Sociology
Study of human behaviour in society. Scientific way of thinking about society and its influence on human groups.
Psychology, Anthropology, Political Science, Economics, Social Work, Sociology.
Social sciences!
Sociological Perspective
Ability to see the societal patterns that influence individuals and group life.
Sociological Imagination
C Wright Mills. Understand the relationship between individuals and the society in which they live. The ability to see the societal patterns that influence the individual as well as groups of individuals.
Troubles
privately felt problems that spring from events or feelings in a person's life.
Issues
Affect large numbers of people and have their origin in the institutional arrangements and history of a society
Empirical
What type of discipline is Sociology? One in which the conclusions are based on careful and systematic observations.
Debunking
'Un masking tendency' Looking at behind the scenes patterns and processes that shape the behaviour observed in the social world. Exposing falseness.
Critical distance
Detaching from the situation at hand and viewing things with a critical mind.
Diversity
broad concept that includes studuing group differences in society's opportunities, the shaping of social institutions by different social factors, the formation of group and individual identity and the process of social change. Includes the study of diffe
Global perspective
Social and economic system of any one society is increasingly intertwined with those of other nations. Comparing and contrasting societies across different cultures. Seeing how events in one society may be linked to events in another,
Enlightenment
18th and 19th century. Also age of reason. Characterised by faith in the ability of humans reason to solve society's problems
Auguste Comte
Person who coined the term sociology.
Positivism
System of thought in which scientific observation and description is considered the highest form of knowledge.
Alexis De Tocqueville
Thought that democratic values and the belief in human equality positively influencced American social institutions and transformed relationships.
Harriet Martineau
Wrote How to Observe Morals and Manners in which she discussed how to observe behaviour when one is a participant in the situation being studied.
Emile Durkheim
Looks at what forces hold society together and make it stable. Believed people are glued together by belief systems. FUNCTIONALISM.
Karl Marx
How capitalism shaped society. Thought economics were important in what humans think and how they behave. Thought all of society was shaped by economic forces.
Capitalists
Bourgeois Class
Working Class
Proletariat
Small Business owners and Managers
Petty Bourgeoisie
Lower Class
Lumpenproletariat
Max Weber
Influenced by Marx. Theorised that society had three dimensions (cultural, political and economic).
Verstehen
german word referring to understanding social behaviour from the point of view of those engaged in it.
Organic metaphor
Idea that society is like an organism. Constantly evolving.
Social darwinism
The idea that the survival of the fittest was the drivng force of social evolution. Thought that current arrangements in society were natural and inevitable.
Functionalism
Work of Durkheim. Interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of a whole. Each part of society is functional for society. All parts depend on each other.
Conflict theory
Emphasizes role of coercien and power, a person or groupps ability to exercise influence and control over others. Emphasizes strife and friction. Inequality exists because those in control of a disproportinate share of society's resources actively defend
Symbolic Interaction
Consider immediate social interaction to be the place where "society" exists. Relies extensively on the symbolic meaning that people develop and rely on in the process of social interaction. Emphasizes face-to-face interaction. Addresses subjective meanin
Feminist theory
Understand the status of women in society and with the purpose of using that knowledge to better women's lives.
Social structure
organized pattern of social relationships and social institutions that together constitute society.
Social institutions
Established and organized systems of social behaviour with a particular and recognized purpose. i.e, family, religion, marriage, government, and economy.
Social change
alteration of society over time.
Social interaction
behaviour between two or more people that is given meaning.
Culture
Complex system of meaning and behaviour that defines the way of life for a given group of society. It includes beliefs, values, knowledge, art, morals, laws, customs, habits, language and dress, among other things.
Material Culture
Objects created in a given society - its buildings, arts, tools, toys, print and other tangible media.
Nonmaterial culture
Norms, laws, customs, ideas, beliefs of a group of people. Less tangible.
Symbols
things or behaviours to which people give meaning; the meaning is not inherent but it is bestowed by the meaning people give it.
