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Class 11 Sociology Revision Notes Social Structure, Stratification and Social Processes in Society of Chapter 1

Social structure

• The term ‘social structure’ points to the fact that society is structured i.e. organised or arranged in particular ways.
• Social structure thus refers to the regularities or patterns of how people behave and the relationships they have with one another.
• The regularities or patterns exist due to the fact that it is repeated across periods of time and distances of space.
• For example, in a school certain ways of behaving are repeated over the years and become institutions.
• Social structure is made up of human actions and human relationships. These are patterned and arranged regularities which are repeated across periods of time and distance of space.
• Social structure helps every social institution to exist. However, changes take place in social structure when individuals who are part of different social institutions introduce changes.
• Thus, changes are introduced to reproduce the structure of the social institutions.
• Changes take place through either cooperative behaviour or serious conflict arising due to competition.
• According to Durkheim, social structure constrains our activities in a parallel way, setting limits to what we can do as individuals. It is external to us as individuals.
• Karl Marx also emphasised on the constraints that social structure exert on individuals but at the same time stressed on human creativity or agency that leads to reproduction of human behaviour and change in social structure.

Social stratification

• Social stratification refers to the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards.
• While all societies involve some forms of social stratification, modern societies are often marked by wide differences in wealth and power.
• The most evident forms of stratification in modern societies involve class divisions, others like race and caste
• The concept of stratification, then, refers to the idea that society is divided into a patterned structure of unequal groups, and usually implies that this structure tends to persist across generations.
• Different bases of social stratification like gender or class constrain existing social processes and also to opportunities and resources available to individuals or groups to compete.

Social processes

• Social processes refer to actions taken by individuals in various ways within the constraints of social structure.
• Sociologists seek to explain these social processes in terms of actual social structure and society and on the basis of the pluralistic understanding of the society.
• Mac Iver and Page defines social process as “continuous change taking place in a definite manner within the social structure”.
• Social processes are thus the byproduct of social interaction and is also referred to as process of social interaction.
• But both Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim presume that human beings have to cooperate to meet their basic needs, and to produce and reproduce themselves and their world.

Cooperation

• Cooperation is necessary for the survival of human society.
• The idea of cooperation rests on certain assumptions about human behaviour.
• It is argued that without human cooperation it would be difficult for human life to survive.
• Cooperation is required to fulfil certain basic needs of society which is possible through division of labour in society.
• According to Emile Durkheim, cooperation is required to fulfil certain needs of society and the role of division of labour emphasises on this function.
• He emphasises that solidarity through division of labour, the moral force of society is fundamental for our understanding of cooperation and thereby the functioning of society.
• According to Karl Marx, humans adjust and accommodate to cooperate but in the process alter society.
• Humans in cooperating thus do not passively adjust and accommodate but also change the natural or social world to which they adjust.

Competition

• Competition may be defined as struggle between two or more individuals, who are striving to get something which is relatively limited.
• Competition is a universal and natural social process that exists in all human societies. It is a predominant idea, norm and practice in contemporary society.
• In today’s time, there can be no society without competition as a guiding force.
• Competition gives rise to individualism in modern societies. It is intrinsic to the ways modern capitalist societies function.
• Modern capitalist society focuses on the expansion of trade and hence emphasises on mass scale production in a factory where the work is done by multiple workers.
• The ideology of competition works as the dominant idea of capitalism.

Conflict

• When people are competing for inadequate material and non-material products, it may mean clash of interests.
• The objectives of conflict may be power, status or property.
• We may see conflict occurring in every aspect of the society be it political, social, economic or religious.
• The bases of conflict may vary from caste or class, tribe or gender, ethnicity or religious community.
• Conflicts have always been part of a society. It may change in nature and form at different stages of social development.

Class 11 Sociology Revision Notes for Doing Sociology: Research Methods of Chapter 5

• Sociological research can provide explanations for issues that affect us both as individuals and as members of larger groups.
• It can help us to make the links between personal troubles and public issues, understanding, for example, how your social background can affect your educational attainment and why people in some countries die from diseases that have long since been eradicated in other parts of the world, etc.
• People hold a vast range of views on social issues, such as why certain people become criminals, why women are massively underrepresented in positions of power in the political and business world, and why fewer people attend religious services now than in the past.
• The findings of sociological research should help lessen the misconceptions and prejudices that often form the basis of commonsense views on many important social issues.
• Sociological research produces facts, knowledge, ideas, etc. Each of these has a particular meaning but can be seen as dimensions of a larger concept that is ‘evidence’. Evidence can be referred to as information that supports a statement. It can also be seen as a form of knowledge derived from various sources. Thus, sociological knowledge is derived from research.

Steps in Research Process

1. Selecting a topic and defining a problem: It relates to what a sociologist wants to know about. The selection may depend on the sociologist’s personal interest, relevance and even availability of funds.
   The selected topic is defined in the form of a problem/a puzzle/question. This puzzle represents a gap in knowledge or understanding. For example, within the topic a lot of research questions can be framed, how far does the economic position of women lag behind that of men or does education lead to better sex ratio etc.
2. Review of secondary literature: Here the sociologist familiarises himself/herself with existing literature on that topic. This literature could be in the form of books, journals, studies, newspaper articles etc. It helps the researcher sharpen his own research questions and also helps in making his own research questionnaire as well as the interview questions.
3. Formulating the hypothesis: Hypothesis is an educated guess about what is going on. The hypothesis tries to answer the research questions before the data collection on the basis of the secondary review of literature. The factual material gathered will provide evidence either supporting or disapproving the hypothesis.
4. Choosing the research method: Any one or a combination of one or more research methods can be used. There are a number of research methods and techniques of data collection such as surveys, observation, case study and interview. The choice of research method or technique depends on a number of factors:
   (a) The nature of research question being asked.
   (b) The time and resources available to researcher.
   (c) Size of community that needs to be studied.
   (d) Preferences of the researcher while some researchers are more comfortable with statistical method and others are more comfortable with anthropological method.
5. Collecting the data and recording the information: The data that is collected needs to be both valid and reliable. It should be valid to the problem that the researcher seeks to find answer for.
6. Analysing the result: It is at this step that the hypothesis is tested. Analysis of the result requires specific technique ranging from statistical analysis to content analysis.
7. Sharing the result: The final report is written or published and shared with other social scientists. This stimulates ideas for further research.

Methodological issues in social research
Objectivity

• It is difficult to be objective because human world cannot be studied in isolation. Human beings may develop bias views and influence the thinking about the group as being a part of it.
• The researcher who carries the research will also have his/her own values and prejudices about the social context they are studying and this may present as difficulty while gathering objective information.
• Since the problem of objectivity cannot be eliminated, a social researcher should try and reduce the problem of objectivity in the following ways:

1. By rigorously and continuously examining one’s own idea and feelings about the subject of research.
2. Through reflexivity: By taking an outsider’s perspective on the work and looking at the research through the eyes of others.
3. By consciously adopting the views of those who are the subjects of research.
4. Making a careful documentation of what one is doing, all procedures undertaken and formal citing of all sources of evidence
5. Objectivityshouldbeapproachedasthegoalofacontinuousongoingprocessandnotasan already achieved end result.

Subjectivity

• Subjectivity refers to the knowledge existing in the mind belonging to the thinking subject (the respondents) rather than the object of thought (the social issue being researched).
• t is necessary to study of the ways in which people understand and interpret the world in which they live.
• People attach meanings to what they do and while doing sociological research the researcher has to acknowledge this and attempt to interpret those meanings.
• Sociological research is directed by values which are cultural products and the status of knowledge will differ from culture to culture due to its subjective nature.
• The sociologist should not overlook the subjectivity of social world while doing social research rather he/she should make use of it to interpret meanings that will provide answers to the research questions.

RESEARCH METHODS

• Research methods can be classified into micro and macro research methods, primary and secondary methods, qualitative and quantitative methods.

Macro vs Micro Research

1. Micro Method: It is designed to work in small, intimate settings usually with a single researcher. Thus the interview and participant observation are thought of as micro method.
2. Macro Method: It is designed to tackle large scale research involving a large number of respondents and investigators. Survey research is the most common example of a ‘macro’ method.

Primary vs Secondary Research

1. Primary Research: It is designed to produce fresh or ‘primary’ data. Interviews generate primary data.
2. Secondary Research: It relies on ‘secondary’ or already existing data (in the form of documents or other records and artefacts). Historical methods typically rely on secondary material is found in archives.

