Lecture 6
UNIT 6: Social Construction of Gender and Race
By Nabil Marshood
In this lecture, the focus will center on the following important topics:
1. The social meaning of gender and its social construction
2. The social meaning of race and ethnicity and their social construction
3. Intersection of race, gender and class
The discussion will highlight the sociological notion that race, gender and class are socially constructed
and serve as principles of social organization. That is to say, although those conditions are grounded in
biological reality, and although people don’t choose any of them, society creates ideas, ideologies and
behavioral guidelines for people to follow. If you were born to white parents, for example, your social
standing and opportunities differ significantly from those born to black parents. The same is true for sex
and gender. Although these are biological realities, boys and men have different positions and
opportunities from girls and women.
Some may argue that these ideas are old fashion and don’t apply to their personal reality. Consider the
reality of race and gender at a macro level and examine the role of culture and social structure including
institutions like family, religion, education, government and economy, to name only a few, in the
construction of structural divisions between racial and gender groups, and in the behavioral norms and
guidelines relevant to the interactions between those groups.
Let’s clarify the terminology relevant to this topic:
Race: The term, race, refers to a group of people who share common biological features. The main
obvious attributes include skin color and hair texture. The distinction between black and white people,
for example, is grounded in racial differences.
The term race is a biological, natural term. People did not choose their color but they are treated
differently according to the social meaning of that color. It is important to note that race does not
determine intelligence or behavior, and that there no such thing as a pure race.
Given these facts, why then is race important and why does it influence human behavior. The answer
lies in the social meaning of race.
Ethnicity: The term, ethnicity, refers to a group of people who share a common heritage such as
language, national origin, and religion. The term Hispanic, for example, refers to an ethnic group. Some
Hispanics are racially black, others are racially white and others are brown, but ethnically, they all share
a common language and a national region. Others examples include Jewish (religion), Muslims (religion),
Asians (National region), African –Americans, Irish Americans, and the like.
Here again, as it is the case with race, those conditions are not chosen by individuals, but society has
placed each category in a specific ranking system in society. Different ethnic groups are treated
differently according to the social meaning of each ethnic group.
Copyright © 2019 by Nabil Marshood
Racism refers to the belief that one racial group is superior and others are inferior. Note the significance
of the term belief in the definition.
Discrimination refers to the acts and differential treatments of individuals or groups on the basis of their
race or ethnicity. Different forms of discrimination have occurred throughout history including unequal
treatment in hiring, housing, criminal behavior, education, and more
Prejudice refers to feelings, thoughts and attitudes one holds towards individuals or groups of a certain
racial or ethnic group
Sex refers to the biological differences between male and female. This term has been historically treated
as a binary concept. With the new forms of open sexual experiences including the LGBTQ community,
society is experiencing a paradigm shift in the conception of the term sex. Sexuality is now considered a
fluid term with open variations.
Gender refers to the social attributes attached to different sex categories. This is a social construct that
determines positions, roles and opportunities for different sex groups. For example, traditional families
are more likely to have a clear gender forms of socialization and gender roles. The feminist movement
has made a significant contribution in this matter. They argue that roles should not be associated with
sex. That is to say, cleaning the house, for example, should not be reserved for women alone. Both men
and women can perform this task.
Sexism: The belief that one sex is superior to the other.
Patriarchy: Male dominated social system
Minority Group and Majority Group: These terms take on different definitions and could be interpreted
in a variety of ways. To clarify, note the following definitions:
1. Numerical definition: According to this definition, groups are distinguished based on the size of
each group in society. Since the white population makes over 65% of the total US population,
they constitute the majority.
2. Sociopolitical definition: According to this definition, size does not matter. It is power that
makes the difference. Groups that hold most power in society are the majority. They are also
referred to as the dominant groups. They hold high positions in government, the economy,
education, health and more. They are the decision makers. The minority, is a group that has less
power. It is also referred to as the subordinate group. In this context, the term minority is
derived from the word Minor, implying that minority groups are not mature enough to make
their own decisions, and are expected to be subordinate to the majority.
3. Legal definition: According to the US Affirmative Action Law, the following groups are
designated and treated as minorities. The list includes African Americans, Hispanic Americans,
Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, and Women.
Throughout this discussion, it has become distinctively clear that power is the most important ingredient
in the construction of group status in society and the treatment it receives. This power structure is also
responsible for regulating the position of racial/ethnic groups and the interaction between them, thus
creating a ranking racial and gender systems. It is those issues that invoke strong reactions from
minority groups. They experience oppression and social injustice.
Copyright © 2019 by Nabil Marshood
The majority could work to integrate or segregate any given group at any time. History teaches us that
genocide and expulsions were practiced by the majority against targeted groups. History also teaches us
that some forms of integration have been introduced and that some societies are becoming more
tolerant of diversity.
Given these notes, and as you read and study the required and recommended readings, consider some
of the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What is your reaction to the data? And, what questions do you have about this topic?
What are some of the structural conditions that contribute to this reality?
What does it take to create conditions of social equality and justice?
What can minority groups do to improve their condition in society?
What can the majority do to improve the social reality for all?
Use the various sociological theories to explain the gaps between minority and majority groups.
What are the chances for minority groups to achieve the so-called “American Dream”?
How do your race and gender impact your decisions and choices that you make in areas of
education, occupation, marriage and relationships, raising children and all other spheres of life?
Required Reading: Textbook – Chapters 1, 2, 8, 9
Conley, D. (2019). You May Ask Yourself (6th Ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Recommended Reading
US Census Bureau, www.census.gov
Cornel West, Race Matters
Edward Said, Orientalism
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Candace West and Don Zimmerman, Doing Gender
https://www.gla.ac.uk/0t4/crcees/files/summerschool/readings/WestZimmerman_198
7_DoingGender.pdf
Copyright © 2019 by Nabil Marshood
Chapter 9
Race
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• Race as we know it has no
deterministic biological basis:
but nonetheless, race is so
powerful that it can have lifeor-death consequences.
• Click here to see the paradox
animation:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
The Myth of Race
Slide 1 of 2
Race can be defined as a group of people who share a set of
characteristics—usually physical ones—and are said to share a
common bloodline.
Racism is the belief that members of separate races possess
different and unequal human traits.
The Myth of Race
Slide 2 of 2
• Race is a social construction
that changes over time and
across different contexts.
The Concept of Race
Slide 1 of 6
Many historical efforts to explain race were biased due to
ethnocentrism (the judgment of other groups by one’s own
standards and values).
The Concept of Race
Slide 2 of 6
Social Darwinism, another nineteenth-century theory, was the
notion that some groups or races had evolved more than others
and thus were better fit to survive and even to rule other races.
The Concept of Race
Slide 3 of 6
Backers of eugenics (the science of genetic lines and the
inheritable traits they pass on from generation to generation)
claimed that traits could be traced through bloodlines and bred
into populations (for positive traits) or out of them (for negative
traits).
The Concept of Race
Slide 4 of 6
The one-drop rule, which evolved from US laws forbidding
miscegenation, was the belief that “one drop” of black blood
makes a person black. Application of this rule was intended to
keep the white population “pure” and lumped anyone with black
blood into one category.
The Concept of Race
Slide 5 of 6
Miscegenation is the technical term for a multiracial marriage.
The Concept of Race
Slide 6 of 6
• Today DNA testing is used to
determine people’s racial
makeup, and while this process
may be more accurate on some
level than nineteenth-century
racial measures, it still
supports the notion of fixed,
biological, racial differences.
Racial Realities
• Racialization is the formation
of a new racial identity, in
which new ideological
boundaries of difference are
drawn around a formerly
unnoticed group of people.
Jen’nan Read Interview
• Jen’nan Read discusses her
research on the experience of
Muslims in the United States.
• Click here to watch her
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Discussion Question 1
As the saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” How do
eugenics and physiognomy contradict this saying (in regard to
people)? Are the principles behind these pseudosciences still
with us today? If so, in what capacity?
Race versus Ethnicity
Slide 1 of 2
Race is imposed (usually based on physical differences),
hierarchical, exclusive, and unequal.
Ethnicity is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchical, fluid,
cultural, and not as closely linked with power differences.
An ethnic identity becomes racialized when it is subsumed
under a forced label, racial marker, or “otherness.”
Race versus Ethnicity
Slide 2 of 2
• Symbolic ethnicity is ethnicity
that is individualistic in nature
and without real social cost for
the individual.
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 1 of 5
Native Americans
• Today, people claiming at least some Native American
ancestry number about 5.6 million.
• Only about one-fifth of Native Americans live in a
designated American Indian area.
• Native Americans rank among the worst in terms of highschool dropout rates and unemployment, which go hand in
hand with poor health outcomes such as alcoholism,
suicide, and premature death.
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 2 of 5
African Americans
• Today about 12.7 percent of the American population is
black.
• The median income of African Americans as a group is
roughly 62.8 percent that of whites.
• Among men ages 25 to 39, blacks are imprisoned 2.5 times
and 6 times as often as Hispanics and whites, respectively.
• Sociologists today are beginning to study how new black
immigrants are fracturing the holistic conception of “African
American.”
