Sociology Chapter 6-9

Structural Strain Theory

Robert Merton's argument that in an unequal society the tension or strain between socially-approved goals and an individual's ability to achieve those goals through socially-approved means will lead to deviance as individual's reject either the goals or the means or both.

Caste System

a form of social stratification in which status is determined by one's family history and background and cannot be changed.

Simplicity Movement

a loosely knit movement that opposes consumerism and encourages people to work less,earn less, and spend less, in accordance with non-materialistic values.

Wealth

a measure of net worth that includes income,property, and other assets.

Outsiders

according to Howard Becker,those labeled deviant and subsequently segregated from "normal" society.

Positive deviance

actions considered deviant within a given context but are later reinterpreted as appropriate or even heroic.

Cultural Capital

the tastes,habits,expectations,skills,knowledge, and other cultural dispositions that help us gain advantages in society.

Social Reproduction

the tendency of social classes to remain relatively stable as social class status is passed down from one generation to the next.

Social Inequality

the unequal distribution of wealth, power,or prestige among members of society.

Property Crime

crimes that do not involve violence, including burglary,larceny-theft,motor-vehicle theft,and arson.

Primary Deviance

in labeling theory,the initial act or attitude that causes one to be labeled deviant.

Secondary Deviance

in labeling theory,the subsequent deviant identity or career that develops as a result of being labeled deviant.

Innovators

individuals who accept society's approved goals, but not society's approved means to achieve them.

Ritualists

individuals who have given up of hope of achieving society's approved goals but still operate according to society's approved means.

Retreatists

individuals who reject both society's approved goals and the means by which to achieve them.

Rebels

individuals who reject society's approved goals and means and instead create and work toward their own (sometime revolutionary) goals using new means.

Minority Group

members of a social group that is systematically denied the same access to power and resources available to society's dominant groups but who are not necessarily fewer in number than the dominant groups.

Working Class or Lower Middle Class

mostly "blue collar" or service industry workers who are less likely to have a college degree; they constitute about 30 percent of the U.S. population.

Intergenerational Mobility

movement between social classes that occurs from one generation to the next.

Stigma

Erving Goffman's term for any physical or social attribute that devalues a person or group's identity and that may exclude those who are devalued from normal social interaction.

Pluralism

a cultural pattern of intergroup relations that encourages racial and ethnic variation within a society.

Blue Collar

a description characterizing workers who perform manual labor.

Retribution

an approach to punishment that emphasizes retaliation or revenge for the crime as the appropriate goal.

Incapacitation

an approach to punishment that seeks to protect society from criminals by imprisoning or executing them.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

an inaccurate statement or belief that, by altering the situation,becomes accurate;a prediction that causes itself to come true.

Everyday Class Consciousness

awareness of one's own social status and that of others.

Working Poor

poorly educated workers who work full-time but remain below the poverty line; they constitute about 20 percent of the U.S. Population.

Passing

presenting yourself as a member of a different racial or ethnic group than the one you were born into.

Capital Punishment

the death penalty

Genocide

the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial,ethnic,national, or cultural group.

Horizontal social Mobility

the occupational movement of individuals or groups within a social class.

Under-Class

the poorest Americans who are chronically unemployed and may depend on public or private assistance;they constitute about 5 percent of the U.S. Population.

Racial Assimilation

the process by which racial minority groups are absorbed into the dominant group through intermarriage.

Labeling Theory

Howard Becker's idea that deviance is a consequence of external judgments, or labels, that modify the individual's self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person.

Racism

a set of beliefs about the superiority of one racial or ethnic group used to justify inequality and often rooted in the assumption that differences between groups are genetic.

Open System

a social system with ample opportunities to move from one class to another.

Closed System

a social system with very little opportunity to move from one class to another.

Race

a socially defined category based on common language, religion, nationality, history, or another cultural factor.

Ethnicity

a socially defined category based on real or perceived biological differences between groups of people.

Meritocracy

a system in which rewards are distributed based on merit.

Feudal System

a system of social stratification based on a hereditary nobility who were responsible for and served by a lower stratum of forced laborers called serfs.

Crime

a violation of a norm that has been codified into law.

In-group orientation

among stigmatized individuals. the rejection of prevailing judgments or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity.

Rehabilitation

an approach to punishment that attempts to reform criminals as part of their penalty.

Symbolic Ethnicity

an ethnic identity that can be either displayed or concealed depending on its usefulness in a given situation.

Situational Ethnicity

an ethnic identity that is only relevant on specific occasions and does not significantly impact everyday life.

Absolute Deprivation

an objective measure of poverty, defined by the inability to meet minimal standards for food,shelter,clothing,or health care.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

an official measure of crime in the United States, produced by the FBI's official tabulation of every crime reported by more than 17,000 law enforcement agencies.

Just-world hypothesis

argues that people have a deep need to see the world as orderly,predictable, and fair, which creates a tendency to view victims of social injustice as deserving of their fates.

Structural Mobility

changes in the social status of large numbers of people due to structural changes in society.

White-Collar Crime

crime committed by a high-status individual in the course of his occupation.

Violent Crime

crimes in which violence is either the objective or the means to an end, including murder,rape,aggravated assault, and robbery.

Culture of Poverty

entrenched attitudes that can develop among poor communities and lead the poor to accept their fate rather than attempt to improve their lot.

Intragenerational Mobility

the movement between social classes that occurs during the course of an individual's lifetime.

Social Mobility

the movement of individuals or groups within the hierarchal system of social classes.

Cultural Assimilation

the process by which racial or ethnic groups are absorbed into the dominant group by adopting the dominant group's culture.

Disenfranchisement

the removal of the rights of citizenship through economic, political, or legal means.

Prestige

the social honor people are given because of their membership in well-regarded social groups.

Cyber bullying

the use of electronic media (web pages,social networking sites,email, instant messengers, and cell phones) to tease,harass, threaten, or humiliate someone.

Embodied Identity

those elements of identity that are generated through others' perceptions of our physical traits.

Differential Association Theory

Edwin Sutherland's hypothesis that we learn to be deviant through our associations with deviant peers.

Deviance

a behavior,trait,belief, or other characteristic that violates,a norm and causes a negative reaction.

Criminal Justice System

a collection of social institutions, such as legislatures, police courts, and prisons that create and enforce laws.

White Collar

a description characterizing workers and skilled laborers in technical and lower-management jobs.

Passing

presenting yourself as a member of a different group than the stigmatized group you belong to.

Deviance Avowal

process by which an individual self-identifies as deviant and initiates her own labeling process.

Affirmative Action

programs or policies that seek to rectify the effects of past discrimination by increasing representation and ensuring equal opportunity for any previously disadvantaged group,

Tertiary Deviance

redefining the stigma associated with a deviant label as positive phenomenon.

Relative Deprivation

relative measure of poverty based on the standard of living in a particular society.

Miscegenation

romantic,sexual, or marital relationships between people of different races.

Social Stratification

the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy.

Digital Divide

the experience of unequal access to computer and internet technology, both globally and within the United States.

Social Control

the formal and informal mechanisms used to increase conformity to values and norms and thus promote social cohesion.

Residential Segregation

the geographical separation of the poor from the rest of the population.

Slavery

the most extreme form of social stratification based on the legal ownership of people.

Vertical Social Mobility

the movement between different class statuses, often called either upward mobility or downward mobility.