Sociology test 1

Fieldwork/field research

research method that uses in-depth and often extended study to describe and analyze a group or community. When detailed information is sought, and when surveys are impractical for getting the information desired (for example, in studying youth gangs or gamblers). Fieldwork usually relies on small samples, especially compared to surveys. combines several different methods of gathering information. These include interviews, detached observation, and participant observation.

Anonymity

research protocol in which neither the researcher or the reader of the findings can identify a respondent based on their responses; the state of being anonymous.

Stratified sample

researchers divide a population into a series of subgroups (for instance, students at four-year public universities, students at two-year colleges, students at online schools, etc.) and take random samples from within each group. This can be used to ensure representation from all subgroups (such as college students at different types of schools) in the final research sample.

Structural functionalist/ism

seeks to explain social organization and change in terms of the roles performed by different social structures, phenomena, and institutions.

Society v. culture

society refers to a group of people who live in a definable community and share the same culture. On a broader scale, society consists of the people and institutions around us, our shared beliefs, and our cultural ideas. Typically, more-advanced societies also share a political authority.......consists of the beliefs, norms, behaviors, and products common to members of a particular social group

Sampling techniques

sociologists can use small (and therefore inexpensive) samples to represent large populations. For instance, a well-chosen sample of 1,000 U.S. consumers can be used to represent 100,000 U.S. consumers with a fair degree of accuracy, enabling surveys to make predictions about economic behavior with reasonable confidence.

Research methods/modes of observation

specific techniques for systematically gathering data

deductive reasoning

starts from broad theories about the social world but proceeds to break them down into more specific and testable hypotheses.consists of logically deducing the empirical implications of a particular theory or set of ideas.

inductive reasoning

starts from specific data, such as interviews, observations, or field notes, that may focus on a single community or event and endeavors to identify larger patterns from which to derive more general theories.

Anomie

state of normlessness that occurs when people lose sight of the shared rules and values that give order and meaning to their lives,

Public issue

such as lack of access to good schooling and jobs paying a living wage

Mills

suggested half a century ago, uncovering the relationship between what he called personal troubles and public issues calls for a sociological imagination(ability to grasp the relationship between individual lives and the larger social forces that shape them)

Organic Solidarity

suggesting that modern society functions as an interdependent organic whole, like a human body. The people filling these positions may not be alike in culture, beliefs, or language, but their dependence on one another contributes to social cohesion

Convenience sample

suggests that the selection is driven by convenience rather than by systematic sampling.Ex:students at your school: This could include students in your classes, friends from clubs or organizations on campus, or if you live on campus, people in your dormitory.

Independent variable

the variable the researchers hypothesize will affect the subjects' behavior.its value does not depend on and is not affected by the state of any other variable in the experiment.Ex:In a study to determine whether how long a student sleeps affects test scores, the independent variable is the length of time spent sleeping while the dependent variable is the test score.

Population (study population, sample population)

the whole group of people to be studied.

Counterculture

to designate subcultural groups whose norms, values, and practices deviate from those of the dominant culture. The hippies of the 1960s, for example, are commonly cited as a counterculture to mainstream middle America, although many of those who participated in hippie culture aged into fairly conventional middle-class lives.

Ethics in social research

to safeguard against the misuse and abuse of human subjects.(numbreg code)

Dependent variable

(variables that change as a result of changes in other variables).For example, in a study looking at how tutoring impacts test scores, the dependent variable would be the participants' test scores, since that is what is being measured.

Participant observation

,When firsthand knowledge of the subjects' direct experience is desired, including a deeper understanding of their lives.Ex:a mixture of active participation and detached observation. Participant observation can sometimes be dangerous. Chambliss's (1988b) research on organized crime and police corruption in Seattle, Washington, exposed him to threats from the police and organized crime network members who feared he would reveal their criminal activities. Desmond's (2016a) work also included participant observation; he spent significant amounts of time with the Milwaukee residents he studied, seeking to carefully document their voices and experiences.

