Sociological Theory Comprehensive Study Guide Flashcards

A comprehensive vocabulary review of sociological theories and theorists based on October 1–22 lecture notes, including Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Feminist Sociology.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Sociologist (1860–1935) who used an evolutionary lens and developed Gynaecocentric Theory, arguing that patriarchy creates women's economic dependence on men.

Fourth Power of the Cell

Gilman's description of society as an evolving organism developing from simple cells to organs, organisms, and ultimately complex social organizations.

Gynaecocentric Theory (GT)

A sociohistorical analysis through a gendered lens that examines society and women's oppression from a feminine point of view.

Diachronic Analysis

The study of how something develops and changes throughout history over time.

Morbid Excess in Sex Distinction

Gilman's concept that gender differences and the traditional division of labor have been exaggerated beyond what is necessary, reinforcing female dependency.

Sexuo-Economic Relations

The relationship between gender and economics in which women's dependence on men in the personal sphere reinforces their exclusion in the public sphere.

Human Capital Theory

The idea that people's education, skills, and abilities contribute directly to their economic productivity.

Accumulation of Precedent

The social forces—such as art, religion, habits, institutions, and media—that reinforce, legitimize, and make unequal gender expectations appear natural over time.

Cooperative Housekeeping

Organizing domestic work collectively rather than requiring every individual woman to perform all household labor independently.

Feminization of Love

A concept introduced by Francesca Cancian referring to the cultural association of love and emotional expression predominantly with women.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Sociologist (1868–1963) and author of The Souls of Black Folk who developed theories of cultural oppression, standpoint epistemology, and double consciousness.

Cognitive Understanding

Understanding something intellectually or through conceptual knowledge rather than through personal lived experience.

Experiential Understanding

Understanding something directly through personal, lived experience.

Standpoint Epistemology

A method of inquiry recognizing that an individual's social position and lived experiences fundamentally shape what they know and understand.

General Theory of Cultural Oppression

Du Bois' proposition that every group oppressed structurally (economically and politically) will also be oppressed culturally through erased history, misrepresentation, and being treated as the problem.

Ideology

Ideas and beliefs that legitimize or justify existing power structures and social inequalities.

Denotative Meaning

The direct, literal, dictionary definition of a word.

Connotative Meaning

The secondary cultural associations, social meanings, and emotional nuances that a word develops over time.

Being the Problem

Du Bois' concept describing when society frames a marginalized group itself as the source of societal issues rather than examining systemic unfairness.

Double Consciousness

The internal experience of seeing yourself through your own perspective while simultaneously viewing yourself through the eyes of a society that devalues and stereotypes you.

Intersectionality

An analytical framework examining how overlapping social identities and systems of oppression—such as race, class, and gender—intersect.

Structural Functionalism

A sociological perspective viewing society as a complex system of interconnected parts working together to maintain social order, stability, and cohesion.

Émile Durkheim

A classical sociologist regarded as a precursor to functionalism who emphasized social integration, cohesion, and organic solidarity.

Organic Solidarity

Social cohesion based on mutual interdependence and the division of specialized labor found in modern industrial societies.

Talcott Parsons

Functionalist sociologist (1902–1979) who developed abstract, deductive action theories to explain how social systems fulfill institutional and individual needs to preserve cohesion.

Deduction

A logical reasoning process moving from general theoretical principles to specific observations or applications.

Induction

A logical reasoning process moving from specific empirical observations and data toward general broad theories.

Action Theory

A sociological framework examining human action and the purposive relationship between actors and their goals.

Voluntaristic Action Theory

Parsons' theory recognizing that individuals make subjective choices based on motivations, internalized values, and environmental circumstances.

Unit Act

The specific, basic action performed by an individual, including the actor, a goal, a situation, and normative standards.

Modes of Orientation

The motivational and value-guided orientations that influence how an individual actor directs their social choices and actions.

Strategic Action

Action driven by information, truth-seeking, or achieving instrumental goals (e.g., researching before making a decision).

Expressive Action

Action driven by emotional attachment, care, and personal connection (e.g., showing love to a family member).

Moral Action

Action driven by ethical evaluation of right and wrong (e.g., standing up against discrimination).

Status

An individual's defined position within a social hierarchy or institutional setting.

Role

The expected behaviors, duties, and privileges associated with a specific social status.

Norms

Shared social rules that guide and enforce appropriate behavior in a society or community.

Homophily

The sociological principle that individuals tend to interact and form connections with people who are similar to themselves.

Propinquity

The tendency of individuals to form social relationships with those who are physically or socially close to them.

Grand Theory

C. Wright Mills' term criticizing overly abstract sociological frameworks that explain society without sufficient empirical evidence.

Robert K. Merton

Functionalist sociologist (1910–2003) who modified structural functionalism using induction, focusing on empirical reality, dysfunctions, and unintended consequences.

Functional Alternatives

The concept that different social structures or arrangements can fulfill the same basic social function.

Manifest Function

An intended and obvious consequence of a social institution, pattern, or action.

Latent Function

A hidden, unintended, or less obvious consequence of a social structure, institution, or action.

Dysfunction

A consequence of a social structure or action that negatively affects individuals or undermines the stability of society.

Unintended Consequences

Outcomes that occur even though they were not the original objective or goal of an action.

Role Strain

The experience of conflicting or contradictory expectations placed on a single individual within one social role.

Conformist (Merton)

An individual who accepts both societal goals ($+$) and the conventional, institutionalized means ($+$) to achieve them.

Ritualist (Merton)

An individual who rejects or abandons cultural goals ($-$) but continues to rigidly follow accepted conventional means ($+$).

