Study Guide #1 Flashcards
sociological imagination
Way of looking at the world that links the apparently private troubles of the individual to important social issues
macrosociology
focuses on the broad features of society
microsociology
emphasizes social interaction, what people do when they come together
social integration
the degree to which people are tied to their social group
Mechanical Solidarity
People cooperate because they are alike
Organic Solidarity
People must cooperate because they are specialized and no longer self-sufficient
Anomie
An absence of shared norms and values, disconnectedness, people unsure of guiding rules
What did Émile Durkheim advocate?
Durkheim advocated the development of social institutions to promote solidarity and controls on inheritance to ensure that social inequalities mirror natural inequalities
Who came up with the two types of solidarity?
Émile Durkheim
What is Émile Durkheim book?
Employed positivism in his book, Suicide (1897), to show how the most personal of individual behaviors is shaped by social forces
Karl Marx was?
A politically committed theorist and activist, he is the originator of conflict theory
What was the conflict theory based on?
based on the materialist conception of history
what is the materialist conception of history
the mode of production is the key force in shaping society
What is Alienation?
The workers who build the products can’t take the items or use their creativity on the product
What did Karl Marx believe?
Capitalism contains contradictions that will bring about its destruction
Class conflict
The struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
Bourgeoisie
Capitalists; those who own the means of production
Proletariat
workers; must sell their labor power to survive
What did Max Weber believe in?
Erklären, Verstehen, and rationalization
What was rationalization encouraged by?
Protestantism, so those societies that abandoned Catholicism first were also likely to be among the countries that first became capitalist
Rationalization
Openness to non-mystical explanations, science, innovation, efficiency
Verstehen
Weber suggested that instead, we should focus on subjective meanings, the ways in which people interpret their own behaviour
Erklären
explanation based on objective factors often fails to account for people’s subjective interpretations of circumstances
Theory
General statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work
Symbolic Interaction
View symbols as the basis of social life and focuses on face-to-face interactions
Functionalism
Looks at the structure of society and the functions that are performed by different institutions within society.
Functions
The beneficial consequences of people’s actions that maintain equilibrium
Dysfunctions
have negative consequences. Don’t work out for the prolongation of society
Manifest functions
Things we intend
Latent functions
Things that may not be consciously intended
agents of socialization
people or groups that affect our self-concept, attitudes, or other orientations toward life
anticipatory socialization
learning part of a future role because one
anticipates it
beliefs
ideas that individuals or groups hold to be true about the nature of reality, the social world, and various aspects of life
capitalist
an economic system characterized by the private ownership of
the means of production, the pursuit of profit, and market competition
counterculture
a group whose values, beliefs, and related behaviours
place its members in opposition to the broader culture
cultural capital
the non-economic social assets an individual possesses, like knowledge, skills, behaviors, and tastes
cultural diffusion
the spread of cultural characteristics from one group
to another
cultural lag
William Ogburn’s term for human behaviour lagging behind
technological innovations
cultural leveling
the process by which cultures become similar to one another, and especially by which Western industrial culture is imported and diffused into developing nations
cultural relativism
understanding a different culture on its own terms
culture
the language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviours, and even
material objects passed from one generation to the next
degradation ceremony
describe an attempt to remake the self by stripping away an individual’s self-identity and stamping a new one in its place
ethnocentrism
the use of one’s own culture for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a
negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviours
feminist theories
arxist, liberal, and radical—hold that women are oppressed by gender roles that are products of social, historical, and cultural factors
folkways
norms that are not strictly enforced
game stage
the final stage in Mead’s theory of self-development, where children learn to understand and follow rules, take on multiple social roles, and develop an awareness of the “generalized other” by participating in organized games with other players
gender roles
the behaviours and attitudes considered appropriate because
one is a female or a male
generalized other
the norms, values, attitudes, and expectations of “people in general”
in-group
groups toward which one feels loyalty
language
a system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite
number of ways and can represent not only objects but also abstract thought
looking-glass self
the process by which our self develops through internalizing others’
reactions to us
material culture
the material objects that distinguish a group of people. Physical products of society
mores
norms that are strictly enforced because they are thought to be
essential to core values
non-material culture
a group’s ways of thinking and doing (its common patterns of behaviour, including language and other forms of interaction)
norms
the expectations or rules of behaviour that develop out of values
origins of sociology
refers to the scientific study of society and social interactions
play stage
a developmental phase in childhood, according to Mead’s theory, where children begin to learn about social roles by imitating and acting out the behaviors of significant others, like parents or teachers
primary groups
a group characterized by intimate, long-term, face-to-face association and co-operation
protestant ethic
Weber’s term to describe the ideal of a self-denying, highly moral life, accompanied by hard work and frugality
reference group
the groups we use as standards to evaluate ourselves
resocialization
the process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and
behaviours
sanctions
expressions of approval or disapproval given to people for
upholding or violating norms
sapir-whorf hypothesis
language creates ways of thinking and perceiving
significant other
an individual who significantly influences someone
else’s life
self
the unique human capacity of being able to see ourselves “from the outside”
social location
the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society
socialization
the process which societies culture is absorbed
society
group of people who
share a culture and a territory
spirit of capitalism
Weber’s term for the desire to accumulate capital as a duty and to constantly reinvest it
subculture
the values and related behaviours of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture
symbols
something to which people attach meanings and then use to
communicate with others
taboo
a norm so strong that it brings revulsion if violated
taking the role of the other
understanding how someone else feels and thinks and thus anticipating
how that person will act
total institution
a place in which people are cut off from the rest of society and are almost totally controlled by the officials who run the
place
values
the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable
