# Study Guide: Chapter 1 — Understanding Social Problems

> Organized by textbook section. Review the objectives, study topics, key takeaways, and questions for each section.

## 1.1: What Is a Social Problem?

### Study Topics
- The Natural History of a Social Problem
- Stage 1: Emergence and Claims Making
- Stage 2: Legitimacy
- Stage 3: Renewed Claims Making
- Stage 4: Development of Alternative Strategies

### Key Terms
- **claims-making process** — The use of arguments to try to influence public perceptions of a social problem, the reasons for it, and possible solutions to it.
- **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law.
- **social constructionist view** — The belief that negative social conditions or behaviors do not become social problems unless citizens, policymakers, and other parties call attention to the condition or behavior and define it as a social problem.
- **social problem** — Any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.

### Learning Objectives
1. Define “social problem.”
2. Explain the objective and subjective components of the definition of a social problem.
3. Understand the social constructionist view of social problems.
4. List the stages of the natural history of social problems.

### Key Takeaways
- The definition of a social problem has both an objective component and a subjective component. The objective component involves empirical evidence of the negative consequences of a social condition or behavior, while the subjective component involves the perception that the condition or behavior is indeed a problem that needs to be addressed.
- The social constructionist view emphasizes that a condition or behavior does not become a social problem unless there is a perception that it should be considered a social problem.
- The natural history of a social problem consists of four stages: emergence and claims making, legitimacy, renewed claims making, and alternative strategies.

### Review Questions
1. What do you think is the most important social problem facing our nation right now? Explain your answer.
2. Do you agree with the social constructionist view that a negative social condition or behavior is not a social problem unless there is a perception that it should be considered a social problem? Why or why not?

## 1.2: Sociological Perspectives on Social Problems

### Study Topics
- The Sociological Imagination
- Theoretical Perspectives
- Table 1.1 Theory Snapshot
- Conflict Theory
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Applying the Three Perspectives

### Key Terms
- **blaming the system** — The belief that personal difficulties stem from problems in society.
- **Capitalism** — An economic system in which the means of production are privately owned.
- **class consciousness** — Awareness of one’s placement in the social structure and the interests arising from this placement.
- **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure.
- **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law.
- **drug** — Any substance other than food that, when taken into the body, affects the structure and/or functioning of the body.
- **economy** — The social institution that organizes the production, distribution, and consumption of a society’s goods and services.
- **family** — A group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another.
- **Feminist theory** — The view that society is filled with gender inequality characterized by women being the subordinate sex in the social, political, and economic dimensions of society.
- **Functionalism** — The view that social institutions are important for their contributions to social stability.
- **race** — A category of people who share certain inherited physical characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and stature.
- **social constructionist view** — The belief that negative social conditions or behaviors do not become social problems unless citizens, policymakers, and other parties call attention to the condition or behavior and define it as a social problem.
- **social problem** — Any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.
- **Socialization** — The process whereby individuals learn the culture of their society.
- **sociological imagination** — From C. Wright Mills, the realization that personal troubles are rooted in public issues.
- **structural explanation** — The belief that poor people are poor because of various kinds of discrimination and lack of jobs and opportunity.
- **Symbolic interactionism** — A perspective in sociology that focuses on the meanings people gain from social interaction.

### Learning Objectives
1. Define the sociological imagination.
2. Explain what is meant by the blaming-the-victim belief.
3. Summarize the most important beliefs and assumptions of functionalism and conflict theory.
4. Summarize the most important beliefs and assumptions of symbolic interactionism and exchange theory.

### Key Takeaways
- According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination involves the ability to recognize that private troubles are rooted in public issues and structural problems.
- Functionalism emphasizes the importance of social institutions for social stability and implies that far-reaching social change will be socially harmful.
- Conflict theory emphasizes social inequality and suggests that far-reaching social change is needed to achieve a just society.
- Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the social meanings and understandings that individuals derive from their social interaction.

