SOC 1001 Midterm Review

Sociology

The Scientific study of interactions and relations among human beings

The Sociological Imagination

The vivid awareness of the relationship between individual experience and the wider society.

Thomas Theorem

If one wants to truly understand why people do the things they do, one must take into account not only what is really going on in a particular situation but also what people think is going on.

Empirical

Things that can be observed through the use of the physical senses - sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Normative

Differs from the empirical by including value statements…it includes a morally-endorsed ideal

Max Weber’s Inconvenient Facts

Pieces of evidence that contradict what you believe, or want to believe, about the world around you

Ethnocentrism

The belief that the norms, values, ideology, customs, and traditions of one’s own culture or subculture are superior to those characterizing other cultural settings/groups

Cultural Relativism

Not judging outside cultures to our own in-culture standards of right or wrong, taboo or normal

Concept

A label that is applied to things with similar characteristics and/or attributes - they seem to belong in the same category

Construct

The words used to describe things that exist analytically but are not directly observable.

Variables

Something that is of interest in a particular piece of research

Independent variable

The measured factor that you believe has a causal impact on the dependent variable

Dependent variable

The outcome you are trying to explain

Hypothesis

To propose a relationship between two variables, particularly with directionality

Directionality

Variables that vary in the same direction have a positive relationship; variables that vary in the opposite direction have a negative relationship

Operationalization

The process of transforming variables into precise definitions that are measurable and testable; creating operational definitions…Listing its attributes so that you can count the presence or absence of them in the real world.

Scientific method

A procedure involving the formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses based on systematic observation, measurement, and/or experiment

Correlation

The relationship between 2 sets of variables used to describe or predict data or events. The relationship can either track positively or negatively.

Causation

When an observed event or action appears to have caused a second event or action…very difficult to prove.

Reverse causality

When you believe that A causing B, but B is actually causing A. Can lead to spurious relationships.

Spurious relationship

A false correlation between two variables that is actually caused by a third variable. That third variable is often called a “confounding” or a “lurking” variable.

Validity

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

Reliability

The likelihood of getting the same or 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 studied.

Quantitative methodology

Positivist: Concerned with the factors that influence social life. The hypothesis predicts how one form of human behavior influences another. Variables are most numerical, infers that the results are generalizable, easily replicated

Qualitative methodology

Concerned with meanings attached to behaviors of social actors. Seeks to understand social worlds from the point of view of participants. Not numerical data, uses concepts, relies on words and actions.

Surveys

A series of questions asked to a number of people

Complete participant observation

Participant goes undercover and does not tell the people being observed that they are doing research

Complete observer observation

Views things from a distance; a fly on the wall. The researcher remains unknown to the participants/groups.

Participant/Observer observation

Admits to participants that they are researchers adn may involve self with the group.

Artifacts Data Collection

Learning about people’s culture through the things left behind

Secondary Data Collection

Data already collected by someone else, existing materials.

Historical Methods Data Collection

Collecting data from newspapers, journals, transcripts, TV…Popular in social movement literature

Comparative Research Methods

Methodology where two or more entities that are similar in may ways but differ on one question are compared.

Sociological Theoretical Paradigm

Theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the inquiries performed in support of them…They serve as lenses to view the social world

Functionalism (Structural-Functionalism)

Society is viewed as a system of interconnected and interdependent parts that work together harmoniously to maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole.

Herbert Spencer

Society was governed by laws in much the same way the physical (natural) world was. Social Darwinism, social competition was a process where the weak died out.

Auguste Comte

Created teh terms “positivism” and “sociology.” Created Law of Three Stages (Theological stage, Metaphysical stage, and The Scientific stage).

Emile Durkheim

Understood how society holds together and how modern capitalism and industrialization have transformed the ways people relate to one another. Compared Premodern (low degree DOL) with Modern (high degree DOL).

Integration

How tied you are as an individual, to others.

Regulation

The idea that all groups have rules, both formal and informal that create expectations for our behavior.

Anomie

Having too little regulation, where people do not have clear moral standards or social expectations to guide their behavior.

Conflict Theory

Looks at society as a competition for limited resources…This is a macro-level approach…Conflict is the essential nature of society at all levels of analysis

Karl Marx

Conflicts between classes that drove social change throughout history rather than ideas. Economic system is the most crucial part of society.

Relational Sociology

Instead of focusing on the properties/characteristics of individuals, you focus on the relationships individuals have with others and with social institutions.

Alienation

The feeling of being disconnected from others, from work and even from one’s own sense of humanity

Symbolic Interactionism

Focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society, micro-level. The idea that people act in response to the meanings that signs and social signals hold for them. By acting on perceptions of the social world in this way and regarding these meanings as created by the society, we then collectively make their meanings so.

Methodological Individualism

In order to make sense of the world, it is necessary to focus on the individual. Emphasized by Weber

Social action

The behaviors that produce structures

Interpretive

IF you want to understand someone’s behavior, you can’t just say there is an objective universal law guiding it. You need to make sense of the meaning individuals get from and assign to particular behaviors.

Rational behavior

Calculating behavior, to have a goal and plan how to achieve that goal most efficiently

Nonrational behavior

Behavior not geared to achieving some goal but was simply to be experienced or appreciated for itself. This was a characteristic of people in premodern society

Microsociology

Focuses on the interactions of individuals and the context of those interactions

Macrosociology

Focuses on the broader social phenomena like whole social structures, systems and institutions

Chicago School

Human’s behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical environments, which came to be known as social ecology.

Double Conciousness

A mechanism by which African Americans develop 2 behavioral scripts. One is to move through society and the other is to take external opinions that come from prejudiced individuals.

Feminist Theory

An emphasis on women’s experiences and a belief that sociology and society in general subordinate women. Emphasizes equality between men and women and wants to see women’s lives and experiences represented in sociological study.

Postmodernism

The notion that shared meanings have eroded. There is no longer one version of history that is correct…Everything is interpretable.

Midrange Theory

It is neither microsociology or macrosociology. It attempts to predict hwo certain social institutions tend to function. Attempt to bridge the gap between grand theory and hard empiricism and integrate them.

The Looking Glass Self

The process where people use the judgments they receive from others to measure their own worth, values, and behaviors. Created by Charles Cooley

Theory of Social Self

The self emerges from social interactions like observing and interacting with others, responding to others’ opinions and internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about oneself. The Self is not a biologically-inherited trait, it is developed over time through social experiences.

Social Institution

A complex and interlocking set of social norms and systems organized for the purpose of supporting society’s survival. Any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation that governs the behavior of a set of individuals within a given society.

Material Culture

All the things that humans make or adapt from nature. Items that have meaning to them.

Nonmaterial Culture

Made up of intangible things. Examples: ideas about beauty, truth, happiness, what is funny, right, wrong.

High culture

Cultural goods made for and enjoyed by elite groups. Examples: paintings, ballet, opera, expensive food.

Popular culture

Heavily produced and commercialized goods made for and consumed by a large audience. Produced for elite and upper-class tastes and has an aura of exceptional quality, popular culture is commonly associated with the masses.

Symbols

A category for Nonmaterial Culture. Anything that represents something else to more than one person (example: $, %, =)

Language

A category for Nonmaterial Culture. An organized set of symbols made up of spoken words and nonverbal gestures. The bedrock of culture because speech and meaning are conveyed.

Norms

A category for Nonmaterial Culture. Rules as they relate to our behavior. They are agreed-upon modes and rules of behavior that are enforced and reinforced within a society.

Folkways

Type of norm. They are casual norms. Violations are not taken seriously (standing in opposite direction of elevator).

Mores

Type of norm. Reflect important rules, such as norms against assaulting others. Informal unwritten rules that, when violated, result in punishments and social sanctions.

Taboos

Type of norm. Norms that are so deeply held that the thought of their violations upset people. For example, eating a dog.

Negative Sanctions

Type of sanction. The seriousness of the sanction depends on the level of the norm violated. Violating a folkway might get a nasty look but violating a taboo might get expulsion from group or death.

Formal Negative Sanction

Official responses from specific social organizations (government, universities, religious temples)

Informal negative sanctions

Come from individuals in the same social group (getting laughed at, cold shoulder)

Positive Sanctions

Rewards for keeping or excelling in a norm

Formal Positive Sanction

Rewards given out by official organizations (grades, prizes, honors)

Informal positive sanction

Rewards given out by the social group (standing ovation, applause, a smile)

Values

A category for Nonmaterial Culture. General or abstract ideas about what is good and desirable, as opposed to what is bad and undesirable.

Belief

A category for Nonmaterial Culture. People’s ideas about what is real and what is not real.

Social structure

An ordered arrangement of different partrs. The relationships between social groups of individuals within society. A pattern of social relationships existing in teh society or within groups.

Status

The position an individual occupies within a social structure. Socially defined positions in a group or society - they are known by certain expectations, rights and duties.

Achieved status

Positions in the social structure that individuals achieve for themselves. A social position a person gets voluntarily and as a result of personal choice, merit or effort taken on their part.

Ascribed status

Involuntary placements within the social structure. People are placed in their status, sometimes by birth as in race, ethnicity, sex and age.

Status symbols

Clues we give off that show our placement within the social structure in terms of status. Visible and mostly material examples of a person’s status…this is usually used to display their power or wealth, but it’s not restricted to that.

Master status

The status of greatest importance in a person’s life. The primary identifying characteristic. A type of label that may be given to you by others, or the status that you personally feel is most important to you.

Roles

The sum total of expectations about the behavior attached to a particular social status.

Role strain

Happens when the person has a hard time meeting all the demands of a particular role. When there are incompatible demands built into a single status that a person occupies.

Status inconsistency

When a person comes to occupy multiple statuses that do not mesh with social expectations.

Role conflict

When the actual demands of roles within a status clash. When there are incompatible role demands placed on a person by two or more statuses that are held at the same time.

Groups

One or more other individuals with whom we share some sense of identity or common goals and with whom we interact within a specific social structure. We do not spend our time as completely isolated individuals and society does not exist with detached individuals.

Primary groups

Groups characterized by intimate face-to-face association or cooperation.

Secondary group

Groups consisting of secondary relationships, means-to-an-ends type relationships. What is important in this group is your status rather than your personal character.

The social self

The values, beliefs, ideas, and decision-making strategies, and the general way in which people live their lives.

The other

Someone or something outside of oneself

The generalized other

An internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings - regardless of whether we’ve encountered those people or places before.

The “Me”

The part of the self that is based on how you see others seeing you. What you see when you put yourself in the shoes of someone else looking at you.

The “I”

The part of you that is uniquely you - your personal reactions to situations. Your response ot the attitudes of others.

Agents of socialization

Family, school, media, peer groups, workplace

Total institutions

A place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life.