Midterm 1

Question 1

Agency

Answer 1

Individuals, organisations, or groups that are free to make their own decisions

Question 2

Sociology

Answer 2

The study of how society is organised and how this organisation shapes and constrains people and groups around us

Question 3

Structure

Answer 3

Forces, institutions and contexts that can shape or constrain behaviour

Question 4

Quantitative Data

Answer 4

Information about our social world that can be converted into numerical data

Question 5

Qualitative Data

Answer 5

Information about our social world that cannot be converted into numerical data su h as descriptions about certain social patterns

Question 6

Population

Answer 6

A population is an entire possible sample for a certain investigation

Question 7

Sample

Answer 7

A select group of a population used in an investigation

Question 8

Validity

Answer 8

The extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure

Question 9

Reliability

Answer 9

The likelihood of achieving the same results if the investigation is carried out in the same way

Question 10

Generalisability

Answer 10

The extent to which we can claim that our results are representative of a group larger than our sample

Question 11

Membership/Censorship Bias

Answer 11

Certain members of a sample who are biased or censored and as such are prevented from giving accurate responses

Question 12

Sampling based on the dependent variable

Answer 12

Selecting samples based on what you want to study (e.g. studying reviews for the new Star Wars movie based on twitters of people who hated it)

Question 13

Reflexivity

Answer 13

Understanding the role and effect that the researcher might be having on the study and the results

Question 14

Participation Bias

Answer 14

Members of a population that are more or less likely to participate in a study based on the characteristics that affect the outcome

Question 15

Correlation

Answer 15

Seeing some kind of relationship between variables

Question 16

Causation

Answer 16

Proving definitively that one variable causes another

Question 17

Spuriousness

Answer 17

A third variable that mimics causation when in reality it is not relevant

(e.g. ice cream sails rising coincides with drownings)

Question 18

Reverse causality

Answer 18

When it is difficult to prove whether A causes B or B causes A

Question 19

Formal Rules

Answer 19

Rules specified by an institution that you are part of

EG federal/state laws

Question 20

Structural resources

Answer 20

Things we can have or acquire that can shape our social status and ability to attain social goals

Question 21

Informal Rules

Answer 21

Rules that we perceive from society, often pertaining to a set of shared values

Question 22

Ascribed Status

Answer 22

Something that we do not have any control over

EG nationality, race

Question 23

Achieved Status

Answer 23

Something that can determine out social status that we do have control over

EG education, marital status

Question 24

Culture

Answer 24

A set of beliefs, norms, practices and traditions that are shared in a specific group

Question 25

Cultural sociology

Answer 25

Understanding how culture affects society

Question 26

Settled lives

Answer 26

Cultural norms are taken for granted. You often draw from your cultural toolkit without even thinking about it

Question 27

Unsettled lives

Answer 27

Often in times of cultural upheaval, cultural norms will not be taken for granted. Time will only tell which norms actually stick

Question 28

Subculture

Answer 28

The distinct cultural values and behavioural patterns of a group is society, distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society

Question 29

Cultural Capital

Answer 29

Non-economic resources that are useful in a particular sphere of society

Question 30

Veblen Goods

Answer 30

Higher goods that display a higher economic standing. Higher price = higher demand

Question 31

Conspicuous consumption

Answer 31

Essentially bragging about certain Veblen goods by publicising them (e.g. putting them on your story)

Question 32

Ethnography

Answer 32

Works of deep research based on in-depth, open ended interviews and keen observations of how people go about their lives in different contexts

Question 33

Aesthetics v. Utility

Answer 33

‘Upper class’ products have aesthetic purposes

‘lower class’ products have utility purposes

Question 34

Omnivorousness

Answer 34

engaging in an eclectic mixture of higher and lower class activities and hobbies to display your culture

Question 35

Cultural Appropriation

Answer 35

Adoption of elements of a culture that you are not a part of

Question 36

Cultural Exclusion

Answer 36

Omnivorousness is patterned in ways that exclude cultural products associated with specific groups

Question 37

Socialisation

Answer 37

The process by which individuals internalise values, beliefs and morals

Question 38

Concerned Cultivation

Answer 38

Reasoning with children
enrolling them in organised activities
contacts teachers

associated with the higher class

Question 39

Natural Growth

Answer 39

tell children what to do
fewer organised activities
not questioning authority

associated with the lower class

Question 40

Social Construction of Reality

Answer 40

How we give meaning to things via our social interactions. Something can be valuable if society says it is

You can tell if something is socially constructed by looking back in time and seeing if there was value placed on it on another time

(e.g. food, race, gender etc.)

Question 41

Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 41

The study of how things are socially constructed

Question 42

Impression management

Answer 42

How we try to manage the impression that we have on other people

Question 43

Framing and Reframing

Answer 43

The activities process of how we shift perceptions of certain things

Question 44

Gentrification

Answer 44

The process of how a neighbourhood changes when more affluent residents move in

Question 45

Inductive v. Deductive research

Answer 45

Inductive research uses empirical data whilst deductive is less concrete, putting a theory into place

Question 46

Independent v. Dependent variables

Answer 46

Dependent variable does not change, the independent variable does.

e.g. Why are NU students stressed: stress = dependent, other factors we measure are independent

Question 47

Three Tenets of Ethical Research

Answer 47

1) Do no harm
2) informed consent
3) voluntary participation

Question 48

Cultural toolkit

Answer 48

the parts of your culture that have influenced you and become like second nature

e.g. achoo –> bless you

Question 49

Code Switching

Answer 49

changing your behaviour in certain contexts

Question 50

Resocialisation

Answer 50

the process through which someone’s values completely change

Question 51

Community

Answer 51

A group of people who share common things (geography, belief, etc)

Question 52

Gemeinschaft

Answer 52

In pre-industrial times, people had social ties based on shared cultural values and close personal relationships
Associated with small agricultural and rural towns

Question 53

Gesellschaft

Answer 53

Impersonal ties based around economic transactions or contractual arrangements
Associated with large cities and urbanisation

Question 54

Ferdinand Tönnies

Answer 54

Gemeinschaft v. Gesellschaft

Question 55

Erving Goffman

Answer 55

We are all acting as if people are watching us

Question 56

W.E.B. Du Bois

Answer 56

Argues that African-Americans must navigate two cultural scripts: Their regular behavior, and a script taking into account the external opinions of racially prejudiced onlookers.