SOC2 070 FINAL QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
What are some cultural universals of what people find attractive? - Answer --Symmetry
-Men- slightly above-average height, broad forehead, prominent brow and cheekbones,
large jaw, strong chin
-Women- youth, large eyes, small nose, delicate jaw, small chin, full lips, firm,
symmetrical breasts, waist-hip ratio of 70%
What is James Randi's Contest? - Answer -If you can prove any claim of the
paranormal, he will give you $1 million
What are some major drug types for treating mental illness? - Answer --
Sedatives/tranquilizers- calm patients or knock them out
-Antipsychotics- deal w/ symptoms like incoherence and hallucinations
-Antidepressants- treat anxiety and depression
SSRIs- Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; function by increasing the proportion of
the neurotransmitter
- Serotonin in the brain's synapses, by preventing it from being reabsorbed and
recycling it
Most popular antidepressant is Zoloft
According to Katz, why do we have unusual feelings about the handicapped? - Answer
--We stigmatize the handicapped b/c they are unable to perform basic everyday
activities, but we also feel sympathy for them, distress over their suffering, and respect
the ones who are able to triumph over adversity
-"Just World" hypothesis- handicapped individuals remind us that justice does not
triumph and extreme misfortune may befall the virtuous and innocent; world is not a just
place
-Vulnerability- coming face to face w/ the handicapped reminds us of our own
vulnerability, and many of us find that experience painful; thus, we avoid these
individuals
secondary deviance - Answer -individuals get labelled a specific way, and then act that
way in order to fulfill the label
Tertiary deviance - Answer -the notion of socially disvalued people standing up, fighting
for their rights, and demanding equality w/ normals
What percentage of people are gay according to the University of Chicago? What does
the ABC Survey say? - Answer -University of Chicago- 10%
ABC Survey- 5%
What are some of the perspectives used to study sex work? - Answer --Moralistic- sex
work is bad and sex workers are bad people
-Social worker- sex work is bad, and we should save the people who do it
,-Marxist- capitalism causes the problem
-Functionalist- we may deplore sex work, but it wouldn't survive unless it had some
benefit to society
-Radical Feminism (Dworkin & MacKinnon)- all heterosexual intercourse occurs in a
male-dominated society, genuine consent is impossible, and maintains the patriarchy
-Pre-sex Feminism (Steinem)- the public must be re-educated to make sex egalitarian
and to end the objectification of women, pornography, and prostitution; people should
not want to do anything that makes women look inferior or to be sex objects
-Sexual Libertarianism (Paglia, Hefner, McElroy)- people will always want to enjoy
themselves, and have the right to enjoy anything consensual; people should have as
much liberty to do what they please as long as they hurt no one, and prostitutes should
have legal rights to safely conduct their business
-Norm- getting things out into the open will help reduce double standards and hypocrisy,
and get legal help for sex workers, but there's no perfect solution
-Jody Miller ("etic")- moralistic approach combined w/ politicized feminist viewpoint;
prostitution was caused by patriarchy and the interest of men, and by the presence of
American military bases and foreign tourists creating a form of neo-colonialism
-Marjorie Muecke ("emic")- traditional Buddhist customs of emphasizing care of one's
family and excusing unpleasant means achieve it provided its foundation
What are Wheeler's factors for identifying sex acts? - Answer -Nature of consent
Nature of the act
What is de-institutionalization? - Answer --Releasing patients into the community as
outpatients, w/ only minimal treatment and care in aftercare facilities
-Produced a large population of mentally ill homeless people who are subject to virtually
no supervision of treatment whatsoever
What is the one crime unforgivable under Islamic Law? - Answer -Leaving the religion
Give an example of cognitive deviance - Answer -Cognitive deviance- holding beliefs
that are non-normative which will cause their believers to be shunned, marginalized, or
condemned; in all cases, stigmatized
-Examples
-Atheists were punished by execution in Classical Greece, Rome, the European Middle
Ages, and the Renaissance
-The Catholic Church executed heretics in the Middle Ages, and threatened to burn
