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SOCIOLOGY NOTES 3. Cultural Diversity – contrary to cultural universals,
INTRODUCTION
 defined as the systematic and objective study of
human society and social interaction
 the basic assumption that is made by sociologists is
that all human behaviors are shaped by the society and
social circumstances (i.e. families, organizations,
communities, ethnic groups, societies and historical eras).
The focus of sociology is not on the individual act, but
rather on the social environment or circumstance in which
the act takes place.
I. The Role and Scope of Sociology
A. Nature of Sociology
1. “Sociology is the scientific study of social problems like
race relations, crime, divorce, etc.”
2. Sociology contributes to the understanding of social
problems but it is a science, not a philosophy. A science is
a body of tested knowledge, while a philosophy is a set of
ideas about how men ought to behave and treat one
another. A social science studies how men behave without
trying to say what they ought to do.
B. The Task of Sociology as Science
The major task of sociology is to study human groups.
C. Sociology and Social Science
1. Sociology occupies a middle position between the
disciplines which seek to describe the past and those are
which devoted to analyzing the specific segment of human
life which is of current concern.
2. The major task of sociologist is to study human groups,
and by so doing he helps the specialized sciences in their
tasks and from them obtains more data which may be
used in the analysis of group conduct.
II. Elements of Sociological Analysis
A. Culture – shared products of a human group or
society. May either be nonmaterial culture (values,
language, beliefs, traditions) material culture (physical
objects, machines, books, clothing, artifacts, money)
1. Subculture and Counterculture – when a group of
people within a society has a style of living that
includes features of the main culture and also certain
cultural elements not found in other groups, this is
known as subculture. When that subculture challenges
the values, beliefs, ideals and other elements of the
dominant culture, it is known as counterculture.
2. Cultural Values and Norms – a value is an idea
shared by the people in a society about what is good
and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable.
Norms are expectations of how people are supposed to
act, think or feel in specific situations.
a. Folkways – norms that have little strength and may
within limits, be easily broken
b. Mores – strongly held norms that are considered
essential and which are strictly enforced
c. Laws – norms that have been enacted by the state
to regulate human conduct
LEARNFAST REVIEW AND TUTORIAL HUB – NMAT REVIEWER
though societies share commonality in some aspects in
culture, each culture carries a distinct and different
element.
4. Cultural Relativism – the principle holds that one
cannot truly understand or evaluate cultural, social
and psychological facts except in terms of the larger
culture and society of which they are a part.
a. Ethnocentrism – tendency to evaluate other
cultures in terms of one’s own and to consider one’s
own culture as superior.
b. Xenocentrism – belief that the views, styles or
products of other cultures are better than those of
one’s own culture.
5. Cultural Changes – results when there is cultural
integration. Sources of Cultural Changes:
a. Innovation – production of a new culture trait
(i.e. norm or value)
b. Invention – creation of new cultural products
c. Cultural Diffusion – process by which cultural
traits are transmitted from one group or society to
another
6. Cultural Integration – occurs when cultural traits
are logically consistent with one another, but may be
logically inconsistent or simply neutral in relation to one
another.
B. Society and Social Structure
1. Social Status – socially defined position in a group or
society
a. Master Status – status that dominates others and
thereby determines a person’s general social position
b. Achieved Status – status that can be gained by a
person’s direct effort usually through competition
c. Ascribed Status – a social position to which a person
is assigned according to standards that are beyond his
or her control
2. Social Roles – behavior expected of someone with a
given status in a group or society
a. Role Set – whole set of roles associated with a single
status
b. Role Expectation – society’s definition of the way a
role ought to be played
c. Role Performance – the way a person usually plays
a role
d. Role Conflict – situation whereby opposing demands
are made on a person two or more roles
e. Role Strain – personal stress caused by such
opposing demands
3. Types of Societies
A. Mode of Subsistence
i. Hunting and Gathering Societies – oldest and
simplest societal type; nomadic way of life and
primitive technology; family primary concern and
there is little specialization
ii. Horticultural Societies – cultivate cereal grains and
eat wild plants and animals as supplement; form
permanent communities; make tools and household

objects; produce small surplus; inequalities start to
arise
iii. Pastoral Societies – rely on capturing, breeding
and taming of animals as food source; came into
existence at the same time as horticultural societies
through are more of nomadic than stationary.
