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Chapters 4, 8-9
Macrosociological Perspective, Deviance and Social Control, Social Stratification
106
Sociology
Undergraduate 2
03/28/2010

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Term
Microsociology
Definition
Analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction; typically used by symbolic interactionists
Term
Macrosociology
Definition
Analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationships of groups to one another; usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists
Term
Social Interaction
Definition
What people do when they are in one another's presence
Term
Social Structure
Definition
The framework that surrounds us, consisting of the relationships of people and groups to one another, which gives direction to and sets limits on behavior
Term
Social Class
Definition
According to Weber, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of tow groups: capitalists who one the means of production or workers who sell their labor
Term
Status
Definition
The position someone occupies in a social group
Term
Statys Set
Definition
All the statuses or positions that an individual occupies
Term
Ascribed Status
Definition
A position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life
Term
Achieved Status
Definition
A position that is earned, accomplished, or involves at least some effort or activity on the individual's part
Term
Status Symbols
Definition
Items used to identify a status
Term
Master Status
Definition
A status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies
Term
Status Inconsistency
Definition
Ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others, also called status discrepancy
Term
Role
Definition
The behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status
Term
Socialization
Definition
The process by which people learn the characteristics of their groups- the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for them
Term
Group
Definition
eople who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group
Term
Social Institution
Definition
The organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs
Term
Social Integration
Definition
The degree to which members of a group or a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds; aka social cohesion
Term
Mechanical Solidarity
Definition
Durkheim's term for the unity that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks
Term
Division of Labor
Definition
The splitting of a group's or a society's tasks into specialties
Term
Organic Solidarity
Definition
Durkheim's term for the interdependence that results from the division of labor; people depending on others to fulfill their jobs
Term
Gemeinschaft
Definition
A type of society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness
Term
Gesellschaft
Definition
A type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest
Term
Stereotype
Definition
Assumptions of what people are like, whether true or false
Term
Body Language
Definition
The ways in which people use their bodies to give messages to others
Term
Dramaturgy
Definition
An approach, pioneered by Erving Goffman in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage; aka dramaturgical analysis
Term
Impression Management
Definition
People's efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them
Term
Front Stage
Definition
Places where we give performances
Term
Back Stage
Definition
Places where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances
Term
Role Performance
Definition
The ways in which someone performs a role within the limits that the role provides; showing a particular style or personality
Term
Role Conflict
Definition
Conflicts that someone feels between roles because the expectations attached to one role are incompatible with the expectations of another role
Term
Role Strain
Definition
Conflicts that someone feels within a role
Term
Sign-Vehicle
Definition
A term used by Goffman to refer to how people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate information about the self
Term
Teamwork
Definition
The collaboration of two or more people to manage impressions jointly
Term
Face-saving Behavior
Definition
Techniques used to salvage a performance that is going sour
Term
Ethnomethodology
Definition
The study of how people use background assumptions to make sense out of life
Term
Background Assumption
Definition
A deeply embedded common understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act
Term
Thomas Theorem
Definition
William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas' classic formulation of the definition of the situation; "If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
Term
Social Construction of Reality
Definition
The use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real
Term
Deviance
Definition
The violation of norms
Term
Crime
Definition
The violation of norms written into law
Term
Stigma
Definition
"Blemishes" that discredit a person's claim to a "normal" identity
Term
Social Order
Definition
A group's usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives
Term
Social Control
Definition
A group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms
Term
Negative Sanctions
Definition
An expression of disapproval for breakins a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a prison sentence or an execution
Term
Positive Sanction
Definition
A reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a material reward
Term
Genetic Predisposition
Definition
Inborn tendencies
Term
Street Crime
Definition
Crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary
Term
Personality Disorders
Definition
The view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms
Term
Differential Association
Definition
Edwin Sutherland's term to indicate that people who associate with some groups learn an "excess of definitions: of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant
Term
Control Theory
Definition
The idea that two control systems- inner controls and outer controls- work against our tendencies to deviate
Term
Degradation Ceremony
Definition
A term coined by Harold Garfinkel to refer to a ritual whose goal is to reshape someone's self by stripping away that individual's self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place
Term
Labeling Theory
Definition
The view that the labels people are given affect their own and others' perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity
Term
Techniques of Neutralization
Definition
Ways of thinking or rationalizing that help people deflect societies norms
Term
Cultural Goals
Definition
The objectives held out as legitimate or desirable for the members of a society to achieve
Term
Institutionalized Means
Definition
Approved ways of reaching cultural goals
Term
Strain Theory
Definition
Robert Merton's term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal, but withhold from some the approved means of reaching that goal; one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of an innovative means to attain the cultural goal
Term
Illegitimate Opportunity Structure
Definition
Opportunities for crimes that are woven into the texture of life
Term
White-Collar Crime
Definition
Edwin Sutherland's term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations; for example, bribery of public officials, securities violations, embezzlement, false advertising, and price fixing
Term
Corporate Crime
Definition
Crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation
Term
Criminal Justice System
Definition
The system of police, courts, and prisons set up to deal with people who are accused of having committed a crime
Term
Recidivism Rate
Definition
The proportion of released convicts who are rearrested
Term
Capital Punishment
Definition
The death penalty
Term
Serial Murder
Definition
The killing of several victims in three or more seperate events
Term
Hate Crime
Definition
A crime that is punished more severely because it is motivated by hatred of someone's race- ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin
Term
Police Discretion
Definition
The practice of the police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for an offense or to overlook the matter
Term
Police Discretion
Definition
The practice of the police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for an offense or to overlook the matter
Term
Medicalization of Deviance
Definition
To make a deviance a medical matter; a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians
Term
Social Stratification
Definition
The division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige, applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group. it is universal, and every society stratifies based on gender
Term
Slavery
Definition
A form of social stratification in which some people own other people
Term
Bonded labor (Identured Service)
Definition
A contractual system in which someone sells his or her body (services) for a specified period of time in an arrangement very close to slavery, except that it is entered into voluntarily
Term
Ideology
Definition
Beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements
Term
Caste System
Definition
A form of social stratification in which people's statuses are determined by birth and are lifelong
Term
Endogamy
Definition
The practice of marrying within one's own group
Term
Apartheid
Definition
The enforced seperation of racial-ethnic groups as was practiced in South Africa
Term
Estate Stratification System
Definition
The stratification system of medieval Europe, consisting of three groups or estates: the nobility, clergy, and commoners
Term
Class System
Definition
A form of social stratification based primarily on the possession of money or material possessions
Term
Social Mobility
Definition
Movement up or down the social class ladder
Term
Means of Production
Definition
The tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth
Term
Bourgeoisie
Definition
Marx's term for capitalists, those who own the means of production
Term
Proletariat
Definition
Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production
Term
Class Consciousness
Definition
Marx's term for awareness of a common identity based on one's position in the means of production
Term
False Class Consciousness
Definition
Marx's term to refer to workers idetnifying with the interests of capitalists
Term
Meritocracy
Definition
A form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit
Term
Divine Right of Kings
Definition
The idea that the king's authority comes from God: in an interesting gender bender; also applies to queens
Term
Colonialism
Definition
The process by which one nation takes over another nation, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources
Term
World System Theory
Definition
Economic and political connections that tie the world's countries together
Term
Globalizion of Capitalism
Definition
Capitalism becoming the globe's dominant economic system
Term
Culture of Poverty
Definition
The assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children
Term
Neocolonialism
Definition
The economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations
Term
Multination Corporations
Definition
Companies that operate across national boundaries; aka transnational corporations
Term
Functionalist Perspective
Definition
1. replacing members
2. socializing new members
3. producing and distributing goods and services
4. preserving order
5. providing a sense of purpose
Term
Personal Space
Definition
1. intimate distance- 18 in
2. personal distance- 18 in to 4 ft
3. social distance- 4 to 12 ft
4. public distance- 12 ft or more
Term
Inner Control
Definition
Internalized moreality- conscience, religious principles, ideas of right and wrong, fears of punishment, feelings of integrity, and desire to be good person
Term
Outer Controls
Definition
Family, friends, and police- who influence us to not deviate
Term
Stronger Bonds, More Effective Inner Controls
Definition
Bonds are based on attachments, commitments, involvements, and beliefs
Term
Types of Techniques of Neutralization
Definition
1. Denial of Responsibility
2. Denial of Injury
3. Denial of a Victim
4. Condemnation of the Condemners
5. Appeal to Higher Loyalties
Term
Deviance 3 Main Functions
Definition
1. Deviance clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms
2. Deviance promotes social unity
3. Deviance promotes social change
Term
Anomie
Definition
If mainstream rules seem illegitimate, you experience a gap that Merton called anomie, a sense of normlessness
Term
4 Deviant Paths
Definition
1. Innovators- People who accept the goals of society but use illegitimate means to try to reach them
2. Ritualism- People who become discouraged and give up on achieving cultural goals
3. Retreatism- People reject both the cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them
4. Rebellion- Convinced that their society is corrupt, rebels, like retreatists, reject both society's goals and its institutionalized means; however they seek to give society new goals, as well as new means for reaching them
Term
Prisoners stats
Definition
Most prisoners are younger than 35, almost all are male, close to half of all prisoners are African Americans, on any given day 1 out of every 9 african american men ages 20 to 34 is in jail or prison
Term
Property
Definition
(Wealth) only significant in determining a person's standing in society
Term
Power
Definition
The ability to control others, even over their objections. Property is the main source of power, but not the only. prestige can be turned into power
Term
Prestige
Definition
Its often derived from property and power, for people tend to admire the wealthy and powerful. It can be based on other factors such as an Olympic gold medalists might not own property or be powerful, yet they have high prestige
Term
Functionalists: Davis and Moore's Explanation on the Inevitability of Stratification
Definition
1. Society must make certain that its positions are filled
2. Some positions are more important than others.
3. The more important positions must be filled by the more qualified people.
4. To motivate the more qualified people to fill these positions, society must offer them greater rewards
Term
Conflict Theorists: Mosca's Explanation on the Inevitability of Stratification
Definition
1. No society can exist unless it is organized. This requires leadership of some sort in order to coordinate people's actions.
2. Leadership requires inequalities of power. By definition, some people take leadership positions, while other follow.
3. Because human nature is self-centered, people in power will use their postions to seize greater rewards for themselves
Term
Economic Colonies
Definition
Purpose of colonialism was to establish economic colonies- to exploit the nation's people and resources for the benefit of the "mother" country
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