S100 Sociology Exam 1 Indiana University copy

agency

what individual choices did someone make/actions did you take

structure

the circumstances (social forces) that you born into/did you live under.

sociological imagination

C Wright Mills

connects our personal experiences to society at large and greater historical forces

social institutions

networks of structure in society work to socialize the groups of people within them.

examples: legal system, labor market, educational system, colleges.

private vs public issue

private: personal issue. public: an issue that multiple people are facing.

research method

approaches that social scientists use for investigating the answers to questions

quantitative methods

methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form.

example: surveys

qualitative methods

methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.

example: interviews, observation.

research cycle

Deductive approach to research

research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes imperial observations, and then analyze the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.

inductive approach to research

research starts with empirical observation and then works to form a theory.

correlation/association

when 2 variables tend to track each other positively to negatively.

Causation/Causality

notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another.

independent variable

measured factor that the researcher believes has a casual impact on the dependent variable.

dependent variable

the outcome the researcher is trying to explain.

CHANGE IN THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDS ON CHANGE IN THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

Hypothesis

proposed relationship between 2 variables, usually with a stated direction.

positive vs negative relationships

Operationalization

how a concept gets defined and measured in a given study.

Validity

the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure.

Reliability

likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure.

Generalizability

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied.

white coat effect

the effects that researchers have on the very processes and relationships they are studying by virtue of being there

code of ethics

culture

sum of social categories/concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors, and practices. everything but the natural environment around us.

Ethnocentrism

belief that ones own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of ones own.

non-material culture

values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.

material culture

everything that is a part four constructed, physical environment including technology.

cultural lag

time gap between the appearance of a new technology and the words/practices that give it meaning.

culture shock

doubt, confusion, or anxiety arising from immersion in an unfamiliar culture.

code switch

to flip fluidly between two or more languages and sets of cultural norms to fit different cultural contexts.

ideology

an understanding of cause and effect.

values

moral beliefs

norms

how values tell us to behave

cultural scripts

modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural.

cultural relativism

taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgement or assigning value.

Subculture

distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in a society. A group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific things to the members of the group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.

Socialization

process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society.

reflection theory

the idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere, a screen onto which the film of the underlying reality or social structures of a society is projected.

media

any formats, platforms, or vehicles that carry, present, or communicate information.

hegemony

a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elect the voluntary "consent" of the masses.

agents of socialization

church, mass media, friends, family.

resocialization

process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately through an intense social process that may take place in a total institution.

status

a recognizable social position that an individual occupies.

master status

one status within a set that stands out or overrides all others

roles

the duties and behaviors that are expected of someone who holds a particular status.

role conflict

tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses.

role strain

the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status

face

the esteem in which an individual is held by others.

face work

A term used by Erving Goffman to refer to the efforts of people to maintain the proper image and avoid embarrassment in public.

backstage behavior

actions not meant for public consumption. "private"

Frontstage Behavior

actions meant for public consumption.

social group

form the building blocks of society and most social interaction

Dyad

a group of two people

triad

a group of three people

social network

set of relations-essentially a set of dyads held together by ties between individuals.

tie

the connection between two people in a relationship that varies in strength from one relationship to the next; a story that explains our relationship with another member of our network

Embeddedness

the degree to which social relationships are reinforced through indirect ties.

ie: friends of friends

structural hole

a gap between network clusters or even 2 individuals have complementary resources.

social capital

the information knowledge of people or things and connections that help individuals enter, gain power in, or otherwise leverage social networks.

Network Analysis

researchers use the basic concepts about groups and social networks that we have discussed to investigate how group life shapes individual behavior.

organization

any social network that is defined by a common purpose and has a boundary between its membership and the rest of the social world.

organizational culture

the shared beliefs and behaviors within a social group often used interchangeably with corporate culture.

organizational structure

the ways in which power and authority are distributed within an organization.

isomorphism

a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions.

social deviance

any transgression of socially established norms.

informal deviance

behavior that violates customary norms

formal deviance

behavior that breaks laws or official rules

social cohesion

social bonds; how well people relate to each other and get along on a day to day basis.

punitive justice

focuses on making the violator suffer. defines the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

rehabilitative justice

examines the specific circumstances of an individual transgressor and attempts to find ways to rehabilitate him or her.

safer streets campaign

deterring crime bu punishing petty crimes.

outreach policing

focuses on helping people avoid crime by treating the root causes

social control

mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals.

normative compliance

abiding by society's norms or simply following the rules of group life.

informal social control

social control that is carried out casually by ordinary people through such means as laughter, smiles, and ridicule

formal social control

Social control that is carried out by authorized agents, such as police officers, judges, school administrators, and employers

stigma

a negative social label that not only changes others' behavior toward a person but also alters that person's own self-concept and social identity

street crime

crime committed in public and often associated with violence, gangs, and poverty

white collar crime

crime committed by people of high social position in the course of their occupations

recidivism

when an individual who has been involved with the criminal justice system reverts to criminal behavior

Feminism

a social movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle in society and to address gender-based inequalities that intersect with other forms of social identity.

sex

perceived biological differences that society typically uses to distinguish males from females.

gender

social position; behaviors and a set of attributes that are associated with sex identities.

sexuality

desire, sexual preference, and sexual identity/behavior.

matrix of domination

intersecting domains of oppression that create a social space of domination and by extension, a unique position within that space based on someones intersectional identity along the multiple dimensions of gender, age, race, class, sexuality, location, and so on.

Intersectionality

the idea that it is critical to understand the interplay between social identities such as race, class, gender, ability status, and sexual orientation, even though many social systems and institutions (such as the law) try to treat each category on it's own.

gender pay gap

the overall income difference between women and men in the workplace

glass ceiling

an invisible limit on women's climb up the occupational ladder.

glass escalator

the accelerated promotion of men to the top of a work organization, especially in feminized jobs.

gender roles

sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as male or female

Homosexuality

the social identity of a person who has sexual attraction to and/or relations with people of the same sex.

patriarchy

a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity