Sociology - Module #1

Altruistic Suicide

suicide which occurs when people are over involved and overcommitted to a group or society as a whole. This occurs when the needs of society as a whole override the needs of the individual. Soldiers often do this to protect their comrades.

Fatalistic Suicide

suicide which occurs when people are over regulated or over-constrained. This might happen in oppressive societies where people prefer to die rather than continue under the hopeless state of oppression (IE: prisoners of war, inmates, and refugees).

Egoistic Suicide

suicide which occurs when people are under-involved or under-committed to groups. This is the loner-type suicide when an individual is disconnected (or never connected) to others.

Anomic Suicide

suicide which occurs when people are under-regulated by familiar norms that serve as anchors to their social reality. You'd expect this type of suicide in very large cities or when dramatic social changes have transpired (IE: 9-11 terrorist attacks or recent economic recessions).

Variables

survey questions that measure some characteristic of the population.

Dependent Variables

survey variables that change in response to the influence of independent variables.

Independent Variables

survey variables that when manipulated will stimulate a change upon the dependent variables.

Bourgeoisie

wealthy elite (royalty, political, and corporate leaders) have the most power. Bourgeoisie are the "Goliaths" in society who often bully their wishes into outcomes.

Social Construction of Reality

what people define as real because of their background assumptions and life experiences with others.

Stratified Random Sample

a portion of the population is drawn in such a way that every member of the population and important sub-categories of the population have an equal chance of being selected for the survey, yielding a sample that is demographically similar to population

Convenience Sample

a portion of the population that is NOT scientifically drawn, but is collected because they are easy to access

Random Sample

a portion of the population that is drawn in such a way that every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the survey

False Social Conscious

ignorance of social facts and the larger social picture.

Larger Social Issues

issues that lie beyond one's personal control and the range of one's inner life. These pertain to society's organization and processes.

Generalizability

means that the results from the sample can be assumed to apply to the population with confidence (as though the population itself had been studied).

Suicide Rate

numbers of suicides per 100,000 people in a population.

Adult Socialization

occurs as we assume adult roles such as wife/husband/employee/etc.

Secondary Socialization

occurs in later childhood and adolescence when children go to school and come under the influence of non-family members.

Social Facts

phenomena within society that typically exists independent of individual choices and actions

Social Facts

phenomena within society that typically exists independent of individual choices and actions. Social processes rooted in society rather than in the individual.

Self Esteem

pride in oneself, a positive self-regard, an inordinately high positive self-regard, or a high self-respect.

Personal Troubles

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

Ordinal Data

rank ordered data which has standard numerical values. This is often referred to as numerical data.

Agency's

represents the organizations involved in our socialization.

Surveys

research instruments designed to obtain information from individuals who belong to a larger group, organization, or society.

Equity

a sense that the interactions are fair to us and fair to others involved by the consequences of our choices

Macro Theory

a sociological theory designed to study the larger social, global and societal level of sociological phenomena.

Industrial Revolution

a technological development of knowledge and manufacturing that began in the late 1600s and continued until the early 1900s.

Middle-Range Theories

a theory derived from specific scientific findings and focuses on the interrelation of two or more concepts applied to a very specific social process or problem.

Grand Theories

a theory which deals with the universal aspects of social processes or problems and is based on abstract ideas and concepts rather than one case specific evidence. These include conflict, functionalism, symbolic interactionism and social exchange theories.

Power

ability to get what one wants even in the presence of opposition, or in the face of the opposition to one's goals.

Generalized other

are classes of people with whom a person interacts on the basis of generalized roles rather than individualized characteristics.

Open Survey Questions

are questions designed to get respondents to answer in their own words (IE: "what might be the benefits of having a football team?"____ ______________ or "what might be a negative consequence of having a football team?"___ ____________).

Closed Survey Questions

are questions designed to get respondents to choose from a list of responses you provide to them (IE: About how many college football games have you ever attended? __1 __2 __3 __4 __5 __6 __7 __8 __9 __10+).

