SOCI 111 Midterm 2 Flashcards

Abiotic Components: Non-living components of an ecosystem, such as water, sunlight, and minerals, that are necessary for life.

Anabolic Pathways: Metabolic pathways that build larger molecules from smaller ones, requiring an input of energy.

Biotic Components: Living components of an ecosystem, such as plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Body Work: The concept highlighting the embodied nature of work, both paid and unpaid, encompassing physical, emotional, and relational efforts.

Brand: A name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or services from those of others.

Catabolic Pathways: Metabolic pathways that break down larger molecules into smaller ones, releasing energy in the process.

Cellular Respiration: The process by which cells convert glucose and oxygen into usable energy (ATP), releasing carbon dioxide and water as byproducts.

Concerted Cultivation: A parenting style, often associated with middle-class families, characterized by actively fostering children's talents and opinions through structured activities and reasoning.

Correlation: A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which two or more variables fluctuate together. It does not imply causation.

Cultural Capital: The non-economic resources that provide individuals with advantages in society, such as knowledge, skills, education, and social connections.

Culture: The shared beliefs, practices, values, norms, symbols, and material objects of a group or society.

Demography: The statistical study of populations, including their size, structure, and changes over time due to births, deaths, and migration.

Dependent Variable: The outcome variable that is thought to be affected by the independent variable in a research study.

Dominant Ideology: A set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests.

Ecosystem: A community of interacting organisms (biotic factors) and their physical environment (abiotic factors).

Emotional Labour: The management of one's emotions to meet the demands of a job, often involving suppressing or inducing certain feelings.

Epistemology: The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, its extent and validity.

Evolution: The process by which different kinds of living organisms are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

Fertility Rate: The average number of children born to women of childbearing age in a population.

Food Chain: A linear sequence of organisms where nutrients and energy are transferred from one organism to another.

Food Web: A complex network of interconnected food chains in an ecological community.

Hegemony: The dominance or leadership of one social group or ideology over others, often achieved through consent rather than force.

Heteronormativity: The assumption that heterosexuality is the natural or preferred sexual orientation and that gender identity aligns with assigned sex at birth.

Hypothesis: A testable statement or prediction about the relationship between two or more variables.

Independent Variable: The presumed cause that influences the dependent variable in a research study.

Inter-Corporeal Work: Body work that involves direct physical engagement and interaction with other people's bodies.

Life Expectancy: The average number of years that a person is expected to live, typically from birth, based on current mortality rates.

Looking Glass Self: A concept developed by Charles Horton Cooley, stating that our self-image is based on how we perceive others to view us.

Meiosis: A type of cell division that results in four daughter cells each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell, as in the production of gametes.

Metabolism: The sum of all chemical reactions that occur within an organism to maintain life.

Mitosis: A type of cell division that results in two daughter cells each having the same number and kind of chromosomes as the parent nucleus, typical of ordinary tissue growth.

Natural Growth: A parenting style, often associated with working-class and poor families, characterized by providing the necessities and allowing children more autonomy in their unstructured time.

Natural Selection: The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and reproduce more offspring.

Neo-Malthusian: A perspective that revives and updates Malthusian arguments about population growth, often focusing on the environmental consequences of overpopulation.

Neo-Marxist: A perspective that critiques Malthusian ideas, arguing that overpopulation is not a natural phenomenon but rather a symptom of capitalist inequalities in resource distribution.

Ontology: The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of being.

Patriarchy: A social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, property ownership, privilege and control of women and children.

Photosynthesis: The process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods with the help of chlorophyll.

Population Pyramid: A bar graph that illustrates the distribution of a population by age and sex.

Primary Socialization: The process of learning basic norms, values, and behaviors during early childhood, primarily within the family.

Reliability: The consistency and replicability of research findings.

Sample: A smaller subset of a population selected for a research study.

Second Demographic Transition Theory: A theory that focuses on shifts in family formation, such as increased cohabitation, delayed marriage, and declining fertility rates in post-industrial societies.

