Key Terms Flashcards
Primary socialisation
The process by which parents and other significant family members teach children to behave in a way that society expects and accepts.
Secondary socialisation
Socialised outside the family, eg schools.
Ethnocentricity
When the dominant culture of a society imposes their values and beliefs on other social groups.
Agent of Socialisation
Something/an institution that socialises people.
Geographical mobility
The physical movement of people and families around the country, usually in search of work.
Relative isolation
Less frequent physical contact with extended kin - behaviour is less likely to be influenced or shaped by other kin.
Urbanisation
The movement of people who had previously lived in the countryside to the towns and cities, often in search of factory work.
Consumption
The spending of money on goods and services.
The family functions as a major unit of economic consumption, buying a family car, kitchen appliances etc
Symmetrical
Young and Wilmott, 1970s = the symmetrical family had become the norm in Britain, with both equality of economic responsibility, childcare and domestic tasks.
A patriarchal family could be described as asymmetrical.
Alienation
Marxists believe workers experience alienation due to lack of control, purpose & satisfaction experienced in their jobs.
Reproductive technology
The scientific developments that help men and women with fertility problems have children e.g IVF
Matrifocal families
When women are the head of the family.
Fathers may or may not be present, but they occupy a secondary role to the mother.
Matrifocal families are thought to be more common in African Caribbean communities.
The Service Sector
Jobs that deal with providing services i.e nursing, teaching etc.
Genderquake
A term coined by Helen Wilkinson to describe the dramatic cultural change in women’s attitudes, causing them to have a radically different attitude towards women’s responsibilities.
Reproductive rights
The rights that women have over their bodies. These include the right to contraception and the right to abortion.
Maternal deprivation
John Bowlby - argues the bond between a mother and a newly-born child can’t be broken, it leads to a child experiencing maternal deprivation, causing them to experience psychological problems which might have consequences later on in life.
Underclass
A social group that is (supposedly) workshy and dependant on welfare benefits, which acts as a disincentive to search for a job. This underclass socialises its children into deviant social values and behaviours.
Familial ideology
A set of ideas promoting the heterosexual nuclear family as the ideal family, in which the father is the head of the household and the mother focuses on nurturing and caretaking.
Dependency ratio
The relationship between working (non-dependent) and non-working (dependent) parts of the population.
General marriage rate
Marriages per 1000 men/women over the age of 16 per given year.
Secularisation
Society becoming less religious
Monogamy
One partner at a time
Serial monogamy
Marriage, divorce, re-marriage
Polygamy
Marriage to more than one person at a time (there’s two types)
Polygyny
A type of polygamy - a religion or culture allows a man to have multiple wives.
Polyandry
A type of polygamy - when a culture allows a woman to have multiple husbands
Conjugal roles
Separation of a couples household roles based on gender.
Domestic division of labour
The way that domestic work is divided out between partners.
Egalitarian marriage
A marriage where power is equally distributed.
Malestream sociology
Sociology has been male dominated meaning there is little sociological research on issues that affect women.
Social construction
Something built/made up by society.
Relativity
The notion that people’s experience of social life is not the same. It differs according to social class, ethnicity, gender and global location etc.
Concerted cultivation
Parents enrol children in activities/courses at a young age.
Helicopter parenting
Parenting where rich parents excessively interfere in their children’s eg daily schedules. This stifles development & creates spoilt children.
Social stigma
Social disapproval individuals or groups receive from society when their behaviour is thought to be deviant or immoral & are attached a negative label.
Objectification
Treating mostly women as objects & disregarding their lives as individuals.
Screen rich bedroom culture
Children spend leisure time separated from family using a screen in their room.
