Glossary of Terms

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J-K-L|M|N|O|P|Q-R|S|T|U|V|W-X-Y-Z

A

Abrahamic Religions: religions which trace their religious ancestry back through "Father" Abraham.
Absolute Poverty: the level of poverty where individuals and families cannot sustain food, shelter, warmth, and safety needs.
Absolutist perspective: claims that deviance resides in the very nature of an act and is wrong at all times and in all places
Abstract Ideals: religions that focus on sacred principles and thoughts which guide our lives and typically have no divine beings in charge of the world and universe. Buddhism is an example of an abstract ideal religion.
Acculturation: the process by which immigrant people adjust and adapt their way of life to the host culture.
Achieved Status: is attained through one's choices and efforts (college student, movie star, teacher, or athlete)
Acting Crowds: are crowds which are emotionally charged against an event or goal. Some become mobs, but not all of them
Active bigots: are both prejudiced and they discriminate
Activity Theory: claims that the elderly benefit from high levels of activities, especially meaningful activities that help to replace lost life roles after retirement.
Adult socialization: occurs as we assume adult roles such as wife/husband/employee/etc.
Ageism: is the prejudice and discrimination against a person based on his/her chronological age.
Agency's: represents the organizations involved in our socialization
Agenda setting: is the processes of selecting and screening topics which will be presented to the general public
Agents: people who use their agency to make choices based on their varied motivations
Aggregate: is a number of people in the same place at the same time. So people in the same movie theater, people at the same bus stop, and even people at a university football game are considered in aggregates, not groups.
Agricultural Societies: utilize advanced technologies to support crops and livestock (plow) and in Western societies became the mainstay which enabled the Industrial Revolution to transpire by feeding society's members.
Agricultural Surplus Theory: claims that as farming skills increased, a surplus of basic foodstuffs existed. The surplus freed certain people from having to produce their own food and let them develop other occupations
Alienation: the resulting influence of industrialization on society's members where they feel disconnected and powerless in the final direction of their destinies. To Marx, the social systems people created in turn controlled the pattern of their social life.
All-weather liberal: is neither prejudiced nor does he/she discriminate
Altruistic Suicide: suicide which occurs when people are over involved and overcommitted to a group or society as a whole. This occurs when the needs of society as a whole override the needs of the individual. Soldiers often do this to protect their comrades.
An Expressive Crowd: a crowd gathered to gather to express an emotion (IE: Woodstock; the Million Man March; or the 9-11 Memorial Services)
Anger-Excitation Rapist: is the least common type, yet the most evil; he will torture, kidnap, and even kill his victim out of pleasure-seeking at the cost of another's pain; he is sadistic and predatory; and he uses his intelligence to plot and prey upon unsuspecting victims
Anger-Retaliatory Rapist: has plenty of self-confidence (perhaps to the point of too much); he tends to demean, degrade, humiliate, and punish his victim for things she did not do (for example his bad day at work might be taken out on her); and he tends to be brutal, blitzing his victims so that they offer little resistance
Animism: no gods, focuses on good or evil spirits which inhabit animals, rocks and /or people and animals
Anomic Suicide: suicide which occurs when people are under-regulated by familiar norms that serve as anchors to their social reality. You'd expect this type of suicide in very large cities or when dramatic social changes have transpired (IE: 9-11 terrorist attacks or recent economic recessions).
Anomie: is a state of social normlessness which occurs when our lives or society has vague norms
Anomie: a state of relative normlessness that comes from the disintegration of our routines and regulations. Anomie is common when we go through sudden changes in our lives or when we live in larger cities.
Anticipatory socialization: is practice in advance for some future role.
Antinatalist: a perspective which opposes childbearing
Apartheid: South African formalized separateness between Blacks and Whites, mandating White supremacy and privileged treatment between 1948 and 1990
Ascribed Status: is present at birth(race, sex, or class)
Assimilation: is the process by which people from different cultures are acculturated and ultimately absorbed into the mainstream culture
Associates: 2-year degree
Attachments: strong social mutual bonds that encourage society's members to conform
Authority: is the institutionalized legitimate power.

B

Baby Boomers: Born between 1946-1964
Bachelor's: 4-year degree
Belief: strong understanding in values of conventional morality promote conformity
Bereavement: the circumstances and conditions that accompany grief.
Biological Needs: innate urges that require some action on our part if we are to survive
Blended Family: is the family created by remarriage including step siblings and parents. Today, very few families are multiple generational beyond parents and their children.
Bourgeoisie: wealthy elite (royalty, political, and corporate leaders) have the most power. Bourgeoisie are the "Goliaths" in society who often bully their wishes into outcomes.
Breadwinner: is a parent or spouse who earns wages outside of the home and uses them to support the family.
Bureaucratic Ritualism: the habit of following the rules and procedures and forgetting the main purpose of the bureaucracy's mission

