Sociology 13e by Henslin

Sociology 13e by Henslin is the 13th edition of the textbook titled Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, authored by James M. Henslin, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and published by Pearson Education, Boston in 2017.

Achieved statuses. Positions that are earned, accomplished, or involve at least some effort or activity on the individual's part.
Acid rain. Rain containing sulfuric and nitric acids (burning fossil fuels release sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide that become sulfuric and nitric acids when they react with moisture in the air).
Acting crowd. An excited group of people who move toward a goal activity theory the view that satisfaction during old age is related to a person's amount and quality of activity.
Age cohort. People born at roughly the same time who pass through the life course together.
Ageism. Prejudice and discrimination directed against people because of their age; can be directed against any age group, including youth.
Agent provocateur. Someone who spies on a group or tries to sabotage it.
Agents of socialization. People or groups that affect our self concept, attitudes, behaviors, or other orientations toward life.
Aggregate. Individuals who temporarily share the same physical space but who do not see themselves as belonging together.
Agricultural revolution. The second social revolution, based on the invention of the plow, which led to agricultural societies.
Agricultural society. A society based on large-scale agriculture.
Alienation. Marx's term for workers' lack of connection to the product of their labor; caused by workers being assigned repetitive tasks on a small part of a product, which leads to a sense of powerlessness and normlessness; others use the term in the general sense of not feeling a part of something.
Alterative social movement. A social movement that seeks to alter only some specific aspects of people and institutions.
Alternative medicine. Medical treatment other than that of standard Western medicine; often refers to practices that originate in Asia, but may also refer to taking vitamins not prescribed by a doctor.
Anarchy. A condition of lawlessness or political disorder caused by the absence or collapse of governmental authority.
Animism. The belief that all objects in the world have spirits, some of which are dangerous and must be outwitted.
Anomie. Durkheim's term for a condition of society in which people become detached from the usual norms that guide their behavior.
Anticipatory socialization. The process of learning in advance an anticipated future role or status.
Anti-Semitism. Prejudice, discrimination, and persecution directed against Jews.
Apartheid. The government-approved-and-enforced separation of racial–ethnic groups as was practiced in South Africa.
Applied sociology. The use of sociology to solve problems -- from the micro level of classroom interaction and family relationships to the macro level of crime and pollution.
Ascribed status. A position an individual either inherits at birth or receives involuntarily later in life.
Assimilation. The process of being absorbed into the mainstream culture.
Authoritarian leader. An individual who leads by giving orders.
Authoritarian personality. Theodor Adorno's term for people who are prejudiced and rank high on scales of conformity, intolerance, insecurity, respect for authority, and submissiveness to superiors.
Authority. Power that people consider legitimate, as rightly exercised over them; also called legitimate power.
Back stages. Places where people rest from their performances, discuss their presentations, and plan future performances.
Background assumption. A deeply embedded, common understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act.
Barter. The direct exchange of one item for another.
Basic (or pure) sociology. Sociological research for the purpose of making discoveries about life in human groups, not for making changes in those groups.
Basic demographic equation. The growth rate equals births minus deaths plus net migration.
Bilineal system (of descent). A system of reckoning descent that counts both the mother's and the father's side.
Biotech society. A society whose economy increasingly centers on modifying genetics to produce food, medicine, and materials.
Blended family. A family whose members were once part of other families.
Body language. The ways in which people use their bodies to give messages to others.
Bonded labor (indentured service). A contractual system in which someone sells his or her body (services) for a specified period of time in an arrangement very close to slavery, except that it is entered into voluntarily.
Born again. A term describing Christians who have undergone a religious experience so life transforming that they feel they have become new persons.
Bourgeoisie. Marx's term for capitalists, those who own the means of production.
Bureaucracy. A formal organization with a hierarchy of authority and a clear division of labor; emphasis on impersonality of positions and written rules, communications, and records.
Capital punishment. The death penalty.
Capitalism. An economic system built around the private ownership of the means of production, the pursuit of profit, and market competition.
Cargo cult. A social movement in which South Pacific islanders destroyed their possessions in anticipation that their ancestors would ship them new goods.
Case study. An intensive analysis of a single event, situation, or individual.
Caste system. A form of social stratification in which people's statuses are lifelong conditions determined by birth.
Category. People, objects, and events that have similar characteristics and are classified together.
Centrist party. A political party that represents the center of political opinion.
Charisma. Literally, an extraordinary gift from God; more commonly, an outstanding, "magnetic" personality.
Charismatic authority. Authority based on an individual's outstanding traits, which attract followers.
Charismatic leader. Literally, someone to whom God has given a gift; in its extended sense, someone who exudes extraordinary appeal to a group of followers.
Checks and balances. The separation of powers among the three branches of U.S. government -- legislative, executive, and judicial -- so that each is able to nullify the actions of the other two, thus preventing any single branch from dominating the government.
Church. According to Durkheim, one of the three essential elements of religion -- a moral community of believers; also refers to a large, highly organized religious group that has formal, sedate worship services with little emphasis on evangelism, intense religious experience, or personal conversion.
Circular reaction. Robert Park's term for back-and-forth communications among the members of a crowd whereby a "collective impulse" is transmitted.
Citizenship. The concept that birth (and residence or naturalization) in a country imparts basic rights.
City. A place in which a large number of people are permanently based and do not produce their own food.
City-state. An independent city whose power radiates outward, bringing the adjacent area under its rule.
Civil religion. Robert Bellah's term for religion that is such an established feature of a country's life that its history and social institutions become sanctified by being associated with God.
Class conflict. Marx's term for the struggle between capitalists and workers.
Class consciousness. Marx's term for awareness of a common identity based on one's position in the means of production.
Class system. A form of social stratification based primarily on income, education, and prestige of occupation.
Clique (cleek). A cluster of people within a larger group who choose to interact with one another.
