Social Problems Mid Term

Front 1

Norm Violations

Back 1

Acts and conditions that violate the norms and values present in society. Directs attention on societys failures.

Front 2

Norms

Back 2

Behavioral Expectations

Front 3

Social Structure

Back 3

Class, occupation, race and role. Can also be community and neighborhood. This is believed to be the cause of individuals behavior.

Front 4

Deviance

Back 4

Breakin the rules.

Front 5

Social Conditions

Back 5

Conditions that cause psychological and material suffering for some category of people in the population. It directs attention to people who are the generators of social problems.

Front 6

Insitutionalized Deviance

Back 6

Exists when the society and its formal organizations or institutions are not meeting the needs of individuals.

Front 7

Social Arrangement

Back 7

Structure and organization of how our society operates

Front 8

Institutionalized Racism

Back 8

Discrimination in society's institutions. ex, in the workplace- denial of job

Front 9

Sociological Imagination

Back 9

The willingness to see the solutions to social problems in terms of changing the stucture of society,not in changing the people.

Front 10

Blame

Back 10

2 types- person blame and system blame

Front 11

Person Blame

Back 11

Blame the individual for the problem

Front 12

System Blame

Back 12

Blame the system for the problem. When we blame the system we ignore the inequality of the system

Front 13

Capitalism

Back 13

An economic system that must promote private property, personal profit, and competition must be present. Cares about the money.

Front 14

Socialism

Back 14

An economic system in which the means of production are owned by the people for their own collective benefit. Must have democratism, egalitarianism, community, public ownership for the means of production, and planning for the common purposes. Cares about the people.

Front 15

Karl Marx

Back 15

Famous political economist and sociologist that was concerned with the social conflict theory (the society that we live in has inequality)

Front 16

Social Conflict Theory

Back 16

The society that we live in has inequality

Front 17

Alienation

Back 17

Powerlessness; exclusion

Front 18

Monopoly

Back 18

Firms becoming bigger and bigger as they eliminate their opposition and absorb competing smaller firms

Front 19

Shared Monopoly

Back 19

When 4 or fewer firms supply 50% or more of a particular market; when many companies merge into one monopoly

Front 20

Megamergers Negative Consequences

Back 20

Increases in centralization of capital reduces competition and raises prices for consumers
Increases power of huge corporations over workers, unions, politicians, and govs
reduces number of jobs
increases corporate debt
nonproductive

Front 21

Interlocking Directories

Back 21

linkage between corporations that results when an individual serves on the board of directors of 2 companies(direct interlock) or when 2 companies each have a director on the board of a third company (indirect interlock). they both have great potential to benefit the interlocked companies by reducing competition through the sharing of information and coordination of policies.

Front 22

Direct Interlock

Back 22

Linkage between corporations that results when an individual serves on the board of directors of 2 companies

Front 23

Indirect Interlock

Back 23

when 2 companies each have a director on the board of a third company

Front 24

Transnational/Multinational Companies

Back 24

Companies that operate in many nations. Ex. car companies, GM is in 40 nations

Front 25

Oligarchy

Back 25

A government ruled by the few (rich).

Front 26

Democracy

Back 26

A political system that is of, by and for the people. The will of the majority prevails, there is equality before the law, and decisions are made to maximize the common good.

Front 27

Power Elite

Back 27

The people who occupy the power roles of the society in the US is the government and the rich, and they define the social problems in society. They have access to reformation

Front 28

Systemic Imperatives

Back 28

the insitutions of society that limit the choices of decision makers and are patterned to produce prearranged results regardless of the personalities of teh decision maker- there is a bias that pressures the government to do certain things and not to other things

Front 29

Power

Back 29

The ability to get what one wants from someone else by force, authority, manipulation, or persuasion.

Front 30

Modern Demographic Transition

Back 30

A three stage pattern of population change occuring as societies industrialize adn urbanize, resulting ultimately in a low and stabl population growth rate.

Front 31

Absolute Poverty

Back 31

People who make less than $1 a day. Consists of more than 3/10 of the worlds people.

Front 32

Life Chances

Back 32

The chances throughout one's life cylce to live and experience the good things in life

Front 33

New Slavery

Back 33

The loss of freedom, exploitation of people for profit, and the control of slaves through violence or its threat. Today, people or families in extreme poverty induce themselves to slavery by choice. Also, it is typically no longer a lifelong condiion because they are freed after they are no longer needed.

