Sociology key terms

Ethnocentrism

One group is the center of everything and all others come second. ; All other ethnic groups must be judged according to their standard.

Cultural Relativism

A culture must be judged according to its own cultural standards. ; A culture must be understood inside its own standards.

Culture

Includes knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, and customs acquired by man as a member of society.

Materialism

The philosophical view that the material activities of our physical bodies in the material world constitute the essence of human nature.

Material Culture

Physical things that people create and give meaning to.

Non Material Culture

Abstract creations of society that influence behavior and direct socialization. (Values and ideas)

Symbols

Cultural representations of reality. Every culture has its own set associated with different experiences and perceptions.

Positivism

Founded by August Comte. It describes an approach to the study of society that specifically utilizes specific evidence like as experiments, statistics, and qualitative results to reveal a truth about the way society operates and functions.

August Comte

A French philosopher who founded the discipline of sociology.

Social Darwinism

Developed by Herbert Spencer. The concept of "Survival of the fittest". The strongest and fittest should flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die.

Class Conflict

Developed by Karl Marx. Chaos and struggle occur because of the economic organization of most societies. It is inevitable in capitalist societies because the interests of workers and capitalists are fundamentally at odds with each other.

Social Integration

Developed by Emile Durkheim. Feeling apart of society. ; It requires proficiency in the language, acceptance of the laws, and adoption of a common set of values.

Harriet Martineau

Abolitionist, studied moral principles in society, feminist, argued for improvement in women's education so marriage wouldn't be the only objective in life, claimed women were treated like slaves

Jane Addams

Sponsored legislation to abolish child labor, established juvenile courts, founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, opposed WWl, wanted to limit working hours for women, recognize labor unions, make school attendance compulsory, advocated women's suffrage

W.E.B. Du Bois

Co-founded NAACP, published first case study of an African American Community "The Philadelphia Negro :A Social Study", opposed the idea of white superiority, vocally supported women's rights, opposed Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise", Pan Africanism

Human interaction

Young children acquire social skills through this. Those who have lack of it "fail to thrive".

Nature vs Nurture

A longstanding debate regarding the effects of biology and social systems on individuals and behavior.

Three key functions of socialization

Morals (teaches impulse control and helps the child develop a conscience), family (teaches individuals how to prepare for and perform social roles), and values (cultivates shared sources of meaning and values)

Moral Reasoning

An individual's collective reasoning about what, morally, one ought to do.

Moral reasoning theory

Developed by Jean Piaget. Stage 1)Children between the ages of 5 to 10 see rules handing down by authority figures as absolute and unbreakable. They are followers to avoid negative consequences. Stage 2) This changes towards the end of middle childhood. Children become able to view situations from another's perspective. They develop the ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes.

Moral development theory

Developed by Lawrence Kohlberg. Level 1) Pre conventional Morality - Children see rules as fixed and absolute. Obeying them is important because it avoids punishment. Level 2) Conventional Morality- Focuses on living up to social expectations and roles. There is an emphasis on conformity, being "nice" and considerate of how choices influence relationships. Level 3) Post conventional morality - At this stage people follow internalized principles of justice, even if they conflict with laws and rules.

Agents of socialization

People or groups responsible for our socialization during childhood. (Ex. Mass media, family, school)

Role Exit Traumas

When relieving a role is traumatizing; not being used to a new role. (Ex. An only child not being the only child anymore.)

Total institutions

An isolated, enclosed social system whose primary response is to control most aspects of its' participants lives. (Ex. Prisons, mental hospitals, boarding schools, military training camps)

Socialization

A continuing process whereby an individual acquires a personal identity and learns the norms, values, behaviors, and social skills appropriate to his/her social position.

Social Interaction

A dynamic, changing sequence of social actions between individuals or groups. (Ex. A conversation between friends.)

Social Structure

The internal institutionalized relationships built up by people living within a group especially with regards to the hierarchical organization of status and to the rules and principles. (Ex. Family)

Macrosociology

The branch of sociology concerned with the study and analysis of societies in their entirety.

Micro sociology

The sociological study of small groups and social units within a larger social system. (Ex. Conversation or group dynamics)

Dramaturgy

The idea that life is like a never-ending play in which people are actors. When we are born, we are thrust onto a stage called everyday life.

