sociology terms

Question 1

action theory

Answer 1

Talcott Parsons’s belief that social science must consider people’s motives when studying their actions

Question 2

adoption

Answer 2

Legal process in which the parenting rights and responsibilities are transferred from one person to another

Question 3

affirmative actions

Answer 3

Policies that benefit minorities or special interest groups in business or education

Question 4

antipositivism

Answer 4

The belief that social sciences are not subject to the same methods of understanding as the natural sciences

Question 5

antisemitism

Answer 5

Discrimination against Jews

Question 6

assimilation

Answer 6

Process by which minorities and immigrants become part of the dominant culture

Question 7

black power

Answer 7

Slogan for ideologies promoting the collective interests of blacks

Question 8

cohabitation

Answer 8

An unmarried male and female living together

Question 9

cultural relativism

Answer 9

The belief of Franz Boas that civilization is relative, not absolute, and that there is not a relationship between culture and race

Question 10

demography

Answer 10

The study of living populations

Question 11

diffusion

Answer 11

The process of how innovations spread within an organization or social group

Question 12

endogamy

Answer 12

Practice of marrying only a person of a certain group or class

Question 13

functionalism

Answer 13

View that society’s parts work together to create stability

Question 14

gemeinschaft and gesellschaft

Answer 14

Translated as “ community and society” are two normal types of human association according to Ferdinand Tönnies

Question 15

gentrification

Answer 15

High-income people acquiring property in low-income areas, as a result of which property values increase and lower-income residents are displaced

Question 16

hidden curriculum

Answer 16

Lessons learned in the classroom that were not intentionally taught

Question 17

institutional racism

Answer 17

System of inequality based on race

Question 18

labeling theory

Answer 18

tendency of majorities to label minorities with a word or phrase

Question 19

macrostructure

Answer 19

large scale organization of a society

Question 20

norm

Answer 20

guideline that determines behavior of society

Question 21

overchoice (aka choice overload)

Answer 21

The problem of consumers having too many choices, this can lead to a consumer making a poor choice or no choice at all

Question 22

phonerology

Answer 22

study of social injustice

Question 23

positivism

Answer 23

The belief that in the social and natural sciences the only valid truth is scientific truth

Question 24

role homogeneity

Answer 24

multiple community roles performed by one individual

Question 25

scapegoat

Answer 25

A person or group that is singled out to receive unwarranted blame

Question 26

social capital

Answer 26

The collective benefits resulting from social cooperation between people or groups

Question 27

social stigma

Answer 27

Disapproval of someone who differs from social norms

Question 28

tertius gardens

Answer 28

one person gaining from a disagreement between two others

Question 29

underclass

Answer 29

the lowest position in a social hierarchy

Question 30

vertical mobility

Answer 30

a persons movement up or down the social-status ladder

Question 31

xenocentrism

Answer 31

Preference for products and ideas from another culture, this is the opposite of ethnocentrism

Question 32

xenophobia

Answer 32

A fear of people or things from a different culture