Chapter 13 – The Family and Household Diversity

Social institutions: organized patterns of beliefs and behavior that are centered on basic
social needs. Cultural universals.
Family forms, major tasks: replacing personnel, teaching new recruits, preserving order,
providing and maintaining sense of purpose (functionalist)
Extended family: a family unit that includes parents and children as well as other
kin.
Nuclear family: a married couple and their unmarried children.
Alternate family forms: accordion: composition changes based on changing
customs. One-part fams, cohabitation, lgbt couples, singlehood.
Marriage: a legally sanctioned relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, as
well as sexual activity, and childbearing.
Endogamy: marriage between people of the same category.
Exogamy: refers to a marriage between people of different social categories.
Monogamy: marriage two partners.
Serial: having several monogamous marriages over a lifetime.
Polygamy: marriage that unites 3 or more people.
Polygyny: man w. multiple wives. Polyandry: woman w. multiple
husbands.
Authority
Patriarchy: male decision making.
Matriarchy: female decision making.
Egalitarian: spouses are equal.
Descent: system by which members of a society trace kinship over generations.
Matrilineal: kinship traced through mother’s side of the family.
Patrilineal: kinship traced through father’s side of the family.
Bilateral: kinship traced through both the father’s and mother’s side.
Kinship: the state of being related to others. Ex. Blood, marriage, adoption.
Residential patterns
Matrilocality: living with or near the wife’s family.
Patrilocality: living with or near the husband’s family.
Neolocality: living separate from both families.

FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT INTERACTIONIST

Family performs vital tasks:
reproduction, protection,
socialization, regulation of
sexual behavior, affection
and companionship,
provisions of social status.
Family perpetuates
inequality. Property and
inheritance.
How individuals share and
experience family life.
Building emotional bonds.
Building a way to view the
world and interact.
Chapter 14 – Education

FUNCTIONAL CONFLICT INTERACTIONIST

Transmitting culture,
promoting social & political
integration: affirmative
action. Maintaining social
control, serving as an agent
of change.
Education is instrument of
elite domination.
-hidden curriculum.
-credentialism.
-bestowal of status.
-tracking & correspondence
Labeling approach suggests
that if people are treated in
particular ways, they may
fulfill expectations.
-teacher expectancy effect.

Hidden curriculum: standards of behavior deemed proper by society are taught subtly in
school.
Credentialism: increase in the lowest level of education needed to enter a field. Belief in
or reliance on academic or other formal qualifications as the best measure of a person's
intelligence or ability to do a particular job.
Tracking: practice of placing students in specific curriculum groups on the basis of test
scores and other criteria.
Teacher-expectancy effect: impact of teacher expectations & their large roles on
students performance.
Bureaucratization: division of labor, hierarchy of authority, written rules & regulations,
impersonality, employment based on technical qualifications.
School choice options
Magnet: schools that attract students.
Charter: schools that have authorization from the state but operate independently
from the district.
Homeschooling: about 1.5 m schooled at home. Quality control is an issue.
For profit colleges: utilitarian formal organizations.

Chapter 15 Religion

Religion: social institution involving beliefs and practices based upon a conception of the
sacred.
Faith: belief anchored in conviction rather that scientific evidence.
Fundamentalism: rigid adherence to fundamental religious doctrine.
Ritual: practices required or expected of members of a faith.
Sacred: that which people set apart as extraordinary, inspiring sense of awe & reverence.
Profane: that which is an ordinary element of everyday life.

The Weberian Thesis

Protestant Ethic: followers of protestant reformation emphasized a disciplined
work ethic, worldly concerns, and a rational orientation for life. The view that a
person's duty is to achieve success through hard work and thrift, such success
being a sign that one is saved
Liberation Theology: use of a church in a political effort to eliminate poverty,
discrimination, and other forms of injustice from a secular society.
Religious organizations
Ecclesia: religious organization claiming to include most or all members of a
society
Denomination: large, organized religion not officially linked with the state or
govt.
Sect: relatively small religious group that broke away from some other religious
org. to renew original vision of the faith.
New Religious Movements: (NRM/cults), small secretive religious groups that
represent either a new religion or a major innovation of an existing faith.
MARX: religion impeded social change. Religious promotion of social stability only
helps to perpetuate patterns of social inequality. False consciousness, religion lessens the
possibility of collective political action.