Closed-ended questions. Questions that are followed by a list of possible answers to be selected by the respondent.
Coalition. The alignment of some members of a group against others.
Coalition government. A government in which a country's largest party does not have enough votes to rule, and to do so aligns itself with one or more smaller parties.
Coercion power. That people do not accept as rightly exercised over them; also called illegitimate power.
Cohabitation. Unmarried couples living together in a sexual relationship.
Collective behavior. Extraordinary activities carried out by groups of people; includes lynchings, rumors, panics, urban legends, fads, and fashions.
Collective mind. Gustave LeBon's term for the tendency of people in a crowd to feel, think, and act in extraordinary ways.
Colonialism. The process by which one nation takes over another nation, usually for the purpose of exploiting its labor and natural resources.
Common sense. Those things that "everyone knows" are true.
Compartmentalize. To separate acts from feelings or attitudes.
Conflict theory. A theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of groups that are competing for scarce resources.
Conspicuous consumption. Thorstein Veblen's term for a change from the thrift, saving, and investing of the Protestant ethic to showing off wealth through spending and the display of possessions.
Contact theory. The idea that prejudice and negative stereotypes decrease and racial–ethnic relations improve when people from different racial–ethnic backgrounds, who are of equal status, interact frequently.
Continuity theory. A theory focusing on how people adjust to retirement by continuing aspects of their earlier lives.
Contradictory class locations. Erik Wright's term for a position in the class structure that generates contradictory interests.
Control group. The subjects in an experiment who are not exposed to the independent variable.
Control theory. The idea that two control systems -- inner controls and outer controls -- work against our tendencies to deviate.
Convergence theory. The view that as capitalist and socialist economic systems each adopt features of the other, a hybrid (or mixed) economic system will emerge.
Core values. The values that are central to a group, those around which people build a common identity.
Corporate capitalism. The domination of an economic system by giant corporations.
Corporate crime. Crimes committed by executives in order to benefit their corporation.
Corporate culture. The values, norms, and other orientations that characterize corporate work settings.
Corporation. A business enterprise whose assets, liabilities, and obligations are separate from those of its owners; as a legal entity, it can enter into contracts, assume debt, and sue and be sued.
Correspondence principle. The sociological principle that schools correspond to (or reflect) the social structure of their society.
Cosmology. Teachings or ideas that provide a unified picture of the world.
Counterculture. A group whose values, beliefs, norms, and related behaviors place its members in opposition to the broader culture.
Creative aging. The view that old age is a time for personal development, for greater creativity and learning new skills and outlooks on life.
Credential society. The use of diplomas and degrees to determine who is eligible for jobs, even though the diploma or degree may be irrelevant to the actual work.
Credit card. A device that allows its owner to purchase goods and to be billed later.
Crime. The violation of norms written into law.
Criminal justice system. The system of police, courts, and prisons set up to deal with people who are accused of having committed a crime.
Crude birth rate. The annual number of live births per 1,000 population.
Crude death rate. The annual number of deaths per 1,000 population.
Cult. A new religion with few followers, whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion.
Cultural capital. Privileges accompanying a social location that help someone in life; included are more highly educated parents, from grade school through high school being pushed to bring home high grades, and enjoying cultural experiences that translate into higher test scores, better jobs, and higher earnings.
Cultural diffusion. The spread of cultural traits from one group to another; includes both material and nonmaterial cultural traits.
Cultural goals. The objectives held out as legitimate or desirable for the members of a society to achieve.
Cultural lag. Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging behind technological innovations.
Cultural leveling. The process by which cultures become similar to one another; refers especially to the process by which Western culture is being exported and diffused into other nations.
Cultural relativism. Not judging a culture but trying to understand it on its own terms.
Cultural transmission of values. The process of transmitting values from one group to another; often refers to how cultural traits are transmitted across generations; in education, the ways in which schools transmit a society's culture, especially its core values.
Cultural universal. A value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in every group.
Culture. The language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors, and even material objects that characterize a group and are passed from one generation to the next.
Culture of poverty. The assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by passing these characteristics to their children.
Culture shock. The disorientation that people experience when they come in contact with a fundamentally different culture and can no longer depend on their taken-for-granted assumptions about life.
Currency. Paper money.
Debit card. A device that electronically withdraws the cost of an item from the cardholder's bank account.
Defensive medicine. Medical practices done not for the patient's benefit but in order to protect physicians from malpractice suits.
Deferred gratification. Going without something in the present in the hope of achieving greater gains in the future.
Degradation ceremony. A term coined by Harold Garfinkel to refer to a ritual whose goal is to remake someone's self by stripping away that individual's self-identity and stamping a new identity in its place.
Dehumanization. The act or process of reducing people to objects that do not deserve the treatment accorded humans.
Deindustrialization. The process of industries moving out of a country or region.
Democracy. A government whose authority comes from the people; the term, based on two Greek words, translates literally as "power to the people".
Democratic leader. An individual who leads by trying to reach a consensus.
Democratic socialism. A hybrid economic system in which the individual ownership of businesses is mixed with the state ownership of industries thought essential to the public welfare, such as the postal service, natural resources, the medical delivery system, and mass transportation.
Demographic transition. A three-stage historical process of change in the size of populations: first, high birth rates and high death rates second, high birth rates and low death rates; and third, low birth rates and low death rates; a fourth stage of population shrinkage in which deaths outnumber births has made its appearance in the Most Industrialized Nations.
Demographic variables. The three factors that change the size of a population: fertility, mortality, and net migration.
Demography. The study of the size, composition, growth (or shrinkage), and distribution of human populations.
Denomination. A "brand name" within a major religion; for example, Methodist or Baptist.
Dependency ratio. The number of workers who are required to support each dependent person -- those 65 and older and those 15 and under.
Dependent variable. A factor in an experiment that is changed by an independent variable.
