Sociology
The study of human society
Sociological Imagination
The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces
Social Institution
A complex group of interdependent positions that perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time; also defined in a narrow sense as any institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups or people within it.
Verstehen
Understanding; forms the object of inquiry for interpretive sociology- to study how social actors understand their actions and the social world through experience.
Anomie
A sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness.
Positivist Sociology
A strain within sociology that believes the social world can be described and predicted by certain describable relationships (akin to a social physics)
Double Consciousness
A concept conceived by W.E.B. DuBois to describe the two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers, which are constantly maintained by African Americans.
Functionalism
The theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) functions to keep society running.
Conflict Theory
The idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general.
Symbolic Interactionism
A micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions.
Postmodernism
A condition characterized bu a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations.
Social Construction
An entity that exists because people behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with that entity.
Midrange theory
A theory that attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function
Microsociology
Seeks to understand local interactional contexts; its methods of choice are ethnographic, generally including participant observation and in-depth interviews.
Macrosociology
Generally concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis- that is, across the breadth of a society
Research methods
Approaches that social scientists use for investigating the answers to questions
Quantitative Methods
Methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or ca be converted to numeric form.
Qualitative methods
Methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form
Deductive Approach
A research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypotheses, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.
Inductive Approach
A research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory.
Correlation or Association
Simultaneous variation in two variables
Causality
The notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another
Reverse Causality
A situation which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B, in fact, is causing A
Operationalization
The process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study
Validity
The extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure
Reliability
Likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure
Generalizability
The extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied
Reflexivity
Analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and affect on, our research
Feminist Methodology
A set of systems or methods that treat women's experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources, that promote social science for women that take into account the researcher as much as the overt subject matter.
Participant observation
A qualitative research method that seeks to observe social actions in practice
Survey
An ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents.
Historical Methods
Research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date to a prior time period under study
Comparative Research
A methodology by which two or more entities, which are similar in many dimensions but differ on one in question, are compared to learn about the dimension that differs between them
Experimental Methods
Methods that seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields.
Content Analysis
A systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, of film
Public Sociology
The practice of sociological research, teaching, and service that seeks to engage a non-academic audience for a normative, productive end.