APS 11 Final Exam

Anthropology Concepts to Know

Research Methods

●​ Participant observation

○​ A method in which the researcher studies a group not only through observation,
but also by participating in its activities

■​ Example: Dr.Greene’s homeless people study

●​ Oral history

○​ The collection and study of historical information using sound recordings of

interviews with people having personal knowledge of past events.

■​ Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, and one of the
most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using
21st-century digital technologies.

●​ Semi-structured interview

○​ Unstructured interviews: Asking participants questions to collect data on a

topic, does not have a set patterns and questions are not arranged in advance

■​ Goes on all the time and just about anywhere—in homes, walking along a
road, weeding a millet field, hanging out in bars, or waiting for a bus.

○​ Semi-structured interviews: is open ended, but follows a general script and

covers a list of topics

■​ Asking participants a series of open-minded questions but still following

up with extra questions to further their response on a certain topic

●​ Ethnography

○​ Ethnography is a specific kind of written observational science which provides an

account of a particular culture, society, or community.

■​ The fieldwork usually involves spending a year or more in another society,

living with the local people and learning about their ways of life.

■​ Comparative, cultures are only understood when compared with others

●​ Genealogy

○​ Genealogy, the study of family origins and history

●​ Archaeological excavation
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○​ Archaeological excavation is the procedure by which archaeologists define,

retrieve, and record cultural and biological remains found in the ground

Types of Anthropologist:

●​ Cultural anthropologists: Cultural Anthropology

○​ Cultural anthropology is the study of cultures around the world

○​ Cultural anthropologists use anthropological theories and methods to study

culture

■​ identity, religion, kinship, art, race, gender, class, immigration, diaspora,

sexuality, globalization, social movements, and many more.

●​ Physical anthropologists: Physical Anthropology One Pager

○​ The study of human beings' biology, evolution, physical variation, nutrition, and
behavior, etc

○​ Study of things humans left behind to learn about human society in the past (tools,
buildings, roads,..)

●​ Primatologists

○​ Study of primates, understanding humanity using primates as comparison

●​ Linguistic anthropologists

○​ Linguistic anthropologists study language in context, revealing how people's ways

of communicating interact with culture, history, and more.

○​ Study language, interactions between language and cultures, how languages are
connected to each other

People:

●​ Franz Boa

○​ Father of American Anthropology

○​ Established the Theory of Cultural Relativism

■​ There are the same social institutions in all societies & they are valued
equally, they just function differently

■​ There are no absolutes among cultures (right or wrong)

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■​ Not judging a culture to our own standards of what is right or wrong,

strange or normal.

●​ Margaret Meads

○​ American Anthropologist

○​ Lived with the Samoans in a highly authentic way for a long time (written a book:
Coming of age in Samoa)

■​ Learn their languages, dress like locals, etc.

■​ She learnt that Samoans were very open and comfortable about sex

■​ Youth and people in samoa do not care about homosexuality

○​ Controversial → culture has impacts on cultural norms and human sexuality

■​ Mead suggested that no gender traits are every simply “human nature” but
rather as possibilities that can “happen/attained” through one’s culture

■​ It is NOT gender or race that caused/influence someone to behave a

certain way but rather the social expectations and norms that has
developed slowly over centuries which have laid the groundwork for one’s
psychological makeup (thinking)

●​ Jane Goodall

○​ Primatologist

○​ Jane integrated herself within the wild chimpanzee communities to learn about
their social and familial interactions in order to understand our own behaviors as
well

○​ One of her major findings she found was that chimpanzees create and use
tools—a trait that, at that time, was thought to be distinctly human

■​ This helped up develop a better understanding on both humans and

animals

●​ Charles Darwin

-​ Charles Darwin created the Theory of Evolution

-​ The Theory of Evolution includes 2 parts:

a.​ Natural selection: What species will survive long enough to reproduce and evolve
b.​ Sexual selection: How is human society developed in a way that enabled us to be
successful (successful in a Darwinian sense means to be able to
reproduce/produce offspring)
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i.​ I.e. (When this theory is applied to humans) If an individual is healthy

enough to survive long enough to produce babies, but socially that
individual unable to find a partner, it is a failure

