Sociology Final

Verstehen

Understanding the meaning of action from the actor's point of view. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes.

Social Dynamics

The study of the behavior of groups that results from the interactions of individual group members as well to the study of the relationship between individual interactions and group level behaviors.

Positivism

The application of the scientific approach to the social world that relies specifically on empirical scientific evidence, such as controlled experiments and statistics.

Dramaturgy

Approach that depicts human interaction as theatrical performances (How people act in front of different groups)

Sociological Imagination

Ability to see the connection between society and our personal lives.

Sociological Perspective

An approach to understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context.

Latent functions

An unintended consequence or outcome of an activity or social system.

Manifest functions

An intended outcome of an activity or social system.

Society

A community of people who share a common culture.

Sociology

The study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society.

Symbols

Gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words that represent something within a society.

Norms

Shared rules of conduct that tell people how to act in specific situations

Folkways

Norms that lack moral significance

Ideal Culture

A set of values and practices that a culture aims to achieve.

Real Culture

The norms and values that people actually follow.

Counterculture

A culture with lifestyles and values opposed to those of the established culture.

Subculture

A group of people with shared value systems based on common life experiences and situations

Values

Ideas, beliefs, and attitudes about what is important to an individual or society.

Sociobiology

The study of how biology affects human social behavior.

Cultural Universals

General cultural traits that exist in all cultures.

Rites of Passage

Rituals marking the passage from one status to another.

Mores

Norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance.

Material Culture

Tangible, physical items produced and used by members of a specific culture group and reflective of their traditions, lifestyles, and technologies.

Non-Material Culture

The beliefs, practices, aesthetics, and values of a group of people.

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Role taking

The process of mentally assuming the perspective of another and responding from that imagined viewpoint.

Harlow's Monkeys Experiment

the Harlow couple raised monkeys with either a wire mesh "mother" or a wire mesh mother covered with a furry carpet. The baby monkeys with the furry fake-mothers adjusted better. The physical contact seemed to make all the difference. The monkeys with the metal "mothers" became panic-stricken with fear. The conclusion was that physical contact is very important to healthy child-parent attachment.

Self-Concept

Our understanding and evaluation of who we are.

Looking-Glass Self

An image of yourself based on what you believe others think of you.

Hidden Curriculum

The informal and unofficial aspects of culture that children are taught in school.

Total Institution

A setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society.

Desocialization

The process by which people give up old norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Resocialization

The process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Anticipatory Socialization

The voluntary process of preparing to accept new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Mead's Stages of Developmen

Imitation, Game, Play

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Coercion

The practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.

Social Exchange

A voluntary action performed in the expectation of getting a reward in return.

Accommodation

A process of mutual adaptation between persons or groups, usually achieved by eliminating or reducing hostility, as by compromise or arbitration.

Arbitration

Settling a dispute by agreeing to accept the decision of an impartial outsider.

Mediation

A method of settling disputes outside of court by using a neutral third party.

Cooperation

Behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit.

Stanley Milgram Experiment

Milgram recruited subjects for an experiment to see how far people will go to obey authority figures. An experiment that tested the compliance of an individual to an authority figures by having them administer different levels of (fake) electrical shocks to another individual. Results showed that 2/3 of subjects were compliant throughout the entire experiment.

Solomon Asch Experiment

70% of subjects conformed to a wrong answer rather than giving a correct answer. (Longest Line Experiment)

Stanford Prison Experiment

Study conducted to investigate the effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard and role playing. The guards became abusive and authoritarian, while the prisoners became submissive and emotionally distressed.

Social Structure

The distinctive, stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together.

Master Status

One status within a set that stands out or overrides all others.

Status (ascribed & achieved)

Ascribed - Born status, stays the same

Achieved - Status through merit or qualifications and hard work

Role Conflict

Conflict among the roles connected to two or more statuses.

Role Strain

The strain experienced by people when they are not able to fulfill the demands of their social role or carry out their responsibilities.

Groups

Any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations who interact with one another on a regular basis.

Primary Groups

Small, informal groups of people who are closest to us.

Secondary Groups

Larger and more impersonal groups that are task-focused and time limited.

Trends in crime

In recent years the crime rate has steadily decreased.

Social Control

Attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behavior.

Labeling Theory

Theory that society creates deviance by identifying particular members as deviant.

Retribution

Punishment

Rehabilitation

A program for reforming the offender to prevent later offenses.

Recidivism

Repeated criminal behavior

"White-Collar Crime"

Nonviolent crime committed by individuals or corporations to obtain a personal or business advantage.

Violent Crime

Actions-murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault-involving force or the threat of force against others.

Crime

An act against the law.

Internalization

Idea/belief/behavior that has be been integrated into our own values. We conform to the belief privately.

Sanctions

A way to enforce rules through rewards for positive behavior and punishments for negative behavior.

Stigma

When society degrades or loses respect for a person due to some unique attribute or characteristic that is seen as undesirable.

Deviance

Behavior that violates significant social norms.

Primary Deviance

A violation of norms that does not result in any long-term effects on the individual's self-image or interactions with others.

Secondary Deviance

Deviance that occurs when a person's self-concept and behavior begin to change after his or her actions are labeled as deviant by members of society.

Differential Association

Through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior.

Cultural Transmission

The process by which one generation passes culture to the next.

Strain Theory

Proposal that pressure derived from social factors, such as lack of income or lack of quality education, drives individuals to commit crime.

Innovation

A form of social deviance, in which the innovator uses abnormal means to achieve socially acceptable goals.

Retreatism

The rejection of culturally prescribed goals and the conventional means for attaining them.

Rebellion

An individual rejecting socially acceptable goals and means while replacing them with socially unacceptable goals and means.

Ritualism

When one continuously completes activities even though one does not have values or beliefs that go along with the goals of the activity. The rejection of cultural goals but the routinized acceptance of the means for achieving the goals.

Control Theory

A theory that states social control is directly affected by the strength of social bonds and that deviance results from a feeling of disconnection from society.

Attachment

The stronger the ties to individuals, the greater conformity.

Commitment

When someone believes that hard work leads to success it leads to greater conformity.

Marriage

A legal relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, sexual activity, and childbearing.

"Marriage Gap"

Observed economic and political disparities in the United States between those who are married and those who are single.

Divorce

The legal ending of a marriage.

"Boomerang Kids"

Grown children who leave their parents home but then boomerang back.

Family

A group of two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or adoption who live together.

Nuclear Family

A group of people who are united by ties of partnership and parenthood and consisting of a pair of adults and their socially recognized children.

Family of Procreation

The family formed when a couple's first child is born.

Cohabitation

Living together without being married.

Blended family

A married couple and their children from previous marriages.

Functions of the family

Socialization, regulation of sexual activity, social placement, material and emotional security.

Race

Race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society.

Racism

Belief that one race is superior to another.

Ethnicity

A social division based on national origin, religion, language, and often race.

Legal Discrimination

Discrimination that is upheld by law (Jim Crow Laws)

Segregation

Separation of the races.

Assimilation

The process of becoming similar to something.

Minority Group

People who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people.

Prejudice

Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

Genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group.

Cultural Pluralism

A situation in which a minority group maintains its distinct culture while participating in a society with a separate, dominant culture.

Scapegoating

Blaming an innocent person or a group for one's own troubles.