Which approach to studying human behavior primarily defines the human experience as a sequence of socially defined events and roles that the individual experiences over time?
The life course approach in sociology examines an individual’s life history and investigates how early events influenced future decisions and events (e.g. marriage, divorce, criminal record, etc.).
For example, understanding why Meryl engaged in political protest in the 1960s would examine the connection between Meryl and the historical and socioeconomic context in which she lived at the time.
What statistic weighs the number of people in a population whose age is likely to make them dependent on others against the number of people who are likely to be supporting themselves?
The age dependency ratio
Specifically, children (those approximately 0-15 years old) and older people (those 65+ years old) are considered dependent here (although, of course, some individuals in both groups do earn income).
Define:
a generational cohort
A generational cohort, commonly simply called a generation, is all of the people born and living at approximately the same time, treated collectively.
Identify at least 4 U.S. generational cohorts.
The current age cohorts in the U.S. are the:
- Lost Generation – those born from 1883-1900
- G.I. Generation – those born from 1901-1924
- Silent Generation – those born from 1925-1945
- Baby Boomers – those born from 1946-1964
- Generation X – those born from 1965-1980
- Millennials/Generation Y - those born from 1981-1996
- Generation Z - those born from 1997-2010 (as of yet, there is little consensus about official end birth year)
Note that these exact terms and ranges don’t need to be memorized, but it is helpful to understand what a generational cohort is and approximately how many years one typically spans.
There are 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 years of age each day. Their increasing strain on Social Security, Medicare, and medical institutions is a prime example of the:
social significance of aging.
Aging has a significant impact on society. Transitions such as reaching puberty or retirement are often socially significant. The effects of aging may be both social and physical.
_______ is primarily determined by a person’s genotype, while _______ is a result of one’s self-concept, attitudes, and role in society.
Choose from “gender” and “sex.”
Sex is primarily determined by a person’s genotype, while gender is a result of one’s self-concept, attitudes, and role in society.
Sex is biological; it refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define males and females. Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a society considers appropriate in relation to sex.
Societies often form a ______ for gender. For example, wearing a shirt and tie is an expected male characteristic.
social construct
Gender is a concept that describes how societies determine sex categories. Gender constructs include expected social norms, attitudes, and activities that society deems more appropriate for one sex over another.
Research shows that children 6-11 years old prefer interactions with same-sex peers as opposed to peers of the opposite gender. While this behavior wanes by adolescence, it is a prime example of:
gender segregation.
This is the separation by an institution, society, or individual of people according to their biological or perceived gender. Another example is gendered bathrooms in schools.
What term refers to the outward appearance of an individual, most strongly associated with skin color?
Race
Race can be considered a social construct because society currently places distinctions on people based on differences in outward appearance.
While race may be near-uniform in small geographical regions, this demographic concept varies more widely, as it is closely tied to culture, which can evolve, be exchanged, or change over a short period of time.
Ethnicity
Ethnicity is essentially the culture of where one or one’s family originated (e.g. Italian-American, African-American).
Despite being biracial, President Barack Obama was primarily identified and spoken about by the media and most Americans as being “black.” This is an example of:
racialization.
This is the process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to an individual, relationship, social practice, or group that might not identify itself as that exact race/ethnicity.
In some societies, the outcomes of a racialized social structure (i.e. differentials in income on the basis of race) shape what we believe to be true about racial categories. For example, when some hear the phrase “minority” or “poor” when talking about medical students in 2017, they think “black,” while the same phrase might have referred to “Irish” or “Polish” a few decades earlier. This fluid connection between race and social structure is known as:
racial formation.
This is the relationship between social structure and everyday life, through which the meaning of race and racial categories are agreed upon and argued over in society.
Which component of social identity includes a person’s sexual and/or emotional attraction to others?
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an individual’s enduring sexual attraction to male partners, female partners, or both/other. Sexual orientation may include (as some examples) heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.
The _________ of race and class is reflected in evidence that shows that the low performance of African-American students in school is best understood by taking the socioeconomic status of this group into account.
intersection
Intersection/intersectionality is a term used to describe the ways in which institutions (racism, sexism, xenophobia, classism, etc.) or characteristics (race, ethnicity, age, gender, etc.) are interconnected and should not be examined separately from one another.
