Chapter 1: Foundations of Sociology Flashcards
Agency
The ability of individuals and groups to exercise free will and to make social changes on a small or large scale
Anomie
A state of normlessness occurs when people lose touch with the shared rules and values that give order and meaning to their lives
Bourgeoisie
The capitalist (property-owning) class
Bureaucracies
Formal organizations characterized by written rules, hierarchical authority, and paid staff, intended to promote organizational efficiency
Class Conflict
Competition between social classes over the distribution of wealth, power, and other valued resources in society
Collective Conscience
The common beliefs and values that bind a society together
Critical Thinking
The ability to evaluate claims about truth by using reason and evidence
Double Consciousness
Among American Americans, an awareness of themselves as both American and Black, never free of racial stigma
Ethnocentrism
A worldview where one judges other cultures by the standards of their own. Regards their own way of life as normal and better than others
Formal Rationality
The context in which people’s pursuit of goals is shaped by rules, regulations, and larger social structures
Globalization
The process by which people all over the world become increasingly interconnected (economically, politically, culturally, environmentally, etc.)
Inequality
Differences in wealth, power, political voice, educational opportunities, and other valued resources
Latent Functions
Functions of a phenomenon or institution that are not recognized or expected
Macro-level Paradigms
Theories of the social world that are concerned with large-scale patterns and institutions
Manifest Functions
The obvious and intended functions of a phenomenon or institution
Means of Production
The sites and technology that produce the goods we need and use
Micro-level paradigm
A theory of the social world that is concerned with small-group social relations and interactions
Norms
Accepted social behaviors and beliefs
Positivist
Science that is based on facts alone
Power
The ability to mobilize resources and achieve goals despite the resistance of others
Proletariat
The working class; wage workers
Scientific
A way of learning about the world that combines logically constructed theory and systematic observation
Social Conflict Paradigm
A theory that seeks to explain social organization and change in terms of the conflict that is built into social relations; also known as conflict theory
Social Diversity
The social and cultural mixture of different groups in society and the societal recognition of difference as significant
Social Dynamics
The laws that govern social change
Social Embeddedness
The idea that economic, political, and other forms of human behavior are fundamentally shaped by social relations
Social Facts
Qualities of groups that are external to individual members yet constrain their thinking and behavior
Social Solidarity
The bonds that unite members of a social group
Social Statics
The way society is held together
Sociological Imagination
The ability to grasp the relationship between individual lives and the larger social forces that help to shape them
Sociological Theories
Frameworks for the interpretation of social life, make particular assumptions and particular questions about the social world (Logical)
Sociology
The scientific study of human social relations, groups, and societies
Structural Functionalism
A theory that seeks to explain social organization and change in terms of roles performed by different social structures, also known as functionalism
Structure
Patterned social arrangements that have effects on agency and are, in turn, affected by agency
Symbolic Interactionism
A micro-sociological perspective that posits that both the individual self and society as a whole are the products of social interactions based on language and other symbols
Symbols
Representations of things that are not immediately present to our senses
Verstehen
The German word for interpretive understanding
