Sociology 111 Test 1

The systematic study of social interaction at a variety of levels

The process by which we act toward and react to people around us

Social behavior is regular and patterned and it takes place between individuals, in small groups, large organizations, and entire societies

According to him our individual behavior is influenced by social factors--where and how others and we fit into the big picture

The intersection between individual lives and larger social influences

The connection between personal troubles (biography) and structural (public and historical) issues

The relationship between individual behavior and larger societal influences

Micro and macro-level approaches

The relationships between individual characters

Social dynamics across the breadth of a society

The study of small-scale patterns of individuals' social interaction in specific settings

The study of large-scale patterns and processes that characterize society as a whole

Understanding some of the constraints--such as economic forces, social movements, and social and public policies--that limit many of our personal options on the micro level

A set of widely shared beliefs and procedures that meet a society's basic needs

Says that sociologists study everything

Describes theories as tools that don't profess to know the truth but may need replacing over time as our understanding of society changes

• -Coined the term sociology 
• -Father of sociology 
• -Maintained that the study of society must be empirical
• -Saw sociology as the scientific study of two aspects of society: social statics and social dynamics

Information that is based on observations, experiments, or experiences rather than on ideology, religion, or intuition

Investigates how principles of social order explain a particular society, as well as the interconnections between structures

Explores how individuals and societies change over time

• -English author
• -Emphasized the importance of systematic data collection through observation and interviews, and an objective analysis of records in explaining events and behavior
• -Published the first methodology text for sociology 
• -Feminist and strong opponent of slavery
• -Denounced aspects of capitalism for being alienating and degrading
• -Critical of machinery that resulted in injury and death, particularly of women and children 
• -Advocated women's admission into medical schools 
• -Emphasized issues such as the care of infants, the rights of the aged, and the prevention of suicide and other social problems 
• -Criticized religious institutions for expecting women to be pious and passive rather than educating them in philosophy and politics

• -Agreed with Comte that societies are characterized by unity and cohesion because its members are bound together by common interests and attitudes
• -To be scientific sociology must study social facts
• -One of his central questions was how people can be autonomous and individualistic while being integrated in society
• -Showed the importance of testing theory empirically

Aspects of social life, external to the individual, that can be measured

Social cohesiveness and harmony

An interdependence of different tasks and occupations, characteristic of industrialized societies, that produce social unity and facilitate change

• -Often described as the most influential social scientist who ever lived
• -Maintained that economic issues produce divisiveness rather than social solidarity
• -The most important social changes reflected the development of capitalism
• -Saw industrial society as composed of three social classes: capitalists, petit bourgeoisie, proletariat
• -Believed that society is divided into the haves (capitalists) and the have-nots (proletariat)
• -Capitalism was a class system where conflict between the classes was commonplace and where society was anything but cohesive 
• -Argued that there was a close relationship between inequality, social conflict, and social class
• -In industrial capitalist systems alienation is common across all social classes 
• -Instead of collaborating, a capitalistic society encourages competition, backstabbing, and looking out for number one

An economic system in which the ownership of the means of production--like land, factories, large sums of money, and machines--is in private hands

The feeling of separation from one's group or society

• -Focused on social organization (Subjective understanding of behavior, and a value-free sociology)
• -Believed that a complete understanding of society must analyze the social organization and interrelationships among economic, political, and cultural institutions
• -Stressed the differences, rather than the similarities, between the natural and the social sciences
• -Posited that an understanding of society requires a "subjective" understanding of behavior
• -Described two types of verstehen (understanding), direct observational and explanatory understanding
• -Task of the teacher was to provide students with knowledge and scientific experience, and not to "imprint" the teacher's personal political views

Research that examines human behavior

A handing down of statements, beliefs, and customs from generation to generation

A socially accepted source of information that includes experts, parents, government officials, police, judges, and religious leaders

• -It creates new knowledge that helps us understand social life
• -It exposes myths
• -It affects social policies
• -It sharpens our critical thinking skills
• -It helps us make informed decisions about everyday lives

The steps in the research process that include careful data collection, exact measurement, accurate recording and analysis of the findings, thoughtful interpretation of results, and, when appropriate, a generalization of the findings to a larger group

A characteristic that can change in value or magnitude under different conditions

A statement of a relationship between two or more variables that researchers want to test

A characteristic that determines or has an effect on the dependent variable

The outcome, which may be affected by the independent variable

The consistency with which the same measure produces similar results time after time

The degree to which a measure is accurate and really measures what it claims to measure

An inquiry process that begins with a theory, prediction, or general principle that is then tested through data collection

An inquiry process that begins with a specific observation, followed by data collection, a general conclusion, or theory construction

Any well-defined group of people (or things) about whom researchers want to know something

