SOCIOLOGY KEY TERMS

1) Structuralism: An approach focusing on the large scale social structures in

which people play defined roles.

2) Macro approaches: Macro approaches focuses on the large scale of whole

societies.

3) Micro approaches: Micro approaches focuses on small scale social

interaction.

4) Correlation: When wo variables are related to each other but causation

cannot be provided; for example, ill health is related to poverty. This is not a
casual relationship because some sick people are not poor and some poor people
are not sick.

5) Causation: Where a strict link can be proved between variables in a time

sequence; such as heating water to 100°C causes it to boil. Causation is hard to
find in sociology.

6) Interpretivist: Approaches that start at the level of the individual, focusing

on small-scale phenomena and usually favoring qualitive methods.

7) Perspectives: Ways of viewing social life from different points of view.

8) Identity: How a person sees themselves and how others see them.

9) Consensus: Basic agreement on a set of shared values.

10) Conflict: A disagreement between groups with different interests.

11) Positivism: A sociological approach based on studying society in a scientific
manner.

12) Culture: The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values and traditions
shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

13) Norms: Rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its
members.

14) Values: Beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional
investment (either for or against something).

15) Socialisation: The process of acquiring values, attitudes and behavior

through interacting with others.

16) Law: A body of enforceable rules governing relationships among individuals

and between individuals and their society.

17) Means of production: Means of production are things like factories,

machines, tools like power loom, etc. These are all things that allow for the
creation of goods. Under capitalism, these include property, factories and
machinery.

18) Proletarianisation: The idea that clerical workers have experienced

downward mobility into the working class. Their work has become less skilled and
more routine, it resembles factory work.

19) Market situation: Peoples position (for example; their skills) in the labour
market.

20) Market situation theorist: Marx Weber saw peoples class situation in terms
of their market situation and argued that different social classes had different
market situations.
21) Charismatic authority: Authority that rests on the personal appeal of an
individual leader. Eg; Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela

22) Absolute poverty: The point at which a household’s income falls below the
necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members.

23) Relative poverty: People may be able to afford basic necessities but are still
unable to maintain an average standard of living.

24) Authority: The exercise of power based on consent or agreement rather

than on force. People willingly agree to obey an individual or group because they
see it as the right thing to do.

25) Power (Weber’s definition): The ability of an individual or a group to get

what they want, despite opposition from others. Power is based on either
coercion or authority.

26) Power ( Modern Sociological definition): The control or dominance of one

individual or group over others. (husbands/wives or parents/children)

27) Coercion: The threat of or use of force to get someone to do what you
want.

28) Assimilation: Where immigrants abandon their culture and adapt their
behaviors to fit the norms and values of the dominant culture.

29) Ageism: Prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person’s age.

30) Migration: The movement of people from one country or region to

another.

31) Emigration: The act of moving from one country to settle elsewhere.

32) Kibbutz: A group of people who live communally in settlements and who
value equally and co-operation between members.
33) Family diversity: Expression of the range of family types in a society, from
nuclear through extended and reconstituted to single-parent.

34) Rapoport & Rapoport (1982): Different types of diversity in families in

Britain including social class diversity and cultural diversity.

35) Commune: A body of people or families living together and sharing

everything.

36) Arranged marriage: A marriage in which the parents or relatives of the

couple take a leading role in matchmaking and organizing the marriage. The
couple have the right to choose whether to accept the arrangement or not.

37) Canalisation: The ‘channeling’ of children towards toys and activities seen
as normal for their gender.

38) Childhood: The stage between birth and becoming an adult.

39) Integrated conjugal roles: Roles that are shared equally between married
or co-habiting partners.

40) Segregated conjugal roles: Domestic roles that are divided in an unequal
way.

41) Instrumental role: The behavior role in the family. Parsons saw this as the
man’s role

42) Expressive role: The caring, emotional and nurturing role in the family.
Parsons saw this as the women’s natural role

43) Polyandry: A form of marriage in which a woman has more than one
husband.

44) Marriage: The legal union of two people , recognized by law.

45) Monogamy: Having a single sexual or marriage partner at any given time.

46) Polygamy: Having more than one sexual or marriage at the same time.

47) Polygyny: A form of marriage in which a man has more than one wife.

48) Nuclear family: A family unit based on two generations and their
dependent children living together.

49) Reconstituted (blended) family: Sometimes called a step-family, this

involves the break-up of one family and its reassembly as a new family through
marriage or cohabitation.

50) Conventional Family: A traditional nuclear family containing a married

couple and their children who live together. Family members have different roles
based on age, occupation and gender. Women cook at home without pay, while
men are expected to work for pay outside of the home.

51) Common-law family: Adult couple and children living together as a family
without the adults being legally married.

52) Civil partnership: Same-sex relationship giving the participants similar legal
rights to married couples.

53) Lone/Single parent family: It consists of a single adult and dependent

children. Lone parenthood is usually distinguished from single parenthood on the
basis of factors such as divorce or the death of a partner, rather than choice.

