Sociology and Me

1. Sociology and Me

2. Key Terms p. 256 Sociology and Identity • Social Identity: the way you define yourself to the world and to yourself. • Allows a person to interact socially with a number of people in a variety of different situations. The greater the number of interactions, the more a person can develop their approach to social interactions, or social identity. • Social identity is not static. Life stage is a key determinant of social roles and identities. As you pass through the different stages of life, you are meant to accomplish certain developmental tasks (like Erikson’s or Piaget’s stages of development.

3. Life Stages: (See full chart on page 261) Young Single Adult • Establishing independence • Education • Developing love relationships Newly Married Couple • Determining social and gender roles • Developing conflict resolution • Deciding on parenthood Family with Young Children • Become primary agent of socialization for children • Passing along cultural traditions

4. Family with Adolescents • Establishing balance of autonomy and control for adolescents • Coping with strong social influences Family in Mid-Life • Launching grown children • Incorporating new members through marriage Family in Later Life • Adjusting to retirement and possible changes in social status and class • Maintaining love, sex, marital relationships • Passing along cultural traditions to future generations

5. Landmark Case Study: Henri Tajfel: The Social Identity Theory p.262 – 263 Q 2,3,4,5 • Read p. 268 – 269 together Identity and discrimination • Define discrimination, stereotype, racism, sexism, classism, prejudice, upstander, islamophobia in notes

6. What Causes Prejudice and Discrimination? Learned Theory • We are not born innately prejudiced or discriminatory. These are learned behaviours. • We learn by imitating behaviours we see in our parents. While much of our socialization helps us function in society (like language, manners), some are not positive influences. • Media has also played a role in portraying both positive and negative views of race, gender, and sexual orientation. • Examples: television programs, advertising (discuss).

7. Competition theory • According to this theory, the reason why some people distrust immigrants is economic competition. • Whenever in an economic crisis people assume that immigrants are to blame. “They’re taking our jobs!” • Others believe that large numbers of new Canadians places undue strain on our social and health services and contributes to economic hardships. • Combined, these unfounded assumptions may lead to resentment and discrimination in society.

8. Frustration-Aggression Theory • The shortcomings an individual experiences may lead them to resent others who have more or are doing better than them. • People will act out against those who represent the “others.” • Scapegoat: a specific person or group of people who become the target of hatred or blame for the hardships of others. • Ex. Nazi Germany vs. the disabled, Jehovah’s Witness, homosexuals, Jews.

9. Ignorance Theory • The fear of unfamiliar cultural practices that guide discriminatory behaviour. • A lack of personal and social experience can cause people to make incorrect assumptions about a specific group or class in society. • When we refuse to learn about a group, we can never have an understanding of who they are and how they function, thereby never dispelling assumptions we have about them. • Ethnocentrism is the leading cause of this.

10. Point/Counterpoint: Do Parents have the Right to Teach Their Children Antisocial Beliefs? P.275 Q 1-3 • Landmark Case Study: The Clark Doll Experiment (1939), CNN Doll Experiment (2010) p.298 – 299 Q1-4 Clark Doll experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZryE2bqwdk CNN Doll Experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPVNJgfDwpw Kids React to Cheerios commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifdBFp5pnw

11. Deconstructing Race: a Historical Perspective A) The History of Race 1735 Carl Linnaeus • He proposed that inside of Homo sapiens, there were four subcategories., Americanus, Asiaticus, Africanus, and Europeanus were based on place of origin at first, and later skin colour. • No hierarchical arrangement yet 1776 Birth of “Caucasian” • Johann Blumenbach maps a hierarchical pyramid of five human types, placing “Caucasians” at the top because he believes a skull found in the Caucasus Mountains is the “most beautiful form...from which...the others diverge.”

12. 1790- 1854 “Science to Prove Race” • Science was bought into prove the racial divisions and explain differences among the human population • 1839 Skulls measured to prove racial hierarchy • Samuel Morton, claims to measure brain capacity through skull size, Caucasians unquestioned superiority over all the nations of the earth. • 1854 Frederick Douglass challenges race scientists, saying it is prejudice

13. 1859 Evolution shapes debate when Darwin uncovers the mechanism for evolution. Proponents of “social Darwinism” view the hierarchy of races as a product of “nature,” not specific institutions and policies. • 1883 Birth of eugenics Francis Galton, coins the term eugenics. Eugenicists advocate selective breeding to engineer the “ideal” society. Nazi Germany • 1950 UNESCO publishes Statement on Race. • Only when Nazism takes the idea of racial inferiority to a horrifying extreme is race science finally discredited

14. 1972 Human diversity is mapped • In the early 1970s, geneticist Richard Lewontin decides to find out just how much genetic variation falls within, versus between, the groups we call races. • He discovers that 85% of all human variation can be found within any local population; about 94% within any continent. • This means local groups are much more diverse than they appear, and our species as a whole is much more similar than we appear

