Sociology Key Terms

Front 1

bourgeoisie

Back 1

People who own the means of production in industrial society.

Front 2

conflict perspective

Back 2

A view that society is composed of groups with clashing interests who engage in a struggle over control of valuable resources,

Front 3

Functionalists perspective

Back 3

A view that society is a relatively stable and orderly system composed of interdependent and interrelated parts,

Front 4

industrialization

Back 4

The process by which societies are transformed from agricultural-based economic activity to manufacturing-based economic activity.

Front 5

latent function

Back 5

The largely unintended and unrecognized consequences of an activity or social institution.

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macro-level

Back 6

A focus on the social institutions and large-scale social processes that shape society as a whole.

Front 7

manifest function

Back 7

The intended, expected, or overtly recognized consequences of an activity or social institution.

Front 8

micro-level

Back 8

A focus on the dynamics and meanings of face-to-face interactions between people and small groups.

Front 9

proletariat

Back 9

People who own only their labor power, which they sell to the bourgeoisie to earn a living.

Front 10

social dysfunction

Back 10

The undesirable consequences of an institution or activity for the social system.

Front 11

social facts

Back 11

Patterned ways of behaving, thinking, and feeling beyond the individual.

Front 12

social structure

Back 12

The stable, organized patterns of social relationships and social institutions that exist within a particular group or society.

Front 13

society

Back 13

A large social grouping of people who occupy and interact together in the same geographic area; are organized by and are subject to a common political authority and dominant cultural expectations; and whose members share a sense of identity, loyalty, and purpose.

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sociology

Back 14

The systematic study of human society and social interaction.

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sociological perspective

Back 15

The ability to see the general in the particular.

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symbolic-interaction perspective

Back 16

A view of society as the ongoing product of the everyday interactions and shared meanings of people and groups.

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theory

Back 17

A set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to explain, describe, and occasionally predict how two or more social phenomena are related.

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theoretical perspective

Back 18

A basic overall image or paradigm used to organize a way of understanding society.

Front 19

urbanization

Back 19

The process by which an increasing proportion of a society's population lives in cities instead of rural areas.