Chapters 4-6 Vocabulary Terms

Question 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

Answer 1

Macrosociology

Question 2

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

Answer 2

microsociology

Question 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

Answer 3

social interaction

Question 4

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

Answer 4

social structure

Question 5

according to Weber, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who on the means of production or workers who sell their labor

Answer 5

social class

Question 6

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

Answer 6

status

Question 7

all the statuses or positions that an individual occupies

Answer 7

status set

Question 8

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

Answer 8

ascribed status

Question 9

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

Answer 9

achieved status

Question 10

indicators of a status; items that display prestige

Answer 10

status symbol

Question 11

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

Answer 11

master status

Question 12

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

Answer 12

status inconsistency

Question 13

the behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status

Answer 13

role

Question 14

people who interact with one another and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group

Answer 14

group

Question 15

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

Answer 15

social institution

Question 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

Answer 16

social integration

Question 17

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

Answer 17

division of labor

Question 18

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

Answer 18

gemeinschaft

Question 19

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

Answer 19

gesellschaft

Question 20

a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing; positive or negative; overgeneralized: applies to all members of a group

Answer 20

stereotype

Question 21

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

Answer 21

impression management

Question 22

places where people give performances

Answer 22

front stages

Question 23

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

Answer 23

back stages

Question 24

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

Answer 24

role performance

Question 25

conflict that someone feels between roles because the expectations attaches to one role are at odds with those attached to another role

Answer 25

role conflict

Question 26

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

Answer 26

face-saving behavior

Question 27

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

Answer 27

ethnomethodology

Question 28

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

Answer 28

background assumption

Question 29

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”

Answer 29

Thomas theorem

Question 30

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

Answer 30

social construction of reality

Question 31

people who interact with one another and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group

Answer 31

group

Question 32

individuals who temporarily share the same physical space but who do not see themselves as belonging together

Answer 32

aggregate

Question 33

people, objects, and events that have similar characteristics and are classified together

Answer 33

category

Question 34

a small group characterized by cooperative, intimate, long-term, face-to-face relationships

Answer 34

primary group

Question 35

a larger, relatively temporary, more anonymous, formal, and impersonal group based on some interest or activity

Answer 35

secondary group

Question 36

groups made up of people who voluntarily organize on the basis of some mutual interest; also known as voluntary memberships and voluntary organizations

Answer 36

voluntary associations

Question 37

Robert Michel’s term for the tendency of formal organizations to be dominated by a small, self-perpetuating elite

Answer 37

the iron law of oligarchy

Question 38

a group toward which one feels loyalty

Answer 38

in-group

Question 39

a group toward which one feel antagonism

Answer 39

out-group

Question 40

a group whose standards we refer to as we evaluate ourselves

Answer 40

reference group

Question 41

the social ties radiating outward from the self that link people together

Answer 41

social network

Question 42

a cluster of people within a larger group who choose to interact with one another

Answer 42

clique

Question 43

a formal organization with a hierarchy of authority and a clear division of labor; emphasis on impersonality of positions and written rules, communications, and records

Answer 43

bureaucracy

Question 44

the process by which ordinary aspects of life are rationalized and efficiency comes to rule them, including such things as food preparation

Answer 44

mcdonaldization of society

Question 45

an organization replacing old goals with new ones; also known as goal replacement

Answer 45

goal displacement

Question 46

Marx’s term for workers’ lack of connection to the product of their labor; caused by workers being assigned repetitive tasks on a small part of a product - this leads to a sense of powerlessness and normlessness; others use the term in the general sense of not feeling a part of something

Answer 46

alienation

Question 47

ideas of what someone is like that lead to the person’s behaving in ways that match the stereotype

Answer 47

self-fulfilling stereotype

Question 48

stereotypes of the traits that make for high-performing and underperforming workers, which end up producing both types of workers

Answer 48

"hidden" corporate culture

Question 49

efforts to minimize conflict among people of different backgrounds, to enhance their understanding of their contrasting backgrounds, and to promote their cooperation in reaching mutual goals; often in a work setting

Answer 49

diversity training

Question 50

the ways in which individuals affect groups and the way sin which groups influence individuals

Answer 50

group dynamics

Question 51

a group small enough for everyone to interact directly with all the other members

Answer 51

small group

Question 52

the smallest possible group, consisting of two people

Answer 52

dyad

Question 53

a group of three people

Answer 53

triad

Question 54

the violation of norms

Answer 54

deviance

Question 55

"blemishes" that discredit a person's claim to a "normal" identity

Answer 55

stigma

Question 56

the violation of norms written into law

Answer 56

crime

Question 57

a group's usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives

Answer 57

social order

Question 58

a group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms

Answer 58

social control

Question 59

an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a fine or a prison sentence

Answer 59

negative sanction

Question 60

an expression of approval for following a norm, ranging from a smile or a good grade in a class to a material reward such as a prize

Answer 60

positive sanction

Question 61

inborn tendencies

Answer 61

genetic predisposition

Question 62

crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary

Answer 62

street crime

Question 63

the view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms

Answer 63

personality disorders

Question 64

Edwin Sutherland's term in indicate that people who associate with some groups learn an "excess of definitions" of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant

Answer 64

differential association

Question 65

the idea that two control systems - inner controls and outer controls - work against our tendencies to deviate

Answer 65

control theory

Question 66

a term coined by Harold Garfinkel to refer to a ritual whose goal is to remake someone's self by stripping away that individual's self identity and stamping a new identity in its place

Answer 66

degradation ceremony

Question 67

the view that the labels people are given affect both how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them, which channels their behavior toward either deviance or conformity

Answer 67

labeling theory

Question 68

ways of thinking or rationalizing that help people deflect (or neutralize) society's norms

Answer 68

techniques of neutralization

Question 69

the objectives held out as legitimate or desirable for the members of a society to achieve

Answer 69

cultural goals

Question 70

approved ways of reaching cultural goals

Answer 70

institutionalized means

Question 71

robert merton's term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success), but withholds from some the approved means of reaching that goal

Answer 71

strain theory

Question 72

opportunities for crimes that are woven into the texture of life

Answer 72

illegitimate opportunity structure

Question 73

Edwin Sutherland's term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations

Answer 73

white-collar crime

Question 74

crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation

Answer 74

corporate crime

Question 75

the system of police, courts, prisons set up to deal with people who are accused of having committed a crime

Answer 75

criminal justice system

Question 76

the percentage of released convicts who are rearrested

Answer 76

recidivism rate

Question 77

the death penalty

Answer 77

capital punishment

Question 78

the killing of several victims in three or more separate events

Answer 78

serial murder

Question 79

the practice of police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for an offense or to overlook the matter

Answer 79

police discretion

Question 80

to make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians

Answer 80

medicalized of deviance