Chapter 4: Vocabulary

Question 1

achieved status

Answer 1

a social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

Question 2

agrarian society

Answer 2

societies that use the technology of large-scale farming, including animal-drawn or energy-powered plows and equipment, to produce their food supply.

Question 3

ascribed status

Answer 3

a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

Question 4

division of labor

Answer 4

how the various tasks of a society are divided up and performed.

Question 5

dramaturgical analysis

Answer 5

Erving Goffman’s term for the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation.

Question 6

ethnomethodology

Answer 6

the study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.

Question 7

face-saving behavior

Answer 7

Erving Goffman’s term for the strategies we use to rescue our performance when we experience a potential or actual loss of face.

Question 8

formal organization

Answer 8

a highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

Question 9

Gemeinschaft

Answer 9

a traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

Question 10

Gesellschaft

Answer 10

a large, urban society in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus on values.

Question 11

horticultural society

Answer 11

societies based on technology that supports the cultivation of plants to provide food.

Question 12

hunting and gathering society

Answer 12

societies that use simple technology for hunting animals and gathering vegetation.

Question 13

impression management (presentation of self)

Answer 13

Erving Goffman’s term for people’s efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.

Question 14

industrial society

Answer 14

societies based on technology that mechanizes production.

Question 15

master status

Answer 15

the most important status that a person occupies.

Question 16

mechanical solidarity

Answer 16

Emile Durkheim’s term for the social cohesion of preindustrial societies, in which there is minimal division of labor and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds.

Question 17

nonverbal communication

Answer 17

the transfer of information between persons without the use of words.

Question 18

organic solidarity

Answer 18

Emile Durkheim’s term for the social cohesion found in industrial (and perhaps postindustrial) societies, in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence.

Question 19

pastoral society

Answer 19

societies based on technology that supports the domestication of large animals to provide food.

Question 20

personal space

Answer 20

the immediate area surrounding a person that the person claims as private.

Question 21

postindustrial society

Answer 21

societies in which technology supports a service- and information-based economy.

Question 22

primary group

Answer 22

a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time.

Question 23

role

Answer 23

a set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status.

Question 24

role conflict

Answer 24

a situation in which incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.

Question 25

role exit

Answer 25

a situation in which people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity.

Question 26

role expectation

Answer 26

a group’s or society’s definition of the way that a specific role ought to be played.

Question 27

role performance

Answer 27

how a person actually plays a role.

Question 28

role strain

Answer 28

a condition that occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies.

Question 29

secondary group

Answer 29

a larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more-impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.

Question 30

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 30

a situation in which a false belief or prediction produces behavior that makes the originally false belief come true.

Question 31

social construction of reality

Answer 31

the process by which our perception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience.

Question 32

social group

Answer 32

a group that consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and a feeling of interdependence.

Question 33

social institution

Answer 33

a set of organized beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will attempt to meet its basic social needs.

Question 34

social interaction

Answer 34

the process by which people act toward or respond to other people: the foundation for all relationships and groups in society.

Question 35

social script

Answer 35

a “playbook” that “actors” use to guide their verbal replies and overall performance to achieve the desired goal of the conversation or fulfill the role they are playing.

Question 36

social structure

Answer 36

the complex framework of societal institutions (such as the economy, politics, and religion) and the social practices (such as rules and social roles) that make up a society and that organize and establish limits on people’s behavior.

Question 37

status

Answer 37

a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.

Question 38

status set

Answer 38

all the statuses that a person occupies at a given time.

Question 39

status symbol

Answer 39

a material sign that informs others of a person’s specific status.