iv. Agrarian Societies – developed the plow which
produced larger surplus and the end of the need to
move to new fields on a regular basis. Social changes
such as further stratification, establishment of
bureaucracies, the rise of cities and the development
of a money economy occurred.
v. Industrial Societies – used machinery to do many
forms of work and densely populated cities
developed. Large gov’ts, large bureaucracies and ever
more specialized social institutions and social roles
developed.
vi. Post–Industrial Societies – offices replaced
factories; computer took over from the machines and
metropolitan areas supplanted towns and cities; main
economic enterprise is service.
B. Social Structure
i. Gemeinschaft – individual relationships are based
on common feelings, kinships or memberships in the
community (communal)
ii. Gesellschaft – rational order, neutral involvement,
and obligations to institutions are dominant
(associational)
iii. Mechanical Solidarity – members are held
together because they perform similar roles and share
the same values
iv. Organic Solidarity – member are held together
because they perform very specialized roles and are
therefore highly dependent on one another
v. Communal Society – little division of labor; family
most important unit; social relationships are personal
and long lasting; behavior is governed mainly by
custom and tradition
vi. Associational Society – there is division of labor
and roles are highly specialized; family loses influence
and many of its activities are replaced by other
institutions (i.e. economic, religious and political);
many social relationships are impersonal and short
lived; behavior is governed by law rather than by
custom.
C. Socialization – is the process through which people
acquire personality and learn the ways of a society or
group; socialization occurs through social interaction
Social Interaction – is the process in which people
act toward or respond to others in a mutual and
reciprocal way
1. As product of:
a. Biological interplay
b. parent-child interaction
c. social learning
d. The Self and human nature
2. Take the forms of:
a. Exchange Relationships – in which a person or
group acts in a certain way toward another in order to
receive a reward in return.
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b. Cooperation – interaction in which people or groups
act together in order to achieve common interests or goals
that might be difficult or impossible to realize alone.
1. Spontaneous Cooperation – mutual aid
2. Traditional Cooperation – spontaneous
cooperation that becomes fixed in a society’s customs
3. Directed Cooperation – directed by a third party
in a position of authority
4. Contractual Cooperation – formal agreement to
cooperate on a certain way with the duties of each
clearly spelled out
c. Conflict – struggle for a commonly prized object or
value; conflicts arise because the benefits and rewards of
a society are limited.
d. Competition – a kind of conflict governed by rules
that make the goal being sought more important than the
defeat if any opponents.
e. Coercion – tendency for one person or group to force
its will on another.
D. Groups and Social Organization
Social Group can be defined as two or more people who
have a common identity and some feeling of unity and
who share certain goals and expectations about each
other’s behavior.
1. Primary and Secondary Groups
a. Primary groups are small, personal and unspecialized.
Although relating to one another in many different roles,
their members communicate openly and intimately.
b. Secondary groups by contrast are larger, more
specialized groups in which members interact in a
limited, impersonal way.
2. Ingroups and Outgroups
a. Ingroups – the groups to which people belong and feel
loyal
b. Outgroups – the groups to which we do not belong and
which are regarded with suspicion and as less worthy
than their own
3. Group Processes
4. Basic Patterns of Social Organization
a. Social bonds e. conformity
b. Kinship f. rational coordination
c. fealty
d. status
E. Social Disorganization, Deviance and Social
Control
1. Social Disorganization – refers to breakdown of
social institutions. Results when deviance is practiced by
large numbers of people over long periods of time; when
it undermines belief in the value of basic social
institutions or when it produces conflict that cannot be
contained.
