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| The application of imaginative thought to the asking and answering of sociological questions. Someone using the sociological imagination "thinks himself away" from the familiar routines of daily life. |
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| The underlying regularities or patterns in how people behave in their relationships with one another. |
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| An idea or practice that a group of people agree exists. it is maintained over time by people taking its existence for granted. |
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| The social process through which children develop an awareness of social norms and values and achieve a distinct sense of self. Although socialization processes are particularly significant in infancy and childhood, they continue in some degree throughout life. No individuals are immune from the reactions of others around them, which influence and modify their behavior at all phases of the life course. |
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| According to Emile Durkheim, the aspects of social life that shape our actions as individuals. Durkheim believed that social facts could be studied scientifically. |
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| According to Durkheim, the social cohesion that results from various parts of a society functioning as an integrated whole. |
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| The conditioning influence on our behavior of the groups and societies of which we are members. Social constraint was regarded by Durkheim as one of the distinctive properties of social facts. |
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| The specialization of work tasks by means of which different occupations are combined within a production system. All societies have at least some rudimentary form of division of labor, especialaly between the tasks allocated to men and those performed by women. With the development of industrialism, the division of labor became vastly more complex thn in any prior type of production system. In the modern world, the division of labor is international in scope. |
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1. The main dynamic of modern development is the division of labor as a basis for social cohesion and organic solidarity.
2. Durkheim believed that sociology must study social facts as things, just as science would analyze the natural world. His study of suicide led him to stress the influence of social factors, qualities of a society external to the individual, on a person's actions. Durkheim argued that society exerts social constraint over our actions.
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1. The main dynamic of modern development is the expansion of capitalism. Rather than being cohesive, society is divided by class differences.
2. Marx believed that we must study the divisions within a society that are derived from the economic inequalities of capitalism. |
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1. The main dynamic of modern development is the rationalization of social and economic life.
2. Weber focused on why Western societies developed so differently from other societies. He also emphasized the importance of cultural ideas and values on social change. |
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| Materialist Conception of History |
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| The view developed by Marx according to which material, or economic, factors have a prime role in determining historical change. |
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| An economic system based on the private ownership of wealth, which is invested and reinvested in order to produce profit. |
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| A type of organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority and the existence of written rules of procedure and staffed by full-time, salaried officials. |
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| A concept usd by Max Weber to refer to the process by which modes of precise calculation and organization, involving abstract rules and procedures, increasingly come to dominate the social world. |
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| A theoretical approach in sociology developed by George Herbert Mead that emphasizes the role of symbols and language as core elements of all human interaction. |
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| One item used to stand for or represent another-- as in the case of a flag, which symbolizes a nation. |
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| A theoretical pespective based on the notion that social events can best be explained in terms of the functions they perform-- that is, the contributions they make to the continuity of a society. |
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| The functions of a type of social activity that are known to and intended by the the individuals involved in the activity. |
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| Functional consequences that are not intended or recognized by the members of a social system in which they occur. |
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| A body of thought deriving its main elements from the ideas of Karl Marx. |
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| The ability of individuals or the members of a group to achieve aims or further the interests they hold. Power is a pervasive element in all human relationships. Many conflicts in society are struggles over power, because how much power an individual or group is able to achieve governs how far they are able to put their wishes into practice. |
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| Shared ideas or beliefs that serve to justify the interests of dominant groups. Ideologies are found in all societies in which there are systematic and ingrained inequalities among groups. The concept of ideology connects closely with that of power, since ideological systems serve to legitimize the power that groups hold. |
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| A sociological perspective that emphasizes the centrality of gender in analyzing the social world and particularly the uniqueness of the experience of women. There are many strands of feminist theory, but they all share the desire to explain gender inequality in society and to work to overcome it. |
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| More broadly, the theory that an individual's behavior is purposive. Within the field of criminology, rational choice analysis argues that deviant behavior is a response to a specific social situation. |
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| The belief that society is no longer governed by history or progress. Postmodern society is highly pluralistic and diverse, with no "grand narrative" guiding its development. |
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| The study of human behavior in the context of face-to-face interaction. |
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| The study of large-scale groups, organizations, or social systems. |
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