SOCIOL 2CC3 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Witchcraft, Tattoo, Syndrome
12 Oct 2018
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SOCIOL 2CC3
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
2cc3 before midterm
Early Positivist Theories of Behaviour: September 18
• What do you think constitutes deviant behaviour or criminal activity?
• What kinds of “deviant activity” did you engage in on the weekend?
• Why do people deviate?
Sociological def of deviance:
• Anything that causes us to view another as ‘outsider […] other […] different’
• Involvs the violation of cultural norms, mores and values
• ideas, beliefs, actions, embodiment that others find problematic, weird, strange, wrong, etc.,
is a broad concept:
• includes mundane non-conformity – e.g. tattoo, piercing
• formal rule breaking – e.g. grand-theft auto
• defs differ across time & place
• differs by degree & by context
• mental illness has many different explanations
• is contested
• disagreement over what constitutes deviance
Theoretical Approaches to Studying Deviance
• # of sociological (& other) perspectives of deviance
• all based on certain assumptions:
• what is normal/moral VS what is pathological/deviant
• human nature – essentially good vs. essentially evil
• including nature of social morality
• objective vs. subjective – real/factual vs. particular/ind
• social order vs. social conflict/chaos
• 2 major philosophical orientations in sociology
(i) Positivist
(ii) Constructionalist
• are conflicting, antithetical orientations
(i) Positivist Approaches to Deviance (Sociology)
• developed by Auguste Comte - founder of positivism
• argued could study social life the same way you could study natural world
• via techniques of observation & comparative method
• experimentation - in development of knowledge/facts
• creation of typologies/categories of difference - dualism
• positivism assumes deviance as:
• ‘real’, unquestionable, obvious, tangible, material, measurable
• Exists in objective esps of deviant actors
• i.e. behaviours & beliefs that are inherently deviant
• as definable, straightforward, and unproblematics
• all non-conforming behaviour a violation of social norms
• are violations of a natural moral order
widespread consensus of definition of deviance
• are universally known, shared & agreed upon
focuses on the causes of deviant behaviour
• (i) socio-cultural environment/conditions &/or socialization
• poverty, bad neighbourhood, bad parenting
• e.g. inds become bad
(ii) biological/physiological and or psychological
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find more resources at oneclass.com
• deviance is inherited, exists in pathology of body &/or mind
• e.g. inds are born bad
• major questions asked:
• why do people deviate?
• how can we stop & control deviant behaviour?
• approach assumes conformity is the norm
(ii) Constructionist Approaches to Deviance
• assumes deviance as:
• relative across of cultures, time/place
• differs w/in cultures – by groups & inds
• what was deviant 25yrs ago is what Nick does every Saturday night
• socially construction- is a social construction
• does not ‘exist naturally’ - it is created, made-up by us
• certain groups/actors involved in defining what is deviant & normal
• reflects values interests and beliefs of the powerful few
• focus: how behaviours, ideas & ways of being come to be defined as deviant/inappropriate/pathological
• argue: deviance NOT result of attributes/characteristics of inds
• is a result in defining others and their actions as deviant
• thus, deviance is a social definition
• it exists in the reactions of others
• i.e. “is in the eye of the powerful beholder”
• deviance is not the property of an individual or act
• is a property conferred on (given to) acts/inds by others
• no behaviour/idea is inherently deviant
• approach addresses:
• how definition of deviance are created/socially constructed
• how deviant labels are attached to particular groups of people
• & not others – e.g. visible minorities
• major questions asked:
• who defines activities/conditions as deviant
• how activities/conditions are defined as deviant – i.e. by what means – e.g. via media - moral panics
• what are the consequences of labelling behaviours as deviant
• what happens to inds who are thus labeled?
• constructionist approaches are the focus of this course
Early Positivist Explanations of Deviance
• earliest recorded attempts to explain deviance
• were not scientific- causes not sought in the empirical world
• i.e. the world of everyday experience (exp)
• were the result of supernatural forces- like everything else
• God, the Devil, witches, sorcerers, demons
• caused harm to people & things
• e.g. sickness & death, failed crops, hurricanes, 2-headed calves
• believed to act through certain human beings
• usually old women, sometimes men
Deviance & The Supernatural
• supernatural perspectives of deviance
• are universal- belief in unforeseen forces found in all cultures throughout history
• remain today in secular west
• in areas high in religious consciousness
• e.g. Bible Belts - small & rural towns
• 1980s & ’90s moral panics in US & Canada
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Sociological def of deviance: anything that causes us to view another as outsider [ ] other [ ] different". Classical school theory emerges to explain deviance & criminal activity. Scientific theories of deviance emerged late 1800s seen in work of cesare lombroso doctor, philosopher, criminal anthropologist. Science" of judging inds" character by facial features theory popular during 18th-19thc. 3 distinct body types linked with behavioural dispositions (i) asthenic-ectomorph skinny, frail & weak introspective, sensitive, nervous restless, energetic, insensitive (ii) athletic/mesomorph: muscular, hard, rectangular (iii) pyknic-endomorph short & round easy going, sociable, self-indulgent. She drinks a lot: deviant labels are what have serious negative consequences for inds. Symbolic interactionism: meanings, are negotiated & continually reinterpreted among inds, no meaning is inherent in inds/objects that actors confront. Labeling theory (lt) of deviance for labeling theorists: shaped by gender, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, ability.
