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Final Study Guide
Sociological Imagination |
The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical facts. |
Sociological imagination |
the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces |
Agency |
The ability to make decisions and act to change one's circumstances |
Structure |
The recurrent patterned arrangements, which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available |
Structure |
Recurrent patterned arrangements, which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available. Ex: Race, Gender, Political System |
Functionalism |
Theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important function to keep society running. |
Conflict Theory |
Idea that conflict between imputing interest in the basic animating force of social change and society in general. |
Conflict theory |
the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general |
Symbolic Interactionism |
A micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions. |
Social Constructionism |
General agreement on the interpretations of social entities. Being respectful to traditions |
Social construction |
a entity that exists because people behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed-upon formals rules or informal norms of behavior associated with that entity |
Feminist Theory |
Consciousness-rising movement to get people to understand the genera is an organizing principle of life. Gender equality. |
Sociology |
study of the human society |
Social institution |
a complex group of interdependent positions that together, perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time; also defined in a narrow sense as any institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups or people within it |
Verstehen |
German understanding. The concept of Verstehen forms the object of inquiry for interpretive sociology- to study how social actors understand their actions and the social world through experience |
Anomie |
a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness |
Anomie |
a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation |
Anomie |
a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness. |
anomie |
sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer reasonably expect life to be predictable |
Positivist sociology |
a strain within sociology that believes that social world can be described and predicted by certain describable relationships |
Double consciousness |
a concept conceived by W. E. B. DuBois to describe the two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudice onlookers, which are constantly maintained by African Americans |
Postmodernism |
a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed afflictions |
Midrange theory |
a theory that attempts to predict how certain social institutions tend to function |
Microsociology |
seeks to understand local interactional contexts; its methods of choice are ethnographic, generally, including participant observations and in depth interviews |
Macrosociology |
generally concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis- that is, across the breadth of a society |
Research methods |
approaches that social scientists use for investigating the answers to questions |
Quantitative methods |
methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric |
Qualitative methods |
methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form |
Deductive approach |
a research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observation, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory |
Inductive approach |
a research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory |
Correlation |
simultaneous variation in two variables |
Causality |
the notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another |
Reverse causality |
a situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B, in fact, is causing A |
Dependent variable |
the outcome that the researcher is trying to explain |
Independent variable |
a measured factor that the researcher believes has a casual impact on the dependent variable |
Hypothesis |
a proposed relationship between two variables |
Operationalization |
the process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study |
Validity |
the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure |
Reliability |
likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure |
Generalizability |
the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied |
Placebo |
a simulated treatment given to a control group in an experimental study to factor out the effect merely being in an experiment from the effect of actual treatment under consideration |
Double-blind study |
an experimental study where neither the subjects nor the researchers know who is in the treatment group and who is in the control (placebo) group |
Reflexivity |
analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and effect on, our research |
Feminist methodology |
a set of systems or methods that treat women's experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources, that promote social sciences for women, and that take into account the researches as much as the overt subject matter |
Participant observation |
a qualitative research method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their behavior by observing social actions in practice |
Surveys |
an ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents |
Historical methods |
research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date prior time period under study |
Comparative research |
