Deck 4: The Social Structure and Personality Perspective

Question 1

There are three distinct theoretical frameworks within the social structure and personality face of sociological social psychology.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

List the different components of social structure" described in Chapter 4. What components of social structure do researchers working within the social structure and personality face of sociological social psychology typically study?

Answer 2

No Answer

Question 3

What is a mediating variable? How are mediating variables related to the proximity principle? Use research described in Chapter 4 on social class" work" and intellectual flexibility to illustrate the focus of SSP research on the link between social structure and individuals' psychological characteristics.

Answer 3

No Answer

Question 4

The general social structure and personality model involves multiple levels of analysis-micro" meso" and macro. What does this mean? Define each level of analysis and describe the focus of research in social structure and personality.

Question 5

List the three proximal environments that have been studied most frequently within social structure and personality. Summarize the research focusing on one of these contexts discussed in Chapter 4. What did you learn from these studies?

Question 6

Briefly describe research in social structure and personality on work" schools" and the family. Which body of literature do you find to be the most insightful? Why do you feel this way?

Question 7

Why do parenting practices vary by social class? What do social psychologists mean when they say this is a "spillover" effect?

Question 8

Why did the White male managers in the company Kanter studied choose other White males for promotion" thereby excluding women and racial/ethnic minorities from upper-level managerial positions? Why is Kanter's book (Men and Women of the Corporation) classified as research in social structure and personality? What are the policy implications of Kanter's study?

Question 9

What is the second shift? In her study on the second shift" Hochschild found that married men with children who didn't work for pay did the least amount of housework? Why was this the case?

Question 10

What advice did the columnists who write for the column "Annie' Mailbox" give "On Strike"" the woman who wrote the letter about the men in her family not helping with the cooking and cleaning at family gatherings? Why isn't this advice likely to be helpful?

Question 11

Why don't women who feel overburdened by housework simply stop doing it? Discuss why the consequences associated with failing to do housework are different for women than for men within this society.

Question 12

Describe the relationship between age and depression. Why" according to Ross and Mirwosky" are individuals in middle age the least likely to be depressed? Why might middle-aged individuals be more resilient than other age groups to downturns in the economy?

Question 13

Which guiding principle for research in SSP has received the least attention within the research literature? Use the concept of spillover effects" discussed in relation to studies on social class and work in Chapter 4" to illustrate the application of this principle.

Question 14

List and describe the three research principles that guide research in social structure and personality. Summarize one of the studies described in Chapter 4 and illustrate the extent to which it reflects one or more of the three guiding principles for SSP research.

Question 15

What is interrole conflict? Give an example of a situation where you" or someone you know well" experienced this type of role strain. Was the individual in question aware that he or she was experiencing role conflict? Was this conflict perceived to be stressful? If so" what strategies were used to reduce the stress associated with the conflicting expectations? Can you study and fully understand human behavior without studying the society in which this behavior occurs? Why or wh

Question 16

Research in social structure and personality is more eclectic than research in the other two faces of sociological social psychology.

Question 17

Social structure and personality is similar in focus to psychological social psychology in both its unit of analysis and dominant methodology.

Question 18

People don't always belong to their reference groups.

Question 19

The psychology principle has been applied more frequently than the components or the proximity principle within the SSP literature.

Question 20

The number one determinant of job satisfaction is salary.

Question 21

Tracking in schools explains why children born into working-class families are as likely to attend college and have professional jobs as adults as children born into middle-class families.

Question 22

The concept of role overload has been used to explain why working women who are married and have children tend to have high levels of psychological distress.

Question 23

Men and women today do about the same amount of housework.

Question 24

Life course research is considered to be within the realm of social structure and personality.

Question 25

How do reference groups affect people's self-evaluations? Use an example from your personal experience" or the experience of someone you know" to illustrate this process.

Question 26

Compare and contrast the symbolic interactionist and the social structure and personality faces of sociological social psychology. Please address the following concepts and issues when constructing your argument: unit of analysis" theoretical framework" agency versus structure" and the relative strengths and weaknesses of research within each orientation.