SOC 100 Exam 1

Globalization

the development of social and economic relationships stretching worldwide. means world societies are dependent on each other for food and other goods.

Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills. the application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. People who use soc imagination “think themselves away” from the familiar routines of daily life

Social Structure

the underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave in relationships with one another

Social Construction

idea/practice that a group of people agree exists. It is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted. ex: dressing babies in blue or pink to signal their gender

Social facts

According to Emile Durkheim, the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals. He believed social facts can be studied scientifically

Socialization

the social processes through which children dev. an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self. Significant in infancy/childhood but still occurs throughout life. No one is immune to reactions of others, which influence their behavior in a lifetime

Auguste Comte

invented the word sociology, thought scientific method could be used to study human behavior, positivism

Organic solidarity

According to Emile Durkheim, the social cohesion that results from various parts of society (political system, economy, family, etc.) functioning as a whole

Social Constraint

According to Emile Durkheim, the conditioning influence on our behavior of the groups/societies of which we are members. One of the properties of social facts

Division of labor

specialization of cooperative labor in specific tasks to increase efficiency, where a complex job is broken down into parts that can be assigned to different people (especially men or women). Is international and is more complex than any other type of production system. Emile Durkheim

Anomie

Coined by Emile Durkheim, refers to a situation where social norms lose their hold over individual behavior

Materialist concept of history

View by Karl Marx that says material or economic factors have a big role in determining historical change

Capitalism

economic system based on private ownership of wealth, which is (re) invested to make profit. Karl Marx

Bureaucracy

org. marked by clear hierarchy of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by full time, paid officials. Studied by Max Weber

Rationalization

concept used by Max Weber refers to processes which people use reason, efficiency, calculability, and predictability. Dominates social world. Involves abstract rules/procedures

Symbolic Interactionism

theoretical approach dev. by G.H. Mead that emphasizes the role of symbols/language as core elements of all human interaction

Symbol

one item used to stand for or represent another (i.e. flag for a country)

Functionalism

social events can be best explained in terms of the functions they perform - the contributions they make to the continuity of a society. Auguste Comte. Functionalists compare society to the human body - to understand one organ we need to know how it relates to other parts of the body

Manifest functions

functions of a type of social activity that are known to and intended by the individuals involved in the activity

Latent functions

functional consequences that are not intended and recognized by the members of a social system

Conflict theory

emphasizes the role of political/economic power and oppression as contributing to the social order

Marxism

a body of thought deriving its elements from the ideas of Karl Marx

Power

ability of individuals or members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. Very pervasive element in all relationships. Conflicts in society are sometimes struggles over power

Ideologies

shared ideas/beliefs that serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. Found in all societies where there are inequalities between groups. Connects to power bc they serve to legitimize power that groups hold.

Feminist theory

emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world, especially the unique experiences of women. Many strands of this theory but they all share the desire to explain gender inequality/how to overcome it

Feminism

advocacy of the rights of women to be equal to men

Rational choice approach

theory that individuals behavior is purposeful. argues that deviant behavior is a rational response to a specific social system. self-interest influences decisions

Post Modernism

society is no longer governed by history/progress. Highly pluralistic/diverse with no “narrative” guiding its dev.

Microsociology

study of human behavior in the context of face to face interaction

Macrosociology

study of large scale organizations or social systems

Harriet Martineau

first woman sociologist, importance on studying everyday life, morality, and the status of women

W.E.B. Du Bois

discovered the concept of double consciousness, race is central to understand American society. Connected problems faced by African Americans to social and econ forces

Social change

long term transformations in social institutions/relationships and culture

Agency vs. structure debate

people’s actions are impacted more by their own choices or by the social forces that constrain them

Sociology

The study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups.

Quantitative methods

positivists use to establish trends and patterns of behavior, presented in numerical form, replicable, generalizable. Ex: experiments, questionnaires, etc.

Qualitative methods

interpretivists use to look for the meanings and motives behind the behavior of groups. better expressed through words, symbols, and images. Smaller in scale, not focused on replicability. Ex: journals, documents, case studies

Computational methods

uses big data such as social media data, administrative data, and digital trace data

Horizontal social structure

refers to the social relationships and the social and physical characteristics of communities to which individuals belong

Vertical social structure

social inequality, refers to ways in which a society or group ranks people in a hierarchy

Social order

the structured arrangement of norms, values, roles, and institutions within a society

Karl Marx

founded the materialist conception of history, capitalism, believed that class conflict led to a more equal society

Max Weber

Believed econ factors led to social change, sociology of religion, Christianity influenced capitalism, bureaucracy

Hypotheses

ideas/educated guesses about a given state of affairs, put forward as bases for empirical testing

Research methods

diverse methods of investigation used to gather empirical material. most common methods in soc are fieldwork (or participant obs) and survey. useful to combine methods

Ethnography

study of people using obs, in depth interviewing or both. also called fieldwork, better for smaller groups, here the investigator socializes, works, or lives with members of a group, hard to generalizes bc specific to one community, (-) = may lose objectivity

Participant obs

researcher takes part in the activities of the group being studied

Survey

questionnaires are administered to the pop. being studied; easy for large groups - generalizable, quantitative

Population

ppl who are the focus of social research

Pilot study

a trial run in survey research

Sample

small proportion of the population

Representative sample

sample from the pop. that is statistically typical of that pop.

