Intro to Sociology Chap. 3

Beliefs

Tenets or convictions people hold to be true .

Countercultures

groups that reject and oppose society’s widely accepted cultural patterns

Culture

Shared beliefs, values, and practices .

Culture lag

the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture’s acceptance of it

Diffusion

the spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another

Discoveries

Things and ideas found from what already exists .

Fight-or-flight response

physiological reactions that occur when an individual encounters a perceived threat

Folkways

direct, appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices of a culture

Formal norms

Established, written rules .

Globalization

The integration of international trade and finance markets .

High culture

Cultural patterns of a society’s elite .

Ideal culture

Standards society would like to embrace and live up to .

Informal norms

casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to

Language

a symbolic system of communication

Mores

the moral views and principles of a group

Norms

the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured

Real culture

the way society really is based on what actually occurs and exists

Sanctions

a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviors

Social control

a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms

Society

people who live in a definable community and who share a culture

Stress

the process whereby an individual perceives and responds to events that one appraises as overwhelming or threatening

Stressors

environmental events that may be judged as threatening or demanding

Subcultures

groups that share a specific identification, apart from a society’s majority

Symbols

gestures or objects with meanings recognized by people who share a culture

Values

a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society