Sociology 101 Vocab Ch 6-9 – Flashcards
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Alienation
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a feeling of isolation, meaninglessness, and powerlessness
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Bureaucracy
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a formal organization that is designed to accomplish goals and tasks through the efforts of a large number of people in the most efficient and rational way possible
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Formal Organization
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a complex and structured secondary group that has been deliberately created to achieve specific goals in an efficient manner
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Glass Ceiling
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attitudes or organizational biases in the workplace that prevent women from advancing to leadership positions
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Iron Law of Oligarchy
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the tendency of a bureaucracy to become increasingly dominated by a small group of people
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Primary Group
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a relatively small group of people who engage in intimate face-to-face interaction over an extended period
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Secondary Group
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a large, usually formal, impersonal, and temporary collection of people who pursue a specific goal or activity
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Social Group
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two or more people who interact with one another and who share a common identity and a sense of belonging or "we-ness"
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Social Institution
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an organized and established social system that meets one or more of a society's basic needs
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Anomie
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the conditions in which people are unsure of how to behave because of absent, conflicting, or confusing social norms
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Corporate Crimes
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illegal acts committed by executives to benefit themselves and their companies
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Crime
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a violation of social norms and rules for which punishment is specified by law
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Deviance
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traits or behaviors or trait that violates expected rules or norms
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Differential Association Theory
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a perspective that asserts that people learn deviance through interaction, especially with significant others
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Labeling Theory
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a perspective that holds that society's reaction to behavior in a major factor in defining oneself or others are deviant
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Organized Crime
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activities of individuals and groups that supply illegal goods and services for profit
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Sanctions
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rewards or punishments for obeying or violating a norm
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Social Control
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the techniques and strategies that regulate people's behavior in society
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Stigma
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a negative label that devalues a person and changes her or his self-concept and social identity
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Strain Theory
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the idea that people may engage in deviant behavior when they experience a conflict between goals and the means available to obtain the goals
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Victimless Crimes
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acts that violate laws but involve individuals who don't consider themselves victims
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White-Collar Crimes
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illegal activities committed by high-status individuals in the course of their occupation
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Absolute Poverty
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not having enough money to afford the most basic necessities of life
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Closed Stratification System
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a system in which movement from one social position to another is limited by ascribed statuses such as sex, skin color, and family background
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Corporate Welfare
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an array of subsidies, tax breaks, and assistance that the government has created for businesses
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Davis-Moore Thesis
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the functionalist view that social stratification benefits a society
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Feminization of Poverty
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the higher likelihood that female heads of households will be poor
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Life Chances
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the extent to which people have positive experiences and can secure the good things in life because they have economic resources
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Meritocracy
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a belief that individuals are rewarded for what they do and how well, rather than on the basis of their ascribed status
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Open Stratification System
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a system that is based on individual achievement and allows movement up or down
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Poverty Line
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the minimal level of income that the federal government considers necessary for basic subsistence
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Power
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the ability of individuals or groups to achieve goals, control events, and maintain influence over others despite opposition
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Prestige
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respect, recognition, or regard attached to social positions
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Relative Poverty
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not having enough money to maintain an average standard of living
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Social Class
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a category of people who have similar standing or rank in a society based on wealth, education, power, prestige, and other valued resources
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Social Mobility
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a person's ability to move up or down the social class hierarchy
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Social Stratification
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the hierarchical ranking of people in a society who have different access to valued resources, such as property, prestige, power, and status
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Socioeconomic Status (SES)
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an overall ranking of a person's position in the class hierarchy based on income, education, and occupation
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Underclass
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people who are persistently poor and seldom employed, residentially segregated, and relatively isolated from the rest of the population
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Working Poor
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people who work at least 27 weeks a year but receive such low wages that they live in or near poverty
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Asexuals
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those who lack any interest in or desire for sex
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Bisexuals
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those who are sexually attracted to members of both sexes
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Gender
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learned attitudes and behavior that characterize women and men
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Gender Identity
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a perception of oneself as either masculine or feminine
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Gender Pay Gap
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the overall income difference between women and men in the workplace (also called the wage gap, pay gap, and gender wage gap)
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Gender Roles
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the characteristics, attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that society expects of females and males
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Gender Stereotypes
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expectations about how people will look, act, think, and feel based on their sex
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Gender Stratification
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people's unequal access to wealth, power, status, prestige, and other valued resources because of their sex
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Sex
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the biological characteristics with which we are born
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Sexism
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an attitudes or behavior that discriminates against one sex, usually females, based on the assumed superiority of the other sex
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Sexual Identity
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our awareness of ourselves as male or female and the ways that we express our sexual values, attitudes, feelings, and beliefs
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Sexual Orientation
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a preference for sexual partners of the same sex, of the opposite sex, of both sexes, or neither sex
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Sexual Script
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specifies the formal or informal norms for acceptable or unacceptable sexual activity, which individuals are eligible sexual partners, and the boundaries of sexual behavior
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Transgender People
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Those who are transsexuals, or intersexuals, or transvestites
