Sociology Concepts and Theories

Agency

• Capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices.

Culture

• Shared beliefs, values, norms, practices, symbols, and behaviors passed through generations.

Structure

• Social institutions, organizations, and systems creating a framework for individual interactions.
• Patterns of behavior shaped by these institutions.

Sociological Imagination

• Ability to connect personal experiences to larger social forces.
• Recognizing how society shapes individual behavior.

Personal Troubles vs. Social Issues

• Personal Troubles: Private problems affecting individuals (e.g., job loss due to personal reasons).
• Social Issues: Public problems affecting large groups (e.g., unemployment caused by a recession).

The Nested Model

• Theoretical model for understanding individual-society interactions.
  • Self: Individual identity.
  • Interaction: Process of individuals engaging with each other.
  • Socialization: Lifelong process of learning and internalizing social norms and roles.
  • Roles: Expectations and behaviors assigned based on social position.
  • Groups: Collections of individuals with shared roles and identities.
  • Social Inequality: Unequal distribution of resources and opportunities among different groups.
  • Social Institutions: Organized societal structures like education, family, government, and religion.
  • Culture: Shared values, beliefs, and norms emerging from institutions.
  • Society: Larger community encompassing individuals, institutions, and cultures.

Symbolic Interactionism

• Sociological perspective focusing on meanings attached to social interactions, symbols, and behaviors.

Conflict Theory

• Perspective viewing society as a struggle for power among different groups.
• Focusing on conflicting interests (e.g., rich vs. poor, employer vs. employee).

Structural Functionalism

• Theoretical framework viewing society as a complex system of interconnected parts.
• Emphasizing each part's contribution to societal stability and functionality.

Social Facts

• Durkheim's term for external, objective structures and norms influencing individual behavior.
• Including laws, morals, and religious beliefs.

Social Solidarity

• Cohesion and unity binding a society or group.

Collective Conscience

• Shared beliefs and values serving as a moral foundation for society.

Mechanical Solidarity

• Social cohesion based on shared beliefs, values, and similarities.
• Often seen in small, traditional societies.

Organic Solidarity

• Social cohesion depending on people performing different tasks for society.

Repressive and Restitutive Law

• Repressive Law: Punitive laws aiming to maintain order through punishment of offenders.
• Restitutive Law: Laws aimed at restoring balance after an offense through restitution or compensation.

Means of Production

• Physical resources (land, tools, machinery) for producing goods and services.

Bourgeoisie and Proletariat

• Bourgeoisie: Capitalist class owning the means of production.
• Proletariat: Working class selling labor to the bourgeoisie for wages.

Relations of the Means of Production

• Social relationships between people involved in production processes.
• Including employer-employee relationships.

Exploitation and Alienation

• Exploitation: Process where the bourgeoisie profit from the proletariat's labor, often underpaying.
• Alienation: Feeling of disconnection or powerlessness experienced by workers in capitalist societies.
• Due to lack of control over the production process.

Superstructure and Base

• Base: Economic foundation of society, including means and relations of production.
• Superstructure: Cultural, political, and ideological institutions shaped by the base.

Class Consciousness and False Consciousness

• Class Consciousness: Awareness of one's social class and its interests.
• False Consciousness: Lack of awareness of exploitation by the working class.

The Stage of the Social Self

• Stages of developing a sense of self based on interactions with others.
  • Preparatory Stage: Imitation.
  • Play Stage: Taking on roles of significant others.
  • Game Stage: Taking on roles of multiple others and the generalized other.

The Thomas Theorem

• If people perceive situations as real, they become real in their consequences.

The Looking-Glass Self

• Cooley's concept stating self-concept develops based on how individuals believe others perceive them.

Inductive vs. Deductive Research

• Inductive: Bottom-up approach starting with observations, leading to theories.
• Deductive: Top-down approach starting with theories, testing through data collection.

Survey

• Research method using questionnaires or interviews to gather data from large samples.

Participant Observation

• Qualitative research method where researchers immerse themselves in studied communities and participate in everyday activities.

Experiment

• Quantitative research method isolating variables to determine cause-and-effect relationships.
• Quantitative: Numerical data and statistical analysis.
• Qualitative: Non-numerical data for understanding experiences.

Independent, Dependent, and Controlled Variables

• Independent Variable: Manipulated variable.
• Dependent Variable: Measured variable.
• Controlled Variable: Constant variables.

Association

• Relationship between two or more variables, where one changes, influencing another.

Time-Order

• Sequence of events or variables occurring.

Non-Spuriousness

• Genuine correlation between two variables without external causes.

Spurious Correlation

• False relationship between two variables, seemingly strong due to an external factor.

The Belmont Report

• Ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects focused on respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.

Causality

• Direct cause-and-effect relationship between two variables.

Sample and Population

• Sample: Subset of a population.
• Population: Larger group researchers want to study.

Correlation vs. Causation

• Correlation: Relationship between variables but does not imply cause.
• Causation: Direct cause-and-effect relationship.