Essay Question:

●​ Be able to explain one of the major anthropological theories (functionalism,

structuralism, cultural materialism, evolution) we learned about in class and explain the
central ideas behind it. Also, be able to name a significant thinker associated with the
theory. w

Psychology Concepts to Know

Key Concepts & Figures of Perspectives:

●​ Behaviorism (Skinner, Bandura, Pavlov)

-​ The theory of learning based on the idea that all behavior are acquired through a set of
conditions & how conditioning occurs through interaction with their environment

-​ Conditioning/Conditions: Reward/punishment mindset → influences an

individual to behave a certain way to achieve/avoid something in their
environment

-​ Focusing on rewards, punishments, and the resulting change in behavior.

-​ The study of observable events (studying actions & behaviors/responses NOT the
conscious and unconscious mind [thinking])

●​ Functionalism (William James)

-​ The theory of functionalism focuses on how a thing functions and the role it plays in the
system of which it is a part of, not its structure.

●​ Structuralism (Wilhem Wundt)

-​ Theory of structuralism focuses on the broader system of things and the individual
elements that are part of it and how they are all related to each other. (General)

-​ The idea that our brains are complex systems that should be broken down into different
elements to understand its functions (Psychological context)

-​ Use of introspection to understand thoughts & emotions

-​ Asking people to tell/describe their emotions, or, self-reflect; this method can be
inaccurate

●​ Psychodynamic perspective (Sigmund Frued)

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-​ A psychological theory & therapeutic method based on the belief that all people possess
unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories (unconscious, can’t test)

+​ systematic study of the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings,

and emotions

-​ The idea that we are “repressing” our thoughts and memories (meaning that we are not
aware of/remember it) simply because we cannot control it

-​ Unconscious urges, unscientific (3 Levels)

-​ Super Ego (outside of our consciousness but we begin to adopt the “norms” and
internalize it → becomes unconscious): All the norms in society, the “rules” &
expectations

●​ You learn it from the society and internalize it (becomes apart of you
naturally)

○​ You learn how society reacts to different thing → start to

unconsciously think in the same pattern

○​ I.e. wearing bright pink jumpsuit, naturally feels awkward because

society says it's a weird thing to do-- but if everyone did it, it
would be considered normal

-​ ID (unconscious): Basic urges (hunger, sexual desires, the urge to procrastinate,

etc.

●​ Similar to thoughts that urges you to do something else (i.e. telling

yourself you want to do something else than what you are supposed to do)

-​ Ego (your consciousness, in the middle): You are able to think and make
decisions

●​ I.e. Good student = Super ego & ego work together to tell yourself to work
●​ ID will work against this idea (wants to do something else)

Parts of the Brain:

Hypothalamus -​ Responsible/controls hunger, thirst, emotions, body temperature,

sleep

Amygdala -​ An almond shaped structure that is responsible for controlling

negative emotions

-​ (fear, anger, etc)

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Medulla -​ Controls vital automatic functions for the body

-​ (i.e. heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, etc)

Hippocampus -​ The “save” button of the brain

-​ Associated with formation of memories (short, long term)

-​ Located in the temporal lobe​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

​

Study(s):

●​ Bobo Doll Study

-​ Observational Learning

-​ Two groups of children:

-​ Letting one group of children watch a video of adults beating the Bobo doll

-​ The other group does not watch the video

-​ Children who saw the video would become more violence

-​ Children who didn’t see the video are less likely to adopt violent behavior

-​ This is because there wasn’t anything/actions for the children to observe, memorize, and
mimic, thus the group that did not watch the video simply just did not have any sources to
observe the behavior from & to be able to imitate and adopt those behaviors (or are less
likely)

-​ While the group that was shown the video was able to watch and observe the violent
behaviors of others in response to the the doll/object/person, it allowed them to have an
idea of how to memorize and mimic the violent action and therefore influencing their
behavior (children learn by observing)

5 Personality Traits (OCEAN)

●​ Openness

-​ This represents the willingness to try new things and think outside the box

-​ Traits include insightfulness, originality and curiosity.

