Sociology Exam One Review

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Sociology

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The scientific study of social interaction and social organization. The study of human society. The scientific study of social behaviors and human society—how it’s structured and how it works.

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Social Interaction

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occurs between people as well and organizations

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Social Organization

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refers to how society is structured (how we fit together)

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Sociological Imagination

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the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces.

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Social Institution

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a complex group of interdependent positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time.

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Paradox

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A statement that is seemingly contradictory but nonetheless may be true. Sociologists make the familiar strange.

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Auguste Comte

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Father of sociology.

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Karl Marx

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Economic System = structure of society. Said there was class conflict and false consciousness.

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Emile Durkheim

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Social solidarity – what binds people together
Consider the group, not the individual
Seminal work on suicide
Individual factors vs. social ties/integration (bully, location, etc.)
Found we can divide individuals into groups (married/unmarried) to (unmarried more likely to commit suicide)
*Society is not a mere sum of individuals
Group acts different than how they would alone

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Max Weber (VAY-BER)

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A reaction to Marx.
Not just economy, but also political and cultural spheres matter.
What is social class?
Power:
Who has the power to change things?
Who is at the top?

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Functionalist Perscpective

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Society is viewed as a system composed of various parts and together these various parts (social institutions) of the system that together promote society’s equilibrium.

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Manifest Function

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obvious or intended consequence of intended task (transportation A<->B)

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Latent Function

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unintended consequence (Status, values (antonomy, freedom))

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Dysfunction

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negative result of the intended consequence (accidents, pollution)

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Conflict Perspective

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View society as comprised of groups that are competing scarce resources

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Theoretical Perspective

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a general approach to phenomena that affords a set of assumptions and interrelated concepts for depicting the world – for understanding how various social phenomena are related to each other

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Symbolic Interactionalism

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A micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions for the basic motivations behind people's actions

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Internationalist Perspectives

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Concerned with micro aspects of social life. Society is composed of symbols that people use to:
Establish meaning
Develop their view of the world
Communicate with one another

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Assumptions

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We respond to things in our environment according to their meanings. –Meaning Emerges through interaction – It is not inherent –Cultural meanings continue to change.

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Hypothesis

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a statement describing the expected relationships between 2 or more variables (an educated guess)

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Variables

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a term for something that influences or is influenced by something else; a characteristic that varies by individual, group, or time to another

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Independent Variable

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the variable that influences another variable

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Dependent Variable

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the variable that influences another variable

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Correlations

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mathematically measurable association. Change in one variable (X) is associated with change in another variable (Y).

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Casuality

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Condition for causality
3 Criteria for causality
1. Variables must be correlated
2. X precedes Y in time
3. No evidence of a 3rd variable

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Spuriousness

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The third (lurking) variable involved

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Culture

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the way of life and set of beliefs that are learned, shared, and endure from one generation to the next

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Material Culture

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refers to the physical objects or artifacts that are a product of culture

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Non-material Culture

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abstract creations like values, norms, and symbols that all together are a learned and shared set of ideas about the world and guidelines for social behavior

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Values

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1. ideas about what is desirable, correct, and good (moral beliefs)

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Symbols

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2. acts or objects that have come to be socially accepted as standing for something else (i.e. flag)

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Norms

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3. social rules specifying appropriate and inappropriate behavior in given situations

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Folkways

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norms pertaining to everyday habits and conventions

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Mores

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rules of behavior to which members of a group demand conformity

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Laws

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rules enacted by a political body and enforced by the state

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Language

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4. a system of verbal and written symbols that can be combined to convey complex meanings

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Ethnocentrism

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we judge the behaviors of other groups by the standards of our own culture

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In-group solidarity

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the way we do things is the right way (you)

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Out-group hostility

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negative feelings about members of the other group (them)

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Cultural Relativism

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look at things in terms of their meanings in other cultures

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Cultural Universals

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Patterned and recurrent aspects of life that occur in all societies

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Dominant Culture

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group with the most social power and hence the capacity to impose its culture on others

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Subcultures

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groups with distinctive values, norms, and symbols from the dominant culture

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Countercultures

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Not just distinct from the dominant group but actually opposed to it in some way

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Statuses

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a social position that an individual occupies (ex. Student)

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Ascribed Status

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assigned by others and based on hereditary/biological factors; involuntary

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Achieved Status

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result from individual choice and accomplishments

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Master (Status) Roles

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the most important to our social identity

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Role

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the duties and behaviors expected of someone of a particular status

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Role Strain

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tension within a status (study one vs. another)

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Role Conflict

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tension between 2 status’ (student/employee)

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Socialization

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lifelong process of social interaction through which people acquire the knowledge, values, and behaviors essential for effective participation in society

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The Self

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a sense of having a distinct identity, of being set apart from other people and things

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Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self

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viewing ourselves as we believe others see us.

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Significant Other

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individuals who influence our lives, parents, or siblings (Meade)

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Generalized Other

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the larger community (Meade)

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Dramaturgical Approach

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analyzing social life in terms of drama or the stage

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Impression Management

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our efforts to manage or manipulate the impressions others get of us

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Agents of Socialization

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through these you learn about socialization (family, schools, peers, mass media, and church)

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Concerted cultivation.

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parenting where the child is a project. Helicopter parent a lot invested in you, overscheduled child

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Natural growth

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most of time in family environment, not over-scheduled child

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Social Group

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an organization created through enduring and patterned interactions (a distinct social unit)

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Primary Group

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small group whose members are intimately involved with one another (family)

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Secondary Group

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larger and more impersonal group

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In-groups

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groups toward which individuals feel in tense loyalty

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Out-groups

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groups toward which we feel antagonism

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Reference groups

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the group we use as a standard to evaluate ourselves

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Dyad

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Smallest possible group: 2 people

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Triad

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Group of 3 people

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Social Networks

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a set of relationships, of dyads, held together by ties between individuals

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Social Ties

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the social relationships linking people to one another

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Embeddness

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the degree to which ties are reinforced through indirect ties in the social network

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Social Capital

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a relationship between people that can facilitate the actions of others… who you know

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Deviance

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the recognized violation of cultural norms (acceptable behavior)

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Anomie

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a sense of normlessness

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Structural Strain

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occurs when society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals

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Innovation

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reach for culturally approved goal through unconventional means

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Ritualism

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respond to strain by reject the cultural goal but still conforming to norms

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Retreatism

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rejection of both the goals and the norms of one’s culture; society’s dropouts (homeless Boston man)

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Rebellion

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like retreatists, reject goals and norms but also advocate radical alternatives to existing social order

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Labeling Theory

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assertion that deviance and conformity result from the responses of others

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Primary Deviance

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activity initially defined as deviant

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Secondary Deviance

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deviant behavior caused by the person’s acceptance of the deviant label as part of the self-concept and social identity

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Stigma

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a powerful, negative social label that radically changes a person’s social identity