Chapter 1 - Intro to Soc Flashcards
The scientific study of social patterns
Positivism
A wide scale view of the role of social structures within a society
Macro level
Statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants
Quantitative soc
A proposed explanation about social interactions or society
Theory
A testable proposition
Hypothesis
Sought consequences of a social process
Manifest functions
An extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be
Constructivsism
The ability to understand how you own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular
Sociological imagination
Social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society
Dysfunctions
The view that social researches should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and social values
Antipositivism
A theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols)
Symbolic interactionism
The social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion
Social sokidarity
Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them
Paradigms
A theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society
Functionalism
A groups shared practices, values, and beliefs
Culture
The part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity
Function
An error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence
Reification
A German word that means to understand in a deep way
Verstehen
A theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources
Conflict theory
A technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance
Dramaturgical analysis
Specific individuals that impact a persons life
Significant others
The systematic study of society and social interactions
Society
The unrecognized and unintended consequences of a social process
Latent functions
A group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture
Society
