10/5 Introduction to Sociology and Social Facts

Vocabulary flashcards covering foundational sociological concepts, major theorists, social facts, and core definitions from the introductory lecture.

Sociology

The scientific study of human social life, groups, and activity.

Three Components of Society

A working definition of society consisting of a population that occupies the same territory, is subject to the same political authority, and participates in a common culture.

Sociological Imagination

A quality of mind, formulated by C. Wright Mills, that allows individuals to connect personal troubles or triumphs to larger public issues by understanding the intersection of history and biography.

Social Construction of Reality

The process by which an idea or practice is created by people, agreed upon by consensus, maintained over time, and taken for granted in everyday life.

Social Fact

Emile Durkheim's term for elements of collective life—such as laws, customs, religion, and the economy—that exist independently outside of the individual and exert a coercive influence over them.

Anomie

A state described by Emile Durkheim in which an individual becomes socially and morally detached from critical social institutions, causing social norms, values, and routines to lose their meaning.

Egoistic Suicide

According to Emile Durkheim, a type of suicide that occurs when society fails to provide adequate levels of social integration to the individual.

Anomic Suicide

According to Emile Durkheim, a type of suicide that occurs when society lacks sufficient moral regulation, leaving individuals without clear rules or identity.

 Bourgeoisie

In Karl Marx's analysis of capitalism, the social class that owns the means of production.

Proletariat

In Karl Marx's analysis of capitalism, the working class that sells its labor power.

Iron Cage

Max Weber's concept describing the fear of a modern society trapped in an impersonal, calculative, and strictly rule-based bureaucratic system.

Attention Economy

A modern market dynamic characterized by an infinite amount of digital information competing to capture and monetize a finite amount of human time and attention.

Class in itself

In Karl Marx's theory, a category of people who share the same objective economic situation and relation to the means of production, but lack unified class consciousness.

Class for itself

In Karl Marx's theory, a social class whose members have developed class consciousness and organize to actively pursue their shared interests.