Secondary Socialization: The process of learning more specific roles, behaviors, and norms in institutional settings such as schools and workplaces.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: A phenomenon where a prediction or expectation comes true simply because it was made.

Socialization: The lifelong process through which individuals learn the norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors of their society.

Symbolic Economy: The ways in which brands convey cultural meaning and social associations beyond their material value.

Symbolic Interactionism: A micro-level sociological perspective that focuses on the interactions between individuals and the meanings they create and share through symbols.

Trophic Levels: The position an organism occupies in a food chain or food web, indicating its feeding relationships (e.g., producers, consumers, decomposers).

Validity: The degree to which a study measures what it intends to measure.

Wedding-Industrial Complex: The interconnected network of businesses and cultural practices that promote and profit from elaborate and costly weddings.

Theory: Malthusian Theory of Population Growth

• Theorist: Thomas Malthu

• Reading: Tfailly, “Spring Babies, Summer Weddings, Fall Divorces, and Winter Deaths: Seasons and Populations”

• Summary: This theory posits that population grows geometrically while the food supply grows arithmetically. This imbalance leads to overpopulation and "positive checks" like famine, disease, and war, as well as the advocacy for "moral restraint" to control population growth

• Author: Tfailly

Theory: Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection

• Theorist: Charles Darwin4

• Reading: Todd, “The Rideau Canal in Fall: Understanding Ontology and Epistemology with Indigenous Ways of Knowing”

• Summary: This is the mechanism of evolution, stating that organisms that are better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce

• Author: Todd

Theory: Demographic Transition Theory

• Theorist: Not explicitly mentioned in the sources.

• Reading: Tfailly, “Spring Babies, Summer Weddings, Fall Divorces, and Winter Deaths: Seasons and Populations”

  Summary: This theory describes the stages countries move through from high fertility and mortality rates to low fertility and mortality rates, often reflecting socio-economic development5 .

• Author: Tfailly

Theory: Second Demographic Transition Theory

• Theorist: Not explicitly mentioned in the sources.

• Reading: Tfailly, “Spring Babies, Summer Weddings, Fall Divorces, and Winter Deaths: Seasons and Populations”

• Summary: This theory focuses on shifts in family formation and individualization, including increased age at first marriage and a rise in childlessness in modern societies

• Author: Tfailly

Theory: Epidemiological Transition Theory

• Theorist: Not explicitly mentioned in the sources.

• Reading: Tfailly, “Spring Babies, Summer Weddings, Fall Divorces, and Winter Deaths: Seasons and Populations”

• Summary: This theory describes the historical shift in mortality patterns from deaths primarily due to infectious diseases to deaths primarily due to chronic diseases

• Author: Tfailly

Theory: Cooley's Looking Glass Self

• Theorist: Charles Horton Cooley

• Summary: This concept explains that our self-image is developed through how we perceive others see us, emphasizing that the self is a social construction influenced by social interactions

Theory: Practice Theory

• Theorist: Alan Warde

• Reading: Bookman, “Pumpkin Spice Lattes: Marking the Seasons with Brands”

• Summary: This theory emphasizes the routine nature of consumption that is associated with everyday habits and how these routines are influenced by expectations, marketing, and consumer lives

• Author: Bookman

Theory: Symbolic Interactionism

• Theorist: Not explicitly mentioned in the notes.

• Summary: This micro-sociological perspective views society as a human construct formed by the sum of individual interactions. It emphasizes the importance of interpretations, perceptions, meanings, attitudes, and subjective messages in communication, which occurs through verbal and non-verbal cues

Theory: Sociological Thinking (as described by Peter Berger)

• Theorist: Peter Berger

• Reading: Park, “Wedding Season: The White Wedding as a Cultural Ritual of Heteronormativity”

• Summary: Berger argues that sociology helps us see the familiar in unfamiliar ways, prompting critical reflection on social rituals and questioning underlying assumptions about them

• Author: Park