"Terrible Magnificent Sociology" by Lisa Wade Ch. 1-6 Vocabulary

social facts

the products of human interaction that hold persuasive and coercive power that exist externally to any individual

"products of human interaction"

factors that exist externally to any individual and can only exist between two or more people

data

systematically collected sets of empirical observations

research question

queries about the world that can be answered empirically

sociological sympathy (Harriet Matrineau)

the skill of understanding others as they understand themselves

research ethics

the set of moral principles that guide empirical inquiry

the sociological imagination (C. Wright Mills)

the capacity to consider how people's lives - including our own - are shaped by the social facts that surround us. to acknowledge the things beyond our control, the ability to see our "private troubles" connect to "public issues"

Max Weber

Father of Sociology. argued that a capitalist society would lead to conflict, but that there would be more than one source of it

Harriet Martineau

English social theorist often seen as the first female sociologist, focusing on race relations with much of her published material

Karl Marx

1818-1883. 19th century philosopher, political economist, sociologist, humanist, political theorist, and revolutionary. Often recognized as the father of communism. Analysis of history led to his belief that communism would replace capitalism as it replaced feudalism. Believed in a classless society. formed by his economic analysis of ruling class structures within a capitalist society. Sociology is the academic study of social behaviors and societies

Emilie Durkheim

French sociologist, established academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited with with/as one of the principal architects of modern social science

Marianne Weber

argued that the division of labor (and wealth) within the family had broad implications for the structure of the surrounding society

August Comte

French philosopher and founder of the discipline of sociology and of the doctrine of positivism. first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term

Ida Wells-Barnett

an early leader in the civil rights movement. She documented the extent of lynching in the United States, and was also active in the women's rights movement and the women's suffrage movement.

Charolotte Perkins-Gilman

a feminist who published "Women + economics," called upon women to abandon their dependent status and contribute to the larger life of the community through productive involvement in the economy, wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Anna Julia Cooper

African American scholar was known for covering issues of race and gender in the America south in the late 1800s.

She also argued men should not fear women attaining more education (voice of the south).

W.E.B. Du Bois

fought for African American rights. Helped to found Niagra Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP

Herbert Blumer

coined the term "symbolic interactionism"

symbolic interactionism

social interaction depends on the social construction of reality. we respond to symbolic meaning produced in the process of human interaction

conflict theory

societies are characterized by competing interests and defined by fights over control of valuable resources like wealth, power, and prestige

structural functionalism

societies are systems of necessary, synchronized part that work together to create social stability

public sociology

the work of using sociological theories to make societies better

standpoint

a person's perspective or position on the world , influenced by their social location and experiences

standpoint theory

individual's perspectives are shaped by their social and political experiences

"I" and "me"

Me: Social self (societies view)

- socialized me

I: response to social self (personal responses)

- no one is important as you

looking-glass self

the self that emerges because of seeing ourselves as we think others see us

culture

difference in groups shared ideas as well as the objects, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas

cultural as value thesis

the idea that we're socialized into culturally specific moralities that guide our feelings about right and wrong

cultural as rationale thesis

the idea that we're socialized to know a set of culturally specific arguments with which we can justify why we feel something is right or wrong

social construct

an influential and shared interpretation of reality that will vary across time and space

social construction

the process by which we layer objects with ideas, fold concepts into one another, and build connections between them

interpersonal socialization

active efforts by others to help us become culturally competent members of our cultures

self-fufilling prophecy

a phenomenon in which what people believe is true, becomes true, even if it was not originally true

self-socialization

active efforts we make to ensure we're culturally competent members of our cultures

distinction

active efforts to affirm identity categories and place ourselves and others into their subcategories (serves to justify a hierarchy, and they interact to shape our experience in life)

positive distinction

the claim that members of our own group and mistreatment of others (produces in-group bias)

in-group bias

preferential treatment of members of our own group and mistreatment of others

minimal group paradigm

the tendency of people to form groups and actively distinguish themselves from others for the most trivial of reasons

social identity theory

the idea that people are inclined to form social groups, incorporate group membership into their identity, take steps to enforce group boundaries, and maximize positive distinction and in-group success

race

a socially meaningful set of artificial distinctions falsely based on superficial and imagined biological differences

psychological wage

a noneconomic good given to one group as a measure of superiority over other groups

