definitions Flashcards
Historical Materialism
Regarding a person’s beliefs and philosophies, this concept focuses on the material and social conditions of life as formative of those beliefs.
Infrastructure v. Superstructure
Infrastructure - the base of society (ex. its economic system, political economy etc)
Superstructure - everything else within society (all social institutions)
Social Facts
Another word for social norms.
Mechanical Solidarity v. Organic Solidarity
Mechanical - a non-specialized society; everyone does, thinks, and acts the same way.
Organic - a specialized society; there is an interdependence.
Anomie
“normlessness”
Microsociology
The study of small groups and face-to-face interactions.
Mesosociology
The study of groups, organizations, and communities.
Macrosociology
The study of large patterns formed by large groups over a long period of time.
Interpretative Sociology
Weber was the first to argue;
Wanting to understand as well as explain behaviours.
causality
Cause and effect
culture
The sum total of the heritage of a people; a collective definition and interpretation of reality that produces a way of life or a design for living.
society
A complex, all encompassing system of interrelationships that connects people within a defined territory with a defined culture.
cultural myth
Truth telling stories that provide a worldview.
the true
knowledge; what is.
the good
ethics; what should be.
the beautiful
aesthetics; what is attractive.
prescriptive norms
the do’s
proscriptive norms
the don’ts
false consciousness
A perception of a situation that is not in accord with reality.
cultural lag
When the norms and values of society lag behind the development of Technology.
Cultural universals
Cultural elements found in every culture of the world
Culture shock
Feeling of unreality, disorientation, anxiety, frustration upon realizing our taken for granted thoughts or actions are not appropriate in a new context.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view things from the viewer’s culture instead of from the perspective of the viewed.
Cultural relativity
The empirical fact of cultural diversity.
Cultural relativism
The metaphysical assumption that all cultures are equally valid, moral, and deserving of respect.
Absolute cultural relativism
Whatever happens in a particular culture cannot be questioned.
Critical cultural relativism
Posing questions about cultural practices in terms of who accepts them and why.
Subculture
Culture patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population.
Counter culture
Cultural patterns that strongly oppose those that are widely accepted in society.
High culture
Cultural patterns that distinguish a society’s elite.
Popular culture
Cultural patterns that are widespread throughout a society.
Cultural capital
Non financial social assets that promote social mobility beyond economic means.
Cultural literacy
Having enough general knowledge about society to communicate effectively with anyone.
Culture of poverty
The structure, rationale, and defence mechanism of those at the bottom of the socio economic scale.
Socialization
The learning process through which individuals:
-develop their self hood and
-acquire knowledge skills and motivations required for participation in social life.
Social determinism
Believes that you are nothing but your social context.
Biological determinism
The belief that you are nothing but your biology.
Ubuntu
A south African concept; I am because we are.
Human Interaction
The process by which people act and react in relation to others and how we interact with people face to face.
Civil Inattention
A north American concept; In public settings, the best way to be civil to one another is to not pay attention to one another.
Sociology
The scientific study of the patterns of human behavior as shaped by human interaction.
The “structure”
The Organization of perception in which people assemble objects, meanings, and others and act toward them in a coherent way.
status
A socially defined position in a group or a society.
Awareness context
What each person knows about the identity of the other person and their own identity in the eyes of the other person.
role
A cluster of duties, rights, and obligations associated with a particular status.
scripts
What one’s own behavior follows.
claims
What one is entitled to expect from other people.
Ascribed role
An imposed, involuntary role.
Achieved role
Has been gained through ability and effort.
Status set
The multiple statuses held simultaneously by an individual.
Role set
A variety of expectations attached to each status that an individual holds.
Master status
The status that cuts across all others held by an individual; one’s primary identity.
Role strain
This happens when role performance becomes stressful or problematic.
Role conflict
Incompatible demands built into multiple statuses one person occupies.
Role exit
The process of terminating a status or role.
Impression management
People’s efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.
Disclaimers
Verbal devices used to ward off negative implications of something about to be said or done.
