Sociology: the scientific study of social structure; patterned social behavior
Help understand of why people act the way they do (in groups)
Social Structure: the patterned interaction of people in social relationships
How people act when around others (food fight)
Perspective: a particular point of view
Why i see thing differently from how others see it (opinion on the president)
Sociological Perspective: a view that looks at the behavior of groups, not individuals
Republicans vs democrats
Conformity: behavior that matches group expectations
Why people act like their friends / why there are similarities
Sociological Imagination: the ability to see the link between society and self
connecting public …show more content…
Change in balance of power result in change in society
Symbolic interactionism
Groups only exist because their members influence each other's behavior
Symbols are a key component: interaction based on mutually understood symbols
3 assumptions of symbolic interactionism
We learn meaning of symbols based on others reactions
Once we learn meaning of symbols, we base our behavior on them
We use symbols meaning to imagine others responses to them
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3.1 The Basis of Culture
Culture: knowledge, values, customs, and physical objects that are shared by the members of a society
Society: a group of people who inhabit a specific territory and share a common culture
Instincts: innate (unlearned) patterns of behavior
Reflex: automatic reaction to physical stimuli
Drive: impulse to reduce discomfort
Sociobiology: the study of how biology influences human behavior
Evolution: a process of change from one point of development to another
3.3 Norms and Values
Norm: rule determining appropriate and inappropriate …show more content…
Counterculture: a subculture deliberately and consciously opposed to certain central beliefs or attitudes of the dominant culture
Ethnocentrism: judging others in terms of one's own cultural standards
Cultural Universal: general cultural trait that exists in all cultures
Cultural Particular: the way in which a culture expresses universal traits
Similarity: the quality of being alike
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4.2 Socialization and the Self
Self-concept: an image of yourself as having an identity separate from other people
looking-glass self: an image of yourself based on what you believe others think of you
Distort: to twist out of the true meaning
significant others: those people whose reactions are most important to your self-concept
role taking: assuming the viewpoint of another person and using that viewpoint to shape the self-concept
Anticipate: to expect or predict
imitation stage: Mead's first stage in the development of role taking; children begin to imitate behaviors without understanding why
play stage: Mead's second stage in the development of role taking; children act in ways they imagine other people