SOCIOLOGY 201 FINAL STUDY GUIDE
Causes for racial crimes - Answers - 1) biological: primordialism
2) psychological: frustration-aggression theory
3) normative theory
4) split market theory
Primordialism - Answers - -ethnic and racial attachments that people have (when similar
in terms of language, culture, beliefs, ancestry, appearance) reflect a basic tendency to
seek out and associate with people such as them
-ethnic grouping is "encoded" in our genes
-discrimination, prejudice, and ethnocentrism are natural and inevitable behaviours
Frustration-aggression Theory - Answers - -psychological
-frustration with your life leads to aggression
-ex. hitler blamed the jews, and we know what happened next
Normative Theory - Answers - -prejudice passed down from generation to generation
(socialized into children)
-consequently, people who are taught prejudice will display discriminatory behaviour
-prejudice and discrimination can be explained by:
1) a person's definition of situations
2) reference group norms
Normative Theory: Merton - Answers - -argued that discrimination occurs before
prejudice
-people are instilled with "success norms" and when they do not have the means to
achieve them, they blame others (discriminate) and use prejudice and stereotyping to
rationalize their discrimination
The Vertical Mosaic - Answers - -text by John Porter
-examined the class structure of Canadian society
-believed there were two groups;
1) charter groups, which colonized the country and set up the rules for others to follow
should they try to enter Canada
2) entrance groups
-believed that state policies created a vertical mosaic of ethnic groups with the charter
groups on top and the entrance groups at the bottom
Split labour market theory - Answers - -created by Edna Bonacich
-holds that racial and ethnic conflicts are rooted in differences in the price of labour
-there are three groups in society:
1) business/capitalists
2) highly paid (white) labour
3) lower paid (non-white) labour
,-the business class benefits from working class fighting, which they perpetuate via
discriminatory employment practices
Eugenics in Canada: Sterilization - Answers - -in the 1920s and 1930s in Alberta and
British Columbia, doctors were concerned with physical and mental defects caused by
immigrants reproducing with white people
-sterilization required parental consent, so they removed the consent provision in 1937
-by the end, first nation and metis sterilizations accounted for 25% even though they
were only 2.5% of the population
-the act was removed in 1971
Rushton and race science - Answers - -Rushton was a UWO psychology professor
-according to him, there are 3 races:
1) negroids, which are biologically disposed towards crime and are less intelligent
2) caucasoids
3) mongoloids, who are less disposed towards crime and aggression and are more
intelligent
-arranged these three races in a hierarchy
-flawed because he uses the concept of race and treats it as unproblematic
-also doesn't account for the differences in which crime is measured in various nations
-criticized a lot and questioned for his motives
Merton and Conflict - Answers - -Merton was as functionalist, and hence examined the
norms of society
-His casual analysis ended up being more useful for conflict theorists
-Most conflict theorists believed that the struggle to accumulate wealth in capitalist
society is to blame for prejudice and discrimination
-Immigrants are blamed for the poor economic situation experienced by the members of
the proletariat
Racial profiling - Answers - -exists when the memory of a certain racial or ethnic group
becomes subject to greater levels of criminal justice surveillance than others
-ex. black people getting followed around in stores
Caster Semenya - Answers - South african runner whose sex was challenged in the
olympics because she was so fast. She had to submit to test in a sex determination lab
which was popular after this incident; she was intersexed
Gender - Answers - -a cultural script/constraint
-social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and females
Sex - Answers - -the biological traits of men and women
-chromosomal, gonadal, hormonal, sex organs
Compulsory heterosexuality - Answers - -everyone is expected to be heterosexual
, Heterosexual - Answers - -attracted to people of the opposite sex
Homosexual - Answers - -attracted to people of the same sex
Bisexual - Answers - -attracted to people of both sexes
The sexual continuum - Answers - -created by kinsey by collecting information through
personal interviews
-a scale of 0 to 6
-we are not strictly heterosexual or homosexual but we lie on a scale of sexual
orientation
David Reimer Case - Answers - -In the late 1960s he and his twin brother are taken to
the winnipeg hospital to be circumcised
-When they went to circumcise david, too great a voltage was released and his penis
was burned off (yikes)
-Dr money (from a documentary watched) said you can reassign a child to another sex
in the first 23 months of life (and that this isnt uncommon)
-You cannot ever tell the child what happened or there will be psychological strain
- had sex change to become female
-Other girls refused to play with brenda bc she seemed boyish (she has a twin brother)
-The dad eventually told, and David/Brenda wanted to be a boy again
- had a sex change to be boy
-committed suicide at 38
Essentialism - Answers - -the idea that there is something natural (biological) about sex
differences
-there is an essence to masculinity and femininity and it is natural and inevitable
Essentialism: Brain studies - Answers - -left hemisphere associated with language
-right hemisphere associated with visual and spatial skills
Essentialism: Sociobiology - Answers - -those who resolve problems pass on their
genes resulting in gender differences
Essentialism: Freud - Answers - -oedipus and electra complexes
Social constructionism - Answers - -the main alternative to essentialism
-gender differences are not the product of biological properties, and instead are
products of social structure and culture
-holds that gender differences widened under identifiable socio-historical circumstances
circumstances and are sustained by social and cultural institutions that accord men and
women different amounts of power and teach men and women different gender roles
Social Constructivism - warfare and conquest - Answers - catered to mens strengths
and greatly enhanced male power and authority
