1
Q
What are interpretive theories?
A
- Theories that draw attention to people’s intersubjective understandings of the world around them, other people, and themselves
- Focus on meanings that emerge from interactions between people who are engaged in symbolic dialogue
- Symbolic interactionism, labelling theories, and theory of deviant career
2
Q
What are critical theories?
A
- Theories that focus on power dynamics that underlie creation of social rules and they have emancipatory foundation
- Self-reflective, value-orienting foundation
- Power relations that underlie creation of social rules
- Goal of social justice
- Conflict theories, power-reflexive theories, feminist theories, and post-modern theories
3
Q
What approach do labelling theories and conflict theories make up?
A
- Constructionist approach
4
Q
What is symbolic interactionism?
A
- Theoretical perspective that describes society as composed of social interaction, which occurs via communication through symbols; foundation for all interpretive theories - communication is source of all meaning and understanding
- Develop understanding and attribute meaning to world around us and to ourselves on basis of interactions we have had with others
- Society is created by social interaction; interaction occurs via symbols; symbols have different meanings in different contexts
5
Q
What are the various processes involved in symbolic interactionism?
A
- Role taking: Place ourselves in roles of other to see from their point of view, which influences our own attitudes and actions
- Looking-glass self: Our assumptions about what others think influences how we think about ourselves and how we act
- Significant others: People who are personally important to us (perceptions and reactions matter)
- Generalized others: Perception of the viewpoints of generic “people” in society (what would “people” say)
- Based on these processes, individuals come together and form groups based on shared perceptions
- Deviance dance can emerge - some will type others as deviant while others will say the are normal
6
Q
What are labelling theories?
A
- Interpretive theories that describe process by which individuals are labelled as deviant, which then has implications for how others treat them and their own subsequent behaviours and identities
- Identities will begin to incorporate label
7
Q
What is tagging? What is the dramatization of evil?
A
- Tagging: Deviant label we initially attach to an individual’s behaviour
- Dramatization of evil: Judgement that is no longer a particular behaviour that is deviant, but rather it is the person themselves that is deviant
- Initially identify particular act as deviant (“tagging”) but then come to generalize judgement to person as a whole (“dramatization of evil”)
- Results in changes to identity, subsequent behaviour correspond to label
8
Q
What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance? What is master status?
A
- Primary deviance: Occasional rule breaking everyone engages in, seldom noticed and rarely caught
- Secondary deviance: Lifestyle and identity based on chronic rule breaking - getting caught sets in series of processes that result in secondary deviance
- Master status: Core characteristic by which others identify a person (labelled as deviant = master status)
9
Q
What is stigmatization? What is dramaturgy? What are the front-stage and back-stage selves?
A
- Stigmatization: Process of exclusion that follows deviant master status
- Dramaturgy: Interpretive school of thought that suggests social life is similar to performing in theatre - front-stage selves and back-stage selves
- Front-stage self: Social roles people play when in front of variety of audiences
- Back-stage self: Individuals’ identities and behaviours when they are no longer in front of any audience
10
Q
What is a spoiled identity? What is a discredited or discreditable stigma? Impression management?
A
- Stigmatization faced when an individual assumes a deviant role on front stage
- Discredited: Stigma is clearly known and visible
- Discreditable: Stigma can be hidden and is unknown
- Impression management: Techniques used by individuals to manage their stigmatization (e.g., humour, educational, defiance, cowering)
11
Q
What is disintegrative shaming? Reintegrative shaming? Tertiary deviance?
A
- Disintegrative shaming: Process by which deviantized persons are rejected from the community
- Reintegrative shaming: Individuals are temporarily stigmatized for their deviant acts, but then accepted back into the community (positive consequence of stigmatization; stigma is temporary)
- Tertiary deviance: Following person’s transition to secondary deviance, his or her efforts to resist deviant label and instead redefine normal in a way that includes the deviantized behaviour or characteristic
12
Q
What is the deviant career?
A
- Interpretive theory of deviance that claims deviance emerges, progresses through stages, and changes over time, similar to developmental stages of a career
- Career contingencies: Various turning points that influence directions people take (entrance phases, management phases, exit phases)
13
Q
What is the pure, falsely accused, and secret deviant?
A
- Pure deviant: Engage in deviance and are perceived and responded to as such
- Falsely accused deviant: Perceptions and reactions matter, not objective reality
- Secret deviant: Aren’t caught and behaviour does not result in labelling/stigmatization
14
Q
What are the limitations of interpretive theories?
