The Basics
This term refers to the "design for living" that includes both the physical objects we create and the abstract ideas we hold.
What is culture?
According to Williams, Americans place a high value on personal attainment, especially outdoing others to gain wealth, power, and prestige.
What is Achievement and Success?
These are the formal or informal mechanisms—like a prison sentence or a "dirty look"—used to enforce conformity to norms.
What are sanctions?
A group that differs from the predominant culture, but shares many things still in common with that culture.
What is a subculture?
A traveler who visits a new country and mocks the local "squat toilets" as "savage" or "incorrect" compared to their own home is practicing this viewpoint.
What is ethnocentrism?
A smartphone is an example of this.
What is material culture?
This value reflects a passion for using applied knowledge to "tame rivers" and "harness winds" to master the natural environment.
What is Science and Technology?
This is the most extreme type of norm; breaking it is considered unthinkable and produces a reaction of physical disgust.
What is a taboo?
This type of culture usually requires a "refined" palate or specific education, such as an appreciation of fine art or classical literature.
What is high culture?
To ensure conformity, societies use these "carrots and sticks"; a high school teacher giving a "stern look" to a talking student is an example of the informal and negative version of this.
What are sanctions?
The etiquette rules for using an iPhone in a theater is an example of this.
What is nonmaterial culture?
This value reflects the expectation of high-quality medical care, good nutrition, and "recreational playthings" such as cars and gadgets.
What is Material Comfort?
These are the abstract standards of "goodness" that serve as broad guidelines for social living.
What are values?
This 1970s movement in the UK used "DIY" art, confrontational fashion, and anti-establishment music to directly clash with mainstream expectations.
What is a counter culture?
While a subculture simply differs from the dominant group, this specific type of group—like the 1960s hippies—actively and deliberately rejects mainstream societal values and norms.
What is a counter culture?
While specific customs vary, these are general traits—such as gift-giving and naming—found in every known society.
What are cultural universals?
This value suggests that Americans award high marks for getting things done fast and constantly seeking the shortest path to a goal.
What is Efficiency and Practicality?
While folkways concern politeness, these norms are seen as essential to a community's welfare; violating them often results in legal action or severe social shunning.
What are mores?
This happens when a cultural item, like sushi or hip-hop, moves from its point of origin and is adopted by other societies.
What is cultural diffusion?
This sociological principle, often attributed to Franz Boas, requires researchers to suspend judgment and understand a culture’s practices, such as slurping noodles to show appreciation, on their own terms.
What is cultural relativism?
Sociologists use this term to describe the gap between the appearance of a new technology and the development of social rules to manage it.
What is a cultural lag?
In Williams' view, the value of work is so high in the U.S. that it is often used as a "primary status symbol," meaning an American's sense of self-worth is almost entirely tied to this.
What is their Occupation (or Career/Job)?
This term describes the growing similarity among cultures due to the spread of global brands and media.
What is cultural leveling?
This is the process by which a minority group gradually adopts the patterns of the dominant culture, bringing harmony, sometimes at the expense of its original identity.
What is assimilation?
When a society claims to value "honesty" as a guideline (this type of culture) but many people actually cheat on their taxes (this type of culture), they are showing the gap between these two sociological concepts.
What is the difference between ideal and real culture?