Sociology Key Terms: Social Institutions, Theories, and Data Types

Cultural capital

Skills, knowledge, and resources people use to their advantage.

Anticipatory socialization

Learning valuable skills for a role you want in the future.

Social institution

Social positions and relationships that perform meaningful roles.

Resocialization

Reengineering values, beliefs, and norms through an intense social process.

Total institution

A place where daily activities occur under one authority.

Ascribed status

A status you are born with.

Achieved status

A status earned through individual effort.

Master status

A status that stands out or overrides other statuses.

Role strain

One status has overly demanding expectations.

Role conflict

Roles from two statuses clash.

Organization

A specific example of an institution.

Status

A position someone holds in society.

Role

Behaviors expected from a particular status in a setting.

Status inconsistency

When an ascribed status does not fit an achieved status.

Social network

A set of relations made of nodes and ties.

Node

A social actor in a network, usually a person.

Tie

A connection between nodes.

Social capital

Information, knowledge, and connections linked to a social network.

Positivism

An approach interested in causality and testing explanations.

Interpretivism

An approach interested in meaning and understanding social life.

Quantitative data

Numerical data that can be measured or counted.

Qualitative data

Data that is not easily quantified, such as interviews.

Theory

A proposed explanation for related social phenomena.

Deductive

Starting with a theory and then testing it.

Inductive

Starting with observations and building or questioning theory.

Generalizable

A finding that can be applied broadly.

Validity

Accuracy or detail of information about each case.

Causation

When one variable causes a change in another.

Independent variable

The variable that represents the cause.

Dependent variable

The variable that represents the effect or outcome.

Reverse causation

When the assumed cause and effect are reversed.

Spuriousness

A third variable explains the relationship between two variables.

Establishing causality

Correlation + time order + ruling out alternate explanations.

Structural functionalism

A theory focused on how parts of society perform functions.

Conflict theory

A theory focused on inequality and conflict.

Symbolic interactionism

A theory focused on everyday social interaction