Sociological Theories & Research
The ________ perspective is the belief that people’s social backgrounds influence their attitudes, behaviors, and life chances.
Sociological
A key concept of the sociological perspective is ________, which refers to the artifacts and ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that are part of any society.
Culture
The process whereby individuals learn the culture of their society is ________.
Socialization
The social patterns through which a society is organized, which can be horizontal or vertical, are known as ________.
Social structures
________ is the distribution and exercise of power within a society.
Politics
A ________ sample means that everyone in the population has the same chance of being included in the survey, and it allows us to generalize the results to the population overall.
Random
________ is the variation in the elements of culture from one society to the next.
Cultural diversity
Total institutions have total control over their residents’ lives. In these institutions, a ________ is an encounter designed to humiliate an individual that often results in resocialization.
Degradation ceremony
A ________ is the position that someone occupies in society. There are 3 types: ascribed, achieved, and master.
Status
We discussed 4 major types of political systems. Which type refers to a political system in which power resides in a single family that rules from one generation to the next generation?
Monarchy
What is another term for vertical social structure, which refers to the unequal distribution of resources, such as wealth, that a society values?
Social inequality
________, which is the tendency to judge another culture by the standards of our own and the belief that our own culture is superior to another culture, led to ________: a view, popular in the early 20th century, that certain categories of people were biologically inferior and hence should be sterilized.
Ethnocentrism; eugenics
There are 5 agents of socialization listed below. Which of these is the most influential agent of socialization for young children, and which is the most influential for teenagers?
Young children: family
Teenagers: peers
Erving Goffman’s metaphor that likens social interaction to a performance in a dramatic production is the ________, and his term for the process whereby individuals who are interacting try to convey a favorable impression of themselves is ________.
Dramaturgical approach; impression management
What type of political system does the United States have?
Representative democracy
Put the steps of the scientific method in order:
Formulating a hypothesis, measuring and gathering data, analyzing data, drawing a conclusion
Match the elements of culture (values, artifacts, norms, rituals) to their definitions:
•established procedures and ceremonies that often mark transitions in the life course
•criteria of what is desirable or undesirable and right or wrong
•the material objects that constitute a society’s material culture
•socially acceptable ways of behaving
•established procedures and ceremonies that often mark transitions in the life course: rituals
•criteria of what is desirable or undesirable and right or wrong: values
•the material objects that constitute a society’s material culture: artifacts
•socially acceptable ways of behaving: norms
Explain the difference between significant others and generalized others in George Mead's taking the role of the other theory on socialization.
Children pretend to be other people in their play and in so doing learn what these other people expect of them. Younger children take the role of significant others, or the people, most typically parents and siblings, who have the most contact with them; older children, when they play sports and other games, take on the roles of other people and internalize the expectations of the generalized other, or society itself.
Place the following 6 types of societies in the correct order as they developed towards modern societies:
Match each of the 4 types of terrorism (Vigilante terrorism, Insurgent terrorism, State terrorism, Transnational terrorism) to their examples below:
Name 2 macrosociology theories and 2 microsociology theories.
Macro: functionalism and conflict theory
Micro: symbolic interactionism and utilitarianism
How are the ideas of subculture and counterculture related?
A counterculture is a type of subculture (a smaller culture within a larger culture with distinctive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting) that is more extreme and directly opposes the norms and values of a larger culture.
Name 3 of the 6 theories on socialization.
Looking glass self, taking the role of the other, psychoanalytic, cognitive development, moral development, identity development
Social institutions are patterns of beliefs and behavior that help a society meet its basic needs. List 3 types of social institutions in a society.
Family, the economy, the polity (government), education, religion, and medicine
Explain trends in political participation in the United States related to age and level of education.
Older people tend to vote more than younger people, in a correlation pattern where political participation increases with age. Also, people with an associate’s degree or higher tend to vote more than people who have a high school diploma or less education.