Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Anime
Japanese style of animation that arose in the late 1900s and
appears in comic books and cartoons.
Action Song
art
form that arose in New Zealand in the 1900s and blends traditional dance with
modern music.
World-System theory
A theory of modernization proposed by Immanuel Wallerstein,
in which the spread of capitalism is seen as producing an international
division of labor between more developed and less developed nations. According
to this view, the more developed nations control the factors of production and
the less developed nations serve as sources of cheap labor and raw materials.
White ethnics
the collective reference to immigrants from the
predominantly Catholic countries of Ireland, Italy, France, Poland, and Greece.
White-Collar Crime
a
crime that is committed by people of high social status in the course of their
professional lives.
Wealth
a
combination of an individual’s assests – the value of everything the person
owns – and income- money earned through salaries and investments.
Vertical mobility
a
type of social mobility in which an individual moves from one social class to
the next.
Variable
a
characteristic that can differ from one individual, group, or situation to
another in a measurable way.
Urban Sprawl
a
phenomenon characterized by poorly planned development on the edge of cities
and towns.
Urban anomie theory
a theory of city life in which the city is
seen to be anonymous and unfriendly place that carries serious negative
consequences for those who live there.
Unemployment rate
a percentage of the civilian labor force that
is unemployed but actively seeking employment.
Unemployment
a
situation that occurs when people do not
have jobs but are actively seeking employment.
Transfer Payments
a method used by the government to attempt to reduce social
inequality by redistributing money among various segments of society.
Totalitarianism
the most extreme form of authoritarian government.
Under totalitarianism, government
leaders accept few limits on their authority.
Title IX
A section of the Education Amendment Act of 1972 that bars
discrimination on the basis of gender in any program – including athletics – at
any educational institution receiving federal funds.
Total institution
a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of
society for a specific period of time and subjected to tight control.
Total institution
a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of
society for a specific period of time and subjected to tight control.
Symbol
anything that stands for something else and has a shared
meaning attached to it, such as language, gestures, images, sounds, physical
objects, events, and elements of the natural world that convey a particular
meaning.
Survey
a research method that allows data on attitudes and opinions
to be collected from large numbers of people.
Subsistence Strategies
ways in which a society uses technology to provide for the
needs of its members.
Subjective Method
a technique used to rank individuals according to social
class in which the individuals themselves are asked to determine their own
social rank.
Subculture
a group with its own unique values, norms, and behaviors
that exists within a larger culture.
Subcultural Theory
a theory of city life in which the characteristics of the
are said to encourage rather than discourage the formation of primary group
relationships.
Strain Theory
a theory of deviant behavior that views deviance as the
natural outgrowth of the values, norms, and structure of society.
Stereotype
an oversimplified , exaggerated, or unfavorable
generalization about a category of people.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Statistical Analysis
a
research method that entails analyzing data that have already been collected to
determine the strength of the relationship
that may exist between two or more variables.
Statistical Analysis
a
research method that entails analyzing data that have already been collected to
determine the strength of the relationship
that may exist between two or more variables.
Statistical Analysis
a
research method that entails analyzing data that have already been collected to
determine the strength of the relationship
that may exist between two or more variables.
Statistical Analysis
a
research method that entails analyzing data that have already been collected to
determine the strength of the relationship
that may exist between two or more variables.
Stacking
the
practice of assigning people to central or noncentral athletic positions on the
basis of race or ethnicity.
Sport
competitive games that are won or lost on the basis of
physical skills and played according to specific rules.
Spiral of Silence
a
belief that as more people accept common opinions the people who disagree are
less likely to voice their views.
Socioeconomic status
a rating that combines social factors such as level of
education, occupational prestige, and place of residence with the economic
factor of income in order to determine an individual’s relative position in a
stratification system.
Society
a group of interdependent people who have organized in such
a way as to share a common culture and have a feeling of unity.
Social Stratification
the process of dividing societies into categories, ranks, or
classes based on certain characteristics.
Social Psychology
the study of how the social environment affects an
individual’s behavior and personality.
Social Network
the
web of relationships that is formed by the sum total of an individual’s
interactions with other people.
Socialization
the interactive process through which people learn the basic
skills, values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of society.