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 3 of 5
Latinos
• Latino, like the term Hispanic (the two are often used
interchangeably), refers to a diverse group of people of
Latin or Hispanic origin.
• In 2012 Latinos made up approximately 17 percent of the
population.
• In 2013, the majority of Latinos in the United States were
from Mexico (about 63.2%), Puerto Rico (about 9.5%), Cuba
(3.9%), and the Dominican Republic (3.3%).
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 4 of 5
Asian Americans
• The term Asian American is very broad, encompassing
diverse and sometimes clashing peoples from China, Korea,
Japan, and Southeast Asia.
• Asian Americans are unique among ethnic minorities
because of their high average socioeconomic status,
surpassing that of most other ethnic minorities as well as
most whites in terms of educational attainment.
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 5 of 5
Middle Eastern Americans
• Middle Easterners come from places as diverse as the
Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, and the
Palestinian territories.
• Today about 2 million Americans report Arab ancestry, and
even more Americans have a Middle Eastern heritage,
because not all Middle Easterners are Arab.
• Widespread misunderstandings about Middle Easterners
derive, in part, from their negative stereotyping in the
mainstream media.
The Importance of Being White
“White” is a flexible label that has expanded over time to include
many formerly nonwhite groups such as Jews, Irish, and Italians.
Peggy McIntosh argues that whiteness is an “invisible knapsack
of privileges” that puts white people at an advantage, just as
racism places nonwhites at a disadvantage.
Discussion Question 2
According to author Nell Irvin Painter, “The foundation of white
identity is that there isn’t any. You’re just an individual.” How
does this illustrate the uniqueness of “white” as a racial
category?
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 1 of 5
Robert Park’s concept of straight-line assimilation offered a
universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate.
Milton Gordon’s alternative model suggests that immigrant
populations pass through (or stall in) seven stages of
assimilation.
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 2 of 5
Pluralism, in the context of race and ethnicity, refers to the
presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups
in one society, with no one group being in the majority.
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 3 of 5
Segregation is the legal or social practice of separating people
on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
• Segregation was the official policy in the United States,
particularly in the South, until the 1960s.
• Although it has been illegal for over 40 years, there is still
ample evidence of segregation in American society today,
particularly in schools, housing, and prisons.
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 4 of 5
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 5 of 5
The final paradigm of race relations is conflict relations, when
antagonistic groups within a society live integrated in the same
neighborhoods, hold the same jobs, and go to the same schools.
Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people based on
racial, ethnic, or religious traits.
Group Responses to Domination
Four ways in which groups respond to oppression are
withdrawal, passing, acceptance, and resistance.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Slide 1 of 2
Prejudice refers to negative thoughts and feelings about an
ethnic or racial group.
Discrimination refers to harmful or negative acts against
people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Slide 2 of 2
As overt racism declines, scholars are beginning to find traces of
a new kind of racism gaining ground. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls
this color-blind racism.
• This new kind of racism replaces biology with culture and
presumes that there is something fixed, innate, and inferior
about nonwhite cultural values.
How Race Matters: The Case of Wealth
Slide 1 of 2
Equity inequality captures the historical disadvantage of
minority groups and the way those disadvantages accrue over
time.
Average household net worth in 2016
• African Americans: $17,100
• Latinos: $20,600
• Whites: $171,000
How Race Matters: The Case of Wealth
Slide 2 of 2
Institutional racism refers to institutions and social dynamics
that may seem race neutral but actually disadvantage minority
groups.
The Future of Race
Slide 1 of 2
• For the first time ever, the 2000
Census allowed respondents to
check off more than one box
for racial identity.
• About 9 million self-identified
as multiracial by checking
more than one race box in
2010.
The Future of Race
Slide 2 of 2
Jennifer Lee Interview
• Jennifer Lee explains how
sociologists think about race
and describes the differences
between race and ethnicity.
• Click here to watch her
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Ethnocentrism is
a) the notion that ethnic ties are fixed in a deeply felt
connection to one’s homeland culture.
b) the idea that we should recognize differences across
cultures without passing judgment on, or assigning value
to, those differences.
c) the judgment of other groups by one’s own standards and
values.
d) the adoption of a symbolic ethnicity for certain holidays
or cultural events.
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
How was the one-drop rule related to laws forbidding
miscegenation in the United States?
a) The one-drop rule reinforced antimiscegenation laws
because any offspring of a mixed-race union would be
categorized as black.
b) The one-drop rule was a precursor to formal laws
forbidding miscegenation.
c) When antimiscegenation laws were struck down in the
courts, the one-drop rule was an informal way of
enforcing the same policy.
d) all of the above
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
A pluralistic society is one in which
a) numerous distinct cultures engage and coexist peacefully
within one large sociocultural framework.
b) numerous distinct cultures live within the same political
boundaries but do not interact.
c) numerous distinct cultures live within the same political
boundaries but may experience great tension and
inequality.
d) numerous distinct cultures vie for power and domination
within one large sociocultural framework.
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
__________ is the least explored, and perhaps the most striking, of
the disparities in social outcomes between blacks and whites in
the United States.
a) Income disparity
b) The high incarceration rate among blacks
c) The wealth gap
d) The difference in educational attainment
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
The “new racism” couches its rhetoric in terms of __________
between groups rather than __________.
a) religious differences; intellectual differences
b) learned differences; innate differences
c) behavioral differences; physical differences
d) cultural differences; physical differences
Discussion Questions
1. Have the four forms of
minority–majority group
relations been prevalent in
the United States?
2. How have minority groups in
the United States responded
to racial domination?
3. What do you think is the
future of race and ethnicity in
the United States?
Sociology on the Street
Decades after real estate segregation (or “redlining”) became
illegal, many Americans still live in communities that are highly
segregated by race and/or socioeconomic status. How does
unofficial segregation occur?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 9
Race
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
43
Chapter 8
Gender
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• How do we investigate
inequality between men and
women without reinforcing
binary thinking about gender?
• Watch the animated short
about the gender paradox at:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
Sex refers to the perceived biological differences that society
typically uses to distinguish males from females.
Gender denotes a social position—namely, the set of social
arrangements built around normative sex categories.
Sexuality refers to desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and
behavior.
Sex: A Process in the Making
The study of gender boils down to seeing how nature and
nurture overlap and shape each other.
Essentialist arguments explain social phenomena in terms of
natural, biological, or evolutionary inevitabilities.
In contrast, sociologists think of the nature-behavior
relationship as a two-way street.
Gender: What Does It Take to Be Masculine or Feminine?
Slide 1 of 3
• We acquire our gender identity
through socialization.
• Rigid boundaries are imposed
to maintain a gender order.
• But if we look at how gender
systems vary, we can expose
those boundaries as social
constructions.
Gender: What Does It Take to Be Masculine or Feminine?
Slide 2 of 3
Not all cultures have a binary gender configuration.
• In Navajo tribes, there are not two but three genders:
masculine men, feminine women, and the nadle.
The growing social awareness of transgender people in our
own society helps us break out of binary thinking about gender,
since we tend to assume everyone is cisgender.
Gender: What Does It Take to Be Masculine or Feminine?
Slide 3 of 3
Gender differences vary over time as well. Ideals about
masculinity and femininity are historically contingent.
Historical change in ideal feminine beauty is one example, but
definitions of masculinity vary over time too.
• Ideal masculinity in the 1700s went hand in hand with
kindness and intellect, and even poetry.
Discussion Question 1
What characteristics and traits are associated with ideal
femininity and masculinity in contemporary society? Give
examples.
Amos Mac Interview
• Amos Mac shares his
experiences as a transgender
man.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 1 of 9
• Feminism is a social
movement to get people to
understand that gender is an
organizing principle in society
and to address gender-based
inequalities.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 2 of 9
At the start of the second wave of the feminist movement in the
1960s, theorists scrambled to find an answer to the “woman
question”:
• What explains the nearly universal dominance of men over
women?
• What is the root of patriarchy, a system involving the
subordination of femininity to masculinity?
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 3 of 9
Rubin’s sex/gender system challenged the assumption that
because women’s subordination occurred everywhere it must
be fulfilling some societal function.
• Rubin argued that women are treated like valuable property
whose trade patterns strengthen relations between families
headed by men.
• This sex/gender system is not natural, but a result of
human interaction.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 4 of 9
According to Parson’s Sex Role Theory
• men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners
and wives/mothers because the nuclear family is the ideal
arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of
reproducing workers.
This structural functionalist approach to gender
• assumes gender differences exist to fulfill necessary societal
functions.
• doesn’t allow for the possibility that other structures could
fulfill the same function or that structures change
throughout history.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 5 of 9
Psychoanalytic theories of gender
• focus on individualistic explanations for gender differences
as opposed to societal ones.
• support that there are natural differences between men and
women that dictate how they behave.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 6 of 9
Conflict theories focus on power and argue that patriarchal
capitalists benefit through systems that subordinate women.
• Socialist feminists, also known as radical feminists, argue
that the root of all social relations, including relations of
production, stemmed from unequal gender relations.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 7 of 9
Interactionist theories focus on “doing gender.”
• West and Zimmerman argue that gender is not a fixed
identity or role that we take with us into our interactions.
