Conflict theory:

• social science: activism for justice
• economic structures shape social structures
• oppressor vs. oppressed
• class conflict
• capitalism will be broken by working class
• alienated working class
• socialism
• false consciousness vs. class consciousness

Functionalism:

• pushed sociology as a science
• parts of society contribute to the whole
• suicide study
• labor specializes with industrialization (interdependence)
• social order, cohesion, and stability
• supports status quo
• crime integral to healthy societies (fxnal)
• deviance keeps societal norms in check
• holds people together (social cohesion)

• Marx
• role of coercion in society in producing social order/change
• patterns of inequality
• laws used as tools to maintain privilege
• cause of social stratification
• legitimizing systems of inequality
• stratification unlikely to remain stable because only certain interests are reflected
• Marx: false and class consciousness
• Weber: inequality multidimensional, difficult to eradicate
• gender: patriarchy, radical feminism

• things in society fulfill historical and societal script
• focus on interactions between individuals, exchange of symbols during interactions
• George Herbert Mead
• social interaction: realization of society

Robert K. Merton:

• manifest functions: intended by participants
• latent functions: unintended effects

• exchange theory: social change and stability result from exchanges negotiated between parties
• all relationships formed on cost-benefit analysis
• rational choice theory: using rationality to make decisions
• always choose most preferred option
• assumes individual has precise information about potential choices, knows all choices, and has time to choose based on this info

• society is multi-dimensional
• Verstehen: intention and context behind human actions
• power: furthering interests/achieving goals in face of resistance
• authority: right to exercise power
• modern society: rational-legal authority

• women and men should be equal
• liberal: inequality caused by unequal social resources, using legislation to stop inequality
• radical: men dominating women, ending patriarchy
• multicultural: multiple disadvantages of gender, class, and race shaping experiences of WOC
• postmodern: celebrating otherness of individuals and groups

• values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects forming a people's way of life
• material: part of constructed, physical environment
• nonmaterial: values and norms

• norms: rules specifying appropriateness of behaviors in certain situations, developed from values
• mores: norms widely observed with great moral significance
• public nudity, stealing food
• folkways: norms for routine or casual interaction, not strictly enforced
• how we eat, manners, dress codes

• subcultures: values, beliefs, and norms differ from dominant culture
• share some parts with dominant culture but have own distinctive components
• countercultures: reaction against dominant culture
• conflict with or alternatives to dominant culture/way of life
• moral/political beliefs

• ethnocentrism: arrogant perception that other cultures are defective
• assume everyone sees reality in the same way
• their culture is the standard against to measure others
• cultural relativism: understanding and judging cultures in context
• all cultural customs are okay

• primary groups: members have face to face contact/strong emotional ties
• family: different based on social class, gender of child, culture
• peers
• institutions: schools, workplaces, mass media

• ascribed status: involuntary
• achieved status: earned
• master status: exceptional importance in defining a person

• Erving Goffman
• impression management: acting a certain way to create an image
• front stage: engaging in impression management
• back stage: act without regard to impression, may be considered inappropriate for front stage

• in-group: powerful, more access, more information, determine things in larger society
• out-group: marginalized, may be stigmatized

• building blocks for society, determine social interactions
• Georg Simmel
• group size determines form of social relations in a group
• primary: limited members, face-to-face, not trying to get anything from members
• secondary: informal, impersonal, don't know all members, means to an end

• used as benchmark to determine relative position in society
• usually white males

• methods to get people to comply with norms
• social sanctions
• prison as a deterrent against deviance/crime

• hypothesis that social support influences health and well-being by protecting from pathogenic effects of stressors

• individual:
• information and connections that allow for entering or power increase in preexisting groups
• collective:
• community benefits from pooled resources
• can face challenges and make improvements

• when networks still remain connected even with removal of a single node

• informal: unspoken rules and expectations about individual behavior
• formal: laws, obeying authority figures

• socially challenged behavior/attribute, defies norms
• informal: minor transgressions (tackiness, picking nose)
• formal: violation of laws

• Durkheim
• crime has a function in society
• society will always have it
• keeps norms and group solidarity in check
• encourages change
• can classify what is normal based on deviant behavior

• Merton
• part of functionalism
• deviance depends on how well society provides means to achieve societal goals
• strain occurs when means given cannot lead to goals due to unequal opportunity

• laws used to maintain privilege
• powerful people escape deviant label

• people have cost-benefit analysis of their behavior
• reduce crime by raising costs on illegitimate economy and increasing returns to entry-level jobs in legitimate economy

• deviance is socially contructed based on interactions between people/groups
• differential association: certain environments make crime look like a viable option
• labeling theory: deviance only deviant because of label and people stay deviant to maintain identity
• broken window theory: behaviors count as normal or deviant depending on context (Philip Zimbardo)

• any possible characteristic associated with social disgrace, rejection, or discrediting
• physical: obesity, AIDS
• moral: AIDS caused by "deviant" behavior
• cultural: being "wrong" ethnicity

• modern form of stratification
• large groups of people occupying similar economic positions
• some mobility, achievement

• knowing the right things (prestige lifestyle)
• Bourdieu

• relative: defined according to living standards of the majority in a given society
• absolute: minimum requirements to sustain a healthy existence