Sociology - Chapter Five Vocabulary

Front 1

Personality

Back 1

Sum of total behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values that are characteristic of an individual

Front 2

Heredity

Back 2

Transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to children

Front 3

Instinct

Back 3

Unchanging, biologically inherited behavior pattern

Front 4

Sociobiology

Back 4

Systematic study of the biological basis of all social behavior

Front 5

Aptitude

Back 5

Capacity to learn a particular skill or acquire a particular body of knowledge

Front 6

Feral children

Back 6

Wild or untamed children

Front 7

Socialization

Back 7

Interactive process through which individuals learn the basic skills, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of society

Front 8

Self

Back 8

Conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity that separates you and your environment from other members of society

Front 9

Looking - glass self

Back 9

The interactive process by which we develop an image of ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others

Front 10

Role-taking

Back 10

Forms the basis of the socialization process by allowing us to anticipate what others expect of us

Front 11

Significant others

Back 11

Parents, brothers, sisters, other relatives, and friends, who have a direct influence on our socialization

Front 12

Generalized other

Back 12

Internalized attitudes, expectations, and viewpoints of society that we use to guide our behavior and reinforce our sense of self

Front 13

I

Back 13

Unsocialized, spontaneous, self-interested component of personality and self-identity

Front 14

Me

Back 14

Part of ourself that is aware of the expectations and attitudes of society

Front 15

Agents of socialization

Back 15

Specific individuals, groups, and institutions that provide the situations in which socialization can occur

Front 16

Peer group

Back 16

Primary group composed of individuals of roughly equal age and similar social characteristics

Front 17

Mass media

Back 17

Are instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact between those sending the information an those receiving it

Front 18

Total institution

Back 18

A setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and are subject to tight control

Front 19

Resocialization

Back 19

A break with past experiences and the learning of new values and norms

Front 20

John Locke "The Tabula Rasa"

Back 20

Any human being can be molded into any type of character.

Front 21

Charles Horton Cooley "The Looking - Glass Self"

Back 21

Other people act as a mirror for us. "The Looking - Glass Self" is central to the development of the self.

Front 22

George Herbert Mead "Role -Taking"

Back 22

Role taking allows us to anticipate what others expect of us. The people closet to us are our significant others. The Me is the socialized self.