Sociology Test 1 ID List

Sociological Imagination

The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces. The _____ allows us to see the connection between personal troubles and public issues. The theorist most closely associated with this approach is C.W. Mills.

Ethnography

The firsthand study of people using participant-observation, indepth interviewing, or both. Also called “fieldwork”.

Symbolic Interactionism

A micro-level theoretical framework (or paradigm) in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions. This framework assumes that meanings are not fixed but, rather, created and recreated through social interaction between persons in place and time. The classic theorist associated with this paradigm is the historical sociologist, Max Weber.

Functionalism

A theoretical perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform, that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society. As a theoretical framework (or paradigm), ________ understands society as a complex, interrelated system wherein the different parts of the system work together to promote social health and equilibrium. The classic theorist associated with this paradigm is Émile Durkheim.

Conflict Theory

This macro-level theoretical perspective (or paradigm) assumes that the animating force of social change and of society in general is conflict and competition between unequal classes for social goods and resources. The classic theorist associated with this paradigm is Karl Marx. Although Marx focused on class conflict, later feminists, postcolonial, and antiracist theorists have used ____ to analyze patriarchy and racism.

Status/Position

A determinate position one holds in a social field, relative to others. ____ carry responsibilities, expectations and relative benefits and handicaps. There are (generally) ascribed ____ (such as “Latino/a/x” or “daughter”)

Role

The regulating norms of behavior and social scripts that are attached to statuses/positions (such as the patriarchal norm that mothers should be more caring than fathers).

Intravidual

Due to social media and our digitally mediated social world, our sense of individuality has exploded. We are multiple selves who manage these selves within different media streams (e.g., how we are on Instagram and TikTok is not who we are on LinkedIn or at the dinner table or when we are anonymously browsing the web). We are also living in worlds of constant communication (e.g., texts, social media messages) and, hence, our sphere of privacy has dissolved.

Path of Least Resistance

Social systems and structures incentivize certain kinds of beliefs and behavior by rewarding these. Examples of ____ include normative gender expression and avoiding eye contact on public transportation.

Socialization

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

Multiracial and Intersectional Feminism

A feminist framework and approach that looks to understand the interplay between social identities of gender, race, class, ability status, and sexual orientation even though many social systems and institutions (such as the law) try to treat these individually

Othering

is perceived in stereotypical terms by the dominant culture and can simultaneously be rendered invisible and stick out like a sore thumb.

Social structure

institutionalize social relationships and patterns of behavior within groups (such as between mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters in a heteronormative, idealized American nuclear family). They (like gender and race and their intersectionality) also reproduce social hierarchies and inequalities because they allocate social goods and benefits to individuals differently due to their relative position within those structures. Examples of social goods include: economic opportunity, prestige, opportunities for leisure and self-autonomy, and being given the benefit of the doubt

Ideal-Type

used by the historical sociologist, Max Weber, as an analytic tool. They are not empirical cases but, instead, scholarly constructions that accentuate features for purposes of comparison (e.g., remember our discussion comparing typical Baruch, Hunter, and NYU undergraduate students).

Bourgeoisie

Associated with Marx’s analysis of capitalism, these are the owners of the means of production who employ wage labor

Ideology

A system of beliefs, attitudes, and values that directs a society and reproduces the status quo of the bourgeoisie.

Collective Effervescence

Associated with the functionalism of Émile Durkheim, the intense energy in shared events where people are swept up in something larger than themselves and reinforces the collective values of the community (e.g., the Super Bowl in American culture reinforces norms of gender, competition, and consumption)