Sociology Concepts PDF

**anomie: A social condition of \'normlessness\' defined by a lack of clear norms fails to give direction and purpose to individual actions.** **critical sociology: A theoretical perspective that focuses on inequality and power relations in society in order to achieve social justice and emancipatio...

**anomie: A social condition of \'normlessness\' defined by a lack of clear norms fails to give direction and purpose to individual actions.** **critical sociology: A theoretical perspective that focuses on inequality and power relations in society in order to achieve social justice and emancipation through their transformation.** **disenchantment of the world: The replacement of magical thinking by technological rationality and calculation.** **empiricism: The philosophical tradition that seeks to discover the laws of the operation of the world through careful, methodical, and detailed observation. ** **functionalism (or structural-functionalist perspective): A theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society.** **global-level sociology: The study of structures and processes that extend beyond the boundaries of states or specific societies.** **interpretive sociology: A perspective that explains human behaviour in terms of the meanings individuals attribute to it.** **macro-level sociology:The study of society-wide social structures and processes. ** **micro-level sociology: The study of specific relationships between individuals or small groups. mode of production: The way human societies act upon their environment and its resources in order to use them to meet their needs.** **paradigms: Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them.** **positivism (positivist perspective or positivist sociology): The scientific study of social patterns based on methodological principles of the natural sciences.** **sociological imagination: The ability to understand how your own unique circumstances relate to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular.** **sociology:The systematic study of society and social interaction.** **structure: General patterns that persist through time and become habitual or routinized at micro-levels of interaction, or institutionalized at macro or global levels of interaction.** **symbolic interactionism: A theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols).** **theory: A proposed framework for interpreting and drawing generalizations about social interactions or society.** **Verstehen: German for "understanding"; in sociology it refers to the use of empathy, or putting oneself in another's place; to understand the motives and logic of another's action.** **reification: Referring to abstract concepts, complex processes or mutable social relationships as "things."** **social action: Actions to which individuals attach subjective meanings.** **social facts: The external laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and cultural rules that govern social life.** **social solidarity: The social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location,and religion.** **society: A group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture.** **Critical sociology has an interest in types of knowledge that enable emancipation from power relations and forms of [Module 3 Keywords]** **authoritative knowledge: Knowledge based on the accepted authority of the source.** **case study: In-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual.** **casual observation: Knowledge based on observations without any systematic process for observing or assessing the accuracy of observations.** **control group: An experimental group that is not exposed to the independent variable.** **correlation: When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but does not necessarily indicate causation.** **dependent variable: Variable changed by another variable.** **empirical evidence: Evidence corroborated by direct experience and/or observation.** **ethnography: Observing a complete social setting and all that it entails.** **experiment: The testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions.** **field research: Gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey.** **Hawthorne effect: When study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awareness of being observed by a researcher.** **hypothesis: An educated guess with predicted outcomes about the relationship between two or more variables.** **independent variable: Variable that causes change in a dependent variable.** **interpretive approach: A sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction.** **intervening variable: An underlying variable that explains the correlation between two other variables.** **interview: A one-on-one conversation between a researcher and a subject.** **literature review: A scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research.** **operational definitions: Specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study.** **overgeneralization: Knowledge that draws general conclusions from limited observations.** **participant observation: Immersion by a researcher in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an "insider" perspective.** **population: A defined group serving as the subject of a study.** **positivist approach: A research approach based on the natural science model of knowledge utilizing a hypothetico-deductive formulation of the research question and quantitative data.** **primary data: Data collected directly from firsthand experience.** **qualitative data: Information based on interpretations of meaning.** **quantitative data: Information from research collected in numerical form that can be counted.** **random sample: A study's participants being randomly selected to serve as a representation of a larger population** **reliability: a measure of a study's consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced** **research design: a detailed, systematic method for conducting research and obtaining data.** **sample: Small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population.** **scientific method: A systematic research method that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting a study, and drawing conclusions.** **secondary data analysis: Using data collected by others but applying new interpretations.** **selective observation: Knowledge based on observations that only confirm what the observer expects or wants to see.** **surveys: Data collections from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviours and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire.** **traditional knowledge: Knowledge based on received beliefs or the way things have always been done.** **validity: The degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study.** **value neutrality: A practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment, during the course of a study and in publishing results.** **variable: A characteristic or measure of a social phenomenon that can take different values.** - **domination in society.** - **beliefs: Tenets or convictions that people hold to be true. ** - **counterculture: A group that rejects and opposes society's widely accepted cultural patterns.** - **cultural imperialism: The deliberate imposition of one's own cultural values on another culture.** - **cultural relativism: The practice of assessing a culture by its own standards, and not in comparison to another culture.** - **cultural universals: Patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies.** - **culture: Shared beliefs, values, and practices.** - **culture shock: An experience of personal disorientation when confronted with an unfamiliar way of life. ** - **diffusion: The spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another. ** - **ethnocentrism: Evaluating another culture according to the standards of one's own culture. ** - **formal norms: Established, written rules. ** - **globalization: The integration of international trade and finance markets. ** - **highculture: Forms of cultural experience characterized by formal complexity, eternal values, or intrinsic authenticity.** - **hybridity: New forms of culture that arose from cross-cultural exchange in the aftermath of the colonial era.** - **ideal culture: The standards a society would like to embrace and live up to.** - **informal norms: Casual behaviours that are generally and widely conformed to.** - **language: A symbolic system of communication.** - **material culture: The objects or belongings of a group of people.** - **nonmaterial culture: The ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society.** - **norms: The visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured.** - **popular culture: Mainstream, widespread patterns among a society's population. ** - **real culture: The way society really is; based on what actually occurs and exists.** - **Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: The idea that people understand the world based on their form of language.** - **sanctions: A way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviours.** - **social control: A way to encourage conformity to cultural norms.** - **society: The structure of a social group of people who interact within a definable territory and who share a culture. ** - **subculture: A group that shares a specific identity apart from a society's majority, even as the members exist within a larger society.** - **symbol: Gestures or objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture.** - **values: A culture's standard for discerning desirable states in society (what is true, good, just, or beautiful).** - **anomie: A situation of uncertain norms and regulations in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness.** - **bourgeoisie: The owners of the means of production in capitalist society.** - **collective conscience: The communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society.** - **disenchantment of the world: The replacement of magical thinking by technological rationality and calculation.** - **feudal societies: Agricultural societies that operate on a strict hierarchical system of power based around land ownership, protection and mutual obligations.** - **horticultural societies: Societies based around the cultivation of plants.** - **hunter-gatherer societies: Societies that depend on hunting wild animals and gathering uncultivated plants for survival.** - **industrial societies: Societies characterized by a reliance on mechanized labour to create material goods.** - **information societies: Societies based on the production of nonmaterial goods and services.** - **iron cage: A situation in which an individual is trapped by the rational and efficient processes of social institutions.** - **mechanical solidarity: Social solidarity or cohesion through a shared collective consciousness with harsh punishment for deviation from the norms.** - **neolithic revolution:  The economic transition to sedentary, agriculture based societies beginning approximately 10,200 years.** - **organic solidarity:  Social solidarity or cohesion through a complex division of labour, mutual interdependence and restitutive law.** - **pastoral societies: Societies based around the domestication of animals.** - **proletariat: The wage labourers in capitalist society.** - **rationalization: The general tendency in modern society for all institutions and most areas of life to be transformed by the application of rationality and efficiency.** - **social class: A group defined by a distinct relationship to the means of production.** - **social integration: How strongly a person is connected to his or her social group.** - **social structure: General patterns of social behaviour and organization that persist through time.** -