Chapter 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Sociology

A

the scientific study of human social life, groups and societies

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2
Q

personal troubles

A

individuals often believe the problems they (and others) face are personal

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3
Q

public issues

A

personal troubles that are occurring in a patterned way to large numbers of individuals, consequences of social structure

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4
Q

sociological imagination

A

learning to think sociologically, requires breaking free from the immediacy of personal circumstances and putting things in a wider context

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5
Q

structuration

A

social contexts in our life do not just consist of random events or actions, there are regularities in the way we behave and in the relationships we have with one another. societies are being reconstructed constantly

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6
Q

social facts

A

according to Derkheim, aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals e.g. the state of the economy or religion influences

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7
Q

organic solidarity

A

Derkheim theory, for a society to function and persist over time, its specialized institutions (govt., religion, the family and education system) must work in harmony with each other and function as an integrated whole

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8
Q

social constraint

A

theory by Derkheim, social structure constrains our activities in a parallel way, setting limits on what we can do as an individual. it is external to us

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9
Q

anomie

A

discovered by Derkheim, a feeling of aimlessness or despair provoked by modern social life

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10
Q

materialist conception of history

A

Marx’s viewpoint, it is not the ideas or values people hold that are the main source of social change but social change prompted by economic influences, conflicts between social classes provide motivation for historical development

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11
Q

capitalism

A

Marx, a system of production that contrasts radically with previous economic systems in history, involves the production of goods and services sold to a wide range of consumers

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12
Q

symbolic interactionism

A

discovered by Mead, stated that language is a set of symbols, virtually all interactions between individuals involve an exchange of symbols

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13
Q

symbol

A

something that stands for something else

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14
Q

functionalism

A

to study the function of a social activity is to analyze the contribution the activity makes to the continuation of the society as a whole

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15
Q

manifest functions

A

functions known to and intended by the participants in a specific type of social activity

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16
Q

latent functions

A

consequences of the activity of which participants are unaware

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17
Q

Marxism

A

supposed to generate a program of radical political change, lay more emphasis on conflict, class division, power and ideology

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18
Q

power

A

the capability of the individuals or a group to make their own concerns or interests count, even when others resist, may involve the direct use of force

19
Q

ideology

A

the development of ideas, used to justify the actions of the powerful

20
Q

feminist theory

A

women’s lives and experiences are central to the study of society

21
Q

feminism

A

beliefe that men and women should be equal

22
Q

postmodernism

A

there are no long any “grand narratives” or overall conception of history that make any sense

23
Q

microsociology

A

the study of everyday behavior in situations of face-to-face interactions

24
Q

macrosocioloy

A

analysis of large scale social systems like the political system or economic order

25
Q

science

A

the use of systematic methods of empirical investigation to develop a body of knowledge about a certain subject

26
Q

empirical investigation

A

the analysis of data, theoretical thinking and the logical assessment of argument

27
Q

factual questions

A

questions used to gather factual evidence before coming to conclusions

28
Q

comparative questions

A

relating ones social context in a society to contrasting examples drawn from different societies

29
Q

theoretical questions

A

encompass a wide array of specific phenomena

30
Q

hypothesis

A

an educated guess about what is going on at this stage

31
Q

data

A

the research material

32
Q

ethnography

A

firsthand studies of people using participant observation

33
Q

participant observation

A

participating directly in activities

34
Q

survey

A

subjects are asked to provide answered questions to structured questionnaires

35
Q

pilot study

A

a trial run in which a questionnaire is completed by a small number of people and problematic questions are identified and revised

36
Q

sampling

A

concentration on a small portion of a large group to then represent the group as a whole

37
Q

sample

A

a small portion of a large group

38
Q

representative

A

the group of individuals must be typical of the population as a whole

39
Q

random sampling

A

a sample is chosen by which each member of society has an equal probability of being chosen

40
Q

experiment

A

enables a researcher to test his hypothesis under highly controlled conditions

41
Q

comparative research

A

enables researchers to document whether social behavior varies across time and place and by ones social group memberships

42
Q

oral history

A

interviewing people about events they witnesses at some point earlier in their lives

43
Q

informed consent

A

the study participants are given a broad description of the study prior to agreeing to participate

44
Q

debriefing

A

after the study ends investigators discuss with the subjects their concerns and acknowledges whether strategies such as deception were used