Posted: April 25th, 2025

sociology project

Visual Sociology Project

This project is meant to give you an opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned in this course. Each week, you should select a few terms or themes from the required chapters to use in the final project. Read on for more information:

Required Sources

Schaefer, R.T. 2022. Sociology: A brief introduction (14th ed)
No outside sources, please

Assignment

The purpose of the cumulative Visual Sociology project is for students to use their “photovoice” as a means of conveying sociological concepts and/or themes. Essentially, act as if you were the editor of our Sociology textbook.

Your task is to find pictures that illustrate concepts or themes we discussed in class this term. You can choose broad topics like discrimination, social problems, and social policies, for example. And, you can use more specific topics like stratification, racism, and sexism, for example.

Visual Sociology Project

Required Sources

· Schaefer, R.T. 2022.

Sociology: A brief introduction (14th ed)

·
No outside sources, please

Assignment

Once you find a picture that illustrates a concept,
write about 100 words on how it relates to the textbook concept, including appropriate APA formatted in-text citation that includes the author, year, chapter the information is found for every photo description, as well as APA formatted reference(s) at the end of your project.

Since this is a cumulative project, you will need to use at least
10 concepts and/or themes from a variety of chapters that we’ve covered this term (i.e., Chapters 1-8, 10-13) with captions and descriptions. The pictures you use can be ones you have taken personally or ones you find online (copyright is not an issue since you professor will be the only person reading your project).

Copy and paste the photos into Word document and add a heading and description below each photo. When you’ve completed the project,
add an APA formatted title page.

Below is an example that can help you get started. Make sure you include a title for your photo presentation!

APA Formatting Resources

Make sure to include APA formatted in-text citations and references to textbook. Need a refresher on APA? Instructions and examples of APA formatting can be found here:

Example

Poverty

Approximately 13% of the US population lives below the poverty line, with over 40 million in poverty in 2019. Poverty is an increasing problem since it is difficult to pay for living expenses with a minimum wage job at this point in history in the US. Despite the stereotype that the poor do not work, nearly 40% of poor adults work, compared to just over 50% of all adults. Most impoverished people live outside urban slums, and since World War II, this includes an increasing number of poor women, which is known as the feminization of poverty. In the late 1950s, around a quarter of the nation’s poor were female householders, but that percent jumped to half of the nation’s poor by 2018. Globally, the rise of female-headed households contributes to this issue. (Schaefer, 2022, chapter 8).

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CHAPTER

SOCIALIZATION AND THE LIFE COURSE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

IM – 4 | 1

THE ROLE OF SOCIALIZATION

Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation

The Influence of Heredity

THE SELF AND SOCIALIZATION

Sociological Approaches to the Self

Psychological Approaches to the Self

AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION

Family

School

Peer Group

Mass Media and Technology

Workplace

Religion and the State

SOCIALIZATION THROUGHOUT THE LIFE COURSE

The Life Course

Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization

ROLE TRANSITIONS THROUGHOUT THE LIFE COURSE

The Sandwich Generation

Adjusting to Retirement

SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CHILDCARE AROUND THE WORLD

Looking at the Issue

Applying Sociology

Initiating Policy

Take the Issue With You

Boxes

Sociology on Campus: Impression Management by Students

Research Today: Rumspringa
: Raising Children Amish Style

Taking Sociology to Work: Rakefet Avramovitz, Program Administrator, Childcare Law Center

Our Wired World: Teens Controlling Access to Their Social Media

Social Policy and Sociological Research: Childcare Around the World

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 4

· Explain the role of socialization in shaping human behavior and attitudes.
· Describe the effects of isolation on the social development of young children.
· Explain what twin studies suggest about the effects of heredity and environment on social development.
· Summarize the contributions of Cooley, Mead, and Goffman regarding the role of social interaction in the development of the sense of self.
· Describe the psychological approaches to self.
· List and summarize seven major agents of socialization.
· Explain how culture, race, and gender can influence the way families socialize their children.
· Compare and contrast the conflict and functionalist explanations of the role of schools as socializing agents.
· Summarize the influence of peer groups on socialization.
· Describe the increasing impact of media and technology on socialization.
· Summarize the socializing roles of religion and the state.
· Explain the role of socialization through the life course.
· Analyze through a sociological lens the impact of childcare on socialization.

· Brief discussion on a college experiment regarding gender and fingernail polish added to the section on Agents of Socialization: Family.
· Updated Thinking Critically questions in “The Influence of Heredity,” and “Psychological Approaches to Self” sections.
· Updated discussion of the importance and findings of twin studies.
· Enhanced discussion of facework, with example drawn from
American Idol.

· Extended discussion of young children and media use.
· Wired World box, “Teens Controlling Access to Their Social Media.”
· Enhanced discussion of employment by older workers.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Socialization

is the lifelong process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture. Socialization occurs through human interaction and helps us to discover how to behave properly. It provides for the transmission of culture from one generation to the next, to ensure the long-term continuance of a society. Socialization experiences help to shape
personality—a person’s typical patterns of attitudes, needs, characteristics, and behavior.

Under normal circumstances, environmental factors interact with hereditary factors in influencing the socialization process. Case studies—such as those of Isabelle and the Romanian orphans—and primate studies support the necessity of socialization in development. Conversely, twin studies have addressed the influence of hereditary factors on personality development.

The
self is a distinct identity that sets us apart from others. It continues to develop and change throughout our lives. Sociologists Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead (pioneers of the interactionist approach), and Erving Goffman have all furthered our understanding about development of the self. Cooley’s
looking-glass self suggests that our sense of self results from how we present ourselves to others, how others evaluate us, and how we internalize or assess those evaluations. Mead outlined a process by which the self emerges in early childhood: the
preparatory stage, in which children merely imitate those around them; the
play stage, in which children become aware of symbols and begin to engage in
role taking; and the
game stage, in which children become involved in complex social situations involving multiple positions or roles. Instrumental to Mead’s view are the concepts of the
generalized other (attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society) and
significant others (individuals most important in the development of the self). Goffman suggested that many of our daily activities involve attempts to convey impressions of who we are (
impression management). His view has been termed the
dramaturgical approach. Goffman also drew attention to
facework, the efforts people make to maintain the proper image and avoid public embarrassment.

Psychologists, such as Sigmund Freud, have stressed the role of inborn drives in the development of the self. Child psychologist Jean Piaget identified four stages of personality development in his
cognitive theory of development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational). Piaget viewed social interaction as key to development.

Lifelong socialization involves many different social forces and agents of socialization. Family is considered the most important of the socialization agents and plays a key role in exposing children to cultural assumptions around gender. The term
gender role refers to expectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females. Schools are another agent of socialization concerned with teaching students the values and customs of the larger society. Peer groups often serve as a transitional source to adulthood. The mass media have an impact on the socialization process that sociologists have also begun to consider. Workplaces can serve as socialization agents by teaching appropriate behavior within an occupational environment. Additionally, social scientists have increasingly recognized the importance of religion and the state as agents of socialization because of their impact on the life course.

Sociologists who use the
life course approach look closely at the social factors that influence people throughout their lives, from birth to death. Over the course of our lives, we may encounter points at which certain transitions from one social position to another are dramatized or validated outwardly; these stages are known as
rites of passage. Two types of socialization occur:
anticipatory socialization (refers to the process of rehearsing for future roles) and
resocialization (refers to discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones). Resocialization is particularly intense when it occurs within a
total institution, an institution that regulates all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority. Goffman identified four common traits of total institutions. He suggested people often lose their individuality within total institutions and may undergo a humiliating ritual known as a
degradation ceremony.

Although how we move through the life course varies dramatically according to our personal preferences and circumstances, certain common transitional stages have been identified, including entering the adult world, the midlife transition, and retirement. The
midlife crisis is a stressful period of self-evaluation that commonly begins at about age 40. The
sandwich generation consists of adults who simultaneously try to meet the competing needs of their parents and their children. Gerontologist Robert Atchley has identified several distinct phases of the retirement experience, which suggests retirement is not a single transition but rather a series of adjustments. Recent improvements in health care have given older Americans new choices in where to live, and many now congregate in
naturally occurring retirement communities (
NORCs).

Childcare programs have an enormous influence on the development of young children—an influence that has grown with the movement of more and more women into the paid labor force. Day care centers have become the functional equivalent of the nuclear family in the United States, as 88% of employed mothers depend on others to care for their children, and 30% of mothers who aren’t employed have regular care arrangements. Although research suggests that high-quality childcare centers do not adversely affect the socialization of children, wide variation in the quality of childcare and government policies from one state to another make generalizations about childcare difficult.

Conflict theorists raise concerns about the cost of day care, especially for lower-class families. Feminist theorists echo these concerns and suggest that high-quality childcare receives little government support because it is seen as “merely a way to let women work.” Childcare workers’ average annual salary in the United States is currently right at the poverty level for a family of three.

When policy makers decide that childcare is desirable, they must determine the degree to which taxpayers should subsidize it. Policies regarding childcare outside the home vary throughout the world. In Sweden and Denmark, one-half to two-thirds of preschoolers are in government-subsidized childcare. In Japan, the availability of day care has not kept pace with the growing number of mothers remaining in the labor force. European parents are increasingly having to cobble together childcare using after-school programs and both friends and relatives.

LECTURE OUTLINE

Introduction

• Excerpt from sociologist Lindsey Feldman’s field notes, taken during her 15 months observing crews of prison inmates who battle wildfires in the West. She studied the wide variation between the social roles of the crew members as inmates and their social roles as heroic firefighters.

