Sociology 1101: Midterm Exam
Cooley "looking glass self" theory
1 we imagine how we appear to others 2 we interpret the reactions of others 3 develop a self concept "you see yourself as a reflection of how others see you"
Mead's stages of development
1. Preparatory Stage 2. Play Stage 3. Game Stage
Counterculture
A culture with lifestyles and values opposed to those of the established culture.
Authoritarian
A government in which one leader or group of people holds absolute power.
informal group
A group that is neither formally structured nor organizationally determined; such a group appears in response to the need for social contact.
social differentiation
A process in which people are set apart for differential treatment by virtue of their statuses, roles, and other social characteristics; social differentiation: e.g. teacher, taxi driver.
Taboo
A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.
Scientific Method
A series of steps followed to solve problems including collecting data, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and stating conclusions.
Conformity
Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
Qualitative Research Methods
Aim to understand the nature or meaning of experiences, which cannot be quantified into numbers; research in which the emphasis is placed on observing, describing, and interpreting people's behavior
Ethnocentrism
Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group; evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one's own culture.
Cultural Relativism
Cultural relativism is the idea that a person's beliefs and practices should be understood based on that person's own culture. Proponents of cultural relativism also tend to argue that the norms and values of one culture should not be evaluated using the norms and values of another.
Popular Culture
Culture found in a large, heterogeneous society that shares certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics.
Emile Durkheim and Social Cohesion
Durkheim defines social cohesion as a characteristic of society that shows the interdependence in between individuals of that society, and coins to social cohesion, the absence of latent social conflict (any conflict based on for e.g. wealth, ethnicity, race, and gender) and the presence of strong social bonds (e.g. civic society, responsive democracy, and impartial law enforcement)
Mechanical Solidarity
Durkheim's term for the unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks
Non-material Culture
Human creations, such as values, norms, knowledge, systems of government, language, and so on, that are not embodied in physical objects
ideas of culture
Ideas are considered as mental representation and are used to organize stimulus. When Ideas are link together it will organize into larger systems of information which will become knowledge
Thomas Theorem
If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences; how a subjective reality can drive events to develop in accordance with that reality, despite being originally unsupported by objective reality
Control Group
In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
Sociologist/Theorist: Charles Horton Cooley
Looking glass self and the effect of primary groups
Karl Marx and Exploitation
Marx believed that the real danger of capitalism was that it exploited workers. Marxists have since developed his theory to explore how capitalism also exploits the planet and its natural resources. According to Marx, capitalists exploit laborers by paying them less than they are worth -- the excess labor of the laborer is what becomes the capitalists' profits. This "surplus labor" is exploited by the capitalist who also forces the laborer into unfitting and unfair working conditions -- something that was much more obvious and severe during the 19th century Marx was writing.
Karl Marx and Alienation
Marx believed that workers were alienated in several ways. Marx highlighted four elements from which the worker is alienated: the product, the act of producing, himself and others. The main idea behind alienation is that one of the effects of the worker's exploitation by the capitalist is that he is not able to live as he otherwise naturally would. This alienation is a kind of separation or removal from how life "naturally" should be. Capitalism, for Marx, is a perversion that separates man from what he makes and how he makes it as well as he would otherwise "naturally" be as a human and how he would relate to others.
Karl Marx and Revolution
Marx believed that, eventually, workers would unite and overthrow the capitalist ruling class. He thought that the bourgeois-capitalist ruling structure would give way to a revolution led by workers who would replace the order with a more fair system. Marx did not exactly call this "communism," and the "communist" states that emerged after Marx -- the Soviet Union, North Korea, the People's Republic of China -- in no way resembled what Marx was talking about. Marx sought a radically democratic order based on collective decision-making and the shared used of the means of production -- that is, the land, labor, and capital that goes in to producing things.
Proletariat
Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production
"Iron Cage"
Max Weber's pessimistic description of modern life, in which we are caught in bureaucratic structures that control our lives through rigid rules and rationalization
Game Stage
Mead's third stage in the development of role taking; children anticipate the actions of others based on social rules
coercive organizations
Organizations where members do not have a choice in joining (ex. prisons)
Types of groups in sociology
Primary and secondary groups, reference groups, coalition groups, in-groups and out-groups and formal and non-formal groups.
