SOWK 250 TEST 1 WITH 100% CORRECT ANSWERS 2023

Reformed perspective of diversity and inequality Three Levels of Social Life: (Social) Structure, Culture, (Human) Agency Examples/Definitions of Each: 1 - (Social) Structure: SHAPES OPPORTUNITIES External factors outside of one's control that shape the lives of individuals ex: disasters, war, poverty, societal change 2 - Culture: (medium level): The ENTIRE way of life of a group of people that acts as a LENS through which one views the world - passed from one generation to the next. *Shapes values, behavior, traditions, norms, taboos. ex: christmas trees, expensive weddings, ring by spring, college after high school 3 - (Human) Agency: An individual's exercise of freewill through decisions and activities. ex: morals, intuition? Difference between sociologists and psychologists: Sociologists: Focus on the cultural and/or structural - more group focused Psychologists: Focus on human agency Difference between Sociologists and Social Workers Sociologists: Focus on the cultural and/or structural - more group focused Social Workers: Organized work intended to advance the social conditions of a community (especially the disadvantaged) Social Systems Definition Groups to which we belong that serve as an organizing structure in society due to patterns in social relationships. SOCIAL SYSTEMS DETERMINE.... Life Chances. Social System Characteristics 2 characteristics: 1) Socially constructed - created & shaped by surrounding society 2) Stratified - categories within them are unequal Social Location Social place of an individual or group in the race, class, & gender hierarchies as well as other critical social hierarchies *NOT geographical *Can be alone OR in groups Life chances The opportunities people have to provide themselves with material goods, positive provide themselves with material goods, positive living conditions & favorable life experiences. Intersections A method of research & theory that focuses on understanding social life at the interactions of 2 or more social systems. *e.g.: Womans movement - nanny--engineer *black women stayed home w/ kids gladly! *How Social Systems, Social Location, Life chances, and Intersections relate to each other Can determine life chances? Rationale for primary vs. secondary social systems Primary: most influential 21st century U.S, impacts the MOST people, OR large scale social movement. Secondary: members is indirect. It is formed more or less deliberately and in terms of common interests in the achievement of some recognized goal. The members cooperate only to achieve the group's objective. (Online Definition)*** Oppression When one group has historically gained power and control over valued assets of a society by exploiting the labor and lives of other group and using those assets to secure its position of power in the future. 3 forms of oppression 1) Institutionalized oppression: built into, supported by, and perpetuated by social institutions 2) Interpersonal oppression: that which is manifested between individuals 3) Internalized oppression: directed @ oneself. Power Access to resources / ability to use them Dominant / Subordinate Dominant: more successful b/c subordinate has less. Subordinate: less successful 4 Main Points about why these are contentious and relevant details such as: -Premises of American Dream -McDonalds Story -Characteristics of stratification (e.g. relational) -Paradox of democratic capatilism -American Dream ideology: those who are talented and work hard, get ahead (dependent on a system of education to provide opportunities to explain its failures. Intertwined w/ education...) -McDonalds: Inequality and stratification are dependent on being unacknowledged. * Low wage for low quality food * what is the least $ they can pay you? -Characteristics of stratification: 1) Relational - individual 2) Invisible: cultural&structural deficit not visible w/out intentional examination 3) Unintentional - Exploitation not personally intentional but the nature of participating in the capitalist system. 4) Cyclical - Having resources makes it EASIER to maintain and GAIN resources in the FUTURE ex: married couple -Paradox: -Microlevel paradox -Working against each other ECONOMIC INEQUALITY yet democratic is supposed to be ALL equal. Micro vs. macro level focus on social issues *e.g. Detroit walking man Micro: Individual Solutions Macro: Cultural & structural solutions, more grouped Benefits of an intersectional framework Definition first: It is the study of overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination, or discrimination. Benefits: Becomes more "normal" to be around