TEST #1 Flashcards
The systematic study of human society and social interaction.
Sociology.
A large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Society
The ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.
Sociological imagination.
Nations with highly industrialized economies; technologically advanced industrial, administrative and service occupations; and relatively high levels of national and personal income.
High-income countries.
What are some examples of high-income countries?
United States Canada Australia New Zealand Japan Countries of Western Europe
Nations with industrializing economies particularly in urban areas, and moderate levels of national and personal income.
Middle-income countries.
What are some examples of middle-income countries?
China The nations of Eastern Europe Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico
Countries that are primarily agrarian nations with little industrialization and low levels of national and personal income; Where people typically work the land and are among the poorest in the world.
Low-income countries.
What are some examples of low-income countries?
Burkina Faso Central African Republic Democratic Republic of the Congo Liberia Niger Sierra Leone
The process by which societies are transformed from dependence on agriculture and handmade products to an emphasis on manufacturing and related industries.
Industrialization.
The process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities rather than rural areas.
Urbanization.
- French philosopher.
- Coined term sociology from the Latin word socius (“social, being with others”) and the Greek word logos (“study of”) to describe a new science that would engage in the study of society.
- Considered by some the “founder of sociology.”
- Positivism
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
A belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry.
Positivism
Auguste Comte believed that positivism had two dimensions:
- Methodological—the application of scientific knowlege to both physical and social phenomena
- _Social and Political—_the use of such knowledge to predict the likely results of different policies so that the best one could be chosen.
- Received no recognition in the field of sociology because she was a woman in a male-dominated society.
- In Society in America (1962/1837), the examined religion, politics, child rearing, slavery, and immigration in the United States, paying speciial attention to social distinctions based on class, race and gender.
- Advocated racial and gender equality.
Harriet Martineau. (1802-1876)
- Believed that societies develop through a process of “struggle” (for existence) and “fitness” (for survival) which he referred to as the “survival of the fittest.”
- Social Darwinism.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
The belief that those species of animals, including human beings, best adapted to their environment survive and prosper, whereas those poorly adapted die out.
Social Darwinism
- French sociologist
- Stressed that people are the product of their social environment and that behavior cannot be understood fully in terms of individual biological and psychological traits.
- The Rules of Sociological Method
- Social facts
- Anomie—most likely to occur during a perood of rapid change.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917).
Patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual but that exert social control over each person.
Social Facts.
A condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society; To feel disengaged or alienated from society.
Anomie.
- German economist and philosopher.
- Stressed that history is a continuous dash between conflicting ideas and forces.
- Believed the most important changes are economic.
- Class conflict.
- From his viewpoint, the capitalist class controls and exploits the masses of struggling workers by paying less than the value of their labor.
- Predicted that the working class would come aware of its exploitation, overthrow the capitalists, and establish a free and classless society.
- Regarded as one of the most profound sociological thinkers; However his social and economic analyses have also inspired heated debates among generations of social scientists.
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Struggle between the capitalist class and the working class.
Class Conflict.
The capitalist class or ________, comprises of those who own and control the means of production—the tools, land, factories, and money for an investment that form the economic basis of a society.
Bourgeoisie.
The working class, or _______, is comprised of those who must sell their labor because they have no other means to earn a livelihood.
Proletariat.
A feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and from oneself.
Alienation.
The existing state of society.
Status quo.
- German social scientist.
- Concerned about the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.
- Disagreed with Marx’s idea that economics is the central force in social change.
- Emphasized that sociology should be value free—research should be conducted in a scientific manner and should exclude the researchers personal values and economic interests.
- Stressed that sociologists should employ verstehen (German for “understanding” or “insight”) to gain the ability to see the world as others see it.
Max Weber (1864-1920)
- German sociologist.
- Theorizing about society as a web of patterned interactions among people.
- Analyzed how social interactions vary depending on the size of the social group.
- Developed formal sociology, an approach that focuses attention on the universal recurring social forms that underlie the varying content of social interaction.
- His contributions to sociology are significant. He wrote more than thirty books and numerous essays on diverse topics, leading some critics to state that his work is fragmentary and piecemeal.
Georg Simmel (1858-1918).
The first departments of sociology in the United States were located at the University of ________.
Chicago.
- One of the best-known early women sociologists in the United States because she founded Hull House, one of the most famous settlement houses in an impoverished area of Chicago.
- Awarded a Nobel Prize for her assistance to the underprivileged.
Jane Addams (1869-1935).
- Founded the second department of sociology in the United States at Atlanta University.
- One of the first scholars to note that a dual heritage creates conflict for people of color. He called this duality double consciousness.
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
The identity conflict of being both a black and an American.
Double-consciousness.
A set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain and (occasionally) predict social events.
Theory.
An overall approach to or viewpoint on some subject.
Perspective.
Perspectives that are based on the assumption the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system.
Functionalist perspectives.