Symbolic-interactionist perspective

People develop and rely upon symbolic meaning in the process of social interaction. People interpret one another's behavior and it is these interactions that form a social bond. George Herbert Mead introduced this perspective to American sociology in the 1920's. (Ex. Teens smoking cigarettes, ignoring the health risks, because they want to be seen as cool by their peers.)

Achieved Status

Social importance within a culture that somebody gains through personal effort. (Ex. Professional athlete, lawyer, criminal)

Ascribed Status

Beyond an individual's control. Not earned, but rather something they were either born into or had no control over. (Ex. Socioeconomic status or homelessness is an ascribed status for children, sex and race)

Stereotype

A widely held, but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. (All black people are poor.)

Group

A number of people who identify and interact with each other. (Ex. Family and friends)

Aggreggate

A collection of people who are in the same place at the same time, but do not interact or have anything in common.

Category

A group defined by a certain characteristic. (Ex. College graduate)

Primary groups

The most important groups; characterized by intimate face-to-face association. (Ex. Family, friends, neighbors)

Secondary groups

Functional groups created to carry out a task or achieve a goal. They are interpersonal. (Ex. Students and coworkers)

Out-group

People outside one's own group, considered to be inferior or alien. (Ex. Jewish people during the Holocaust; Muslim countries to the western world, currently)

Reference groups

A social group that a person takes as a standard in forming attitudes and behavior. (Ex. Family and friends)

Six degrees of separation

The belief that anyone can be connected through a chain of acquaintances. There are no more than five intermediaries.

Bureaucracies

Goal-oriented organizations designed according to rational principles in order to efficiently attain their goals. (Ex. A major corporation)

Society

A large group of people living together in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work that needs to be done.

Group dynamics

The behaviors and beliefs within a social group. (Ex. Values within an individual's family.)

Milgram experiment

An experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and moral conscience, conducted by Stanley Milgram, a psychology at Yale University (1963). He wanted to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient to authority figures as this was a common explanation for the Nazi killings in WWll.

Saphir-Whorf hypothesis

The theory that an individual's thoughts and actions are determined by the language or languages that individual speaks.

Language

The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.

Language skills

The ability to use language.

Values

Important and lasting beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable.

Folkway

The traditional behavior or way of life of a particular community of group or people.

Mores

The essentials or characteristics customs and conventions of a community.

Counterculture

A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social norm. (Hippy movement in the 1960's and 1970's)

Subculture

A cultural group within a larger culture often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. (Ex. Bikers, mormons)

Robert Edgerton's criticism of cultural relativism

Felt the concept of cultural relativism didn't include the darker side of certain culture. He felt that the barbaric practices in primitive culture had been ignored.

Deviance

Actions or behaviors that violate social norms, including formally-enacted rules, as well as informal violations of social norms. (Ex. Theft, fighting at school, lacking manners, blue hair)

Shaming and degradation ceremonies

A process that serves to lower a person's social status within a group or society. For the purposes of shaming that person for violating norms, rules, or lawsuit and to inflict punishment by taking away rights or privileges. (Ex. Slut shaming, "peep walk", arrest and sentencing in court)

Explanations of deviance

Cultural transmission, control theory (the social bonds that keep us from committing crimes), structural strain theory (where social strains become overwhelming to the point where they do deviance as a way to manage the strain)

Sub cultural Deviance Theory

A particular behavior may be normal but from the perspective of the larger culture, the behavior is considered to be deviant. ( ex. Goth fashion and music)

Medicalization of deviance

In earlier times, religious institutions had the social power to define deviant and "treat it". Now science and medicine has taken over the social control of "treating" deviance.

Differential Association Theory

Developed by Edwin Sutherland. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction. A person becomes a delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violations of the law to violations of laws.

Control Theory

The theory of motivation developed by William Glasser. Behavior is never caused by an outside stimulus. Behavior is inspired by what a person wants most at any given time.

Strain theory

Certain strains or stressors increase the likelihood of crime. (Ex. Unemployment leading to theft or drug dealing)

Mental illness

A psychiatric disorder that causes untypical behavior.

Functionalist perspective on deviance

Deviance helps to create social stability by presenting explanations of non-normative and normative behaviors.

Conflict perspective on deviance

Capitalist class passes laws designed to benefit themselves. They are detrimental to the working class. Both groups commit acts of deviance, but the systems the capitalists created defines deviance differently for each group.