Quantitative vs Qualitative Research

1. Quantitative Research: It deals in countable or measurable variables (proportions, averages and the like). Example-Survey.
2. Qualitative Research: It deals with more abstract and hard to measure phenomena like attitudes, emotions, values etc. Examples: interview, observation, content analysis of paintings, advertisements. etc

SURVEY METHOD

• A survey is a quantitative macro research method. It is an attempt to provide a compressive perspective on same topic.
  (a) It is used to collect information about people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviour.
  (b) It involves the collection of standardised information from the population being studied.
  (c) Standardised information is gathered by asking same questions to all respondents in exactly same order.

Surveys rely on questionnaires as the main technique of data collection.
Surveys are of two types:

1. Descriptive survey: They provide an accurate measurement of the distribution of certain characteristics in a given population. For example, income distribution, extent of literacy in a particular area.
2. Analytical survey: It is concerned with different variables. For example, a researcher may want to look at the relationship between level of prosperity and sex ratio.

• The information collected through a questionnaire in a survey is statistically analysed to reveal the pattern of regularity. These findings are presented as pie charts.
• Survey research is usually done by large teams consisting of those who plan and design the study (the researchers) and their associates and assistants who may get the questionnaire filled up.
• If the population of the study is too large, the survey will be based on information gathered from a representative sample of the population.

Advantages of survey

• It allows to generalise result for a large population by actually studying only a small portion of the population. Therefore, with the help of survey one can study with manageable investments of time, efforts and money.

Disadvantages of survey

1. In a survey it is not possible to get in-depth information from respondents. This is because the time spent on each respondent is very limited.
2. Since a survey involves a large number of investigators, it becomes very difficult to ensure that the complicated questions are asked from all respondents in exactly the same way.
3. Questions that are asked in survey cannot be of personal or sensitive type. This is because there is no long-term interaction between the investigator and respondents.
4. In a survey unlike what is in an observation method, it is very difficult for the investigator to know for sure whether the response given by the respondent is true or not.
5. Survey as a method is not very flexible as once the questions are set one can not add any more questions.

For a survey to be successful it is highly dependent on a well formed questionnaire and a well selected sample.
Basic principles of sample selection process:

• A researcher selects a representative sample from the population they are studying depending on the methodological preference and on the basis of the hypothetical questions formed.
• The selection of sample is based on two main principles:
  • Representation of relevant sub groups of the population to be surveyed
  • Actual sample units selected
• Statistical properties of a sample mean that the sample is distributed equally. It ensures that the characteristics of the sample closely resemble the characteristics of the population under study.
• Margin of error: Sometimes there might be small differences for the result obtained and the population but there will be no huge difference if the sample selected is correct. Such small errors are termed as ‘margin of error’ or sampling error.
• Researchers must specify not only the size and design of their sample but also the margin of error related with their sample.
• Non-sampling errors occur due to the fault or shortcomings of the research design and the manner of its implementation. Some of these errors are difficult to foresee and cannot be guarded against. Such errors may lead to surveys going wrong and produce misleading results.

Sociology Class 11 Notes Chapter 4 Culture and Socialisation

• Society is defined as a web of social relationships.
• All human societies are marked by culture.
• Tyler defines culture as the “complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs and other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”
• Clyde Kluck defines culture as a total way of life of people.
• Thus culture consists of all the learnt and shared ways of thinking, feeling and doing. It is a lens through which we perceive and evaluate the world around us. It affects everything that we think, do or feel.

Major characteristics of Culture:

• Culture is learned. It is an acquired behaviour.
• It is shared (cannot be possessed by an individual in isolation) and transmitted amongst the members of a society. It binds the members of a society.
• Culture is dynamic. It constantly changes. It makes each society and group unique or distinct.

Major components of Culture:
Two types:
1. Non-material (Cognitive and Normative)
2. Material

Non-material Culture:
It refers to the abstract or intangible elements of culture, such as the ways of thinking and patterns of behaviour. It includes the normative and cognitive dimensions of culture.

(A) Normative:
This dimension includes social rules and social expectations, i.e. the norms and values of a society. Norms are socially approved guidelines which direct behaviours of members of a society or a social group. In other words, they are the social expectations of proper behaviour.

Norms usually vary across societies and even within the same society across different social groups. A social norm is not necessarily actual behaviour. (‘Unwritten rules’) Most of human actions is norm-governed. There are different types of norms, depending on how strict they are.

• Folkways: It refers to traditional customary ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Most people conform to folk ways out of habit. They are the lesser order of norms, as they are not as strictly enforced as mores or laws.
• Mores: Mores are higher order norms linked to the core values of a group. They are considered vital for the group and are expressed as ‘must’ or ‘must not’ behaviour. They are more strictly enforced as compared to folk ways. Violations of these are not taken lightly.
  Eg: Behaving in a decent manner when you go out; not eating non-veg when visiting religious places; maintaining silence in hospitals.
• Laws: Most formal definition of acceptable behavior. They are the formal standardized expressions of norms. (Laws are codified norms and have been given a sanction).

Usually those norms are qualified as laws about which society feels strongly about. Laws may be based on customs, but they are different from customs because:

• They are upheld by the authority of the state implied to all those accepting the authority of state.
• They are backed by penal sanctions. Laws are enforced by the courts.

In a few cases where laws are contrary to the folkways and mores, the enforcement of law becomes difficult.

Social Values:

• They are the standards that define what is good, desirable, worthwhile in society. They are the underlined principles guided by choices and actions.
• Any action contrary to cherished values is condemned.

Differences between Norms and Values:

Example. In Indian society there is a value of respect for seniors and from that a number of norms are derived regarding expected behaviour towards seniors, such as offering seats to elders, touching their feet, or greeting them, not addressing by first names.
Importance of Norms and Values:

• Shared values and norms bring commonality in the outlook between members of society binding them together.
• It makes social life orderly and predictable. E.g.: without norms, we would never know, whether to shake hands with a new acquaintance or give them an affectionate push.
• Norms are essential because they regulate the behaviour of numbers of society or group. Without norms there would be chaos and disorder.

(B) Cognitive Dimension:
The cognitive dimension of culture refers to ideas which include beliefs, knowledge, myths, superstitions etc. of a society.

• In literate society, ideas are transcribed in books and documents.
• But in non-literate societies ideas are in the form of legends and myths which are committed to memory and transmitted orally.
• In the contemporary world ideas are also reflected in audio-visual media [ads, films]

Material aspect of Culture:
It refers to the tangible, concrete products that members of society possess and make use of; c.g.-machines, buildings, jewellery, modes of transportation, technological gadgets.

Both material and non-material dimensions of culture undergo change over time. However, material or technological dimensions change faster than non-material aspects (values and norms are slower to change). This gives rise to “cultural lag” or a situation whereby non¬material dimensions are unable to match the advances of technology (material dimension ).

Ethnocentrism and Cosmopolitism:

• Ethnocentricism—It refers to tendency to devalue others, disrespect of diversity, looking through and evaluating other cultures through our own cultural lens. It is the application of one’s own cultural values in evaluating the behaviour and beliefs of people from other cultures. It implies devaluing others by looking at them through your cultural lens. Ethnocentrism is not open in diversity.
• Cosmopolitanism: It is exactly the opposite of ethnocentrism. It accommodates other cultures’ and their beliefs .

Cultural Changes:

• External: changes in environment, colonialism, revolutions, media.
• Internal: evolution

Both internal and external changes influence social change that is totally internal.

Socialisation:

Socialisation is a process by which a person learns to behave in an acceptable manner within the society or group. It refers to the way by which the values and norms of the society or group become a part of the individual’s own way of thinking and feeling. This process is referred to as socialisation and through this the individual becomes a part of the given culture. For society to operate smoothly, individuals must be socialised into institutionalised patterns of behaviour, values and norms.

According to Gillin and Gillin, “By the term socialisation we mean a process by which an individual develops into a functioning member of the group according to its standards, conforming to its mode, observing its traditions and adjusting himself to the social situations.”

According to Bogardus, “Socialization is the process of working together, of developing group responsibility, of being guided by the welfare means of others.”

Characteristics of Socialization:

• Process of learning: Socialization is a matter of learning and not of biological inheritance. In the socialization process the individual learns the folkways, mores, sanctions and other patterns of culture as well as skills ranging from language to manual dexterity.
• Lifelong process: The process of socialization starts right from the time of birth and continues till the death of the individual.
• Process of cultural assimilation: An individual not only learns the folkways, mores, sanctions, norms and values but he imbibes and assimilates the culture of his society.
• Process of becoming a functional member of society: Socialization consists of teaching the person the culture which we must acquire and share. It makes him a participating member in the society and in various groups.
• Process of cultural transmission: Socialization is a process through which society transmits the cultural heritage from one generation to another.