Chapter 16 – Government and the Economy

Government: Politics: “who gets what, when, and how” - Lawell

3 sources of Power:
Force: actual or threatened use of coercion to impose one’s will on others.
Influence: exercise of power through process of persuasion.
Authority: power that has been institutionalized and is recognized by the people
over whom it is exercised. (Weber):
Traditional: power legitimized by respect for long established cultural
patterns.
Legal-rational: power legitimized by legally enacted rules & regulations.
Charismatic: power legitimized through extraordinary person’s abilities
that inspire devotion and obedience.
Types of government
Monarchy: form of govt. headed by a single member of a royal family.
Oligarchy: form of govt. in which a few individuals rule.
Dictatorship: govt. in which one person has nearly total power to make and
enforce laws.
Totaliarism: involves virtually complete govt. control & surveillance over all
aspects of a society’s social and political life.
Democracy: govt. by the people.
Representative democracy: elected members of legislatures make laws.
US.
Models of power structure
Pluralist model: sees power as dispersed among many competing interest groups.
Power-elite model: sees power as concentrated among the rich.
Political-economy model: explains politics in terms of the operation of a
society’s economic system.
Economy
Capitalism: economic system in which means of production are held largely in
private hands. Main incentive is accumulation of profits.
Laissez faire: buss. Compete w. minimal govt. intervention.
 Socialism: means of production and distribution owned collectively rather than
privately. Objective: meeting people’s needs.
Communism: Economic system under which all property is communally owned
and no social distinctions are made on the basis of people’s ability to produce.
Global economy: expanding global activity with little regard for national borders.
Global division of labor, products through many nationalities, gov. cannot freely
control inside borders, small numbers of buss. control vast share of the world’s
economic acts. International spread of capitalism.
Informal economy: transfer of money, goods, or services is not reported to the
gov. underground economy.
Sharing Economy: connecting owners of underused assets with others willing to
pay to use them. Ex. Lyft, uber, airbnb
Deindustrialization: systematic, widespread withdrawal of investment in basic
aspects of productivity. Moving elsewhere.
Downsizing: reductions in a company’s workforce as part of
deindustrialization.
Offshoring/Outsourcing: transferring work to foreign contractors. Tactic in
raising profits by reducing costs. Utilitarian formal org: exists to make money.
Microfinance: poor people can significantly improve their circumstances through
mutual support. 90% recipients are women.

Chapter 17 – Health, Population and the Environment

Demography: the study of human population.

Fertility: the incidence of childbearing in a society’s population.
Morality: the incidence of deaths in a given year for every 1000 p in a
population.
Infant mortality: number of deaths among infants under 1 year of age for
every thousand live births in a given year.
Morbidity: disease incidence figures presented as rates or number of reports per
100,000 p.
Migration: the movement of people into and out of a specified territory.
Life expectancy: the average life span of a society’s population.
Population growth: difference b/w birth and death plus the difference b/w immigrants
and emigrants per 100o pop.
Malthusian theory: rapid population growth leads to social chaos.
- Population increases exponentially (1,2,4,8,16..) while food increases
arithmetically (1,2,3,4..) leading to catastrophic starvation.
Demographic transition: population patterns reflect a society’s level of technological
development.
Pretransition: high birth & death rates, little pop growth = stability.
Transition: declining death rates w/ high medium fertility, resulting in significant
population growth.
Post transition: low birth & death rates w/ little pop growth.
Human ecology: interrelationships b/w people & their spatial setting & physical
environment.
Health: state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease and infirmity. (WHO)
Social epidemiology: study of distribution of disease, impairment, and general health
state across a population.
Incidence: number of new cases of specific disorders occurring within a given
population during a stated period of time, usually a year.
Prevalence: number of cases of specific disorders that exist at a given time.
Environmental deficit: profound and negative harm to the natural environment caused
by humanity’s focus on short-term material affluence.
Environmental racism: patterns by which environmental hazards are greatest for poor
people, especially minorities.
Environmental justice: legal strategy.
Ecological modernization: focus on alignment of environmentally favorable practices
with economic self-interest through constant adaptation and restructuring.
Macro: reintegrating industrial waste back into production process.
Micro: reshaping individual lifestyles. * not in my backyard.
Ecologically sustainable culture: a way of life that meets the needs of the present
generation w/out threatening the environmental legacy of future generations.
- Control pop growth, conserve finite resources, reduce waste.