A
- Most significant is lack of attention to social structure (structural considerations have been integrated with an integrative perspective - e.g., structural and individual considerations for drug addiction)
- Lemert’s version of labelling theory criticized for ignoring role of social structure - focuses on adolescents and not long-term; only looks at those who have been formally labelled (doesn’t compare those who have not been labelled); processes involved in transition from primary to secondary deviance not addressed sufficiently
- Many have argued that theories reflect processes rather than formal theories (no concepts to be operationalized, not testable)
- Have been integrated with many other theories to explain situations
15
Q
What are the core assumptions of conflict theories?
A
- Social rules do not emerge out of consensus but rather out of conflict and serve interests of the powerful
- Powerful groups less likely to act out because the rules were made for them in the first place
- Members of less powerful societies more likely to act out because: their sense of oppression and alienation causes them to act out in rule-breaking ways, social rules have defined the acts of powerless as deviant in the first place
16
Q
What are instrumental marxists vs. structural marxists?
A
- Instrumental Marxism: Proposes social rules are created to serve the interests of the powerful, becoming tools to control the proletariat - deviant label controls proletariat and maintains economic structure of society
- Structural Marxism: Proposes social rules are created to protect the capitalist economic system and may then be applied to members of the proletariat or bourgeoisie
17
Q
What are pluralist, cultural, and group conflict theories?
A
- Pluralistic: Multiple dimensions to inequality or power as opposed to just economic dimension
- Cultural: Dominant culture within a society imposes its norms on everyone despite the fact that other cultures within that society have varying norms
- Group: Groups struggling for power with each group attempting to win the support of authorities (their norms will gain legitimacy)
18
Q
What are ideology, hegemony, and false consciousness?
A
- Ideology: Worldview held by society’s powerful groups - idea about the way things should be, powerful groups are the source of these ideas but then promote ideologies as common sense
- Hegemony: Gramsci. Dominant way of seeing and understanding the world, as determined by ideology of powerful groups and then taught to citizens as common sense
- False consciousness: Frank school. False sense of freedom held by powerless groups
19
Q
What are power-reflexive theories?
A
- Emphasize interconnections of knowledge and power and propose all claims to knowledge are socially situated, embedded within relations of power
- Multiple discourses (bodies of knowledge, all that is “known” about phenomenon) exist but power dynamics determine which discourses become legitimized - e.g., punishing criminals has more discourse due to powerful preferring this view as opposed to rehabilitation
- Pervasiveness of regulatory mechanisms within a panoptical society results in self-surveillance and self-control
20
Q
What are feminist theories?
A
- Emphasis on female experiences and their divergence from male experiences (human experience is gendered)
- Mainstream (“malestream”) sociological theories have been criticized for: ignoring women altogether, assuming research on male experience can be generalized to female experience, treating women as peripheral “other” that stands in contrast to male normative standard
- Females are considered deviant if they differ from males
21
Q
What is the difference between radical vs. liberal feminism?
A
- Radical = e.g., prostitution as example of sexual oppression
- Liberal = e.g., occupation in which women need to be given more control over working conditions
22
Q
What are postmodern theories? What is skeptical vs. affirmative postmodernism?
A
- Based broadly on the conception of rejection (reality is too complex, grand, overarching theories don’t work)
- Skeptical postmodernism: Knowledge is impossible and only chaos and meaninglessness exist
- Affirmative postmodernism: Deconstructs master narratives, overarching theories, or knowledge and focuses analysis on the local and specific - can only gain knowledge in specific contexts, not generalizable
23
Q
What has rapid social change since WWII resulted in postmodernist theories?
A
- Society being more commercial than industrial (produce and consume)
- People being consumers rather than citizens
- The “end of the individual” (lost sight of who we are as individuals, image constantly changes)
- Erosion of any dominant moral codes by which deviance can be judged (no longer exist)
24
Q
What are the limitations of critical theories?
A
- Inconsistent empirical support for relationship between economic factors and crime and for structural bias in criminal justice system
- Reflect processes, perspectives, or ideologies rather than formal theories (in response to this, theoretical integration has occurred - interactionist and conflict theories to study racial profiling)
- Fail to recognize consensus that exists in society (there is more consensus in society than theory gives credit to)
SOC 224
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