Midterm Vocab

Question 1

Life chances

Answer 1

A term introduced by sociologist Max Weber that refers to the likelihood that people may improve their quality of life.

Question 2

Physical culture

Answer 2

An academic and intellectual focus on the social and cultural meanings of human physical activity.

Question 3

Sociological Imagination

Answer 3

A term introduced by C. Wright Mills in 1959 to draw attention to the need and capacity for human beings to make sense of their personal life stories and the larger patterns of changing societal conditions.

Question 4

Sport

Answer 4

An organized competitive game that takes place within a broad range of formality and governance.

Question 5

Title IX

Answer 5

A U.S. law, first passed in 1972, requiring gender equity in federally funded educational settings, including sport.

Question 6

Subdiscipline

Answer 6

An area of study underlying an overarching academic field or disciplinary area of study.

Question 7

Structural (marco) theories

Answer 7

Focus on how entire social structures operate and their major components: family economy education religion or politics, and try and explain these systems and the role sports have within them.

Question 8

Cultural (marco) theories

Answer 8

Seek to explain the core values and collective meanings assigned to human interactions. Including those that happen in sports and physical activity.

Question 9

Interactionist theory

Answer 9

Social science explanations featuring the day -to -day interaction between people and social structures, such as your experience as a student in the American educational system.

Attempts to identify and explain the complex interaction between the self and society.

Question 10

Landscape

Answer 10

Broad social conditions, such as national and global surveys and census data sets.

Question 11

Experience

Answer 11

An understanding that emerges from firsthand observation or participation in a particular social space.

Question 12

Analytic knowledge

Answer 12

Analytic knowledge – Knowledge focused on ways of understanding and making sense of daily interactions in the social world.
Allow the application of theory to explain the meaning, influence, and use of sport in both localized and collective (societal) contexts.

Palmer tour de France study example

Question 13

Longitudinal

Answer 13

A study that has been conducted over an extended period, such as a life time or perhaps over generations.

Question 14

Positivism

Answer 14

An approach to knowledge production that favors objectivity, observable linear progress, and precise, predetermined operational definitions.

Question 15

Paradox 1:

Answer 15

Paradox 1: Sport is both unifying and divisive

Question 16

Paradox 2:

Answer 16

Paradox 2: Sport is inclusive and exclusive

Question 17

Paradox 3:

Answer 17

Paradox 3: Sport is fair and sport is foul

Question 18

Paradox 4:

Answer 18

Paradox 4: Sport is healthy; sport is destructive.

Question 19

Major spheres of life

Answer 19

Major spheres of life: Social science reference to the components of social systems that exert an external influence on individual lives. Major spheres of life in U.S. society include families, religion, education, politics, economy, and media.

Question 20

Functionalist perspective

Answer 20

Functionalist perspective – A social science theory suggesting that all components of society serve a function and that all components can work harmoniously to serve members of society.

Question 21

Conflict theory

Answer 21

Conflict theory – A social science theory that claims that societies exist in an ongoing state of conflict due to competition for a limited set of resources.

Question 22

Socialization

Answer 22

Socialization – A process of learning the customs, values, and attitudes of a social group.

Question 23

Capitalist society

Answer 23

Capitalist society – A society that is organized around an economic structure based on a belief in a beneficial relationship between producing goods and buying and using goods. Capitalism has changed over time, and the core relationship between production of goods and use of goods continues to raise new questions for social scientists.

Question 24

Multinational corporation

Answer 24

Multinational corporation – A corporation that has facilities and other resources in one or more countries other than their home office country.

Question 25

Stratification

Answer 25

Stratification – The various ways resources are distributed. (usually unfairly?)

Question 26

Meritocracy

Answer 26

Meritocracy is a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class.

Question 27

Governance

Answer 27

Governance – Formal organizational structure, policy, and rules in particular physical activity settings, especially competitive settings.

Question 28

Control

Answer 28

Control – For social scientists, forms of institutional power used to define and maintain current social structures, including sport and physical activity.

Question 29

Racial formation

Answer 29

Racial formation – A sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed.

Question 30

Hegemony

Answer 30

Hegemony – The dominant ideology.

Question 31

Patriarchy

Answer 31

Patriarchy – A system of stratification based on the naturalization of male dominance in all spheres of social life.

Question 32

What to ask to see if sports are fair…

Answer 32

1. Accessibility: who can access it.
2. Atmosphere: who is accepted/welcome
3. Government: who is in charge/ enforcing the rules
4. Control: who has ownership and who is making the rules

Question 33

Paradox 5:

Answer 33

Paradox 5: Sport is expressive; sport is controlling

Question 34

Paradox 6:

Answer 34

Paradox 6: Sport is equity; sport is difference.

Question 35

Paradox 7:

Answer 35

Paradox 7: Sport is educational; sport is a money-making, masculinizing distraction.

Question 36

Paradox 8:

Answer 36

Paradox 8: Sport is a path to upward social mobility; Sport is a holding place for otherwise marginalized members of society.

Question 37

Paradox 9:

Answer 37

Paradox 9: Sport is an economic engine for cities; sport is an economic drain on taxpayers.