Sociology 101 (Exam 1) Questions and Complete Solutions

Sociology 101 (Exam 1) Questions and Complete Solutions C. Wright Mills - Answer: coined the term "The sociological imagination" and allows us to comprehend the change happening around us. Sociological Imagination - Answer: Ability to see the connection between the larger world and our personal lives (C. Wright Mills) Auguste Comte () - Answer: "Father of Sociology" - invented what he called "social physics" to understand the world. We could determine what is right and wrong without reference to higher powers or other religious concepts. Social Institution - Answer: Any institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups of people within it Theoretical Stage - Answer: Society seemed to be the result of divine will "It was God's plan Metaphysical Stage - Answer: human behavior governed by natural, biological instincts Scientific Stage - Answer: develop a social physics to understand human behavior Harriet Martineau () - Answer: In 1853 she translated Auguste Comte's work from French to English. *one of the earliest feminist social scientists Karl Marx (1818-83) - Answer: founder of "Marxism" the ideological alternative to capitalism Max Weber () - Answer: first to use sociological imagination. created Verstehen ("understanding"). To truly understand why people act the way they do, a sociologist must understand the meanings people attach to their actions. Emile Durkheim () - Answer: studied suicide and showed how individual acts are conditioned by social forces. Anomie - Answer: too little social regulation; normlessness Georg Simmel - Answer: Established a sociology of numbers, how people conduct themselves differently depending how many people are involved Sociology "cousins" - Answer: Psychology, anthropology, History, political science Symbolic Interactionism - Answer: A micro-level theory in which shared means and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions Quantitative Methods - Answer: uses statistical analysis to examine numerical data (data that can be converted to numerical form) Qualitative methods - Answer: methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form. Sociology - Answer: The study of human society. The general goal of sociology is to allow us to see how our individual lives are intimately related to the social forces that exist beyond us Deductive approach - Answer: a research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory Inductive approach - Answer: a research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory. correlation or association - Answer: simultaneous variation in two variables Causality - Answer: The notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another Reverse Causality - Answer: A situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B in fact, is causing A Dependent Variable - Answer: The outcome you are trying to explain Independent Variable - Answer: Measures a variable that, if changed, you predict will be associated with changes in the dependent variable. Hypothesis - Answer: a proposed relationship between two variables Operationalization - Answer: the process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study. Validity - Answer: the extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure Reliability - Answer: likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure Generalizability - Answer: the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied Reflexivity - Answer: analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and affect onm our research. Historical methods - Answer: research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date to a prior time period under study Comparative research - Answer: Research that compares one set of findings on one society with the same type of findings on other societies. (There are similarities between the two usually) Experimental Methods - Answer: methods that seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields; often involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such an intervention Content anaylsis - Answer: a systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communications. such as written work, speech, or film GOLDEN RULES OF RESEARCH - Answer: 1. do not harm - don't harm the subjects 2. Informed consent - they have the right to know what you're doing 3. Voluntary participation - They can choose whether to leave or not 4. Protected Populations - additional approval for those at higher risk Culture - Answer: 1) a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices 2) culture is anything artificial nonmaterial culture - Answer: values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms norms - Answer: expected behaviors values - Answer: moral beliefs material culture - Answer: everything that is part of our constructed physical environment including technology ex) fashion, modern furniture, food, music, homes, cars Ethnocentrism - Answer: the inability to accept, reference, or understand patterns of behavior or beliefs that are different from one's own ex) It was used to justify slavery and violence Ideology - Answer: a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of cause and effect Cultural relativism - Answer: taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value Cultural Scripts - Answer: modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural subculture - Answer: the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society Socialization - Answer: the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society. Reflection theory - Answer: the idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere, a