Sociology Exam Preparation

A comprehensive set of flashcards to aid in reviewing key sociological concepts, theories, and terminology for exam preparation.

What are social facts

Conceptualized norms, values, and institutions that arise through social interaction.

sociological sympathy

The skill of understanding others as they understand themselves.

Culture

Differences in groups shared ideas, practices, and bodies that reflect those ideas.

Ethnocentrism

The practice of assuming one's culture is superior to the cultures of others.

Embodied culture

The idea that people carry their culture through their bodies, perceptions, and actions.

Quantitative vs qualitative research.

Quantitative research involves numerical data, while qualitative research involves non-numerical data.

Symbolic interactionism (according to Herbert Blumer)

The theory that social interaction depends on the social construction of reality.

The Protestant Work Ethic?

The idea that one's character can and should be measured by one's dedication to paid work.

Breaching

Purposefully breaking a social rule to test how others respond.

Open stratification systems

Open systems allow for social mobility

What is deviance?

Behaviors and beliefs that violate social expectations and attract negative sanctions.

What are the five types of rationalizations according to Neutralization Theory?

Denial of Responsibility, Denial of Injury, Denial of the Victim, Condemnation of the Condemners, Appeal to Higher Loyalties.

Free market capitalism.

A capitalist system with little or no government regulation.

Income

Income refers to steady sources of money

Hypersegregation

Residential segregation so extreme that many people's daily lives involve little or no contact with others of different races.

Colorism

Prejudice against and discrimination toward people with dark skin compared to those with light skin.

Hegemonic masculinity.

The form of masculinity that is the most widely admired and rewarded in a given culture.

What is the role of transnational corporations in globalization?

Do business in multiple countries, exploiting the same resources and utilizing international transportation.

Define the Sociological Imagination.

The capacity to consider how people’s lives are shaped by social facts.

What is structural violence?

Economic deprivation and the violence that enforces restrictions on access or movement.

Closed stratification systems

Resrict social mobility

Repertoire of contention

in democratic societies, collective action generally follows a set of social rules

Wealth

the ownership of economic assets minus debts

Master frames

frames picked up by several social movement groups at once 

Critical event

a sudden and dramatic occurrence that motivates nonactivists to become politically active

Insurgent consciousness

the recognition of a shared grievance that can be addressed through collective action

Social capital

social ties

Cultural capital

symbolic meaning

Economic capital

money

Frances Fox Piven

dedicated her life and career to understanding and promoting the struggles of everyday people.

Elite theory of power

the idea that a small group of networked individuals controls the most powerful positions in our social institutions (C.Wright Mills)

Frame

a succinct claim as to the nature of a social act

Counter frames

frames meant to challenge an existing social movement's frame

Cultural Constraints/Opportunities

cultural ideas, objects, practices, or bodies that create or constrain activist strategies

Social construction of social problems

the process of coming to see a personal struggle as an issue of public concern

Economic Constraints/Opportunities

the role of money in enabling or limiting a movement's operations and influence

Status Elites and Elite power

a small group of networked individuals controls the most powerful positions in our social institutions.

Ethnography/participant observation

a research method that involves careful observation of naturally occurring social interaction, often as a participant

Cultural hegemony

power maintained primarily by persuasion

Social Reproduction

a process in which society maintains an enduring character from generation to generation

Wealth inequality

the unequal distribution of assets within a society, where some individuals or groups hold a disproportionately large share of the total wealth compared to others

Individualism

the idea that people are independent actors responsible primarily for themselves

Increase in women in workplaces during WWII

women of the middle classes flooded workplaces to fill jobs once restricted to men

Dual-earner households

both spouses work

Hegemonic masculinity

the form of masculinity that constitutes the most widely admired and rewarded kind of person in any given culture

Global care chains

a series of nurturing relationships in which the international work of care is displaced onto increasingly disadvantaged paid or unpaid workers

Feminization of poverty

a concentration of women, trans women, and gay, bisexual, and gender-nonconforming men at the bottom of the income scale and a concentration of gender-conforming, heterosexual, cisgender men at the top

subordinated masculinities

men who are seen as lesser based on the androcentric logic that masculine is better than feminine

marginalized masculinities

men are perceived to be sufficiently masculine but are considered lesser by virtue of another social identity

Sexism

the production of unjust outcomes for people perceived to be biologically female

Heteronormativity

promoting heterosexuality as the only or preferred sexual identity, making other sexual desires invisible or casting them as inferior

Androcentrism

the production of unjust outcomes for people who perform femininity

Gendered divisions of labor

separate spheres 

Breadwinner/homemaker marriage

a model of marriage that involves a wage-earning spouse supporting a stay-at-home spouse and children

Patriarch/property marriage

a model of marriage in which women and children are owned by men

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

wrote a widely publicized report for the U.S. government in which he argued that poverty among Black Americans was caused by their failure to adhere to the breadwinner/homemaker model (while downplaying interpersonal and institutional discrimination)

Talcott Parsons

he argued that the breadwinner/homemaker marriage was a perfect balance between the masculine and feminine

male flight

a phenomenon in which men start abandoning an activity when women start adopting it

Cross-institutional advantage/disadvantage

a phenomenon in which people are positively or negatively served across multiple institutions

Mechanical solidarity

the kind based on people living parallel and thus very similar daily lives

Organic solidarity

a kind of stability rooted in the interdependence created by a division of labor in which people take on complementary social roles

Criminalizing marijuana

anti-immigrant propaganda to suggest hispanics were bringing in crime and drugs

Colorism

prejudice against and discrimination toward people with dark skin compared to those with light skin, regardless of race

Adultification

a form of bias in which adult characterics are attributed to children

Tracking

the practice of placing students in different classrooms according to their perceived ability

Meritocracy

a person’s worth is determined wholly by their performance on a standardized IQ test

Capuchin monkey experiment

uncover the roots of economic behavior in a species far removed from humans

White Flight

a phenomenon in which White people start leaving a neighborhood when minority residents begin to move in

White Fight

organized White resistance to integration

Residential segregation

form of institutionalized racism, facilitates the unequal distribution of the benefits and harms of our societies

Hypersegregation

residential segregation so extreme that many people's daily lives involve little or no contact with people of other races

Social stratification

maintained in the US on a basis of race, ethnicity, and immigration status

Intergenerational advantage/disadvantage

advantage and disadvantage that is passed from parents to children

The New Deal

laws that protect the proletariat and rein in the bourgeoisie

Capitalism

an economic system based on private ownership of the resources used to create wealth and the right of individuals to personally profit

Americans’ beliefs about poverty

split feelings about how government should allieviate poverty

Measures of central tendency

= numbers that attempt to describe a population by referring to a midpoint; ex: Median (middle), Mean/average (mathematical), Mode (most)

Semi-peripheral countries

exploit the periphery when they can, struggle to avoid falling into it, and try to compete with richer countries.

Peripheral countries

contribute mostly natural resources and physical labor to the world economy

Core countries

home to most of the world’s economic capital.

Global imagined community

a socially constructed in‐group based on a shared planet