Sociology: The Individual and Society
Terms
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- macrosociology
- analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationships of groups to one another; an approach usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists
- microsociology
- analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction; an approach usually used by symbolic interactionists
- social interaction
- what people do when they are in one another's presence
- social structure
- framework that surrounds us, consisting of the relationships of people and groups to one another, which give direction to and set limits on behavior
- social class
- a large group of people who rank close to one another in wealth, power, and prestige (Weber)
- status
- social ranking; the position that someone occupies in society or a social group
- status set
- all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies
- ascribed statuses
- positions an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life
- achieved statuses
- positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity on the individual's part
- status symbols
- items used to identify a status
- master status
- a status that cuts across the other statuses thatt an individual occupies
- status inconsistency
- tanking high on some dementions of social class and low on others
- role
- behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status
- role exit
- ending or a role, including the adjustment people make when they face not 'being' what they formerly were
- group
- people who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group
- social institution
- the organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs
- society
- people who share a culture and a territory
- hunting and gathering society
- human groups dependent on hunting and gathering for its survival
- shaman
- the healing specialist of tribal groups who attempts to control the spitits thought to cause a disease or injury; commonly called a witch doctor
- pastoral society
- a society based on the pasturing of animals
- horticultural society
- society based on cultivating plants by the use of hand tools
- domestication revolution
- firt social revolution, based on the domestication of plants and animals. which led to pastoral and horticultural societies
- agricultural revolution
- society based on large-scale agriculture, dependent on plows drawn by animals
- industrial revolution
- third social revolution occuring when machines powered by fuels replaced most animal and human power
- industrial society
- a society based on the harnessing of achines powered by fuels
- postindustrial (information) society
- a society based on information, services, and high technology, rather than on raw materials and manufacturing
- bioeconomic society
- an economy that centers around the application of genetics - human genetics for medicine, and plant/animal genetics for the production of food
- deviance
- violation of rules or norms
- crime
- violation of norms written into law
- stigma
- 'blemishes' that discredit a person's claim to a 'normal' identity
- social order
- group's usual & customary social arrangements on which its members depend and on which they base their lives
- social control
- group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms
- negative sanction
- expression of disapproval for breaking a norm ranging from mild/informal reaction (frown) to serious/formal reaction such as prison or execution
- positive sanction
- reward or positive reaction for following norms (smile. prize)
- degradation ceremony
- describes an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an ind. self-identity and stamping new identity in its place
- culture
- language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and material objects that are passed from one generation to the next
- material culture
- material objects that distinguish a group of people; such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, jewelry
- nonmaterial culture
- group's way of thinking (beliefs/values) and doing (patterns of behavior)
- culture shock
- disorientation people experience when they come in contact w/ fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend of their taken-for-granted assumptions about life
- ethnocentrism
- use of our own groups ways of doing things as the yardstick for judging others
- cultural relativism
- not judging a culture but trying to understand it on it's own terms
- values
- standard by which people define what is desireable or undesireable, good/bad, beautiful/ugly
- norms
- expectations or rules of behavior that develop to relfect & enforce values
- sanction
- expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms
- folkways
- norms not stictly enforced
- mores
- norms strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or well-being of the group
- taboo
- norm so strong it often brings revulsion if violated
- subculture
- values & related behaviors of a group that distingusih its members from larger culture; world w/in a larger world of dominant culture
- counterculture
- group whose values, beliefs, & related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture
- pluralistic society
- society made up of many different groups
- social environment
- entire human environment including direct contact with others
- feral children
- children assumed to have been raised by animals, in the wilderness, isolated from other humans
- socialization
- process by which people learn the characteristics of their group - knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and actions thought appropriate for them
- self
- unique capacity of being able to see ourselves 'from the outside'; the view we internalize of how others see us
- looking - glass self
- the process by which our self develops through internalizing others' reactions to us
- taking the role of the other
- putting oneself in someone else's shoes, understanding how someone else feels & thinks and thus anticipating how that person will act
- significant other
- an individual who significantly influences someone else's life
- generalized other
- norms, values, sttitudes, & expectations of people 'in general'; child's ability to take the role of the generalized other is a significant step in the development of self
- agents of socialization
- people or groups that affect our self-concept. attitudes, behaviors, or other orientations toward life
- manifest function
- intended beneficial consequences of people's actions
- latent function
- unintended consequences of people's actions
- anticipatory socialization
- because one anticipates a futurerole, one learns parts of it now
- coalition
- the alignment of some members of a group against others
- triad
- a groups of three people
- dyad
- smallest possible group consisting of two persons
- small group
- group small enough for everyone to interact directly with all the other members
- group dynamics
- ways in which individuals affect groups and the ways in which groups influence individuals
- networking
- using one's social networkd for some gain
- electronic community
- individuals who regularly interact with one another on the internet & who think of themselves as belonging together
- social network
- social ties radiating outward from the self that link people together
- clique
- cluster or people within a larger group who choose to interact with one another; an internal faction
- reference group
- groups who use asstandards to evaluate ourselves
- out-groups
- groups toward which one feels antagonism
- in-groups
- groups toward which one feels loyalty
- secondary group
- a larger, relatively temporary, more anonymous formal & impersonal groups based on some interest or activity whose members are likely to interact on the basis of specific roles
- primary group
- group characterized by intimate, long-term, fact to face association and cooperation
- category
- people who have similar characteristics
- aggregate
- individuals who temporarily share the same physical space but who do no see themselves as belonging together