Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is antipositivism?
The view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values.
What is conflict theory?
A theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources.
What is constructivism?
An extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be.
What is culture?
The shared practices, values, and beliefs of a group.
What is dramaturgical analysis?
A technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance.
What is dynamic equilibrium?
A stable state in which all parts of a healthy society work together properly.
What are dysfunctions?
Social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society.
What is figuration?
The process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior.
What is function in sociology?
The part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity.
What is functionalism?
A theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals.
What are generalized others?
The organized and generalized attitude of a social group.
What are grand theories?
An attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change.
What is a hypothesis?
A testable proposition.
What are latent functions?
The unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process.
What is macro-level analysis?
A wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society.
What are manifest functions?
The recognized and intended consequences of a social process.
What are micro-level theories?
The study of specific relationships between individuals or small groups.
What are paradigms?
Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them.
What is positivism?
The scientific study of social patterns.
What is qualitative sociology?
In-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of data.
What is quantitative sociology?
Statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants.
What is reification?
An error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence.
Who are significant others?
Specific individuals that impact a person’s life.
What is society?
A group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture.
What are social facts?
The laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life.
What are social institutions?
Patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs.
What is social solidarity?
The social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and shared culture.
What is a theory in sociology?
A proposed explanation about social interactions or society.
What does verstehen mean?
A German word that means to understand in a deep way.
What is sociological imagination?
The ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular.
What is sociology?
The systematic study of society and social interaction.
What is symbolic interactionism?
A theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols).
