Sociology Test 1-Bjr

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Sociology

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The systematic study of human society and social interaction.

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Sociological Imagination

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The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.

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Auguste Comte

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Coined the term sociology to describe a new science that would engage in the study of society.

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Anomie

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Condition in which social control becomes ineffective as result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society.

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Theory

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Set o logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and predict some events.

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Manifest Functions

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Functions that are intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit.

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Latent Functions

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Unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants.

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Conflict Perspectives

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The sociological approach that views groups in society as engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources.

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Macrolevel Analysis

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An approach that examines whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems.

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Microlevel analysis

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Sociological theory and research that focus on small groups rather than on large-scale social structures.

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Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives

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The sociological approach that views society as the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups.

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Symbol

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anything that meaningfully represents something else.

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Quantitative Research

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Data that can be measure numerically.

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Qualitative Research

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Data that is words only.

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Hypothesis

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In research studies, a tentative statement of the relationship between two or more concepts.

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Independent Variable

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A variable that is presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable.

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Dependent Variable

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A variable that is assumed to depend on or be caused by one or more other variables.

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Random Sampling

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A study approach in which every member of an entire population being studied has the same chance of being selected.

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Survey

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A poll in which the researcher gathers facts or attempts to determine the relationships among facts.

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Questionnaire

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A printed research instrument containing a series of items to which subjects respond.

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Interview

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A research method using a date-collection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers.

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Secondary Analysis

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A research method in which researchers use existing material and analyze data that were originally collected by others.

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Content Analysis

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The systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life.

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Field Research

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The study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work, and play.

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Participant Observation

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A research method in which researchers collect data while being part of the activities of the group being studied.

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Ethnograpy

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A detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years.

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Experiment

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A research method involving a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects' attitudes or behavior.

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Experimental Group

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In an experiment, the group that contains the subjects who are exposed to an independent variable to study its effect on them.

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Control Group

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In an experiment, the group containing the subjects who are not exposed to the independent variable.

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Culture

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The knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

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Beliefs

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The mental acceptance or conviction that certain things are true or real.

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Cultural Universals

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Customs and practices that occur across all societies.

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Symbol

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Anything that meaningfully represents something else.

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Language

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A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another.

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Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

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The proposition that language shapes the view of reality of its speakers.

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Values

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Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.

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Norms

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Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.

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Sanctions

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Rewards for appropriate behavior or penalties for inappropriate behaviors.

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Folkways

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Informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.

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Mores

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Strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture.

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Taboos

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Mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable.

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Laws

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Formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.

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Subculture

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A category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture.

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Counterculture

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A group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.

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Culture Shock

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The disorientation that people feel when they encounter culture radically different from their own and believe that they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life.

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Ethnocentrism

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The practice of judging all other cultures by one's own culture.

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Cultural Relativism

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The belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture's own standards.

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High Culture

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Classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences.

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Popular Culture

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Activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.

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Socialization

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The lifelong process of social interaction through which individuals acquire a self-identity and the physical, mental, and social skills needed for survival in society.

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Looking-glass self

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Charles Horton Cooley's term for the way in which a person's sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others.

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Significant others

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Those persons whose care, affection, and approval are especially desired and who are most important in the development of the self.

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Primary Group

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Charles Horton Colley's term or a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.

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Secondary Group

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A larger, more specialized group in which members engage in a more-impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.

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Status

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A socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.

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Ascribed Status

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A social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race.

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Achieved Status

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A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

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Alienation

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A feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and from oneself.

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Generalized Other

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George Herbert Mead's term for the child's awareness of the demands and expectations of society as a whole or of the child's subculture.

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Master Status

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The most important status that a person occupies.

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Role

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A set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status.

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Role-Taking

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The process by which a person mentally assumes the role of another person or group in order to understand the world from that person's or group's point of view.

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Resocialization

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The process of learning a new and different set of attitudes, values, and behaviors from those in one's background and previous experience.

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Total Institution

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Erving Goffman's term for a place where people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and come under the control of the officials who run the institution.