a methodology by which two or more entities, which are similar in many dimensions but differ on one in question, are compared to learn about the dimension that differs between them |
Experimental methods |
methods that seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields; often involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such an intervention |
Content analysis |
a systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of communication, such as a written work, speech, or film |
Public sociology |
the practice of sociological research, teaching, and service that seeks to engage a wide audience for a normative productive end |
Culture |
a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices; the sum total of social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; that which is not the natural environment around us |
Ethnocentrism |
the belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own |
Nonmaterial culture |
values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms |
Material culture |
everything that is a part of our constructed, physical environment, including technology |
Ideology |
a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of cause and effect |
Cultural relativism |
taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value |
Cultural scripts |
modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural |
Subculture |
the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society; a group united by sets on concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society |
Values |
moral beliefs |
Norms |
how values tell us to behave |
Socialization |
the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society |
Reflection theory |
the idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere, a screen onto which the film of the underlying reality or social structures of out society is projected |
Media |
any format or vehicles that carry, present, or communicate information |
Hegemony |
a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses |
Consumerism |
the steady acquisition of material possessions, often with the beliefs that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved |
Culture jamming |
the act of turning media against themselves |
Self |
the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person |
Me |
the self as perceived as an object by the "I"; the self as one imagines other perceive one |
Other |
someone or something outside of oneself |
Generalized other |
an internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings- regardless of whether we've encountered those people of places before |
Resocialization |
the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately through an intense social process that may take place in a total institution |
Total institution |
an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs n the same place under the same single authority |
Total Institution |
an institutions in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same place and under the same single authority |
Status |
a recognizable social position that an individual occupies |
Role |
the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status |
Role strain |
the incompatibility among roles corresponding to single status |
Role conflict |
the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses |
Status set |
all the statuses one holds simultaneously |
Achieved status |
a status into which one enters; voluntary status |
Ascribed status |
a status into which one is born; involuntary status |
Master status |
one status within a set that stands out or overrides all others |
Gender roles |
sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as male or female |
Dramaturgical theory |
the view (advanced by Erving Goffman) of social life as essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets |
Face |
the esteem in which an individual is held by others |
Ethnomethodology |
literally "the methods of the people," this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a shared social order |
Dyad |
a group of two |
Triad |
a group of three or more |
Mediator |
member of a triad who attempts to resolve conflict between the two other actors in the group |
Tertius gaudens |
the new third member of a triad who benefits from conflict between the other two members of the group |
Divide et impera |
the role of a member of a triad who intentionally drives a wedge between the other two actors in the group |
Small group |
a group characterized by face-to-face interaction, a unifocal perspective, lack of formal arrangements, and certain level of equiality |
Party |
a group that is similar to a small group but more multifocal |
Primary groups |
social groups such as family or friends, composed of intimate face-to-face relationships that strongly influence the attitudes and ideals of those involved |
Secondary groups |
groups marked by impersonal, instrumental relationships (those existing as a means to an end) |
In-group |
another term for the powerful group, most often the majority |
Out-group |
another term for the stigmatized or less powerful group, the minority |
Reference groups |
a group that helps us understand or make sense of our position in society relative to other groups |
Social network |
a set of relations- essentially, a set of dyads- held together by ties between individuals |
Tie |
a set of stories that explains our relationship to the other members of our network |
Narrative |
the sum of stories contained in a set of ties |
Embeddedness |
the degree to which ties are reinforced through indirect paths within a social network |
Strength of weak ties |
