Question | Answer |
Social Facts | according to Emile Durkheim
"the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals"
durkheim believe social facts could be studied scientifically
suicide, marriage and birth rate are controlled by social facts |
Social Interaction | The process by which we act and react to those around us. |
Social Structure | The underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave in their relationships with one another.
different social structures. |
Sociological Imagination | How we understand our daily life. "in our own world" limited perpective and point of view.
C Wright Mills. Imaginative thought to sociological questions |
Symbolic Interaction | wants to understand what it means to be a part of the society.
studies culture values and behavior of societal member to understand meaning that exists. |
Culture | Way of life shared by a group of people. Makes societies unique. provides guidelines for carrying out tasks. |
subculture | smaller cultural groups that exist within but differ in someways from the prevailing culture |
counterculture | group of people whose values, norms and behavior clash with those of the prevalent culture (hippies in the 70's) |
culture lag | idea that often takes culture a little bit longer time to catch up to changes within society, changes that take longer |
folkways | FOLKWAYS:rules about ordinary matters (face the door in an elevator) |
norms | define principles, expectations or rules of behavior that people of a given society or culture are expected to observe |
mores | rules about serious matters
(dont steal or cheat) |
taboos | rules about serious unusual situations (cannibalism) |
ethnocentrism | viewing and judging other cultures based on your own culture |
cultural relativity | Being open minded about other cultures. view equally |
material culture | physical artifacts |
ethnomethodology | break norms to discover rules of interaction. (the way people make sense of their everyday world) |
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis | Linguistic relativity hypothesis.
argues that language influences our perceptions of the world (BECAUSE) we are more likely to be aware of things if we have words for them |
research process | Identify problem (theory --> hypothesis), Design test (methods), Collect data (primary vs secondary), Analyze data |
theory | series of interrelated propositions which attempts to describe, explain, predict, and control some class of events. ** CANNOT be tested, only hypothesis can. |
population vs sample | population- entire group of individuals
sample- smaller group of that population that represents it equally |
quantitative vs qualitative | quant- #
qual- quality, not numers |
reliability vs validity | reliability (grouped together on the target) - confidence instrument of measure working etc.
validity (center of the target)- measure is correct
reliability not warrant validity |
informed consent | person's agreement |
dependent vs independent variable | dependent: the variable that is being measured
independent: cause changes in the dependent variable |
Socialization | the lifelong process of learning to become a member of the social world |
generalized other | Concept in Mead's theory: the general values and moral rules of the culture in which they are developing |
identity | people's understandings about who they are and what is meaningful to them...
* some sources of identity- gender, sexual orientation, nationality |
self | reflexive understanding of who we are |
role | expected behaviors, rights and obligations associated with a status |
status (positions) | ASCRIBED:sex age race
ACHIEVED: job, college |
life course | the various transitions people experience during their lives |
looking glass self | shaping ones self based on others' perceptions |
agents of socialization | family, education, peers, media, religion, nation, work, sport etc. |
cognitive development | piaget; distinct stages i which children learn about themselves and their environment.
acquisition and succesful completion of the preceding stage. |
division of labor | specialization of work tasks/different occupations are combined within a product system |
impression management | the impression we try to give, the impression we actually give, reciprocal exchange, the told of tact and humor
tact- the ability to describe others as they see themselves |
front stage, back stage | goffman:
front: performance is open to those who judge it
back: one can refine self w/o audience to judge it |
dramaturgy | GOFFMAN: interaction is two people constantly creating the self they want others to see (front and backstage) |
master status | something that defines you; like a physical disability |
role conflict | tension between the roles of two statuses
(student and son taking care of education vs taking care of family) |
role strain | tension within one status (single parent being a caregiver and a provider, juggling school and work etc) |
status inconsistency | some status characteristics rank relatively high and others rank relatively low. |
status set | all statuses a person holds at a given time |
social organization | people in a society organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships |
groups and organization | organization: a larger group of individuals with a definite set of authority relations
groups: people having common interests etc |
bureaucracy: | Close links between organizations and bureaucratic tendencies.
type of organization marked by clear heirarchy of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by full time sallaried officials |
dyad, triad | group consisting of 2 individuals
3 individuals |
formal organization | means by which a group is rationally designed to achieve its objectives.
*often by means of rules, regulations and procedures |
expressive needs vs instrumental needs | expressive: intimacy, companionship
instrumental: task oriented needs |
McDonaldization | Ritzer:
Elements of fast food chain are coming to dominate more and more sectors of society |
primary, and secondary groups | primary: basics of culture
secondary: roles |
reference group | group which another one is compared to |
groupthink | practice of thinking in a group in a way that discourages creativity and individuality |
social network | social structure made up of individuals or organizations called NODES that are tied together by different types of interdependency ie kinship, common interest, dislike, etc |