Sociology Exam 2

Culture

The way of life of a people and the material concepts of that people.

Subculture

Groups that share a specific identification, apart from a society’s majority, even as the members exist within a larger society.

Material Culture

The physical environment, including that which we make, such as technology.

Immaterial/Nonmaterial Culture

Ideologies, values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms, etc.

Counter-Culture

Groups that reject and oppose society’s widely accepted cultural patterns.

Ideology

The overarching belief systems of society that allows us to understand and interpret the world around us. For Marx, ideologies could disguise the nature of reality from us.

• Connects to our “taken for granted beliefs” and our “common sense.”

Values

Beliefs about morals and ethics.

Norms

How values tell us to behave.

Cultural Scripts

Ways that we learn to behave in a society. We perform our identities in accordance with these scripts.

• This is part of sociological theory referred to as symbolic interactionism.

Culture Shock

The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.

Cultural Relativism

The principle of regaining the beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself.

Code Switching

The movement between sets of cultural norms in different contexts.

Socialization

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

Hegemony

A concept that describes how we “consent” to our society’s norms (while at other times domination is necessary). • Brings together “coercion” and “consent.”

Status

A recognizable social position that an individual occupies and that can be assigned and earned.

Role

Duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status.

Role Conflict

The tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles.

Social Construction

A concept or perception based on collective views developed and maintained within a society or social group; a social phenomenon or convention originating within and cultivated by a particular social group, as opposed to existing inherently or naturally.

Small Groups

• Face to face Interactions

• Unifocal: One center of attention at a time

• Lacking in formal agreements or roles

• Equality

Large Group

Involves formal structures the mediate interaction.

Party

A multifocal small group.

Primary Groups

Small groups that are an end unto themselves rather than a means to an end.

Secondary Groups

Groups marked by impersonal and instrumental relations.

Reference Groups

A group that helps us understand our place in society as we compare ourselves to others.

Social Networks

A set of relations held together by ties between people.

• Can have weak ties and strong ties, and these can be more or less embedded.

Dyad

A group of 2.

Triad

A group of 3.

Mediator

Attempts to resolve conflict between the other two members of the triad, and is sometimes brought in for that explicit purpose.

Tertius Gaudens

Latin for “the third that rejoices.” This individual profits from the disagreement of the other two actors, essentially playing the opposite role from the mediator.

Divide et Impera

Latin for “divide and conquer.” This person intentionally drives a wedge between the other two parties.

Interpretive Community

A cultural object does not have meaning outside of a set of cultural assumptions regarding both what it means and how it should be interpreted. This cultural context often includes authorial intent, though it is not limited to it (Stanley Fish, 1976).

• Share common social identities and cultural backgrounds that inform their shared understandings of culture.

The Culture Industry Theory

Popular culture is akin to factory producing standardized culture goods that are used to manipulate mass society into passivity.

• Consumption of the easy pleasures of popular culture renders people docile and content, no matter how difficult their economic circumstances.

• The inherent danger of the culture industry is the cultivation of false psychological needs that can only be met and satisfied by capitalism.

• Theodor Adorno

The Multivocality of of Cultural Objects

The idea that a single object can carry multiple, often competing, meanings for different people and groups.

The Strength of Weak Ties

A sociological theory by Mark Granovetter suggesting that casual acquaintances (weak ties) are more valuable for accessing new information and opportunities than close friends and family (strong ties).