the notion that relatively weak ties often turn out to be quite valuable because they yield new information |
Structural hole |
a gap between network clusters, or even two individuals, if those individuals (or clusters) have complementary resources |
Social capital |
the information knowledge of people, and connections that helps individuals enter, gain power in, or otherwise leverage social networks |
Organization |
any social network that defined by common purpose and has a boundary between its membership and the rest of the social world |
organization |
any social network that shares a common purpose; separate from the rest of the social world |
Organizational culture |
the shared beliefs and behaviors within a social group; often used interchangeably with corporate culture |
organizational culture |
the shared beliefs and behaviors within a social group |
Organizational structure |
the ways in which power and authority are distributed within an organization |
Ismorphism |
a constraining process the forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions |
Civil religion |
a set of sacred beliefs so commonly accepted by most people that it becomes part of the national culture |
Religion |
a system of beliefs, traditions, and practices around sacred things, a set of shared "stories" that guide belief and action |
religion |
a system of beliefs and practices around sacred things; a set of shared "stories" that guide belief and action |
Sacred |
holy things meant for special use and kept separate from the profane; the sacred realm is unknowable and mystical, so it inspires us with feelings of awe and wonder |
sacred |
holy things that are meant for the worship of a higher being |
Profane |
the things of mundane, everyday life |
profane |
the everyday |
Theism |
the worship of a god or gods, as in Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism |
theism |
the worship of a god or gods |
Ethicalism |
the adherence to certain principles to lead a moral life, as in Buddhism and Taoism |
ethicalism |
adherance to certain moral principles to lead a moral life |
Animism |
the belief that spirits roam the natural world, as in totemism |
animism |
belief that spirits roam the natural world |
Denominations |
big groups of congregations that share the same faith and are governed under one administrative umbrella |
Congregations |
groups of people who gather together, especially for worship |
Secularism |
a general movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief toward a rational, scientific orientation, a trend adopted by industrialized nations in the form of separation of church and state |
secularism |
general movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief, toward rational/scientific orientation |
Pluralism |
the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society |
pluralism |
presence of numerous distinct religious groups in one society |
Sacred canopy |
Peter Berger's term to describe the entire set of religious norms, symbols, and beliefs that express the most important thing in life, namely, the feeling that life is worth living and that reality is meaningful and ordered, not just random chaos |
Evangelicals |
members of any denomination distinguished by four main beliefs: the Bible is without error, salvation comes through belief in Jesus Christ, personal conversation is the only path to salvation (the "born again" experience), and others must also be converted. They proselytize by engaging with wider society |
Fundamentalists |
religious adherents who follow a scripture (such as the Bible or Qur'an) using literal interpretation of its meaning |
Religious experience |
an individual's spiritual feelings, acts, and experiences |
Reflexive spirituality |
a contemporary religious movement that encourages followers to look to religion for meaning, wisdom, and profound thought and feeling rather than for absolute truths on how the world works |
Megachurch |
typically, a conservative Protestant church that attracts at least 2,000 worshippers per week |
Supernatural compensators |
promises of future rewards, such as salvation or eternity in heaven |
Churches |
religious bodies that coexist in a relatively low state of tension with their social surroundings. They have mainstream or "safe" beliefs and practices relative to those of the general population |
churches |
religious bodies that coexist with society because they are considered to have "safe" world-affirming beliefs |
Sects |
high-tension organizations that don't fit so well within the existing social environment. They are usually most attractive to society's least privileged- outcasts, minorities, or the poor- because they downplay worldly pleasure by stressing otherworldly promises |
sects |
high tension organizations that don't fit in the existing social environment and are attractive to marginalized groups |
Cult |
religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not easily fit within the sect-church cycle |
cults |
group that makes some new claim about spirituality; considered volatile and potential dangerous |
Social Deviance |
any transgression of socially established norms |
Crime |
the violation of laws enacted by society |
Social Cohesion |
social bonds; how well people relate to each other get along on a day-to-day basis |
Mechanical or Segmental Solidarity |
social cohesion on sameness |
Organic Solidarity |
social cohesion based on difference and interdependence of the parts |
Organic solidarity |
Based on difference and interdependence of the parts |
organic solidarity |
based on difference |
Social Control |
those mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals |
Social control |
the set of mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals |
Formal Social Sanctions |
mechanisms of social control by which rules of law prohibit deviant criminal behavior |
formal social sanctions |
criminal laws and punishment |
Informal Social Sanctions |
the usually unexpressed but widely known rules of group membership; the unspoken rules of social life |
informal social sanctions |
unspoken rules and expectations about people's behavior |
Social Integration |
how well you are integrated into your social group or community |
Social Regulation |
the number of rules guiding your daily life and, more specifically, what you can reasonably expect from the world on a day-to-day basis |
Egoistic Suicide |
suicide that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social group |
Altruistic Suicide |
suicide that occurs when one experiences too much social integration |
Anomic Suicide |
suicide that occurs as a result of insufficient social regulation |
Fatalistic Suicide |
suicide that occurs as a results of too much social regulation |
Strain Theory |
Merton's theory that deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals |
Conformist |
individual who accepts both the goals and strategies to achieve them that are considered socially acceptable |
Ritualist |
individual who rejects socially defined goals but not the means |
ritualists |
aren't interested in the goals of society, but accept the means of achieving them |
Innovator |
social deviant who accepts socially acceptable goals but rejects socially acceptable means to achieve them |
innovators |
accept the goals of society but look for new or innovative ways of achieving them |
Retreatist |
one who rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by completely retreating from, or not participating in, society |
retreatists |
rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by retreating from society |
Rebel |
individual who rejects both traditional goals and traditional means and wants to alter or destroy the social institutions from which he or she is alienated |
rebels |
rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by altering or destroying the institutions from which he is alienated |
Symbolic Interactionalism |
a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions |
symbolic interactionalism |
shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions for the basic motivations for people's actions |
Labeling Theory |
the belief that individuals subconsciously notice how others see or label them, and their reactions to those labels, over time, form the basis of their self-identity |
labeling theory |
labels placed by other people begin to form the basis of self-identity |
Primary Deviance |
the first act of rule breaking that may incur a label of "deviant" and thus influence how people think about and act toward you |
primary deviance |
first act of rule-breaking |
Secondary Deviance |
subsequent acts of rule breaking that occur after primary deviance and as a result of your new deviant label and people's expectations of you |
secondary deviance |
deviant acts that result from being labeled deviant |
Stigma |
a negative social label that not only changes others' behavior toward a person but also alters that person's own self-concept and social identity |
Broken Windows Theory of Deviance |
theory explaining how social context and social cues impact whether individuals act deviantly; specifically, whether local, informal social norms allow deviant acts |
Street Crime |
crime committed in public and often associated with violence, gangs, and poverty |
White-collar Crime |
offense committed by a professional against a corporation, agency, or other institution |
Corporate Crime |
a particular type of white collar-crime committed by the officers of a coporation |
Corporate crime |
a particular type of white-collar crime committed by the officers (CEOs and other executives) of a corporation |
Deterrence Theory |
philosophy of criminal justice arising from the notion that crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and benefits |
deterrence theory |
assumes that criminals are rational actors and that they will resist engaging in deviant behaviors if the costs become to high |
Recidivism |
Recidivism |
Panopticon |
a circular building composed of inner ring and an outer ring designed to serve as a prison in which the guards, housed in the inner ring, can observe the prisoners without the detainees knowing whether they are being watched |
Stratification |
structured social inequality or, more specifically, systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise as intended or unintended consequences of social processes and relationships |
stratifications |
systematic inequalities between groups of people that arise from social processes and relationships |
Social Equality |
a condition whereby no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status based on nonnatural conventions exists |
Dialectic |
a two-directional relationship, one that goes both ways |
Ontological Equality |
the notion that everyone is created equal at birth |
Ontological Equality |
the philosophy and religious notion that everyone is created equal |
Ontological equality |
the notion that everyone was created equal in god’s eyes |
ontological equality |
the notion that everyone is equal in the eyes of God |
Equality of Opportunity |
the idea that everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power because the rules of the game, so to speak, are the same for everyone |
