Sociology Chapters 1-7

Industrialism

- extremely productive subsistence pattern where machines replace the need of humans in some instances - relatively small number of people can feed the rest of the population - most tasks are small, specialized segments, and each are performed by a different person

United States languages

1) Standard English/European American English = the type of English which is taught in schools and used in textbooks 2) Black English/ African-American Vernacular English/Ebonics = African-American communicates speak

Japanese Cultural Values

1) collectivity 2) harmony 3) tradition 4) authority

United States Cultural Values

1) success 2) work or activity 3) progress, efficiency, and practicality 4) individualism 5) materialism or material comfort 6) equality

Karl Marx

provided the foundation for the conflict perspective when he viewed society as consisting of different social classes

Socialization

the life-long process by which people develop personal identities and learn the ways of particular group or society

Role Conflict

when two or more roles a person must play are incompatible or inconsistent (example: police officer at a party of a college friend and they host offers marijuana)

Gemeinschaft

"community"; refers to social life that is governed by personal, informal considerations, with traditions and custom prevailing - individuals place the overall state of the community before person interests - predominant in preindustrial societies

Gesellschaft

"society" or "association"; refers to social relations characterized by specialization, individualism, and rationality - end goals individuals seek in social relationships; more specific and limited - calculation, impersonality, and formality dominate social relationships - predominate in industrial societies

Agricultural Societies

*preindustrial society* - approximately 6, 000 years ago - lead by the invention of the plow, irrigation system, wheel (inventions gave societies larger populations with grater food surpluses which reduced the number of people in need of food) - very complex social structure (the need to coordinate, manage, and support)

Hunting and Gathering

*preindustrial society* - oldest and simplest sociali structure - often found in nomadic groups with less than 60 people - essentially egalitarian (equal) - no specialized leadership roles

Pastoralism (Horticultural Villages)

*preindustrial society* - social structure is more complex - emerged approximately 12, 000 years ago - involves raising herds of domesticated animals and horticulturalism is based on cultivating plants - this type of society assured a steady supply of food and managers surpluses in the form of food and livestock - groups tend to be larger than hunter-gatherer groups (size leads to specialized statuses essential)

Erving Goffman

- Sociologist - dramaturgical analogy

Peter Berger

- sociologist - states that considerable amounts of over over other members by teaching them what they should or shouldn't be doing is naturally entered in society and said power is NOT typically seen as harsh or domineering

Media, Technology, and Human Interaction

- technology changed the way humans interacted with each other throughout most of human history - society and individuals educate themselves about culture (values, norms, beliefs, social roles) through media) - media tends to support mainstream values due to the fact that social elites control the media

Comanche Social Structure

1) family = relatives who live in the same camp together throughout the year and shared agricultural or game surplus 2) residence band = the number of families whom were connected to a specific leader or headman 3) division = a group of residence bands which farmed, traded and hunted in the same area 4) focused-activity group = formed fro a specific purpose and dissolved when the goal has been achieved 5) comanche community = ones of common heritage and ancestry shared by all; what it means to "be Comanche"

Steps in Conducting Research

1) problem formulation = clearly identifying exactly what issue or problem will be researched 2) develop a research design = a detailed plan outlining how observations will be made 3) data collection = might be based on direction observation, surveys, experiments, or some other, less commonly used research methods 4) data analysis = what unlocks the information hidden in the raw data and transforms it into something useful and meaningful 5) draw conclusions = these conclusions come from step four 6) public dissemination of findings = publishing them in a book or professional journal or presenting them to a personal organization is crucial stage of social research

Roles

Clusters of norms; they are the behaviors expected of a person who occupies a certain status (example: soldiers are expected to be neat, appear patriotic, follow commands or orders given by superiors, and serve as a good example for subordinates)

Innovation

Internal source of change; the development of new ideas, behaviors or material products

Catherine Ross & John Mirowsky

Sociologists who studied that mothers who also work have higher levels of depression than a female who works who doesn't have any children (the impact that role strain has on one's health)

Argot

Specialized language of a subculture (example: teens use abbreviations and texting language)

Experiment(s)

a controlled method of observation in which independent variable are manipulated in order to assess their effects on a dependent variable

Research Methods

a detailed plan that specifies how observations will be made in order to test the hypotheses

Society

a group of people who are relatively self-sufficient and who share a common territory and culture

Subculture

a group within a culture that shares some of the beliefs, values, and norms of the larger culture but also has some that are distinctly its own (example: the Amish in Pennsylvania, the Cubans in Miami, the gays in large cities, the Hip-Hop culture, and the drug set)