screen onto which the film of underlying reality or social structures of our society is projected. Media - Answer: formats or vehicles that carry, present, or communicate information Hegemony - Answer: a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses. (ex: wealthy over the poor, gov't funding) Agents of Socialization - Answer: Family - for most, family is primary School - not just reading and writing, but also etiquette Peers - can reinforce messages taught at home, but can also introduce entirely new information Media - shapes how we see ourselves in this world Adulthood - work, marriage, economics ascribed status - Answer: race, age, sex (what you're born with) Achieved status - Answer: Examples: Doctor, homeowner, married/single, drug dealer, parents, student Master status - Answer: status that stands out above all others Examples: Disabled, Serial Killer, President of the US Generalized Other - Answer: Internalized attitudes, expectations, and viewpoints of society that we use to guide our behavior and reinforce our sense of self. For example, it sis the perception of the generalized other that keeps you from taking off your pants to more comfortably lounge in the park on hot summer days.. we continually updated our idea of generalized other. Resocialization - Answer: the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are rengineered, often deliberately through an intense social process that may take place in a total institution Total Institution - Answer: an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same single authority Example: Marine Corps status - Answer: a recognizable social position that an individual occupies role - Answer: the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status role strain - Answer: the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status role conflict - Answer: the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses Ethnomethodology - Answer: literally "the methods of the people" this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world Dyad - Answer: a group of two - the existence of the group depends on both parties and there is no third party to mediate or buffer the situation Triad - Answer: a group of three or more - the group is not dependent on anyone mediator - Answer: a person in the group that tries to resolve conflict between the 2 others in the group, and is sometimes specifically brought in for that purpose Tertius gaudens - Answer: "the 3rd that rejoices - a person that profits from the conflict of the other two, essentially plays the opposite of the mediator Divide et impera - Answer: "divide and conquer" - a person who intentionally drives a wedge between the other 2 parties small group - Answer: a group characterized by face-to-face interaction, a uni-focal perspective, lack of formal arrangements, and a certain level of equality Party - Answer: a group that is similar to a small group but multifocal large group - Answer: a group characterized by the presence of a formal structure that mediates interaction and, consequently, status differentiation primary groups - Answer: social groups, such as family or friends, composed of intimate face-to-face relationships that strongly influence the attitudes and ideals of those involved. secondary groups - Answer: groups marked by impersonal, instrumental relationships (those existing as a means to an end) In-group - Answer: another term for powerful group, most often the the majority out-group - Answer: another term for the stigmatized or less powerful group, the minority reference group - Answer: a group that helps us understand or make sense of our position in society relative to other groups social network - Answer: a set of relations-essentially, a set of dyads- held together by ties between individuals Tie - Answer: a set of stories that explains our relationship to the other members of our network Embeddedness - Answer: the degree to which ties re reinforced through indirect paths within a social network strength of weak ties - Answer: the notion that often relatively weak ties turn out to be quite valuable because they yield new information Organization - Answer: any social network that is defined b a common purpose and has a boundary between its member ship and the rest of the social world Organizational culture - Answer: the shard beliefs and behaviors within a social group; often used interchangeably with corporate culture Organizational structure - Answer: the ways in which power and authority are distributed within an organization social deviance - Answer: any transgression of socially established norms crime - Answer: the violation of laws enacted by society social cohesion - Answer: refers to the way people form social bonds, relate to each other, and get along on a day-to-day basis mechanical or segmental solidarity - Answer: social cohesion based on sameness organic solidarity - Answer: social cohesion based on difference and interdependence of the parts social control - Answer: those mechanisms that create normative compliance in individuals formal social sanctions - Answer: mechanisms of social control by which rules or laws prohibit deviant criminal behavior informal social sanctions - Answer: the usually unexpressed by widely known rules of group membership the unspoken rules of social life social integration - Answer: how well you are integrated into your social group or community social regulation - Answer: the number of rules guiding your daily life and, more specifically, what you can reasonably expect from the world on a day to day basis egoistic suicide - Answer: that occurs when one is not well integrated into a