Sociology Chapter 1-6 Test

Primary group

A small social group whose members share personal and lasting friendships

Reference group

A social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions

Bureaucracy

An organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently

Instrumental Leadership

Group leadership that focuses on the completion of tasks

Expressive leadership

Group leadership that focuses on the group's well being

Normative organizations

Have goals people consider worthwhile (i.e. voluntary associations such as the PTA)

Formal organizations

Large, secondary groups organized to achieve their goals efficiently

Coercive organizations

Organizations people are forced to join (i.e. prisons and mental hospitals)

Utilitarian organizations

Pay people for their efforts (i.e. a business or government agency)

Alienation, inefficiency/ritualism, inertia, oligarchy

Problems of bureaucracy

Social media

Technology that links people in social activity

Theoretical approach

a basic image of society that guides thinking and research

Macro-level orientation

a broad focus on social structures that shape society as a whole

Micro-level orientation

a close-up focus on social interaction in specific situations

Variable

a concept whose value changes from case to case

Structural-functional approach

a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability

Social-conflict approach

a framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change

Symbolic-interaction approach

a framework for building theory that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals

Validity

actually measuring exactly what you intended to measure

Spurious correlation

an apparent but false relationship between 2 (or more) variables that is caused by some other variable

Social structure

any relatively stable pattern of social behavior

Reliability

consistency in measurement

Low-income countries

nations with a low standard of living, in which most people are poor

Middle-income countries

nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole

Folkways

norms for routine or casual interaction

Mores

norms that are widely observed and have great moral significance

Society

people who interact in a defined territory and share a culture

Culture shock

personal disorientation when experiencing an unfamiliar way of life

Objectivity

personal neutrality in conducting research

Norms

rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members

Beliefs

specific ideas that people hold to be true

Operationalize a variable

specifying exactly what is to be measured before assigning a value to a variable

Feminism

support of social equality for women and men

Cultural universals

traits that are part of every known culture

Language

a system of symbols that allows people to communicate with one another

Sociobiology

a theoretical approach that explores ways in which human biology affects how we create culture

heterosexism

a view that labels anyone who is not heterosexual as "queer"

homophobia

discomfort over close personal interaction with people thought to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual

Afrocentrism

emphasizing and promoting African cultural patterns

primary sex characteristics

genitals, organs used for reproduction

Highly skilled and creative work

i.e. designers, consultants, programmers and executives

Empirical evidence

information we can verify with our senses

Social construction of reality

A process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction

Pastoralism

the domestication of animals

Eurocentrism

the dominance of European cultural patterns

Cultural lag

the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others, disrupting a cultural system

Socialization

The lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture

Mass media

The means for delivering impersonal communications to a vast audience

Oligarchy

The rule of many by the few

Gerontology

The study of aging and the elderly

Dramaturgical analysis

The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance. A status operates as a part in a play, and a role is a script.

Personal space

The surrounding area over which a person makes some claim to privacy

Bureaucratic inertia

The tendency of bureaucratic organizations to perpetuate themselves

Groupthink

The tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issue

Social Group

Two or more people who identify with and interact with one another

Thomas theorem

W.I. Thomas's claim that situations defined as real are real in their consequences

Culture, social class

What two things shape the reality people construct?

Multiculturalism

a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the US and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions

Measurement

a procedure for determining the value of a variable in a specific case

Cause and effect

a relationship in which change in one variable (IV) causes change in another (DV)

Correlation

a relationship in which two or more variables change together

Positivism

a scientific approach to knowledge based on "positive facts" as opposed to mere speculation

Critical sociology

the study of sociology that focuses on the need for social change

Global perspective

the study of the larger world and our society's place in it

Latent functions

the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern

Horticulture

the use of hand tools to raise crops

Hunting and gathering

the use of simple tools to hunt animals and gather vegetation for food

Culture

the ways of thinking, acting, and material objects that together form a people's way of life

Cohort

A category of people with something in common, usually their age

Bureaucratic ritualism

A focus on rules and regulations to the point of undermining an organization's goals

Gerontocracy

A form of social organization in which the elderly have the most wealth, power, and prestige

Secondary group

A large, impersonal and goal-oriented, and often of shorter duration (examples include a college class or a corporation)

Role set

A number of roles attached to a single status

Personality

A person's fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling

Total institution

A setting in which people are isolated form thye rest of society and manipulated by a administrative staff

In-group

A social group toward which a member feels respect and loyalty

Out-group

A social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition

Peer group

A social group whose members have interests, social position, and age in common

Triad

A social group with three members

Dyad

A social group with two members

Status

A social position that is part of our social identity and that defines our relationship to others

Low skilled service work

Associated with the McDonalization of society, based on efficiency, uniformity, and control (i.e. fast food restaurant job)

Role

Behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status

Performances

Both conscious (intentional action) and unconscious (nonverbal communication), include costume, props, and demeanor