-​ High: willing to face new challenges, risks, more open to try new things
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-​ Low: more reserved, conservative, closed-off, similar to introversion

●​ Conscientiousness

-​ Desire to be careful, diligent and adjust to instant gratification with self-discipline

-​ Knowing/having a sense of priorities (knowing what they need to do in a certain

situation)

-​ High: well-organized, self-control

-​ Low: bad organization skills, procrastinate

●​ Extroversion

-​ Willingness to draw energy from others and seek social connections or interactions

-​ How much you want to socialize with others in the community

-​ High: more talking & socializing

-​ Low: introvert & prefer staying alone

●​ Agreeableness

-​ The tendency of how likely you are to speak up about your ideas to assert your opinion
over others

-​ How easily you agree & cooperate (làm việc, đồng ý) with other people and their ideas

-​ High: value harmony, easily agree to other people’s ideas

-​ Low: easily disagree, opposed, like to speak their minds against ideas)

●​ Neuroticism

-​ How stable someone’s mood is throughout the day and a given time period

-​ High: experience emotions very powerfully, does not suppress them

-​ Low: more flat (stable), does not experience much mood swings

Reinforcements:

Background Context:

-​ Operant conditioning refers to when a voluntary behavior leads to an environmental

response, which affects the likelihood of the behavior happening again (to “trigger” the
environmental response).
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-​ I.e., rats pressing a button (voluntary behavior) → example of positive

reinforcement

-​ Gets food (environmental response)

-​ Rat continues pressing button (Environmental response likely happening again)

●​ Positive reinforcement:

○​ Adding in something good/a reward in order to create a pleasant stimulus, making

it so that it is more likely/reinforces the behavior to occur again

○​ I.e. money

●​ Negative reinforcement:

○​ Removing something unpleasant or uncomfortable to increase the likelihood of

the desired behavior

○​ I.e. Kids want to avoid being nagged, they know how to act to avoid it

○​ Such as cleaning their room (behavior) to avoid being nagged (negative stimulus)

Theory of Cognitive Development:

●​ Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

○​ Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive dives deep into the child’s psyche and
investigates the four stages of development.

-​ Stage 1 (Sensorimotor): From age 0 - 2

●​ Learn to sense and grow curious of the world around them

●​ This includes their reactions and responses to objects in their everyday lives
(inanimate or animated objects)

○​ Object permanence: things do not exist if they can’t see them

○​ Gains their information via senses

-​ Stage 2 (Preoperational): From age 2 - 7

●​ Familiar with symbolic thinking

○​ Symbolic thinking: the ability to imagine/visualize about objects that are

not within the present environment

●​ Use of proper grammar & structure to express their ideas

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●​ Children around this time are usually very imaginative and intuitive, but they
have difficulty with abstract thoughts/critical thinking

-​ Stage 3 (Concrete Operational): From age 7 - 11

●​ Understand concrete concepts like time, space, and quantity

○​ Understand the water pouring experiment

●​ They can apply this knowledge to their everyday life

-​ Stage 4 (Formal Operational): From 12+

●​ Understands theoretical, hypothetical, and counterfactual thinking

●​ They can understand abstract logic and reasoning (critical thinking)

●​ They also develop strategy and plan out things

●​ Learned to apply one context/piece of information to other concepts/ideas

Potential Essay Question:

●​ Be able to explain one of the major psychological theories (functionalism, structuralism,

behaviorism, psychodynamic) we learned about in class and explain the central ideas
behind it. Also, be able to name a significant thinker associated with the theory.