Language
Set of symbols and rules that put together in a meaningful way provides a complex communication system
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The theory that asserts that language determines other aspects of culture because language provides the categories in which social reality is defined. It determines what we think because language forces us to see the world in certain terms.
Norms
Specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation
Implicit Norms
Norms that don't need to be spelt out to be understood. Learned through specific instruction or by observation.
Folkways
General standards of behaviour adhered to by a group. Ordinary customs of specific group cultures.
Mores
Strict norms that control moral and ethical behaviour. Provide strict codes of behaviour such as the injunctions, legal and religious, against killing others, adultery. Sometimes upheld through laws.
Social Sanction
Mechanism of social control that enforce folkways, mores and norms.
Taboo
behaviour that brings the most serious social sanctions.
Ethnomethodology
A theoretical approach in sociology based on the idea that you can discover the normal social order through disrupting it. When being studied the people studying disrupt norms to see how people respond and how they try to reinstate social order.
Beliefs
Shared ideas held collectively by people within a given culture about what is true. Helps bind people together in society.
Values
Intertwined with beliefs. Abstract standards in a society or group that define ideal principles. Define what is desirable, and morally correct.
Dominant culture
Culture of the most powerful group in society. Cultural form that receives the most support from major institutions.
Subcultures
Cultures of groups whose values and norms of behaviour differ to some degree from those of the dominant culture.
Counterculture
A subculture that is created as a reaction against the values of the dominant culture. Reject dominant cultural values often for political or moral reasoning.
Ethnocentrism
Habit of seeing things only from the point of view of one's own group. Judging one culture by the standards of another.
Cultural Relativism
Idea that something can be understood and judged only in relation to the cultural context in which it appears. It suggests that without knowing the cultural context it is impossible to know why people behave the way they do.
Global culture
The diffusion of a single culture throughout the world.
Mass Media
Channels of communication available to wide segments of the population - the print, film, and electronic media.
Social Media
Term used to refer to the vast networks of social interaction that new media have inspired.
Cultural hegemony
The pervasive and excessive influence of one culture throughout society. Means that people may conform to cultural patterns and interests that benefit powerful elites, even without those elites overtly forcing people into conformity.
popular culture
The beliefs, practices, and objects that are part of everyday traditions. Mass-consumed and has enormous significance in the formation of public attitudes and values.
elite culture
culture of elite, the things held in highest regard in society.
Cultural capital
the cultural resources that are deemed worthy and that give advantages to groups possessing such capital.
Sociological Research
The tool that sociologists use to answer their questions. It has various methods and involves observation and careful analysis
Participant Observation
Research technique in which the research becomes simultaneously both participant in and observer of that which she or he studies
Scientific method
What sociological research derives from, it involves several steps in a research process.
Quantitative
Research in which it is based on statistics and facts
Qualitative
Research in which it is based more on interpretive observations
Deductive reasoning
When a sociologists creates a research question about a focused point that is based on a more general and universal principle
Inductive reasoning
When a sociologist arrives at general conclusion from specific observation.
Develop a research question
First step in the research process.
Literature Review
Reviewing past studies
Replication study
Research that is repeated exactly the same but on a different group of people
Create a research design
Second stage in the research process. Involves the overall logic and strategy underlying a research project. Choosing the technique best suited to a particular research question.
Hypothesis
Prediction or a hunch, the assumption you want to test
Independent variable
What the researcher wants to test as the presumed cause. The stable thing in the test.
Dependent variable
what the researcher presumes the effect is. X causes Y. Y is this.
Hawthorne Effect
When participants know they are being studied so they change their behaviour
Primary Data
is the original material, the raw data.
Secondary data
Data that has already been gathered and organized.
Sample
subset of people of a population
Population
relatively large collection of people that a researcher studies.
Data collection
third step in research design. When you interview people, make observations.
Data analysis
fourth step in research design. organizing data, observing patterns.
