| governments wherein a monarch has absolute or unmitigated power | absolute monarchies |
| deprivation so severe that it puts day-to-day survival in jeopardy. | absolute poverty |
| using a tool makes the measuring more precise. | accuracy |
| the status a person chooses, such as a level of education or income | achieved status |
| crowds of people who are focused on a specific action or goal | acting crowds |
| a theory which suggests that for individuals to enjoy old age and feel satisfied, they must maintain activities and find a replacement for the statuses and associated roles they have left behind as they aged | activity theory |
| a theory which states that members of society are stratified by age, just as they are stratified by race, class, and gender | age stratification theory |
| discrimination based on age | ageism |
| a collection of people who exist in the same place at the same time, but who don’t interact or share a sense of identity | aggregate |
| societies that rely on farming as a way of life | agricultural societies |
| an individual’s isolation from his society, his work, and his sense of self | alienation |
| social movements that limit themselves to self-improvement changes in individuals | alternative movements |
| the process by which a minority group and a majority group combine to form a new group | amalgamation |
| a type of unilateral descent that follows either the father’s or the mother’s side exclusively | ambilineal |
| the absence of any organized government | anarchy |
| the religion that believes in the divinity of nonhuman beings, like animals, plants, and objects of the natural world | animism |
| a situation in which society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness | anomie |
| the way we prepare for future life roles | anticipatory socialization |
| the view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values | antipositivism |
| a person who opposes racism and acts for racial justice | antiracist |
| feelings of worry and fearfulness that last for months at a time | anxiety disorders |
| the status outside of an individual’s control, such as sex or race | ascribed status |
| a theory that credits individuals in crowds as behaving as rational thinkers and views crowds as engaging in purposeful behavior and collective action | assembling perspective |
| the process by which a minority individual or group takes on the characteristics of the dominant culture | assimilation |
| those whose claim to refugee status have not been validated | asylum-seekers |
| the belief in no deities | atheism |
| a leader who issues orders and assigns tasks | authoritarian leader |
| power that people accept because it comes from a source that is perceived as legitimate | authority |
| workers being replaced by technology | automation |
| people in the United States born between approximately 1946 and 1964 | baby Boomers |
| a process where people exchange one form of goods or services for another | bartering |
| tenets or convictions that people hold to be true | beliefs |
| the act of entering into marriage while still married to another person | bigamy |
| the tracing of kinship through both parents’ ancestral lines | bilateral descent |
| the belief that men and women behave differently due to inherent sex differences related to their biology | biological determinism |
| the owners of the means of production in a society | bourgeoisie |
| formal organizations characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules, and impersonality. | bureaucracies |
| a geographic area with high levels of cancer within its population | cancer cluster |
| the movement (flight) of capital from one nation to another, via jobs and resources | capital flight |
| a way of organizing an economy so that the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) are owned by individual people and companies rather than by the government | capitalism |
| an economic system in which there is private ownership (as opposed to state ownership) and where there is an impetus to produce profit, and thereby wealth | capitalism |
| a practice where children tend to enter the same or similar occupation as their parents | career inheritance |
| the amount of people that can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources | carrying capacity |
| in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual | case study |
| a system in which people are born into a social standing that they will retain their entire lives | caste system |
| people who share close proximity without really interacting | casual crowds |
| people who share similar characteristics but who are not connected in any way | category |
| people 100 years old or older | centenarians |
| power legitimized on the basis of a leader’s exceptional personal qualities | charismatic authority |
| a form of slavery in which one person owns another | chattel slavery |
| a group who shares a common social status based on factors like wealth, income, education, and occupation | class |
| the awareness of one’s rank in society | class consciousness |
| social standing based on social factors and individual accomplishments | class system |
| the typical behaviors, customs, and norms that define each class (also called class markers) | class traits |
| the fact that each individual in a bureaucracy has a specialized task to perform | clear division of labor |
| long-term shifts in temperature and climate due to human activity | climate change |
| a system of stratification that accommodates little change in social position. | closed system |
| a set of guidelines that the American Sociological Association has established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology | code of ethics |
| organizations that people do not voluntarily join, such as prison or a mental hospital | coercive organizations |
| the act of a couple sharing a residence while they are not married | cohabitation |
| a group of people who share a statistical or demographic trait | cohort |
| a noninstitutionalized activity in which several people voluntarily engage | collective behavior |
| the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of a society | collective conscience |
| the belief that one type of skin tone is superior or inferior to another within a racial group | colorism |
| the changing of something not generally thought of as a commodity into something that can be bought and sold in a marketplace | commodification |
| a model of human ecology that views cities as a series of circular rings or zones | concentric zone model |
| a theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources | conflict theory |
| a theory that examines social and economic factors as the causes of criminal deviance | conflict theory |
| the extent to which an individual complies with group or societal norms | conformity |
| the act of buying and using products to make a statement about one’s social standing | conspicuous consumption |
| national governments that recognize monarchs but require these figures to abide by the laws of a greater constitution | constitutional monarchies |