The sociological imagination

Developed by C. Wright Mills. It is the ability to see things socially and how they interact and influence each other. (Ex. The simple act of drinking coffee. It is not just a drink, but rather it has symbolic value as part of day-to-day social rituals.)

Theory of self

Developed by George Herbert Mead. Maintains that the conception a person holds of their mind emerges from social interaction with others. The "me" represents the expectations and attitudes organized into a social self. The "I" is the response to the "Me".

Psychoanalytic Theory

Personality develops through a series of stages, each characterized by a certain internal psychological conflict.

id (psychoanalytic theory)

The primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all inherited components of personality at birth. It is the compulsive part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to the instincts.

Ego (psychoanalytic theory)

Develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It works by reason and is the decision making component.

Superego

Incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned by one's parents and others. Its function is to control the id's impulses. It consists of two systems: conscious and the ideal self

The Protestant ethic

Also the spirit of capitalism. Developed by Max Weber. The values of hard work, thrift, and efficiency in one's world calling, were deemed signs of an individual's election or eternal salvation. He held that it was an important factor in the economic success in the early stages of European capitalism.

Social Stratification

A system by which society ranks its members in a hierarchy.

Four systems of social stratification

Caste, class, slavery, estate

Slavery

Some people own other people (Ex. Debt, punishment for breaking law, free labor, defeat in battle)

Caste

Status is determined by birth and is lifelong. (Ex. Apartheid, Jim Crow Laws, Indian caste system)

Class

Based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions; Allows social mobility (Ex. Ascribed status from one's parents.)

Karl Marx on social class

Social class is determined by one's relationship to the means of production- the tools, factories, land and investment capital used to produce wealth. As capital becomes more concentrated, the two classes will become increasingly hostile to each other.

Bourgeoisie

Capitalists; own the means of production

Proletariat

Workers; work for those who own the means of production

Class consciousness

An awareness of a common identity based on position will develop.

False class consciousness

Marx believed this is what held works back from rebellion; the mistaken identification of workers with the interests of capitalists

Max Weber on social class

Did not believe that property was the sole basis of a person's position in the stratification system, but rather property, power, and prestige determine social class. He believed that there were only two social classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Property

Wealth; powerful people like managers and corporations control the means of production, although they do not own them.

Power

The ability to control others, even over their objections.

Prestige

May be derived from ownership of property; however it also may be based on other factors, such as athletic skills

Functionalist perspective on social stratification

Society must make certain that it's important positions are filled; some positions are more important than others; more important positions need to be filled by more qualified people, these people must be offered greater rewards

Conflict perspective on social stratification

Every society has only limited resources to go around, and in every society, groups struggle with one another for those resources. Those in power use resources to benefit themselves and oppress others. Groups within the same class compete for scarce resources, resulting in conflict. (Ex. Young vs. old; women vs men)

Elites

A group or class of persons considered to be superior to others because of their intelligence, social standing, or wealth.

Ideology

A system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy; elites use ideology to maintain their position of power. (Ex. The king's authority was said to come from God and therefore he and his representatives must be obeyed.)

How elites maintain stratification

Ideology, controlling information, fear, technology, legal establishment (ex. Police and military)

Estate

Stratification system of medieval Europe, with three \_______: nobility (wealthy rulers), clergy (church's power), and commoners (belonged to land)

Status

The relative social, professional, or other standing of someone or something

Role

The function assumed or part played by a person or thing in a particular situation

First World

The most industrialized nations; industrialized, capitalist nations; Most developed countries (ex. Canada, Great Britain, France, Singapore, Japan, and Australia)

Second World

The industrializing nations; Communist or socialist nations; Includes most of the nations of the former Soviet Union and its former satellites in Eastern Europe; Developing countries (ex. China, Cuba, Trinidad, Brazil, South Africa, Trinidad, and Turkey)

Third World

The least industrialized nations; most people live on farms or in villages with low standards of living; most of world's population growth occurs here; least developed countries (ex. Hungary, Jamaica, Peru, Sri Lanka, India, and Panama)

Global stratification

A comparison of the economic stability, power, status, and wealth between countries; focusing on the unequal distribution of wealth

Colonialism

The policy or practice of acquiring full of partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and and exploring it economically.