### Review Questions
1. Select an example of a “private trouble” and explain how and why it may reflect a structural problem in society.
2. At this point in your study of social problems, which one of the three sociological theoretical perspectives sounds most appealing to you? Why?

## 1.3: Continuity and Change in Social Problems

### Key Terms
- **social problem** — Any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.

### Learning Objectives
1. Explain what is meant by this book’s subtitle, “Continuity and Change.”
2. List the three sources of changes to social problems.
3. Describe how the United States compares to other democracies regarding the seriousness of social problems.

### Key Takeaways
- Social problems are persistent, but they have also changed over the years, and many social problems are less serious now than in the past.
- Three sources of change to social problems include social science research, the efforts of citizens acting alone or especially in social change groups, and the experiences of other nations.

### Review Questions
1. Have you participated in any volunteer or other activity involving a social problem? If so, why did you do so? If not, why have you not participated in such an effort?
2. Do you share Eleanor Roosevelt’s optimism that social change is possible? Why or why not?

## 1.4: Doing Research on Social Problems

### Study Topics
- Table 1.2 Major Sociological Research Methods
- Method Advantages Disadvantages
- Observational Studies
- Existing Data
- The Scientific Method and Objectivity

### Key Terms
- **control group** — In an experiment, the group that does not experience the experimental condition.
- **crime** — Behavior considered so harmful or offensive that it is banned by the criminal law.
- **nonparticipant observation** — Field research in which the researcher merely observes a group or setting
- **random sample** — A subset drawn from the larger population in which every unit in the population has the same chance of being included in the subset.
- **response rate** — The percentage of a sample that agrees to be included in a study, usually a survey.
- **secondary data analysis** — The analysis of data from existing records.

### Learning Objectives
1. List the major advantages and disadvantages of surveys, observational studies, and experiments.
2. Explain why scholars who study social problems often rely on existing data.

### Key Takeaways
- The major types of research on social problems include surveys, experiments, observational studies, and the use of existing data.
- Surveys are the most common method, and the results of surveys of random samples may be generalized to the populations from which the samples come.
- Observation studies and existing data are also common methods in social problems research. Observation studies enable the gathering of rich, detailed information, but their results cannot necessarily be generalized beyond the people studied.
- Research on social problems should follow the scientific method to yield the most accurate and objective conclusions possible.

### Review Questions
1. Have you ever been a respondent or subject in any type of sociological or psychological research project? If so, how did it feel to be studied?
2. Which type of social problems research method sounds most interesting to you? Why?

## 1.5: End-of-Chapter Material

### Key Terms
- **conflict theory** — The view that society is composed of groups with different interests arising from their placement in the social structure.
- **Functionalism** — The view that social institutions are important for their contributions to social stability.
- **social constructionist view** — The belief that negative social conditions or behaviors do not become social problems unless citizens, policymakers, and other parties call attention to the condition or behavior and define it as a social problem.
- **social problem** — Any condition or behavior that has negative consequences for large numbers of people and that is generally recognized as a condition or behavior that needs to be addressed.
- **sociological imagination** — From C. Wright Mills, the realization that personal troubles are rooted in public issues.
- **Symbolic interactionism** — A perspective in sociology that focuses on the meanings people gain from social interaction.

### Chapter Summary
1. Some sociologists favor the social constructionist view that negative social conditions or behaviors are not social problems unless they are generally perceived as a social problem, but other sociologists say that these conditions and behaviors are still social problems even if they are not perceived as such.
2. According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination involves the ability to realize that personal troubles are rooted in problems in the larger social structure. The sociological imagination thus supports a blaming-the-system view over a blaming-the-victim view.
3. Social problems have existed for decades or even centuries, but many of these have also lessened in their seriousness over time, and change in the future is indeed possible.
4. Several theoretical perspectives in sociology exist. Functionalism emphasizes the functions that social institutions serve to ensure the ongoing stability of society, while conflict theory focuses on the conflict among different racial, ethnic, social class, and other groups and emphasizes how social institutions help ensure inequality. Symbolic interactionism focuses on how individuals interpret the meanings of the situations in which they find themselves.