Socialism
an economic model in which the factors of production are
owned by the government, which regulates all economic activity.
Social Institution
a
system of statuses, roles, values, and norms that is organized to satisfy one
or more of the basic needs of society.
Social Darwinism
the perspective that holds that societies evolve toward
stability and perfection and only the fittest societies survive over time.
Social Capital
the
social networks and the reciprocal norms associated with these networks that
encourage people to do things for each other.
Significant others
specific people, such as parents, siblings, relatives, and
others, who directly influence our socialization.
Self
the
conscious awareness of possessing a distinct identity that separates one
from other members of society.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Sector Model
A
model of urban structure proposed by Homer Hoyt in which the growth of a city
is said to occur in wedge-shaped sectors that extend outward from the center to
the edge of the city.
Sect
a
relatively small religious organization that typically has a split off from a denomination
because of doctrinal differences.
Secondary Sector
the
sector of the economy that concentrates on the use of raw materials to
manufacture goods.
Scientific Method
an
objective, logical, and systematic way of collecting empirical data and
arriving at reasoned conclusion.
School Choice
a
system of schooling offering alternatives to local public schools, to which
parents can choose to send their children.
Sandwich Generation
a group of Americans caught between the needs of their
children and their aging parents.
Sample
a
small but representative selection of people studied in a survey or other
research project.
Sacred
anything
that is considered to be part of the supernatural world and that inspires awe,
respect and reverence.
Role Strain
A situation that occurs when a person has difficulty meeting
the expectations of a single status.
Role Exit
the process that people go through to detach from a role
that has been central to their self identity.
Ritual
an established pattern of behavior through which a group of
believers experiences the sacred.
Riot
a crowd that erupts in generalized destructive behavior,
the purpose of which is social disorder.
Revolutionary movement
a type of social movement, the goal of which is a total and
radical change of the existing social structure.
Revisionary Movement
a
social movement that tries to improve or revise some part of society through
social change.
Resource mobilization
the organization and effective use of resources essential to
social movements.
Reputational method
a technique used to rank individuals according to social
class in which individuals in the community rank other community members based
on what they know of their characters and lifestyles.
Reference group
any group with whom individuals identify and whose attitudes
and values they often adopt.
Reciprocity
the
idea that if you do something for someone, that person owes you something in
return.
Rationalization
the processes by which every feature of human behavior
becomes subject to calculation, measurement, and control.
Rationality
the process of subjecting every feature of human behavior to
calculation, measurement, and control.
Racism
the belief that one’s own race or ethnic group is naturally
superior to other races or ethnic groups.
Racial profiling
a practice of assuming that nonwhite Americans are more
likely to commit crimes than white Americans.
Race
the category of people who share inherited physical
characteristics and who are perceived by others as being a distinct group.
Public opinion
a collection of differing attitudes that members of a public
have about a particular issues.
Proportional representation
A
system in which a party receives a number of seats in government related to the
popular votes they receive.
Profession
a
high-status occupation that requires specialized skills obtained through formal
education.
Profane
anything considered to be part of the ordinary world and
thus commonplace and familiar; not sacred.
Primary sector
a sector of the economy that deals with the extraction of
raw materials from the environment.
Primary Group
a small group of people who interact over a relatively long period of time on a direct and personal basis.
Primary deviance
the occasional violation of norms: the individuals who commit
it do not see themselves as deviant and neither does society.
Prestige
the respect, honor, recognition, or courtesy an individual
receives from other members of society.
Friday, November 21, 2014
Preindustrial Society
a
type of society in which food production – carried out through the use of human
and animal labor – is the main economic activity.
Preindustrial Society
a
type of society in which food production – carried out through the use of human
and animal labor – is the main economic activity.
Power-Elite model
a model in which political power in the United States is
said to be exercised by and for the privileged few in society.
Poverty Level
the minimum annual income needed by a family to survive as
defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Poverty Level
the minimum annual income needed by a family to survive as
defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Postindustrial Society
A
type of society in which economic activity centers on the production of
information and the provision of services.
Postindustrial Society
A
type of society in which economic activity centers on the production of
information and the provision of services.