Scientific method

A process of gathering empirical (scientific and specific) data, creating theories, and rigorously testing theories.

Positive/direct correlation

A relationship showing that as one variable rises or falls, the other does as well.Ex:In fact, researchers have explored and hypothesized the relationship between poverty and obesity. Among the conclusions they have drawn is that living in poverty—and living in poor neighborhoods—puts people at higher risk of obesity, although the risk is pronounced for women and far less clear for men

Sample

A small number of people; a portion of the larger population selected to represent the whole.Ex:Other things being equal, larger samples better represent the population than do smaller ones. Nevertheless, with proper sampling techniques, sociologists can use small (and therefore inexpensive) samples to represent large populations. For instance, a well-chosen sample of 1,000 U.S. consumers can be used to represent 100,000 U.S. consumers with a fair degree of accuracy, enabling surveys to make predictions about economic behavior with reasonable confidence

Attributes

Any characteristic or quality of an individual or group

Concept

Concepts are the building blocks of research and prepare a solid foundation for sociological work. Some key concepts in sociology are social stratification, social class, power, inequality, and diversity,

Non-Probability sample

Convenience, haphazard or accidental sampling - members of the population are chosen based on their relative ease of access. To sample friends, co-workers, or shoppers at a single mall, are all examples of convenience sampling.

Norms

Culturally shared rules governing social behavior (oughts and shoulds).a set of oughts and ought nots that guide behavioral choices such as where to stand relative to others in an elevator, how long to hold someone's gaze in conversation, how to conduct the rites of passage that mark different stages of life, and how to resolve disagreements or conflicts. Some norms are enshrined in legal statutes; others are inscribed in our psyches and consciences.

Merton

Merton is best known for his theory of deviance,his iteration of the distinction between manifest and latent functions as a means for more fully understanding the relationships between and roles of sociological phenomena and institutions in communities and society.a social institution or phenomenon can have both positive functions and problematic dysfunctions. Merton broadened the functionalist idea by suggesting that manifest functions are the obvious and intended functions of a phenomenon or institution. Latent functions, by contrast, are functions that are not recognized or expected

Laws

Norms that have been codified.Laws formalize and institutionalize society's norms. There are laws that govern marriage: For instance, until very recently, in many states, marriage was legally open only to heterosexual adults who are not already married to other people.

Experimentation

When it is possible to create experimental and control groups that are matched on relevant variables but provided with different experiences in the experiment.

Personal trouble

When we cannot get a job, fail to earn enough to support a family, or experience marital separation, for example, we tend to see it as a....

Multiculturalism

a commitment to respecting cultural differences rather than trying to submerge them into a larger, dominant culture. Multiculturalism recognizes that the country is as likely to be enriched by its differences as it is to be divided by them. In a globalizing world, knowledge of other cultures and proficiency in languages other than English is important. In fact, a functionalist might also regard the U.S. Census data cited above as indicative of both the common language that proponents of official English see as crucial to national unity and the cultural diversity that enriches the country and allows it to incorporate a variety of languages in its national and global political, cultural, and economic dealings—which is also positively functional for the country

Operational definition

a concept describes the concept in such a way that it can be observed and measured.Ex:We may construct operational definitions in terms of qualities or quantities (Babbie, 1998; Neuman, 2000). In terms of qualities, we might say that the upper-middle class is composed of working professionals who have completed advanced degrees, even though there may be a broad income spread between those with a master's degree in fine arts and those with a master's degree in business administration. This definition is based on an assumption of class as a social position that derives from educational attainment. Alternatively, by using quantity as a key measure, we might operationally define upper class as households with an annual income greater than $150,000 and lower class as households with an annual income of less than $20,000.

Sociological imagination

he ability to grasp the relationship between individual lives and the larger social forces that shape them, invites us to make the connection and to step away from the vantage point of a single life experience to see how powerful social forces—for instance, changes in social norms, racial or gender discrimination, large shifts in the economy, or the beginning or end of a military conflict

Falsifiability

he principle, advanced by philosopher Karl Popper, that to be scientific, a theory must lead to testable hypotheses that can be disproved if they are wrong.

