Tuesday, January 12, 2010

1/12/10 Class Notes

January 12, 2010

*term “liberal” is open minded and not bound by some form of thought

I. Merton – Middle Range Theory—Deviance
a. Meso approach (middle) because Talbot Parsons theory was too broad.
b. Theory of Deviance – taken the concept of Anomie (Durkheim)—normalness (the absence of norms). Merton took this concept and modified it to suite his purpose to the cause of “the goals and means of society.” Anomie comes when there is an inconsistency or gap in between the goals and the means (++),(--),(+-),(-+).
c. (++) (conformist) has goals and means, example: a college student.
d. (+-) (innovator) deviant behavior—has goals but no means—example: a drug dealer or a robbery.
e. (-+) (ritualist) having goals but having means example: bureaucrat.
f. (--) (retreatist) not interested in the goals or means of society—example: homeless, suicide, recluse or hermit.
g. (--++) (revolutionaries) not interested in the goals or means of society but creates new goals which create new means (not interested in capitalistic society ~ follows rules that are contrasting too the capitalist society.

II. Robert Merton – Patterns of Prejudice and Discrimination
a. Does a person discriminate? Yes or No?
b. Is a person prejudice? Yes or No?
c. Discrimination is an action; prejudice is a perception ~ not ALWAYS an organic link in between the two. In order to discriminate you must have power. Power and discrimination are interconnected.
d. (yy) active bigot – yes discriminate, yes prejudice example: manager who does not hire because of discrimination.
e. (ny) timid bigot - no discrimination, yes prejudice – example: may not have the power to discriminate or afraid of the consequences coming from an institutional power.
f. (yn) fair whether liberal - yes on discrimination, no on prejudice – example: following others—more interested in an end result example: country club or choosing a football team.
g. (nn) all whether liberal – no on discrimination, no on prejudice – example: myself ;o)

http://www.cynthiagilligan.com/sociology/1~12~10.doc