Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
64 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Sociology
|
The systematic study of human society and social interaction.
|
|
Sociological Imagination
|
The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.
|
|
Auguste Comte
|
Coined the term sociology to describe a new science that would engage in the study of society.
|
|
Anomie
|
Condition in which social control becomes ineffective as result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society.
|
|
Theory
|
Set o logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and predict some events.
|
|
Manifest Functions
|
Functions that are intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit.
|
|
Latent Functions
|
Unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants.
|
|
Conflict Perspectives
|
The sociological approach that views groups in society as engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources.
|
|
Macrolevel Analysis
|
An approach that examines whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems.
|
|
Microlevel analysis
|
Sociological theory and research that focus on small groups rather than on large-scale social structures.
|
|
Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives
|
The sociological approach that views society as the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups.
|
|
Symbol
|
anything that meaningfully represents something else.
|
|
Quantitative Research
|
Data that can be measure numerically.
|
|
Qualitative Research
|
Data that is words only.
|
|
Hypothesis
|
In research studies, a tentative statement of the relationship between two or more concepts.
|
|
Independent Variable
|
A variable that is presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable.
|
|
Dependent Variable
|
A variable that is assumed to depend on or be caused by one or more other variables.
|
|
Random Sampling
|
A study approach in which every member of an entire population being studied has the same chance of being selected.
|
|
Survey
|
A poll in which the researcher gathers facts or attempts to determine the relationships among facts.
|
|
Questionnaire
|
A printed research instrument containing a series of items to which subjects respond.
|
|
Interview
|
A research method using a date-collection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers.
|
|
Secondary Analysis
|
A research method in which researchers use existing material and analyze data that were originally collected by others.
|
|
Content Analysis
|
The systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life.
|
|
Field Research
|
The study of social life in its natural setting: observing and interviewing people where they live, work, and play.
|
|
Participant Observation
|
A research method in which researchers collect data while being part of the activities of the group being studied.
|
|
Ethnograpy
|
A detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years.
|
|
Experiment
|
A research method involving a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects' attitudes or behavior.
|
|
Experimental Group
|
In an experiment, the group that contains the subjects who are exposed to an independent variable to study its effect on them.
|
|
Control Group
|
In an experiment, the group containing the subjects who are not exposed to the independent variable.
|
|
Culture
|
The knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.
|
|
Beliefs
|
The mental acceptance or conviction that certain things are true or real.
|
|
Cultural Universals
|
Customs and practices that occur across all societies.
|
|
Symbol
|
Anything that meaningfully represents something else.
|
|
Language
|
A set of symbols that expresses ideas and enables people to think and communicate with one another.
|
|
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
|
The proposition that language shapes the view of reality of its speakers.
|
|
Values
|
Collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.
|
|
Norms
|
Established rules of behavior or standards of conduct.
|
|
Sanctions
|
Rewards for appropriate behavior or penalties for inappropriate behaviors.
|
|
Folkways
|
Informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.
|
|
Mores
|
Strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture.
|
|
Taboos
|
Mores so strong that their violation is considered to be extremely offensive and even unmentionable.
|
|
Laws
|
Formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.
|
|
Subculture
|
A category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture.
|
|
Counterculture
|
A group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles.
|
|
Culture Shock
|
The disorientation that people feel when they encounter culture radically different from their own and believe that they cannot depend on their own taken-for-granted assumptions about life.
|
|
Ethnocentrism
|
The practice of judging all other cultures by one's own culture.
|
|
Cultural Relativism
|
The belief that the behaviors and customs of any culture must be viewed and analyzed by the culture's own standards.
|
|
High Culture
|
Classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences.
|
|
Popular Culture
|
Activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.
|
|
Socialization
|
The lifelong process of social interaction through which individuals acquire a self-identity and the physical, mental, and social skills needed for survival in society.
|
|
Looking-glass self
|
Charles Horton Cooley's term for the way in which a person's sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others.
|
|
Significant others
|
Those persons whose care, affection, and approval are especially desired and who are most important in the development of the self.
|
|
Primary Group
|
Charles Horton Colley's term or a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.
|
|
Secondary Group
|
A larger, more specialized group in which members engage in a more-impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.
|
|
Status
|
A socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.
|
|
Ascribed Status
|
A social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race.
|
|
Achieved Status
|
A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.
|
|
Alienation
|
A feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and from oneself.
|
|
Generalized Other
|
George Herbert Mead's term for the child's awareness of the demands and expectations of society as a whole or of the child's subculture.
|
|
Master Status
|
The most important status that a person occupies.
|
|
Role
|
A set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status.
|
|
Role-Taking
|
The process by which a person mentally assumes the role of another person or group in order to understand the world from that person's or group's point of view.
|
|
Resocialization
|
The process of learning a new and different set of attitudes, values, and behaviors from those in one's background and previous experience.
|
|
Total Institution
|
Erving Goffman's term for a place where people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of time and come under the control of the officials who run the institution.
|