Paper Sample on Cultural Theory: Explaining Jewish vs Italian Immigrants in America 1910-1914

Explain the Cultural Theory to understand why the Jewish immigrants to America between 1910 and 1914 were upwardly mobile more quickly than the Italian immigrants.

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Sociologists explain the cultural approach as a diverse term being used to conceptualize and understand cultural dynamics. The theory brings out the relationship between culture and nature, culture, and society, which involves the social materials, the high, and the low cultural split. Another issue that cultural theory brings out is the interplay between the cultural tradition and differences in culture and diversity. Cultural theory, in conjunction with other sociological concepts, has explained broadly on culture, which are the ideological concepts as well as consciousness. Therefore, cultural theory has enabled us to understand the trends of the different communities in society. It makes us understand the behaviors of people clearly after having an understanding of their cultural background.

An instance is that the Jewish valued educational norms and learning (Jewish behavior), making them successful. In contrast, the Italians valued mostly family loyalty but not giving a lot of credit to education hence most dropping out of school, leading to their unsuccessfulness. This difference is why the Jewish were quickly mobile compared to the Italians in 1910-1914. The Jewish were more learned compared to the Italians; hence acquiring jobs were easy. It was a time of industrialization in America, so skills and knowledge were crucial. Since the Jewish were more educated than the Italians, they were able to be absorbed in the jobs.

What is a spurious effect in a “cause-and-effect” relationship between two variables? Give an example.

It’s when two different factors seem to appear casually related though they aren’t. The appearance of the causal relationship is regular because of the similar movement of the chart, which is coincidental or brought about by a 3rd confounding factor (Mahdavi & Namazi, 2017). The spurious effect can be caused frequently by lesser sample size or an arbitrary endpoint. An instance of a spurious effect is that with the Jewish and Italian migration to North America. The Jewish were absorbed into the available jobs in the different sectors because of the educational background, hence enough labor power. Being that it was the industrial revolution era, they assisted in various sectors that they were deployed. Their knowledge was very crucial in building America.

What makes the Rational Choice theory sociological?

The rational choice approach can be elaborated as the choices that individuals completely make after considering the risks of the choice, the cost as well as the benefits that will come out with the decision they have made (Hechter, 2019). Therefore the theory is considered sociological since the achievements we want in life are determined by the individuals surrounding us. They are the ones who can build you or destroy you regardless of what kind of relationship you have. Some friendship relationships are fruitful since they build us while others destroy us. Therefore, the kind of choices we make determines a lot. When the relationship is fruitful, no one will always want to leave.

How did Stark and Hirschi resolve the conflicting results of studies testing the relationship between church involvement and delinquency? Three studies showed that church involvement led to lower levels of delinquency, and three studies showed no effect of church involvement on delinquency.

The two begin by controlling the gender issue where they realized that it was not a cause as well as effect relationship, but all this was due to the spurious variable result. The study showed that girls were more likely to go to church than boys, and the percentage of them being delinquent was lesser. Therefore, they realized that gender was the causal factor of the different delinquencies, with three studies showing that church involvement led to lower delinquency levels and the other three studies showing no effect of church involvement on delinquency. Stark illustrated all this by saying that a recent survey indicated that average individuals were less likely to get involved in church than other people in the country. They finally concluded that some communities with moral values encouraged their children to accept and follow religious beliefs. Whereas children in “unchurched belt” never supported the religious values.

References

Hechter, M. (2019). The Future Of Rational Choice Theory And Its Relationships To Quantitative Macro-Sociological Research. In Rational Choice Theory And Large-Scale Data Analysis (Pp. 281-290). Routledge.

Mahdavi, G., & Namazi, N. R. (2017). Modeling The Relationship Among Adaptive Market Factors: Using Cause And Effect Approach Of System Dynamics. International Journal Of Economic Perspectives, 11(3).