Vocab
Something to which people attach meanings and then use to communicate with others
Symbols
What is the definition of culture?
Languages, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that are passed from one generation to the next
What does roflwtime mean? What kind of communication is this?
Rolling on the floor laughing with tears in my eyes; symbols
The standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
What is the definition of norms?
Expectations or rules of behavior that reflect and enforce values.
The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken for granted assumptions about life
Culture Shock
What is the difference between material and nonmaterial culture?
Material: The physical objects created by a group of people that distinguish them from others.
Nonmaterial: A group's way of thinking and doing; things you cannot touch.
What do we use to supplement our words to provide emphasis and a deeper understanding of what we are communicating?
Gestures
What is the value of group superiority contradicts freedom, democracy, and equality?
Value contradiction
What is the definition of taboo?
A norm so strong that even the thought of its violation brings revulsion.
A group whose values, beliefs, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture
Counterculture
What is the difference between real and ideal culture?
Real: What sociologists call the norms and values that people actually follow
Ideal: Refer to the values, norms, and goals that a group considers worth aspiring to
What is a system of symbols that can be defined in an infinite number of ways and can represent not only objects but also abstract thought?
Language
What values together form a larger whole?
Value Cluster
Why do groups create norms?
To enforce their cultural values.
The use of ones own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evolution of their values, norms, and behaviors.
Ethnocentrism
What are the five basic concepts of which cultures exist?
Artifacts, symbols, languages, values, and norms
What does language allow us to develop?
Culture
What do values indicate?
What we hold worthwhile in life.
What is the difference between a folkway and a more?
Folkway: Norms that are not strictly enforced
More: norms that have great moral significance attached to them
A reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a prize
Positive Sanction
What are the differences between cultural lag, cultural diffusion, and cultural leveling?
Cultural lag: Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations
Cultural diffusion: The spread of cultural characteristics from one group to another
Cultural leveling: The process by which cultures become similar to one another; refers especially to the process by which U.S. culture is being exported and diffused into other nations
What hypothesis stated that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving?
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
What are five examples of emerging values in the United States?
Leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, youthfulness, and concern for the environment
What is any societies relax their norms during specified occasions; this allows behavior that is ordinarily not permitted to be allowed?