Galileo at the stake
-The Spanish Inquisition rooted out suspected false converts from Judaism and Islam
-Protestants and Catholics killed each other in the Wars of Reformations; also burned
men and women as suspected witches in the Renaissance
Who gets diagnosed as mentally ill more often: bachelors or married men? - Answer -
Bachelors
,What was the Rosenhan Experiment? - Answer -Rosenhan sent sane volunteers to
asylums and observed how long it took for them to be committed and released
-On average, it took 19 days for staff to release a sane person, which was seen as
evidence of how patients are treated as sick even when they're not
Criticisms: volunteers had lied about their symptoms, the patients were eventually
discharged correctly, and that doctors and nurses need to err on the side of caution
Follow up study- Rosenhan told a teaching hospital that was aware of his experiment
that he was going to send some imposter patients to attempt to gain admittance as real
patients; catch- Rosenhan did not actually send anyone
-Hospital refused admission to 41 "imposters", and flagged another 42 patients as
suspected imposters
What is the correlation b/w SES and mental illness? - Answer -The lower the SES, the
higher the rate of mental illness
People at the bottom of the class ladder are far more likely to suffer from psychiatric
distress, like schizophrenia
The kinds of disorder exhibited by lower-status persons are more likely to come to the
attention of authorities than the kinds of disorders exhibited by middle and upper-class
individuals
Due to class bias and the labeling process, middle-class psychiatrists find lower-class
behaviour more troublesome and are more likely to label it disordered than the
behaviour of middle-class individuals
What is the stress hypothesis for SES and mental disorders? - Answer -Stress
hypothesis- lower-class individuals suffer a higher-level of emotional stress and are
more vulnerable to a psychiatric breakdown; the pressure of daily living under deprived
circumstances becomes overwhelming, and problems that cannot be solved mount,
become unmanageable, and force the person into a break w/ reality
Social selection/Drift hypothesis- mentally disordered are incapable of achieving a
higher position on the SES hierarchy b/c they are mentally disordered
What did Thomas Scheff say was the cause of mental illness? - Answer -One learns to
act out the symptomology of mental illness as a result of being exposed to the
definitions that are prevalent in a given society
Behaving like a crazy person is how one is supposed to act if one has been defined as
crazy
The label creates the condition, but also makes the condition come to be concretely real
How are the suicide rates different for men and women? - Answer -Women- more likely
to attempt suicide
Men- 4 times more likely to succeed in their attempts
What does the National Association of the Deaf think should be done w/ deaf children? -
Answer -Focuses on ensuring every deaf/hard of hearing child receives quality
, education, and that every deaf child has an appropriate IE program that reflects their
unique development
What type of drug treats schizophrenia? - Answer -Schizophrenia- anti-psychotics like
Thorazine; helps patients exhibit fewer and less dramatic symptoms of psychosis
What type of drug treats mood disorders - Answer -antidepressants
What type of drug treats Bi-polar disorder? - Answer -mood stabilizer
Why is magic and faith called the supernatural? - Answer -Both magic and faith are
unexplained as they have never been empirically demonstrated
What paradigm says etiology is served by epidemiology? - Answer -Etiology- study of
causation
Epidemiology- study of distribution within the population
Essentialism says that etiology is served by epidemiology
What are contingencies? - Answer -Factors that affect decision-making, but in theory
shouldn't
- E.g. money, privacy, proximity, visibility of behaviour, harm to others
What is voluntary guilt (stigma) by association? - Answer -Bringing a stigma to oneself
by displaying adherence to a group
E.g. tattoos are often one way of indicating mild unconventionality or adherence to a
group (Hell's Angels)
What is an example of sexual paraphilia? - Answer -Sexual paraphilia- fixation on an
activity
Examples
Sado-masochism and whipping- paying or asking to be sexually abused
Vampirism- drinking of blood for sexual gratification
Voraphilia- fantasy of being swallowed whole
Frottage- rubbing up against strangers
In America, how many women die from eating disorders according to Naomi Wolf?
