Sociology Chapter 1-6 Test
Primary group
A small social group whose members share personal and lasting friendships
Reference group
A social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions
Bureaucracy
An organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently
Instrumental Leadership
Group leadership that focuses on the completion of tasks
Expressive leadership
Group leadership that focuses on the group's well being
Normative organizations
Have goals people consider worthwhile (i.e. voluntary associations such as the PTA)
Formal organizations
Large, secondary groups organized to achieve their goals efficiently
Coercive organizations
Organizations people are forced to join (i.e. prisons and mental hospitals)
Utilitarian organizations
Pay people for their efforts (i.e. a business or government agency)
Alienation, inefficiency/ritualism, inertia, oligarchy
Problems of bureaucracy
Social media
Technology that links people in social activity
Theoretical approach
a basic image of society that guides thinking and research
Macro-level orientation
a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole
Micro-level orientation
a close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations
Variable
a concept whose value changes from case to case
Structural-functional approach
a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability
Social-conflict approach
a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change
Symbolic-interaction approach
a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals
Validity
actually measuring exactly what you intended to measure
Spurious correlation
an apparent but false relationship between 2 (or more) variables that is caused by some other variable
Social structure
any relatively stable pattern of social behavior
Reliability
consistency in measurement
Low-income countries
nations with a low standard of living, in which most people are poor
Middle-income countries
nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole
Folkways
norms for routine or casual interaction
Mores
norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance
Society
people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture
Culture shock
personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life
Objectivity
personal neutrality in conducting research
Norms
rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members
Beliefs
specific ideas that people hold to be true
Operationalize a variable
specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a value to a variable
Feminism
support of social equality for women and men
Cultural universals
traits that are part of every known culture
Language
a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another
Sociobiology
a theoretical approach that explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture
heterosexism
a view that labels anyone who is not heterosexual as "queer"
homophobia
discomfort over close personal interaction with people thought to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual
Afrocentrism
emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns
primary sex characteristics
genitals, organs used for reproduction
Highly skilled and creative work
i.e. designers, consultants, programmers and executives
Empirical evidence
information we can verify with our senses
Social construction of reality
A process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction
Pastoralism
the domestication of animals
Eurocentrism
the dominance of European cultural patterns
Cultural lag
the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system
Socialization
The lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture
Mass media
The means for delivering impersonal communications to a vast audience
Oligarchy
The rule of many by the few
Gerontology
The study of aging and the elderly
Dramaturgical analysis
The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance. A status operates as a part in a play, and a role is a script.
Personal space
The surrounding area over which a person makes some claim to privacy
Bureaucratic inertia
The tendency of bureaucratic organizations to perpetuate themselves
Groupthink
The tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issue
Social Group
Two or more people who identify with and interact with one another
Thomas theorem
W.I. Thomas's claim that situations defined as real are real in their consequences
Culture, social class
What two things shape the reality people construct?
Multiculturalism
a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the US and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions
Measurement
a procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case
Cause and effect
a relationship in which change in one variable (IV) causes change in another (DV)
Correlation
a relationship in which two or more variables change together
Positivism
a scientific approach to knowledge based on "positive facts" as opposed to mere speculation
Critical sociology
the study of sociology that focuses on the need for social change
Global perspective
the study of the larger world and our society's place in it
Latent functions
the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern
Horticulture
the use of hand tools to raise crops
Hunting and gathering
the use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation for food
Culture
the ways of thinking, acting, and material objects that together form a people's way of life
Cohort
A category of people with something in common, usually their age
Bureaucratic ritualism
A focus on rules and regulations to the point of undermining an organization's goals
Gerontocracy
A form of social organization in which the elderly have the most wealth, power, and prestige
Secondary group
A large, impersonal and goal-oriented, and often of shorter duration (examples include a college class or a corporation)
Role set
A number of roles attached to a single status
Personality
A person's fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling
Total institution
A setting in which people are isolated form thye rest of society and manipulated by a administrative staff
In-group
A social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty
Out-group
A social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition
Peer group
A social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common
Triad
A social group with three members
Dyad
A social group with two members
Status
A social position that is part of our social identity and that defines our relationship to others
Low skilled service work
Associated with the McDonalization of society, based on efficiency, uniformity, and control (i.e. fast food restaurant job)
Role
Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status
Performances
