Sociology Exam 1

Front 1

Racial Group

Back 1

1) Biological definition – A group set apart from others by “obvious” physical
differences.

Front 2

Racial Group pt. 2

Back 2

2) Social definition – Racial groups are defined and constructed through the process
of human interaction.

Front 3

Racial Group Pt. 3

Back 3

3) Self definition –
Race is defined, at least in part, by how persons designate themselves in terms of their racial
group categorization

Front 4

Ethnic Group

Back 4

A group of people who are generally recognized by themselves and by others as
distinct based on national origin and/or cultural patterns

Front 5

Majority Group

Back 5

Any group that is dominant in society, that is, any group that enjoys more than
its proportionate share of wealth, power, or social status

Front 6

Minority Group

Back 6

1) Any group that is assigned an inferior status in society, that is, any group
that has less than its proportionate share of wealth, power, or social status.

Front 7

Minority Group Pt. 2

Back 7

2) A subordinate
group whose members have significantly less control over their own lives than the members of a
dominant or majority group have over theirs.

Front 8

Emigrate

Back 8

To leave one country or region to settle in another

Front 9

Immigrate

Back 9

To come into a new country, region, or environment, especially in order to settle
there.

Front 10

Immigration Stream

Back 10

Refers to the mass migration of people from a certain country or region
of the world who usually share similar characteristics and who emigrated during a certain period
of time or era.

Front 11

Refugee

Back 11

A person who flees from one’s home or country to seek refuge elsewhere, as in a time
of war or of political or religious persecution. In the case of the United States, refugees are
granted the right to enter the country while still residing abroad.

Front 12

Asylum Seeker

Back 12

In the case of the United States, an asylum seeker is a foreigner who has
already entered the country and then seeks protection because of persecution or a well founded
fear of persecution in one’s homeland.

Front 13

Xenophobia

Back 13

The fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners

Front 14

Nativism

Back 14

The practice or policy of favoring native-born citizens over immigrants

Front 15

Colonization

Back 15

A form of intergroup contact that occurs when one group migrates into an area
occupied by another group and subordinates that indigenous group.

Front 16

Contemporary Immigration

Back 16

Refers to the period of large-scale, non-European immigration to
the United States that began to accelerate after the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act.

Front 17

Assimilation

Back 17

To make similar to the dominant group.

Front 18

Stereotype

Back 18

1) An unreliable generalization about all members of a group that does not take
individual differences into account.

Front 19

Stereotype pt. 2

Back 19

2) An exaggerated belief often associated with an entire
group of people.

Front 20

Stereotype pt. 3

Back 20

3) The tendency to believe that anyone or almost anyone who belongs to a
particular group will have a certain characteristic.

Front 21

Stereotype pt. 4

Back 21

4) A simplified picture we paint of an entire
group of people.

Front 22

Stereotype pt. 5

Back 22

5)The tendency is to generalize about everyone in that group based on ignorance,
limited information, or prejudice

Front 23

Prejudice

Back 23

1) A negative attitude toward an entire category of people.

Front 24

Prejudice pt. 2

Back 24

2) To “prejudge”; having
preconceived notions, attitudes, or negative attitudes about a group.

Front 25

Prejudice pt. 3

Back 25

3) According to Herbert
Blumer (1958), there are four basic feelings that are always present in race prejudice in the
dominant group.

Front 26

Prejudice A,B,C,D

Back 26

They are: a) a feeling of natural superiority; b) a feeling that the subordinate
race is intrinsically different and alien; c) a sense of proprietary claim to certain areas of
privilege and advantage; and d) a fear or suspicion that the subordinate racial group is
threatening, or will threaten, the position of the dominant group.

Front 27

Descrimination

Back 27

1) Involves behavior that excludes individuals or entire groups from certain
rights, opportunities, or privileges because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons.

Front 28

Descrimination Pt. 2

Back 28

2) The
denial of goods and services to an individual or group for arbitrary reasons, such as a person’s
race, religion, or nationality.

Front 29

Racism

Back 29

1) A doctrine of racial supremacy, stating that one race is superior to another.

Front 30

Racism pt. 2

Back 30

2) The
act of linking the physical attributes of a group with alleged sociocultural capabilities and
behaviors to assert the superiority of one race.

Front 31

Racism pt. 3

Back 31

3) Any attitude, belief, behavior, or institutional
relationship that tends to favor one racial or ethnic group (usually a majority group) over another
(usually a minority group).

Front 32

Racism pt. 4

Back 32

4) The assigning of attitudes, behaviors, and abilities to individuals or
groups based on skin color; includes the institutional arrangements that privilege one group over
another and the ideological apparatus that perpetuates and makes those arrangements possible.

Front 33

Ethnocentrim

Back 33

The tendency to view one’s own group as the norm or standard and to view outgroups
as not just different but also strange and usually inferior. The ways of the in-group are seen as
the natural way or the only way of doing things and become a standard against which out-groups are
judged.

Front 34

Creed

Back 34

The belief system that people share.

Front 35

Bigot

Back 35

Someone deeply committed to his or her own prejudices, distortions, or biases regarding other
people. Bigots are intolerant of difference

Front 36

Institutional Racism

Back 36

Describes public institutions, social practices, and societal patterns that
have the net effect of imposing oppressive or otherwise negative conditions against identifiable
groups on the basis of race or ethnicity.

Front 37

1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act:

Back 37

Charged the U.S. Attorney General to “acquire data... about
crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or
ethnicity, including, where appropriate, the crimes of murder, non-negligent manslaughter;
forcible rape; aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation; arson; and destruction, damage, or
vandalism of property.” A 1994 amendment to the act added the disabled to the list of groups to
be tracked.

Front 38

Hate crime

Back 38

An ordinary crime becomes a hate crime when offenders choose a victim because
of some characteristic—for example, race, ethnicity, or religion—and provide evidence that hate
prompted them to commit the crime. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
definition of hate crime requires that corroborating evidence of hate motivation must be present
at the incident.

Front 39

Hate Crime A,B,C,

Back 39

a) the offender must have used derogatory
language, b) the offender must have left hate symbols, or c) the police must have confirmed that
a hate crime had taken place.