Rather, it is the product of those interactions.
• To be a man or a woman is to perform masculinity or
femininity constantly.
• In this social constructionist theory, gender is a process, not
a static category.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 8 of 9
Black feminism points out the importance of
intersectionality.
• This is the idea that the identities surrounding gender, sex,
and sexuality intersect with other meaningful social
categories like race or class.
• Patricia Hill Collins identified the matrix of domination,
which highlights how black women face unique oppressions
that white women don’t.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 9 of 9
Postmodern theorists question the whole notion of “woman”
as a separate, stable category and the value and appropriateness
of Western scholars applying their cultural logic to the study of
non-Western societies.
Discussion Question 2
Which theory of gender inequality do you find most convincing
and which least convincing? Why?
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 1 of 4
What accounts for the wide range of statistical differences
between men and women?
Essentialists refer to natural sex differences.
But sociologists are apt to call these same differences “deceptive
distinctions,” those that arise because of the particular roles
individuals come to occupy.
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 2 of 4
Increase of Women in the Workforce, 1970-2016
Year
Civiliarn labor force
Civiliarn labor force
(percent of population) (percent of population)
male
female
1970
80
20
1975
79
21
1980
78
22
1985
77
23
1990
76
24
1995
75
25
2000
74
26
2005
72
28
2010
70
30
2015
69
31
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 3 of 4
Although legally entitled to enter all lines of work, women
routinely face sexual harassment.
Additionally, women have consistently been paid less than their
male peers, earning about 81 cents to every $1 of a man’s wage.
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 4 of 4
The glass ceiling refers to an invisible limit on women’s climb
up the occupational ladder.
• Kanter argues this is due to a cultural conflation of
authority with masculinity.
The glass escalator refers to the accelerated promotion of men
to the top of a work organization, especially in feminized jobs.
Ashley Mears Interview
• Ashley Mears talks about
gender inequality and the wage
structure in the modeling
industry.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Sociology in the Bedroom
Slide 1 of 2
Much like gender differences, sexual practices vary across time
and place, supporting the notion that sexuality is as much a
social construct as gender.
There is enormous variation in how humans have sex and what
it means to them.
Sociology in the Bedroom
Slide 2 of 2
Homosexual, which refers to the social identity of a person who
has sexual attraction to and/or relations with people of the
same sex, is a concept or identity that emerged in the midnineteenth century.
Heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexuality is the
default or normal sexual orientation from which other
sexualities deviate.
Paula England Interview
• Paula England discusses her
research on “hook-up” culture
and romantic relationships
among college students.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
_____ is what we as a society make of biological sex differences
between males and females.
a) Sexuality
b) Gender
c) Patriarchy
d) Cisgender
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
_______ is a nearly universal system involving the
subordination of femininity to masculinity.
a) Patriarchy
b) Sexism
c) Matriarchy
d) Hegemonic masculinity
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
Michel Foucault argued that the development of homosexuality
as a social identity was related to
a) changes in the nineteenth century with regard to the
notion of the ideal man.
b) the development of scientific disciplines and a desire to
monitor and categorize people and their behavior.
c) the development of the field of psychoanalysis in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
d) society’s need to establish cohesion by identifying
“others” who exhibit “deviant” behavior.
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
Sexual harassment is an illegal form of discrimination that can
be manifested through ________, with the intent of making a
person, usually a woman, feel uncomfortable or unsafe,
particularly in a work setting.
a) inappropriate jokes
b) sexual assault
c) requests for sexual favors
d) all of the above
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
Women working in male-dominated professions often find that
there are _____opportunities for advancement, and men working
in female-dominated professions often advance _____ their
female colleagues.
a) limited; more slowly than
b) limited; as quickly as
c) ample; as quickly as
d) limited; more quickly than
Discussion Questions
1. What are some examples
from your own life where you
or those around you
“perform” or “do” gender?
2. How would others react if
you or someone you know
suddenly stopped doing
these things?
Sociology on the Street
Internet dating is a major resource for people looking for
potential partners with a seemingly unlimited pool. What are
the similarities and differences between dating online compared
to dating in person?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 8
Gender
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
35
Chapter 1
The Sociological Imagination:
An Introduction
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• A successful sociologist makes
the familiar strange.
• Click here to watch the paradox
animation:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
What Is Sociology?
• Sociology is the study of
human society.
The Sociological Imagination
Slide 1 of 2
Sociological imagination, a term coined by C. Wright Mills, is a
tool that helps us to
• connect our personal experiences to society at large and to
greater historical forces.
• “make the familiar strange,” or question habits or customs
that seem “natural” to us.
The Sociological Imagination
Slide 2 of 2
“Why go to college?”
College graduates earn about $960,000 more over their lifetimes
than those with only a high-school education.
• If the benefits of college are due to the learning that takes
place, why not do it on your own for free?
• If it’s really about getting a “piece of paper” then why not
print out a fake diploma?
Asha Rangappa Interview
• Asha Rangappa, the dean of
admissions at Yale Law School,
discusses the role that class
plays in acceptance.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Discussion Question 1
• Why are you in college?
• Did the people around you,
including friends and family,
expect you to go to college? Do
you think this is the same for
everyone? Why or why not?
What Is a Social Institution?
Slide 1 of 2
A social institution is a complex group of interdependent
positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce
themselves over time.
• The legal system
• The labor market
• The educational system
• The military
• The family
What Is a Social Institution?
Slide 2 of 2
A college is a social institution that
• acts as gatekeeper to “legitimate” forms of education by
deciding who can attend.
• segregates great swaths of the population by age.
• is a proprietary brand that is marketed on items like
sweatshirts and through televised sporting events.
• has an informal set of stories told within a social network of
students, faculty, administrators, alumni, and so on.
What Is Social Identity?
Social identity is the way individuals define themselves in
relation to groups of which they are a part (or in relation to
groups of which they choose not to be a part).
The History of Sociology
Slide 1 of 3
Auguste Comte—the best way to understand society is by
determining the logic or scientific laws governing human
behavior, called social physics or positivism.
Harriet Martineau—the first person to translate Comte’s written
works into English, and one of the earliest feminist social
scientists.
The History of Sociology
Slide 2 of 3
Karl Marx—proposed the theory of historical materialism,
which identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social
change.
Max Weber—his emphasis on subjectivity became a foundation
of interpretive sociology.
The History of Sociology
Slide 3 of 3
Émile Durkheim—the founder of positivist sociology;
developed the theory that the division of labor helps to
determine how social cohesion is maintained, or not
maintained.
Georg Simmel—proposed a formal sociology, or a sociology of
pure numbers (for instance, how a group of two is different than
a group of three).
American Sociology
Slide 1 of 2
Early American sociology became prominent at the University of
Chicago.
The “Chicago School” perspective focused on empirical research,
with the belief that people’s behaviors and personalities are
shaped by their social and physical environments.
• Robert Park
• Louis Wirth
• George Herbert Mead
• Charles Horton Cooley
American Sociology
Slide 2 of 2
W. E. B. Du Bois—the first African American to receive a PhD
from Harvard and the first sociologist to undertake ethnography
in the African American community.
Jane Addams—founded Hull House, where the ideas of the
Chicago School were put into practice and tested.
Talcott Parsons—leading theorist of functionalism in the midtwentieth century.
W. E. B. Du Bois
Modern Sociological Theories
Slide 1 of 3
Functionalism
• the theory that various social institutions and processes in
society exist to serve some important (or necessary)
function to keep society running
Conflict Theory
• the idea that conflict between competing interests is the
basic, animating force of social change and society in
general
Modern Sociological Theories
Slide 2 of 3
Feminist theory
• a catchall term for many theories with an emphasis on
women’s experiences and a belief that sociology and society
in general subordinate women
Symbolic interactionism
• a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations
behind people’s actions
Modern Sociological Theories
Slide 3 of 3
Postmodernism
• a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of
progress and history, the replacement of narrative within
pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities
resulting from disjointed affiliations
Midrange theory
• a theory that attempts to predict how certain social
institutions tend to function
Discussion Question 2
Compare functionalism and conflict theory. How would the two
differ in their understanding of inequality?
Sociology and Its Cousins
Slide 1 of 2
Sociology focuses on making comparisons across cases to find
patterns and create hypotheses about how societies work now
or how they worked in the past.
Sociology looks at how individuals interact with one another as
well as at how groups, small and large, interact with one
another.
Sociology and Its Cousins
Slide 2 of 2
Distinctions are important, but a lot of overlap exists between
different academic disciplines.
• History and anthropology—cultural anthropology in
particular—tend to focus more on particular circumstances.
• Psychology and biology examine things on a more micro
level than sociology does, and economics is an entirely
quantitative discipline.
• Political science focuses on one aspect of social relations—
power.
Julia Adams Interview
• Historical comparative
sociologist Julia Adams
discusses the difference
between historians and
sociologists.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Divisions within Sociology
• Microsociology understands
local interactional contexts,
focusing on face-to-face
encounters and gathering data
through participant
observations and in-depth
interviews.
• Macrosociology looks at social
dynamics across whole
societies or large parts of them
and often relies on statistical
analysis to do so.