15. B) How These Ideas are Disseminated Representations Production Reception

16. C) Stages of Oppression / Prejudice 1) Verbal Rejection • Discussing personal prejudices, exchanging jokes 2) Avoidance • The individual shuns contact with the group even when it is inconvenient 3) Discrimination • Actively seeks to exclude the group from their society 4) Semi-violence or Violence • Racist bulling, vandalism, attack on minority groups 5) Extermination • A government allows the murder of the oppressed group or launches a genocide against the minority groups

17. Cultural appropriation? • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWLhrHVySgA&list=RDwWLhrHVySgA • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiaYDPRedWQ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frX69E9pkf8 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXejDhRGOuI

18. Race: The Power of an Illusion • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8MS6zubIaQ&list=PLt6nX4f8WjdWgeomQQ3oLzVH5EoahlcQB • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyuKJAG11Cw&list=PLt6nX4f8WjdWgeomQQ3oLzVH5EoahlcQB&index=2 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UZS8Wb4S5k&index=3&list=PLt6nX4f8WjdWgeomQQ3oLzVH5EoahlcQB

19. Define: solidarity, dyad, informal group, secondary group, virtual community, sanction, panic, riot, threshold, altruism in notesIn Focus: The Social Network P. 278 Q 1-3 Groups and Group Behaviour • Is Conformity a Good Thing? • Has group pressure ever caused you to do something that you were later ashamed of? • If you were asked by someone of authority to harm other people, would you do it? Would most people obey such a command? • Some groups are able to manipulate, deceive, and control individuals so much that they may even commit murder or take their own lives.

20. Social Group – Two or more people who interact often, influence each other, have shared identity (something in common), a social structure (with leaders and followers) and a group consensus (values, behaviour, goals) • Primary Group – Small, emotionally close, interdependent group whose members see one another often, know one another well and value each other as a whole person (e.g. Family, friends) • Since these groups are important to us, we often give in or CONFORM to group expectations even if we do not really want to • Gangs can act as a substitute for other primary groups.

21. Secondary Group – A larger, more impersonal group that has limited information, dependence, or interest from its members except for their contribution to the group goals • Individuals are valued for their contribution to the group goal not for who they are as individual personalities • Less restricting to individual freedom – may control your behaviour for a particular activity but not your personal life or other activities • Ex. School band, co-workers • The line between primary and secondary group is not always clear or fixed (e.g. Socializing with co-workers)

22. How Groups Influence Behaviour 1. Roles • We all have roles (brother, son, mother, girlfriend) • We adopt new roles as our lives change and we learn what is expected of us. • Parents, friends, co-workers tell us how to act and group pressure causes us to conform • Roles can change, women no longer have to be stay-at-home moms.

23. 2. Norms • Standards of behaviour for our different life roles. • Ex. Students expected on time, ready to learn • Standards of behaviour vary from group to group • MORES (mor-ays) • Highly regarded moral views on behaviour that they are almost never broken • Ex. People should not be sexually abused • Usually mores are established by the government as laws. • FOLKWAYS • Involve everyday habits or traditional practices concerning things as manners, interactions, or personal appearance • Ex. Thank You!

24. 3. Sanctions (*rewards and punishments) • Are punishments and rewards given to individuals to ensure they follow the rules or guidelines expected by the group or society. • Mostly informal; a smile or a frown, praise or criticism are often enough to encourage conformity

25. Collective Behaviour: • Collective behaviour is social behaviour by a large group that does not reflect existing rules, institutions, and structures of society. • Usually to accomplish a specific goal or outcome. • Spontaneous and in response to a social crisis or natural disaster. • Occurs in situations where established norms are unclear. • Ex. Panic: a highly emotional and irrational response on the part of an individual or a group to a dangerous or harmful social event (or a situation they perceive as dangerous)

26. 1938 radio broadcast by Orson Welles of the H.G. Well’s classic The War of the Worlds. • People believed they were listening to a news report of an alien invasion from Mars. • Some people packed and fled their homes, others hid in cellars and basements. • In reality, this is more hype than truth. It was only a small percentage of the people listening who actually panicked and behaved in this way. • Studied show that people caught in disasters don’t panic and that most behave rationally.

