Sociology Chapter One

Front 1

counterculture

Back 1

a group whose values, beliefs, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the values of the broader culture

Front 2

cultural diffusion

Back 2

the spread of cultural characteristics from one group to another
cultural lag: William Ogburn’s term for human behavior lagging behind technological
innovations

Front 3

cultural leveling

Back 3

the process by which cultures become similar to one another, and especially by which Western industrial culture is imported and diffused into industrializing nations

Front 4

cultural relativism

Back 4

not judging a culture, but trying to understand it on its own terms

Front 5

cultural universal

Back 5

a value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in every group
culture: the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next

Front 6

culture shock

Back 6

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 7

ethnocentrism

Back 7

the use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors

Front 8

folkways

Back 8

norms that are not strictly enforced

Front 9

gestures

Back 9

the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another
ideal culture: the ideal values and norms of a people, the goals held out for them

Front 10

language

Back 10

a system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways and can represent not only objects but also abstract thought

Front 11

material culture

Back 11

the material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry

Front 12

mores

Back 12

norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values

Front 13

negative sanction:

Back 13

an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal prison sentence or an execution

Front 14

new technology:

Back 14

the emerging technologies of an era that have a significant impact on social life

Front 15

nonmaterial culture

Back 15

a group’s ways of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other
assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including
language and other forms of interaction)

Front 16

norms

Back 16

the expectations, or rules of behavior, that reflect and enforce values
pluralistic society: a society made up of many different groups

Front 17

positive sanction

Back 17

a reward given for following norms, ranging from a smile to a prize

Front 18

real culture

Back 18

the norms and values that people actually follow

Front 19

sanctions

Back 19

expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for upholding or violating norms

Front 20

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Back 20

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving

Front 21

sociobiology

Back 21

a framework of thought that views human behavior as the result of natural selection and considers biological characteristics to be the fundamental cause of human behavior

Front 22

subculture

Back 22

the values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture; a world within a world

Front 23

symbol

Back 23

something to which people attach meaning and then use to communicate with others

Front 24

symbolic culture

Back 24

another term for nonmaterial culture

Front 25

taboo

Back 25

a norm so strong that it brings revulsion if it is violated

Front 26

technology

Back 26

in its narrow sense, tools; its broader sense includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools

Front 27

value clusters

Back 27

a series of interrelated values that together form a larger whole

Front 28

value contradictions

Back 28

values that conflict with one another; to follow the one means to come into conflict with the other

Front 29

values

Back 29

the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly