sociology exam 1

positivism

the approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific method as an approach to studying the objectively observable behavior of individuals irrespective of the meanings those actions have for the subjects themselves.

VERSTEHEN

German for “understanding”; conveys the need to understand research subjects from their point of view; comes from Max Weber and is the basis of interpretive sociology.

INTERPRETIVE SOCIOLOGY

a type of scholarship in which researchers try to capture the lived experiences of the people they want to understand rather than treating them as objects to be analyzed (as in positivism).

ANOMIE

a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness; Émile Durkheim, who coined the term, found that anomie arises in unstable historical moments during which social expectations change abruptly and cannot be immediately reestablished.

DOUBLE CONCIOUSNESS

a concept conceived by W. E. B. Du Bois to describe the use of two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the general social world and the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers; these two scripts are constantly maintained by African Americans.

FUNCTIONALISM

the theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running.

CONFILICT THEORY

the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general.

SYLMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions.

POSTMODERNISM

a condition characterized by the questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative with pastiche (i.e., a collage of existing ideas) or imitation of other work in the service of satire or subversion, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from unconnected affiliations.

SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

an entity that exists because people behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions act in accordance with widely agreed-upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with that entity.

MIDRANGE THEORY

a theory that attempts to explain generalizable patterns of behavior that are neither all-encompassing of society as a whole nor focused on very particular groups or individuals.

SOCIAL INSTITUTION

a complex, large-scale system of interrelated roles that, accepted by a group of people, regulate behavior and social expectations. Examples include governments, families, universities, and organized religions.

SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION

the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces.

SOCIOLOGY

STUDY OF HUMAN SOCIETY

MICROSOCIOLOGY

a branch of sociology that seeks to understand local interactional contexts; its methods of choice are usually ethnographic, generally including participant observation and in-depth interviews.

MACROSOCIOLOGY

a branch of sociology generally concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis—that is, across the breadth of society.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

a procedure involving the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses based on systematic observation, measurement, and/or experiments.

THEORY

an abstracted, systematic model of how some aspect of the world works.

RESEARCH METHODS

approaches that social scientists use to investigate the answers to research questions.

QUANTITATIVE METHODS

methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form.

QUALITATIVE METHODS

methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.

CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP

the idea that one factor influences another through a chain of events; such a dynamic differs from two associated or correlated factors, which may appear to vary together but could both vary due to chance or a third factor.

DEDUCTIVE APPROACH

a research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.

INDUCTIVE APPROACH

a research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory.

EXPERIMENT

a method for investigating causal relationships by introducing an intervention into a subset of a group and comparing the effects against the portion of the group that does not receive the intervention.

NATURAL EXPERIMENT

something that takes place in the world that affects people in a way that is unrelated to any other preexisting factors or their characteristics, thereby approximating random assignment to treatment or control groups.

CAUSALITY

the notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another.

REVERSE CAUSALITY

a situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B is actually causing A.

CORRELATION OR ASSOCIATION

a relationship that exists when two variables tend to track each other positively or negatively.

DEPENDENT VARIABLE

the outcome the researcher is trying to explain.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

a measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable.

HYPOTHESIS

a proposed relationship between two variables, usually with a stated direction.

OPERATIONALIZATION

how a concept is defined and measured in a given study.

VALIDITY

the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure.

RELIABILITY

the likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure.

GENERALIZABILITY

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group beyond the one we studied.

MIXED-METHODS RESEARCH

research that combines quantitative and qualitative methods within a single study.

ETHNOGRAPHY

a qualitative method of studying people or a social setting that uses observation, interaction, and sometimes formal interviewing to document behaviors, customs, experiences, social ties, and so on.

PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION

a qualitative research method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions by observing their behavior in practice.

SURVEY

an ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents.

REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

the idea that a particular slice of social observation—a sample of survey respondents, an ethnographic research site such as an organization, or a batch of social media posts—captures in an accurate way the larger set (or universe) of those phenomena that it is meant to stand in for.

HISTORICAL METHODS

research that collects data written from reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date back to the period under study.

COMPARATIVE RESEARCH

a methodology by which two or more entities (such as countries), which are similar in many dimensions but differ on the one in question, are compared to learn about the dimension that differs between them.