I. The Role of Socialization

• The nature versus nurture debate has evolved to a general acceptance of interaction between the variables of heredity, environment, and socialization.

A. Social Environment: The Impact of Isolation

• The need for human interaction is evident in actual case studies.

1. Extreme Isolation: Isabelle

• Isabelle lived in seclusion for 6 years. She could not speak and did not display reactions or emotions typical of humans. After a period of intense language and behavioral therapy, Isabelle became well adjusted.

2. Extreme Neglect: Romanian Orphans

• Babies in orphanages lay in cribs for 18–20 hours a day, with little care from adults. The children grew up fearful of human contact and prone to antisocial behavior. They have made progress with supervision from attentive caregivers and specialists.

3. Primate Studies

• Harry Harlow tested rhesus monkeys for the effects of isolation and concluded that isolation had a damaging effect on the monkeys.

B. The Influence of Heredity

• Twin studies reveal that both genetic factors and socialization experiences are influential in human development.

Example:
Oskar Stohr and Jack Yufe.

• Newer and more sophisticated statistical techniques, and the 2,700 twin studies involving 14.5 million twins conducted internationally, have supplemented the Minnesota Twin research. The conclusion has been that it is not nature
versus nurture but nature
and nurture that impact human development.

II. The Self and Socialization

• The self is a distinct identity that sets each of us apart from others. The interactionist perspective is useful in understanding development of the self.

A. Sociological Approaches to the Self

1.
Cooley: Looking-Glass Self

• According to Cooley, the self is a product of social interactions with others. There are three phases of the looking-glass self: (1) We imagine how we present ourselves to others; (2) we imagine how others evaluate us; and (3) we develop a feeling about ourselves as a result of those impressions.

Example:
A student’s sense of self is changed after receiving criticism from a teacher.

• A subtle but important aspect of Cooley’s theory is that the looking-glass self-results from an individual’s “imagination” of how others view them. Thus, we can develop self-identities based on
incorrect perceptions of how others see us.

2. Mead: Stages of the Self

• The
preparatory stage consists of children imitating people around them. Gradually, children begin to understand the use of symbols.

• The
play stage consists of children pretending to be other people, like an actor “becoming” a character. Role taking is the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined viewpoint. Through role taking, children learn to see the world from the perspectives of other people.

• During the
game stage, children grasp their own social positions, as well as everyone else’s position around them. Games serve as a microcosm of society. Through this process, children learn to assume their positions (or status) relative to the positions of others.

• The term
generalized other refers to the attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of others in society that an individual takes into account before acting in a particular way.

3. Mead: Theory of the Self

• Children picture themselves as the focus of everything around them. As a person matures, the self changes and begins to consider the reactions of others.

• Mead used the term
significant others to refer to those individuals who are most important in the person’s development.

4. Goffman: Presentation of the Self

• Impression management involves an individual’s slanting their presentation of the self to create a distinctive appearance and to satisfy particular audiences.

• The dramaturgical approach is based upon people behaving as actors by putting forth an image believed to be pleasing to others.

• Goffman’s facework involves people trying to maintain or save an image or face.

Example:
An individual may feign employment to avoid embarrassment.

B. Psychological Approaches to the Self

• Freud stressed the role of inborn drives. The self has components that work in opposition to each other. Part of us seeks limitless pleasure, while another part seeks rational behavior.

• Piaget found that although newborns have no sense of self in the sense of a looking-glass image, they are self-centered, understanding only “me.” As they mature, they are gradually socialized into social relationships.

• In his cognitive theory of development, Piaget identified four stages of child development: (1)
sensorimotor stage (child uses senses to make discoveries), (2)
preoperational stage (child begins to use words and symbols), (3)
concrete operational stage (child engages in more logical thinking), and (4)
formal operational stage (adolescent is capable of sophisticated abstract thought, and can deal with ideas and values in a logical manner).

• Social interaction is the key to development.

III. Agents of Socialization

A. Family

• Family is the most important socializing agent. Parents minister to the baby’s needs by feeding, cleansing, carrying, and comforting.

• In the United States, social development includes exposure to cultural assumptions regarding gender and race.

Example:
experiment with polishing the fingernails of a friend of the opposite sex

• Parents guide children into gender roles deemed appropriate by society.

B. School

• Schools have an explicit mandate to socialize children to societal norms.

• Functionalists indicate schools fulfill a function by socializing children, whereas conflict theorists suggest schools reinforce divisive aspects of society, especially social class.

Example:
A teacher’s praising boys may reinforce sexist attitudes.

C. Peer Group

• As a child grows older, family becomes somewhat less important in social development, while peer groups increasingly assume the role of Mead’s significant others.

D. Mass Media and Technology

• Media innovations have become important agents of socialization. A U.S. study found that 95% of teens aged 13–17 have a smartphone and 45% say they are online “almost constantly.”

• Experts contend that digital media use should be avoided (except video-chatting) in children younger than 18–24 months. If parents want to introduce digital media for children aged 18–24 months of age, they should choose high-quality programming and always use media together with their child.

• Cell phones are a particularly significant communications technology for people in low-income nations, but most of those same people cannot afford broadband access to the Internet.

E. Workplace

• We learn to behave appropriately within an occupation.

• The United States has the highest level of teenage employment of all industrialized nations, with growing concern regarding adverse effects of work on schooling.

• Workplace socialization changes when a person shifts to full-time employment.

F. Religion and the State

• State-run agencies are increasingly influential in the life course.

• Government and organized religion have reinstituted some of the rites of passage once observed in earlier societies.

IV. Socialization Throughout the Life Course

A. The Life Course

• Celebrating rites of passage is a means of dramatizing and validating changes in a person’s status.

• The life course approach looks closely at the social factors that influence people throughout their lives, from birth to death, including gender and income. Certain life events like marriage, completion of schooling, and birth of one’s first child mark the passage into adulthood.

B. Anticipatory Socialization and Resocialization

•
Anticipatory socialization refers to a person rehearsing for a role they will likely assume in the future.

Example:
high school students preparing for college by looking at college websites.

•
Resocialization refers to discarding the former sense of self and behavior patterns and accepting new behavior patterns.

Examples:
prisons, political indoctrination camps, and religious conversion settings.

• Goffman suggested resocialization is particularly effective in a total institutional environment (prisons, mental hospitals, and military organizations).

• Individuality is often lost in total institutions, as the individual becomes secondary in the environment and experiences the humiliation of degradation ceremonies.

V. Role Transitions Throughout the Life Course

• Role transitions are transitional stages during the life course, that is, entering adulthood, midlife crisis.

A. The Sandwich Generation

• This refers to adults who are trying to meet the competing needs of their parents and children.

B. Adjusting to Retirement

• The retirement stage today is complicated by economic deterioration.

1. Phases of Retirement

• Robert Atchley’s phases of retirement include preretirement, the near phase, the honeymoon phase, the disenchantment phase, the reorientation phase, the stability phase, and the termination phase. Retirement, then, is a series of adjustments.

• The experience of retirement varies according to gender, race, and ethnicity.

Example:
white males are most likely to benefit from retirement wages, as well as to have participated in a formal retirement preparation program.

2. Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities

• These involve the congregation of older Americans in areas that have gradually become informal centers for senior citizens.

VI. (Box) Social Policy and
Sociological Research: Childcare Around the World

A. Looking at the Issue

• Day care centers have become the functional equivalent of the nuclear family. Eighty-eight percent of employed mothers in the United States depend on others to care for their children, and 30% of mothers who aren’t employed have regular care arrangements.

• Research suggests good day care benefits children.

• There are no significant differences between infants who receive extensive nonmaternal care versus those who are cared for solely by their mothers.

B. Applying Sociology

• Conflict theorists raise concerns about the cost of day care, especially for lower-class families.

• Feminist theorists suggest that government-funded childcare is opposed because it is seen as “merely a way to let women work.” Childcare workers’ average annual salary in the United States is currently right at the poverty level for a family of three.

C. Initiating Policy

• When policy makers decide that childcare is desirable, they must determine the degree to which taxpayers should subsidize it.

• Policies regarding childcare outside the home vary throughout the world. In Sweden and Denmark, one-half to two-thirds of preschoolers are in government-subsidized childcare. In Japan, the availability of day care has not kept pace with the growing number of mothers remaining in the labor force.

· European parents are increasingly having to cobble together childcare using after-school programs and both friends and relatives.

KEY TERMS

Anticipatory socialization Processes of socialization in which a person rehearses for future positions, occupations, and social relationships.

Cognitive theory of development The theory that children’s thought progresses through four stages of development.

Degradation
ceremony An aspect of the socialization process within some total institutions, in which people are subjected to humiliating rituals.

Double consciousness The division of an individual’s identity into two or more social realities.

Dramaturgical
approach A view of social interaction in which people are seen as theatrical performers.

Facework The efforts people make to maintain the proper image and avoid public embarrassment.

Gender
role Expectations regarding the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females.

Generalized
other The attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole that a child takes into account in their behavior.

Impression
management The altering of the presentation of the self in order to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences.

Life
course
approach A research orientation in which sociologists and other social scientists look closely at the social factors that influence people throughout their lives, from birth to death.

Looking-
glass
self A concept that emphasizes the self as the product of our social interactions.

Midlife
crisis A stressful period of self-evaluation that begins at about age 40.

Naturally
occurring
retirement
community (NORC) An area that has gradually become an informal center for senior citizens.

Personality A person’s typical patterns of attitudes, needs, characteristics, and behavior.

