Sociology Test #2

Charismatic Authority

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Expressive

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Instrumental

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Rational Legal Authority

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Rehabilitation

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Traditional Authority

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Victimization survey

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Social group

2 or more people who interact with one another and who share a common identity and a sense of honor belonging or "we-ness".

Primary Group

A small group of people who engage in intimate face to face interaction over an extended period.

Reference Group

Shapes our behaviors, values, and peer attitudes.

Deviance

a behavior or trait that violates expected rules or norms.

Aggregate

a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time but share little else in common.

Staus Set

a collection of social statuses that a person occupies at a given time.

Formal organization

a complex and structured secondary group that has been deliberately created to achieve specific goals in an efficient manner.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

a false belief or prediction that produces behavior that makes the originally false belief come true.

Voluntary Association

a formal organization created by people who share a common set of interests and who are not paid for their participation.

Bureaucracy

a formal organization that is designed to accomplish goals and tasks through the efforts of a large number of people in the most efficient and rational way possible.

Relative Deprivation

a gap between what people have and what they think they should have compared with other people in society.

Role Expectation

a group's or society's definition of the way that a specific role ought to be played.

Gesellschaft

a large, urban society in which social bonds are based on impersonal; and specialized relationships, with little long term commitment to the group or consensus on values.

Secondary Group

a large, usually formal impersonal, and temporary collection of people who pursue a specific goal or activity.

Stigma

a negative label that devalues a person and changes her or his self concept and social identity.

Category

a number of people who may never have met but share characteristics, such as education level, age, or gender.

Labeling Theory

a perspective which holds that society's reaction to behavior is a major factor in defining oneself or others as deviant.

Role

a set of behavioral expectations associated with a gic=ven status.

Role Conflict

a situation in which incompatible role demands are placed on a person by 2 or more statuses held at the same time.

Ascribed Status

a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race or ethnicity, age, and gender.

Achieved Status

a social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

Dramaturgical Analysis

a technique that examines social interaction as if occurring on a stage where people play different roles and act out scenes for the audience with whom they interact.

Gemeinscheft

a traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

Crime

a violation of societal norms and rules for which punishment is specified by law. It may bring formal, negative sanctions in which authority of the state to deprive a person of property or liberty is manifested.

Weak Ties

characterized by low intensity and lack of intimacy.

Illegitimate Opportunity Structures

circumstances that provide a means for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate means.

Correctional and Prison System

consists of all the various programs and institutions on the local, state, and national level responsible for the management of people accused or convicted of crimes.

Property Crime

crimes that include burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny, and arson.

Criminal Courts

determine the guilt or innocence of persons accused of committing a crime.

Social Bond Theory

holds that the probability of deviant behavior increases when a person's ties to society are weakened or broken

Role Performance

how a person actually plays the role.

Social Network

not a group, but is a wed of social relationships that links an individual to others, as sell as indirectly to people that they know.

Role Strain

occurs when compatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies.

White Collar Crime

or occupational crime, is an act committed in the workplace by individuals acting solely in their own personal interest

out-group

persons viewed and treated negatively because they are seen as having values beliefs and other characteristics different from those of the in-group.

in- group

persons who share a sense of identity and "we-ness" that typically excludes and devalues outsiders.

Organic Solidarity

refers to the social cohesion of industrial societies, in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence.

Mechanical Solidarity

refers to the social cohesion of preindustrial societies, in which there is minimal division of labor and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds.

Strong Ties

relationships characterized by intimacy, emotional intensity, and sharing

Sanctions

rewards for normative behavior or penalties for non-normative behavior.

Status

socially defined position in a group society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.

Differential Association Theory

suggests that individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from norms when they frequently associate with persons more favorable to deviance.

Rational Choice Theory

the belief that deviant behavior occurs when a person weighs the costs and benefits of nonconventional or criminal behavior and determines that the benefits will outweigh the risks.

Status inconsistency

the conflict that arises from occupying social positions that are ranked differently.

Role Set

the different roles attached to a single status.

Criminal Justice System

the government agencies -- including police, courts and prisons -- that are charged with enforcing laws, passing judgment on offenders, and changing criminal behavior.

Strain Theory

the idea that people may engage in deviant behavior when they experience a conflict between socially accepted goals and the means available to obtain the goals.

personal space

the immediate area surrounding a person that person claims as private.

Primary deviance

the initial violation of a norm.

Secondary Deviance

the labeling that occurs from repeated deviance, leading to the social rejection of the person and he/she becoming deviant.

Authority

the legitimate use of power.

Social exchange theory

the perspective whose fundamental premise is that social interaction os based on each persons trying to maximize rewards and minimize costs.

Social Construction of reality

the process by which our perception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience.

Social Interaction

the process by which people act toward or respond to other people around them.

Group Conformity

the process of maintaining or changing behavior to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or other group.

Ethnomethodology

the study of how people construct and learn to share definitions of reality that make everyday interactions possible.

Criminology

the systematic study of crime and the criminal justice system, including the police, courts, and prisons.

Social Control

the techniques and strategies that regulate people's behavior in society.

Groupthink

the tendency of in-group members to conform without critically testing analyzing and evaluating ideas which results in a narrow view of an issue.

Nonverbal Communication

the transfer of information between persons without the use of words.

Hunting and gathering societies

use simple technology for hunting animals and gathering vegetation.

Corporate Crime

white-color crimes committed by executives to benefit themselves and their companies.

Master Status

achieved or ascribed status that determines a persons identity.

Violent Crime

actions, such as murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, which involve force or the threat of force against others.

Victimless Crime

acts that violate laws but involve individuals who don't consider themselves victims.

Small Group

all members can be acquainted and can interact with each other simultaneously.

Social Institution

an organized and established social system the meets one or more of societies basic needs.

Social Structure

an organized pattern of behavior that governs people's relationships.

Punishment

any action designed to deprived a person of things of value (including liberty) because of some offense the person is thought to have committed.