Depersonalization. Dealing with people as though they were objects; in the case of medical care, as though patients were merely cases and diseases, not people.
Deposit receipt. A receipt stating that a certain amount of goods are on deposit in a warehouse or bank; the receipt is used as a form of money.
Deviance. The violation of norms (or rules or expectations).
Dialectical process (of history). Each arrangement of power (a thesis) contains contradictions (antitheses) which make the arrangement unstable and which must be resolved; the new arrangement of power (a synthesis) contains its own contradictions; this process of balancing and unbalancing continues throughout history as groups struggle for power and other resources.
Dictatorship. A form of government in which an individual has seized power.
Differential association. Edwin Sutherland's term to indicate that people who associate with some groups learn an "excess of definitions" of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant.
Diffusion. The spread of an invention or a discovery from one area to another; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change.
Direct democracy. A form of democracy in which the eligible voters meet together to discuss issues and make their decisions.
Disabling environment. An environment that is harmful to health.
Discovery. A new way of seeing reality; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change.
Discrimination. An act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or a group.
Disengagement theory. The view that society is stabilized by having the elderly retire (disengage from) their positions of responsibility sovthe younger generation can step into their shoes.
Disinvestment. The withdrawal of investments by financial institutions, which seals the fate of an urban area.
Divine right of kings. The idea that the king's authority comes from God; in an interesting gender bender, also applies to queens.
Division of labor. The splitting of a group's or a society's tasks into specialties.
Documents. In its narrow sense, written sources that provide data; in its extended sense, archival material of any sort, including photographs, movies, CDs, DVDs, and so on.
Domestication revolution. The first social revolution, based on the domestication of plants and animals, which led to pastoral and horticultural societies.
Dominant group. The group with the most power, greatest privileges, and highest social status.
Downward social mobility. Movement down the social class ladder.
Dramaturgy. An approach, pioneered by Erving Goffman, in which social life is analyzed in terms of drama or the stage; also called dramaturgical analysis.
Dumping. Private hospitals sending unprofitable patients to public hospitals or any hospital discharging unprofitable patients before they are well.
Dyad. The smallest possible group, consisting of two persons e-cash digital money that is stored on computers.
Ecclesia. A religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where the one begins and the other leaves off; also called a state religion.
Economy. A system of producing and distributing goods and services.
Eco-sabotage. Actions taken to sabotage the efforts of people who are thought to be legally harming the environment.
Edge city. A large clustering of service facilities and residential areas near highway intersections that provides a sense of place to people who live, shop, and work there.
Education. A formal system of teaching knowledge, values, and skills.
Egalitarian. Authority more or less equally divided between people or groups (in heterosexual marriage, for example, between husband and wife).
Ego. Freud's term for a balancing force between the id and the demands of society.
Emergent norms. Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian's term for the idea that people develop new norms to cope with a new situation; used to explain crowd behavior.
Endogamy. The practice of marrying within one's own group.
Enterprise zone. The use of economic incentives in a designated area to encourage investment.
Environmental injustice. Refers to how minorities and the poor are harmed the most by environmental pollution.
Environmental sociology. A specialty within sociology whose focus is how humans affect the environment and how the environment affects humans.
Epidemiology. The study of patterns of disease and disability in a population.
Estate stratification system. The stratification system of medieval Europe, consisting of three groups or estates: the nobility, clergy, and commoners.
Ethnic cleansing. A policy of eliminating a population; includes forcible expulsion and genocide.
Ethnic work. Activities designed to discover, enhance, maintain, or transmit an ethnic or racial identity.
Ethnicity (and ethnic). having distinctive cultural characteristics.
Ethnocentrism. The use of one's own culture as a yardstick for judging the ways of other individuals or societies, generally leading to a negative evaluation of their values, norms, and behaviors.
Ethnomethodology. The study of how people use background assumptions to make sense out of life.
Euthanasia. Mercy killing.
Evangelism. An attempt to win converts.
Exchange mobility. A large number of people moving up the social class ladder, while a large number move down; it is as though they have exchanged places, and the social class system shows little change.
Exogamy. The practice of marrying outside of one's group.
Experiment. The use of control and experimental groups and dependent and independent variables to test causation.
Experimental group. The group of subjects in an experiment who are exposed to the independent variable.
Exponential growth curve. A pattern of growth in which numbers double during approximately equal intervals, showing a steep acceleration in the later stages.
Expressive leader. An individual who increases harmony and minimizes conflict in a group; also known as a socioemotional leader.
Extended family. A family in which relatives, such as the "older generation" or unmarried aunts and uncles, live with the parents and their children.
Face-saving behavior. Techniques used to salvage a performance (interaction) that is going sour.
Fad. A temporary pattern of behavior that catches people's attention.
False class consciousness. Marx's term to refer to workers identifying with the interests of capitalists.
Family. Two or more people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage, or adoption.
Family of orientation. The family in which a person grows up.
Family of procreation. The family formed when a couple's first child is born.
Fashion. A pattern of behavior that catches people's attention and lasts longer than a fad.
Fecundity. The number of children that women are capable of bearing.
Fee-for-service. Payment to a physician to diagnose and treat a patient's medical problems.
Feminism. The philosophy that men and women should be politically, economically, and socially equal; organized activities on behalf of this principle.
Feminization of poverty. A condition of U.S. poverty in which most poor families are headed by women.
Feral children. Children assumed to have been raised by animals, in the wilderness, isolated from humans.
Fertility rate. The number of children that the average woman bears.
Fiat money. Currency issued by a government that is not backed by stored value.
Folkways. Norms that are not strictly enforced.
Formal organization. A secondary group designed to achieve explicit objectives.
Front stages. Places where people give performances.
Functional analysis. A theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society's equilibrium; also known as functionalism and structural functionalism.