Equality of opportunity |
Inequality is acceptable so long as everyone has the same opportunities for advancement and is judged by the same standards |
equality of opportunity |
inequality is acceptable if everyone has the same opportunities for advancement and are judged by the same standards |
Bourgeois Society |
a society of commerce (modern capitalist society, for example) in which the maximization of profit is the primary business incentive |
Equality of Condition |
the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point |
Equality of conditions |
Idea that everyone should have an equal starting point from which to pursue his or her goals |
Equality of Outcome |
a position that argues each player must end up with the same amount regardless of the fairness of the "game" |
Equality of outcomes |
Everyone in a society should end up with the same “rewards” regardless of starting point, opportunities, or contributions. |
Free Rider Problem |
the notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight |
Escalate System |
politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility |
Caste System |
religion-based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility |
caste system |
based on hereditary notions of religious and theological purity; few opportunities for social mobility |
Class System |
an economically based hierarchical system characterized by cohesive, oppositional groups and somewhat loose social mobility |
class system |
economically based system of stratification with loose social mobility based on roles in production process; blurred boundaries of class |
Proletariat |
the working class |
Bourgeoisie |
the capitalist class |
Contradictory Class Locations |
Status Hierarchy Systemthe idea that people can occupy locations in the class structure that fall between the two "pure" classes |
Status Hierarchy System |
a system of stratification based on social prestige |
Elite-mass dichotomy system |
system of stratification that has a governing elite, a few leaders who broadly hold power in society |
Meritocracy |
a society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement |
Socioeconomic Status (SEC) |
a individual's position in a stratified social order |
Income |
money received by a person for work, from transfers (gifts, inheritances, or government assistance), or from returns on investments |
Wealth |
a family's or individual's net worth (that is, total assets minus total debts) |
Upper Class |
a term for the economic elite |
Middle Class |
a term commonly used to describe those individuals with nonmanual jobs that pay significantly more than the poverty line - though this is a highly debated and expansive category, particularly in the US, where broad swathes of the population consider themselves middle class |
Social Mobility |
the movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society |
Structural Mobility |
mobility that is inevitable from changes in the economy |
Exchange Mobility |
mobility in which, if we hold fixed the changing distribution of jobs, individuals trade jobs, not one-to-one but in a way that ultimately balances out |
Status-attainment model |
approach that ranks individuals by socioeconomic status, including income and educational attainment, and seeks to specify the attributes characteristic of people who end up in more desirable occupations |
Feminism |
a consciousness raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief is that women and men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect |
Sex |
the biological differences that distinguish males from from females |
Sexuality |
desire, sexual preference, sexual identity, and behavior |
Gender |
a social position, the set of social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories |
Essentialism |
a line of thought that explains social phenomena in terms of natural ones |
Biological Determinism |
a line of thought that explains social behavior in terms of who you are in the natural world |
Hegemonic Masculinity |
the condition in which men are dominant and privileged, and this dominance and privilege is invisible |
Patriachy |
a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity |
Structural Functionalism |
theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures (the family, the division of labor, or gender) that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions |
Structural functionalism |
theoretical tradition claiming that every society has certain structures (the family, the division of labor, or gender) that exist in order to fulfill some set of necessary functions (reproduction of the species, production of goods, etc.) |
Sex Role Theory |
Talcott Parson's theory that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers. respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers |
Homosexual |
the social identity of a person who has sexual attractions to and/or relations with other persons of the same sex |
Sexism |
occurs when a person's sex or gender is the basis for judgment, discrimination, and hatred against him or her |
Sexual Harassment |
an illegal form of discrimination, involving everything from inappropriate jokes on the job to outright sexual assault to sexual "barter" - all intended to make women feel uncomfortable and unwelcome and unwelcome, particularly on the job |
Glass Ceiling |
an invisible limit on women's climb up the occupational ladder |
Glass Escalator |
the promotional ride men take to the top of a work organization especially in feminized jobs |
Race |
a group of people who share a set of characteristics - typically, but not always, physical ones - and are said to share a common bloodline |
