Key Terms Chapter 1

Question 1

the growth of cities.

Answer 1

urbanization

Question 2

social theories that focus on how society emerges from people’s use of shared symbols in the course of their everyday interactions.

Answer 2

Symbolic Interactionist theories

Question 3

the recurring patterns of behavior in social life.

Answer 3

structure

Question 4

theories that focus on consensus and cooperative interaction in social life, emphasizing how the different parts of a society contribute to its overall operation. Often referred to simply as “functionalist theories,” or “functionalism.”

Answer 4

structural-functionalist theories

Question 5

social normlessness, without moral guidance or standards.

Answer 5

anomie

Question 6

the shared norms, beliefs, and values in a community.

Answer 6

collective conscience

Question 7

social theories that focus on issues of contention, power, and inequality, highlighting the competition for scarce resources.

Answer 7

conflict theories

Question 8

the collection of values, beliefs, knowledge, norms, language, behaviors, and material objects shared by a people and socially transmitted from generation to generation.

Answer 8

culture

Question 9

the way people specialize in different tasks, each requiring specific skills.

Answer 9

division of labor

Question 10

inhibiting or disrupting the working of a system as a whole.

Answer 10

dysfuntional

Question 11

structural-functionalist theories.

Answer 11

functionalist theories

Question 12

the use of large-scale machinery for the mass manufacture of consumer goods.

Answer 12

industrialization

Question 13

the largely unrecognized and unintended consequences of social phenomena.

Answer 13

latent functions

Question 14

a focus on large-scale social systems and processes such as the economy, politics, and population trends.

Answer 14

macro level of analysis

Question 15

the recognized and intended consequences of social phenomena.

Answer 15

manifest functions

Question 16

a focus somewhere between very large and very small social phenomena—on organizations or institutions, for example.

Answer 16

meso level of analysis

Question 17

a focus on small-scale, usually face-to-face social interaction.

Answer 17

a micro level of analysis

Question 18

a historical era in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries characterized by the growth of democracy and personal freedom, increased reliance on reason and science to explain the natural and social worlds, and a shift toward an urban industrial economy.

Answer 18

modernity

Question 19

a belief that accurate knowledge must be based on the scientific method.

Answer 19

positivism

Question 20

a historical period beginning in the mid-twentieth century characterized by the rise of information-based economies and the fragmentation of political beliefs and ways of knowing.

Answer 20

post modernity

Question 21

the ability to bring about an intended outcome, even when opposed by others.

Answer 21

power

Question 22

the long-term historical process by which rationality replaced tradition as the basis for organizing social and economic life.

Answer 22

rationalization of society

Question 23

a method of inquiry that uses logic and the systematic collection of evidence to support claims about the world.

Answer 23

science

Question 24

the collective bonds that connect individuals.

Answer 24

social solidarity

Question 25

a set of principles and propositions that explains the relationships among social phenomena.

Answer 25

social theory

Question 26

a view of the social world that focuses on discovering and understanding the connections between individuals and the broader social contexts in which they live; what C. Wright Mills called the “sociological imagination.”

Answer 26

sociological perspective

Question 27

the systematic study of the relationship between individuals and society.

Answer 27

sociology