quiz 1 soc200

Interpretive Framework

Seeks to understand social worlds from the participants' point of view, leading to in-depth knowledge of the human experience.

Operational Definition

Defines concepts or variables in terms of concrete steps to objectively measure them, ensuring reliable and valid results.

Independent Variable (IV)

The cause of change in scientific research.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The effect or the changed element in scientific research.

Field Research

Gathering primary data from a natural environment by observing, participating, or experiencing different worlds.

Case Study

In-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual using various research methods.

Hawthorne Effect

People change their behavior when they know they are being observed as part of a study.

Reliability and Validity

Maximizing the likelihood of replicating results and ensuring the study measures what it's designed to measure.

Stigma

A social attribute that discredits a person or group, such as mental health or race, used to assert power over, enforce social norms, and avoid disease.

Breaching

The act of breaking or failing to observe an established social code of conduct, intentionally done to learn people's reactions.

Social Control

The regulation and enforcement of norms to maintain social order, achieved through positive and negative sanctions, with informal and formal mechanisms in place.

Deviance

Violation of established contextual, cultural, or social norms, with factors like location, audience, and individual influencing whether an act is labeled deviant.

Strain Theory

Theory by Robert Merton stating that access to socially acceptable goals influences whether a person conforms or deviates, leading to responses like conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion.

Labeling Theory

Examines how society ascribes deviant behavior to individuals, impacting their self-image and interactions, with primary and secondary deviance leading to potential master status.

Control Theory

States that social control is influenced by the strength of social bonds, with deviance resulting from a feeling of disconnection from society, affecting the likelihood of committing crimes.

Crime

Behavior that violates the law, distinct from deviance, and can range from felonies like murder to misdemeanors with less severe punishments.

Ethnography

participant observation or the study of human behavior in a culture. criticism: takes a lot of time and money

Survey

cheap, collects ton of data, anonymous. criticism: you can’t ask follow up questions

Interviews

better data than a survey, follow up Qs. criticism: takes time and money but not as much as ethnography

Experiments

hard to do in sociology. natural experiments can be like like looking at rates of the subject

Secondary Data Analysis

pre-existing research to find an answer to a question that’s different from OG work. criticism: limits the Qs you can research

Pastoral societies

animal domestication, bred livestock for food, clothes, etc.

Feudal societies

hierarchy of power based around land ownership and protection (ex. lords)

Culture

shared habits, behaviors, values, beliefs

Ethnocentrism

belief that your culture is better than others

Cultural relativism

not judging a culture to your own standards of right, normal, etc.

Formal or informal norms

rule or what should be known already

Mores

determines what’s considered morally acceptable or not (ex. stealing)

Folkways

developed by traditions or social conventions and without the sanctions of other norms (ex. bless you)