Socialization, Social Groups, and Stratification

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Socialization, Social Groups, and Stratification
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Socialization

• The process of learning how to participate in a
  group
• Begins at infancy

• Agents of socialization
• Family
• Peers
• Media
• Religion
• Education
• Work

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Looking Glass Self

• An image of yourself based on what you believe
  others think of you
• People shape themselves based on other people's
  perception, which leads the people to reinforce
  other people's perspectives on themselves

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Self Concept

• An image of yourself as having an identity
  separate from others
• Contains three parts
• 1. Self-esteem it is where one makes judgments
  about his or her self-worth.
• Stability refers to the organization and
  continuity of one's self-concept.
• Self-efficacy is self-confidence. It is
  specifically connected with one's abilities,
  unlike self-esteem

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Social Interactions

• The process of influencing each other as people
  relate

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Significant Other

• Those people whose reactions are most important
  to your self concept

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Social Exchange

• A voluntary action performed in the expectation
  of getting a reward in return
• Social exchange theory states all human
  relationships are formed by the use of a
  subjective cost-benefit analysis and the
  comparison of alternatives.
• If I help my mom she will give me gas money

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Coercion

• Interaction in which individuals or groups are
  forced to behave a particular way

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Conformity

• Behavior that matches the groups expectations

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Group Think

• Self deceptive thinking that is based on
  conformity to group beliefs and created by group
  pressure to conform

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Cooperation

• Interaction in which individuals/groups combine
  their efforts to reach a goal

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Conflict

• Interaction aimed at defeating an opponent

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Group/Cliques

• Composed of people who share several features
• Usually begins in early adolescence
• Usually consist of five or six people who are
  homogeneous in age, gender, race, social status,
  and socioeconomic background
• During late adolescence, the clique typically
  dissolves into associated sets of couples, which
  then remain the primary social unit into and
  throughout adulthood.

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Features of a group

• Frequent contact with each other
• Similar ways of thinking feeling and behavior
• Similar reaction to one anothers behavior
• One or more interests or goals

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Social Category

• People who share a social characteristic

Ethnicity/Nationality
Occupation
Gender
Race
Age
Marital Status
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Social Aggregate

• People temporarily in the same place at the same
  time but do not interact or share the same
  characteristics

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Mechanical Solidarity

• People feel connected through similar work,
  educational and religious training, and lifestyle

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Organic Solidarity

• Social cohesion based upon the dependence
  individuals have on each other in more advanced
  societies
• Although individuals perform different tasks and
  often have different values and interest, the
  order and very solidarity of society depends on
  their reliance on each other to perform their
  specified tasks

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Status

• A position a person occupies within a social
  structure

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Ascribed Status

• Position that is neither earned nor chosen but it
  assigned

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Achieved Status

• A position that is earned or chosen

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Master Status

• A position that strongly affects most aspects of
  a persons life

Religious Beliefs
Sexual orientation
Age and Gender
Race and Ethnicity
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Social Stratification

• Division of large numbers of people according to
  power, property, gender and prestige.
• This applies to nations, societies, sexes and
  other groups

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Social Class

• Segment of society whose members hold similar
  amounts of resources and share values, norms, and
  identifiable lifestyles
• Based on money and material things

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Income

• The amount of money received by an individual or
  group over a specific period of time

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Wealth

• Total economic resources held by a person or a
  group

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Power

• The ability to control the behavior of others
  even against their will

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Prestige

• Recognition, respect, and admiration attached to
  social positions
• Jobs that pay more, require more education,
  entail more abstract thought, offer greater
  autonomy
• Job prestige brings power- Elite- the top people
  in corporations, military, politics that make
  nations major decisions
• Different occupations have different levels of
  prestige

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False Consciousness

• Adoption of the ideas of the dominant class by
  the less powerful class

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Class Consciousness

• Identification with the goals and interests of a
  social class

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Absolute Poverty

• The absence of enough money to secure lifes
  necessities

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Relative Poverty

• Measure of poverty based on the economic
  disparity between those at the bottom of society
  and the rest of society

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Social Mobility

• The movement of individuals or groups between
  social classes

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Horizontal Mobility

• A change in occupation within the same social
  class

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Vertical Mobility

• A change upward or downward in occupation
  status/social class

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Intergenerational Mobility

• Class status change from one generation to the
  next