SOC-1051 : Sociology Exam 2 Notes
Sociology Exam 2 Notes
• Dyad
o An interaction between two people.
• Triad
o When you add a third person. Now your focus is not just on
one other person. Now you have to change your “show” a
little bit because it is being put on in front of two people.
Sometimes you have shifting terms when one person will
interact with just one of the people in the triad for a time
being. Anytime you add more people it changes the
interaction.
• Groups
o People connected to each other in some way and interact
more than once.
▪ Primary Groups- people who are closest to us
(immediate family, closet friends). Limited in number,
small membership.
• Small size- there is only a limited amount of
people you can be that close to
• Affective Bonds- they have an emotional
connection to each other.
• Long-lasting relationships- they last for decades
or a lifetime.
• Diffuse Interaction- diffuse means its spread out
(many activities). It is not focused on one single
activity.
• Fulfill Expressive needs- primary group members
do this.
▪ Secondary Groups- involve people who are not so
close. We are still friendly towards them and react with
them on a regular basis. We tend to be just
acquaintances.
• Larger size-They tend to be of a larger size than
Primary groups (LSU students)
• Brief, specific interaction- we get together with
them for very specific reasons. Their usually not
included in your plans for night, and when you
leave school (or the place you usually see them)
you usually don’t interact with them anymore.
• Short Duration- interactions are not lengthy.
• Instrumental bonds- (fulfill our instrumental needs)
your co-workers at work, you’re there for a
purpose to get a certain job done, or passing a
test.
▪ Reference groups- groups we use as a standard of
evaluation. We look at them to see how we measure
up. We can also use them for negative evaluation.
Sometimes you say “well I’m not the best person, but at
least I’m not like them over there.” There are cases
when we can use our own references, but more often
they involve groups we don’t belong to. They are
groups you look at saying I should or shouldn’t be like
them.
• Not Groups
o Crowds- they are large numbers of people. They come to a
specific place for a specific purpose (people watching an
LSU football game).
o Aggregates- these are people who come to a specific place
but they come there for a variety of different reasons (people
at a shopping mall).
o Social Categories-baby boomers, the elderly, teenagers, we
think that tells us something about these people. That they
share a certain characteristic. Most of them don’t know the
others in this category and their lives are quite disconnected.
Usually there is a whole lot more difference between people
then things they have in common.
• Exchange theory
o When considering a course of action we will look at the
expected benefits and weigh them against the cost and risks.
If we think the benefits will outweigh the risk then we will
engage in the activity and if the costs are too high then we
won’t engage in the activity. We also do this when deciding if
we should join a group. We don’t have a choice when we
are involved in groups like your family. Informal groups, like
friendships, groups you expect to get benefits. This also
involves cost of time. You have to spend time with groups (if
your friend needs a favor you must provide the time).
▪ The norm of the reciprocity- part of the exchange
theory that states when we get something from
someone else it creates an obligation to give
something back. So while you get benefits for being an
LSU student certainly you know you have to give back.
• Us vs. Them-once we start dividing our world up into groups we think
of us vs. them. Groups we associate with vs. other people that we
don’t associate with.
o Us (ingroups) vs. Them (outgroups) - once we start dividing
our world up this changes our thought process and the way
we think of other groups.
• Attribution theory
o We make judgments about other people based on what we
“know” about them or what we think we know about them.
We not only make attribution about what kind of person
someone is but we make attribution about people’s actions
and the causes of their actions.
▪ Internal Causation- we attribute to the internal traits of
that individual. (Jane is a straight A student because
she studies a lot).
▪ External causation- when we attribute someone’s
actions and the causes of those actions to forces that
lie outside of the individual. We are making a moral
judgment about the person when we make an external
causation. (Jane is a straight A student because she
has access to the test).
▪ We tend to attribute our success to internal causation.
We attribute our failures to external causation. For
others we tend to attribute their success for external
causation and we attribute their failures for internal
causation. We want to take credit for our success and
blame for our failures and for others we do the exact
opposite.
• Aschs Conformity Experiment
o Other people around us can also put pressure on us to
change our thinking. A guy set up an experiment and gave
people a card with different lines. Then he gave them a card
and asked them which line on the first card and second card
match. It was obvious what matched with what and it was so
obvious that you would have to be legally blind to get it
wrong. Then he drew the same experiment and each
research person would have a research subject in the room.
Aschs would ask the person what line matched and they
would give the right answer, then he would ask the research
subject and some of when would give the correct answer
while others gave the incorrect answer. After when asked
again some of the people would give the wrong answer as
well. This is all the people who gave the right answer the first
time but changed their mind later because they were
influenced by the research subject.
• Groupthink
Document Summary
Sociology exam 2 notes: dyad, an interaction between two people, triad, when you add a third person. Now your focus is not just on one other person. Now you have to change your show a little bit because it is being put on in front of two people. Sometimes you have shifting terms when one person will interact with just one of the people in the triad for a time being. Anytime you add more people it changes the interaction: groups, people connected to each other in some way and interact more than once, primary groups- people who are closest to us (immediate family, closet friends). It is not focused on one single activity: fulfill expressive needs- primary group members do this, secondary groups- involve people who are not so close. We are still friendly towards them and react with them on a regular basis.
