Final Exam Flashcards
Prescriptive norms
Rules about behaviours we are expected to perform.
Mores
Institutionalized norms embedded in law which helps to maintain social control. (Laws against taboos)
Proscriptive norms
Rules about behaviours we are expected to refrain from doing.
Taboos
Mores that are considered wrong.
Folkways
Informal norms based on accepted traditions.
Culture
Sum total of social environment in which we’re raised and continue to be socialized throughout our lives.
Language
Shared system of communication that includes spoken, written, as well as nonverbal gestures to convey meaning.
Cultural universals
Common practices shared by all societies.
Social facts
Observable social phenomena that exists outside an individual and exercise power over them.
Cultural relativism
Perspective that a society’s customs and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of a society’s problems and opportunities.
Ethnocentrism
Tendency to believe that one’s cultural practices and beliefs is superior than other cultures.
Material vs nonmaterial culture
Tangible, physical items vs intangible items that give meaning to one’s culture.
Ideal culture
Cultural values a majority of people identify with in a given society.
Real culture
Practices engaged in by the majority of people in a society.
Subculture
Group that can be differentiated from mainstream culture by its divergent traits involving language, norms, beliefs, and values.
Counterculture
Type of subculture that opposes mainstream culture.
Popular culture (mass culture)
Well-liked everyday practices and products.
High culture
Activities shared by the social elite.
Norms
Society’s expectations for how we are supposed to act, think, and look.
Life chances
Opportunities an individual has in life, based on various factors including stratification, inequality, race, ethnicity, and gender.
Micro level
Level of individual experiences and choices.
Macro level
Level of broader social forces, like society as a whole.
Agency
People’s capacity to make choices, which then has an impact on other people and society.
Sociology
Systematic study of society, using the sociological imagination.
Sociological imagination
Ability to perceive the interconnections between individual experiences and larger sociocultural forces.
Positivist approach
Approah to theorizing that emphasizes explanations and prediction.
Interpretive approach
Approach to theorizing that focuses on the ways people come to understand themselves, others, and the world around them.
Criticial approach
Approah to theorizing that explored the role powers play in social processes and importance of knowledge tied to emancipation.
Values
Collectively shared criteria by which we determine whether something is right or wrong.
Manifest vs latent functions
Intended vs unintended functions of society
Dysfunctional
When one of society’s structure no longer fulfills its function effectively.
Anomie
Feeling of normlessness.
Bourgeoise vs proletariat
Owners of the means of production vs workers
Significant others
People who are important to us.
Generalized others
Overall sense of people’s expectations, strangers.
Patriarchy
Legal and/or social power vested in males.
Androcentric
Male-centred, fails to account for women’s experiences.
Discourses
Ways of understanding a topic or social phenomenon.
Conglomerate
A corporation made up of several different widely diversified companies.
Stereotype
An over generalization about a group, often based on faulty assumptions.
Media literacy
Ability to recognize, critically assess, and make informed choices about the messages contained in mass media forms.
Sex
Biological characteristics that include sex chromosomes, primary sex characteristics, and secondary sex characteristics.
Dualism
A contrast between two opposing categories.
Gender
Expected and actual thoughts, feelings, and behaviours associated with a particular sex within a certain culture at a given point in history.
Femininity vs masculinity
Thoughts, feelings, and behaviours associations with being female vs male.
Intersex
Person whose physical sex characteristics fall outside the boundaries of dualism of male/female.
Sexual script
Framework that we use to understand our own sexuality and guides our sexual lives.
Heteronormative
View that heterosexuality is the expected and preferred sexual orientation.
Heterosexism
Discrimination on the basis of a homosexual or bisexual orientation.
Monogamous
A marriage that includes two spouses.
Polygamous
A marriage that includes three or more spouses simultaneously.
Nuclear family
Family structure comprising of parents and their children.
Extended family
A family structure that includes parents, their children, and additional relatives.
Matriarchal
Power is vested in females.
Matrilineal
Lineage is traced through the mother’s side of the family, especially its female members.
Patrilineal
Lineage is traced through the father’s side of the family, especially its male members.
Health
State of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Social inequality
An unequal distribution of resources.
Social stratification
Socially sanctioned patterns (or classes) of social inequality that exists in society and based on attributes such as race, age, gender, income, or occupation.
Caste system
Hierarchical system of stratification based on inherited social standing.
Social class
Shared membership in a group based on economic standing.
Class system
Hierarchical system of stratification based on achieved and ascribed economic measures such as annual income or possession of resources.
Social mobility
Movement that occurs within and between social classes in a stratification system.
Socioeconomic status
Social standing based on a combined measure of education, income, and occupation.
Intragenerational mobility
Changes in social class that occurs within a person’s lifetime.
Intergenerational mobility
Changes in social class of children relative to their parents.
Low-income cutoff (LICO)
Annual family income value in dollars below which a family is worse off than average due to high proportion of income allocated to food, clothing, and shelter.
Recession
Economic decline that persists for long periods of time.
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Overall indicator of a country’s economic productivity based on goods and services as measured by household consumption, government spending, and investments.
Social safety net
Services and programs designed to lessen financial burdens experienced by low-income groups.
Meritocracy
Condition of advancement based on worth.
Alienation
Detacuvment that exists between workers and labour as perpetuated under capiralism.
Ethnicity
Cultural characteristics such as language, religion, taste in food, shared descent, cultural traditions, and shared geographical locations.
Objective vs subjective ethnicity
Ancestors vs personal identification
Race
Socially constructed category used to classify humankind according to physical characteristics such as skin colour, hair texture, and facial features.
Racialization
Process by which racial categories are constructed as different and unequal in ways that have social, economic, and political consequences.