SOC Chapter 2: Culture

Question 1

Define: Culture

Answer 1

the language, belief, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next

Chapter 2, Page 40

Question 2

Define: Material Culture

Answer 2

the material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry

Chapter 2, Page 40

Question 3

Define: Nonmaterial Culture

Answer 3

a group’s way of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including language and other forms of interactions);
also called symbolic culture

Chapter 2, Page 40

Question 4

Define: Culture Shock

Answer 4

the disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life

Chapter 2, Page 41

Question 5

Define: Ethnocentrism

Answer 5

the use of one’s own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors

Chapter 2, Page 41

Question 6

Define: Cultural Relativism

Answer 6

not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own

Chapter 2, Page 42

Question 7

Define: Symbolic Culture

Answer 7

another terms for nonmaterial culture

Chapter 2, Page 46

Question 8

Define: Symbol

Answer 8

something to which people attach meaning and then use to communicate with one another

Chapter 2, Page 46

Question 9

Define: Gestures

Answer 9

the ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another

Chapter 2, Page 46

Question 10

Define: Laguage

Answer 10

a system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways and can represent not only objects but also abstract through

Chapter 2, Page 46

Question 11

Define: Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Answer 11

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving

Chapter 2, Page 50

Question 12

Define: Values

Answer 12

the standard by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, superior or inferior, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, ect

Chapter 2, Page 50

Question 13

Define: Norms

Answer 13

expectations of “right” behavior

Chapter 2, Page 50

Question 14

Define: Sanctions

Answer 14

either expressions of approval given to people for following norms or expressions of disapproval for violating them

Chapter 2, Page 50

Question 15

Define: Positive Sanction

Answer 15

a reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a material reward

Chapter 2, Page 50

Question 16

Define: Negative Sanction

Answer 16

an expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a prize or a prison sentence

Chapter 2, Page 50

Question 17

Define: Folkways

Answer 17

norms that are not strictly enforced

Chapter 2, Page 52

Question 18

Define: Mores (MORE-rays)

Answer 18

norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or the well-being of the group

Chapter 2, Page 52

Question 19

Define: Taboo

Answer 19

a norm so strong that it brings extreme sanctions, even revulsion, if violated

Chapter 2, Page 53

Question 20

Define: Subculture

Answer 20

the values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture;
a world within a world

Chapter 2, Page 53

Question 21

Define: Counterculture

Answer 21

a group whose values, beliefs, norms, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture

Chapter 2, Page 56

Question 22

Define: Pluralistic Society

Answer 22

a society made up of many different groups

Chapter 2, Page 56

Question 23

Define: Core Values

Answer 23

the values that are central to a group, those around which a group builds a common identity

Chapter 2, Page 56

Question 24

Define: Value Cluster

Answer 24

values that together form a larger whole

Chapter 2, Page 57

Question 25

Define: Value Contradiction

Answer 25

values that contradict one another;
to follow the one means to come into conflict with the other

Chapter 2, Page 58

Question 26

Define: Ideal Culture

Answer 26

a people’s ideal values and norms;
the goals held out for them

Chapter 2, Page 58

Question 27

Define: Real Culture

Answer 27

the norms and values that people actually follow;
as opposed to ideal culture

Chapter 2, Page 60

Question 28

Define: Cultural Universal

Answer 28

a value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in every group

Chapter 2, Page 60

Question 29

Define: Sociobiology

Answer 29

a framework of thought in which human behavior is considered to be the result of natural selection and biological factor;
a fundamental cause of human behavior

Chapter 2, Page 61

Question 30

Define: Technology

Answer 30

in its narrow sense, tools;
its broader sense includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools

Chapter 2, Page 62

Question 31

Define: New Technology

Answer 31

the emerging technologies of an era that have a significant impact on social life

Chapter 2, Page 62

Question 32

Define: Cultural Lag

Answer 32

Ogburn’s term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations

Chapter 2, Page 62

Question 33

Define: Cultural Diffusion

Answer 33

the spread of cultural traits from one group to another;
includes both material and nonmaterial cultural traits

Chapter 2, Page 64

Question 34

Define: Cultural Leveling

Answer 34

the process by which cultures become similar to one another;
refers especially to the process by which Western culture is being exported and diffused into other nation

Chapter 2, Page 65