Social Parameters

Examples of Social Parameters in the following topics:

• The Functionalist Perspective on Deviance

  • While this us-versus-them mentality solidified social identities and solidarities within the two categories, there was nevertheless an overarching social schism.
  • A structural functionalist approach emphasizes social solidarity, divided into organic and mechanical typologies, and stability in social structures.
  • Structural functionalists ask "How does any given social phenomenon contribute to social stability?"
  • Second, these social parameters create boundaries between populations and enable an "us-versus-them" mentality within different groups.
  • While this us-versus-them mentality solidified social identities and solidarities within the two categories, there was an overarching social schism.

• The Functions of Deviance

  • While this us-versus-them mentality solidified social identities and solidarities within the two categories, there was nevertheless an overarching social schism.
  • A structural functionalist approach emphasizes social solidarity and stability in social structures.
  • Structural functionalists ask: How does any given social phenomenon contribute to social stability?
  • Second, these social parameters create boundaries between populations and enable an us-versus-them mentality within various groups.
  • While this us-versus-them mentality solidified social identities and solidarities within the two categories, there was nevertheless an overarching social schism.

• The Social Construction of Gender

  • Social constructivists propose that there is no inherent truth to gender; it is constructed by social expectations and gender performance.
  • The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism.
  • Money is a socially constructed reality.
  • Social constructionists might argue that because categories are only formed within a social context, even the affect of gender is in some ways a social relation.
  • We are aware that others evaluate and characterize our behavior on the parameter of gender.

• Gender Socialization

  • Sociologists and other social scientists generally attribute many of the behavioral differences between genders to socialization.
  • Preparations for gender socialization begin even before the birth of the child.
  • Gender stereotypes can be a result of gender socialization.
  • Identities are therefore normatively constructed along this single parameter.
  • Explain the influence of socialization on gender roles and their impact

• Alienation

  • Tönnies's work shifted from conceiving of alienation in economic terms to thinking of alienation in social terms.
  • Anomie describes a lack of social norms, or the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and his community ties, resulting in the fragmentation of social identity.
  • According to Durkheim, when one is caught in a normless state in society, one has no parameters to hold on to and, accordingly, cannot situate oneself within that society, and so becomes socially adrift and isolated.
  • Current debates about social alienation and anomie pop up in many social critiques of an increasingly technological world.
  • Compare the theories of economic and social alienation posited by Marx, Simmel, Tönnies, and Durkheim

• Interpreting confidence intervals

  • Incorrect language might try to describe the confidence interval as capturing the population parameter with a certain probability.
  • This is one of the most common errors: while it might be useful to think of it as a probability, the confidence level only quantifies how plausible it is that the parameter is in the interval.
  • Another especially important consideration of confidence intervals is that they only try to capture the population parameter.
  • Confidence intervals only attempt to capture population parameters.

• Capturing the population parameter

  • A plausible range of values for the population parameter is called a confidence interval.
  • If we report a point estimate, we probably will not hit the exact population parameter.
  • On the other hand, if we report a range of plausible values – a confidence interval – we have a good shot at capturing the parameter.
  • If we want to be very certain we capture the population parameter, should we use a wider interval or a smaller interval?
  • Likewise, we use a wider confidence interval if we want to be more certain that we capture the parameter.

• Three-Dimensional Coordinate Systems

  • A three dimensional space has three geometric parameters: $x$, $y$, and $z$.
  • Each parameter is perpendicular to the other two, and cannot lie in the same plane. shows a Cartesian coordinate system that uses the parameters $x$, $y$, and $z$.
  • Each parameter is labeled relative to its axis with a quantitative representation of its distance from its plane of reference, which is determined by the other two parameter axes.
  • The cylindrical system uses two linear parameters and one radial parameter:
  • Identify the number of parameters necessary to express a point in the three-dimensional coordinate system

• Behavioral Economics: Irrational Actions

  • Behavioral economics is the study of the effects of social, cognitive, and emotional facts on the financial decisions of individuals and institutions.
  • Behavioral economics is the study of the effects of social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions.
  • Financial models: some financial models used in money management incorporate behavioral financial parameters.
  • Studies interactive learning, social preferences, altruism, framing, and fairness.

• Introduction to confidence intervals

  • A point estimate provides a single plausible value for a parameter.
  • Instead of supplying just a point estimate of a parameter, a next logical step would be to provide a plausible range of values for the parameter.
  • In this section and in Section 4.3, we will emphasize the special case where the point estimate is a sample mean and the parameter is the population mean.
  • In Section 4.5, we generalize these methods for a variety of point estimates and population parameters that we will encounter in Chapter 5 and beyond.
  • This video introduces confidence intervals for point estimates, which are intervals that describe a plausible range for a population parameter.