Chapters 7, 8, 9 Terms

Question 1

a groups whose inherited physical characteristics distinguish it from other groups

Answer 1

race

Question 2

the annihilation or attempted annihilation of a people because of their presumed race or ethnicity

Answer 2

genocide

Question 3

having distinctive cultural characteristics

Answer 3

ethnicity

Question 4

people who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination

Answer 4

minority group

Question 5

the group with the most power, greatest privileges, and highest social status

Answer 5

dominant group

Question 6

activities designed to discover, enhance, maintain, or transmit an ethnic or racial identity

Answer 6

ethnic work

Question 7

an act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or a group

Answer 7

discrimination

Question 8

prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race

Answer 8

racism

Question 9

an attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way

Answer 9

prejudice

Question 10

the idea that prejudice and negative stereotypes decrease and racial-ethnic relations improve when people from different racial-ethnic backgrounds, who are of equal status, interact frequently

Answer 10

contact theory

Question 11

person-to-person or face-to-face discrimination; the negative treatment of people by other individuals

Answer 11

individual discrimination

Question 12

negative treatment of a minority group that is built into a society’s instructions; also called systemic discrimination

Answer 12

institutional discrimination

Question 13

Theodor Adorno’s term for people who are prejudiced and rank high on scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect for authority, and submissiveness to superiors

Answer 13

authoritarian personality

Question 14

an individual or group unfairly blamed for someone else’s troubles

Answer 14

scapegoat

Question 15

workers split along racial-ethnic, gender, age, or any other lines; this split is exploited by owners to weaken the bargaining power of workers

Answer 15

split labor market

Question 16

the unemployed; unemployed workers are thought of as being “in reserve” - capitalists take them out of reserve” during times of high production and then put them “back in reserve” when they are no longer needed

Answer 16

reserve labor force

Question 17

seeing certain features of an object or situation, but remaining blind to others

Answer 17

selective perception

Question 18

to separate acts from feelings or attitudes

Answer 18

compartmentalize

Question 19

the forced transfer of a minority group

Answer 19

population transfer

Question 20

a policy of eliminating a population; includes forcible expulsion and genocide

Answer 20

ethnic cleansing

Question 21

the policy of exploiting minority groups for economic gain

Answer 21

internal colonialism

Question 22

the policy of keeping racial ethnic groups apart

Answer 22

segregation

Question 23

the process of being absorbed into the mainstream culture

Answer 23

assimilation

Question 24

a policy that permits or encourages ethnic differences

Answer 24

multiculturalism (or pluralism)

Question 25

according to Weber, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor

Answer 25

social class

Question 26

the total value of everyone someone owns, minus the debts

Answer 26

wealth

Question 27

money received usually from a job, business, or assets

Answer 27

income

Question 28

the ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others

Answer 28

power

Question 29

Mills' term for the top people in US corporations, military, and politics who make the nation's bigger decisions

Answer 29

power elite

Question 30

ranking high or low on all three dimensions of social class

Answer 30

status consistency

Question 31

ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others

Answer 31

status inconsistency

Question 32

the position that someone occupies in a social group

Answer 32

status

Question 33

Durkheim's term for a condition of society in which people become detached from the usual norms that guide their behavior

Answer 33

anomie

Question 34

Wright's term for a position in the class structure that generations contradictory interests

Answer 34

contradictory class locations

Question 35

a groups of people for whom poverty persists year after year and across generations

Answer 35

underclass

Question 36

the change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next

Answer 36

intergenerational mobility

Question 37

movement up the social class ladder

Answer 37

upward social mobility

Question 38

movement down the social class ladder

Answer 38

downward social mobility

Question 39

movement up or down the social class ladder that is due more to changes in the structure of society than the actions of individuals

Answer 39

structural mobility

Question 40

a large number of people moving up the social class ladder, while a large number move down; it is as though they have exchanged places, and despite much social mobility the social class system shows little exchange

Answer 40

exchange mobility

Question 41

the official measure of poverty; calculated to include incomes that are less than three times a low-cost food budget

Answer 41

poverty line

Question 42

a condition of U.S. poverty in which most poor families are headed by women

Answer 42

feminization of poverty

Question 43

the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parent perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children

Answer 43

culture of poverty

Question 44

going without something int the present in hope of achieving greater gains in the future

Answer 44

deferred gratification

Question 45

the belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough

Answer 45

Horatio alger myth

Question 46

a form of social stratification in which some people own other people

Answer 46

slavery

Question 47

companies that operate across national boundaries; also called transnational corporations

Answer 47

multinational corporations

Question 48

the division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group

Answer 48

social stratification

Question 49

a contractual system in which someone sells his or her body for a specified period of time in an arrangement very close to slavery, except it is entered into voluntarily

Answer 49

bonded labor (indentured service)

Question 50

beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements

Answer 50

ideology

Question 51

a form of social stratification in which birth determines people's statuses, which are lifelong

Answer 51

caste system

Question 52

the practice of marrying within one's own group

Answer 52

endogamy

Question 53

the government approved and enforced separation of racial ethnic groups as was practice in South Africa

Answer 53

apartheid

Question 54

the stratification system of medieval Europe, consisting of three groups or estates: the nobility, clergy, and commoners

Answer 54

estate stratification system

Question 55

a form of social stratification based primarily on income, education, and prestige of occupation

Answer 55

class system

Question 56

movement up or down the social class ladder

Answer 56

social mobility

Question 57

the tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth

Answer 57

means of production

Question 58

Karl Marx's terms for capitalists, those who own the means of production

Answer 58

bourgeoise

Question 59

Karl Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production

Answer 59

proletariat

Question 60

Karl Marx's term for awareness of a common identity based on one's position in the means of production

Answer 60

class consciousness

Question 61

Karl Marx's term to refer to workers identifying with the interests of capitalists

Answer 61

false class consciousness

Question 62

a form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit

Answer 62

meritocracy

Question 63

the idea that the king's authority comes from God; in an interesting gender bender, also applies to queens

Answer 63

divine right of kings

Question 64

the process by which one nation takes over another nation, making a colony of it, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources

Answer 64

colonialism

Question 65

a theory of how economic and political connections developed among nations, connections that now link the world's countries

Answer 65

world system theory

Question 66

capitalism becoming the globe's dominant economic system

Answer 66

globalization of capitalism

Question 67

the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children

Answer 67

culture of poverty

Question 68

the economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations

Answer 68

neocolonialism