27. Convergence theory • Assumes that when a collectivity, or large group of like-minded individuals, comes together, collective action is the most common outcome. • Individuals are behaving according to their own beliefs, but are protected by others behaving the same way around them. • Positive examples: Harlem Shake, Flash mobs Negative examples: Riots, racial violence • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f7wj_RcqYk • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLc586Bj790 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQLCZOG202k • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBm8hXyUl1g • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kNeKVof1Oo • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySdqBINoGO4 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKQIeSq4FK4

28. The Rational Decision theory • Assumes that people make rational decisions whether or not to participate in collective behaviour. • Motivating factor is always based on self-interest • According to sociologist Mark Granovetter, individuals have a specific number or percentage of other people who must already be engaged in the group before they will join. • Threshold: a level or point at which something would or would not happen; a tipping point

29. People tend to favour larger, more organized groups. • The lack of consequences is also a strong motivator as there is a sense that they will not be held responsible for their actions if everyone else is doing it as well. • Thresholds differ among people. Some have lower thresholds (that’s how these groups get started in the first place) and as the group grows, a leader may emerge to carry the group to another level, or it can dissipate.

30. Prosocial behaviour: a form of altruism in which individuals or groups demonstrate empathy toward and care for the welfare of others without benefit to themselves • Collective behaviour is not always negative; it can be used to explain acts of kindness, generosity and altruism. • Altruism: the principle of unselfish regard for the needs and interests of others. • In some cases, those engaged in prosocial behaviour may be aware of the dangers to themselves but continue the behaviour nonetheless. • Ex. Haiti relief, taking in travelers from cancelled flights on 9/11, • Wesley Autrey article.

31. Wesley Autrey article. • Man Is Rescued by Stranger on Subway Tracks • By CARA BUCKLEY • Published: January 3, 2007 • It was every subway rider’s nightmare, times two. • Who has ridden along New York’s 656 miles of subway lines and not wondered: “What if I fell to the tracks as a train came in? What would I do?” • And who has not thought: “What if someone else fell? Would I jump to the rescue?” • Wesley Autrey, a 50-year-old construction worker and Navy veteran, faced both those questions in a flashing instant yesterday, and got his answers almost as quickly. • Mr. Autrey was waiting for the downtown local at 137th Street and Broadway in Manhattan around 12:45 p.m. He was taking his two daughters, Syshe, 4, and Shuqui, 6, home before work. • Nearby, a man collapsed, his body convulsing. Mr. Autrey and two women rushed to help, he said. The man, Cameron Hollopeter, 20, managed to get up, but then stumbled to the platform edge and fell to the tracks, between the two rails. • The headlights of the No. 1 train appeared. “I had to make a split decision,” Mr. Autrey said. • So he made one, and leapt. • Mr. Autrey lay on Mr. Hollopeter, his heart pounding, pressing him down in a space roughly a foot deep. The train’s brakes screeched, but it could not stop in time. • Five cars rolled overhead before the train stopped, the cars passing inches from his head, smudging his blue knit cap with grease. Mr. Autrey heard onlookers’ screams. “We’re O.K. down here,” he yelled, “but I’ve got two daughters up there. Let them know their father’s O.K.” He heard cries of wonder, and applause. • Power was cut, and workers got them out. Mr. Hollopeter, a student at the New York Film Academy, was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. He had only bumps and bruises, said his grandfather, Jeff Friedman. The police said it appeared that Mr. Hollopeter had suffered a seizure. • Mr. Autrey refused medical help, because, he said, nothing was wrong. He did visit Mr. Hollopeter in the hospital before heading to his night shift. “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help,” Mr. Autrey said. “I did what I felt was right.”

32. Define conventional crowd, casual crowd, expressive crowd, acting crowd, mob, mass hysteria, smart mob, groupthink, obedience • Read section on Crowds, Mobs, Fear and Collective Behaviour, Smart Mobs p.283 - 285 • Conformity: Landmark Case Study Stanley Milgram: Subway Experiments p. 289 Q 1-2 • Read Groupthink and Obedience p.290 • P.291: Charles Hofling’s Obedience Study Q 1,2 • Read the section on Ingroups and outgroups (p.374). Define these terms in your notes. • Cults • The Wave • Read section on Agression p.292 -294: define differential association, dehumanize, bullying, virtual aggression • In Focus: Cyberbullying p. 294 Q1,2

33. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTS • What distinguishes a cult from harmless new religious movements or self-help groups? • Suggestions are if a social group has two or more of the following, it might be something to be concerned about. • There is a captivating and authoritarian leader who claims to have all the answers to life. His or her beliefs cannot be questioned by group members, and these beliefs replace traditional religious or socio-political belief systems.

34. The group claims that only its members will be saved or given some higher understanding that makes its members superior to all others outside the group. • The friendship and “family love” of the group replaces other relationships, and members are often isolated from old friends and members of their real families. • Group members are psychologically manipulated or deceived using mind control, and elaborate frauds are often used to hide the real purpose of the group.

35. Group members are often taken advantage of financially with frequent or inappropriate demands for money or fund-raising, or they may be abused physically or mentally. • Who is attracted to Cults and why? • Cults attract people from all sectors of society • Young, old, rich, poor, well-adjusted and psychologically needy.

