sociology - first

1. Sociology is the scientific study of social behavior.
2. It is the science that uses empirical methods to develop knowledge about social order, social disorder, and social change.
3. Society is a social organism that possesses a harmony of structure and function.
4. Theory is a series of propositions about the possible nature of an object or phenomenon.
5. Sociological theory comes out of attempts to explain and link specific aspects of the social world.
6. Reading sociological theory provides us with a different and sometimes surprising context. Thus, it gives us new perspectives of familiar ideas.
7. Culture is the whole sociological agreements that members of a particular society have.
8. A symbol is a particular meaning attributed to something that is recognized by people who share culture.
9. Beliefs are ideas about what is thought to be real by people who share culture.
10. Language represents a system of symbols that allow people to communicate with one another.
11. Values are culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness and beauty that serve as broad guidelines for social living.
12. Values are statements from the standpoint of culture, of what ought to be.
13. Norms represent rules by which a society guides its members.
14. Doing ‘wrong’ according to norms may cause shame and guilt as well as negative judgment of oneself.
15. There are three basic norms: folkways, morals, and law.
16. Subculture is a cultural patterns that distinguishes some parts of a society’s population, like musicians, students, professors, etc.
17. Multiculturalism is an educational program that recognizes the cultural differences of the world and promotes the equality of all cultural traditions.
18. Counterculture is a cultural patters that opposes patterns widely accepted within a society.
19. Cultural change is achieved through invention, discovery, and diffusion. For example, invention of the car, discovery of some new food, and the spread of an idea from one society to another.
20. Diffusion is the borrowing of cultural elements from other societies instead of inventing them within the host society.
21. Cultural similarity refers to the shared cultural traits such as sports, cooking, education, family, jokes, music, and so on.
22. Cultural diversity refers to cultural variations that exist among cultures and within culture.
23. Acculturation is borrowing cultural traits and social patterns of another group.
24. Accommodation is a process of mutual adaptation among individuals or groups usually achieved by reducing hostility.
25. Personality is a person’s fairly consistent patterns of acting, thinking and feeling.
26. Social self is that part of an individual’s personality composed of self-awareness and self-image.
27. Socialization is the lifelong social experiences by which individuals develop their human potential and learn culture.
28. Social interaction is the process by which people act and react in relation to others.
• Cooperation is the combining of efforts of individuals or groups to reach a common goal.
• Coercion means compelling an individual to behave in a certain way by another individual or group.
• Conformity is a type of social interaction in which an individual behaves towards others in a way expected by the group.
29. Status is the recognized social position that an individual occupies.
30. The statuses a person holds at a particular time are called “Status set”
• Ascribed status is a status a person receives at birth or assumes involuntarily later in life.
• Achieved status is a social position that a person assumes voluntarily and that reflects personal ability and choice.
• Master status is a position that carries exceptional importance for identity and often shapes a person’s life.
31. Role refers to behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status.
32. Role Set is a number of roles attached to a single status.
33. Role Conflict is the contradiction among roles related to two or more statuses.
34. Role strain is the contradiction among roles related to one status.
35. Social group is two or more people who identify and interact with one another.
36. Primary group is a small group whose members share personal and enduring relationships.
37. Secondary group is a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a special goal or activity.
38. Peer group is a group of individuals of roughly the child’s same age and with the same interests.
39. Gender is the significance that members of a society attach to being male or female.
40. Gender identity is the awareness of being masculine or feminine. To be a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, is as much a function of dress, occupation, and personality, as it is possessing certain features biologically.
41. Sexism is the belief that one sex is innately superior to the other.
42. Patriarchy is a form of social organization in which males dominate females.
43. Feminism is a call for social equality for men and women, opposing patriarchy and sexism.
44. Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage; members of an ethnic group may have shared ancestors, language and religion that distinct their social identity.
45. Minority is a group of people that are different physically or culturally, and therefore, socially disadvantaged.
46. Prejudice is a strict irrational generalization about an entire group of people.