SOC 212

a category or position a personoccupies that is a significant determinant of how she or he will be defined andtreated.

occupying a number of statusessimultaneously (i.e. mother, daughter, attorney, patient, employee, andpassenger.

are those immediately impacting virtually every aspect of our lives. Mostimportant are gender, race, and social class.

categories of members by status and then ranked by status.

is the expected behavior associated witha status. Performed according to social norms.

shared rules that guide people'sbehaviors in specific situations. Social norms determine the privileges andresponsibilities a status possesses.

normlessness - people may experience because traditional norm have changed butnew ones have not yet to be developed.

oversimplified conceptions thatpeople who occupy the same status group share certain traits in common.

the belief that the status of female isinferior to the status of male.

male-dominated social structuresleading to the oppression of women.

male-centered norms operatingthroughout all social institutions that come the standard to which all personsadhere.

refers to the biological characteristicsdistinguishing male  and female.

social, cultural, and psychologicaltraits linked to males and females through particular social contexts.

the preference for sexualpartners of one gender (sex) or the other.

are the expected attitudes andbehaviors a society associates with each sex.

is a sociological perspective that is based on the premisethat society is made up of interdependent parts, each contributes to thefunctioning of the whole society..

In preindustrialsocieties social equilibrium was maintained by assigning different tasks to menand women.

Disruption is minimized,harmony is maximized and families benefit when spouses assume complementary,specialized, non overlapping roles.

expected to maintain thephysical integrity of the family by providing food and shelter and linking thefamily to the world outside the home.

expected to cement therelationships and provide emotional support and nurturing activities  that ensure the household runs smoothly.

believe that social order is maintained through value consensus, conflicttheorist assert that it is preserved involuntarily through the exercise ofpower one social class holds over another.

Social structureis based on the dominance of some groups over others and that groups in societyshare common interests, whether its members are aware of it or not. Conflict isnot limited to class struggle, it involves parents and children, husbands andwives, young and the old, sick and healthy, race, sexuality, etc.

  Conflict theory focuses on the socialplacement function of the family that deposits people at birth into familieswho possess varying degrees of economic resources. People in wealthier familieswill work to preserve existing inequality and the power relations in thebroader society because they clearly benefit from the overall inheritancepatterns if the power and wealth remain in the family.