"Interaction" Section 1 Sociology 101

Sociology 101, Introduction to Sociology

Culture

Shared beliefs, values, practices of a group

Society

Group of people who live in a defined geographical area, interact, and share a common culture

Socialization

Lifelong process through which people learn values and norms of a given society, develop personalities and human potential

Primary Socialization

First experiences with language, values, beliefs, behaviors and norms of a society

Gender Socialization

Teaches norms, values, traits, behaviors associated with the psychological and social traits associated with one’s sex

Race Socialization

Teaches norms, values, traits, behaviors associated with racial groups

Class Socialization

Teaches norms, values, traits, behaviors developed based on the social class you are in

Anticipatory Socialization

Social process where people learn to take on values and standards of groups they plan to join

Secondary Socialization

Process by which children become socialized outside the home (ex: school)

Hidden Curriculum

Education in norms, values, beliefs that are passed along through schooling (ex: spelling bees which teach spelling but also that the world has winners and losers)

Peer Groups

Social groups whose members have similar interests, social positions or ages

Social Prescriptions

Behaviors that are expected of people in groups

Main forces that influence socialization

School, family, peers, media

Total Institutions (Erving Goffman)

Places where people are completely cut off from the wider world and their life is organized by strict norms or rules (ex: military, boarding school)

Resocialization

Process by which old behaviors are removed and new behaviors are learned in their place

Nature vs. Nature

Nature = our beliefs, temperaments, interests, talents are set before birth

Nurture = relationships and environments shape who we are

Lawrence Kohlberg’s 3 Stages of Moral Development

Preconventional (young kids experience life through their senses), conventional (accepting and internalizing social norms and learning what is good and bad), post conventional (complex ideas of morality)

Generalized Other

As we grow and interact with others, we first learn to take the role of significant others—like parents, teachers, or close friends, and over time we begin to understand the broader rules and expectations that govern society

Moral Development

The lifelong process through which individuals internalize and express societal values regarding right and wrong

Self

A person’s sense of identity as developed through social interaction

Habitualization

Idea that society is constructed by us and those before us, and it is followed like a habit

Self-fufilling prophecy

When a person’s belief or expectation, even if false, leads them to act in a way that makes the belief come true (effect of Thomas Theorem)

Thomas Theoreom

"If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences", people's subjective beliefs about a situation, even if based on a false premise, have real consequences that shape their behavior.

Achieved Status

Social position that an individual earns through personal effort, skills, and accomplishments, rather than being born into it (ex: education)

Ascribed Status

The status outside of an individual’s control, such as sex or race, born with it

Dramaturgical Approach

A technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance

Impression Management

Effort to control or influence other people’s opinions

Looking-glass Self

Our self-identity is shaped by our interpretation of how others perceive us, using the "mirror" of other people's reactions

Roles

A set of expected behaviors, rights, and obligations associated with a particular social position or status within society (ex: roles of a mother, doctor, student)

Role Set

An array of roles attached to a particular status (ex: role set of a parent is to be a caregiver at home and a mentor in public)

Role Conflict

A situation when one or more of an individual’s roles clash (ex: struggling to balance a demanding job as a doctor with the responsibilities of being a parent

Role Performance

The expression of a role

Role Strain

Stress that occurs when too much is required of a single role (ex: feeling overwhelmed by needing to be both compassionate and authoritarian as a parent)

Status

Responsibilities and benefits a person experiences according to his or her rank or role in society

Manifest Function

Intended, recognized, obvious outcome of a social pattern serving a clear purpose (ex: school = to transmit knowledge)

Degradation Ceremony

A public event or ritual designed to transform an individual's social identity by losing aspects of their old identities and being given new ones

Micro vs Macro Studies

Micro = small groups, individual interactions (ex: studying conversational norms amongst teenagers)

Macro = Trends among large groups (ex: studying how language changes overtime)

Sociological Imagination

The ability to understand the connection between personal experiences and larger social and historical forces (ex: recognizing that a person's unemployment is a personal problem but also a broader societal issue linked to economic trends)

Reifitication

When you think of or treat something abstract as a physical thing (ex: happiness, fear or evil being treated as a material thing)

Marginalization

Describes the social, economic, and political exclusion of individuals or groups

Social Location

Combined social/cultural factors shaping identity, experiences, place in society, and experiences (ex: race, ethnicity, gender, class, etc)

