Chapter 4 - Terms

Question 1

macrosociology

Answer 1

analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationships of groups to one another; usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists

Question 2

microsociology

Answer 2

analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction; typically used by symbolic interactionists

Question 3

social interaction

Answer 3

one person’s actions 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 4

social structure

Answer 4

the framework of society that surrounds us; consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior

Question 5

social class

Answer 5

large numbers of people who have similar amounts of income and education and who work at jobs that are roughly comparable in prestige

Question 6

status

Answer 6

the position that someone occupies in a social group; also called social status

Question 7

status set

Answer 7

all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies

Question 8

ascribed status

Answer 8

a position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life

Question 9

achieved statuses

Answer 9

positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity on the individual’s part

Question 10

status symbols

Answer 10

indicators of a status, especially items in that display prestige

Question 11

master status

Answer 11

a status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies

Question 12

status inconsistency

Answer 12

ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others; also called status discrepancy

Question 13

role

Answer 13

the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status

Question 14

group

Answer 14

people who have something in common and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group

Question 15

social institution

Answer 15

the organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs

Question 16

social integration

Answer 16

the degree to which members of a group or a society are united by shared values and other social bonds; also known as social cohesion

Question 17

mechanical solidarity

Answer 17

Durkheim’s term for the unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks

Question 18

division of labor

Answer 18

the splitting of a group’s or a society’s tasks into ­specialties

Question 19

organic solidarity

Answer 19

Durkheim’s term for the interdependence that results from the division of labor; as part of the same unit, we all depend on others to fulfill their jobs

Question 20

Gemeinschaft

Answer 20

a type of society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness

Question 21

Gesellschaft

Answer 21

a type of society that is dominated by short-term impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest

Question 22

stereotype

Answer 22

assumptions of what people are like, whether true or false

Question 23

body language

Answer 23

the ways in which people use their bodies to give messages to others

Question 24

dramaturgy

Answer 24

an approach, pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage; also called dramaturgical analysis

Question 25

impression management

Answer 25

people’s efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them

Question 26

front stage

Answer 26

a place where people give their performances in everyday life

Question 27

back stages

Answer 27

places where people rest from their performances in everyday life, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances

Question 28

role performance

Answer 28

the ways in which someone performs a role; showing a particular “style” or “personality”

Question 29

role conflict

Answer 29

conflicts that someone feels between roles because the expectations are at odds with one another

Question 30

role strain

Answer 30

conflicts that someone feels within a role

Question 31

sign-vehicle

Answer 31

the term used by Goffman to refer to how people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate information about the self

Question 32

teamwork

Answer 32

the collaboration of two or more people to manage impressions jointly

Question 33

face-saving behavior

Answer 33

techniques used to salvage a performance (interaction) that is going sour

Question 34

ethnomethodology

Answer 34

the study of how people use background assumptions to make sense out of life

Question 35

background assumption

Answer 35

a deeply embedded, common understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act

Question 36

thomas theorem

Answer 36

William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas’ classic formulation of the definition of the situation: “If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”

Question 37

social construction of reality

Answer 37

the use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real