| an extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be | constructivism |
| applying a systematic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as it relates to the study at hand | content analysis |
| illnesses that are questioned or considered questionable by some medical professionals | contested illnesses |
| a theory which states that the elderly make specific choices to maintain consistency in internal (personality structure, beliefs) and external structures (relationships), remaining active and involved throughout their elder years | continuity theory |
| a theory that states social control is directly affected by the strength of social bonds and that deviance results from a feeling of disconnection from society | control theory |
| people who come together for a regularly scheduled event | conventional crowds |
| a sociological theory to explain how and why societies move toward similarity over time as their economies develop | convergence theory |
| dominant capitalist countries | core nations |
| a theory that asserts human ingenuity will rise to the challenge of providing adequate resources for a growing population | cornucopian theory |
| crime committed by white-collar workers in a business environment | corporate crime |
| the system tasked with supervising individuals who have been arrested for, convicted of, or sentenced for criminal offenses | corrections system |
| when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but does not necessarily indicate causation | correlation |
| groups that reject and oppose society’s widely accepted cultural patterns | countercultures |
| a system that has the authority to make decisions based on law | court |
| the emphasis on certificates or degrees to show that a person has a certain skill, has attained a certain level of education, or has met certain job qualifications | credentialism |
| a behavior that violates official law and is punishable through formal sanctions | crime |
| an organization that exists to enforce a legal code | criminal justice system |
| a fairly large number of people who share close proximity | crowd |
| the process of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people | crowdsourcing |
| religious groups that are small, secretive, and highly controlling of members and have a charismatic leader | cults |
| cultural knowledge that serves (metaphorically) as currency to help one navigate a culture | cultural capital |
| the way people come to learn the values, beliefs, and social norms of their culture | cultural transmission |
| patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies | cultural universals |
| a group's shared practices, values, and beliefs | culture |
| shared beliefs, values, and practices | culture |
| the gap of time between the introduction of material culture and nonmaterial culture’s acceptance of it | culture lag |
| the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture | culture of prejudice |
| the application to and promotion of feminism online | cyberfeminism |
| a thesis that argues some social stratification is a social necessity and is functional | Davis-Moore thesis |
| the buildup of external debt, wherein countries borrow money from other nations to fund their expansion or growth goals | debt accumulation |
| the act of people pledging themselves as servants in exchange for money for passage, and are subsequently paid too little to regain their freedom | debt bondage |
| looking beyond the obvious to expose falseness by examining merit, logic, and evidence. | debunking |
| the process by which new members of a total institution lose aspects of their old identities and are given new ones | degradation ceremony |
| the loss of industrial production, usually to peripheral and semi-peripheral nations where the costs are lower | deindustrialization |
| the social process that normalizes “sick” behavior | demedicalization |
| a form of government that provides all citizens with an equal voice or vote in determining state policy | democracy |
| a leader who encourages group participation and consensus-building before moving into action | democratic leader |
| a theory that describes four stages of population growth, following patterns that connect birth and death rates with stages of industrial development | demographic transition theory |
| the study of population | demography |
| a large, mainstream religion that is not sponsored by the state | denomination |
| the number of nonproductive citizens (young, disabled, elderly) to productive working citizens | dependency ratio |
| a theory which states that global inequity is due to the exploitation of peripheral and semi-peripheral nations by core nations | dependency theory |
| a variable changed by other variables | dependent variables |
| a sustained recession across several economic sectors | depression |
| patents that are granted when someone has invented a new and original design for a manufactured product | design patents |
| a violation of contextual, cultural, or social norms | deviance |
| a social problem that is stated in a clear, easily understood manner | diagnostic framing |
| a form of government in which a single person (or a very small group) wields complete and absolute authority over a government or populace after the dictator rises to power, usually through economic or military might | dictatorship |
| a theory that states individuals learn deviant behavior from those close to them who provide models of and opportunities for deviance | differential association theory |
| the spread of material and nonmaterial culture from one culture to another | diffusion |
| the uneven access to technology around race, class, and geographic lines | digital divide |
| a reduction in one’s ability to perform everyday tasks; the World Health Organization notes that this is a social limitation | disability |
| things and ideas found from what already exists | discoveries |
| prejudiced action against a group of people | discrimination |
| a theory which suggests that withdrawing from society and social relationships is a natural part of growing old | disengagement theory |
| the performance of tasks based upon the gender assigned to us by society and, in turn, ourselves | doing gender |
| Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 U.S. law explicitly limiting the definition of “marriage” to a union between one man and one woman and allowing each individual state to recognize or deny same-sex marriages performed in other states | DOMA |
| a group of people who have more power in a society than any of the subordinate groups | dominant group |
| the concept that prohibits premarital sexual intercourse for women but allows it for men | double standard |
| a lowering of one’s social class | downward mobility |
| a technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance | dramaturgical analysis |
| a two-member group | dyad |
| a stable state in which all parts of a healthy society work together properly | dynamic equilibrium |
| social patterns that have undesirable consequences for the operation of society | dysfunctions |
| the ability to sort through, interpret, and process digital knowledge | e-readiness |