Ideal culture

he values, norms, and behaviors that people in a given society profess to embrace, even though the actions of the society may often contradict them.

Focus groups

here the researcher talks to a group of people at the same time, rather than discussing with individuals. The aim in bringing together a focus group is for the group to be representative of a larger population, so there will be some diversity in the group

Simple random sampling

hereby everyone in the population of interest has an equal chance of being chosen for the study. Typically, they make or obtain a list of everyone in the population of interest. Then they draw names or phone numbers, for instance, by chance until the desired sample size is reached (today, such work can be done by computers).

Ethnography

it takes the researcher into the field, where he or she directly observes—and sometimes interacts with—subjects in their social environment,A research method that uses in-depth and often extended study to describe and analyze a group or community

symbols

like the names we assign to the objects around us, are cultural representations of social realities or, as we put it in Chapter 1, representations of things that are not immediately present to our senses. They may take the form of letters or words, images, rituals, or actions. When we use language, we imbue these symbols with meaning

Confidentiality

means that private information about an individual will not be shared without his or her consent

Manifest function/dysfunction

obvious and intended functions n,A manifest function of war is usually to vanquish an enemy, perhaps to defend a territory or to claim it.

Negative/indirect correlation

one variable increases as the other decreases,Ex:researchers have found a negative correlation between male unemployment and rates of marriage. That is, as rates of male unemployment in a community rise, rates of marriage in the community fall.

Structure

patterned social arrangements that have effects on agency and are, in turn, affected by agency,the structures that surround us impose obstacles on us or afford us opportunities to exercise agency(free will)

Sanctions (formal/informal; positive/negative)

positive reward,and negative sanctions punishment formal degree grade, justice system and informal sanctions hey good job, likes on insta, everybody talkin bad about you

Social fact

qualities of groups that are external to individual members yet constrain their thinking and behavior, ex: social facts as religious beliefs and social duties are external—that is, they are part of the social context and are larger than our individual lives. They also have the power to shape our behavior

Survey

a questionnaire or interviews administered to a group of people in person or by telephone or e-mail to determine their characteristics, opinions, and behaviors. Surveys are versatile, and sociologists often use them to test theories or to gather data. Some survey instruments, such as National Opinion Research Center questionnaires, consist of closed-ended questions that respondents answer by choosing from among the responses presented.

Causal relationship

a relationship between two variables in which one variable is the cause of the other, For example, ice cream sales rise during the summer because it is hot so people want something cool to help chill off

Bureaucracy

a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives

Cultural Relativism

a worldview whereby we understand the practices of another society sociologically, in terms of that society's norms and values and not our own. In this way, we can come closer to an understanding of cultural beliefs and practices such as those that surround the end of life. Whether the body of the departed is viewed or hidden, buried or burned, feasted with or feasted for, danced around or sung about, a culturally relativist perspective allows the sociologist to conduct his or her examination of the roots of these practices most rigorously.

Double consciousness

an awareness of themselves as both Americans and Black, never free of racial stigma,physical traits such as skin color may shape people's perceptions and interactions in significant and complex ways.

Latent function/dysfunction

are functions that are not recognized or expected ., those that are not the overt purpose but may still have powerful effects—may include increased patriotism in countries engaged in the war, a rise in the profits of companies manufacturing military equipment or contracting workers to the military, and changes in national budgetary priorities.

Beliefs

as particular ideas that people accept as true. We can believe based on faith, superstition, science, tradition, or experience. To paraphrase the words of sociologists W. I. Thomas and D. S. Thomas (1928), beliefs may be understood as real when they are real in their consequences. They need not be objectively true. For example, during the witch hunts in early colonial America, rituals of accusation, persecution, and execution could be sustained in communities such as Salem, Massachusetts, because there was a shared belief in the existence of witches and diabolical power.