Resocialization The process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones as part of a transition in one’s life.

Rite
of
passage A ritual marking the symbolic transition from one social position to another.

Role
taking The process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined viewpoint.

Sandwich
generation The generation of adults who simultaneously try to meet the competing needs of their parents and their children.

Self A distinct identity that sets us apart from others.

Significant
other An individual who is most important in the development of the self, such as a parent, friend, or teacher.

Socialization The lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.

Total
institution An institution that regulates all aspects of a person’s life under a single authority, such as a prison, the military, a mental hospital, or a convent.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. What does the case history of Isabelle tell us about the importance of socialization?

2. What do the Romanian orphanage studies tell us about the importance of social interaction in the socialization process?

3. How do the studies of animals raised in isolation support the importance of socialization on development?

4. What do twin studies tell us about the nature versus nurture argument?

5. How did Charles Horton Cooley approach the socialization process?

6. How did George Herbert Mead approach the socialization process?

7. Identify and explain George Herbert Mead’s three distinct stages in childhood socialization.

8. Distinguish between significant and generalized others and note their importance to George Herbert Mead.

9. How can Erving Goffman’s conceptualization of impression management be used to understand social behavior?

10. Define and offer an example you have observed of impression management and facework.

11. How do college students use impression management after examinations?

12. What do psychological approaches tell us about the self?

13. Explain the role played by rites of passage and give examples of such rites in different cultures.

14. What is the difference between anticipatory socialization and resocialization?

15. What is meant by
degradation ceremony, and how does it relate to socialization?

16. What are the significant forces in childhood socialization?

17. What part do gender roles play in socialization?

18. What impact, if any, has access to new technology (the internet, cell phones) had on the socialization process for children?

19. What concerns have been raised by experts about infants and exposure to digital media?

20. In what way does the workplace play a role in socialization?

21. How does religion play a role in socialization?

22. In what way does the state or the government play a role in socialization?

23. What is the “sandwich generation?”

24. What are the phases in the retirement experience identified by Robert Atchley?

25. How does retirement vary by gender, race, and social class?

26. What affect does high-quality childcare have on the development of children?

27. How might functionalists and conflict theorists analyze the controversy over child care/day care differently?

28. Examine childcare outside the home using a microlevel analysis.

29. What concerns do feminists have with high-quality childcare?

30. How does out-of-home childcare differ in other countries?

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the influence of heredity in explaining the process of one’s personality development. Give examples to support your discussion. Have students identify similarities and differences between themselves and their siblings, and discuss possible explanations for the differences, both from a “nature” and a “nurture” perspective. For example, did their mother and/or father interact differently with the siblings? Is one sibling more like the mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, and so on?

2. How might someone form a mistaken sense of themselves through one of the theories of self? Explain the specific stages through which this could happen using specific examples from one or more of the agents of socialization.

3. Define Goffman’s dramaturgical approach in the development of the self. Give examples in which you may have used impression management to portray your image as favorable to others around you.

4. Discuss Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory of development and offer any strengths or criticisms of his approach in viewing personality development. Give examples from your own observations that either support or fail to support Piaget’s theory.

5. Identify Goffman’s four traits of total institutions and discuss how a degradation ceremony is used to erode one’s sense of self. Discuss why elimination of the former sense of self is necessary to fully resocialize a person.

6. Discuss the various ways socializing agents may contribute to an institutionalized system of social inequality. Give some examples to support your answer.

7. Describe the factors that could impact how people experience Atchley’s retirement phases. Give examples that help demonstrate the variability in these phases for each individual.

8. Discuss some of the issues that affect the quality of childcare around the world and in the United States.

IM – 4 | 3

Sociology, A Brief Edition, Seventh Edition

CHAPTER

SOCIAL INTERACTION, GROUPS, AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE

CHAPTER OUTLINE

SOCIAL INTERACTION AND REALITY

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE

Statuses

Social Roles

Groups

Social Networks

Social Institutions

UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS

Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies

Characteristics of a Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft
and Gesellschaft

Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach

SOCIAL POLICY AND ORGANIZATIONS: THE STATE OF THE UNIONS WORLDWIDE

Boxes

Research Today: Disability as a Master Status

Research Today: Decision Making in the Jury Room

Taking Sociology to Work: Sarah Levy, Owner, S. Levy Foods

Research Today: Twitter Networks: From Wild Fires to Hurricanes

Sociology in the Global Community: McDonald’s and the Worldwide Bureaucratization of Society

Sociology in the Global Community: Disney World: A Postmodern Theme Park

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 5

· Explain the relationship between social reality and social interaction.

· List the various types of statuses in society.

· List and summarize the five elements of social structure.

· Explain how ascribed status and master status can constrain achieved status.

· Give examples of role conflict, role strain, and role exit.

· Differentiate among the five different types of groups.

· Analyze the functionalist, interactionist, and conflict views of social institutions.

· Describe the pitfalls and benefits of social networks and virtual worlds.

· Analyze the structure of organizations and bureaucracies.
· Describe Durkheim’s, Tönnies’s, and Lenski’s approaches to classifying forms of social structure.

· Chapter-opening photo featuring female athletes.

· Updated discussion of the Zimbardo Prison Experiment featuring recent criticisms.

· Enhanced discussion of ascribed and achieved statuses focusing on the elderly in China.

· Research Today box, “Decision Making in the Jury Room.”

· Added Figure: “The Elements of Social Structure: An Overview.”

· Updated figures “Labor Union by State, 2020” and “Labor Union Membership Worldwide.”

· Added incident with tennis pro James Blake to the section on Master Status.

· Likening of Gemeinschaft to contemporary sharing economy.

· Updated and expanded Our Wired World box, “Twitter Networks: From Wildfires to Hurricanes,” with new figure.

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Social interaction refers to the ways in which people respond to one another.
Social structure refers to the way a society is organized into predictable relationships. Both social interaction and social structure are central to understanding how different aspects of behavior are related to one another. Our response to someone’s behavior is based on the
meaning we attach to their actions. Reality is shaped by our perceptions, evaluations, and definitions. The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within a society.

Sociologists use the term
status

to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society. Sociologically, status does not refer to prestige. Any position, whether deemed good or bad, positive or negative, is a status. A person can hold a number of statuses at the same time. An
ascribed status is assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics, generally at birth. An
achieved status is attained by a person largely through their own efforts. A
master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position within society.

A
social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.
Role
conflict
occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person.
Role strain is a term used to describe the difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations. The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity is referred to as
role exit.

A
group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who regularly and consciously interact. Groups play an important part in a society’s structure. Much of our social interaction takes place within groups and is influenced by their norms and sanctions.
Primary groups are small groups characterized by intimate, face-to-face interaction and socialization;
secondary groups are more formal, impersonal groups in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding. An
in-group can be defined as any group or category to which people feel they belong, whereas an
out-group is any group or category to which people do not think they belong. Sociologists call any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior a
reference group
. Group growth can result in
coalitions—temporary or permanent alliances geared toward a common goal.

Members of different groups make connections through a series of social relationships known as a
social
network
. With advances in technology, we can now maintain social networks electronically; we don’t need face-to-face contact.

Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs. Functionalists view social institutions as necessary for the survival of society in meeting the basic needs of its members. Conflict theorists suggest that social institutions maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and groups within a society. Interactionists emphasize that our social behavior is conditioned by the roles and statuses that we accept, the groups to which we belong, and the institutions within which we function.

As contemporary societies have become more complex, our lives have become dominated by
formal organizations—groups designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency. Formal organizations fulfill an enormous variety of personal and societal needs, shaping the lives of every one of us. Ascribed statuses such as gender, race, and ethnicity can influence how we see ourselves within formal organizations.

A
bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency. Sociologists use the term

bureaucratization
to refer to how groups, organizations, and social movements become increasingly bureaucratic. Max Weber was the first theorist to concentrate on bureaucracy, using the concept of
ideal type to construct and model specific cases. Weber argued that ideal bureaucracies always have five basic characteristics: division of labor, hierarchy of authority, written rules and regulations, impersonality, and employment based on technical qualifications. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote in
The Communist Manifesto, that the downside of division of labor is that it fragments work into smaller and smaller tasks that can create narrow areas of expertise, which produces extreme
alienation—a condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society. And although the division of labor has certainly enhanced the performance of many complex bureaucracies, in some cases, it can lead to
trained incapacity; that is, workers become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems. With other issues related to Weber’s characteristics, like written rules and regulations, some workers may exhibit Robert Merton’s term (1968) of
goal displacement, referring to overzealous conformity to official regulations to the point of becoming dysfunctional. Max Weber’s five characteristics of bureaucracy are apparent in McDonald’s restaurants, a fast-food organization that has had an enormous influence on modern-day culture. Sociologist George Ritzer writes about the
McDonaldization of society to explain the process by which the principles of bureaucratization have increasingly shaped organizations worldwide. According to the
Peter principle formulated by Laurence J. Peter, however, employees within a hierarchy tend to rise to their level of incompetence—a possible dysfunctional outcome of advancement on the basis of merit. German conflict theorist Robert Michels studied socialist parties and
labor unions, organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer, and found that those organizations were becoming increasingly bureaucratic and emerging leaders had a vested interest in clinging to power. If they lost leadership posts, they’d have to return to full-time work as manual laborers. He argued that even a democratic organization can eventually reach a stage in which an oligarchy develops, an idea called the
iron law of oligarchy. Sociologists also study organizational and bureaucratic culture. The
classical theory of formal organizations (or
scientific management approach) posits that workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards. The more recent
human relations approach emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy.

