SOC Test 1 Vocab

Question 1

individualistic explanation

Answer 1

Tendency to attribute people’s achievements and failures to their
personal qualities

Question 2

macrolevel

Answer 2

Way of examining human life that focuses on the broad social forces and structural
features of society that exist above the level of individual people

Question 3

microlevel

Answer 3

Way of examining human life that focuses on the immediate, everyday experiences
of individuals

Question 4

sociological imagination

Answer 4

Ability to see the impact of social forces on our private lives

Question 5

sociology

Answer 5

The systematic study of human societies

Question 6

achieved status

Answer 6

Social position acquired through our own efforts or accomplishments or taken
on voluntarily

Question 7

ascribed status

Answer 7

Social position acquired at birth or taken on involuntarily later in life

Question 8

conflict perspective

Answer 8

Theoretical perspective that views the structure of society as a source of
inequality that always benefits some groups at the expense of other groups

Question 9

culture

Answer 9

Language, values, beliefs, rules, behaviors, and artifacts that characterize a society

Question 10

feminist perspective

Answer 10

Theoretical perspective that focuses on gender as the most important source of conflict and inequality in social life

Question 11

globalization

Answer 11

Process through which people’s lives all around the world become economically,
politically, environmentally, and culturally interconnected

Question 12

group

Answer 12

Set of people who interact more or less regularly and who are conscious of their identity as a unit

Question 13

in-groups

Answer 13

The groups to which we belong and toward which we feel a sense of loyalty

Question 14

latent function

Answer 14

Unintended, unrecognized consequences of activities that help some part of
the social system

Question 15

manifest functions

Answer 15

Intended, obvious consequences of activities designed to help some part of
the social system

Question 16

norm

Answer 16

Culturally defined standard or rule of conduct

Question 17

organization

Answer 17

Large, complex network of positions created for a specific purpose and
characterized by a hierarchical division of labor

Question 18

out-groups

Answer 18

The groups to which we don’t belong and toward which we feel a certain amount
of antagonism

Question 19

primary group

Answer 19

Collection of individuals who are together for a relatively long period, whose
members have direct contact with and feel emotional attachment to one another

Question 20

role

Answer 20

Set of expectations—rights, obligations, behaviors, duties—associated with a particular status

Question 21

role conflict

Answer 21

Frustration people feel when the demands of one role they are expected to fulfill
clash with the demands of another role

Question 22

role strain

Answer 22

Situations in which people lack the necessary resources to fulfill the demands of a particular role

Question 23

secondary group

Answer 23

Relatively impersonal collection of individuals that is established to perform a
specific task

Question 24

social institution

Answer 24

Stable set of roles, statuses, groups, and organizations—such as the institution of education, family, politics, religion, health care, or the economy—that provides a foundation for behavior in some major area of social life

Question 25

society

Answer 25

A population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members are subject to the same political authority

Question 26

status

Answer 26

Any named social position that people can occupy

Question 27

structural-functionalist perspective

Answer 27

Theoretical perspective that posits that social institutions are structured to maintain stability and order in society

Question 28

symbol

Answer 28

Something used to represent or stand for something else

Question 29

symbolic interactionism

Answer 29

Theoretical perspective that explains society and social structure through an examination of the microlevel, personal, day-to-day exchanges of people as individuals, pairs, or groups

Question 30

value

Answer 30

Standard of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes

Question 31

analysis of existing data

Answer 31

Type of unobtrusive research that relies on data gathered earlier by someone else for some other purpose

Question 32

content analysis

Answer 32

Form of unobtrusive research that studies the content of recorded messages, such as books, speeches, poems, songs, television shows, websites, and advertisements

Question 33

dependent variable

Answer 33

Variable that is assumed to be caused by, or to change as a result of, the independent variable

Question 34

empirical research

Answer 34

Research that operates from the ideological position that questions about human behavior can be answered only through controlled, systematic observations in the real world

Question 35

experiment

Answer 35

Research method designed to elicit some sort of behavior, typically conducted under closely controlled laboratory circumstances

Question 36

field research

Answer 36

Type of social research in which the researcher observes events as they actually occur

Question 37

historical analysis

Answer 37

Form of social research that relies on existing historical documents as a source of data

Question 38

hypothesis

Answer 38

Researchable prediction that specifies the relationship between two or more variables

Question 39

incorrigible proposition

Answer 39

Unquestioned cultural belief that cannot be proved wrong no matter what happens to dispute it

Question 40

independent variable

Answer 40

Variable presumed to cause or influence the dependent variable

Question 41

indicator

Answer 41

Measurable event, characteristic, or behavior commonly thought to reflect a particular concept

Question 42

nonparticipant observation

Answer 42

Form of field research in which the researcher observes people without directly interacting with them and without letting them know that they are being observed

Question 43

participant observation

Answer 43

Form of field research in which the researcher interacts with subjects, sometimes hiding his or her identity

Question 44

probabilistic

Answer 44

Capable only of identifying those forces that have a high likelihood, but not a certainty, of influencing human action

Question 45

qualitative research

Answer 45

Sociological research based on nonnumeric information (text, written words, phrases, symbols, observations) that describes people, actions, or events in social life

Question 46

quantitative research

Answer 46

Sociological research based on the collection of numeric data that uses precise statistical analysis

Question 47

reactivity

Answer 47

A problem associated with certain forms of research in which the very act of intruding into people’s lives may influence the phenomenon being studied

Question 48

representative

Answer 48

Typical of the whole population being studied

Question 49

sample

Answer 49

Subgroup chosen for a study because its characteristics approximate those of the entire population

Question 50

self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 50

Assumption or prediction that in itself causes the expected event to occur, thus seeming to confirm the prophecy’s accuracy

Question 51

social construction of reality

Answer 51

Process through which the members of a society discover, make known, reaffirm, and alter a collective version of facts, knowledge, and “truth”

Question 52

spurious relationship

Answer 52

A false association between two variables that is actually due to the effect of some third variable

Question 53

survey

Answer 53

Form of social research in which the researcher asks subjects a series of questions verbally, online, or on paper

Question 54

theory

Answer 54

Set of statements or propositions that seeks to explain or predict a particular aspect of social life

Question 55

unobtrusive research

Answer 55

Research technique in which the researcher, without direct contact with the subjects, examines the evidence of social behavior that people create or leave behind

Question 56

variable

Answer 56

Any characteristic, attitude, behavior, or event that can take on two or more values or attributes