Terminologies

Lecture Zero - 0

1) Culture
The attitudes, behavior, beliefs, customs, habits, language, and values that are characteristic of
a group, society, or organization in a particular place and time, the accumulated knowledge of
which is passed to the next generation through socialization.
Example: The culture of a nonprofit that promotes community activism as a method of curbing
violence against women.

2) Attitude
An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event
Example: The way of thinking

3) Behavior
How an individual or group acts or reacts to another individual, group, or event.
Example: When a person acts differently around a certain ethnicity.

4) Conduct
What we decide in our inmost heart and the resultant effects

5) Belief
A conviction or idea an individual or group accepts as real or true, regardless of the lack of
verifiable evidence.

6) Value
a. A belief, ideal, or principle that a person or group has that determines what is correct,
desirable, and proper.
Example: Honesty or a strong work ethic.
b. A quality that renders something desirable or valuable.
Example: The rarity of a coin increases its value.
c. The amount of money, goods, or services something is worth.
Example: The price of a liter of milk.
d. A numeric quantity.
Example: There are four senses of the term value

7) Language
A symbolic means of communicating through gestures, sounds, or written words.
Example: Spoken English, sign language, or the words you are currently reading.

8) Society
“An extended and longstanding group sharing distinctive cultural aspects (e.g. arts,
dress, language, norms)” (Wiktionary n.d.).

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A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within
a dominant, larger society. (Subculture)

Pre-industrial society
In a pre-industrial society, food production, which is carried out through the use of human and
animal labor, is the main economic activity. These societies can be subdivided according to their
level of technology and their method of producing food. These subdivisions are hunting and
gathering, pastoral, horticultural, agricultural, and feudal:
i. Hunter-gatherer society
The main form of food production in such societies is the daily collection of wild plants and the
hunting of wild animals. Hunter-gatherers move around constantly in search of food.
ii. Pastoral society
Pastoralism is a slightly more efficient form of subsistence. Rather than searching for food on a
daily basis, members of a pastoral society rely on domesticated herd animals to meet their food
needs.
iii. Horticulturalist society
Fruits and vegetables grown in garden plots that have been cleared from the jungle or forest
provide the main source of food in a horticultural society.
iv. Agrarian society
Agrarian societies use agricultural technological advances to cultivate crops over a large area.
v. Feudal society
Feudalism was a form of society based on ownership of land.
Industrial societies
Between the 15th and 16th centuries, a new economic system emerged that began to replace
feudalism.
Post-industrial society
Post-industrial societies are societies dominated by information, services, and high technology
more than the production of goods. Advanced industrial societies are now seeing a shift toward
an increase in service sectors over manufacturing and production.
9) Organization (social organization)
“The persons, committees, departments, etc. – who make up a group for the purpose of
administering something” (Princeton University 2010).
Usage Notes: The terms organization and social organization are used interchangeably in a
sociological context.

Types:
 Association: A formally organized group of people.

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  Bureaucracy: “A formal organization characterized by a hierarchy of authority,
a clear division of labor, explicit rules, and impersonality” (OpenStax College 2012).

 Coercive organization: “An organization that a person does not voluntarily

join” (OpenStax College 2012).

 Formal organization: “A large and impersonal organization” (OpenStax College

2012).

 Meritocracy: A system that fosters and rewards personal effort, ability, and talent
through competition to determine social standing.

 Total institution: “An organization in which participants live a controlled lifestyle and
in which total resocialization occurs” (OpenStax College 2012).

 Utilitarian organization: “An organization that a person joins to fill a

specific material need” (OpenStax College 2012).

 Voluntary organization: “[A]n organizations that a person joins to pursue shared

interests with others or because they provide some intangible rewards” (OpenStax
College 2012).

10) Crowd: A large number of people in close proximity.

11) Demography: The study of the characteristics of human populations such as their density,
distribution, growth, size, or structure.
Example: Studying the health of people in a city or the population growth of a country.

12) Group: A collection of two or more people who share an identity.

13) Individual: A single human being.

14) People: The collective term for human beings.

15) Population: The people living in a given area such as a city or country.

16) Race: A classification system used to categorize humans into large and
distinct populations or groups by anatomical, cultural, ethnic, genetic, geographical, historical,
linguistic, religious, or social affiliation”

17) Theory: “A coherent statement or set of ideas that explains observed facts or phenomena, or
which sets out the laws and principles of something known or observed; a hypothesis confirmed
by observation, experiment, etc.” (Wiktionary).

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18) Ethnicity: Shared culture, which may include heritage, language, religion, and more
19) Harmony is the idea that social relations characterised by:
 peaceful order and
 respect for diversity are essential.
It is more than uniformity
Social harmony is about maintaining a level of equilibrium in economic terms in civil society.
It decreases the natural tensions that exist within any plural human collective through:
a) cross cultural understanding,
b) respecting,
c) renegotiating and
d) maintaining a level of balance in the power relations, resources, functioning and
capacities between potentially conflicting groups, of economic, political, social, racial
and religious or cultural distinctions
20) What is globalization?
 Globalization is the opposite end of local. So you have social activity that is
organized locally, nationally, supra-regionally and globally.
 It is simply to talk about the way in which aspects of human activity, such as
communications, trade or finance, are increasingly embedded on an intercontinental
or interregional basis.
 Globalization in its literal sense is the process or transformation of local or regional
phenomena into global ones.
 A process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and
function together. This process is a combination of economic, technological,
sociocultural and political forces.
21) Human Development
A measurement of achievements by humans through advancement of knowledge, biological
changes, habit formation or other criteria that displays changes over time. Understanding human
development can help a company to manage personnel, market and sell products, or negotiate
international trade.
22) Socio-Cultural is used to form adjectives of, relating to, or involving a combination of
social cultural factors. First Use: 1928 as SOCIOCULTURAL
23) Dynamics is a Process that constantly changes & progress
24) Socio-Cultural Dynamics is a study of change in major systems of:
Art,

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 Truth,
Ethics,
Law and
Social Relationships.

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1. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/human-development.htmlource

2. Daniel Bell: Why we must measure national harmony - The ideal is as universal as
freedom, fairness, and happiness, Financial Times (Opinions), November 18, 2013
3. Hicks, D. Ph.D., 2011. Dignity: The essential role it plays in resolving conflict. Yale.
Yale University Press.
4. ICOM NEWS December 2009 - January 2010, no. 2 , pages 3-4, Paris
5. Nimal Sanderatne: National harmony vital for economic development, The Sunday
Times Economics Analysis, January 09, 2011
6. Open Education Sociology Dictionary - Free Online Sociology Dictionary
7. OpenStax College 2012
8. Princeton University 2010
9. Wiktionary

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