Master status

Can be either ascribed or achieved, has special importance for a person's identity

Nonverbal communication

Communication using body gestures, movements, and facial expressions rather than speech

Looking-glass self

Cooley's term for a self image based on how we think others see us

Presentation of self

Erving Goffman's term for a person's efforts to create specific impressions in the minds of others

Organizational environment

Factors such as technology, political and economic trends, current events, population patterns, other organizations that affect its operation

Family, school, peer group, mass media

Four agents of socialization

Demeanor, use of space, smiling, staring and touching

Four ways gender affects performances

Scientific management

Frederick Taylor's term for the application of scientific principles to the operation of a business or other large organization

Ego

Freud's term for a person's conscious efforts to balance innate pleasure seeking drives with the demands of society

Superego

Freud's term for the cultural values and norms internalized by an individual

Id

Freud's term for the human being's basic drives

Self

George Herbert Mead's term for the part of and individual's personality composed of self-awareness and self-image

Generalized other

George Herbert Mead's term for widespread cultural norms and values we use as reference in evaluating ourselves

Ascribed status

Involuntary status (being a teenager, orphan, Mexican-American)

Anticipatory socialization

Learning that helps a person achieve a desired position

Significant others

People, such as parents, who have special importance for socialization

Network

Relational webs that link people with little common identity and limited interaction.

Formal operational stage

Piaget's term for the level of human development at which abstract and critical thought is used

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's term for the level of human development at which individuals experience the world only through their senses

Concrete operational stage

Piaget's term for the level of human development at which individuals first see casual connections in their surroundings

Preoperational stage

Piaget's term for the level of human development at which individuals first use language and other symbols

Ageism

Prejudice and discrimination against older people

Resocialization

Radically changing an inmate's personality by carefully controlling the environment

Role strain

Results from tension among roles linked to a single status (for example, the college professor who enjoy social interaction with students but knows that distance is necessary for fair evaluation)

Role conflict

Results from tension among roles linked to two or more status (for example, a woman who juggles her responsibilities as a mother and a corporate CEO)

Social structure

Social patterns that guide our behavior in everyday life. The building blocks of this are status and role

Achieved status

Status which is earned (honors student, pilot, thief)

Theory

a state of how and why specific facts are related

Social media

Technology that links people in social activity.

queer theory

a body of research findings that challenges the heterosexual bias in the US society

asexuality

a lack of sexual attraction to people of either sex

Science

a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation

Concept

a mental construct that represents some aspect of the world in a simplified form

incest taboo

a norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives

sexual orientation

a person's romantic and emotional attraction to another person

Social dysfunction

any social pattern that may disrupt the operation of society

Symbol

anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share a culture

transgender

appearing or behaving in ways that challenge conventional cultural norms concerning how females and males should look act

Social control

attempts by society to regulate people's thoughts and behaviors

secondary sex characteristics

bodily development, apart from the genitals, that distinguishes biologically mature females and males

Popular culture

cultural patterns that are widespread among a society's population

High culture

cultural patterns that distinguish a society's elite

Subculture

cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society's population

Counterculture

cultural patterns that strongly oppose those widely accepted within a society

Values

culturally defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable, good, and beautiful and that serve as broad guidelines for social living

Technology

knowledge that people use to make a way of life in their surroundings

Agriculture

large-scale cultivation using plows harnessed to animals or more powerful energy sources

transsexuals

people who feel they are one sex even though biologically they are the other

intersexual people

people whose bodies (including genitals) have both female and male characteristics

bisexuality

sexual attraction to people of both sexes

heterosexuality

sexual attraction to someone of the other sex

homosexuality

sexual attraction to someone of the same sex

pornography

sexually explicit material intended to cause sexual arousal

Sex

the biological distinction between females and males

Cultural integration

the close relationships among various elements of a cultural system

Social functions

the consequences of a social pattern for the operation of society as a whole

abortion

the deliberate termination of pregnancy

Sapir-Whorf thesis

the idea that people see and understand the world through the cultural lens of language

Nonmaterial culture

the ideas created by members of a society

High-income countries

the nations with the highest overall standards of living

Gender

the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male

Material culture

the physical things created by members of a society

Cultural relativism

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Ethnocentrism

the practice of judging another culture by the standards of one's own culture

Cultural transmission

the process by which one generation passes culture to another

Industry

the production of goods using advanced sources of energy to drive large machinery

Postindustrialism

the production of information using computer technology

Manifest functions

the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern

prostitution

the selling of sexual services

Sociological perspective

the special point of view that sees general patterns of society in the lives of particular people

Race-conflict theory

the study of society that focuses on inequality and conflict between people of different racial and ethnic categories

Gender-conflict theory (feminist theory)

the study of society that focuses on inequality and conflict between women and men

Interpretive sociology

the study of society that focuses on the meanings people attach to their social world

Positivist sociology

the study of sociology based on scientific observation of social behavior