Data from the population in a region of China showed that food production by farms increased from 10 million tons (1900) to 20 million tons (1925) to 30 million (1950) to 40 million (1975) to 50 million (2000). At the same time, population in the region increased from 1 million to 16 million. These changes most strongly support which population theory?
Malthusian theory
This theory, named for Thomas Malthus, proposes that human populations grow exponentially while food production grows at an arithmetic rate.
Movement of individuals between societies is termed:
migration.
Migration is one factor that contributes to demographic changes in a society.
What name is given for migration into a given society?
Immigration
You can remember this by noting the similarity between the beginning of the word (“im-“) and the word “in.”
Migration out of one society is termed:
emigration.
For instance, if Michael and his family move from Canada into the U.S., they emigrated from Canada.
Name at least two factors that promote migration between societies.
Many factors promote migration. Even though you only needed to list two, we’ve listed four below:
- Persecution (such as religious or ethnic persecution)
- War, violence, or unrest
- Job opportunities
- Educational opportunities
Define:
push factors (in the context of migration)
Push factors are factors that cause individuals to migrate out of their home society.
Push factors are typically negative aspects, such as famine, war, or the lack of available jobs or education.
Define:
pull factors (in the context of migration)
Pull factors are factors that cause individuals to want to migrate into a given society.
Pull factors are generally positive, such as the abundance of job opportunities or the chance to raise a family in safety.
______ factors in migration tend to be negative (e.g. war, famine) while ______ factors in migration tend to be positive (e.g. job growth, religious freedom).
Push factors in migration tend to be negative (e.g. war, famine) while pull factors in migration tend to be positive (e.g. job growth, religious freedom).
Again, push factors are those that cause people to want to leave their current location, while pull factors are those that entice them to migrate to a specific country.
Ricky fears that, if he stays in his native country, his young son will be pressured to join a gang. The abundance of violent gangs in Ricky’s country is a [push/pull] factor that may cause him to [immigrate/emigrate].
Choose one option from each box above to accurately complete the sentence.
The abundance of violent gangs in Ricky’s country is a push factor that may cause him to emigrate.
Negative factors, such as gang violence, are push factors, which cause individuals to attempt to leave (or emigrate from) their home country.
What kind of migration factors drive individuals and families to immigrate?
Pull factors
Immigration refers to migration into a new country. This migration is driven by appealing aspects of the new country, which are termed pull factors.
A change in a population’s composition is known as what kind of shift?
A demographic shift
Demographic shifts include changes in a society’s racial or ethnic composition (due to migration, for example) or in its age composition (due to factors such as population aging).
Countries with high ________, meaning that many babies are born each year, are relatively likely to grow rapidly.
fertility rates
Specifically, fertility rate (or birth rate) refers to the average number of babies born per woman throughout her lifetime. However, in the context of the demographic transition model, it is generally presented as births per thousand members of the population per year.
Fertility rate can be described as either total fertility rate or crude birth rate. What is total fertility rate?
Total fertility rate is the total number of children who would be born per woman in a population if she were to pass through the childbearing years an average woman has in her lifetime.
The worldwide total fertility rate is currently around 2.5 children per woman.
Fertility rate can be described as either total fertility rate or crude birth rate. What is crude birth rate?
Crude birth rate is the number of live births in a population during a specific year per 1,000 people in the population.
Crude birth rate is generally what is being referred to in the context of the demographic transition model because it provides an easy, direct comparison with mortality rate.
Define:
mortality rate
Mortality rate is the death rate over a particular time period (relative to population).
Mortality rate is often presented as the number of deaths per 1,000 people per year.
Describe the difference between mortality rate and morbidity rate.
Mortality refers to the frequency of deaths in a population over time.
Morbidity refers to the frequency of a particular disease in a population.
What must be the relative values of the birth and death rates in a society in order to sustain population growth?
Assume that no migration is occurring.
To maintain population growth, the birth (fertility) rate must be greater than the death (mortality) rate.
It’s that simple! More people must be born than the number of people who die.
What must be the relative values of the birth and death rates in a society in order to sustain population decline?
Assume that no migration is occurring.
To maintain population decline, the birth rate must be lower than the death rate.
That is, more people are dying than are being born.
When migration is considered, what two rates combined must be larger than the mortality rate and the emigration rate in order for a society to grow?