What is the better estimate? - Answer -Naomi Wolf- 100,000 women die from ED
- Better estimate- b/w 80,000 and 100,000
What is "elective affinity"? - Answer -The fit b/w a group's social practices and the belief
- E.g. privileged people will like ideas that justify their privilege or ideas that get rid of
their guilt; the poor will like ideas that justify their poverty in the afterlife, tell them it is
not their fault, or which give them hope to rise and join the better off
Why did Fielder say we were bothered by freaks? - Answer -Brings up our own
childhood experiences, primordial triggers
What are some cultural universals of what people find attractive? - Answer --Symmetry
-Men- slightly above-average height, broad forehead, prominent brow and cheekbones,
large jaw, strong chin
-Women- youth, large eyes, small nose, delicate jaw, small chin, full lips, firm,
symmetrical breasts, waist-hip ratio of 70%
What is James Randi's Contest? - Answer -If you can prove any claim of the
paranormal, he will give you $1 million
What are some major drug types for treating mental illness? - Answer --
Sedatives/tranquilizers- calm patients or knock them out
-Antipsychotics- deal w/ symptoms like incoherence and hallucinations
-Antidepressants- treat anxiety and depression
SSRIs- Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors; function by increasing the proportion of
the neurotransmitter
- Serotonin in the brain's synapses, by preventing it from being reabsorbed and
recycling it
Most popular antidepressant is Zoloft
According to Katz, why do we have unusual feelings about the handicapped? - Answer
--We stigmatize the handicapped b/c they are unable to perform basic everyday
activities, but we also feel sympathy for them, distress over their suffering, and respect
the ones who are able to triumph over adversity
-"Just World" hypothesis- handicapped individuals remind us that justice does not
triumph and extreme misfortune may befall the virtuous and innocent; world is not a just
place
-Vulnerability- coming face to face w/ the handicapped reminds us of our own
vulnerability, and many of us find that experience painful; thus, we avoid these
individuals
secondary deviance - Answer -individuals get labelled a specific way, and then act that
way in order to fulfill the label
Tertiary deviance - Answer -the notion of socially disvalued people standing up, fighting
for their rights, and demanding equality w/ normals
What percentage of people are gay according to the University of Chicago? What does
the ABC Survey say? - Answer -University of Chicago- 10%
ABC Survey- 5%
What are some of the perspectives used to study sex work? - Answer --Moralistic- sex
work is bad and sex workers are bad people
-Social worker- sex work is bad, and we should save the people who do it
,-Marxist- capitalism causes the problem
-Functionalist- we may deplore sex work, but it wouldn't survive unless it had some
benefit to society
-Radical Feminism (Dworkin & MacKinnon)- all heterosexual intercourse occurs in a
male-dominated society, genuine consent is impossible, and maintains the patriarchy
-Pre-sex Feminism (Steinem)- the public must be re-educated to make sex egalitarian
and to end the objectification of women, pornography, and prostitution; people should
not want to do anything that makes women look inferior or to be sex objects
-Sexual Libertarianism (Paglia, Hefner, McElroy)- people will always want to enjoy
themselves, and have the right to enjoy anything consensual; people should have as
much liberty to do what they please as long as they hurt no one, and prostitutes should
have legal rights to safely conduct their business
-Norm- getting things out into the open will help reduce double standards and hypocrisy,
and get legal help for sex workers, but there's no perfect solution
-Jody Miller ("etic")- moralistic approach combined w/ politicized feminist viewpoint;
prostitution was caused by patriarchy and the interest of men, and by the presence of
American military bases and foreign tourists creating a form of neo-colonialism
-Marjorie Muecke ("emic")- traditional Buddhist customs of emphasizing care of one's
family and excusing unpleasant means achieve it provided its foundation
What are Wheeler's factors for identifying sex acts? - Answer -Nature of consent
Nature of the act
What is de-institutionalization? - Answer --Releasing patients into the community as
outpatients, w/ only minimal treatment and care in aftercare facilities
-Produced a large population of mentally ill homeless people who are subject to virtually
no supervision of treatment whatsoever
What is the one crime unforgivable under Islamic Law? - Answer -Leaving the religion
Give an example of cognitive deviance - Answer -Cognitive deviance- holding beliefs
that are non-normative which will cause their believers to be shunned, marginalized, or
condemned; in all cases, stigmatized
-Examples
-Atheists were punished by execution in Classical Greece, Rome, the European Middle
Ages, and the Renaissance
-The Catholic Church executed heretics in the Middle Ages, and threatened to burn
Galileo at the stake
