Class notes Sociology Essay

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Deviance: violation of a social norm that elicits a negative reaction
Norms: rules that govern our behavior
Tell us what we are supposed to do and what we are not supposed to do
Folkways: less serious norms (etiquette)
Say please and thank you, hold the door open for people etc.
Elevator example
Mores: morals, violation of them makes people think you’re bad
Sometimes they are formalized into law
Homicide
Murder: law determines what’s murder
Varies from state to state
Taboos: specialized more
So serious people don’t like to talk about them or think about them
Examples
Incest
Every culture has one, but its defined differently different places
Eating human flesh
Most cultures have laws against cannibalism
Norms are relative
They change over time and over space (from place to place)
So since norms are relative so is deviance
Sanctions
How to make people follow rules and norms
Positive sanctions
Informal:
Smile, head nod
Formal
Getting a raise
Getting a key to the city, getting an award
Negative sanctions
Informal
Frown, say something to them, gossip, rumors, online, public shaming, spanking a child, time out
Formal
Arrested, prosecuted, fines
Deviance: violation of social norm that elicits a negative reaction
Deviance is relative
Different and deviance are not always the same thing
You can be different with out being deviant, and deviant without being different
Positivist
Absolutism
Deviance is real
If deviance is real then its different from conventional behavior and it has different explanations than conventional behavior and the people that engage in it are different than people who behave conventionally
Determinism
Our behavior to some extent it determined by social forces
Objectivism
Treating research subjects as objects, researchers remove their own influence
Want to treat the subject in an objective way and conduct research in a scientific way
Positivist research relies on quantitative data
Crime rates, homicide rates
Numbers
Very removed and objective, but can make a large comparison objectively
Constructionist
Relativism
All deviance is relative
Nothing is inherently good or bad, society defines that
Voluntarism
People act voluntarily
The idea of free will
People choose how they respond
Subjectivism
Context
Have to understand context in which behavior is taking place
Viagra guy example
Understand what it means to the actor and what it means to the audience
Depth vs breadth constructionists vs positivism

Positivists
Strain Theories (positivist)
Merton- macro level theories (why group A has higher rate of deviance than group B)
Strain-anomie
Success goals – blocked means – strain – anomie - deviance
Success goals: society tells us what we should be striving to achieve
We are all socialized into the same success goals
Ex: economic success
Blocked means: society tells us what the most appropriate means are to achieve those goals
Ex: lots of ways to make money, some are appropriate some are not
Education, work
Groups don’t have equal access to the means
Strain: when means are blocked to some groups it creates a strain; a disjuncture between goals and means
Anomie: normlessness, weakening of norms
People start to question the rules
Deviance: when people start to question rules, they are less likely to follow them
Modes of adaptation (Merton):

Goals
Means
Conformity
+
+
Innovation (closely linked to crime)
+
- (use deviant ways to achieve goals)
Retreatism (societal dropouts)
- (not trying to achieve goals)
-
Ritualism (going through the motions, lost sight of the goal, but still participate in the mean)
-
+
Rebellion (counter cultures-tend to be in direct opposition to mainstream society)
+/-
+/-

Cloward & Ohlin
Differential Illegitimate opportunity theory
Mertons was Differential Legitimate opportunity structure
Cloward and Ohlin say that everyone has access
Show More

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