Introduction to Sociology (SOC101) Practice Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key sociological concepts, theorists, and terms found in the SOC101 lecture notes.

Sociology

The scientific study of human social life, groups and societies.

Positivism

The idea of applying the scientific method to the social world, first proposed by Auguste Comte.

Social Darwinism

Herbert Spencer's approach that applied the ideas of Darwin to the development of human society, advocating the principle of 'let the fittest survive'.

Class Conflict

Karl Marx's concept that the key to human history is the struggle between social classes.

Social Integration

The degree to which people are tied to their social group, identified by Emile Durkheim as a key factor in suicide rates.

Sociological Perspective

An approach to understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context, described by Peter Burger as seeing the general in the particular.

Social Location

Where people are located in a particular society based on jobs, income, education, gender, age, and race.

Sociological Imagination

A concept given by C. Wright Mills that helps individuals understand their own lives in terms of larger social forces.

Paradigm

A basic image of society that guides thinking and research.

Structural-Functional Paradigm

A framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.

Manifest Functions

The recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern.

Latent Functions

The largely unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern.

Social-Conflict Paradigm

A framework that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change.

Symbolic-Interaction Paradigm

A micro-level orientation that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals.

Empirical Evidence

Information that we can verify with our senses.

Principle of Parsimony

The effort to identify the minimum number of causal factors that explain the maximum variation in an effect.

Hypothesis

A testable statement used in the research process.

Social Status

A recognized social position that an individual occupies in a social situation.

Status Set

All the statuses a person holds at a given time.

Ascribed Status

A social position that someone receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life, such as being a teenager or a son.

Achieved Status

A social position that someone assumes voluntarily and that reflects personal ability and effort, such as being a student or a spouse.

Master Status

A status that has exceptional importance for social identity, often shaping a person's entire life, such as an occupation.

Role

The behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status.

Role Conflict

Incompatibility among roles corresponding to two or more statuses.

Role Strain

Incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status.

Social Group

Two or more people who identify and interact with each other, sharing experiences, loyalties, and interests.

Primary Group

A small social group whose members share personal, intimate, and enduring relationships, such as a family.

Secondary Group

A large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific interest or activity and are goal-oriented.

Reference Group

A social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions.

Stereotype

A group-shared image or exaggerated description applied to every person in some category.

Network

A web of weak social ties that expands outward, reaching great distances.

Formal Organizations

Large secondary groups organized to achieve their goals efficiently, such as business corporations or government departments.

Coercive Organizations

Organizations with involuntary membership and strict control over members, such as prisons or psychiatric hospitals.

Bureaucracy

An organizational model rationally designed to perform complex tasks efficiently.

Culture

A people's way of life, including intangible items like values and beliefs, and tangible material objects.

Mores

A society's standards of proper moral conduct, representing notions of right and wrong.

Folkways

Society's customs for routine, casual interaction, such as appropriate greetings.

Cultural Lag

A concept by William F. Ogburn referring to the gap between two parts of culture that change at different rates, such as material culture changing faster than non-material culture.

Ethnocentrism

The practice of judging another's culture by the standards of one's own culture.

Cultural Relativism

The practice of judging a culture by its own standards.

Socialization

The lifelong process whereby people learn through interaction with others what they must know to survive and function within society.

Id

Sigmund Freud's term for the human being's basic drives, which are unconscious and demand immediate satisfaction under the 'pleasure principle'.

Ego

Sigmund Freud's term for a person's conscious effort to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives with the demands of society.

Superego

Sigmund Freud's term for the cultural values and norms internalized by an individual, operating as a conscience.

Looking-Glass Self

Charles H. Cooley's phrase meaning a self-image based on how we think others see us.

Anticipatory Socialization

Learning that helps a person achieve a desired position by adopting the behavior of a group they wish to join.

Life Course

A biological process divided into stages (childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age) that require new learning and socialization.

Deviance

The violation of social norms; what is defined as deviant depends on the reactions to the act.

Crime

The violation of norms that are written into law.

Stigma

Erving Goffman's term for attributes that discredit people, such as birthmarks or mental disabilities, which pueden become a master status.

Labeling Theory

The assertion that deviance and conformity result not so much from what people do as from how others respond to those actions.

Strain Theory

Robert K. Merton's theory that deviance occurs when people perceive they cannot attain culturally approved goals through legitimate means.

White-Collar Crime

Crimes committed by persons of high social status and respectability in the course of their occupation.

Social Stratification

A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy, resulting in unequal wealth, power, and privilege.

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class in Marx's theory who own the means of production.

Proletariat

The property-less working class in Marx's theory who sell their labor to capitalists.

Meritocracy

A social system based largely on individual achievement rather than ascription.

Culture of Poverty

Oscar Lewis's concept that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different and are transmitted across generations.

Deferred Gratification

The practice of postponing immediate satisfaction in order to gain a later goal, often associated with middle-class upward mobility.

Social Mobility

The act of moving from one social class to another, which can be vertical, horizontal, or lateral.

Nuclear Family

A social unit consisting of two married adults living together in a household without their children, also called a conjugal family.

Extended Family

A social unit where close relatives other than a married couple and children live in the same household or close relationship, also called a consanguine family.

Sex

Anatomical and physiological differences that define male and female bodies.

Gender

Psychological, social, and cultural differences between males and females, linked to socially constructed notions of masculinity and femininity.

Feminism

The advocacy of social equality for men and women in opposition to patriarchy and sexism.

Demography

The statistical description and analysis of human population.

Crude Birth Rate

The number of live births per year per thousand of the population.

Infant Mortality Rate

The number of babies per thousand live births in any year who die before reaching the age of one year.

Malthusian Theory

The premise that population grows geometrically while food supply increases arithmetically, leading to inevitable scarcity unless checked.

Demographic Transition Theory

A model that links birth and death rates to a society's level of industrialization, typically involving four stages.

Ecology

The study of the interaction of living organisms and the natural environment.

Modernization

The process of social change initiated by industrialization, involving a decline in small communities and expansion of personal choice.

Post-modernity

Social patterns characteristic of post-industrial societies focused on information, services, and high technology.