Émile Durkheim developed the concepts of
mechanical solidarity and
organic solidarity

to describe the kind of consciousness that develops in societies where there is a simple or complex division of labor, respectively. Ferdinand Tönnies used the term

Gemeinschaft
to refer to a small, close-knit community, typical of rural life, where people have similar backgrounds and life experiences. Conversely, the

Gesellschaft
is an ideal type characteristic of modern urban life. Here, most people are strangers who feel little in common with one another.

In contrast to Tönnies’s perspective, Gerhard Lenski viewed societies as undergoing change according to a dominant pattern known as
sociocultural evolution. His view suggests that a society’s level of
technology—cultural information about the ways material resources of the environment may be used—is critical to the way it is organized. The
hunting-and-gathering society, the
horticultural
society
, and the
agrarian society are three types of preindustrial societies. An
industrial society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services. A
postindustrial
society’s economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information. A
postmodern society is a technologically sophisticated society whose consumers practice
hyperconsumerism, a preoccupation with buying more than we need or want, and often more than we can afford. At the macrolevel of analysis, we see society shifting to more advanced forms of technology. The social structure becomes complex and new social institutions emerge to assume some functions previously performed by family. On the microlevel of analysis, these changes affect the nature of social interactions between people. People come to rely more on social networks rather than solely on kinship ties.

LECTURE OUTLINE

Introduction

•
Excerpt from “The Psychology of Imprisonment: Privation, Power, and Pathology” by Philip Zimbardo.

I.
Social Interaction and Reality

•
Social interaction refers to the way people respond to one another.

•
Social structure refers to the way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships. The linkage of social interaction and social structure is central to sociological study. They are closely related to socialization.

•
Social reality is literally constructed from our social interactions.

Example:
with the coronavirus pandemic, wearing medical masks/face coverings had special significance for racial and ethnic minorities, especially Black men because it frequently caused them to be viewed suspiciously and even denied entry to stores where face coverings were recommended.

•
The ability to define social reality reflects a group’s power within society.

Example:
William I. Thomas’s “definition of the situation.”

II.
Elements of Social Structure

A.
Statuses

•
Status refers to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society. A number of statuses can be held at the same time.

Examples:
U.S. president, son or daughter, dental technician, neighbor.

1.
Ascribed and Achieved Status

•
Ascribed status is generally assigned at birth without regard to a person’s unique talents or characteristics. Ascribed statuses are assigned; they are not chosen.

Examples
: race, gender, age.

•
Achieved status comes to us largely through our own efforts.

Examples:
lawyer, pianist, convict, social worker.

2.
Master Status

•
A master status dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position within society.

Example:
Arthur Ashe, who died of AIDS.

B.
Social Roles

1.
What Are Social Roles?

•
A social role is a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status. Roles are a significant component of social structure.

Example:
Police are expected to protect us and apprehend criminals.

2.
Role Conflict

•
Role conflict occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person.

Example:
newly promoted worker who carries on a relationship with their former workgroup.

•
It may also occur among individuals moving into occupations that are not common among people with their ascribed status.

Examples:
female police officers and male preschool teachers.

3.
Role Strain

•
Role strain refers to a situation in which the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations.

Example:
alternative forms of justice among Navajo police officers

4.
Role Exit

•
Role exit is the process of disengaging from a role that is central to one’s self-identity.

•
Ebaugh developed a four-stage model: (1) doubt, (2) search for alternatives, (3) action stage or departure, and (4) creation of a new identity.

Examples:
graduating from high school or college, retirement, divorce.

C.
Groups

•
A group consists of any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis.

Examples:
sports team, college sorority, hospital business office, symphony orchestra.

•
Groups play a vital role in social structure.

1.
Primary and Secondary Groups

•
A primary group is a small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation. Primary groups play a pivotal role both in the socialization process and in the development of roles and statuses.

•
A secondary group is a formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding.

•
The distinction between primary and secondary groups is not always clear-cut.

2.
In-Groups and Out-Groups

•
An in-group is any group or category to which people feel they belong. Members typically feel distinct and superior and see themselves as better than those of an out-group.

Examples:
a teenage clique; an entire society.

•
An out-group is a group or category to which people feel they do
not belong.

3.
Reference Groups

•
A reference group is any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.

Example:
A high school student who aspires to join a social circle of hip-hop music devotees will pattern their behavior after that group.

4.
Coalitions

•
A coalition is a temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal.

Example
: A community-based organization that has banded together to work for street and sidewalk improvements and better drainage systems.

D.
Social Networks

•
A social network is a series of social relationships that links a person directly to others and through them indirectly to still more people.

Examples:
networking for employment, exchanging news and gossip.

•
Electronic social networks have gained value, especially for the unemployed.

•
Whether in person or online, not everyone participates equally in social networks.

E.
Social Institutions

•
Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on meeting basic social needs such as replacing personnel (the family) and preserving order (the government).

1.
Functionalist Perspective

•
Five major tasks or functional prerequisites have been identified as follows: (1) replacing personnel, (2) teaching new recruits, (3) producing and distributing goods and services, (4) preserving order, and (5) providing and maintaining a sense of purpose.

Example:
Patriotism assists people in maintaining a sense of purpose.

•
Any society or relatively permanent group must attempt to satisfy all these functional prerequisites for survival.

2.
Conflict Perspective

•
The conflict perspective does not agree with functionalists that the outcome of meeting basic needs is necessarily efficient and desirable for all members of society.

•
Major institutions maintain the privileges of the most powerful individuals and groups within a society, while contributing to the powerlessness of others.

Example:
Public schools are financed largely by property taxes, so affluent areas have better equipped schools and better paid teachers.

•
Social institutions have an inherently conservative nature.

•
Social institutions operate in gendered and racist environments.

3.
Interactionist Perspective

•
Behavior is conditioned by roles and statuses that we accept, the groups to which we belong, and the institutions within which we function.

Example:
the impact of humor in the workplace.

III.
Understanding Organizations

A.
Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies

•
A formal organization is a group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency.

Example:
the U.S. Postal Service.

•
Formal organizations have a bureaucratic form and now have enormous influence over our lives and society.

•
Achieved statuses can influence how we see ourselves in formal organizations.

B.
Characteristics of a Bureaucracy

•
A bureaucracy is a component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency. Max Weber first noted the significance of bureaucratic structure, emphasizing the basic similarity of structure and process found in the otherwise dissimilar enterprises of religion, government, education, and business.

•
For analytical purposes, Weber developed the “ideal type”—a construct or model for evaluating specific cases. Weber’s ideal bureaucracy had five characteristics:

1.
Division of labor

•
Can produce alienation—a condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society.

•
Can lead to trained incapacity—workers become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems.

2.
Hierarchy of authority

•
Each position is under the supervision of a higher authority.

3.
Written rules and regulations

•
Can create goal displacement—overzealous conformity to official regulations.

4.
Impersonality

•
Officials perform their duties without personal consideration to people as individuals.

5.
Employment based on technical qualifications

•
Laurence J. Peter developed the “Peter principle”—every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to their level of incompetence.

1.
Bureaucratization as a Process

•
Bureaucratization is the process by which a group, organization, or social movement becomes increasingly bureaucratic.

•
Bureaucratization is not limited to Western industrial societies.

2.
Oligarchy: Rule by a Few

•
Theorist Robert Michels developed the iron law of oligarchy, which describes how even a democratic organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few, called an oligarchy.

C.
Bureaucracy and Organizational Culture

•
According to the classical theory of formal organizations, or “scientific management approach,” workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.

•
The development of unions caused theorists to revise the classical approach and to consider the impact of informal groups of workers. This new “human relations approach” emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy.

IV.
Social Structure in Global Perspective

A.
Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

•
Mechanical solidarity exists in societies with a minimal division of labor. A collective consciousness develops that emphasizes group solidarity.

•
Organic solidarity exists in societies with a complex division of labor. It emphasizes mutual interdependence among groups and institutions—in much the same way as organs of the body are interdependent.

B.
Tönnies’s
Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft

•
The
Gemeinschaft community is typical of rural life. Social interactions are intimate and familiar. There is a strong feeling of community; persons are not driven by self-interest but by the needs of the whole. Informal sanctions may serve to enforce social norms (since individuals are not protected by anonymity).

•
The
Gesellschaft is an ideal type characteristic of modern life. Most people are strangers and feel little in common with one another (see Table 5-4).

C.
Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach

•
Lenski views human societies as undergoing a process of change characterized by a dominant pattern known as sociocultural evolution: long-term trends in societies resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection.

•
Technology is critical to the way society is organized. Lenski defined technology as “cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of an environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires.”

•
As technology advances, a community evolves from a preindustrial to an industrial and finally a postindustrial society.

1.
Preindustrial Societies

•
Hunting-and-gathering societies rely on available foods; technology is minimal.

•
Horticultural societies plant seeds and grow crops rather than subsist only on available foods.

•
Agrarian societies increase crop yields, and technological innovations are more dramatic (e.g., the plow). Their social structure has more carefully defined roles than that of horticultural society.

2.
Industrial Societies

•
Society depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.

•
These societies are reliant on new inventions that facilitate agricultural and industrial production and on new sources of energy.

3.
Postindustrial and Postmodern Societies

•
A postindustrial society is technologically advanced. Its economic system is primarily engaged in processing and controlling information. Its main output is services.

