Minorities Unit 1: Sociology
Dominant Culture
The values, customs, and language established by the group or groups that traditionally have controlled politics and government in a society. Group whose values prevail within a society.
Society
A community of people who share a common culture. Two or more individuals living together in a community and/or sharing elements of culture.
Minority
A racial or ethnic group smaller than and differing from the majority race or ethnicity in a particular area or region.
Prejudice
A rigid attitude that is based on group membership and predisposes an individual to feel, think or act in a negative way toward another person or group.
Myth
A traditional story about gods, ancestors, or heroes, told to explain the natural world or the customs and beliefs of a society. Fictional story or account or unfounded belief.
Stereotyping
Assuming that everyone in a particular group is the same. Creating an oversimplified image of a particular group of people, usually by assuming that all members of the group are alike.
Discrimination
Behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group. In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
Ethnocentrism
Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group. The belief that one's group is of central importance, tendency to judge the practices of other groups by one's own cultural standards.
Racism
Belief that one race is superior to another. Belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
Culture
Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people. A total way of life held in common by a group of people, including learned features such as language, ideology, behavior, technology, and government.
Scapegoating
Blaming an innocent person or a group for one's own troubles. The tendency for individuals, when frustrated or unhappy, to displace aggression onto groups that are disliked, visible, and relatively powerless. Holding one person or group responsible for all the community's power.
Socialization
Creation of voluntary associations and institutions which relate to economic and social goals, to cultural and recreational activities, to sport, to various professions, and to political affairs. The process by which people learn customs and values of their culture.
Melting Pot Myth
Idea that people will come to the US from all over the World and each group will contribute to the portion of culture. Proportional blend (see assimilation).
Class
Group of similar orders. Conditioning process in which an originally neutral stimulus, by repeated pairing with a stimulus that normally elicits a response, comes to elicit a similar or even identical response; aka Pavlovian conditioning.
Race
Identity with a group of people descended from a common ancestor. A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types, genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics. A grouping of human beings with distinctive characteristics determined by genetic inheritance.
Ethnicity
Identity with a group of people that share distinct physical and mental traits as a product of common heredity and cultural traditions. A social division based on national origin, religion, language, and often race.
Aryans
Nomads from Europe and Asia who migrated to India and finally settled; vedas from this time suggest beginning of caste system. The Indo-Europeans who settled in the Indus Valley were called.
Custom
Practices followed by the people of a particular cultural group. The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act. Practice routinely followed by a group of people.
Assumptions
Premises for which no proof or evidence is offered. Deeply held beliefs that guide behavior and tell members of an organization how to perceive situations and people.
