Chapter 9 Social Stratifications

In every existing society there has been social inequality. Even if the social classes are divided in a different way, come will always be above others. Social classes can be divided by many factors such as income, education, occupation, lifestyle or even heritage.

The level of social inequality depends on the society’s stratification system.  There are two basic types of stratification systems which are caste systems and class systems. A caste system has scarce resources and social rewards are distributed according to ascribed statuses. A newborn’s status is determined by his/her lifelong status. The practice of exogamy to determine status when there is marriage between two different castes. This practice is marriage outside one’s social category. Most commonly however endogamy is practiced which is marriage within one’s own social category. Class systems on the other hand is composed by the distribution of scarce resources and rewards through achieved statuses. This means that one can climb the social ladder. The dimensions of social stratification are wealth, power and prestige. An individual’s wealth is made up of his or her assets (value of what the person owns) and income. Power is the ability to control the behavior of others with or without consent. People who have a substantial wealth usually hold some power. One can also be ranked by prestige which is the respect, honor, recognition or courtesy an individual receives from the members of society. There are two main theories for stratification. One of them is the functionalist theory which views stratification as necessary feature of social structure. They claim that without varying rewards, jobs wouldn’t be fulfilled and society wouldn’t run smoothly. The other is the conflict theory which states that the competition for scarce resources is the cause of social inequality.

Political Cartoon about the differences between the rich and the poor

There is social inequality in every class system. Theoretically, all Americans have equal access to the resources needed for social advances but there are many different social statuses in America. Sociologists do not agree in the number of class divisions in the United States. The most common is dividing it into five classes: upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class and lower class. There are three basic methods to determining these divisions. The first is reputational and individuals in the community are asked to rank other community members based on lifestyle. The second is subjective in which individuals are asked to determine their own social rank. The third is objective and divisions are determined by income, occupation and education. The upper class makes up percent of the population and it controls a proportion of the countries’ wealth. Then there is the upper middle class who are high income business people and professionals. The lower middle class are usually people who hold white collar jobs and work doesn’t involve manual labor. The working class holds jobs that require manual labor. The working poor are the ones who have the lowest paying jobs and the underclass are families that have experienced poverty and unemployment for generations. Social mobility is the movement between or within between or within social classes.

Even in the most prosperous countries, there is always going to be poverty. Poverty is seen as the standard of living that is below the minimum level considered adequate by the society. the minimum income is called the poverty level. In America the largest percent of poverty in age group are children. According to gender 57 percent of the poor are women. Finally according to race and ethnicity African Americans and Hispanics have the highest poverty rates. Life chances are the likelihood of an individual sharing the benefits and opportunities of society. It has been shown that life chances vary by social class and that the lower the class the less life chances. Life expectancy is the average years a person will live. Poor children are 60 percent more likely to die in their first year. Behavior patterns also change according to social class. For example, divorce rates are higher in the lower class than any other social class. The government responds by trying to help those in need through programs such as Medicare.

Social classes can be very complex. Many sociologists even argue about how they should be divided. Whether it’s by caste system or social classes, there will always be inequality among society.

Chapter 8 Deviance and Social Control

      The world becomes more connected everyday and our societies get bigger and closer without us even noticing. This makes the rules and norms harder to interpret to the eyes of some individuals. Certain people cannot process the norms that a society has. This can show by the person dressing a strange way to the community or it can lead to more serious violations that require punishment. This is why there is a complex legal system to protect people from offenders.

       Most people internalize social norms but there are some people who break the rules. We can’t really internalize all of the rules society has and because of this we are bound to break them once in a while. Behavior that violates specific and significant social norms is called deviance. Since there are so many norms governing behavior, occasional violations are unavoidable and not considered deviant. One of the ways to be considered deviant is to commit an offence repetitively. For example, if one continues to get speeding tickets over and over again, then that person will be considered reckless and therefore deviant. A stigma is a mark of social disgrace that sets the deviant apart from the rest of society. The social foundations of deviance are clarifying norms, unifying the group, diffusing tension, promoting social change and providing jobs. There are different theories dedicated to deviance. The first is the functionalist theory which states that deviance comes from a natural outgrowth of the norms in the community. Next is the conflict theory which states that deviance is the result of competition and social inequality. Finally interactionalists insist that deviance is a natural human feeling.

     A crime is any act that is labeled as such by those in authority, is prohibited by law, and punishable by the government. The five main categories of crime are violent crimes which are murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Then we have crimes against property which include burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Third there are victimless crimes which are composed of prostitution, illegal gambling, illegal drug use, and vagrancy. Fourth there is white-collar crimes which are committed by individuals of high social status in the course of their professional lives: misrepresentation, fraud, tax evasion, embezzlement, price fixing, toxic pollution, insider trading, and political corruption are the usual crimes. Finally there is organized crime composed of drug trafficking, illegal gambling, unfair labor practices, hijacking of merchandise, and loan-sharking.

