Culture 45

Question 1

STANDPOINT MODELS

Answer 1

• Involve the assumption that different social positions produce different experiences and therefore lead to different types of knowledge.
• Because of this researchers often engage with the experiences of socially oppressed and marginalised groups.
• The knowledge derived from this is felt to provide a more valid account of the social world than adopting an apparently ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’ stance.

Question 2

STATE

Answer 2

A culture that has a formal political organization with a central bureaucracy with the authority to employ legalized force.

Question 3

STATE (NATION-STATE)

Answer 3

• Complex sociopolitical system that administers a territory and populace with substantial contrasts in occupation, wealth, prestige, and power.
• An independent, centrally organized political unit; a government.
• A form of social and political organization with a formal, central government and a division of society into classes.

Question 4

STATISTICAL INFERENCE

Answer 4

• The generalization of findings from a sample to the broader population from which the sample has been randomly drawn.
• A variety of statistical tests, such as the chi-square, help in estimating the level of probability that such inferences about the population are true, given the sample size. This is expressed as the statistical significance of the finding.

Question 5

STATUS

Answer 5

• The position one has in a social network.
• The name of a position given to a node.
• Husband and wife are statuses.

Question 6

STATUS CHARACTERISTICS THEORY

Answer 6

A theory of group processes proposing that differences in evaluations and beliefs about types of individuals become the basis for inequalities in social interaction.

Question 7

STATUS MARKERS

Answer 7

• Physical symbols to indicate a person’s rank or relative standing in an organization or a group or society.
• E.g. The size and position of one’s office.

Question 8

STEREOTYPES (or “characterizations”)

Answer 8

• Are generalizations or assumptions that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an inaccurate image about what people in that group are like.
• For example, Americans are generally friendly, generous, and tolerant, but also arrogant, impatient, and domineering. Asians are humble, shrewd and alert, but reserved.
• Is common and causes most of the problems in cross-cultural conflicts.

Question 9

STIGMA

Answer 9

• A term describing the condition of possessing an identity which has been branded ‘spoiled’ or discredited identity by others.
• Examples of negative social stigmas are physical or mental handicaps and disorders, as well as homosexuality or affiliation with a specific nationality, religion or ethnicity.

Question 10

STIMULUS

Answer 10

Any internal or external event thatproduces a change in a person’s behaviour.

Question 11

STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION

Answer 11

The distinguishing between similar stimuli.

Question 12

STIMULUS GENERALIZATION

Answer 12

A process in which a person, after having learnt a response to one stimulus, produces the same response when exposed to some other similar stimulus, even though having never before being exposed to that stimulus.

Question 13

STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Answer 13

Can be defined as the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage.

Question 14

STRATIFICATION

Answer 14

Characteristic of a system with socioeconomic strata, sharp social divisions based on unequal access to wealth and power.

Question 15

STRATIFIED SOCIETY

Answer 15

A society where there is an unequal division of material wealth between its members.