Both conscious (intentional action) and unconscious (nonverbal communication), include costume, props, and demeanor
Master status
Can be either ascribed or achieved, has special importance for a person's identity
Nonverbal communication
Communication using body gestures, movements, and facial expressions rather than speech
Looking-glass self
Cooley's term for a self image based on how we think others see us
Presentation of self
Erving Goffman's term for a person's efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others
Organizational environment
Factors such as technology, political and economic trends, current events, population patterns, other organizations that affect its operation
Family, school, peer group, mass media
Four agents of socialization
Demeanor, use of space, smiling, staring and touching
Four ways gender affects performances
Scientific management
Frederick Taylor's term for the application of scientific principles to the operation of a business or other large organization
Ego
Freud's term for a person's conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure seeking drives with the demands of society
Superego
Freud's term for the cultural values and norms internalized by an individual
Id
Freud's term for the human being's basic drives
Self
George Herbert Mead's term for the part of and individual's personality composed of self-awareness and self-image
Generalized other
George Herbert Mead's term for widespread cultural norms and values we use as reference in evaluating ourselves
Ascribed status
Involuntary status (being a teenager, orphan, Mexican-American)
Anticipatory socialization
Learning that helps a person achieve a desired position
Significant others
People, such as parents, who have special importance for socialization
Network
Relational webs that link people with little common identity and limited interaction.
Formal operational stage
Piaget's term for the level of human development at which abstract and critical thought is used
Sensorimotor stage
Piaget's term for the level of human development at which individuals experience the world only through their senses
Concrete operational stage
Piaget's term for the level of human development at which individuals first see casual connections in their surroundings
Preoperational stage
Piaget's term for the level of human development at which individuals first use language and other symbols
Ageism
Prejudice and discrimination against older people
Resocialization
Radically changing an inmate's personality by carefully controlling the environment
Role strain
Results from tension among roles linked to a single status (for example, the college professor who enjoy social interaction with students but knows that distance is necessary for fair evaluation)
Role conflict
Results from tension among roles linked to two or more status (for example, a woman who juggles her responsibilities as a mother and a corporate CEO)
Social structure
Social patterns that guide our behavior in everyday life. The building blocks of this are status and role
Achieved status
Status which is earned (honors student, pilot, thief)
Theory
a state of how and why specific facts are related
Social media
Technology that links people in social activity.
queer theory
a body of research findings that challenges the heterosexual bias in the US society
asexuality
a lack of sexual attraction to people of either sex
Science
a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation
Concept
a mental construct that represents some aspect of the world in a simplified form
incest taboo
a norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives
sexual orientation
a person's romantic and emotional attraction to another person
Social dysfunction
any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society
Symbol
anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture
transgender
appearing or behaving in ways that challenge conventional cultural norms concerning how females and males should look act
Social control
attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behaviors
secondary sex characteristics
bodily development, apart from the genitals, that distinguishes biologically mature females and males
Popular culture
cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population
High culture
cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite
Subculture
cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society's population
Counterculture
cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society
Values
culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living
Technology
knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings
Agriculture
large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources
transsexuals
people who feel they are one sex even though biologically they are the other
intersexual people
people whose bodies (including genitals) have both female and male characteristics
bisexuality
sexual attraction to people of both sexes
heterosexuality
sexual attraction to someone of the other sex
homosexuality
sexual attraction to someone of the same sex
pornography
sexually explicit material intended to cause sexual arousal
Sex
the biological distinction between females and males
Cultural integration
the close relationships among various elements of a cultural system
Social functions
the consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society as a whole
abortion
the deliberate termination of pregnancy
Sapir-Whorf thesis
the idea that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language
Nonmaterial culture
the ideas created by members of a society
High-income countries
the nations with the highest overall standards of living
Gender
the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male
Material culture
the physical things created by members of a society
Cultural relativism
the practice of judging a culture by its own standards
Ethnocentrism
the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture
Cultural transmission
the process by which one generation passes culture to another
Industry
the production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery
Postindustrialism
the production of information using computer technology
Manifest functions
the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern
prostitution
the selling of sexual services
Sociological perspective
the special point of view that sees general patterns of society in the lives of particular people
Race-conflict theory
the study of society that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories
Gender-conflict theory (feminist theory)
the study of society that focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men
Interpretive sociology
the study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world
Positivist sociology
the study of sociology based on scientific observation of social behavior