       A crime syndicate is a large-scale organization of professional criminals that controls some vice or business through violence or the threat of violence. Crimes as we know, don’t go unpunished, once a crime has been committed and reported it is taken by the jurisdiction of the criminal-justice system. Police discretion is the power to decide who is actually arrested. This power is very important and requires a great amount of responsibility. Sadly many people take advantage of police discretion. It is widely suspected the high rates of African American arrests are caused by racial profiling. When a criminal is arrested, they have the right for a trial and they go to court. They do a process legal negotiation that allows an accused person to plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for a lighter sentence. This process is called legal bargaining. Corrections are sanctions used to punish criminals and they have four functions: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and social protection. The juvenile-justice system is for offenders under 18. This system is like the criminal-justice system yet is not as harsh due to the fact that the offenders are minors. When a person constantly repeats criminal behavior it is called Recidivism.

       Deviance in my opinion is very important. In some ways one must learn not to follow everything a society or regime says. Yet there are some norms that are there to protect us and when people break those rules there may be serious consequences. Depending on the type of crime and how the person, pleads or defends him/herself in court there will be an adequate punishment. And example, if a criminal pleads guilty he may have some time removed from his sentence.  

Chapter 6/Chapter 7 The Adolescent in Society and The Adult in Society

Every day we grow whether it’s physically or mentally. We are always in a period of development even as adults. There are many challenges to every stage of life yet we have to go through it and enjoy it as much as we can.

Adolescence can be defined as the period between the normal onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood. Puberty is the physical maturing that enables individuals of physical reproduction. The characteristics of adolescence are biological growth and development. Here the body’s glands produce various hormones that control biological development.  Then there is having an undefined status, expectations for children are known and expectations for adults are also known but expectations for teenager are vague. Increased decision making is another characteristic and increased pressure as well. Finally the search for self is when adolescents are mature enough to think for themselves and know what they want in life. Preparing for future roles is an important aspect to finding oneself. Anticipatory socialization is learning the rights, obligations and expectations of a role that will be taken in the future.

Adolescents

Dating is a universal phenomenon that is practiced a lot by adolescents. Dating was influenced by the industrial revolution when people were moving to cities and were less dependent on their parents. This made the idea of courtship decrease. Yet it was till after World War I that dating was practiced. This was because of the increased gender equality and the new sources if entertainment such as cars and cinemas. There are many functions to dating. First and probably most important is entertainment. It allows young people to go out and have fun especially in the stage of causal dating. Second, dating acts as a mechanism of socialization. It teaches individuals about members of the opposite sex and how to behave in social situations. Third, dating fulfills basic psychological needs such as conversation companionship and understanding.  Fourth, dating can help an individual attain status. It was shown in various studies that dating between college fraternities and sororities was mostly for status attainment. Fifth and final, in later stages of dating the person might select his/her as their spouse.

Adolescence has many challenges and consequences that come with those challenges. One of those challenges is teenage sexual behavior. Before the 1960’s the majority of Americans held the belief that sexual activity should be confined to marriage. However this changed in the 1960’s and 70’s due the development of birth control, contraception and the feminist movement led to the “sexual revolution”. Consequently teenage sexual activity has increased to 50 percent in 1995. There were also higher percentages of unmarried teen mothers. There are many consequences to teenage sexual activity which are that babies born from teenage mothers are usually underweight and more likely to die within the first year. Teenagers who become parents have a lower chance of finishing high school or college. Individuals who become parents at a young age also tend to have a lower income and teenage mothers also go through a lot of emotional stress. Another problem is teenage drug use. Though some drug use decreased during earlier years, some are starting to rise again. Influences of drug use are having friends who constantly do drugs, having social and academic adjustment problems and living in a hostile family setting. Finally there is teenage suicide which are contributed to drug and alcohol use. The rate of teenage suicide exceeds that of the general population.

After adolescence one enters the adult world. Male and female adult development is different. The adult male development is characterized by a life structure or a combination of statuses, roles, values, beliefs and life circumstances. An adult’s life is divided in early adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. It is suggested that the adult female development is categorized in three phases. The first is leaving the family where the adult makes psychological break from parents. However many women put more emphasis on marriage than on careers. Then comes the entering the adult world phase which is when an adult gets married and has children. Finally entering the adult world again phase comes when the children enter grade school.