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Which of the following is an example of using one’s sociological
imagination?
a) being in unfamiliar surroundings and imagining being in a
more comfortable place
b) creating different hypotheses to explain an individual’s
behavior
c) creating a story to explain unfamiliar social customs
d) being puzzled by how people in another country greet one
another and then thinking about why they might do it that
way
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
Social identity is
a) a construct that no longer has meaning in the postmodern
era.
b) a collection of social roles that a person might fill.
c) a way that individuals define themselves in relation to
groups.
d) determined by the social group into which a person is
born.
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
The Chicago School of American Sociology emphasized the
importance of
a) the social and moral consequences of the division of labor.
b) the environment in shaping people’s behavior and
personalities.
c) heavy statistical research.
d) none of the above
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
Sociology is distinct from other academic disciplines in its
attempt to
a) embrace quantitative and qualitative research.
b) ask probing questions about how societies function.
c) detect patterns in how different societies handle or
respond to similar phenomena.
d) examine human interaction on the micro level.
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
Which of the following is an example of a study that might be
undertaken by a macrosociologist?
a) assessing how people choose where to sit on a public bus
b) observing customers’ responses to being greeted upon
entering a store
c) conducting a statistical analysis of when professional men
and women choose to start families
d) examining how men and women react to riding in an
elevator with an infant
Discussion Question 3
Imagine a historian and a sociologist are both studying the civil
rights movement. How might their approaches differ?
Sociology on the Street
The neighborhood where you grow up exerts a significant effect
on the rest of your life. How did your house, neighbors, street,
and town influence you?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 1
The Sociological Imagination:
An Introduction
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
32
Chapter 2
Methods
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• If we successfully answer one
question, it only spawns
others. There is no moment
when a social scientist’s work
is done.
• Click here to watch the
paradox animation:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Research Methods
Slide 1 of 2
The scientific method is a procedure involving the formulation,
testing, and modification of hypotheses based on systematic
observation, measurement, and/or experiments.
Theory is an abstracted, systematic model of how some aspect
of the world works.
Research Methods
Slide 2 of 2
Research methods are standard rules that social scientists
follow when trying to establish a causal relationship between
social elements.
• Quantitative methods seek to obtain information about
the social world that is in, or can be converted to, numeric
form.
• Qualitative methods attempt to collect information about
the social world that cannot be readily converted to
numeric form.
danah boyd Interview
• danah boyd uses many
research methods in her work.
She explains how studying teen
behavior both online and
offline enhances her research.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Approaches to Research
Slide 1 of 2
A deductive approach to research
• starts with a theory.
• develops a hypothesis.
• makes empirical observations.
• analyzes the data collected through observation to confirm,
reject, or modify the original theory.
Approaches to Research
Slide 2 of 2
An inductive approach to research
• starts with empirical observation.
• works to form a theory.
• determines if a correlation exists by noticing if a change is
observed in two things simultaneously.
The Research Cycle
Causality versus Correlation
Slide 1 of 2
Correlation (or association) is when two variables tend to
track each other positively or negatively (i.e., they tend to vary
together).
Causality is the idea that a change in one factor results in a
corresponding change in another factor.
Causality versus Correlation
Slide 2 of 2
Sociologists conduct research to try to prove causation.
To prove causation, correlation and time order are established
and alternative explanations are ruled out.
Variables
Slide 1 of 2
A dependent variable is the outcome that a researcher is trying
to explain.
An independent variable is a measured factor that the
researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent
variable.
Variables
Slide 2 of 2
A hypothesis is a proposed relationship between two variables,
usually with a stated direction.
• The direction of the relationship refers to whether your
variables move in the same direction (positive) or in
opposite directions (negative).
Hypothesis Testing
Operationalization is the process of assigning a precise
definition for measuring a concept being examined in a
particular study.
• For example, religiosity (how religious a person is) could be
operationalized as frequency of religious service
attendance.
What Makes “Good” Research?
Good research should be valid, reliable, and generalizable.
• Validity: the extent to which an instrument measures what
it is intended to measure
• Reliability: the likelihood of obtaining consistent results
using the same measure
• Generalizability: the extent to which we can claim our
findings inform us about a group larger than the one we
studied
Discussion Question 1
In a previous slide, we saw one way to operationalize religiosity
(as frequency of religious service attendance). Come up with an
alternative way to operationalize the concept of religiosity and
explain why you think it is a valid measure.
Role of the Researcher
Slide 1 of 2
“White coat” effects are those that researchers have on the very
processes and relationships they are studying by virtue of being
there.
Reflexivity means analyzing and critically considering our own
role in, and effect on, our research.
Role of the Researcher
Slide 2 of 2
Feminist methodology
• treats women’s experiences as legitimate empirical and
theoretical resources.
• promotes social science that may bring about policy change
to help women.
• is as conscious of the role of the researcher as of that of the
subjects being studied.
Types of Data Collection
Slide 1 of 5
Types of data collection used in social research:
• Participant observation
• Interviews
• Survey research
• Historical methods
• Comparative research
• Content analysis
• Experimental methods
Types of Data Collection
Slide 2 of 5
Participant observation is a qualitative research method that
seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions
by observing their behavior in practice.
Interviews are another common form of gathering qualitative
data. We can learn how and why people do things by asking
them about it.
Mitchell Duneier Interview
• Mitchell Duneier talks about
the challenges of doing
ethnography, the
responsibilities of a researcher,
and the ethics of ethnographic
research.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Types of Data Collection
Slide 3 of 5
• Surveys are an ordered series
of questions intended to elicit
information from respondents.
Types of Data Collection
Slide 4 of 5
Historical methods collect data from written reports,
newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs,
diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date back to the period
under study.
Comparative research is a methodology by which a researcher
compares two or more entities with the intent of learning more
about the factors that differ between them.
Historical Analysis
Types of Data Collection
Slide 5 of 5
Content analysis is a systematic analysis of the content rather
than the structure of a communication, such as a written work,
speech, or film.
Experimental methods seek to alter the social landscape in a
very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then
track what results that change yields.
Duncan Watts Interview
• Duncan Watts describes his
experimental research on the
Matthew effect. He
hypothesizes that it is not just
the quality of something that
determines its success, but also
its luck of catching on via peerto-peer influence.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Discussion Question 2
Think of a potential research project. What is the best research
methodology to do this study?
• participant observation
• interviews
• survey research
• comparative research
• experimental methods
• content analysis
• historical methods
Ethics of Social Research
Slide 1 of 2
Researchers must meet codified standards set by professional
associations, academic institutions, or research centers when
conducting studies.
Researchers must guard against causing physical, emotional, or
psychological harm to their subjects.
Ethics of Social Research
Slide 2 of 2
Informed consent and voluntary participation are guidelines
researchers use to ensure subjects know they are participating
in a study and have voluntarily chosen to participate.
The Political Battle over Statistical Sampling
How we sample the population we are studying can have a
significant effect on what we end up finding.
The Census Bureau’s sampling methods are used as an example
in the text. When federal funding and congressional seats are
dependent on population size, it matters significantly how
accurately the Census Bureau counts the U.S. population.
Discussion Question 3
Much research is done on college campuses with
undergraduates as research participants. Do you think this is a
problem? Why or why not?
Shamus Khan Interview
• Shamus Khan explains that
most sociologists working in
elite departments like his come
from a privileged background.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Which of the following describes the deductive approach to
research?
a) A researcher makes empirical observations, and based on
these observations, he or she develops a theory.
b) A researcher develops several hypotheses to explain a
correlation he or she has observed between two factors.
c) A researcher establishes causation and then develops a
theory to explain it.
d) A researcher starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis,
makes observations, and then analyzes the data to
confirm, reject, or refine the original theory.
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
What is a moderating variable?
a) a factor that is positioned between the independent and
dependent variables but does not affect the relationship
between them
b) a factor that affects only the independent variable in a
hypothesis
c) a factor that can replace the dependent variable in a
hypothesis
d) a factor that affects the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
A thermometer that consistently gives readings that are five
degrees cooler than the actual temperature is
a) valid but not reliable.
b) reliable but not valid.
c) neither reliable nor valid.
d) both reliable and valid.
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
Which of the following data collection methods are commonly
used in social research?
a) comparative study, survey, interview
b) historical method, participant observation, case study
c) natural experiment, double-blind study, comparative
research
d) content analysis, census, panel survey
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
Joan systematically observes where people sit on the bus every
day for a month. Based on the patterns she observed she comes
up with a theory of personal space in public situations. This
would be an example of
a) the deductive approach.
b) the inductive approach.
c) feminist sociology.
d) experimental methods.
Sociology on the Street
There are many ways to research a sociological issue. How
might your choice of research methods, subjects, and even your
perspective alter your results?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 2
Methods
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
38
Lecture 6
UNIT 6: Social Construction of Gender and Race
By Nabil Marshood
In this lecture, the focus will center on the following important topics:
1. The social meaning of gender and its social construction
2. The social meaning of race and ethnicity and their social construction
3. Intersection of race, gender and class
The discussion will highlight the sociological notion that race, gender and class are socially constructed
and serve as principles of social organization. That is to say, although those conditions are grounded in
biological reality, and although people don’t choose any of them, society creates ideas, ideologies and
behavioral guidelines for people to follow. If you were born to white parents, for example, your social
standing and opportunities differ significantly from those born to black parents. The same is true for sex
and gender. Although these are biological realities, boys and men have different positions and
opportunities from girls and women.
