Sociology Clep

Absolute poverty - Answer- A standard of poverty based on a minimum level of subsistence below which families should not be expected to exist. Achieved status - Answer- A social position attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts. Activity theory - Answer- An interactionist theory of aging that argues that elderly people who remain active will be best-adjusted. Adoption - Answer- In a legal sense, a process that allows for the transfer of the legal rights, responsibilities, and privileges of parenthood to a new legal parent or parents. Affirmative action - Answer- Positive efforts to recruit minority group members or women for jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities. Ageism - Answer- A term coined by Robert N. Butler to refer to prejudice and discrimination against the elderly. Agrarian society - Answer- The most technologically advanced form of preindustrial society. Members are primarily engaged in the production of food but increase their crop yield through such innovations as the plow. Alienation - Answer- The condition of being estranged or disassociated from the surrounding society. Amalgamation - Answer- The process by which a majority group and a minority group combine through intermarriage to form a new group. Anomie - Answer- Durkheim's term for the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective. Anomie theory of deviance - Answer- A theory developed by Robert Merton that explains deviance as an adaptation either of socially prescribed goals or of the norms governing their attainment, or both. Anticipatory socialization - Answer- Processes of socialization in which a person "rehearses" for future positions, occupations, and social relationships. Anti-Semitism - Answer- Anti-Jewish prejudice.