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Introductory Sociology
CLEP preperation
112
Sociology
Undergraduate 1
01/26/2010

Additional Sociology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Achieved Status
Definition
position/rank earned through efforts of the individual
Term
August Comte
Definition
coined the term sociology from Socius (Latin word for Comapanion, with others and logos (Study of).
Term
Agricultural Societies
Definition
more complex than horticultural and pastoral societies in the level of technology used to support crops and livestock.
Term
Altruistic Suicide 
Definition
Altruistic suicides occur in societies with high integration, where individual needs are seen as less important than the society's needs as a whole. He stated one exception, namely when the individual is expected to kill themselves on behalf of society – a primary example being the soldier in military service.
Term
Anomic Suicide
Definition
Anomic suicides are the product of moral deregulation and a lack of definition of legitimate aspirations through a restraining social ethic, which could impose meaning and order on the individual conscience. This is symptomatic of a failure of economic development and division of labour to produce Durkheim's organic solidarity. People do not know where they fit in within their societies. Durkheim explains that this is a state of moral disorder where man's desires are limitless and, thus, his disappointments are infinite.
Term
Anomie
Definition
state of normlessness
Term
Ascribed Status
Definition
position/rank assigned to individual @ birth & cannot be changed
Term
Authoritarian Government
Definition
It is a political system controlled by typically non-elected rulers who usually permit some degree of individual freedom
Term
Barter System
Definition
It consists of the direct exchange of some goods or services for others judged to be of equivalent value.
Term
Birth Rate
Definition
the ratio of live births in an area to the population of that area; expressed per 1000 population per year 
Term
Bourgeoisie
Definition
the bourgeoisie are a social class of people, characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture. They are a part of the middleor merchant classes, and derived social and economic power from employment, education, and wealth, as distinguished from social classes whose power came from being born into an aristocratic family of titled land owners granted feudal privileges by the monarch. 
Term
Bureaucracy 
Definition
A bureaucracy is a rationally designed organizational model whose goal is to perform complex task as efficiently as possible with commitments to rule and impersonality.
Term
Caste System
Definition
A system of social stratification in which social position is determined by the family in which the person is born, and change in that position is not possible during an individual's lifetime.
Term
Church
Definition
A religious organization, who claims to membership over those born into it, and they can leave it only through expulsion. The leadership is formally established and its economic foundation has been institutionalized. 
Term
Charismatic Authority
Definition
Authority coming to an individual through personal calling, often claimed to be inspired by supernatural powers, legitimated by people's belief that the leader does indeed has God given powers.
Term
Cognitive Development Theory
Definition
proposed by Jean Piaget, this theory describes the changes that occur over time in the ways children think,understand and evaluate the situation. A given stage of cognitive development is not reached unless an individual is confronted with real life experiences that foster such development.
Term
Collective Behavior
Definition
Non routine behaviors engaged in by large no. of people responding to  common stimulus.
Term

Concrete operational stage

(of cognitive theory)