Racism |
the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits |
Scientific Racism |
nineteenth-century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race |
Social Darwinism |
the application of Darwinian ideas to society, namely, the evolutionary "survival of the fittest" |
Eugenics |
literally meaning "well born"; the theory of controlling the fertility of populations to influence inheritable traits passed on from generation to generation |
eugenics |
races have a separate package of social and psychological traits trasmitted through bloodliense |
Nativism |
movement to protect and preserve indigenous land or culture from the allegedly dangerous and polluting effects of new immigrants |
One-drop Rule |
the belief that "one-drop" of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from US laws forbidding miscegenation |
One drop rule |
- the belief that “one drop” of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscegenation. |
Miscegenation |
the technical term for interracial marriage; literally meaning "a mixing of kinds"; it is politically and historically charged - sociologists generally prefer exogamy or outmarriage |
Miscegenation |
the technical term for interracial marriage, literally meaning "a mixing of kinds"; it is politically and historically charged - sociologists generally prefer the term exogamy or outmarraige |
Racialization |
the formation of new racial identity in which ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group of people |
racialization |
formation of a new racial identity in which new ideological boundaries of difference are drawn around a formerly unnoticed group |
Ethnicity |
one's ethnic quality of affiliation. It is voluntary, self-defined, nonhierarchal, fluid, and multiple, and based on cultural differences, not physical ones per se |
Symbolic Ethnicity |
a nationality, not in the sense of carrying the rights and duties of citizenship but of identifying with a past or future nationality. For later generations of white ethnics, something not constraining but easily expressed, with no risks of stigma and all the pleasures of feeling like an individual |
Straight-line Assimilation |
Robert Park's 1920s universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate: they first arrive, then settle in, and achieve full assimilation in newly homogenous country |
Primordialism |
Clifford Geertzt's terms to explain the strength of ethnic ties because they are fixed in deeply felt or primordial ties to one's homeland culture |
Segregation |
the legal or social practice of separating people on the basis of their race or ethnicity |
Genocide |
the mass killing of a group of people based on racial, ethnic, or religious traits |
Subaltern |
describes a subordinate, oppressed group of people |
Collective Resistance |
an organized effort to change a power hierarchy on the part of a less-powerful group in a society |
Prejudice |
thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group |
Discrimination |
harmful or negative acts (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit |
Institutional Racism |
institutions and social dynamics that may seem race-neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups |
Endogamy |
marriage to someone within one's social group |
Exogamy |
marriage to someone outside one's social group |
Monogamy |
the practice of having only one sexual partner or spouse at a time |
Polygamy |
practice of having more than one sexual partner or spouse at a time |
Polyandry |
the practice of having multiple husbands simultaneously |
Polygyny |
the practice of having multiple wives simultaneously |
Nuclear Family |
familial form consisting of a father, mother, and their children |
Extended Family |
kin networks that extend outside or beyond the nuclear family |
Cohabitation |
living together in an intimate relationship without formal legal or religious sanctioning |
Kinship Networks |
strings of relationships between people related by blood and co-residence (that is, marriage) |
Cult of Domesticity |
the notion that true womanhood centers on domestic responsibility and child rearing |
Second Shift |
women's responsibility for housework and child care - everything from cooking dinner to doing laundry, bathing children, reading bedtime stories, and sewing Halloween costumes |
Second shift |
women’s responsibility for housework and childcare – everything from cooking dinner, to doing laundry, bathing children, reading bedtime sorties and sewing Halloween costumes. |
Civil Unions |
legally recognized unions explicitly intended to offer similar state-provided legal rights benefits as marriage |
Domestic Partnerships |
legally recognized unions that guarantee only select rights to same-sex couples |
Social Cohesion |
The way people form social bonds, relate to each other, and get along on a day-to-day basis. |
Mechanical Solidarity |
- Based on the sameness of society’s parts or members |
mechanical solidarity |
based on sameness |
Durkheim |
wrote The Division of Labor in Society. Theorized mechanical and organic solidarity |
Informal sanctions |
the usually unexpressed but widely known rules of group membership; the unspoken rules of social life |
Formal sanctions |
mechanisms of social control by which rules or laws prohibit deviant criminal behavior |
Merton’s Strain theory |
theory that deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals |
Isomorphism |
a constraining process that forces one unit in a population to resemble other units that face the same set of environmental conditions |
isomorphism |