Serendipity
Something that emerges from a study that was not anticipated
Reaching conclusions and reporting results
fifth step in research. Relating findings.
Generalization
Ability to draw conclusions from specific data and apply them to broader population.
Closed ended questions
Questions in a questionnaire that requires participants to reply from a list of possible answers
Open ended questions
Questions in a questionnaire that allows paricipants to write what they want and elaborate.
Covert participant observation
All the members of a group being studied do not know that they are being studied. When you try to reduce the hawthorne effect.
Controlled experiment
Highly focussed way of collecting data and are especially useful for determining pattern of cause and effect. External influences are eliminated.
Cultural analysis
A way of measuring by examining the cultural artifacts such as newspapers, TV programs, or popular music.
Evaluation research
Assessing the effect of policies and programs on people in society.
Society
system of social interaction that includes both culture and social organization.
Macroanalysis
A sociological approach that takes the broadest view of society by studying large patterns of social interaction that are vast, complex, and highly differentiated.
Microanalysis
A sociological approach where sociologists study patterns of social interaction that are relatively small, less complex, and less differentiated.
Social structural analysis
How you can observe social structure. Is a way of looking at society inwhich you analyze the patterns in social life that reflect and produce social behaviour.
Collective consciousness
The body of beliefs common to a community or society that give people a sense of belonging and a feeling of moral obligation to its demands and values.
Mechanical solidarity
When individuals play similar roles in society. Same values are held.
Organic solidarity
When people play a great variety of roles and unity is based on differentiation.
Gemeinschaft
German word. Societies that are characterised by a sense of 'we'. A moderate division of labour, strong personal ties, strong family, and sense of loyalty. Cohesiveness arises from personal ties and a sense of loyalty to the society.
Gesselschaft
German word. Importance is placed on the secondary relationships that people have - that is, less intimate and more instrumental relationships such as work roles and not family. Less prominence of personal ties, lessened sense of loyalty to community. Coh
Preindustrial society
A society that directly uses, modifies and/or tills the land as a major means of survival.
Industrial society
A society that uses machines and other advanced technologies to produce and distribute goods and services.
Postindustrial society
A society that depends economically on the production and distribution of services, information and knowledge. Information-based societies in which technology plays a vital role in the social organization.
Group
collection of individuals who interact, share goals and norms, have an awareness of 'we' feeling.
Status
Established position in a social structure that carries with it a degree of social rank or value.
Status set
Complete set of status' that one person occupies at a time.
Status inconsistency
This exists where the statuses' occupied by one person bring quite different amounts of prestige and have differing expectations.
Achieved Status
a status attained by virtue of individual effort.
Ascribed status
A status occupied from the moment you are born.
Master status
The status that is the most dominant, it overrides all other features of the person's identity.
Role
Behavior others expect from a person associated with a particular status.
Role modelling
A process by which we imitate the behaviour of another person we admire who is in a particular role.
Role set
All the roles occupied by a person at one time.
Role conflict
When roles clash and two or more roles are associated with contradictory expectations.
Role strain
A single role brings conflicting expectations.
Social construction of reality
Idea that our perception of what is real is determined by the subjective meaning we attribute to an experience.
Ethnomethodology
Technique used for studying human interaction by deliberately disrupting social norms and observing how individuals attempt to restore normalcy.
Impression management
Process by which people control how others perceive them.
Social exchange model
Theory that states that our interactions are determined by the rewards and punishments we recieve from others.
Social differentiation
The process by which different status' develop in any group, organisation or society.
Social stratification
A system of structured social inequality.
Estate system
The ownership of property and the exercise of power are monopolized by an elite who has total control over societal resources
Caste system
one's place in the societal system is an ascribed status meaning it is a quality given to you by circumstances of birth
Class system
Person's placement in the system can change according to personal achievements. Class depends on your achieved status.
Social class
the social structural position groups hold relative to the economic, social, political, and cultural resources of society.
