Sociology Test

Front 1

Medicine

Back 1

One of the social institutions that sociologists study; a society's organized ways of dealing with sickness and injury

Front 2

Shaman

Back 2

The healing specialist of a tribe who attempts to control the spirits thought to cause a disease

Front 3

Health

Back 3

A human condition measured by four components: physical, mental, social, and spiritual

Front 4

Fee-for-service

Back 4

Payment to a physician to diagnose and treat a patient's medical problems

Front 5

Epidemiology

Back 5

The study of patterns of disease and disability in a population

Front 6

Defensive medicine

Back 6

Medical practices done not for the patient's benefit but in order to protect physicians from malpractice suits

Front 7

Depersonalization

Back 7

Dealing with people as though they were objects; in the case of medical care, as though patients were merely cases and diseases, not people

Front 8

Medicalization

Back 8

The transformation of a human condition into a medical matter to be treated by physicians

Front 9

Euthanasia

Back 9

Mercy killing

Front 10

Disabling environment

Back 10

An environmental that is harmful to health

Front 11

Alternative medicine

Back 11

Medical treatment other than that of standard Western medicine; often refers to practices that originate in Asia, but may also refer to taking vitamins not prescribed by a doctor

Front 12

Professionalization of medicine

Back 12

The development of medicine into a specialty that requires physicians to (1) obtain a rigorous education, (2) claim a theorem understanding of illness, (3) take authority over clients, (4) regulate themselves, and (5) present themselves as doing a service to society (rather than just following self-interest)

Front 13

Collective behavior

Back 13

Extraordinary activities carried out by groups of people; includes lynchings, rumors, panics, urban legends, fads, and fashions

Front 14

Collective mind

Back 14

Gustave LeBon's term for the tendency of people in a crowd to feel, think, and act in extraordinary ways

Front 15

Circular reaction

Back 15

Robert Park's term for a back-and-forth communication among the members of a crowd whereby a "collective impulse" is transmitted

Front 16

Acting crowd

Back 16

An excited group of people move toward a goal

Front 17

Milling

Back 17

A crowd standing or walking around as they talk excitedly about some event

Front 18

Minimax strategy

Back 18

Richard Berk's term for the efforts people make to minimize their costs and maximize their rewards

Front 19

Emergent norms

Back 19

Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian's term for the idea that people develop new norms to cope with a new situation; used to explain crowd behavior

Front 20

Riot

Back 20

Violent crowd behavior directed at people and property

Front 21

Rumor

Back 21

Unfounded information spread among people

Front 22

Panic

Back 22

The condition of being so fearful that one cannot function normally and may even flee

Front 23

Social change

Back 23

The alternation of culture and societies over time

Front 24

Modernization

Back 24

The transformation of traditional societies into industry societies

Front 25

role extension

Back 25

a role being stretched to include activities that were not originally part of that role

Front 26

mass hysteria

Back 26

an imagined threat that causes physical symptoms among a large number of people

Front 27

moral panic

Back 27

a fear gripping a large number of people that some evil threatens the wellbeing of a society; followed by hostility; sometimes violence, toward those thought responsible

Front 28

fad

Back 28

a temporary pattern of behavior that catches people's attention

Front 29

fashion

Back 29

a pattern of behavior that catches people's attention and lasts longer than a fad

Front 30

urban legend

Back 30

a story with an ironic twist that sounds realistic by is false

Front 31

social movement

Back 31

a large group of people who are organized to promote or resist some social change

Front 32

proactive social movement

Back 32

a social movement that promotes some social change

Front 33

reactive social movement

Back 33

a social movement whose goal is to resist some social change

Front 34

social movement organization

Back 34

an organization to promote the goals of a social movement

Front 35

alternative social movement

Back 35

a social movement that seeks to alter only some specific aspects of people and institutions

Front 36

redemptive social movement

Back 36

a social movement that seeks to change people and institutions totally, to redeem them

Front 37

reformative social movement

Back 37

a social movement that seeks to reform some specific aspect of society

Front 38

transformative social movement

Back 38

a social movement that seeks to change society totally, to transform it

Front 39

millenarian social movement

Back 39

a social movement based on the prophecy of coming social upheaval

Front 40

cargo cult

Back 40

a social movement in which South Pacific Islanders destroyed their possessions in the aniticipation that their ancestors would ship them new goods

Front 41

transnational social movements

Back 41

social movements whose emphasis is on some condition around the world, instead of on a condition in a specific country; also known as new social movements

Front 42

metaformative social movement

Back 42

a social movement that has the goal to change the social order not just of a country or two, but of a civilization, or even of the entire world

Front 43

public opinion

Back 43

how people think about some issue

Front 44

propaganda

Back 44

in its broad sense, the presentation of information in a attempt to influence people; in its narrow sense, one-sided information used to try to influence people

Front 45

relative deprivation theory

Back 45

in this context, the belief that people join social movements based on their evaluations of what they think they should have compared with what others have

Front 46

agent provocateur

Back 46

someone who spies on a group or tries to sabotage it

Front 47

militarization of social institutions

Back 47

the use of social institutions to fulfill military goals

Front 48

resource mobilization

Back 48

the idea that social movements succeed or fail based on their ability to mobilize resources such as time, money, and people's skills

Front 49

dialectical process (of history)

Back 49

each arrangement of power (a thesis) contains contradictions (antithesis) which make the arrangement unstable and which must be resolved; the new arrangement of power (a synthesis) contains its own contradictions; this process of balancing and unbalancing continues throughout history as groups struggle for power and other resources

Front 50

invention

Back 50

the combining of existing elements and materials to form new ones; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change

Front 51

discovery

Back 51

a new way of seeing reality; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change

Front 52

diffusion

Back 52

the spread of an invention or a discovery from one area to another; identified by William Ogburn as one of the three processes of social change

Front 53

cultural lag

Back 53

Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations

Front 54

postmodern technique

Back 54

another term for postindustrial society; a chief characteristic is the use of tools that extend human abilities to gather and analyze information, to communicate, and to travel

Front 55

alienation

Back 55

Marx's term for workers' lack of connection to the product of their labor; caused by workers being assigned repetitive tasks on a small part of a product - which leads to a sense of powerfulness and normlessness; others use the term in the general sense of not feeling a part of something

Front 56

sustainable environment

Back 56

a world system that takes into account the limits of the environment, produces enough material goods for everyone's needs, and leaves a heritage of a sound environment for the next generation

Front 57

acid rain

Back 57

rain containing sulfuric and nitric acids (burning fossil fuels releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that become sulfuric and nitric acids when they react with moisture in the air)

Front 58

environmental justice

Back 58

refers to how minorities and the poor are harmed the most by environmental pollution

Front 59

eco-sabotage

Back 59

actions taken to sabotage the efforts of people who are thought to be legally harming the environment

Front 60

environmental sociology

Back 60

a specialty within sociology whose focus is how humans affect the environment and how the environment affects humans

Front 61

Dumping

Back 61

Private hospitals sending unprofitable patients to public hospitals or any hospital discharging unprofitable patients before they are well