A group of people (or things) that are representative of the population researchers wish to study

A sample for which each person (or thing, such as an e-mail address) has an equal chance of being selected because the selection is random

A sample for which little or no attempt is made to get a representative cross section of the population

The results can be generalized to the larger population because the people (or things) have had an equal chance of being selected through randomization

When sociologists are exploring a new topic or want to get insights on how people feel about a particular topic before launching a larger study

• -Choose a topic to study
• -Summarize the related research
• -Formulate a hypothesis or ask a research question
• -Describe the data collection method(s)
• -Collect the data
• -Present the findings
• -Analyze and explain the results

Research that examines non-numerical material and interprets it

Research that focuses on a numerical analysis of people's responses or specific characteristics

A systematic method for collecting data from respondents, including questionnaires, face-to-face or telephone interviews, or a combination of these

The extent of the relationship between variables

The interviewer uses a computer to select random telephone numbers, reads the questions to the respondent from a computer screen, and then enters the replies in precoded spaces, saving time and expense by not having to reenter the data after the interview

• -Usually inexpensive
• -Simple to administer
• -Have a fast turnaround

• -Response rate is low
• -Respondents may be self-reflected
• -Respondents offer unqualified opinions
• -Respondents lie
• -Respondents skip questions

Examination of data that have been collected by someone else

Data collection by systematically observing people in their natural surroundings

Collected at two or more points in time based on the same or different samples of respondents

Collected at one point in time

• -Convenient
• -Inexpensive 
• -Suitable in examining changes of behavior or attitudes by comparing similar populations during different years or following a particular group of people over time

• -Existing data sources may not have the information a researcher needs
• -May be difficult to gain access to historical materials

Researchers interact with the people they are studying, and may or may not reveal their identities as researchers

Researchers study phenomena without being part of the situation

Require a considerable amount of time in the field

• -Provides an in depth understanding of attitudes and behavior
• -Observation is more flexible 
• -Researcher doesn't directly influence the subjects

• -Observation can be expensive 
• -May encounter barriers to collecting the desired data

A method of studying social behavior that systematically examines some form of communication

• -It is usually inexpensive 
• -Sometimes less time consuming 
• -Researchers can correct coding errors fairly easily by redoing the work -Unobtrusive
• -Often permits comparisons over time

• -Can be very labor intensive 
• -Coding material is very subjective
• -Often reflects social class biases

A carefully controlled artificial situation that allows researchers to manipulate variables and measure the effects

The group of subjects in an experiment who are exposed to the independent variable

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

• -Less expensive and time consuming 
• -Subjects are usually readily available and don't expect much, if any, monetary compensation
• -Experiments can be replicated many times with different subjects

The learned and shared behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and material objects that characterize a particular group or society

A group of people who have lived and worked together long enough to become an organized population and to think of themselves as a social unit

It is learned, transmitted from one generation to the next, shared, adaptive and always changing

People

Who we are

The tangible objects that members of a society make, use, and share

The shared set of meanings that people in a society use to interpret and understand the world

Anything that stands for something else and has a particular meaning for people who share a culture

A system of shared symbols that enables people to communicate with one another

The standards by which members of a particular culture define what is good or bad, moral or immoral, proper or improper, desirable or undesirable, beautiful or ugly

• -Achievement and success
• -Activity and work
• -Humanitarianism
• -Efficiency and practicality
• -Progress
• -Material comfort
• -Freedom and equality
• -Conformity
• -Democracy
• -Individualism

A society's specific rules concerning right and wrong behavior

Norms that members of a society (or a group within a society) see as not being critical and that may be broken without severe punishment

Separating one's personal values, opinions, ideology, and beliefs from scientific research

The social scientist observes a person's facial expressions, gestures, and listens to his/her words

The social scientist tries to grasp the intention and context of behavior

• -Co-founded Hull house (one of the first settlement houses in Chicago that served as a community center for the neighborhoods
• -Active reformer throughout her life
• -Leader in the woman's suffrage movement 
• -First American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her adocacy of negotiating rather than waging war, to settle disputes

• -Spent most of his life responding to the critics and detractors of black life
• -First African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University
• -Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• -Examined the oppressive effects of race and class
• -Described the numerous contributions of U.S. blacks to Western culture
• -Advocated women's rights
• -Played a key role in reshaping black-white relations in America

• -Grew out of the works of Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim 
• -Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton developed these earlier ideas of structure and function 
• -A society is a system of major institutions such as government, religions, the economy, education, and the family 
• -Herbert Spencer used an organic analogy to explain the evolution of societies 
• -Each structure fulfills certain functions, or purposes and activities, to meet different needs that contribute to a society;s stability and survival
• -Useful in seeing the "big picture" of interrelated structures and functions

