Chp 1 Terms - Introducing Sociology

Question 1

patriarchy

Answer 1

A system of power relations and customary practices that help to ensure male dominance in economic, political, and other spheres of life.

Question 2

macrostructures

Answer 2

Overarching patterns of social relations that lie outside and above our circle of intimates and acquaintances.

Question 3

global structures

Answer 3

Patterns of social relations that lie outside and above the national level.

Question 4

Scientific Revolution

Answer 4

This revolution in thinking began in Europe about 1550. It promoted the view that conclusions about the workings of the world should be based on solid evidence, not just speculation.

Question 5

theory

Answer 5

Speculation about the way observed facts are related.

Question 6

microstructures

Answer 6

Patterns of social relations formed during face-to-face interaction.

Question 7

mesostructures

Answer 7

Patterns of social relations in organizations that involve people who are often not intimately acquainted and who often do not interact face to face.

Question 8

social structures

Answer 8

Stable patterns of social relations.

Question 9

sociological imagination

Answer 9

The quality of mind that enables one to see the connection between
personal troubles and social
Structures.

Question 10

sociology

Answer 10

The systematic study of human behaviour in social context.

Question 11

globalization

Answer 11

The process by which formerly separate individuals, groups, institutions, economies, states, and cultures are becoming tied together, and people are becoming increasingly aware of their growing interdependence.

Question 12

Postindustrial Revolution

Answer 12

The technology-driven shift from manufacturing to service industries and the consequences of that shift for virtually all human activities.

Question 13

participant observation

Answer 13

A type of field research that involves carefully observing people’s face-to-face interaction and participating in their lives over a long period, thus achieving a deep and sympathetic understanding of what motivates them.

Question 14

analysis of existing documents and official statistics

Answer 14

A nonreactive research method that involves the use of diaries, newspapers, published historical works, and statistics produced by government agencies, all of which are created by people other than the researcher for purposes other than sociological research.

Question 15

symbolic interactionism

Answer 15

A school of thought that examines how various aspects of social life convey meaning and thereby assist or impede communication.

Question 16

reactivity

Answer 16

The tendency of people who are being observed by a researcher to react to the presence of the researcher by concealing certain things or acting artificially to impress the researcher.

Question 17

field research

Answer 17

The systematic observation of people in their natural settings.

Question 18

detached observation

Answer 18

A type of field research that involves classifying and counting the behaviour of interest according to a predetermined scheme.

Question 19

qualitative method

Answer 19

A research method that analyzes observational or speech data in narrative form.

Question 20

quantitative method

Answer 20

A research method that analyzes numerical data statistically.

Question 21

population

Answer 21

The entire group about which the researcher wants to generalize.

Question 22

closed-ended questions

Answer 22

Survey questions that provide respondents with a list of permitted answers. Each answer is given a numerical code so that the data can later be easily input into a computer for statistical analysis.

Question 23

open-ended questions

Answer 23

Survey questions that allow respondents to answer in their own words.

Question 24

survey

Answer 24

A data collection method in which people are asked questions about their knowledge, attitudes, or behaviour, either in a face-to-face or telephone interview or by completion of a questionnaire.

Question 25

sample

Answer 25

The part of the population of interest that is selected for analysis.

Question 26

research

Answer 26

The systematic observation of facts for the purpose of showing that a theory is false. When research fails to show that a theory is false, investigators are obliged to conclude that the theory is valid-but only until further notice, that is, unless and until someone shows it is false.

Question 27

Industrial Revolution

Answer 27

This rapid growth of mechanized industry began in Britain in the 1780s. The application of science and technology to industrial processes, the creation of factories, massive migration from countryside to city, and the formation of an industrial working class transformed society and caused a host of social problems that attracted the attention of social thinkers.

Question 28

Democratic Revolution

Answer 28

This political upheaval began about 1770 when citizens of France and the United States started demanding an increased say in the way they were governed. By eventually achieving popular control of government, they demonstrated that societies do not have to be ruled by kings and queens who claim their authority is ordained by God. Instead, society can be organized and run by ordinary people. This idea prepared the ground for the notion that a science of society aimed at improving human welfare is possible.