Accounts
Explanations for having already violated a social norm; retrospective.
Excuse
Acknowledging that the behavior was wrong but denying personal responsibility.
Justification
Acknowledging personal responsibility but denying that the behavior was wrong.
Motive talk
Provider explains the link between what people say and what people do.
Teamwork
Supporting each other’s role performances.
Leakage
Something about your face that communicates something different than what you’re saying.
Feeling rules
Socially appropriate emotions for particular situations.
feeling work
A result of feeling rules; what is required when how an individual feels doesn’t match the situation?
Superficial impression management
Displaying one emotion when an individual really feels another.
Territoriality
The control of space in human interaction.
Group
Interaction of two or more people based on some common interest.
Network
A web of social ties that links people who have little common identity or interaction.
Organization
A large secondary group of people participating in a division of labour that’s coordinated by communication and leadership to achieve a common goal efficiently.
close knit network
Everyone within the network knows everyone else.
Loose knit network
When only one person knows everyone else within the network.
Strong tie
An individual you know very well.
Weak tie
You don’t know as much about someone; you know of them.
Bridging
Describes when groups connect within a network.
in group
A group that an individual feels loyalty to.
Out group
Can cause a person to feel antagonism, disinterest, or animosity towards.
Dyads
A group that only has two members and one relationship.
Triads
A group that has three members with three relationships.
Quadrants
A group that has four members with six relationships.
Instrumental leadership
Leadership that is more focused on getting a certain task done.
Expressive leadership
Leadership that is more people oriented.
Formal organization
A large secondary group of people participating in a division of labour, coordinated by communication and leadership to achieve a common goal efficiently.
Informal organization
The complex personal networks within the formal organization.
Bureaucracy
Organizational model rationally designed to perform complex tasks efficiently.
or
Organizing activities in a logical, impersonal, efficient manner.
Translation of bureaucracy
The rule of the office holders.
“bureau-“, “office” & “-cracy”, “rule”
sex
In sociology, it is based on biology or anatomy.
You are female or male.
Gender
Social norms based on sex.
You can be masculine or feminine.
Sexual identity
Subjective sense of being male or female.
Intersex persons
An individual who is born with a combination of male and female physical sexual characteristics.
Homophobia
The irrational fear of:
- homosexuality in others,
- homosexual feelings in oneself, or
- self loathing because of one’s homosexuality.
Homoppression
Using the social power of moral and legal codes to take from LGBTQ+ people their identity and liberty to express themselves sexually.
Sexual scripts
Scripts that inform an individual how to think about and act during sexual encounters.
Social control
Attempts by society to regulate people’s thoughts and behaviors.
deviance
Engaging in activity that is abnormal and elicits societal reaction.
Deviant
Person who is different and disreputable but not necessarily degenerate or perverted.
Positive sanctions
Rewards for compliant behavior
Negative sanctions
Coercive methods to force compliance
Formal sanctions
Are
- codified,
- scheduled,
- organized,
- regulated,
given by officially designated persons.
Informal sanctions
Are
- unwritten,
- casual,
- unorganized,
- and spontaneous,
given by everyone to everyone.
The cutting of red tape
When an individual does not follow all of the details of a procedure which may actually facilitate productivity.
Attachments
Stable patterns of interaction between people
Investments
Costs that have been expended in building up a satisfactory life for an individual
Beliefs
Convictions about how we think the world ought to work
Street crime
Traditional illegal behaviors that are often thought of when hearing the word “crime”
Organized crime
Activity conducted by members of a hierarchically arranged structure devoted primarily to making money through illegal means
Corporate/Suite crime
Violating the law in the interest of maximizing profit at any cost
Corporate/White collar crime
Crimes committed by persons of high social position in the course of their occupations
Cyber crime
Any violation of the law in which a digital device is the target or means of criminal activity
Retribution
An act of moral vengeance by which society subjects an offender to suffering comparable to that caused by the offence
Deterrence
An attempt to discourage criminality through punishment
Rehabilitation
Reforming the offender to preclude subsequent offences
Restorative justice
Thinks about crime not only through the individual who experience the crime against them but also the community
Social stratification
A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy
Meritocracy
Status based on merit not inheritance
Value judgements
Moral ethical judgments regarding inequality; what is perceived to be fair.
