Sociology Midterm

Front 1

The Sociological Imagination

Back 1

is the
ability to see our private experiences and personal
difficulties as entwined with the structural
arrangements of our society and the times in
which we live

Front 2

value-free sociology

Back 2

sociologists must not allow their personal
biases to affect the conduct of their scientific
research.

Front 3

(symbolic) interactionism

Back 3

Individuals monitor their own behavior,
monitor others’ responses, make interpretations,
try out new ways of behaving, and come to new
understandings about themselves.

Front 4

macrosociology

Back 4

focuses
upon large-scale and long-term social processes of
organizations, institutions, and broad social patterns,
including the state, social class, the family,
the economy, culture, and society.

Front 5

ethnocentrism

Back 5

We judge the behavior of other
groups by the standards of our own culture

Front 6

participant observation

Back 6

sociologists may engage in
activities with the people that they are studying

Front 7

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Back 7

people conceptualize
the world differently depending on
the nature of the concepts available in their language.

Front 8

subcultural capital

Back 8

cultural knowledge and commodities acquired by members of a subculture, raising their status and helping differentiate themselves from members of other groups

Front 9

sociolinguistics

Back 9

the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society.

Front 10

values

Back 10

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

Front 11

master status

Back 11

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

Front 12

status

Back 12

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

Front 13

role performance

Back 13

The actual
behavior of the person who occupies
a status.

Front 14

institutions

Back 14

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

Front 15

identity salience hierarchy

Back 15

This hierarchical organization of identities is defined by the probabilities of each of the various identities within it being brought into play in a given situation.

Front 16

impression management

Back 16

how our self-conceptions arise in the course
of social interaction and how we fashion our
actions based on the feedback we derive about
ourselves and our behavior from other people.
only by influencing
other people’s ideas of us can we hope to predict
or control who we become.

Front 17

social learning theory

Back 17

are conditioning and observational
learning.

Front 18

cognitive development theory

Back 18

calls our attention to the fact that children
actively seek to acquire gender identities
and roles.

Front 19

language acquisition device

Back 19

human beings possess an inborn
language-generating mechanism. the basic
structure of language is biologically channeled,
forming a sort of prefabricated fi ling system to
order the words and phrases that make up human languages. All a child needs to do is learn the peculiarities of his or her society’s language.

Front 20

dyad

Back 20

two person group

Front 21

dramaturgical approach

Back 21

social
life as a stage on which people interact; all
human beings are both actors and members of
the audience, and the parts are the roles people
play in the course of their daily activities

Front 22

reciprocity

Back 22

the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially privileges granted by one country or organization to another.

Front 23

primary group

Back 23

a small group characterized by intimate, informal
interaction. Expressive
ties predominate in primary
groups; we view the people—
friends, family members, and
lovers—as ends in themselves
and valuable in their own right

Front 24

instrumental ties

Back 24

are social links formed when
we cooperate with other people to achieve some
goal.

Front 25

secondary group

Back 25

entails two or more
people who are involved in an impersonal relationship
and have come together for a specifi c,
practical purpose.

Front 26

in-group

Back 26

is a group with which
we identify and to which we belong

Front 27

out-group

Back 27

is a group with which we do not identify
and to which we do not belong

Front 28

instrumental leaders

Back 28

devote their attention to appraising the problem
at hand and organizing people’s activity to
deal with it.

Front 29

expressive leaders

Back 29

focus on overcoming interpersonal
problems in the group, defusing tensions, and promoting
solidarity.

Front 30

culture

Back 30

refers to 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

Front 31

mores

Back 31

People
attach a good deal of importance to some norms, and they mete out
harsh punishment to violators.

Front 32

folkways

Back 32

people deem to be of less
importance, and they exact less stringent conformity
to them

Front 33

manifest functions

Back 33

those consequences that are intended
and recognized by the participants in a system

Front 34

latent functions

Back 34

are those consequences that are
neither intended nor recognized.

Front 35

microsociology

Back 35

is the detailed study of
what people say, do, and think moment by
moment as they go about their daily lives.

Front 36

spurious correlation

Back 36

The
apparent relationship between two
variables produced by a third variable
that infl uences the original
variables.

Front 37

critical theory

Back 37

criticized sociology for
having a scientifi c approach that viewed individuals
as passive and helpless entities locked in social
structures, and for analyzing societies without
detecting social problems or envisioning what
societies should be.

Front 38

cultural relativism

Back 38

views
the behavior of a people from the perspective of
their own culture.

