Soc 302

Sociological Imagination

The ability to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.

Social Structure

A systematic, external social force that patterns human behavior, including social norms and institutions.

Social Norms

Unwritten rules about what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate behavior in social interactions.

Social Institution

A longstanding social practice or form, such as family, marriage, or education, that has rules and roles that pattern individual behavior.

Positional Inequality

A socially-constructed hierarchy that produces unequal access to opportunities and valued goods between social groups.

Public Good

Something that benefits people regardless of their voluntary contributions to its production.

Information Failure

Occurs when one party in an economic transaction has unequal or limited information about the product being sold.

Negative Externalities

Side effects of an activity that affect others, often negatively, such as pollution.

Income Inequality

The unequal distribution of income across the population.

Gini Coefficient

A measure of income inequality ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 1 (perfect inequality).

Income Quintiles

Divisions of income distribution into five equal parts to compare income levels across different segments.

Wealth Inequality

The unequal distribution of assets among residents of a country.

Collective Action Problem

A situation where individuals would prefer to free-ride rather than contribute to a common good.

Capitalism

An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production and the production of goods and services for profit.

Asymmetric Information

A situation in which one party in a transaction has more or better information than the other.

Breaching Experiments

Experiments that violate social norms to reveal the underlying rules of social interactions.

Ethnography

A qualitative research method that involves the systematic study of people and cultures through observation and interviews.

Quantitative Analysis

Statistical methods used to analyze and interpret data, including content analysis and social network analysis.

Socialization

The process through which individuals learn and internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of their society.

Role Conflict

A situation in which an individual experiences conflicting expectations from different social roles.

Social Capital

The networks of relationships and resources that individuals can draw upon for support and opportunities.

Cultural Norms

Shared standards and rules that guide behavior within a society or group.

Status

The social position an individual holds within a group or society.

Privilege

A special right or advantage held by an individual or group, often unrecognized by those who have it.

Discrimination

Unjust treatment of different categories of people, often based on race, age, or gender.

Intersectionality

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, as they apply to individuals.

Social Mobility

The ability for individuals or groups to move within a social hierarchy.

Collective Identity

A shared sense of belonging to a group based on shared characteristics or interests.