Busy. Please wait.
Log in with Clever
or

show password
Forgot Password?

Don't have an account?  Sign up 
Sign up using Clever
or

Username is available taken
show password


Make sure to remember your password. If you forget it there is no way for StudyStack to send you a reset link. You would need to create a new account.
Your email address is only used to allow you to reset your password. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.


Already a StudyStack user? Log In

Reset Password
Enter the associated with your account, and we'll email you a link to reset your password.

SSC1 Vocabulary

Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in each of the black spaces below before clicking on it to display the answer.
        Help!  

Term
Definition
Case Study   A method of research consisting of a detailed, long-term investigation of a single social unit.  
🗑
Concept   A generalized idea about people, objects, or processes that are related to one another; an abstract way of classifying things that are similar.  
🗑
Cross-section   A survey of a broad spectrum of a population at a specific point in time.  
🗑
ethical neutrality   An attitude of the scientific method in the social sciences, requiring that scientists not pass moral judgment on their findings.  
🗑
Experiment   A method of research in which the researcher controls and manipulates variables in one group to test the effects of an independent variable on a dependent variable.  
🗑
hypothesis   A tentative statement, in clearly defined terms, predicting a relationship between variables.  
🗑
longitudinal   A survey that continues over a long period, engaging in contrasts and comparisons.  
🗑
objectivity   A principle of the scientific method, especially in the social sciences, requiring researchers to divest themselves of personal attitudes, desires, beliefs, values, and tendencies when confronting their data.  
🗑
participant observation   A method of research in which researchers try to take part in the lives of the members of the group under analysis, sometimes without revealing their purposes.  
🗑
population   In the social sciences, a statistical concept referring to the totality of phenomena under investigation (e.g., all college students enrolled in four-year private universities).  
🗑
research   An aspect of scientific methodology that bolsters and complements theories. In the social sciences, four fundamental formats are used: the sample survey, the case study, the experiment, and participant observation.  
🗑
sample survey   A method of research consisting of an attempt to determine the occurrence of a particular act or opinion in a particular sample of people.  
🗑
theory   A set of concepts arranged so as to explain and/or predict possible and probable relationships.  
🗑
variables   Factors whose relationships researchers try to uncover; characteristics that differ (vary) in each individual case.  
🗑
adaptation   A process that intervenes to ensure that organisms achieve an adjustment to their environment that is beneficial.  
🗑
Australopithecus   A prehuman who lived from about 4.5 million to 1 million years ago.  
🗑
chromosomes   Carriers of genes, or the hereditary blueprints of organisms. Each human inherits a set of 23 chromosomes from each parent.  
🗑
Cro-Magnon   The closest predecessors or perhaps contemporaries of modern humans, who lived about 35,000 years ago. They were expert toolmakers and artists, and they lived in tribes that displayed evidence of rules and kinship systems.  
🗑
directional selection   Change in gene frequencies is promoted because an adaptation to a new environment is needed.  
🗑
DNA   Deoxyribonucleic acid. A complex biochemical substance that is the basic building block of life. It determines the inheritance of specific traits.  
🗑
estrus   Period of sexual receptivity and ability to conceive.  
🗑
evolution   A theory that explains change in living organisms and variation within species. Evolution functions according to processes of natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, and speciation.  
🗑
gene flow   The movement of genes from one gene pool to another. It results in new combinations of genes in the offspring.  
🗑
gene frequency   The proportion in which the various genes occur in an inbreeding population.  
🗑
gene pool   All of the genetic material available to a population to be inherited by the next generation.  
🗑
genes   Hereditary units that transmit an individual’s traits. They are contained in the chromosomes and made up of DNA.  
🗑
genetic drift   The fluctuations in frequencies of specific traits in a small, isolated population, so that visible differences between an isolated population and the population from which it broke away become obvious.  
🗑
genetics   The science of heredity.  
🗑
genotype   The actual genetic composition of an organism, which is not necessarily expressed.  
🗑
hominids   Prehuman creatures who walked on two feet.  
🗑
Homo erectus   The upright hominid thought to be a direct ancestor of modern humans.  
🗑
Homo sapiens   A species whose fossils date back 75,000 years (or perhaps 195,000 years) and includes Neanderthals. The species label for modern humans is Homo sapiens sapiens, whose fossils date back 30,000 years and include Cro-Magnon.  
🗑
mutation   A permanent change in genetic material.  
🗑
natural selection   A process of evolution in which random traits are tested for their survival value; the successful traits are passed on, while organisms possessing less successful traits eventually become extinct.  
🗑
Neanderthal   A subspecies of Homo sapiens (but some consider them hominids) whose fossil remains date from 70,000 to 35,000 years ago. They are known to have buried their dead.  
🗑
phenotype   The physical, or outward, appearance of an organism.  
🗑
primates   An order of mammals to which monkeys, apes, and humans belong.  
🗑
Ramapithecus   A hominoid having hominid-like features, dated between 14 and 8 million years ago.  
🗑
stabilizing selection   When natural selection promotes the status quo rather than change, because change would be detrimental to the organism’s adaptation to its environment.  
🗑
counterculture   A group that possesses a value system and goals that are in direct opposition to those of the larger society.  
🗑
cultural relativity   An attitude of judging each culture on its own terms and in the context of its own societal setting.  
🗑
cultural universals   Similarities common to all cultures (example: the existence of pivotal institutions).  
🗑
culture   The way of life of people in a society.  
🗑
culture complex   A number of related traits that accumulate around a specific human activity.  
🗑
