chapter 2 reduced

Culture

The totality of learned and socially transmitted customs, knowledge, objects, beliefs, and behaviors.

Society

A large group of people who share a territory and participate in a common culture.

Cultural Universal

A practice or belief found in all societies.

Innovation

Introducing a new idea or object into a culture.

Globalization

Increasing worldwide connection of cultures, economies, governments, and societies.

Cultural Diffusion

Process by which a cultural item spreads from one group to another.

McDonaldization

Spread of principles such as efficiency and standardization into more areas of society.

Technology

Knowledge about using material resources to satisfy human needs and desires.

Material Culture

Physical and technological objects used in everyday life.

Nonmaterial Culture

Beliefs, customs, values, ideas, and other nonphysical elements of culture.

Culture Lag

Period when nonmaterial culture struggles to adapt to changing material conditions.

Language

A shared system of words and symbols used to communicate concepts and culture.

Habitus

Assumptions and habits people develop about the world based largely on upbringing and past experience.

Norms

Established standards of behavior maintained by society.

Formal Norms

Written rules with clearly defined expectations or punishments.

Informal Norms

Unwritten rules that guide everyday behavior.

Mores

Norms considered especially important to the welfare and morals of society.

Folkways

Norms that guide ordinary everyday behavior.

Sanctions

Rewards or penalties connected to following or violating norms.

Values

Shared ideas about what is good, desirable, proper, or important.

Socialization

Process through which people learn the attitudes, values, behaviors, and expectations of society.

Culture Wars

Conflict between groups over major cultural values and beliefs.

Multiculturalism

Support for the recognition and accommodation of different cultural groups within society.

Cultural Relativism

Understanding cultural practices within the context of the culture in which they occur.

Dominant Ideology

Cultural beliefs and practices that help maintain the interests of powerful groups.

Subculture

Smaller group within society with distinctive beliefs, preferences, norms, or practices.

Mainstream Culture

Cultural meanings and practices most widely shared within society.

Counterculture

Group whose beliefs and behavior deliberately oppose important parts of mainstream culture.

Hegemony

Power gained when dominant ideas about what is normal or proper become widely accepted.

Culture Shock

Confusion or discomfort experienced when encountering an unfamiliar culture.

Ethnocentrism

Assuming that one's own culture is normal or superior to other cultures.

Self

A person's distinct sense of identity.

Charles Horton Cooley

Sociologist who explained development of the self through the looking-glass self.

Looking-Glass Self

Idea that people develop their self-image partly through how they believe others see them.

George Herbert Mead

Sociologist who argued that the self develops through communication and social interaction.

Symbols

Gestures, objects, and words that form the basis of human communication.

Preparatory Stage

Mead's first stage in which young children mainly imitate other people.

Play Stage

Mead's stage in which children begin taking the roles of specific other people.

Role Taking

Mentally assuming another person's perspective and responding from that viewpoint.

Game Stage

Mead's stage in which children learn to consider several roles and expectations at once.

Generalized Other

The attitudes, expectations, and viewpoints of society that a person learns to consider.

Significant Others

People whose opinions and actions are especially important in shaping a person's self.

Reference Groups

Groups people use as standards for evaluating themselves and their behavior.

Jean Piaget

Thinker who studied stages in the development of children's reasoning.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's stage from birth to about age two in which learning occurs mainly through senses and actions.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's stage from about ages two to seven in which children use symbols but have limited logical reasoning.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's stage from about ages seven to twelve in which children develop logical reasoning about concrete situations.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's stage beginning around age twelve in which abstract thinking develops.

Impression Management

Attempt to control how other people perceive you.

Dramaturgical Approach

Goffman's view that social interaction resembles people performing roles for an audience.

Rite of Passage

Event or process marking a person's transition from one social status or life stage to another.

Life Course Approach

Studying how social factors influence people throughout their lives.

Anticipatory Socialization

Learning or rehearsing the expectations of a role before actually entering it.

Resocialization

Replacing previous behaviors or expectations with new ones.

Total Institution

Institution that regulates nearly all aspects of a person's daily life under one authority.

Gender Roles

Social expectations regarding behavior and activities associated with gender.

Agents of Socialization

People, groups, and institutions such as family, media, school, work, religion, and government that teach social expectations.