Types:
a. aberrant behavior vs nonconforming behavior aberrant
– accept validity of social rules but break them for
some personal gain; nonconforming – hope to attract
attention to their rule-breaking behavior in an attempt
to cause the rule to be changed.
b. socially approved deviance vs socially deviance
c. inability to conform vs failure to conform – insanity,
physical and mental incapability or illness disable one
to conform without punishment
d. individual vs group deviance

2. Deviance – behavior that violates the social norms
of a group or society
Four types of “deviant adaptations”
a. Innovation – accepting goals but rejecting society’s
means of achievement
b. Ritualism – accepting the means but not the goals
c. Retreatism – rejecting both the goals and the
means
d. Rebellion – rejecting the goals and the means and
substituting new ones
3. Social Control – means or ways to condition or limit
the actions of people in order to make them want to
conform to social norms most of the time
 Internal Social Control – “internalization” is one’s
acceptance of the norms of a group or society as part
of one’s identity. It is the most effective means of
socially controlling deviant behavior.
 External Social Control – involve the use of social
sanctions which may be applied informally (thru
actions of people we are with on a daily basis); others
are applied formally (agents given that task by
society, eg. Law enforcers, etc.)
F. Social Inequalities
Class Inequalities
1. Slavery – extreme system of stratified inequality in
which freedom is denied to one group in a society.
2. Caste – system of stratified inequality in which status
is largely determined at birth and people are locked into
their parents’ social positions.
3. Estate – stratification associated with type of agrarian
society similar to feudalism.
Class Systems – most common type of stratification; a
relatively open system based on economic position.
1. Bourgeoisie – upper classes; have access to the means
of production; own and control production and exploit
the labor of the lower classes.
2. Proletariat – lower classes; provide labor to production.
Social Stratification – an enduring pattern based on the
ranking of people in social positions according to their
access to desirables.
1. Three dimensions as classified by Max Weber:
a. Wealth b. Power c. Prestige
2. Theories
a. Functionalist – inequality is not only required to the
functioning of the society but is also inevitable.
b. Conflict – social inequality is not a necessary part of the
operation of societies rather, the desirables of the
society are in limited supply and the powerful determine
which groups of people will fill which jobs and who will
get what rewards.
c. Lenski’s theory – power, based on economics and
political leadership and some inequality are important in
the functioning of the society.
Social Mobility – refers to the movement of a person
from one status or social class to another.
1. Types
a. Upward b. Downward c. Horizontal
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2. Varieties
a. Intergenerational mobility – change in social position
between generations
b. Intragenerational mobility – occurs in the same
generation
Ethnic and Racial Minorities
1. Minority group – any group in a society that consists of
people whose particular biological or social traits cause
them to become the object of prejudice or
discrimination.
2. Ethnic group – a group that is socially distinguished
from other groups, has developed its own subculture,
and has a shared feeling of peoplehood.
3. Race – group of people who others believe share certain
physical traits and are genetically distinct.
4. Prejudice – judgment of people, objects or situations in
terms of stereotypes or generalizations.
5. Discrimination – unfair or unequal treatment of
individuals or groups.
6. Patterns of acceptance:
a. Assimilation – absorption of an incoming group into
the dominant society.
b. Amalgamation – biological merging of an ethnic or
racial group with the native population.
c. Cultural pluralism – pattern of partial assimilation by
which the dominant society allows minorities to achieve
full participation, yet at the same time lets them keep
many of their cultural social differences.
7. Patterns of rejection:
a. Annihilation – process by which a dominant group
causes the deaths of a large number of minority group
members.
b. Expulsion – forcing people out of an area of a society.
c. Partitioning – political reorganization of a nation in
order to make political boundaries correspond more
closely to ethnic or racial ones.
d. Segregation – involuntary separation of residential
areas, services or facilities on the basis of the ethnic or
racial characteristics of the people using them.
Gender
1. Gender role – social role associated with being a male
or female.
2. Gender identity – conception of ourselves as either male
or female.