C

Calculative Trust: trust based on performance and competence (instrumental relationships)
Capitalism: an economy based on the amount of goods and services produced in a free trade setting
Categorical Thinking: the human cognitive process of storing and retrieving information in sections of our memory that are highly associated with one another
Category: is a number of people who share common characteristics.
Causation: means that a change in one variable leads to or cause a change in another variable, or XYZ chewing gum causes less Herpes outbreaks.
Census Enumeration: the formal counting of a population by its government.
Centenarian: a living person who has had their 100 birthday
Central Place Theory: claims that farmers needed a central place to trade or sell their surplus and cities developed in those central places
Certificate: 1-year past high school
Charisma: means having outstanding personality which magnetically attracts others to you
Chicago School: a center for sociological research that focuses on urban and ecological sociological issues.
Church: is a sect that has gained numerous followers and has become highly bureaucratized.
Closed Caste System: is an economic system that allows no mobility between caste levels, you are born into the caste you stay in your entire life, and you can't have social relations between the castes.
Closed Survey Questions: are questions designed to get respondents to choose from a list of responses you provide to them (IE: About how many college football games have you ever attended? __1 __2 __3 __4 __5 __6 __7 __8 __9 __10+).
Coercive Organizations: people typically are forced into these against their will (prison)
Cohort: a group of people who share a statistical or demographic trait such as those born between 1946-1964.
Collective Behavior: unusual or non-routine behaviors that large numbers of people participate in. There are a variety of types of collective behaviors
Commitment: the stronger our loyalty to legitimate opportunity, the greater the advantages of conforming
Communism: is an extreme socialistic economy with extreme governmental management of goods and services along with management of public and private ideologies
Competition Origin of Prejudice: prejudice occurs when members of one group feel threatened and or deprived by members of another group for limited resources
Comte's Definition of Sociology: the science of society. In his observation Comte believed that society's knowledge passed through 3 stages which he observed in France.
Concentric Zone Theory: claims that cities grow like the rings of a tree starting in the center and growing outward
Conflict theory: claims that society is in a state of perpetual conflict and competition for limited resources.
Conformity: adherence to the normative and legal standards of a group society. An example might be the clothes you wore to class today-legal and normal
Conservative Movement: seeks to uphold the values and institutions of society and generally resist attempts to alter them
Content Analysis: the counting and tabulating of words, sentences, and themes from written, audio, video, and other forms of communication
Content Analysis: when the researcher systematically and quantitatively describes the contents of some form of media.
Continuity Theory: claims that older adults maintain patterns in their later years which they had in their younger years.
Convenience Sample: a portion of the population that is NOT scientifically drawn, but is collected because they are easy to access
Conventional Crowd: a crowd which gathers for a typical event that is more routine in nature (IE: Moody Blues concert, Super Bowl Game, or Midsummer's Night Dream play)
Convergence Theory: claims that motivations are not born in the crowd but develop in individuals who carry them to the crowd
Cooptation: the absorption of new (threatening) ideas and people into the policy making structure
Cosmopolites: are intellectuals, professional, and artists who are attracted to the city because of opportunities and community that are found there
Counterculture: occurs when a group's values, norm, and beliefs are in conflict or opposition to those of the larger society and mainstream culture.
Credentialed Societies: are societies which use diplomas or degrees to determine who is eligible for a job.
Crime: is behavior which violates laws and to which governments can apply negative sanctions
Cross-Sectional Survey: is a survey given once to a group of people.
Crowds: are large numbers of people in the same space at the same time
Crude Birth Rate: the numbers of births per 1,000 population in a given year.
Crude Birth Rate: is the number of live births per 1,000 people living in the population
Crude Death Rate: the number of deaths in a given population per 1,000 people living in that population
Cult: a newer religion with few followers whose teachings are perceived to be at odds with the dominant culture and religion
Cultivation Theory: which claims that the types of TV viewing we watch accumulate within us and impact our world view
Cultural diffusion: is when certain aspects of one culture are spread to another culture
Cultural lag: is the process whereby one part of culture changes faster than another part to which it is related.
Cultural leveling: is the process in which cultures of the world become similar.
Cultural Relativism: is the tendency to look for the cultural context in which differences in cultures occur
Cultural Universals: are certain aspects of cultures which are found among peoples of all cultures throughout the world
Cultural: acculturation into the host culture
Culture shock: is the disoriented feeling which occurs in the context of being in a new culture.
Culture: is the shared values, norms, symbols, language, objects, and way of life that is passed on from one generation to the next

D

Deaf Culture: is the culture of those who were born deaf, raised using ASL to communicate, and/or educated as adults to serve as interpreters for the Native Deaf
De Facto discrimination: is the actual experience of members of society with discrimination
De Jure discrimination: is legalized discrimination which is typically built into the social structure
Death: the termination of the body, its systems, and brain activity in an irreversible way
Demand: is the desire in the marketplace for goods and services
Democratic Socialism: is a economic system based on the merger of capitalism and socialism that often is accompanied by vague boundaries between governmental management of goods and services and diminished "hands-off" governmental involvement in the individual pursuit of economic stability
Demographic Questions: are questions which provide the basic categorical information about your respondent including: age, sex, race, education level, marital status, birth date, birth place, income, etc.
Demographic Transition Theory: claims that populations go through 3 distinct stages that correspond to the onset of the Industrial Revolution with changes in birth and death rates
Demography: is the scientific study of population growth and change.
Dependent Variables: survey variables that change in response to the influence of independent variables.
Deprivation Theory: claims that people feel relatively deprived in comparison to some other group or institution and use the social movement to equalize things
Deprived and Trapped: are the very poor, disabled, or emotionally disturbed who are often victims of other city dwellers
Deviance: is a violation of norms or rules of behavior that are typically outside of the norms
Differential Association: the process of learning deviance from others in your close relationships who provide role models of and opportunities for deviance. There's a useful formula to remember:
Definitions favorable to breaking law: Definitions unfavorable to breaking law
Direct correlation: means that the variables change in the same direction (IE: the more education you have the more money you make).
Discrimination: behavioral
Discrimination: behaviors which result in the unfair or unequal treatment of others. Discrimination is an action (not just a feeling or thought)
Disengagement Theory: claims that as elderly people realize the inevitability of death and begin to systematically disengage from their previous youthful roles, society simultaneously prepares the pre-elderly and elderly to disengage from their roles.
Divorce: the legal dissolution of a marriage
Doctorate: another 4-6 years past Bachelor's degree
Dominant group: is the group within a social system which has more power, control, and wealth
Doubling Time: the time required for a population to double if the current growth rate continues. To calculate the doubling time you simply divide 70 by the current growth rate of the country and that yields the number of years required for the double
Downward Mobility: moving from a higher to a lower class.
Dr. Elisabeth KŸbler-Ross Stages of Grief: denial: "All is fine or it didn't happen"; anger "why me? Or I hate God for this;" bargaining I be a better person if you (God) will just let him live;" depression "all is lost or why try?;" and acceptance "we'll be okay or we can get through this together"
Dyads: are a group of two people
Dysfunctions: breakdowns or disruptions in society and its parts, which threaten social stability.

