Sociology Exam 1

Key Terms Important People

Social Contexts

The Influence of society on individuals

Sociological Imagination

The capacity to think systemically about things we experience as personal problems.

Stereotype

Beliefs about members of a group that are usually false, or at least exaggerated, but are the basis of assumptions made about individual members of the group

Independent Variable

A factor that might help to explain some outcome of interest.

Dependent Variable

A variable that fluctuates in relation to other (“Independent”) variables.

Hypothesis

A prediction researchers make that they will test in their research.

Social Theory

An overarching framework that suggests certain assumptions and assertions about the way the world works.

Socialization

The process by which individuals come to understand the expectations and norms of their groups as well as the various roles they transition into over the life course and how to behave in society or in particular social settings.

Power

Has three distinct dimensions in the sociological sense: (1) the power of an individual or group to get another individual or group to do something it wants, which sometimes may involve force; (2) the power to control the agenda issues that are to be decided; and finally (3) the power to persuade other that their interests are the performing manual jobs and is synonymous with “working class”.

Authority

The ability to compel others to do things without needing to resort threats. For Max Weber, authority requires legitimacy; that is, individuals grant authority to those they believe have a legitimate right to rule.

Racism

Prejudice and/or discrimination against individuals who are members or particular racial or ethnic groups, often drawing on negative stereotypes about the group.

Intersectionality

Forms of inequality that overlap and potentially reinforce one another. One’s class, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or other characteristics may create multiple forms of disadvantage that inequality researchers should consider.

Looking-glass self 

A term coined by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley to emphasize the extent to which our own self-understandings are dependent on how others view us

Significant other 

A term coined by George Herbert Mead to mean individuals close enough to us to have a strong capacity to motivate our behavior.

Role conflict 

When two or more discordant demands are placed on individuals, rendering them unable to fulfill their own or others' expectations.

Roles 

A position within an institution or organization that comes with specific social expectations for how to behave and be treated

Agenda setting 

The ability to decide which of the many possible topics for discussion, debate, and possible action that exist in the world will actually be considered. This can take place in any institutional setting where decision-making occurs.

Bureaucracies 

A type of organization that has rules and responsibilities for each position (or job) spelled out, in which selection into those positions occurs on the basis of merit (not typically by election or inheritance).

Social problems

A term used to capture a wide range of individual, group, or societal behaviors or societal issues that are thought to have harmful consequences. Examples might include poverty, crime, drug abuse, homelessness, inequality, racism, sexism, and discrimination.

Norms 

A basic rule of society that helps us know what is and is not appropriate to do in a situation. These evolve over time as social attitudes and expectations change, although those changes are typically very slow.

Institutions 

A complex term used to stand for structured and enduring practices of human life that are built around well-established rules and norms or are centered in important organizations like the government, legal courts, churches, schools, or the military.

Privilege 

The ability or right to have special access to opportunities or claims on rewards

Culture 

Systems of belief and knowledge shared by members of a group or society that shape individual and group behavior and attitudes. This includes its language and customs. Symbols, rituals, and other forms of meaning that are widely shared. 

Symbols 

Something that communicates an idea while being distinct from the idea itself.

Mainstream culture 

The most widely shared systems of meaning in a society. This includes the most widely consumed cultural products (music, literature, films), foods, ways of speaking, and widely shared ideas about normal, appropriate behavior.

Subculture 

A relatively small group of people whose affiliation is based on shared beliefs, preferences, and practices that distinguish them from the mainstream or larger social group to which they also belong.

Counterculture 

A group whose ideas, attitudes, and behavior are in direct conflict with mainstream culture.

Karl Marx

The most well-known as the founding figure of the socialist movement.

Emile Durkheim

The “father of sociology,” founded the first european sociology depart- ment at the University of Bordeaux in 1895 and the first major european journal of sociology (L’Annee Sociologique) in 1898.

Max Weber

In Germany, a group of early sociologists created an influential journal called the Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik (Archives for Social Science and Social Welfare), establishing an identity for sociology as a discipline in that country.

George Herbert Mead

He used the term significant other to denote individuals close enough to us to have a strong capacity to motivate our behavior.

Pierre Bourdieu

He argued that we all develop certain sets of assumptions about the world and our place in it: our tastes, preferences, and skills. We also develop habits— what he called habitus—in the course of growing up and socializing with others that become so routine we don’t even realize we are following them

C. Wright Mills

The sociologist who coined the term in 1959 (sociological imagination), wrote that “the sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society”

Talcott Parsons

Harvard sociologist effort to develop a functionalist theory of society sought to provide nothing less than a general theory of society built around an analysis of how the different com- ponents of society help to maintain it and keep order

W.E.B DuBois

His long and varied career as a social scientist, historian, journalist, essayist, and political activist (among many other activities, he was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [nAAcP]) was extraordinary in many ways.

Structural Functionalism

A theory of society in which individuals, groups, and the institutions of any society are guided by an overarching social system and can be explained by the needs of society to reproduce itself.

Conflict Theory

A type of social theory that emerged out of dissatisfaction with structural functionalism and held that all societies are characterized by conflicts that arise from the uneven distribution of power and wealth between groups.

Symbolic Interactionism

A theory of the social world that focuses on the meanings that individuals give to objects and social practices and how they use symbolic meanings in their interactions with one another.

Feminist Social Theory

which placed gender and gender inequality at the center of its theoretical lens—challenged many of the assumptions of classical social theory for its male-centered biases.

What makes sociology different from other fields?

Sociology is the study not of individuals, but rather the study of how we live together. To put it another way, sociology is not the study of human beings, but of what it means to be human.

What do sociologists study?

Sociologists are asking hard questions about how social changes like the rise of social media are changing how individuals and societies relate to one another.

Social Structure

The external forces, most notably social hier- archies, norms, and institutions, that provide the context for individual and group action.

The State

Sociologists use the term the state to refer to all of the formal political institutions of any society. In the United States these include the three branches of government (the executive, legislative, and judicial branches) as well as all of the bureaucracies that support the work of each branch.