Perhaps the most influential contemporary advocate of the functionalist perspective, stressed that all societies must provide for meeting social needs in order to survive.
Talcott Parsons (1902-1979)
Talcott Parsons suggested, for example, that a division of labor (distinct, specialized functions) between husband and wife is essential for family stability and social order. The husband/father performs the _______ tasks, which involve leadership and decision making responsibilities in the home and employment outside the home to support the family. The wife/mother is responsible for the _______ tasts, including house work, caring for the children, and providing emotional support for the entire family.
Instrumental; Expressive
Functionalism was redefined further by _________, who distinguished between manifest and latent functions of social institutions.
Robert K Merton (1910-2003).
Intended and/or overtly recognized by the participants in a social unit.
Manifest functions.
Unintended functions that are hidden and remain unacknowledged by participants.
Latent functions.
The undesirable consequences of any element of society.
Dysfunctions.
Groups in society are engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources.
Conflict perspectives.
A social group with three members.
Triad
Max Weber defined _____ as the ability of a person within a social relationship to carry out his or her own will despite resistance from others, and _____ as a positive or negative social estimation of honor.
Power; Prestige.
C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) believed that most important decisions in the United States are made largely behind the scenes by the _______—a small clique composed of top corporate, political, and military officials.
Power Elite.
Directs attention to women’s experiences and the importance of gender as an element of social structure.
Feminist theoretical approach or Feminism.
According to feminist theorists, we live in a ________, a system in which men dominate women and in which things that are considered to be “male” or “masculine” are more highly valued than those considered to be “female” or feminine.
Patriarchy.
In North America, ______ are more likely to attempt suicide, whereas ______ are more likely to actually take their own life.
Females; Males.
Examines whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems instead of looking at important social dynamics in individuals’ lives.
Macrolevel analysis.
Which focuses on small groups rather than large-scale social structures.
Microlevel analysis.
According to ________, society is the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups.
Symbolic interactionist perspectives.
Anything that meaningfully represents something else; Includes signs, gestures, written language, and shared values.
Symbol.
______ occurs when people communicate through the use of symbols—for example, a ring to indicate a couple’s engagement.
Symbolic interaction.
How people _____ the messages they receive and the situations they encounter becomes their subjective reality and may strongly influence their behavior.
Interpret.
According to ______, existing theories have been unsuccessful in explaining social life in contemporary societies that are characterized by postindustrialization, consumerism, and global communications.
Postmodern Perspectives.
Process of systematically collecting information for the purpose of testing an existing theory or generating a new one.
Research.
With ______ research, the goal is scientific objectivity, and the focus is on data that can be measured numerically.
Quantitative.
With ______ research, interpretive descriptions (words) rather than statistics (numbers) are used to analyze underlying meanings and patterns of social relationships.
Qualitative research.
A statement of the expected relationship between two or more variables.
Hypothesis.
Any concept with measurable traits or characteristics that can change or vary from one person, time, situation, or society to another.
Variable.
Presumed to be the cause of the relationship.
Independent variable.
Assumed to be caused by the independent variable.
Dependent variable.
The people who are selected from the population to be studied; should accurately represent the larger population.
Sample.
A selection from a larger population that has the essential characteristics of the total population.
Representative sample.
The extent to which a study or research instrument accurately measures what it is supposed to measure.
Validity.
The extent to which a study or research instrument yields consistent results when applied to different individuals at one time or to the same individuals over time.
Reliability.
Process through which data are organized so that comparisons can be made and conclusions drawn.
Analysis.
The repetition of the investigation in substantially the same way that it was originally conducted.
Replication.
Specific strategies or techniques for systematically conducting research.
Research methods.
A poll in which the researcher gathers facts or attempts to determine the relationships among facts.
Survey.
People who provide data for analysis through interviews or questionnaires.
Respindents.
Printed research instrument containing a series of items to which subjects respond.
Questionnaire.
Questionnaires may be administered by interviewers in face-to-face encounters or by telephone, but the most commonly used technique is the _________ questionnaire, which is either mailed to the respondent’s home or administered to groups of respondents gathered at the same place at the same time.
Self-administered.
Data collection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers.
Interview.
Survey research often uses _______ interviews, in which the interviewer asks questions from a standardized questionnaire.
Structured.
Research involving more than two independent variables.
Mulivariate analysis.
In _______, researchers use existing material and analyze data that were originally collected by others.
Secondary analysis.
The systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life.
Content analysis.
Study of social life in its natural setting; observing and interviewing people where they live, work, and play.
Field research.
The process of collecting systematc observations while being part of the activities of the group that the researcher is studying.
Participant observation.
A detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years.
Ethnography.
Carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects’ attitudes or behavior.
Experiment.
Contains the subjects who are exposed to an independent variable (the experimental condition) to study its effect on them.
Experimental group.
Contains the subjects who are not exposed to the independent variable.
Control group.
Exists when two variables are associated more frequently than could be expected by chance.
Correlation.