culture trait   The smallest element or unit of culture. In material culture, it is any single object. In nonmaterial culture, it is any single idea, symbol, or belief.  
🗑
ethnocentrism   The attitude that one’s own culture is right and that cultural patterns different from it are wrong.  
🗑
folkways   Norms that direct behavior in everyday situations; customary and habitual ways of acting.  
🗑
institution   A number of culture complexes clustering around a central human activity.  
🗑
laws   Formal codes of behavior. Laws are binding on the whole society; they outline behavior that deviates from the norm and define prescriptions for punishing it.  
🗑
mores   Norms that direct behavior considered either extremely harmful or extremely helpful to society. They define the  
🗑
normative system   A system of rules regulating human behavior.  
🗑
norms   Behavioral standards that dictate conduct in both informal and formal situations; a set of behavioral expectations.  
🗑
sanctions   Rewards (positive) or punishments (negative) directed at individuals or groups by either legal and formal organizations (official) or the people with whom one interacts (unofficial) to encourage or discourage specific types of behavior.  
🗑
signals   Biologically determined and genetically transmitted responses to outside stimuli.  
🗑
social control   The process by which order is maintained within society through obedience to norms—folkways, mores, taboos, and laws.  
🗑
subculture   A group that has distinctive features that set it apart from the culture of the larger society but still retains the general values of mainstream society.  
🗑
symbols   Genetically independent responses to stimuli in the form of representations: a word or image standing for an object or a feeling. Symbols are learned and can be changed, modified, combined, and recombined in an infinite number of ways.  
🗑
taboos   Mores stated in negative terms. They center on acts considered extremely repellent to the social group.  
🗑
achieved status   A position attained through individual effort or merit.  
🗑
aggregate   A number of people who are in the same place at the same time, but who do not interact with one another.  
🗑
ascribed status   An inherited position—one that is not attained through individual effort or merit.  
🗑
bureaucracy   The hierarchical system of administration prevailing within a formal organization. The hierarchy depends on job specialization, a set of rules and standards to promote uniformity, and an attitude of impersonal impartiality.  
🗑
category   (referring to people) A number of people who have some characteristics in common but who do not interact with one another.  
🗑
competition   A social process (form of interaction) that occurs when two or more individuals try to obtain possession of the same scarce object or intangible value using rules and limits.  
🗑
conflict   A social process (interaction) consisting of a hostile struggle in which two or more persons engage for an object or value that each prizes, possibly to the point of destruction.  
🗑
cooperation   A basic social process (interaction) involving two or more individuals or groups working jointly in a common enterprise for a shared goal.  
🗑
dyad   The smallest type of group, consisting of two members.  
🗑
exchange   A social process (interaction) consisting of a transaction in which one of two individuals—or groups or societies—does something for the other with the expectation of receiving something of equal value in return.  
🗑
formal organizations   Large-scale associations of people in which most of the activities of complex societies are handled.  
🗑
Gemeinschaft   A small, homogeneous, communal, and traditional society. Relationships among members are personal, informal, and face-to-face, and behavior is dictated by tradition.  
🗑
Gesellschaft   A large, heterogeneous society, typified by the modern industrial state. Relationships among members tend to be impersonal, formal, contractual, functional, and specialized. Also called an associational society.  
🗑
in-group   Group to which the individual belongs and which confers on the individual a social identity.  
🗑
organization   A formal process that deliberately brings into existence a group of people to perform tasks directed at achieving a specific goal. It allows people who are unacquainted with each other to cooperate effectively on complex projects.  
🗑
out-group   Group to which others belong, excluding the individual defining group membership.  
🗑
primary group   A relatively small group of people who live physically near one another and who interact intensely. Characteristics include stability, relatively long duration, informal and spontaneous interaction, and individual, personal, and total types of dealings.  
🗑
reference group   A group providing individuals with standards against which to measure themselves.  
🗑
role   The carrying out of a status. A way of behaving that befits a status and is transmittable as well as fairly predictable.  
🗑
secondary group   A group that is in general larger and of shorter duration than a primary group. Interaction among members is formal, role-based, utilitarian, specialized, and temporary.  
🗑
social organization   The network of patterned human behavior that is the product of interaction and, at the same time, guides interaction.  
🗑
social processes   Key patterns of interaction common to all human societies (cooperation, competition, exchange, and conflict).  
🗑
social structure   The content of the social system, consisting of statuses, roles, groups, norms, and institutions.  
🗑
social system   A conceptual model of social relationships in which each part is interdependent and interconnected to every other part.  
🗑
society   The largest social group. An interrelated network of social relationships that exists within the boundaries of the largest social system.  
🗑
status   A ranked position in a social group. Statuses are rated according to their importance in a social group.  
🗑
symbolic interaction   Communication through speech, gestures, writing, or even music.  
🗑
total institution   An extreme type of coercive organization that isolates individuals from the rest of society, providing an all-encompassing social environment in which special norms and distinctive physical features prevail.  
🗑
triad   A group consisting of three individuals. A more stable social unit than a dyad.  
🗑
developmental theories   A school of thought in modern psychology whose chief exponent was Jean Piaget.  
🗑
ego (Freud)   A part of the personality that functions on a conscious level. It attempts to force the id to satisfy its instinctual needs in socially acceptable ways.  
🗑