•
Postmodern society is technologically sophisticated and preoccupied with consumer goods and media images.

•
Postmodern theorists take a global perspective, noting ways that culture crosses national boundaries.

Examples:
In the United States, people listen to reggae music from Jamaica, eat sushi and other Japanese foods, and wear clogs from Sweden. Online social networks know no national boundaries.

V.
(Box) Social Policy and Organizations: The State of the Unions Worldwide

A.
Looking at the Issue

•
Labor unions consist of organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer.

•
They have historically been restrictive and discriminatory in their practices; today in some industries, unions help keep wages competitive across races.

•
Labor union strength varies wildly across countries, but it is declining worldwide for the following reasons:

1.
Changes in the type of industry

2.
Growth in part-time jobs

3.
The legal system

4.
Globalization

5.
Employer offensives

B.
Applying Sociology

•
Compared with their early incarnations, unions have become increasingly bureaucratized under self-serving leadership.

•
Recent declines in private sector union membership have been linked to a widening gap between hourly workers’ wages and managerial and executive compensation.

C.
Initiating Policy

•
U.S. law grants workers the right to unionize, but it is unique among industrial democracies in allowing employers to actively oppose unionization. Many elected officials are also seeking to reduce union power.

•
An unusual pro-union ruling in 2015 by the National Labor Relations Board is likely to be challenged, and collective bargaining will continue to be difficult.

•
In Europe, unions are powerful and are a key part of the electoral process.

•
Unions’ form and substance varies greatly from country to country. Unions in China are far more likely to listen to the government than would independent unions in other countries.

KEY TERMS

Achieved status A social position that a person attains largely through their own efforts.

Agrarian
society The most technologically advanced form of preindustrial society. Members engage primarily in the production of food but increase their crop yields through technological innovations such as the plow.

Alienation A condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society.

Ascribed
status A social position assigned to a person by society without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics.

Bureaucracy A component of formal organization that uses rules and hierarchical ranking to achieve efficiency.

Bureaucratization The process by which a group, organization, or social movement becomes increasingly bureaucratic.

Classical
theory An approach to the study of formal organizations that views workers as being motivated almost entirely by economic rewards.

Coalition A temporary or permanent alliance geared toward a common goal.

Formal
organization A group designed for a special purpose and structured for maximum efficiency.

Gemeinschaft

A close-knit community, often found in rural areas, in which strong personal bonds unite members.

Gesellschaft
A community, often urban, that is large and impersonal, with little commitment to the group or consensus on values.

Goal
displacement Overzealous conformity to official regulations of a bureaucracy.

Group Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis.

Horticultural
society A preindustrial society in which people plant seeds and crops rather than merely subsist on available foods.

Human
relations
approach An approach to the study of formal organizations that emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in a bureaucracy and tends to focus on the informal structure of the organization.

Hunting-
and-
gathering
society A preindustrial society in which people rely on whatever foods and fibers are readily available in order to survive.

Hyperconsumerism The practice of buying more than we need or want and often more than we can afford; a preoccupation of postmodern consumers.

Ideal
type A construct or model for evaluating specific cases.

Industrial
society A society that depends on mechanization to produce its goods and services.

In-
group Any group or category to which people feel they belong.

Iron
law
of
oligarchy A principle of organizational life under which even a democratic organization will eventually develop into a bureaucracy ruled by a few individuals.

Labor
union Organized workers who share either the same skill or the same employer.

Master
status A status that dominates other statuses and thereby determines a person’s general position in society.

McDonaldization The process by which the principles of bureaucratization have increasingly shaped organizations worldwide.

Mechanical
solidarity A collective consciousness that emphasizes group solidarity, characteristic of societies with minimal division of labor.

Organic
solidarity A collective consciousness that rests on mutual interdependence, characteristic of societies with a complex division of labor.

Out-
group A group or category to which people feel they do not belong.

Peter
principle A principle of organizational life according to which every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to their level of incompetence.

Postindustrial
society A society whose economic system is engaged primarily in the processing and control of information.

Postmodern
society A technologically sophisticated society that is preoccupied with consumer goods and media images.

Primary
group A small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation.

Reference
group Any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.

Role
conflict The situation that occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person.

Role
exit The process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity.

Role
strain The difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations.

Scientific
management
approach Another name for the classical theory of formal organizations.

Secondary
group A formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding.

Social
institution An organized pattern of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs.

Social
interaction The ways in which people respond to one another.

Social
network A series of social relationships that links a person directly to others and through them indirectly to still more people.

Social
role A set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status.

Social
structure The way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.

Sociocultural
evolution Long-term social trends resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection.

Status A term used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society.

Technology Cultural information about the ways in which the material resources of the environment may be used to satisfy human needs and desires.

Trained
incapacity The tendency of workers in a bureaucracy to become so specialized that they develop blind spots and fail to notice obvious problems.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Describe the development of roles in the mock prison experiment.

2. Explain the ethical considerations that led to the end of Zimbardo’s prison experiments. Based on what you learned about the sociological code of ethics in Chapter 2, do you believe that it was appropriate to stop this experiment?

3. Use the concepts of
social interaction and
social structure to explain the events that transpired in Zimbardo’s mock prison experiment.

4. Discuss the work of Herbert Blumer and William I. Thomas with respect to social interaction and reality.

5. How do ascribed and achieved statuses serve to identify who a person is in a culture?

6. How does a master status differ from an ascribed status? An achieved status? Give an example of a master status that is ascribed and then one that is achieved. Discuss.

7. How is disability a master status?

8. Distinguish between a medical model and a civil rights model of people with disabilities.

9. Explain the kinds of dilemmas a person may face in carrying out a social role.

10. Define and present an example of role conflict.

11. Delineate role conflict, role strain, and role exit, and provide an example of each.

12. What is meant by
role exit and how does it relate to the socialization process?

13. What part do groups play in a society’s social structure? Why does conflict develop between in-groups and out-groups?

14. What impact, if any, has computer technology had on group formation?

15. How might a reference group help the process of anticipatory socialization?

16. What is meant by
social networks?

17. What role have electronic social networks played for the unemployed?

18. Delineate the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist views of social institutions.

19. What are the five functional prerequisites that a society must satisfy if it is to survive?

20. Describe the range of roles that formal organizations play in our society.

21. Outline the five basic characteristics that Max Weber argued every ideal bureaucracy must have.

22. What does the Peter principle suggest may be a problem of employment based on technical qualifications in a bureaucracy?

23. Describe Michels’s iron law of oligarchy.

24. How does the human relations approach differ from the scientific management approach when studying organizational culture?

25. Describe the differences between organic solidarity and mechanical solidarity.

26. Distinguish between
Gemeinschaft and
Gesellschaft.

27. How does Ferdinand Tönnies use ideal types?

28. Outline Gerhard Lenski’s discussion of sociocultural evolution.

29. Compare and contrast the approaches to social structure introduced by Émile Durkheim, Ferdinand Tönnies, and Gerhard Lenski.

30. What role does technology play in the sociocultural evolution approach to understanding societies?

31. What are the differences among industrial, postindustrial, and postmodern societies?

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Would you have more respect for a person who is born wealthy or a person who becomes wealthy through hard work? Address the differences associated with ascribed and achieved statuses in your answer.

2. In the United States today, which type of status do you believe is more important in shaping or determining one’s social class—ascribed or achieved? Discuss.

3. Discuss the various ways a person may experience role strain. Give examples to support your answer.

4. Describe how the impact of political terrorist attacks is likely to affect various social interactions among groups. Include your own observations of events following the 9/11 terror attacks and the war with Iraq in your answer.

5. Analyze the importance of social institutions from the three major sociological perspectives. How are the views similar and different?

6. Discuss how social life and interaction would be affected if the Internet permanently disappeared today. Use the sociocultural evolution approach to describe your predictions.

PAGE

IM – 5 | 1

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CHAPTER

13

EDUCATION AND RELIGION

CHAPTER OUTLINE

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON EDUCATION

Functionalist Perspective

Conflict Perspective

Feminist Perspective

Interactionist Perspective

SCHOOLS AS FORMAL ORGANIZATIONS

Bureaucratization of Schools

Teachers: Employees and Instructors

Student Subcultures

Homeschooling

DURKHEIM AND THE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO RELIGION

WORLD RELIGIONS

SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON RELIGION

The Integrative Function of Religion

Religion and Social Support

Religion and Social Change

Religion and Social Control:
A Conflict Perspective

Feminist Perspective

COMPONENTS OF RELIGION

Belief

Ritual

Experience

RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION

Ecclesiae

Denominations

Sects

New Religious Movements or Cults

Comparing Forms of Religious Organization

SOCIAL POLICY AND EDUCATION: RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS

Boxes

Sociology on Campus: The Debate Over Title IX

Taking Sociology to Work: Diane Belcher Gray, Assistant Director of Volunteer Services, New River Community College

Research Today: The Growth of “None of the Above”

Research Today: Wicca: Religion or Quasi-Religion?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

WHAT’S NEW IN CHAPTER 13

· Analyze education using the functionalist, conflict, feminist, and interactionist sociological perspectives.

· Describe the manifest and latent functions of schools, according to the functionalist view.

· Summarize the inhibiting effects of education, according to the conflict perspective.

· Describe the bureaucratization of schools and its impact on the teaching profession.

· Describe the sociological approach to religion.

· Summarize the diverse nature of world religions.

· Analyze the role of religion using the major sociological perspectives.

· Describe the components of religious behavior.

· Contrast the four basic forms of religious organization.