E

Ecclesia: are religious organizations which have grown to be large and are integrated with government and other social institutions.
Economy: is a system of producing and distributing goods and services and can be local, state, national, international, and global
Educational Achievement: refers to how much the student has learned in terms of reading, writing, and arithmetic
Educational Attainment: number of years of school completed
Egalitarian Families: ones with power and authority more fairly distributed between husband and wife.
Egoistic Suicide: suicide which occurs when people are under-involved or under-committed to groups. This is the loner-type suicide when an individual is disconnected (or never connected) to others.
Elite Crime: Crimes of insider nature that typically are difficult to punish and have broad social consequences upon the masses
Emergent Norm Theory: claims that as crowds form and people interact, new norms develop in the crowd and facilitate certain actions
Emigration: is the departure from your country of origin to reside in another
Epidemiology: the scientific study of diseases, their transmission, and their management
Equilibrium: is the state of balance maintained by social processes that help society adjust and compensate for forces that might tilt it onto a path of destruction
Equity: a sense that the interactions are fair to us and fair to others involved by the consequences of our choices
Ethnic group: consist of people who share a common orientation toward the world, who develop a sense of peoplehood, and who are perceived by others as having a distinctive culture
Ethnic Villagers: are city dwellers who group together with others of the same ethnic background and set up miniature enclaves
Ethnocentrism: is the tendency to judge others based on our own experiences.
Experiments: are studies in which researchers can observe phenomena while holding other variables constant or controlling them
Expressive Movement: seeks to allow for expression of personal concerns and beliefs. Punk, Goths, and Emos are examples of this type
Expressive Tasks: pertain to the creation and maintenance of a set of positive, supportive, emotional relationships within the family unit.
Extended Family: are one's relatives beyond nuclear and blended family levels (IE Cousins, aunts & uncles, Grand and great grandparents)
Extreme value: the especially low or high number in the series
Exurbanization: where upper class city dwellers moved out of the city beyond the suburbs and lived in high-end housing in the countryside

F

Fad: is a novel form of behavior that catches on in popularity but later fades
Fair-weather liberal: are not prejudiced but do discriminate. These people tend to be those who go along with the crowd or obey orders
False Consciousness: when members of groups which are relatively powerless in society accept beliefs that work against their self-interests
False Social Conscious: is an ignorance of social facts and the larger social picture
Fatalistic Suicide: suicide which occurs when people are over regulated or over-constrained. This might happen in oppressive societies where people prefer to die rather than continue under the hopeless state of oppression (IE: prisoners of war, inmates, and refugees).
FBI's hate crime perpetrators: Hard-core offenders: extremely violent and aggressive (typically a Hate Group Member)
FBI's hate crime perpetrators: Reactive Offender: grounds his attack on a perceived transgression, such as an insult, interracial dating, or a neighborhood integration
FBI's hate crime perpetrators: Thrill Seekers: tends to commit hate crimes with peer group members but does not belong to hate group
Fecundity: the physiological ability to conceive or give birth to children.
Female Genital Mutilation: the traditional cutting, circumcision, and removal of most or all external genitalia of women for the end result of closing off some or part of the vagina until such time that the woman is married and cut open.
Feral Children: are wild or untamed children who grow up without typical adult socialization influences
Fertility: is a measure of the number of children born to a woman.
Field Experiments: studies which utilize experimental design but are initiated in everyday settings and non-laboratory environments. For example, a sociologist might manipulate the levels of lighting to study how factory work performance is impacted (Google Hawthorn Effect). A few other methods are sometimes used by Sociologists.
Filial piety: is the value, respect, and reverence of one's elderly which is often accompanied by caregiving and support of the elderly
Filtering: is the process of eliminating potential mates from the pool of eligible's in the market place.
First Standard Deviation: the area in the distribution where about two-thirds of the scores fall (1/3 above and 1/3 below the mean)
Folkway: is a traditional or customary norm governing everyday social behaviors.
Forced assimilation: is where those in power in the mainstream refuse to allow immigrants to maintain their various cultures.
Formatting: is the design and construction of the news story
Framing: involves placing the news story into a preexisting frame of reference for the public, so that they understanding it as journalists would have it be understood.
Functionalist theory: claims that society is in a state of balance and kept that way through the function of society's component parts.