Functional equivalent. A substitute that serves the same functions (or meets the same needs) as religion, for example, psychotherapy.
Functional illiteracy. Refers to high school graduates who have difficulty with basic reading and math.
Gatekeeping. The process by which education opens and closes doors of opportunity; another term for the social placement function of education.
Gemeinschaft. A type of society in which life is intimate; a community in which everyone knows everyone else and people share a sense of togetherness.
Gender. The behaviors and attitudes that a society considers proper for its males and females; masculinity or femininity.
Gender age. The relative value placed on men's and women's ages.
Gender socialization learning. Society's "gender map," the paths in life set out for us because we are male or female.
Gender stratification. Males' and females' unequal access to property, power, and prestige.
Generalizability. The extent to which the findings from one group (or sample) can be generalized or applied to other groups (or populations).
Generalization. A statement that goes beyond the individual case and is applied to a broader group or situation generalized other the norms, values, attitudes, and expectations of people "in general"; the child's ability to take the role of the generalized other is a significant step in the development of a self.
Genetic predisposition. Inborn tendencies (for example, a tendency to commit deviant acts).
Genocide. The annihilation or attempted annihilation of a people because of their presumed race or ethnicity.
Gentrification. Middle-class people moving into a rundown area of a city, displacing the poor as they buy and restore homes.
Gesellschaft. A type of society that is dominated by impersonal relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interest.
Gestures. The ways in which people use their bodies to communicate with one another.
Glass ceiling. The mostly invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing to the top levels at work.
Global superclass. The top members of the capitalist class, who, through their worldwide interconnections, make the major decisions that affect the world.
Globalization. The growing interconnections among nations due to the expansion of capitalism.
Globalization of capitalism. Capitalism (investing to make profits within a rational system) becoming the globe's dominant economic system.
Goal displacement. An organization replacing old goals with new ones; also known as goal replacement.
Gold standard. Paper money backed by gold.
Grade inflation. higher grades given for the same work; a general rise in student grades without a corresponding increase in learning.
Graying of America. The growing percentage of older people in the U.S. population.
Gross domestic product (GDP). The amount of goods and services produced by a nation.
Group. People who interact with one another and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group.
Group dynamics. The ways in which individuals affect groups and the ways in which groups influence individuals.
Groupthink. A narrowing of thought by a group of people, leading to the perception that there is only one correct answer and that to even suggest alternatives is a sign of disloyalty.
Growth rate. The net change in a population after adding births, subtracting deaths, and either adding or subtracting net migration; can result in a negative number.
Health. A human condition measured by four components: physical, mental, social, and spiritual.
Hidden corporate culture. Stereotypes of the traits that make for high-performing and underperforming workers, which end up producing both types of workers.
Hidden curriculum. The unwritten goals of schools, such as teaching obedience to authority and conformity to cultural norms.
Homogamy. The tendency of people with similar characteristics to marry one another.
Horatio Alger myth. The belief that due to limitless possibilities anyone can get ahead if he or she tries hard enough.
Horticultural society. A society based on cultivating plants by the use of hand tools.
Hospice care. Professional care given to dying people at home. Originally referred to a place, a hospice, but now refers to home care.
Household. People who occupy the same housing unit.
Human ecology. Robert Park's term for the relationship between people and their environment (such as land and structures); also known as urban ecology.
Humanizing. The work setting organizing a workplace in such a way that it develops rather than impedes human potential.
Hunting and gathering society. A human group that depends on hunting and gathering for its survival.
Hypothesis. A statement of how variables are expected to be related to one another, often according to predictions from a theory.
Id. Freud's term for our inborn basic drives.
Ideal culture. A people's ideal values and norms; the goals held out for them.
Ideology. Beliefs about the way things ought to be that justify social arrangements.
Illegitimate opportunity. Structure opportunities for crimes that are woven into the texture of life.
Impression management. People's efforts to control the impressions that others receive of them.
Incest. Sexual relations between specified relatives, such as brothers and sisters or parents and children.
Incest taboo. The rule that prohibits sex and marriage among designated relatives.
Inclusion. helping people to become part of the mainstream of society; also called mainstreaming.
Income. Money received, usually from a job, business, or assets.
Independent variable. A factor that causes a change in another variable, called the dependent variable.
Individual discrimination. Person-to-person or face-to-face discrimination; the negative treatment of people by other individuals.
Industrial Revolution. The third social revolution, occurring when machines powered by fuels replaced most animal and human power.
Industrial society. A society based on the harnessing of machines powered by fuels.
Inflation. An increase in prices; technically, an increase in the amount of money in circulation, which leads to an increase in prices.
In-group. A group toward which one feels loyalty.
Institutional discrimination. Negative treatment of a minority group that is built into a society's institutions; also called systemic discrimination.
Institutionalized means. Approved ways of reaching cultural goals.
Instrumental leader. An individual who tries to keep the group moving toward its goals; also known as a task-oriented leader.
Intergenerational mobility. The change that family members make in social class from one generation to the next.
Interlocking directorates. The same people serving on the boards of directors of several companies.
Internal colonialism. The policy of exploiting minority groups for economic gain.
Interview. Direct questioning of respondents.
Interviewer bias. Effects of interviewers on respondents that lead to biased answers.
Invasion–succession cycle. The process of one group of people displacing a group whose racial–ethnic or social class characteristics differ from their own.
Invention. The combination of existing elements and materials to form new ones; identified by William Ogburn as one of three processes of social change.
Iron law of oligarchy. Robert Michels' term for the tendency of formal organizations to be dominated by a small, self-perpetuating elite.
Labeling theory. The view that the labels people are given affect their own and others' perceptions of them, thus channeling their behavior into either deviance or conformity.
Laissez-faire capitalism. Literally "hands off" capitalism, meaning that the government doesn't interfere in the market.
Laissez-faire leader. An individual who leads by being highly permissive.
