Sociology

Flashcards from notes

Sociology

the study of society (groups that share common culture and interact)

Micro-level

small groups and individual interactions

Macro-level

trends among and between groups

Culture

Shared practices, values, and beliefs

Sociological imagination

a person’s awareness of behaviour and experiences and culture sharing their perspectives/choices

reification

is treating an abstract concept as a real thing

Cultural Patterns

following the same influences as society

Social Facts

the law, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules —> all influences how people live

Interpretive framework

understanding social worlds from view of participants

Independent Variable

cause of change

Dependent Variable

things changed

Positivism

scientific study of social patterns

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes

The person who coined the term Sociology

Auguste Comte

Who believed sociology was for the betterment of society?

Karl Marx

Who didn't like positivism and created the Communist Manifesto? He also believed that the society grew based on the struggles of social classes in means of production.

Capitalism

private or corporate owned goods and produce them

Emile Durkman

Who published Rules of the Sociological Method? He also believed people rose to status based of merit.

Max Weber

This person was anti-positivism and established sociology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. He believed that culture affected human behavior. He introduced the term verstehen.

Verstehen

Understanding the deep way

Quantitative Sociology

used in surveys for stats with large number of participants

Qualitative Sociology

in depth interviews , focus groups, content analysis

Paradigms

a few theories provide broad perspectives that help explain many different aspects of social life

Hypothesis

testable theory

Manifest functions

consequences of a social process that are searched for or expected

latent functions

the unsought consequences of a social process

social institutions

patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs, such as government, education, family, healthcare, religion, and the economy.

Symbolic interactionism

focuses on the relationship among individuals within a society

Constructivism

reality is what humans make it be

Conflict theory

society is a competition for limited resources

Ethnography

a research experiment culture and understanding themselves in relations to a social group

Case study

going into depth research on specific person to generalize it to the population

Field research

when sociologist go out into the world to study and watch the population, to gain data from a natural environment

Participant observation

the research goes into a perspective of the culture they are studying. They avoid telling their ID to prevent the data being tainted

Hawthorne effect

changing behaviour because they know they are being watched (artificiality to the results might occur)

Secondary data analysis

when researchers use other researchers data to contribute knowledge. This considered nonreactive research.

Nonreactive research

the experimentor doesn’t come in contract with the subjects

Validity

how well the study measures what was designed to study

Operational definitions

a way of explaining the variable and concept so it can be replicated

Reliability

how likely results will be replicated in a study

confounding variable

a variable that seems it correlates but it does not actually relate to the issue

dysfunctions

undesirable consequences for the operation of society.

scientific method

a research approach that is developing and testing theories based on empirical evidence

antipositivism

the view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values

Dramaturgical analysis

a technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance

Dynamic equilibrium

a stable state in which all parts of a healthy society work together properly

Figuration

the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior

Function

the part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity

Functionalism

a theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society

Generalized others

the organized and generalized attitude of a social group

Grand theories

an attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change

Significant others

specific individuals that impact a person’s life

Social solidarity

the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion

Society

a group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture

Theory

a proposed explanation about social interactions or society

Accuracy

how correct and true the information is

Code of ethics

The code that the researchers must follow. Has 6 key principles: Professional Competence, Integrity, Professional and Scientific Responsibility, Respect for People's Rights, Social Responsibility, and Human Rights.

Content analysis

examine artifacts of human society and organizing them into categories

Correlation

when variables are look related but have no significant link

Debunking

prooving something to be a myth

Empirical evidence

information gathered through observation or experiment that can justify a theory

Experiment

a test on a object of study that aims to have a predictable or unpredictable outcome

Interview

Asking questions to the population or sample

Literature review

providing background information about a research topic

population

the totality of the people living in a particular territory

Qualitative data

Interviews, surveys, in depth questioning

quantitative data

gathering numerical data and values

Primary data

data generated by the researcher themselves.

random sample

researchers select a subset of individuals from a larger population in a way where everyone has an equal chance of being selected.

sample

a smaller group of people to study and then generalize it

survey

a way to get multiple opinions or ideas from the population quickly and efficiently

value neutrally

a researcher not using their personal value and not influencing or imposing their cultural norms.

beliefs

tenets or convictions that people hold to be true

countercultures

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

cultural universals

patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies

culture

shared beliefs, value, and principles

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

ethnocentrism

the evaluation and judgment of another culture based on one’s own cultural norms

folkways

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

formal norms

established, written rules

globalization

the integration of international trade and finance markets

high culture

the cultural patterns of a society’s elite

ideal culture

the standards a society would like to embrace and live up to

Informal norms

casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to

innovations

new objects or ideas introduced to culture for the first time

inventions

a combination of pieces of existing reality into new forms

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

popular culture

mainstream, widespread patterns among a society’s population

real culture

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

sanctions

a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviours

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

the way the people understand the world based on their form of language

social control

a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms

society

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

subcultures

groups that share a specific identification, apart from a society’s majority, even as the members exist within a larger society

symbols

gestures or objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture

values

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

Structural-Functional Theory

explains how the complex parts of society work together as a whole to keep things functioning