Recidivism
The cycle of someone committing a crime, being arrested, serving a sentence, being released, and then recommitting the same crime.
Specific deterrence
An attempt to scare an individual offender into not doing something again
General deterrence
Making an example of an offender to the broad public
Modernization
A change from a close to an open social system
Ideology
A coherent set of interrelated ideas and ideals that explain and justify social stratification
Equality
Rewards distributed equally regardless of the individual’s contribution
Equity
Rewards distributed in proportion to contribution
Relative needs
Rewards distributed according to individual needs of members regardless of the individual contribution
Conservative ideology
When society takes presidents over the individual
Liberal ideology
When the individual takes presidents over society
Socialist ideology
The belief that society must be fundamentally restructured for the common good
Bourgeoisie
The class that owns capital and employs others
Proletariat
The class that does not own capital but does work for wages
Status inconsistency
Having more of one factor that contributes to one’s status.
i.e. Having a lot of property and economic wealth but no social prestige or power.
Equality of opportunity
The equal chance available to each member of society to obtain goods or rewards
Absolute poverty
Not having enough money for the “essentials.”
Relative poverty
Relative to society’s standard of living
Poverty line
When the percent of after tax income that goes towards food, shelter, and clothing is 20% higher than the Canadian average
Class consciousness
An awareness and acceptance of similar attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles of others in one’s social class
Intergenerational mobility
How much did you move up or down socially in comparison to your parents, grandparents etc
Intragenerational mobility
How much did you move up or down socially during your own lifetime
Structural mobility
Large groups of people moving up or down socially
Circulatory mobility
When an individual moves up the ladder socially, someone else moves down; individuals replacing each other socially
General socialization
The learning process through which individuals develop selfhood and acquire knowledge, skills, and motivations required for participation in social life
Gender socialization
The learning process through which individuals learn to become feminine or masculine according to the expectations current to their culture
Glass elevator
Fast tracking men in women dominated occupations.
Glass cellar
Men being stuck in the most dangerous jobs
Glass ceiling
The invisible barrier that prevents women from reaching the highest executive level
Gender stratification
Unequal access of males and females to property, prestige, and power
Ideology
That which explains and justifies existing conditions
The “second shift”
Women work a full shift at work and then a second shift at home after the work day
The “third shift”
Women caring for physical and emotional health of aging parents
Race
Similarity of physical appearance; similar characteristics are biologically transmitted
Critical cultural relativist perspective
Wanting to welcome and embrace other cultures but not wanting human rights to be transgressed
Racialization
The political process of describing racial identity to a group that did not identify itself as such
Minority
A political status; any group that has an inferior status to the surrounding group
Pluralism/Multiculturalism
Groups live together on an equal basis while keeping and valuing their differences
Institutional completeness
A complete set of social institutions that serve their own people in their own language
Assimilation
The reduction or blurring of boundaries that produces a common culture in which the minority group is absorbed into the dominant culture
Group mobilization
A political organization of racial or ethnic groups to resist assimilation
de jure
by law
de facto
by custom
Prejudice
A prejudgment; a rigid and irrational generalization about an entire category of people
Differential treatment
Treating people differently
Prejudicial treatment
Treating someone based on the category to which they belong before getting to know them individually
Racism
A set of beliefs that assumes:
- behavioral tendencies are genetically based,
- races differ in their possession of these traits,
- and some races are superior and should enjoy extra privilege and power
White fragility
The defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviours such as argumentation
Intrapersonal
Internalized feelings and beliefs
Interpersonal Racism
Prejudice shown between individuals through word and deed
Institutional racism
Discriminatory policies and practices within social institutions
Systemic racism
Ongoing racial inequalities maintained by society
