Fourth Set of Vocabulary Terms

Question 1

Accomplishment by Natural Growth

Answer 1

American working class child-rearing strategy that upholds a philosophy that kids should play and explore without much supervision, gaining “street smarts” and forming lots of peer friendships.

Question 2

Baby-boom

Answer 2

The people who were born in the United States between 1946 and 1965. This group represented a sharp increase in birth rates and in the absolute number of births compared to pre-1946 levels.

Question 3

Birth Rate

Answer 3

Number of births per year per 1000 women 15 to 44 years old.

Question 4

Civil Religion

Answer 4

The interweaving of religious and political symbols in public life.

Question 5

Cohort

Answer 5

Persons who share something in common, usually being born in the same year or time period.

Question 6

Concentric-zone Theory

Answer 6

​A theory of urban development holding that cities grow around a central business district in concentric zones, with each zone devoted to a different land use.

Question 7

Concerted Cultivation

Answer 7

American middle class and upper middle class child-rearing strategy upholding a philosophy that kids should have many extracurricular activities, be highly supervised by adults, and should express themselves with words instead of being rowdy

Question 8

Consolidated Metropolitan Statustical Area (CMSA)

Answer 8

A “supercity” with more than one million people. There were 21 such cities in the United States in 1984.

Question 9

Contest Mobility

Answer 9

The educational pattern in which selection for academic and university education is delayed and children compete throughout their schooling for high positions.

Question 10

Creationism

Answer 10

​A theory that sees all major types of living things, including people, as having been made by the direct creative action of God in six days.

Question 11

Crude Birth Rate

Answer 11

The total number of live births per 1000 persons in a population within a particular year.

Question 12

Crude Death Rate

Answer 12

The number of deaths per 1000 persons occurring within a one-year period in a particular population.

Question 13

Cult

Answer 13

An organized group of people who together act out religious feelings, attitudes, and relationships; may focus on an unusual form of worship or belief

Question 14

Demographic Transition

Answer 14

​The demographic change experienced in Western Europe and North America since the industrial revolution in which the birth rate has declined so that it is about equal to the death rate

Question 15

Demography

Answer 15

The scientific study of population size, composition, and distribution as well as patterns of change in those features.

Question 16

Denomination

Answer 16

One of a number of religious organizations in a society with no official state church. Has some formal doctrines, beliefs, and practices, but tolerates diverse religious views.

Question 17

Dependency Theory

Answer 17

A theory about the place of developing nations in the world economy suggesting that major industrial nations take advantage of the cheap labor and raw materials of developing nations and hence are reluctant to see them become industrialized.

Question 18

Ecological Paradigm

Answer 18

​A theory of land use and living patterns that examines the interplay among economic functions, geographical factors, demography, and the replacement of one group by another.

Question 19

Ecological Succession

Answer 19

​In urban sociology, the replacement of one group by another overtime.

Question 20

Ecological View

Answer 20

​An approach to the study of culture or other social phenomena that emphasizes the importance of examining climate, food and water supplies, and existing enemies in the environments.

Question 21

Ecosystem

Answer 21

A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with its environment.

Question 22

Elderly Dependency Ratio

Answer 22

The ratio between the number of the elderly (65 and over) and the number of working-age people (ages 18 to 64)

Question 23

Evangelicalism

Answer 23

A form of Protestantism that stresses the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the validity of personal conversion, the Bible as the basis for belief, and active preaching of the faith.

Question 24

Flow

Answer 24

An experience of total involvement in one’s present activity.

Question 25

Fundamentalism

Answer 25

​A form of religious traditionalism characterized by the literal interpretation of religious texts, a conception of an active supernatural, and clear distinctions between sin and salvation.

Question 26

Gentrification

Answer 26

The movement of middle-class and upper-middle-class persons (usually white) into lower-income, sometimes minority urban areas.

Question 27

Green Revolution

Answer 27

The improvement in agricultural production based on higher-yielding grains and increased use of fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation

Question 28

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs)

Answer 28

Organizations that people pay a fee to join in return for access to a range of health services.

Question 29

Horticulture Societies

Answer 29

Societies in which the cultivation of plants with hoes is the primary means of subsistence.

Question 30

Institution of Science

Answer 30

The social communities that share certain theories and methods aimed at understanding the physical and social worlds.

Question 31

Magic

Answer 31

According to Malinowski, “a practical art consisting of acts which are only means to a definite end expected to follow.”

Question 32

Marriage Rate

Answer 32

Number of marriages in a year per 1000 single women 15 to 44 years old.

Question 33

Marriage Squeeze

Answer 33

​A situation in which the eligible individuals of one sex outnumber the supply of potential marriage partners of the other sex

Question 34

Mass Hysteria

Answer 34

Widely felt fear and anxiety.

Question 35

Mass Media

Answer 35

​Widely disseminated forms of communication, such as books, magazines, radio, television, and movies.

Question 36

Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

Answer 36

A geographical area containing either one city with 50,000 or more residents or an urban area of at least 50,000 inhabitants and a total population of at least 100,000 (except in New England where the required total is 75,000).

Question 37

Mortality Rate

Answer 37

The number of deaths per thousand in a population

Question 38

Multiple-nuclei Theory

Answer 38

A theory of urban development holding that cities develop around a number of different centers, each with its own special activities.

Question 39

Panic

Answer 39

A frightened response by an aggregate of people to an immediate threat

Question 40

Paradigm

Answer 40

​In the sociology of science, a coherent tradition of scientific law, theory, and assumptions that forms a distinct approach to problems.

Question 41

Population Exclusion

Answer 41

The efforts of a society to prevent ethnically different groups from joining it.

Question 42

Population

Answer 42

In demography, all the people living in a given geographic area. In research, the total number of cases with a particular characteristic.

Question 43

Population Transfer

Answer 43

The efforts of a dominant ethnic group to move or remove members of a minority ethnic group from a particular area

Question 44

Rate of Natural Increase

Answer 44

The difference between birth and death rates, excluding immigration.

Question 45

Religious Movement

Answer 45

An organized religious group with the primary goal of changing existing religious institutions

Question 46

Research and Development

Answer 46

Investments in basic research and in the practical application of basic research discoveries.

Question 47

Ritual

Answer 47

In the sociology of religion, the rules of conduct concerning behavior in the presence of the sacred. Intended to produce feelings of reverence, awe, and group identity.

Question 48

Scientific Revolution

Answer 48

The dramatic overthrow of one intellectual paradigm by another.

Question 49

Sect

Answer 49

An exclusive, highly cohesive group of ascetic religious believers. Sects usually last longer and are more institutionalized than cults

Question 50

Sector Theory

Answer 50

​A theory of urban development explaining that cities develop in wedge-shaped patterns following transportation systems.

Question 51

Secularization

Answer 51

The erosion of belief in the supernatural. Includes a growing respect for rationality, cultural and religious pluralism, tolerance of moral ambiguity, faith in education,and belief in civil rights, the rule of law, and due process.

Question 52

Suburb

Answer 52

​A fairly small community within an urban area that includes a central city.

Question 53

Sustainable Development

Answer 53

​Economic and environmental changes that meet the needs of the present without jeopardizing the needs of the future.

Question 54

Technological Determinism

Answer 54

The belief that technological development shapes social life in rather fixed ways.

Question 55

Total Fertility Rate

Answer 55

An estimate of the average number of children that would be born to each woman over her reproductive life if current age-specific birth rates remained constant.

Question 56

Zero Population Growth

Answer 56

The situation that occurs when the population of a nation or the world remains stable from one year to the next.