Sociological Imagination Flashcards
sociology
the study of human society
sociological imagination
the ability to connect basic aspects of a person’s life to impersonal and remote forces
social institution
a group of interdependent positions that perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time
verstehen
(Weber); part of conceptual basis of interpretive sociology; calls for researchers to empathize with social actors under study rather than see them as objects to be examined
anomie
(Durkheim); aimlessness or despair arising out of unpredictable life situation/little social regularity; normlessness
positivist sociology
(Comte, Durkheim); strain of sociology that views society as describable and predictable; “social physics”
double consciousness
(Du Bois); having two life scripts, one for moving through world, another incorporating opinions of prejudiced onlookers
functionalism
the theory that social institutions or processes exist to serve an important or necessary function; (e.g. Parsons, Durkheim)
conflict theory
the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic force for social change and society on general
feminist theory
catchall term for theories that emphasize the experience of women and assume women are subordinated within society
symbolic interactionism
a micro-level theory in which shared meanings form the basis for people’s actions
postmodernism
a condition that questions grand narratives of progress or history and which contains multiple conflicting meanings and identities
social construction
an entity that exists because people believe and behave as if it does; it persists because of formal rules and informal norms
mid-range theory
sociological theories which predict how social institutions function; “generates falsifiable hypotheses”
micro-sociology
sociology that seeks to understand local interactional contexts; favors ethnographic methods (e.g. participant observation and in-depth interview)