Age and Health in Society
1. Age status – status based on a person’s age
2. Age norms – standards of behavior that are appropriate
for various age
3. Age roles – expectations about a behavior of people
holding particular age statuses
4. Age deviance – behavior that violates the age norms of
a group or society
5. Gerontology – study of aging and the special problems
of the elderly
6. Geriatrics – study of the medical aspects of aging and
medical practice that emphasizes aging and elderly
patients

III. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
The Family
1. Kinship – social network of people who are related by
common ancestry or origin or by marriage and
adoption
2. Nuclear – family group which consists of a couple and
their children usually living apart from other relatives
3. Extended – group which consists of one or more
nuclear families plus other relatives
4. Patriarchal Family – family structure in which the
authority is held by the eldest male
5. Matriarchal Family – authority is held by the eldest
female.
6. Egalitarian Family – family structure in which the
husband and wife are equal in authority and privileges
7. Patrilocal Residence – married couple living in the
household or community of the husband’s parents
8. Matrilocal Residence – married couple living in the
household or community of the wife’s parents
9. Neolocal Residence – married couple living apart from
either spouse’s parents or other relatives
10. Patrilineal Descent – father’s side of the family is
defined as kin
11. Matrilineal Descent – mother’s side of the family is
defined as kin
12. Bilateral Descent – children’s kinship is tied to both
sides of the family
13. Endogamy – marriage within one’s own group
14. Exogamy – marriage outside one’s own group
15. Homogamy – marriage with the same social, racial,
ethnic and religious background
16. Monogamy – marriage between one man and one
woman
17. Polygamy – marriage involving more than one
husband or wife
18. Polygyny – one man with several wives
Religion – system of beliefs and practices by which a
group of people interprets and responds to what they feel
is supernatural and sacred
Types
1. Ecclesia – religious organization that claim as its
membership the entire population of a society; country’s
official religion
2. Church – stable, institutionalized organization of
religious believers
3. Denomination – several religious organizations
considered socially acceptable by a society
4. Sect – less formally organized than a church; usually
composed of people occupying the lower occupational
and educational status
5. Cults – reject some aspects of established religions;
devise new symbols, rituals and teachings.
Forms
1. Monotheism – belief in one God
2. Polytheism – belief in more than one God
3. Transcendental Idealism – centers on a set of ethical,
moral or philosophical principles
4. Totemism – worship and veneration of an animal;
practiced by preliterate people and preindustrial
societies
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5. Simple supernaturalism – type of religion that does not
recognize specific gods or spirits but that does believe in
supernatural forces that influence humanity
6. Animism – religion that recognizes active/animate spirits
operating in the world.
Education
Perspectives:
1. Functionalist – five main functions of education:
a. Socialization
b. Social control
c. Selection and allocation
d. Assimilation and subculture maintenance
e. Innovation and change
2. Conflict – education as a tool used by the ruling classes
to perpetuate social inequality both by controlling access
to education and by training docile, disciplined workers
Economy and Work
Economic Order – consists of those organizations and
processes through which goods and services are produced
and distributed
Five General Factors that Respond to Economic
System:
1. Resources and Technology: In a preindustrial economy,
the primary sector (agriculture) dominates and the
economy is labor intensive, relying heavily on human
labor. In an industrial economy, the secondary sector
(good producing) dominates and the economy is capital
intensive, relying the machine production. In post-
industrial economy, the tertiary sector (service)
dominates.
2. Decentralized Economy – decision-making is held by a
large number of individuals, households, cooperatives or
firms; in a centralized economy, the power is in the
hands of a small number of individuals or firms.
3. In a market economy, consumers are the key decision
makers; the economy responds to consumer
preferences. In a planned economy, the ultimate
decision-makers are the planners.
4. Property Ownership; in a system of private ownership,
the rights to transfer title of ownership to others, the
right to use the property as the owner sees fit and the
right to full use of the products, services or surpluses
the property generates belong to individuals or groups
of individuals. In a system of public ownership these
rights belong to the state and in a system of
cooperative ownership these rights are held by a
cooperative enterprise, a voluntary economic
association created for the mutual benefit of its
members.
5. Incentives: A reward system or incentive system is a
system of motivating people to act, to buy and sell, to
produce and consume and to use their resources and
technology in particular ways and means. Material
incentives – increased wages, greater profits, bonuses
and other monetary rewards. Moral incentives – appeal
to peoples’ sense of responsibility to the community,
society or religion.

