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Soc Ch 1 Vocab
Intro to Soc Ch 1 Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| alienation | The sense of dissatisfaction the modern worker feels as a result of producing goods that are owned and controlled by someone else, according to Marx (page 23) |
| anomie | "Normlessness"; term used to describe the alienation and loss of purpose that result from weaker social bonds and an increased pace of change (page 20) |
| antithesis | The opposition to the existing arrangements in a dialectical model (page 24) |
| beginner’s mind | Approaching the world without preconceptions in order to see things in a new way (page 11) |
| bourgeoisie | Owners; the class of modern capitalists who own the means of production and employ wage laborers (page 23) |
| bureaucracies | Secondary groups designed to perform tasks efficiently, characterized by specialization, technical competence, hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, and formal written communication (page 25) |
| capitalism | An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and characterized by competition, the profit motive, and wage labor (page 22) |
| class consciousness | The recognition of social inequality on the part of the oppressed, leading to revolutionary action (page 23) |
| collective conscience | The shared morals and beliefs that are common to a group and which foster social solidarity (page 20) |
| collective effervescence | An intense energy in shared events where people feel swept up in something larger than themselves (page 20) |
| communism | A political system based on the collective ownership of the means of production; opposed to capitalism (page 22) |
| conflict | Generated by the competition between different class groups for scarce resources and the source of all social change, according to Karl Marx (page 22) |
| conflict theory | A paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change, and emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change (page 22) |
| conversation analysis | A sociological approach that looks at how we create meaning in naturally occurring conversation, often by taping conversations and examining them (page 31) |
| critical theory | A contemporary form of conflict theory that criticizes many different systems and ideologies of domination and oppression (page 24) |
| culture shock | A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment (page 13) |
| deconstruction | A type of critical postmodern analysis that involves taking apart or disassembling old ways of thinking (page 34) |
| dialectical model | Marx’s model of historical change, whereby two extreme positions come into conflict and create some new third thing between them (page 23) |
| disenchantment | The rationalization of modern society (page 26) |
| dramaturgy | A theoretical paradigm that uses the metaphor of the theater to understand how individuals present themselves to others (page 30) |
| empirical | Based on scientific experimentation or observation (page 20) |
| ethnomethodology | The study of "folk methods" and background knowledge that sustains a shared sense of reality in everyday interactions (page 31) |
| Eurocentric | The tendency to favor European or Western histories, cultures, and values over other non-Western societies (page 28) |
| false consciousness | A denial of the truth on the part of the oppressed when they fail to recognize the interests of the ruling class in their ideology (page 23) |
| feminist theory | A theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in society and the way that gender structures the social world (page 24) |
| ideology | A system of beliefs, attitudes, and values that directs a society and reproduces the status quo of the bourgeoisie (page 23) |
| iron cage | Max Weber’s pessimistic description of modern life, in which we are caught in bureaucratic structures that control our lives through rigid rules and rationalization (page 26) |
| latent functions | The less obvious, perhaps unintended functions of a social structure (page 21) |
| macrosociology | The level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals (page 15) |
| manifest | Functions the obvious, intended functions of a social structure for the social system (page 21) |
| means of production | Anything that can create wealth: money, property, factories, and other types of businesses, and the infrastructure necessary to run them (page 22) |
| mechanical solidarity | Term developed by Emile Durkheim to describe the type of social bonds present in premodern, agrarian societies, in which shared traditions and beliefs created a sense of social cohesion (page 18) |
| microsociology | The level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and institutions of society (page 14) |
| midrange theory | An approach that integrates empiricism and grand theory (page 34) |
| modernism | A paradigm that places trust in the power of science and technology to create progress, solve problems, and improve life (page 33) |
| organic solidarity | Term developed by Emile Durkheim to describe the type of social bonds present in modern societies, based on difference, interdependence, and individual rights (page 20) |
| paradigm | A set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that make up a way of understanding social reality (page 17) |
| positivism | The theory, developed by Auguste Comte, that sense perceptions are the only valid source of knowledge (page 17) |
| postmodernism | A paradigm that suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux (page 33) |
| pragmatism | A theoretical perspective that assumes organisms (including humans) make practical adaptations to their environments. Humans do this through cognition, interpretation, and interaction (page 29) |
| praxis | Practical action that is taken on the basis of intellectual or theoretical understanding (page 25) |
| profane | The ordinary, mundane, or everyday (page 20) |
| proletariat | Workers; those who have no means of production of their own and so reduced to selling their labor power in order to live (page 23) |
| queer theory | A paradigm that proposes that categories of sexual identity are social constructs and that no sexual category is fundamentally either deviant or normal (page 24) |
| rationalization | The application of economic logic to human activity; the use of formal rules and regulations in order to maximize efficiency without consideration of subjective or individual concerns (page 25) |
| sacred | The holy, divine, or supernatural (page 20) |
| scientific method | A procedure for acquiring knowledge that emphasizes collecting concrete data through observation and experiment (page 17) |
| social Darwinism | The application of the theory of evolution and the notion of "survival of the fittest" to the study of society (page 18) |
| social inequality | The unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society (page 22) |
| social sciences | The disciplines that use the scientific method to examine the social world, in contrast to the natural sciences, which examine the physical world (page 8) |
| socialism | A political system based on state ownership or control of principal elements of the economy in order to reduce levels of social inequality (page 23) |
| society | A group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from other groups (page 7) |
| sociological imagination | A quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our individual circumstances and larger social forces (page 13) |
| sociological perspective | A way of looking at the world through a sociological lens (page 9) |
| sociology | The systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions (page 7) |
| solidarity | The degree of integration or unity within a particular society; the extent to which individuals feel connected to other members of their group (page 20) |
| structural functionalism | A paradigm that begins with the assumption that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures (page 18) |
| structure | A social institution that is relatively stable over time and that meets the needs of society by performing functions necessary to maintain social order and stability (page 21) |
| symbolic interactionism | A paradigm that sees interaction and meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created through interaction (page 28) |
| synthesis | The new social system created out of the conflict between thesis and antithesis in a dialectical model (page 24) |
| the Chicago School | A type of sociology practiced by researchers at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 30s which centered on urban sociology and field research methods (page 29) |
| theories | In sociology, abstract propositions that explain the social world and make predictions about the future (page 15) |
| thesis | The existing social arrangements in a dialectical model (page 24) |
| verstehen | "Empathic understanding"; Weber’s term to describe good social research, which tries to understand the meanings that individual social actors attach to various actions and events (page 27) |
| culture shock | A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment (page 13) |
Created by:
KMills89
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