Definition
During age 7 to 11, child gain a better understanding of mental operation, begin to think logically about concrete event but has difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.
Term
Conflict perspective
Definition
Sociologists viewing the social world from a conflict perspective question how factors such as race, sex, social class, and age are associated with unequal distribution of socially valued goods and rewards i.e. money, education and power.
Term
Conflict theory
Definition
Generally associated with the work of Coser, Dahrendorf and Mills, modern conflict theory sees conflict between groups or within social organizations, and not merely class conflict (Marx) as a fact of life of any society. Conflict may have positive as well as disturbing effects. Conflict includes disagreement over who gets what, as well as tension, hostility, competition and controversy within and between social groups over values and purpose.
Term
Contagion Theory
Definition
Developed by Gustave LeBon, it contends that crowd exert a distinct milieu that powerfully influences its members. The anonymity provided by the crowd, combined with high emotional arousal, compels different individuals to act as one body and adopt what has been called herding behavior.
Term
Control Group
Definition
In research, control group is a group of subjects not experiencing a change in independent variable. 
Term
Convergence theory
Definition
Convergence theory posits that the individuals, not the crowd, possess particular motivations. When a number of like-minded individuals converge, they are likely to generate a collective action.
Term
Counterculture
Definition
    subculture challenging accepted norms & values of larger society & establish alternative lifestyle
Term
Cult
Definition
A simplest form of religious organization consists of a small group of followers surrounding a charismatic religious leader. 
Term
Cultural relativisim
Definition
The position that there is no universal standard to measure cultures by, and that all cultures are equally valid and must be understood in their own terms. 
Term
Culture
Definition
All modes of thoughts, behavior and production handed down from one generation to next by communicative interaction rather than genetic transmission. 
Term
Death Rate
Definition
No. of deaths occurring in a population, during a given period of time, usually a year, as a proportion of the population. 
Term
Democratic Government
Definition
A democratic government is one in which authority ultimately lies with the people, whose participation in government (i.e., both in decision making process as well as in the process of appointing, electing, or dismissing rulers) is considered a right.
Term
Deviance
Definition
Deviance represents a departure from a norm. Deviant behavior is one that violates or is contrary to the rules of acceptable and appropriate behavior of a group or a society. 
Term
Differential Association
Definition
Theory explaining deviance as a learned behavior determined by extent of a person's association with individuals who engage in such behaviors.     
Term
Division of Labour 
Definition
The division of the labour is the manner in which work is divided among the individuals and groups specialized in particular economic activities.
Term
Dyad
Definition
group consisting of two people in which either member's departure destroys the group.
Term
Ego
Definition
Ego represents the most conscious part of the personality which most immediately controls thought and behavior and is most in touch with external reality. 
Term
Egoistic suicide
Definition
Suicide committed by people who feel alienated from others and lack social support. As defined by Durkheim, self-annihilation committed because individual feels extreme alienation from others and from society. 
Term
Emergent-norm theory
Definition
Developed by Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian, it argues that crowds do not necessarily begin with individuals sharing same interests and motives. Instead, certain individuals construct new norms, which are soon adopted by the entire collective.
Term
Ethnicity
Definition
Ethnicity refers to a population known and identified on the basis of their common language, national heritage and/or biological inheritance.
Term
Ethnocentrism
Definition
tendency to judge other culture as inferior to one's own.
Term
Exogamy
Definition
Norm specifying that a person brought up in a particular culture may marry outside the cultural group.   
Term
Expressive Leaders
Definition
social-emotional leaders who achieve harmony and solidarity among group members by offering emotional support.
Term
extended family
Definition
The extended family is the one in which the notion of consanguinity has been extended beyond the immediate (nuclear) family to those families who are indirectly linked by blood.
Term
Family of orientation
Definition
the unit into which a person is born
Term
Family of procreation
Definition
the unit, usually occurring in adulthood, when people are able to form social groups of their own through procreation or adoption
Term
Fatalistic suicide
Definition
   occurring in social conditions where the individual experiences pervasive oppression. Durkheim’s defined fatalistic suicide as resulting "from excessive regulation," whose "passions [were] violently choked by oppressive discipline,"
Term
Fertility Rate
Definition
no. of births per 1000 women aged 15-49 in a given year
Term
Folkways
Definition
Folkways are the usual customs and conventions of everyday life. They are weakly sanctioned norms.
Term

Formal operational stage

(of cognitive theory)

Definition
Begins at age 12 and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop ability to think about abstract concepts. skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning and systematic planning also emerged during this stage.
Term
Formal organizations
Definition

it represents a type of group or subculture pattern within which behavior is carried out in a society, is characterized by

formality,

a hierarchy of ranked positions,

large size,

a rather complex division of labor, and

continuity beyond its membership.