G

Gemeinschaft (Guh-mine-shoft): means "intimate community"

Gender Roles: socialized expectations of what is normal, desirable, acceptable, and conforming for males and females in specific jobs or positions in groups and organizations over the life course
Gender Socialization: is the shaping of individual behavior and perceptions in such a way that the individual conforms to the socially prescribed expectations for males and females
Gender: is the cultural definition of what it means to be a man or a woman.
General Fertility Rate: the numbers of live births per 1,000 women aged 15-44.
Generalizability: means that the results from the sample can be assumed to apply to the population with confidence (as though the population itself had been studied).
Generalized other: are classes of people with whom a person interacts on the basis of generalized roles rather than individualized characteristics.
Gentrification: the purchase of rundown buildings in the city center which were remodeled for upper class apartments
Gerontology: is the scientific study of the processes and phenomena of aging and growing old
Gesellschaft (Guh-zell-shoft): means" impersonal associations"
GNI PPP: the gross national income of a country converted to international dollars using a factor called the purchasing power parity. In other words this lets you understand how much a person could buy in the US with a given amount of money, regardless of the country's currency.
Gordon Allport's Action-orientation level of prejudice: is a predisposition to act in favor of or against certain groups
Gordon Allport's Cognitive level of prejudice: refers to our perceptions and beliefs and is based on logical and rational thoughts
Gordon Allport's Emotional level of prejudice: refers to prejudiced feelings which are aroused by expression or thoughts
Grand Theory: a theory which deals with the universal aspects of social processes or problems and is based on abstract ideas and concepts rather than on case specific evidence. These include Conflict, Functionalism, Symbolic Interactionism, and Social Exchange Theories
Grief: the feeling of loss we experience after a death, disappointment, or tragedy.
Group: is a set of two or more people who share common identity, interact regularly, and have shared expectations (roles), and function in their mutually agreed upon roles.

H

Hate Crimes: acts of racial, religious, anti-immigration, sexual orientation, gender, and disability motivated violence
Hate Crimes: are perpetrated by individuals who attack others based on their own intense feelings of bias and bigotry
Heritability: is the proportion of our personality, self, and biological traits which stem from our genetic or socialization environmental factors.
Heterogamy: is the tendency to pair off with another person who is different in some ways from us.
Hijab: the Arabic word that means to cover or veil has become more common (_ij_b or ____,).
Homemaker: is typically a women who occupies her life with mothering, housekeeping, and being a wife while depending heavily on the breadwinner.
Homogamy: the tendency to pair off with another person who is similar to us. Most people are attracted to people of about the same beauty, about the same economic status, about the same value system, and often about the same cultural background
Homosexuality: sexual preference for person of same sex.
Horizontal Mobility: remaining in the same class.
Horticultural and Pastoral Societies: characterized by domestication of animals and the use of hand tools to cultivate plants developed and have also endured for centuries.
Human Ecology: studies the form, structure, and development of the community in human populations
Hunting and Gathering Societies: those whose economies which are based on hunting animals and gathering vegetation were very common throughout the history of the world.

I

Ideal Type: the abstract description of a social phenomena by which actual social phenomena may be compared (You'll see an ideal type in Chapter 9 on caste versus class economic systems).
Ideological racism: is an ideology that considers a group's physical characteristics to be causally related to inferiority or superiority
Immigration: the arrival of a foreigner into a country they will reside in and likely become a citizen of on some future date
In general Agents: people involved in our socialization
Independent Variables: survey variables that when manipulated will stimulate a change upon the dependent variables
Indian Religions: which originated from the Sub-Asian continent of India.
Industrial Revolution: a technological development of knowledge and manufacturing that began in the late 1600s and continued until the early 1900s.
Industrial Societies: utilize machinery and energy sources (steam engine) rather than humans and animals for production
Infant Mortality Rate: the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The CDR and IMR vary greatly between countries and regions
Instrumental Tasks: goal directed activities which link the family to the surrounding society, geared toward obtaining resources. This includes economic work, breadwinning, and other resource-based efforts.
Interdependence: the dependence on others for support in order to be able to succeed. This principle works just the opposite of competition
Inter-generational Mobility: research of mobility between generations (IE: grandparents to parents to grandchildren to great-grandchildren).
Intimacy: the social, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and physical trust that is mutually shared between family members. Family members share confidences, advice, trust, secrets, and ongoing mutual concern
Intra-generational Mobility: research of mobility within a generation.
Inverse correlation: means that the variables change in opposite directions (IE: the more education you have the less criminal activity you get caught doing).
Involvement: the more a person participates in legitimate activities, the greater the inhibition towards deviance

J-K-L

Labeling theory: claims that the labels people are given affect their perceptions and channel their behaviors into deviance or conformity.
Language: is a complex set of symbols which allow us to communicate verbally, nonverbally, and in written form
Larger Social Issues: lies beyond one's personal control and the range of one's inner life. These pertain to society's organization and processes
Latent functions: are the less apparent, unintended, and often unrecognized functions in social institutions and processes
Laws: are codified norms or norms written and recorded from which the behavior of society's members can be judged
Le Bon's Contagion Theory: claimed that in a crowd people get caught up in the collective mind of the crowd and evade personal responsibility for their actions
Less Developed Nations: nations located near to or south of the Equator which have less wealth and more of the world's population of inhabitants including: Africa, India, Central and South America, most island nations, and most of Asia (Excluding China)
Life Chances: access to basic opportunities and resources in the marketplace. Not all of us have the same life chances as others.
Life Chances: is an individual's access to basic opportunities and resources in the marketplace
Life course: an ideal sequence of events and positions the average person is expected to experience as he/she matures and moves through life
Life expectancy: the average numbers of years a person born today may expect to live.
Likert Scale Questions: are the most common response scale used in surveys and questionnaires. These questions are statements which respondents are asked to agree or disagree with (IE: Our campus would be deeply hurt by a football team). The respondents choose from the scale below for their answer:
Longitudinal Survey: is a survey given to the same people more than once and typically over a set of years or decades.
Looking-Glass Self: the reflection of who we think we see by observing the treatment and behaviors of others towards us. Three steps: 1. We imagine how we appear to others; 2. We imagine and interpret their judgment of us; and 3. We react positively or negatively to that perceived judgment while developing a self-concept