Economic Systems
1. Capitalism – an economic system based on the private
ownership of wealth. The elements of capitalism
include:private property; profit; competition; laissez
faire.
2. Socialism – means of production and distribution are
owned collectively rather than privately. The state is
usually the collective owner, but in some forms of
socialism, the owner might be a small community or
someone who works for a particular enterprise.
3. Market Socialism – represents an effort to join features
of socialism, public ownership and a relatively equal
distribution of income, with emphasis on market forces
and decentralized decision-making characteristic of
capitalist economies.
Politics and Government
Politics – process by which some people and groups
acquire power and exercise it over others
Power – capacity of people or groups to control or
influence the actions of others, whether those others wish
to cooperate or not
1. Legitimate – generally recognized and socially right and
necessary
2. Illegitimate – without support of social approval
Authority – legitimate power that is institutional in nature
1. Traditional Authority – conferred by custom and
accepted practice
2. Charismatic Authority – generated by the personality or
exceptional personal appeal of an individual
3. Legal-rational Authority – rests on rationally established
rules (i.e. rules that reflect a systematic attempt to
adjust means to ends, to make institutions to what they
are supposed to do)
Forms of Government
1. Democracy – “rule of the people”
2. Totalitarianism – form of government run by a single
party in which there is a governmental surveillance and
control over all aspects of life
3. Authoritarianism – form of government in which the
ultimate authority is vested in a single person; the ruler
may be either a monarch, a hereditary ruler or a
dictator
IV. SOCIAL CHANGE AND CURRENT TRENDS
Population and Ecology – Ecology is the study of the
relationships between organisms and their environment
Elements of Population Change
1. Fertility 2. Mortality 3. Migration
Zero Population Growth – the point at which there is
no natural increase in the population
Relative Deprivation – condition in which what people
think they deserve is not what they actually have.
Social Facilitation – augmentation in behavior due to
the presence of other individuals.
Social Loafing – decrease in motivation to exert effort
because of presence of others.
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Collective Behavior and Social Movements-
Collective behavior is behavior that occurs in some
response to a common influence or stimulus in relatively
spontaneous, unstructured, and unstable situations.
Forms of Collective Behavior:
1. Crowd – a temporary grouping of people, physically
close together with a common focus or interest
Types of Crowd
a. Casual Crowd – passive crowd involving a minimum
emotional engagement and action by the participants
(eg: people looking into a department store window).
b. Conventional Crowd – follows conventional norms, but
interaction is minimal (eg: passengers on an airplane)
c. Expressive Crowds – provide opportunities for
emotional expression and release (eg: Times Square
on New Year’s Eve)
d. Solidaristic Crowds – contain many mutually supportive
relationships and give a sense of social solidarity or
unity (eg: charismatic and religious groups)
e. Acting Crowds – group action that is focused on some
goal or object. They are typically angry and hostile and
their activities violate conventional norms. (eg: mobs,
riots)
f. Public – scattered grouping of people who have a
common interest, concern or focus of opinion
Theories on Crowding
a. Contagion Theory – Gustave Le Bon suggested that the
crowd was a single organism with one collective mind. He
said that the crowd’s ability to “hypnotize” individuals was
based on three factors: a feeling of invincibility, the great
power that comes from sheer numbers; contagion, the
rapid spread of new ways of thinking; and suggestibility, a
state of fascination in which people are not conscious of
their acts.
b. Convergence Theory – emphasizes that people in a
crowd tend to release their underlying personal
tendencies, reveal their true selves in a crowd.
c. Emergent Norm Theory – stresses the social aspects of
a crowd. It emphasizes the function of social norms in
shaping crowd behavior, and seeks to explain how new
norms are established and maintained.