Language. A system of symbols that can be combined in an infinite number of ways and can represent not only objects but also abstract thought.
Latent functions. Unintended beneficial consequences of people's actions.
Leader. Someone who influences other people.
Leadership. Styles ways in which people express their leadership.
Life course. The stages of our life as we go from birth to death.
Life expectancy. The number of years that an average person at any age, including newborns, can expect to live.
Life span. The maximum length of life of a species; for humans, the longest that a human has lived.
Lobbyists. People who influence legislation on behalf of their clients.
Looking-glass self. A term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to refer to the process by which our self develops through internalizing others' reactions to us.
Machismo. An emphasis on male strength and dominance.
Macro-level analysis. An examination of large-scale patterns of society; such as how Wall Street and the political establishment are interrelated.
Macropolitics. The exercise of large-scale power, the government being the most common example.
Macrosociology. Analysis of social life that focuses on broad features of society, such as social class and the relationships of groups to one another; usually used by functionalists and conflict theorists.
Malthus theorem. An observation by Thomas Malthus that although the food supply increases arithmetically (from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 and so on), population grows geometrically (from 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 and so forth).
Mandatory education laws. Laws that require all children to attend school until a specified age or until they complete a minimum grade in school.
Manifest functions. The intended beneficial consequences of people's actions.
Market forces. The law of supply and demand.
Marriage. A group's approved mating arrangements, usually marked by a ritual of some sort.
Mass hysteria. An imagined threat that causes physical symptoms among a large number of people.
Mass media. Forms of communication, such as radio, newspapers, and television that are directed to mass audiences.
Master status. A status that cuts across the other statuses that an individual occupies.
Material culture. The material objects that distinguish a group of people, such as their art, buildings, weapons, utensils, machines, hairstyles, clothing, and jewelry.
Matriarchy. A society in which women-as-a-group dominate men-asa-group; authority is vested in females.
Matrilineal system (of descent). A system of reckoning descent that counts only the mother's side.
McDonaldization of society. The process by which ordinary aspects of life are rationalized and efficiency comes to rule them, including such things as food preparation.
Means of production. The tools, factories, land, and investment capital used to produce wealth.
Mechanical solidarity Durkheim's term for the unity (a shared consciousness) that people feel as a result of performing the same or similar tasks. .
Medicalization. The transformation of a human condition into a medical matter to be treated by physicians.
Medicalization of deviance. To make deviance a medical matter, a symptom of some underlying illness that needs to be treated by physicians.
Medicine. One of the social institutions that sociologists study; a society's organized ways of dealing with sickness and injury.
Medium of exchange. The means by which people place a value on goods and services in order to make an exchange -- for example, currency, gold, and silver.
Megacity. A city of 10 million or more residents.
Megalopolis. An urban area consisting of at least two metropolises and their many suburbs.
Megaregion. A merging of megacities and nearby populated areas into an even larger mass of people.
Meritocracy. A form of social stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit.
Metaformative social movement. A social movement that has the goal to change the social order not just of a country or two, but of a civilization, or even of the entire world.
Metropolis. A central city surrounded by smaller cities and their suburbs.
Metropolitan statistical area (MSA). A central city and the urbanized counties adjacent to it.
Micro-level analysis. An examination of small-scale patterns of society; such as how the members of a group interact.
Micropolitics. The exercise of power in everyday life, such as deciding who is going to do the housework or use the remote control.
Microsociology. Analysis of social life that focuses on social interaction; typically used by symbolic interactionists.
Militarization of social institutions. The use of social institutions to fulfill military goals.
Millenarian. Social movement a social movement based on the prophecy of coming social upheaval.
Milling. A crowd standing or walking around as they talk excitedly about some event.
Minimax strategy. Richard Berk's term for the efforts people make to minimize their costs and maximize their rewards.
Minority group. People who are singled out for unequal treatment and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.
Modernization. The transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies.
Monarchy. A form of government headed by a king or queen.
Money. Any item (from sea shells to gold) that serves as a medium of exchange.
Monopoly. The control of an entire industry by a single company.
Monotheism. The belief that there is only one God.
Moral panic. A fear gripping a large number of people that some evil threatens the wellbeing of society; followed by hostility, sometimes violence, toward those thought responsible.
Mores norms. That are strictly enforced because they are thought essential to core values or the well-being of the group.
Multiculturalism (or pluralism). A policy that permits or encourages ethnic differences.
Multinational corporations. Companies that operate across national boundaries; also called transnational corporations.
Natural sciences. The intellectual and academic disciplines designed to comprehend, explain, and predict events in our natural environments.
Negative sanction. An expression of disapproval for breaking a norm, ranging from a mild, informal reaction such as a frown to a formal reaction such as a fine or a prison sentence.
Neocolonialism. The economic and political dominance of the Least Industrialized Nations by the Most Industrialized Nations.
Net migration rate. The difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants per 1,000 population.
New technology. The emerging technologies of an era that have a significant impact on social life.
Noncentrist party. A political party that represents ideas that are not at the center of political opinion.
Nonmaterial culture. A group's ways of thinking (including its beliefs, values, and other assumptions about the world) and doing (its common patterns of behavior, including language and other forms of interaction); also called symbolic culture.
Nonverbal interaction. Communication without words through gestures, use of space, silence, and so on.
Norms. Expectations of "right" behavior.
Nuclear family. A family consisting of a husband, wife, and child(ren).
Objectivity value. Neutrality in research.
Oligarchy. A form of government in which a small group of individuals holds power; the rule of the many by the few.
Open-ended questions. Questions that respondents answer in their own words.
Operational definition. The way in which a researcher measures a variable.
Organic solidarity. Durkheim's term for the interdependence that results from the division of labor; as part of the same unit, we all depend on others to fulfill their jobs.
Out-group. A group toward which one feels antagonism.