The fertility rate and the immigration rate
If these two rates combined are larger than the mortality and emigration rates combined, then the population will become larger over time.
Fill in the blanks below.
If (mortality rate) + (________) is greater than (________) + (immigration rate), then the size of the population will decrease.
If (mortality rate) + (emigration rate) is greater than (fertility rate) + (immigration rate), then the size of the population will decrease.
This is a mathematical way of saying that more people are dying or leaving the society than are being born or entering it.
Demographic transition is often described as having five stages. Describe the characteristics of the first stage of demographic transition.
The first stage describes pre-industrial societies, where death and birth rates are high and roughly in balance.
Demographic transition is often described as having five stages. Describe the characteristics of the second stage of demographic transition.
The second stage generally refers to developing countries.
Here, death rates drop quickly due to improvements in food supply and sanitation, which increase life expectancy and reduce disease. Fertility rates remain high in this stage.
Demographic transition is often described as having five stages. Describe the characteristics of the third stage of demographic transition.
In the third stage of demographic transition, birth rates fall due to fertility factors such as access to contraception, increases in wages, urbanization, or a reduction in subsistence agriculture.
Population growth begins to level off.
Demographic transition is often described as having five stages. Describe the characteristics of the fourth stage of demographic transition.
Once the fourth stage has been reached, both birth and death rates are low.
Often, the large group born during stage two ages, creating an economic burden on the remaining shrinking working population. Death rates may increase slightly due to increases in lifestyle diseases (e.g. U.S. obesity).
Demographic transition is often described as having five stages. Describe the characteristics of the fifth stage of demographic transition.
The fifth stage of the demographic transition model is still theoretical, but it is generally described as:
- a period of population decline
- characterized by differences in fertility as compared to stage four.
The original demographic transition model contained only four stages, so the fifth stage is a recent (and still somewhat disputed) addition.
In which stage of the demographic transition model (DTM) is a society likely to be if it recently began to utilize crop rotation and a public sewage system?
Stage two
Stage two of the DTM is marked by improvements in food supply (such as the agricultural technique of crop rotation) and sanitation (such as public sewage systems).
True or false:
During stage one of the demographic transition model (DTM), the population does not fluctuate at all.
False
While the population stays generally stable in stage one of the DTM due to similarly high birth and death rates, it is incorrect to say that it never fluctuates. Fluctuations due to factors such as disease (plagues) and famines do occur.
In which stage of the demographic transition model (DTM) is a society likely to be if it banned child labor approximately ten years ago?
Stage three
Stage three of the DTM is marked by decreasing fertility rates. Interestingly, while factors like contraception are commonly cited as contributing to this decrease, another key factor is the discouragement of child labor. Once children become an added expense that cannot be offset by their income, birth rates tend to drop.
500 years ago, most societies existed in which stage of the demographic transition model (DTM)?
Stage one
500 years ago (in the 1500s), most if not all societies had high death rates and high fertility rates. It was only at the time of the Industrial Revolution that many societies began progressing through the stages of the DTM.
Does a population pyramid provide information about age, sex, both, or neither?
A population pyramid provides information about both age and sex.
As shown in the simple population pyramid above, age is represented along the y-axis. One side of the pyramid (here, the left side) then corresponds to males and the other to females.
How can the pyramid below best be described?
It is a top-heavy population pyramid.
This suggests that many people are outside of the optimal procreation age range, indicating that there will likely be a population decline due to a low birth rate and a high death rate.
How can the pyramid below best be described?
It is a bottom-heavy population pyramid.
This suggests that many people are within the optimal procreation age range, indicating that there will likely be population growth due to a high birth rate and a low death rate.
What term describes either mortality or fertility rates for individuals specified by age?
Age-specific rates are the respective rates of mortality or fertility for individuals within a specific age range.
Define:
replacement-level fertility rate
The replacement-level fertility rate is the total fertility rate required for a population to exactly replace itself from one generation to the next, without migration.
This value varies with mortality rate.
Which term refers to the discontent people feel when they compare their position to others and realize that they have less of what they believe themselves to be entitled to?
For example, Ben’s neighbor wins the lottery and does extensive renovations to his house. Ben begins to resent his current house. He plays the lottery too, Ben thinks, and has more kids to take care of than his neighbor. Why doesn’t he win?
