Structural Functional Paradigm

The theoretical paradigm in sociology that assumes society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote stability

Anomie

During the stock market crash of 1929 and the depression that followed many people lost their jobs and their life savings; their everyday lives were in turmoil. These individuals were likely to suffer:

Values

Collective conceptions of what is considered good, desirable, and proper are

Variable

A measurable trait that is subject to change under different conditions

Hawthorne Effect

A sociologist decides to study the interactions among college students in a school's computer center to see whether sharing of technical information encourages new social relationships to develop. However, the students realize that they are under observation and become much shyer than they normally would be is an example of

Conflict Perspective

Alvin Gouldner has suggested that sociologists may use objectivity as a sacred justification for remaining uncritical of existing institutions and centers of power.

Mechanical Solidarity

According to Durkheim, the shared consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks is called:

Impression Management

Goffman's term for the ways in which individuals, in various settings, attempt to control how others perceive them.

The Peter Principle

The notion that every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence

Sensorimotor Stage

A child spends a lot of time putting objects into his mouth and touching everything in sight.

Social Structure

The way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.

Interactionists Perspective

The size and shape of a room, the type of chairs that are used, and the shape of a table may influence a small group's performance.

Looking Glass Self

The term Charles Horton Cooley coined to describe the process by which we develop a sense of self

Reference Group

A college law enforcement major watches the behavior of television police detectives with great admiration and wants to emulate their behavior, these detectives should be considered:

Ideal Type

A construct or model that serves as a measuring rod against which specific cases can be evaluated

Thomas Theorem

"If you define a situation as real. it is real in its consequences." If you believe you'll do bad, you probably will.

Gemeinschaft

Tunnies- community, small, rural, primary, homogenous, ascribed.

Degradation Ceremony

When someone has to go through something to be somewhere else. A soldiers head being shaved, him being stripped of normal clothes and then given a uniform.

Five Characteristics of Bureaucracy

Division of labor, hierarchy of authority, written rules and regulations, impersonality, employment based on technical qualifications.

Attitude is to Behavior

as prejudice is to discrimination

Functionalist Perspective

Most likely suggest that multinational corporations help create social stability within a society by creating jobs and global enterprise.

Segregation

The intergroup strategy that involves separating minority groups from dominant groups so that minimal contact occurs between them.

Scapegoat

Refers to racial, ethnic, or religious minority that a member of the dominant group uses to blame for their failure to achieve desired goals.

The Means of Production

Marx believed that social class depends on this:

Deviance

a behavior that violates the standards or expectations of a group or society

Ritualists

In strain theory, Merton terms people who overzealously and cruelly enforce bureaucratic regulations

Institutional Discrimination

"Patterns of discrimination that are woven into the fabric of society."

The Proletariat

Karl Marx called those who work in the factories and other productive enterprises:

Labeling Theory stresses:

relativity of deviance because the same act can be either deviant or not

Feminization of Poverty

the term that refers to a trend in U.S. poverty whereby most poor families are headed by women

Social Control Theory

Developed by sociologist Travis Hirschi to emphasize that we are bonded to our family members, friends, and peers in a way that leads us to follow the mores and folkways of our society, while giving little conscious thought whether we will be sanctioned if we fail to conform.

Colonialism

At one point, the British empire controlled much of North America, including what is now the U.S. is an example of:

Conflict Perspective

Viewing the global economic system as divided between nations who control wealth and those from whom capital is taken, sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein draws on:

Industrial Revolution

Extreme inequality of resources in the world was initiated by:

Colonialism

The continuing economic dependence of former colonies on foreign countries is called:

Periphery

According to world systems analysis, poor and developing nations are on the:

Stratification:

used by sociologists to refer to a structured ranking of groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in society.

Caste System

Some sociologists have suggested that in the southern US in the pre-civil rights era, an African-American individual was born into a status that would always be subordinate to the status of all of the white members of the community is an example of:

Status

The ability to exercise one's will over others.

Conflict Perspective

argues that competition for scarce resources results in significant political, economic, and social inequality.

Informal Social Control

a college student interrupts the instructor during a seminar; the instructor responds with an angry glare. This is an example of:

Anomie

used in the sociological literature to describe a loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective

Conformity

the most common and non-deviant adaptation in Robert Merton's anomie theory of deviance

William I. Thomas

sociologist observed that people respond not only to the objective features of a situation or person but also to the meaning that situation or person has for them.

Ethnocentrsim

Joe grew up in an Italian household in an Italian community in New Jersey. He believes that the traditional Italian celebration of Easter, which includes a large number of family members and mountains of food consumed during a long dinner, is the best way to celebrate this holiday.

