Term | Definition |
Socialization | The interactive process of shaping an individual and his or her environment. It is a two-way process starting at birth and ending at death. The way our environment shapes us. |
Socialization Agents | The term used to describe cultural institutions and people involved in socialization, such as family, school, and media. |
Cookie-cutter-syndrome | The theory that children are likely to think and behave like their parents despite environmental influences. |
Nature | One's biological makeup that predetermines attitudes and behaviour. |
Nurture | The environmental experiences that shape one's socialization. |
Norms | Expectations about how people should behave. |
Folkways | Informal norms; the informal, accepted ways of behaving,thinking and acting in culture. |
Mores | The formal, traditional customs, behaviours, and attitudes of a culture. |
Taboo | A custom prohibiting or restricting a practice or action (such as incest) since it is shunned. |
Sanction | Informal or formal penalty or reward to ensure conformity within a group. |
Culture | A way of life. A total system of ideas, values, behaviours, & attitudes of a society commonly shared by most members of a society. |
Subculture | A distinguishable group of people within a larger culture who share a common stystem of values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, and liftestyle that are different from those of the dominant culture. |
Counterculture | Stands defiantly opposed to the dominant culture of society and rejects the mos prevalent values and the most important norms of society. |
Roles | The expected behaviour of a person in aparticular social position. |
Achieved Roles/Status | The position that an individual holds in society based on his or her accomplishment of a particular task or role. |
Ascribed Roles/Status | The position that an individual holds in society that is determined at birth and over which he or she has no control. |
Isolate Child | A child raised in near isolation within a human household. |
Feral Child | An unwanted child deserted at a young age and raised by animals. |
"Genie" | A famous isolate case of a young girl discovered in California in the 1970s; lived in isolation for approx. 13 yrs. A case study that highlights the importance of understanding the influence environment has on an individual's development. |
"Victor" | A most famous feral case of a young boy discovered in France in the 1797 who had lived in the wild for approximately 11 years. French psychologists who studied Victor called their study "The Forbidden Experiment." |
Harry Harlow | An American psychology professor who conducted the famous 'Surrogate Mother Experiment', Discovered that rhesus monkeys preferred to spend most of their time cuddling a soft 'fake mother' device than with the feeding device. |
Rene Spitz | An Austrian-American psychoanalyst. He conducted studies in an orphanage in the 1940s that were the first to show more systematically that social interactions with other humans are essential for children’s development. |
Macrosociology | An approach of sociology that analyzes social systems on a large scale. |
Microsociology | The study of small groups and individuals within a society. |
Structural Functionalism | Argues that social institutions exist because they benefit their participants. |
Conflict Theory | A perspective/theory that suggests that an issue can be understood by examining the way power is managed. Argues that the law punishes powerful people less severely than it punishes the powerless. |
Feminist Sociology | Study of gender inequality. Concludes that women have been marginalized, deprived of power, & have been without equal membership in society; that society is patriarchal, favouring men, based on male authority & constructed to favour men. |
Symbolic Interactionism | According to this theory, the individual is at the centre of understanding society,not social systems. An issue cannot be understood by a third party unless the issue's significance to the participant is understood. |
Emile Durkheim | Established "sociology" as a discipline; provided the foundation of structural functionalism; believed that society functions logically & protects the interests of its members;that humans are social creatures & define themselves by social interactions. |
Talcott Parsons | Responsible for developing structural functionalist school of thought in U.S. Emphazized that all social phenomena & relationships could be explanined through their functions in society; individuals and groups could be defined by the purpose they served. |
Herbert Spencer | British philosopher & sociologist during Victorian era; a Social Darwinist & applied the theory of natural selection to society; believed that the fittest should survive while the weak deserve to live in unfortunate circumstances or be allowed to die. |
Karl Marx | Author of "Communist Manifesto"; German philosopher interested in economic history; his theories concentrate on idea of class conflict &concluded that the uneven distribution of wealth was a normal condition in society. |
Dorthy Smith | Canadian sociologist;contends that women have long been marginalized in society; she is working towards a sociology that reflects the realities and experiences of all people regardless of race, gender, or economic status. |
Max Weber | German scholar; believed that social life had many examples of conflict and cohesion; introduced the theory of Rationaliztion (social actions motivated by efficiency or benefit, not custom or emotion);that rationaliztion helps society to run efficiently. |
Jane Elliot | In 1968, an elementary school teacher that led her students to change the way they thought about racism and prejudice. Each day she privileged those with brown eyes and blue eyes. |
Charles Cooley | An American sociologist is best known for his concept of "looking-glass self", the theory that self-image is formed largely by the messages we get from others, and an individual's interpretation of those messages. |
George Herbert Mead | American sociologist, psychologist, philosopher, who suggested individuals assumes a variety of different social roles and learn early on which "mask" to wear, "I-self" or "me-self". Founding theorist for symbolic interaction. |
Auguste Comte | The term 'sociology' was first used by this French philosopher who defined sociology as the systematic study of society. |
Primary socialization | The process of learning the basic skills needed to survive in society. |
Secondary socialization | The process of learning how to behave appropriately in group situations. |
Anticipatory socialization | The process of learning how to plan the way to behave in new situation. |
Resocialization | The process by which negative behaviour is transformed into socially acceptable behaviour. |
Primary agent of soicalization | The family; responsible for meeting an individual's most basic needs. |
Secondary agent of socialization | Are non-family people and institutions ( eg. schools, peers, media) that teach an individual social behaviours and norms. |
Primary Group | A concept attributed to Charles Cooley, which is a set of people with whom an individual has strong emotional and personal connections. |
Sociological Imagination | A concept developed by sociologist C.Wright Mills, which means the ability to connect individual experiences to social realities. |
Social Influence | The effect of other people on a person's thought and actions. |
Values | Shared ideas and standards that are considered acceptable and binding |
Self-Concept | The sense of who one is. |
Third Gender | People who do not identify themselves as completely male or completely female either because they are biologically both or because their gender identity differs from their assigned sex. |
Systemic Discrimination | Discrimination built into social institutions. For example, a physically disabled person is unable to work at a location because it is not wheelchair-accessible. |
Stereotype | An oversimplified mental picture, or overgeneralization, that assigns certain characteristics to particular groups. |
Prejudice | An individual judgment or active hostility toward another social group. |
Outgroup | A social group toward which an individual feels disrespect of opposition. |
Cult | A type of counterculture whose social and moral views are rigid and are typically guided by a charismatic leader. |
Ethnocentrism | A belief that one's own culture is superior to any other culture. |
CNN Doll Experiment | In 1968, an elementary school teacher that led her students to change the way they thought about racism and prejudice. Each day she privileged those with brown eyes and blue eyes. |
Bobo Doll Experiment | Conducted by Albert Bandura. It demonstrated that children imitate aggressive behaviour modeled by adults. |
Social Identity Theory (Tajfel) | Group behaviour helps to shape one's identity. |
Obedience Experiment | Conducted by Stanley Milgram. It investigated why people are induced to obey unjust regimes, under the influence of an authority figure. 2/3 of participants were willing to administer a lethal shock. |