Ch:1 Thinking and social problems Flashcards
Status that society assigns to an individual on the basis of factors over which the individual has some control.
Achieved status
A sense of powerlessness and meaninglessness in people’s lives.
Alienation
A state of normlessness in which norms and values are weak or unclear.
Anomie
A status that society assigns to an individual on the basis of factors over which the individual has no control.
Ascribed status
Definitions and explanations about what is assumed to be true.
Beliefs
The meanings and ways of life that characterize a society, including beliefs, values, norms, sanctions, and symbols.
Culture
The variable that researchers want to explain; that is, it is the variable of interest.
Dependent variable
Manipulating the independent variable to determine how it affects the dependent variable. Experiments require one or more experimental groups that are exposed to the experimental treatment(s) and a control group that is not exposed.
Experiments
Observing and studying social behavior in settings in which it occurs naturally.
Field research
The growing economic, cultural, and technological interdependence between countries and regions
Globalization
A prediction or educated guess about how one variable is related to another variable.
Hypothesis
The variable that is expected to explain change in the dependent variable.
Independent variable
An established and enduring pattern of social relationships.
Institution
Consequences that are unintended and often hidden.
Latent functions
Consequences that are intended and commonly recognized.
Manifest functions
Socially defined rules of behavior, including folkways, laws, and mores.
Norms
Awareness of social conditions through one’s own life experiences, through the media, and through education.
Objective element of a social Problem
Usually small numbers of individuals characterized by intimate and informal interaction.
Primary groups
Supporters of a political party are entrenched in their party’s policies, with little to no motivation to compromise with opposing political views.
Political partisanship
Emphasize “the people” rather than the “government elite” and their political parties, tend to be conservative, right to far-right leaning, anti-immigrant, nationalistic, and anti-globalist.
Populist movement
The set of rights, obligations, and expectations associated with a status.
Roles
A portion of the population, selected to be representative so that the information from the sample can be generalized to a larger population.
Sample
Social consequences for conforming to or violating norms.
Sanctions
Involving small or large numbers of individuals, groups that are task oriented and are characterized by impersonal and formal interaction.
Secondary groups
Two or more people who have a common identity, interact, and form a social relationship.
Social group
