SYG 2000 Final

Sociological Imagination

the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces.

Verstehen

German; understanding. The concept of Verstehen forms the object of inquiry for interpretive sociology\-- to study how social actors understand their actions and the social world through experience.

Double Consciousness

two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers, which are constantly maintained by African Americans.

Conflict Theory

the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general.

Feminist Theory

emphasis on equality between men and women; interested in how power relationships are defined, shaped, and reproduced on the basis of gender differences

Symbolic Interaction Theory

a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but identifying with a past or future nationality. For later generations of white ethnics, something not constraining but easily expressed, with no risks of stigma and all the pleasures of feeling like an individual.

Post-Modernism Theory

a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations

Qualitative

methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.

Quantitative

methods that seeks to obtains information about the social worlds that is already or can be converted to numeric form.

Deductive approach

a research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.

Inductive approach

a research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory.

Causality

the notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another.

Correlation

simultaneous variation in two variables.

Dependent Variable

the outcome that the researcher is trying to explain

Independent Variable

a measured factor that the researcher believes has a crucial impact on the dependent variable.

Hypothesis

a proposed relationship between two variables.

Culture

a set beliefs, traditions, and practices; the sum total of social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; that which is not the natural environment around us.

Ethnocentrism

the belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own

Material culture

everything that is a part of our constructed, physical enviroment, including technology.

Nonmaterial culture

values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.

Idealogy

a system of concepts and relationships, and understanding of cause and effect.

Cultural relativism

taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgent or assigning value.

Cultural Scripts

modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural

Subculture

the distinct cultural value and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society; a group united by sets of concepts, values symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.

Hegemony

a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses.

Political Economy of the Media

most broadcasting companies are privately owned and are supported financially by advertising; 6 major companies own more than 90 percent of the media; as corporate control becomes more and more centralized, the concern is that the range of options available will decrease and that corporate censorship will further compromise the already-tarnished integrity of the mainstream media

Consumerism

the steady acquisition of material possessions, often with belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved.

Culture jamming

the act of turning media against themselves.

Socialization

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society.

limits of socialization

you recognize the limits of your socialization when you find yourself in a new situation and aren't quite sure how to behave

Looking Glass Self Theory

the self emerges from our ability to assume the point of view of others and thereby imagine how they see us; we test this "theory" of how we are perceived by gauging others' reactions and revise our theory by fine tuning our "self-concept"

Self

the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person

I

one's sense of agency, action or power

Me

the self as perceived as an object by the "I"; as the self as one imagines others perceive one

Other

someone or something outside of oneself

Generalized other

an internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety f settings\-- regardless of whether we've encountered those people or places before

Family

original source of significant others and the primary unit of socialization

School

agents include reference groups such a s peers and teachers; one of the teacher's main goals is to properly socialize you

Peers

once we reach school age, peers become an important part of our lives and function as agents of socialization; adolescents spend a great deal of their free time in the company of peers; peers can reinforce or contradict messages taught in the home

media

socializing agent; some television shows are designed for socialization

Symbolic Interactionism

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivation behind people's actions

Dramaturgical Theroy

the view (advanced by Erving Goffman) of social life as essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets

Ethnomethodology

literally "the methods of the people," this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a mutually shared social order

Group conformity

American culture is marked by high levels of conformity; groups have strong influences over individual behavior

The Asch Experiment

Solomon Asch; series of experiments to demonstrate power of norms of group conformity; vision line test thingy

Social Netweork

a set of relations\-- essential, a set of dyads\-- held together by ties between individuals

Ties

a set of stories that explains our relationship to the other members of our network

Embeddeness

the degree to which ties are reinforced through indirect paths within a social network.

The Strength of Weak TIes

the notion that often relatively weak ties turn out to be quite valuable because they yield new information.

Structural holes

a gap between network clusters, or even two individuals, if those individuals (or clusters) have complementary resources.

Social Captial

the information, knowledge of people, and connections that help individuals enter, gain power in, or otherwise leverage social networks.

