Soc 2 ch 1-5

Society is a group of people that share group membership, culture, and territory

Began with the Industrial Revolution. People moved from farms to the city for work. cities created social problems ie. poor working conditions, pay rates and labor issues.

Functionalist perspective: emphasize the way in which the parts of society are structured to maintain stability. (Macro)

Conflict perspective: Assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power, or the allocation of resources.(Macro)

Interactionist perspective: emphasize face to face everyday interactions, how people use symbols to create social life. (Micro)

• 1. Select topic    
• 2. Define problem
• 3. Review Literature
• 4. Formulate hypothesis
• 5. Choose Research design
• 6.Collect Data
• 7. Analyze results
• 8. Publish findings

Sociology is the systemic study of the relationship between individuals and society and of the consequences of difference

Anomie is loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective.

Macro: large scale or entire societies

Micro: small scale or individual

Meso: World Scale

Sociological Imagination: The ability to look beyond the individual as the cause for success and failure and see how one's society influences the outcome

Sociological Perspective: Understanding human behavior by placing it within broader social context

• 1) Research:building systemic studies through the collection of data.
• 2) Individual freedom to choose and act
• 3) societies: our social environment and how we interact with each other.
• 4)Consequences of these interactions & how they create differences between individuals, groups, countries and the world.

• A set of statements that seek to explain
• 1. problems
• 2. Actions
• 3. Behaviors

Culture:Everything humans create in establishing our relationships to nature and with each other.  Learned,taught, and passed down to future generations.

Society:The structure of relationship within each culture and shared through regularized patterns of social interaction

Sociobiology:The systemic study of how biology affects human social behavior

Discovery:The process of making known or sharing the existence of an aspect of reality.

Invention:The combination of existing cultural items into a form that did not exist before.

Material Culture: the physical or technological aspects of our daily lives

non-material culture:Way of using material objects, as well as customs, ideas, expressions, beliefs, knowledge, philosophies, governments, and patterns of communication.

Technology:A form of culture in which humans modify the natural enviorment to meet our wants and needs.

Culture lag: A period of adjustment when the nonmaterial culture is still struggeling to adapt to the new matrerial conditions

Language: A system of shared symbols including speech, written characters, numerals, symbols, and non verbal gestures and expressions

Nonverbal communication: The use of facial expressions, and other visual images to communicate.

Value:A collective conception of what is considered good desirable and proper-or bad undesirable, and improper in a culture.

Norms: An established standard of behavior maintained by a society.

Folkways: Norms governing everyday behavior, whose violation raises comparatievtly little concern.

Sanctions: A penalty or reward for conduct concerning a social norm

Dominate ideology:A set of cultural beliefs and practices that legitmates existing powerful social, economic, and political interests

Subculture: A segment of society that shares a distinctive pattern of mores, folkways, and values that differs from the pattern of the larger society.

Counterculture: A subculture that delibertely opposes certine aspects of the larger culture.

Culture shock: The feelings of disorientation, uncertainty, and even fear that people experience when they encounter unfamiliar cultural practices.

Ethnocentrism: The tendency to assume that one's own culture and way of life represent what's normal or superior to all others.

• Cultural Relativism: The viewing of peoples behavior from the perspective of their own culture.
• Socialization: The life long process through which people lean the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.

• 1. family
• 2. school
• 3.peer group
• 4.mass media/technology
• 5.the work place
• 6.religion and the state

*the process of socialization in which a person "rehearses" for the future positions, occupations, and social relationships.

The process of discarding former behavior patterns and accepting new ones as part of a transition in one's life.

Midlife crisis: A stressful period of self-evaluation that begins at about age 40.

Sandwich generation: The generation of adults who simultaneously try to meet the competing needs of their parents and their children.

Role strain: The difficulty that arises when the same social status imposes conflicting demands and expectations. 

• Role Exit :the process of disengaging from a role that is central to one's self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity.

• 1. Statues
• 2. Social roles
• 3. Groups
• 4. master status
• 5. Social networks
• 6. Virtual worlds

1. ascribed status: the social position assigned to a person by society without regard for a persons unique characteristics.

• 2. achieved status: social status within our power to change.
• 3. master status is a status that dominate others and determines a persons general position in society.

Role strain: The difficulty that arises when the same social status imposes conflicting demands and expectations. 

Role Exit :the process of disengaging from a role that is central to one's self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity.

1.Primary group:small group characterized by intimate face-to-face association and cooperation

2. Secondary group is a formal impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or mutual understanding.

in groups are people who share a common identity and sense of belonging.

out groups are people who do not belong or do not fit in.

Reference group is any group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.

Coalition is a tempoary or perminate alliance geared toward a common goal.

Social networks are a series of social relationships that link individuals directly to others, and indirectly to still more people.

Electronic manifestation of of a social network allowing an individual to create their persona

Social institutions are organized patterns of beliefs and behavior centered on basic social needs.