Demographic Questions

are questions which provide the basic categorical information about your respondent including: age, sex, race, education level, marital status, birth date, birth place, income, etc.

Proletariat

are the common working class, lower class, and poor members of society.

Macro Theories

are theories which best fit the study of massive numbers of people (typically conflict and functional theories).

Micro Theories

are theories which best fit the study of small groups and their members (typically symbolic interactionism or social exchange theories).

Significant Others

are those other people whose evaluation of the individual are important and regularly considered during interactions.

Polls

are typically surveys which collect opinions (such as who one might vote for in an election, how one feels about the outcome of a controversial issue, or how one evaluates a public official or organization

Feral Children

are wild or untamed children who grow up without typical adult socialization influences.

Dysfunctions

breakdowns or disruptions in society and its parts, which threaten social stability. Manifest Functions: are the apparent and intended functions of institutions in society.

Social Exchange

claims that society is composed of ever present interactions among individuals who attempt to maximize rewards while minimizing costs. (REWARDS - COSTS) = OUTCOMES OR ("WHAT I GET OUT OF IT" - "WHAT I LOSE BY DOING IT") = "MY DECISION"

Symbolic Interaction

claims that society is composed of ever present interactions among individuals who share symbols and their meanings.

Functionalism/Structural Functionalism

claims that society is in a state of balance and kept that way through the function of society's component parts.

Conflict Theory

claims that society is in a state of perpetual conflict and competition for limited resources.

Nominal Data

data which has no standard numerical values. This is often referred to as categorical data (IE: what is your favorite type of pet? __Reptile __Canine __Feline __Bird __Other).

Ratio Data

data which is shown in comparison to other data.

Primary Socialization

includes all the ways the newborn is molded into a social being capable of interacting in and meeting the expectations of society.

Representative Sample

is a sample drawn from the population, the composition of which very much resembles that of the population

Anomie

is a state of social normlessness which occurs when our lives or society has vague norms. A state of relative normlessness that comes from the disintegration of our routines and regulations. Anomie is common when we go through sudden changes in our lives or when we live in larger cities.

Thomas Theorem

is often called the "Definition of the situation" which is basically if people perceive or define something as being real then it is real in its consequences

Anticipatory Socialization

is practice in advance for some future role.

Objectivity

is the ability to study and observe without distortion or bias, especially personal bias. Bias-free research is an ideal that, if not present will open the door to extreme misinterpretation of research findings

Authority

is the institutionalized legitimate power.

Socialization

is the process by which people learn characteristics of their group's norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.

Heritability

is the proportion of our personality, self, and biological traits which stem from our genetic or socialization environmental factors.

Emerging Adulthood

is the time in a late teen's life when they transition into adult roles and adult attitudes.

Sociological Imagination

that social outcomes are based on what we do or that some things in society may lead to a certain outcome. Factors like norms and motives, the social context are like country and time period and the social action is the stuff we do that affects other people. The things we do are shaped by: the situation we are in, the values we have, and the way people around us act. It also could be considered as the capacity to see things socially, how they interact, and influence each other.

Content Analysis

the counting and tabulating of words, sentences, and themes from written, audio, video, and other forms of communication. When the researcher systematically and quantitatively describes the contents of some form of media.

Nature Versus Nurture

the debate over the influence of biological versus social influences in socialization.

Social Integration

the degree to which people are connected to their social groups. Let's check your own personal degree of social integration.

Population

the entre membership of a country, organization, group, or category of people to be surveyed

Positivism

the objective and value-free observation, comparison, and experimentation applied to scientific inquiry.

Positivism

the objective and value-free observation, comparison, and experimentation applied to scientific inquiry. The scientific-based sociological research that uses scientific tools such as survey, sampling, objective measurement, and cultural and historical analysis to study and understand society

Suicide

the purposeful ending of one's own life for any reason.

Comte's Definition of Sociology

the science of society. In his observation Comte believed that society's knowledge passed through 3 stages which he observed in France.