Sociology Chapter 1

Culture

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

Who coined the phrase "the sociological imagination"?

C. Wright Mills

Power elite

C. Wright Mills' term for the top people in U.S. corporations, military, and politics who make the nation's major decisions

Qualitative

Data in the form of words

Quantitative

Data that is in numbers

dramaturgical analysis

Erving Goffman's term for the study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance

What two historical events most influenced Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Émile Durkheim?

French Revolution and Industrial Revolution

Patriarchy

A form of social organization in which males dominate females

Society

A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists

Feminist

A supporter of women's claims to the same rights and treatment as men

False consciousness

A term used by Karl Marx to describe an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position.

Which founder of sociology believed societies changed due to class struggle?

Karl Marx

Who believed that the history of society was one of class struggle?

Karl Marx

Symbolic Interactionism

One-to-one interactions and communications

Social Facts (Durkheim)

Social facts are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life

Structural Functionalism

The way each part of society functions together to contribute to the whole

Conflict Theory

The way inequalities contribute to social differences and perpetuate differences in power

Which would a quantitative sociologist use to gather data?

a large questionare

Stigma

a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.

Paradigms

a set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that make up a way of understanding social reality

Feminist Theory

a theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in society and the way that gender structures the social world

Grand theories

an attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change

Constructivism

an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be

Personal troubles

are private problems experienced within the character of the individual and the range of their immediate relation to others.

Manifest functions

are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated,

Latent functions

are the unsought consequences of a social process

Based on the sociological imagination, how would an individual view a quinceañera, a coming-of-age celebration for a 15-year old girls?

as a gathering and rite of passage

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

coined the term "class" in which people are organized in social ranks.

Aguste Comte

coined the term sociology in 1838 and was the father of sociology

A sociologist conducts research into the ways that Latino students have unequal experiences in the U.S. education system. She studies the quality of public schools in Hispanic-serving neighborhoods and notices a lack of culturally relevant curriculum as well as disparities in detention, school suspensions, and expulsions for Latino students. What theoretical approach is the sociologist using?

conflict theory

looking-glass self (1902)

describe how a person's self of self grows out of interactions with others, and he proposed a threefold process for this development: 1) we see how others react to us, 2) we interpret that reaction (typically as positive or negative) and 3) we develop a sense of self based on those interpretations.

Versthen

describes a deep understanding of an issue

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

early observer of social practices, including economics, social class, religion, suicide, government, and women's rights

What a was a topic of study in early sociology?

economics

Kenneth and Mamie Clark used sociological research to show that segregation was ________.

harmful

Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)

helped legitimize and define sociology as a formal academic discipline believed that sociologists could study objective "social facts."

Émile Durkheim studied social solidarity and ________ that differences in suicide rates might be explained by religious differences.

hypothesized

A sociologist defines society as a group of people who reside in a defined area, share a culture, and who ________.

interact

Symbolic interactionism

is a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings attached to human interaction, both verbal and non-verbal, and to symbols.

Group

is any collection of at least two people who interact with some frequency and who share some sense of aligned identity.

Social or Public issues

issues that lie beyond one's personal control and the range of one's inner life, rooted in society instead of at the individual level

Which is the best description of the sociological imagination?

it's the way of thinking that looks at personal troubles in the context of larger public issues

Conflict theory

looks at society as a competition for limited resources.

Berger describes sociologists as concerned with:

monumental moments in people's lives and common everyday life events

bourgeoisie (capitalist)

own the means of production

Figuration

process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of individuals and the society that shapes that behavior

What was a major contribution of Ida B. Wells to the field of sociology?

published articles to raise awareness about lynchings and called blacks to action to fight against segregation and violence

Intersectional theory

race, class, and gender intersect to produce different life outcomes and experiences

What did functionalist Èmile Durkheim theorize about suicide?

rates of suicide are related to social factors such as religion, marital status, country of origin,parental status, and whether the country is at war or not

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931)

revolutionary teacher and journalist who brought many sociological issues to light, particularly racial and gender inequalities.

Karl Marx believed that

social conflict leads to societal changes

Dysfunctions

social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society

Positivist

society would be governed by reliable knowledge and would be understood in light of the knowledge produced by science

Seeing an increase in same-sex couples, single fathers, single mothers, and extended families and connecting these changing family structures to wider societal shifts is an example of using ________.

sociological imagination

Micro-level

study small groups and individual interactions

The idea that people ascribe meaning to things based on interactions with others and society is the main idea behind

symbolic interactionism

Positivism

the belief that knowledge should be derived from scientific observation

Double consciousness

the division of an individual's identity into two or more social realities

A symbolic interactionist studies gang life in New York City. Which of the following would be most directly aligned to an interactionists' research?

the hand gestures, colors, and language associated with the various gangs

social facts

the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life

social solidarity

the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion

Sociology

the study of groups and group interactions, societies and social interactions

sociological imagination

the use of imaginative thought to understand the relationship between the individual (personal troubles) and the broader workings of society (public issues)

Max Weber believed humans could not be studied purely objectively because they were influenced by

their culture

The Law of Three stages

theological stage where people took religious views of society metaphysical stage where people understood society as natural (not supernatural) the scientific or positivist stage, where society would be governed by reliable knowledge and would be understood in light of the knowledge produced by science, primarily sociology.

A ________ in sociology, is a proposed explanation about social interactions or society.

theory

Using the sociological imagination, what is the most likely description of eating disorders?

they are social issues related to standards of beauty that emphasize a slender body

Studying sociology helps people analyze data because they learn:

to apply statistics, generate theories, and analyze policies

Macro-level

trends among and between large groups and societies.

Weber believed that outside observers should try to understand social worlds from an insider's point of view and called this ________.

verstehen

The difference between positivism and antipositivism relates to:

whether sociological studies can predict or improve society

Max Weber (1864-1920)

which describes how religious belief shapes work habits and thus affects the larger social, political, and economic world

protelariat

working class