M

Macro Theories: are theories which best fit the study of massive numbers of people (typically Conflict and Functional theories).
Macro theory: a sociological theory designed to study the larger social, global, and societal level of sociological phenomena.
Main Stream Culture: the culture shared by the dominant groups, coinciding with the culture shared in the main social institutions (government, education, religion, family, technology, media, and the economy).
Male Bashing: is the verbal abuse and use of pejorative and derogatory language about men.
Male Supremacy Model: where males erroneously believe that men are superior in all aspects of life and that should excel in everything they do.
Manifest functions: are the apparent and intended functions of institutions in society
Margaret Mead's Mundugamor: both men and women were: insensitive, uncooperative, and very aggressive. These were typical masculine traits at the time.
Margaret Mead's Tchambuli: women were aggressive, rational and capable and were also socially dominant. Men were passive assuming artistic and leisure roles.
Margaret Mead's Arapesh: both men and women displayed what we typically call feminine traits: sensitivity, cooperation, and low levels of aggression
Marginalization: the purposeful mistreatment of minority group members that yields them geographically part of the society while simultaneously being functionally left out of most of its opportunities
Marginalization: the tendency for adult immigrants to be rendered powerless in comparison to native-born adults because they live as a half citizen not fully capable of realizing the individual opportunities often found available to average native-born adults
Marital Entropy: the principle that if a marriage does not receive preventative maintenance and upgrades it will move towards decay and break down
Marital: vast intermarriage between mainstream members and newcomers;
Marriage Squeeze: a shortage of males or females in the marriage market
Mass Media: are channels of communication in a mass society, especially electronic and print media.
Mass: is a large number of people oriented toward a set of shared symbols or social objects (media)
Master Status: a social position that is so intense it becomes the primary characteristic of the individual (ex-con, gang banger, etc.). Understanding how powerful a master status can be as a labeling influence helps to understand why so many criminal reoffend and end up incarcerated again.
Recidivism: being arrested again after having served a sentence for another crime. Recidivism rates indicate that the majority of US prisoners have been in prison before (perhaps 60-80% depending on the studies and how they were taken).
Master Status: a status which stands out above our other statuses and which distracts others from really seeing who we are.
Masters: another 2-year degree past Bachelor's
Maternal Death: the death of a pregnant woman resulting from pregnancy, delivery, or recovery complications
Matriarchal Families: are families where females have more power and authority than males and rights and inheritances pass from mothers to daughter and sons.
Mean World Syndrome: the tendency to view society as being meaner and more violent than it really is because of the violent and harsh TV shows one has watched over the years
Mean: the arithmetic score of all the numbers divided by the total number of students
Mechanical Solidarity: is a shared conscious among society's members who each has a similar form of livelihood.
Median: the exact mid-point value in the ranked list of scores
Megachurches: modern churches attended by thousands of followers in person and even many thousands more via television or the Internet
Megalopolis: which is an overspill of one urban area into another often where many small towns grow into one huge urban area connected by a major transportation corridor
Melting Pot Theory: an ideology which suggested that all the diverse people coming to the U.S. as immigrants would blend biologically and culturally in order to form a new unique breed of "Americans."
Men's Movement: a broad effort across societies and the world to improve the quality of life and family-related rights of men. In the past two decades a social movement referred to as The Men's Movement has emerged.
Merton's Adaptations Merton's goal means gap ways people respond:
Messianic Movements: seek to bring about social change with the promise of miraculous intervention. Almost always these movements are led by a rather charismatic leader and followed by people inclined to need or want to be a part of something exceptional in their lives
Metropolitan Areas: large population concentration in a city which has the influence of the city's various zones. Each city has a number of zones of influence within its boundaries
Metropolitan Statistical Area: includes one or more adjacent counties that has at least one 50,000 populated urban center that influences the economic, transportation and social connection of the area
Micro Theories: are theories which best fit the study of small groups and their members (typically Symbolic Interactionism or Social Exchange theories).
Micropolitan: an urban area with 10,000-49,000 inhabitants
Middle-old: 75-84 years
Middle-Range Theory: a theory derived from specific scientific findings and focuses on the interrelation of two or more concepts applied to a very specific social process or problem.
Minority group: is a group living within a society which is disadvantaged in terms of power, control of their own lives, and wealth.
Misogyny: the physical or verbal abuse and mistreatment of women.
Mode: the number which occurs the most in a list of
Modernization Theory: claims that industrialization and modernization have lowered the power and influence which the elderly once had which has lead to much exclusion of elderly from community roles.
Monogamy: is the marriage form permitting only one spouse.
More Developed Nations: nations with comparably higher wealth than most countries of the world including: Western Europe; Canada, United States, Japan, and Australia
MorŽs: are deeply held, informal norms that are strictly enforced.
Multiple Nuclei Theory: which claims that cities have multiple centers (Nuclei) that yield influence on the growth and nature of an urban area