Some may argue that these ideas are old fashion and don’t apply to their personal reality. Consider the
reality of race and gender at a macro level and examine the role of culture and social structure including
institutions like family, religion, education, government and economy, to name only a few, in the
construction of structural divisions between racial and gender groups, and in the behavioral norms and
guidelines relevant to the interactions between those groups.
Let’s clarify the terminology relevant to this topic:
Race: The term, race, refers to a group of people who share common biological features. The main
obvious attributes include skin color and hair texture. The distinction between black and white people,
for example, is grounded in racial differences.
The term race is a biological, natural term. People did not choose their color but they are treated
differently according to the social meaning of that color. It is important to note that race does not
determine intelligence or behavior, and that there no such thing as a pure race.
Given these facts, why then is race important and why does it influence human behavior. The answer
lies in the social meaning of race.
Ethnicity: The term, ethnicity, refers to a group of people who share a common heritage such as
language, national origin, and religion. The term Hispanic, for example, refers to an ethnic group. Some
Hispanics are racially black, others are racially white and others are brown, but ethnically, they all share
a common language and a national region. Others examples include Jewish (religion), Muslims (religion),
Asians (National region), African –Americans, Irish Americans, and the like.
Here again, as it is the case with race, those conditions are not chosen by individuals, but society has
placed each category in a specific ranking system in society. Different ethnic groups are treated
differently according to the social meaning of each ethnic group.
Copyright © 2019 by Nabil Marshood
Racism refers to the belief that one racial group is superior and others are inferior. Note the significance
of the term belief in the definition.
Discrimination refers to the acts and differential treatments of individuals or groups on the basis of their
race or ethnicity. Different forms of discrimination have occurred throughout history including unequal
treatment in hiring, housing, criminal behavior, education, and more
Prejudice refers to feelings, thoughts and attitudes one holds towards individuals or groups of a certain
racial or ethnic group
Sex refers to the biological differences between male and female. This term has been historically treated
as a binary concept. With the new forms of open sexual experiences including the LGBTQ community,
society is experiencing a paradigm shift in the conception of the term sex. Sexuality is now considered a
fluid term with open variations.
Gender refers to the social attributes attached to different sex categories. This is a social construct that
determines positions, roles and opportunities for different sex groups. For example, traditional families
are more likely to have a clear gender forms of socialization and gender roles. The feminist movement
has made a significant contribution in this matter. They argue that roles should not be associated with
sex. That is to say, cleaning the house, for example, should not be reserved for women alone. Both men
and women can perform this task.
Sexism: The belief that one sex is superior to the other.
Patriarchy: Male dominated social system
Minority Group and Majority Group: These terms take on different definitions and could be interpreted
in a variety of ways. To clarify, note the following definitions:
1. Numerical definition: According to this definition, groups are distinguished based on the size of
each group in society. Since the white population makes over 65% of the total US population,
they constitute the majority.
2. Sociopolitical definition: According to this definition, size does not matter. It is power that
makes the difference. Groups that hold most power in society are the majority. They are also
referred to as the dominant groups. They hold high positions in government, the economy,
education, health and more. They are the decision makers. The minority, is a group that has less
power. It is also referred to as the subordinate group. In this context, the term minority is
derived from the word Minor, implying that minority groups are not mature enough to make
their own decisions, and are expected to be subordinate to the majority.
3. Legal definition: According to the US Affirmative Action Law, the following groups are
designated and treated as minorities. The list includes African Americans, Hispanic Americans,
Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, and Women.
Throughout this discussion, it has become distinctively clear that power is the most important ingredient
in the construction of group status in society and the treatment it receives. This power structure is also
responsible for regulating the position of racial/ethnic groups and the interaction between them, thus
creating a ranking racial and gender systems. It is those issues that invoke strong reactions from
minority groups. They experience oppression and social injustice.
Copyright © 2019 by Nabil Marshood
The majority could work to integrate or segregate any given group at any time. History teaches us that
genocide and expulsions were practiced by the majority against targeted groups. History also teaches us
that some forms of integration have been introduced and that some societies are becoming more
tolerant of diversity.
Given these notes, and as you read and study the required and recommended readings, consider some
of the following questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What is your reaction to the data? And, what questions do you have about this topic?
What are some of the structural conditions that contribute to this reality?
What does it take to create conditions of social equality and justice?
What can minority groups do to improve their condition in society?
What can the majority do to improve the social reality for all?
Use the various sociological theories to explain the gaps between minority and majority groups.
What are the chances for minority groups to achieve the so-called “American Dream”?
How do your race and gender impact your decisions and choices that you make in areas of
education, occupation, marriage and relationships, raising children and all other spheres of life?
Required Reading: Textbook – Chapters 1, 2, 8, 9
Conley, D. (2019). You May Ask Yourself (6th Ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Recommended Reading
US Census Bureau, www.census.gov
Cornel West, Race Matters
Edward Said, Orientalism
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Candace West and Don Zimmerman, Doing Gender
https://www.gla.ac.uk/0t4/crcees/files/summerschool/readings/WestZimmerman_198
7_DoingGender.pdf
Copyright © 2019 by Nabil Marshood
Chapter 9
Race
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• Race as we know it has no
deterministic biological basis:
but nonetheless, race is so
powerful that it can have lifeor-death consequences.
• Click here to see the paradox
animation:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
The Myth of Race
Slide 1 of 2
Race can be defined as a group of people who share a set of
characteristics—usually physical ones—and are said to share a
common bloodline.
Racism is the belief that members of separate races possess
different and unequal human traits.
The Myth of Race
Slide 2 of 2
• Race is a social construction
that changes over time and
across different contexts.
The Concept of Race
Slide 1 of 6
Many historical efforts to explain race were biased due to
ethnocentrism (the judgment of other groups by one’s own
standards and values).
The Concept of Race
Slide 2 of 6
Social Darwinism, another nineteenth-century theory, was the
notion that some groups or races had evolved more than others
and thus were better fit to survive and even to rule other races.
The Concept of Race
Slide 3 of 6
Backers of eugenics (the science of genetic lines and the
inheritable traits they pass on from generation to generation)
claimed that traits could be traced through bloodlines and bred
into populations (for positive traits) or out of them (for negative
traits).
The Concept of Race
Slide 4 of 6
The one-drop rule, which evolved from US laws forbidding
miscegenation, was the belief that “one drop” of black blood
makes a person black. Application of this rule was intended to
keep the white population “pure” and lumped anyone with black
blood into one category.
The Concept of Race
Slide 5 of 6
Miscegenation is the technical term for a multiracial marriage.
The Concept of Race
Slide 6 of 6
• Today DNA testing is used to
determine people’s racial
makeup, and while this process
may be more accurate on some
level than nineteenth-century
racial measures, it still
supports the notion of fixed,
biological, racial differences.
Racial Realities
• Racialization is the formation
of a new racial identity, in
which new ideological
boundaries of difference are
drawn around a formerly
unnoticed group of people.
Jen’nan Read Interview
• Jen’nan Read discusses her
research on the experience of
Muslims in the United States.
• Click here to watch her
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Discussion Question 1
As the saying goes, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” How do
eugenics and physiognomy contradict this saying (in regard to
people)? Are the principles behind these pseudosciences still
with us today? If so, in what capacity?
Race versus Ethnicity
Slide 1 of 2
Race is imposed (usually based on physical differences),
hierarchical, exclusive, and unequal.
Ethnicity is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchical, fluid,
cultural, and not as closely linked with power differences.
An ethnic identity becomes racialized when it is subsumed
under a forced label, racial marker, or “otherness.”
Race versus Ethnicity
Slide 2 of 2
• Symbolic ethnicity is ethnicity
that is individualistic in nature
and without real social cost for
the individual.
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 1 of 5
Native Americans
• Today, people claiming at least some Native American
ancestry number about 5.6 million.
• Only about one-fifth of Native Americans live in a
designated American Indian area.
• Native Americans rank among the worst in terms of highschool dropout rates and unemployment, which go hand in
hand with poor health outcomes such as alcoholism,
suicide, and premature death.
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 2 of 5
African Americans
• Today about 12.7 percent of the American population is
black.
• The median income of African Americans as a group is
roughly 62.8 percent that of whites.
• Among men ages 25 to 39, blacks are imprisoned 2.5 times
and 6 times as often as Hispanics and whites, respectively.
• Sociologists today are beginning to study how new black
immigrants are fracturing the holistic conception of “African
American.”
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 3 of 5
Latinos
• Latino, like the term Hispanic (the two are often used
interchangeably), refers to a diverse group of people of
Latin or Hispanic origin.
• In 2012 Latinos made up approximately 17 percent of the
population.
• In 2013, the majority of Latinos in the United States were
from Mexico (about 63.2%), Puerto Rico (about 9.5%), Cuba
(3.9%), and the Dominican Republic (3.3%).
