sociology week 3 lecture (Durkheim)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the sociology lecture notes.

Social Facts

Durkheim’s concept of culturally specific external conditions that shape an individual’s potential, identity, and worldview beyond personal control.

Social Cohesion

The degree of social integration; higher cohesion is associated with lower rates of social disconnection and deviance.

Suicide (Durkheim, 1897)

A study proposing suicide is a symptom of social disconnectedness and variable social cohesion, based on death certificate data.

Altruistic Suicide

A noted exception to Durkheim’s general pattern where strong bonds lead to self-sacrifice for the group.

Mechanical Solidarity

Pre-industrial social cohesion based on a collective conscience and shared values; associated with repressive law.

Organic Solidarity

Modern social cohesion based on interdependence from the division of labor; associated with restitutive law.

Collective Conscience

The set of shared beliefs, values, and norms that bind a society together (especially in mechanical solidarity).

Repressive Law

Law that punishes violations to enforce conformity in mechanically solid societies.

Restitutive Law

Law that restores social order through compensation and restitution in societies with organic solidarity.

Anomie

Normlessness or a breakdown of norms and social bonds, often during rapid social change.

Division of Labor

The specialization of work across a society; becomes more complex in modern, industrial contexts.

Karl Marx

German thinker who linked social change to class struggle and relations to the means of production; foundational to conflict theory.

Bourgeoisie

Owners of the means of production; capitalist class.

Proletariat

Workers who sell their labor and do not own the means of production.

Capital

Income-producing property; the means of production controlled by the bourgeoisie.

Profit

Exploited surplus value of labor extracted by capitalists.

Alienation

Feeling of disorientation and lack of control caused by separation from the product of one’s labor.

Materialist Analysis

A unidimensional view that emphasizes economic/material inequality as the driver of social life.

Max Weber

Sociologist who argued inequality is multidimensional, with class, status, and party as distinct dimensions.

Class

Economic position based on ownership or control of the means of production.

Status

Level of social honor, prestige, or regard within a group.

Party

Dimension of political influence in Weber’s framework of inequality.

SES

Socioeconomic Status; a composite measure of education, occupation, and income.

Bureaucracy

Organization governed by rational-legal principles, formal rules, and efficiency.

Structural Functionalism

Perspective viewing society as an interrelated system; emphasizes functions and social order.

Functional

Contributing to balance, order, and survivability of society.

Dysfunctional

Diminishing balance, order, and stability in society.

Manifest Functions

Overt, intended functions of social institutions.

Latent Functions

Unobvious, often unintended yet important functions of social institutions.

Robert K. Merton

Functionalist theorist who codified concepts like manifest vs latent functions.

Georg Simmel

Early contributor to formal sociology; analyzed form vs content of social interaction.

Dyad

Two-person social group; highly intimate but the most unstable form of interaction.

Triad

Three-person group; introduces mediation; no one has ultimate power, interactions become more complex.

Party

Four or more people; interactions become fleeting and civil; comprehensive communication is difficult.

Material Culture

Physical artifacts produced and used by a society (art, architecture, technology, etc.).

Non-Material Culture

Abstract beliefs, values, norms, and knowledge that guide behavior.

Cultural Universals

Features common to all cultures (norms, values, beliefs, language, etc.).

Mores

Strong normative rules with moral significance.

Folkways

Everyday norms with less moral weight.

Norms

Shared rules of behavior guiding social conduct.

Values

Culturally defined standards that guide preferences and behavior.

Beliefs

Propositions about what is true within a culture.

Language

System of symbols used for communication within a culture.

Symbols

Signs that carry specific meanings within a culture.

Laws

Formal norms enacted by political authority.

Sanctions

Penalties or rewards for norm violations; can be formal or informal; positive or negative.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Language shapes how people think and perceive the world.

High Culture

Elite cultural forms associated with the upper strata.

Popular Culture

Mainstream cultural forms consumed by the general public.

Cultural Capital

Non-financial social assets (education, style, linguistic competence) influencing mobility.

Ethnocentrism

Judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture.

Xenophobia

Fear or distrust of outsiders or foreigners.

Cultural Relativism

Judging a culture by its own standards rather than by another culture.

Endogamy

Marriage within a specific social, cultural, or ethnic group.

Dominant Culture

Culture of those in power; sets norms and values for society.

Culture War

Public conflict over core values and moral positions.

Subculture

A cultural subgroup within a larger culture with distinct values and behaviors.

Counterculture

A subculture that actively opposes dominant social norms.

Multiculturalism

Coexistence of multiple cultures within one society.

Structural Functionalism (Paradigm)

Culture enables needs in society and acts as a toolkit for survival.

Conflict Theory (Paradigm)

Culture is shaped by power to control subordinate groups.

Symbolic Interactionism (Paradigm)

Culture emerges from everyday interactions and shared meanings.

Epistemology

Study of knowledge and how we know what we know.

Weltanschauung

A person’s worldview or comprehensive outlook.

Normative vs Empirical

Normative: value-based; Empirical: based on observation and evidence.

Descriptive vs Explanatory Research

Descriptive describes phenomena; Explanatory explains cause-effect relationships.

Deductive vs Inductive

Deductive: theory-driven; Inductive: data-driven.

Qualitative Research

Research using words and interpretive descriptions; often involves ethnography.

Ethnography

Long-term, qualitative fieldwork with participant observation within a culture or group.

Hawthorne Effect

People alter their behavior because they know they are being observed.