Sociology Chapter 2

Front 1

What is culture?

Back 1

the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next

Front 2

What is material culture?

Back 2

such things as jewelry, art, buildings, weapons, machines, hairstyles and clothing

Front 3

What is nonmaterial culture?

Back 3

a group's way of thinking (beliefs and values) and doing (common patterns of behavior: language, gestures, interaction)

Front 4

What is culture shock?

Back 4

the disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life

Front 5

What is ethnocentrism?

Back 5

a tendency to use our own group's ways of doing things as the yardstick for judging others

Front 6

What is cultural relativism?

Back 6

trying to understand a culture on its own terms - looking at how the elements of a culture fit together without judging those elements as superior or inferior to one's own way of life

Front 7

What is symbolic culture?

Back 7

another name for nonmaterial culture - its central component is the symbols that people use

Front 8

What are symbols?

Back 8

something to which people attach meaning and that they then use to communicate (gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways)

Front 9

What are gestures?

Back 9

using one's body to communicate with others - shorthand ways to convey messages without using words

Front 10

What is language?

Back 10

symbols that can be strung together in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thought

Front 11

Our ability to speak provides us with what?

Back 11

a social past and future - language allows culture to develop

Front 12

What does the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis indicate?

Back 12

rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, it is our language that determines our consciousness, and hence our perception, of objects and events

Front 13

What are values?

Back 13

ideas of what is desirable in life - standards by which people define what is good and bad, beautiful and ugly

Front 14

What are norms?

Back 14

rules of behavior that develop out of a group's values

Front 15

What are sanctions?

Back 15

reactions people get for following or breaking norms

Front 16

What are positive sanctions?

Back 16

expresses approval for following norms

Front 17

What are negative sanctions?

Back 17

expresses disapproval for following norms

Front 18

What are folkways?

Back 18

norms that are not strictly enforced

Front 19

What are mores?

Back 19

norms that we think of as essential to our core values and insist on conformity

Front 20

What is a taboo?

Back 20

a norm so strongly ingrained that even the thought of its violation is greeted with revulsion

Front 21

What is a subculture?

Back 21

a world within the larger world of the dominant culture

Front 22

What is a counterculture?

Back 22

some of the group's values and norms place it at odds with the dominant culture

Front 23

What is a pluralistic society? What country is an example of one?

Back 23

made up of many different groups - United States

Front 24

What are some of the values in U.S. Society?

Back 24

achievement and success; individualism; activity and work; efficiency and practicality; science and technology; progress; material comfort; humanitarianism; freedom; democracy; equality; racism and group superiority; education; religiosity; romantic love

Front 25

What are value clusters?

Back 25

independent values that are clutered together to form a whole

Front 26

What is ideal culture?

Back 26

refers to the values, norms, and goals that a group considers ideal, worth aspiring to

Front 27

What is real culture?

Back 27

the norms and values that people actually follow

Front 28

What is technology?

Back 28

tools and the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools

Front 29

What is new technology?

Back 29

an emerging technology that has a significant impact on social life

Front 30

Technology does what?

Back 30

sets a framework for a group's nonmaterial culture

Front 31

What is cultural lag and who coined the term?

Back 31

not all parts of a culture change at the same pace, when some part of a culture changes, other parts lag behind - William Ogburn

Front 32

What did Ogburn point out?

Back 32

a group's material culture usually changes first, with the nonmaterial culture lagging behind

Front 33

What is cultural diffusion?

Back 33

during contacts with other groups people learn from one another, adapting some part of the other's way of life - groups are most open to a change in their technology or material culture

Front 34

What is cultural leveling?

Back 34

a process in which cultures become similar to one another