-The Spanish Inquisition rooted out suspected false converts from Judaism and Islam
-Protestants and Catholics killed each other in the Wars of Reformations; also burned
men and women as suspected witches in the Renaissance
Who gets diagnosed as mentally ill more often: bachelors or married men? - Answer -
Bachelors
,What was the Rosenhan Experiment? - Answer -Rosenhan sent sane volunteers to
asylums and observed how long it took for them to be committed and released
-On average, it took 19 days for staff to release a sane person, which was seen as
evidence of how patients are treated as sick even when they're not
Criticisms: volunteers had lied about their symptoms, the patients were eventually
discharged correctly, and that doctors and nurses need to err on the side of caution
Follow up study- Rosenhan told a teaching hospital that was aware of his experiment
that he was going to send some imposter patients to attempt to gain admittance as real
patients; catch- Rosenhan did not actually send anyone
-Hospital refused admission to 41 "imposters", and flagged another 42 patients as
suspected imposters
What is the correlation b/w SES and mental illness? - Answer -The lower the SES, the
higher the rate of mental illness
People at the bottom of the class ladder are far more likely to suffer from psychiatric
distress, like schizophrenia
The kinds of disorder exhibited by lower-status persons are more likely to come to the
attention of authorities than the kinds of disorders exhibited by middle and upper-class
individuals
Due to class bias and the labeling process, middle-class psychiatrists find lower-class
behaviour more troublesome and are more likely to label it disordered than the
behaviour of middle-class individuals
What is the stress hypothesis for SES and mental disorders? - Answer -Stress
hypothesis- lower-class individuals suffer a higher-level of emotional stress and are
more vulnerable to a psychiatric breakdown; the pressure of daily living under deprived
circumstances becomes overwhelming, and problems that cannot be solved mount,
become unmanageable, and force the person into a break w/ reality
Social selection/Drift hypothesis- mentally disordered are incapable of achieving a
higher position on the SES hierarchy b/c they are mentally disordered
What did Thomas Scheff say was the cause of mental illness? - Answer -One learns to
act out the symptomology of mental illness as a result of being exposed to the
definitions that are prevalent in a given society
Behaving like a crazy person is how one is supposed to act if one has been defined as
crazy
The label creates the condition, but also makes the condition come to be concretely real
How are the suicide rates different for men and women? - Answer -Women- more likely
to attempt suicide
Men- 4 times more likely to succeed in their attempts
What does the National Association of the Deaf think should be done w/ deaf children? -
Answer -Focuses on ensuring every deaf/hard of hearing child receives quality
, education, and that every deaf child has an appropriate IE program that reflects their
unique development
What type of drug treats schizophrenia? - Answer -Schizophrenia- anti-psychotics like
Thorazine; helps patients exhibit fewer and less dramatic symptoms of psychosis
What type of drug treats mood disorders - Answer -antidepressants
What type of drug treats Bi-polar disorder? - Answer -mood stabilizer
Why is magic and faith called the supernatural? - Answer -Both magic and faith are
unexplained as they have never been empirically demonstrated
What paradigm says etiology is served by epidemiology? - Answer -Etiology- study of
causation
Epidemiology- study of distribution within the population
Essentialism says that etiology is served by epidemiology
What are contingencies? - Answer -Factors that affect decision-making, but in theory
shouldn't
- E.g. money, privacy, proximity, visibility of behaviour, harm to others
What is voluntary guilt (stigma) by association? - Answer -Bringing a stigma to oneself
by displaying adherence to a group
E.g. tattoos are often one way of indicating mild unconventionality or adherence to a
group (Hell's Angels)
What is an example of sexual paraphilia? - Answer -Sexual paraphilia- fixation on an
activity
Examples
Sado-masochism and whipping- paying or asking to be sexually abused
Vampirism- drinking of blood for sexual gratification
Voraphilia- fantasy of being swallowed whole
Frottage- rubbing up against strangers
In America, how many women die from eating disorders according to Naomi Wolf?
What is the better estimate? - Answer -Naomi Wolf- 100,000 women die from ED
- Better estimate- b/w 80,000 and 100,000
What is "elective affinity"? - Answer -The fit b/w a group's social practices and the belief
- E.g. privileged people will like ideas that justify their privilege or ideas that get rid of
their guilt; the poor will like ideas that justify their poverty in the afterlife, tell them it is
not their fault, or which give them hope to rise and join the better off
Why did Fielder say we were bothered by freaks? - Answer -Brings up our own
childhood experiences, primordial triggers
