Sociological Terms
-The application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions.
What is the Sociological Imagination?
-coined the term sociology, which he saw as the scientific study of human behavior and society.
-tried to understand how societies construct order out of what appears to be chaos.
-strong advocate of social planning and believed that scientific knowledge could be used to improve people’s lives.
Who is Auguste Comte?
–a theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead that emphasizes the role of symbols and language as core elements of human interaction.
-George Herbert Mead influenced this approach.
What is Symbolic Interactionism?
-the social cohesion that results from the various parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole.
What is organic solidarity?
Durkheim referred to this.
-an economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order to produce profit.
What is Capitalism?
Marx and Weber referred to this?
-an idea or practice that a group of people agree exists.
What is Social Construction?
-established sociology as a scientific discipline by developing methodological principles that guide research.
-believed in studying social facts as things
-a French social psychologist and philosopher.
Who is Émile Durkheim?
-a theoretical perspective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform.
What is Functionalism?
-the conditioning influence on our behavior of the groups and societies of which we are members.
What is social constraint?
-Durkheim referred to this.
-type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority and written rules of procedure and staffed by full-time, salaried officials.
What is bureaucracy?
-Weber referred to this.
-The underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave in their relationships with one another.
What is social structure?
-a German economic, political, and social theorist.
-examined conflict in society.
-believed that it was not the ideas or values human beings hold that are the main sources of social change, rather social change is os prompted by economic influences, rich vs. poor.
-believed the most important changes were regarding the development of captialism.
Who is Karl Marx?
-Sociological theories that treat conflict as a normal feature of society are influenced by the writings of Karl Marx.
-many Marxist sociologists maintain a dual identity as both theorists and political reformers.
-believe conflict is a normal feature of society.
-individuals and groups use power to promote their interests.
What is Marxism?
-the specialization of work tasks by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system.
What is division of labor?
-Durkheim referred to this.
-the study of face-to-face interaction and the study of larger groups, institutions, and social systems.
What is micro and macro Sociology?
-the social processes through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self.
What is socialization?
-a German sociologist, philosopher, jurist, and political economist whose ideas profoundly influenced social theory and social research.
-was interested in capitalism.
-saw values and ideas, not economics, as the impetus for social change.
-studied the role religion played in the development of capitalism.
Who is Max Weber?
-a sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women.
Who is Feminist Theory?
-a situation in which social norms lose their hold over individual behavior.
What is anomie?
-Durkheim referred to this.
-the functions of a type of social activity that are known to, and intended by, the individuals involved in the activity.
-functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by members of a social system when they occur.
What are manifest and latent functions?
-terms used in Funtionalism.
-the belief that society is no longer governed by history or progress. Postmodern society is highly pluralistic and diverse, with no “grand narrative” guiding its development.
What is Postmodernism?
Neglected Founders:
-born and educated in England, was a prolific writer of social life.
-she translated Auguste Comte’s writings and her tour of the United States resulted in her own book, Society in America (1837).
-active in the abolitionist and early women’s movements.
-known for expanding the scope of sociological research to include neglected institutions, neglected members such as women, and neglected issues like marriage, children, race relations, and domestic and religious life.
and~
-first African American to graduate from Harvard University and the first African American to earn a doctorate degree from Harvard University.
-connected race to social and economic stratification.
-concept of double consciousness brought to light the notion that African Americans see themselves both through their own eyes and through the eyes of a society that demeans them.
Who are Harriet Martineau and W.E.B. Du Bois?
-the theory that an individual’s behavior is purposive.
-argues that deviant behavior is a rational response to a specific social behavior.
What is Rational Choice Theory?
-the process by which modes of precise calculation and organization, involving abstract rules and procedures, increasingly come to dominate the social world.
What is rationalization?
-the ability of individuals or members of a group to achieve aims to further the interests the hold.
-shared ideas or beliefs that serve to justify the interests of dominant groups.
What are power and ideologies?
Marxist terms.