Sociology: Social Stratification, Inequality, Race, Gender, and Family

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key sociological concepts from the lecture transcript, including stratification, poverty theories, racial dynamics, gender inequalities, and family systems.

Social Stratification

The categorization of people into societal "boxes" such as gender, sexuality, and social class, resulting in different life experiences and access to resources (e.g., millionaires having better resources and life).

Social Class

A hierarchical division of people into upper, middle, and lower classes, where higher placement corresponds to greater ownership.

Estate System

A feudal form of social stratification dividing society into rigid legal and political orders based largely on birth, military status, and land ownership.

Caste System

A closed system of social stratification where an individual's social status is ascribed at birth, fixed for life, and virtually impossible to change through personal achievement.

Class System

A stratification system dominating the United States that categorizes people based on their relationship to ownership and wealth, allowing individuals to achieve upward social mobility.

Income

The amount of money earned per pay period, which cannot be inherited.

Wealth

The total value of all assets minus debts, which can be passed down intergenerationally through inheritance.

Habitus

Deeply ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions that shape how an individual perceives and navigates their social environment, linking their tastes and preferences directly to their social class.

Structural Functionalism

A theoretical perspective viewing society as a complex, interconnected system whose parts—including institutions, norms, and roles—work collectively to promote social stability and equilibrium.

Structural Functionalist View of Poverty

The perspective that society contains undesirable jobs that must be completed, which are filled by individuals in severe need of money.

Karl Marx's Explanation of Class and Life Chances

The theory that social class and life chances are determined by an individual's relationship to ownership and the means of production (tools, factories, land, and resources), rather than income or social prestige.

Social Mobility

The movement of an individual up or down the social hierarchy (e.g., being born into the working class and ascending to the upper class).

Social Reproduction

The processes by which societies, social structures, and cultural systems persist across generations, leading parents to reproduce their children into their own social class.

Structural Mobility

The collective upward or downward movement of entire groups of people resulting from major changes in the economy or technology.

Equality of Opportunity

The principle that everyone should have an equal chance to compete for education, employment, and social rewards without facing discrimination or artificial barriers based on race, sex, or class background.

Equality of Condition

The concept that all individuals in a society should begin from the same baseline with roughly equal resources, starting conditions, and life chances when pursuing goals.

Equality of Outcome

A sociopolitical model in which all members of a society end up with approximately the same material wealth, income, and overall standard of living.

Status Hierarchy System

A social structure in which individuals or groups are ranked relative to one another based on esteem, honor, prestige, and social recognition rather than financial earnings.

Occupational Prestige

Social standing granted to job titles based on the higher amount of work and preparation required to achieve them.

Poverty

A condition in which an individual or community lacks the financial resources, income, and basic essentials required to sustain a basic standard of living.

Absolute Poverty

A severe state of deprivation wherein people lack the necessary resources to secure physical necessities of life, including food and shelter.

Relative Poverty

A measurement of deprivation that accounts for local living costs, meaning a person might be considered poor in one geographic area but affluent in another.

Official U.S. Poverty Threshold

A measure calculated by multiplying the basic cost of food by three and adjusting for family size to establish minimum living expense standards.

Approximate U.S. Poverty Rate

The estimated proportion of individuals living in poverty, recorded at around $10.2\%$.

Parent Stress Hypothesis

The theory that household financial strain causes parental anger, hostility, and resentment, fostering a high-stress environment that impairs children's academic and personal outcomes.

No Effect Theory

The perspective that parental child-rearing practices and childhood poverty have virtually no long-term influence on adult intelligence, personality, school success, or psychological traits.

Culture of Poverty Thesis

The proposition that impoverished individuals adopt specific habits and lifestyles that aid short-term survival but systematically trap them in long-term poverty.

Underclass Argument

The view that behavioral adaptations to poverty are transmitted intergenerationally from parents to children, hindering their capacity for upward social mobility.

Perverse Incentive

An unintended policy consequence that discourages work, such as providing a welfare benefit of $\$1000$ while working only yields $\$600$.

Bell Curve Thesis

The theory arguing that human intelligence (measured via IQ) dictates social outcomes and individual success more than socioeconomic background, resulting in cognitive stratification.

William Julius Wilson's Structural Explanation of Poverty

The perspective attributing poverty to broad structural forces, specifically major economic shifts and a scarcity of local job opportunities.

Individual Explanation of Poverty

The view that attributes poverty primarily to personal decisions and an insufficient work ethic.

Aspen Effect

The phenomenon wherein workers in affluent resort communities must endure long commutes because living costs near their jobs are prohibitively expensive.

Moving to Opportunity

A program/concept demonstrating that relocating children to resource-rich neighborhoods at a younger age yields greater gains in long-term social mobility.

Race

An ascribed and fixed social classification based on observable physical characteristics.

Ethnicity

A voluntary and self-chosen affiliation based on shared cultural traits that people actively practice.

Social Construction of Race

The principle that racial categories are invented, defined, and modified by societies over time, as illustrated by changing race categories on the U.S. Census from $1960$ to $2026$.

Migration

The overarching term denoting the physical movement of people from one location to another.

Immigration

The process of moving into a new country from another place of origin.

Emigration

The process of departing from one's home community or country to settle elsewhere.

Symbolic Ethnicity

An intermittent, voluntary expression of ethnic pride (e.g., celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Chicago) that carries no day-to-day social stigma.

Ethnocentrism

The practice of evaluating and judging all other cultures and perspectives exclusively through the standards of one's own group.

Essentialism

The belief that human characteristics and behaviors are innate, natural, and fixed from birth.

Primordialism

The perspective that individuals experience a deep, inherent, and persistent psychological attachment to their ancestral origins.

