Social Science cSMLA2K17
SOCIOLOGY
is a scientific study of human society and its origins,
development, organizations, and institutions. It is social
science which uses various methods of empirical
investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of
knowledge about human social activity, structures, and
functions.
I. SOCIAL SCIENCE THEORIES
1. Macro-level theories- approach to sociology
that focus primarily on society and/or other
large social units.
2. STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISTS- usually more
optimistic and view society as a system of
differentiated, interrelated elements that tend
to move towards stability.
3. CONFLICT THEORISTS- more pessimistic and
view society as full of conflicting elements that
can play a role in social change and even
upheaval.
4. Micro-level theories- deal with individual
interactions within smaller social units.
ACCULTURATION/ ENCULTURATION
- is a process in which members of one cultural group
adopt the beliefs and behaviors of another group.
EXAMPLES:
Picking up a southern American accent within a day or
two
Sushi becoming popular in the West
The granddaughter of a Chinese immigrant has gone to
American schools and will now attend an American
college. She spends time primarily with her American
friends, dresses as they do and shares their values and
interests. She has become highly acculturated into
American culture.
1
CULTURE
-is the sum total of ideas, beliefs, values, material
cultural equipment and non-material aspects which
man makes a member of society. (E.B. Taylor 1860s)
-Culture can be conceived as a continuous, cumulative
reservoir containing both material and non-material
elements that are socially transmitted from generation
to generation.
II. COMPONENTS OF CULTURE
a. Material Culture- consist of all the physical objects
people have borrowed, discovered, or invented and to
which they have attached meaning. (natural resources,
trees, plants)
b. Non-material culture- consists of intangible creations
or things that we cannot identify directly through the
senses. (e.g. beliefs, values, norms, folkways, and
mores)
III. COMPONENTS OF NON-MATERIAL CULTURE
Beliefs- first component of nonmaterial culture is
beliefs, conceptions that people accept as true,
concerning how the world operates and where the
individual fits in relationship with others. Can be rooted
in blind faith, experience, tradition or the scientific
method.
Values- represent societys stipulations about what is
acceptable in life.
Norms- standards of behaviour governing social
situations that are established by a societys values.
IV. TYPES OF NORMS
1.Folkways- customary patterns of everyday life that
specify what is socially correct and proper in everyday
life.
2.Mores- Norms that are tied to a societys core values
and to which people must adhere. Unlike folkways, they
are seen as forms of truth that all people should
understand and follow.
Social Science cSMLA2K17
3.Taboos- is a norm that society holds so strongly that
violating it results in extreme disgust. Often times the
violator of the taboo is considered unfit to live in that
society.
INCEST- sex between close relatives
4. Laws- norms that are enforced formally by a special
organization.
-SANCTION - a threatened penalty for disobeying a law
or rule.
5. Language- system of symbols that have specific and
arbitrary meaning in a given society.
V. CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE
1. ordered, systematic, and integrated
2.shared
3.Weakly Bounded
4.Learned
5.Symbolic and is Found in Our behaviour
6.Fluid and is Changing
7.Varied
8.Political
9.Corporate
SUB-CULTURE
- refers to attitude of certain group from the habitual
practices of the majority(e.g. new styles of dressing,
language and other practices of a group of people which
are different from other majority)
STEREOTYPE
- is any commonly known public belief about a certain
social group or a type of individual.
GENDER STEREOTYPES
SEXUAL ORIENTATION STEREOTYPES
Stereotypes are regarded as the most cognitive
component, prejudice as the affective and
discrimination as the behavioral
SOCIAL CHANGE is a complex and multi-faceted
phenomenon. There are both endogenous (internal to
2
the society concerned) and exogenous (external to the
society) factors influencing social change.
Many people interact initially with the stereotype
rather than with the true person.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
-is the socioeconomic layering of society's
members according to property, power, and prestige.
SOCIALIZATION
is the lifelong process of learning how to become
functioning, contributing members of society.
It is through this mechanism that the heritage and
culture of a society can be passed on from generation to
generation. This allows society to survive and even
proliferate beyond the lifespan of individual members.
OPEN CLASS SYSTEM
is an economic system that has upward and downward
mobility,
is achievement-based, and allows social relations
between the classes.
Industrialized nations tend to have open class systems
CLOSED CLASS SYSTEM
have been confined to their ancestral occupations, and
their social status has mostly been prescribed by birth.
Most closed class systems are found in less
industrialized countries.
An example of a closed class system with limited social
mobility is French society before the French Revolution.
Under the Ancient Rgime, French society was
divided between the first estate (clergy), second estate
(nobility), and third estate (commoners).
Members of each estate were likely to socialize only
with others in the same group.
ASCRIBED STATUS
The social status of a person that is given
from birth or assumed involuntarily later in life.
Social Science cSMLA2K17
It is the social position one is born into and personal
characteristics beyond one's control, such as race and
gender.
A social status of a person that is acquired, such as
being an Olympic athlete, being a criminal, or being a
college professor. It is one's social standing that
depends on personal accomplishments.
ACHIEVED STATUS
In an open class system, people are ranked by
achieved status, whereas in a closed class system,
people are ranked by ascribed status.
STRUCTURAL MOBILITY
-Opportunity for movement in social class that
is attributable to changes in the social structure of a
society, rather than to changes in an individual.
PRIMARY FUNCTION OF RELIGION IN HUMAN SOCIETY
is to establish an orderly relationship between man and
his surroundings.
CASTE SYSTEM
- is a form of social stratification characterized by
endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life
which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a
hierarchy, and customary social interaction and
exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and
pollution.
CONFORMITY
is an individuals adopting of attitude and behaviors of
others because of pressure (real or imagined) to do so.
Example, a cheerleader who wants to do an original
routine but goes along with the majority of the squad in
voting to do a stolen routine exhibits conformity.
Conformity can be positive or negative.
ROLE STRAIN
happens when contradicting roles for the same status
are both tried to be attained.
3
A teacher very friendly with her students but must
grade them objectively can succumb to role strain;
although it is possible to maintain both role
prescriptions, it can also lead to psychological stress
TWO ORDERS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
PRIMARY GROUP & SECONDARY GROUP
Relationships among members:
- There is emphasis on the efficiency by which
people accomplish their jobs.
- It is unlikely that every member is aware of
every other member.
- The goal is to provide for the personal needs of
the members.
TYPES OF INTERGROUP INTERACTION
1. ASSIMILATION -
2. PLURALISM
3. SEGREGATION
4. DOMINATION
5. POPULATION TRANSFER / EXPULSION
6. ANNIHILATION
MARXISTS MODEL OF SOCIETY
- is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and
method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a
materialist interpretation of historical development, a
dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of
class-relations within society and their application
in the analysis and critique of the development
of capitalism.
- The most valid criticism of Marxists model of society
is the overemphasis on the importance of economic
class to explain historical trends.
BUREAUCRACY
- By Max Weber; A bureaucracy is a system of
organization noted for its size and complexity.
Social Science cSMLA2K17

