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applied sociology
the use of sociology to solve problems—from the micro level of family relationships to the macro level of crime and pollution
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bourgeoisie
Karl Marx’s term for capitalists, those who own the means to produce wealth
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class conflict:
Marx’s term for the struggle between the proletariat (workers) and the bourgeoisie (capitalists)
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conflict theory
a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups competing for scarce resources
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functionalism
a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society’s equilibrium; also known as structural functionalism
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generalization
a statement that goes beyond the individual case and is applied to a broader group or situation
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macro-level analysis
an examination of large-scale patterns of society
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micro-level analysis
an examination of small-scale patterns of society
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natural science
the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to comprehend, explain, and predict events in our natural environment
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objectivity
total neutrality
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positivism
the application of the scientific approach to the social world
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proletariat
Marx’s term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production
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public sociology
sociology being used for the public good; especially the sociologicalperspective (of how things are related to one another) guiding politicians and policy makers
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pure or basic sociology
sociological research whose only purpose is to make discoveries about life in human groups, not to make changes in those groups
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replication
repeating a study in order to check its findings
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science
the application of systematic methods to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods
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scientific method
the use of objective, systematic observations to test theories
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social facts
Durkheim’s term for a group’s patterns of behavior
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social integration
the degree to which people feel a part of social groups
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social location
the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society
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social sciences
the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to understand the social world objectively by means of controlled and repeated observations
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society
a term used by sociologists to refer to a group of people who share a culture and a territory
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sociological perspective
understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context
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sociology
the scientific study of society and human behavior
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symbolic interactionism
a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another
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theory
a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work; an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another
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value free
the view that a sociologist’s personal values should not influence social research
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values
ideas about what is good or worthwhile in life; attitudes about the way the world ought to be
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Verstehen
a German word used by Weber that is, perhaps, best understood as “to have insight into someone’s situation”
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Jane Addams
was the founder of Hull-House—a settlement house in the immigrant community of Chicago. She invited sociologists from the nearby University of Chicago to visit. In 1931 she was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
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W. E. B. Du Bois
was the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. For most of his career, he taught sociology at Atlanta University. He was concerned about social injustice, wrote about race relations, and was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
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Emile Durkheim
was responsible for getting sociology recognized as a separate discipline. He was interested in studying how individual behavior is shaped by social forces and in finding remedies for social ills. He stressed that sociologists should use social facts—patterns of behavior that reflect some underlying condition of society. ,
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Karl Marx
believed that social development grew out of conflict between social classes; under capitalism, this conflict was between the bourgeoisie—those who own the means to produce wealth—and the proletariat—the mass of workers. His work is associated with the conflict perspective.
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C. Wright Mills
suggested that external influences (a person’s experiences) become part of his or her thinking and motivations and explain social behavior. As the emphasis in sociology shifted from social reform to social theory, Mills urged sociologists to get back to their roots. He saw the emergence of the power elite composed of top leaders of business, politics, and the military as an imminent threat to freedom
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Talcott Parsons
work dominated sociology in the 1940s and 1950s. He developed abstract models of how the parts of society harmoniously work together
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Georg Simmel
overstimulation and the urban environment.
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Herbert Spence
Another early sociologist, Spencer believed that societies evolve from barbarian to civilized forms. He was the first to use the expression “the survival of the fittest” to reflect his belief that social evolution depended on the survival of the mostcapable and intelligent and the extinction of the less capable. His views became known as social Darwinism.
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F Toennies
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
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Max Weber
Weber’s most important contribution to sociology was his study of the relationship between the emergence of the Protestant belief system and the rise of 3capitalism. He believed that sociologists should not allow their personal values to affect their social research; objectivity should become the hallmark of sociology. He argued that sociologists should use Verstehen—those subjective meanings that people give to their behavior.
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case study
an analysis of a single event, situation, or individual
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closed-ended questions
questions that are followed by a list of possible answers to be selected by the respondent
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control group
the subjects in an experiment who are not exposed to the independent variable
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dependent variable
a factor in an experiment that is changed by an independent variable
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documents
in its narrow sense, written sources that provide data; in its extended sense, archival material of any sort, including photographs, movies, CDs, DVDs, and so on
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experiment
the use of control and experimental groups, and dependent and independent variables to test causation
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generalizability
the extent to which the findings from one group (or sample) can be generalized or applied to other groups (or populations)
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hypothesis
a statement of how variables are expected to be related to one another, often according to predictions from a theory
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independent variable
a factor that causes a change in another variable, called the dependent variable
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interview
direct questioning of respondents
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interviewer bias
effects that interviewers have on respondents that lead to biased answers
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answers open-ended questions
questions that respondents answer in their own words
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operational definition
the way in which a researcher measures a variable
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participant observation (or fieldwork)
research in which the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what is happening in that setting
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population
the target group to be studied
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qualitative research method
research in which the emphasis is placed on observing, describing and interpreting people’s behavior
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quantitative research method
research in which the emphasis is placed on precisemeasurement, the use of statistics and numbers
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questionnaire
a list of questions to be asked of respondents
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random sample
a sample in which everyone in the target population has the same chance of being included in the study
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rapport
a feeling of trust between researchers and the people they are studying
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reliability
the extent to which research produces consistent or dependable results
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replication
the repetition of a study in order to test its findings
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research method (or research design)
one of the procedures that sociologists use to collect data: surveys, participant observation, case studies, secondary analysis, documents, experiments, and unobtrusive measures
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respondents
the people who respond to a survey, either in interviews or by selfadministered questionnaires
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sample
the individuals intended to represent the population to be studied
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secondary analysis
the analysis of data that have been collected by other researchers
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self-administered questionnaires
questionnaires that respondents fill out
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stratified random sample
a sample from select subgroups of the target population in which everyone in these subgroups has an equal chance of being included in the research
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structured interviews
interviews that use closed-ended questions
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survey
the collection of data by having people answer a series of questions
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unobtrusive measures
the various ways of observing people so they do not know they are being studied
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unstructured interviews
interviews that use open-ended questions
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validity
the extent to which an operational definition measures what it was intended to measure
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