N


Natural Increase: (Births-Deaths) or all births minus all the deaths in a given population over a given time period
Nature versus Nurture: the debate over the influence of biological versus social influences in socialization.
Near Poverty: is when one earns up to 25% above the poverty line. We would say that a person near poverty has an income below 125% of the current poverty line.
Negative sanctions: a punishment or negative reaction toward breaking codified norms-laws. Jail time, criminal record, fines, and penalties are just of few of the sanctions available to law breakers
Negative sanctions: a punishment or negative reaction toward deviance
Neo-Malthusian: an antinatalist who agrees with Malthus, but reject his conservative and religious proscriptions
Net Migration: ((In-Migration)-(Out Migration)) or all the in-migration minus all the out-migration in a given population over a given time period.
Nominal Data: data which has no standard numerical values. This is often referred to as categorical data (IE: what is your favorite type of pet? __Reptile __Canine __Feline __Bird __Other).
Norm: set of expected behaviors for a given role and social status
Normative Organizations: people join these because they perceive their goals as being socially or morally worthwhile (IE: Greenpeace);
Normative perspective: claims that deviance is only a violation of a specific group's or society's rules at a specific point in time
Normative Trust: trust based on a sense of belonging and feelings (families and communities)
Norms: are shared expectations or rules of behavior
Nuclear Family: is a family group consisting of mother & father and their children.

O

Objective Method: where researchers set up categories and rank people according to preset objective criteria (such as median household income).
Objectivity: is the ability to study and observe without distortion or bias, especially personal bias. Bias-free research is an ideal that, if not present will open the door to extreme misinterpretation of research findings
Oil and Water Idea About Rape: we must resist the tendency to imply blame by questioning how effectively a woman went about defending herself from a possible rape while simultaneously remembering that it is always the rapist fault
Old-old: 85+ years.
One drop theory: claims that if there is one drop of another race's blood (mostly targeted toward Black blood) then you are tainted by it
Open Class System: an economic system that has upward mobility, is achievement-based, and allows social relations between the classes. India has a closed caste system.
Open Survey Questions: are questions designed to get respondents to answer in their own words (IE: "what might be the benefits of having a football team?"____ ______________ or "what might be a negative consequence of having a football team?"___ ____________).
Ordinal Data: rank ordered data which has standard numerical values. This is often referred to as numerical data.
Organic Solidarity: is a sense of interdependence on the specializations of occupations in modern society.
Organized crime: crime perpetrated by covert organizations which are extremely secretive and organized, devoted to criminal activity

P

Panic: occurs when crowds or masses react suddenly to perceived entrapment, exclusion, or danger
Participant Observation: a research method where the researcher participates in activities and more or less assumes membership in the group she studies.
Patriarchal Families: are families where males have more power and authority than females and where rights and inheritances typically pass from fathers to sons
Permissible assimilation: permits newcomers to adapt to the mainstream culture naturally.
Perpetual Discontent: is a two-pronged advertising theme which emphasizes: 1) how broken and flawed we are and 2) how we can buy hope in the form of a product being sold.
Personal Troubles: are private problems experienced within the character of the individual and the range of their immediate relation to others.
Phrenology: an outdated scientific approach of studying the shape and characteristics of the skull
Pluralism: which claims that power is diffused among many diverse interests groups and that in fact not all wealthy elite people unite on the same side of most issues
Pluralistic theory of social control: claims that society is made up of many competing groups whose diverse interests are continuously balanced
Polls: are typically surveys which collect opinions (such as who one might vote for in an election, how one feels about the outcome of a controversial issue, or how one evaluates a public official or organization
Population Change: (Births-Deaths) +/- ((In-Migration)-(Out Migration)). Population Change is then added to a previous year's population to yield new population estimate
Polyandry: is marriage form permitting more than one husband at the same time.
Polygamy: is marriage form permitting more than one spouse at the same time.
Polygyny: is marriage form permitting more than one wife at the same time and is the most common form of polygamy in the world's history.
Polytheistic: religions with multiple Gods such as Hinduism.
Population Density: the number of people per square mile or square kilometer
Population Pyramid: the graphic representation of specified 5-year age groups within a population and by being males or females
Population: the entre membership of a country, organization, group, or category of people to be surveyed
Positive sanction: rewards for conforming behavior
Positivism: the objective and value-free observation, comparison, and experimentation applied to scientific inquiry.
Positivism: the scientific-based sociological research that uses scientific tools such as survey, sampling, objective measurement, and cultural and historical analysis to study and understand society
Postindustrial Societies: societal production based on creating, processing, and storing information.
Poverty Line: the official measure of those whose incomes are less than three times a lower cost food budget.
Power: is the ability to get what one wants even in the presence of opposition.
Power: the ability to get one's way even in the face of opposition to one's goals.
Power Elite: the political, corporate, and military leaders of a society are uniquely positioned to commit elite crime
Power-Assertive Rapist: has a very low self-concept; he attempts to reassure himself on his manhood; and uses very little force or violence
Power-Reassurance Rapists: is the most common type of rapist; he uses little to no violence; has a very weak sense of self and of lacking "manliness;" and rape is his outlet of power, domination, anger, and control
Prejudice: attitudinal
Prescriptive laws: laws that state what must be done
Prestige: is the degree of social honor attached with your position in society.
Primary Deviance: when an individual violates a norm, becomes identified by others as being deviant while maintaining a self-definition of being a conformist
Primary Groups: tend to be smaller, less formal, and more intimate (Families and friends)
Primary Sector: part of economic production involving agriculture, mining, fishing, and materials acquisition
Primary socialization: includes all the ways the newborn is molded into a social being capable of interacting in and meeting the expectations of society
Profane: that which is part of the regular everyday life experience.
Proletariat: are the common working class, lower class, and poor members of society.
Pronatalist: a perspective which promotes birth and increased population
Propenquity: the geographic proximity of two potential mates to one another.
Property: all the wealth, investments, deeded and titled properties, and other tangible sources of income.
Proscriptive laws: laws which state what is forbidden
Pull Factors: are positive aspects of another place which draw you to migrate to it
Push Factors: are negatives aspects of where you live which make you consider leaving
Racial group: is a group of people with perceived unique biological and physical characteristics

