . .

Race

A shared attitude helps draw together those who hold it

In competitive environments, it eases the conscienceAllows us to project onto others those parts of

ourselves that we do not like and try to avoid facing

FUNCTIONS

DYSFUNCTIONS• It limits our vision of the world around us

• It reduces social complexity and richness to empty caricature

• It is the necessary ingredient for discrimination

Race is an ascribed status that we are born with, but does not mean anything but different skin colors. It doesn’t make people better than others. It has been a major issue for years and has gotten better now that slavery is abolished, but is no where near gone because racism happens all over the world. It causes conflicts and can lead to norms broken. In this

picture I am sitting with Ultimate Fighter Champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. It represents that two different races can live in harmony. If only everyone believed that the world would be a better place.