• -See disagreement and the resulting changes in society as natural, inevitable, and even desirable 
• -Some societal arrangements are functional 
• -Sees society not as cooperative and harmonious, but as a system of widespread inequality 
• -Important in explaining how societies create and cope with disagreements

• -Gender inequality is central to al behavior, from everyday interactions to organization structures and political and economic institutions
• -Liberal feminism emphasizes social and legal reform to create equal opportunities for women
• -Radical feminism sees male dominance in social institutions as the major cause of women's inequality
• -Global feminism focuses on how the intersection of gender with race, social class, and colonization has exploited women in the developing world

An approach that maintains that society is a complex system of interdependent parts that work together to ensure a society's survival

Social patterns that a negative impact on a group or society

Functions that are intended and recognized; they are present and clearly evident

Functions that re unintended and unrecognized; they are present but not immediately obvious

An approach that examines the ways in which groups disagree, struggle over power, and compete for scarce resources (such as property, wealth, and prestige)

Approaches that try to explain the social, economic, and political position of women in society with a view to freeing women from traditionally oppressive expectations, constraints, roles, and behavior

A micro-level perspective that looks at individuals' everyday behavior through the communication of knowledge, ideas, beliefs, and attitudes

Action in which people take each other into account in their own behavior

• -Focus on process and keep the person at the center of their analysis
• -George Herbert Mead's proposal that the human mind and self arise in the process of social communication became the foundation of the symbolic and social psychology 
• -Herbert Blumer coined the term symbolic interactionism 
• -Emphasized that people interpret or define each other's actions instead of merely reacting to them, especially through symbols 
• -Erving Goffman contributed significantly to these earlier theories by examining  human interaction in everyday situations ranging from jobs to funerals

• -Becomes difficult to generalize from them to the outside world
• -Researchers must rely on volunteers, paid subjects, or a captive audience 
• -Conclusions drawn form experiments may not be accurate
• -Attrition among the subjects may be very high
• -The members of experimental and control groups may communicate with each other about what's going on and behave differently as a result
• -Controlled laboratory settings are not suitable for studying large groups of people

Research that uses all of the standard data collection techniques to assess the effectiveness of social programs in both the public and the private sectors

• -Examines actual efforts to deal with social problems 
• -Collection costs are usually low
• -Valuable to program directors or agency heads

Practitioners rarely welcome the results of evaluation research if a sociologist concludes that a particular program isn't working

Do no harm, informed consent, confidentiality

General goals and broad guidelines

Organize and regulate our behavior

Unwritten, instrumental, explicit, change, conditional, flexible

Norms that members of a society consider very important because they maintain moral and ethical behavior

Formal rules about behavior that are defined by a political authority that has the power to punish violators

Rewards for good or appropriate behavior and/or penalties for bad or inappropriate behavior

Praise,hugs, smiles, new toys

Frowning, scolding, spanking, withdrawing love

Customs and practices that are common to all societies

The beliefs, values, and norms that people in a society say they hold or follow

The actual everyday behavior of people in a society

The belief that one's culture and way of life are superior to those of other groups

The belief that no culture is better than another and that a culture should be judged by its own standards

A group of people whose distinctive ways of thinking, feelings, and acting differ somewhat from those of the large society

A group of people who deliberately oppose and consciously reject some of the basic beliefs, values, and norms of the dominant culture

The coexistence of several cultures in the same geographic area, without one culture dominating another

A sense of confusion, uncertainty, disorientations, or anxiety that accompanies exposure to an unfamiliar way of life or environment

The cultural expression of a society's elite or highest social classes

The beliefs, practices, activities, and products that are widely shared among a population in everyday life

Forms of communicate designed to reach large numbers of people

The cultural values and products of one society influence or dominate those of another

Diffusion, invention and innovation, discovery, and external pressures

The process through which components of culture spread from one society to another

The process of creating new things

Turning inventions into mass-market products

Requires exploration and investigation, and results in new products, insights, ideas, or behavior

Discovery by chance

The consistency of various aspects of society that promotes order and stability

The gap when nonmaterial culture changes more slowly than material culture

• -Focus on society as a system of interrelated parts
• -Emphasize the social bonds that attach people to society 
• -All societies have similar strategies for meeting human needs 
• -Culture can be dysfunctional

• -Culture can generate considerable inequality instead of unify society
• -Many cultural values and norms benefit some members of society more than others

-Feminist analyses expand our understanding of cultural components that other theoretical perspective ignore or gloss over

• -Examine culture through micro lenses
• -Most interested in understanding how people create, maintain, and modify culture 
• -Explains how culture influences our everyday lives 
• -As people construct their perception of reality, they create change, and reinterpret values and norms through interaction with others 
• -Micro approaches are useful in understanding what culture means to people and how these meanings differ across societies