Flashcards: Sociological terminology

The term social order can be used in two senses.

Anomie (/ˈænəˌmi/) is a "condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals".

A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior.

In the social sciences a social group has been defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship or responsible business) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model.

From a sociological perspective, social norms are informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society.

The public sphere (German: Öffentlichkeit) is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.

A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviours, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation.

In sociology, social action, also known as "Weberian social action" refers to an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or 'agents').

In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity, accommodating to the interests of powers outside the borders of the state that controls it.

A household consists of one or more people who live in the same dwelling and also share at meals or living accommodation, and may consist of a single family or some other grouping of people.

Social alienation, a sociological concept developed by several classical and contemporary theorists, is "a condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration or common values and a high degree of distance or isolation between individuals, or between an individual and a group of people in a community or work environment".

The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line.

Social capital is a form of economic and cultural capital in which social networks are central, transactions are marked by reciprocity, trust, and cooperation, and market agents produce goods and services not mainly for themselves, but for a common good.

In psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy, identity is the conception, qualities, beliefs, and expressions that make a person (self-identity) or group (particular social category or social group).

Collective consciousness or collective conscious (French: conscience collective) is the set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.

Communalism usually refers to a system that integrates communal ownership and federations of highly localised independent communities.

The division of labour is the separation of tasks in any economic system so that participants may specialize.

Social status is the position or rank of a person or group, within the society.

Solidarity is unity (as of a group or class) which produces or is based on unities of interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies.

Lifeworld (German: Lebenswelt) may be conceived as a universe of what is self-evident or given, a world that subjects may experience together.

Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms, typically from the same species.

Symbolic ethnicity is a sociological term that describes a nostalgic allegiance to, love for, and pride in a cultural tradition that can be felt and lived without having to be incorporated to the person's everyday behavior; as such, a symbolic ethnic identity usually is composed of images from mass communications media.

In a social context, trust has several connotations.

Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization, Western world, Western society or European civilization is a term used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, and specific artifacts and technologies that have some origin or association with Europe.

Collective action refers to action taken together by a group of people whose goal is to enhance their status and achieve a common objective.

Institutional racism (also known as institutionalised racism) is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions.

Horizontal inequality is the inequality — economical, social or other — that does not follow from a difference in an inherent quality such as intelligence, attractiveness or skills for people or profitability for corporations.

Page 3 is a colloquial term for a feature formerly included in the British tabloid newspaper The Sun.

(For the Leprous album, see Tall Poppy Syndrome (album).) The tall poppy syndrome is a culture where people of high status are resented, attacked, cut down or criticised because they have been classified as better than their peers.

Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention (see below).

Social exclusion, or social marginalization, is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society.

Homophily (i.e., "love of the same") is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others.

Structural violence is a term commonly ascribed to Johan Galtung, which he introduced in the article "Violence, Peace, and Peace Research" (1969).

Passing is the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of an identity group or category different from their own, which may include racial identity, ethnicity, caste, social class, sexuality, gender, religion, age and/or disability status.

Field (French: champ) is one of the core concepts used by French social scientist Pierre Bourdieu.

Gemeinschaft (German pronunciation: [ɡəˈmaɪnʃaft]) and Gesellschaft ([ɡəˈzɛlʃaft]), generally translated as "community and society", are categories which were used by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies in order to categorize social ties into two dichotomous sociological types which define each other.

Economic stratification refers to the condition within a society where social classes are separated, or stratified, along economic lines.

Authority is the legitimate or socially approved use of power.

In sociology, a superwoman (also sometimes called supermom) is a Western woman who works hard to manage multiple roles of a worker, a homemaker, a volunteer, a student, or other such time-intensive occupations.