54) Matrifocal family household: Family that is focused on women, such as a

female grandparent, parent and child.

55) Patrifocal family: Family structure focused on men.

56) Modified extended family: Contemporary form of extended family; family
members maintain contact but rarely live in close proximity to one another.

57) Beanpole family: An inter-generational, vertically extended family

structure with very wear instar-generational links. This structure develops in
societies with low or declining birth rates and increasing life expectancies.

58) Symmetrical family: Relationship in which family roles are shared equally
within the home.

59) Kinship networks: Family relationships, based on biology, affinity or law,

that form distinctive patterns (grandparents, parents, grandchildren) and
networks; members of kinship groups may feel a special bond with and
responsible for the other kin.

60) Privatized family: Structure that is home-oriented, child-centered and built

on emotional relationship between adults and children.

61) Cohabitation: Living together without being married.

62) Same-sex marriage: Family group involving same sex parents (gay males or
lesbian females) and children, such as those from a previous heterosexual
relationship.

63) Postmodern family: Idea that in post modernity the focus of family
members is an individual self-development.

64) Family: A couple whose relationship is based on marriage, civil partnership

or cohabitation, with or without dependent on children, or a lone parent and
their child or children.

65) Adolescence: The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending

from puberty to independence.
66) Adulthood: The stage of development that begins around 18 to 21 years
and ends at death.

67) Age groups: Divisions across the lifespan that reflect change overtime.

68) Agencies of socialization: Institutions that undertake socialization.(eg:

parents, peers, media, school)

69) Beliefs: Specific ideas that people hold to be true.

70) Child-centered: Thinking about children from the child’s perspective or

with the child’s needs in mind.

71) Childhood: The stage of development that begins at about 18 to 24 months

and lasts until adolescence.

72) Cultural relativism: The ability to understand a culture on its own terms
and not to make judgements using the standards of one’s own culture.

73) Customs: Common practices followed by people of a particular group or

region.

74) Diversity: The cultural differences of other societies.

75) Elderly: Older people within society, typically over 65.

76) Ethnic minority: A member of an ethnic group which is much smaller than
the majority group.

77) Ethnicity: A social division based on national origin, religion, language and
often race.

78) Race: A group of human beings distinguished by physical traits, blood types,
genetic code patterns or genetically inherited characteristics.
79) Femininity: Traits, including biological and social traits, associated with
being female.

80) Masculinity: Traits, including biological and social traits, associated with
being male.

81) Feral children: Individuals who were not raised with human contact or care.

82) Gender: The biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which

people define male and female.

83) Roles: Actions and activities that a person in a particular position is

supposed to perform based on expectations of the individual and surrounding
persons.

84) Social stratification: A system by which a society ranks categories of people

in a hierarchy with the most privileged at the top and the least favored at the
bottom. eg: social class, slavery, the caste system, the feudal system.

85) Slavery: A form of social stratification in which one group claims the right to
own another group and treat them as property.

86) Feudalism: A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands
that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and
protection of the people who live on the land.

87) Caste system: A Hindu social class system that controlled every aspect of
daily life, operating in India. In this system, people are born into a particular caste
or strata and their social position is ascribed or fixed at birth.

88) Aristocracy: The highest class in certain societies, especially those holding
hereditary titles or offices, have titles such as Duke or Lady and are usually
wealthy landowners. The titles are passed down through families.
89) Bourgeoisie: The bourgeoisie are the ruling class who own the means of
production (factories, big business or land) and exploit he proletariat in order to
make to make huge profits.

90) Proletariat: The wage laborers who do not own any means of production
and live by selling their labor to the bourgeoisie for wages.

91) Underclass: A group in society whose norms and values are different from
those in mainstream society. People who experience long term poverty and are
unable to earn a living.

92) Elite: A group that has the most power in a society based on wealth or
privilege.

93) Petty bourgeoisie: Small business owners and managers.

94) Embourgeoisie: The idea that members of the working class develop
middle-class attitudes and patterns of behavior as they become more affluent.

95) Lumpenproletariat: People living on the margin of society such as beggars,

vagrants and criminals.

96) Achieved status: A social position a person earned through personal ability,
talent, merit and effort. Eg: a promotion at work.

97) Ruling class ideology: The dominant views which rich people use to control
poor people within society. A set of dominant ideas that present a distorted or
false picture or reality and serve the interests of the rich. Marxist theory which
justifies the position of the bourgeoisie in capitalist society. For example; values
and ideas about free markets and the reality of exploitation and oppression.

98) False class consciousness: Marx’s term to refer to workers identifying with
the interests of capitalists. The working class do not realize they are being
exploited or where their true interests lie.
99) White-collar: Someone who works in a professional or clerical job and who
usually earns a weekly salary.

100) Blue- collar worker: Someone who performs manual labor, often in a
manufacturing job, and who earns an hourly wage.

101) Ascribed status: A position born into, not achieved or earned.