| the disposal of broken, obsolete, and worn-out electronics | e-waste |
| a religion that is considered the state religion | ecclesia |
| the social institution through which a society’s resources (goods and services) are managed | economy |
| a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, learning skills, and cultural norms | education |
| the act of a caretaker intentionally depriving an older person of care or harming the person in their charge | elder abuse |
| a perspective that emphasizes the importance of social norms in crowd behavior | emergent norm theory |
| evidence that comes from direct observations, scientifically gathered data, or experimentation | empirical evidence |
| unions of people within the same social category | endogamous marriages |
| the burdening of economically and socially disadvantaged communities with a disproportionate share of environmental hazards | environmental racism |
| the sociological subfield that addresses the relationship between humans and the environment | environmental sociology |
| the study of the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases | epidemiology |
| sects that last but do not become denominations | established sects |
| shared culture, which may include heritage, language, religion, and more | ethnicity |
| the evaluation and judgment of another culture based on one’s own cultural norms | ethnocentrism |
| participating and observing thinking and behavior in a social setting | ethnography |
| a breakthrough in one form of technology that leads to a number of variations, from which a prototype emerges, followed by a period of slight adjustments to the technology, interrupted by a breakthrough | evolutionary model of technological change |
| a theory which suggests that we experience an increased dependence as we age and must increasingly submit to the will of others, because we have fewer ways of compelling others to submit to us | exchange theory |
| unions of spouses from different social categories | exogamous unions |
| the testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions | experiment |
| the types of rules in a bureaucracy; rules that are outlined, recorded, and standardized | explicit rules |
| crowds who share opportunities to express emotions | expressive crowds |
| a group function that serves an emotional need | expressive function |
| a leader who is concerned with process and with ensuring everyone’s emotional wellbeing | expressive leader |
| the act of a dominant group forcing a subordinate group to leave a certain area or even the country | expulsion |
| a household that includes at least one parent and child as well as other relatives like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins | extended family |
| the state where one is barely able, or unable, to afford basic necessities | extreme poverty |
| communities that arise farther out than the suburbs and are typically populated by residents of high socioeconomic status | exurbs |
| a condition in which the beliefs, ideals, or ideology of a person are not in the person’s own best interest | false consciousness |
| socially recognized groups of individuals who may be joined by blood, marriage, or adoption and who form an emotional connection and an economic unit of society | family |
| a sociological model of family that sees the progression of events as fluid rather than as occurring in strict stages | family life course |
| a set of predictable steps and patterns families experience over time | family life cycle |
| the family into which one is born | family of orientation |
| a family that is formed through marriage | family of procreation |
| a measure noting the actual number of children born | fertility rate |
| societies that operate on a strict hierarchical system of power based around land ownership and protection | feudal societies |
| gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey | field research |
| the process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior | figuration |
| deference and respect to one’s parents and ancestors in all things | filial piety |
| a term from the Cold War era that is used to describe industrialized capitalist democracies | first world |
| a large group of people who gather together in a spontaneous activity that lasts a limited amount of time | flash mob |
| direct, appropriate behavior in the day-to-day practices and expressions of a culture | folkways |
| the learning of academic facts and concepts | formal education |
| established, written rules | formal norms |
| large, impersonal organizations | formal organizations |
| sanctions that are officially recognized and enforced | formal sanctions |
| a term that describes stigmatized minority groups who have no voice or representation on the world stage | fourth world |
| hydraulic fracturing, a method used to recover gas and oil from shale by drilling down into the earth and directing a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and proprietary chemicals into the rock | fracking |
| using bridging, amplification, extension, and transformation as an ongoing and intentional means of recruiting participants to a movement | frame alignment process |
| the part a recurrent activity plays in the social life as a whole and the contribution it makes to structural continuity | function |
| a theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society | functionalism |
| the sorting process by which thousands of possible messages are shaped into a mass media-appropriate form and reduced to a manageable amount | gatekeeping |
| a term that refers to social or cultural distinctions of behaviors that are considered male or female | gender |
| a condition listed in the DSM-5 in which people whose gender at birth is contrary to the one they identify with. This condition replaces "gender identity disorder" | gender dysphoria |
| a person’s deeply held internal perception of one's gender | gender identity |
| society’s concept of how men and women should behave | gender role |
| the common behavioral expectations of general society | generalized other |
| the organized and generalized attitude of a social group | generalized others |
| the deliberate annihilation of a targeted (usually subordinate) group | genocide |
| the entry of upper- and middle-class residents to city areas or communities that have been historically less affluent | gentrification |
| a medical specialty focusing on the elderly | geriatrics |
| a type of social structure wherein the power is held by a society’s oldest members | gerontocracy |
| a field of science that seeks to understand the process of aging and the challenges encountered as seniors grow older | gerontology |
| the idea that as people age, they transcend limited views of life they held in earlier times | gerotranscendence |
| a measure of income inequality within a country; can be used to compare one country’s inequality to another's | GINI coefficient |
| an invisible barrier that women encounter when trying to win jobs in the highest level of business | glass ceiling |