1.​ Functionalism

2.​ Structuralism

3.​ Behaviorism

4.​ Psychodynamic

Sociology Concepts to Know

Theories:

●​ Symbolic Interactionism

-​ George Mead, a philosophy professor founded the idea

-​ Symbolic interactionism theory assumes that people respond to elements (objects, events,
etc,...) of their environments according to the subjective meanings they attach to those
elements (objects, events, etc,...).

-​ It argues that people's actions are based on the meanings they assign to things,
which can differ depending on the person and can change over time. Each person
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has their own meanings/definitions for things in society, thus, views things
differently.

-​ Example: the word 'dog' is just a series of letters. Through your interactions with
the letters 'dog', you see this as a furry, four-legged canine.

●​ Structural functionalism

-​ Made by French Sociologist Émile Durkheim

-​ The theory looks at how all structures and institutions in society work together to
promote stability

-​ Example: Schools teach children how to behave appropriately in society

●​ Conflict Theory

-​ Conflict theory is a theory that society is always in a state of conflict because of

competition for limited resources. Conflict theory holds that social order is maintained by
domination and power, rather than by agreement and conformity.
-​ Conflict theory is used to explain the inequality and the dominance of the ruling class in
society. ( the more power you have, the more privileges you can get access to).

People:

●​ Emile Durkheim

-​ a French sociologist, the father of sociology

-​ Structural Functionalism: a theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts
work together to promote solidarity, stability and peace (Institutions, relationships, roles,
and norms)

-​ Research method: Comparative Method which involves comparing groups and looking
for correlations or relationships between 2 or more variables. This method seeks to
establish the cause and effect relationships in society by comparing variables.

●​ Karl Marx

-​ A German philosopher who invented the idea of Communism and was related to the
conflict theory.

-​ Conflict theory: a theory that society is in a state of perpetual conflict because of

competition for limited resources
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-​ Conflict theory holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather
than by agreement and conformity.

●​ Mary Wollenstonecraft

-​ a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights

-​ Feminist perspective: highlights the social issues (inequality, oppression, injustice against
women) that are often overlooked or misidentified by already present social theories.

-​ Analyses women’s experiences of gender subordination and identifies the underlying

causes of gender oppression (focusing on their social roles, experiences, etc)

-​ Uses conflict theory (linked by the proposition that power & resources are distributed
unequally in society)

Terms & Keywords:

●​ Gross domestic product

-​ Sum of value of goods and services produced by a country

●​ Per capita income

-​ GDP divided by people

●​ Gini index​

-​ The Gini Index is a summary measure of income inequality across a certain population.
(Differences in income)

-​ Higher gini coefficient: more inequality

-​ Lower gini coefficient: more equal

●​ Socioeconomic status

○​ Socioeconomic status is the position of an individual or group on the

socioeconomic scale, which is determined by a combination of social and
economic factors such as:

■​ Income, education, occupation, residence, ethnicity, religion, etc

●​ Agents of socialization

-​ Family, Friends (Peer groups), social media platforms, government (legal systems), penal
systems (law punishments), religion

●​ Folkways
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-​ Traditional and customary ways of living, norms for routine or casual interaction (i.e.
daily “rules” in society)
-​ Informal sanction: doesn’t break the laws but people will judge you for being deviant)
-​ Norms that stem from interactions: behaviors learned and shared by a social group
-​ Each group can develop different customs: can be applied to a small or large group
-​ Eg. Waiting in line
-​ If you don’t do it it isn’t really important, but is seen as rude, and you will be judged

●​ Content analysis

-​ Gather information (through interviews,..) and write down the content and researchers
will look for similar ideas, patterns,..

Potential Essay Question:

●​ Be able to explain one of the major sociological theories (structural functionalism,

conflict theory, symbolic interactionism) we learned about in class and explain the central
ideas behind it. Also, be able to name a significant thinker associated with the theory.