An Introduction

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Chapter 1

• An Introduction
• Key Terms

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• Social Structure
• The social structure of a society consists of
  institutions, social groups, statuses, and
  roles.
• Institutions
• Established and enduring patterns of social
  relationships. Major institutions include the
  family, economy, education, and religion.

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• Social Groups
• Institutions are made up of social groups,
  defined as two or more people who have a common
  identity, interact, and form a social
  relationship.

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• Primary group
• Social groups which tend to involve small numbers
  of individuals and include intimate and informal
  interaction.
• Secondary group
• Social groups that involve small or large numbers
  of individuals and include impersonal and formal
  interaction.

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• Status
• A position a person occupies within a social
  group.
• Role
• Sets of rights, obligations, and expectations
  associated with a status.

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• Beliefs
• Explanations about what is true.
• Values
• Standards regarding what is good and bad, right
  and wrong, desirable and undesirable.

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• Culture
• Meanings and ways of living that characterize
  persons in a society
• Sociological imagination
• An awareness of how powerful social structure and
  culture are in influencing decision making.

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• Familism
• Supporting what is best for the group, or
  family.
• Individualism
• Making decisions that are more often based on
  what serves the individuals rather than the
  familys interests.

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• Marriage
• The state of being united to a person of the
  opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual
  and contractual relationship recognized by law.

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• Polygyny
• Involves one husband and two or more wives.
• Polyandry
• Where one wife has two or more husbands.

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• Polyamory
• A lifestyle in which two lovers do not limit each
  other in having other lovers.
• Pantogamy
• A group marriage in which each member of the
  group is married to the others.

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• Family
• A group of two or more persons related by blood,
  marriage, or adoption.
• Rather than view family members as partners
  exclusively related by blood, marriage, or
  adoption, courts now more often look at the
  nature of the relationship between the partners.

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• Civil union
• A voluntary union for life (or until divorce) of
  adult parties of the same sex.
• Domestic partnership
• Considered an alternative to marriage by some
  individuals and tend to reflect more egalitarian
  relationships than those between traditional
  husbands and wives.

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• Family of orientation (origin)
• The family into which you were born or the family
  in which you were reared.
• Family of procreation
• The family you will begin when you marry and have
  children.

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• Nuclear family
• Refers to either a family of origin or a family
  of procreation.
• Traditional family
• The two-parent nuclear family, with the husband
  as breadwinner and wife as homemaker.

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• Modern family
• The dual-earner family, where both spouses work
  outside the home.
• Postmodern families
• Represent a departure from traditional models
  such as lesbian or gay couples and mothers who
  are single by choice.

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• Binuclear family
• A family in which the members live in two
  separate households.
• Extended family
• Includes not only your nuclear family but other
  relatives as well.

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• Blended family
• When parents remarry and bring additional
  children into the respective units.
• Family career
• The family career is comprised of all the stages
  and events that have occurred within the family.

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• Theoretical framework
• Provide a set of interrelated principles designed
  to explain a particular phenomenon and provide a
  point of view.
• Functionalists
• Functionalists view the family as an institution
  with values, norms, and activities meant to
  provide stability for the larger society.

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• Human ecology
• The study of ecosystems, or the interaction of
  families with their environment.
• Ecosystem
• The interaction of families with their
  environment.

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• Biosocial framework
• Emphasizes the interaction of ones
  biological/genetic inheritance with ones social
  environment to explain and predict human behavior.

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• Stratification
• Refers to the ranking of people into layers or
  strata according to their socioeconomic status or
  social class, usually indexed according to
  income, occupation, and educational attainment.

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• Race
• A division of mankind possessing traits that are
  transmissible by descent and sufficient to
  characterize it as a distinct human type.

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• Random Sample
• In a random sample, each individual in the
  population has an equal chance of being included
  in the sample.
• Random sampling involves selecting individuals at
  random from an identified population.
• That population often does not include the
  homeless or persons living on military bases.

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• Experimental group
• The group exposed to the independent variable you
  are studying.
• Control group
• The group not exposed to the independent variable
  you are studying.