Term
Free market system of distribution 
Definition
Value is determined by supply and demand
Term
Functionalism
Definition
    sociological perspective focusing on the ways a complex pattern of social structures & arrangements contribute to social order
Term
Gemeinschaft
Definition
small communities characterized by tradition and united by belief in common ancestry or by geographic proximity in relationships largely of the primary group sort.
Term
Gessellschaft
Definition
contractual relationships of a voluntary nature of limited duration and quality, based on rational self interest, and formed for the explicit purpose of achieving a particular goal.
Term
Group confirmity
Definition

it refers to individual's compliance with group goals in spite of the fact that group goals may be in conflict with individual goals.

In an attempt to be accepted or "fit in" individuals may engage in behaviors they normally would not.

Term
Groupthink
Definition
occurs when group begin to think similarly and conform to one another's view
Term
Hawthorne Effect
Definition

an unintended effect resulting from attention given to subjects in an experimental situation.

Mere presence of a researcher affects the subject's behavior.


Term
Horticultural Society
Definition
society whose primary means of subsistence is raising crops, which it plants and cultivates with use of hand tools and domestication of animals.
Term
Hunting Society
Definition

Whose economies are based on hunting animals and gathering vegetation, have largely disappeared. 

nomadic in nature.

Term
id
Definition
part of human personality from which all innate drives arise
Term
industrial society
Definition
in industrial societies, complex machinery and energy sources are used for production. 
Term
Informal organizations
Definition
group whose norms and statuses are generally agreed upon but are not set down in writing 
Term
In-group
Definition
a social group to which an individual has a feeling of allegiance; us., but not always a primary group. 
Term
Institution
Definition
more or less stable structure of statuses and roles devoted to meeting the basic needs of people in a society.
Term
Institutionalized Racism
Definition
any form of racism occurring specifically within institution such as public government bodies, provate business corporations and universities.
Term
Instrumental Leaders
Definition
task-oriented leaders who organize the group in the pursuit of its goals
Term
Intergenerational Mobility
Definition
change in the social class of family member from one generation to the next. 
Term
Iron law of oligarchy
Definition
Name given by Robert Michels to his claim that even socialist parties which professed internal democracy would in practice be controlled by a small elite: 'who says organization, says oligarchy'
Term
Legitimacy
Definition
The belief that particular political order is just and valid.
Term
Looking-glass Self
Definition

theory proposed by Charles Horton Cooley

we imagine how we appear to others;

we wonder whether others see us in the same way as we see ourselves, and in order to find out, we observe how others react to us; and

we develop a conception of ourselves that is based on the judgments of others.

Term
Master status
Definition
the most important status that a person holds, not only because it affects almost every aspect of the person;s life, but also because of its general symbolic value.
Term
material culture
Definition
consists of things that people attach meaning to and use. Items of material culture include cars, clothing, books and burial site
Term
Megalopolis
Definition
complex of cities distributed along a major axis of traffic and communication, with total population exceeding 25 million 
Term
monotheism
Definition

a theistic belief system centered on belief in single all-powerful God as in Christianity, Judaism and Islam

 

Term
Mores
Definition
norms of such moral and ethical significance to the members of a society that their violation is regarded as a serious matter worthy of strong criticism, anger, punishment, or institutionalization.  
Term
Norms
Definition
the rules or expectations that govern or to which people orient their behavior
Term
Nuclear Family
Definition
consist of people of opposite sex who are in a socially approved sexual union and living with their childern
Term
overurbanization
Definition
a term used in connection with cities in the developing world, which have been held to be too large in relation to their country's industrial center
Term
Parkinson's law
Definition
Parkinson's la states that in any bureaucratic organization, work expands to fill the time available for its completion. 
Term
Pastoral Society
Definition
society whose primary means of subsistence is herding animals and moving with them over wide expanse of grazing land. 
Term
Petriarchy
Definition
the family in which father is vested authority
Term
peer group
Definition
interacting group of people whose members are roughly equal in status. It provides continuity in lifestyle
Term
Peter Principle
Definition
In any hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Term
Pluralist model
Definition
theory proposed by David Riesman that no single group controls political power, plurality of interest groups influence those decision from process of coalition building and bargaining
Term
Polygamy
Definition
having more than one spouse at a time
Term
Polygyny 
Definition
practice of a man having several wives at once
Term
polytheistic
Definition
theistic belief system emphasizing many Gods as in Hiduism
Term
Population Growth Rate
Definition
fractional rate at which the no. of individuals in a population increases 
Term
Postindustrial society
Definition
society in which an economic transition has occurred from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy where information is created, processed and stored.
Term
Power-elite Model
Definition
Theory proposed by C. Wright Mills. looking at the social class of leaders in major areas of influence and authority, he found that they not only share a singular a singular vision of what is good but also that they act in ways that serve their interest in maintaining the existing stratification system and, thereby, their position in it. 
Term