Diffusion

a major external source of change; which is the spread of cultural elements from one culture to another culture * modern technologies and communications allow for faster spreading of cultures

Science

a method of obtaining objective and systematic knowledge through observations 1) empirical = based on observations 2) systematic = follows methodical and accepts procedures 3) focusing on causation = all events are caused or occurs due to something else 4) provisional = results of investigations are noted as being tentative meaning some can be left open to questioning(s) 5) objective = scientists and those in the science field work to prevent their personal values/beliefs from interfering from their investigations

Mater Status

a particular state the becomes central to the way a person views themselves or how society views them (example: gender, race, and age - female college professor the master status would be professor not female)

Variable

a property or characteristic of something that can take on different values

Theory

a set of statements that explains the relationship among phenomena

Language

a set of written or verbal symbols that people use in an agreed-upon way to communicate with one another

Equilibrium

a state of balance in which the relationships among the various parts of the system remain the same

Material Culture

all the physical objects or artifacts, made or used by people (such as canoes, stone clubs, jet airplanes, skyscrapers, telephones, televisions, refrigerators, and most objects found within a home)

Role Set

all the roles associated with a particular status

Impression Management

an individual's effort to control the meanings that others attach to his or her performance (example: the clothing and hairstyle individuals choose for themselves)

Ascribed Statuses

assigned to people and represent social positions (example: born either male or female and some member of a race - everything you're born into and you don't have a say in it)

Achieved Statuses

based on people's accomplishments or activities and reflect social positions people gain through their own efforts (example: if one earns a college degree, occupation, marital state, parenthood, check figure, and bank robber)

Ideal Culture

beliefs, values, and norms that people claim to follow (example: in the U.S. value is placed on ideals like equality, honesty, and obeying the law)

Internalization

causes people to view the violation of most more with antipathy such that they would not even consider committing such violation; they control their own behavior(s) (such as incest)

Groups

collections of people who interact with one another on the basis of interrelated statuses and roles and who feel some awareness that they share something in common

Micro-sociology

concentrates on the intimate level of everyday interactions between people

Economics

concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services along with consumers behavior

Latent Functions

consequences that are unexpected and unintended

Applied Sociology

consists of research and other activities designed to focus sociological knowledge or research tools on a particular problem identified by some client with some practical outcome in mind

Cultural Determinism (Nurture)

cultural influences determine he behaviors and personalities of people - humans are malleable and shaped by the culture that they're raised in

Role Strain

develops when people have difficulty performing a role (example: promotions at work)

Postindustrial Societies

dominated by a highly technological form of production and devote more attention to service industries, information production, and economic consumption than they do to industrial production and manufacturing key skills = education, intellectual skills, the ability to manipulate information and skills at organizing are more imperative than physical skills and strength

Sociological Perspective

emphasizes the powerful role that group membership and social forces play in shaping behavior

Macro-sociology

focus on large groups and social institutions and on society as a whole

Interactionist Perspective

focuses on everyday social interaction among individuals rather than on large societal structures such as politics and education; society consists of people interacting with one another (key concepts: interpretation, consensus, symbols, shared expectations, socially created reality)

Psychology

focuses on the mental processes of individuals, dealing with phenomena such as memory, perception, motivation, and emotions

Biological Determinism (Nature)

human behavior and many elements of social stricture are a product of the genetic and physiological characteristics of people

Lotovaivai

individuals with a strong or excessive tendency towards displays of emotion

Manifest Functions

intended consequences of some action or social process and refer to what most people expect to result

Experimental Group

is exposed to some factor, the independent variable

Mores

norms that are associated with strong feelings of right and wrong, the violation of which usually results in sanctions violation of these are taken more seriously and tend to be strong and formal

Folkways

norms that are customary, popular, and widely performed, but not required; "everyday rules" (such as shaking hands, bathing regularly, and being quiet in a place of worship) pressure to conform to these because violating or going against these results in punishments that are weak and informal

Laws

norms that have been formally codified by political authority

Sandra Ball-Rokeach (observational techniques)

observed people through a one-way mirror on how the handled highly ambiguous situations

Real Culture

people's actual behaviors in relation to these professed beliefs, values, and norms (example: in the U.S. people aren't always equal, individuals lie and cheat, and some even break the law)

Values

people's ideas about what is good or bad, right or wrong, what ought to be

Definition of the Situation (DS)

people's perceptions and interpretations of what is important in a situation and what actions are possible or appropriate (symbols, labels)

