Test Number One Flashcards
What is Sociology?
The systematic study of human society.
Who coined the term sociology?
Auguste Compt
What are the aims of sociology?
understanding how human action and consciousness both shape and are shaped by surrounding cultural and social structures.
What was the significance of the Industrial Revolution in Sociology?
As an impact of the industrial revolution, the life of people changed, in the social front and their workplaces. As a result of urbanization and due to the increase in opportunities in the urban areas, people started a mass migration to cities.
What are the 5 characteristics of culture?
Culture is learned, culture is shared, culture is transmitted, culture is cumulative, culture is human
What is the difference between high and dominant culture?
Dominant culture is the culture that is able to impose its values, beliefs, and behaviors on a given society. High culture is the culture of the elite and is often juxtaposed with popular culture or the culture of the majority.
What are breaching experiments?
Experiments that intentionally break a social rule or norm in order to reveal the common work done by individuals to maintain social order in day-to-day life.
What is an institution?
A structure or a mechanism of social order. They are created to govern the behavior of individuals; thus, institutions have a social purpose (they guide/hinder people).
Define G.H. Mead’s The Me and the I
1) The “I”: The part of the self that is spontaneous, creative and impulsive.
2) Consciousness of the “ME”:
This is the socialized element of the self: being very conscious of how other people view you.
What are the 4 basic agents of socialization?
1) Family.
2) Peers.
3) Education.
4) Mass media
What is highlighted within the story of Anna?
highlights the importance of social interaction. Thus, it is social interaction which actually develops biological capacity.
What are Morays?
Mores are the customs, norms, and behaviors that are acceptable to a society or social group.
What are taboos?
a prohibition of social actions based on false beliefs that performing such actions is either too scared, or too dangerous for the human race.
What is a norm?
They are most commonly defined as rules or expectations that are socially enforced.
What is a folkway?
Folkway, the learned behavior, shared by a social group, that provides a traditional mode of conduct
What is a sanction?
A social sanction is a social reaction of approval or disapproval in response to someone’s actions.
What is the sociological imagination?
The ability to understand the dynamic relationships among individual lives & larger society.
“If a person cannot recognize how their own individual problems are influenced by larger social forces, then they cannot effectively resolve their own problems” C. Wright Mills
Compare Personal Troubles and Social Issues.
a) Personal Troubles:
Private matters that lie within an individual’s character & immediate relations (friends/family).
b) Social Issues:
Beyond the personal/local setting to broader social structure and forces that affect our life experiences.
What is a Theory?
a theory is a way to explain different aspects of social interactions and to create a testable proposition
What is a method?
Methods in sociology refers to research procedures for measuring variables and generating and analyzing data of interest to the researcher.
How are methods and theories interlinked?
A method defines what a theory is.
What is qualitative data?
Qualitative: Researchers are able to collect data by immersing in their environment (because we study society/humans!).
What is quantitative data?
Quantitative data is data expressing a certain quantity, amount or range.
Define Nature/Nurture in regards to socialization.
Nature: Personality has biological roots, but this is insufficient to understanding social, human beings.
Nurture: People are outcomes of our socialization: We require nurturing from others.
What are the three basic approaches for research?
social surveys (normally using questionnaire), interviews, experiments and observations