Conspicuous consumption
The ostentatious display of goods to define one's social status.
intergenerational social mobility
Occuring between generations such as a daughter moving above the class of her mother and father.
Intragenerational social mobility
occuring within a generation such as your class changing as a result of business success
Social mobility
A person's movement over time from one class to another.
class consciousness
The perception that a class structure exists along with a feeling of shared identification with others in ones class.
global outsourcing
the process by which jobs are located overseas even while supporting U.S based businesses
Gross national income
The thing that measures the total output of goods and services produced by residents of a country each year plus the income from nonresident sources divided by the size of the population.
core country
A country that has the most power in the world economic system. They control and profit the most from the world system.
semiperipheral countries
Countries that are semi industrialized and to some degree represent a middle class.
peripheral countries
Countries that are poor, largely agricultural but although poor have important natural resources that are exploited.
Modernization theory
Theory that views the economic development of countries as stemming from technological change. For economic development to occur countries must change their traditional values, attitudes, and institutions.
Dependency theory
Focuses on explaining the persistence of poverty in the world. It holds that poverty of the low-income countries is a direct result of their political and economic dependence on the wealthy countries.
Multinational companies
Are companies that draw a large share of their profits from overseas investments and that conduct business across national borders.
Commodity chain
A network of production and labor processes by which a product becomes a finished commodity
Relative poverty
Measure of poverty relative to the rest of society
Absolute poverty
When you live on less than $1 a day
Extreme poverty
Living on less that the equivalent of $1.25 a day.
Double deprivation
When women study because of their gender and because they have the burden of poverty.
ethnic group
Category of people who share a common culture, for example, a common language or dialect; a common nationality; a common religion; and common norms.
Race
a group of people treated as distinct in a society based on certain characteristics some of which are biological, that have been assigned or attributed social importance,
Racial formation
The process by which a group comes to be defined as a race.
Minority group
Any distinct group in society that shares common group characteristics and is forced to occupy low status in society because of prejudice and discrimination.
Salience principle
Principle that states that we categorize people on the basis of what was initially prominent and obvious
Stereotype interchangeability
Principle that holds that stereotypes, especially negative ones are often interchangable from one social class to another, from one racial or ethnic group to another, from a racial group to a social class or a social class to a gender.
Prejudice
The evaluation of a social group and the individuals within it based on conceptions about the social group held despite facts disproving them.
Discrimination
Overt negative and unequal treatment of the members of some social group because of their membership in that social group.
Racism
The perception and treatment of a racial or ethnic group, or member of that group, as intellectually, socially and culturally inferior to one's own group.
Overt racism.
Also known as old-fashioned racism is things such as physical assaults.
Aversive Racism
Racism that involves avoiding interaction with someone of another race or ethnic group
Laissez-faire Racism
Racism that involves negative stereotyping, blaming racism on the minority group, resistance to policy efforts.
Color blind racism
Racism involving ignoring racial differences and race altogether.
Institutional racism
Negative treatment and oppession of one racial or ethnic group by society's existing institutions
Scapegoat theory
Theory that argues that historically members of the dominant group have harboured various frustrations in their desire to achieve social and economic success. As a result of this frustration they vent anger in the form of aggression and they direct this a
Authoritarian theory
Theory characterized by tendency to rigidly categorize other people, as well as inclinations to submit to authority, strictly conform, be very intolerant of ambiguity, and be inclined toward superstition. They are more likely to stereotype or categorize a
Sex
The biological identity of being either male or female
Gender
Is the socially learnt expectations and behaviours associated with male and female.
Gender as a social construct
Individuals defining their own gender and learning the expectations and behaviour
Gender identity
The definition of ones self as boy or girl.
Nature vs. nurture
The debate about whether differences in people and similarities are a result of biology and inbuilt or if they are learnt through culture and society.
