CSCC Soc Criminal Justice System Unit 1

Attitude

a learned tendency to evaluate a person

Conflict theory

a sociological theory that sees society as marked by inequality and struggle over resources and power

Contradiction

a logical inconsistency in which two or more statements cannot all be true at the same time

Critical thinking

the disciplined practice of evaluating claims

Dependent variable

the outcome or effect that is measured and may change in response to another variable

Fallacy of appeal to prejudice

an argument that relies on biases or stereotypes instead of evidence

Fallacy of authority

accepting a claim as true only because an authority figure says so

Fallacy of circular reasoning

an argument in which the conclusion is assumed in the premises

Fallacy of composition

assuming that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole

Fallacy of dramatic instance

overgeneralizing from one dramatic or striking case

Fallacy of misplaced concreteness

treating an abstract concept as if it were a concrete

Fallacy of non sequitur

an argument in which the conclusion does not logically follow from the premises

Fallacy of personal attack

attacking the person making an argument instead of the argument itself

Fallacy of retrospective determinism

assuming that past events had to happen as they did and could not have been otherwise

Frequency distribution

a table or graph showing how often each value or category occurs in a set of data

Ideology

a set of beliefs and values that explains and justifies a social order

Independent variable

the presumed cause or factor that influences another variable

Institution

an established pattern of social organization that meets basic social needs

Interaction

mutual social action and communication between people

Mean

the arithmetic average of a set of numbers

Median

the middle value in a ranked set of numbers

Norm

a shared expectation about appropriate behavior in a social setting

Participant observation

a research method in which the researcher joins a setting and observes it from within

Personal problem

an individual difficulty attributed mainly to personal traits or choices

Reification

treating an abstract idea or social construction as if it were a real

Role

the expected behavior attached to a particular social status

Social problem

a condition affecting many people that is widely viewed as needing collective action

Socioeconomic status

a person’s social position based on income

Stratification system

a ranked system of social layers with unequal access to resources and rewards

Structural functionalism

a sociological theory that views society as interconnected parts working together to maintain stability

Survey

a research method that collects data through questionnaires or interviews

Symbolic interactionism

a sociological theory focusing on face-to-face interaction and the meanings people attach to symbols

Test of significance

a statistical procedure used to estimate the probability that a result occurred by chance

Values

shared beliefs about what is desirable or important

Variable

a measurable characteristic that can take different values