Sociology is the subject you learned without realizing you learned it. This is because as one wends their way through discussions of news, politics, culture and more, the following terms are encountered many, many times. Consider this list a refresher.
ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology: The study of human social life, including the study of class structures; political structures; inequalities; culture; institutions; relationships; group dynamics and more
Socialization: The ongoing process by which individuals learn social norms, including family-led primary socialization as well as secondary socialization from others
Society: A collection of people who share space and culture
Culture: The shared features of a group that might include values, language, food and much more
Subculture: A group that promotes values and activities that are different from and sometimes contrary to those of the dominant culture
Group: Two or more people who interact regularly, have a sense of belonging and have their own chosen norms
Aggregate: A collection of people who happen to be at the same place at the same time
Network: A series of loosely held social ties that can be important sources of information, contacts, and assistance for its members
Nuclear family: One or two primary caregivers and their children
Primary group: A group that has emotional intimacy, a great sense of belonging and meets frequently, such as a family
Secondary group: A group that is more formal and less personal than a primary group but still meets regularly, such as a workplace or neighborhood group
Reference group: A group people compare themselves with for purposes of self-evaluation
Group dynamics: The ways in which an individual’s thoughts and behaviors are influenced by their groups
Role: A set of behavioral norms and expectations
Value: A culturally and personally determined belief about what is right or wrong, desirable or undesirable
Ideology: A set of values on which people base their religious ideas, political beliefs, behavioral choices and more
More: A socially constructed guideline for behavior
Sanction: A socially constructed expression of approval or disapproval
Peer pressure: The social pressure applied by groups, often unintentionally, to encourage conformity
Social control: The ways a society encourages conformity to norms
Deviance: The violation of a norm
Stigma: A trait or characteristic people possess that causes them to lose social status
Taboo: A strongly held social norm
Social alienation: The rejection or incomplete integration of a person into a community
Groupthink: The tendency of people to follow the majority opinions of the group, leading to narrow, uncreative views and solutions
Social construction: A viewpoint created by a group
Social status: A person’s social rank in a particular setting
Status symbol: An outward manifestations of prestige, such as expensive clothing
Social capital: The non-monetary resources available to a person that stem from their human interaction, including information, opportunities, power and influence, liking, reputation, cooperation and more
Assimilation: The process whereby members of a group give up parts of their own culture in order to blend in to a new culture
Social integration: The degree to which an individual feels connected to the other people in his or her group or community
Resocialization: The learning of new norms and values that occurs when life circumstances change dramatically
Master status: The main trait or status that a person is known by, such as their occupation (i.e. stay-at-home mom)
Industrial society: A society that uses advanced sources of energy, rather than humans and animals, to run large machinery
Postindustrial society: A society that features an economy based on services and technology, not production
Developing nations: Countries that are in the process of becoming industrialized
First-world, second-world and third-world nations: An outmoded and offensive classification of countries according to their level of modernization, infrastructure and wealth
Socioeconomic status (SES): A calculation of one’s education, income, occupation and possibly ethnicity and gender that results in a nonscientific social categorization
Class warfare: The political tension and economic inequalities that exist between social classes
Social mobility: Movement up or down within the social hierarchy
Caste system: A social system based on ascribed statuses, traits or characteristics that people possess at birth
Class system: A social system based partly or largely on achieved statuses, traits or characteristics that are earned and chosen
Elite: A small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a society
Power elite: A small group of the most wealthy, powerful, and influential people in business, government, and the military that are thought to run a society
Nobility: The highest stratum of the estate system of stratification whose members had significant inherited wealth
Nouveau riche: The class of people whose wealth has been around only for a generation or two. The name comes from the Latin phrase for “new money.”
Bourgeoisie: In Marxist theory, the class of people who own the industrial means of production, to whom the working class sells their services
Proletariat: In Marxist theory, the working class people
Poverty level: An estimate set by the federal government of the minimum income that a family needs to survive
Gentrification: The changes that occur when wealthier residents and businesses move into a neighborhood or area in large numbers, including loss of unique local qualities; appropriation of unique qualities; and the pricing out of current residents
Race: A set of shared physical characteristics loosely based on place of origin
Ethnicity: A set of shared cultural characteristics, including nationality, language, religion, and traditions
Stereotype: An assumption people make about a person or a group, often on the basis of incorrect or incomplete information
Racial prejudice: The unavoidable mental associations and generalizations every person retains concerning race
Racial discrimination: A statement or act that seeks to remove power or dignity from a person of color
Racism: The systemic, institutionalized discrimination and prejudice that pervades every level of society, including workplaces, governments, the criminal justice system and many more
White supremacy: The assumed intellectual, cultural and moral superiority of white people, as opposed to people of color. The term was first used to refer to white people who worked for racial segregation and the oppression of people of color, but is now widely used to refer to the innumerable cultural messages that permeate Western society.