Material culture

as the physical objects that are created, embraced, or consumed by society that help shape people's lives. Material culture includes television programs, computer games, software, and other artifacts of human creation. It also emerges from the physical environment inhabited by the community. For example, in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, including Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, amber (a substance created when the resin of fallen seaside pines is hardened and smoothed by decades or centuries in the salty waters) is an important part of local cultures.

Weber

believed that an adequate explanation of the social world begins with the individual and takes into account the meaning of what people say and do. Although he argued that research should be scientific and value free, Weber also believed that to explain what people do, we must use a method he termed Verstehen, the German word for interpretive understanding.

Symbolic interaction/ism

both the individual self and society as a whole are the products of social interactions based on language and other symbols..argues that people acquire their sense of who they are only through interaction with others.

Macro/micro level

concerned with large-scale patterns and institutions, concerned with small-group social relations and interactions.

Public issue

f mutual concern to an organization and one or more of its stakeholders

Conflict paradigm/theories

focuses on what divides people rather than on what unites them. It presumes that group interests drive relationships, and that various groups in society (for instance, social classes, ethnic and racial groups, women and men) will act in their own interests

Quantitative research

gathers data that can be quantified and offers insight into broad patterns of social behavior...... (for example, the percentage of U.S. adults who use corporal punishment such as spanking with their children) and social attitudes (for example, the percentage of U.S. adults who approve of corporal punishment) without necessarily delving into the meaning of or reasons for the identified phenomena

Informed consent

general involves ensuring that prior to agreeing to participate, research subjects are aware of details of the study including the risks and benefits of participation and in what ways the data collected will be used and kept secure.

Thomas therm

IF PEOPLE DEFINE SITUATIONS AS REAL, THEY ARE REAL IN THEIR CONSEQUENCES.

Values

General ideas about what is good, right, or just in a culture,are the abstract and general standards in society that define ideal principles, such as those governing notions of right and wrong. Sets of values attach to the institutions of society at multiple levels. You may have heard about national or patriotic values, community values, and family values.

Hypothesis

Hypotheses enable scientists to check the accuracy of their theories. For example, data show that some positive correlation exists between obesity and poverty rates at the state level: Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana, which are among the poorest states in the country, are also among the states with the highest obesity rates

Habitus

Internalized calculus of what one's position will allow them to do within social institutionsEx:In a poor rural community where few people go to college, fewer can afford it, and the payoff of higher education is not obvious because there are few immediate role models with such experience, Bourdieu would argue that an individual's choice not to prioritize getting into college reflects both agency and structure. That is, she makes the choice not to prepare herself for college or to apply to college, but going to college would likely not have been possible for her anyway as a result of her economic circumstances and perhaps as a result of an inadequate education in an underfunded school

Martineau

Martineau translated his six-volume treatise on politics into English. Her editing helped make Comte's esoteric prose accessible to the English-speaking world, ensuring his standing as a leading figure in sociology.sought to identify basic laws that govern society.The fourth law, however, was her own and reflected her progressive (today we might say feminist) principles: For a society to evolve, it must ensure social justice for women and other oppressed groups. In her study of U.S. society, Martineau treated slavery and women's experience of dependence in marriage as indicators of the limits of the moral development of the United States. In her view, the United States was unable to achieve its full social potential while it was morally stunted by persistent injustices such as slavery and women's inequality.

existing statistics

Secondary analysis may involve obtaining raw data collected by other researchers and undertaking a statistical analysis of the data

Random (probability) sample

So if we have 1000 people we wish to study, but we can only study 100 people, we might choose 100 names randomly out of a hat, so each person has an equal chance, or probability, of being chosen

Reliability

The extent to which researchers' findings are consistent with the findings of different studies of the same thing or with the findings of the same study over time.Ex:Sociological research may suffer from problems of validity and reliability because of bias, a characteristic of results that systematically misrepresent the true nature of what is being studied. Bias can creep into research as a result of the use of inappropriate measurement instruments. For example, suppose the administrator of a city wants to know whether homelessness has risen in recent years. She operationally defines the homeless as those who sleep in the street or in shelters and dispatches her team of researchers to city shelters to count the number of people occupying shelter beds or sleeping on street corners or park benches

Snowball sample

To study friendships intensive users of the computer game Minecraft make with each other, I find one enthusiast and ask them for names of other enthusiasts, and then ask those enthusiasts for names of other enthusiasts.