Everything within a bureaucracy responsibilities, SOCIALISM

jobs, and assignments exists to achieve some goal. is an economic system characterized by social
ownership of the means of production and co-operative
management of the economy. "Social ownership" may
SIX CHARACTERISTICS OF BUREAUCRACY refer to cooperative enterprises, common ownership,
1. Hierarchy state ownership, or citizen ownership of equity.
2. Rules
3. Function NEUROTRANSMITTER
4. Focus are endogenous chemicals that transmit signals from a
5. Impersonal neuron to a target cell across a synapse
6. Qualification acetylcholine
dopamine
THREE DIMENSIONS OF WEBERS NOTION OF SOCIAL
serotonin
CLASS: gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)
economic resources, political power, social prestige glutamate
epinephrine and norepinephrine
endorphins
enkephalins

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP)

involves reception of information not gained through
FASCISM the recognized physical senses but sensed with the
- is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism. mind.
- Fascists seek to unify their nation through a The term was adopted by Duke University psychologist
totalitarian state that seeks the mass mobilization of J. B. Rhine.
the national community, relying on a vanguard party to
initiate a revolution to organize the nation on fascist
ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth
principles
sense, gut instinct or hunch, intuition. The term implies
- It promotes regulated private enterprise and private
acquisition of information by means external to the
property contingent whenever beneficial to the nation
basic limiting assumptions of science, such as that
and state enterprise and state property where private
organisms can only receive information from the past to
enterprise and private property is unable to meet the
the present.
nation's needs.
TYPES OF EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION
COMMUNISM
- An equal society, without social classes or class 1. CLAIRVOYANCE- is used to refer to the ability to gain
conflict, in which the means of production are the information about an object, person, location or
common property of all. physical event through means other than the known
human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception.
CAPITALISTS
The social class of owners of the means of production in
industrial societies, whose primary purpose is to make
profits.
4
Social Science cSMLA2K17

2. TELEPATHY- is the transmission of information from
one person to another without using any of our known
sensory channels or physical interaction.
3. Psychokinesis/telekinesis- "distant-movement" with
respect to strictly describing mental movement or
motion of solid matter, is a term coined by publisher
Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a
physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for
by the mediation of any known physical energy.
4. PRECOGNITION- precognition (from the Latin pr-,
before, + cognitio, acquiring knowledge), also called
future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory
perception that would involve the acquisition or effect
of future information.
EGO DEFENSE MECHANISMS
1.Conversion: the expression of an intrapsychic conflict
as a physical symptom; some examples include
blindness, deafness, paralysis, or numbness.
2. Denial: Refusal to accept external reality
3. Displacement: Defense mechanism that shifts sexual
or aggressive impulses to a more acceptable or less
threatening target; redirecting emotion to a safer outlet
4. Hypochondriasis: An excessive preoccupation or
worry about having a serious illness.
the unconscious in the attempt to prevent it from
entering consciousness
9. Undoing: A person tries to 'undo' an unhealthy,
destructive or otherwise threatening thought by acting
out the reverse of unacceptable.
10. Withdrawal: Withdrawal is a more severe form of
defense. It entails removing oneself from events,
stimuli, interactions, etc. under the fear of being
reminded of painful thoughts and feelings.
11. Identification: The unconscious modelling of one's
self upon another person's character and behavior.
12. Introjection: Identifying with some idea or object so
deeply that it becomes a part of that person.
13. Sublimation: Transformation of negative emotions
or instincts into positive actions, behavior, or emotion.
14. Thought suppression: The conscious process of
pushing thoughts into the preconscious; the conscious
decision to delay paying attention to an emotion or
need in order to cope with the present reality
15. Somatization: The transformation of negative
feelings towards others into negative feelings toward
self, pain, illness, and anxiety.

5. Isolation: Separation of feelings from ideas and

events, for example, describing a murder with graphic
details with no emotional response

6. Reaction formation: Converting unconscious wishes

or impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into
their opposites

7. Regression: Temporary reversion of the ego to an

earlier stage of development rather than handling
unacceptable impulses in a more adult way.

8.Repression: The process of attempting to repel desires

towards pleasurable instincts, caused by a threat of
suffering if the desire is satisfied; the desire is moved to
5