2. Mass Behavior – collective behavior in diffuse social
groupings
a. Panic – form of mass behavior in which people, faced
with a threat, react in a seemingly irrational and fearful
manner.
b. Mass Hysteria – rare form of collective behavior that
occurs when people find themselves in ambiguous,
threatening situations
c. Disaster Behavior – follows natural or other types of
disasters that provoke a “crisis crowd” behavior
characterized by a convergence of people on the
disaster scene
d. Fad – or craze is a temporary activity that large
numbers of people enthusiastically pursue
e. Fashion – currently acceptable style of dress or behavior
3. Social Movements – socialized effort to change society
through collective action

Types of Social Movements
a. Reform Movement – seeks to improve society as a
whole by changing certain aspects of the social
structure
b. Revolutionary Movements – seek more radical change in
society. Their goal is to overthrow the existing social
structure and replace it with new one
c. Resistance Movements – aim to prevent change, or
reverse a change that has already been achieved
d. Expressive Movements – are attempts to provide their
members with some type of personal transformation,
which may include emotional satisfaction, a new identity
or a different ideology.
Stages Leading to Eventual
Acceptance by Society
a. Preliminary Stage – marked by restlessness in the
society, conflict between various groups, and inefficient
and insufficient efforts at dealing with social problems
b. Popular Stage – the discontented become aware that
others share their views and see that united action,
through a social movement, is possible.
c. Formal Organization Stage – excitement of the masses
is formalized. Ideologies are developed that help to give
the movement direction and unity. Values and goals
become clear, and the movement develops an
organizational structure with a hierarchy of leaders.
d. Institutional Stage – movement becomes an accepted
and institutionalized part of society.
4. Communication and Collective Behavior
a. Gossip – idle talk about the personal or private affairs
of others
b. Rumor – an untrue or unverified report that is
informally communicated from person to person and it is
not as limited in its subject as is gossip
c. Public Opinion – attitudes about an issue that are held
by a public
d. Propaganda – calculated manipulation of ideas in a
way that appeals to people’s emotions and prejudice
Cities Urbanization and Community Change
Urbanization – movement of people from rural to urban
areas
Over urbanization – a disparity between the number of
people flooding into the cities and the actual opportunities
and services available to them
Urbanism – patterns of culture and social structure that
are characteristic of cities and how they differ from the
culture of rural communities
V. Social Change and Future Trends
Factors of Social Change
1. Physical environment and population
2. Technology
3. Nonmaterial culture
4. Cultural Diffusion – process by which culture traits
spread from one group or society to another.
5. Modernization – refers to the major internal social
changes that occur when a traditional preindustrial
society develops economically and becomes
industrialized and urbanized
. number of interrelated parts such as a head, limbs, a heart and
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Theories of Social Change
1. Sociocultural Evolution Theory – the change and
development of societies over time in either unilinear or
multilinear fashion
2. Cyclical Theory – cultures and societies go through
continual cycles of growth and decay, challenge and
response
3. Functionalist Theory – analyzes function of change in
preserving social order as a whole
4. Conflict Theory – real societies are not as stable as the
functionalists imply and that the theory is unable to
account for many kinds of changes.
Important Figures in the Development of
Sociology:
 Auguste Comte – coined the term “sociology.” He was
a French philosopher who believed that the social and
natural worlds obeyed the same rules.
 Karl Marx – saw in society continuous conflict and
change. Marx believed that societies follow historical
laws determined by economic forces.
 Emile Durkheim – he argued that the main concern of
sociology should be what he called “social facts” (e.g.
laws, customs and institutions), which are external to
people but which exert control over them. He developed
an analysis of suicide based on group connections. He
described four types of suicide:
 Egoistic Suicide – the individual does not feel
connected to the larger society; the person is not
affected by social constraints against suicide;
 Altruistic Suicide – the individual places the group’s
welfare above his or her own life;
 Fatalistic Suicide – the individual commits suicide
because of feelings of powerlessness to regulate his
or her life;
 Anomic Suicide – the individual commits suicide
when society lacks social order
 Max Weber – best known for his studies of
bureaucracy and capitalism. Much of Weber’s thought
contrasts strongly with that of Marx. He believed that
social scientists can find objective solutions to problems
only if they suspend their own value judgments (value
free sociology).
