Intro to Sociology - Ch 1-5, 8
Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life
David M. Newman
David M. Newman
Terms
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- symbolic interactionism
- theoretical perspective that explains society and social structure through an examination of the micro-level personal, day-to-day exchanges of people in individuals, pairs, or groups
- collectivist culture
- culture in which personal accomplishments are less important in the formation of identity than group membership
- role
- set of expectations-rights, obligations, behaviors, duties-associated with a particular status
- institutionalized norm
- pattern of behavior within existing social institutions that is widely accepted in a society
- deterrence theory
- theory of deviance positing that people will be prevented from engaging in deviant acts if they judge the costs of such an act to outweigh the benefits
- sex
- biological maleness or femaleness
- looking glass self
- sense of who we are that is defined by incorporating the reflected appraisals of others
- tracking
- grouping of students into different curricular programs, or tracks, based on an assessment of their academic abilities
- game stage
- stage in the development of self during which a child acquires the ability to take the role of a group or community (the generalized other) and to confirm his or her behavior to broad, societal expectations
- globalization
- process through which people's lives all around the world become economically, politically, environmentally, and culturally interconnected
- secondary group
- relatively impersonal collection of individuals that is established to perform a specific task
- representative
- typical of the whole population being studied
- achieved status
- social positionacquired through our own efforts or accomplisments or taken on voluntarily
- organization
- large, complex network of positions, created for a specific purpose and characterized by a hierarchical division of labor
- reflexive behavior
- behavior in which the initiating an action is the same as the person toward whom the action is directed
- eugenics
- the control of mating to ensure that "defective" gens of troublesome individuals will not be passed on to future generation
- individualist culture
- culture in which personal accomplishments are a more importnat component of one's self concept than a group membership
- sample
- subgroup chosen for a study because its characteristics approximate those of the entire population
- structural functionalist perspective
- theoretical perspective that posits that social institutions are structured to maintain stability and order in society
- material culture
- artifacts of a society, which represent adaptations to the social and physical environment
- nonmaterial culture
- knowledge, beliefs, customs, values, morals, and symbols that are shared by members of a society and that distinguish the society from others
- gender
- psychological, social, and cultural aspects of maleness and femaleness
- anomic suicide
- type of suicide that occurs when the structure of society is weakened or disrupted and people feel hopeless and disillusioned
- transexuals
- people who identify with a different sex and sometimes undergo hormone treatment and surgery to change their sex
- sanction
- social response that punishes or otherwise discourages violations of a social norm
- experiment
- research method designed to elicit some sort of behavior, typically conducted under closely controlled laboratory circumstances
- hypothesis
- researchable prediction that specifies the relationship between two ore more variables
- triad
- group consisting of three people
- visual sociology
- method of studying society that uses photographs, video, and film either as means of gathering data or as sources of data about social life
- more
- highly, codified, formal. systematized norm that brings severe punishment when violated
- self fulfilling prophecy
- assumption or prediction that in itself causes the expected event to occur thus seemin to confirm the prophecy's accuracy
- participant observation
- form of field resarch in which the researcher interacts with subjects, sometimes hiding his or her identity
- field research
- type of social research in which the researcher observes events as they actually occur
- dependent variable
- variable that is assumed to be caused by, or to change as a result of, the independent variable
- agents of socialization
- the various individuals, groups, and organizations who influence the socialization process
- symbol
- something used to represent or stand for something else
- medicalization
- definition of behavior as a medical problem and mandating the medical profession to provide some kind of treatment for it
- anticipatory socialization
- process through which people acquire the values and orientations found in statuses they will likely enter in the future
- altruistic suicide
- type of suicide that occurs where ties to the group or community are considered more important than individual identity
- empirical research
- research that operates from the ideological position that questions about human behavior can be answered only through controlled, systematic observations in the real world
- qualitative research
- sociological research based on nonnumerical information (text, written words, phrases, symbols, observations) that describes people, actions, or events in social life
- spurious relationship
- a false association between two variables that is actually due to the effect of some third variable
- variable
- any characteristic, attitude, behavior, or event that can take on two or more values or attributes
- nonparticipant observation
- form of field research in which the researcher observes people without directly interacting with them and without letting them know that they are being observed
- group
- set of people who interact more or less regularly and who are conscious of their identity
- self
- uniqu set of traits, behaviors, and attitudes that distinguishes one person from the next, the active source and passive object of behavior
- play stage
- stage in the development of self during which a child develops the ability to take a rold, but only from the perspective of one person at a time
- micro level
- way of examining human life that focuseson the immediate, every experiences of individuals
- heteronormative culture
- culture in which heterosexuality is accepted as the normal, taken-for-granted mode of sexual expression
- culture
- language, values, beliefs, rules, behaviors, and artifacts that characterize a society
