-
Sociology:
the scientific study of social structure
-
Microsociology:
the level of analysis concerned with the study of people as they interact in daily life
-
Macrosociology:
the level of analysis that focuses on relationships among social structures without references to the interaction of the people involved
-
Sociological Imagination:
the set of mind that allows individuals to see the relationship between events in their personal lives and events in their society
-
Humanist Sociology:
the theoretical perspective that places human needs and goals at the center of sociology
-
Liberation Sociology:
the theoretical approach to sociology that seeks to replace human oppression with greater democracy and social justice
-
Clinical Sociology:
the use of sociological theories, principles, and research to diagnose and measure social invention
-
Positivism:
the use of observation, experimentation, and other methods of the physical sciences in the study of social life
-
Social Statistics:
the study of stability and order in society
-
Social Dynamics:
the study of social change
-
Bourgeoisie:
Members of a society who the means for producing wealth
-
Proletariat:
members of a society who labor for the bourgeoisie at subsistence wages
-
Class Conflict:
the conflict between those controlling the means for producing wealth and those laboring for them
-
Economic Determinism:
the idea that that the nature of a society is based on the society’s economy
-
Mechanical Solidarity:
social unity based on a consensus of values and norms, strong social pressure for conformity, and dependence on tradition and family
-
Organic Solidarity:
social unity based on a complex of highly specialized roles that makes members of a society dependent on one another
-
Verstehen:
the method of understanding social behavior by putting oneself in the place of others
-
Value-Free Research:
research in which personal biases are not allowed to affect the research process and its outcomes
-
Rationalization:
the tendency to use knowledge and impersonality in social relationships to gain increased control over society
-
Functionalism:
the theoretical perspective that emphasizes the contribution (functions) made by each part of society
-
Dynamic Equilibrium:
the assumption by functionalists that a society both changes and maintains most of its original structure over time
-
Manifest Functions:
an intended and recognized consequence of some element of a society
-
Latent Functions:
an unintended and unrecognized consequence of some element of society
-
Dysfunction: a negative consequence of some element of a society
a negative consequence of some element of a society
-
Conflict Theory:
the theoretical perspectives that emphasizes conflict, competition, change, and constraint within a society
-
Power:
the ability to control the behavior of others, even against their will
-
Symbol:
something that stands for, or represents, something else
-
Symbolic Interactionism:
the theoretical perspective that focuses on interaction among people based on mutually understood symbols
-
Dramaturgy:
the symbolic interactionist approach that depicts social life as theater
-
Presentation of Self:
the ways that we, in a variety of social situations, attempt to create a favorable evaluation of ourselves in the minds of others
-
Liberal Feminism:
the feminist social theory that focuses on equal opportunity for woman and heightened public awareness of woman’s rights
-
Radical Feminism:
the feminist social theory that races oppression of women to the fact that societies are dominated by men
-
Modernism:
the broad social changes beginning in the late nineteenth century and ending around the time of World War II
-
Postmodernism:
the theory that rejects the idea that individuals are autonomous begins, that reason is a reliable way to interpret the world, and that a discoverable reality exists
-
Postindustrial Society:
the type of society in which knowledge and service organizations are the major source of power and the prime mover of social life
-
Globalization:
the process by which increasingly permeable geographical boundaries lead different societies to share in common some economic, political, and social arrangements
|
|
