Test 1 - Foundations Of Sociology Flashcards
Social Structure
Def: patterns of social relationships, social positions, and number of people.
Examples: marriage or employment, president or priest, size of country or how many citizens are over the age of 60.
- Relatively stable and slow changing (fraternity)
- Countries have different social structures that last generation (US and Europe at top Africa at bottom)
- People adapt to social structures instead of changing structure to fit their needs (medical schools in US)
- There can be several layers of social structure within other structures
Social Action
Def: people’s behavior is based on MEANINGFUL UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THEY DO and is a response to coordinating with or ORIENTED TOWARD THE ACTIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE.
Example: getting dressed to fit social “norms”, studying hard to impress teachers and parents, acting and talking to fit in with group whether it is against your personal morals or not.
- Almost everything people try to do is based on their relationships with other people.
- Our individual social actions both depend and affect other people’s social actions.
- Are not actions that are done with no one around.
Functional Integration
Def: the interdependence among the parts of a social system. Social systems are composed of interconnecting parts that both support and depend on one another. One decision by one group effects what the others do.
Example: connection between gov and people.
- Can also cause dysfunctions which are side-affects that aren’t good for the system (gov stops school->factories can’t produce needed fire arms->army unable to protect gov)
- Can disintegrate (Soviet Union falling->people withhold or raise prices of necessary resources->farmers can’t make food->food lines longer->angry citizens->more pressure on gov->gov and social system fall apart)
Power
Def: the capacity of one social anchor (person, group, or organization) to get others to do its will or to ensure that it will benefit from the actions of others.
Example: dictator, boss, McDonalds
- Can be exercised directly by force (parent punishing child or army giving orders to those defeated)
- Indirectly by shaping a pattern of social structure, functional integration, or culture so that it benefits certain people rather than others (white Americans creating social system that generally works to their advantage rather than African Americans)
- Exercised in personal relationships (husband dominating wife)
- On a large scale and impersonal (corporation laying off thousands of workers or country going to war)
- Conflict may happen when someone tries to use power or take power from someone or something else
Culture
Def: the language, norms, values, beliefs, knowledge, and symbols that make up the way of life.
Example: Americans typically speak English, have high school diploma, are Christian, etc.
- Without culture it would be hard to think or communicate, there would b no languages.
- There are subgroups within a culture and they vary internally in groups called subcultures (south in America differs from southwest)
Adam Smith
- British economist credited with creating modern day economics
- 1723-1790
- “invisible hand” guides production (social action)
- Consider people to make decisions mainly concerning their own well being and not others
Anomie
Disruption in the rules and understandings that guide and integrate social life and give individuals a sense of place in it.
Bourgeoisie
The social class in a capitalist industrialized society that owns and controls the means of production.
Capitalists
Members of the bourgeoisie
Class Consciousness
A sense of shared interest and problems among members of a social class
Conflict
Altercations that occur when the exercise of power meets resistance
Conflict Theory
A general perspective in sociology that stresses the importance of power and conflict in a social relationship, as well as the problems brought about by social and economic inequalities.
Critical Thinking
The attempt to develop an understanding that goes behind surface appearances to ask why and how events happen or conditions persist, whether social conditions could be changed, and in which different ways a given problem can be conceptualized.
Interactionism
The branch of sociology emphasizing the analysis of concrete interpersonal encounters and the use of this analysis to explain broader social patterns.
Mechanical Solidarity
Solidarity that is based on common beliefs, values, and customs.
Organic Solidarity
Interdependence among a group of people that is based on an intricate division of labor.
Phenomenology
A philosophy that holds that people construct their own social reality in accordance with the ways they experience and understand their social world.
Proletariat
The members of a capitalist industrialized society who have no control over the means of production-primarily the workers.
Scientific Method
The rules, principles, and methods of science that are used for systematic pursuit of science.
Social Facts
Enduring properties of social life that shape or constrain the actions individuals can take.
