Key Sociology Concepts and Definitions
Posted on Mar 30, 2025 in Psychology and Sociology
- Theory
- A set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behavior.
- Dramaturgical Approach
- People are seen as theatrical performers.
- Culture
- The totality of learned, socially transmitted customs, knowledge, material objects, and behavior.
- Ethnocentrism
- The tendency to assume that one’s own culture and way of life represents the norm or is superior to others.
- Ascribed Status
- A status one is born with.
- Achieved Status
- A status one earns.
- In-groups
- Any groups or categories to which people feel they belong.
- Out-groups
- Any groups or categories to which people feel they do not belong.
- Alienation
- The condition of estrangement or dissociation from the surrounding society.
- Goal Displacement
- When rules and regulations overshadow the larger goals of an organization and become dysfunctional.
- Gemeinschaft
- A small community in which people have similar backgrounds and life experiences.
- Gesellschaft
- A large community in which people are strangers and feel little in common with other community residents.
- Deviance
- Behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.
- Stigma
- Labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups.
- Social Control
- Techniques and strategies employed for preventing deviant human behavior in any society.
- Conformity
- Going along with peers who have no special right to direct behavior.
- Law
- Governmental social control.
- Anomie
- The loss of direction felt in society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective.
- Crime
- A violation of criminal law for which governmental authority applies formal penalties.
- White-Collar Crime
- Illegal acts committed in the course of business activities.
- Hate Crime
- An offender is motivated to choose a victim based on religion, ethnic group, national origin, or sexual orientation, and when evidence shows that hatred prompted the offender to commit the crime.
- Proletariat
- The working class.
- Class Consciousness
- A subjective awareness of common vested interests and the need for collective political action to bring about change.
- False Consciousness
- An attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position.
- Colonialism
- A foreign power maintains political, social, economic, and cultural domination for an extended period of time.
- Neocolonialism
- Continued dependence on more industrialized nations for managerial and technical expertise by former colonies.
- Racial Groups
- A group set apart from others because of obvious physical differences.
- Ethnic Group
- A group set apart from others primarily because of national origin or distinctive cultural patterns.
- Prejudice
- A negative attitude toward an entire category of people.
- Discrimination
- The denial of opportunities and equal rights to people on an arbitrary status.
- Glass Ceiling
- An invisible barrier blocking the promotion of qualified individuals in a work environment because of gender, race, or ethnicity.
- Contact Hypothesis
- Interracial contact between people of equal status in cooperative circumstances will cause them to become less prejudiced and to abandon old stereotypes.
- Genocide
- The deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation.
- Homophobia
- The fear of, and prejudice against, homosexuality.