Political institution
a system of roles and norms that governs the distribution
and exercise of power on society.
Pluralist Model
a model in which the political process in the United States
is said to be controlled by interest groups that compete with one another for
power.
Plea bargaining
the
process of legal negotiation that allows an accused person to plead guilty to a
lesser charge in return for a lighter sentence.
Personality
the sum total of behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and values
that are charateritics of an individual.
Peer Group
a
primary group composed of individuals of roughly equal age and similar social
characteristics.
Participant Observation
a
research method in which researchers become directly involved in the situation
under investigation.
Pan-indianism
a social and political movement that unites culturally
distinct tribes to work together on issues that affect all Native Americans.
Overurbanization
A situation in which more people live in the city than the
city can support in terms of jobs and facilities.
Outsourcing
a
practice that involves moving business units and jobs across national
boundaries, where operating and labor costs are less expensive.
Organic Solidarity
Impersonal
social relationships common in industrial societies, that arise with increased
job specialization.
Objective Method
a
technique used to rank individuals according to social class in which
sociologists define social class in terms of factors such as income,
occupation, and education.
Novice Phase
a term proposed by Daniel Levinson and his colleagues for
the first three stages of the early adulthood era, during which a person
prepares for entry into the adult world.
Nonmaterial culture
abstract human creations, such as language, ideas, beliefs,
rules, skills, family patterns, work practices, and political economic systems.
Multiple-Nuclei Model
a
model of urban structure proposed by Chauncey Harris and Edward Ullman in which
the city is said to have a number of specialized centers devoted to different
types of land use.
Modernization Theory
A
theory of modernization that argues that the more-developed nations of the
world were the first to modernize because they were the first to industrialize.
Modernization
the process by which a society’s social institutions become
increasingly complex as the society moves toward industrialization.
Mob
an
emotionally charged collectivity whose members are united by a specific, and
often destructive or violent, goal.
Minority Group
a group of people who are singled out and unequally treated
because of their physical characteristics or cultural practices.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Microsociology
the level of analysis that involves looking at small-scale
settings and everyday interaction among group members: employed by the
interactionist perspective.
Mentor
Someone who fosters an individual’s development by believing
in the person, sharing the person’s dreams, and helping the person achieve
those dreams.
Medicare
the government-sponsored health insurance plan for elderly
Americans and Americans with disabilities.
Mechanical Solidarity
the close-knit social relationships common in preindustrial societies that
result when a small group of people share the same values and perform the same
tasks.
Master Status
the status that plays the greatest role in shaping a person’s
life and determining his or her social identity.
Mass Media
The
instruments of communication that reach large audiences with no personal contact
between the individuals sending the information and those receiving it, such as
newspapers, magazines, books, television, radio, films, and the Internet.
Malthusian Theory
A theory of population proposed by Thomas Malthus, in which
population increases geometrically and the food supply increases
arithmetically. Because the food supply cannot keep up with the expanding population,
Malthus predicted widespread starvation would result.
Macrosociology
A level of analysis that involves the study of large-scale
systems or society as a whole: employed by the functionalist and conflict
perspectives.
Looking-Glass Self
the interactive process by which we develop an image of
ourselves based on how we imagine we appear to others.
Life Structure
the combination of statuses, roles, activities, goals,
values, beliefs, and life circumstances that characterize and individual.
Life Chances
the
likelihood that individuals have a sharing in the opportunities and benefits of
society.
Law of Supply
A principle that states that producers will supply more
products when they can charge higher prices and fewer products when they must
charge lower prices.
Law of demand
A
principle that states that the demand for a product increases as the price of
the product decreases and demand decreases as price increases
Life Expectancy
the avaerage number of years a person born in a particular year can be expected to live.
Laissez-faire Capitalism
a pure form of capitalism in which government does not
interfere in the economy.
Labor Force
All
individuals 16 and older who are employed in paid positions or who are seeking
paid employment.
Knowledge-gap hypothesis
a theory that states as new information enters society,
wealthy and better educated members acquire it at a faster rate than poor and
less educated people.
Iron Law of oligarchy
A
tendency of organizations to become increasingly dominated by small groups of
people.
Intergenerational Mobility
a
form of vertical mobility in which social status differs between generations in
the same family.