generalized other (Mead)   The individual’s perception or awareness of social norms; learning to take the role of all others with whom one interacts or of society as a whole.  
🗑
id (Freud)   The representative of the libido in the personality, existing on an unconscious level and making up the primitive, irrational part of the personality.  
🗑
instincts   Genetically transmitted, universal, complex patterns of behavior.  
🗑
libido (Freud)   The instinctual drive toward pleasure, which is the motivating energy behind human behavior.  
🗑
looking-glass self (Cooley)   The process of personality formation in which an individual’s self-image emerges as a result of perceiving the observed attitudes of others.  
🗑
midlife crisis   What many people in middle adulthood experience when they reflect on their personal and occupational roles and find them wanting.  
🗑
mind (Mead)   The abstract whole of a person’s ideas.  
🗑
personality   A complex and dynamic system that includes all of an individual’s behavioral and emotional traits, attitudes, values, beliefs, habits, goals, and so on.  
🗑
psychoanalytic theory   A theory of personality developed by Sigmund Freud. It assumes the existence of unconscious as well as conscious processes within each individual.  
🗑
psychosexual stages (Freud)   The manner in which individuals attempt to gratify the force of the libido at different periods of physical maturation. The phases are oral, anal, phallic (or Oedipal), latent, and genital.  
🗑
resocialization   A process in which the individual’s existing self-concept and identity are erased in favor of a new personality or are altered to fit new roles.  
🗑
self (Mead)   The individual’s self-conception or self-awareness.  
🗑
significant others (Mead)   Important people in an individual’s life whose roles are initially imitated.  
🗑
socialization   The learning process by which a biological organism learns to become a human being, acquires a personality with self and identity, and absorbs the culture of its society.  
🗑
superego (Freud)   A final element of personality, existing largely on an unconscious level and functioning to impose inhibition and morality on the id.  
🗑
symbolic interactionism   A school of thought founded by George Herbert Mead whose theories center around the interrelationship of mind, self, and society and include the belief that society and the individual give rise to each other through symbolic interaction.  
🗑
total institution   An organization or a place of residence in which inmates live isolated from others and where their freedom is restricted in the attempt to resocialize them with new identities and behavior patterns.  
🗑
anomie   Durkheim’s term for a condition of normlessness. Merton used anomie to explain deviance, which he thought occurred when cultural goals cannot be achieved through legal institutional means.  
🗑
bipolar disorder   A psychosis characterized by extreme swings in emotion from deep depression to a high degree of excitement.  
🗑
cultural transmission (or differential association)   Theory of deviance (Sutherland, Miller) based on the proposition that all human behavior, including deviant behavior, is learned through symbolic interaction, especially in primary groups.  
🗑
deviance   Norm-violating behavior beyond the society’s limits of tolerance.  
🗑
ectomorph   In Sheldon’s typology (biological theory of deviance), a thin and delicate body type whose personality tends to be introspective, sensitive, nervous, and artistic.  
🗑
electroconvulsive shock therapy   A treatment of severe mental disorders (particularly depression) through the application of severe electric shock. It is a painful procedure and is sometimes abused.  
🗑
endomorph   In Sheldon’s typology, a round and soft body type whose personality is social, easygoing, and self-indulgent.  
🗑
index crimes   The eight crimes whose rates are reported annually by the FBI: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, arson, larceny, and auto theft.  
🗑
labeling   A sociological theory of deviance that explains deviant behavior as a reaction to the group’s expectations of someone who has once been decreed as deviant.  
🗑
mesomorph   In Sheldon’s typology, a muscular and agile body type with a restless, energetic, and insensitive personality.  
🗑
neurosis   A mild personality disorder; an inefficient, partly disruptive way of dealing with personal problems, but seldom troublesome enough to require institutionalization.  
🗑
paranoia   A psychosis characterized by the feeling of being persecuted or of being an important personage (delusions of grandeur).  
🗑
personality disorders   Mental disorders that lie somewhere between the neuroses and the psychoses in severity. They include sociopathy, sexual deviance, and addiction.  
🗑
psychosis   A serious mental disorder in which there is loss of contact with reality. Requires institutionalization when individuals become incapable of functioning in society. Psychoses include schizophrenia, paranoia, and bipolar disorder.  
🗑
psychosomatic disorders   Physical ailments developed as a result of emotional tension or anxiety.  
🗑
psychotherapy   A treatment for psychoses and mental disturbances that includes analysis, group therapy, family therapy, and others, centering around verbal exchanges.  
🗑
schizophrenia   A label for a psychosis that varies in severity from inability to relate to others to total withdrawal from reality.  
🗑
sociopath   A person suffering from a personality disturbance in which antisocial behavior does not elicit remorse.  
🗑
authority   Social power exercised with the consent of others. Parents, teachers, and the government represent different levels of authority.  
🗑
closed, or caste, stratification system   A system in which class, status, and power are ascribed, mobility is highly restricted, and the social system is rigid.  
🗑
conflict theory of stratification   A theory of stratification according to which the natural conditions of society are constant change and conflict resulting from class struggles.  
🗑
estate system of stratification   The prevailing system of feudal Europe, consisting of three estates of functional importance to the society. The estates were hierarchically arranged and permitted a limited amount of social mobility.  
🗑
functionalist theory of stratification   A theory in which social inequality is viewed as inevitable because society must use rewards to ensure that essential tasks are performed. The natural conditions of society are thought to be order and stability (equilibrium).  
🗑
life chances   The opportunity of each individual to fulfill his or her potential as a human being. Life chances differ according to social class.  
🗑
