SYG 2000 Final Exam Review Latest Updated

Sociological Imagination - C. Wright Mills - ANSWER-The ability to see the connections between our personal experience and the larger forces of history. This is what we do when we question our textbook and college in general. Verstehen - Max Weber - ANSWER-"understanding" in German. Suggests that sociologists approach social behavior from the perspective of those engaging in it. Double Consciousness -W.E.B. Du Bois - ANSWER-A mechanism by which African Americans have two behavioral scripts. The first is the script that any American would have by moving through the world. The second is the script that takes the external opinions of an often racially prejudiced onlooker into consideration. Conflict Theory - Karl Marx - ANSWER-Marx's theory that conflicts between classes drives social change throughout history. In Marx's version of history, each economic system// had its own fault lines of conflict. Basically says that conflict among competing interests is the basic, animating force of any society. Feminist Theory - ANSWER-a conflict theory and theoretical perspective which observes gender in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction and reflexivity within a social structure at large. Focuses include sexual orientation, race, economic status, and nationality. Symbolic Interaction Theory - ANSWER-Eschewed big theories of society and instead focused on how face-to-face interactions create the social world. Post-modernism Theory - ANSWER-a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations. Qualitative methods - ANSWER-attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form. Quantitative methods - ANSWER-seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form. Deductive approach - ANSWER-starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory. Inductive approach - ANSWER-starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory. Causality vs. Correlation - ANSWER-Causality means that a change in one factor causes a change in another. Correlation, however, just means that we observe a change in both. The Challenges of Establishing Causality - ANSWER-Time order is important or reverse causality can occur in which you would think that A results in change in B, but really B is causing a change in A. Dependent Variables - ANSWER-The outcome that the researcher is trying to explain. Independent Variables - ANSWER-A measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable. Hypothesis - ANSWER-A proposed relationship between two variables. Hypothesis Testing - ANSWER-Relates to operationalization, which is the process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study. Really helps us see how to pieces of a puzzle fit together. Culture - ANSWER-A set of beliefs, traditions, and practices; the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs. In addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones) and practices; everything but the natural environment around us. Ethnocentrism - ANSWER-The belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others, and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own. Material culture - ANSWER-Everything that is a part of our constructed, physical environment, including technology. Nonmaterial culture - ANSWER-Values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms. Ideology - ANSWER-a system of concepts and relationships; an understanding of cause and effect. Cultural relativism - ANSWER-Taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgement or assigning value. Cultural Scripts - ANSWER-Modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural. Subculture - ANSWER-the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society; a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society. Hegemony - Antonio Gramsci - ANSWER-A condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses. Political Economy of the Media - Media concentration - ANSWER-Most broadcasting companies are privately owned in the United States, are financially supported by advertising, and are therefore likely to reflect the biases of their owners and backers. As corporate control of the media becomes more and more centralized, the concern is that the range of opinions available will decrease and that corporate censorship will further compromise the already-tarnished integrity of the mainstream media. Consumerism - ANSWER-The steady acquisition of material possessions, often with the belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved. Culture Jamming - ANSWER-The act of turning media against themselves. Socialization - ANSWER-The process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society. Limits of Socialization - ANSWER-While we operate within limits that largely are not of our own making, we also make choices about how to interact with our environment. Twins are often used to support one or the other side of nature-vs-nurture because they allow us to factor out genetics. Self, Looking Glass Self Theory Charles Horton Cooley - ANSWER-The individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person. I, Me, Other - George Herbert Mead - ANSWER-I, one's sense of agency, action, or power; Me, the self as perceived as an object by the I (basically the self as one imagines others perceive one); Other, someone or something outside of oneself. Generalized Other - ANSWER-An internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings-regardless of whether we've encountered those people or places before. Family - ANSWER-the original source of significant others and the primary unit of socialization. School - ANSWER-provides reference groups of socialization like peers and teachers. A teacher's goal is to properly socialize you, teaching you to share, take turns, and resolve conflict. Peers - ANSWER-can reinforce messages taught at home or even contradict them. Adolescents tend to listen to their friends advice over their parents. Media - ANSWER-can have positive or negative effects, such as encouraging education or promoting violence. Accomplishment of Natural Growth - Annette Lareau - ANSWER-Working class and poor parents focus on accomplishment of natural growth, they give their children the room and resources to develop, but leave it up to the kids to decide how they want to structure their free time. Symbolic Interactionism - George Herbert Mead - ANSWER-A micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions. Dramaturgical Theory - Erving Goffman - ANSWER-The view of social life as essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on metaphorical states, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets. Ethnomethodology - Harold Garfinklel - ANSWER-Literally means "the methods of the people"; this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our Breaching Experiments - Harold Garfinklel - ANSWER-Garfinklel would send his students into the social world to see what happened when they breached social norms. Group Conformity - ANSWER-Groups have strong influence on our own individual behavior. The Asch Experiment - ANSWER-Sought out to demonstrate the power of norms of social conformity. He gathered subjects into a room under the pretense that they were participating in a vision test, showed them two images of lines, and asked which ones were longer and which were the same length. The trick was that one person was really the research subject and the rest knew to give the same incorrect answer. The subjects were most confused when the group all had the same answer. Social Network - ANSWER-A set of relations- essentially, a set of dyads- held together by ties between individuals. Ties - ANSWER-The connection between two people in a relationship that varies in strength from one relationship to the next; explains our relationship with another member of our network. Embeddedness - ANSWER-The degree to which ties are reinforced through indirect paths within a social network. The Strength of Weak Ties - ANSWER-The notion that relatively weak ties often turn out to be quite valuable because they yield new information.