sex

the ideas, traits, interests, and skills that we associate with being biologically male or female

gender

a reference to physical traits related to sexual reproduction

intersex

people with physical characteristics typical of both people assigned male and people assigned female at birth

cisgender

people who are assigned male at birth who identify as men as well as people assigned female at birth who do identify as women

transgender

people assigned male at birth who do not as men as well as people assigned female at birth who do not identify as women

nonbinary

people who identify as both man and woman or neither man nor woman

content analysis

a research method that involves counting and describing patterns of themes in media

doing identity

the active performance of social identities

consumption

the use of wages to purchase goods and services

stigma

a personal attribute that is widely devalued by member's of one's society

conspicuous consumption

spending elaborately on items and services with the sole purpose of displaying one's wealth

controlling images

pervasive negative stereotypes that serve to justify or uphold inequality

computational sociology

a research method that uses computers to extract and analyze data

intersectionality

THE RECOGNITION that our lives are shaped by multiple interacting identities

gender binary

the idea that people come in two and only two types, males who are masculine and females who are feminine

sexual minorities

people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or otherwise non-heterosexual

status

high or low esteem

stereotype

clusters of ideas attached by social convention to people with specific social identities

ethnicity

an identity based on collective memories of a shared history and distinctive culture

prejudice

attitudinal bias against individuals based on their membership in a social group

social interaction

moments we shared with other people, how we make it possible to buy a candy bar, pass a stranger on the sidewalk, or share an umbrella in the rain

social rules

culturally specific norms, policies, and laws that guide our behavior

folkways

separates rights from rude, norms that are not strictly enforced

mores

separates right from wrongs

breaching

purposefully breaking a social rule to test how others respond, it is like a controlled experiment within social interactions

social interactionism

the theory that social interaction depends on the social construction of reality (developed by Herbert Blumer)

dramaturgey

the practice of looking at social life as a series of performances in which we are actors on metaphorical stages

front stage

a public space in which we are aware of having an audience

back stage

private or semiprivate spaces in which we relax or rehearse

impression management

efforts to control how we are percieved by others

unmarked identity

unnamed (usually but not always), generally thought as normal, less extreme on the dimension of sexual identity, they carry their gender lightly (so much that it is almost invisible)

marked identity

women (usually but not always), women are women, they're rarely just people, they're a special kind of people, the female kind, their gender is usually an important fact about them, so important that it's difficult or impossible for women to carry their identity lightly, it's almost always visible

role-identity match

correspondence between the type of person in the role and the role itself

field experiment

a type of experiment that involves a test of hypothesis outside the laboratory

ethnomethodolgy

research aimed at revealing the underlying shared logic that is the foundation of social interactions

ethnomethods

a set of culturally specific background assumptions that we use to make sense of everyday life

account

an excuse that explains our rule breaking but also affirms that the rule is good and right

dramaturgy

the practice of looking at social life as a series of performances in which we're actors on metaphorical stages

face

a version of ourselves that we want to project in a specific setting

interpersonal discrimination

prejudicial behavior displayed by individuals

laws

rules that are made and enforced by cities, states, or federal governments

policies

rules that are made and enforced by organizations

social rules

culturally specific norms, policies, and laws that guide our behavior

social sanctions

reactions by others aimed at promoting conformity

taboos

social prohibitions so strong that the thought of violating them can be sickening

deviance

behaviors and beliefs that violate social expectations and attract negative sanctions

stigmatization

a process by which physical traits or social conditions become widely devalued (ex: BODY FAT)

criminalization

collectively defining a trait or condition as criminal (ex: alcohol in 1920)

medicalization

collectively defining physical traits or social conditions as an illness

strain theory

the idea that deviance is caused by a tension between widely values goals and people's ability to attain them

ritualist

individual who rejects socially defined goals but not the means

conformist

person who complies with accepted rules and customs

differential association theory

the idea that we need to be recruited into and taught criminal behavior by people in our social networks

social disorganization theory

the idea that deviance is more common in dysfunctional neighborhoods

neutralization theory

the idea that deviance is facilitated by the development of culturally resonant rationales for rule breaking

labeling

the process of assigning a deviant identity to an individual

comparative sociology

a research method that involves collecting and analyzing data about two or more cases that can be usefully compared

burn

Bureaucracy

organizations with formal policies, strict hierarchies, and impersonal relations