open, or class, society   A society in which the stratification system allows for social mobility and in which a person’s status is achieved rather than being ascribed on the basis of birth. Open systems are characteristic of industrial societies.  
🗑
power   A dimension of stratification consisting of the ability of one person or group to control the actions of others with or without the latter’s consent.  
🗑
social class   A dimension of stratification consisting of an aggregate of persons in a society who stand in a similar position with regard to some form of power, privilege, or prestige.  
🗑
social mobility   An individual’s ability to change his or her social class membership by moving up (or down) the stratification system. Upward or downward mobility is vertical, whereas mobility that results in a change of status without a consequent change of class is hor  
🗑
social status   A dimension of stratification consisting of an individual’s ranked position within the social system, the rank being determined mainly by the individual’s occupational role.  
🗑
social stratification (ranking)   A process existing in all but the simplest societies whereby members rank one another and themselves hierarchically with respect to the amount of desirables (wealth, prestige, power) they possess.  
🗑
stratification system   The overlapping manner in which members of society are ranked according to classes, status groups, and hierarchies of power. Analyzed on a continuum from closed to open.  
🗑
structural mobility   Upward mobility caused by industrial and technological change that pushes skilled workers into higher-status occupations.  
🗑
accommodation   A situation in which a minority is conscious of the norms and values of the majority, accepts and adapts to them, but chooses to retain its own, thus failing to participate in the host culture.  
🗑
acculturation   The process of adopting the culture, including the language and customs, of the host country.  
🗑
amalgamation   The result of intermarriage between distinct racial, ethnic, and cultural groups, resulting in the erasure of differences between majority and minority groups.  
🗑
anglo-conformity   The attitude, once held by the majority group, that the institutions, language, and cultural patterns of England should be maintained and that WASP values be superimposed on immigrants.  
🗑
assimilation   A process in which a minority group is absorbed into, or becomes part of, the dominant group in a society.  
🗑
attitudinal discrimination   Negative behavior against a particular group—or individual members of that group—prompted by personal prejudice.  
🗑
cultural pluralism   An ideal condition in which the cultural distinctiveness of each ethnic, racial, and religious minority group would be maintained, while individual members would still owe allegiance to the society in general.  
🗑
discrimination   Actions taken as a result of prejudicial feelings.  
🗑
ethnicity   A group’s distinctive social, rather than biological, traits.  
🗑
ethnic minority   A group that differs culturally from the dominant group.  
🗑
ethnocentrism   Belief in the superiority of one’s own group.  
🗑
institutional discrimination   A system of inequalities existing in a society apart from individual prejudice. Prejudice exists on a societal level; in effect, it is a norm of the society.  
🗑
melting pot theory   The belief that it is possible and desirable to culturally and biologically fuse all the various racial and ethnic groups in society.  
🗑
minority group   Any group in society that is kept from attaining the rewards of society on the basis of culture, race, religion, sex, or age. A category of people who possess imperfect access to positions of equal power, prestige, and privilege in the society.  
🗑
prejudice   Prejudgment of an individual or group based on stereotypes and hearsay rather than on fact or evidence, and the inability or unwillingness to change that judgment even when confronted with evidence to the contrary.  
🗑
race   An arbitrary manner of subdividing the species Homo sapiens sapiens based on differences in the frequency with which some genes occur among populations.  
🗑
racial minority   A group within a society that differs biologically from the dominant group in such features as skin color, hair texture, eye slant, and head shape and dimensions.  
🗑
racism   An ideology, prevalent in the past but now discounted, that some racial groups are inferior to others, that they display not only physical but also behavioral differences, and that both are inherited and undesirable.  
🗑
segregation   An attempt to isolate a minority from the majority.  
🗑
activity theory   In the study of the elderly, the theory that the key to successful aging is to replace former roles with new ones.  
🗑
ageism   An ideology that asserts the superiority of the young over the old. Used to justify discrimination against the elderly in political, economic, and social areas.  
🗑
anatomical differences   The differences in physical structure and appearance between the two sexes. The most important anatomical difference lies in the distinct reproductive systems of males and females.  
🗑
cognitive development theory   A theory that includes the idea that children learn gender roles according to which stage of cognitive development they have reached. Cognitive development is the way information is processed by individuals at different stages of physical maturation.  
🗑
conflict theory   A theory that assumes that power and privilege are based on the resources an individual possesses.  
🗑
disengagement theory   A theory of aging that posits that the elderly withdraw from their former social and occupational roles so that these may be filled by the young. This should occur by mutual consent.  
🗑
exchange theory   In the study of the elderly, the theory that the disadvantaged position of the elderly in American society is due to their lack of the social and material resources that would make them valuable in interactions with the young.  
🗑
expressive role   Emphasizes nurturing, emotion, and peacemaking.  
🗑
feminist theory   A theory that has borrowed much of the framework of conflict theory, especially the fact that women are underrepresented in positions of power in the society at large, a reflection of the lack of power women have within the family.  
🗑
gender roles   Traditionally, the instrumental role is assigned to males and the expressive role is assigned to females.  
🗑
hormones   Chemicals that are secreted into the bloodstream by glands located in the body, whose functions are to stimulate some chemical processes and inhibit others.  
🗑
instrumental role   Stresses rationality, competitiveness, aggression, and goal-orientation.  
🗑
interactionist theory   In the study of the elderly, a theory that focuses on the shared meanings that the elderly hold in common.  