Process of Socialization:
The process of socialization is operated not only in childhood but throughout the life. It is a process which begins at birth and continues till the death of the individual.
According to Prof. Johnson, there are four stages of socialization:

• Oral Stage: A child is born with some inborn physical and mental capacities. The mother is the first of the parents who begins the process of socialization. It is from her that the earliest social stimuli to which a child is subjected to learn. He responds to the stimuli by imitating them. Generally this stage continues till about one and a half years.
• Anal Stage: This stage starts from one and a half year and continues till three years. In this stage the main source of socialization of the child is the family. In the family he starts to learn many things like speaking, walking, eating, etc. He also leams toilet training and starts recognizing family relations.
• Latency Stage: Generally this stage continues from 3-4 yrs to 12-13 yrs. The child requires something from his equals which he cannot get from a person in authority. From them he acquires the co-operative mentality and some of the informal aspects of culture like folkways, praises, facts, secrets, forbidden knowledge etc.
• Adolescent Stage: This is the most important stage of socialization. It starts from 14 -15 yrs till 18-19 yrs. During this stage the individual is more attracted towards the classmates and friends. He gets interested more into recreation, fashion, clubs, sports etc.

Factors of the process of Socialization:
There are four factors of the process of learning. These are:

• Imitation: It is copying by an individual the actions of another. This may be conscious or unconscious, spontaneous or deliberate, perceptual or ideation. Imitation is the main factor in the process of socialization of a child. Language and pronunciation are also required by the child.
• Suggestion: It is the process of communicating information which has no logical or self-evident basis. Suggestion influences not only behavior with others but also one’s own private and individual behavior. Propaganda and advertising are based on the fundamental principles of suggestion.
• Identification: In the early years, the child cannot make any distinction between his self . and the environment. Most of his actions are random. As he grows in age he comes to know about the nature of things which satisfy his needs. Such things become the object of his identification. The spread and area of identification increase with the advancement in age. Through identification he becomes sociable.
• Language: It is the medium of social interactions. It is the means of cultural transmissions. At first the child utters some random syllables which have no meaning but gradually he comes to learn his mother tongue. The mother tongue moulds the personality of the individual from infancy.

Importance of Socialization:

• It makes transmission of culture possible over generations.
• It helps individuals to perform their social roles.
• It transforms individuals from a biological being to a social person.

Phases of Socialization
There are two broad phases:

• Primary phase: It occurs from infant to late childhood. During this stage, family is the most important agency of socialization. The child learns the language and the basic behavior pattern during this phase, which forms a foundation for later learning.
• Secondary phase: It extends from late childhood to maturity. During this phase other agents of socialization also play a role e.g. : peer group, school, media etc.
• Adult Socialization: Socialization, however, is a lifelong process. Individuals throughout their lives are learning new roles associated with different stages of life which extend even beyond the stage of attaining maturity.

Thus, one can talk about adult socialization. It takes place when individuals enter roles in which primary and secondary socialization has not prepared them fully.

As an individual enters a new life and a new group, he/she learns the roles associated with the new status. Agencies of Socialization include: Family, peer group, mass media etc.

Important terms:

• Ethnocentrism: It is the application of one’s cultural values in evaluating behaviour and beliefs of people from other culture.
• Little tradition: It consists of the cultural traits or traditions which are oral in nature. It operates at the village level.
• Great Tradition: The cultural traits or traditions which are generally written make great traditions. Such kind of cultural traditions is popular among the elites of a society who are educated and learned.
• Estates System: It was a system of ranking in feudul Europe. Occupation of the people was the base of this system. The nobility clergy and the third state were the three estates of this system. The third estates generally consisted of chiefly professional and idle class people. Each class had his own representative but the peasants and labourers did have regret to hope.
• Sub-culture: A group of people within a large culture represents sub-culture. They borrow from or often distant, exaggerate or invent the symbols, values and beliefs of the people.
• Social Roles: Social roles signify rights and responsibilities associated with a person’s social position or status.
• Self Image: The image of a person expressed in the eyes of others.
• Cultural Evolution: It is a theory of culture. According to this theory, just like natural species, culture also evolves through variation and natural selection.
• Cognitive aspect of culture: It refers to how we learn to process what we hear, so as to give it a proper meaning.
• Normative aspect of culture: It refers to rules of conduct like not opening other people’s letters, performing rituals at death.
• Acculturation: It comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact with subsequent changes in the original cultural pattern of either or both of groups.
• Socialization: It means the process of inducting the individual into the social and cultural world of making him a participant member in the society and its various groups and inducing him to accept the norms and values of that society.
• Conformity: It is action that is oriented to a social norm (or norms) and falls within the bank of behaviour permitted by the norm.
• “The social looking glass is the group or society in which persons imagine how others see them.”

Sociology Class 11 Notes Chapter 2 Terms, Concepts and their Use in Sociology

• As opposed to commonsensical knowledge, Sociology like any other science has its own body of concepts, theories and methods of data collection.
• Asa social science, Sociology does need to have certain agreed upon meanings of social realities and processes it is studying.
• Sociological concepts help in defining as well as in understanding social realities.It becomes all the more important to discuss sociological terms so as to distinguish what they mean from commonsensical usage which may have varied meanings and connotations.
• Some of the basic concepts used in Sociology are:

Social Group:
A social group is a collection of two or more persons who are continuously interacting and share common interests and a sense of loyalty within a given society. It has the following characteristics:

• Persistent interaction among its members.
• A shared sense of belonging amongst its members.
• Shared interests.
• Acceptance of Common norms and values.
• Membership of the group may be formal or informal.

Difference between a social group and other forms of collectivities (Quasi-Groups) All forms of human gatherings and collectivities do not constitute a social group. A social group is different from the related concepts of Aggregates and Social Category. Aggregates are collection of people who temporarily share the same physical space but do not see themselves as belonging together and do not have sustained or persistent interaction

For example: A crowd, or a number of commuters stuck in a traffic jam.
Social Category: It refers to a statistical grouping of people or classification of people on the basis of similar characteristics. For example, all men having the same occupation, or all girls having a height of 5 ft. and above.

Unlike a social group, people who make up a social category do not interact with one another. In fact, they may not even know of each other’s existence.

Both Aggregates as well as Social Category are quasi-groups which can sometimes become a social group over time. For example, all domestic workers in a locality may over time form a union and become organized and develop a. common identity as a social group.

Types of Social Group:
Different sociologists have classified social groups differently. In their classifications they take different criterion into account.
Primary Group and Secondary Group on basis of size/type of relationship.

It is the most well known classification given by Cooley on the basis of size and type of relationship shared among its members.

Primary groups are “primary” because they are central in our lives and they play an important role in influencing our lives. Very often Primary groups are formed within the orbit of secondary groups. For example, a group of friends within an office.

In-Group and Out Group—not on basis of size but sense of belonging/attachment. Classification of In-Group and Out-Group has nothing to do with size.

Reference Group: It is that group to which we do not belong but we aspire to be like them and therefore we try to emulate their lifestyles. For example, for many Indian youths, Americans or Bollywood stars are a reference group.

Peer Group: A type of primary group composed of individuals who are either of similar age or who share a common profession. Peer groups have a very strong influence on the life of an individual.

Status And Role:
Status: It is refers to the position an individual occupies in a group or in society. Each status has certain defined rights and duties assigned to it. Examples of status—Doctor, mother, teacher etc.

Status set: Each individual occupies status in the society. The totality of the status occupied by an individual in the society is called a Status Set. For example, the status set of Nimisha is – daughter, friend, student, sister, club member etc.

Prestige: Status has a certain amount of prestige or social value attached to it. Prestige is attached to the status (social position) rather than to the person occupying it. Example, prestige of a doctor may be higher than that of a shopkeeper even if the earning of the doctor is lesser than that of the shopkeeper.

Status is of two types: Ascribed Status and Achieved Status

Role:
Status and role are inter-connected because role is the behavioural aspect of status. It is the expected behaviour associated with a status. For example, the status of a student has certain expected behaviour attached to it. However, while a status is occupied, role is played.

Socialisation:
Role Conflict: Each individual performs a number of roles in society. Role conflict occurs when performance of one role conflicts with that of another. Eg. Modern working woman very often finds that her role as a professional conflicts with that of a mother and wife.

Role Stereotyping:
It refers to reinforcing of certain roles. For example, the role of breadwinner for the husband and that of homemaker for the wife is often stereotyped in ads and films.

