Sociology Flashcards
Belief perseverance
The inability to reject a particular belief despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Role Strain
difficulty in satisfying multiple requirements of the same role
Role conflict
A difficulty in satisfying role requirements or expectations among various roles.
Social cognitive theory
A theory that attitudes are formed through observation of behavior, cognition, and the environment.
Social capital
The investment people make in their society in return for economic or collective rewards.
Self-serving bias
The idea that individuals will view their own success as being based on internal factors, while viewing failures as being based on external factors.
Self-fulfilling prophesy
The phenomenon of a stereotype creating an expectation of a particular group, which creates conditions that lead to confirmation of this stereotype.
Self-schema
A self-given label that carries with it a set of qualities.
Self-esteem
An individual’s feelings of self worth. Increased when our three selves (actual self, ideal self, and ought self) are more similar.
Cognitive dissonance
The simultaneous presence of two opposing thoughts or opinions. Individuals will try to reduce this by changing, adding to, or minimizing one of these dissonant thoughts.
Deindividuation
The idea that people will lose a sense of self-awareness and can act dramatically differently based on the influence of a group. The individual loses the their sense of individuality and becomes and anonymous part of a group.
identity shift effect
When an individual’s state of harmony is disrupted by a threat of social rejection, the individual will often conform to the norms of the group. To eliminate the sense of inner conflict, the individual experiences an identity shift wherein the individual adopts the standards of the group as their own.
Social action
Actions and behaviors that individuals are conscious of and performing because others are around.
Assimilation
the process by which an individual’s or group’s behavior and culture begin to resemble that of another group.
Melting together of different elements of culture into one homogenous culture.
Ethnic enclaves
locations (usually neighborhoods) with a high concentration of one specific ethnicity.
Assimilation can be slowed by the creation of ethnic enclaves.
-Chinatown, Little italy
Multiculturism
communities or societies containing multiple cultures. It’s a celebration of coexisting cultures.
counterculture
the subculture group gravitates towards the identity that is at odds with the majority culture and deliberately opposes the prevailing social mores.
subcultures
groups of people within a culture that distinguish themselves from the primary culture to which they belong.
cultural diffusion
the spread of norms, customs, and beliefs (especially new ones) throughout the culture
cultural transmission AKA cultural learning
the manner in which a society socializes it members (individuals gain the knowledge, skills, habits, and behaviors that are necessary for inclusion in society)
Primary socialization
occurs during childhood when we initially learn acceptable actions and attitudes in our society
Secondary socialization
the process of learning appropriate behavior within smaller sections of the larger society. Includes smaller changes and refinements to behavior that were established in primary socialization.
Anticipatory socialization
the process by which a person prepares for future changes in occupations, living situations, or relationships.
-couple living together in preparation for married life
group think
desire for harmony or conformity results in a group coming to an incorrect poor decisions. In an attempt to eliminate or minimize conflict among group members, consensus decisions are reached without alternative ideas being assessed.
-focus solely on ideas generated within the group while ignoring outside ideas