🗑
male or female   Biological terms, descriptive of biological facts. They refer to a sex status, ascribed and not subject to change except in extraordinary circumstances.  
🗑
masculine and feminine   Reflect social conditions, describing how males and females are expected to behave in a given society and how they come to feel about themselves. They are gender roles, achieved and, thus, subject to change according to place and time.  
🗑
modernization theory   In the study of the elderly, the theory that the status of older people declines as the society in which they live becomes more modern and industrial.  
🗑
secondary sex characteristics   Include height, weight, distribution of body fat and hair, and musculature.  
🗑
sex chromosomes   Contain the genes that determine heredity in all living creatures.  
🗑
social learning theory   A theory based on the behaviorist notion that learning consists of observation, imitation, and reinforcement.  
🗑
structural functionalist theory   One of the most dominant theories in sociology, which assumes that those elements are retained in a social system that aid in the survival of that system.  
🗑
alienation   A feeling of powerlessness and insecurity, of not belonging in society, producing boredom and meaninglessness. Alienation provides a fertile ground for social movements and is characteristic of people in mass society.  
🗑
censorship   A method of control used to limit the information available to the public.  
🗑
change-resistant movement   A social movement reflecting the discontent of people who believe that change is occurring too rapidly and want to stop it or reverse it.  
🗑
class revolutionary movement   A revolutionary social movement in which one ruling class is replaced with another in the same society.  
🗑
collective behavior   Type of behavior that tends to occur in crowds, mobs, fashions, fads, crazes, rumors, panics, and in publics, public opinion, and social movements.  
🗑
crowd   An aggregate of people gathered in the same place, at the same time, either casually or for a predetermined reason, responding to a common stimulus. Crowds may be expressive or acting. An acting crowd may develop into a panic, mob, or riot.  
🗑
cultural change   Change in values, beliefs, and norms that may be brought about by scientific discoveries, technological inventions, new achievements in the arts, or shifts in religious doctrine.  
🗑
diffusion   A process of cultural change in which cultural traits are spread from one society to another (or from one group to another).  
🗑
discovery   A process of cultural change in which an already existing fact or relationship is newly perceived.  
🗑
fads and crazes   Minor fashions, short-lived and often irrational.  
🗑
fashions   A kind of collective behavior that represents a transient social pattern followed for a time by a large segment of people. Fashions affect the entire spectrum of social life.  
🗑
invention   A process of cultural change in which old cultural ideas or existing objects are combined in new ways to produce ideas or objects more important than the previous ones had been separately.  
🗑
mass communication   The relatively simultaneous exposure of large heterogeneous audiences to symbols transmitted by impersonal means from organized sources to whom audience members are anonymous.  
🗑
mass society   The model (theoretical construct) of a society toward which societies are ultimately drifting. It consists of an undifferentiated mass of people and an elite capable of dominating and manipulating it.  
🗑
modernization   A model of sociocultural change that describes the transformation of small preindustrial societies into large industrial ones.  
🗑
nationalistic revolutionary movement   A revolutionary social movement in which a predominantly foreign government is overthrown and replaced with a native one.  
🗑
propaganda   A deliberate attempt to persuade people to uncritically accept a particular belief or to make a certain choice.  
🗑
public   Persons in society who are geographically dispersed but who share a common interest, who express that interest, and who know that others are aware of their interest.  
🗑
rumor   An unsupported report of an event or a projected event. Important in bringing about manifestations of more active types of collective behavior.  
🗑
social change   Change in the patterns of social interaction in which a substantial number of society’s members assume new statuses and play new roles. Takes place through planning, reform, or revolution.  
🗑
technology   All the methods and devices that help humans manage and control their environment.  
🗑
terrorism   A kind of transnational social movement that uses premeditated, politically motivated violence against noncombatant targets.  
🗑
biosphere   A thin film of air, water, and soil surrounding the earth.  
🗑
birthrate   The number of births per 1,000 persons in a specific population per year.  
🗑
death rate   The number of deaths per 1,000 persons in a specific population per year. Same as mortality rate.  
🗑
demography   The study of the growth or decline of populations, their distribution throughout the world, and their composition.  
🗑
ecology   The study of the relationship between living organisms and their environments.  
🗑
ecosystem   A contained system of living and nonliving entities, and the manner in which they interact and maintain a balance that permits life to continue.  
🗑
fecundity   The biological potential for producing offspring.  
🗑
fertility rate   The average number of births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, or during women’s reproductive years.  
🗑
infant mortality   The rate that reflects the number of deaths among infants under one year of age for every 1,000 live births.  
🗑
consanguine   Another term for the extended family. Also, the way parents are related to their children, that is, by blood ties.  
🗑
extended family   A form of the family consisting of the nucleus—two spouses and their children—and other blood relatives together with their marriage partners and children. Common in preindustrial societies.  
🗑
incest taboo   An almost universal prohibition of sexual relations between mother and son, father and daughter, sister and brother, and other relatives as specified by the society.  
🗑
institution   A pattern of behavior (culture complex) that has developed around a central human need. A blueprint for living in society.  
🗑
monogamy   The most common form of marriage, consisting of the union of one man with one woman.  
🗑
nuclear or conjugal family   A form of the family consisting of two spouses and their children living together as a unit.  
🗑