Social roles and status are not fixed. People do make efforts to change the role and status (even ascribed status) assigned to them by society. For example, Dalits have been opposing the low status assigned to them on the basis of caste.

Social Stratification:
According to Giddens, social stratification refers to division of members of a society into different social categories or strata which are ranked into a hierarchy, according to their
relative power, prestige and wealth.
According to Tumin, “Social stratification refers to arrangement of society into hierarchies of strata of social categories that command unequal amounts of property, power and honour.” Social stratification is not an individual fact, it is rather a social fact. It refers to the ranking of a large number of individuals into hierarchically organized strata. It has little to do with individual merit/abilities and more to do with socially patterned inequalities.
Major systems of stratification include:

• Caste
• Class
• Gender
• Slavery
• Estate

The privileges or social rewards enjoyed by any individual depends upon his or her caste, class, gender and position in society.

Social stratification and natural differences:
Stratification systems have a social and not a biological bases. They are socially created inequalities. Social inequality occurs when biological differences are culturally assigned and subjected to prejudices.

For example, racism and gender based equalities have little to do with biological differences. Blacks are not “naturally unfit” for high ranking jobs, neither a woman “naturally inferior” in intellectual abilities.

Another example is that of old age. Old age is evaluated differently in different societies. In traditional societies, old age is given power and prestige, but in modern societies old age is not associated with much respect.

Social Mobility:
It refers to the movement of individuals and groups between different socio-economic positions.
Open and closed systems of stratification:

Class as a System of Stratification:

• Class refers to a group based on sharing of similar economic resources, that is, wealth, income or property.
• Members of the same class share:
  • Similar economic interests so that they may form organizations. For example, Trade Unions are formed by factory workers in an industrial society.
  • They share similar lifestyles.
• They would also share similar life chances as they have similar kinds of access to health, education etc.

Features of class:

• As opposed to caste system, class does not have any religious or legal sanction.
• It is an open system of stratification. Social mobility is relatively easy.
• Membership of class is primarily based on achieved status.

Caste as a System of Stratification:

• Caste refers to inequalities in terms of social honour/prestige.
• Castes are ascriptive groups, membership to which is determined by birth.
• Each caste is ranked as higher or lower as compared to the others in the social hierarchy.

It is an institutional characteristic of Hindu society, but it has spread to other non-Hindu communities too such as the Muslims, Christians and Sikhs. Although it was very important in traditional India it holds its way in modern India too in political as well as social life.

Origin of Caste and Varna Scheme:
There are no authentic historical records to show the exact age of caste system. The caste system stood for different things in different time periods.

In facts, it is believed that the caste system originated in the varna system of the Rig Vedic society. In its earliest phase (the late Vedic period between 900-500 BC), the caste system was actually the Varna system.

Varna system:
Varna literally means “colour”. The Varna system divided the Hindu society into four categories on the basis of occupation and colour.

• Brahmins-priests
• Kshatriyas-warriors and kings
• Vaishyas-traders
• Shudras-service castes like artisans, peasants etc.

(The so called “untouchables” or the panchamas – the fifth category – were outside the varna scheme). Initially these divisions were not very rigid, they represented mere occupational division. Therefore, mobility across categories was possible. For example, Vishwamitra, a Kshatriya, became a Brahmin through achievements.

It is also believed by historians that the Varna system initially represented the division between the Aryans and the Dravidians.
In the Post Vedic period:

• The number of sub-divisions within each Varna increased due to growth in trade and increasing specialization of labour. Consequently new sub-groups emerged within the Varna scheme.
• Caste became rigid, i.e., it came to be defined on birth.
• Each Varna (and its sub-divisions) was ranked hierarchically, with strict rules governing their life and relations between different castes.
• The first three Varnas became the “twice born” castes.
• The rigid and hierarchical division of society got religious justification throughthe ancient religious texts like the Dharmashastras as well as the Manusmritis. These texts set out caste rules, unequal duties of the four Varnas and their sub-divisions. In fact the religious notions of Karma and Dharma strengthened the caste system.

Ideas of purity and pollution—In traditional India, the caste hierarchy was based on ideas of “purity and pollution” derived from the religious texts. It was believed that the “most pure” Brahmins are close to sacred, and therefore are superior to all others. The “Untouchables” are the “most polluting” and therefore the most inferior. Even the mere touch of the Brahmin was considered to be pure while everything related to the so-called untouchables’ touch, shadow, and occupation – was “impure”.

Features of Caste
It is important to note that the above-mentioned features are only the prescribed rules found in ancient texts. We have no firm evidence telling us the way. These rules actually or empirically determined the life of different castes.

• Caste is ascribed: Caste is determined by birth.
•  A person is bom into the caste of one’s parents. Caste is not a matter of choice. One can not change one’s caste or leave it.
• Caste is endogamous, i.e., marriage is restricted to members of the group.
• Strict rules about food and food sharing: Caste membership involves rules about food and food sharing, what kind of foods may or may not be eaten is prescribed and whom one may share food with is also prescribed.
• Hierarchy of rank and status: All castes are arranged in a hierarchy of rank and status while the hierarchical position of many castes may vary from region to region.
• Segmental organization: Caste involves sub-divisions within themselves, that is, caste almost always have sub-castes and sub-castes may have sub-sub castes.7. Traditionally linked to occupation: A person born into a caste could only practice the occupation associated with that caste. So, occupations were hereditary under caste system.

Varna and Jati:
Sociological studies of villages in 1950s-70s revealed that caste as it actually functions at local level is different from the Varna scheme.
Varna Jati, a broad pan-Indian aggregative are actually existing hierarchies at classification and is uniform throughout level, but varies from region to region.
In India there are only four Varnas —a complex division in each area.
There are actually hundreds of castes and sub-castes in contemporary Indian villages. Studies show that the caste system in contemporary India has two main aspects:
1. Ritual aspect: It is based on ideas of purity. It is derived from religious texts.
2. Secular aspect: It takes both the economic and political aspects into account. Therefore, caste position in local hierarchies depends on a number of factors.

• Rituals and customs of a caste
• Food habits (vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Pork eating or non-pork eating)
• Occupation
• Land holding.
• Political power etc.

At local level, very often intermediate and lower level castes try to rise up in the caste hierarchy through the process of Sanskritisation.
Sanskritisation

• Concept of Sanskritisation was introduced by Mr. M.N. Srinivas.
• It refers to the process by which a “low” Hindu caste or tribe tries to achieve upward mobility in the local hierarchy by emulating the customs, rituals, and way of life of the “twice born castes”. For example, giving up liquor, taking up vegetarianism etc.

Dominant Caste:
Dominant caste is a term introduced by M.N. Srinivas to understand the process of change in rural India. Dominant castes are those intermediate castes (Dominant castes need not be Brahmins. In parts of Punjab, U.P. and Haryana non-Brahmin castes are dominant castes) that exercise domination at local or regional level is due to the presence of following characteristics:

• Economic Power: They own large amount of cultivable land. A large number of them managed to get land rights after the Land reforms. They, therefore, dominate the agrarian economy. Also they have greater access to urban sources of income, western education and jobs in govt and administration.
• Political Power: Dominant castes are numerically preponderant. This leads to dominance in regional politics. Examples of Dominant castes; Yadavs of Bihar and U.P., Reddys of Andhra Pradesh, Jats of Punjab and Haryana.

Social Control:
Society is a harmonious organisation of humans. Individuals are expected to discharge their roles and perform functions accordingly. In order to exist and progress society has to exercise a certain control over its members. Such controls are termed as social control. According to L.Bernard, “Social control is a process by which stimuli are brought to bear effectively upon some person or group of persons thus producing responses that function in adjustment to the group.”

Characteristics Of Social Control:
Social control has the following features:

• It is an influence: The influence may be excessive through public opinion, question, social suggestion, religion, appeal to reason and any other method found suitable by the group.
• The influence is exercised by society: It means that the group is better able to exercise influence over the individual than any single individual. The group may be the family, the church, the state, the club, the school, the trade union etc. The effectiveness of influence however depends upon variable factors. However sometimes the influences of the family may be vice-versa —the influence of the clan may be more effective than that of the church. The influence is exercised for promoting the welfare of the group. As a whole social control is exercised with some specific end in view. The end is always the others in the group thus an outing to the welfare of the whole group. The individual is made conscious of the other existence and their interest. Thus it is required to promote the interest of all.