Q-R

Random Sample: a portion of the population that is drawn in such a way that every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the survey
Reactionary Movement: seeks to return the institutions and values of the past by doing away with existing ones
Reactive perspective: claims that behavior does not become deviant unless it is disapproved of by those in authority (laws)
Reformist Movement: seeks partial changes in only a few institutions on behalf of interest groups.
Relative Deprivation: the perception of not being the rightful beneficiary of something a person feels entitled to receive
Reliable Survey Questions: are survey questions that are relatively free from bias errors which might taint the findings. In other words, reliable survey questions are consistent.
Religion: is a unified system of beliefs, rituals, and practices that typically involve a broader community of believers who share common definitions of the sacred and the profane.
Religiosity: the measurable importance of religion to a person's life.
Representative Sample: is a sample drawn from the population, the composition of which very much resembles that of the population
Reputational Method: is where researchers look to people who know the individual and subjectively report on his/her class.
Resource Mobilization Theory: a social movement succeeds or fails based on people's ability to gather and organize resources
Response Rate: is the percentage of the original sample who successfully completed the survey,
Revolutionary Movement: seeks to overthrow existing institutions and class systems while replacing them with new ones
Riots: a collection of large numbers of people who act violently in protest against some authority or action of others (typically governmental or corporate authority)
Role Conflict: conflict and burdens one feels because the expectations of one role compete with the expectations of another role
Role Strain: is the burden one feels within any given role. And when one role comes into direct conflict another or other roles you might experience
Rural: the geographic territory in the less populated regions of a society

S

Sacred: supernatural, divine, awe inspiring, and spiritually significant aspects of our existence.
Sample Size: is the number of respondents who are designated to take the survey
Sample: some portion of the population but not all of it
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: claims that when we learn a language, we also learn a framework for understanding and interpreting our social reality and environment.
Second Standard Deviation: has the next 28 percent of the scores (13.6% above and 13.6% below)
Secondary Analysis: the analysis of data that have already been gathered by others.
Secondary Deviance: when the individual internalizes the deviant identity others have placed upon him/her
Secondary Groups: tend to be larger, more formal, and much less personal (you and your doctor, mechanic, or accountant).
Secondary Sector: part of the economic production involving manufacturing (factories and home-based)
Secondary socialization: occurs in later childhood and adolescence when children go to school and come under the influence of non-family members
Sect: is a group larger than a cult but still perceived as being weird and is often treated with hostility by non-sect members. A sect is relatively small by comparison to an established church.
Sector Theory: claims that cities grow in pie wedge shapes as the city
Secularization: the trend toward worldly concerns and away from concerns for the religiously sacred in the lives of society's members
Self-esteem: pride in oneself, a positive self-regard, an inordinately high positive self-regard, or a high self-respect
Sequencing: ordering news stories in such a way as to present a thematic message.
Serial Monogamy or Serial Polygamy: the process of establishing intimate marriage or cohabiting relationships that eventually dissolve and are followed by another intimate marriage or cohabiting relationships that eventually dissolve, etc. in a series.
Sex ratio: number of males per 100 females.
Sex Ratio: the number of males per 100 females in a given population.
Sex: is one's biological classification as male or female and is set into motion at the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg
Sexual assault: can be defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient of the unwanted sexual activity. Falling under the definition of sexual assault is sexual activity such as forced sexual intercourse, sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. Some more specific examples of sexual assault include
Sexual Objectification of Women: where men learn to view women as objects of sexual consumption rather than as a whole person.
Simple Supernaturalism: no gods, focuses on human & non-human supernatural forces which influences us for better or worse.
SMART Paradigm: Smart stands for: Samples; Methods; Attitude of skepticism; Researcher bias; Thorough understanding of literature
Social Cohesion: is the degree to which members of a group or a society feel united by shared values and other social bonds.
Social Construction of Reality: what people define as real because of their background assumptions and life experiences with others
Social control: formal and informal attempts at enforcing norms
Social Dynamics: study of social structure and how it influences social change.
Social Exchange: claims that society is composed of ever present interactions among individuals who attempt to maximize rewards while minimizing costs (REWARDS-COSTS)
Social Facts: phenomena within society that typically exists independent of individual choices and actions
Social Gerontology: is the sociological subfield of gerontology which focuses on the nonphysical and social aspects of aging.
Social Integration: the degree to which people are connected to their social groups. Let's check your own personal degree of social integration.
Social Learning: is an approach that studies how people learn behaviors through interactions with others.
Social Mobility: the movement between economic strata in a society's system.
Social Movements: are intentional efforts by groups in a society to create new institutions or reform existing ones
Social order: are the customary and typical social arrangements which society's members use to base their daily lives on.
Social Statics: study of social structure and how it influences social stability
Social Stratification: is the socio-economic layering of society's members according to property, power, and prestige.
Social Structure Origin of Prejudice: occurs when prejudice is built into the group, community, and social institutional components of society
Social Structure: refers to the recurring patterns of behavior in society which people create through their interactions and relationships
Socialism: is an economy based on governmental management and control of goods and services
Socialization of prejudice: learning prejudice from people we look up to (family, relatives, teachers, etc...)
Socialization: is the process by which people learn characteristics of their group's norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors
Society: is a population of people which shares the same geographic territory and culture.
Sociobiology: claims that human behavior is the result of natural selection.
Socio-Economic Status (SES): is a combination of one's education, occupation, and income and has been found to be highly correlated with a better quality of life for those in society who have higher SES scores
Sociometry: is the study of groups and their structures (Google Jacob L. Moreno for its founder).
Solidaristic crowds: are crowd which gather as an act of social unity. Breast Cancer awareness events are an example of this type crowd
Spurious correlation: an apparent relationship between two variables which indicates their relationship to a third variable and not to each other (IE: the more education you have, the higher your family's standard of living, and the lower your likelihood of participating in criminal activities). In other words there are other correlated factors that influence criminal behavior that simultaneously are at play.
Status: is a socially defined position.
Stereotype: is a broad generalization about groups based solely on the group affiliation
Stereotypes: broad generalizations about a category of people who are assumed to have positive and negative traits common to every single member of that category
Stigma: is an attribute which is deeply discrediting and that reduces the person from a whole and usual person to a tainted or discredited one
Stimulus-Value-Role Theory of Marital Choice: states that as people find someone they are attracted to, they initiate contact, spend time together comparing values and establishing compatibility, and eventually either break things off or make commitments toward marriage or cohabitation
Stratified Random Sample: a portion of the population is drawn in such a way that every member of the population and important sub-categories of the population have an equal chance of being selected for the survey, yielding a sample that is demographically similar to population
Street crimes: are crimes committed by average persons against members, groups, and organizations
Structural Mobility: mobility in social class which is attributable to changes in social structure of a society at the larger social, not personal level.
Structural: large scale entrance into the various parts of the social structure including clubs, religions, workplace, schools, etc...
Structural-Strain Theory: social problems/strains on the current social structure combined with discontent lead to movements
Subculture: is one in which groups which have different folkways, mores, and norms, exist within but are no completely a part of the larger society.
Suburban: smaller cities located on the edges of the larger city which often include residential neighborhoods for those working in the area
Suicide Rates: numbers of suicides per 100,000 people in a population.
Suicide: the purposeful ending of one's own life for any reason.
Supply: is the availability of goods and services in the market place
Surveys: research instruments designed to obtain information from individuals who belong to a larger group, organization, or society
Symbolic Interaction: claims that society is composed of ever present interactions among individuals who share symbols and their meanings.

