SOCY 1000 MCCONNELL CORE MAIN ANSWERS AND
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔primary deviance - ✔✔the first act of rule breaking that may lead to a new label of
'deviant,' thus influencing how people think about and act toward you.
✔✔secondary deviance - ✔✔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 - ✔✔a negative social label that changes others' behavior toward a person
and therefore alters that person's own self-concept and social identity.
✔✔broken windows theory of deviance - ✔✔theory explaining how social cues impact
whether individuals act deviantly—specifically, whether local, informal social norms
allow deviant acts.
✔✔street crime - ✔✔crime committed in public and often associated with violence,
gangs, and poverty.
✔✔White-collar crime - ✔✔offense committed by a professional (or professionals)
against a corporation, agency, or other institution.
✔✔corporate crime - ✔✔a particular type of white-collar crime committed by the officers
(CEOs and other executives) of a corporation.
✔✔deterrence theory - ✔✔philosophy of criminal justice arising from the notion that
crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and benefits.
✔✔recidivism - ✔✔when an individual who has been involved with the criminal justice
system reverts to criminal behavior.
✔✔panopticon - ✔✔a circular building composed of an inner ring and an outer ring
designed to serve as a prison in which the guards, housed in the inner ring, can observe
the prisoners without the detainees knowing whether they are being watched.
, ✔✔ sociology - ✔✔the study of human society
✔✔sociological imagination - ✔✔the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects
of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces
✔✔social institution - ✔✔a complex group of interdependent positions that, together,
perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time; also defined in a narrow
sense as any institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups or
people within it
✔✔positivism - ✔✔the approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific method as
an approach to studying the objectively observable behavior of individuals irrespective
of the meanings those actions have for the subjects themselves
✔✔verstehen - ✔✔German for 'understanding.' The concept of Verstehen comes from
Max Weber and is the basis of interpretive sociology.
✔✔interpretive sociology - ✔✔a type of scholarship in which researchers imagine
themselves experiencing the life positions of the people they want to understand rather
than treating them as objects to be examined.
✔✔anomie - ✔✔a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer
reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness.
✔✔positivist sociology - ✔✔the approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific
method as an approach to studying the objectively observable behavior of individuals
irrespective of the meanings of those actions for the subjects themselves.
✔✔double consciousness - ✔✔a concept conceived by W. E. B. Du Bois to describe the
use of two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the general social world and the
other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers. These two scripts are
constantly maintained by African Americans.
✔✔functionalism - ✔✔the theory that various social institutions and processes in society
exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running.
✔✔conflict theory - ✔✔the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic,
animating force of social change and society in general.
✔✔symbolic interactionism - ✔✔a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions.
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔primary deviance - ✔✔the first act of rule breaking that may lead to a new label of
'deviant,' thus influencing how people think about and act toward you.
✔✔secondary deviance - ✔✔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 - ✔✔a negative social label that changes others' behavior toward a person
and therefore alters that person's own self-concept and social identity.
✔✔broken windows theory of deviance - ✔✔theory explaining how social cues impact
whether individuals act deviantly—specifically, whether local, informal social norms
allow deviant acts.
✔✔street crime - ✔✔crime committed in public and often associated with violence,
gangs, and poverty.
✔✔White-collar crime - ✔✔offense committed by a professional (or professionals)
against a corporation, agency, or other institution.
✔✔corporate crime - ✔✔a particular type of white-collar crime committed by the officers
(CEOs and other executives) of a corporation.
✔✔deterrence theory - ✔✔philosophy of criminal justice arising from the notion that
crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and benefits.
✔✔recidivism - ✔✔when an individual who has been involved with the criminal justice
system reverts to criminal behavior.
✔✔panopticon - ✔✔a circular building composed of an inner ring and an outer ring
designed to serve as a prison in which the guards, housed in the inner ring, can observe
the prisoners without the detainees knowing whether they are being watched.
, ✔✔ sociology - ✔✔the study of human society
✔✔sociological imagination - ✔✔the ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects
of an individual's life to seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces
✔✔social institution - ✔✔a complex group of interdependent positions that, together,
perform a social role and reproduce themselves over time; also defined in a narrow
sense as any institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the groups or
people within it
✔✔positivism - ✔✔the approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific method as
an approach to studying the objectively observable behavior of individuals irrespective
of the meanings those actions have for the subjects themselves
✔✔verstehen - ✔✔German for 'understanding.' The concept of Verstehen comes from
Max Weber and is the basis of interpretive sociology.
✔✔interpretive sociology - ✔✔a type of scholarship in which researchers imagine
themselves experiencing the life positions of the people they want to understand rather
than treating them as objects to be examined.
✔✔anomie - ✔✔a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer
reasonably expect life to be predictable; too little social regulation; normlessness.
✔✔positivist sociology - ✔✔the approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific
method as an approach to studying the objectively observable behavior of individuals
irrespective of the meanings of those actions for the subjects themselves.
✔✔double consciousness - ✔✔a concept conceived by W. E. B. Du Bois to describe the
use of two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the general social world and the
other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers. These two scripts are
constantly maintained by African Americans.
✔✔functionalism - ✔✔the theory that various social institutions and processes in society
exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running.
✔✔conflict theory - ✔✔the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic,
animating force of social change and society in general.
✔✔symbolic interactionism - ✔✔a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions.