Front 39

norms

Back 39

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

Front 40

symbols

Back 40

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

Front 41

self-conception

Back 41

is a more overriding view of
ourselves, a sense of self through time—“the
real me” or “I myself as I really am.”

Front 42

ascribed status

Back 42

statuses assigned to us by our group
or society

Front 43

achieved status

Back 43

We secure other statuses on the basis of
individual choice and competition

Front 44

trained incapacity

Back 44

bureaucracies encourage their members to rely on established rules and regulations and to apply them in an unimaginative and mechanical fashion. As a result of the socialization provided by organizations, individuals often develop a tunnel vision that limits their ability to respond in new ways when circumstances change

Front 45

total institutions

Back 45

individuals undergo resocialization, often
including mortifi cation.

Front 46

triad

Back 46

adding one person
to a dyad is far more consequential than
adding one person to any other size group

Front 47

relative deprivation

Back 47

Discontent associated with
the gap between what we have and what we believe
we should have.

Front 48

society

Back 48

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

Front 49

proxemics

Back 49

The way we employ social and
personal space also contains messages

Front 50

recidivism

Back 50

relapse into criminal
behavior

Front 51

generalized other

Back 51

The social unit that gives individuals their
unity of self is called the generalized other.
The attitude of the generalized other is the
attitude of the larger community

Front 52

subculture

Back 52

the members
of some groups participate in the main culture
of the society while simultaneously sharing
with one another a number of unique values,
norms, traditions, and lifestyles.

Front 53

counterculture

Back 53

At times the norms, values, and lifestyles
of a subculture are substantially at odds with
those of the larger society

Front 54

self-image

Back 54

a
mental conception or picture that we have of
ourselves that is relatively temporary;

Front 55

conditioning

Back 55

Conditioning is a form of learning in
which the consequences of behavior determine the probability of its future occurrence.

Front 56

observational learning

Back 56

Observational learning
occurs when people reproduce the responses they observe in other people, either real or fictional.

Front 57

thomas theorem

Back 57

The notion
that our defi nitions infl uence our
construction of reality; as stated
by William I. Thomas and Dorothy
S. Thomas: “If [people] defi ne situations
as real, they are real in
their consequences.”

Front 58

reference group

Back 58

social units we use for appraising
and shaping attitudes, feelings, and actions

Front 59

looking glass self

Back 59

a process by which we imaginatively
assume the stance of other people and view ourselves
as we believe they see us

Front 60

expressive ties

Back 60

are social links
formed when we emotionally invest ourselves in
and commit ourselves to other people.

Front 61

crime

Back 61

is an act of
deviance that is prohibited by law.

Front 62

bureaucracy

Back 62

a social structure made
up of a hierarchy of statuses and roles that is prescribed by explicit rules and procedures and based on a division of function and authority

Front 63

social dilemma

Back 63

is a
situation in which members of a group are faced
with a confl ict between maximizing their personal
interests and maximizing the collective welfare.

Front 64

informal sanctions

Back 64

are reactions to deviance
that occur in small communities, in groups
of friends, and in the family.

Front 65

formal sanctions

Back 65

are reactions of official
agents of social control, such as the courts, the
honor systems that control cheating, and the
principal’s office in the high school.

Front 66

internalization

Back 66

The process by
which individuals incorporate
within their personalities the standards
of behavior prevalent within
the larger society.

Front 67

anomie

Back 67

A social condition in
which people fi nd it diffi cult to
guide their behavior by norms
they experience as weak, unclear,
or confl icting.

Front 68

ritualism

Back 68

Ritualism involves losing touch
with success goals while abiding compulsively
by the institutionalized means

Front 69

retreatism

Back 69

In retreatism individuals reject
both the cultural goals and the institutionalized
means without substituting new norms

Front 70

rebellion

Back 70

Rebels reject both the cultural goals
and the institutionalized means and substitute
new norms for them.

Front 71

cultural transmission theory

Back 71

They concluded that delinquent and criminal
behaviors are in part a product of economic
conditions, but are also culturally transmitted
from one generation of juveniles to the next. As
new ethnic groups enter a neighborhood, their
children learn the delinquent patterns from the
youths already there.

