Chapter 1 - Terms

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 obtain by those methods.

Question 5

Natural sciences

Answer 5

the intellectual and academic discipliens designed to understand, explain, and predict events in our natural enviornment.

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

Generalizations

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Common sense

Answer 8

those things that “everyone knows” are true.

Question 9

Scientific method

Answer 9

the use of objective, systematic observations to test theories

Question 10

Positivism

Answer 10

the application of the scientific approach to the social world.

Question 11

Sociology

Answer 11

the scientific study of society and human behavior.

Question 12

Class conflict

Answer 12

Marx’s term for the struggle between capitalists and workers

Question 13

Bourgeoisie

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Proletariat

Answer 14

Marx’s term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do nto own the means of production

Question 15

Social integration

Answer 15

the degree to which memebers of a group or a soceity are united by shared values and other social bonds; also known as social cohesison.

Question 16

patters of behavior

Answer 16

recurring behaviors or events

Question 17

value free

Answer 17

the view that a sociologist’s personal values or beleifs should not influence social research.

Question 18

values

Answer 18

the standard by which people define what is deseriable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.

Question 19

Objectivity

Answer 19

value neutrality in research

Question 20

Replication

Answer 20

the repetition of a study in order to test its findings.

Question 21

Verstehen

Answer 21

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

Question 22

subjective meanings

Answer 22

the meanings that people give their own behavior

Question 23

social facts

Answer 23

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

Question 24

basic (or pure) sociology

Answer 24

sociology in everday life logical research for the purpose of making discoveries about life in human groups, not for making changes in those groups

Question 25

applied sociology

Answer 25

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 26

public sociology

Answer 26

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 27

theory

Answer 27

a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together adnd how they work; an explanation of how two or mote facts are related to one another.

Question 28

Symbolic interactionism

Answer 28

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 29

Functional analysis

Answer 29

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 30

Conflict theory

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Macro-level analysis

Answer 31

an examination of large-scale patters of society; such as how Wall Street and the political establishment are interrelated.

Question 32

Micro-level analysis

Answer 32

an examination of small-scale patters of soceity; such as how the members of a group interact.

Question 33

social interaction

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Nonverbal interaction

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Globalization

Answer 35

the growing interconnections among nations due to the expansion of capitalism

Question 36

Globalization of capitalism

Answer 36

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