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Sociology Introduction
sociology
115
Psychology
Undergraduate 2
08/19/2016
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Term
social forces –
 Definition
anything human-created that influence, pressure, or push people to behave and think in secified ways.
Term
sociology
 Definition
– the scientific study of human activity in society.
Term
human activity –
 Definition
involves all the things people do with, to, and for one another and what they think and do as a result of others’ influence.
Term
altruistic [suicide]—.
 Definition
a state in which the ties attaching the individual to the group are so strong that a person’s sense of self cannot be separated from the group
Term
anomic [suicide]—
 Definition
a state in which the ties attaching the individual to the group are disrupted due to dramatic changes in circumstances.
Term
biography
 Definition
– all the events and day-to-day interactions from birth to death that make up a person’s life.
Term
egoistic (suicide) —
 Definition
a state in which the social ties attaching the individual to the group are weak.
Term
fatalistic (suicide)—
 Definition
a state in which the ties attaching the individual to the group are so oppressive there is no hope of release.
Term
issue –
 Definition
a societal matter that affects many people and that can only be explained by larger social forces that transcend the individuals affected.
Term
sociological imagination –
 Definition
a perspective that allows us to consider how outside forces, especially our time in history and the place we live, shape our life stories or biographies.
Term
troubles—
 Definition
individual problems or difficulties that are caused by personal shortcomings related to motivation, attitude, ability, character, or judgment. The resolution of a trouble lies in changing the person in some way.
Term
bourgeoisie –
 Definition
the owners of the means of production.
Term
class conflict –
 Definition
an antagonism between exploiting and exploited classes.
Term
color line –
 Definition
a barrier supported by customs and laws separating nonwhites from whites, especially with regard to their roles in the division of labor; it can be traced to the European colonization of Africa.
Term
conflict –
 Definition
the major force that drives social change.
Term
disenchantment—
 Definition
a great spiritual void accompanied by a crisis of meaning in which the natural world becomes less mysterious and revered and becomes the object of human control and manipulation.
Term
means of production –
 Definition
the resources such as land, tools, equipment, factories, transportation, and labor that are essential to the production and distribution of goods and services.
Term
mechanical solidarity –
 Definition
a system of social ties based on uniform thinking and behavior.
Term
organic solidarity –
 Definition
a system of social ties founded on interdependence and cooperation.
Term
positivism –
 Definition
the belief that valid knowledge about the world can be derived only from using the scientific method.
Term
proletariat –
 Definition
those individuals who must sell their labor to the bourgeoisie.
Term
social action –
 Definition
actions people take in response to others.
Term
social dynamics –
 Definition
the forces that cause societies to change.
Term
social statics –
 Definition
the forces that hold societies together and give them endurance over time.
Term
solidarity –
 Definition
the system of social ties that acts as a cement connecting people to one another and to the wider society.
Term
sympathetic knowledge –
 Definition
firsthand knowledge gained by living and working among those being studied.
Term
function –
 Definition
the contribution a part makes to maintain the stability of an existing social order.
Term
ideologies –
 Definition
seemingly commonsense views justifying the existing state of affairs, which, upon close analysis, reflect the viewpoints of the dominant groups and disguise their advantages.
Term
latent dysfunctions –
 Definition
unanticipated disruptions to the existing social order.
Term
latent functions –
 Definition
a part’s unanticipated, unintended, and unrecognized effects on an existing social order.
Term
manifest dysfunctions –
 Definition
a part’s anticipated disruptions to an existing social order.
Term
manifest functions –
 Definition
a part’s anticipated, recognized, or intended effects on maintaining order.
Term
negotiated order -
 Definition
the sum of existing and newly negotiated expectations that are part of any social situation.
Term
self-awareness –
 Definition
a state in which a person is able to observe and evaluate the self from another’s viewpoint.
Term
social interaction –
 Definition
everyday encounters in which people communicate, interpret, and respond to each other’s words and actions.
Term
sociological perspective –
 Definition
a conceptual framework for thinking about and explaining how human activities are organized and/or how people relate to one another and respond to their surroundings.
Term
symbol –
 Definition
anything (a word, an object, a sound, a feeling, an odor, a gesture, an idea) to which people assign a name and a meaning.
Term
case studies –
 Definition
objective accounts intended to educate readers about a person, group, or situation.
Term
content analysis –
 Definition
a method of analysis in which researchers identify themes, sometimes counting the number of times something occurs or specifying categories in which to place observations.
Term
control variables –
 Definition
variables that researchers hold constant so they can focus just on the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable.
Term
dependent variable –
 Definition
the behavior to be explained or predicted.
Term
generalizability –
 Definition
the extent to which researchers’ findings can be applied to the larger population of which their sample was a part.
Term
Hawthorne effect
 Definition
– a phenomenon in which research subjects alter their behavior when they learn they are being observed.
Term
hypothesis – a
 Definition
trial prediction about the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Specifically, the hypothesis predicts how change in an independent variable brings about change in a dependent variable.
