sociology exam 1

who discovered sociological imagination

C. Wright Mills

sociological imagination

the ability to connect individual experiences with broader social forces

personal troubles

private matters related to an individual’s character

public issues

matters that transcend the individual and are rooted in the social structure

the social worlds humans create have two components

social interaction and social structure

norms

the basic rules that tell us what is and what is not appropriate

socialization

the lifelong process through which people learn and internalize the norms, values, and beliefs of their society

agency

our capacity to act, choose, and to change rules we did not write

social contexts

the settings a life unfolds in and how history reaches biography

institutions

ongoing practices (marriage, education, markets) and the organizations

that regulate them (government, courts, schools)

seeing small

focusing on a specific detail or immediate surroundings

seeing big

taking a broader perspective or considering the overall picture

seeing our own seeing

find assumptions we cant see, becoming aware of ones assumptions and biases

seeing it all

seeing things from all perspectives

society

people and the enduring patterns between them

culture

shared meanings those patterns run on

symbols

flags of countries or wedding rings

structural functionalism

the way each part of society functions together to function as a whole

conflict theory

the way inequities and inequalities contribute to social, political, and power differences and how they perpetrate power

symbolic interactionism

the way one on one interactions and communication behave

superstructure

worldview; ideas, values, beliefs and how people make sense of themselves and the world

social structure

social organization; family structure, power relations, politics, and social control. how people live and interact together

infrastructure

subsistence and economy; the foundational systems, structures, and relationships—both material and conceptual—that allow a society to organize, function, and reproduce itself

ethnocentrism

holding one's own beliefs, values, ideas, ideals, and assumptions to be the only true and proper ones. like a prison for the mind

cultural relavitism

understanding other people’s ideas, ideals, assumptions and beliefs relative to their own culture.

social theory

systematic ideas about the relationship between individuals and societies; analytical frameworks for understanding the social world

qualitative

a study that interviews 20 workers about what labor day means

quanitative

a study that uses census data to count how many people worked on labor day weekend

double arrows

interaction and mutual influence

functionalism

“what is the function” overlooking conflict and inequality

moral relativism

the philosophical belief that right and wrong are not fixed or universal, but change depending on culture, society, or personal views

macro

large scale social systems and structural trends

micro

everyday face-to-face interactions between individuals

what are the three lenses

functionalism, conflict, and interactionism