Six Degrees of Separation

one person is connected to every other person by social chains of no more than six people; stanley milligram; chain of letters; Watts--Milgram's findings only applied to the letters that completed the journey, at least half the world is connected with six steps

Social Deviance

any transgression of socially established norms

Formal Deviance

the violation of laws enacted by society

Informal Deviance

the violation of unwritten societal rules, like picking your nose in public

Formal Sanctions

mechanisms of social control by which rules or laws prohibit deviant criminal behavior; sanctions are formal, overt "expressions of official group sentiment"

Informal Social Sanctions

the usually unexpressed but widely know rules of group membership; unspoken rules of social life; unwritten rules of social life; we are all simultaneously enforcing the rules of society and having them enforced upon us; We can recognize good behavior and sanction bad behavior

Egotistic Suicide

caused by too little social integration

Altruistic Suicide

caused by too much social integration

Social Intergration

how well you are integrated into your social group or community

Labeling theory

the belief that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels, over time, form the basis of their self-identity.

Broken windows theory

a theory explaining how social context and social cues impact whether individuals act defiantly: specifically, whether social, informal social norms allow deviant acts.

Zimbardo's Standford Prison Experiment

fake prison, psychology of prison life; good people can do terrible things, depending on their social surroundings and expectations

Stratification

structured social inequality or, more specifically, systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships.

Estate system

politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility

Caste system

religion-vased system of stratification characterized by no social mobility

Class system

economically based system of stratification characterized by relative categorization

Bourgeoisie

the capitalist class

Proletariat

the working class

Status hierarchy system

a system of stratification based on social prestige

elite-mass dichotomy system

system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold the power of society

Meritocracy

a society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement

Social Mobility

the movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society

Structural Mobility

mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy

Gender

denotes a social position, the set of social arrangments, that are built around sex chromosomes

Gender identity

social structures such as gender roles and the division of labor introduce the psychological process of forming a gender identity

essentialism

explain social phenomena in terms of natural ones; hallmarks of essentialism are fixity, lack of history, absolutism, and biological determinism

biological determinism

what you do in the social world should be a direct result of who you are in the natural world

intersex

those who are born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit with the typical definitions of female or male

hegemonic masculinity

the condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisible; regarded as the norm against which all others are judged

glass ceiling

an invisible limit on women's climb up the occupational ladder; Rosabeth Moss Kanter--men and women of the corporation--when women break into top managerial positions, they become tokens; experience greater performance pressures

glass escalator

the promotional ride men take to the top of a work organization, especially in feminized jobs

sociological definition of race

race refers to a group of people who share a set of characteristics--typically, but not always, physical ones--and are said to share a common bloodline; race is a social construction--a set of stories that we tell ourselves to organize reality and make sense of the world

racism

the belief that members of seperate races possess different and unequal traits

scientific racism

nineteenth-century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race

ethnocentrism

the belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own

onotological equality

the notion that everyone is created equal in the eyes of God

eugenics

"well born"; a pseudoscience that postulates that controlling the fertility of populations could influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation; Sir Francis Galton; each race had a separate package of social and psychological traits transmitted through bloodlines; Galton believed feeblemindedness, criminality, disease, and intelligence can be traced through bloodlines and selectively bred into and out of populations; Goddard--Eugenic based intelligence tests

racialization

the formation of a new racial identity, in which new ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people.

social construction of race

race is a social construction, a set of stories that we tell ourselves to organize reality and make sense of the world

symbolic ethnicity

a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but identifying with a past or future nationality. For later generations of white ethnics, something not constraining but easily expressed, with no risks of stigma and all the pleasures of feeling like an individual

segregation

the legal of social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity

social construction of the black ghetto

manufactured by whites through a set of deliberate, conscious practices; boundaries separating black neighborhoods were policed by whites (violence and later agreements); HOLC; US Fed Housing administration and Veterans Administration; urban renewal

institutional racism

institutions and social dynamics that may seem race-neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups

poverty

a condition of deprivation due to economic circumstances; deprivation may be absolute or relative but is generally severe enough that the individual in this condition cannot live with dignity in his or her society

culture of poverty

the argument that poor people adopt certain practices that differ from those of middle-class, "mainstream" society in order to adapt and survive in difficult economic circumstances

gini coefficient

a measure of inequality

absolute poverty

the point at which a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members

relative poverty

a measurement of poverty based on a percentage of the median income in a given location

parenting stress hypothesis

a paradigm in which the psychological aspects of poverty exacerbate household stress levels; this stress, n turn, leads to detrimental parenting practices such as yelling, shouting, and hitting, which are not conducive to healthy child development.