Sociological Perspectives
This sociological perspective views society as a system of interconnected parts that work together to maintain stability and order.
Structural Functionalism
This German philosopher and economist is best known for his analysis of capitalism and the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Karl Marx
This term refers to the behaviors, practices, and objects considered prestigious and associated with the elite in society.
High Culture
This type of institution isolates individuals from the broader society and attempts to control all aspects of their lives, such as prisons or mental hospitals.
Total Institution
This refers to the systematic extermination of an entire ethnic, racial, or religious group, often facilitated by state-sponsored policies.
Genocide
The view that society is characterized by inequality and conflict, often associated with the works of Karl Marx, is known as this theory.
Social Conflict Theory
This theorist is associated with the concept of "cultural hegemony," explaining how dominant groups in society maintain their power through ideological means.
Antonio Gramsci
This is the act of borrowing or adopting elements of a marginalized culture, often without permission or understanding of its significance.
Cultural Appropriation
This term refers to the practice of dividing communities or neighborhoods, particularly along racial lines, to deny access to housing or financial services.
Redlining
The practice of changing one’s behavior due to being observed in an experiment is known as this.
Hawthorne Effect
In Weber's work on rationalization, this refers to the process of replacing traditional methods and values with more efficient, calculable, and bureaucratic approaches in society.
Rationalization of Society
This French sociologist first introduced the concept of Anomie, describing a state of normlessness that could lead to social instability.
Émile Durkheim
The belief that one's culture is superior to others, leading to judgment based on one's own cultural standards, is called this.
Ethnocentrism
According to this functionalist theory, social inequality is necessary for society to function smoothly by ensuring that the most qualified individuals fill the most important roles.
The Davis-Moore thesis
This term refers to the form of discrimination or bias that people hold against certain groups without being consciously aware of it.
Prejudice
This part of Sigmund Freud's model of the psyche operates on the reality principle, balancing the demands of the id and superego.
This theorist focused on the emotional labor involved in service work, particularly in her study of air stewardesses.
Arlie Hochschild
This term describes the dominance of one cultural group over others, leading to the widespread acceptance of its norms and practices.
Cultural Hegemony
This system of social organization asserts that individuals' positions and rewards are based on their abilities, skills, and efforts, rather than on their family background or social class.
Meritocracy
In this famous 1960s experiment, participants were instructed to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to a learner, testing the extent to which individuals would obey authority figures, even when it conflicted with their morals.
The Milgram Experiment
This theory focuses on how individuals create meaning through social interactions and the use of symbols, emphasizing the importance of language and gestures in shaping social behavior.
Symbolic Interactionism
He is the sociologist best known for analyzing the "rationalization" of society, particularly in the context of modern capitalism.
Max Weber
The Davis-Moore thesis suggests that social stratification is necessary because it ensures that this group of individuals fills the most important roles.
The most skilled/qualified
This graphical representation shows the distribution of income or wealth within a society, illustrating the proportion of total income received by different segments of the population.
The Lorenz Curve
These are the three rights of a subject within a study.
The right to informed consent, the right to safety, and the right to privacy/confidentiality