Sociology Ch. 3 Terms

Front 1

counterculture

Back 1

groups that have rejected the norms and values of dominant culture and have a distinctive way of life that is in conflict with dominant culture's norms and values.

Front 2

culture

Back 2

the values, ideas, beliefs, behaviors, language, and material objects that form a people's distinctive way of life and are transmitted from one generation to the next.

Front 3

cultural relativism

Back 3

the evaluation of the practices and customs of a culture by that culture's own standards.

Front 4

culture shock

Back 4

the disorientation people feel when they are exposed to a way of life that is very different from their own.

Front 5

cultural universals

Back 5

those customs, traits, and behaviors that occur in every known culture.

Front 6

ethnocentrism

Back 6

the practice of evaluating other cultures by the values and standards of one's own culture.

Front 7

folkways

Back 7

norms and customs of lesser moral significance that guide everyday interaction, and which may be violated without serious consequences.

Front 8

high culture

Back 8

cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite from the other classes in a society.

Front 9

ideal culture

Back 9

the values a culture professes to be very important.

Front 10

incest taboo

Back 10

a cultural universal that forbids sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives.

Front 11

language

Back 11

a set of symbols that allows people to think and communicate with each other.

Front 12

laws

Back 12

formal norms created by a society's government that are punishable by official sanctions when violated.

Front 13

material culture

Back 13

the tangible objects that members of a society use, share, and create.

Front 14

mores

Back 14

norms of considerable moral significance that carry serious consequences if violated.

Front 15

nonmaterial culture

Back 15

the intangible parts of a society, such as ideas, values, beliefs, norms, and language, that shape a people's behaviors.

Front 16

norms

Back 16

specific rules that specify how someone is expected to act in a certain situation.

Front 17

popular culture

Back 17

cultural patterns that are widespread within the middle and working classes of a society.

Front 18

real culture

Back 18

the actual values embodied in the everyday behavior of members of a specific culture.

Front 19

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Back 19

states that language shapes the specific way people understand, view, and interpret reality.

Front 20

subculture

Back 20

a group of people that possess some cultural pattern(s) that distinguishes it from the larger society.

Front 21

symbol

Back 21

anything that carries a specific meaning recognized and understood by people in the same culture, including sounds, gestures, and written representations.

Front 22

values

Back 22

general evaluative standards by which members of a specific culture determine what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable, and good or bad.

Front 23

How does culture contribute to the survival of a society?

Back 23

Culture contributes to the survival of a society in many ways. Group rules and laws provide the basis for social order and civilized behavior. Shared symbols allow people to communicate with one another and enable the transmission of culture from one generation to the next. Cultural values, norms, and beliefs provide people with acceptable goals to pursue and the proper behaviors to engage in to achieve those goals. The material components of culture provide the things people need to survive, such as transportation, food, and shelter.

Front 24

Distinguish between material and nonmaterial culture.

Back 24

Material culture consists of tangible items such as automobiles, computers, art, and technology of a society. These are the objects that members of a society use, share, and create. Material culture varies from society to society. Nonmaterial culture refers to the intangible parts of a society that shape people's behaviors.

Front 25

How does the use of symbols and language shape how people interpret the world and communicate?

Back 25

People communicate using symbols. The meaning of symbols varies from one society to the next. Language is a system of symbols, which can be verbal or nonverbal. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that people can only interpret, understand, and interact with the world around them in terms of language that they use.

Front 26

What are values? What are the core values of people in the United States? What is a value conflict? Provide examples of core values in the US.

Back 26

Values are general, diffuse, evaluative standards by which a society determines what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, and right or wrong. Values justify norms. The core values of the US include: freedom, progress, individualism, material comfort, achievement, democracy, health, education....Value conflict exists where there is a tension or contradiction between two culturally desirable values, such as the conflict between equality and group superiority.

Front 27

What are norms? Distinguish between folkways, mores, and laws.

Back 27

Norms are specific behavioral rules that indicate how a person is expected to act in a particular situation. Folkways are norms of little moral consequence that consist of customs for polite behavior. Opening the door for others and raising one's hand in class when wanting to be called on are examples of folkways. Mores are norms of important moral significance that carry serious consequences when violated. An example of a more is telling the truth. Laws are formal norms that have been enacted by the political authority of a society. Violations of laws are punishable by formal sanctions. In the US, these sanctions include fines, incarceration, or even execution.

Front 28

What is the difference between ideal culture and real culture?

Back 28

Ideal culture refers to the values a culture professes to be important, while real culture refers to the actual values embodied in the day-to-day behavior of a society's members. For examples, the core cultural value of democracy is part of ideal culture in the US. In reality, the majority of Americans don't vote.

Front 29

What are subcultures and countercultures? Give an example of each. How does heterogeneity contribute to the development of subcultures and countercultures?

Back 29

Subcultures are groups within a society that possess some cultural patterns that distinguish it and set it apart from the dominant culture. Examples include gangs, homosexuals, and Rastafarians. Members of each of these groups behave in specific ways, such as stealing to achieve material success or engaging in displays of affection and committed relationships with members of one's own gender, that are in tension with the values and norms of dominant culture. However, the other aspects of the lifestyle of subcultural members conform to the expectations of the dominant culture. In contrast, countercultures reject the values and norms of dominant culture and possess a distinctive way of life that is in extensive conflict with the larger society. The hippies were a counterculture in that they rejected the values of monogamy and chastity before marriage, among others. Heterogeneity contributes to the development of subcultures and countercultures. In the US, immigration has served to introduce cultural heterogeneity.

Front 30

What is the difference between popular culture and high culture?

Back 30

Popular culture refers to the cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's working and middle classes, while high culture consists of those cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite form the working and middle class.

Front 31

What is the relationship between ethnocentrism and culture shock?

Back 31

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to evaluate other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture. Ethnocentrism is based upon the belief that one's own culture and way of life is superior to others. When one encounters a new culture, the tendency is to evaluate that new culture by the standards of the culture with which one is familiar. This can lead to culture shock-the disorientation one feels when exposed to a way of life very different from one's own.

Front 32

Describe the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic-interactionist perspectives on culture.

Back 32

The functionalist and conflict perspectives are macro-level perspectives, while the symbolic interactionist perspective focuses on the micro-level. The functionalist perspective states that culture, especially popular culture, forms the glue that holds a society together. The shared norms and values of a culture are the basis for social unity, group identity, and social stability. Language enables the passing of these shared norms and values from one generation to the next. The conflict perspective argues that the elite of the society promulgate the dominant norms and values of a society in order to maintain their privileged position. A key way this occurs is through the development of an ideology that justifies the way power and privelege are distributed in a society. The symbolic-interactionist perspective focuses on the way culture is created, maintained, and changed through the everyday interactions of people in the society. This view emphasizes the way values and norms can be reinterpreted and changed through interaction.