36. Cults exploit the hopes, fears, doubts and longings of people, and profess to offer them the answer to their dreams • They profess that the world is unsafe, evil, uncaring, and doomed—and they offer a loving group that has all the answers for the future. • People have always been drawn to religion—where mystical and inviting world beyond this one were prayed for. • People who have dropped away from traditional religions are often drawn to the secret traditions and so-called ancient wisdom of cults.

37. Charismatic cult leaders, with seemingly perfect knowledge and unquestioned authority—provide people with god-like figures to look up to. • Often cult leaders find their members from the alienated of society—ordinary people who lack a network of support or extended family relations. • Cults help to fill a lack of social identity felt by many people.

38. RECRUITMENT OF CULT MEMBERS • This process is a slow and gradual one—usually called brainwashing. • Love Bombing • Recruiters are warm and loving (hugging). The person is made to feel special and important—helps them feel wanted • Exploitation of personal weaknesses or hopes • While getting to know the new members—cult members discover the hidden fears, doubts, and hopes of the new member. Then the group shows how it can help the new member.

39. Group Pressure • Tremendous pressure is put on the new member to conform to the group’s thinking • Critical questions are discouraged • Sidetracked and told their questions will be answered later • Isolation and No Privacy • Kept away from family members and friends who might ask questions. Retreats out of town—are often used to break down a new members’ will by never leaving them alone with other new cult members.

40. Food and sleep deprivation • Recruits kept busy with group activities all day and evening long. This results in fatigue, listlessness, more open to suggestion, less able to think critically. • Guilt, public confession, and group approval • If a new member expresses doubts—they are made to feel arrogant or selfish. They are made to make public confessions—which destroys their self-esteem. Group control over acceptance of the new recruit encourages conformity.

41. Jonestown • http://www.history.com/topics/jonestown

42. The Wave • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICng-KRxXJ8

43. The Bystander Effect: The tendency for an individual's helpfulness to decrease as the number of bystanders increase. • How can the bystander effect be explained? • Pluralistic ignorance (modeling, conformity) • Others don’t look concerned, so I guess there’s nothing to be concerned about. • Social inhibition • Fear of negative evaluation, over-reacting, doing the wrong thing, drawing attention to self. • Diffusion of responsibility • Our obligation or responsibility to help is diffused (or divided) among the other bystanders. Everybody assumes somebody else will help.

44. Factors that contribute to the bystander effect (less likely to help if): • Victim is bleeding / bloody • Victim is member of a stigmatized group • Bystander is in a hurry to get somewhere or in a bad mood Factors that reduce the bystander effect (more likely to help if): • A) Bystanders know one another • B) Witnesses have special bond to the victim • C) Bystanders have considerable training in emergency intervention • D) Witnesses have knowledge of the bystander effect.

45. They Saw No EvilEditorial, The Boston Globe August 23, 1995, Page 18 • The ghost of Kitty Genovese screamed into the darkness on the Belle Isle Bridge in Detroit last weekend, and once again, no one moved to help. Genovese was murdered on a Queens, N.Y., street in 1964 while 38 neighbors watched from their apartment windows. She has become the symbol for urban indifference to violence, and she dies every time bystanders choose to stand by instead of calling the police. • This time the indifference was even more chilling, if that's possible, because the people who watched 33 year-old Deletha Word die were not cringing behind locked doors. About 40 witnesses, most of them motorists, got out of their cars to stand within inches of the scene, and even laugh, as three men, enraged after minor traffic incidents, attacked Word. The men pulled her from her car, ripped off her clothes, beat her with a crowbar and then chased her to the bridge railing, where she either fell or jumped to her death. • One witness had a cellular phone but refused to dial the police. Why? How is it that the most ubiquitous (seen everywhere) symbol of the communications age was not used to try to save a human life? The person didn't even have to drop a dime. Perhaps people are getting so used to being "entertained" that a murder looks like a docudrama. When one would-be hero did arrive after Word was in the water and tried unsuccessfully to swim to her, nobody helped him either. The crowd just watched as rescuer and victim flailed, eventually drifting away in the current. • "My baby was down there all by herself," the woman's mother, Dortha Word, told Associated Press. "I know she was scared to death. How could they be so cruel?" • The mother's question indicts not only the people on the bridge, but a society becoming so accustomed to brutality and fond of gadgetry that a scream registers as static. The question indicts anyone who read the Detroit story and said: "This doesn't concern us. It happened in a bad neighborhood." Bad, yes, but we all live there.

46. 1. Do you agree that the people watching were all cruel individuals? Explain. 2. Do you agree that this story reflects a society which is becoming so accustomed to brutality that its screams go unnoticed? Explain. 3. Do you think these types of things only happen in “bad” neighbourhoods? Explain. 4. How would you explain this event? • What factors might have saved Deletha? p.372 In Focus The Bystander Effect Q1,2