Panic. The condition of being so fearful that one cannot function normally and may even flee.
Participant observation (or fieldwork). Research in which the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what is happening in that setting.
Pastoral society. A society based on the pasturing of animals.
Patriarchy. Men-as-a-group dominating women-as-a-group; authority is vested in males.
Patrilineal system (of descent). A system of reckoning descent that counts only the father's side.
Patterns of behavior. Recurring behaviors or events.
Peer group. A group of individuals, often of roughly the same age, who are linked by common interests and orientations.
Personality disorders. The view that a personality disturbance of some sort causes an individual to violate social norms.
Peter Principle. A tongue-in-cheek observation that the members of an organization are promoted for their accomplishments until they reach their level of incompetence; there they cease to be promoted, remaining at the level at which they can no longer do good work.
Pluralism. The diffusion of power among many interest groups that prevents any single group from gaining control of the government.
Pluralistic society. A society made up of many different groups.
Police discretion. The practice of the police, in the normal course of their duties, to either arrest or ticket someone for an offense or to overlook the matter.
Political action committee (PAC). An organization formed by one or more special-interest groups to solicit and spend funds for the purpose of influencing legislation.
Politics. The exercise of power and attempts to maintain or to change power relations.
Polyandry. A form of marriage in which women have more than one husband.
Polygyny. A form of marriage in which men have more than one wife.
Polytheism. The belief that there are many gods.
Population. A target group to be studied.
Population pyramid. A graph that represents the age and sex of a population.
Population shrinkage. The process by which a country's population becomes smaller because its birth rate and immigration are too low to replace those who die and emigrate.
Population transfer. The forced transfer of a minority group.
Positive sanction. A reward or positive reaction for following norms, ranging from a smile to a material reward.
Positivism. The application of the scientific approach to the social world.
Postindustrial (information) society. A society based on information, services, and high technology, rather than on raw materials and manufacturing.
Postmodern society. Another term for postindustrial society; a chief characteristic is the use of tools that extend human abilities to gather and analyze information, to communicate, and to travel.
Poverty line. The official measure of poverty; calculated to include incomes that are less than three times a low-cost food budget.
Power. The ability to carry out your will, even over the resistance of others.
Power elite. C. Wright Mills' term for the top people in U.S. corporations, military, and politics who make the nation's major decisions.
Prejudice. An attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way.
Prestige. Respect or regard.
Primary group. A small group characterized by cooperative, intimate, long-term, face-to-face relationships.
Proactive social movement. A social movement that promotes some social change.
Profane. Durkheim's term for common elements of everyday life.
Professionalization of medicine. The development of medicine into a specialty that requires physicians to (1) obtain a rigorous education, (2) claim a theoretical understanding of illness, (3) take authority over clients, (4) regulate themselves, and (5) present themselves as doing a service to society (rather than just following self-interest).
Proletariat. Marx's term for the exploited class, the mass of workers who do not own the means of production.
Propaganda. In its broad sense, the presentation of information in an attempt to influence people; in its narrow sense, one-sided information used to try to influence people.
Property material possessions. Includes animals, bank accounts, bonds, buildings, businesses, cars, cash, commodities, copyrights, furniture, jewelry, land, and stocks.
Proportional representation. An electoral system in which seats in a legislature are divided according to the proportion of votes that each political party receives.
Protestant ethic. Weber's term to describe the ideal of a self-denying, highly moral life accompanied by thrift and hard work.
Public. In this context, a dispersed group of people relevant to a social movement; the sympathetic and hostile publics have an interest in the issues on which a social movement focuses; there is also an unaware or indifferent public.
Public opinion. how people think about some issue.
Public sociology. Applying sociology for the public good; especially the use of the sociological perspective (how things are related to one another) to guide politicians and policy makers.
Questionnaires. A list of questions to be asked of respondents.
Quiet revolution. The fundamental changes in society that follow when vast numbers of women enter the workforce.
Race. A group whose inherited physical characteristics distinguish it from other groups.
Racism. Prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race.
Random sample. A sample in which everyone in the target population has the same chance of being included in the study.
Rapport (ruh-POUR). A feeling of trust between researchers and the people they are studying.
Rationality. Using rules, efficiency, and practical results to determine human affairs.
Rationalization of society. A widespread acceptance of rationality and social organizations that are built largely around this idea.
Rational–legal authority. Authority based on law or written rules and regulations; also called bureaucratic authority.
Reactive social movement. A social movement whose goal is to resist some social change.
Real culture. The norms and values that people actually follow; as opposed to ideal culture.
Recidivism rate. The percentage of released convicts who are rearrested.
Redemptive social movement. A social movement that seeks to change people and institutions totally, to redeem them.
Redlining. A decision by the officers of a financial institution not to make loans in a particular area.
Reference group. A group whose standards we refer to as we evaluate ourselves.
Reformative social movement. A social movement that seeks to reform some specific aspect of society.
Reincarnation. In Hinduism and Buddhism, the return of the soul (or self) after death in a different form relative deprivation theory in this context, the belief that people join social movements based on their evaluations of what they think they should have compared with what others have.
Reliability. The extent to which research produces consistent or dependable results.
Religion. According to Durkheim, beliefs and practices that separate the profane from the sacred and unite its adherents into a moral community.
Religious experience. A sudden awareness of the supernatural or a feeling of coming in contact with God.
Replication. The repetition of a study in order to test its findings.
Representative democracy. A form of democracy in which voters elect representatives to meet together to discuss issues and make decisions on their behalf.
Research method (or research design). One of seven procedures that sociologists use to collect data: surveys, participant observation, case studies, secondary analysis, analysis of documents, experiments, and unobtrusive measures.
Reserve labor force. The unemployed; unemployed workers are thought of as being "in reserve" -- capitalists take them "out of reserve" (put them back to work) during times of high production and then put them "back in reserve" (lay them off) when they are no longer needed.