| a practice where products are assembled over the course of several international transactions | global assembly lines |
| internationally integrated economic links that connect workers and corporations for the purpose of manufacture and marketing | global commodity chains |
| a pattern that occurs when women bear a disproportionate percentage of the burden of poverty | global feminization of poverty |
| the concentration of resources in core nations and in the hands of a wealthy minority | global inequality |
| a comparison of the wealth, status, power, and economic stability of countries as a whole | global stratification |
| the unequal distribution of resources between countries | global stratification |
| the integration of international trade and finance markets | globalization |
| the idea that the achievement level associated with an A today is notably lower than the achievement level associated with A-level work a few decades ago | grade inflation |
| an attempt to explain large-scale relationships and answer fundamental questions such as why societies form and why they change | grand theories |
| a psychological, emotional, and social response to the feelings of loss that accompanies death or a similar event | grief |
| the income of a nation calculated based on goods and services produced, plus income earned by citizens and corporations headquartered in that country | gross national income (GNI) |
| any collection of at least two people who interact with some frequency and who share some sense of aligned identity | group |
| the idea that society is constructed by us and those before us, and it is followed like a habit | habitualization |
| attacks based on a person’s race, religion, or other characteristics | hate crimes |
| when study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awareness of being observed by a researcher | Hawthorne effect |
| a federal program that provides academically focused preschool to students of low socioeconomic status | Head Start program |
| an ideology and a set of institutional practices that privilege straight people and heterosexuality over other sexual orientations | heterosexism |
| the informal teaching done in schools that socializes children to societal norms | hidden curriculum |
| the type of nonacademic knowledge that people learn through informal learning and cultural transmission | hidden curriculum |
| a clear chain of command found in a bureaucracy | hierarchy of authority |
| the cultural patterns of a society’s elite | high culture |
| an extreme or irrational aversion to gay, lesbian, bisexual, or all LGBTQ people, which often manifests as prejudice and bias | homophobia |
| societies based around the cultivation of plants | horticultural societies |
| healthcare that treats terminally ill people by providing comfort during the dying process | hospice |
| a functional perspective that looks at the relationship between people and their built and natural environment | human ecology |
| societies that depend on hunting wild animals and gathering uncultivated plants for survival | hunter-gatherer societies |
| a testable proposition | hypothesis |
| a testable educated guess about predicted outcomes between two or more variables | hypothesis |
| the standards a society would like to embrace and live up to | ideal culture |
| the cultural belief system that justifies a society’s system of stratification | ideology |
| the physical limitations a less-able person faces | impairment |
| the removal of personal feelings from a professional situation | impersonality |
| a group a person belongs to and feels is an integral part of his identity | in-group |
| the money a person earns from work or investments | income |
| variables that cause changes in dependent variables | independent variables |
| a government rule that requires everyone to have insurance coverage or they will have to pay a penalty | individual mandate |
| societies characterized by a reliance on mechanized labor to create material goods | industrial societies |
| education that involves learning about cultural values, norms, and expected behaviors through participation in a society | informal education |
| casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to | informal norms |
| sanctions that occur in face-to-face interactions | informal sanctions |
| societies based on the production of nonmaterial goods and services | information societies |
| new objects or ideas introduced to culture for the first time | innovations |
| the act of implanting a convention or norm into society | institutionalization |
| being oriented toward a task or goal | instrumental function |
| a leader who is goal oriented with a primary focus on accomplishing tasks | instrumental leader |
| a difference in social class between different generations of a family | intergenerational mobility |
| someone who fled his or her home while remaining inside the country’s borders | internally displaced person |
| a sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing | interpretive framework |
| theory that suggests we cannot separate the effects of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes | intersection theory |
| people born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. | intersex |
| a one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject | interview |
| violence that occurs between individuals who maintain a romantic or sexual relationship | intimate partner violence (IPV) |
| changes in a person's social mobility over the course of their lifetime. | intragenerational mobility |
| a combination of pieces of existing reality into new forms | inventions |
| a situation in which an individual is trapped by social institutions | iron cage |
| the theory that an organization is ruled by a few elites rather than through collaboration | Iron Rule of Oligarchy |
| a person’s traceable ancestry (by blood, marriage, and/or adoption) | kinship |
| the gap in information that builds as groups grow up without access to technology | knowledge gap |
| the ascribing of a deviant behavior to another person by members of society | labeling theory |
| a hands-off leader who allows members of the group to make their own decisions | laissez-faire leader |
| a symbolic system of communication | language |
| the unrecognized or unintended consequences of a social process | latent functions |
| the main focus or goal of a leader | leadership function |
| the style a leader uses to achieve goals or elicit action from group members | leadership style |
| codes that maintain formal social control through laws | legal codes |
| the act of a physician certifying that an illness is genuine | legitimation |
| the use of a church to promote social change via the political arena | liberation theology |
| the period from birth to death, including a sequence of predictable life events | life course |
| the number of years a newborn is expected to live | life expectancy |
| a scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research | literature review |
| our reflection of how we think we appear to others | looking-glass self |
| a wide-scale view of the role of social structures within a society | macro-level |