Need for social control:
Social control is essential for the existence of society. Every individual has a separate personality. No two persons are
alike in their nature, ideas, interests, habits and attitudes. There is so much difference in the ways of living of the people
that at every moment there is a possibility of clash between them. Therefore, social control is necessary to protect the interests of all the people living in society.

To develop cooperative views:
With the help of social control individuals are able to come in contact with each other according to their interests, habits,
position and status. Thus they develop the cooperative nature which is the basic element for the development of society.

To provide social sanction:
Social control provides social sanction and social ways of behaviour. There are many norms and customs in every society. Every individual has to follow them. If an individual violates the social norms, he is compelled by the social control to observe them.

The above reasons show the need for social control. In modem society the need is greater.

Means and agencies of social control:
The means by which individuals are compelled to conform to the usages and life values of the group are numerous. The most important ones are custom, law, public opinion, religion, morality, social suggestion and norms.

Custom and Laws:
Custom, law and fashion play an important role in bringing about social control, out of them custom is an important means of controlling social behaviour and its importance in society cannot be minimised. They are very powerful and regulate social life. They are essential to the life of a society and are very dominant specially among illiterate people. They preserve our culture and transmit it to the succeeding generation. They bring people together and develop social relations among them. According to Bogardes, “Customs and traditions are group accepted techniques of control that have become well established, that are taken for granted and that are passed along from generation to generation.”
Characteristics of custom

• Custom is a social phenomena.
• Custom is socially recognized.
• Custom is normative.
• Custom has great social significance.
• Custom maintains social order.
• Custom is inherited.
• Custom has an external sanction.

Law:
In primitive society, the norms and customs were sufficient to control the individual behaviour since there was an almost unquestioned compliance with them but in modern civilized societies custom tends to lose their hold with the result that laws are enacted by the state to control the individual. Sommer stated that laws’are actually codified customs and mores.

Definition:
According to Macaiver and Page, “Law is the body of rules which are recognised, interpreted and applied to a particular situation by the courts of the state.”
Characteristics of Law

• Laws are the general conditions of human activity prescribed by the state for its members.
• It is a product of conscious and thorough planning and a deliberate formulation.
• Law is definite, clear and precise.
• They are equal to all without exception in identical circumstances.
• The violation of law is followed by penalties determined by the authorities of the state .

Factors of social change:
There are numerous factors that bring about social change.

Ecological factors:
Man has stepped into space but his control over geographical phenomena is negligible. Nature as if to prove its might has jnany a time shown its devastating power. Human history is full of examples where flourishing civilizations were wiped out by natural calamities e.g. Civilization of Mohen-jo-daro and Harappa are said to have been lost as a result of an earthquake. To a large extent the geographic conditions include the kind of clothes the people wear, food they eat, the language they speak etc. However, earthquakes, floods, storms and other natural events are known to change the social structure suddenly.

important terms:

• Social groups: A number of individuals, defined by formal or informal criteria of membership, who share a feeling of unity or are bound together in relatively stable patterns of interaction are called social groups.
• Social system: A system in any structured or patterned relationship between any number of elements, where the system forms a whole or unity.
• Social trend: A notable pattern of change displayed by a social indicator or index.
• Social work: A generic term applied to the various organised methods for promoting human welfare through the prevention and relief of suffering.
• Socialization: A process by which we learn to become members of society, by internalizing the norms and values of society also by learning to perform our social roles.
• Social problems: A generic term applied to the range of conditions and aberrant behaviors which are held to be manifestations of social disorganization and to warrant changing we mean social engineering.
• Social order: Explanation of social order, of how and why societies where, are the control concern of sociology.
• Social fact: Ways of thinking, feeling and acting that are experienced by individuals as external and constraining, and that are general throughout a social group.
• Social control: It refers to the social processes by which the behavior of individuals or groups is regulated.
• Social role: Social expectations attached to particular social positions and analyses the working of such expectations.
• Ritual: An often repeated pattern of behavior which is performed at appropriate time.
• Social status: It refers to the position that a person occupies in the social structure. It may be ascribed or achieved.
• Identity: Distinctive characteristics of a person or character of a group which relate to why they are and what is meaningful to them.
• Sanctions: A mode of reward or punishment that reinforces socially expected forms of behavior.
• Norms: Written or unwritten rules of behavior which reflects cultural values

Sociology Class 11 Notes Chapter 1 Sociology and Society

• A society is a group of people who share a common culture, occupy a territorial area and are bound to each other by a common history.
• Societies may be simple, may be complex. It is natural to human beings. We all are social beings. We cannot survive without society. We human beings cannot attain our goals alone, we want society. The society provides us security, relationship, identity and sense of belonging ness.
• Society is mandatory not only for mere survival but also for a good life.
• Society is a continuous process. It is not imposed upon people. It goes on as a natural process. Social relations are the base of social structure. Society can be understood in its abstract as well as concrete form.
• The main characteristics of the society are interdependence, cooperation and conflict, mutual awareness, similarities and differences, abstraction in terms of relationship and dynamism in nature.
• Individual and society are directly related to each other. Both are complementary. The individuals live in collective activities not due to compulsion but by necessity. Human beings and their societies are inseparable although we all individuals are compliant and rebellion, conventional as well as unorthodox, submissive and aggressive i.e. all sort of contradictions and functioning with opposites.
• Biological, ecological, psychological and social factors significantly influence all of us. These influences cause variation in individual and with all commonality in cultural factors each individual becomes unique with different physical and psychological attributes.
• All human beings are social beings. We all belong to some culture which determines the individual’s economic maintenance system for personality development. The society basically promotes a particular system to everybody in which individual develops different terms of relationship.
• In this perspective human society is different from animal society. Human beings have its own culture and a dynamic communication system whereas the animal society has no culture and they have no dynamic form of speech. Animal
• behavior is instructive whereas we are social beings. Human society is dynamic and interdependent, having common goals and interact among one another whereas animals’ society is static.
• Sociology is a scientific and comprehensive study of society.
• The very origin of the word ‘Sociology’ comes from the Latin word ‘Socius’ (companion) and the Greek word Ology (study of), to indicate its nature as a hybrid discipline.
• August Comte, a French philosopher coined the term Sociology in 1838 and called it the science of human associations. He is known as the ‘Father of Sociology’. The contributions of Durkheim Spencer and Max Weber is significant to develop Sociology as a separate discipline.
• Sociology is a scientific study but due to its relationship with social life it can neither be specifically defined nor its boundaries can be marked. According to Bottomore, “Sociology is a modern science, not a century old.” Sociology is a new science.
• Emile Durkheim said that Sociology is the study of collective representation. Human personality i.e. cognitive (Thinking), conative (Behavioral) and Affective (Feeling) constitute social facts. These social facts are external dimension of human mind which controls human behavior to maintain the social network. According to Durkheim, “All that which is a social fact constitutes the subject matter of Sociology.”
• According to Hobhouse, “Sociology studies the interaction of human minds.”
• Park and Burgese said that Sociology is the science to study collective behavior. According to Max Weber, human activities are goal directed, which fulfills some objectives. All human beings engage in actions for the realization of given goals. Sociology asserts the importance of the community and the comparatively limited possibilities that exist for social change.
• It has often been taken up by the social reforms.
• In the present form, Sociology embraces a range of different views concerning both what a social science should comprise, and what might be the proper subject matter of Sociology in particular.
• There are three general conceptions of the object of sociological interest:
  • Social ‘Structure’ in the sense of patterns of relationships which have an independent existence, over and above the individuals or groups that occupy positions in these structures at any particular time e.g. the positions of nuclear family may remain same from generation to generation.
  • Collective Representations: Meaning and ways of cognitively organizing the world which have a continued existence over and above the individuals who are socialized into them.
  • Meaningful Social Action: According to this view, there is no such thing as society; merely individuals or groups entering into social relationships with each other.
• By and large Sociology as a scientific discipline has certain characteristics. It is a social science, not a natural science, which studies social groups and social relations. It is a categorical science, not a normative science because it deals with ‘what is’ instead of ‘Who ought to be’.
• Sociology is a pure science, not an applied science. It simply collects the knowledge about human society. It is an abstract science not a concrete science. It simply deals with the design and norms and interested in the fact that despite the differences in their origin and culture people live in a common human society.
• Sociology is a science of generalization and not specialization. It simply makes generalizations about human groups, social actions, societies and their structure. Sociology is both a rational and empirical science. It draws facts, classify them and derive their mutual relationship which are verified with empirical evidence with minimum error and maximum accuracy.
• Sociology analyses society. It focuses on the emergence of society. It deals with major social units and their dynamics.
• There are two main schools of thought to determine the scope of society.
  • Formal School: According to this perspective, sociology studies the forms of social relations. The propounders ofthis approach are Weber, Simmel, Vierkandt Ward and Von Wiese.
  • Synthetic School: This school mainly emphasizes on the need of social science which studies general conditions of school life. It studies society as a whole. Main propounders of this school are Durkheim, Hob house and Sorokin. Sociology is a comprehensive study of society. It is positively related with other social sciences particularly with economics, history, psychology and political science.
• Sociology and history are positively related as both are social sciences and concerned with each other. But Sociology is a general science.
• History is a special science dealing with events only. It focuses on description of historical events using historical facts. Sociology uses scientific methods to derive facts.
• Sociology analyses the social problems and provides solutions whereas history simply provides description of facts.
• Sociology is an analytical discipline whereas history is a descriptive discipline.
• Sociology is concerned with the present and to some extent with future whereas history studies only the past. Sociology deals with the similarities in different events whereas history focuses on differences in similar events.
• Sociology is an abstract science. It studies the social processes and relationships, whereas history is a concrete science, which focuses on social events occurred due to social interaction.
• Sociology and political science are related to each other being social sciences but both have different domains.
• Sociology is a general science whereas political science is a special science, dealing with political aspect of human life.
• Political science focuses only on one form of human association, the ‘state’ but sociology deals with all forms of association.
• Sociology is considered a broader form of political science.
• Political Science treats human beings with a political perspective whereas Sociology explains how the people change as a political animal.
• According to Barnes, “The most significant thing about sociology and political theory is that most of the changes that have taken place in the political theory in the last 50 years have been suggested and marked out by sociology.”
• Sociology and social psychology have a positive link.
• Sociology studies the society while psychology studies the individual in the society.
• Sociology focuses on organisations of group while psychology studies the individuals.
• Sociology deals with social processes whereas psychology is the study of mental processes like Attention, Memory, Learn up etc.
• Sociology and Anthropology are closely related because anthropology is the study of man and its development of human race and sociology studies modem society in which the people live.
• Anthropology studies culture which is small and static while sociology studies the dynamic and vast culture.
• Sociology is a comprehensive study of whole society whereas economics studies only the economic part of the society. Sociology is an extensive science as it focuses on all the aspects whereas economics mainly deals with economic view point.
• Sociological approach is collectivistic to deal with people whereas economics has individualistic approach .
• Social behavior is explained in sociology through social norms but in economics activities of people are dealt from rules of economics.
• Sociology is related with social relations in general terms whereas economics being special science focuses only on economic relations.

