Thinking About Social Problems Key Terms

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Chapter 1

• Thinking About Social Problems Key Terms

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• objective elementRefers to the existence of a
  social condition.
• subjective elementThe belief that a particular
  social condition is harmful to society.

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• social problemA social condition that a segment
  of society views as harmful to members of society
  and in need of remedy.
• institutionEstablished and enduring patterns of
  social relationships (family, religion, politics,
  economics, and education).

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• social groupTwo or more people who have a common
  identity, interact, and form a social
  relationship.
• primary groupSmall, intimate, and informal
  groups.

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• secondary groupLarge or small, task-oriented,
  impersonal, and formal groups.
• statusPositions within a social group.

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• ascribed statusAssigned on the basis of factors
  over which the individual has no control (e.g.
  sex, race).
• achieved statusAssigned on the basis of some
  characteristic or behavior over which the
  individual has some control (e.g. parent, college
  graduate).

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• master statusStatus that is considered the most
  significant in a persons social identity.
• rolesThe set of rights, obligations, and
  expectations associated with a status.

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• beliefsDefinitions and explanations about what
  is assumed to be true.
• valuesSocial agreements about what is considered
  good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and
  undesirable.

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• normsSocially defined rules of behavior.
• folkwaysThe customs and manners of society.

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• lawsFormalized norms that are backed by a
  political authority.
• moresNorms that have a moral basis.

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• sanctionsConsequences for conforming to or
  violating norms.
• symbolLanguage, gestures, and objects whose
  meaning is commonly understood by the members of
  a society.

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• sociological imaginationThe ability to see the
  connections between our personal lives and the
  social world in which we live.
• latent functionConsequences that are unintended
  and often hidden.

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• manifest functionIntended and recognized
  conflict perspective.
• anomieNorms that are weak, conflicting, or
  unclear.

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• alienationPowerlessness and meaningless in
  peoples lives.
• macro sociologyLooks at the "big picture" of
  society and suggests how social problems are
  affected at the institutional level.

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• micro sociologyConcerned with the social
  psychological dynamics of individuals interacting
  in small groups.
• labeling theoryIf a social condition or group is
  viewed as problematic if it is labeled as such.

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• variableAny measurable event, characteristic, or
  property that varies or is subject to change.
  Researchers must operationally define the
  variables they study.

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• operational definitionSpecifies how a variable
  is to be measured.
• hypothesisA prediction or educated guess about
  how one variable relates to another variable.

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• dependent variableThe variable the researcher
  wants to explain.
• independent variableThe variable that is
  expected to explain change in the dependent
  variable.

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• experimentInvolve manipulating an independent
  variable to determine how it affects the
  dependent variable.
• field researchInvolves observing and studying
  social behavior in settings in which it occurs
  naturally.

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• survey researchInterviews, questionnaires, and
  talking computers that elicit information from
  respondents through questions (important to have
  representative sample).
• sampleA portion of the population, selected to
  be representative so the information from the
  sample can be generalized to a larger population.