The Case of Genie
She was kept in a dark room, ignored and neglected, strapped to a potty and fed baby food for 10 years. She was found when she was 13, she couldnt walk or talk, had a deformed body (physical retardation), strange mannerisms, behaved like an infant. After she was found she started to talk (making sounds and repeated words) - in the childrens hospital and she was able to develop an attachment with one of the psychologists. Also after she was found, every year her mental age increased by 1 year.
coalition group
Temporary or permanent allegiance for a common goal
Mead and the emergence of mind and self
The emergence of mind is contingent upon interaction between the human organism and its social environment; it is through participation in the social act of communication that individuals realize their potential for significantly symbolic behavior, that is, thought. Mind, in Mead's terms, is the individualized focus of the communication process. It is linguistic behavior on the part of the individual. There is, then, no "mind or thought without language;" and language (the content of mind) "is only a development and product of social interaction
Independent Variable
The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
Karl Marx and Materialism
The motivating idea behind Marx's philosophy was the idea of materialism. Materialists believe that it is the material conditions of the world, for instance, the structure of the economy and the distribution of wealth, that give rise to ideas such as who "should" lead and "deserves" to earn what they earn. This idea is contrary to idealism, which states that it is ideas that give rise to material reality.
Dependent Variable
The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.
Symbols in Culture
The symbols are considered as the backbone of symbolic interactions. A symbol might be considered as anything that holds a particular meaning and are recognized by the people that shares the same culture. Different cultures have different symbols, it is cross-culturally and it might be change over a period of time.
Language in culture
Through having a language, a group of people interact with one another, socially sharing their thoughts, feelings or ideas to the people with same language. Language forms the core of all cultures throughout society.
types of organizations
Utilitarian, Normative, coercive, and bureaucracy
Quantitative Research Methods
Way of gathering data that can be quantified and analyzing the data to draw conclusions; uses large surveys, questionnaires, secondary research, looking at large samples. Reports data primarily in numerical form; any research method that attempts to precisely measure people's thoughts, feelings, or behaviors using numbers
irrationality of rationality
Weber's concept that rationalized systems can create negative outcomes; rationalized methods may not always lead to the desired outcome
Xenocentrism
a belief that another culture is superior to one's own
Generalized Other
a concept introduced by George Herbert Mead into the social sciences, and used especially in the field of symbolic interactionism. It is the general notion that a person has of the common expectations that others may have about actions and thoughts within a particular society, and thus serves to clarify their relation to the other as a representative member of a shared social system.
formal group
a group in which the structure, goals, and activities of the group are clearly defined
Social Control
a group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms; attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behavior; the techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in any society
secondary group
a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity
Folkway
a loosely enforced norm involving common customs, practices, or procedures that ensure smooth social interaction and acceptance
Participant Observation
a naturalistic observation in which the observer becomes a participant in the group being observed
Social Structure
a pattern of organized relationships among groups of people within a society
Value Neutrality
a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in publishing results; Max Weber's term for objectivity of sociologists in the interpretation of data
Anomie
a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness
American Sociological Association's Code of Ethics
a set of guidelines that the American Sociological Association has established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology
Primary group
a small group characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation
reference group
a social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions
out-group
a social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition
in-group
a social group with which an individual identifies
Interpretive framework
a sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing
Hypothesis
a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
Meritocracy
a system in which promotion is based on individual ability or achievement
Democracy
a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Language
a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another
Looking Glass Self
a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops through internalizing others' reactions to us
Degradation Ceremony
a term coined by Harold Garfinkel to refer to a ritual whose goal is to remake someone's self by stripping away that individual's self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place
Organic Solidarity
a type of social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences
Norm
a value or attitude deemed acceptable by a group
Cultural Universal
a value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in every group
Macro-level analyses
a wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society; focusing on social structures, such as studies of political and economic systems
Mores
accepted standards and customs of a social group
Total Institution
an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same single authority
Case Study
an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
Normative Organization
an organization having a voluntary membership and that pursues goals; examples are the PTA or a political party
Bureaucracy
an organization of non-elected officials who implements the rules, laws, and functions of their institution
Nonreactive research
another term for naturalistic observation in the social sciences, emphasizing that the subjects are unaware that they are being studied; using secondary data, does not include direct contact with subjects and will not alter or influence people's behaviors
Symbols
anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture
Folkways in culture
are considered as behavioral patterns of a particular society that is repetitive and organize
Accounts in culture
are considered to be a way on how people use the language for their explanation, justification, or to rationalize, excuse, or legitimize a behavior towards themselves or to the others.
Predictability and standardization
are found in repetitive and routinized production or service delivery processes and in the consistent output of products or experiences that are identical or close to it (predictability of the consumer experience).
