Chapter 3-Culture

Question 1

Social construction of reality

Answer 1

Ongoing interdependent relationship within which individuals create society through our actions and becomes products of the society we construct

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

Totality of shared language, knowledge, material objects, behavior, and social interaction

Question 3

Society

Answer 3

Structure of relationships within which culture is created and shared through regularized patterns of social interaction, cross-cultural variation

Question 4

Culture universals

Answer 4

Common practices and beliefs shared by all societies

Question 5

Sociobiology

Answer 5

Systematic study of how biology affects human behavior and looks at cultural universals from a biological perspective

Question 6

Innovation

Answer 6

Process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture

Question 7

Discovery

Answer 7

Making known/sharing the existence of an aspect of reality

Question 8

Invention

Answer 8

Results when existing cultural items are combined into a form that didn’t exist before

Question 9

Diffusion

Answer 9

Globalization creates more and more cultural expression and practices are crossing national borders, process comes at a cost and has led to cultural domination of developing nations by more affluent nations

Question 10

Material culture

Answer 10

Physical modification of the natural environment to suit our purposes

Question 11

Technology

Answer 11

Form of culture in which humans modify the natural environment to meet particular wants and needs

Question 12

Cultural lag

Answer 12

Period of adjustment when no material culture is struggling to adapt to new condition of the material culture

Question 13

Cognitive culture

Answer 13

Mental and symbolic representations of reality; customs, beliefs, and patterns of communication

Question 14

Language

Answer 14

Foundation of a common culture is the system of shard symbols

Question 15

Nonverbal communication

Answer 15

Gestures, facial expressions, and other visual images

Question 16

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Answer 16

Language a person uses shapes their perception of reality and their thoughts and actions

Question 17

Values

Answer 17

Collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, proper or bad, undesirable, improper in a culture

Question 18

Normative culture

Answer 18

Ways we establish, abide by, and enforce principles of conduct

Question 19

Norms

Answer 19

Establish standards of behavior maintained by a society, formal/informal

Question 20

Formal norms

Answer 20

Written down and specify strict punishments for violators

Question 21

Laws

Answer 21

Formal norms enforced by the state

Question 22

Informal norms

Answer 22

Understood but not precisely recorded

Question 23

Ideal norms

Answer 23

Guidelines for behavior that reflects what we think should be

Question 24

Real norms

Answer 24

Reflect what actually is

Question 25

Mores

Answer 25

Norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of society

Question 26

Folkways

Answer 26

Norms governing everyday behavior

Question 27

Sanctions

Answer 27

Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm

Question 28

Dominant ideology

Answer 28

Set of cultural beliefs and practices that legitimated existing powerful social, economic, and political interests, help explain and justify who gets what and why in a way that supports and maintains the status quo

Question 29

Subcultures

Answer 29

Within a single nation, certain segments of the populace develop cultural patterns that differ from the patterns of the dominant society

Question 30

Argot

Answer 30

Specialized language used by members of a group/subculture

Question 31

Countercultures

Answer 31

Oppose certain aspects of the larger culture

Question 32

Culture shock

Answer 32

Person feels disoriented/uncertain due to experiencing cultural practices different from their own

Question 33

Ethnocentrism

Answer 33

Tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life are superior to all others

Question 34

Cultural relativism

Answer 34

Viewing people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture

Question 35

Peter Berger and Thomas Luchmann’s three step model

Answer 35

Constructing culture
Constructing the self
Constructing society

Question 36

Culture’s three categories

Answer 36

Material
Cognitive
Normative

Question 37

Norms three categories

Answer 37

Centrality
Formality
Adherence

Question 38

George Murdock determined that

Answer 38

although all cultures share common denominators, how cultures address these practices and beliefs varies greatly.

Question 39

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis example

Answer 39

we can conceive of something only if we have a term for it in our vocabulary.