| a theory asserting that population is controlled through positive checks (war, famine, disease) and preventive checks (measures to reduce fertility) | Malthusian theory |
| sought consequences of a social process | manifest functions |
| a subtype of socialism that adopts certain traits of capitalism, like allowing limited private ownership or consulting market demand | market socialism |
| a legally recognized contract between two or more people in a sexual relationship who have an expectation of permanence about their relationship | marriage |
| a relatively large group with a common interest, even if they may not be in close proximity | mass |
| a label that describes the chief characteristic of an individual | master status |
| a type of unilateral descent that follows the mother’s side only | matrilineal descent |
| a system in which it is customary for a husband to live with the his wife’s family | matrilocal residence |
| the increasing presence of the fast food business model in common social institutions | McDonaldization of Society |
| a type of social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture | mechanical solidarity |
| a form of social cohesion that comes from sharing similar work, education, and religion, as might be found in simpler societies | mechanical solidarity |
| all print, digital, and electronic means of communication | media |
| a process by which fewer and fewer owners control the majority of media outlets | media consolidation |
| the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas | media globalization |
| the systematic study of how humans manage issues of health and illness, disease and disorders, and healthcare for both the sick and the healthy | medical sociology |
| the process by which aspects of life that were considered bad or deviant are redefined as sickness and needing medical attention to remedy | medicalization |
| the process that changes “bad” behavior into “sick” behavior | medicalization of deviance |
| a Christian church that has a very large congregation averaging more than 2,000 people who attend regular weekly services | megachurch |
| a large urban corridor that encompasses several cities and their surrounding suburbs and exurbs | megalopolis |
| an economic policy based on national policies of accumulating silver and gold by controlling markets with colonies and other countries through taxes and customs charges | mercantilism |
| a bureaucracy where membership and advancement is based on merit—proven and documented skills | meritocracy |
| an ideal system in which personal effort—or merit—determines social standing | meritocracy |
| the area that includes a city and its suburbs and exurbs | metropolis |
| the study of specific relationships between individuals or small groups | micro-level theories |
| any group of people who are singled out from the others for differential and unequal treatment | minority group |
| the hatred of or, aversion to, or prejudice against women | misogyny |
| the stereotype applied to a minority group that is seen as reaching higher educational, professional, and socioeconomic levels without protest against the majority establishment | model minority |
| the process that increases the amount of specialization and differentiation of structure in societies | modernization |
| a theory that low-income countries can improve their global economic standing by industrialization of infrastructure and a shift in cultural attitudes towards work | modernization theory |
| a theory which suggests that the primary cause of the elderly losing power and influence in society are the parallel forces of industrialization and modernization | modernization theory |
| a form of government in which a single person (a monarch) rules until that individual dies or abdicates the throne | monarchy |
| an object that a society agrees to assign a value to so it can be exchanged as payment | money |
| the act of being married to only one person at a time | monogamy |
| a religion based on belief in a single deity | monotheism |
| long-term, debilitating illnesses like depression and bipolar disorder | mood disorders |
| the way people learn what is “good” and “bad” in society | moral development |
| the incidence of disease | morbidity |
| the moral views and principles of a group | mores |
| the number of deaths in a given time or place | mortality |
| a measure of the number of people in a population who die | mortality rate |
| a call to action | motivational framing |
| a form of socialism under which individuals and cooperative groups exchange products with one another on the basis of mutually satisfactory contracts | mutualism |
| the influence of our genetic makeup on self-development | nature |
| punishments for violating norms | negative sanctions |
| those who see technology as a symbol of the coldness of modern life | neo-Luddites |
| the principle that all Internet data should be treated equally by internet service providers | net neutrality |
| all interactive forms of information exchange | new media |
| a theory that attempts to explain the proliferation of postindustrial and postmodern movements that are difficult to understand using traditional social movement theories | new social movement theory |
| nongovernmental organizations working globally for numerous humanitarian and environmental causes | NGO |
| “Not In My Back Yard,” the tendency of people to protest poor environmental practices when those practices will affect them directly | NIMBY |
| an act that requires states to test students in prescribed grades, with the results of those tests determining eligibility to receive federal funding | No Child Left Behind Act |
| using secondary data, does not include direct contact with research subjects and does not alter or influence people’s behaviors | nonreactive research |
| crimes that involve the destruction or theft of property, but do not use force or the threat of force | nonviolent crimes |
| organizations that people join to pursue shared interests or because they provide some intangible rewards | normative or voluntary organizations |
| the visible and invisible rules of conduct through which societies are structured | norms |
| two parents (traditionally a married husband and wife) and children living in the same household | nuclear family |
| the role that our social environment plays in self-development | nurture |
| a form of government in which power is held by a small, elite group | oligarchy |
| a situation in which a few firms dominate a marketplace | oligopoly |
| a concept holding that each person’s vote should be counted equally | one person, one vote |
| a system of stratification, based on achievement, that allows some movement and interaction between layers and classes. | open system |
| specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study | operational definitions |
| a type of social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences | organic solidarity |
| a form of social cohesion that arises out of the mutual interdependence created by the specialization of work | organic solidarity |
