Final Exam Sociology

Cooley argues that our self develops through interactions and our impressions about how other people see us. Do you think that he is correct? Why or why not?

a. Harry Harlow – surrogate mother experiment pg.111 must read and notes contact and comfort

In the essay For Better, For worse: Marriage Means Something Different Now Stephanie Coontz tells us about the history of marriage and how it has changed. It all started with a woman only marrying because they wanted to work in the house and have kids. Through the years the woman had started to become more attached and people cannot handle it. It started with them marrying for economic purposes and then it moved to more of an affection towards the male. She explains all this with some story and background and then she goes into detail about all of it.

After reading both chapters 8 and 9, they both discuss the relationships between the productions and consumption of contemporary popular music and how complex they are. In these both chapters sociologist has studied the different aspects of popular music and popular music in the society. In chapter 8, one section that really stood out to me was, the ‘Young people and cultural productivity’. In the beginning of this section it states that “Willis and his colleagues (1990) argue that as human beings we are symbolically creative, saying that ‘we argue for symbolic creativity as an integral (“ordinary”) part of human conditions, not as inanimate peaks rising above the mists’ “. In other words, humans like to create meaning to everything, including the music we listen to.

According to Chapter 4, the definition for violent is a set of behavior that produces injuries. There are many reasons that cause many people to become violent, it can be because of poverty, stress, or even unemployment and because of people’s violent tendencies there are many victims. Gay people are discriminated because of religious belief and some people believed that loving someone from the same gender should not be allowed. Gay bullying can take in all type of form, insulting with crude words is one example that is most common. I always hear the negative comment from people around, insulting an innocent guy because he is different.

Amalgamation-(melting pot) all groups should combine their traditions calues and characteristics with one another to create a new group.

Nowadays we see people of all races, social status, and age getting married (freedom of choice). For example, we sometime see younger people marrying older people to inherit their life savings or to have someone mature to talk to. Other reasons might be to live a luxurious life or gain something from the spouse’s items. Joanne Jaime gives a good example in which she

Chapter 3 of The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology explains to the reader what culture is and goes into depth of the different concepts within culture. It defines culture as “the entire way of life for a group of people” (Ferris & Stein, 2010, p. 77). Culture is described as a “lens” through which one views the world and is passed from one generation to the next. This “entire way of life”, according to sociologists, consists of two major categories: material and symbolic culture. Material culture involves the entities associated with a cultural group, such as tools, machines, utensils, buildings, and artwork. When examining material culture, it can convey a great deal about a particular group or society. Symbolic culture embraces ways

Conflict theory is the second major school of thought in sociology. It is a macro-level type of approach to understand social interactions in social life, just like functionalism. A difference in conflict theory is that our society is viewed as always being in a constant struggle, unlike functionalism which theorizes that our society is stable. Conflict theory is a paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change, and emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change. Some sociologists may believe that if these tensions, stresses, and struggles never existed in our society people may be more driven to achieve greatness in education, or simply more motivated to set higher goals. Just like functionalism, the conflict theory viewed society on a macro sociological level, but the individual person in our society are having their lives shaped by the economy, control and power. The conflict perspective's main idea is that there are opposing interests

Identify the four major sociological theoretical paradigms. For each, what are the key tenets? How does each explain how society works?

The book has a section entitled, “Marriage is traditional” and in that particular section it mentioned about how “marriage has changed over time.” When examined current day marriage trends show that people are looking for partnership or soul mates, not for the most traditional reasons of the past. The idea that one person is supposed to be with one person for the rest of their life is no longer relevant. It is possible to have many happy years with one person, but that does not mean that these people will die together. People can have a falling out. Situations change—people do grow. If people stayed stagnant their whole lives, where would society be? With the way

This would have been a big step for a woman living in a society in which the sole purpose of that particular gender was to marry well. She also had daily proof of how marriage might not bring happiness in her own parent’s relationship. She sees their shortcomings as husband and wife and sees the shortcomings of not being able to respect your life’s partner and vows that only the deepest of love would ever induce her to matrimony ( Austen 68 ) . This kind of decision would have had to invoke a lot of thought towards the future and shows a mind that is able to grasp larger concepts and does not just follow the crowd.

This story is set in Massachusetts during the time of the Puritans in 1642-1649. Any woman who was caught in adultery who have to wear a scarlet colored A on her shirt to identify her as an adulterer. Today people get married for religious purposes, love, and so that they can be happy with their companion. (Campbell and Wright, 2008) In the 1800’s until the 1950’s the man of the household was the main breadwinner and head of the household. Women were supposed to stay at home and tend to the children and housework while the husband was out in the workplace. The woman would also marry for financial security, knowing that she could not properly provide for herself and her own and needed a man to provide for her. A man married a woman, because he wanted to have a companion and someone to talk to about his daily struggles. (Virginia Law Review) These earlier marriages had much more rigid gender roles then there is now. Now with most families both spouses work in the household. The woman just has to still take care of the household chores, but also work outside of the house also. This brings up the glass ceiling where women get paid less for the same job as a man. Men also have more of the upper level jobs in a business such as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Although women are gaining more of these jobs. With this being said there are also legal aspects when it comes to two people getting married.

Thus a functional prerequisite of society involves at least a minimal degree of integration between the parts. Many functionalists argue that this integration is based largely on value consensus, that is on agreement about values by members of society. Thus if the major values of society are expressed in the various parts of the social structure, those parts will be integrated. Thus, the parts must work hand in hand with each other. Moreover, for the continuation of the society, there must be a general consensus or agreement over basic values. For example, it can be argued that the value of materialism integrates many parts of the social structure in Western industrial society. The economic system produces a large range of goods, and ever increasing productivity is regarded as an important goal. The educational system is partly concerned with producing the skills and expertise to expand production and increase its efficiency. The family is an important unit of consumption, with its steadily rising demand for consumer durables such as washing machines, videos and microwaves. The political system is partly concerned with improving material living standards and raising productivity. (Giddens, 2006), and (Haralambos and Holborn, 2008).

Conflict Theory is somewhat of a class-based conflict which is inherent and fundamental part of social interaction. Social class(es) inequality must be reduced to lessen racial and ethnic conflict in society, and has been around since slavery in America, and even before that. The great way the video sums it up, is exportation of another groups. Functionalist exist because race and ethnicity, because the in order to a society to be successful, we need functions or moving parts, this is an important part and helps a society function, I like how they used Nazi Germany, how it said, this made the Germans proud to be German, because Nazi made the Jewish people below them, and put all the blame on them (The Jewish people). Finally, interactionism