polygamy   A form of marriage in which multiple spouses—either wives or husbands—cohabit as family units.  
🗑
animism   Belief that many objects in the world are inhabited by spirits.  
🗑
church   A religious organization that is institutionalized and well integrated into the socioeconomic life of a society and in which participation is routine.  
🗑
cult   The least conventional and least institutionalized of religious organizations. It consists of groups of followers clustered around a leader whose teachings differ substantially from the doctrines of the church or denomination.  
🗑
denomination   A subdivision of the church that is considered equally as valid as the church.  
🗑
ecclesia   A church to which a substantial majority of the population belongs.  
🗑
education   The formal aspect of socialization in which a specific body of knowledge and skills is deliberately transmitted by specialists.  
🗑
ethical religions   Those that stress the need to live an ethical life so as to attain harmony in personal life and in society (Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism).  
🗑
latent functions   Those functions that are the unintended consequences of the process of education.  
🗑
mana   A concept according to which there exists a supernatural force that can attach to any person, object, or event.  
🗑
manifest functions   The desired, expected, and agreed-upon functions of education.  
🗑
monotheism   Belief in the existence of one God (Judaism, Christianity, Islam).  
🗑
multiversity   A large university, consisting of a number of campuses dispersed around a state.  
🗑
polytheism   Belief in the existence of many gods (Hinduism).  
🗑
profane   The objects and events of everyday life that are common, usual, explainable, and repetitive.  
🗑
rites of passage   Rituals established around critical times of growth and maturation: birth, puberty, marriage, and death.  
🗑
ritual   Behavior that follows the creation of sacredness and provides a mechanism for maintaining the sacred.  
🗑
sacred   Objects, events, or persons distinct from the profane, that is, that are uncommon, unusual, unexplained, mysterious, powerful, and, therefore, deserving of reverence and respect. Religion deals with the sacred.  
🗑
sect   A religious organization that is a revolutionary movement breaking away from the church or denomination. It stresses the spirit, rather than the letter, of religion.  
🗑
self-fulfilling prophecy   The research-supported idea that if teachers treat students as if they were bright and capable, students will perform up to the teachers’ expectations, and vice versa.  
🗑
tracking   The grouping of students according to their ability.  
🗑
universal church   An ecclesia that has a monopoly on religious belief. A state religion.  
🗑
authoritarianism   A type of autocracy (see below) in which power is held by an absolute monarch, dictator, or small elite. Power is limited to the political sphere.  
🗑
autocracy   An ideology directly opposed to democracy, in which government rests in the hands of one individual or group who holds supreme power over the people.  
🗑
charismatic authority   According to Max Weber, a type of authority based on the leadership of a person with charisma. A charismatic leader is thought to possess special gifts of a magnetic, fascinating, and extraordinary nature.  
🗑
communism   A political and economic ideology whose ultimate goal is total government control of the economy and total income redistribution, leading to the creation of a classless society.  
🗑
democracy   An ideology, philosophy, theory, and political system assuming the basic value of the individual, as well as his or her rationality, morality, equality, and possession of specific rights.  
🗑
democratic capitalism   A blend of political and economic ideology whose tenets include the private ownership of property, the profit motive, a free market economy, and competition. The function of government in this system is to ensure that the economic game is played fairly.  
🗑
democratic socialism   A blend of political and economic ideology whose chief assumption is that participation in political decision making should be extended to economic decision making. The function of the government in this system is to control and guide the economy for the  
🗑
fascism   A totalitarian ideology of the right that became prominent in various nations beginning in Italy under Benito Mussolini.  
🗑
government   A pivotal institution arising out of the need to maintain order, control, organize, protect, and defend the people of a society.  
🗑
ideology   A system of ideas, values, beliefs, and attitudes that a society or groups within a society share and accept as true.  
🗑
legal-rational authority   According to Weber, a type of authority accepted by members of society because it is based on rational methods and laws and is exerted for their benefit.  
🗑
nation   A culture group residing within the territory of a political state.  
🗑
nationalism   The ideology behind the nation-state. A set of beliefs about the superiority of one’s own nation and a defense of its interest above all others.  
🗑
Nazism   The German version of fascism that flourished under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.  
🗑
politics   The people and processes that make up and direct the government of the state, its policies, and its actions.  
🗑
power   A dimension of stratification consisting of the ability of one person or group to control the actions of others with or without the latter’s consent.  
🗑
rule of law   A constitutional principle holding that those in public authority derive, maintain, and exercise their powers on the basis of specific laws, and not on the basis of their personal power.  
🗑
state   The abstract embodiment, or the symbol, of the political institution or government.  
🗑
totalitarianism   A type of autocracy of the left or of the right, characterized by a totalist ideology, a single party, a government-controlled secret police, and a monopoly over mass communications, weapons, and the economy by the ruling elite.  
🗑
traditional authority   According to Weber, authority that is based on reverence for tradition.  
🗑
checks and balances   The method resulting from the principle of separation of powers in which each branch of government is directly and indirectly involved in the workings of the other branches.  
🗑
concurrent powers   Powers shared by the central government and the state governments, according to the specifications of the Constitution of the United States.  
🗑
constitutional government   A government that is subject to limitations and operates in accordance with general rules rather than arbitrarily. The existence of a constitution places a system of effective restraints on political power.  
