Popular Culture

At concerts, people experience collective effervescence, which is the emotional energy one receives from taking part in social gatherings. 

Conspicuous consumption is status displays that show off one's wealth through conspicuous consumption of goods and services. Consumption is particularly lavish, lacking obvious utility, or wasteful. Diamond "grills" are just for show, not practicality.

Consumerism is an ideology that promotes the acquisition of goods and services ever-greater amounts. It propers the insatiable belief that we need what we do not have. Ironically, the brand "Obey" points out consumerism, while partaking in its encouragement. 

Contrary to popular belief, the Sleeper Curve states that popular culture is getting more mentally challenging as the medium evolves. Video games improve abstract problem-solving skills. 

Family and Life at Home

A nuclear family consists of a father, a mother, and their biological children.

An extended family is a large group of relatives, usually including at least three generations. They typically live either in one household or in close proximity.

This Pakistani couple is practicing endogamy, which is the custom of marrying within one's social group. This could be within race, ethnicity, class, religion, region or nationality. 

This Filipino woman and American man are practicing exogamy, which is marriage between people from different social groups. 

There is a significantly greater occurrence of single mothers than single fathers. 

Sex and Gender

Feminization of poverty is the economic trend showing that women are more likely than men to live in poverty. This is due to gender inequalities such as gendered gap in wages and higher proportion of single mothers. 

Gender role socialization is the lifelong process of learning to be masculine or feminine. Families, schools, peers, and media are primary agents of socialization. Even toys play a role in gender role socialization. 

Heterosexual privilege is advantages given to those of heterosexual orientation. For example, heterosexuals can publicly display affection and not expect hostile or violent reactions from others.

Gender refers to the physical, behavior, and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members. Transgenders express traits that do not match their assigned sex. 

Feminism is the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes and the social movements organized around that belief. During the second wave of feminism, women wearing pants became common. 

Race and Ethnicity

Symbolic ethnicity is an ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly impact everyday life. For example, most Irish-Americans only exhibit their ethnicity on St. Patrick's Day.

Racial Assimilation is when racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage. This makes society more homogenous. 

Hispanics are one of the largest minority groups in America. Minority groups are systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to the dominant groups of a society. 

Racial and ethnic groups have great differences in access to healthcare. In turn, this may account for the differing life expectancy rate for different races. 

Donald Sterling has become notorious for his racism. His remarks demonstrate his belief that there is superiority of certain racial or ethnic groups. 

Social Class and Inequality

Social stratification is the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy based on access to wealth, power, and prestige. 

The upper class are the wealthiest people in the class system. They only make up about 1% of the U.S. population, but they possess most of the wealth of the country. They buy over-the-top mansions, while many people cannot even afford to buy food or water.

Car mechanics are members of the working class, which consists of "blue-collar" or service industry workers. They perform manual labor for a living.

Cultural capital is knowledge, skills, tastes, and dispositions that one acquires through being part of a particular social class. For example, upper-class individuals have a taste for caviar because they have been exposed to it through their life experience. 

The American Dream is the ideology that anyone can achieve material success if they work hard enough. It is usually imagined as owning a house with a white picket fence. In reality, not every individuals chances of upward mobility are equal. There are structural factors that contribute to an individual's success or failure. 

Deviance and Conformity

Conformists reach socially approved goals through socially approved means. Most white collar jobs are an example of conformity.

Labeling theory claims that deviance is a consequence of external judgements which modify both the individual's self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person. 

Violent crime is a crime in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end. Violent crimes include murder, rape, assault, and robbery.

Property crime is crime that does not involve violence. It includes arson, burglary, and theft.

A stigma is any physical or social attribute that devalues a person's identity, which may lead to exclusion from normal social interaction. In order to negotiate everyday interaction, stigmatized individuals may use a strategy called passing, to "mask" the stigma.

Life in Groups

Primary groups are groups that we are closely associated with, such as family. It involves more face-to-face interaction, great cooperation, and deeper feelings of belonging. They are long-lasting.

 Secondary groups are larger groups whose relationships are formal and institutional, such as coworkers or teammates. They are usually organized around a specific activity or the accomplishment of a task.

A dyad is the smallest possible social group. It consists of only two members with only one relationship between them. It is fundamentally unstable because of its size. A married couple is one example of a dyad.

Anomie is feelings of normlessness. Some sociologists believe that anomie will result as the modern world becomes increasingly disconnected from their groups. We are becoming Simmel's definition of a 'stranger', which is physically close, but psychologically far away.

Traditional authority is authority based in custom, birthright, or divine right. It usually associated with monarchies and dynasties. The Queen of England is an example of traditional authority.

McDonaldization, term coined by Ritzer, describes the spread of bureaucratic rationalization and the accompanying increases in efficiency and dehumanization. Like the principles of the fast food industry, principles of predictability, calculability, efficiency, and control through non-human technology are coming to dominate social life.