Chapter 1: A Sociological Perspective

Question 1

Sociological perspective

Answer 1

Understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context

Question 2

Society

Answer 2

People who share a culture and a territory

Question 3

Social location

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Science

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Natural sciences

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Social sciences

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Economics

Answer 7

Concentrates on a single social institution. Studies the production and distribution of material goods and services of a society.

Question 8

Political science

Answer 8

Focuses on politics and government. Examines how governments are formed, how they operate, and how they are related to other social institutions of society

Question 9

Psychology

Answer 9

Focuses on processes that occur within the individual, inside what they call the “skin-bound organism”

Question 10

Sociology

Answer 10

Overlaps with other social sciences; but focuses primarily on industrialized and post-industrialized societies.

Question 11

Generalizations

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Common sense

Answer 12

Those things that “everyone knows” to be true

Question 13

Scientific method

Answer 13

The use of objective, systematic observations to test theories

Question 14

Positivism

Answer 14

The application of the scientific approach to the social world

Question 15

Sociology

Answer 15

The scientific study of society and human behavior

Question 16

August Comte

Answer 16

Suggested the process of positivism, and is often credited with being the founder of sociology. he began to analyze the bases of the social order. Stressed the scientific method but did not apply it himself.

Question 17

Herbert Spencer

Answer 17

Sometimes called the second founder of sociology, coined the term “survival of the fittest”. He thought helping the poor was wrong, that this merely helped the “less fit” to survive.

Question 18

Class conflict

Answer 18

Marx’s term for the struggle between capitalists and workers

Question 19

Bourgeoisie

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Karl Marx

Answer 20

Believed the roots of human misery lay in class conflict.

Question 21

Proletariat

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Social integration

Answer 22

The degree to which members of a group or a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds. also known as social cohesion.

Question 23

Patterns of behavior

Answer 23

Recurring behaviors or events

Question 24

Value free

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Values

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Objectivity

Answer 26

Value neutrality in research

Question 27

Replication

Answer 27

The repetition of a study in order to test its findings

Question 28

Verstehen

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Subjective meanings

Answer 29

The meanings that people give their own behavior

Question 30

Social facts

Answer 30

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

Question 31

William Edward Burghartdt Du Bois

Answer 31

W.E.B. Du Bois, spent his lifetime studying relations between African-Americans and whites

Question 32

Jane Addams

Answer 32

A recipient of the Nobel Peace Price, worked on behalf of poor immigrants.

Question 33

Basic (or pure) sociology

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Applied sociology

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Public Sociology

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Theory

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Symbolic interactionism

Answer 37

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

Question 38

Functional analysis

Answer 38

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; also known as functionalism and structural functionalism.

Question 39

Conflict theory

Answer 39

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

Question 40

Marcro-level analysis

Answer 40

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

Question 41

Micro-level analysis

Answer 41

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

Question 42

Social interaction

Answer 42

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

Question 43

Nonverbal interaction

Answer 43

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

Question 44

Globalization

Answer 44

The growing interconnections among nations due to the expansion of capitalism

Question 45

Globalization of capitalism

Answer 45

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