Preoperational stage 

(of cognitive development theory)

Definition
between ages of 2-6. Language development is the hallmark of this period. Piaget noted that children yet do not understand concentrate logic and are unable to take point of view of other people, which he termed egocentrism. 
Term
Primary Group
Definition
In a primary group, the interaction is direct, the common bonds are close and intimate, and the relationships among members is warm, intimate, and personal. 
Term
Primary sector of the economary
Definition

The primary sector is involved in the extraction of raw materials and natural resources. 

eg. hunting, gathering, farming, and mining

Term
Primary Socialization
Definition
refers to initial socialization that a child receives through which he or she becomes a member of society. (i.e., learns and comes to share social heritage or culture of a society through the groups into which he or she is born)
Term
Proletariat
Definition
the poorest class of working people or industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor.  
Term
Psychoanalysis
Definition
Founded by Sigmund Freud, it is a theory that considers biological drives to be the primary source of human activity
Term
Pure Capitalsim
Definition
Economic system in which the principles of capitalism operate unfettered by any limiting factors such as government control or interference. 
Term
Qualitative method of research
Definition
relying on personal observation and description of social life in order to explain behavior.
Term
Quantitative method of research
Definition
use of statistical and other mathematical techniques of quantification or measurements in their efforts to describe and interpret thier observations.
Term
Race
Definition
Interbreeding population developing distinctive physical characteristics that are hereditary. 
Term
Rational-legal Authority
Definition

One of the most commonly found authority among 3 described by Max Weber.

It stems from within the framework of a body of laws that have been duly enacted.

Term
Reality Principle
Definition
In psychoanalysis, awareness of and adjustment to environmental demands in a manner that moderates the pleasure principle and assures ultimate satisfaction of instinctual needs. 
Term
Reference Group
Definition
social groups that provide the standards in terms of which we evaluate ourselves.
Term
Representative sample
Definition
In research, a small group which reflects accurately the characteristics of the total population. 
Term
Resicialization
Definition
Intense, deliberate socialization designed to change major beliefs and behaviors. 
Term
Role conflict
Definition
Role conflict occurs when a person occupying multiple statuses that contradict one another.
Term
Role strain
Definition
a situation where different and conflicting expectations exist with regard to a particular status.
Term
Sacred
Definition
refers to the sphere of ideas,activities, persons, objects, abilities and experiences that have been deemed holy, divine, supernatural, or mystical and, hence, unalterable.
Term
Profane
Definition
refers to visceral sphere if objects, persons, and behaviors capable of being understood and of being altered.
Term
Secondary analysis
Definition

analysis of existing sources of information.

by analyzing old records and documents, the researcher can acquire an understanding of relation between people in past.

Term
secondary sector of the economy
Definition
The secondary sector is involved in turning the raw materials acquired through a primary production into the manufactured goods we use, such as furniture, cars, and homes.
Term
Sect
Definition
religious organization rejecting beliefs and practices of existing church; usually formed when a group leaves the church to form a rival organization  
Term
Social Change
Definition
any major alteration in the pattern of social interactions in society. 
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