Resocialization. The process of learning new norms, values, attitudes, and behaviors.
Resource mobilization. A theory that social movements succeed or fail based on their ability to mobilize resources such as time, money, and people's skills.
Respondents. People who respond to a survey, either in interviews or by self-administered questionnaires.
Revolution. Armed resistance designed to overthrow and replace a government.
Riot. Violent crowd behavior directed at people and property.
Rising expectations. The sense that better conditions are soon to follow, which, if unfulfilled, increases frustration.
Rituals ceremonies or repetitive practices. In religion, observances or rites often intended to evoke a sense of awe of the sacred.
Role. The behaviors, obligations, and privileges attached to a status.
Role conflict. Conflicts that someone feels between roles because the expectations are at odds with those attached to another role.
Role extension. A role being stretched to include activities that were not originally part of that role.
Role performance. The ways in which someone performs a role; showing a particular "style" or "personality".
Role strain. Conflicts that someone feels within a role.
Romantic love. Feelings of erotic attraction accompanied by an idealization of the other.
Routinization of charisma. The transfer of authority from a charismatic figure to either a traditional or a rational–legal form of authority.
Ruling class. Another term for the power elite.
Rumor. Unfounded information spread among people.
Sacred. Durkheim's term for things set apart or forbidden that inspire fear, awe, reverence, or deep respect.
Sample. The individuals intended to represent the population to be studied.
Sanctions. Either expressions of approval given to people for upholding norms or expressions of disapproval for violating them.
Sapir–Whorf hypothesis. Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf's hypothesis that language creates ways of thinking and perceiving.
Scapegoat. An individual or group unfairly blamed for someone else's troubles.
Science. The application of systematic methods to obtain knowledge and the knowledge obtained by those methods.
Scientific method. The use of objective, systematic observations to test theories.
Secondary analysis. The analysis of data that have been collected by other researchers.
Secondary group. Compared with a primary group, a larger, relatively temporary, more anonymous, formal, and impersonal group based on some interest or activity.
Sect. A religious group larger than a cult that still feels substantial hostility from and toward society.
Secular. Belonging to the world and its affairs.
Secularization of culture. The process by which a culture becomes less influenced by religion.
Secularization of religion. The replacement of a religion's spiritual or "other worldly" concerns with concerns about "this world".
Segregation. The policy of keeping racial–ethnic groups apart.
Selective perception. Seeing certain features of an object or situation, but remaining blind to others.
Self. The unique human capacity of being able to see ourselves "from the outside"; the views we internalize of how we think others see us.
Self-administered questionnaires. Questionnaires that respondents fill out.
Self-fulfilling prophecy. Robert Merton's term for an originally false assertion that becomes true simply because it was predicted.
Self-fulfilling stereotype. Preconceived ideas of what someone is like that lead to the person's behaving in ways that match the stereotype.
Serial murder. The killing of several victims in three or more separate events.
Sex. Biological characteristics that distinguish females and males, consisting of primary and secondary sex characteristics.
Sexual harassment. The abuse of one's position of authority to force unwanted sexual demands on someone.
Shaman. The healing specialist of a tribe who attempts to control the spirits thought to cause a disease.
Significant other. An individual who significantly influences someone else.
Sign-vehicle. The term used by Goffman to refer to how people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate information about the self.
Slavery. A form of social stratification in which some people own other people.
Small group. A group small enough for everyone to interact directly with all the other people.
Social change. The alteration of culture and societies over time.
Social class. According to Weber, a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and prestige; according to Marx, one of two groups: capitalists who own the means of production or workers who sell their labor.
Social construction of reality. The use of background assumptions and life experiences to define what is real.
Social control. A group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms.
Social environment. The entire human environment, including interaction with others.
Social facts. Durkheim's term for a group's patterns of behavior.
Social inequality. A social condition in which privileges and obligations are given to some but denied to others.
Social institution. The organized, usual, or standard ways by which society meets its basic needs.
Social integration. The degree to which members of a group or a society are united by shared values and other social bonds; also known as social cohesion.
Social interaction. One person's actions influencing someone else; usually refers to what people do when they are in one another's presence, but also includes communications at a distance.
Social location. The group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society.
Social mobility. Movement up or down the social class ladder.
Social movement. A large group of people who are organized to promote or resist some social change.
Social movement organization. An organization to promote the goals of a social movement.
Social network. The social ties radiating outward from the self that link people together.
Social order. A group's usual and customary social arrangements, on which its members depend and on which they base their lives.
Social placement. A function of education -- funneling people into a society's various positions.
Social promotion. Passing students on to the next level even though they have not mastered basic materials.
Social sciences. The intellectual and academic disciplines designed to understand the social world objectively by means of controlled and repeated observations.
Social stratification. The division of large numbers of people into layers according to their relative property, power, and prestige; applies to both nations and to people within a nation, society, or other group.
Social structure. The framework of society that surrounds us; consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior.
Socialism. An economic system built around the public ownership of the means of production, central planning, and the distribution of goods without a profit motive.
Socialization. The process by which people learn the characteristics of their group -- the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for them.
Society. People who share a culture and a territory.
Sociobiology. A framework of thought in which human behavior is considered to be the result of natural selection and biological factors: a fundamental cause of human behavior.
Sociological perspective. Understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context.
Sociology. The scientific study of society and human behavior.
Special-interest group. A group of people who support a particular issue and who can be mobilized for political action.
Spirit of capitalism. Weber's term for the desire to accumulate capital -- not to spend it, but as an end in itself -- and to constantly reinvest it.
Split labor. Market workers split along racial–ethnic, gender, age, or any other lines; this split is exploited by owners to weaken the bargaining power of workers.
State. A political entity that claims monopoly on the use of violence in some particular territory; commonly known as a country.
State religion. A government-sponsored religion; also called ecclesia.
