Introduction to Sociology Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key sociological concepts, theoretical framework terms, and empirical examples from the lecture.

Social Action

The behavior of taking other people into account when in a group, acting as if they are present, and bending one's behavior toward them.

Ecological Factor

The logical error or factor involved in applying aggregate group averages directly to a specific individual.

Sociological Imagination

A theoretical framework created by mid-century sociologist C. Wright Mills to explain social patterns by examining both individual context and society-wide structures.

Troubles

In C. Wright Mills' framework, individual-level personal phenomena or problems.

Issues

In C. Wright Mills' framework, society-wide phenomena, patterns, or structural problems.

Agency

The capacity of individuals to act, use their brains, and make choices within social contexts.

Trajectory

The long-term path built over time as individual life transitions and social averages accumulate.

Oneliness

A historical term referring strictly to the physical state of being alone, prior to the medicalized public health concept of loneliness.

Medicalization

The social process by which a condition or experience, such as loneliness, comes to be defined and managed as a medical issue treated by doctors and experts.

Dunbar's Number

Robin Dunbar's concept establishing a cognitive limit of approximately $150$ meaningful social relationships for humans, based on primate brain size and average social group sizes.

Sympathy Group

A subgroup within Dunbar's social tiers consisting of approximately $15$ people with whom an individual shares close emotional bonds, such as allowing them to see one cry.

Close Network

A subgroup within Dunbar's social tiers consisting of approximately $50$ people whom an individual might invite to a dinner party or see regularly.

R.O.M.E.O.

An acronym for Retired Old Men Eating Out, a social group organized for older men to build connections, share meals, and alleviate social isolation.

Paradigm

Categories or theoretical lenses representing similar types of social thought used to explain fundamental social relationships.