Term
independent variable –
 Definition
the variable that explains or predicts the dependent variable.
Term
nonparticipant observation –
 Definition
detached watching and listening by a researcher who only observes and does not become part of group life.
Term
observation—a
 Definition
research strategy that involves watching, listening to, and recording behavior and conversations in context as they happen.
Term
operationalized –
 Definition
for a variable to be operationalized, the researcher must give clear, precise instructions about how to observe or measure it.
Term
participant observation – a
 Definition
method of research in which the researchers join a group, interact directly with those they are studying, assume a role critical to the group’s purpose, and/or live in a community under study.
Term
reliability— a
 Definition
standard for assessing an operational definition that emphasizes the ability of a measure to yield consistent results.
Term
research design –
 Definition
a plan for deciding who or what to study and the method of gathering data.
Term
research methods –
 Definition
various techniques that sociologists and other investigators use to formulate and answer meaningful questions and to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
Term
scientific method –
 Definition
a carefully planned research process with the goal of generating observations and data that can be verified by others.
Term
secondary sources or archival data—
 Definition
third-party data that have been collected for a purpose not related to the research study.
Term
self-administered survey –
 Definition
a set of questions that respondents read and answer.
Term
validity –
 Definition
a standard by which operational definitions are assessed that focuses on the extent to which a measure accurately represents what it is intended to measure
Term
variable –
 Definition
any behavior or characteristic that consists of more than one category.
Term
culture –
 Definition
the way of life of a people, specifically the shared and human-created strategies for adapting and responding to the social and physical environment.
Term
cultural particulars –
 Definition
the specific practices that distinguish cultures from one another.
Term
cultural universals –
 Definition
those things all cultures have in common.
Term
social emotions –
 Definition
feelings that we experience as we relate to other people, such as empathy, grief, love, guilt, jealousy, and embarrassment.
Term
beliefs
 Definition
–conceptions that people accept as true concerning how the world operates and the place of the individual in relationship to others.
Term
folkways –
 Definition
norms that apply to the mundane aspects or details of daily life.
Term
language –
 Definition
a symbol system that assigns meaning to particular sounds, gestures, pictures, or specific combinations of letters to convey meaning.
Term
linguistic relativity hypothesis –the
 Definition
idea that “[n]o two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached”
Term
material culture –
 Definition
all the physical objects that people have invented or borrowed from other cultures.
Term
mores –
 Definition
norms that people define as essential to the well-being of a group. People who violate mores are usually punished severely: they may be ostracized, institutionalized, or condemned to die.
Term
nonmaterial culture –
 Definition
intangible human creations that include beliefs, values, norms, and symbols.
Term
norms –
 Definition
rules and expectations for the way people are supposed to behave, feel, and appear in a particular social situation.
Term
symbols –
 Definition
anything (a word, an object, a sound, a feeling, an odor, a gesture, an idea) to which people assign a name and a meaning.
Term
values –
 Definition
general, shared conceptions of what is good, right, desirable, or important.
Term
communitarian utopias –
 Definition
a counterculture in which ,members withdraw into a separate community so they can live with minimum interference from the larger society, which they view as evil, materialistic, wasteful, or self-centered.
Term
countercultures –
 Definition
subcultures that challenge, contradict, or outright reject the values of the mainstream culture of which they are a part.
Term
cultural anchor –
 Definition
some item of material or nonmaterial culture that elicits broad consensus and support among diverse membership , even in the face of debate and dissent about its meaning.
Term
cultural capital –
 Definition
a person’s nonmaterial resources, including educational credentials, the kinds of knowledge acquired, social skills, and acquired aesthetic tastes.
Term
cultural diversity –
 Definition
the cultural variety that exists among people who find themselves sharing some physical or virtual space.
Term
embodied cultural capital –
 Definition
all that which has been consciously and unconsciously instilled in a person through the socialization process.
Term
institutionalized cultural capital –
 Definition
anything (material or nonmaterial) recognized as important to success in a particular social setting.
Term
mystics –
 Definition
a type of counterculture in which members search for “truth and for themselves” and in the process turn inward.
Term
objectified cultural capital –
 Definition
physical and material objects that a person owns outright or has direct access to.
Term
radical activists –a
 Definition
type of counterculture in which members preach, create, or demand a new order with new obligations to others.
Term
subcultures –groups that
 Definition
share in certain parts of the mainstream culture but have distinctive values, norms, beliefs, symbols, language, and/or material culture that set them apart in some way.
Term
cultural relativism – a point of view
 Definition
advocating that a foreign culture not be judged by the standards of a home culture, and that a behavior or way of thinking must be examined in its cultural context—that is, in terms of that culture’s values, norms, beliefs, environmental challenges, and history.
Term
culture shock –the
 Definition
mental and physical strain that people can experience as they adjust to the ways of a new culture. In particular, newcomers find that many of the behaviors and responses they learned in their home culture, and have come to take for granted, do not apply in the foreign setting.