CONTENT ANALYSIS

a systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, or film.

POPULATION

an entire group of individual persons, objects, or items from which samples may be drawn.

SAMPLE

the subset of the population from which you actually collect data.

CASE STUDY

an intensive investigation of one particular unit of analysis in order to describe it or uncover its mechanisms.

EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

methods that seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields; they often involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such an intervention.

WHITE COAT EFFECT

the phenomenon wherein a researcher’s presence affects subjects’ behavior or response, thereby disrupting the study.

REFLEXIVITY

analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and effect on, our research.

FEMINIST METHODOLOGY

a set of systems or methods that treats women’s experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources, that promotes social science for women (think public sociology, but for a specific half of the public), and that takes into account the researcher as much as the overt subject matter.

CULTURE

the sum of the social categories and concepts we operate within in addition to beliefs, learned behaviors, and practices; everything but the natural environment around us.

ETHNOCENTRISM

the belief that one’s own culture or group is superior to others, and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one’s own.

CULTURAL RELATIVISM

taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value.

CULTURAL SCRIPTS

modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural.

NONMATERIAL CULTURE

values, beliefs, social norms, and ideologies.

MATERIAL CULTURE

everything that is a part of our constructed, physical environment, including technology.

CULTURAL LAG

the time gap between the appearance of a new technology and the words and practices that give it meaning.

CULTURE SHOCK

doubt, confusion, or anxiety arising from immersion in an unfamiliar culture.

CODE SWITCH

to flip fluidly between two or more languages and sets of cultural norms to fit different cultural contexts.

VALUES

moral beliefs.

NORMS

how values tell us to behave.

IDEOLOGY

a system of concepts and relationships; an underlying explanation of phenomena in society; a framework of causes and effects.

HEGEMONY

a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary “consent” of the masses.

SUBCULTURE

the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society; a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meanings specific to the members of that group and distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.

COUNTERCULTURE

a large cultural group defined in opposition to the ideologies, values, and norms of the mainstream culture.

CULTURE WAR

a conflict between distinct cultures within a given society.

SOCIALIZATION

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society.

REFLECTION THEORY

the idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere, a screen onto which the film of the underlying reality of social structures of a society is projected.

Socialization

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society.

SELF

the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person.

I

one’s subjective sense of having consciousness, agency, action, or power.

ME

the self-perceived as an object by the “I”; the self as one imagines others perceive them.

OTHER

someone or something outside of oneself.

GENERALIZED OTHER

an internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings—regardless of whether we’ve encountered those people or places before.

RESOCIALIZATION

the process by which one’s sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately, through an intense social process.

TOTAL INSTITUTION

an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same single authority.

STATUS

a recognizable social position that an individual occupies.

ROLE

the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status.

ROLE STRAIN

the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status.

ROLE CONFLICT

the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses.

STATUS SET

all the statuses one holds simultaneously.

ASCRIBED STATUS

a status into which one is born; involuntary status.

ACHIEVED STATUS

a status into which one enters; voluntary status.

MASTER STATUS

one status within a set that stands out or overrides all others.

GENDER ROLES

sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as masculine, feminine, or other.

DRAMATURGICAL THEORY

the view (advanced by Erving Goffman) of social life as essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets.

FACE

the esteem in which an individual is held by others.

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions.

ETHNOMETHODOLOGY

literally “the methods of the people”; this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a shared social order.

ORGANIZATION

any social network that is defined by a common purpose and has a boundary between its membership and the rest of the social world.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

the shared beliefs and behaviors within a social group; often used interchangeably with corporate culture.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

the distribution of power and authority within an organization.

ISOMORPHISM

a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions.

SOCIAL DEVIANCE

any transgression of socially established norms.

INFORMAL DEVIANCE

minor violations of social norms that may or may not be punished.

CRIME

the violation of laws enacted by society; formal deviance.

SOCIAL CONTROL

mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals.

FORMAL SOCIAL SANCTIONS

mechanisms of social control by which rules or laws prohibit deviant criminal behavior.

INFORMAL SOCIAL SANCTIONS

the usually unexpressed but widely known rules of group membership; the unspoken rules of social life.