how organizations come to resemble other similar organizations over time |
Vertical |
the rise or fall of a group/person from one social stratum to another |
Horizontal |
a group/person transitioning from one social status to another situated more or less on the same rung of the ladder |
Social learning theory |
criminal behavior is learned from one’s peers/family/etc |
Normative compliance |
the act of abiding by society’s norms or simply following the group life |
normative compliance |
act of abiding by society's norms; following the rules of group life |
Racial hierarchy |
white is the “norm” colored leaves you disadvantaged |
Redlining |
The practice of denying or charging more for services such as banking, insurance, or jobs to people living in a particular area |
Straight line |
Robert Park’s 1920s universal and linear model for how immigrants assimilate: they first arrive, then settle in, and achieve full assimilation in a newly homogenous country. |
Primodialism |
Clifford Geertz’s term to explain the strength of ethnic ties because they are fixed in deeply felt or primordial ties to one’s homeland culture |
Estate system |
politically based system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility |
estate system |
politically based system of stratification based on limited social mobility. ex. feudalism |
Psychoanalytic |
women are wired differently, nurturing, etc. |
Gregory Owens |
- used to be a rich ass white lawyer, now he’s a bankrupt ass white lawyer. What social class does he fit into?? |
Stanford prison experiment |
hazing inmates and the power that comes with roles |
Magazine covers |
gender roles are subject to change |
Ford Pinto |
car blows up, costs less to get sued a shit ton than to recall the car. Corporate crime |
Stop and frisk |
- terry v. ohio, gave police the right to randomly frisk anyone to “Create a safer environment” but really was just a great excuse to arrest people for being black |
Gender roles in the armed forces |
women don’t get credited to a specific unit. They also get more secondary jobs like transportation, medic, etc. |
Native Americans |
- got fucked genocide wise because we moved them all out of ‘murica. |
Master-slave dialectic |
a relationship that begins with the slave being wholly dependent on the master for food, shelter, etc. but eventually becomes a mutually dependent relationship because the master becomes dependent on the slave to carry out all of his tasks |
Human trafficking- |
enslaving and trading people (usually women/children) as domestic workers (or sex slaves) |
Parson’s Sex role theory |
Talcott Parson’s theory that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers, respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers. |
Nuclear |
family form consisting of a father, mother, and their children |
Extended |
kin networks that extend outside or beyond the nuclear family. |
Opting out (Gender)- |
refers to a perceived trend among mostly middle-class women of leaving the workforce to be full-time wives and mothers, in large part because of frustrations with the many obstacles they face on the job and the sense that they can find fulfillment in the home. |
Industrial revolution |
men were at war, women had to step up their shit and actually get a job |
Jim crow laws |
“separate but equal” segregation for blacks |
The freedom riders/free rider problem |
the notion that when more than one person is responsible for getting something done, the incentive is for each individual to shirk responsibility and hope others will pull the extra weight |
Bourgeois |
the capitalist class |
Conflict |
Conflict theories argue that patriarchal capitalists benefit through systems that subordinate women. |
Socialist/feminist |
Socialist feminists argue that all social relations, including relations between workers and the owners of the means of production, stem from unequal gender relations. |
Social contstructionist |
- Social constructionists argue that gender is a process that people participate in with every social interaction they have |
Broken windows of deviance |
- a theory explaining how social context and social cues impact whether individuals act deviantly; specifically, whether local, informal social norms allow deviant acts. |
Egotistic suicide |
- suicide that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social group |
Socioeconomic status |
an individual’s position in a stratified social order |
collective conscience |
common assumptions about how the world works which set the standards of behavior |
structural strain theory |
the frustration that occurs from knowing society's socially accepted goals and not being able to achieve them |
public order crime |
"victimless" crimes that are contrary to shared norms, social values, and customs |
general deterrence |
makes the punishment for the crime serious enough for criminals to think twice |
strain theory of crime |
crime is an outcome of failing to meet societal standards for success |
strain theory of crime |
criminal behavior is learned from peers/family/etc. |
antagonistic class system |
Marx's theory of the proletariat and bourgeoisie |
relational class system |
Marx's theory of the proletariat and bourgeoisie |
relational class system |
contradictory class locations; people can fall in between |
graded class system |
groups of people are members of a class according to their value of property or labor |
elite-mass dichtomy system |
system with a governing elite - a few leaders who broadly hold power |
horizontal mobility |
changing of jobs within a social class |
vertical mobility |
movement up or down the social ladder |