SOCIOLOGY- Topic 2 Lecture

Chapters 3 + 4 Vocab

Culture

comprised of shared values, beliefs, norms and rules that maintain the values, language so that the values can be taught, symbols that form the language people must learn, arts and artifacts, and the people’s collective identities and memories

Material culture

tangible items of value to a society

Nonmaterial culture

consists of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society

Universals

patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies, like the concept of a family unit

Ethnocentrism

to evaluate and judge another culture based on one’s own cultural norms

Xenocentrism

the opposite of ethnocentrism, and refers to the belief that another culture is superior to one’s own

Xenophobia

an irrational fear or hatred of different cultures

Cultural relativism

the practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one’s own culture

Values

deeply embedded and are critical for learning a culture’s beliefs

Norms

behaviors that reflect compliance with what cultures and societies have defined as good, right, and important

Mores

norms that embody the moral views and principles of a group

Folkways

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

Subculture

a smaller cultural group within a larger culture

Countercultures

reject some of the larger culture’s norms and values

Hunter-gatherer, pastoral societies, horticulture societies, agricultural societies, feudal societies, and service societies are all examples of what?

Typology

Mechanical solidarity

type of social order maintained by the collective conscience of a culture

Organic solidarity

social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences

social interaction

the ways in which people respond to one another

social structure

the way in which society is organized into predictable relationships

5 basic elements of social structure

status, role, groups, social networks, social institutions

Status

any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society

Ascribed status

a status assigned to a person by a society

Achieved status

a status that comes largely through individual effort

Master status

a status that dominates others and thereby determines a person’s general position in society

Role

a set of expectations for people who occupy a given social position or status

Role conflict

occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person

Role strain

the difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands

Role exit

the process of disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity and establishment of a new role and identity

Role performance

the actual behavior of the individual occupying the status

Habitualization

society is created by humans and human interaction

Thomas theorum

If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences

Robert K. Merton Self-fulfilling prophecy

a false idea can become true if it is acted upon