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Sociological Imagination

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the ability to see the connections between our personal experience and the larger forces of history

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Credentialism

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an overemphasis on credentials for signaling social status or qualifications for a job

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Social identity

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is how individuals define themselves in relationship to groups they are a part of (or in relationship to groups they choose not to be a part of). We all contribute to one another's social identity, which can also be thought of as a grand narrative constructed of many individual stories

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Age segregation in social institutions

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4 year colleges are more age-segregated then a retirement home

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Positivism

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better understand society by determining the logic or scientific laws governing human behavior

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Founding fathers of sociology

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Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim

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Proletariat

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the working class

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Karl Marx

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developed a theory called historical materialism identifies class conflict as the primary cause of social change

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Max Weber

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felt that culture and politics as well as economics were important influences on society, and his emphasis on subjectivity became a foundation of interpretive sociology

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Emile Durkheim

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considered the founding practitioner of positivist sociology, developed the theory that the division of labor in a given society helps to determine how social cohesion is maintained, or not maintained, in that society

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Verstehen

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"understanding" in German

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Alienation

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a condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation that then confront them as alien powers; according to Marx, the basic state of being in a capitalist society

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Anomie

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a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness

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Division of labor

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the degree to which jobs are specialized

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Social solidarity

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the way social cohesion among individuals is maintained

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Thomas theorem

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things that are perceived as real are real in their consequences

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The looking glass self

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the self emerges from an interactive social process, we envision how others perceive us; then we gauge the responses of other individuals to our presentation of self, by refining our vision of how others perceive us, we develop a self-concept that is in constant interaction with the surrounding social world

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Mead's theory on self

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the perception of consciousness as an object develops over the course of childhood as the individual learns to take the point of view of specific others in specific contexts and eventually internalizes the generalized other

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W.E.B. DuBois

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developed a concept called double consciousness which refers to an individual's constant awareness of how others perceive them and how those perceptions alter their own behavior

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Functionalism

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the theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running

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Conflict theory

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the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force for social change and society in general

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Symbolic Interactionism

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a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions

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Postmodernism

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a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations

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Sociology

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the scientific study of human society

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Macrosociology

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generally concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis - that is, across the breadth of society

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Microsociology

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seeks to understand local international contexts; its methods of choice are ethnographic, generally including participant observation and in-depth interviews

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Midrange theories

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a theory that attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function

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Quantitative research

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methods that seeks to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form

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Qualitative research

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methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form

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Inductive research

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to research, we start with empirical observation and then work to form a theory

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Deductive research

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we start with a theory, develop a hypothesis, make empirical observations, and then analyze the data collected through observation to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory

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Correlation

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exists when we simply observe change in two things simultaneously

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Causation

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exists when we can prove that a change in one factor causes the change in the other factor

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Dependent variable

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is the outcome that a researcher is trying to explain

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Independent variable

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is a measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable

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Operationalization

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the process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study

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Validity

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the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure

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Reliability

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likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure

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Generalizability

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the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied

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Reflexivity

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analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and effect on, our research

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Population

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an entire group of individual persons, objects, or items from which samples may be drawn

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Sampling

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the subset of the population from which you are actually collecting data

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Experiment

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highly controlled in a laboratory setting

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Survey

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an ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents

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Participant observation

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a qualitative research method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their behavior by observing social actions in practice

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Historical methods

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research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date to a prior time period under study

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Ethical concerns with research

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do not harm, must make reparations, guarantee confidentiality, full disclosure, and voluntary

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The focus on what social phenomena means to individuals is

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interpretive sociology

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Which of the following American sociologists applied Émile Durkheim's theory of anomie to explain African American crime rates?

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W.E.B. DuBois

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Sociology is the study of

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what seems natural or normal to a given group of people, human society, and how groups interact with one another

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Which of the following contributors to the development of sociology argued for the importance of identifying scientific laws that govern human behavior?

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Auguste Comte

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Adekunle enters a clothing store and a security guard immediately notices him and follows his actions on a security monitor. Adekunle is aware of the security guard's actions and adjusts his own behavior to avoid a potential confrontation. This is an example of which sociological concept?

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double consciousness

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Which of the following is an example of an application of midrange theory?

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exploring the roles of churches in rural areas

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A social institution can be described as

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a group of social positions, connected by social relations , that perform a social role

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Allison is concerned with the messages that her little sister receives from her elementary school teacher about suitable careers. For example, class lessons portray nurses and secretaries as female, while doctors and engineers are male. Allison's concern is that she is a

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feminist

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According to Karl Marx, throughout history, social change has been sparked by

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class conflict

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Sociology is distinct from other academic disciplines in its attempt to

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detect patterns I how different societies respond to similar phenomena

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Which of the following is an example of a social institution?

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education system, government, marriage

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Which of the "founding fathers" of sociology put forth the idea that sociologists should examine social behavior from the perspective of those engaging in the behavior?

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Max Weber

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The Chicago School of American Sociology emphasized the importance of

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the environment in shaping people's behavior and personality

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People's social identity is

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a way that they define themselves in relation to groups they are a part of or groups they choose not to be a part of

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Postmodern theorists argue that

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all phenomena have multiple meanings and no one meaning can be more valid than another

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Justin decides to conduct research for a class project by recording and assessing how people choose where to sit on a public bus. Which type of sociology is this?

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microsociology

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Types of social functions

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manifest functions are intentional and obvious, while latent functions are unintentional and not obvious

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Public sociology

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refers to the practice of using sociological research, teaching, and service to reach a wider (not solely academic) audience and to influence society.

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