Sampling

studying a proportion of individuals from larger pop. as representative of that pop. as a whole

Random sampling

sample is chosen so that every member of the pop. has an equal chance of being chosen

Experiment

variables can be analyzed in a controlled/systematic way either in an artificial or natural setting. Causality

Measures of central tendency

ways of calculating averages

Correlation coefficients

measures of the degree of correlation between variables

Degree of dispersal

range or distribution of a set of figures

Comparative research

compares one set of findings on one society with the same type of findings on other societies

Community based participatory research (CBPR)

collaborative approach to research that equitably involves community members, researchers, and others in all aspects of the research process

Empirical investigation

factual inquires carried out in any area of sociological study

The Research Progress

1. Define the research process; often because of a puzzle

2. Review the literature; what have other researchers published about said topic?

3. Make the problem precise; formulate hypothesis

4. Work out a design; choose from various research methods

5. Carry out the research; overcome possible bumps in the road

6. Interpret results; address hypothesis clearly

7. Report findings; publish work about the whole process

William Ogburn

pushed for sociology to be just a science, only wanting to find new knowledge, valued quantitative methods

Robert Park

wanted to understand how sociology directly affected people’s lives, evidence based, important to meet the subjects, used Chicago as a lab

Reflexivity

being aware of a researcher’s position in their social world/research

Inference

refers to generalizing from specific cases to broader patterns. goal of soc research

Culture

values, norms, and material goods characteristic of a given group. one of the most distinctive properties of human social association

Society

group of people who live in a particular territory, are subject to a common system of political authority and are aware of having a distinct identity from other groups. can be large or small

Cultural universals

values or modes of behavior shared by all human cultures

Marriage

socially approved sexual relationship between 2 individuals; forms on basis of a family of procreation

Non material culture

cultural ideas that are not themselves physical objects (ex: values, norms)

Material culture

the physical objects that a society creates that influence the way people live

Values

ideas held by individuals/groups about what is desirable, proper, good, and bad. Values are strongly based on the specific culture they live in

Norms

rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a range of social situations. Prescribes a given behavior or forbids it. all humans follow norms, which are backed by sanctions varying from informal disapproval to physical punishment

Signifier

any vehicle of meaning and communication

Semiotics

study of the ways in which nonlinguistic phenomena can generate meaning

Language

the primary vehicle of meaning and communication in a society, language is a system of symbols that represent objects and abstract thoughts

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Based on Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, perceptions are relative to language

Cultural turn

soc’s recent emphasis on the importance of understanding the role of culture in daily life “tool kit”

Pastoral societies

societies whose subsistence derives from the rearing of domesticated animals. more material wealth than hunter gatherers, more inequality

Agrarian societies

societies whose means of subsistence are based on agricultural production (crop growing). permanent settlements, clear class divisions, political systems, specialization of labor

Industrialization

the process of the machine production of goods

Industrialized societies

strongly dev nations where majority of pop. works in factories or offices rather than agriculture. Most people live in urban areas. urbanization, wage labor, sharp class divisions, emphasis on productivity

Nation states

govs have sovereign power within defined territorial areas and pop. are citizens who know themselves to be part of single nations

Colonialism

western nations established their rule in parts of the world away from their home territories

Cultural capital

the accumulated cultural knowledge within a society that confers power/status. 3 types: presentation, material objects, and socially determined characteristics

Emerging economies

countries located mostly in the Global South such as India and Singapore that over the past ¾ decades have begun to dev. a strong industrial base

Cultural appropriation

adaptation of one cultural group’s elements by another cultural group

Subcultures

values and norms held by a group within a wider society that are distinct from those of the majority

Countercultures

cultural groups within a wider society that largely reject the values/norms of the majority

Assimilation

process where different cultures are absorbed into mainstream culture

Multiculturalism

condition in which ethic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life

Cultural relativism

practice of judging a society by its own standards

Sociobiology

approach that attempts to explain behavior of both animals and humans in terms of biological principles

Instincts

fixed patterns of behavior that have genetic origins and that appear in all animals within a given species

Nationalism

a set of beliefs and symbols expressing identification with a national community

Cultural lag

idea by William Ogburn that changes in cultural values and norms take time to catch up with tech dev. nonmaterial and material culture do not change at the same pace (i.e. social media vs privacy norms)

Two cultural universals

communication and expressed meaning + material objects used in daily life

Settler colonialism

large scale European settlement in colonized places

Cultural identity

how people understand themselves as members of a group