Rituals in culture
are those highly scripted ceremonies of interactions which follows a sequence of actions. Examples are baptism, holidays and more
Beliefs in culture
assumes that a proposition, statement, description of fact are true in nature. These acceptance were influenced by the external authorities such as government, religion, or science rather than proven true from the individual's direct experiences
Leadership types
authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire; instrumental and expressive
High Culture
classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences
4 major components of culture
communication, cognitive, material, and behavioral
Behavioral component of culture
component of culture that is concerned about on how we act. It includes norms which further categorizes into Mores, Laws, Folkway, and Rituals.
Sociologist/Theorist: Solomon Asch
conformity
Norms in culture
considered as rules and expectations eventually set by a particular society that serve as guides to the behavior of its members. It varies in the terms of the degrees of importance and might be change over a period of time. It is reinforced by sanctions in the forms or rewards and punishments. These are standards accepted by society culturally and serves as obligatory and expected behavior's of the people in different situations in life.
Different types of roles in society
cultural roles, social differentiation, situation-specific roles, bio-sociological roles, and gender roles
Field Research
descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside the laboratory
Mills and Power Elite
elites are products of the distinct institutions within which they arise, whether it be the military, politics, or business.
Sociologist/Theorist: George Herbert Mead
emergence of mind and self
agents of socialization
family, schools, peers, and mass media
Alienation
feeling isolated and separated from everyone else
Theoretical Perspective: Feminist
focuses on the study of power and inequality of power, much like conflict theory but focuses on these concepts concerning gender.
Micro-level analyses
focusing on individuals, such as studies of small groups and attitude change
Sociologist/Theorist: Max Weber
formulation of the connection between culture and economy; conceptualizing how people and institutions come to have authority, and how they keep it; and, the "iron cage" of bureaucracy and how it shapes our lives.
Instrumental Leadership
group leadership that focuses on the completion of tasks
Expressive Leadership
group leadership that focuses on the group's well-being
Sociologist/Theorist: Emile Durkheim
idea of social cohesion
Lassiez Faire
idea that government should stay out of business and economic affairs as much as possible
Utilitarianism
idea that the goal of society should be to bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people
Communication in culture
include language and symbols
cognitive component of culture
includes Ideas, Knowledge and Belief, Values and Accounts
Material component of culture
includes materials or objects created by humans for practical use or for artistic reasons. These objects are called as "material culture". Material components serves as an expression of an individual culture.
Calculability
is a focus on quantifiable objectives (counting things) rather than subjective ones (evaluation of quality).
Theoretical Perspective: Symbolic Interactionism
is a micro-level theory that focuses on the relationships among individuals within a society. Communication—the exchange of meaning through language and symbols—is believed to be the way in which people make sense of their social worlds. Theorists Herman and Reynolds (1994) note that this perspective sees people as being active in shaping the social world rather than simply being acted upon
Role Play
is a socio-logical concept referring to a social function which all people holding a particular position or status are expected to perform in overt conduct.
knowledge of culture
is considered as a storage of information fact or assumption, and these knowledge can be passed down from one generation to another
Sociology
is the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions, from small and personal groups to very large groups
Mores in culture
kinds of norms that are considered to be as a customary behavior patterns which have taken from a moralistic value.
Structures of Society
laws, political systems, marriage practices, kinship, religion, economic practices, customs/traditions, etc. all work together to function
Sociologist/Theorist: Karl Marx
materialism exploitation alienation revolution
Latent Functions
not consciously intended, but that, nonetheless, has a beneficial effect on society
Max Weber and Social Class
one's position in society relative to others is about more than how much money one has. He reasoned that the level of prestige associated with one's education and occupation, as well as one's political group affiliations, in addition to wealth, combine to create a hierarchy of people in society.
Roles
patterns of behavior that are representative of a person's social status
Society
people who share a culture and a territory
Statuses
positions in society that are used to classify individuals
Survey vs Interpretive Research
positivist or deductive methods, such as laboratory experiments and survey research, are those that are specifically intended for theory (or hypotheses) testing, while interpretive or inductive methods, such as action research and ethnography, are intended for theory building.
Sociologist/Theorist: C. Wright Mills
power elite
Secondary Data Analysis
reanalysis of data, often survey data, collected by others, including other sociologists
cultural roles
roles given by culture (e.g. priest)
situation-specific roles
roles that are created through situations; e.g. eye witnesses
bio-sociological role
roles that occur through organisms living in a certain society; human in a natural system
Theoretical Perspective: Functionalism/Structural Functionalism
sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that society
values in culture
serve as guidelines for social living. Culturally, it can be defined as the standards of desirability, goodness and beauty.