Important terms:

• Anthropology: The multidisciplinary study and analysis of the origin and characteristics of human beings and their societies, customs and beliefs. It is the study of primitive society and studies man and the development of human race.
• Bourgeoisie: The middle class, especially regarded as politically conservative and socially self interested.
• Capitalism: An economic system based on private rather than state, ownership of businesses, factories, transport services etc, with free competition and profit making.
• Dialectic: The existence or action of opposing social forces.
• Feminism: A belief or movement advocating the cause of women’s rights and opportunities particularly equal rights with men, by challenging inequalities between the sexes in society.
• Gemeinschoft: A kind of society in which life intimates, a community in which everyone knows every one else and people share a sense of cohesiveness.
• Gesellschaft: A form of society characterized by impersonal relationship, individual accomplishment and self-interest.
• Macro Sociology: The study of large social groups, organisation and social systems.
• Micro Sociology: The study of human behavior in context of face to face interaction.
• Positivism: Method of scientific inquiry and given emphasis on empirical research rather than introspection method.
• Praxis: Practice to find solution of human problems.
• Society: Web of social relationship.
• Values: Ideal mode of behavior i.e. what ‘ought to be’ or should be aspect of life.
• Sociology: A recently developed academic discipline, based upon the tenet that all animals and human behavior is ultimately dependent upon genetic encoding moulded through evolutionary history by the process of selection.

Motivation And Emotion- Notes for Class 11 Psychology

• The concept of motivation is central in our attempt to understand behaviour and its causes. The term itself comes from the latin word movere, meaning ‘to move’. Motivation is a process that influences the direction, persistence and vigor of goal directed behaviour.
• The process of motivation functions in a cycle i.e., Need —» Drive —» Arousal —» Goal Directed Behaviour -» Achievement -» Reduction of Arousal -» Need.
• Motives can be classified as Biological motives and Psychological motives.
• Biological motives emphasise on inborn, biological causes like Neurotransmitters, hormones and thenervous system.
• Psychological motives emphasise on Socio-environmental factors, e.g,, Achievement . need, affiliation, power, curiosity, etc.
• Abraham Maslow, a humanistic theorist, proposed a broad motivational model. He believed that Psychology’s other perspectives ignore a key human motive our striving for personal growth. He proposed the concept of a need hierarchy. To Maslow, self actualisation, which represents the need to fulfil our potential, is the ultimate human motive.
• When individual’s needs and motives are not fulfilled then frustration, conflict and pressure become internal sources of stress and disturb the equilibrium of the individual.
• Need refers to a physical state involving any lack or defeat within the organism.
• Drive refers to an around condition of the organism based upon deprivation.
• Psychological motives, in contrast to biological motives, are determined primarily by learning. They appear later in development, and become important after basic needs are satisfied.
• Aggression, defined as behaviour intended to injure another person or to destroy property, may be primarily hostile-aimed at inflicting injury-or instrumental -aimed at goals other than the victim’s suffering.
• Emotions can serve as motives, goals, or accompaniments of motivated behaviour. Intense emotions involve widespread bodily changes that result from activation of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. The James-Lange theory proposes that feedback from these bodily responses determines the quality of an emotion. Canon’s theory argues that emotions and autonomic responses occur simultaneously one is not the cause of the other.
• Although feedback from autonomic responses is important, attempts to differentiate between different emotions, such as fear and anger, on the basis of physiological responses, have had little success. The individual’s appraisal of the emotion-producing situation largely determines the quality of the emotion.
• The cognitive-physiological theory proposes that emotional states are a function of the interaction of cognitive factors and physiological arousal experiments in which subjects were injected with epinephrine show the importance of cognitive factors in labeling emotional states.
• Some forms of emotional expression appear to be in borm or to develop through maturation. But learning is important in modifying emotional expression to conform to the patterns approved by the culture.
• Existentialism is a school of thought that led stress on the question of human existence. It asserts that the ultimate and unquestionable reality is not consciousness but existence. Unlike many organisms in the animal kingdom, human beings are bom in society and their existence depends on the assistance available from the primary caretakers.
• Competence means a person’s ability to perform a given task. In other way we can say that it is the state of being adequately or well qualified or having the ability to perform a specific task skillfully.
• Self-efficacy is an individual’s trust on his/her own capabilities to produce designated levels of performance. Having a strong sense of self-efficacy enhances human accomplishments and well-being in many ways. Self-efficacy enhances intrinsic interest and facilitates deep engagement in activities.
Words That Matter
1. Motivation: The process of persistent behaviour directed towards a specific goal, which results from certain driving forces, is called motivation.
2. Need: Lack or deficit of some necessity.
3. Drive : A state of tension or arousal produced by a need.
4. Instinct : Inborn patterns of behaviour that are biologically determined rather than learned.
5. Affiliation: Seeking other human beings and wanting to be close to them both physically and psychologically is called affiliation.
6. Need for power: Ability of a person to produce intended effects on the behaviour and emotions of another person.
7. Need for achievement : It energises and directs behaviour as well as influences the perception of situations.
8. Frustration: It occurs when an anticipated desirable goal is not attained and the motives is blocked. It is an aversive state and no one likes it.
9. Conflict: Choosing between contradictory needs, desires, motives, or demands.
10. Emotion: It is stirred up state. A complex pattern of arousal that involves physiological activation, conscious awareness of feeling, and a specific cognitive label that describes the process.
11. Mood : Affective state of long duration but of lesser intensity that emotion.
12. James Lange Theory : A theory of emotion that holds that body’s reaction to a stimulus produces emotional perceptional; the overt feeling of emotion is a result of the bodily changes.
13. Canon-Bard Theory: This theory claims that the entire process of emotion is mediated by thalamus which after perception of the emotion provoking stimulus, conveys this information simultaneously to the cerebral cortex and to the skeletal muscles and sympathetic nervous system.
14. Anxiety : It is a condition that an individual develops in case of failure to adopt an appropriate ego defence.
15. Emotional intelligence : The ability to monitor one’s own and other’s emotions to discriminate among them and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions.

