Discrimination In Sociological Research

Conflict Perspective  Macrosociological perspective: different groups in society have conflicting self-interests, and the nature of the society is determined by the outcome of the conflict amongst their groups.
Predominant approach today among sociologists specializing in race and ethnic relations.
One group gains advantages by holding another group down.
Inter colonialism theory: the native people of the colony are assigned a status lower than that of the colonizers. The colonized groups are placed under the colonizing country’s control involuntarily.
Different from other conflict theories of race and ethnic relations in one important regard – it focuses almost exclusively upon inequalities and conflicts that occur between (rather
Individual discrimination is usually conscious and deliberate.
Prejudices of any type concern what people think, discrimination concerns what they do.
Ecofeminism  holistic theory that makes important linkages between the subordination of women and other destructive processes. These include harm to the natural environment, colonization, and exploitation of indigenous peoples around the world.
The theory of ecofeminism holds that there has been a linkage throughout the development of Western civilization between male domination of women and an ideology of the dominance of man over nature.
The basic ideology that is revealed in these sources (old literature, back to the Greeks) is the belief that it is naturally ordained that men should be in control – of women, of the political system, and of land and nature. This ideology of male control becomes both a cause of and a justifying argument in support of a wide range of destructive activity, including exploitation of the environment for profit, the subordination of women and their exclusion from positions of power, and the conquest and colonization of the Third
Robert Merton  work focuses most directly on the relationship between anomie and deviant behavior. Anomie develops when society teaches people to want or need certain things, but fails to provide legitimate opportunities to get those things. In effect, society creates appetites that cannot be satisfied by complying within its norms.
Television programs and advertisements often portray and glorify an affluent lifestyle that most viewers cannot attain, at least through any legal means.
Merton: this situation is anomic because when following society’s rules does not lead to society’s rewards, people may disregard or disobey the rules in a variety of ways. Deviance is prevalent in the United States because all social participants are taught to desire and strive for economic success, while individual variation and class structure prevent many from achieving that foal.
It is not poverty itself that generates deviant behavior, but poverty surrounded by wealth, in a society where wealth is the norm.
Four deviant adaptations people make to the anxiety and frustration of anomic situations: (1) innovation, (2) ritualism, (3) retreatism, (4)