| a group that an individual is not a member of, and may even compete with | out-group |
| a practice where jobs are contracted to an outside source, often in another country | outsourcing |
| a form of constant monitoring in which the observation posts are decentralized and the observed is never communicated with directly | panoptic surveillance |
| philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories, generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them | paradigms |
| when a researcher immerses herself in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an “insider” perspective | participant observation |
| societies based around the domestication of animals | pastoral societies |
| a type of unilateral descent that follows the father’s line only | patrilineal descent |
| a system in which it is customary for the a wife to live with (or near) the her husband’s family | patrilocal residence |
| a type of authority wherein military and administrative factions enforce the power of the master | patrimonialism |
| the difference in earnings between men and women | pay gap |
| a group made up of people who are similar in age and social status and who share interests | peer group |
| nations on the fringes of the global economy, dominated by core nations, with very little industrialization | peripheral nations |
| disorders that cause people to behave in ways that are seen as abnormal to society but seem normal to them | personality disorders |
| the voluntary use of lethal medication provided by a medical doctor to end one’s life | physician-assisted suicide |
| the act of a technology company planning for a product to be obsolete or unable from the time it’s created | planned obsolescence |
| patents that recognize the discovery of new plant types that can be asexually reproduced | plant patents |
| the ideal of the United States as a “salad bowl:” a mixture of different cultures where each culture retains its own identity and yet adds to the “flavor” of the whole | pluralism |
| a practice where the differences between low-end and high-end jobs become greater and the number of people in the middle levels decreases | polarization |
| a civil force in charge of regulating laws and public order at a federal, state, or community level | police |
| a means of studying a nation’s or group’s underlying social norms as values as evidenced through its political structure and practices | politics |
| the introduction of contaminants into an environment at levels that are damaging | pollution |
| the state of being committed or married to more than one person at a time | polygamy |
| a religion based on belief in multiple deities | polytheism |
| mainstream, widespread patterns among a society’s population | popular culture |
| a defined group serving as the subject of a study | population |
| a snapshot of the demographic profile of a population based on fertility, mortality, and migration rates | population composition |
| a graphic representation that depicts population distribution according to age and sex | population pyramid |
| rewards given for conforming to norms | positive sanctions |
| the scientific study of social patterns | positivism |
| the ability to exercise one’s will over others | power |
| a small group of wealthy and influential people at the top of society who hold the power and resources | power elite |
| a small group of powerful people who control much of a society | power elite |
| biased thought based on flawed assumptions about a group of people | prejudice |
| biological factors such as molecular and cellular changes | primary aging |
| data that are collected directly from firsthand experience | primary data |
| a violation of norms that does not result in any long-term effects on the individual’s self-image or interactions with others | primary deviance |
| small, informal groups of people who are closest to us | primary groups |
| a law stating that all property passes to the firstborn son | primogeniture |
| health insurance that a person buys from a private company; private healthcare can either be employer-sponsored or direct-purchase | private healthcare |
| social movements that state a clear solution and a means of implementation | prognostic framing |
| the laborers in a society | proletariat |
| an unorganized, relatively diffuse group of people who share ideas | public |
| health insurance that is funded or provided by the government | public healthcare |
| non-numerical, descriptive data that is often subjective and based on what is experienced in a natural setting | qualitative data |
| in-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of its data | qualitative sociology |
| data collected in numerical form that can be counted and analyzed using statistics | quantitative data |
| statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants | quantitative sociology |
| the use by law enforcement of race alone to determine whether to stop and detain someone | racial profiling |
| the act of real estate agents directing prospective homeowners toward or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race | racial steering |
| a set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices that are used to justify the belief that one racial category is somehow superior or inferior to others | racism |
| a study’s participants being randomly selected to serve as a representation of a larger population | random sample |
| power that is legitimized by rules, regulations, and laws | rational-legal authority |
| a belief that modern society should be built around logic and efficiency rather than morality or tradition | rationalization |
| the way society really is based on what actually occurs and exists | real culture |
| two or more consecutive quarters of economic decline | recession |
| the practice of routinely refusing mortgages for households and business located in predominately minority communities | redlining |
| groups to which an individual compares herself | reference groups |
| movements that seek to change something specific about the social structure | reform movements |
| an individual who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster | refugee |
| an error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence | reification |
| is not having the means to live the lifestyle of the average person in your country | relative poverty |
| the state of poverty where one is unable to live the lifestyle of the average person in the country | relative poverty |
| a measure of a study’s consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced | reliability |
| a system of beliefs, values, and practices concerning what a person holds to be sacred or spiritually significant | religion |
| specific ideas that members of a particular faith hold to be true | religious beliefs |
| the conviction or sensation that one is connected to “the divine” | religious experience |
| behaviors or practices that are either required for or expected of the members of a particular group | religious rituals |
| movements that work to promote inner change or spiritual growth in individuals | religious/redemptive movements |
