Hunter College SOC 101 Exam Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary practice flashcards generated from the Hunter College SOC 101 Exam Study Guide.

Sociology

The systematic study of society, social relationships, groups, institutions, and patterns of behavior.

Micro sociology

Small-scale interactions, relationships, and everyday behavior.

Macro sociology

Large-scale structures, institutions, and social patterns.

C. Wright Mills

Sociologist who coined the term 'sociological imagination.'

Sociological imagination

Connecting personal experiences or 'troubles' to larger social forces and public issues.

Returns to schooling

The economic/social benefits associated with education, while recognizing that college does not automatically guarantee the same outcome for everyone.

Credentialism

Using educational credentials—such as degrees—as qualifications for jobs or social opportunities.

Auguste Comte

Early founder of sociology associated with positivism and studying society scientifically.

Karl Marx

Major thinker associated with capitalism, class conflict, inequality, bourgeoisie vs. proletariat, and alienation.

Alienation

A worker's disconnection from meaningful aspects of work under exploitative conditions.

Émile Durkheim

Major thinker associated with social order, anomie, solidarity, and collective consciousness/conscience.

Anomie

A condition where social norms are weak, unclear, or disrupted.

Collective consciousness/conscience

Shared beliefs, values, and moral understandings that help connect members of a society.

Solidarity

The social bonds that hold people together.

Mechanical solidarity

Social unity based largely on similarity and shared ways of life.

Organic solidarity

Social unity based on interdependence among people with different roles.

Max Weber

Major thinker associated with interpretive sociology and verstehen.

Verstehen

Understanding social action from the actor's point of view—what the action means to that person.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Known for double consciousness: experiencing oneself through one's own perspective while also being aware of how society views you.

Harriet Martineau

Early sociological thinker who examined society, inequality, institutions, gender, and political/economic life.

Individualism

An emphasis on the individual, personal autonomy, and self-reliance.

Operationalization

Turning an abstract concept into something measurable.

Survey

Standardized questions given to many people; efficient for collecting quantitative information.

Ethnography

An in-depth study of a group in its social environment, often involving extended observation/participation.

Observational study

Researchers observe behavior without manipulating the situation.

Experiment

Researchers manipulate a variable and compare outcomes; especially useful for studying possible cause-and-effect relationships.

Experimental group

Receives the treatment or condition being studied.

Control group

Comparison group that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Independent variable

Predictor/input/manipulated variable.

Dependent variable

Outcome that is measured.

Correlation

Two variables are associated or move together.

Causation

A change in one variable produces a change in another.

Sample

The people actually studied.

Population

The larger group researchers want to understand.

Induction

Specific observations $\rightarrow$ broader/general conclusion.

Deduction

General theory/idea $\rightarrow$ specific prediction.

Mean

Average.

Median

Middle value when data are ordered.

Mode

Most frequently occurring value.

Reliability

A measure gives consistent results.

Validity

A measure actually measures what it is supposed to measure.

Generalizability

How reasonably findings can apply beyond the studied sample.

Predictors

Variables used to help predict an outcome.

Selection

How people end up in a sample or study; systematic differences in who is selected can affect results.

Natural experiment/study

Researchers use a naturally occurring event or condition rather than fully creating the treatment themselves.

Milgram experiment

Studied obedience to authority; participants were instructed by an experimenter to continue a task involving apparent harm.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Associated with Philip Zimbardo; examined how assigned social roles and institutional settings could influence behavior.

Culture

Shared beliefs, values, norms, practices, symbols, and meanings in a society.

Values

Ideas about what is important, desirable, or good.

Norms

Shared expectations about appropriate behavior.

Social etiquette

Informal rules about polite or socially appropriate behavior.

Folkways

Less serious everyday norms; breaking them usually brings mild social reactions.

Mores

Norms considered morally important; violations are treated more seriously.

Subculture

A distinct group within a larger society that has its own patterns or meanings while still existing within the broader culture.

Highbrow vs. lowbrow culture

Labels historically associated with elite/prestigious cultural tastes versus popular or mass culture.

Pierre Bourdieu

Sociologist associated with cultural capital.

Cultural capital

Knowledge, skills, tastes, language, and cultural familiarity that can provide social advantages.

Socialization

The lifelong process of learning society's norms, values, behaviors, expectations, and roles.

Social isolation

Limited or absent social interaction/connection.

Nature vs. nurture

Nature = biological/genetic influences; nurture = social/environmental influences.

George Herbert Mead

Explained the development of the self through social interaction and learning to take others' perspectives.

Significant others

People whose opinions and expectations are especially important to us, such as parents, close friends, or teachers.

Agents of socialization

People/groups/institutions that teach social expectations (e.g., family, school, peers, media, religion, workplaces).

Erving Goffman

Compared everyday social interaction to a performance; associated with impression management and front stage/back stage.

Impression management

Attempts to control how other people perceive us.

Front stage

Where we perform a role for an audience and follow expected behavior.

Back stage

Where we can step away from the public performance and prepare or behave differently.

Social construction of reality

People create and maintain shared understandings of what is real/normal through social interaction and shared meanings.

Total institution

A highly controlled setting that regulates many areas of life and separates people from ordinary society, such as prisons or military boot camps.

Mortification of the self

Processes in highly controlled institutions that can strip away or disrupt a person's previous identity.

Degradation ceremony

A process that lowers/disrupts a person's previous social identity; studied alongside mortification of the self.

Status

A social position a person occupies.

Role

Expected behaviors connected to a status.

Master status

A status that becomes especially important in shaping how a person is identified or perceived.

Definition of the situation

How a person interprets what is happening; that interpretation influences how they respond.

Anybody's Son Will Do

Video/reading focusing on military boot-camp socialization and how institutions train people into roles, discipline, expectations, and identities.