🗑
federalism   A form of government in which power is distributed between the central and regional units, each retaining sovereignty in specified spheres.  
🗑
House Rules Committee   The group with the power to determine the specific time allotted for the debate of important legislation. This is one of the most important committees in the House of Representatives.  
🗑
implied powers   Powers that are assumed by inference from the delegated powers granted to the central government, according to the Constitution of the United States.  
🗑
judicial review   The power exercised by the Supreme Court to invalidate presidential, congressional, and state legislative action that it deems contrary to the Constitution of the United States.  
🗑
residual or reserved powers   Powers reserved for the states or the people according to the Constitution of the United States.  
🗑
seniority rule   A principle strictly adhered to in Congress by which committee chairs and memberships are determined by years of service in Congress and on the particular committee.  
🗑
separation of powers   An arrangement prescribed by the Constitution in which three separate branches of government are entrusted with the legislative, executive, and judicial functions.  
🗑
democratic pluralism   An interpretation of how the American political system works. This interpretation assumes that there are multiple centers of power, creating a situation in which political power is fragmented and diffused.  
🗑
interest groups   Coalitions of individuals with similar interests who compete with one another for a share of political power, attempting to influence legislation in their favor.  
🗑
lobbying   The principal activity of interest groups, consisting of attempts to influence public officials to pass legislation that will be beneficial to the group or the people it represents.  
🗑
majoritarian model of democracy   The classical model of democracy, in which the statement “government by the people” is interpreted as meaning that the majority of the people make all government decisions directly.  
🗑
party platform   A general statement of party positions and policies.  
🗑
plural elites   Groups with diffused power and leadership roles; the representatives of different segments of the population, to whom they are responsible through elections, interest groups, and partisan competition.  
🗑
political opinion   The totality of opinions expressed by members of a community on political issues.  
🗑
politics   The forces that make up and direct the government of the state, its policies, and its actions. Also, the institution that makes the decisions about “who gets what, when, and how” in society.  
🗑
protest groups   Pressure groups characterized by protesting certain governmental actions or inactions and calling attention to their grievances by such means as marches, sit-ins, demonstrations, and acts of civil disobedience.  
🗑
public policy   That which government does or does not do.  
🗑
ruling elite   A group composed of representatives of corporate, financial, military, and governmental interests who—according to some social scientists—make all the relevant decisions in the nation, regardless of the wishes of the population at large.  
🗑
capital   All material objects made by humans. One of the factors of production.  
🗑
capitalism   An economic system in which property belongs to private individuals; production is engaged in for a profit motive; and prices, wages, and profits are regulated by supply and demand, as well as competition.  
🗑
factors of production   Labor, land, capital, entrepreneurship, time and technology, or the basic elements that are combined in the production of goods and services.  
🗑
finance capitalism   Capitalism associated with a later stage of industrialism in which business organizations are characterized by (1) dominance of investment banks and insurance companies, (2) large aggregates of capital, (3) ownership separate from management, (4) appearan  
🗑
industrial capitalism   Capitalism associated with an early stage of industrialism in which business organizations were concerned mainly with manufacturing, mining, and transportation.  
🗑
labor   A human resource. One of the factors of production.  
🗑
land   Natural material things such as land, minerals, water. Another of the factors of production.  
🗑
monopoly   A situation in which one firm produces the entire market supply of a specific product.  
🗑
multinational corporations   Corporations that extend production to foreign nations at great profit to themselves (because labor is cheap and markets are expanded) but at the risk of being perceived as threats to the hosts.  
🗑
oligopoly   A condition of high industrial concentration in which a small number of corporations dominate an entire industry, effectively preventing price competition.  
🗑
opportunity cost   The sacrifice involved in making an economic choice.  
🗑
production-possibility limits   The optimum amount of production that a society can attain. Each society faces a production-possibility frontier beyond which it cannot produce.  
🗑
resources   Everything that is needed for the production of goods and services.  
🗑
budget surplus   A surplus that occurs when the government’s revenues are greater than its expenditures.  
🗑
central authorities   All public agencies, generally referred to as “the government.”  
🗑
circular flow   Movement from product markets to resource markets and back again, which is interrupted by withdrawals and injections.  
🗑
deficit spending   Spending that occurs when the government’s expenditures are greater than its revenues.  
🗑
discount rate   The interest rate charged by the Federal Reserve Bank for lending money to member banks.  
🗑
discretionary spending   The portion of the federal budget that consists of current spending, rather than carryovers from previous years.  
🗑
disposable income   National income less taxes and plus welfare payments. What people really have to spend or to save.  
🗑
equilibrium   The price and quantity at which both buyers and sellers are compatible—the quantity supplied equals the price buyers are willing to pay.  
🗑
factor or resource markets   Markets in which households sell the factors of production that they control.  
🗑
firms   Units that decide how to use labor, land, and capital and which goods and services to produce.  
🗑
fiscal policy   The use of public expenditures and taxation powers by the government to change the outcomes of the economy.  
🗑
full employment   A low rate of unemployment, between 4 and 5 percent.  
🗑
gross domestic product (GDP)   The total output of goods and services produced within the confines of the United States, by American or foreign-supplied resources, as well as all income earned.  
