Ch. 1 The Sociological Perspective

Question 1

understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context

Answer 1

Sociological perspective

Question 2

People who share a culture and a territory

Answer 2

Society

Question 3

The group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society

Answer 3

Social location

Question 4

The application of systematic methods to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods

Answer 4

Science

Question 5

The intellectual and academic disciplines designed to comprehend, explain, and predict events in our natural environment

Answer 5

Natural sciences

Question 6

The intellectual and academic disciplines designed to understand the social world objectively by means of controlled and repeated observations

Answer 6

Social sciences

Question 7

A statement that goes beyond the individual case and is applied to a broader group or situation

Answer 7

Generalization

Question 8

Those things that “everyone knows” are true

Answer 8

Common sense

Question 9

The use of objective, systematic observations to test theories

Answer 9

Scientific method

Question 10

The application of the scientific approach to the social world

Answer 10

Positivism

Question 11

The scientific study of society and human behavior

Answer 11

Sociology

Question 12

Marx’s term for the struggle between capitalists and workers

Answer 12

Class conflict

Question 13

Marx’s term for capitalists, those who own the means of production

Answer 13

Bourgeoisie

Question 14

Marx’s term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

Answer 14

Proletariat

Question 15

The degree to which members of a group or a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds

Answer 15

Social integration/social cohesion

Question 16

Recurring behaviors or events

Answer 16

Patterns of behavior

Question 17

The view that a sociologist’s personal values or beliefs should not influence social research

Answer 17

Value free

Question 18

The standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, superior or inferior, good or bad, beautiful or ugly

Answer 18

Values

Question 19

Value neutrality in research

Answer 19

Objectivity

Question 20

A German word used by Weber that is perhaps best understood as “to have insight into someone’s situation”

Answer 20

Verstehen

Question 21

The meanings that people give to their own behavior

Answer 21

Subjective meanings

Question 22

Durkheim’s term for a group’s patterns of behavior

Answer 22

Social facts

Question 23

Sociological research for the purpose of making discoveries about life in human groups, not for making changes in those groups

Answer 23

Basic/pure sociology

Question 24

The use of sociology to solve problems-from the micro level of classroom interaction and family relationships to the macro level of crime and pollution

Answer 24

Applied sociology

Question 25

Applying sociology for the public good; especially the use of the sociological perspective (how things are related to one another) to guide politicians and policy makers

Answer 25

Public sociology

Question 26

A general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work; an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another

Answer 26

Theory

Question 27

A theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another

Answer 27

Symbolic interactionism

Question 28

A theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society’s equilibrium

Answer 28

Functional analysis/functionalism/structural functionalism

Question 29

A theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources

Answer 29

Conflict theory

Question 30

An examination of large-scale patterns of society; such as how Wall Street and the political establishment are interrelated

Answer 30

Macro-level analysis

Question 31

An examination of small-scale patterns of society; such as how the members of a group interact

Answer 31

Micro-level analysis

Question 32

One person’s actions influencing someone else; usually refers to what people do when they are in one another’s presence, but also includes communications at a distance

Answer 32

Social interaction

Question 33

Communication without words through gestures, use of space, silence, and so on

Answer 33

Nonverbal interaction

Question 34

The growing interconnections among nations due to the expansion of capitalism

Answer 34

Globalization

Question 35

Capitalism (investing to make profits within a rational system) becoming the globe’s dominant economic system

Answer 35

Globalization of capitalism