Term
ethnocentrism –a
 Definition
point of view in which people use their home culture as the standard for judging the worth of another culture’s ways.
Term
re-entry shock –
 Definition
culture shock in reverse that can be experienced upon returning home after living in another culture.
Term
reverse ethnocentrism –a
 Definition
viewpoint that regards a home culture as inferior to an idealized foreign culture.
Term
adaptive culture – the
 Definition
part of the culture (nonmaterial) that adjusts to a new product or innovation, specifically to the associated changes that product or innovation promotes.
Term
consumerism –
 Definition
an ideology that locates the meaning of life in possessions.
Term
global interdependence –a situation in which
 Definition
human interactions and relationships transcend national borders and in which social problems within any one country are shaped by events taking place outside the country, indeed in various parts of the globe.
Term
globalization –the ever-increasing flow of
 Definition
goods, services, money, people, technology, information, and other cultural items across political borders. This flow has become more dense and quick-moving as constraints of space and time break down. As a result of globalization, no longer are people, goods, services, technologies, money, and images fixed to specific geographic locations.
Term
internalization –
 Definition
a process by which people accept as binding learned ways of thinking, appearing, and behaving.
Term
sense of self –
 Definition
self knowledge derived from stepping outside the self and seeing it from another’s point of view and also imagine the effects their words and actions have on others.
Term
socialization – the lifelong process by which people
 Definition
learn the ways of the society in which they live. More specifically, it is the process by which humans acquire a sense of self or a social identity, develop their human capacities, learn the culture(s) of the society in which they live, and learn expectations for behavior.
Term
nature –
 Definition
human genetic makeup or biological inheritance.
Term
nurture –
 Definition
the social environment, or the interaction experiences that make up every person’s life.
Term
games –
 Definition
structured, organized activities that involve more than one person characterized by a number of constraints, such as established roles and rules and a purpose toward which all activity is directed.
Term
generalized other –a
 Definition
system of expected behaviors and meanings that transcend the people participating. An understanding of the generalized other is achieved by simultaneously and imaginatively relating the self to many others "playing the game."
Term
gesture – any action that requires people to
 Definition
interpret its meaning before responding. Language is a particularly important gesture because people interpret the meaning of words before they react. In addition to spoken words, gestures also include nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice, inflection, facial expression, posture, and other body movements or positions that convey meaning.
Term
I –
 Definition
the active and creative aspect of the self. It is the part of the self that questions the expectations and rules.
Term
looking-glass self –the way in which
 Definition
a sense of self develops: specifically, people act as mirrors for one another. We see ourselves reflected in others’ real or imagined reactions to our appearance and behaviors. We acquire a sense of self by being sensitive to the appraisals that we perceive others to have of us.
Term
me –the
 Definition
social self or the part of the self that is the product of interaction with others and that knows the rules and expectations. The me is the sense of self that emerges out of role-taking experiences.
Term
play –
 Definition
voluntary, spontaneous activity with few or no formal rules.
Term
role-taking –
 Definition
imaginatively stepping into another person’s shoes to view and evaluate the self.
Term
self-referent terms –
 Definition
terms to distinguish the self (including I, me, mine, first name, and last name) and to specify the statuses one holds in society (athlete, doctor, child, and so on).
Term
significant others –
 Definition
people or characters (cartoon characters, parents, or a family pet) who are important in a child’s life in that they greatly influence the child’s self-evaluation and way of behaving.
Term
significant symbols –
 Definition
gestures that convey the same meaning to the persons transmitting them and receiving them.
Term
mortification –
 Definition
the process by which the self is stripped of all its supports and “shaped and coded.”
Term
resocialization –an
 Definition
interactive process during which the affected party reconstructs his or her identity, and by which he or she renegotiates relationships with significant others who must also adjust to the changing person and circumstances.
Term
total institutions –
 Definition
organizations to which people surrender their lives, voluntarily or involuntarily, thereby submitting to the authority of an administrative staff and undergoing a program of resocialization cut off from the rest of society.
Term
agents of socialization –
 Definition
significant people, groups, and institutions that act to shape our sense of self and social identity, to help us realize our human capacities, and to teach us to negotiate the world in which we live.
Term
mass media –.
 Definition
forms of communication designed to reach large audiences without direct face-to-face contact between those creating/conveying messages and those receiving them
Term
peer group –
 Definition
people who are approximately the same age, participate in the same day-to-day activities, and share a similar overall social status in society.
Term
peer pressure –
 Definition
instances in which people feel directly or indirectly pressured to engage in behavior that meets the approval and expectations of peers and/or to fit in with what peers are doing. That pressure may be to smoke (or not smoke) cigarettes, to drink (or not drink) alcohol, or to engage (or not engage) in sexual activities.
Term
primary group –
 Definition
a group characterized by strong emotional ties among members who feel an allegiance to one another.
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