Front 34

Pandemic

Back 34

A world wide epidemic

Front 35

Colony

Back 35

A territory controlled by a powerful country that exploits the land and the people for its own benefit

Front 36

Fertility rate

Back 36

the average number of chldren born to each woman

Front 37

Corporate Dumping

Back 37

The exporting of goods by a business that have either been banned or not approved for the sale in the US because they are dangerous

Front 38

Transnational Corporation

Back 38

A profit-oriented company engaged in business activities in more than one nation

Front 39

Social Darwinism

Back 39

The belief that the place of the poeple in the stratificaton system is a function of their ability and effort

Front 40

Cultural Deprivation

Back 40

The assumption by the members of a group that teh culture of some other group is not only inferior but also deficient. This term is usually applied by members of the majority to the culture of a minority group

Front 41

Sociological Imagination

Back 41

C. Wright Mills's term emphasizing that individual troubles are inextricibly linked to social forces

Front 42

Self-actualization

Back 42

The assumed need (by Maslow) of individuals for creative and constructive involvment in productive, significant activity

Front 43

Biosphere

Back 43

the surface layer of the planet and the surrounding atmosphere that provides the land,air, water and energy necessary to sustain life.

Front 44

Ecosystem

Back 44

the mechanisms (plants, animals and microorganisms)that supply people with the essentials of life.
IS being disturbed and destroyed due to three factors:
1. Population increase- tremendous demand for food, energy, minerals, and other products.
2. Inequality between the rich and the poor- causes an environmental decline because the rich overconsume energy, raw materials, and manufacturesgoods, and the poor must cut down trees, grow crops, fish, or graze livestock often in ways that are harmful to the environment.
3. economic growth- environmental damage

Front 45

Environmental Justice

Back 45

a movement to improve the community environments by eliminating toxic hazards

Front 46

Environmental Racism

Back 46

The overwhelming likelihood that tox-producing plants and toxic waste dumps are located where poor people, especially people of color, live.

Front 47

The Greenhouse Effect

Back 47

Acts like the glass roof of a greenhouse, allowing sunlight in but trapping out the heat that is generating it.
Occurs when harmful gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and methane)- all products of human activity- accumulate in the Earth's atmosphere

Front 48

Global Warming

Back 48

Occurs when harmful gases, all products of diverse human activities, accumulate in the atmosphere and trap the heat radiating from the ground which melts polar ice caps, warming of the earth, bring droughts and megastorms, etc.

Front 49

Culture

Back 49

The knowledge that the members of a social organization share. The shared ideas, values, beliefs, and understandings shape the behaviors, perceptions, and interpretations of the members of society.

Front 50

Planned Obsolescence

Back 50

Existing products are given superficial changes adn marketed as new, making the previous products out of date. Overlooks the problems of disposal as well as the unnecessary waste of materials.

Front 51

Environmental Classism

Back 51

The poor, because of dangerous jobs and residential segregation, are more exposed than those who arent to environmental dangers.

Front 52

Human Agency

Back 52

Immigrants and migrants who cope with, adapt to and change social situations to meet their needs.

Front 53

Demography

Back 53

Study of population

Front 54

Baby boom generation

Back 54

The term referring to people born in the 15 year period (1946-1964) following WWII when 75 million babies were born in the US

Front 55

Dependency Ratio

Back 55

The proportion of the population who are workers compared to the proportion not working.

Front 56

Regressive Tax

Back 56

Takes a larger percentage from people with the lowest incomes.

Front 57

Therapeutic Care

Back 57

The approach in a health facility that focuses on meeting the needs of patients and treatment

Front 58

Custodial Care

Back 58

the approach in a health facitlity that focuses on meeting the needs of the institution rather than those of the residents

Front 59

Beanpole Family Structure

Back 59

A family structure in which the number of living generations within linkages increases, but there is an intragenerational contraction in the number of members within each generation

Front 60

Ageism

Back 60

The devaluation of and the discrimination against the elderly

Front 61

Disengagement

Back 61

The response by some poeple to the aging process of retreating from relationships, organizations, and society

Front 62

Natural Order

Back 62

factors that determine the natural order or ranking in the system

Front 63

Hierarchy

Back 63

ranking system, social class system

Front 64

Social Conditions That Cause Problems

Back 64

the structure of society and the way social arrangements are organized to be unresponsive to human needs

Front 65

Social Problems

Back 65

Societtaly induced conditions that cause psychological and material suffering for any segment of the population and acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society.
The distribition of power in society is key to understanding these.
The powerless, because they are dominated by the powerful, are likely to be thwarted in achieving their basic needs (sustenance, security, self-esteem, and productivity)