Sociology for Cambridge International AS & A Level Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards defining core sociological concepts, theories, research methods, and figures from the coursebook.

Culture

The complete 'way of life' of a society or group that must be taught and learnt through primary and secondary socialisation.

Material Culture

The physical objects or artefacts produced by a society that reflect its cultural knowledge, skills, and interests.

Non-material Culture

The intangible knowledge, beliefs, values, and meanings shared and valued by a particular culture.

Manifest Function

The primary, intended, and explicit purpose for which an object, practice, or institution exists.

Latent Function

The hidden, unintended, or secondary function of an object, practice, or institution, such as acting as a status symbol.

Anomie

Merton's term for a state of normlessness where individuals fail to understand or align with the social norms operating in a situation, resulting in confusion, fear, or anger.

Looking-Glass Self

Cooley's concept that individuals build their self-identity by using others as mirrors to perceive how they are viewed and judged by society.

Harriet Martineau

An early sociologist who translated Auguste Comte into English, conducted empirical research in the United States, and argued that the study of society must include women's lives, race relations, and domestic life.

Role-Set

A set of complementary social relationships associated with a particular social role, such as a pupil interacting with subject teachers, other pupils, administrative staff, and parents.

Repressive State Apparatuses (RSAs)

Althusser's concept of state institutions such as the police, armed forces, and courts that enforce ruling-class control through physical force or legal coercion.

Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs)

Althusser's concept of institutions such as education, media, religion, and the family that transmit ruling-class ideology to secure voluntary conformity.

Structuration

Giddens's perspective stating that social structure and human agency are interdependent, where routine human actions construct rules that then reflect back to influence future actions.

Hegemonic Masculinity

The culturally dominant form of male identity defined by traits such as physical strength, leadership, rationality, emotional restraint, and economic provision.

Emphasised Femininity

The traditional form of female identity defined by accommodating the interests and desires of men, characterized as passive, nurturing, and emotional.

Primary Socialisation

The initial stage of learning norms and values, occurring mainly within the family group during early childhood.

Secondary Socialisation

The lifelong stage of socialisation occurring outside the family through secondary agencies such as schools, peer groups, the media, and workplace.

Quantitative Data

Information expressed numerically in the form of raw numbers, percentages, or rates, allowing for statistical comparison and correlation.

Qualitative Data

Non-numerical data designed to capture the depth, quality, meanings, and motivations behind human social behavior.

Verstehen

Weber's concept of empathetic understanding, meaning to see and understand the social world through the eyes and experiences of the research subjects.

Hawthorne Effect

The tendency for research subjects to alter their natural behavior simply because they are aware they are being observed or studied.

Methodological Pluralism

The research strategy of combining multiple different research methods (both quantitative and qualitative) within a single research project.

Triangulation

The technique of using multiple methods, data sources, or researchers to cross-check data and improve overall reliability and validity.

Operationalisation

The process of converting abstract sociological concepts into measurable, practical indicators for empirical research.

Nuclear Family

A two-generation family structure consisting of two cohabiting or married parents and their dependent children living in a single household.

Stabilisation of Adult Personalities

One of Parsons's irreducible family functions, where the family provides emotional, physical, and psychological support to relieve stress in adult family members.

Double Shift (Dual Burden)

The situation where women perform both paid employment in the public sphere and unpaid domestic work and childcare in the home.

Symmetrical Family

Willmott and Young's term for a family structure characterized by joint conjugal roles, equal domestic decision-making, and shared household responsibilities.

Beanpole Family

A multi-generational family structure featuring strong vertical ties across three or four generations but weak horizontal ties due to low birth rates and increased life expectancy.

Hidden Curriculum

The implicit, unwritten lessons, values, and norms that students absorb from the experience of attending school, such as punctuality and deference to authority.

Correspondence Principle

Bowles and Gintis's Marxist concept that the social relationships, discipline, and structures of schooling directly mirror those of the capitalist workplace.

Cultural Capital

Bourdieu's concept referring to the non-economic cultural resources (knowledge, speech codes, skills, tastes) inherited from parents that give educational advantages to higher social classes.

Elaborated Speech Code

Bernstein's term for a complex, grammatically detailed, context-independent language code primarily used by the middle class and required by the education system.

Restricted Speech Code

Bernstein's term for a simple, grammatically predictable, context-dependent language code that relies on shared unspoken assumptions, commonly used by the working class.

Glocalisation

The process where global cultural products, ideas, or practices interact with local settings and are adapted to create unique local variations.

McDonaldisation

Ritzer's concept describing how the principles of fast-food restaurants (efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control) come to dominate social and economic life.

Distanciation

Giddens's concept referring to the separation of time and space in modern globalized communications, enabling instantaneous interaction regardless of physical distance.

Gate-keeping

The process by which media owners, editors, and journalists filter, select, and decide which stories are presented to the public as newsworthy.

Moral Panic

An exaggerated, sensationalized media reaction to a particular social group or behavior, framing them as 'folk devils' threatening the moral order of society.

Deviance Amplification Spiral

A process described by Wilkins where media reporting and social reaction to primary deviance leads to group isolation, secondary deviance, and an escalating cycle of further deviance and social control.

Hyper-reality

Baudrillard's concept describing a state where media representations and simulations interweave to create a simulated reality that feels more real to individuals than actual physical reality.

Collective Conscience

Durkheim's term for the shared set of core moral beliefs, values, and attitudes that unite individuals and maintain social order in a society.

Theodicy of Disprivilege

Weber's concept describing religious worldviews offered by sects that explain and justify the poverty or low social status of marginalized groups, promising future spiritual rewards.

Secularisation

The process by which religious beliefs, practices, and institutions lose their social significance, influence, and authority within society.