White privilege: The sum total of the many small and large benefits of being white
White fragility: The defensiveness displayed by many white people during discussions about race, which might lead them to provide overly simplistic solutions, dramatize their own suffering, display anger, avoid discussion, shut down discussion/change topic or focus, seek white solidarity and more
Multiculturalism: The existence and fair-minded acceptance of multiple cultural heritages living side by side
Pluralistic society: A society composed of many different races, ethnicities and cultures
Ethnocentrism: The tendency to judge another culture by the standards of one’s own culture
Microaggression: A statement or act that betrays a person’s racial prejudice and in some way diminishes a person of color but does not overtly discriminate against them. An example is a careless statement about a person’s hair texture or not looking at a person of color when talking to a group.
Institutionalized racism: The ways in which systems of society, such as the education, employment, criminal justice and healthcare systems, reinforce racial inequality and discrimination
The prison industrial complex: The network of private and government-run organizations that profit from mass incarceration
Mass incarceration: The legally sanctioned imprisonment of several million people in the United States, many of whom are people of color, and many of whom are required to provide very low-cost to free labor to U.S. corporations working through contracts with the prison system
The New Jim Crow: The modern system for denying numerous civil and other rights to people of color in the United States, particularly, but not limited to, people previously convicted of felony crimes. It includes laws which allow for unconstitutional acts, such as search and seizure without cause, racial profiling, targeted policing, cruel and unusual punishment, unfair trials and others; laws and other practices that deny people with felony records access to job opportunities, business licenses, gun licenses, housing, food assistance, insurance, loans, educational assistance and more; laws that deny people with felony records the right to vote, serve on a jury or perform other civic duties; and more.
Contact hypothesis: A hypothesis stating that prejudice declines when people in an in-group become more familiar with the customs, norms, food, music, and attitudes of people in an out-group
Disenfranchisement: The revocation of a person’s rights, including their right to vote
The Other: A person or group of people thought to be different, even alien, by another person or group
Gender socialization: The tendency for boys and girls to be socialized differently
Sex: One’s anatomical gender
Gender: One’s felt or experienced gender
Cisgender: The quality of having the same anatomical and experienced gender
Transgender: The quality of having an experienced gender different from one’s anatomical gender
Transsexual: A person who has had gender reassignment surgery
Non-binary gender: An umbrella term for genders that fall somewhere in the middle of the gender spectrum and are neither strictly male or female
Queer theory: A field of critical theory that interprets literature, culture and history through the lens of non-binary gender issues
Patriarchy: A society in which men hold most of the power, including political, moral, financial and social power, and places of leadership
Auguste Comte: The founder of sociology as a scientific pursuit who argued that industrialization was to blame for class struggle
Karl Marx: An early sociologist who theorized that capitalism was the cause of class struggle and who argued that sociology should include not just facts, but social critique
Human rights: Rights many believe all people are entitled to, such as freedom of religion, speech and education
Institution: A set of norms surrounding the carrying out of a function necessary for the survival of a society
Bureaucracy: An institution with a hierarchy of rigid, rule-bound officials
Neocolonialism: A theory concerning the tendency of the most industrialized nations to exploit less developed countries politically and economically
Hegemony: The political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others
Cultural relativism: The theory that in order to understand the traits of another culture, one must study them within the context of that culture
Secularization: The transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions
Urbanization: The process by which a large percentage of a population migrates toward urban centers
White-collar crime: Nonviolent crime committed by middle class professionals, often in the context of the workplace
Victimless crime: Crimes in which laws are violated but that lack an identifiable victim
Recidivism: The tendency of convicted criminals to repeat offenses
Consumerism: The acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts
Conspicuous consumption: The acquiring of luxury goods and services with the goal of public display
Meritocracy: A system in which positions are given according to individual merit
The American Dream: The idea that all people, regardless of the conditions into which they were born and their current social economic status, should have the chance to succeed
Social Darwinism: The late-nineteenth century theory that stronger people increase in wealth and power while weaker people decrease in the same
Primogeniture: A law stipulating that only a first-born son could inherit his father’s wealth
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