Sociology Concepts Quiz

Agency

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

Culture

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

Structure

• Social institutions, organizations, and systems creating a framework for individual interaction and behavior.

Sociological Imagination

• Ability to understand the connection between personal experiences and larger social forces, recognizing how society influences individual behavior.

Personal Troubles vs. Social Issues

• Personal Troubles: Private problems affecting individuals directly, stemming from personal choices or situations.
• Social Issues: Public problems affecting a large group, shaped by larger social structures.

The Nested Model

• Theoretical model to understand individual-society interactions, where:
  • Self: Individual identity.
  • Interaction: Individuals engaging with others.
  • Socialization: Lifelong process of 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 across groups.
  • Social Institutions: Organized structures (e.g., education, family, government) guiding behavior and societal functioning.
  • Culture: Shared values, beliefs, and norms emerging from social institutions.
  • Society: Larger community comprising individuals, institutions, and cultures.

Symbolic Interactionism

• Focuses on meanings people attach to social interactions, symbols, and behaviors.

Conflict Theory

• Views society as a struggle for power between different groups with conflicting interests (e.g., rich vs. poor, employer vs. employee).

Structural Functionalism

• Views society as a complex system of interconnected parts, each contributing to social stability and functioning.

Social Facts

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

Social Solidarity

• Cohesion and unity that binds a society or group together.

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 individuals to fulfill different roles, seen in larger, more complex societies.

Repressive and Restitutive Law

• Repressive Law: Punitive laws aiming to maintain order by punishing offenders.
• Restitutive Law: Laws aimed at restoring equilibrium after an offense, often through restitution or compensation.

Means of Production

• Physical, non-human elements (land, tools, machinery) used in the production of goods and services.

Bourgeoisie and Proletariat

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

Relations of the Means of Production

• Social relationships between people involved in the production process (e.g., employer-employee).

Exploitation and Alienation

• Exploitation: Process where the bourgeoisie profits from proletarian labor, often paying less than the value produced.
• 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 (means of production, 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 interests, particularly proletariat's understanding of their position.
• False Consciousness: Situation where the working class fails to recognize their exploitation, due to ideologies obscuring their true interests.

The Stage of the Social Self

• Stage 1 (Preparatory Stage): Imitation
• Stage 2 (Play Stage): Taking the role of the significant other
• Stage 3 (Game Stage): Taking the role of multiple others and the generalized other

The Thomas Theorem

• "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." People act based on their perceptions of reality, whether accurate or not.

The Looking-Glass Self

• Concept suggesting self-concept develops based on how we perceive others see us. Three stages involve imagining how we appear, imagining their judgment, and developing feelings about ourselves based on those perceptions.

Inductive vs. Deductive Research

• Deductive: Theory-driven, testing a hypothesis.
• Inductive: Observation-driven, developing a theory from data.

Survey

• Research method using questionnaires or interviews to collect data, often from a large sample.

Participant Observation

• Qualitative research method where researchers immerse themselves in the community or group being studied, participating in daily activities to gather first-hand insights.

Experiment

• Quantitative: Research using numerical data and statistical analysis.
• Qualitative: Research using non-numerical data (interviews, observations) focused on understanding meaning and experiences.

Independent, Dependent, and Controlled Variables

• Independent Variable: Variable manipulated in an experiment.
• Dependent Variable: Variable measured in response to the independent variable.
• Controlled Variable: Variables kept constant to prevent influence on results.

Association

• Relationship or connection between variables. Changes in one variable often mean changes in another.

Time-Order

• Sequence in which events or variables occur.

Non-Spuriousness

• Correlated variables not caused by external factor.

Spurious Correlation

• False relationship between variables caused by a third factor.

The Belmont Report

• Ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects (respect for persons, beneficence, justice).

Causality

• Direct cause-and-effect relationship between variables.

Sample and Population

• Sample: Subset of a population.
• Correlation vs Causation: Correlation describes a relationship, but doesn't imply cause and effect.