nate

 the use of sociology to solve problems—from the micro level of family relationships to the macro level of crime and pollution

Karl Marx’s term for capitalists, those who own the means to produce wealth

 Marx’s term for the struggle between the proletariat (workers) and the bourgeoisie (capitalists)

 a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups competing for scarce resources

 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

 a statement that goes beyond the individual case and is applied to a broader group or situation

 an examination of large-scale patterns of society

 an examination of small-scale patterns of society

 the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to comprehend, explain, and predict events in our natural environment

 total neutrality

the application of the scientific approach to the social world

 Marx’s term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

 sociology being used for the public good; especially the sociologicalperspective (of how things are related to one another) guiding politicians and policy makers

 sociological research whose only purpose is to make discoveries about life in human groups, not to make changes in those groups

 repeating a study in order to check its findings

 the application of systematic methods to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods

 the use of objective, systematic observations to test theories 

 Durkheim’s term for a group’s patterns of behavior

 the degree to which people feel a part of social groups

 the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society

 the intellectual and academic disciplines designed to understand the social world objectively by means of controlled and repeated observations

 a term used by sociologists to refer to a group of people who share a culture and a territory

 understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context

 the scientific study of society and human behavior

 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

 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

 the view that a sociologist’s personal values should not influence social research

 ideas about what is good or worthwhile in life; attitudes about the way the world ought to be

a German word used by Weber that is, perhaps, best understood as “to have insight into someone’s situation”

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.

 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).

 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. ,

 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.

 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

 work dominated sociology in the 1940s and 1950s. He developed abstract models of how the parts of society harmoniously work together

 overstimulation and the urban environment.

 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.

 Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

 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.

 an analysis of a single event, situation, or individual

 questions that are followed by a list of possible answers to be selected by the respondent

 the subjects in an experiment who are not exposed to the independent variable

 a factor in an experiment that is changed by an independent variable

 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

 the use of control and experimental groups, and dependent and independent variables to test causation

 the extent to which the findings from one group (or sample) can be generalized or applied to other groups (or populations)

 a statement of how variables are expected to be related to one another, often according to predictions from a theory

 a factor that causes a change in another variable, called the dependent variable

 direct questioning of respondents

 effects that interviewers have on respondents that lead to biased answers

 questions that respondents answer in their own words

 the way in which a researcher measures a variable

 research in which the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what is happening in that setting

 the target group to be studied 

 research in which the emphasis is placed on observing, describing and interpreting people’s behavior

 research in which the emphasis is placed on precisemeasurement, the use of statistics and numbers

 a list of questions to be asked of respondents

 a sample in which everyone in the target population has the same chance of being included in the study

a feeling of trust between researchers and the people they are studying

 the extent to which research produces consistent or dependable results

 the repetition of a study in order to test its findings 

 one of the procedures that sociologists use to collect data: surveys, participant observation, case studies, secondary analysis, documents, experiments, and unobtrusive measures

 the people who respond to a survey, either in interviews or by selfadministered questionnaires

 the individuals intended to represent the population to be studied 

 the analysis of data that have been collected by other researchers

questionnaires that respondents fill out

 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

 interviews that use closed-ended questions

the collection of data by having people answer a series of questions

 the various ways of observing people so they do not know they are being studied

 interviews that use open-ended questions 

 the extent to which an operational definition measures what it was intended to measure