SOC Test 1 Flashcards
Prepare for Test #1, Chapters 1 & 2
What does Sociology’s mission?
Explain the different forces and influences that shape how someone grows up. Focuses on human society and social interaction.
What is the nature/nurture conflict?
Psychology/nature focuses on the individuals internal life and genetic influences. Sociology/nurture focuses on effect of groups and social interaction/environment.
What effect does social class have on our lives?
It sets us on a particular path in life
What is the sociological perspective/imagination?
Unique lens sociologists use to view the world, “new eyes” to examine broader social contexts that underlie human behavior.
Who created this concept and how do they explain it?
C. Wright Mills explains the sociological perspective/imagination as the intersection of biography and history (the individual and social factors that influence the individual).
What does the sociological perspective focus on to understand what shapes & motivates people’s actions?
Social location, where a person is located in their society at what point in history. This includes: Race, Occupation, Gender, Generation, Class Education & Nationality (ROGGCEN)
What is the global sociological perspective?
The impact of technological, social, political and economic interconnectedness & interdependence.
How have people of the present and past made sense of the world?
Past: observation & superstition. Present: Science, a systematic way.
What are the origins of sociology?
Began in the 1800s with the use of the scientific methods, time of “enlightenment”/”age of reason” Religion rejected, replaced with rational thought.
Who is Auguste Comte (pronounced kont)?
French. Founder/Father of Sociology. Coined terms Positivism (applying sci method to soc), social reform. But did NOT actually do systematic research.
Who is Herbert Spencer?
Promoted “Social Darwinism”/Survival of the fittest, against social reform=interferes w/”natural process.” Ideas considered offensive.
Who is Max Weber (Vayber)?
German, religion central force in social change, “Protestant Ethic” & “Spirit of Capitalism”
Who is Karl Marx?
German, economics central force in social change, Bourgeoisie (capitalists)/Protelariat (exploited workers), favored reform
Emile Durkheim?
French, gained acceptance of soc as separate discipline as 1st academic appointment @ Bordeaux, “Social Integration”
What did Durkheim find out with his rigorous research?
Studied: social forces, suicides-underlying social factors, especially social integration
Who is Harriet Matrineau?
English, Feminist sociologist travelled U.S. for studies on poverty, anti-slavery, Head of Society in America, only recognized for translating Comte’s work
Who is Jane Addams?
Cofounded Hull-House in Chicago for immigrants, aged, sick and poor, social reformist, co-winner of Nobel Peace Prize
Who is W.E.B. Du Bois?
1st AA to earn doctorate @ Harvard, race relations b/w, founded NAACP
Explain theory vs. reform..
(basic vs. applied) Talcott Parsons: analyze, not act. C. Wright Mills: study and reform
Explain Public Sociology
A middle ground between research and reform
What is the functionalism perspective?
Questions what holds a society together/maintains cohesion. Structure & Function
What is the conflict theory perspective?
Questions what causes problems with a society - tears it apart. Inequality of power, conflict & change
What is the symbolic interactionism perspective?
Questions How do people interact with each other - how do those interactions shape society? social interactions=symbols of society’s values
What is the Microlevel Analysis?
The approach focuses on small group vs. large-scale social structures/close-up focus on social interaction specifically
What is the Macrolevel Analysis?
The approach that examines whole societies/broad focus/large scale
Basics of sociological research?
Sociological research need to be objective, neutral, replicated for consistency
Explain the research process
select topic, define problem, review lit, form hypothesis, choose research method, collect data, analyze, share
How do you operationalize and measure a variable?
Operationalize=specify what research measures. Measurement=determines value of variable
What are the six types of research methods?
surveys, participant observation, secondary analysis, documents, experiments, unobtrusive measures.
Explain research by survey method
Requires populations/target group, sample (representing population) and/or random sample, unbiased question(s) by questionnaire or interview
Explain the participant observation method
Also known as fieldwork, living in research setting while observing
Explain the secondary analysis research method
Analyzing data/studies collected by others
Explain the experiment research method
good to find cause & effect, independent variable=factor that causes a change in other variable. Dependent variable=factor that is changed
What is culture?
Language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and material objects (passed down from one gen to the next)
What are the two components of culture?
Material/objects & nonmaterial/beliefs, values, other assumptions of the world
What are components of symbolic culture?
gestures/nonverbal & language/verbal
How does our culture influence us?
Once internalized, culture becomes the lens through which we perceive and evaluate everything around us
Describe culture shock
Disorientation experienced from contact with cultures different from ours - eaves us unable to depend on taken-for-granted assumptions about life
Describe ethnocentrism
Using own culture as a yardstick to judge other cultures (leads to negative evaluation)
Describe cultural relativism
Counteracts ethnocentrism=attempts to understand a culture on its own terms
Explain values, norms and sanctions
Values are the idea of what is desirable, norms are expectations that reflect values, sanctions are expressions of approval or disapproval for following or breaking norms
Explain folkways, mores and taboos
Folkways are norms not strictly enforced, mores are very strictly enforced/conformity insisted, taboos are norms that if violated, brings revulsion/expulsion
Explain subcultures
Subcultures are smaller worlds within larger (more dominant) worlds
Describe countercultures
Countercultures’ values, beliefs & consequent behavior are in opposition of dominant culture
What is a pluralistic society?
A society made of many different groups
What are core values?
values shared by most of the groups in a society
What core values did Robin Williams (1965) list as American values?
achievement & success, individualism, handwork, efficiency & practicality, science & technology, material comfort, freedom, democracy,equality, group superiority (new additions: education, religiosity, romantic love
What is a value contradiction?
when real-life culture contradicts ideal values
What are emerging value clusters in USA?
leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, youthfulness, and concern for the environment
describe culture wars
culture wars are clashes in values between traditionalists and those advocating change in their culture
How does technology affect culture?
technology (skills, procedures, tools) sets the framework for a group’s nonmaterial culture
what is cultural lag?
not all parts of culture change at the same pace. A group’s material culture changes first with nonmaterial culture lagging behind
What is cultural diffusion?
When contacts with other groups cause people to learn and adopt things they find desirable
What is cultural leveling?
Cultural leveling is the process in which cultures become more and more similar to one another