🗑
gross national product (GNP) per capita   The total output or dollar value of the economy divided by the total population.  
🗑
household   All the people who live under one roof and who make financial decisions as a unit. Also called the consumer.  
🗑
incomes policy   An attempt to use wage and price controls to direct economic outcomes.  
🗑
inflation   A situation in which demand cannot be matched by an increase in supply, resulting in rising prices.  
🗑
marginal productivity   The value people’s work adds to total output.  
🗑
market demand   The combined willingness of individuals and firms to buy a specific number of products at a specific price.  
🗑
market supply   The combined willingness of individuals or firms to supply specific resources or products at specific prices.  
🗑
monetary policy   The use of money and credit to control economic outcomes.  
🗑
multiplier effect   Government spending that produces more income, results in higher consumption expenditures, and translates into a higher aggregate demand.  
🗑
Phillips curve   A graphic illustration of the conflict between full employment and price stability: lower rates of unemployment are usually accompanied by higher rates of inflation.  
🗑
product markets   Markets in which firms sell their production of goods and services.  
🗑
public sector   Economic activity on the part of the government in the name of the people or for the public interest.  
🗑
social indicators   Ways of measuring the level of real benefits resulting from a specific level of output.  
🗑
uncontrollable expenditures   Expenditures from previous years that are built into the annual federal budget.  
🗑
administrative foreign policy   Decisions made by the government bureaucracy.  
🗑
assured destruction capability   A policy designed to deter others from attacking the United States because of the knowledge that the United States has the means to destroy any nation that attacks it.  
🗑
containment   American foreign policy in the period following World War II, attempting to contain what were perceived as the imperialist goals of the Soviet Union.  
🗑
crisis foreign policy   Urgent decisions made when one state feels that a situation will mark a turning point in its relationship with another state. Crisis decisions are a combination of general and administrative decisions.  
🗑
détente   Foreign policy dependent on peaceful negotiations rather than containment.  
🗑
diplomacy   The conduct of international relations by negotiation.  
🗑
foreign policy   Goals intended to protect and promote national independence, national honor, national security, and national well-being.  
🗑
general foreign policy   Decisions expressed in policy statements and direct actions.  
🗑
Monroe Doctrine   Foreign policy in the guise of a warning to the European states to stay out of Latin America, which was considered to be in the American sphere of influence.  
🗑
Free market Economy   An economy in which the allocation for resources is determined only by their supply and the demand for them.  
🗑
Primary Labor Market   Economic position of individuals engaged in occupations that provide secure jobs, and good benefits and working conditions  
🗑
Secondary Labor Market   Economic position of individuals engaged in occupations that provide insecure jobs, poor benefits and conditions of work  
🗑
Functionalist Theory   A sociological theory that attempts to determine the functions, or uses, of the main ways in which a society is organized.  
🗑
Profit Motive   the concept in economics that refers to individuals being provided incentive to relinquish something (e.g. capital, expertise, labour) for deployment to a productive purpose.  
🗑
Global Society   An all-human society, which exists on Earth from the beginnings of humanity in the form of many local societies and communities, national states etc.  
🗑
Sovereignty   The quality of having independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory.  
🗑
Non-governmental Organizations   Legally constituted organizations created by natural or legal people that operate independently from any form of government  
🗑
Bureaucracy   A group of non-elected officials within a government or other institution that implements the rules, laws, ideas, and functions of their institution  
🗑
Renewable Resource   a natural resource which can replenish with the passage of time, either through biological reproduction or other naturally recurring processes.  
🗑
Non-renewable Resource   a natural resource which cannot be reproduced, grown, generated, or used on a scale which can sustain its consumption rate; once depleted there will be no more available for future use.  
🗑
Tropical Rain Forest   Humid tropical  
🗑
Chaparral   Mediterranean  
🗑
Evergreen Needle-leaf Forest   Marine west coast  
🗑
Savanna   Semiarid  
🗑
Steppe   desert  
🗑
Animal Husbandry   the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock  
🗑
Laissez-faire   an economic environment in which transactions between private parties are free from tariffs, government subsidies, and enforced monopolies, with only enough government regulations sufficient to protect property rights against theft and aggression.  
🗑
Equal Area Map   a map projection in which quadrilaterals formed by meridians and parallels have an area on the map proportional to their area on the globe  
🗑
Budgetary Policy   refers to government attempts to run a budget in equilibrium or in surplus.  
🗑
Monetary Policy   the process by which the monetary authority of a country control the supply of money, often targeting a rate of interest for the purpose of promoting economic growth and stability.  
🗑
Fiscal Policy   the use of government revenue collection (taxation) and expenditure (spending) to influence the economy.  
🗑
Turkish Empire   Altai Mountains  
🗑
Carthaginian Empire   Mediterranean Sea  
🗑
Vikings   Atlantic Ocean  
🗑
Mayan Empire   Andes Mountains  
🗑


   

Review the information in the table. When you are ready to quiz yourself you can hide individual columns or the entire table. Then you can click on the empty cells to reveal the answer. Try to recall what will be displayed before clicking the empty cell.
 
To hide a column, click on the column name.
 
To hide the entire table, click on the "Hide All" button.
 
You may also shuffle the rows of the table by clicking on the "Shuffle" button.
 
Or sort by any of the columns using the down arrow next to any column heading.
If you know all the data on any row, you can temporarily remove it by tapping the trash can to the right of the row.

 
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.

  Normal Size     Small Size show me how
Created by: chadhowell
Popular Science sets