ANALYSIS OF "THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE" (part 24)

Patterns of Difference

by

Charles Lamson

One way to describe how the social world is patterned is to say, "The world is divided into groups of people and often the people in these groups share characteristics that make them different from people in other groups." This is no great insight. We learn early in life that there are different kinds of people in the world. What we do not learn usually is how to be sociologically mindful of the differences between groups.

Again, it might not be easy to see these patterns of difference. Do people in the group called "women" live longer than people in the group called "men"? Perhaps you have seen or known many old men, but few, if any, old women. You might thus believe that men live longer than women. Actually, on the average, they do not. Women, on the average, outlive men (in the United States) by about 7 years. You would see this pattern, however, only by paying attention in a systematic way.

We should bear in mind what is meant by "on the average." It does not mean that all women outlive all men, nor that there are not some old men who outlive most women. To say that women outlive men by about 7 years on the average, just means that more women than men live to an old age. We might not see this if we looked at just a few cases, but by looking at all cases (or at representative samples), the pattern becomes apparent.

Being sociologically mindful, we will ask. "How do groups in our society differ in important ways?" Some groups have more money, more education, better health, more prestige, and longer lives than others - on the average. By looking at these average differences, we can see patterns that reveal how the social world works. Perhaps, it is better to say that looking at such patterns can give a snapshot of the social world. We would also want to know how these group differences come about.

Also, we should be mindful that group differences are not mere abstractions. They are indexes to how the lives of people in their group differ from the lives of people in another. For example, if white families have much higher income on the average, than Hispanic and black families, this tells us, or should lead us to suspect, that people growing up in these groups, might have different kinds of experiences.

Group averages do not tell us about individuals. Even if white families have more money on the average than black and Hispanic families, it is still true that many whites are poor, while some blacks and Hispanics are rich. In each group there is a range of incomes and wealth, so those at the top of one group can be ahead of those at the bottom or middle of the other group. Still, the average difference remains, and this pattern tells us about the status and power of various groups, even if it does not tell us about the experiences of every person in each group.

*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS.103-104*

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