 Charles Cooley – one of the earliest sociologists to
develop a theory of the self. He coined the term
“LOOKING GLASS SELF” – people’s sense of self reflects
what they think others think of them
SOCIOLOGICAL TERMS
Theoretical Perspective - A theory is a statement that
organizes a set of concepts in a meaningful way by explaining the
relationship among men. Theory makes the facts of small lift
comprehensible. It places seemingly meaningless events in a
general framework that enables us to determine cause and effect,
to explain, and to predict.
Functionalist Perspective -The functionalist perspective draws
its original inspiration from the work Herbert Spencer and Emile
Durkheim. Spencer compared society sometimes to living
organisms. Any organism has a structure – that is, it consists of a
so on, that play a function in the life of the total organism. In the
same way, Spencer agreed that a society has a structure. Its
interrelated parts are the family, religion, the military and so on.

Conflict Perspective - The conflict perspective in modern
sociology derives its inspiration from the work of Karl Marx, who
saw the struggle between social classes as the “engine” of history
and the main source of change.
Conflict theories assume that sometimes are in the constant
stable of change, in which conflict as a permanent feature.
“Conflicts” does not necessarily mean outright violence; it
includes tension, hostility, competition, and disagreement among
our goals and values.
Conflict theorists that do not see social conflict as a necessarily
destructive force, although they admit that is may sometimes
have that effect. They argue that conflict can often have positive
results. It bonds groups together as they pursue their own
interest, and the conflict among competing groups focuses
attention on social problems and leads to beneficial changes that
might otherwise have occurred.
Interactionist Perspective - The interactionist perspective in
sociology was strongly influenced by Max Welies, who
emphasized the importance of understanding the social world
from the individuals who acts within it. It is concerned primarily
with the everyday social interaction that takes place as people go
about their lives.
Hunting and Gathering Societies - Hunting and gathering
people live in small privacy groups that rarely exceed in members.
The groups are based on kinship, with most members being
related by ancestry or marriage. They are constantly on the move
because they must leave an area as soon as they have exhausted
its food resources. Warfare is extremely uncommon among
hunting and gathering people, partly because they have so little
in the way of material goods to.
The social structure of these societies is necessarily very simple,
and their culture cannot become elaborate and diversified.
Pastoral Societies - Pastoralism is a much more reliable and
productive strategy than hunting and gathering. Not only is a
steady food supply assured, but the size of the herds can be
increased over time through careful animal husbandry. An
important result is that societies can grow much larger, perhaps
to include hundreds or even thousands of people. Equally
significant, the greater productivity of pastoralism permits the
accumulation of a surplus of livestock and food.
The substance strategy of pastoral societies thus provides
distinctive social cultural opportunities and limitations. Population
become larger, political economic institutions begin to develop
and born social structure and culture become more complex.
Horticultural Societies - Horticulturalists are essentially
gardeners, cultivating demonstrated plants by hand or with hoes
or digging sticks, although must periodically move their gardens
or villages in short distances.
Because they live in relatively permanent settlements,
horticulturalists can create more elaborate cultural artifacts than
can hunters and gatherers or pastoralists. The settled way of life
and relative large populations of those societies thus permit more
complex social structures and cultures.
Agricultural Societies - About 6,000 years ago, the plow was
invented and the agricultural revolution was underway. The use
of the plow greatly improves the productivity of the land; it brings
to the surface nutrients that have sunk out of reach of the roots
of plants, and it returns weeks to the soil to act as fertilizers. As a
result, food output is greatly increased and a substantial supply
can be produced.
Agricultural societies tend to be almost constantly at war,
sometimes engaged in systematic empire-building. These
conditions demand an effective military organization, and
permanent armies appear for the first time. The need for efficient
transport and communications in these large societies leads to
the development of roads and novices, and previously isolated
communities are brought into contact with one another.
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A society relying on agriculture as a subsistence strategy thus has
a far more complex social structure and culture than any of the
less involved types of societies. The number of statuses and roles
multiplies, population size increases, cities appear, new
institutions emerges, social classes arise, political and economic
inequality becomes built into the social structure, and culture
becomes much more diversified.