Taboo

Very strongly held norms, the violation of which is highly offensive and even unthinkable

Durkheim Macro/micro level

considered by many to be the first modern sociologist, argued that sociological understanding would create a more egalitarian, peaceful society, in which individuals would be free to realize their full potential.whereas traditional communities were held together by shared culture and norms, (or accepted social behaviors and beliefs), modern industrial communities were threatened by anomie, (or a state of normlessness that occurs when people lose sight of the shared rules and values that give order and meaning to their lives).established the early subject matter of sociology, laid out rules for conducting research, and developed an important theory of social change.sociology's subject matter was social facts, (qualities of groups that are external to individual members yet constrain their thinking and behavior). Durkheim argued that such social facts as religious beliefs and social duties are external—that is, they are part of the social context and are larger than our individual lives. They also have the power to shape our behavior.Durkheim's principal concern was explaining the impact of modern society on social solidarity, the bonds that unite the members of a social group. In his view, in traditional society, these bonds are based on similarity—people speak the same language, share the same customs and beliefs, and do similar work tasks. He called this mechanical solidarity.organic solidarity, suggesting that modern society functions as an interdependent organic whole, like a human body.As societies get more complex and interdependent, shift from mechanical to organic solidarity

Real culture

consists of the values, norms, and behaviors that people in a given society actually embrace and exhibit. In the United States, for instance, empirical research shows that conventional attractiveness offers consistent advantages (Hamermesh, 2011). From childhood onward, the stories our parents, teachers, and the media tell us seem to sell the importance of beauty. Stories such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beautyconnect beauty with morality and goodness and unattractiveness with malice, jealousy, and other negative traits. The link between unattractive (or unconventional) appearance and unattractive behavior is unmistakable, especially in female figures. Consider other characters many American children are exposed to early in life, such as nasty Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmatians, the dastardly Queen of Hearts of Alice in Wonderland, and the angry octopod Ursula in The Little Mermaid.

Spurious relationship

correlation between two or more variables caused by another factor that is not being measured rather than a causal link between the variables themselves. In the example above, the common factor missed in the relationship is the temperature. summer time high ice cream sales

Comte

credited with founding modern sociology, naming it, and establishing it as the scientific study of social relationships. The twin pillars of Comte's sociology were the study of social statics, (the way society is held together), and the analysis of social dynamics, (the laws that govern social change).believed that social science could be used effectively to manage the social change resulting from modern industrial society but always with a strong respect for traditions and history.his new science of society was positivist. This meant that it was to be based on facts alone, which should be determined scientifically.society is the product of natural rather than of supernatural forces

Subculture

cultures that exist together with a dominant culture but differ from it in some important respects,including ethnic subcultures, may embrace most of the values and norms of the dominant culture while simultaneously choosing to preserve the values, rituals, and languages of their (or their parents' or grandparents') cultures of origin.

in-depth interviews

detached observation is usually supplemented by in-depth interviews. In his study of the delinquent gang members, Chambliss (1973, 2001) periodically interviewed them to complement his findings and check the accuracy of his detached observations.

W. E. B. Du Bois

developed ideas that were considered too radical to find broad acceptance in the sociological community,Du Bois sought to show that racism was widespread in U.S. society. He was also critical of Blacks who had "made it" and then turned their backs on those who had not. One of his most enduring ideas is that in U.S. society, African Americans are never able to escape a fundamental awareness of race.

