Sociology Chapters 1,2,3 – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
archival research
answer
the use of existing records that have been produced or maintained by persons or organizations other than the researcher.
question
dependent variable
answer
the variable that is affected in an experimental setting.
question
hypothesis
answer
a proposition that can be tested to determine its validity.
question
macrosociology
answer
the study of large scale and long term social processes.
question
participant observation
answer
a technique in which researchers engage in activities with the people they are observing.
question
secondary data analysis
answer
analysis of data collected by others.
question
social statics
answer
those aspects of social life that have to do with order and stability and that allow societies to hold together and endure.
question
sociological imagination
answer
the ability to see our private experiences and personal difficulties as entwined with the structural arrangements of our society and the historical times in which we live.
question
survey
answer
a method for gathering data on people's beliefs, values, attitudes, perceptions, motivations, and feelings. The data can be derived from interviews or questionnaires,
question
value-free sociology
answer
the view of Max Weber that sociologists must not allow their personal biases to affect the conduct of their scientific research.
question
achieved status
answer
the status that individuals secure on the basis of choice and competition.
question
counterculture
answer
a subculture whose norms and values are substantially at odds with those of the larger society.
question
cultural universals
answer
patterned and recurrent aspects of life that appear in all known societies.
question
duties
answer
the actions that others can legitimately insist we perform.
question
folkways
answer
norms people do not deem to be of great importance and to which they exact less stringent conformity.
question
language
answer
a socially structured system of sound patterns (words and sentences) with specific arbitrary meanings.
question
master status
answer
a key or core status that carries primary weight in a person's interactions and relationship with others.
question
norms
answer
social rules that specify appropriate or inappropriate behavior in given situations.
question
role
answer
a set of expectations (rights and duties) that define the behavior that people view as appropriate and inappropriate for the occupant of a status.
question
role performance
answer
the actual behavior of the person who occupies a status.
question
role strain
answer
the situation in which individuals find the expectations of a single role incompatible, so they have difficulty performing the role.
question
status
answer
a position within a group or society; a location of a social structure.
question
symbols
answer
acts or objects that have come to be socially accepted as standing for something else.
question
body language
answer
physical motions and gestures that provide social signals.
question
conditioning
answer
a form of learning in which consequences of behavior determine the probability of its future occurrence.
question
egocentric bias
answer
the tendency to place ourselves at the center of events so that we overpercieve ourselves as the victim or target of an action or event that in reality is not directed at us.
question
language acquisition device
answer
the view associated with Noam Chomsky that human beings possess an inborn language - generating mechanism. The basic structure of language is seen as biologically channeled, forming a sort of prefabricated filing system to order the words and phrases that make up human languages.
question
looking glass self
answer
the term that Charles Horton Coley applied to the process by which we imaginatively assume the stance of other people and view ourselves as we believe they see us.
question
paralanguage
answer
nonverbal cues surrounding speech - voice, pitch, volume, pacing of speech, silent pauses, and sighs - that provide a rich source of communicative information.
question
proxemics
answer
the way we employ social and personal space to transmit messages.
question
reflexive behavior
answer
actions through which people observe, interpret, evaluate, communicate with, and attempt to control themselves.
question
self conception
answer
an overriding view of ourselves; a sense of self through time.
question
self-image
answer
a mental conception or picture we have of ourselves that is relatively temporary; it changes as we move from one context to another.
question
socialization
answer
a process of social interaction by which people acquire the knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors essential for effective participation in society.
question
constructed reality
answer
our experience of the world. Meaning is not something that inheres in things; it is a property that derives from, or arises out of, the interaction that takes place among people in the course of their daily lives.
question
experiment
answer
a technique in which researchers work with two groups that are identical in all relative aspects. They introduce a change in one group but not in the other group. The procedure permits researchers to test the effects of an independent variable on a dependent variable.
question
independent variable
answer
the variable that causes an effect in an experimental setting.
question
microsociology
answer
the detailed study of what individuals say, do, and think moment by moment as they go about their daily lives.
question
random sample
answer
a sampling procedure in which researchers select subjects on the basis of chance so that every individual in the population has the same opportunity to be chosen.
question
social Darwinism
answer
the application of evolutionary notions and the concept of survival of the fittest to the social world.
question
social dynamics
answer
those aspects of social life that pattern institutional development and have to do with social change.
question
stratified random sample
answer
a sampling procedure in which researchers divide a population into relevant categories and draw a random sample from each of the categories.
question
unobtrusive observation
answer
a technique in which researchers observe the activities of people without intruding or participating in the activities.
question
variable
answer
a concept that can take on different values; the term scientists apply to something they think influences (or is influenced by) something else.
question
ascribed status
answer
a status assigned to an individual by a group or society.
question
cultural relativism
answer
a value-free or neutral approach that views the behavior of a people from the perspective of their own culture.
question
culture
answer
the social heritage of a people; those learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting that are transmitted from one generation to the next, including the embodiment of these patterns in material items.
question
ethnocentrism
answer
the tendency to judge the behavior of other groups by the standards of one's own culture.
question
group
answer
two or more people who share a feeling of unity and who are bound together in relatively stable patterns of social interaction.
question
laws
answer
rules that are enforced by a special political organization composed of individuals who enjoy the right to use force.