Thinking – Notes for Class 11 Psychology

• Thinking is a cognitive process in which mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is organising and attempting to understand information and communicating information to others. It is organised and goal directed. Thinking is an internal cognitive process which can be inferred from overt behaviour. We can say that thinking is a silent speech because thinking is based on concepts and words.
• Our thought process is based on mental images, i.e., mental representations that stand for objects or events that have a picture like quality. It is basically mental representation of a sensory experience.
• Concepts are ideas that represent a class or category of objects, events, or activities.
• Concepts can represent many different levels of objects or events. Concepts can be very general form such as ‘fruit’ called superordinate concept. The concept ‘mango’ is more specific but can still be a basic level type. An Alphonso mango would be a subordinate concept.
• Concepts can be classified as Natural Concepts and Artificial Concepts also.
• Mental images and concepts are building blocks of thinking.
• Cognition includes thinking, problem solving, concept formation, and the processing of information to obtain judgments and decisions. Thinking is a problem-solving process in which we use ideas or symbols in place of overt activity. It varies from the use of motor trial and error to thquse of mental images and previously programmed rules.
• The information processing approach is a different way of understanding thinking and related processes. This approach looks at the process of thinking in terms of active processing of information by the human brain. It involves various capacities as planning, decision making and solving the problem.
• The information processing perspective suggest that cognitive development can best be understood in terms of improvements in basic aspects of information processing.
• Thinking is involved in the system of inputs-central processing-outputs where these three aspects function as a whole. Language is important in thinking.
• Reasoning differs from trial and error in three important ways. In reasoning the goal may not be clear; whereas in explicit problem solving, variations in behaviour result from changed external stimuli, in reasoning this may not be so simple. And in reasoning, symbolic stimuli are used. Reasoning begins with a question for which we do not have a ready answer.
• Problem solving is an orderly process. It begins with a definition of the problem, asking first of all if it is a real problem. Next comes working on the problem, organizing it in relation to principles. We go through the process of coming to a conclusion, determining the best possible one. Effective problem solving then involves doing something about the conclusion. Reviewing our activity is necessary to building good thinking habits, so that we know what to do or not to do when next we meet a similar problem. The review is important in enabling us to learn from experience.
• Problem solving is thinking directed towards the solution of a specific problem. Mental set, functional fixedness, lack of motivation and persistence are some of the obstacles in problem solving.
• Reasoning refers to realistic thinking process that draws a conclusion from a set of facts. Deductive and inductive reasoning facilitate problem solving. When we start with assumption then it is called deductive reasoning but when our reasoning is based on facts and observation than it is called inductive reasoning. Analogy is a form of reasoning. These two forms of reasoning lead us to make judgement.
• Judgement is a process of forming opinions, reaching conclusions and making evaluations based on available material.
• Judgement and decision making are interrelated process.
• The production of something novel and original with social appropriateness is called creative thinking. The-process of solving problems by combining ideas or behaviour in new ways is creativity. Type of thinking in which a problem is seen as having only one answer is known as convergent thinking. Type of thinking in which a person starts from one point and come up with many different ideas or possibilities based on that point is called divergent thinking.
• Process of creative thinking involves preparation, incubation, illumination and verification stages. Creative thinking is a product of heredity and environment. Habitual learning, perceptual, motivational and emotional blocks and cultural barriers are main obstacles to develop creative thinking.
• Brain Storming Practicing fluency and flexibility of thoughts, enjoying activities in which imagination and original thinking is involved, avoiding temptation for immediate reward, being self confident and positive attitude are some of the strategies through which one can realise the creative potential.
• Language is a system of combining symbols (such as words) so that an unlimited number of meaningful statements can be made for the purpose of communicating with others. Language is distinctly human. Language and thought are intricately related. Major development in language occurs during the first two or three years of age.
• Most of Psychologists believe that language development in children is a product of heredity and environment. Children universally seem to have a ‘critical period’ for learning language.
• Cognitive development is about how a child’s way of knowing the world or thinking, changes over time. Piaget and Vygotsky were pioneers in this field and developed theories about the way cognitive development occurs. According to Piaget, children’s thinking is qualitatively different from that of adults, passing through distinct stages of development. He further stated that all children progress through these changes in exactly the same sequence, although the specific age at which a child makes a transition from one stage to another can vary.
•  Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist lead emphasis on the role of the social environment in the development of cognitive processes in children.
  Words That Matter
  1. Thinking : It is the base of all cognitive activities or processes and is unique to human beings. It is a higher mental process through which we manipulate and analyse the acquired or existing information.
  2. Image : An image is a mental representation of a sensory experience. It can be used to think about things, places, and events.
  3. Concept: Concepts are mental categories for objects and events, which are similar to each other in one or more than one way.
  4. Prototype : A prototype is a best represented active member of category.
  5. Mentally set: It is a tendency of a person to solve problems by following already tried mental operations or steps.
  6. Reasoning: It is the process of gathering and analyzing information to arrive at conclusions.
  7. Deductive Reasoning : The kind of reasoning that begins with an assumptions is called deductive reasoning.
  8. Inductive Reasoning : Reasoning, that is based on specific facts and observation, is called inductive reasoning.
  9. Judgement: In judgement we draw conclusion, form opinions, evaluate events, objects, based on knowledge and available evidences.
  10. Creative Thinking: It involves the production of something new and original it may be
  an idea, object or solution to a problem. .
  11. Vertical Thinking : It involves mental operations that move in a straight line back and forth between lower and higher level concepts.
  12. Lateral Thinking : It involves looking for alternative ways of defining and interpreting only one correct answer.
  13. Functional Fixedness : It problem solving it occurs when people fail to solve a problem because they are fixed on a thing’s usual function.

Human Memory – Notes for Class 11 Psychology

• Memory is a term that can be used in many different ways, but most often in one of the three ways:
• A mental function by which we are able to retain and retrieve information about events that have happened in the past. When we organise something so that we can remember it or recall it later on, we are said to be using memory.
• The storage system whereby these memories are retained in the brain. Terms such as STM and LTM are used to indicate the time span of such system.
• The information that we actually remember i.e., we have a memory of something.
• According to the second perspective Memory is seen as consisting of three interrelated . processes of encoding, storage and retrieval.
• Encoding is a process by which information is processed and registered in memory system.
• Storage refers to the process through which information is retained.
• Retrieval refers to bringing the stored information to ones awareness so that it can be used for performance.
• Atkinson & Shiffrin’s Stage Model of Memory explains the process of Memorisation in the lines of computer and suggests that incoming information is processed through three stages, i.e., sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.
• Craiks and Lockhart’s levels of processing view of memory suggests that information can be encoded at three levels i.e,, the structural, the phonatic and the semantic. The information which is encoded and processed semantically than it leads to better storage.
Any information which has been encoded verbally with the help of concepts and Sehemas as well as in the form of images, i.e., dual coding is retained better and can be recalled for performance easily.
• According to Bartlett—a British Psychologist, memory is not only a reproductive but also a constructive process. The retained information during storage undergoes change and modification within ones past knowledge and Schema.
• Memory can be enhanced. There are various strategies for improving memory called ‘ Mnemonics’. The Mnemonics can be classified as Mnemonics using images Mnemonics using organisation.
• Image based Mnemonics use the Keyword Method and the Method of Loci. Whereas Mnemonics using organisation makes retrieval effective by using chunking and first letter technique.
• These Mnemonics can enhance simple memory but for complex mental processes a comprehensive approach to memory enhancement is required. For this purpose deep level processing of information, minimising interference, developing enough retrieval cues can help better.
Thomas and Robinson developed PQRST method for improvement of memory which is very practical and gives better results.
• We can think of human memory as being composed of three different, but related, stages of memory.
• The sensory register holds a replica of the visual, auditory, or other sensory input for a very brief interval while relevant information is selected for further processing.
• Short term memory holds information, generally as acoustic codes, for about a half minute unless it’s renewed through rehearsal.
• The capacity of short-term memory (STM) is quite limited unless information is organized into larger chunks.
• Long-term memory (LTM) stores information primarily in terms of its meaning, or semantic codes. Its capacity is very large and memories store there seem to be permanent.
• The store of information in Long Term Memory is so vast that it must be organized in some way to facilitate retrieval of information. Current theories suggest that that the organization is primarily in terms of categories of meaning or in associative networks.
• Forgetting occurs because information is distorted or can no longer be retrieved rather than because it’s lost from the long-term memory store.
• The division of memory into a distinct STM and LTM has been questioned by some theorists. They suggest, instead, that the duration that information can be held in memory depends on the depth at which it is processed, not the stage of memory in which it is held.
• Information that is processed deeply during the encoding process (more richly elaborated is stored more permanently than information that is processed in a shallow way. If this distinction is kept in mind, however, it still may be useful to think of memory in terms of the STM/LTM stage model.
• There are four major causes of forgetting, each with different relevance to the three stages of memory.
• Forgetting in the sensory register seems to occur primarily because of simple decay of the memory over time.
• Forgetting in short-term memory can be attributed to decay over time but also to interference from other similar information stored in memory.
• Interference from other memories explains some forgetting in long-term memory also, but much forgetting also seems to be caused by the reconstruction of memories to the point that they are inaccurate or irretrievable.
• Memories may also be lost from LTM because they are unpleasant or threatening to us in some way (motivated forgetting), but both positive and negative emotions appear to facilitate memory.
• Retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia are the two major types of memory disorders that are caused by problems in the functioning of the memory areas of the human brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia found in adults and elderly.
Words That Matter
1. Chunking: A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.
2. Cognitive economy : A term to denote maximum and efficient use of the capacity of long-term memory through organisation of concepts in a hierarchical network.
3. Concept: A general category of ideas, objects, people, or experiences whose members share certain properties.
4. Control processes: Mechanisms which govern transfer of information from one system of storage to another.
5. Dual-coding theory: Paivio’s theory that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and
visual codes, since either can lead to recall. .
6. Echoic memory : A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.
7. Elaborative rehearsals : The linking of new information in short-term memory to familiar material stored in long-term memory.
8. Encoding : The process of recording information into the memory system of the first time.
9. Fugue state : Amnesia accompanied by actual physical flight – the person may wander away for several hours or move to another area and establish a new life with a new identity
10. Information-processing approach : An approach concerned with how individuals process information about their world, how information enters our minds, how it is stored and transformed, and how it is retrieved to perform problem solving and reasoning.
11. Maintenance rehearsal: Active repetition of information to enhance subsequent access to it.
12. Mnemonics : Strategies or techniques that use familiar associations in storing new information to be more easily retrieved.
13. Schema : A cognitive structure; a network of associations that organizes and guides an individual’s perceptions.
14. Semantic memory : LTM component that stores memory for basic meanings of words and concepts.
15. Serial learning : The learning of a sequence of responses in the precise order of their
presentation.
16. Working memory: Memory processes that preserve recently perceived events or experiences, also called short-term memory.