T

Taking the role of other: when children put themselves in someone else's shoes, understand how he/she feels, and anticipate how he/she will act
Terrorism: the use of murder and mayhem to create a state of fear which can be used to gain political, religious, or ideological advantage
Tertiary Sector: work which involves providing a service to others such as food, retail, computer processing, or information management
Thanatology: is the scientific study of death and dying
Theistic Religions: have divine beings which are Gods. There are three Monotheistic Religions that have one single all powerful God: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.
Theory: a set of interrelated concepts used to describe, explain, and predict how society and its parts are related to each other
Third Standard Deviation\: has the next 4 percent (2.1% above and below); and the Fourth Standard Deviation has the last 0.2 percent (0.1% above and below the mean)
Thomas Theorem: is often called the "Definition of the situation" which is basically if people perceive or define something as being real then it is real in its consequences
Timid bigots: are prejudiced but won't discriminate. These people tend to be afraid of acting on their prejudices, not wanting be caught or punished
Total Fertility Rate: the total number of children ever born to a woman calculated both individually and at the societal level.
Total Institution: an institution that controls almost all aspects of its member's lives and all aspects of the individual life is controlled by those in authority in the institution
Totalitarian Government: a political system where a small power elite controls virtually every aspect of the personal and larger social levels of society
Trading Theory: claims that the surplus was not as important as were the specialists who knew how to create it and do other occupations.
Transparency: the creation of rules, regulations, and guidelines to be followed by all students, teachers, and parents
Triads: are a group of three people
True rate: Number of events/ Number at risk of the event.

U

Uncontacted Tribe: is a native tribe, typically a small group of people, living in a remote and isolated place who have not yet had contact with technologically advanced society members.
Unmarried Singles: ages 20-30's persons who enjoy the city-singles scene and will probably move when they get older or marry
Unwed Mothers: mothers who are not legally married at the time of the child's birth.
Upward Mobility: moving from a lower to higher class.
Urban: the geographic territory within or close to a city
Urbanization: is the societal trend where the proportion of people living in cities is increasing while the proportion living in the country side diminishes
Utilitarian Organizations: people typically join because of some tangible benefit which they expect to receive (Girl Scouts, PTA, or a political party).

V

Valid Survey Questions: are questions that are accurate and measure what they claim they'll measure
Values: are defined standards of what is good, bad, desirable, or undesirable for ourselves and others
Variables: survey questions that measure some characteristic of the population
Voluntary Organizations: formalized groups of individuals who work toward a common organizational (and often personal) set of goals

W-X-Y-Z

White-collar crime: crimes committed by persons of respectable and high social status committed in the course of their occupations
Widowhood: occurs when one's spouse dies.
Widows: are surviving wives
Widowers: are surviving husbands
World-taken-for-granted: is all of the assumptions about our fit into our social and physical environment.
Young-old: 65-74 years
Zero Population Growth: occurs when a population neither shrinks nor expands from year to year.

Sociology 1010

Glossary of Terms

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