Status. The position that someone occupies in a social group (also called social status).
Status consistency. Ranking high or low on all three dimensions of social class.
Status inconsistency. Ranking high on some dimensions of social class and low on others; also called status discrepancy.
Status set. All the statuses or positions that an individual occupies.
Status symbols. Indicators of a status; items that display prestige.
Stereotype. Assumptions of what people are like, whether true or false.
Stigma. Blemishes that discredit a person's claim to a "normal" identity.
Stockholders' revolt. Refusal by stockholders at their annual meetings to approve management's recommendations.
Stored value. The goods that are stored and held in reserve that back up (or provide the value for) a deposit receipt or a currency.
Strain theory. Robert Merton's term for the strain engendered when a society socializes large numbers of people to desire a cultural goal (such as success), but withholds from some the approved means of reaching that goal; one adaptation to the strain is crime, the choice of an innovative means (one outside the approved system) to attain the cultural goal.
Stratified random sample. A sample from selected subgroups of the target population in which everyone in those subgroups has an equal chance of being included in the research.
Street crime. Crimes such as mugging, rape, and burglary.
Structural mobility. Movement up or down the social class ladder that is due more to changes in the structure of society than to the actions of individuals.
Structured interviews. Interviews that use closed-ended questions.
Subculture. The values and related behaviors of a group that distinguish its members from the larger culture; a world within a world subjective meanings the meanings that people give their own behavior.
Subsistence economy. A type of economy in which human groups live off the land and have little or no surplus.
Suburb. A community adjacent to a city.
Suburbanization. The migration of people from the city to the suburbs.
Superego. Freud's term for the conscience; the internalized norms and values of our social groups.
Survey. The collection of data by having people answer a series of questions.
Sustainable environment. A world system that takes into account the limits of the environment, produces enough material goods for everyone's needs, and leaves a heritage of a sound environment for the next generation.
Symbol. Something to which people attach meaning and then use to communicate with one another.
Symbolic culture. Another term for nonmaterial culture.
Symbolic interactionism. A theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another system of descent how kinship is traced over the generations.
Taboo. A norm so strong that it brings extreme sanctions, even revulsion, if violated.
Taking the role of the other. Putting yourself in someone else's shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks, so you anticipate how that person will act.
Teamwork. The collaboration of two or more people to manage impressions jointly.
Techniques of neutralization. Ways of thinking or rationalizing that help people deflect (or neutralize) society's norms.
Technology. In its narrow sense, tools; its broader sense includes the skills or procedures necessary to make and use those tools.
Terrorism. The use of violence or the threat of violence to produce fear in order to attain political objectives.
Theory. A general statement about how some parts of the world fitctogether and how they work; an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another.
Thomas theorem. William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas' classic formulation of the definition of the situation: "If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences".
Total institution. A place that is almost totally controlled by those who run it, in which people are cut off from the rest of society and the society is mostly cut off from them.
Totalitarianism. A form of government that exerts almost total control over people.
Tracking. The sorting of students into different educational programs on the basis of real or perceived abilities.
Traditional authority. Authority based on custom.
Traditional society. A society in which the past is thought to be the best guide for the present; a primary characteristic of tribal, peasant, and feudal societies.
Transformative social movement. A social movement that seeks to change society totally, to transform it.
Transitional adulthood. A term that refers to a period following high school during which young adults have not yet taken on the responsibilities ordinarily associated with adulthood; also called adultolescence.
Transitional older years. An emerging stage of the life course between retirement and when people are considered old; about age 63 to 74.
Transnational social movements. Social movements whose emphasis is on some condition around the world, instead of on a condition in a specific country; also known as new social movements.
Triad. A group of three people.
Two-tier system of medical care. A system of medical care in which the wealthy receive superior medical care and the poor inferior medical care.
Underclass. A group of people for whom poverty persists year after year and across generations.
Underground economy. Exchanges of goods and services that escape taxes because they are not reported to the government.
Universal citizenship. The idea that everyone has the same basic rights by virtue of being born in a country (or by immigrating and becoming a naturalized citizen).
Unobtrusive measures. Ways of observing people so they do not know they are being studied.
Unstructured interviews. Interviews that use open-ended questions.
Upward social mobility. Movement up the social class ladder.
Urban legend. A story with an ironic twist that sounds realistic but is false.
Urban renewal. The rehabilitation of a rundown area, which usually results in the displacement of the poor who are living in that area.
Urbanization. The process by which an increasing proportion of a population lives in cities and has a growing influence on the culture.
Validity. The extent to which an operational definition measures what it is intended to measure.
Value cluster. Values that together form a larger whole.
Value contradiction. Values that contradict one another; to follow the one means to come into conflict with the other.
Value free. The view that a sociologist's personal values or beliefs should not influence social research.
Values. The standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, superior or inferior, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
Variable. A factor thought to be significant for human behavior, which can vary (or change) from one case to another.
Verstehen. A German word used by Weber that is perhaps best understood as "to have insight into someone's situation".
Voluntary associations. Groups made up of people who voluntarily organize on the basis of some mutual interest; also known as voluntary memberships and voluntary organizations.
Voter apathy. Indifference and inaction on the part of individuals or groups with respect to the political process.
War. Armed conflict between nations or politically distinct groups.
WASP. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
Wealth. The total value of everything someone owns, minus the debts.
White ethnics. White immigrants to the United States whose cultures differ from WASP culture.
White-collar crime. Edwin Sutherland's term for crimes committed by people of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations; for example, bribery of public officials, securities violations, embezzlement, false advertising, and price fixing.
World system. The economic, political, and cultural connections that tie the world's countries together.
World system theory. A theory of how the economic and political connections developed that now tie the world's countries together.
Zero population growth. Women bearing only enough children to reproduce the population.

Sociology 13e by Henslin

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation

Tools