I. Learning refers to any relatively permanent change in behaviour or in the potential for behaviour brought about through experience.
• Learning is normally distinguished from other changes in behaviour or in the predisposition to behave in a certain way. Learning is normally distinguished from other changes in behaviour that might be due to evolution or maturation, in that it normally occurs as a result of practice or other related experience during the life time of the organism. Behavioural changes that occur due to learning are relatively permanent. The changes in behaviour due to continuous exposure to stimuli i.e., habituation is not due to learning. Learning is sequential i.e., it involves a sequence of psychological events. Learning is different from performance. Learning is an inferred process. Performance is person’s observed behaviour which gives guarantee of learning although learning never gives guarantee of performance.
II. Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which a previously learnt stimulus;. CS) neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that elicits an unlearned or unconditioned response (UCR). As a result, the CS comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR) that is identical or very similar to the UCR.

(A) Classical conditioning occurs because of the association in time of a neutral stimulus that already elicits the response. The CS becomes a signal that predicts the occurrence of the UCS.
III. Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which the consequences of behaviour lead to changes in the probability of its occurrence.
(A) In positive reinforcement, a positive consequence of behaviour leads to an increase in the probability of the occurrence of the response.
1. Primary reinforcers are innately reinforcing.
2. Secondary reinforcers are learned through classical conditioning.
3. Four different schedules of reinforcement that result in different patterns of behaviour are fixed ration, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval.
4. Shaping is the process of positively reinforcing responses that are progressively more similar to the response that is wanted.
(B) Negative reinforcement occurs when the reinforcing consequence is the removal or avoidance of a negative event.
(C) Punishment is the process through which an aversive consequence of behaviour reduces the frequency of the behaviour.
IV. New stimuli come to influence behaviour through the process of learning.
(A) We say that a stimulus discrimination has been learned when a response is more likely to occur in the presence of a specific stimulus that in its absence.
(B) Stimulus generalization has occurred when an individual responds in the same way to a stimulus that is similar to the original stimulus.
V. The process of unlearning a learned response because of the removal of the aspect of the environment that originally caused the learning is termed as extinction. Extinction is sometimes slowed because of spontaneous recovery and external disinheriting.
• Imitation is another form of learning which is called observational learning. The reinforcement provided by parents when their children imitate grown up actions ensures that children acquire many aspects of behaviour in this way. It is also known as modelling. In modelling somebody observes another (the model) and then attempts to imitate their behaviour. The concept is based on Bandura’s Social learning theory.
• Human beings mostly learn through knowledge about objects and events in terms of words. This is called Verbal learning.
• Verbal learning can be studied through method of paired-associates learning, serial learning and free recall. Meaningfulness of the material time devoted on learning, category clustering, i.e., subjective organisation are the main determinants of verbal learning.
• Learning occurs in the form of concept, i.e., in terms of category. Concept involves a set of features connected with a rule or instruction: concept can be natural or artificial. Natural concepts are ill defined and difficult to learn whereas Artificial concepts are well defined and easy to learn.
• Skill refers to the ability of an individual to perform an act with ease and precision. Skills are acquired through stages that are cognitive, associative and autonomous phase.
• Transfer of learning refers to the way in which we might transfer skills learnt in one situation to a second, related situation. Thus, learning to play Tennis may introduce a range of coordination and racket skills that would then transfer to similar games such as Squash.
• Factors facilitating learning include reinforcement, motivation and preparedness of the learner and the learner’s performance is facilitated by his/her cognitive style. Cognitive style refers to a learner’s consistant way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning.
• Learning disability refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested in terms of difficulty in the acquisition of learning, reading, writing, speaking, reasoning and mathematical activities. These disabilities are mostly inherited or neurologically determined.
• Learning curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between the duration of learning experience or practice trials and observed changes in performance on the learning task. In learning curve, the units of practice/trials are depicted on the horizontal axis and the degree of learning measured in terms of number of errors, correct responses, time taken etc. are shown on the vertical axis.
VI. Psychologists disagree about whether learning results from neural connections between specific stimuli and specific responses or whether learning is a change in cognition.
(A) Research that supports the cognitive view includes Tolman’s studies of place learning and latent learning, Kohler’s studies of insight learning, and Bandura’s work on modeling.
(B) The ability of humans to learn from experience is not limitless; it is influenced in a number of ways by biological factors.
Words That Matter
1. Learning : It is any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience or practice.
2. Associative learning: Learning that certain events occur together. Te events may be two stimuli (As in classical conditioning) or a response and it consequences (As in operant conditioning)
3. Cognitive learning: In this type of learning an organism comes to associate stimuli.
4. Operant: An operant is any response voluntarily emitted by an organism.
5. Operant learning : This is a type of learning in which response is strengthened if followed by reinforcement.
6. Reinforcer: Any stimulus or event, which increases the probability of the occurrence of a desired response is known as reinforcer.
7. Reinforcement : Reinforcer are stimuli that increase the rate or probability of the responses that precede
8. Negative reinforcer : Any unpleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in the probability that a preceding response will occur again in the future.
9. Generalisation: The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses.
10. Observational learning : In this type of learning observers acquire knowledge by observing the model’s behaviour.
11. Insight learning : The process by which the solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear is termed as insight learning.
12. Latent learning: In this type of learning, a new behaviour is learned but not demonstrated until reinforcement is provided for displaying it.
13. Cognitive learning: In this kind of learning, there is a change in what the learner knows rather than what she/he does.
14. Verbal learning: In verbal learning words get associated with one another on the basis of structural, phonetic and semantic similarity and contrast.
15. Concept: A concept is a pategory that is used to refer to a number of objects and events.
16. Artificial concepts: These are those concepts that are well-defined and rules connecting the features are precise and rigid.
17. Skill: It refers to the ability to carry out complex tasks smoothly and efficiently. They are learned by practice and exercise.
18. Motivation: It is a mental as well as a physiological state, which arouses an organism to act for fulfilling the current need.
19. Learning style: It is a learner’s consistent way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning.
20. Perceptual modality: These are biologically based reactions to the physical environment. It refers to the preferences of persons through which they take in information such as auditory, visual, smell, kinesthetic and tactile.