Accommodation:
acceptance of their relative positions in a social situation
by both the minority and dominant groups. [top]
Acculturation:
acceptance
of dominant group's values by minority-group members. [top]
Alienation:
feelings
of powerlessness, meaninglessness, and social isolation associated
with certain social relationships. [top]
Ascribed
Status:
a social position that is assigned to persons by society or by
birth, such as age, sex, or race. [top]
Assimilation:
the
process by which an entire culture is altered in important respects
so as to conform to a dominant culture. Gradual loss of distinctiveness
of minority groups absorbed into dominant population. The process
by which minority groups are absorbed into dominant population.
The process by which minority groups acquire the sociocultural
patterns of the dominant group, which involves both cultural
assimilation--the learning of day to day norms of a dominant
group by minority group members and their internationalization
of the dominant group's values, beliefs and ideas. [top]
Beliefs:
conceptions
or ideas about the world and about human life that center on
the meaning of human experience or the character of the supernatural
world. [top]
Bureaucracy: an organization
with an extensive hierarchy and division of labor governed by
explicit rules. [top]
Caste: a social
category with membership ascribed or determined at birth. [top]
Caste
System:
a social stratification system in which no or almost no mobility
from social category (caste) is possible. [top]
Closed
System:
a system that does not interact with its environment. [top]
Conflict
Theory: a
theoretical orientation emphasizing the opposition among individuals,
groups, or social structures. [top]
Culture: 1. A
blueprint or design for living in society; 2. A system of expectations
and goals widely shared within society; 3. A system of norms
and values. [top]
Cultural
Pluralism:
a pattern of ethnic group relations in which each ethnic group
retains its fundamental values and norms incorporated from elements
from the others. [top]
Deviant
Behavior:
behavior falling outside the acceptable range according to societal
or group norms and values. [top]
Discrimination: overt,
unequal, and unfair treatment of people based on their group
membership. [top]
Ethnocentrism: the
attitude that one's own culture is superior to others, that one's
own beliefs, values, and behavior are more correct than others;
and that other people and cultures can be evaluated in terms
of one's own culture. A tendency to understand the world only
from the viewpoint of one's own culture. [top]
Extended
Family:
two or more nuclear families and three or more generations generally
living together. [top]
False
Consciousness:
a lack of awareness that there is a stratification system in
society and the inability to realize that one is in the same
position in the stratification system as others like oneself.
[top]
Folkways: norms
generally regarded as useful, but not essential for society;
violation of these norms may bring about only mild censure or
punishment. [top]
Identity: a commitment
to normative standards that allow observers to place us in relation
to others and to expect certain behaviors from us. [top]
Institution: a social
structure built around certain values and tending to persist
over time. Labeling: the public stamping, typing or categorizing
of a person as deviant. [top]
Laws: norms
formally chosen to be backed up by punishments for failure to
conform to them, with particular social agencies designated to
do the enforcing. [top]
Mores: norms
generally regarded as essential for the welfare of society and
associated with strong feelings of right or wrong, violations
of which inspire intense reaction and some type of punishment.
[top]
Norm: rules
or expectations defining acceptable or required behaviors of
individuals in social situations; norms are recognized by group
members as essential to group maintenance. [top]
Nuclear
Family:
a family made up of parents and their children. [top]
Paternalistic
Relationships
(patriarchy): relationships in which one group (male-dominated)
is subservient to another, given little responsibility, and has
its basic needs provided for. [top]
Power:
the
ability to achieve desired ends despite opposition. Ability to
get others to do something that they wouldn't ordinarily do.
[top]
Prejudice:
negative
beliefs or expectations and feelings directed against member
of an ethnic group. [top]
Primary
Socialization:
the initial socialization, which is primarily responsible for
the formation of personality and the transmission of culture.
[top]
Racism: a forms
of discrimination based on characteristics of race and existing
either as individual racism, which originates in the racist beliefs
of a single person, or institutional racism, which occurs when
racist ideas and practices are embodied in the folkways, mores
and norms. [top]
Sexism: the
belief that one's sex is innately superior to the other. [top]
Sexual
Orientation:
the manner in which people experience sexual arousal and sexual
pleasure. [top]
Social
Change:
transformation of culture and social institutions over time.
[top]
Social
Conflict:
a framework for building theory based on the assumption that
society is a complex system characterized by inequality and conflict
that generate social change. [top]
Social
Control:
attempts by society to regulate thoughts behaviors of individuals.
[top]
Sociology: scientific
study of human social activity. [top]
Social
Structure:
any relatively pattern of social behavior. [top]
Socialization: the
life long social experience by which individuals develop their
human potential and learn their culture. [top]
Social
Mobility:
a change of position in a stratification system. [top]
Social
Movement:
an organized effort to encourage or oppose some dimension of
change. [top]
Structural
Functionalism:
a framework for building theory based on the assumption that
society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote
stability. [top]
Stigma: a powerful
negative label that radically changes a person's self concept
and social identity. [top]
Subculture: cultural
patterns that distinguish some segment of societies population.
[top]
Symbol: anything
that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share
culture. [top]
Symbolic
Interactionism:
a framework for building theory based on the view that society
is the product of the everyday interactions of individuals. [top]
Thomas
Theorem:
the assertion that situations that are defined as real become
real in their consequences. [top]
Transsexuals: people
who feel they are one sex, though biologically they are another.
[top]
Values: culturally
defined standards of desirability, goodness, and beauty that
serve as broad guidelines for social life. [top]
Victimless
Crimes:
violation of law in which there is no readily apparent victim.
[top]
Last
updated
03/31/2004
. Copyright 2000 by Elaine Leeder
and
US2 Design. All rights reserved.