SOC 202 Final Exam Key Terms

Tendency to attribute people’s achievements and failures to their personal qualities

Way of examining human life that focuses on the broad social forces and structural features of society that exist above the level of individual people

Way of examining human life that focuses on the immediate, everyday experiences of individuals

Ability to see the impact of social forces on our private lives

The systematic study of human societies

Social position acquired through our own efforts or accomplishments or taken on voluntarily

Social position acquired at birth or taken on involuntarily later in life

Theoretical perspective that views the structure of society as a source of inequality that always benefits some groups at the expense of other groups

Language, values, beliefs, rules, behaviors, and artifacts that characterize a society

Theoretical perspective that focuses on gender as the most important source of conflict and inequality in social life

Process through which people’s lives all around the world become economically, politically, environmentally, and culturally interconnected

Set of people who interact more or less regularly and who are conscious of their identity as a unit

The groups to which we belong and toward which we feel a sense of loyalty

Unintended, unrecognized consequences of activities that help some part of the social system

Intended, obvious consequences of activities designed to help some part of the social system

Culturally defined standard or rule of conduct

Large, complex network of positions created for a specific purpose and characterized by a hierarchical division of labor

The groups to which we don’t belong and toward which we feel a certain amount of antagonism

Collection of individuals who are together for a relatively long period, whose members have direct contact with and feel emotional attachment to one another

Set of expectations—rights, obligations, behaviors, duties—associated with a particular status

Frustration people feel when the demands of one role they are expected to fulfill clash with the demands of another role

Situations in which people lack the necessary resources to fulfill the demands of a particular role

Relatively impersonal collection of individuals that is established to perform a specific task

Stable set of roles, statuses, groups, and organizations—such as the institution of education, family, politics, religion, health care, or the economy—that provides a foundation for behavior in some major area of social life

A population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members are subject to the same political authority

Any named social position that people can occupy

Theoretical perspective that posits that social institutions are structured to maintain stability and order in society

Something used to represent or stand for something else

Theoretical perspective that explains society and social structure through an examination of the microlevel, personal, day-to-day exchanges of people as individuals, pairs, or groups

Standard of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes

Type of unobtrusive research that relies on data gathered earlier by someone else for some other purpose

Form of unobtrusive research that studies the content of recorded messages, such as books, speeches, poems, songs, television shows, websites, and advertisements

Variable that is assumed to be caused by, or to change as a result of, the independent variable

Research that operates from the ideological position that questions about human behavior can be answered only through controlled, systematic observations in the real world

Research method designed to elicit some sort of behavior, typically conducted under closely controlled laboratory circumstances

Type of social research in which the researcher observes events as they actually occur

Form of social research that relies on existing historical documents as a source of data

Researchable prediction that specifies the relationship between two or more variables

Unquestioned cultural belief that cannot be proved wrong no matter what happens to dispute it

Variable presumed to cause or influence the dependent variable

Measurable event, characteristic, or behavior commonly thought to reflect a particular concept

Form of field research in which the researcher observes people without directly interacting with them and without letting them know that they are being observed

Form of field research in which the researcher interacts with subjects, sometimes hiding his or her identity

Capable only of identifying those forces that have a high likelihood, but not a certainty, of influencing human action

Sociological research based on nonnumeric information (text, written words, phrases, symbols, observations) that describes people, actions, or events in social life

A problem associated with certain forms of research in which the very act of intruding into people’s lives may influence the phenomenon being studied

Typical of the whole population being studied

Subgroup chosen for a study because its characteristics approximate those of the entire population

Assumption or prediction that in itself causes the expected event to occur, thus seeming to confirm the prophecy’s accuracy

Process through which the members of a society discover, make known, reaffirm, and alter a collective version of facts, knowledge, and “truth”

A false association between two variables that is actually due to the effect of some third variable

Form of social research in which the researcher asks subjects a series of questions verbally, online, or on paper

Set of statements or propositions that seeks to explain or predict a particular aspect of social life

Research technique in which the researcher, without direct contact with the subjects, examines the evidence of social behavior that people create or leave behind

Principle that people’s beliefs and activities should be interpreted in terms of their own culture

Tendency to judge other cultures using one’s own as a standard

Informal norm that is mildly punished when violated

Culture in which heterosexuality is accepted as the normal, taken-for-granted mode of sexual expression

Pattern of behavior within existing social institutions that is widely accepted in a society

Category of individuals in whom sexual differentiation is either incomplete or ambiguous (also known as people with disorders of sex development)

Artifacts of a society that represent adaptations to the social and physical environment

Highly codified, formal, systematized norms that bring severe punishment when violated

Knowledge, beliefs, customs, values, morals, and symbols that are shared by members of a society and that distinguish the society from others

Social response that punishes or otherwise discourages violations of a social norm

Belief that two biological sex categories, male and female, are permanent, universal, exhaustive, and mutually exclusive

Set of norms governing how one is supposed to behave and what one is entitled to when sick

Values, behaviors, and artifacts of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture

Various individuals, groups, and organizations that influence the socialization process

Process through which people acquire the values and orientations found in statuses they will likely enter in the future

Culture in which personal accomplishments are less important in the formation of identity than group membership

Stage in the development of self during which a child acquires the ability to take the role of a group or community (the generalized other) and conform their behavior to broad societal expectations

Psychological, social, and cultural aspects of masculinity and femininity

Perspective of the larger society and its constituent values and attitudes

Culture in which personal accomplishments are a more important component of one’s self-concept than group membership

Sense of who we are that is defined by incorporating the reflected appraisals of others

Stage in the development of self during which a child develops the ability to take a role, but only from the perspective of one person at a time

Behavior in which the person initiating an action is the same as the person toward whom the action is directed

Process of learning new values, norms, and expectations when an adult leaves an old role and enters a new one

Ability to see oneself from the perspective of others and to use that perspective in formulating one’s own behavior

Unique set of traits, behaviors, and attitudes that distinguishes one person from the next; the active source and passive object of behavior

Biological maleness or femaleness

Process through which one learns how to act according to the rules and expectations of a particular culture

Place where individuals are cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period and where together they lead an enclosed, formally administered life

Grouping of students into different curricular programs, or tracks, based on an assessment of their academic abilities

Area of social interaction away from the view of an audience, where people can rehearse and rehash their behavior

Study of social interaction as theater, in which people (“actors”) project images (“play roles”) in front of others (“audience”)

Area of social interaction where people perform and work to maintain appropriate impressions

The process by which we define others based on observable cues such as age, ascribed status characteristics such as race and gender, individual attributes such as physical appearance, and verbal and nonverbal expressions

Act of presenting a favorable public image of oneself so that others will form positive judgments

Deeply discrediting characteristic that is viewed as an obstacle to competent or morally trustworthy behavior

Marriage/intimate relations within one’s social group

Marriage/intimate relations outside one’s social group

Family unit consisting of the parent–child nuclear family and other relatives, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins

Two or more persons, including the householder, who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption and who live together as one household

Living arrangement composed of one or more people who occupy a housing unit

Living arrangement in which a married couple sets up residence separate from either spouse’s family

Family unit consisting of at least one parent and one child

Approach to defining deviance that rests on the assumption that all human behavior can be considered either inherently good or inherently bad

Official definition of an act of deviance as a crime

Theory of deviance positing that people will be prevented from engaging in a deviant act if they judge the costs of such an act to outweigh its benefits