Chapter 1, Developing A Sociological Perspective

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Chapter 1, Developing A Sociological Perspective

• Key Terms

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• SociologyThe study of human behavior in
  society.
• Sociological imaginationThe ability to see the
  societal patterns that influence individual and
  group life.

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• Social speedupChanges in society are placing
  additional stresses on people.
• TroublesPrivately felt problems that spring from
  events or feelings in one individuals life.

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• IssuesAffect large numbers of people and have
  there origins in the institutional arrangements
  and history of a society.
• Empirical approachConclusions are based on
  careful and systematic observations.

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• DebunkingLooking beyond the facades of everyday
  life.
• Social structureThe organized pattern of social
  relationships and social institutions that
  together constitute society.

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• Social institutionsEstablished and organized
  systems of social behavior with a recognized
  purpose.
• Social changeThe alteration of society over
  time.

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• Social interactionA behavior between two or more
  people that is given meaning.
• DiversityThe variety of group experiences that
  result from the social structure of society.

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• EnlightenmentCharacterized by faith in the
  ability of human reason to solve society's
  problems.
• PositivismA system of thought in which accurate
  observation and description is considered the
  highest form of knowledge.

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• HumanitarianismRests on the principle that human
  reason can successfully direct social change for
  the betterment of society.
• Social factsConceptualized by Durkheim as those
  social patterns that are external to individuals.
  

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• Verstehen Understanding social behavior from the
  point of view of those engaged in it.
• Social actionBehavior through which people give
  meaning.

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• Organic metaphorConception of society as a
  metaphor, a system of interrelated functions and
  parts that work together to create the whole.
• Social DarwinismApplication of Darwinian thought
  to society.

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• Applied sociologyUse of sociological research
  and theory in solving real human problems.
• FunctionalismInterprets each part of society in
  terms of how it contributes to the stability of
  the whole.

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• Manifest functionsStated and open goals of
  social behavior.
• Latent functionsUnintended consequences of
  behavior.

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• PowerThe ability of a person or group to
  exercise influence and control over others, in
  producing social order.
• Conflict theory Focuses on the grounds of
  struggle in societyparticularly inequalities
  based on class, race, and gender.

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• Symbolic interactionTheory that considers
  society to be socially constructed through
  constant negotiation and human interpretation.
• PostmodernismBased on the idea that society is
  not an objective thing. It is found in the words
  and images that people use to represent behavior
  and ideas.