Relative deprivation
This term refers to the experience of being deprived of something (a job, an opportunity, a reward) to which one believes oneself to be entitled.
Black Lives Matter and the Tea Party are examples of _______, which seek social change by bringing together and coordinating the actions of people with similar motivations or ideologies.
social organizations
Social organizations are groups that facilitate relationships between and among individuals and social groups, which sometimes have the goal of social change. Shared characteristics may be gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, race, ethnicity, etc.
Identify common strategies used by social movements (e.g. PETA) to facilitate social change.
Social movements use many different techniques to promote their ideas. These include (but are not limited to):
- Protests
- Fundraising
- Advertising
- Social media/grassroots organization
- Political candidacy
- Voting
- Voter registration
- Social disruption
- Media appearances
- Public debate
Societies (often in the form of countries) around the world have become more interconnected in a process known as:
globalization.
Globalization involves increased communication, interaction, and integration between the citizens, industries, and governments of different nations.
Name at least two factors that have led to increased globalization.
Many factors have promoted globalization, including improvements in:
- communications
- technology
- international trade/supply chains
- financial systems (to facilitate international investment)
True or false:
Globalization is an entirely beneficial (or positive) process.
False
The extreme nature of this statement should give you a heads-up that it is likely false! In fact, while globalization has had many positive effects, it has also had negative ones. For instance, the outsourcing of jobs previously domestic to a certain country can be considered a downside of globalization.
A major criticism of globalization is that the demand for resources in less-developed countries may lead to ______.
One example of this phenomenon is the subjugation and exploitation of South Africa by the Dutch to support the burgeoning diamond industry in the 18th and 19th centuries.
colonialism
Colonialism is the practice of one country acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with its own citizens, and exploiting it economically.
The response by the United States to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was one of extensive ________, where entire methods of mass production were built from scratch or adapted to wartime products and machinery.
industrialization
This is the process by which an society’s economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to manufacturing or where the manufacturing of goods is significantly increased.
An man returns to his childhood neighborhood and finds that the empty lots and low-income tenements have been replaced with luxury apartments, restaurants, and a ritzy grocery store chain. This transformation exemplifies:
gentrification.
Gentrification is the financial and population-changing process of renovating and developing a housing or commercial area through an influx of wealthier residents. Gentrification has both pros and serious cons.
Name one benefit and one drawback of gentrification.
Benefits of gentrification include increased property value (and property taxes) as well as increased development, which typically results in more restaurants, shops, and other facilities.
Drawbacks include increased rent and other prices that drive long-term, lower-income residents out of their homes and (usually) farther into the outskirts of the city.
The unlawful use of violence and/or intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of social or political aims is termed:
terrorism.
While still a burgeoning field of study, the sociology of terrorism is beginning to be analyzed academically, and the AAMC outline indicates that you should be familiar with the concept of terrorism.
When groups of people engage in demonstrations or other actions that are generally illegal and typically hostile to law enforcement, these people are engaging in:
civil unrest.
Unlike peaceful demonstrations (such as protest marches), civil unrest is usually illegal and/or disorderly. (That is not to say that civil unrest is always negative! Instances certainly exist of civil unrest leading to meaningful change.)
Riots best exemplify which of the following?
- Peaceful demonstration
- Civil unrest
- Terrorism
Riots best exemplify civil unrest.
Riots are a classic example of civil unrest, a term which refers to often-disorderly actions taken by a group of people and targeted against law enforcement.
Riots are typically not peaceful (and are therefore not an example of peaceful demonstration) and are generally not directly intended to harm or terrify civilians (as is true of terrorism).
The industrial revolution in Europe saw a majority of citizens move from the agrarian regions of the country to the factory- and industry-dense cities in a process known as:
urbanization.
Urbanization refers to a population shift from rural to urban areas, or a large shift of development or population growth from rural to more urban areas. This term can also refer to the ways in which a society adapts to the change.
The “White Flight” of later 20th-century America, in which large numbers of white people left cities to establish new, more exclusive residential neighborhoods in the surrounding areas, is an example of:
suburbanization.
Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas (such as cities and towns) into suburbs, the regions immediately surrounding cities. This leads to a large dispersion of the population around cities, called “suburban sprawl.”