Interactionist perspective
A theoretical perspective that focuses on how
individuals interact with one another in society.
Industrial Society
A society in which the exchange of information is the main
social and economic activity.
Impression Management
An
effort to present the self well and manage the impressions that the audience
receives.
Ideology
A
system of beliefs or ideas that justifies some social, moral, religious,
political, or economic interests held by a social group or by society.
Homogamy
The
tendency of individuals to marry people with social characteristics similar to
their own.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Historical Method
a research method that involves the examination of any materials from the past that contain information of sociological interest.
Heterogamy
The tendency for individuals to marry people who have social characteristics different from their own.
Growth Rate
the birthrate minus the death rate, or the rate at which a country's population is increasing.
Group
a set of two or more people who interact on the basis of shared expectations and who possess some degree of common identity.
graying of America
a phenomenon of the growin percentage of elderly Americans as part of the total U.S. population.
Globalization
the development of economic, political and social relationships that stretch worldwide.
Glass Ceiling
the invisible barrier that prevents women from gaining upper-level positions in businesses.
Generalized other
the internalized attitudes, expectations, and viewpoints of society that guide our behavior and reinforce our sense of self.
Gemeinshaft
Societies in which most members know one another, relationships are close, and activities center on the family and the community.
Gatekeepers
Media executives, editors, or reporters who can open or close the gate on a particular issue.
Functionalist Perspective
A theoretical perspective that views society as a set of interrelated parts that work together to produce a stable social system.
Function
a positive consequence that an element of society produces for the maintenance of the social system.
Formal Sanction
A reward or punishment that is given by some formal organization or regulatory body.
Formal Organization
a large, complex secondary group that has been established to achieve specific goals.
Formal group
a group in which the structure, goals, and activities of the group are clearly defined.
Folkways
norms that do not have great moral significane attached to them - the common customs of everyday life.
Feminist Perspective
A theoretical perspective that involves viewing society as a system of gender inequality in which men dominate women.
Family of procreation
a nuclear family consisting of an individual, his or her spouse, and their children.
Family
a group of people who are related by marriage, blood, or adoption and who live together and share economic resources.
Extended Family
a family form that consists of three or more generations of a family sharing the same residence.
Experiment
a research method in which data is gathered under controlled conditions set by the researcher.
Exchange Theory
a theory that holds that people are motivated by self-interests in their interactions withbothers.
Exchange
an indivuidual, group, or cocietal interaction undertaken in effort to recieve a reward in return for actions.
Evolutionary Theory
a view of social change in which change is seen a process that moves toward increasing complexity.
Equilibrium Theory
Talcott Parson's view of social change in which society is likened to a living org
Electronic Community
a group made up of people who interact with one another regularly through the Internet or other forms of electronic communication.
Education
a system of roles and norms that ensures the transmission of knowledge, values, and patterns of behavior from one generation to the next.
Economic Institution
a system of roles and norms that governs the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
E-Commerce
economic transactions that occur over the Internet or other electronic communication systems.
Ecclesia
a type of religious organization in which all people in the society are members by virtue of their birth.
dominant group
a group that possesses the ability to discriminate by virtue of their greater power, priviledge, and social status in a society.
division of labor
the specialization by individuals or groups in the performance of specific economic activities.
differential association
a concept that refers to the frequency and closeness of associations a person has with deviant and nondeviant individuals.
dictatorship
an authoritarian type of government in which power is in the hands of a single individual.
Dependency
the shift from being an independent adult to being dependent on others for physical or financial assistance.
denomination
a well-established religious organization in which a substantial portion of the population are members.
demographic transition theory
a theory of population in which population patterns are said to be tied to a society's level of technological development. Theoretically, a society's population progresses through three distinct stages.
Monday, November 17, 2014
dependency
the shift from being an independent adult to being dependent on others for physical or financial assistance.
denomination
a well established religious organization in which a substantial portion of the population are members.
demographic transition theory
a theory of population in which population patterns are said to be tied to a society's level of technological development. Theoretically, a society's population progresses through three distinct stages.
cyclical theory
a historical view of social change in which societies are seen as rising and then falling or as continously moving back and forth between stages of development.