Front 72

victimless crime

Back 72

is an offense in
which no one involved is considered a victim. These crimes include gambling, the sale and use of illicit drugs, and prohibited sexual activities between consenting adults (e.g., prostitution and, in some states, fornication
and homosexuality). In victimless crime, if
there is any suffering, it is by the offenders
themselves, by “innocent bystanders” (as in the
case of experiencing the odors associated with
public

Front 73

open system

Back 73

Where people can change their status with
relative ease

Front 74

closed system

Back 74

where people have
great diffi culty in changing their status

Front 75

caste system

Back 75

groups of people having
special status and performing only
certain jobs

Front 76

intergenerational mobility

Back 76

involves a comparison
of the social status of
parents and their children at
some point in their respective
careers

Front 77

intragenerational mobility

Back 77

entails a
comparison of the social status
of a person over an
extended time.

Front 78

institutional racism/descrimination

Back 78

institutions of society may function in
such a way that they produce unequal outcomes
for different groups

Front 79

environmental racism

Back 79

the
practice of locating incinerators and other types
of hazardous waste facilities in or next to minority
communities

Front 80

acculturation/cultural assimilation

Back 80

When cultural elements of
one group change in the direction of another
group, we call this cultural assimilation

Front 81

pluralism

Back 81

assimilated in some important ways but also
have retained their identities and signifi cant
degrees of distinctiveness for many years. This
is an example of pluralism , a situation in which
diverse groups coexist and boundaries between
them are maintained.

Front 82

gender identity

Back 82

are the conceptions we
have of ourselves as being male or female

Front 83

gender role

Back 83

are sets of cultural expectations
that defi ne the ways in which the members
of each sex should behave

Front 84

sexual harassment

Back 84

unwelcome
sexual attention, whether verbal or physical, that
affects an employee’s job conditions or creates a
hostile working environment

Front 85

social loafing

Back 85

when individuals work in groups, they
work less hard than they do when working
individually

Front 86

oligarchy

Back 86

the concentration of power in the hands of a few
individuals who use their offi ces to advance their
own fortunes and self-interests

Front 87

alienation

Back 87

—a pervasive sense of powerlessness,
meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation,
and self-estrangement

Front 88

index crimes

Back 88

The Federal Bureau of Investigation annually
reports on eight types of crime in its Uniform
Crime Reports. These offenses are called index
crimes and consist of four categories of violent
crime against people—murder, rape, robbery,
and assault—and four categories of crimes
against property—burglary, theft, motor vehicle
theft, and arson.

Front 89

structural strain theory

Back 89

If subcultural values and
norms are different from those in the mainstream,
when people conform to their subculture,
they may be in violation of some important
societal norms.

Front 90

white collar crime

Back 90

crime most commonly committed by relatively
affl uent persons, often in the course of business
activities

Front 91

high-tech crime

Back 91

as attempts
to commit crime through the use of advanced
electronic media

Front 92

proletariat

Back 92

the opressed working class

Front 93

ethnic group

Back 93

Groups that we identify chiefly on cultural
grounds—language, folk practices, dress, gestures,
mannerisms, or religion

Front 94

patriarchy

Back 94

a system of social organization in
which men have a disproportionate share of
power

Front 95

sexism

Back 95

Gender inequality is perpetuated by a set of
complex processes

Front 96

parkinson's law

Back 96

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Despite the tongue-in-cheek tone of his writing, Parkinson showed that “the number of the officials and the quantity of the work are not related to each other.” He contended that bureaucracy expands not because of an increasing workload but because officials seek to have additional subordinates hired in order to multiply the number of people under them

Front 97

deviance

Back 97

any behavior that violates a norm

Front 98

hate crimes

Back 98

also called bias crimes, are crimes
of hatred and prejudice.

Front 99

labeling theory

Back 99

1. First, they contend that no act by itself is
inherently deviant or not deviant

2. we
all engage in deviant behavior by violating some
norms.

3.whether
people’s acts will be seen as deviant depends on
which rules society chooses to enforce, in which
situations, and with respect to which people

4.labeling people as deviants has consequences
for them

5. people labeled “deviant” typically fi nd
themselves rejected and isolated by “lawabiding”
people.

Front 100

life chances

Back 100

the likelihood that individuals
and groups will enjoy desired goods and services,
fulfi lling experiences, and opportunities
for living healthy and long lives

Front 101

bourgeoisie

Back 101

small business
owners

Front 102

social mobility

Back 102

In many societies individuals or groups can
move from one level (stratum) to another in the
stratification system

Front 103

culture of poverty

Back 103

The view
that the poor possess selfperpetuating
lifeways characterized
by weak ego structures, lack
of impulse control, a present-time
orientation, and a sense of resignation
and fatalism.

Front 104

prejudice

Back 104

attitudes of aversion and hostility
toward the members of a group simply
because they belong to it and hence are presumed
to have the objectionable qualities ascribed to it