Innovator (Merton)

An individual who accepts cultural goals ($+$) but rejects conventional institutional means ($-$), often resorting to non-traditional or illegal paths.

Retreatist (Merton)

An individual who rejects both cultural success goals ($-$) and conventional institutional means ($-$), withdrawing completely from societal expectations.

Rebel (Merton)

An individual who rejects both existing societal goals and conventional means, actively working to replace them with a new system.

Cybernetics

The study of complex systems, automatic control, communication, and self-regulating feedback mechanisms.

Conflict Theory

A sociological perspective explaining social order and change through ongoing competition over scarce resources, power, status, and opportunities.

Karl Marx

Classical theorist who analyzed capitalism, private property, and class conflict between owners of the means of production and workers.

Means of Production (MoP)

The physical tools, land, raw materials, factories, and equipment required to produce goods and services.

Class, Status, Party

Max Weber's multidimensional model of inequality: economic position (class), social prestige (status), and political influence (party).

Lewis Coser

Sociologist (1913–2003) and author of The Functions of Social Conflict who argued that conflict can serve positive, functional roles in preserving social groups.

Social Conflict (Coser)

A struggle over values and claims to scarce status, power, and resources in which opponents seek to neutralize or eliminate their rivals.

Boundary Maintenance

A function of conflict identified by Coser where struggles with outside groups clarify borders and strengthen internal group identity.

Real Conflict

Conflict that stems from specific, substantive disagreements or competing claims over goals and resources.

Non-Real Conflict

Conflict that does not originate from substantive issues, but rather serves as an expressive outlet to release tension and frustration.

Safety-Valve Theory

The release of accumulated frustration through secondary channels to preserve the existing social system, often at the expense of a less powerful individual.

Ralf Dahrendorf

Sociologist (1929–2009) who argued that social order is maintained through power, constraint, and institutional authority rather than consensus.

Power vs. Authority (Dahrendorf)

Power is the raw capacity to control or influence others, whereas authority is legitimated power institutionalized within an organization.

Imperatively Coordinated Associations (ICAs)

Dahrendorf's term for organizations and institutions structured by hierarchical relationships of authority and domination.

Constraint Approach

Dahrendorf's model positing that society is organized and maintained through authority, power, and coercion, contrasting the functionalist equilibrium approach.

Quasi-Group

An aggregate of people who share common latent interests and positions but have not formally organized to act collectively.

Interest Group

A formally organized group of individuals who actively engage in collective action based on conscious, shared interests.

Randall Collins

Sociologist (1941– ) who formulated conflict sociology through systematic propositions regarding resources, rituals, geopolitics, and conflict dynamics.

Absolute Deprivation

The severe condition of lacking the minimum essential resources needed for physical survival.

Relative Deprivation

The subjective feeling of being disadvantaged when comparing one's situation and resources to those of another person or group.

William Julius Wilson

Sociologist and author of The Truly Disadvantaged who analyzed how structural economic shifts and the intersection of race and class shape life chances.

Split Labor Market

A labor market divided along racial or group lines, resulting in differential wages and unequal economic opportunities.

Post-Industrial Economy

An economy centered on services, information, and finance (e.g., FIRE: Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) rather than industrial manufacturing.

Tight Labor Market

An economic condition where job openings exceed or closely match the number of available workers seeking employment.

Slack Labor Market

An economic condition where available job openings are scarce relative to the number of available workers seeking employment.

Identity Politics

Political activity and theoretical frameworks grounded in the shared experiences of injustice and identity among members of marginalized groups.

Male Hegemony

The pervasive institutional and cultural dominance of men and masculine perspectives in society and academia.

Social Closure

The process by which privileged groups restrict outside access to resources, credentials, opportunities, or recognition.

Dorothy Smith

Feminist sociologist (1926–2022) who pioneered standpoint theory and institutional ethnography, analyzing the ideological practices of power embedded in texts.

Standpoint Theory (Dorothy Smith)

A perspective stating that knowledge is situated within individuals' social positions, challenging the assumed objectivity of dominant groups.

Facticity

The institutional process through which administrative texts, accounts, and information are created and treated as undeniable facts.

Line of Fault

The gap or rupture between an individual's actual lived experience and how that experience is represented in institutional texts.

Institutional Ethnography

A feminist research method developed by Dorothy Smith that traces how texts, institutional policies, and power relations organize everyday lives.

Patricia Hill Collins

Sociologist (1948– ) and author of Black Feminist Thought who developed Black feminist epistemology, the matrix of domination, and four domains of power.

Black Feminist Epistemology

A way of knowing rooted in the historical and lived experiences of Black women that challenges traditional Eurocentric positivistic standards of truth.

Eurocentric Positivism (EP)

A dominant Western academic paradigm that claims objectivity and value-neutrality while often ignoring marginalized standpoint experiences.

Structural Domain of Power

The domain of power dealing with the fundamental organization of social institutions, such as systemic disparities in educational access.

Disciplinary Domain of Power

The domain of power that manages and enforces rules, policies, and institutional surveillance, such as unequal school discipline.

Hegemonic Domain of Power

The domain of power that operates through culture, symbols, and ideologies that justify inequality by making stereotypes seem like common sense.

Interpersonal Domain of Power

The domain of power that manifests in everyday face-to-face interactions, personal relationships, and microaggressions.

Safe Spaces

Social arenas where marginalized individuals can gather, speak freely, share lived experiences, and build knowledge without oppressive external pressures.

Asset-Building

Developing and accumulating financial, property, and capital resources to secure long-term independence and generational wealth.