Biological determinism
The theory in which social phenomena is attributed to physical characteristics
Hermaphroditism
A condition in which an individual is born with both male and female parts. Holds the idea that your parents can raise you as one gender so you identify with the gender your whole life.
Gender socialization
Proces that men and women learn expectations of their sex
Gender norms
The rules and expectations associated with being male or female
Homophobia
The fear and hatred of homosexuals.
Consequences of homophobia
Produces myths about gays and lesbians.
Encourages strict conformity to traditional gender expectations
May teach boys and girls to restrict characteristics traditionally known to be feminine or masculine
Gendered institutions
Social institutions that are patterned by gender.
Gender stratification
The hierarchical distribution of social and economic resources according to gender
matriarchal
The term referring to a society in which women hold power over men
patriarchal
The term referring to a society in which men hold power over women
Second shift theory
Theory stating that as gender roles become less strict women are beginning to work full time but come home and then become home makers and as such take on a second shift.
Human capital theory
Theory that states that there is discrepancy due to the differences in the individual characteristics that women bring to society. As women commonly have less favourable characteristics such as work experience and education they are less likely to get the
Dual labour market theory
Theory that states that there is discrepancy due to men and women working in different segments of the labour market, and that women have lower work as they have jobs that are worth less.
Sexism
The belief that gender inequality is natural and it is when one sex is defined as inferior to another.
Pattern of gender segregation
A pattern in which different groups are separated into occupational categories based on their gender. There is an assocation between the number of women in a category and the wages paid therefore the more women in an occupational category that lower the a
Feminist theory
Theory that refers to analyses that seek to understand position of women in society for the purpose of improving it.
Liberal feminism
Feminism theory that states that inequality originates in traditions of the past
Socialistic feminism
Theory that states that women are unequal as they are exploited by feminism
Radical feminism
Feminism theory that states that women are oppressed due to societies being patriachal
Multiracial feminism
Feminism theory that states that gender, race and class contribute to how unequal women are in society.
Sexual orientation
The attraction that people feel for people of the same or different sex
Sexual identity
The definition of ones self that is formed around one's sexual relationships. Learned in the context of our social relationships and the social structures in which we live.
Sexual scripts
Scripts that teach us what is appropriate sexual behaviour for each gender
Sexual politics
The link between sexuality and power not just in individual relationships. Also refers to the high rates of violence against women and sexual minorities and the power and privilege accorded to heterosexuals.
Sex trade
The use of women worldwise as sex workers in an institutional context in which sex is a commodity.
Sex trafficking
Term in which women are forced by fraud into commercial sex acts.
Heterosexism
The institutionalization of heterosexuality as the only legitimate sexual orientation.
Queer theory
A perspective that has evolved from recognizing the socially constructed nature of sexual identity, it interprets society as forcing sexual boundaries on society and it's members.
Eugenics
It is the movement that seeked to improve the offspring of humans through genetic selection.
Sexual revolution
Widespread changes in men's and women's roles and a greater public acceptance of sexuality.
Kinship system
Pattern of relationships that define people's relationships to one another within a family.
Polygamy
The practice of men and women having multiple marriage parners.
Monogamy
The practice of a sexually exclusive marriage with one spouse at a time.
Extended family
The whole network of parents, children and other relatives that form a family unit.
Nuclear family
A married couple residing with their children
transnational family
a family where one or both parents lives and works in one country while their children remain in the country of origin
religiosity
The intensity and consistency of practice of a persons faith.
monotheism
The worship of a single god
polytheism
The worship of more than one deity
Patriarchal religion
a religion in which the beliefs and practices are based on male power and authority
Matriarchal religion
A religion based on the centrality of female of goddesses
Religious extremism
The term that refers to actions and beliefs that are driven by high levels of religious intolerance.
Churches
Formal religious institution that tend to see themselves as the primary and legitimate religious institution.
Sects
A group that has broken off from an established church.
Cult
Religious group devoted to a specific cause or charismatic leader. Arise within established religions.