· Figure 13-2, “Annual Earnings by Degree Level, 2018.”

· Updated discussion of racial isolation in public schools.

· Updated discussion of credentialism.

· Updated Sociology on Campus Box 13-1, “The Debate over Title IX,” to include research on the negative effects of sports.

· Updated discussion of the teaching profession.

· Updated and expanded coverage of homeschooling.

· Research Today box, “The Growth of ‘None of the Above.’”

· Discussion of religion and social support and religious ritual updated to include effects of coronavirus pandemic.

· Research Today box, “Wicca: Religion or Quasi-Religion?” with photo

· Social Policy Section: “Religion in the Schools,” with cartoon.

· Key Term Treatment of “creationism” and “intelligent design.”

· Updated figures “Anticipated Higher Education Graduation Rates (BA/BS), Selected Countries,” “Costs of Tuition, Room, and Board, 1963–2016,” “Average Salary for Teachers,” “Projected Change in Global Religious Affiliation, 2015–2060,” Religious Participation in Selected Countries,” and “Charter Schools.”

· Updated table “Major World Religions.”

CHAPTER SUMMARY

As the primary social institution that formally socializes members of our society,
education prepares citizens for the various roles demanded by other institutions, including religion. Religion plays a major role in people’s lives, and religious practices of some sort are evident in every society. When religion’s influence on other social institutions in a society diminishes, the process of
secularization is said to be underway. When examining education as a social institution, the functionalist, conflict, and interactionist perspectives offer distinctive views. Beyond the manifest function of transmitting knowledge, the functionalist perspective suggests that education performs the latent conservative function of transmitting the dominant culture by exposing each generation to the existing beliefs, norms, and values of that culture. Education serves the additional latent functions of promoting social and political integration, maintaining social control, and serving as an agent of change.

By contrast, the conflict perspective views education as an instrument of elite domination in which a
hidden curriculum subtly teaches the standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society. Schools convince subordinate groups of their inferiority, reinforce existing social class inequality, and discourage alternative and more democratic visions of society. Conflict theorists suggest that
credentialism—an increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field—reinforces social inequality. As well, both conflict and functionalist theorists agree that education performs the important function of bestowing status. For conflict theorists, it is the differential way in which education bestows status that is the critical point, with mechanisms such as
tracking serving to reinforce class differences. According to the
correspondence principle, schools promote the values expected of individuals in each social class, thereby perpetuating social class divisions. The feminist perspective holds that the educational system of the United States has been characterized by discriminatory treatment of women. Gains in opportunity and achievement in recent decades have resulted in more women in higher education, and their comparatively strong performance has formed a new area for study. Feminist theorists are also keenly interested in the role of women’s education in economic development as a global concern. The interactionist perspective purports that the labeling of children may limit their opportunities to break away from expected roles. The term
teacher-expectancy effect refers to the impact a teacher’s expectations about a student’s performance may have on the student’s actual performance.

Max Weber noted five basic characteristics of bureaucracy, all of which are evident in the vast majority of schools: (1) a
division of labor, where specialized experts teach particular age levels of students and specific subjects; (2) a
hierarchy of authority, where each employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority; (3) written rules and regulations, where teachers and administrators must conform to numerous rules and regulations in the performance of their duties; (4) impersonality, where bureaucratic norms may actually encourage teachers to treat all students in the same way; and (5) employment based on technical qualifications, where at least in theory, the hiring of teachers and college professors is based on professional competence and expertise. A significant countertrend to bureaucratization in the United States is online instruction. Research on this type of learning is just beginning, so evaluation of web education as an effective learning method remains to be settled.

The status of any job reflects several factors, including the level of education required, financial compensation, and the respect given to the occupation by society. Teachers are feeling pressure in all three areas. At the same time, while students may appear to constitute a cohesive, uniform group to some, the student subculture is actually complex and diverse. Among college students, four distinctive subcultures have been noted: collegiate, academic, vocational, and nonconformist. The cultural struggles of Black students at predominantly white universities have also been studied. Research has shown that transgender students are more likely to have below-average social confidence compared to other first-year students. However, they are more likely to have high levels of civil engagement, to seek out valuable information, and to ask questions in classes.

An increasing number of students in the United States are being educated at home. Supporters of homeschooling believe that children can do as well or better in homeschools as they would in public schools. People are motivated to choose homeschooling by many factors. Critics believe that isolation from the larger community limits socialization and poses problems with quality assurance. The difficulty of ensuring quality control and the presence of religion in the home are also controversial topics related to homeschooling.

Émile Durkheim was perhaps the first sociologist to recognize the critical importance of religion in human societies. In Durkheim’s view, religion is a collective act and includes many forms of behavior in which people interact with others. Durkheim defined
religion as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.” The
sacred encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and even fear. By contrast, the
profane includes ordinary and commonplace elements. Durkheim argued that religious faiths distinguish between certain events that transcend the ordinary and the everyday world.

Tremendous diversity exists in religious beliefs and practices. Overall, about 84% of the world’s population adheres to some form of religion. In sociological terms, religion is centrally important in most human societies. Christianity is the largest single faith in the world; Islam is second. Along with Judaism, they form the three major monotheistic religions. Hinduism is a major religion composed of multiple deities and belief in reincarnation; Buddhism was developed as a reaction to Hinduism and focuses on achieving enlightenment through meditation.

Functionalists and conflict theorists evaluate religion’s impact as a social institution. Functionalists view religion as providing an integrative function for society, with religion providing a form of “societal glue” that offers meaning and purpose for people’s lives. The integrative power of religion can be found in celebrations of life events such as weddings or funerals or in times of crisis or confusion. Religion provides a framework for social support during stressful life events; its integrative power can also be seen in the role that religious institutions play for immigrants in the United States. Overall, religion plays a major role in social support and in helping people face calamities. Max Weber demonstrated the collective nature of religion in his pioneering work
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber’s
Protestant ethic suggested an association between religious allegiance and capitalist development.
Liberation theology, the use of a church, primarily Roman Catholic, in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice from a secular society, shows that clergy can sometimes be at the forefront of social change.

The conflict view of religion suggests that religion impedes social change by encouraging oppressed people to focus on otherworldly concerns rather than on their immediate poverty or exploitation. Karl Marx described religion as an “opiate” that drugged the masses into submission. Marxists suggest that religious followers are lured into a “false consciousness” and that this lessens the possibility of collective political action. Feminists study the important role of women in religious socialization. Furthermore, feminist scholars bring attention to the patriarchal nature of most major world religions and the historical omission of women and women’s perspectives.

Certain patterns of religious behavior help define what is sacred and profane within a society.
Religious beliefs are statements to which members of a particular religion adhere. For example, the account of Adam and Eve is a religious belief that many people strongly adhere to and may insist be taught in schools.
Creationism is the literal interpretation of the Biblical account of the creation of humanity and the universe.
Intelligent design is the idea that life is so complex that it could only have been created by divine design.
Fundamentalism is an emphasis on doctrinal conformity and the literal interpretation of sacred texts.
Religious rituals are practices required or expected of members of a faith. They remind adherents of their religious duties and responsibilities.
Religious
experience refers to the feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality, such as a divine being or being overcome with religious emotion.

Sociologists find it useful to distinguish among four basic forms of religious organization. An
ecclesia is a religious organization that claims to include most or all of the members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion, such as Islam is in Saudi Arabia. A
denomination is a large, organized, widely accepted religious tradition that is not officially linked to the state or government. A
sect can be defined as a relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organization to renew what it considers the original vision of faith. An
established sect is a term from J. Milton Yinger that refers to a religious group that is the outgrowth of a sect yet remains isolated from society. The Seventh-Day Adventists and the Amish are contemporary examples. A
new religious movement (
NRM) or
cult is generally a small, loosely organized religious group (e.g., Heaven’s Gate) that represents either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith.
NRMs, like sects, may transform over time into other types of religious organizations. In fact, most major religions began as cults.
Quasi-
religions are in a scholarly category that includes organizations that may see themselves as religious but may be seen by others as “sort of religious” as Wicca is discussed in the Research Today box in this chapter. The competitive market of religious organizations in the United States has also given rise to electronic churches and religious organizations’ use of the internet.

LECTURE OUTLINE

Introduction

•
Excerpt from
The Death and Life of the Great American School System by Diane Ravitch.

I.
Sociological Perspectives on Education

•
In the past few decades, increasing proportions of people have obtained high school diplomas, college degrees, and advanced professional degrees in the United States.

•
Throughout the world, education has become a vast and complex social institution.

A.
Functionalist Perspective

•
The most basic manifest function of education is the transmission of knowledge. Another is conferral of status.

•
Latent functions include transmitting culture, promoting social and political integration, maintaining social control, and serving as agents of change.

1.
Transmitting Culture

•
Education performs a conservative function through the transmission of the dominant culture.

•
Schooling exposes young people to existing beliefs, norms, and values, including respect for social control and reverence of institutions.

•
Some governments use education to shape culture more forcefully than others.

Example:
South Korea

2.
Promoting Social and Political Integration

•
Diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups are transformed into a group sharing a common identity.

Example:
socializing the children of immigrants into the norms, values, and beliefs of the dominant culture

•
The integrative function of education is particularly obvious when it involves the promotion of a common language.

3.
Maintaining Social Control

•
Students learn punctuality, discipline, scheduling, and responsible work habits.

•
Schools direct and restrict student aspirations in a manner reflective of societal values and prejudices.

Example:
Males are directed into sciences and females into elementary teaching.