The Contact Hypothesis

A colombain woman and an Italian man, working together as members of a construction crew, overcome their initial prejudices and come to appreciate each others talents and strengths is an example of:

The glass Ceiling

an invisible barrier that blocks the promotion of a qualified individual in a work environment because of the individuals gender, race, or ethnicity

Functionalists Perspective

stresses that the teachings of religion help people adjust to lifes problems and provide guidelines for daily life

Medicalization of Society

refers to the growing role of medicine as a major institution of social control

Holistic

type of medicine refers to therapies in which the health care practitioner considers the persons physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual characteristics.

Social Intergration

function performed by American schools stresses making students similar in their speech, appearance, and ways of thinking

the Protestant ethic

Weber called the self-denying approach to life practiced by members of various religions

The hidden curriculum

the process of determining which people will enter what occupations through tracking and placing select students in ability groups and advanced classes

cult

another term for religion

The medicalization of society

the growing role of medicine as a major institution of social control

Human Ecology

area of study is concerned with the interrelationships among people in their spatial setting and physical environment.

Manifest Functions

giving meaning to the divine and defining the spiritual world are part of religions:

Tracking

system used in schools to sort students into different educational programs on the basis of their perceived abilities

Ecclesia

a religious organization that is recognized as the national or official religion is known as:

Matrix of domination

refers to the convergance of social forces that contributes to the subordinate status of poor non-White women

Instrumentality

used by Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales to refer to an emphasis on tasks, a focus on more distant goals, and a concern for the external relationship between one's family and other social institutions.

Assimilation refers to the pattern by which:

minorities gradually adopt patterns of the dominant category

Modernization Theory

global stratification theory views the economic development of countries as stemming from technological change and will gradually improve the lives of those in developing countries.

Gross National Income

the total output of goods and services produced by residents of a country each year plus the income from nonresident sources, divided by the size of the population

Neocolonialism

the practice by industrialized nations of controlling the least industrialized nations through debts owed to the most industrialized nations but not through direct political involvement

Exchange Mobility

the upward or downward movement in social class by family members from one generation to the next

Structural Mobility

changes in society that cause large numbers of people to move up or down in a class ladder

Deviance refers to:

crime

Master Status

Madeleines position as president of the local university overshadows her work as a wife, mother, and volunteer for the salvation army. The university president is her?

Hunting and Gathering society

a preindustrial society in which people rely on whatever foods and fibers are readily available in order to live

Mechanical solidarity

According to Durkheim, the shared consciousness that people experience as a result of performing the same or similar tasks

Social Institutions

used to refer to organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs.

Socialization

lifelong social experience by which human beings develop their potential and learn culture

Impression Management

Bob is on his first with Mary, whom he really likes. He tries to act in the manner that will cause her to like him, too and to want to go out with him again. This is an example of:

Culture

used to describe the language, beliefs, values, norms, behavior, and material objects shared by members of society that are also passed from one generation to the next

Culture Shock

feelings of disorientation and confusion when encountering values, behaviors, and expectations totally different from those to which one is accustomed.

Cultural relativism

Marshall is exploring how the various aspects of the Lenape Culture fit together, including their religion, family values, agricultural efforts, and customs, without judging those elements as being inferior of superior to modern Western ways

Language

system of symbols that can be strung together in an infinite number of ways for the purpose of communicating abstract thoughts

the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

how our language determines our consciousness and perceptions of objects and events

Norms

the expectations or rules of behavior that develop out of groups values

Value cluster

When related values overlap and reinforce one another, as with the values of hard work, education, and achievement

Scientific Method

the steps in the research process, including observation, hypothesis testing, etc

Random Sample

everyone in the population has the same chance of being included in the study

Field work

the research method referred to as participant observation

Survey (example)

Jose in conducting research on organized crime. Rather than going undercover, he is interviewing convicted criminals that have been linked to organized crime.

Reliability of measurement

whether repeating the measurement yields consistent results

Dependent variable

a theory that states that increasing a persons formal education results in increased earnings over a lifetime. Formal education is?

Invalid Response

refers to any change in a subjects behavior caused by the awareness of being studied.

Spurious Correlation

an apparent, although false, association between two variables that is caused by some third variable

Inductive Logic

a way of arriving at general conclusions from specific observations

Sociology is

the systematic study of social behavior and human groups

C. Wright Mills

the thinker who introduced the concept of the sociological imagination

Social-conflict paradigm

the framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates a conflict and change

Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim

the 3 sociologist who played a part in the development of sociologys structural-functional paradigm

Robert Merton's contributions to Society

successfully combing theory and research, producing a theory that is one of the most frequent cited in deviant behavior, an attempt to bring macro and micro level analysis together

Herbert Spencer

described human society as having much in common with the human body