| a government wherein citizens elect officials to represent their interests | representative democracy |
| those who seek to prevent or undo change to the social structure | resistance movements |
| the process by which old behaviors are removed and new behaviors are learned in their place | resocialization |
| a theory that explains social movements’ success in terms of their ability to acquire resources and mobilize individuals | resource mobilization theory |
| movements that seek to completely change every aspect of society | revolutionary movements |
| a situation when one or more of an individual’s roles clash | role conflict |
| the expression of a role | role performance |
| stress that occurs when too much is required of a single role | role strain |
| an array of roles attached to a particular status | role-set |
| patterns of behavior that are representative of a person’s social status | roles |
| small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population | samples |
| a way to authorize or formally disapprove of certain behaviors | sanctions |
| the means of enforcing rules | sanctions |
| the way that people understand the world based on their form of language | Sapir-Whorf hypothesis |
| a theory that suggests that the dominant group will displace its unfocused aggression onto a subordinate group | scapegoat theory |
| an established scholarly research that involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing a data collection method, gathering data, and drawing conclusions | scientific method |
| a term from the Cold War era that describes nations with moderate economies and standards of living | second world |
| aging that occurs due to controllable factors like exercise and diet | secondary aging |
| using data collected by others and applying new interpretations | secondary data analysis |
| deviance that occurs when a person’s self-concept and behavior begin to change after his or her actions are labeled as deviant by members of society | secondary deviance |
| larger and more impersonal groups that are task-focused and time limited | secondary groups |
| a small, new offshoot of a denomination | sect |
| the intergenerational impact of de facto and de jure racism that limits the abilities of Black people to accumulate wealth | sedimentation of racial inequality |
| the physical separation of two groups, particularly in residence, but also in workplace and social functions | segregation |
| a theory based on the idea that successful personal development throughout the life course and subsequent mastery of the challenges associated with everyday life are based on the components of selection, optimization, and compensation | selective optimization with compensation theory |
| a person’s distinct sense of identity as developed through social interaction | self |
| an idea that becomes true when acted upon | self-fulfilling prophecy |
| a collection of data acquired using voluntary response methods, such as questionnaires or telephone interviews | self-report study |
| in-between nations, not powerful enough to dictate policy but acting as a major source of raw materials and an expanding middle class marketplace | semi-peripheral nations |
| the aging process, including biological, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual changes | senescence |
| a term that denotes the presence of physical or physiological differences between males and females | sex |
| the ratio of men to women in a given population | sex ratio |
| the prejudiced belief that one sex should be valued over another | sexism |
| a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and sexual attraction to a particular sex (male or female) | sexual orientation |
| a person’s capacity for sexual feelings | sexuality |
| a group of medical symptoms such as brain swelling and retinal hemorrhage resulting from forcefully shaking or impacting an infant’s head | shaken-baby syndrome |
| the pattern of expectations that define appropriate behavior for the sick and for those who take care of them | sick role |
| specific individuals that impact a person's life | significant others |
| the change in a society created through social movements as well as through external factors like environmental shifts or technological innovations | social change |
| the school of thought that race is not biologically identifiable | social construction of race |
| socially created definitions about the cultural appropriateness of sex-linked behavior which shape how people see and experience sexuality | social construction of sexuality |
| a way to encourage conformity to cultural norms | social control |
| the regulation and enforcement of norms | social control |
| a theory that asserts crime occurs in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control | social disorganization theory |
| the study of the causes and distribution of diseases | social epidemiology |
| the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life | social facts |
| a specialized field of gerontology that examines the social (and sociological) aspects of aging | social gerontology |
| patterns of beliefs and behaviors focused on meeting social needs | social institutions |
| how strongly a person is connected to his or her social group | social integration |
| the ability to change positions within a social stratification system | social mobility |
| a purposeful organized group hoping to work toward a common social goal | social movement |
| the collection of the social movement organizations that are striving toward similar goals | social movement industry |
| a single social movement group | social movement organization |
| the multiple social movement industries in a society, even if they have widely varying constituents and goals | social movement sector |
| an arrangement of practices and behaviors on which society’s members base their daily lives | social order |
| the use of education to improve one’s social standing | social placement |
| the social ties that bind a group of people together such as kinship, shared location, and religion | social solidarity |
| a socioeconomic system that divides society’s members into categories ranking from high to low, based on things like wealth, power, and prestige. Also called inequality. | social stratification |
| an economic system in which there is government ownership (often referred to as “state run”) of goods and their production, with an impetus to share work and wealth equally among the members of a society | socialism |
| the process wherein people come to understand societal norms and expectations, to accept society’s beliefs, and to be aware of societal values | socialization |
| when the government owns and runs the entire healthcare system | socialized medicine |
| a group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another and who share a common culture | society |
| people who live in a definable community and who share a culture | society |
| a group of people who live in a definable community and share the same cultural components | society |
| an individual’s level of wealth, power, and prestige | socioeconomic status (SES) |
