Sociology: The Core Michael Hughes 2

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achieved status

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A status that individuals secure on the basis of choice and competition.

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aggregate

Back 2

A collection of anonymous individuals who are in one place at the same time.

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ascribed status

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A status assigned to an individual by a group or society.

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category

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A collection of people who share a characteristic that is deemed to be of social significance.

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counterculture

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A subculture whose norms and values are substantially at odds with those of the larger society.

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cultural relativism

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A value-free or neutral approach that views the behavior of a people from the perspective of their own culture.

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cultural universals

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Patterned and recurrent aspects of life that appear in all known societies.

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culture

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The social heritage of a people; those learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items.

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duties

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The actions that others can legitimately insist that we perform.

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ethnocentrism

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The tendency to judge the behavior of other groups by the standards of one's own culture.

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folkways

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Norms people do not deem to be of great importance and to which they exact less stringent conformity.

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group

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Two or more people who share a feeling of unity and who are bound together in relatively stable patterns of social interaction.

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institutions

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The principal instruments whereby the essential tasks of living are organized, directed, and executed.

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language

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A socially structured system of sound patterns (words and sentences) with specific and arbitrary meanings.

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laws

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Rules that are enforced by a special political organization composed of individuals who enjoy the right to use force.

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master status

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A key or core status that carries primary weight in a person's interactions and relationships with others.

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mores

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Norms to which people attach a good deal of importance and exact strict conformity.

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norms

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Social rules that specify appropriate and inappropriate behavior in given situations.

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rights

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Actions that we can legitimately insist that others perform.

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role

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A set of expectations (rights and duties) that define the behavior people view as appropriate and inappropriate for the occupant of a status.

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role conflict

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The situation in which individuals are confronted with conflicting expectations stemming from their simultaneous occupancy of two or more statuses.

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role exit

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Occurs when people stop playing roles that have been central to their social identities.

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role performance

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The actual behavior of the person who occupies a status.

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role set

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The multiple roles associated with a single status.

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role strain

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The situation in which individuals find the expectations of a single role incompatible, so that they have difficulty performing the role.

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social structure

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The interweaving of people's interactions and relationships in more or less recurrent and stable patterns.

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society

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A group of people who live within the same territory and share a common culture.

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status

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A position within a group or society; a location in a social structure.

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subculture

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A group whose members participate in the main culture of a society while simultaneously sharing a number of unique values, norms, traditions, and lifestyles.

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symbols

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Acts or objects that have come to be socially accepted as standing for something else.

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values

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Broad ideas regarding what is desirable, correct, and good that most members of a society share.