Causes for racial crimes - Answers - 1) biological: primordialism
2) psychological: frustration-aggression theory
3) normative theory
4) split market theory
Primordialism - Answers - -ethnic and racial attachments that people have (when similar
in terms of language, culture, beliefs, ancestry, appearance) reflect a basic tendency to
seek out and associate with people such as them
-ethnic grouping is "encoded" in our genes
-discrimination, prejudice, and ethnocentrism are natural and inevitable behaviours
Frustration-aggression Theory - Answers - -psychological
-frustration with your life leads to aggression
-ex. hitler blamed the jews, and we know what happened next
Normative Theory - Answers - -prejudice passed down from generation to generation
(socialized into children)
-consequently, people who are taught prejudice will display discriminatory behaviour
-prejudice and discrimination can be explained by:
1) a person's definition of situations
2) reference group norms
Normative Theory: Merton - Answers - -argued that discrimination occurs before
prejudice
-people are instilled with "success norms" and when they do not have the means to
achieve them, they blame others (discriminate) and use prejudice and stereotyping to
rationalize their discrimination
The Vertical Mosaic - Answers - -text by John Porter
-examined the class structure of Canadian society
-believed there were two groups;
1) charter groups, which colonized the country and set up the rules for others to follow
should they try to enter Canada
2) entrance groups
-believed that state policies created a vertical mosaic of ethnic groups with the charter
groups on top and the entrance groups at the bottom
Split labour market theory - Answers - -created by Edna Bonacich
-holds that racial and ethnic conflicts are rooted in differences in the price of labour
-there are three groups in society:
1) business/capitalists
2) highly paid (white) labour
3) lower paid (non-white) labour
,-the business class benefits from working class fighting, which they perpetuate via
discriminatory employment practices
Eugenics in Canada: Sterilization - Answers - -in the 1920s and 1930s in Alberta and
British Columbia, doctors were concerned with physical and mental defects caused by
immigrants reproducing with white people
-sterilization required parental consent, so they removed the consent provision in 1937
-by the end, first nation and metis sterilizations accounted for 25% even though they
were only 2.5% of the population
-the act was removed in 1971
Rushton and race science - Answers - -Rushton was a UWO psychology professor
-according to him, there are 3 races:
1) negroids, which are biologically disposed towards crime and are less intelligent
2) caucasoids
3) mongoloids, who are less disposed towards crime and aggression and are more
intelligent
-arranged these three races in a hierarchy
-flawed because he uses the concept of race and treats it as unproblematic
-also doesn't account for the differences in which crime is measured in various nations
-criticized a lot and questioned for his motives
Merton and Conflict - Answers - -Merton was as functionalist, and hence examined the
norms of society
-His casual analysis ended up being more useful for conflict theorists
-Most conflict theorists believed that the struggle to accumulate wealth in capitalist
society is to blame for prejudice and discrimination
-Immigrants are blamed for the poor economic situation experienced by the members of
the proletariat
Racial profiling - Answers - -exists when the memory of a certain racial or ethnic group
becomes subject to greater levels of criminal justice surveillance than others
-ex. black people getting followed around in stores
Caster Semenya - Answers - South african runner whose sex was challenged in the
olympics because she was so fast. She had to submit to test in a sex determination lab
which was popular after this incident; she was intersexed
Gender - Answers - -a cultural script/constraint
-social, cultural, and psychological traits linked to males and females
Sex - Answers - -the biological traits of men and women
-chromosomal, gonadal, hormonal, sex organs
Compulsory heterosexuality - Answers - -everyone is expected to be heterosexual
, Heterosexual - Answers - -attracted to people of the opposite sex
Homosexual - Answers - -attracted to people of the same sex
Bisexual - Answers - -attracted to people of both sexes
The sexual continuum - Answers - -created by kinsey by collecting information through
personal interviews
-a scale of 0 to 6
-we are not strictly heterosexual or homosexual but we lie on a scale of sexual
orientation
David Reimer Case - Answers - -In the late 1960s he and his twin brother are taken to
the winnipeg hospital to be circumcised
-When they went to circumcise david, too great a voltage was released and his penis
was burned off (yikes)
-Dr money (from a documentary watched) said you can reassign a child to another sex
in the first 23 months of life (and that this isnt uncommon)
-You cannot ever tell the child what happened or there will be psychological strain
- had sex change to become female
-Other girls refused to play with brenda bc she seemed boyish (she has a twin brother)
-The dad eventually told, and David/Brenda wanted to be a boy again
- had a sex change to be boy
-committed suicide at 38
Essentialism - Answers - -the idea that there is something natural (biological) about sex
differences
-there is an essence to masculinity and femininity and it is natural and inevitable
Essentialism: Brain studies - Answers - -left hemisphere associated with language
-right hemisphere associated with visual and spatial skills
Essentialism: Sociobiology - Answers - -those who resolve problems pass on their
genes resulting in gender differences
Essentialism: Freud - Answers - -oedipus and electra complexes
Social constructionism - Answers - -the main alternative to essentialism
-gender differences are not the product of biological properties, and instead are
products of social structure and culture
-holds that gender differences widened under identifiable socio-historical circumstances
circumstances and are sustained by social and cultural institutions that accord men and
women different amounts of power and teach men and women different gender roles
Social Constructivism - warfare and conquest - Answers - catered to mens strengths
and greatly enhanced male power and authority
