Intro To Sociology Chapter 1

The systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions.

A group of people who shape their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from other groups.

The disciplines that use the scientific method to examine the social world, in contrast to the natural sciences, which examine the physical world.

A way of looking at the world through a sociological lens

Approaching the world without preconceptions in order to see things in a new way (BERNARD MCGRANE)

A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment

A quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our individual circumstances and larger social forces. (C. WRIGHT MILLS)

The level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and institutions of society.

The level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals.

In sociology, abstract propositions that explain the social world and make predictions about the future.

A set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that make up a way of understanding social reality.

The theory, developed by AUGUSTE COMTE, that sense perceptions are the only valid source of knowledge.

A procedure for acquiring knowledge that emphasizes collecting concrete data through observation and experiment.

The application of the theory of evolution and the notion of "survival of the fittest" to the study of society.

A paradigm that begins with the assumption that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures.

Term developed by Emile Durkheim to describe the type of social bongs present in premodern, agrarian societies, in which shared traditions and beliefs created a sense of social cohesion.

Societies that depends on agriculture as their primary means for support and sustenance.

Term developed by Emile Durkheim to describe the type of social bongs present in modern societies based on difference, interdependence, and individual rights.

"Normlessness"; term used to describe the alienation and loss of purpose as a result from weaker social bonds and an increased pace of change.

The degree of integration or unity within a particular society; the extent to which individuals feel connected to other members of a group.

The holy, divine, or supernatural

The ordinary, mundane, or everyday.

An intense energy in shared events where people feel swept up in something larger than themselves.

The shared moral and beliefs that are common to a group and which foster social solidarity.

Based on scientific experimentation or observation

A social institution that is relatively stable over time and that meets the needs of society by performing functions necessary to maintain social order and stability.

A disturbance to or undesirable consequences of some aspect of the social system.

The obvious, intended functions of a social structure for the social system.

The less obvious, perhaps unintended functions of a social structure.

A paradigm that sees social conflict as the basis of society and social change, and emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change.

The unequal distribution of wealth, power, or prestige among members of a society.

A political system based on the collective ownership of the means of production, opposed to capitalism.

Generated by the competition between different class groups for scarce resources and the source of all social change, according to Karl Marx.

An economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and characterized by competition, the profit motive, and wage labor.

Anything that can create wealth: money, property, factories, and other types of businesses, and the infrastructure necessary to run them.

Workers; those who have no means of production of their own and so are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live.

Owners; the class of modern capitalists who own the means of production and employ wage laborers.

The sense of dissatisfaction the modern worker feels as a result of producing goods that are owned and controlled by someone else, according to Marx.

A political system based on state ownership or control of principal elements of the economy in order to reduce levels of social inequality.

A system of beliefs, attitudes, and values that directs a society and reproduces the status quo of the bourgeoisie.

A denial of the truth on the part of the oppressed when they fail to recognize the interests of the ruling class in their ideology.

The recognition of social inequality on the part of the oppressed, leading to revolutionary action.

Marx's model of historical change, whereby two extreme positions come into conflict and create some new thing between them.

The existing social arrangements in a dialectical model

The opposition to the existing arrangements in a dialectical model

The new social system created out of the conflict between thesis and antithesis in a dialectical model.

A contemporary form of conflict theory that criticizes many different systems and ideologies of domination and oppression. q

A theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in a society and the way that gender structures the social world.

A paradigm that proposed that categories of sexual identity are social constructs and that no sexual category is fundamentally either deviant or normal.

Practical action that is taken on the basis of intellectual or theoretical understanding.

The application of economic logic to human activity; the use of formal rules and regulations in order to maximize efficiency without consideration of subjective or individual concerns.

Secondary groups designed to perform tasks efficiently, characterized by specialization, technical competence, hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, and formal written communication.

Max Weber's pessimistic description of modern life, in which we are caught in bureaucratic structures that control our lives through rigid rules and rationalization.

The rationalization of modern society.

"empathic understanding"; Weber's term to describe good social research, which tries to understand the meanings that individual social actors attach to various actions and events.

The tendency to favor European or Western histories, cultures, and values over other non-Western societies.

A paradigm that sees interaction and meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created through interaction

A type of sociology practiced by researchers at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 30s which centered on urban sociology and field research methods.

A theoretical perspective that assumes organisms (including humans) make practical adaptations to their environments. Humans do this through cognition, interpretation, and interaction. WILLIAM JAMES AND JOHN DEWEY

A theoretical paradigm that uses the metaphor of the theater to understand how individuals present themselves to others. ERVING GOFFMAN

The study of "folk methods" (everyday analysis of interactions) and background knowledge that sustains a shared sense of reality in everyday interactions. HAROLD GARFINKEL

A sociological approach that looks at how we create meaning in naturally occurring conversation, often by taping conversations and examining them.

A paradigm that suggests that social reality is diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux.

A type of critical post-modern analysis that involves taking apart or disassembling old ways of thinking

An approach that integrates empiricism and grand theory.

"Social Physics" Invented the idea of positivism.

Criticized the hypocritical nature of American "democracy in the 1830s and translated Comte's "Introduction to Positive Philosophy" into English.

Social Darwinism

Functionalist, mechanic and organic solidarity, individualism still relates to the entire, anomie, collective effervescence & conscience.

Society is stable Structures have purpose to stability.

Conflict Theory, praxis

A stable environment offers means for success and allows humans to adapt

Latent and manifest functions is societal structure.

Symbolic interactionism founder, "the individual personality is shaped by society and visa versa"

Explained how and why we interact differently with different people through social interactionism

founded ethnomethodology. believed that as a member of society we must acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to act practically in our everyday lives.