Theories
This perspective focuses on the function that a certain norm, tradition, or institution performs in society--usually meeting certain needs or contributing to social stability.
What is functionalism? (or structural functionalism)
This is a rule or standard of behavior maintained by society.
What is a norm?
The lifelong process in which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors appropriate for members of a particular culture.
What is socialization?
These are cultural elements common to all societies (for example, religion, competitive sport, marriage, etc.).
What are cultural universals?
This was thought to reduce crime by providing youth with positive role models, supervised entertainment, and better self-esteem.
What are sports?
This perspective focuses on areas of tension in society, noting how norms, systems, or institutions reinforce hierarchies and/or benefit powerful people.
What is conflict theory (or conflict perspective)?
These norms are beliefs that are the most important to a society, often defining right and wrong.
What are mores?
This a ritual that marks an individual's transition from one social position to another (such as from childhood to adulthood).
What is a rite of passage?
This sociological perspective analyzes ways in which certain aspects of society are constructed in a way that benefits men and disadvantages women.
What is the feminist perspective?
This is a rite of passage for the Jewish faith.
What is a bar mitzvah or a bat mitzvah?
This perspective focuses on the ways in which people create meaning in day-to-day interactions, how symbols and practices are understood and shaped by people.
What is symbolic interactionism (or interactionism)?
These norms are usually written or publicized, and if they are broken, there is usually a clearly defined penalty.
What is a formal norm?
These are different norms and expectations for the behavior of men and women in society.
What are gender roles?
This sociological perspective analyzes the ways in which aspects of society are constructed to benefit people who are heterosexual and stigmatize people who are homosexual or who do not fit traditional gendered categories.
What is queer theory?
This "new" developmental stage developed because of later marriages and longer educational careers (college). The transition to adulthood became more ambiguous.
What is emerging adulthood?
According to this perspective, college education, rather than promoting equality and social mobility, actually reinforces class differences: It's expensive, so it mostly benefits people who are already wealthy or middle-class.
What is conflict?
This means the worldwide integration of cultural, political, and economic systems. Markets, political movements, and cultural traditions increasingly spread or operate worldwide rather than being confined to a specific country.
What is globalization?
What is resocialization?
What is ethnocentrism?
The tendency to assume that one's own culture or way of life represent the norm or are superior to all others.
This early sociologist mostly used the functionalist perspective and studied rates of suicide in France.
Who is Emile Durkheim?
What is functionalism?
What is diffusion?
Erving Goffman pioneered this approach to studying human interaction. In this view, people refine the "face" they present to others and "perform" different aspects of themselves in different situations.
What is the dramaturgical approach OR impression management?
A subculture that deliberately opposes certain aspects of the larger culture.
What is counterculture?
What is Starbucks?