SOC 100 Week 1 Vocabulary Flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key sociological terms, theoretical frameworks, concepts, and figures from SOC 100 Week 1.

Sociology

The systematic study of human groups and their interactions.

Sociological Perspective

A way of seeing the dynamic relationship between individuals and the larger social network in which they live.

Seeing the General in the Particular

Peter Berger's concept of looking at a single individual's experience to identify the larger societal pattern behind it.

Microsociology

The study of small groups and face-to-face interactions between individuals.

Macrosociology

The study of society as a whole and its large-scale social structures.

Sociological Imagination

C. Wright Mills's concept describing the ability to see the relationship between an individual's personal life and the larger society.

Personal Troubles vs. Social Issues

C. Wright Mills's distinction between private problems experienced by an individual and public issues rooted in broader social structures.

Cheerful Robots

C. Wright Mills's term for individuals who lack sociological imagination and fail to see how social context shapes their personal lives.

Auguste Comte

Known as the 'Father of Sociology' who coined the term sociology and proposed applying scientific methods to study the social world.

Law of Three Stages

Auguste Comte's model stating that human understanding of society develops through Theological, Metaphysical, and Positive stages.

Structural Functionalism

A macro-level theory viewing society as a complex system whose interconnected parts work together to maintain solidarity, equilibrium, and stability.

Organic Analogy

The functionalist perspective comparing society to a human body, where institutions like family, education, government, religion, and economy act as organs working together.

Herbert Spencer

A functionalist theorist who coined Social Darwinism, applying natural selection to human societies and advocating a laissez-faire approach.

Collective Conscience

Émile Durkheim's term for the shared beliefs and values of a society that shape individual behaviors.

Social Facts

Émile Durkheim's term for general social features that exist independently of individuals yet exert coercive power over their actions.

Anomie

Émile Durkheim's concept describing a state of normlessness, confusion, or lack of clear social goals in society.

Durkheim's Four Types of Suicide

Suicide classification based on integration and regulation: Egoistic (too little integration), Altruistic (too much integration), Anomic (too little regulation), and Fatalistic (too much regulation).

Manifest Functions vs. Latent Functions

Robert K. Merton's terms distinguishing between intended consequences (manifest functions) and unintended consequences (latent functions) of social institutions.

Conflict Theory

A macro-level framework viewing society as an arena of power struggles, inequality, privilege, and conflict between dominant and subordinate groups.

Four Types of Alienation (Marx)

Karl Marx's framework outlining how workers under capitalism become disconnected from: 1. Product of one's labour, 2. Labour process, 3. Species-being, and 4. Other humans.

Cultural Hegemony

Antonio Gramsci's concept describing how the ruling class uses dominant ideas to make their interests appear as normal and common sense to society.

Post-Structuralism (Foucault)

A perspective asserting that knowledge is socially produced and linked to power relations operating through discourse, surveillance, and normalization.

Feminist Theory

A theoretical perspective focusing on gender inequality, gender oppression, patriarchy, and the belief that the personal is political.

Intersectionality

A concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw showing that systems of power and marginalization (gender, race, class) are interconnected and multiplicative rather than additive.

Symbolic Interactionism

A micro-level theory focused on how individuals construct shared meanings, definitions, and symbols through face-to-face social interaction.

Dramaturgical Analysis

Erving Goffman's framework analyzing social life as a theatrical performance involving frontstage presentations and backstage behaviors.

Frontstage vs. Backstage

Erving Goffman's distinction between the public persona presented to society (frontstage) and the private area where individuals drop their performance mask (backstage).

Core Questions of Main Sociological Theories

The core analytical questions asked by Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Feminism, and Symbolic Interactionism.