Sociology Exam 1

antipositivism the view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural notrms, and societal values conflict theory a theory that looks at society as a competition for limited recources dynamic equilibium a stable state in which all parts of a healthy society are working together properly dysfunctions social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society figuration the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior functionalism a theoretical approach that sees society as a structrue with interrelated parts desigened to meet te biological and social needs of individual that make up that society function the part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity grand theories attempts to explain large-scale relationships and anwwer fundamental questions such as why societeis form and why they change latent functions the unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process macro-level a wide-scale view of the role of social structures within society manifest functions sought sonsequences of a social process micro-level theories the study of specifice relationsihps between individuals or small groups paradigms philosophical and theortical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them positivism the scientific study of social patterns qualitiative sociology in-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of its data quantitative sociology statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants social facts the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rule that govern social life social solidarity the social ties the bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, religion sociological imagination the ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal strucutres in particular sociology is the systimatic study of society and social interatcion symbolic interactionism a theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols) theory a proposed explaination about social interactions or society case study in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual code of ethics a set of guidelines that the American Sociological Association has established to foster ethnical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology content analysis applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as it relates to the study at hand control group an experimental group that is not exposed to the independent variable correlation when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but oes not necessarily indication caustion dependent variables changed by other variables empirical evidence evidence corrobroated by direct expericence and/or observation ethnography observing a complete social setting and all that it entails experiment the testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions field research gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or survey Hawthorne effect when study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awarenes of being obsverved by a researcher hypothesis an educated guess with predicted outcome about the relationship between two or more variables independent variables cause changes in dependent variables interpretive framework as socioligical research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; the approach is not based on hypothesis testing interview a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject literature review a scholory research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research nonreactive research using secondary data, does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influcence people's behaviors operational definitions specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study participant observation when a researcher immerses herself in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an "insider" perspective population a defined group serving as the subject of study primary data data that are collected directly from firsthand experience qualitative data comprise information that is subjective and often based on what is seen in a nutural setting quantitative data represent research collected in numerical form that can be counted random sample a study's participants being andomly selected to serve as a represntation of a larger population reliability a measure of a study's consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced research design a detailed, systematic method for conducting research and obtaining data samples small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population scientific method an established scholarly research method that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting a study, and drawing conclusions secondary data analysis using data collected by other but applying new interpretations surveys collect data from subjects who repond to a series of questions about behaviors and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire validity the degree to which a sociological measure accurately refelcts the topic of study value neutrality a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgement during the course of a study and in publishing results cultural imperialism the deliberate imposition of one's own culutal values on another culture cultural relativism the practice of assesing a culture by its own standards, and not in comparison to another culture cultural universals the patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies culture lag the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture's acceptance of it culture shock an experience of personal disorientation when confronted with an unfamiliar way of life culture shared beliefs, values, and practices diffusion the spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another discoveries things and ideas found from what already exists ethnocentrism to evaluate another culture according to the standards of one's own culture folkways direct appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressons of a culture formal norms established, written rules globalization the intergration of international reade and finance markets high culture the cultural patters of a society's elite ideal culture consists of the standars a society would like to embrace and live up to informal norms casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to innovations new objects or ideas introduced to culture for the first time inventions a combinationof pieces of existing reality into new forms language a symbolic system of communication material culture the objects or belongings of a group of people mores the moral views and principles of a group nonmaterial culture the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society norms the visible and invisible rules of conducts through wich societies are structured popular culture mainstream, widespread patterns among a society's population real culture the way a society really is based on what actually occurs and exists Sapir-Whorf hypothesis people understand the world based on their form of language sanctions a way to authorize of formally disapprove of certain behaviors social control a way to encourage confomity to cultural norms society people who live in a definable community and who share a culture subcultures groups that shrare a specific identification, aprart from a society's majority, even as the memebers exist within a larger society symbols gestures of objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture values a culture's standard for dicerning what is good and just in society xenocentrism a belief that another culture is superior to one's own achieved status a status a person chooses, such as a level of education or income agricultural societies societies that rely on famring as a way of life alienation an individual's isolation from his society, his work, and his sense of self anomie a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousnesss ascribed status the status outside of an individual's control, such as sex or race burgeoisie the owners of the means of production in a society class consiousness awareness of one's rank in society collective conscience the communial beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society false consciousness a person's beliefs and ideology are in conflisct with her best intersts feudal societies societies that operate on a strict hierarchial system of power based around land habitualization the idea that society is constructed by us and those before us, and it is followed like a habit horticultural societies societies based around the cultivation of plants hunter-gatherer societies societies that depend on hunting wild animals and gathering uncultivated plants for survival industrial societies societies characterized by a reliance on mechanized labor to create material goods information societies societies based on the production of nonmaterial goods and services institutionalization the act of implanting a convention or norm into society iron cage a situation in whicn an individual is trapped by social institutions looking-glass self our reflection of how we think we appear to others mechanical solidarity a type of social order maintained by the sollective consicousness of a culture organic solidarity a type of social order based around an acceptance of exonomic and social differences pastorial societies societies based around the domestication of animals proletariat the laborers in a society rationalization a belief that modern society should be built around logic and efficientcy rather than morality or tradition role conflict when one or more of an individual's roles clash role performance the expression of a role role strain stress that occurs when too much is required of a single role role-set an array of roles attached to a particular status roles patterns of behavior that are representative of a person's social status self-fulfilling prophecy an idea that becomes true when acted upon social integration how strongly a person is connected to his or her social group status the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to their rand and role in society Thomas theorem how a subjective reality can drive events to develop in accordance with that reality, despite being originally upsupported by objective reality anticipatory socialization when we prepare for future life roles degradation ceremony the process by which new members of a total institution lose aspects of their old identity and are given new ones generalized other the common behavioral expectations of general society hidden curriculum the informal teching done in schools that socalizes children to social norms moral development the way people learn what is "good" and "bad" nature the influence of our genetic makeups on self-development nurture the role that our social environment plays in self-development peer group a group made up of people who are similar in age and social status and who share interests resocialization the process by which old behaviors are removed and nre behaviors are learned in their place self a person's distinct sense of identity as developted through social interaction socializaion the process wherein people come to understand societal norms and expectation, to accept society'sbeliefs, and to be aware of societal values