Sociology Flashcards
Sociological Discourse
A discourse is a way of reflecting on data and observations made about people or an event. Opinions are based upon a collection of beliefs. ‘truths’, myths and the language of a culture/subculture.
Stereotype
Assumptions about individuals based on their social group membership rather than individual characteristics.
Youth
A Socially constructed, age-based, social category appropriate to Western societies which usually includes young people between the ages of 12 and 24.
Adolescence
A term with strong biological associations describing the period of onset puberty to full physiological maturation.
Prejudice
A positive or negative prejudgement (attitude) about an entire category of people.
Discrimination
The unequal treatment (actions) towards a category of people.
Ethnicity
The particular cultural features that are shared by a distinctive group or population. The social traits shared by these groupings include nationality, ideology and lifestyles. Common language, common cultural and religious practises and a common ancestry support the ethnic identity.
Cultural Hybridity
The process of combining and drawing upon different cultural and ethnic identities to create a new hybridised culture, slightly changing the dominant culture in the process.
Scientific Methods
Research based on observable, empirical and measurable evidence that precedes from observation, hypothesis-testing then evaluation.
Sociological Imagination
A form of critical thinking that examines the social world from multiple points of view. It sees the social in individual behaviour.
Theory
A theory is a statement about the way the world is believed to work. The role of sociological theories is to explain social behaviour in the real world. For example, why are some people racist or sexist or ageist?
Sociological Perspective
A sociological perspective is a collection of theories that provides researchers with a model to guide and reflect upon their social research.
Feminism
A theoretical perspective that advocates for gender equality by opposing sexism and patriarchy.
Research Methods
The ways in which researches collect data, conduct research and analyse findings.
Experiment
Controlled research that involves testing the effect of one variable on another variable, usually by comparing results from a control group to an experimental group.
Survey
Research involving participants responding to a set of questions or statements that are usually analysed statistically.
Questionnaire
Research involving a set of planned questions for participants to answer which is usually analysed statistically.
Interview
Research whereby a participant is asked to answer a series of questions through a one-on-one conversation.