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Sociology Test Vocab - Chapts 1-3

Terms in this set (44)

culture
The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that are passed from one generation to the next.
material culture
a culture's material objects, including art, structures, weapons, clothing, utensils and machinery.
nonmaterial culture
consists of the ideas, values attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs of a society. Non-physical stuff
cultural universals
patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies.
ethnocentrism
using one's own culture to measure other cultures, ordinarily in finding other cultures inferior.
culture shock
the disorientation people feel when they move to a fundamentally different culture.
cultural relativism
when you try to understand a culture on its own terms instead of judging it through your own culture.
values
the standards by which the people in a culture distinguish between what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
positive sanction
a reward for following a society's norms.
negative sanction
an expression of disapproval for failing to follow the norms, ranging from a mild to a very severe reaction.
norms
the expectations or rules of behavior that a people within a culture develop to reflect their values.
mores
norms that a society strictly enforces.
folkways
norms that a society does not strictly enforce.
subculture
a smaller group within a society that exhibits some behavior that is on the extreme of the society's usual norms.
counterculture
a smaller group within a society whose values and behavior are in opposition to the society's norm.
taboos
a norm that is so strong that its violation is greeted with revulsion.
reliability
the extent to which a sociologist's research produces consistent results.
validity
the extent to which a sociologist's research actually measures what it was intended to measure.
hypothesis
a statement predicting how two or more variables will relate to each other.
Hawthorne Effect
people changing their behavior because they know that they are being watched as part of a study.
survey
a research method that collects data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviors and opinions.
population
people who are the focus of a study.
quantitative data
research collected in numerical form that can be counted.
qualitative data
research that is subjective and often based off of what is seen in a natural setting.
interview
a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject, and it is a way of conducting surveys on a topic.
primary data
data collected from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or survey.
field research
researchers/sociologists going out into the world, meeting subjects, collecting data firsthand. Often involves going into a new environment and out of their comfort zone.
correlation
a causal relationship between two variables.
participation observation
where researchers join people and participate in a group's routine activities for the purpose of observing them within that context.
sample
the individuals selected to represent the target group to be studied by the researcher.
random sample
a sample in which every member of the target population has the same chance of being included in the sample.
researcher bias
a researcher who should be expected to manipulate research so that its results match the researcher's preferences.
biased sample
a sample of people whose background suggests how they will respond to questions on a particular subject.
biased questions
Questions that are worded in such a manner that for most people there is only one logical response
undesirable results
a researcher discards responses that do not match the researcher's preferences.
code of ethics
formal guidelines for conducting sociological research, consists of principles and ethical standards to be used in the discipline.
value neutrality
a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment, during the course of a study and in publishing results
society
people who share a culture and a defined territory
social sciences
disciplines that study our social world by means of controlled and repeated
observations
anthropology
the social science that studies human culture, frequently by focusing on primitive or
extinct cultures
political science
the social science that studies human government and politics
sociology
study of society and human behavior (how the society shapes our behavior)
sociological perspective
understanding human behavior through the social context of people interacting with one another.
August Comte and Positivism
August Comte is believed to be the father of sociology, and he coined the term positivism, which is the scientific study of social patterns.
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