Question 29

social solidarity

Answer 29

A property of social groups that increases with the degree to which a group’s members share beliefs and values, and the frequency and intensity with which they interact.

Question 30

values

Answer 30

Ideas about what is right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable, beautiful and ugly.

Question 31

egoistic suicide

Answer 31

The type of suicide that results from a lack of integration of the individual into society because of weak social ties to others.

Question 32

anomic suicide

Answer 32

The type of suicide that occurs when norms governing behaviour are vaguely defined.

Question 33

altruistic suicide

Answer 33

The type of suicide that occurs when norms govern behaviour so tightly that individual actions are often in the group interest.

Question 34

rate

Answer 34

The number of times an event happens in a given period per 100 000 members of the population.

Question 35

functionalist theory

Answer 35

Coniecture based on the notion that social structures based mainly on shared values contribute to social stability and thus govern human behaviour.

Question 36

manifest functions

Answer 36

Visible and intended effects of social structures.

Question 37

class conflict

Answer 37

The struggle between classes to resist and overcome the opposition of other classes.

Question 38

social classes

Answer 38

Positions people occupy in a hierarchy that is shaped by the source or amount of their income and wealth.

Question 39

latent functions

Answer 39

Less visible and unintended effects of social structures.

Question 40

dysfunctions

Answer 40

Effects of social structures that create social instability.

Question 41

cultural hegemony

Answer 41

The control of a culture by dominant classes and other groups to the point where their values are universally accepted as common sense.

Question 42

conflict theory

Answer 42

The conjecture that tensions underlie social structures and under certain conditions can burst into the open and cause social change.

Question 43

class consciousness

Answer 43

Awareness of being a member of a social class.

Question 44

poststructuralism

Answer 44

A school of thought that originated in mid-twentieth-century France, it denied the stability of social relations and of cultures, their capacity to always shape how people think and act, and the tidy categorization of social and cultural elements as binary opposites.

Question 45

Protestant ethic

Answer 45

The sixteenth- and
seventeenth-century belief that religious doubts can be reduced and a state of grace assured if people work diligently and lived modestly. According to Weber, the Protestant ethic had the unintended effect of increasing savings and investment, thus stimulating capitalist growth.

Question 46

symbol

Answer 46

A meaningful representation of something.

Question 47

gender

Answer 47

A person’s personal sense of being masculine or feminine, conventionally defined.

Question 48

conflict theory

Answer 48

Holds that (1) human behaviour is governed by social structures, (2) social structures are characterized by inequalities of wealth and power, and (3) members of privileged and subordinate groups engage in a continuous struggle to increase their advantages, one at the expense of the other, so social structures sometimes rupture and transform.

Question 49

symbolic interactionist
theory

Answer 49

Holds that (1) human behaviour is governed by the meanings people attach to other people and to things in their social environment, (2) other people and things become meaningful in the course of interpersonal communication, and (3) people create their social circumstances and do not merely react to them.

Question 50

functionalist theory

Answer 50

Holds that (1) human behaviour is governed by stable patterns of social relations or social structures,
(2) the most important thing we can know about social structures is how they maintain social stability or fail to do so, and (3) social structures are based mainly on shared values.

Question 51

experiment

Answer 51

A carefully controlled artificial situation that allows researchers to isolate hypothesized causes and precisely measure their effects.

Question 52

sexuality

Answer 52

A person’s capacity for sexual feelings.

Question 53

randomization

Answer 53

A process that, in an experiment, assigns individuals to groups by chance processes.

Question 54

dependent variable

Answer 54

The presumed effect in a cause-and-effect relationship.

Question 55

experimental group

Answer 55

The group that is exposed to the independent variable in an experiment.

Question 56

validity

Answer 56

The degree to which a measure actually measures what it is intended to measure.

Question 57

reliability

Answer 57

The degree to which a measurement procedure yields consistent results.

Question 58

control group

Answer 58

The group that is not
exposed to the independent variable in an experiment.

Question 59

independent variable

Answer 59

The presumed cause in a cause-and-effect relationship

Question 60

association

Answer 60

The relationship between two variables if the value of one variable changes with the value of another.