Intro to Sociology 101 Exam 1: Vocabulary

Sociological imagination

the ability to see the connections between individuals lives and wider social structures, and the way they affect each other.

research methods

strategies to collect accurate and useful information about the world

confirmation bias

the tendency to look for information that reinforces prior beliefs

level of analysis

the size or scale of the objects sociologists study

institutional level of analysis

The intermediate level of analysis, between microsociology and macrosociology, of specific institutions and social relationships.

microsociology

the analysis of individuals and small group interactions

macrosociology

the analysis of large-scale structural patterns and historical trends, including the workings of the economic, political, and cultural systems

insitution

an established system of rules and strategies that defines how people are related to each other and how they should act in a given social situation.

solidarity

the sense of belonging and the connection that we have to a particular group

conflict

disagreement, opposition, and seperation between individuals or groups

power

a social relationship in which one individual or group is able to influence the conduct of other individuals or groups either directly through force or indirectly through authority, persuasion, or cultural expectation

resistance

opposition to the exercise of power

inequality

the uneven distribution of social resources

privilege

the greater resources possessed by some individuals and groups compared to others

globalization

the interconnection of social life on the planet

local

the specific particular settings of everyday life, including face-to-face relationships.

social structures

the seen and unseen regular, organized patterns of social life

contingency

openness in the social life produced by human choices and actions

reflexivity

the imaginative ability to move outside of yourself in order to understand yourself as part of a wider social scene

social sciences

the disciplines that use systematic scientific and cultural methods to study the social world, as distinct from the natural and physical worlds

social facts

Facts about the collective nature of social life that have their own patterns and dynamics beyond the individual level

globalization

a growing concept that refers to the growing social, economic, cultural, and political interdependence of the world's people

urbanization

a social process in which the population shifts from the country into cities, and where most people start to live in cities rather than rural areas

canon

the set of thinkers and ideas that serve as a standard point of reference for a scholarly or artistic tradition (karl marx)

capitalism

an economic system based on the private ownership of property, including the means of material life such as food, clothing, and shelter, and in which the production of goods and services is controlled by private individuals and companies, and prices are set by markets (karl marx)

alienation

a condition where humans have no meaningful connection to their work, or to each other (karl marx)

public sociology

A commitment to bringing sociological knowledge to a general public audience, and participating in wider public conversations and struggles for social justice (karl marx)

bureaucracy

an organizational form with a clearly defined hierarchy where roles are based on rational, predictable, written rules and procedures to govern every aspect of the organization and produce standardized, systematic, and efficient outcomes (max weber)

rationalization

a major dynamic of modernity in which social relationships become more predictable, standardized, and effiecient (max weber)

disenchantment

The condition of rationalized bureaucratic societies characterized by the growing importance of skepticism and the decline of belief as a source of social action. (Emile durkheim)

division of labor

a central principle for organizing the productive work in society that sorts different people into different work roles to ensure the production and reproduction of human life. this includes the sepration of work and life into different, more specialized parts (emile durkheim)

mechanical solidarity

a system of social ties that produces social cohesion on the basis of similar work and life in less complex divisions of labor (emile durkheim)

organic solidarity

a system of social ties that produces social cohesion based on difference in complex divisions of labor (emile durkheim)

anomie

the condition of feeling isolated and disconnected in the absence of rich social connection (emile durkheim)

collective representations

Pictures, images, or narratives that describe the social group and are held in common (emile durkheim)

consensus theory

Consensus theorists focus on social equilibrium, which is the way that different parts of society work together to produce social cohesion

conflict theory

conflict theorists argue that social structures and similar social systems emerge out of the conflicts between different groups

symbolic interactionism

a perspective associated with the Chicago School of sociology that argues that people develop a social self through interaction with others

theories of the middle range

Theories that focus on particular institutions and practices rather than an overarching theory of society

feminism

a theoretical critique and historical series of social movements that proposed women as equal to men and argued that women should be treated as equals in major social institutions

critical race theory

a theory that first developed in critical legal studies to show the ways that the law reinforced racial injustice and domination

racial formation theory

A critique that analyzes modern Western society and particularly US society as structured by a historically developed "racial common sense". Racial stereotypes and institutionalized patterns of inequality are embedded in the fundamental fabric of modern social life at both individual and the institutional levels

intersectionality

a perspective that identifies the multiple, intersecting, and situational nature of the categories that shape people's identities (kimberly crenshaw)

post-colonial theory

A critical perspective that argues that the ways we see globalization, power, and economic systems in the modern world are all shaped by the conquest and subordination of the world's peoples by Western European powers dating from the 15th and 16th centuries

queer theory

a critical perspective that identifies the logic of homophobia and heterosexism in social practice and social institutions, and how that logic works to maintain social order