Laws in culture
serve as the formal and important norms that translated into legal formalizations.
gender roles
sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as male or female
Cultural Lag
situation in which some aspects of the culture change less rapidly, or lag behind, other aspects of the same culture
Leader
someone who can influence others and who has managerial authority
Sanctions
something that forces obedience with a law or rule
main components of culture
symbols, language, values and beliefs, norms, and material culture and technology
Material Culture
tangible, physical items produced and used by members of a specific culture group and reflective of their traditions, lifestyles, and technologies
Max Weber and the "iron cage"
technological and economic relationships that organized and grew out of capitalist production became themselves fundamental forces in society. Thus, if you are born into a society organized this way, with the division of labor and hierarchical social structure that comes with it, you can't help but live within this system. As such, one's life and worldview are shaped by it to such an extent that one probably can't even imagine what an alternative way of life would look like. So, those born into the cage live out its dictates, and in doing so, reproduce the cage in perpetuity. For this reason, Weber considered the iron cage a massive hindrance to freedom.
Asch and conformity
tendency to go along with the views and actions of others, even if you know they are wrong; social acts needed to be viewed in terms of their setting. His famous conformity experiment demonstrated that people would change their response due to social pressure in order to conform to the rest of the group.
Role strain
tension among the roles connected to a single status
Sociological Imagination
the ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular; as an awareness of the relationship between a person's behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person's choices and perceptions. It's a way of seeing our own and other people's behavior in relationship to history and social structure
Institutionalization
the act of implanting a convention or norm into society
Gender Socialization
the aspect of socialization that contains specific messages and practices concerning the nature of being female or male in a specific group or society
Collective Conscience
the common beliefs and values that bind a society together
Cultural Imperialism
the deliberate imposition of one's own cultural values on another culture
Culture
the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
Validity
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
Reliability
the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting
Culture Shock
the feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes.
Preparatory Stage
the first stage in Mead's theory of the development of self wherein children mimic or imitate others
Values
the ideas, beliefs, and attitudes about what is important that help guide the way you live; Beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment (either for or against something)
McDonalidization of Society
the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions; efficiency, calculability, predictability and standardization, and control.
Manifest Functions
the intended function of social policies, processes, or actions that are consciously and deliberately designed to be beneficial in their effect on society.
Social Fact(s)
the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life
Survey Research
the measurement of public opinion through the use of sampling and questioning; gathering primary data by asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior; the most popular technique for gathering primary data, in which a researcher interacts with people to obtain facts, opinions, and attitudes
Ethnography
the method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have
Bourgeoisie
the middle class, including merchants, industrialists, and professional people
Cooley and primary groups
the more advanced a society became, the more individualistic people became. He witnessed the breakdown of social cohesion and traditional family. He was convinced that it was the small, intimate groups which influenced behavior the most, and with a breakdown of these primary groups, we also had a breakdown of human behavior. Cooley coined the term primary groups, which is defined as groups characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation. Primary groups come together for expressive reasons - to provide emotional support, love, companionship and security. It is through these groups that one begins to develop the sense of self.
Theoretical Perspective: Conflict
the perspective that society is all about competing for limited resources; is a macro-level approach
Socialization
the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society
social construction of reality
the process by which our perception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience
Rationality
the process by which traditional methods of social organization, characterized by informality and spontaneity, are gradually replaced by efficiently administered formal rules and procedures
Resocialization
the process of adopting new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors
Efficiency
the property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources; entails a managerial focus on minimizing the time required to complete individual tasks as well as that required to complete the whole operation or process of production and distribution.
Positivism
the scientific study of social patterns; the theory dealing with only that which can be scientifically verified through logical or mathematical proofs
Play Stage
the second stage in Mead's theory of the development of self wherein children pretend to play the role of the particular or significant other
Ideal Culture
the standards a society would like to embrace and live up to
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
the tendency for people to behave as they are expected to behave; an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true
Subculture
the values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture; a world within a world
Anticipatory Socialization
the voluntary process of preparing to accept new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors
Control
wielded by the management to ensure that workers appear and act the same on a moment-to-moment and daily basis. It also refers to the use of robots and technology to reduce or replace human employees wherever possible