Racism

Prejudice or bias directed against an individual based on their skin color or physical attributes.

Prejudice

Internal feelings, attitudes, and preconceived biases held toward a particular person or group.

Discrimination

The behavioral act of denying individuals access, rights, or resources (such as employment) based on biased beliefs.

One-Drop Rule

A historical U.S. legal and social doctrine stipulating that any person with even one ancestor of sub-Saharan African descent was classified as Black.

Miscegenation

Marriage or intimate union combining partners from different racial or ethnic backgrounds.

Anti-Miscegenation

Legal statues that criminalized intermarriage and intimate relations between people of different racial groups.

Push Factor

the force that drives people to leave a place

Pull Factor

what makes people want to move somewhere (what attracts them)

Fertility

The actual observed number of children born to an individual or population.

Fecundity

The biological maximum potential number of offspring a person is capable of producing.

Straight-Line Assimilation

The sociological model suggesting that with each passing generation, an immigrant group steadily adopts the customs and characteristics of the surrounding dominant society.

Pluralism

A social framework where diverse ethnic and cultural groups coexist and participate equally in society while maintaining their unique traditions and identities.

Segregation

The enforced physical and social separation of groups across housing, schools, and workplaces based on race, ethnicity, gender, or religion.

Behavioral Assimilation

The adoption of cultural behaviors, language, and social practices by immigrants to fit into the host society.

Structural Assimilation

The integration of immigrants into the primary institutions of the host society, such as schools and the labor force.

Marital Assimilation

The widespread social acceptance and occurrence of intermarriage (exogamy) between an immigrant or minority population and the dominant society.

Identification Assimilation

The psychological process wherein minority or immigrant individuals come to view themselves primarily through the identity of the dominant host culture.

Sex

A biological classification based on reproductive anatomy, chromosomes, and hormonal profiles.

Gender

Socially constructed behaviors, roles, and cultural expectations assigned to an individual based on their sex.

Sexuality

The multifaceted domain of human experience encompassing physical attraction, erotic desires, romantic feelings, and sexual behaviors across life.

Essentialist Approach to Gender

The theoretical view that behavioral differences between men and women stem directly from innate biological factors.

Social Constructionist Approach to Gender

The perspective that gender distinctions are produced and sustained by societal expectations, cultural norms, and socialization.

Feminism

A diverse set of socio-political movements and ideologies seeking to establish full economic, political, personal, and social equality between sexes.

Patriarchy

A social structure wherein men maintain dominant authority over political systems, moral privileges, property ownership, and leadership roles.

Sexual Harassment

A form of illegal sex discrimination involving unwelcome physical advances, demands for sexual favors, or visual/verbal misconduct of a sexual nature.

Gender Roles

Cultural and social expectations prescribing the appropriate behaviors, duties, and attitudes for people based on their assigned sex.

Benevolent Sexism

A chivalrous, superficially protective attitude toward women that reinforces traditional subordinate gender roles under the guise of affection (e.g., viewing women as naturally superior nurturers).

Hostile Sexism

An antagonistic and openly negative attitude toward women, such as claiming women are unfit for leadership roles due to emotional instability.

Doing Gender

The continuous performance of everyday actions and behaviors that align with societal expectations of masculinity or femininity.

Emotional Labor

The workplace requirement to regulate personal emotions and display an artificial demeanor (such as smiling through mistreatment), common in service roles like flight attendants.

Glass Ceiling

An invisible, artificial boundary that impedes women and minority individuals from ascending to executive, managerial, and board-level roles.

Glass Escalator

The rapid and disproportionate promotion of men to supervisory positions in female-dominated occupations such as nursing and elementary teaching.

Motherhood Penalty

The documented systemic wage deficit, hiring bias, and career disadvantage encountered by working mothers compared to childless peers.

Occupational Segregation

The unequal distribution of demographic groups (by gender, race, or sexual orientation) across different job industries, ranks, and professions.

Sexual Scripts

Unwritten cultural guidelines and cognitive schemas that instruct individuals on how to interpret, navigate, and behave in sexual situations.

Heteronormativity

The prevailing cultural presumption that heterosexuality represents the natural, standard, and superior form of human sexuality.

Nuclear Family Model

The foundational family structure consisting of two parents and their shared biological offspring.

Blended Family

A family unit created after divorce or remarriage that incorporates step-parents, step-siblings, or half-siblings.

Extended Family

A household arrangement that encompasses relatives beyond the immediate unit, including grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Endogamy

The cultural norm or practice of marrying exclusively within one's own social, racial, or economic group.

Exogamy

The custom or practice of marrying outside of one's specific social category or group.

Monogamy

A marital or relationship system that permits only one spouse or partner at a time.

Polygamy

A marriage system that permits an individual to have more than one spouse concurrently.

Polyandry

A specific form of polygamy where one woman is legally married to two or more men simultaneously.

Polygyny

A specific form of polygamy where one man is legally married to two or more women simultaneously.

Cohabitation

An arrangement where an unmarried couple lives together in an intimate relationship, a practice that has experienced rising rates.

Premodern Families

Historical, large cooperative family structures with rigid gender boundaries where men served as primary providers and women performed home-based labor and childcare.

Contemporary Families

Modern household structures marked by varied arrangements where earning wages, domestic chores, and parenting duties are increasingly divided between partners.

Cult of Domesticity

A nineteenth-century ideology asserting that women should restrict their focus to domesticity, maternal duties, and moral cultivation while men engaged in external labor.

Second Shift

The unpaid domestic work, cooking, and child-rearing duties performed primarily by individuals (typically women) upon returning home from a paid job.

Birth Order Theory

The sociological finding that siblings raised in the same home do not share identical upbringings, as parental investment and resources fluctuate significantly depending on birth order.