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Chapters 1-3

Terms in this set (30)

Sociology
the systematic study of human society and social interaction
Society
a large social grouping that shares the same geographical territory and is subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations.
Sociological imagination
coined by C. Wright Mills to refer to the ability to see the relationship between individual experiences and the larger society.
Preoperational stage
According to psychologist Jean Piaget, toward the end of the second year of life, children begin to use words as mental symbols and to form mental images.
Looking-glass self
According to sociologist Charles Horton Cooley, this refers to the way in which a person's sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others.
Subculture
a category of people who share distinguishing attributes, beliefs, values, and/or norms that set them apart in some significant manner from the dominant culture.
Theory
a set of logically interrelated statements that attempts to describe, explain, and (occasionally) predict social events.
Survey
a method most commonly used to study people's behavior and beliefs.
Functionalist Perpectives
based on the assumption that society is a stable, orderly system composed of interrelated parts, each of which (ideally) contributes to the overall stability of the society.
Values
collective ideas about what is right or wrong, good or bad, and desirable or undesirable in a particular culture.
Folkways
informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture. They provide rules for conduct but are not considered to be essential to society's survival.
Low-income countries tend to be
more agrarian
Harriet Montineau
British sociologist who translated and condensed Comte's work and was noted for her study of social customs in Great Britain and the United States.
Material culture
consists of the physical or tangible creations that members of a society make, use, and share.
Expression of the Superego
"It's wrong to steal"
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