Chapters 1 & 2– The Sociological View

Scientific method: systematic, organized, series of steps that ensures maximum

objectivity & consistency in researching a problem.
1. Defining the problem
2. Reviewing the literature
3. Formulating the hypothesis
4. Selecting the research design & collecting and analyzing data
5. Developing the conclusion
Structural-functionalist theory: the way in which the parts of a society are structured to
maintain stability. Manifest & latent functions.
Conflict theory: assumes social behavior best understood in terms of conflict or tension
b/w groups.
Symbolic-Interaction theory: interlocking matrix of domination in which privile of lack
thereof is determined by multiple social factors.
Feminist theory: sees inequality in gender as central to all behavior & organizational
extending analysis beyond male point of view.
Prominent figures:
-August Compte: systematic investigation of behavior. Coined sociology. Father.
- Harriet Martineau: social behavior in UK & US, impact of economy, law,
trade, health, and population on social probs. Mother of soc.
-Herbert Spencer: evolutionary change in society “over time societies improve”
 - Emile Durkheim: behavior must be understood within largr social context.
Anomie (loss of direction when social control is ineffective), work on suicide.
- Max Weber: subjective meaning people attach to actions. Verstehen & Ideal
Type.
- Karl Marx: society divided b/w classes in pursuit of interests.
- W.E.B DuBois: black, assisted struggle for racially egalitarian society. Double
consciousness, black in white America.
- Charles Horton Cooley: examine face to face groups.
- Jane Adams: intellectual, social work, & political activism. Founded Full
House.
- Robert Merton: theory & research. Dominant theory of deviant behavior, bring
together Macro & Micro approaches.
- Pierre Bourdieu: capital sustains inidvs. & fams from one gen to the next.
Cultural capital: nonecon goods reflected in knowledge of language & arts
Social capital: collective benefit of social networks.

Chapter 3 - Culture

Culture: totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material, objects &
behavior.
Nonmaterial: values, beliefs, assumptions. More resistant to change.
Material: physical or tech. aspects of our daily lives.
Society: the largest group of human groups.
Values: culturally defined standards which serve as broad guideline for social living.
Beliefs: specific statements which people hold to be true.
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: people perceive the world through the cultural lens of
language. Language precedes thought.
Cultural transmission: passing of cultural traits from one generation to the next.
Norms: rules & expectations by which society guides the behavior of its members.
Mores: norms that are widely observed & have great moral significance.
Folkways: norms for routine, casual interaction.
Ethnocentrism: tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represents the
norm or is superior to others.
Cultural relativism: people’s behavior from the perspective of their own culture.

Chapter 4 - Socialization

Socialization: lifelong social experiences by which individuals develop their human

potential and leach culture.
Self: a dimension of personality composed of an individual’s self-awareness and self-
image.
Jean Piaget- 4 Stages of cognitive development
1. Sensorimotor: individuals experience the world through sensory contact.
2. Preoperational: individuals first use language & other symbols.
 3. Concrete operational: individuals first perceive casual connections in their
surroundings.
4. Formal operational: individuals think abstractly & critically.

Charles Horton Cooley

Looking glass self: we learn who we are by interacting w/ others. Imagine how
we are presenting ourselves. Form opinions on ourselves based on our perceptions.
George Herbert Mead- Stages of Self
1. Preparatory: children imitate people around them.
2. Play: role-taking, mentally assuming the perspective of another.
3. Game: can consider tasks & relationships simultaneously.
Anticipatory socialization: social learning geared toward gaining a desired position.
Resocialization: altering personality through deliberate control of the environment. TI.

Chapter 5 – Social Interaction, Social Structure, and Groups

Groups: any number of people w/ similar norms, values, and expectations who interact
on a regular basis.
Primary: small group w/ intimate, face-to-face association & cooperation.
Secondary: formal, impersonal groups w/ little social intimacy or understanding.
Status: a social position. Ascribed (birth) & achieve status. Master (special importance &
shapes person`s entire life)
Role: behavior expected of someone who holds a particular status.
Role strain: incompability among roles corresponding to a single status. Mom-
nurturer & disciplinarian. Occurs within a single role.
Role conflict: conflict among roles corresponding to two or more different
statuses. Tension that occurs when a person is facing multiple roles having
multiple statuses. Student, son & friend.
Bureaucracy: a form of organization based on explicit rules, with a clear, impersonal,
and hierarchical authority structure.
Social construction of reality: the process by which people shape reality through social
interaction.
Thomas Theorem: If men define situations as real, they are real in their
consequences. ” The interpretation of a situation causes the action. Ex. Ghosts.
Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach: Impression management: individual
learns to slant presentation of self to create distinctive appearances & satisfy particular
audiences. -facework: need to maintain proper image of self to continue social interaction
Types of formal organization: large secondary groups that are organized to achieve
goals efficiently.
Utilitarian: primary motive is income. Exist to make money.
Normative: not for income, but to pursue some worthwhile goal. Nonprofits.
Coercive: involuntary. Prison.