Social Facts

Aspects of social life that shape a person’s behaviors (ex: laws, morals, values, religion, customs)

Figuration (Norbert Elias)

Process of simultaneously analyzing behavior of an individual and society that shapes that behavior

Auguste Comte Law of 3 Stages

Theological Stage (people took religious views of society), Metaphysical Stage (people understand society as natural not supernatural), Scientific or Positivist Stage (society governed by knowledge)

Positivism (Auguste Comte)

Views society as an entity governed by laws and asserts that only scientific evidence can provide valid knowledge about how society functions

Personal Troubles

The individual challenges that appear to be caused by a person's own choices or circumstances, such as unemployment or a specific illness

Public Issues

A societal problem that affects large groups of people and is rooted in social structures, policies, or economic systems, rather than individual failings, lie outside of a person’s control

Grand Theories

Attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and change

Hypothesis

A testable educated guess about predicted outcomes between two or more variables

Paradigms

A broad theoretical framework encompassing assumptions, concepts, and theories that provide a lens for understanding society and guiding research

Dysfunction

Social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society

Functionalism/Structural-functional Theory

A sociological theory viewing society as a complex system with interconnected parts—institutions like family, government, and education—that work together to maintain stability and order

Latent Functions

Unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process

Social Institutions

Patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs

Social Solidarity

The social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, religion

Power Elite (Wright Mills)

Describes the concentration of power among a few powerful individuals in government, industry, the military

Bourgeoise

Those who owned means of production

Class Consciousness

The awareness and understanding of one’s own social class, the shared interests and experiences they have with others in the same class

Conflict Theory

Theory that examines society as a competition for limited resources

Double Consciousness

An individual whose identity is divided into many facets (ex: the internalized sense of being both Black and American)

False Consciousness

Proletarians are unable to identify and understand their own class position

Feminist

A person who thinks that females are equal to males

Feminist Theory

Critical analysis of the way that gender affects societal structures, power and inequality

Intersectional Theory

Utilizes many identities (race, economic class, etc) as important to understanding inequality

Proletariat

Group of people who labor in means of production (workers) and do not have or control capital like bourgeoise do

Constructivism

An extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be

Empirical Evidence

Evidence that comes from direct experience, scientifically gathered date or experimentation

Interpretive Framework

Sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction (not hypothesis based)

Meta Analysis

A statistical method that combines quantitative findings from previous studies

Critical Sociology

Focuses on deconstruction of existing sociological research and theory

Dependent vs Independent Variable

DV = A variable changed by other variables, IV = Factor that is manipulated or changed by the researcher and causes change in dependent variables

Correlation

When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, does not necessarily indicate causation

Literature Review

Scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research

Operational Definitions

A clear, concise explanation of a concept in terms of how it is to be measured or observed in a study or experiment

Reliability

Measure of a study’s consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated accurately if a study is reproduced

Validity

The accuracy of a research method or measure, meaning it truly measures what it is intended to measure

Scientific Method

A step-by-step process used to explore observations, answer questions, and solve problems by making a testable explanation (hypothesis), conducting experiments, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions based on evidence

Hawthorne Effect

People’s tendency to change their behavior when they know they are being watched (as part of a study)

Code of Ethics

Set of guidelines that the ASA established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology

Value Neutrality

Practice of remaining impartial, no bias or judgements, during the course of a study and also when publishing results

Case Study

In-depth analysis of a single event, situation or individual

Ethnography

A research method where a researcher immerses themselves in a specific culture or community to understand its people, practices, and social structures from the "inside"

Field Research

Gathering data from a neutral environment without doing a lab experiment

Participant Observation

Similar to ethnograpy, a research method where the researcher actively participates in a group's activities and everyday life to gain a deep, insider's perspective on their culture, beliefs, and behaviors

Field Research

Gathering data from a neutral environment without doing a lab experiment or survey

Primary Data

Data that is collected directly from firsthand experience

Content Analysis

A systematic research method for examining human communication—including texts, images, and media—to uncover patterns, themes, and biases related to social and cultural phenomena

Secondary Data Analysis

Using data collected by others but applying new interpretations

Benefit

Secondary data analysis that saves time and money