- identity
- essential aspect of who we are, consisting of our sense of self, gender, race, ethnicity, and religion
- comparative method
- research technique that compares existing official statistics and historical records across groups to test a theory about some social phenomenon
- dyad
- group consisting of two people
- cultural relativism
- the principle that people's beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of their own culture
- macro level
- way of examining human life that focuses on the broad social forces and structural features of socety that exist above the level of individual people
- ascribed status
- social position acquired at birth or taken on involuntarily later in life
- status
- any named social position that people can occupy
- value
- standard of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes
- coalition
- subgroup of a triad, formed when two members unite against the third member
- norm
- culturally defined standard or rule of conduct
- generalized other
- perspective of the larger society and its constituent values and attitudes
- absolutism
- approach to defining deviance that rests on the assumption that all human behavior can be considered either inherently good or inherently bad
- counterculture
- group that actively opposes the values and behavior patterns of the dominant culture
- intersexuals
- individuals in whom sexual differentiation is either incomplete or ambiguous
- sexual dichotomy
- belief that two biological sex categories, male and female, are permanent, universal, exhaustive, and mutually exclusive
- conflict perspective
- theoretical perspective that views the structure of society as a source of inequality, that always benefits some groups at the expense of other groups
- resocialization
- process of learning new values, norms, and expectations when an adult leaves an old role and enters a new one
- ethnocentrism
- tendency to judge other cultures using one's own as a standard
- relativism
- approach to defining deviance that rests on the assumption that deviance is socially created by collective human judgments and ideas
- reactivity
- a problem associated with certain forms of research in which the very act of intruding into people's lives may influence the phenomenon being studied
- latent function
- unintended, unrecognized consequences of activities that help some part of the social system
- sociology
- the systematic study of human societies
- social construction of reality
- process through which the members of a society discover, make known, reaffirm, and alter a collective version of facts, knowledge, and "truth"
- folkway
- informal norm that is mildly punished when violated
- socialization
- process through which one learns how to act according to the rules and expectations of a particular culture
- labeling theory
- theory stating that deviance is the consequence of the application of rules and sanctions to an offender; a deviant is an individual to whom the identity "deviant" has been successfully applied
- individualistic explanation
- tendency to attribute people's achievements and failures to their personal qualities
- deviance
- behavior, ideas, or attributes of an individual or group that some people in society find offensive
- feminist perspective
- theoretical perspective that focuses on gender as the most important source of conflict and inequality in social life
- social institution
- stable set of roles, statuses, groups, and organizations-such as the institution of education, family, politics, religion, health care, or the economy-that provides a foundation for behavior in some major area of social life
- probabilistic
- capable of identifying only those forces that have a high likelihood, but not a certainty, of influencing human action
- survey
- form of social research in which a researcher asks subjects a series of questions, either verbally or on paper
- total institution
- place where individuals are cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period and where together they lead an enclosed, formally administered life
- unobtrusive research
- research techniqus in which the researcher, without direct contact with the the subjects, examines the evidence of social behavios that people create or leave behind
- sociological imagination
- ability to see the impact of social forces on our private lives, ability to see the impact of social forces on our private lives
- criminalization
- official definition of an act of deviance as a crime
- subculture
- values, behaviors, and artifacts of a group that distinguish its members form the larger culture
- society
- population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members fall under the same politcal authority
- content analysis
- form of unobtrusive research that studies the content of the recorded messages, such as books, speeches, poems, songs, television shows, web sites, and advertisements
- indicator
- measurable event, characteristic, or behavior community thought to reflect a particular concept
- egoistic suicide
- type of suicide that occurs in settings where the individual is emphasized over group or community connections
- primary group
- collection of individuals, who are together over a relativelylong period, whose members have direct contact with and feel emotional attachment to one another
- historical analysis
- form of social research that relies on existing historical documents as a source of data
- role taking
- ability to see oneself from the perspective of others and to use that perspective in formulating one's own behavior
- role conflict
- frustration people feel when the demands of one role the demands of one role they are expected to fulfill clash with the demands of another role
- incorrigible proposition
- unquestioned cultural belief that cannot be proved wrong no matter what happens to dispute it
- moral entrepreneurs
- groups that work to have their moral concerns translated into law
- theory
- set of statements or proposition that seeks to explain or predict a particular aspect of social life
- analysis of existing data
- type of unobtrusive research that relies on data gathered earlier by someone else for some other purpose
- sick role
- set of norms governing how one is supposed to behave and what one is entitled to when sick
- quantitative research
- sociological research based on the collection of numerical data that uses precise statistical analysis
- independent variable
- variable presumed to cause or influence the dependent variable
- manifest function
- intedned, obvious consequences of activities designed to help some part of the social system