| the ability to understand how your own past relates to that of other people, as well as to history in general and societal structures in particular | sociological imagination |
| the systematic study of society and social interaction | sociology |
| classifying students based on academic merit or potential | sorting |
| the level of wealth available to acquire material goods and comforts to maintain a particular socioeconomic lifestyle | standard of living |
| the responsibilities and benefits that a person experiences according to his or her rank and role in society | status |
| the consistency, or lack thereof, of an individual’s rank across social categories like wealth, power, and prestige | status consistency |
| stereotypes that don’t change and that get recycled for application to a new subordinate group | stereotype interchangeability |
| oversimplified ideas about groups of people | stereotypes |
| the act of spoiling someone's identity; they are labeled as different, discriminated against, and sometimes even shunned due to an illness or disability | stigmatization |
| illnesses that are discriminated against and whose sufferers are looked down upon or even shunned by society | stigmatization of illness |
| a theory that addresses the relationship between having socially acceptable goals and having socially acceptable means to reach those goals | strain theory |
| crime committed by average people against other people or organizations, usually in public spaces | street crime |
| a societal change that enables a whole group of people to move up or down the class ladder | structural mobility |
| a societal level of disjuncture between people seeking jobs and the jobs that are available | structural unemployment |
| a theory that focuses on the shared community created by the elderly when they are excluded (due to age), voluntarily or involuntarily, from participating in other groups | subculture of aging theory |
| groups that share a specific identification, apart from a society’s majority, even as the members exist within a larger society | subcultures |
| a state of poverty composed of many dimensions, subjectively present when one’s actual income does not meet one’s expectations | subjective poverty |
| a group of people who have less power than the dominant group | subordinate group |
| farming where farmers grow only enough to feed themselves and their families | subsistence farming |
| the communities surrounding cities, typically close enough for a daily commute | suburbs |
| people 110 of age or older | supercentenarians |
| collect data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about thinking, behaviors, and opinions, often in the form of a questionnaire | surveys |
| development that occurs without depleting or damaging the natural environment | sustainable development |
| a theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols) | symbolic interactionism |
| gestures or objects that have meanings associated with them that are recognized by people who share a culture | symbols |
| racism embedded in social institutions; also referred to as institutional racism and structural racism | systemic racism |
| the spread of technology across borders | technological diffusion |
| the cross-cultural development and exchange of technology | technological globalization |
| the application of science to solve problems in daily life | technology |
| those who see technology as symbolizing the potential for a brighter future | technophiles |
| the systematic study of death and dying | thanatology |
| a proposed explanation about social interactions or society | theory |
| a term from the Cold War era that refers to poor, unindustrialized countries | third world |
| how a subjective reality can drive events to develop in accordance with that reality, despite being originally unsupported by objective reality | Thomas theorem |
| an organization in which participants live a controlled lifestyle and in which total resocialization occurs | total institution |
| an extremely oppressive form of dictatorship in which most aspects of citizens’ lives are controlled by the leader | totalitarian dictatorship |
| the belief in a divine connection between humans and other natural beings | totemism |
| a formalized sorting system that places students on “tracks” (advanced, low achievers) that perpetuate inequalities | tracking |
| power legitimized on the basis of long-standing customs | traditional authority |
| an adjective that describes individuals who identify with the behaviors and characteristics that are other than their biological sex | transgender |
| a three-member group | triad |
| a state in which a person accepts a lower paying, lower status job than his or her education and experience qualifies him or her to perform | underemployment |
| an unregulated economy of labor and goods that operates outside of governance, regulatory systems, or human protections | underground economy |
| people who spend at least 10 percent of their income on healthcare costs that are not covered by insurance | underinsured |
| the tracing of kinship through one parent only. | unilateral descent |
| the equal ability of all people to participate in an education system | universal access |
| a system that guarantees healthcare coverage for everyone | universal healthcare |
| an increase—or upward shift—in social class | upward mobility |
| the subfield of sociology that focuses on the study of urbanization | urban sociology |
| the study of the social, political, and economic relationships of cities | urbanization |
| organizations that are joined to fill a specific material need | utilitarian organizations |
| patents that are granted for the invention or discovery of any new and useful process, product, or machine | utility patents |
| the degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study | validity |
| a practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in publishing results | value neutrality |
| a functionalist perspective theory that posits that several preconditions must be in place for collective behavior to occur | value-added theory |
| a culture’s standard for discerning what is good and just in society | values |
| a German word that means to understand in a deep way | verstehen |
| activities against the law, but that do not result in injury to any individual other than the person who engages in them | victimless crime |
| crimes based on the use of force or the threat of force | violent crimes |
| the value of money and assets a person has from, for example, inheritance or salary. | wealth |
| the migration of economically secure white people from racially mixed urban areas toward the suburbs | white flight |
| the societal privilege that benefits White people, or those perceived to be White, over non-White people in some societies, including the United States | White privilege |
| an illogical fear and even hatred of foreigners and foreign goods | xenophobia |
| a theoretical goal in which the number of people entering a population through birth or immigration is equal to the number of people leaving it via death or emigration | zero population growth |