cultural turn

an interdisciplinary movement in sociology and other disciplines that emphasizes the collective cultural dimension of social life

thomas theorem

the proposition that the way people interpret a situation has real consequences for how they act

social stratification

a central sociological idea that describes structured patterns of inequality between different groups of people

confirmation bias

when research is biased to confirm the researcher's preexisting beliefs or hypothesis

empirical evidence

fact-based information about the social or natural world

beliefs

ideas about the world that come through divine revelation or received tradition

opinions

ideas about the world that stem from common values or experience

falsifiability

the idea that scientific statements define what condition or evidence would prove them wrong

social research

All the different strategies sociologists use to collect, measure, and analyze their data

controlled experiment

scientific method that systematically controls the factors that affect some outcome of interest and studies it systematically to isolate the casual logic that produces the observed effects

ethics

critical reasoning about moral questions. ethical research weighs the benefits of research against possible harm to human subjects of research

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

a governing group that evaluates proposed research with the goal of protecting human subjects from physical or psychological harm

informed consent

the idea that people must consent to being studied and that researchers must give their subjects enough information about the study so that they can make a truly voluntary decision about whether or not to participate

peer review

the process of review of proposed research or publication by the community or scientific experts in a profession or scientific field

sociological research methods

All the different strategies sociologists use to collect, measure, and analyze data

quantitative methods

sociological research methods that collect numerical data that can be analyzed using statistical techniques

continuous or linear variable

A measure of inherently numerical phenomena that can be counted, divided, and multiplied, such as money or time

categorical or nominal variable

a variable that measures phenomena that are not inherently numerical, such as gender, race, or ethnicity. In this case the numerical code assigned to a quality is more a name than a number

ordinal variable

A measure of categorical order, such as more and less, where the distances between categories are not numerically precise

qualitative methods

sociological research methods that collect nonnumerical information, such as interview transcripts or images

variable

a quantity that changes, or varies, in a research population

dependent variable

the outcome to be explained in a research study; the researcher wants to identify what produces the effects on the dependent variable

independent variable

the factor that produces a change in the dependent variable

operationalization

the process of defining measures for a sociological study

validity

when data accurately measure the phenomenon under study

reliability

the consistent measurement of the object over units in a population or over repeated samples

research population

The entire universe of individuals or objects in a study

sample

a selection from a research population for the purposes of research

convenience sample

a sample collected from a research population on the basis of convenience, or easy access

random sample

a selection from a research population based on a random mechanism, such as a dice roll, a flipped coin, or a random number generator

representative sample

a selection from a research population that contains all of the features of the wider population from which it is drawn

snowball sample

A selection from a research population taken by asking the first few research subjects to identify and recommend others for study

theoretical sample

A selection from a research population that focuses a sample as research progresses and where the sampling strategy changes after the initial data have been collected, based on what is theoretically important

case study research

Research that relies on a small number of cases that offer special insight into a particular social process and are studied in depth, typically using comparative methods

hypothesis

a specific statement about the casual relationship between variables that is falsifiable, which means it is a statement that can be proved wrong on the basis of empirical evidence

cause

something that produces an outcome. technically, a cause is where a first event is understood to produce a material effect on a second event

correlation

an observed statistical dependence between two variables but it does not mean the variables are casually related

causation

occurs when two variables share a pattern because one variable produces the pattern in the other

counterfactual reasoning

an analytical strategy for investigating the causal logic of research that asks what factors might have led to a different social outcome

surveys

a sociological research method that asks a series of defined questions to collect data from a large sample of the research population

in-depth interviews

A sociological research method that uses extended, open-ended questions to collect data.

focus groups

a sociological research method that gathers groups of people together for discussion of a common question or a particular social issue to collect data

generalize

to make the argument that the finding from a particular sample of people or a single research study applies to a wider research population

reactivity

when the researcher has an effect on the behavior and responses of the interview subject

ethnography

a sociological research method based on participant-observation in the field where researchers try to capture social life in all of its detail and complexity

participant-observation

a research method of observing people in social settings by participating in those social settings with them

experiments

a sociological research method that controls the conditions of observation with the goal of isolating the effects of different factors on some outcome of interest

field experiments

reserach using experimental methods in natural settings outside of the laboratory

comparative-historical methods

A set of research methods that uses comparison of events and processes in the past to understand the development and operation of social things

content analysis

a sociological method to systematically evaluate and code text documents in which word frequencies or other textual features can be turned into quantitative variables

selection effect

The bias produced in data by the way the data are chosen, or selected

big data

refers to the large amount of data produced by our technological ability to capture the behavior of humans (and machines and others) over huge populations and time spans

institutional reflexivity

The phenomenon where people change their behavior in response to social research

basic research

research with the goal of advancing our fundamental knowledge and understanding of the world

applied research

research with the goal of solving practical problems in society