socio vocab 3

Society

Society

a group of people who inhabit a specific territory and share a common culture.

Instincts

innate (unlearned) patterns of behavior.

Reflex

automatic reaction to physical stimuli

Drive

impulse to reduce discomfort.

Sociobiology

the study of how biology influences human behavior.

Hypothesis of Linguistic Relativity

theory stating that our idea of reality depends largely upon language.

Folkways

norms that lack moral significance

Mores

norms that have moral dimensions and that should be followed by members of the society.

Taboo

a rule of behavior, the violation of which calls for strong punishment.

Law

a norm that is formally defined and enforced by officials.

Sanctions

rewards and punishment used to encourage people to follow norms.

Formal Sanctions

sanctions imposed by personal given special authority

Informal Sanctions

rewards or punishments that can be applied by most members of a group

Values

broad ideas about what is good or desirable shared by people in a society.

Non Material Culture

ideas, knowledge, and beliefs that influence people’s behavior.

Material Culture

the concrete, tangible objects of a culture.

Beliefs

ideas about the nature of reality.

Ideal Culture

culture guidelines that group members claim to accept.

Real Culture

actual behavior patterns of members of a group.

Social Categories

groupings of persons who share a social characteristic.

Subculture

a group that is a part of the dominant culture but that differs from it in some important respects.

Counterculture

a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture.

Ethnocentrism

judging others in terms of one’s own cultural standards.

Cultural Universals

general cultural traits that exist in all cultures.

Cultural Particulars

he ways in which a culture expresses universal traits.