chapter one

Question 1

sociology

Answer 1

studying society in a systematic way

Question 2

societies

Answer 2

Large-scale human groups sharing common territory and institutions

Question 3

cultures

Answer 3

systems of behavior, beliefs, knowledge, practices, values, and materials

Question 4

dominant culture

Answer 4

the cultural practices, beliefs, values, and norms that are most widely accepted and influential within a society.

Question 5

countercultures

Answer 5

groups of people who reject established social values/practices and who embrace a mode of life opposed to the mainstream.

Question 6

high culture

Answer 6

considered the culture of the elite whereas low culture is the culture of the majority

Question 7

the sociological imagination

Answer 7

an idea developed by C. Wright Mills to help individuals see the connections between their lives and the larger society.

Question 8

sociological research is done within three primary areas of focus:

Answer 8

1. the study of social inequality
2. the role of social institutions in society
3. the study of social change

Question 9

social inequality

Answer 9

the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society.

Question 10

social institutions

Answer 10

a group or organization that has specific roles, norms, and expectations, which functions to meet the social needs of society.

Question 11

social change

Answer 11

changes in human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions.

Question 12

religiosity

Answer 12

a measure of how religious an individual or society is.

Question 13

three core aims of sociology

Answer 13

1. to define the general themes in everyday life
2. to critically determine what is familiar or common sense in human societies and why it is that way
3. to examine how individuals are shaped by society and how individuals shape their society

Question 14

sociologists

Answer 14

study people’s experiences to come up with ideas about how society functions

Question 15

independent variables

Answer 15

variables that potentially affect other variables.

Question 16

What do research questions do

Answer 16

focus on the relationship between variables, or things that change

Question 17

dependant variables

Answer 17

the variables affected by independent variables

Question 18

quantitative research

Answer 18

research on things that can be counted

Question 19

qualitative research

Answer 19

research on social processes; tends to focus on a smaller number of things to analyze

Question 20

quantitative research uses two main methods…

Answer 20

1. surveys
2. experiments

Question 21

surveys

Answer 21

involves the distribution of questionnaires to a large number of people.

Question 22

experiments

Answer 22

involves comparing an experimental group and a control group

Question 23

qualitative research uses two main methods…

Answer 23

1. interviews
2. participant observation

Question 24

interviews

Answer 24

involves asking each participant the same set of questions and recording their responses

Question 25

ethnography

Answer 25

a qualitative method for collecting data often used in the social and behavioral sciences

Question 26

focus groups

Answer 26

similar to interviews but involve a larger number of people.

Question 27

breaching experiments

Answer 27

the researcher breaks a social rule to reveal the unrecognized way by which all individuals cooperate to maintain the smooth functioning of social interactions and Social order.

Question 28

content analysis

Answer 28

involves studying a particular material or piece of content

Question 29

culture

Answer 29

shared beliefs, values, and practices, that participants in a society must learn

Question 30

dominant culture

Answer 30

The group whose members hold more power relative to other members in society. Dominant cultures may or may not hold a quantifiable majority of the population

Question 31

minority culture

Answer 31

A group whose members hold characteristics that afford them less power than the dominant culture.

Question 32

homophily

Answer 32

the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others

Question 33

participant observation (ethnography)

Answer 33

a research method where the researcher immerses themself in a particular social setting or group, observing the behaviors, interactions, and practices of the participants.

Question 33

public/social issues

Answer 33

forces which are outside of the personal control of an individual.

Question 34

Low culture

Answer 34

forms of popular culture that are perceived by high society to have less cultural value.

Question 35

interpretive sociology

Answer 35

an approach developed by Max Weber that centers on the importance of meaning and action when studying social trends and problems.

Question 36

research questions

Answer 36

the question that you hope your research project answers, or what you are hoping to learn from conducting your study. It is typically more general than a research hypothesis, which should be very specific and concrete.

Question 37

secularization

Answer 37

the historical process in which religion declines in social and cultural significance. As a result of secularization the role of religion in modern societies becomes restricted.

Question 38

social facts

Answer 38

values, cultural norms, and social structures that transcend the individual and can exercise social control.

Question 39

society

Answer 39

A society is any self-sustaining human assemblage that occupies a roughly defined region and has its institutions and culture.

Question 40

subcultures

Answer 40

groups that are perceived to deviate from the normative standards of the dominant culture, as this is variously defined according to age, sexuality, and taste in economic, racial, and gendered terms.

Question 41

types of suicide

Answer 41

Durkheim identifies four different types of suicide which are egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide.

Question 42

variables

Answer 42

a characteristic that can be measured and that can assume different values. Height, age, income, province or country of birth, grades obtained at school and type of housing are all examples of variables

Question 43

visible minorities

Answer 43

someone (other than an Indigenous person as defined above) who is non-white in colour/race, regardless of place of birth

Question 44

egoistic suicide

Answer 44

when a person is socially separated from other people and feel they have no place among other people or the society; thus, the decision to commit suicide. In this case, the suicide is self-centered because the person lacks feelings due to a lack of interaction with the society.

Question 45

altruistic suicide

Answer 45

Self-inflicted death occurs when the integrating forces of society are so strong that they overwhelm the personal will to survive.

Question 46

anomic suicide

Answer 46

a type of suicide that occurs when there is a breakdown of social norms and values, leading to a sense of purposelessness and a lack of direction in individuals’ lives. It was first identified by French sociologist Emile Durkheim in his book Suicide published in 1897.

Question 47

fatalistic suicide

Answer 47

when a person decides to take their own life because they cannot handle the rules and regulations. For instance, a prisoner may choose to take his life because of unbearable rules in prison.

Question 48

What are the five Canadian societies

Answer 48

there are five Canadian societies; family, education, religion, economy, and government

Question 49

the research of secularization

Answer 49

the process of a religion losing its authority over individuals and in social life in general.