Culture
shared products of human groups, which include both physical objects and the beliefs, values, and behaviors shared by the group.
Cultural transmission theory
a theory of deviant behavior that views deviance as a learned behavior transmitted through interaction with others.
Cultural pluralism
a policy that allows each group within a society to keep its unique cultural identity.
Cultural lag
a situation in which some aspects of the culture change less rapidly, or lag behind, other aspects of the same culture.
Criminal-justice system
the system of police, courts, and corrections that has jurisdiction once a crime has been committed.
Crime Syndicate
a large-scale organization of professional criminals that controls some vice or legitimate business through violence or the threat of violence.
Counterculture
a group that rejects the values, norms, and practices of the
larger society and replaces them with a new set of cultural patterns.
Correlation
a
situation that exists when a change in on variable is regularly associated with
a change in another variable.
Corrections
Sanctions such as imprisonment, parole, probation, and
community service used to punish criminals.
Corporation
a business organization that is owned by stockholders and is
treated by law as if it were an individual person.
Cooperation
interaction that occurs when two or more persons or groups
work together to achieve a goal that will benefit many people.
Control Theory
a
theory of deviant behavior in which deviance is seen as a natural occurrence
and conformity is seen as the result of social ties among among individuals.
Content Analysis
the research method used to analyze existing sources that
involves counting the number of times a particular word, phrase, idea, event,
symbol, or other element appears in a given context.
Constitutional Monarchy
a
type of government in which the ruler, or monarch, is nothing more than the
symbolic head of state. Constitutional monarchies are considered democratic
because the ultimate power rests with elected officials.
Conservative movement
a social movement that tries to protect from change what
they see as society’s prevailing values.
Conflict perspective
a theoretical perspective that focuses on those forces in society that promote competition and change.
Conflict
the deliberate attempt to oppose, harm, control by force, or
resist the will of another person or persons.
Concentric zone model
a model of urban structure proposed by Ernest W. Burgess in
which the typical industrial city is said to spread outward from the center in
a series of circles within circles.
Compositional theory
a
theory of city life that examines the ways in which the composition of a city’s
population influences life in the city.
Competition
interaction that occurs when two or more people or groups
oppose each other to achieve a goal that only one can attain.
Collective preoccupation
an action involving people who rarely meet yet engage in
similar behavior and share an understanding of the meaning of that behavior.
Collective behavior
the relatively spontaneous social behavior that occurs when
people try to develop common solutions to unclear situations.
Class System
a system of social stratification in which distribution of
scarce resources and rewards is determined on the basis of achieved statuses.
City
a permanent concentration of relatively large numbers of
people who are engaged mainly in non agricultural pursuits.
Charismatic Authority
Power that is legitimated on the basis of the personal
charateristicas of the individual exercising the power.
Caste System
A
system of social stratification in which resources and rewards are distributed
on the basis of ascribed statuses.
Capitalism
An economic model in which the factors of production are
owned by individuals and that is regulated by the forces of profit and
competition.
Bilingual education
a system in which non-english speaking students are taught
academic subjects in their native languages until they are prepared to attend
classes taught in English.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Baby-boom generation
collective term for the approximately 76 million children born in the United States from 1946 through 1964.
Articles of confederation
Plan of government adopted by the continental congress after the American Revolution established a firm league of friendship among the states, but allowed few important powers to the central government.
Assimilation
The process by which people of one culture merge into, and become part of, another culture.
At-large election
Election of an officeholder by the voters of an entire governmental unit rather than by the voters of a district or subdivision.
Authoritarian
A form of government in which those in power hold absolute and unchallengable authority over the people. All dictatorships are authoritarian.
Bail
A sum of money that the accused may be required to post - deposit with the court - as a guarantee that he or she will appear in court at the proper time.
Bail
A sum of money that the accused may be required to post - deposit with the court - as a guarantee that he or she will appear in court at the proper time.
Balance the ticket
When a presidential candidate chooses a running mate who can strengthen his chance of being elected by virtue of certain ideological, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, or other charateristics.
Blanket primary
A voting process in which voters recieve a long ballot containing the names of all contenders, regardless of party, and can vote however they choose.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)