STANBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

S O C I OL O G Y 1

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Introduction to Sociology

Week 6: Chapter 7-9 Review

CHAPTER 7Culture (defined)-• A set of ideas/things handed down from

generation to generation in a group/society.• Both a product of people's actions and a

constraint on their actions conditioning behavior.

Material culture (artifacts)-• All those things that humans make or adapt

from the raw nature.Nonmaterial culture-• Made up of intangible things also vary from

simple to complex.

CHAPTER 7Symbols, language/gestures-

Symbols-• Anything that represents something else to more than one person.

Language/gestures-• Organized set of symbols, essential part of non-material culture, used to convey meaning, ways to communicate.

Norms-• Specific cultural expectations for how to behave

in a given situation. William Graham Sumner-• Sociologist, divided norms into two categories,

folkways and mores.

CHAPTER 7Folkways-• Represent casual norms; violations are not

taken seriously.Mores/mos-• Reflects important rules; violations are

sanctioned. Taboos-• Norms that are so deeply held that even the

thought of violating them upsets people. Values-• General or abstract ideas about what is good

and desirable, as opposed to what is bad and undesirable, in a society.

Beliefs • People's ideas about what is real and what is

real. what people accept as factual.

CHAPTER 7Formal sanctions-• Come from the governing body. Informal sanctions-• Come from individuals in social groups.Ideology- • Knowledge that has been distorted by social,

economic or political interests.Social institutions-• “An accepted and persistent constellation of

statuses, roles, values and norms that respond to important societal needs.”

CHAPTER 7Cultural leveling and diffusion-• Cultural diffusion- process by which cultural things

are adopted• Cultural leveling- as cultural diffusion increases, the

differences between cultures decreases.Subculture-• Shared values, norms, beliefs, or use of material

culture sets them apart from other people in that society.

Counterculture-• Special form of subculture opposes to values of

parent culture.Idioculture-• knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, and customs shared by

members of a small group, used by group members to facilitate interactions

CHAPTER 7Culture as a product of action-• Culture is a product of human action and is a

conditioning element of further action... culture produces action.

Culture as a conditioning element of action- • Culture puts everyone in the same rut. After

problems are solved-everyone does the same thing.

CHAPTER 8Status-• A status is simply a rank or position that one

holds in a group. Achieved status• A position that is earned, accomplished, or

involves at least some effort or activity on the individual's part. 

Ascribed status-• A social position assigned to a person by

society without regard for the person's unique talents or characteristics.

Status symbol-• Relating to how individuals and groups interact

and interpret various cultural symbols.

CHAPTER 8Role- • Sum total of expectations about the behavior

attached to a particular social status.Role strain-• Difficulties in meeting the obligations of a role

because it is too demanding.Status inconsistency-• Occurs when an individual's ascribed and achieved

statuses are deemed (by others) to be inconsistent.

Primary group-• A small social group whose members share

personal and lasting relationships.Secondary group-• A large and impersonal social group whose

members pursue a specific goal or activity.

CHAPTER 8Role conflict-• When a status perceived as inconsistent, but the

actual demands of their roles clash as well.Master status-• A status that dominates others and thereby

determines a person's general position within a society.

Group aggregate-• People that gather in the same place at the same

time, but lack organization or lasting patterns of interaction.

Social aggregate-• A simple collection of people who happen to be

together in a particular place but do not significantly interact or identify with one another.

CHAPTER 8Formal organization-• A group created and formally organized to achieve some

specific goal or set of goals.Ideal types-• What is left when you strip away all the parts of an

organization that are not necessary to it being bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy-• An organizational model that is rationally designed to

perform tasks efficiently. Max Weber's “iron cage”• A pessimistic description of modern life, in which the

"technical and economic conditions of machine production" control our lives through rigid rules and rationalization. 

Goal displacement-• When the process becomes more important than the

outcome.

CHAPTER 9Society-• The totality of people and social relations in a

given geographic space.Self-sufficiency (as a defining attribute of society)-• The thing that distinguishes a society from a smaller group.• Self- sufficiency by no means requires that all the role- involvements of members be carried on within a society.

Habitualized action-• Any action that is  routinely  repeated

frequently becomes cast into a constant pattern.

CHAPTER 9Attributes of social institutions-• Unplanned; developed gradually, inherently

conservative; change slowly, interdependent; change in one causes change in the other ones, statuses, roles, values and norms in on institution do not mimic other institutions

Social institution-• Are established sets of norms and subsystems

that support each society's survival. Ideal type-• Have a continuing supply of new members,

socialize new members, deal with members’ sickness and health issues, select members for certain jobs and tasks, create knowledge, control its members, defend against its enemies, produce and exchange goods and services, and promote social unity and the search for higher meanings.