Sociology Exam 1

Sociology

the systematic study of human society and social interaction

Society

a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.

Sociological Imagination

the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.

High-Income Countries

Nations with highly industrialized economics; technologically advanced industrial, administrative, and service occupations; relatively high income.

Middle Income Countries

Nations with industrializing economies, particularly in urban areas, and moderate levels of income.

Low Income Countries

Primarily agrarian nations with little industrialization and low levels of income.

Race

groups of people distinguished by physical characteristics

Ethnicity

Cultural heritage, identity of a group, language, country.

Sex

biological and anatomical differences between males + females

Industrialization

the process by which society is transformed from dependence on agriculture and handmade products to an emphasis on manufacturing and related industries.

Urbanization

the process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities rather than in rural areas.

Social Statics

forces for social order and stability

Social dynamics

forces for conflict and change

Poitivism

the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry

Methodological

the application of scientific knowledge to both physical and social phenomena

Social and Political

use of knowledge to predict results of different policies so that best is chosen.

Social Darwanism

survival of the fittest, those best adapted survive and prosper, and those poorly adapted die out.

Social Facts

patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual but that exert social control over each person.

Anomie

a condition in which social control becomes insufficient as a result of the loss of shared values. "normlessness"

Karl Marx

stressed class conflict, bourgeoisie vs proletariat, Believed that societal changes can be good, and economics was the central force for change.

Max Weber

emphasized sociology should be value-free and study large-scale organizations.

Jane Adams

activism for females, ahead of her time, founded hull house, won a Nobel peace prize.

Du Bois

founded NAACP, studied racial conflict, "double consciousness".

Theory

a set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and predict social events.

The functionalist perspectives

based on the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system.

Manifest Functions

intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit.

Latent Functions

Unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants

Conflict perspective

groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources.

Macrolevel

whole societies, large scale-social structures

Microlevel

Small groups

Symbolic Interactionalist Perspectives

society is the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups

Symbol

anything that meaning fully represents something else.

Postmodern Perspectives

existing theories have been unsuccessful in explaining social life in contemporary societies characterized by post-industrialization, consumerism, and global communications.

Quantitative Research

Goal is scientific objectivity, and focus is on data that can be measured numerically.

Qualitative Research

Interpretive descriptions(words) rather than statistics (numbers) are used to analyze underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships.

Hypothesis

a statement of the expected relationship between two or more variables

Variable

Any concept with measurable traits or characteristics that can change or vary from one person, time, situation, or society to another.

Independent Variable

Presumed to be the cause of the relationship.

Dependent Variable

assumed to be caused by the independent Variables.

Research Methods

specific strategies or techniques for systematically conducting research.

Survey

a poll in which the researcher gathers facts or attempts to determine the relationships among facts.

Questionnaire

a printed research instrument containing a series of items to which subjects respond

interview

a data-collection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers.

Secondary Analysis

researchers use existing material and analyze data that were originally collected by others.

Content Analysis

the systematic examination of cultural artifacts, or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life.

Participant observation

the process of collecting systematic observations while being part of the activities of the group that the researcher is studying.

Ethnography

A detailed study of the line and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years.

Expirement

a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the effect of certain variables on subjects attitudes or behavior.

Expiremental group

contains the subjects who are exposed to an independent variable (the expiremental condition) to study its effects on them.

Control Group

contains the subjects who are not exposed to the independent variable.

Correlation

two variables are associated more frequently than could be expected by chance.

Structural Functionist

previous functions of families have been assumed by other institutions solidarity weakened.

Conflict: economic empowerment

enabled women to leave unsatisfactory or abusive relationships.

Interactionist

meanings of marriage changed meanings of divorce changed.

Validity

the extent to which a study or research instrument accurately measures what it is supposed to measure.R

Reliability

the extent to which a study or research instrument yields consistent results.

Culture

the knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

Material culture

consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of society make, use, and share.

Nonmaterial culture

consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of a society that influence people's behavior.

Beliefs

the mental acceptance or conviction that certain things are true or real.

Cultural Universals

Customs and practices that occur across all societies.

Symbol

anything that meaningfully represents something else.

Language

A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people think and communicate with one another.

Sapir-Whorf
hypothesis

language shapes the view of the reality of its speakers.

Values

collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.

Individualism

responsible for their own success or failure. those who don't succeed have themselves to blame.

Achievement and success

results from successful competition with others/

Activity and work

people who are industrious are praised for their achievements. Those perceived as lazy are ridiculed.

Equality

since colonial times. overt class distinctions have been rejected, equality has been defined as equality of opportunity.

Value Contradictions

values that conflict with one another or are mutually exclusive.

Norms

established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.

Sanctions

rewards for appropriate behaviors or penalties for inappropriate behaviors.F

Folkways

informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.

Mores

strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture.

Taboos

mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable.

Cultural Diversity

refers to the wide range of cultural difference between and within nations.

Laws

formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislation and are enforced by formal sanctions.

Technology

the knowledge, techniques, and tools that allow people to transform resources into usable forms and the knowledge and skills required to use them after they are developed.

Cultural lag

a gap between the technical development of a society and its moral and legal institutions.

subculture

a group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles

Culture shock

the disorientation people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own and believe they cannot depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

Discovery

learning about something previously unknown

Invention

reshaping items into a new form.

Ethnocentrism

the practice of judging all other cultures by one's own culture.

CulturalRelativism

the belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the cultures own standard.

High Culture

consists of classical music, opera, ballet, live theatre, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences, composed primarily of members of the upper-middle and upper classes, who have the time, money, and knowledge assumed to be necessary for appreciation.

Popular culture

consists of activities, products, and services that are assured to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.

Fads

temporarily but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically by large numbers of people.

Diffusion

Movement from one culture to another.

Cultural Imperialism

The extensive infusion of one's nation's culture into another nation.

Socialization

the life-long process of social interaction through which individuals acquire a self-identity and the physical, mental, and social skills needed for survival in society.

Sociobiology

the systematic study of social behavior from a biological perspective.

Sigmund Freud

psychoanalytic approach: behavior and personality originate from unconscious forces within individuals.

Id

the component of personality that includes all of the individuals' basic biological drives and needs that demand immediate gratification.

ego

the national, reality-oriented component of personality that imposes restrictions on the innate pleasure-seeking drives of the id.

Superego

consists of the moral and ethical aspects of personality.

Jean Piaget

pioneer for cognitive development.

Lawrence Kohlberg

elaborated on cognitive reasoning.

Carol Gilligan

noted that Piaget and Kohlberg didn't take gender into account. Men are more concerned with law and order, and women tend to analyze social relationships and the social consequences of behavior.

Self-concept

the totality of our beliefs and feelings about ourselves.