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 4 of 5
Asian Americans
• The term Asian American is very broad, encompassing
diverse and sometimes clashing peoples from China, Korea,
Japan, and Southeast Asia.
• Asian Americans are unique among ethnic minorities
because of their high average socioeconomic status,
surpassing that of most other ethnic minorities as well as
most whites in terms of educational attainment.
Ethnic Groups in the United States
Slide 5 of 5
Middle Eastern Americans
• Middle Easterners come from places as diverse as the
Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Iran, Iraq, and the
Palestinian territories.
• Today about 2 million Americans report Arab ancestry, and
even more Americans have a Middle Eastern heritage,
because not all Middle Easterners are Arab.
• Widespread misunderstandings about Middle Easterners
derive, in part, from their negative stereotyping in the
mainstream media.
The Importance of Being White
“White” is a flexible label that has expanded over time to include
many formerly nonwhite groups such as Jews, Irish, and Italians.
Peggy McIntosh argues that whiteness is an “invisible knapsack
of privileges” that puts white people at an advantage, just as
racism places nonwhites at a disadvantage.
Discussion Question 2
According to author Nell Irvin Painter, “The foundation of white
identity is that there isn’t any. You’re just an individual.” How
does this illustrate the uniqueness of “white” as a racial
category?
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 1 of 5
Robert Park’s concept of straight-line assimilation offered a
universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate.
Milton Gordon’s alternative model suggests that immigrant
populations pass through (or stall in) seven stages of
assimilation.
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 2 of 5
Pluralism, in the context of race and ethnicity, refers to the
presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups
in one society, with no one group being in the majority.
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 3 of 5
Segregation is the legal or social practice of separating people
on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
• Segregation was the official policy in the United States,
particularly in the South, until the 1960s.
• Although it has been illegal for over 40 years, there is still
ample evidence of segregation in American society today,
particularly in schools, housing, and prisons.
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 4 of 5
Minority–Majority Group Relations
Slide 5 of 5
The final paradigm of race relations is conflict relations, when
antagonistic groups within a society live integrated in the same
neighborhoods, hold the same jobs, and go to the same schools.
Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people based on
racial, ethnic, or religious traits.
Group Responses to Domination
Four ways in which groups respond to oppression are
withdrawal, passing, acceptance, and resistance.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Slide 1 of 2
Prejudice refers to negative thoughts and feelings about an
ethnic or racial group.
Discrimination refers to harmful or negative acts against
people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Slide 2 of 2
As overt racism declines, scholars are beginning to find traces of
a new kind of racism gaining ground. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls
this color-blind racism.
• This new kind of racism replaces biology with culture and
presumes that there is something fixed, innate, and inferior
about nonwhite cultural values.
How Race Matters: The Case of Wealth
Slide 1 of 2
Equity inequality captures the historical disadvantage of
minority groups and the way those disadvantages accrue over
time.
Average household net worth in 2016
• African Americans: $17,100
• Latinos: $20,600
• Whites: $171,000
How Race Matters: The Case of Wealth
Slide 2 of 2
Institutional racism refers to institutions and social dynamics
that may seem race neutral but actually disadvantage minority
groups.
The Future of Race
Slide 1 of 2
• For the first time ever, the 2000
Census allowed respondents to
check off more than one box
for racial identity.
• About 9 million self-identified
as multiracial by checking
more than one race box in
2010.
The Future of Race
Slide 2 of 2
Jennifer Lee Interview
• Jennifer Lee explains how
sociologists think about race
and describes the differences
between race and ethnicity.
• Click here to watch her
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Ethnocentrism is
a) the notion that ethnic ties are fixed in a deeply felt
connection to one’s homeland culture.
b) the idea that we should recognize differences across
cultures without passing judgment on, or assigning value
to, those differences.
c) the judgment of other groups by one’s own standards and
values.
d) the adoption of a symbolic ethnicity for certain holidays
or cultural events.
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
How was the one-drop rule related to laws forbidding
miscegenation in the United States?
a) The one-drop rule reinforced antimiscegenation laws
because any offspring of a mixed-race union would be
categorized as black.
b) The one-drop rule was a precursor to formal laws
forbidding miscegenation.
c) When antimiscegenation laws were struck down in the
courts, the one-drop rule was an informal way of
enforcing the same policy.
d) all of the above
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
A pluralistic society is one in which
a) numerous distinct cultures engage and coexist peacefully
within one large sociocultural framework.
b) numerous distinct cultures live within the same political
boundaries but do not interact.
c) numerous distinct cultures live within the same political
boundaries but may experience great tension and
inequality.
d) numerous distinct cultures vie for power and domination
within one large sociocultural framework.
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
__________ is the least explored, and perhaps the most striking, of
the disparities in social outcomes between blacks and whites in
the United States.
a) Income disparity
b) The high incarceration rate among blacks
c) The wealth gap
d) The difference in educational attainment
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
The “new racism” couches its rhetoric in terms of __________
between groups rather than __________.
a) religious differences; intellectual differences
b) learned differences; innate differences
c) behavioral differences; physical differences
d) cultural differences; physical differences
Discussion Questions
1. Have the four forms of
minority–majority group
relations been prevalent in
the United States?
2. How have minority groups in
the United States responded
to racial domination?
3. What do you think is the
future of race and ethnicity in
the United States?
Sociology on the Street
Decades after real estate segregation (or “redlining”) became
illegal, many Americans still live in communities that are highly
segregated by race and/or socioeconomic status. How does
unofficial segregation occur?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 9
Race
For more learning resources, please visit:
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Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
43
Chapter 8
Gender
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• How do we investigate
inequality between men and
women without reinforcing
binary thinking about gender?
• Watch the animated short
about the gender paradox at:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Sex, Sexuality, and Gender
Sex refers to the perceived biological differences that society
typically uses to distinguish males from females.
Gender denotes a social position—namely, the set of social
arrangements built around normative sex categories.
Sexuality refers to desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and
behavior.
Sex: A Process in the Making
The study of gender boils down to seeing how nature and
nurture overlap and shape each other.
Essentialist arguments explain social phenomena in terms of
natural, biological, or evolutionary inevitabilities.
In contrast, sociologists think of the nature-behavior
relationship as a two-way street.
Gender: What Does It Take to Be Masculine or Feminine?
Slide 1 of 3
• We acquire our gender identity
through socialization.
• Rigid boundaries are imposed
to maintain a gender order.
• But if we look at how gender
systems vary, we can expose
those boundaries as social
constructions.
Gender: What Does It Take to Be Masculine or Feminine?
Slide 2 of 3
Not all cultures have a binary gender configuration.
• In Navajo tribes, there are not two but three genders:
masculine men, feminine women, and the nadle.
The growing social awareness of transgender people in our
own society helps us break out of binary thinking about gender,
since we tend to assume everyone is cisgender.
Gender: What Does It Take to Be Masculine or Feminine?
Slide 3 of 3
Gender differences vary over time as well. Ideals about
masculinity and femininity are historically contingent.
Historical change in ideal feminine beauty is one example, but
definitions of masculinity vary over time too.
• Ideal masculinity in the 1700s went hand in hand with
kindness and intellect, and even poetry.
Discussion Question 1
What characteristics and traits are associated with ideal
femininity and masculinity in contemporary society? Give
examples.
Amos Mac Interview
• Amos Mac shares his
experiences as a transgender
man.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 1 of 9
• Feminism is a social
movement to get people to
understand that gender is an
organizing principle in society
and to address gender-based
inequalities.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 2 of 9
At the start of the second wave of the feminist movement in the
1960s, theorists scrambled to find an answer to the “woman
question”:
• What explains the nearly universal dominance of men over
women?
• What is the root of patriarchy, a system involving the
subordination of femininity to masculinity?
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 3 of 9
Rubin’s sex/gender system challenged the assumption that
because women’s subordination occurred everywhere it must
be fulfilling some societal function.
• Rubin argued that women are treated like valuable property
whose trade patterns strengthen relations between families
headed by men.
• This sex/gender system is not natural, but a result of
human interaction.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 4 of 9
According to Parson’s Sex Role Theory
• men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners
and wives/mothers because the nuclear family is the ideal
arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of
reproducing workers.
This structural functionalist approach to gender
• assumes gender differences exist to fulfill necessary societal
functions.
• doesn’t allow for the possibility that other structures could
fulfill the same function or that structures change
throughout history.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 5 of 9
Psychoanalytic theories of gender
• focus on individualistic explanations for gender differences
as opposed to societal ones.
• support that there are natural differences between men and
women that dictate how they behave.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 6 of 9
Conflict theories focus on power and argue that patriarchal
capitalists benefit through systems that subordinate women.
• Socialist feminists, also known as radical feminists, argue
that the root of all social relations, including relations of
production, stemmed from unequal gender relations.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 7 of 9
Interactionist theories focus on “doing gender.”
• West and Zimmerman argue that gender is not a fixed
identity or role that we take with us into our interactions.
Rather, it is the product of those interactions.
• To be a man or a woman is to perform masculinity or
femininity constantly.
• In this social constructionist theory, gender is a process, not
a static category.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 8 of 9
Black feminism points out the importance of
intersectionality.
