Key Terms to revise SOCIOLOGY

Norms

rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviour of its members

Values

the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes about what is important that help guide the way you live

Culture

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

Socialisation

The process by which individuals learn the culture of their society.

Primary Socialisation

First stage of socialisation where the norms and values are taught to a child within the family

Social control

attempts to enforce norms through sanctions

Status

A social position that a person holds. Some are ascribed (fixed at birth) or achieved

Roles

patterns of behaviour that are representative of a person's social status

Institutions

organisations within society

Intersectionality

the view that we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes

Gender

behaviour associated with men or women

Class

the system of ordering a society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status.

Ethnicity

the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.

social construction

when society creates meaning and attaches them to individuals

organic analogy

The belief that society is like an organism with interdependent and interrelated parts.

Value consensus

General agreement across a society on a set of values

Bourgeoisie

upper class, who owns means of production

Proletariat

working class

false class consciousness

The idea that the proletariat are unaware that they are being exploited

exploitation

Taking advantage of a weaker group to benefit or profit

Macro sociology

The study of large-scale groups, organizations, or social systems.

Micro sociology

focuses on individual identities and small-scale interactions with others

Social structure

the underlying framework of society consists of the positions people occupy and their relationships. structure shapes our behaviour in silence

Structural Theory

a perspective which focuses on the overall structure of society

Conflict Theory

a perspective that focuses on the discrimination, disadvantages and inequalities faced by social groups

Consensus Theory

a perspective that sees society as based on shared values and cooperation between social groups

Determinism

The idea that people's behaviour is produced primarily by factors outside of their willful control. Very little free will, control or choice over how they behave.

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Means of production

the key resources necessary for producing society's goods, such as land, factories and machinery

Patriarchy

A form of social organization in which males dominate females

Primary research methods

Methods that involve research that you carry out yourself.

Secondary research methods

involves the summary, collection, and/or synthesis of existing research

Qualitative

Data in the form of words

Quantitative

Data that is in numbers