4.
Serving as an Agent of Change

•
Sex education classes and affirmative action in admissions illustrate the efforts of education to stimulate social change.

•
Formal education is associated with openness to new ideas and critical analysis, stressing the importance of qualifying statements and the need at least to question established truths and practices.

B.
Conflict Perspective

•
The conflict perspective views education as an instrument of elite domination.

•
Education socializes students into values dictated by the powerful and stifles creativity and individualism.

•
Inhibiting effects are apparent in the hidden curriculum, credentialism, and the bestowal of status.

1.
The Hidden Curriculum

•
The term
hidden curriculum refers to standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in schools.

•
The need for control and discipline takes precedence over learning.

•
Children must not speak until the teacher calls on them, and they must concentrate on their own work and not work together.

•
In a classroom overly focused on obedience, value is placed on pleasing the teacher and remaining quiet.

•
Marginalization in sex and relationship education has been a consistent part of the hidden curriculum, although recent efforts have brought some change in this area.

2.
Credentialism

•
The term
credentialism is used to describe the increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field.

•
Employers may use credentialism as a discriminating factor by raising degree requirements for a position.

•
Conflict theorists suggest credentialism reinforces social inequality.

3.
Bestowal of Status

•
Both functionalists and conflict theorists agree that schooling encourages social stratification, but conflict theorists focus on the idea that schools sort pupils according to their social class backgrounds.

•
Tracking refers to the practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of test scores. Tracking can become a caste system, in which students placed into low-ability groups have little to no opportunity for promotion later on.

•
The
correspondence principle refers to promoting values expected of individuals in each class.

Example:
working-class children placed in vocational tracks

C.
Feminist Perspective

•
Oberlin College was the first institution of higher learning in the United States to admit women, in 1833.

•
Many female students were encouraged to serve men and become wives and mothers.

•
Educational discrimination is evident in university professorship and administrative positions, which are predominately held by men.

•
Women have made great strides in one particular area: the proportion of women who continue their schooling.

•
Women’s comparatively strong performance in school (or men’s lower performance) is also of interest to feminist theorists.

•
Research has demonstrated women’s education is critical to economic development and good governance, along with lowered birth rates and improved agricultural productivity, in developing nations.

D.
Interactionist Perspective

•
Labeling of children has an impact on school performance.

•
The
teacher-expectancy effect refers to a teacher’s expectations of a student’s performance affecting the student’s actual performance.

•
Studies have shown that teachers will wait longer for answers from high achievers and are more likely to give them a second chance.

II.
Schools as Formal Organizations

•
Large-scale school systems are formal organizations, in the same way as factories, hospitals, and business firms. They are influenced by the market of potential students.

A.
Bureaucratization of Schools

•
The five basic characteristics of bureaucracy noted by Weber are evident in the vast majority of schools:

(1)
Division of labor: Specialized experts teach particular age levels of students and specific subjects.

(2)
Hierarchy of authority: Each employee of a school system is responsible to a higher authority.

(3)
Written rules and
regulations
: Teachers and administrators must conform to numerous rules and regulations in the performance of their duties.

(4)
Impersonality: Large class sizes make it difficult for teachers to give individual attention to students.

(5)
Employment based on technical qualifications: At least in theory, the hiring of teachers and college professors is based on professional competence and expertise.

•
Functionalists take a generally positive view of the bureaucratization of education. Conflict theorists argue that the trend toward more centralized education has harmful consequences for disadvantaged persons.

•
School choice programs and internet-based courses counter the bureaucratization of schools.

B.
Teachers: Employees and Instructors

•
Conflicts exist among serving as an instructor, disciplinarian, and an employee.

•
Fifteen percent of new teachers quit within their first 3 years, and as many as half leave poor urban schools in their first 5 years.

•
The appeal of teaching for college students is dramatically lower than it was 50 years ago.

•
Salary considerations may impact those contemplating teaching.

C.
Student Subcultures

•
Schools provide for the social and recreational needs of children.

•
Schools aid in the development of interpersonal relationships.

Example:
College students may meet future husbands and wives.

•
High school cliques may develop based on race, social class, physical attractiveness, placement in courses, athletic ability, and leadership roles.

•
Intense peer-group pressure to conform can be particularly difficult for LGBT students.

•
Sociologists have identified four ideal types of subcultures for college students:

(1)
Collegiate: focuses on having fun and socializing

(2)
Academic: identifies with the intellectual concerns of the faculty and values knowledge for its own sake

(3)
Vocational: views college as a means of obtaining degrees essential for advancement

(4)
Nonconformist: seeks out ideas that may or may not relate to studies

•
Feagin: Black students at predominantly white universities face “pervasive whiteness.”
Black students at such institutions experience both blatant and subtle racial discrimination, which has a cumulative effect that can seriously damage students’ confidence.

· Forty-three percent of transgender students evaluate themselves as having below-average social confidence. Yet, they are more likely to have high levels of civil engagement, to seek out valuable information, and to ask questions in class.

D.
Homeschooling

•
About 1.7 million American children are now educated at home.

•
Parents may choose to homeschool their children because of religious views, academic concerns, concerns about peer pressure, or fears about violence in schools. For immigrants, homeschooling may be seen as a way to ease a child’s transition to a new society.

•
Whether or not homeschooled children have adequate opportunities for socialization is a controversial issue.

•
Quality control is an issue in homeschooling, as is the presence of religion.

•
Parents who homeschool their children are more likely to have higher incomes and educational attainments.

III.
Durkheim and the Sociological Approach to Religion

•
Durkheim recognized the importance of religion in human societies, focusing on the social impact.

•
Religion is a collective act, defined as a “unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.”

•
The
sacred encompasses elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect,
and
fear.

Example:
rituals such as prayer or fasting

•
The
profane includes the ordinary and commonplace, which can sometimes become sacred.

Example:
a candelabra becomes sacred for Jews (menorah), as do incense sticks for Taoists

IV.
World Religions

•
About 84% of the world’s population adheres to some religion. About 15% of the population is nonreligious. The level of adherence changes over time and also varies by country and age-group.

•
Christianity is the largest single faith; Islam is the second largest.

•
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are monotheistic. Islam is communalistic and often features a combination of religion and state.

•
Hinduism differs in that it adheres to multiple deities, though most worshippers are devoted primarily to a single deity. It is also distinguished by a belief in rebirth through reincarnation.

•
Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha or Buddha. The goal of enlightenment is reached through meditation.

•
There are major variations within each of these faiths.

V.
Sociological Perspectives on Religion

•
Manifest functions of religion are open and stated explanations of events.

•
Latent functions are unintended, covert, or hidden.

A.
The Integrative Function of Religion

•
Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative power or “societal glue” that holds society together.

Example:
religious rituals surrounding celebrations (i.e., weddings) or loss (i.e., funerals)

•
The integrative impact is evident for immigrants and variant lifestyles in the United States.

•
Muslims have been the most talked-about immigrant religious group in recent years, but Muslims are divided into a variety of sects and express their faiths in different ways.

•
Islam in the United States can be integrative by faith, ethnicity, or both.

•
Religious loyalties can be dysfunctional.

Example:
Nazi Germany and Jews

•
Modern-day nations such as Lebanon (Muslims versus Christians) and Northern Ireland (Roman Catholics versus Protestants) have been torn by clashes that are in large part based on religion.

B.
Religion and Social Support

•
The idea of divine intervention allows people to face calamities as “God’s will,” thus having an ultimate benefit or purpose.

C.
Religion and Social Change

1.
The Weberian Thesis

•
Max Weber examined the connection between religious allegiance and capitalist development. His findings were presented in
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

•
The Protestant ethic is an emphasis on a disciplined work ethic, this-worldly concerns (i.e., material things), and a rational orientation to life. A by-product of the Protestant ethic is to accumulate savings for future investment.

•
Weber stressed that the collective nature of religion has social consequences for society as a whole.

•
Conflict theorists stress that Weber’s theory should not be used as an analysis of mature capitalism.

2.
Liberation Theology

•
Liberation theology is the use of a church in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice in a secular society.

Example:
Roman Catholic activists in Latin America

•
Liberation theology suggests a moral responsibility to stand against oppression.

•
Critics charge that liberation theology ignores personal and spiritual needs. Some Catholics in Latin America are converting to mainstream Protestant faiths or to Mormonism.

D.
Religion and Social Control: A Conflict Perspective

•
Marx suggested that religion impeded social change by encouraging oppressed people to focus on other-worldly concerns rather than on their immediate poverty or exploitation.

•
Religion is an “opiate” harmful to oppressed people.

Example:
White slaveowners forbade slaves in the United States to practice native religions, instead pushing Christianity, which encouraged obedience.

•
Marx believed that religion’s promotion of social stability perpetuates social inequality.

Example:
Women are typically found in subservient positions both within religious institutions and at home.

•
Marxists suggest that by inducing a “false consciousness” among followers, religion lessens collective political action.

E.
Feminist Perspective

•
Religion serves to subordinate women.

•
Women play a fundamental role in the religious socialization of children.

•
Most faiths have a long tradition of exclusively male leadership. Women make up 34% of the students enrolled in theological schools in the United States but account for only 17.4% of the clergy. They tend to have shorter careers and to serve outside of congregational leadership.

VI.
Components of Religion

•
All religions have certain elements in common that are expressed distinctively in each faith and across cultures.

A.
Belief

•
Religious beliefs are statements to which members of a particular religion adhere.

