- conflict theory --> idea that capitalism would eventually lead to internal tensions in society, because it keeps the rich, rich and the poor, poor

- spent a lot of his career working as a journalist for Horace Greeley 

- structural functionlism --> there are structures in society in which everyone serves a function.  Society is a complex system in which everyone serves a part and specializes is something that contributes to the stability of society as a whole

- born in 1858 died in 1917

- argued that deviancy is necessary because it is how social change begins 

- in the functionlism circle, when stressor increases, functional structure also increases. 

- interpersonal is one sender, a few or one recievers, and feedback

       - people talking in a group to directly to each other.

       - direct and immediate feedback occurs 

- mass communication is one sender and a lot of recievers and no feedback 

- a second type of communicator (the channel role) is introduced 

a (source) ------------- c (channel) ------------- b (receiver)

- example: MSNBC's message will be different than Fox's. 

- reciever has influence on channels (can stop watching) 

-  both parties in a conversation fulfill the same functions 

- the roles continuously change as the conversation progesses

-"the grumbling hive"

- born in 1670

- said there was a physical, not spiritual, explanation for our existance

- his book said that discontent keeps people working for something better and moving forward. 

- what makes people discontent? advertising

- more than one way to keep stability 

ex: police are a functional structure that provide homeostasis. Societal order is being maintained by the threat of punishment. 

- tried to match Marx's conflict theory 

- developed a theory called "action theory" for the study of society

- manifest vs. latent effects

- wedding example: the manifest goal would be that they couple is now married. The latent goal was to get noticed, a lot of people got paid well, heteronormativity. 

- idea that everyone has to be rational when at work, but are irrational when it comes to spending.

- fundamental contradiction of capitolism 

- resolve by justifying a belief with an excuse

- the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, esp. as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

- feeling uncomfortable with your actions and feeling like you have to make up excuses to make yourself feel better about what you did or said. 

- said the world was going to end on Dec. 20

- when it didn't happen, she told her followers that because of their strength and purity the world was saved

- even though the world didn't end, they clung to their beliefs even more because they had already done a lot of preparation for the world ending and they would look stupid if they disagreed 

- example of cognitive dissonance

- "the great disappointment"

- said Jesus was going to return on oct 22, 1844

- when it didn't happen he just came up with a new date instead of realizing that he was just wrong --cognitive dissonance

- done by Solomon Asch

- showed how people's perceptions can change as a result of group pressure

-example of selective perception -->when people percieve what the want to in media messages and disregaurd the rest

- selective retention --> people remember messages that are closer related to their interests 

Validity --> the measuring instrument actually measures the property it's supposed to measure

Reliability  -->  Reliability refers to the confidence we can place on the measuring instrument to give us the same numeric value when the measurement is repeated on the same object. 

- asked the question, is anyone capable of being a terrible person? Yes. 

-showed that we have to work at being good.

- The goal of education is to drag every man as far out of the cave as possible.

- Education should not aim at putting knowledge into the soul, but at turning the soul toward right desires

said that people go through 3 stages in socialization 

1. pre-conventional stage: pain vs. pleasure - if it feels good it's good if it feels bad it's bad. 

2. conventional stage of morality - assessing peers - look to them for how to behave

3. post conventional stage: rely upon own understanding of moral values.

- believed that females and males were socialized very differently. 

- females are concerned with nurturing and males concerned with more rules.

"where does the self come from?"

- symbolic interactionism: as we  interact with others they tell us what we're like and we use it to form a self. 

          - we form one because it gives us a set of behaviors that we can use when interacting with people. 

          - nature of self is combination of interactions we've had with other people.

wrote the book "seduction of the innocent"

- said children during the 1950s were bad because of comic books!