Third Set of Vocabulary Terms Flashcards
Affirmative Action
The requirement that employers make special efforts to recruit, hire, and promote qualified members of previously excluded groups including women and minorities
Apartheid
The recent policy of racial separation in South Africa enforced by legal political and military power.
Autocracy
Rule or government concentrated in a single ruler or group of leaders who are willing to use force to maintain control
Civil Law
The branch of law that deals largely with wrongs against the individual.
Comparable Worth
A policy of equal pay for men and women doing similar work, even if the jobs are labeled differently by sex.
Complementary Marriages
Marriages in which husband and wife take distinctly separate family roles.
Contact Hypothesis
The theory that people of different racial groups who became acquainted would be less prejudiced toward one another.
Convergence Theory
A theory suggesting that modernizing nations come to resemble one another over time.
Cooptation
A social process by which people who might otherwise threaten the stability or existence of an organization are brought into the leadership or policy-making structure of that organization
Democracy
A form of political organization in which power resides with the people and is exercised by them.
Democratic-collective Organization
An organization in which authority is placed in the group as a whole, rules are minimized, members have considerable control over their work,and job differentiation is minimized.
Double Standard
A set of social norms that allows males greater freedom of sexual expression, particularly before marriage, than females.
Dual Economy
The conceptual division of the private sector of the economy into monopoly (core) and competitive (periphery) sectors.
Dual-career Families
Families in which both husband and wife have careers.
Dual-career Responsibilities
The responsibilities of women who are wives as well as workers; often used to explain why women earn less.
Economic Core
The sector of the economy characterized by large, generally very profitable, oligopolistic firms that are national or multinational in scope; also called the monopoly sector
Economic Growth
An increase in the amount of goods and services produced with the same amount of labor and resources.
Economic Institution
The pattern of roles, norms, and activities organized around the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in a society.
Economic Periphery
The sector of the economy characterized by small, local, barely profitable firms; also called the competitive sector
Epidemiology
The study of disease patterns across and within populations.
Ethnic Group
A group that shares a common cultural tradition and sense of identity.
Gender Differences
Variations in the social positions, roles, behaviors, attitudes, and personalities of men and women in a society
Gender Gap
Differences in the way men and women vote.
Gender Stratification
The hierarchical ranking of men and women and their roles in terms of unequal ownership, power, social control, prestige, and social reward
Gender
The traits and behaviors that are socially designated as “masculine” or “feminine” in a particular society.
Genocide
The destruction of an entire population.
Global Economy
An economy in which the economic life and health of one nation depends on what happens in other nations.
Heterosexual
A person whose preferred partner for erotic, emotional, and sexual interaction is someone of the opposite sex.
Hispanics
A general term referring to Spanish-speaking persons. It includes many distinct ethnic groups.
Homosexual
Someone who is emotionally, erotically, and physically attracted to persons of his or her own sex.
Hospice
An organization designed to provide care and comfort for terminally ill persons and their families.
Incest Taboo
The prohibition of sexual intercourse between fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, and brothers and sisters
Inflation
An increase in the supply of money in circulation that exceeds the rate of economic growth, making money worth less in relation to the goods and services it can buy.
Interest Group
A group of people who work to influence political decisions affecting them.
Keynesian Economics
The economic theory advanced by John Maynard Keynes, which holds that government intervention, through deficit spending, may be necessary to maintain high levels of employment.
Labour-market Segregation
The existence of two or more distinct labour markets, one of which is open only to individuals of a particular gender or ethnicity
Laissez-faire Economics
The economic theory advanced by Adam Smith, which holds that the economic system develops and functions best when left to market forces, without government intervention.
Lobbying
The process of trying to influence political decisions so they will be favorable to one’s interests and goals
Location
In Kanter’s view, a person’s position in an organization with respect to having control over decision making.
Medicaid
A federal-state matching program that provides medical assistance to certain low income persons.
Medicare
A federal health insurance program. Individuals are eligible if they receive Social Security benefits, federal disability benefits, or sometimes if they have end-stage kidney disease.
Nation
A relatively autonomous political grouping that usually shares a common language and a particular geography.
Nation-state
A social organization in which political authority overlaps a cultural and geographical community.
Pluralism
In ethnic relations, the condition that exists when both majority and minority groups value their distinct cultural identities, and at the same time seek economic and political unity. In political sociology, the view that society is composed of competing interest groups, with power diffused among them.
Policy Research
Research designed to assess alternative possibilities for public or social action, in terms of their costs and/or consequences.
Political Order
The institutionalized system of acquiring and exercising power
Political Power
An organized group of people that seeks to control or influence political decisions through legal means.
Power Elite
According to Mills, a closely connected group of the corporate rich, political leaders, and military commanders who decide most key social and political issues
Prejudice
A “prejudged” unfavorable attitude toward the members of a particular group, who are assumed to possess negative traits.
Race
A classification of humans into groups based on distinguishable physical characteristics that may form the basis for significant social identities.
Racism
The institutionalized domination of one racial group by another
Rape
A completed sexual assault involving penetration and usually instigated by a male upon a female, although perpetrators and victims can be male or female.
Reform Movement
A type of social movement that accepts the status quo but seeks certain specific social reforms.
Regressive Movement
A type of social movement whose aim is to move the social world back to where members believe it was at an earlier time
Resource Mobilization Theory
The theory that social movements are affected by their ability to marshal various key resources.
Riot
A destructive and sometimes violent collective outburst.
Rising Expectations
A situation in which people feel that past hardships should not have to be suffered in the future.
Scapegoating
Blaming a convenient but innocent person or group for one’s trouble or guilt
Sex
The biological distinction of being male or female.
Social Movement
A group of people who work together to guide or suppress particular changes in the way society is organized.
Sociobiology
The scientific study of the biological basis for human behavior.
Sovereignty
The authority claimed by a state to maintain a legal system, use coercive power to secure obedience, and maintain its independence from other states.
Structural Change
Demographic, economic, and rank-order changes in a society.
Tertiary Economic Sector
The sector of an economy that offers services to individuals as well as to business
Totalitarianism
A form of autocracy that involves the use of state power to control and regulate all phases of life.
Underground Economy
Exchanges of goods and services that occur outside the arena of the normal, regulated economy and therefore escape official record keeping.
White Ethnics
White Americans who value and preserve aspects of their ethnic heritage.
World Systems Analysis
A form of sociological analysis that stresses understanding national behavior in terms of historical and contemporary relationships among nations and societies.