social group altruistic suicide - Answer: suicide that occurs when one experiences too much social integration Anomic suicide - Answer: suicide that occurs as a result of too little social regulation fatalistic suicide - Answer: suicide that occurs as a result of too much social regulation strain theory - Answer: Merton's theory that deviance occurs when a society does not give all its members equal ability to achieve socially acceptable goals Conformist - Answer: individual who accepts both the goals and strategies to achieve them that are considered socially acceptable Ritualist - Answer: individual who rejects socially defined goals in order to live within his or her own means Innovator - Answer: social deviant who accepts socially acceptable goals but rejects socially acceptable means to achieve them Retreatist - Answer: one who rejects both socially acceptable means and goals by completely retreating from, or not participating in, society Rebel - Answer: Individual who rejects socially acceptable goals and means but wants to alter or destroy the social institutions from which he or she is alienated Primary Deviance - Answer: the first act of rule-breaking that may incur a label of "deviant" and thus influence how people think about and act toward you Secondary deviance - Answer: subsequent acts of rule-breaking that occur after primary deviance and as a result of your new deviant label and people's expectations of you Stigma - Answer: a negative social label that not only changes your behavior toward a person but also alters that person's own self-concept and social identity Broken Windows theory of deviance - Answer: theory explaining how social context and social cues impact whether individuals act deviantly: specifically, whether local, informal social norms allow deviant acts Recidivism - Answer: tendency to repeat previous behavior Panopticon - Answer: A circular building composed of an inner ring and an outer ring designed to serve as a prison in which the detainees can always be seen and the observer, housed in the inner ring, is hidden from those being observed Stratification - Answer: describes structured social inequality or systematic inequalities among groups of people The study of who gets what and why Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Answer: the emergence of private property is the primary source of social ills social equality - Answer: the condition by which there are no differences in wealth, power, prestige, or status "Everyone is good, so everyone gets a slice of the pie" Ontological Equality - Answer: everyone is created equal in the eyes of god Equality of opportunity - Answer: the idea that in equality of condition is acceptable so long as the rules of the game remain fair (modern capitalist society Equality of condition - Answer: the idea that everyone should have an equal starting point (affirmative action) Equality of outcome - Answer: argues that each player must end up with the same amount-regardless of the fairness of the game (communist) estate system - Answer: politically based on system of stratification characterized by limited social mobility caste system - Answer: religion based system of stratification characterized by no social mobility class system - Answer: economically based system of stratification characterized by relative categorization and somewhat loose social mobility Status hierarchy system - Answer: a system of stratification based on social presitige Elite-mass dichotomy system - Answer: system of stratification that has a governing elite , a few leaders who broadly hold the power of the society Meritocracy - Answer: a society where status and mobility are based on individual attributes, ability, and achievement Socioeconomic Status - Answer: (SES) indicates an individual's position on a stratified social order. Upper Class - Answer: those at the top of our stratification income wealth power prestige Middle Class - Answer: includes those with non manual jobs that pay significantly over the poverty line Teachers Nurses Engineers working class - Answer: those employed in the lower tier with a below average income Poor - Answer: those that fall under the federal poverty line social mobility - Answer: the movement between different positions within a system of social stratification in any given society gender - Answer: indicates a social position; social arrangements that are built around normative sex categories sexual orientation - Answer: refers to whether individuals are attracted to others of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both Hegemonic masculinity - Answer: indicates an ideal of masculinity that is so dominant it is regarded as the norm Glass ceiling - Answer: the gendered barrier that women encounter in more prestigious corporate occupations Glass escalator - Answer: when men enter feminized jobs they quickly rise to leadership positions Ex:nurses, design, teacher Patriarchy - Answer: a nearly universal system involving the subordination of femininity to masculinity Sex Role theory - Answer: Talcott Parson's theory that men and women perform their sex roles as breadwinners and wives/mothers, respectively, because the nuclear family is the ideal arrangement in modern societies, fulfilling the function of reproducing workers Sexism - Answer: occurs when a person's sex or gender is the basis for judgment, discrimination, and hatred against him or her Sexual Harassment - Answer: an illegal discrimination, involving everything from inappropriate jokes on the job to outright sexual assault to sexual "barter"-all intended to make women feel uncomfortable and unwelcome particularly on the job