SOCIOL 2BB3 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - System On A Chip, Subculture, Sociology
12 Oct 2018
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SOCIOL 2BB3
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
1
2BB3 BEFORE MIDTERM- SOC OF DEVIANCE
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• Setting the stage:
• objectivist versus subjectivist approaches
• Theories of deviance
• biological
• psychological
• sociological
Objectivist vs Subjectivist Approaches
• Objectivist Approach
• deviance is real (objectively given, behaviour, characteristics, beliefs, it exists in real
world)
• deviance is acts, beliefs or traits that violate social norms
• concern is to establish causes and find solutions
• what is causing it? Objectivist: to fix it, we want to understand it to lessen it in
society
• Subjectivist Approach
• no act, belief or trait is inherently deviant, I saw this interaction, I saw these people wearing
this, I saw this people doing this thig
• you interpret those actions as deviant, it took your reaction to what you saw to
CREATE deviance
• it’s a label we place on others and actions
• deviance is relative
• deviance is always i the eye of the eholder it does’t exist, in needs a REACTION
• reactions determine deviance
• historical relativity: what is deviant in the past might not be today, vice versa
• cross-cultural relativity: somethings might be deviant in one place, and not in another
• situational relativity
• gendered relativity
• deviance as a reaction; interpretation; definition
• If deviance is a question of how acts, beliefs and traits are defined, how do we go about studying it?
• Subjectivist: not in action but reaction, so you study interactions and reactions and how is
deviance produce within the world where people interact with each other and whereby the
action is labelled as deviant
• THE HOW! AND THE CONSQUENCES (what happens to the individuals when
they deviant)
• how does the process of labelling work and what are the consequences
• anything we know about society is constructed
Synonyms for: (clarification)
• Objectivist
• Normative
• Positivist
• Subjectivist
• Relativist
• Reactionist
• Social constructionist
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2
• Labellist/labelling approach
Theories of Deviance
• millions of theories that are complimentary or in disagreement
• Simplest way to distinguish is to categorize
• biological - sick bodies
• deviance is located within our bodies
•
• psychological – sick minds
• deviance is located within our mind
• how the mind works
• cognitive thought process
• sociological – society
• society creates deviance
• Example of a biological theory: Somatype Theory
• Looking for the crime gene, when someone has it they are more likely to become
criminals
• William Sheldon (1898-1977) historical
• Deviance and criminality had to do with body types
• Endomorphs: short and fat (chubby), pear shaped
• Easy going, lazy, self-indulgent, good sense of humor
• ectomorphs: tall and slender, frail
• anxious, sensitive, socially awkward, quiet, arts, loners
• mesomorphs: buff, well built, stocky, muscular, heavy set
• aggressive, risk takers, competitors, insensitive, loud, tough, pushy
• more likely for crime
• hypothesis: certain somatotypes because of their profile will be more prone to be a criminal
• 200 Harvard students and 200 juvenile detention center: took pictures
• Nude, without consent, did a psychological profile
• More mesomorphs at the detention center than at harvard
• Twin Studies: K. Christiansen (1977)
• Danish Twin Registry
• National Crime Registry
• data between 1870-1970 (7, 172 pairs of twins) compared criminal records of fraternal and
identical twins
• Finding:
• 35 % of identical twins shared a criminal record
• 13% of fraternal twins shared a criminal record
• Examples of psychological theories:
1) psychoanalytic theory
• originated from Freud: we go through stages, you progress through your stages, but if anything goes
wrong in your psycho-sexual development will become altered and you will be a bad human being.
• Youd be screwed up and would contribute to devliance
2) frustration-aggression theory
• frustration turns to aggression (at all ages)
• have to find a way to get rid of aggression
3) cognitive theories of moral development
• argues that no one is born knowing right from wrong, when we grow up
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