• This is the idea that the identities surrounding gender, sex,
and sexuality intersect with other meaningful social
categories like race or class.
• Patricia Hill Collins identified the matrix of domination,
which highlights how black women face unique oppressions
that white women don’t.
Theories of Gender Inequality
Slide 9 of 9
Postmodern theorists question the whole notion of “woman”
as a separate, stable category and the value and appropriateness
of Western scholars applying their cultural logic to the study of
non-Western societies.
Discussion Question 2
Which theory of gender inequality do you find most convincing
and which least convincing? Why?
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 1 of 4
What accounts for the wide range of statistical differences
between men and women?
Essentialists refer to natural sex differences.
But sociologists are apt to call these same differences “deceptive
distinctions,” those that arise because of the particular roles
individuals come to occupy.
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 2 of 4
Increase of Women in the Workforce, 1970-2016
Year
Civiliarn labor force
Civiliarn labor force
(percent of population) (percent of population)
male
female
1970
80
20
1975
79
21
1980
78
22
1985
77
23
1990
76
24
1995
75
25
2000
74
26
2005
72
28
2010
70
30
2015
69
31
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 3 of 4
Although legally entitled to enter all lines of work, women
routinely face sexual harassment.
Additionally, women have consistently been paid less than their
male peers, earning about 81 cents to every $1 of a man’s wage.
Growing Up, Getting Ahead, and Falling Behind
Slide 4 of 4
The glass ceiling refers to an invisible limit on women’s climb
up the occupational ladder.
• Kanter argues this is due to a cultural conflation of
authority with masculinity.
The glass escalator refers to the accelerated promotion of men
to the top of a work organization, especially in feminized jobs.
Ashley Mears Interview
• Ashley Mears talks about
gender inequality and the wage
structure in the modeling
industry.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Sociology in the Bedroom
Slide 1 of 2
Much like gender differences, sexual practices vary across time
and place, supporting the notion that sexuality is as much a
social construct as gender.
There is enormous variation in how humans have sex and what
it means to them.
Sociology in the Bedroom
Slide 2 of 2
Homosexual, which refers to the social identity of a person who
has sexual attraction to and/or relations with people of the
same sex, is a concept or identity that emerged in the midnineteenth century.
Heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexuality is the
default or normal sexual orientation from which other
sexualities deviate.
Paula England Interview
• Paula England discusses her
research on “hook-up” culture
and romantic relationships
among college students.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
_____ is what we as a society make of biological sex differences
between males and females.
a) Sexuality
b) Gender
c) Patriarchy
d) Cisgender
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
_______ is a nearly universal system involving the
subordination of femininity to masculinity.
a) Patriarchy
b) Sexism
c) Matriarchy
d) Hegemonic masculinity
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
Michel Foucault argued that the development of homosexuality
as a social identity was related to
a) changes in the nineteenth century with regard to the
notion of the ideal man.
b) the development of scientific disciplines and a desire to
monitor and categorize people and their behavior.
c) the development of the field of psychoanalysis in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
d) society’s need to establish cohesion by identifying
“others” who exhibit “deviant” behavior.
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
Sexual harassment is an illegal form of discrimination that can
be manifested through ________, with the intent of making a
person, usually a woman, feel uncomfortable or unsafe,
particularly in a work setting.
a) inappropriate jokes
b) sexual assault
c) requests for sexual favors
d) all of the above
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
Women working in male-dominated professions often find that
there are _____opportunities for advancement, and men working
in female-dominated professions often advance _____ their
female colleagues.
a) limited; more slowly than
b) limited; as quickly as
c) ample; as quickly as
d) limited; more quickly than
Discussion Questions
1. What are some examples
from your own life where you
or those around you
“perform” or “do” gender?
2. How would others react if
you or someone you know
suddenly stopped doing
these things?
Sociology on the Street
Internet dating is a major resource for people looking for
potential partners with a seemingly unlimited pool. What are
the similarities and differences between dating online compared
to dating in person?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 8
Gender
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
35
Chapter 1
The Sociological Imagination:
An Introduction
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• A successful sociologist makes
the familiar strange.
• Click here to watch the paradox
animation:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
What Is Sociology?
• Sociology is the study of
human society.
The Sociological Imagination
Slide 1 of 2
Sociological imagination, a term coined by C. Wright Mills, is a
tool that helps us to
• connect our personal experiences to society at large and to
greater historical forces.
• “make the familiar strange,” or question habits or customs
that seem “natural” to us.
The Sociological Imagination
Slide 2 of 2
“Why go to college?”
College graduates earn about $960,000 more over their lifetimes
than those with only a high-school education.
• If the benefits of college are due to the learning that takes
place, why not do it on your own for free?
• If it’s really about getting a “piece of paper” then why not
print out a fake diploma?
Asha Rangappa Interview
• Asha Rangappa, the dean of
admissions at Yale Law School,
discusses the role that class
plays in acceptance.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Discussion Question 1
• Why are you in college?
• Did the people around you,
including friends and family,
expect you to go to college? Do
you think this is the same for
everyone? Why or why not?
What Is a Social Institution?
Slide 1 of 2
A social institution is a complex group of interdependent
positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce
themselves over time.
• The legal system
• The labor market
• The educational system
• The military
• The family
What Is a Social Institution?
Slide 2 of 2
A college is a social institution that
• acts as gatekeeper to “legitimate” forms of education by
deciding who can attend.
• segregates great swaths of the population by age.
• is a proprietary brand that is marketed on items like
sweatshirts and through televised sporting events.
• has an informal set of stories told within a social network of
students, faculty, administrators, alumni, and so on.
What Is Social Identity?
Social identity is the way individuals define themselves in
relation to groups of which they are a part (or in relation to
groups of which they choose not to be a part).
The History of Sociology
Slide 1 of 3
Auguste Comte—the best way to understand society is by
determining the logic or scientific laws governing human
behavior, called social physics or positivism.
Harriet Martineau—the first person to translate Comte’s written
works into English, and one of the earliest feminist social
scientists.
The History of Sociology
Slide 2 of 3
Karl Marx—proposed the theory of historical materialism,
which identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social
change.
Max Weber—his emphasis on subjectivity became a foundation
of interpretive sociology.
The History of Sociology
Slide 3 of 3
Émile Durkheim—the founder of positivist sociology;
developed the theory that the division of labor helps to
determine how social cohesion is maintained, or not
maintained.
Georg Simmel—proposed a formal sociology, or a sociology of
pure numbers (for instance, how a group of two is different than
a group of three).
American Sociology
Slide 1 of 2
Early American sociology became prominent at the University of
Chicago.
The “Chicago School” perspective focused on empirical research,
with the belief that people’s behaviors and personalities are
shaped by their social and physical environments.
• Robert Park
• Louis Wirth
• George Herbert Mead
• Charles Horton Cooley
American Sociology
Slide 2 of 2
W. E. B. Du Bois—the first African American to receive a PhD
from Harvard and the first sociologist to undertake ethnography
in the African American community.
Jane Addams—founded Hull House, where the ideas of the
Chicago School were put into practice and tested.
Talcott Parsons—leading theorist of functionalism in the midtwentieth century.
W. E. B. Du Bois
Modern Sociological Theories
Slide 1 of 3
Functionalism
• the theory that various social institutions and processes in
society exist to serve some important (or necessary)
function to keep society running
Conflict Theory
• the idea that conflict between competing interests is the
basic, animating force of social change and society in
general
Modern Sociological Theories
Slide 2 of 3
Feminist theory
• a catchall term for many theories with an emphasis on
women’s experiences and a belief that sociology and society
in general subordinate women
Symbolic interactionism
• a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations
behind people’s actions
Modern Sociological Theories
Slide 3 of 3
Postmodernism
• a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of
progress and history, the replacement of narrative within
pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities
resulting from disjointed affiliations
Midrange theory
• a theory that attempts to predict how certain social
institutions tend to function
Discussion Question 2
Compare functionalism and conflict theory. How would the two
differ in their understanding of inequality?
Sociology and Its Cousins
Slide 1 of 2
Sociology focuses on making comparisons across cases to find
patterns and create hypotheses about how societies work now
or how they worked in the past.
Sociology looks at how individuals interact with one another as
well as at how groups, small and large, interact with one
another.
Sociology and Its Cousins
Slide 2 of 2
Distinctions are important, but a lot of overlap exists between
different academic disciplines.
• History and anthropology—cultural anthropology in
particular—tend to focus more on particular circumstances.
• Psychology and biology examine things on a more micro
level than sociology does, and economics is an entirely
quantitative discipline.
• Political science focuses on one aspect of social relations—
power.
Julia Adams Interview
• Historical comparative
sociologist Julia Adams
discusses the difference
between historians and
sociologists.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Divisions within Sociology
• Microsociology understands
local interactional contexts,
focusing on face-to-face
encounters and gathering data
through participant
observations and in-depth
interviews.
• Macrosociology looks at social
dynamics across whole
societies or large parts of them
and often relies on statistical
analysis to do so.