•
Fundamentalism is an emphasis on doctrinal conformity and the literal interpretation of sacred texts. Fundamentalists vary widely in behavior.

•
In general, spirituality is not as strong in industrialized nations as in developing ones, though the United States is an exception to this trend.

B.
Ritual

•
Religious rituals are practices required or expected of members of a faith.

Example:
Muslims’
hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca

•
Rituals honor the divine power of the religion, affirm beliefs, and remind adherents of their religious duties.

•
Religion develops distinctive norms to structure behavior and uses sanctions to reward or penalize behavior.

Example:
bar mitzvah gifts, expulsion for violating religious norms

C.
Experience

•
Religious experience refers to the feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality, such as the divine being, or of being overcome with religious emotion.

Example:
being “born again”

VII.
Religious Organization

•
The collective nature of religion has led to many forms of religious association.

A.
Ecclesiae

•
An ecclesia is a religious organization that claims to include most or all of the members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion.

Example:
Islam in Saudi Arabia; Buddhism in Thailand

•
Generally, ecclesiae are conservative and do not challenge the leaders of secular government.

B.
Denominations

•
A denomination is a large, organized religion not officially linked to the state or government.

•
Like an ecclesia, it tends to have an explicit set of beliefs, a defined system of authority, and a generally respected position in society. But a denomination lacks the official recognition and power held by an ecclesia.

•
Roman Catholicism is the largest single denomination in the United States.

•
Collectively, Protestants account for about 47% (as of 2014) of the U.S. adult population.

C.
Sects

•
A sect is a relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organization to renew what it considers the original version of the faith.

•
Sects are fundamentally at odds with society and do not seek to become established national religions.

•
They require intensive commitment and demonstrations of belief by members.

•
Sects are often short-lived.

•
An established sect is a religious group that is an outgrowth of a sect.

Example:
Hutterites, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Amish

D.
New Religious Movements or Cults

•
A new religious movement (NRM) or cult is generally a small, secretive religious group that represents either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith.

•
NRMs are similar to sects in that they tend to be small and are often viewed as less respectable than more established faiths.

Example:
Heaven’s Gate

•
Like sects, NRMs may be transformed over time into other types of religious organizations.

Example:
The Christian Science Church began as an NRM, but today exhibits the characteristics of a denomination.

E.
Comparing Forms of Religious Organization

•
Ecclesiae, denominations, and sects are best viewed as types along a continuum rather than as mutually exclusive categories. NRMs generally lie outside the continuum because they generally define themselves in terms of a new view of life rather than in terms of existing religious faiths.

•
Sociologists look at religion from an organizational perspective, which tends to stress the stability of religious adherence.

•
Electronic churches are a newer form of religious organization facilitated by cable television and satellite transmissions.

Example:
televangelists

•
The electronic church has expanded through the internet, which offers sites online to augment or serve as substitutes for going to church in person.

Example:
GodTube

•
The growth in internet usage may have contributed to the increasing number of religiously unaffiliated adults, but religious groups worldwide are also adapting to new media in interacting with others and enhancing their sense of community.

VIII.
(Box) Social Policy and Education: Religion in the Schools

A.
Looking at the Issue

· Is there a role for prayer in the schools? Should strict separation of church and state be maintained? Should creationism be included in school curriculum?

· In the key case of
Engle v. Vitale,
the Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that the use of nondenominational prayer in New York schools was “wholly inconsistent” with the First Amendment’s prohibition against government establishment of religion.

· Subsequent Court decisions have allowed
voluntary school prayer by students, but forbid school officials to
sponsor any prayer or religious observance at school events.

· In 2019, a national survey showed that 40% of adults believe that God created humans in their present form.

· In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that states could not compel the teaching of creationism in public schools if the primary purpose was to promote a religious viewpoint. In response, creationists have recently advanced a concept called intelligent design, the idea that life is so complex that it could only have been created by divine design.

B.
Applying Sociology

• Supporters of school prayer and of creationism feel that strict Court rulings have

forced too great a separation between what Émile Durkheim called the
sacred and

the
profane. They insist that the use of nondenominational prayer can in no way lead

to the establishment of an ecclesia in the United States.

• Opponents of school prayer and creationism argue that a religious majority in a

community might impose viewpoints specific to its faith at the expense of religious

minorities. These critics question whether school prayer can remain truly voluntary.

• Drawing on the interactionist perspective and small group research, opponents of

school prayer suggest that children will face enormous social pressure to conform to

the beliefs and practices of the majority.

C.
Initiating Policy

• Public school education is fundamentally a local issue, so most initiatives and

lobbying have taken place at the local or state level since federal courts have taken a

hard line on religion in the public schools.

• The activism of religious fundamentalists in the public school system raises the

question, “Whose ideas and values deserve a hearing in classrooms?”

• Critics see this campaign as one step toward sectarian religious control of public

education. They worry that at some point in the future, teachers may be

restricted in their use of materials that conflict with fundamentalist interpretations of

the Bible.

KEY TERMS

Correspondence
principle A term used by Bowles and Gintis to refer to the tendency of schools to promote the values expected of individuals in each social class and to perpetuate social class divisions from one generation to the next.

Creationism A literal interpretation of the Bible regarding the creation of humanity and the universe used to argue that evolution should not be presented as an established scientific fact.

Credentialism An increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field.

Denomination A large, organized religion that is not officially linked to the state or government.

Ecclesia A religious organization that claims to include most or all members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion.

Education A formal process of learning in which some people consciously teach, while others adopt the social role of learner.

Established
sect A religious group that is the outgrowth of a sect, yet remains isolated from society.

Fundamentalism An emphasis on doctrinal conformity and the literal interpretation of sacred texts.

Hidden
curriculum Standards of behavior that are deemed proper by society and are taught subtly in schools.

Intelligent Design (ID) The idea that life is so complex that it could only have been created by divine design.

Liberation
theology Use of a church, primarily Roman Catholic, in a political effort to eliminate poverty, discrimination, and other forms of injustice from a secular society.

New
religious
movement (NRM) or
cult A small, secretive religious group that represents either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith.

Profane The ordinary and commonplace elements of life as distinguished from the sacred.

Protestant
ethic Max Weber’s term for the disciplined work ethic, this-worldly concerns, and rational orientation to life emphasized by John Calvin and his followers.

Quasi-
religion A scholarly category that includes organizations that may see themselves as religious but may be seen by others as “sort of religious.”

Religion According to Emile Durkheim, a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things.

Religious
belief A statement to which members of a particular religion adhere.

Religious
experience The feeling or perception of being in direct contact with the ultimate reality, such as a divine being, or of being overcome with religious emotion.

Religious
ritual A practice required or expected of members of a faith.

Sacred Elements beyond everyday life that inspire awe, respect, and even fear.

Sect A relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organization to renew what it considers the original vision of the faith.

Secularization The process through which religion’s influence on other social institutions diminishes.

Teacher-
expectancy
effect The impact that a teacher’s expectations about a student’s performance may have on the student’s actual achievements.

Tracking The practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of their test scores and other criteria.

ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Identify and describe the manifest and latent functions of education.

2. In what ways do schools serve to transmit culture?

3. How do schools promote social and political integration?

4. How do schools maintain social control and facilitate social change?

5. How do conflict theorists view the hidden curriculum?

6. How do conflict theorists view credentialism?

7. How are schools able to preserve social class, and how does tracking relate to social class?

8. How does the correspondence principle relate to social class?

9. Discuss how the status of women in education is changing and how it has remained the same.

10. Describe the findings of research on the teacher-expectancy effect.

11. Using Max Weber’s five basic characteristics of bureaucracy, explain how schools are bureaucratic.

12. What is Title IX, and why was it implemented?

13. What are some of the difficulties that contemporary teachers face?

14. How do functionalists and conflict theorists view the bureaucratization of schools?

15. Describe findings on subcultures among college students.

16. What are some of the insights that sociologists can bring to the debate over allowing religious expression in schools?

17. Clarify the distinction that Émile Durkheim made between the sacred and the profane.

18. What is meant by the
integrative function of religion?

19. What is meant by the
social support function of religion?

20. How did Karl Marx and Max Weber view the relationship between religion and the economic side of life?

21. What has been the primary nature of critiques of Max Weber’s
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?

22. What is liberation theology and how does it relate to conflict theory?

23. What is meant by the
social control function of religion?

24. Contrast the views of religion taken by Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx.

25. In what ways do both Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx emphasize the importance of the secular, societal results of religion?

26. Identify and briefly describe the three major components of religious behavior presented in the textbook.

27. What are some of the different forms that religious rituals can take?

28. Explain the different types of religious organizations.

29. How do denominations, ecclesiae, and sects differ?

30. Distinguish between cults—or new religious movements—and sects.

31. Describe Hinduism and Buddhism and indicate how they differ from one another.

32. What is creationism and what is its relationship to the scientific theory of evolution?

33. Explain how intelligent design became an issue in education in the United States.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

1. Describe how online instruction could strengthen or weaken the integrative function of education within a society. What elements of socialization may be missing?

2. Discuss whether the conservative or social change aspects of the latent functions of education are more powerful overall.

3. Describe the various extremes students may take in trying to please a college professor in terms of experiencing the teacher-expectancy effect.

4. Discuss why the norms of religion will likely make a war on terrorism difficult for anyone to win. Do you think agnostic government leaders could clarify the disputed issues better than fundamentalist religious leaders? Why or why not?

5. Describe how using the internet could strengthen or weaken the integrative power of religion within a society. What elements of religious socialization may be missing?

IM – 13 | 219

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