Sociology 1301 Final Review

Social Class

A system of stratification based on access to such resources as wealth, property, power and prestige.

Pragmatism

A theoretical perspective that assumes organisms (including humans) make practical adaptations to their environments; humans do this through cognition, interpretation, and interaction.

Sweatshop

A workplace where workers are subject to extreme exploitation, including below-standard wages, long hours, and poor working conditions that may pose health or safety hazards.

In-group Orientation

Among stigmatized individuals, the rejection of prevailing judgements or prejudice and the development of new standards that value their group identity.

Capitalism

An economic system based on the laws of free market competition, privatization of the means of production and production for profit.

Robert Merton's Strain Theory

An individual's position in the social structure will affect his experience of deviance and conformity.

Stigma

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.

Emile Durkheim's Functionalist Theory on Deviance

Deviance can help a society clarify it's moral boundaries, we are reminded about our shared notions of what is right when we have to address wrongdoings of sorts.

Labeling Theory

Deviance is a consequence of external judgements, or labels, that modify the individual's self-concept and change the way others respond to the labeled person.

Split Labor Market

Dividing workers ethnically, rascally, or based on gender and any other lines taking attention away from the workers' economic exploitation and placing the blame on each other.

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.

Groupthink

In very cohesive groups, the tendency to enforce a high degree of conformity among members, creating a demand for unanimous agreement.

Innovators

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

Ritualists

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

Rebels

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

Discourse

Language, function, patterns in use.

Bourgeoisie

Owners; the lass of modern capitalists who own the means of production and employ wage laborers.

Social Institutions

Systems and structures within society that shape the activities of groups and individuals.

Agency

The ability of the individual to act freely and independently.

Genocide

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

Laissez-Faire

The doctrine based on economic theory that government should not interfere with business or economy.

Internal Colonialism

The economic and political domination and subjugation of the minority group by the dominant group within a nation.

Impression Management

The effort to control the impressions we make on others so that they form a desired view of us and the situation; the use of self-presentation and performance tactics.

Population Transfer

The forcible removal of a group of people from the territory they have occupied.

Globalization

The increasing connections between economic, social, and political systems all over the globe.

Nature vs Nurture

The ongoing discussion of the respective roles of genetics and socialization in determining individual behaviors and traits.

Primary Groups

The people who are most important to our sense of self; members' relationships are typically characterized by face-to-face interaction, high levels of cooperation, and intense feelings of belonging.

Social Loafing

The phenomenon in which as more individuals are added to a task, each individual contributes a little less; a source of inefficiency when working in teams.

Segregation

The physical and legal separation of groups by race or ethnicity.

Socialization

The process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group, by which we become functioning members of society.

Role Exit

The process of leaving a role that we will no longer occupy.

Pierre Bourdieu and Cultural Capital

The sociologist that examined social reproduction which is a result of cultural capital and the tastes, habits, expectations, skills, knowledge, and other cultural assets that help us gain advantages in society.

Social Reproduction

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

Role Strain

The tension experienced when there are contradictory expectations within one role.

Proletariat

Workers; those who have no means of production of their own and so are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.

Outsourcing

"Contracting out" or transferring to another country the labor that a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform; typically done for financial reasons.

Deviance

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

Enclave

A concentration of people in a certain locale who practice their native culture and speak their native language.

Pluralism

A cultural pattern of intergroup relations that encourage racial and ethnic variation and acceptance within a society.

Taboo

A norm ingrained so deeply that even thinking about violating it evokes strong feelings of disgust, horror, or revulsion.

Assimilation

A pattern of relations between ethnic or racial groups in which the minority group is absorbed into the mainstream or dominant group, making society more homogeneous.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

A prediction due to labeling that causes itself to become true.

Mentacide

A purposeful deintellectualization of a group of people because of presumed race and/or ethnicity.

Huntington's Hispanization Theory

Immigration from Mexico and Latin America is potentially destructive of original American political principles.

Miscegenation

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