Marx

impact on later sociological theory concerning modern societies and economies, predicted that industrialization would make life increasingly intolerable for the masses. He believed that private property ownership by the wealthy allowed for the exploitation of working people and that its elimination would bring about a utopia of equality for all.believed, should be understood as the product of class conflict, competition between social classes over the distribution of wealth, power, and other valued resources in society, influenced the development of economics and political science,perspective, the bourgeoisie benefits directly from the capitalist social order.....(. Conflict theory)

Mechanical Solidarity

in traditional society, these bonds are based on similarity—people speak the same language, share the same customs and beliefs, and do similar work tasks

Variable

is a concept that can take on two or more possible values. For instance, sex can be male or female, work status can be employed or unemployed, and geographic location can be inner-city, suburbs, or rural area. We can measure variables both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Paradigm

is a description of the interactions of human beings within any society. viewpoints or perspectives that permit social scientists to have a wide range of tools to describe society, and then to build hypotheses and theories.

Ethnocentrism

is a worldview whereby we judge other cultures by the standards of our own and regard our own way of life as normal and better than others. That which deviates from our own normal social order can appear exotic, even shocking. Other societies' rituals of death, for example, can look astonishingly different from those to which we are accustomed

Qualitative research

is characterized by data that cannot be quantified (or converted into numbers), focusing instead on generating in-depth knowledge of social life, institutions, and processes .....(for example, why parents in particular demographic groups are more or less likely to use spanking as a method of punishment). It relies on the gathering of data through methods such as focus groups, participant and nonparticipant observation, interviews, content analysis, and archival research.

Empirical evidence

is granted greater weight than common sense. By basing their decisions on scientific evidence rather than on personal beliefs or common wisdom, researchers and students can draw informed conclusions.approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing

Content analysis

is the systematic examination of forms of documented communication.Ex:A researcher can take a content analysis approach by coding and analyzing patterns in cultural products such as music, laws, tweets, blogs, and works of art.ociologists conducted a content analysis of 403 gangsta rap songs to assess whether rap's reputation of being misogynistic (hostile to women) was justified (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). The analysis found that although only about a fifth of the songs in the sample contained lyrics that were notable for their "objectification, exploitation, and victimization" of women (p. 25), most portrayals of women were still gender stereotypical and disempowering.

Validity

that is, the degree to which concepts and their measurements accurately represent what they claim to represent. For example, suppose you want to know whether the crime rate in the United States has gone up or down. For years, sociologists depended on police reports to measure crime. Nevertheless, researchers could assess the validity of these tallies only if subsequent surveys were administered nationally to victims of crime. If the victim tallies matched those of the police reports, then researchers could say the police reports were a valid measure of crime in the United States.

Falsifiability

that to be scientific, a theory must lead to testable hypotheses that can be disproved if they are wrong.

Agency

the ability of individuals and groups to exercise free will and to make social change

Collective conscience

the common beliefs and values that bind a society together, ex.holidays

Social embeddedness

the idea that economic, political, and other forms of human behavior are fundamentally shaped by social relations. Ex:sociologists pursue studies on a wide range of issues occurring within, between, and among families, communities, states, nations, and the world.

emic perspective

the perspective of the insider, and ask, "What did people in this period believe about the royals? What did they believe about the departed and the experience of death itself? What did they believe about the utility of material riches in the afterlife and the rewards the afterlife would confer on the royals and those loyal to them?" Are there death rituals in the U.S. cultural repertoire that might appear exotic or strange to outsiders even though we see them as normal?

Sociology

the scientific study of human social relations, groups, and societies.

Weber

the social world begins with the individual and takes into account the meaning of what people say and do. Although he argued that research should be scientific and value free, also believed that to explain what people do, we must use a method he termed Verstehen, the German word for interpretive understanding.sought to explain social relationships by having the sociologist/observer imagine how the subjects being studied might have perceived and interpreted the situation

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken. indicates that rather than objects and events forcing themselves onto our consciousness, it is our language that determines our consciousness, and hence our perception of objects and events.