Ch 1 Sociological Perspective – Key terms

applied sociology: the use of sociology to solve problems-from the micro level of family relationships to the macro level of crime and pollution (p. 8)

basic (or pure) sociology: sociological research whose purpose is to make discoveries about life in human groups, not to make changes in those groups (p. 27)

class conflict: Marx's term for the struggle between capitalists and workers (p. 4)

closed-ended questions: questions followed by a list of possible answers to be selected by the respondent (p. 22)

conflict theory: a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as being composed of groups competing for scarce resources (p. 15)

control group: the group of subjects not exposed to the independent variable (p. 25)

dependent variable: a factor that is changed by an independent variable (p. 25)

documents: in its narrow sense, written sources that provide data; in its extended sense, archival material of any sort, including photographs, movies, and so on (p. 24)

experiment: the use of control groups and experimental groups and dependent and independent variables to test causation (p. 25) ,

experimental group: the group of subjects exposed to the independent variable (p. 25)

functional analysis: a theoretical framework in which society is viewed as composed of various parts, each with a function that, when fulfilled, contributes to society's equilibrium; also known as functionalism and structural functionalism (p. 13)

hypothesis:: a statement of the expected relationship between variables according to predictions from a theory (p. 18)

independent variable: a factor that causes a change in another variable, called the dependent variable (p. 25)

macro-level analysis: an examination of large-scale patterns of society (p. 15)

micro-level analysis: an examination of small-scale patterns of society (p. IS)

nonverbal interaction: communication without words through gestures, space, silence, and so on 16)

open-ended questions: questions that respondents are able to answer in their own words (p. 22)

operational definition: the way in which a variable in a hypothesis is measured (p. 18)

participant observation (or fieldwork): research in which the researcher participates in a research setting while observing what is happening in that setting (p. 24)

population: the target group to be studied (p. 21)

positivism: the application of the scientific method to the social world (p. 3)

random sample: a sample in which everyone in the target population has the same chance of being in the study (p. 22)

rapport: a feeling of trust between researchers and subjects (p. 24)

reliability: the extent to which data produce consistent results (p. 19)

replication: repeating a study in order to test its findings (p. 27)

research method (or research design) one of six procedures sociologists use to collect data:

surveys, participant observation, secondary analysis, documents, experiments, and unobtrusive (p. 18)

respondents: people who respond to a survey, either in interviews or by self-administered questionnaires (p. 22)

sample: the individuals intended to represent the population to be studied (p. 21)

secondary analysis: the analysis of data already collected by other researchers (p. 24)

social integration: the degree to which people feel a part of social groups (p. 5)

social interaction: what people do when they are in one another's presence (p. 15)

social location: the group memberships that people have because of their location in history and society (p. 2)

society: people who share a culture and a territory (p. 2)

sociological perspective: understanding human behavior by placing it within its broader social context (p. 2)

sociology: the scientific study of society and human behavior (p. 3)

stratified random sample: a sample of specific subgroups of the target population in which everyone in each subgroup has an equal chance of being included in the study (p. 22)

survey: the collection of data by having people answer a series of questions (p. 21)

symbolic interactionism: a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communicate with one another (p. 11)

theory: a general statement about how some parts of the world fit together and how they work; an explanation of how two or more facts are related to one another (p. 11)

unobtrusive measures: ways of observing people who do not know they are being studied (p. 25)

validity: the extent to which an operational definition measures what was intended (p. 18)

value free: the view that a sociologist's personal values or biases should not influence social research (p. 27)

values: the standards by which people define what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly (p. 27)

variable: a factor thought to be significant for human behavior, which varies from one case to another (p. 18)