EXAM 3 STUDY GUIDE Chapters 5 6 8 and 9 Self fulfilling prophecy defined by Robert K Merton known as a false definition of a situation that is assumed to be accurate People behave as if the false definition is true This misguided information produces responses that confirm the false definition Erving goffman s developed writings that revolve around the asumption that life is dramatically acted thing Developed concepts such as the front stage where people feel compelled to present themselves in expected ways while viewable by a certain audience and the back stage where people let their guard down and do things that would be considered inappropriate or unexpected in a front stage setting This occurs behind closed doors or within groups where people feel the most comfortable Dramaturgical sociology studies social interactions emphasizing the ways in which those involved work much like actors on stage to present and manage a shared understanding of reality Impression management the process of people managing the setting their dress their words and their gestures so that they can correspond to an impression they are trying to make Ethnomethodology an investigative and observational approach that focuses on how people make sense of everyday social activities and experinces Reference groups any groups whose standards people take into account when evaluating something about themselves or others whether it be personal achievements aspirations in life or individual circumstances Deviance any behavior or physical appearance that is socially challenged and or condemned because it departs from the norms and expectations of some group Durkheim argued that while ideas about what is deviant vary about what is deviant vary deviance is present in all societies He defined deviance as those acts that offend collective sentiments According to Durkheim deviance will be present even in a community of saints Mechanism of social control strategies people use to encourage often force others to comply with social norms Examples positive and negative sanctions engaging in censorship or surveillance exercising authority and applying group pressure Sanctions reactions of approval or disapproval to behavior that confroms or departs from group norms Sanctions can be formal or informal and positive or negative Norms rules and expectations for the way people are supposed to behave feel and appear in a particular social situation They exist for virtually every kind of situation including how many times a day to eat how to greet a friend what to wear to school how to handle the American flag and when to use a gun Milgram study concluded that behavior that is unthinkable in an individual who is acting on his own may be executed without hesitation when carried out under orders Group think coined by Irving Janis A phenomenon that occurs when a group under great pressure to take action achieves the illusion of consensus by putting pressure on its members to supress expression of doubt and ignore the moral consequences of their actions Most likely to occur in familirized or similar groups Types of deviants pure people who have engaged in offending behavior and are caught punished and labeled as outsiders Secret those who have engaged in the offending behavior but no one notices or if it is noticed no one applies sanctions Race Race is an illusion with several issues in its conceptual development that hinder it from being a logical way to classify people Ethnicity an ethnic group is group people who share believe they share or are believed by others to share a national origin a common ancestry a place of birth or distinctive social traits such as religion style of dress or language that set them apart from other ethnic groups In the United States we only have 2 Hispanic and Non Hispanic Assimilation a process by which ethnic racial and or cultural distinctions between groups disappear because one group is absorbed sometimes by force into another group s culture or because two cultures blend to form a new culture Racial formation theory a way to understand the social importance of race Race is clearly not a concrete biological category in fact race is a product of the system of racial classification Ethnic renewal occurs when someone discovers an ethnic identity as when an adopted child learns about and identifies with newly found biological relatives or a person learns about and revives lost traditions Ethnic renewal includes the process by which people take it upon themselves to find learn about and claim an ethnic heritage ethnic identity Hidden ethnicity a sense of self that is based on no awareness of an 6 racial categories Black White American Indian Asian Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Other or mixed race Number race categories there are 63 possible racial combinations Redlining refers to institutionalized practices that deny limit or increase the cost of services to neighborhoods because residents are low income and or minority Types of discriminators 1 Nonprejudiced nondiscriminators all weather liberals accept the creed of equal opportunity and their conduct conforms to that creed They represent a reservoir of culturally legitimized goodwill because they not only believe in equal opportunity but also take action against discrimination Merton 1976 193 2 Nonprejudiced discriminators fair weather liberals accept the creed of equal opportunity but discriminate because they simply fail to consider discriminatory consequences or because discriminating gives them some advantage For example whites decide to move out of their neighborhood after a black family moves in not because they are prejudiced against blacks perse but because they are afraid of declining property values 3 Prejudiced nondiscriminators timid bigots reject the creed of equal opportunity but refrain from discrimination primarily because they fear possible sanctions or being labeled as racists Timid bigots rarely express their true opinions about racial and ethnic groups and often use code words such as inner city or those people to camouflage their true attitudes 4 Prejudiced discriminators active bigots reject the notion of equal opportunity and profess a moral right even a duty to discriminate They derive significant social and psychological gains from the conviction that anyone from their racial or ethnic group is superior to other such groups Merton 1976 Segregation physical and or social separation of people by race or ethnicity Can be de