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Which of the following is an example of using one’s sociological
imagination?
a) being in unfamiliar surroundings and imagining being in a
more comfortable place
b) creating different hypotheses to explain an individual’s
behavior
c) creating a story to explain unfamiliar social customs
d) being puzzled by how people in another country greet one
another and then thinking about why they might do it that
way
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
Social identity is
a) a construct that no longer has meaning in the postmodern
era.
b) a collection of social roles that a person might fill.
c) a way that individuals define themselves in relation to
groups.
d) determined by the social group into which a person is
born.
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
The Chicago School of American Sociology emphasized the
importance of
a) the social and moral consequences of the division of labor.
b) the environment in shaping people’s behavior and
personalities.
c) heavy statistical research.
d) none of the above
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
Sociology is distinct from other academic disciplines in its
attempt to
a) embrace quantitative and qualitative research.
b) ask probing questions about how societies function.
c) detect patterns in how different societies handle or
respond to similar phenomena.
d) examine human interaction on the micro level.
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
Which of the following is an example of a study that might be
undertaken by a macrosociologist?
a) assessing how people choose where to sit on a public bus
b) observing customers’ responses to being greeted upon
entering a store
c) conducting a statistical analysis of when professional men
and women choose to start families
d) examining how men and women react to riding in an
elevator with an infant
Discussion Question 3
Imagine a historian and a sociologist are both studying the civil
rights movement. How might their approaches differ?
Sociology on the Street
The neighborhood where you grow up exerts a significant effect
on the rest of your life. How did your house, neighbors, street,
and town influence you?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 1
The Sociological Imagination:
An Introduction
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
32
Chapter 2
Methods
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
Paradox
• If we successfully answer one
question, it only spawns
others. There is no moment
when a social scientist’s work
is done.
• Click here to watch the
paradox animation:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Research Methods
Slide 1 of 2
The scientific method is a procedure involving the formulation,
testing, and modification of hypotheses based on systematic
observation, measurement, and/or experiments.
Theory is an abstracted, systematic model of how some aspect
of the world works.
Research Methods
Slide 2 of 2
Research methods are standard rules that social scientists
follow when trying to establish a causal relationship between
social elements.
• Quantitative methods seek to obtain information about
the social world that is in, or can be converted to, numeric
form.
• Qualitative methods attempt to collect information about
the social world that cannot be readily converted to
numeric form.
danah boyd Interview
• danah boyd uses many
research methods in her work.
She explains how studying teen
behavior both online and
offline enhances her research.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Approaches to Research
Slide 1 of 2
A deductive approach to research
• starts with a theory.
• develops a hypothesis.
• makes empirical observations.
• analyzes the data collected through observation to confirm,
reject, or modify the original theory.
Approaches to Research
Slide 2 of 2
An inductive approach to research
• starts with empirical observation.
• works to form a theory.
• determines if a correlation exists by noticing if a change is
observed in two things simultaneously.
The Research Cycle
Causality versus Correlation
Slide 1 of 2
Correlation (or association) is when two variables tend to
track each other positively or negatively (i.e., they tend to vary
together).
Causality is the idea that a change in one factor results in a
corresponding change in another factor.
Causality versus Correlation
Slide 2 of 2
Sociologists conduct research to try to prove causation.
To prove causation, correlation and time order are established
and alternative explanations are ruled out.
Variables
Slide 1 of 2
A dependent variable is the outcome that a researcher is trying
to explain.
An independent variable is a measured factor that the
researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent
variable.
Variables
Slide 2 of 2
A hypothesis is a proposed relationship between two variables,
usually with a stated direction.
• The direction of the relationship refers to whether your
variables move in the same direction (positive) or in
opposite directions (negative).
Hypothesis Testing
Operationalization is the process of assigning a precise
definition for measuring a concept being examined in a
particular study.
• For example, religiosity (how religious a person is) could be
operationalized as frequency of religious service
attendance.
What Makes “Good” Research?
Good research should be valid, reliable, and generalizable.
• Validity: the extent to which an instrument measures what
it is intended to measure
• Reliability: the likelihood of obtaining consistent results
using the same measure
• Generalizability: the extent to which we can claim our
findings inform us about a group larger than the one we
studied
Discussion Question 1
In a previous slide, we saw one way to operationalize religiosity
(as frequency of religious service attendance). Come up with an
alternative way to operationalize the concept of religiosity and
explain why you think it is a valid measure.
Role of the Researcher
Slide 1 of 2
“White coat” effects are those that researchers have on the very
processes and relationships they are studying by virtue of being
there.
Reflexivity means analyzing and critically considering our own
role in, and effect on, our research.
Role of the Researcher
Slide 2 of 2
Feminist methodology
• treats women’s experiences as legitimate empirical and
theoretical resources.
• promotes social science that may bring about policy change
to help women.
• is as conscious of the role of the researcher as of that of the
subjects being studied.
Types of Data Collection
Slide 1 of 5
Types of data collection used in social research:
• Participant observation
• Interviews
• Survey research
• Historical methods
• Comparative research
• Content analysis
• Experimental methods
Types of Data Collection
Slide 2 of 5
Participant observation is a qualitative research method that
seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions
by observing their behavior in practice.
Interviews are another common form of gathering qualitative
data. We can learn how and why people do things by asking
them about it.
Mitchell Duneier Interview
• Mitchell Duneier talks about
the challenges of doing
ethnography, the
responsibilities of a researcher,
and the ethics of ethnographic
research.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Types of Data Collection
Slide 3 of 5
• Surveys are an ordered series
of questions intended to elicit
information from respondents.
Types of Data Collection
Slide 4 of 5
Historical methods collect data from written reports,
newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs,
diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date back to the period
under study.
Comparative research is a methodology by which a researcher
compares two or more entities with the intent of learning more
about the factors that differ between them.
Historical Analysis
Types of Data Collection
Slide 5 of 5
Content analysis is a systematic analysis of the content rather
than the structure of a communication, such as a written work,
speech, or film.
Experimental methods seek to alter the social landscape in a
very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then
track what results that change yields.
Duncan Watts Interview
• Duncan Watts describes his
experimental research on the
Matthew effect. He
hypothesizes that it is not just
the quality of something that
determines its success, but also
its luck of catching on via peerto-peer influence.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Discussion Question 2
Think of a potential research project. What is the best research
methodology to do this study?
• participant observation
• interviews
• survey research
• comparative research
• experimental methods
• content analysis
• historical methods
Ethics of Social Research
Slide 1 of 2
Researchers must meet codified standards set by professional
associations, academic institutions, or research centers when
conducting studies.
Researchers must guard against causing physical, emotional, or
psychological harm to their subjects.
Ethics of Social Research
Slide 2 of 2
Informed consent and voluntary participation are guidelines
researchers use to ensure subjects know they are participating
in a study and have voluntarily chosen to participate.
The Political Battle over Statistical Sampling
How we sample the population we are studying can have a
significant effect on what we end up finding.
The Census Bureau’s sampling methods are used as an example
in the text. When federal funding and congressional seats are
dependent on population size, it matters significantly how
accurately the Census Bureau counts the U.S. population.
Discussion Question 3
Much research is done on college campuses with
undergraduates as research participants. Do you think this is a
problem? Why or why not?
Shamus Khan Interview
• Shamus Khan explains that
most sociologists working in
elite departments like his come
from a privileged background.
• Click here to watch the
interview:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Concept Quiz
Question 1 of 5
Which of the following describes the deductive approach to
research?
a) A researcher makes empirical observations, and based on
these observations, he or she develops a theory.
b) A researcher develops several hypotheses to explain a
correlation he or she has observed between two factors.
c) A researcher establishes causation and then develops a
theory to explain it.
d) A researcher starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis,
makes observations, and then analyzes the data to
confirm, reject, or refine the original theory.
Concept Quiz
Question 2 of 5
What is a moderating variable?
a) a factor that is positioned between the independent and
dependent variables but does not affect the relationship
between them
b) a factor that affects only the independent variable in a
hypothesis
c) a factor that can replace the dependent variable in a
hypothesis
d) a factor that affects the relationship between the
independent and dependent variables
Concept Quiz
Question 3 of 5
A thermometer that consistently gives readings that are five
degrees cooler than the actual temperature is
a) valid but not reliable.
b) reliable but not valid.
c) neither reliable nor valid.
d) both reliable and valid.
Concept Quiz
Question 4 of 5
Which of the following data collection methods are commonly
used in social research?
a) comparative study, survey, interview
b) historical method, participant observation, case study
c) natural experiment, double-blind study, comparative
research
d) content analysis, census, panel survey
Concept Quiz
Question 5 of 5
Joan systematically observes where people sit on the bus every
day for a month. Based on the patterns she observed she comes
up with a theory of personal space in public situations. This
would be an example of
a) the deductive approach.
b) the inductive approach.
c) feminist sociology.
d) experimental methods.
Sociology on the Street
There are many ways to research a sociological issue. How
might your choice of research methods, subjects, and even your
perspective alter your results?
Watch the Sociology on the Street video to find out more:
https://digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for:
Chapter 2
Methods
For more learning resources, please visit:
digital.wwnorton.com/youmayask6
Copyright © 2019 W. W. Norton & Company
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