An important part of adult life is work. Labor force consists of all individuals age 16 and older who are employed in paid positions. The composition of the American labor force is changing and one of the biggest changes is the amount of working women. Women now hold about half of the professional jobs in the United States. A profession is a high status occupation that is obtained through formal education. Examples are Lawyers, teachers, dentists, engineers, etc. Unemployment is the situation that occurs when a person does not have a job but is actively seeking employment.

Professional Adults

With improved health care and other factors, people are living longer. Therefore the late adult era cannot be viewed as a single period of development. Late adulthood is divided into young-old (ages 65-74), middle-old (ages 75-84) and old-old (ages 85 and above). In many cases, when one reaches late adulthood they retire to pursue other careers or hobbies. One of the changes is adjusting to retired life. Another change is physical and mental functioning. As one ages, the body deteriorates which causes wrinkles, grey hair and losing physical capacity. Contrary to popular belief, as one ages the mind doesn’t necessarily deteriorate. Actually the mind can get stronger than ever before, however the elderly are more prone the Alzheimer’s disease which causes deterioration of the brain. Many elderly have issues with dependency and death. When an elderly person becomes dependent on a grown child the roles reverse and now the child takes over the role of caregiver and authority figure. Though many have problems with dependency, the elderly don’t seem to have a problem with death since they feel they have less to lose.

Late Adults

As we go through life we pass through many stages: childhood, adolescence, early, middle and late adulthood until we die. Each stage has challenges that we have to overcome but that doesn’t mean we cannot enjoy ourselves in any stage we are in.

Chapter 5 Socializing the Individual

       We all are different. This is because we have different personalities. Some are more outgoing, others are shyer. Some are easy going and others have a quick temper. But why is this? Are we born with a personality or do we develop a personality? There are many theories on how we develop a personality or sense of self but there are still many debates over it.

       Personality is the total sum of behaviors attitudes and beliefs in one person. Our individual personality traits determine how we adapt to an environment. No individuals have exactly the same personality. People’s personality keeps changing over time specific traits change at certain times and at certain paces making personality development vary from individual to individual. A heated debate between social scientists is nature vs. nurture. Some argue that heredity, the transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to children, is the cause of an individual’s personality. Others say that it is the result of the individual’s social environment and learning. It is also argued that instinctual behavior can be taught. One of the most influential factors in someone’s personality development is culture. Culture gives individuals an example of the different personalities that can be found in that culture do that individuals can emulate them.

       There are cases, however, in which children live in isolation and don’t have culture’s influence. In a few cases feral children, wild or untamed children, were found living with animals. In other cases the children were found isolated in their homes by their family. These children had few human characteristics. They had no reasoning skills, no manners, no control of bodily functions and couldn’t move about like other human beings. An example is the case of Anna who at the age of six was given back to her mother because of the hostility of her grandfather. She had been confined to an attic and given the minimum amount of care. At the age of six she could not talk, walk or feed herself.  Anna died at the age of ten.

The Wild Child is a film based on a true story of a child found living in the woods.

       We all have a self. This self is our conscious awareness of possessing a different identity that separates individuals from other members of society. There are three theories of the social self. The first is Locke’s theory, the Tabula Rasa. Locke believed that human beings could be molded into any type of character. Tabula rasa literally means clean slate, on which anything can be written. He claimed that humans were not born with a personality but acquire a personality through their experiences. He said that if he were given a new born child, he would be able to mold that child’s personality into any type of character. Social psychologist Charles Horton Cooley is most noted for developing the looking -glass self theory. This theory explains how individuals develop a sense of self. The looking glass self is an interactive process by which we create an image of ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others. Finally we have Mead’s role-taking theory. He had many of his idea based on Cooley’s theories. He claimed that seeing ourselves through others’ eyes is only the beginning. After a while we start to take or pretend to take the roles of others. This is called role-taking. This socialization process lets us know what is expected from us.

       Sociologists use the term agents of socialization to describe individuals, groups or institutions that force us to socialize. The first one is family. Family is the most important agent of socialization because it is the first interaction children have. Then there is the peer group which is a primary group composed by people of roughly equal age. This group is most important in early teenage and pre teenage years. School is another agent. People from the ages five to eighteen spend a lot of time and effort in school. One of the main goals in school is to teach children how to work with others. The mass media is one of the largest agents because it can reach many people with no personal contact- this includes television, magazines, the internet, newspapers and the radio. Finally there is resocialization in a total institution. A total institution is a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and are under tight control. Here the act of resocialization occurs which is a break with past experiences and the learning of new values and norms. Examples of total institutions are prisons, military boot camps, monasteries, and psychiatric hospitals.

Prisons are an example of total institutions.

       We can all agree that culture/society is a great influence on our personality. We have seen how it affects us and we have seen the effects of lack of societal influences on people. There are theories on how we develop a personality based on other people and society. Our personality can even be changed under strict control.