Political Science

political philosophy and the study of governmental form

Commonsense

pratical wisdom that people believe is sound but with no special training or expertise to support it (such as personal experiences, religion traditions, teaching and more ca lead to understand human social behaviors)

Role-Taking

predicting how others will behave, or how they think and feel

Theoretical Perspectives

provide some fundamental assumptions about the nature and operation of society and commonly serve as sources of the more specific theories

Status

refers to a society where there are designated positions (position, place, rank in society or group) examples: gender, age, job, race, religion, or social class

Social Institutions

relatively stable clusters of statuses, roles, and groups that work together to fulfill some need that all societies must satisfy

Sanctions

rewards or punishments for conforming to or violating norms; take multiple forms and can be weak or strong, formal or informal, and positive or negative

Norms

rules of conduct that guide people's behavior in particular situations; expectations that people in society share regarding behavior; SPECIFIC

Control Group

similar to the experimental group in all other respects, but is not exposed to that factor (IV)

Functionalist Perspective

society is a system made up of a number of interrelated and interdependent elements, each performing a function that contributes to the operation of the whole (key concepts: integration, interdependence, stability, equilibrium)

Basic Sociology

sociological research whose purpose is to advance our knowledge about human social behavior with little concern for any immediate practical benefits that might result

Ruth Horowitz (participant observation)

studied a Latino gang by living in the community where the gang members lived and went to their dances, parties, and homes.

Natural Sciences

study nature and the physical universe - chemistry and geology (physical sciences) - biology and zoology (biological sciences)

Political Sociology

study of social behavior and social processes in political or governmental contexts

Robert K. Merton

suggested that there are two different types of functions in terms of the functionalist theory: manifest and latent.

Ethnocentrism

tendency to view one's own culture as the best and to judge other cultures in comparison to it *natural result of the fact that a society creates its own beliefs, values, and norms* (example: Nazi treatment of the Jews and the treatment of the American Indians by European colonists of the New World)

Hypotheses

tentative statements that can be tested regarding relationships between two or more variables *all hypotheses are subjected to verification*

Sociological Imagination

the ability to understand the relationship between what is happening in people's personal lives and the social forces that surround them

Survey(s)

the collection of data by asking people questions about their behavior or attitudes (such as interviews and questionnaires)

Beliefs

the conceptions people about what is true in the world (an example of nonmaterial culture)

Observational Techniques

the direction observation of behavior by sociologists, either by seeing or hearing what people do

Social Sciences

the disciplines that use the scientific method to study human behavior, groups and society (anthropology, psychology, economics, political science, political sociology)

Reactivity

the fact that people react to being studied and may behave differently from the way they do when they don't think they are being studied

Conflict Perspective

the idea that society consists of different groups who struggle with one another to attain the scarce societal resources that are considered valuable, be they money, power, prestige, or the authority to impose one's values on society (key concepts: interest, power, dominance, conflict, coercion)

Participant Observation

the investigators take part in the activities of the people being studied

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis/ Linguistic-Relativity Hypothesis

the languages we speak shape how we think and perceive the world; language actually has an impact on how each of us sees the world and what it's like for us

Cultural Relativity

the lifestyles of various peoples should be int terms of their own culture rather than that of the observer

Social Structure

the organized patterns of social interaction and social relationships that exist in a group or society

Sociology

the scientific study of societies and human social behavior

Cultural Globalization

the spread of a set of beliefs, values, norms, languages, and meaning system that are shared by people who participate in this global community - modern tech makes it possible of individuals around the world to share the same material culture (computers, TVs, etc) and some nonmaterial culture (values)

Anthropology

the study of the cultures, customs, origins, evolution and physical characteristics of human beings

Culture

the total lifestyle of a people, including all of the ideas, values, knowledge, behaviors and material objects that they share

Dysfunctional

they may disrupt social equilibrium rather than contribute to it

Dependent Variable (DV)

those that are changed (example: the delinquent would be the DV because they would change their actions with the family attachment)

Independent Variable (IV)

those that bring about change in other variables (example: family attachment is the IV that would bring about changes in delinquency)

Nonmaterial Culture

those things that have no physical existence (such as knowledge, language, ideas, and behaviors; TV and the internet serve as examples because they deliver huge quantities of info to millions of people)

Globalization

trends toward increasing interconnectedness between different peoples around the world and the growing unification of social and cultural life

Mallifaction of Society

what some call the trend of changing from traditional materialism to consumerism and commodifications