question
mores
answer
norms to which people attach a good deal of importance and exact strict conformity.
question
rights
answer
actions that we can legitimately insist that others perform.
question
role conflict
answer
the situation in which individuals are confronted with conflicting expectations stemming from their simultaneous occupancy of two or more statuses.
question
role exit
answer
occurs when people stop playing roles that have been central to their social identities.
question
role set
answer
the multiple roles associated with a single status.
question
social structure
answer
the interweaving of people's interactions and relationships in more or less recurrent and stable patterns.
question
subculture
answer
a group whose members participate in the main culture of a society while simultaneously sharing a number of unique values, norms, traditions and lifestyles.
question
values
answer
broad ideas regarding what is desirable, correct, and good that most members of a society share
question
communication
answer
the process by which people transmit information, ideas, attitudes, and mental states to one another.
question
definition of the situation
answer
a concept formulated by William I. Thomas, which refers to the interpretation or meaning people give to their immediate circumstances.
question
generalized other
answer
the term George Herbert Mead applied to the social unit that gives individuals their unity of self. The attitude of the generalized other is the attitude of the larger community.
question
life course
answer
the interweave of age-graded trajectories with the vicissitudes of changing social conditions and suture options that characterize the life span from conception through old age and death.
question
observational learning
answer
learning that occurs when people reproduce the responses they observe in other people, either real or fictional; also referred to as modeling or imitation.
question
personal efficacy
answer
the belief that one can overcome obstacles and achieve goals.
question
reflected appraisals
answer
appraisals of ourselves that we see reflected in the behavior of others.
question
self
answer
the set of concepts we use in defining who we are.
question
self-esteem
answer
the belief that one is a good and valuable person.
question
significant other
answer
the term George Herbert Mead applied to a social model, usually an important person in an individual's life.
question
Thomas theorem
answer
the notion that our definitions influence our construction of reality; as stated by William I. Thomas and Dorothy S. Thomas: "If [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences."
question
functionalists
answer
sees society as a system. identify the structural characteristics and functions and dysfunctions of institutions, and distinguished between manifest functions and latent functions. typically assume that most members of society share a consensus regarding their core beliefs and values
question
conflict theory
answer
draws much of its inspiration from the works of Karl Marx and argues that the structure of society and the nature of social relationships are the result of past and ongoing conflicts
question
social learning theory
answer
emphasizes conditioning - learning in which consequences and behavior determine the probability of future behavior, and observational observing - occurs when people reproduce responses they observe in other people, either real or fictional
question
cognitive development theory
answer
argues that socialization precedes deferent in growth stages
question
sensorimotor
answer
age where children begin to gradually understand that they exist independently of people and things around them
question
preoperational
answer
children identify symbols with objects making it difficult to understand real from make believe egocentric
question
concrete observational
answer
learn more abstractly, can separate the symbol from what it represents, can see things the way others do
question
formal operations
answer
can critically evaluate other's point of view
question
symbolic interactionism
answer
says that reflexive behavior facilitates the development of the self
question
functionalist
answer
as life expectancy increases and US baby boomers continue to age, our country faces a rapidly expanding group over over-55 workers, an increasing population of frail and vulnerable elderly, and a decreasing pool of potential care givers for those elderly.
question
conflict theory
answer
an African American woman at odds with her white neighbor over affirmative action policy may agree with her about increasing funding for their neighborhood schools.
question
social learning theory
answer
commercials suggest that drinking a certain beverage or using a particular hair shampoo will make us popular and win the admiration of attractive people.
question
symbolic interactionism
answer
when you get really angry about something, you probably reflect on how your expression of anger will be interpreted by others and then use this reflection to guide your actual expression of anger.
question
Auguste Comte
answer
the founder of sociology. He emphasized that sociology must be scientific. He divided the study into social statistics and social dynamics.
question
Harriet Martineau
answer
feminist who wrote the first book on social research methods. How To Observe Manners and Morals. Among the first systematic scientifically based social research.
question
Herbert Spencer
answer
fan of Darwin. Creates the term "social Darwinism" that depicts society as a system like the human body. Society changes and we remove things that aren't important to society and its development. Survival of the fittest in the social world.
question
Karl Marx
answer
focused research on economic developments. Divided into those who own the means of producing wealth and those who don't giving rise to class conflict. Development depends on the class of contradictions and the creation of new structures from those conflicts.
question
Emile Durkheim
answer
social integration and social facts. Focused on social solidarity. Didn't agree with Marx. Social integration - the number of social relationships that exists among people. ex: six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Social Solidarity - the tendency of people to maintain those relationships. Said that sociology should focus on social facts - aspects of social life that can't be explained in terms of biological or mental characteristics of the individual. Combination of legal and unwritten laws of society. He felt that Marx put too much emphasis on economic factors and class struggle and not on social solidarity. He wanted to focus on the group and not the individual.
question
Max Weber
answer
great impact on sociology. Focused on human subjectivity. Placing yourself in someone else's shoes. First proposed value-free society - no biases that would affect the conduct of your research. Be objective. Don't condemn.
question
W.E. DeBois
answer
well known sociologist and leading African American founders. Member of NAACP. Did investigative field work. Looked at racial inequalities and radical ways to eliminate it.