Industrial Societies - Industrialism is based on the application
of scientific knowledge to the technology of production, enabling
new energy sources to be harnessed and permitting machines to
do the work that was previously done by people or animals. It is a
highly efficient subsistence strategy, for it allow relatively small
portion of the population to feed the majority. Family and kinship
becomes progressively less important in the social culture. The
family losses many of its earlier functions. It is no longer a unit of
economic production, nor thus it has the main responsibility for
the education of the young. Kinship ties are weakened, and
people live with their immediate family but apart from more
distant kin. People no longer share similar life experiences and
consequently hold many different and competing values and
beliefs. Science, however, emerges as a new and important social
institution, for technological innovation depends on growth and
refinement of scientific and for the first time, formal education
becomes compulsory for the many rather than a luxury for the
few.
Group - A group is a collection of people interacting together in
an orderly way on the basis of shared expectation about each
other’s behaviour. As a result of this interaction, members feel a
common sense of “belonging”.
Primary Group - A primary group consists of a small member of
people who interact in direct, intimate and personal ways. His
relationship among the members is emotionally depth, and the
group tends to endure over time. Typical primary groups include
the family, gang or a college per group.
Secondary Group - Consists a number of people who have few,
if any emotional ties with one another. The members come
together for some specific, practical purpose, such as making
committee decision or attending a convention.
Small Group - A small group is one that contains sufficiently few
members for the participants to relate to one another as
individuals. Whether the small group is a primary or secondary
depends on the nature of their relationships among its members.
Leadership - A leader is someone who by virtue of certain
personality, the characteristics is consistently able to influence the
behavior of others. Groups always have leaders even if the leader
do not hold formal positions of authority.
Accommodation - Peaceful adjustment between hostile or
competing groups; ”antagonistic cooperation”.
Acculturation - Acquisition by a group or individual of the traits
of another culture
Achieved Status - Status reached by individual effort.
Aggregate - Gathering of people without conscious interaction
Amalgamation - Biological inter-breeding of two or more
peoples of distinct physical appearance until they become one
stock.
Anomie - A situation in which a large number of person lack
interaction with stable institutions, leaving them rootless and
normless.
Community Organization - A term used to describe both the
institution structure of communities and also the process by

which the functions of various aspects of community living are
continuously brought into close integration with each other.
Concept - A term that expresses generalized or common
element found in a number of specific cases.
Conflict - Seeking to monopolize rewards by eliminating or
weakening the competition.
Conjugal Family - A married couple and their dependent
children.
Consanguine Family - Extended clan of blood relatives with
their mates and children.
Ascribed Role - Heredity status without regard to individual
ability or performance.
Assimilation - Mutual cultural diffusion through which persons
or groups come to share a common culture.
Attitude - A tendency to feel and act in a certain way.
Bureaucracy - Administration characterized by rules, hierarchy
of office and centralized authority.
Caste System - A stratified society in which social position is
entirely determined by parentage, with no provision for achieved
status.
Clique - A small group of intimates with intense in-group feeling
based on common sentiments and interest.
Community - A group of people who have a certain sense of
belonging together and who reside in a given geographical area.
Deviation - Failure to conform to the customary norms of
society.
Discrimination - A practice that trails equal people as non-
equals; limiting opportunity or reward according to race, religion
or ethnic group.
Ethnic Group - A number of people with a common cultural
heritage which sets them apart from others in variety of social
relationships.
Xenocentrism - The tendency of each group to take for granted
the superiority of its own culture.
Exogamy - A requirement that one mates on selected people
outside some specified groups
Cultural Relativism - The concept that the function, meaning
and desirability of a trait depend upon its cultural setting.
Cultural Pluralism - The toleration of cultural differences within
a common society; allowing different groups to retain their
distinctive cultures
Cultural Trait - The smallest unit of culture as perceive by a
given observer
Culture - The total heritage which the individual receives from
the group; a system of behaviour by the members of society.
Culture Complex - A cluster of related traits organized around a
particular activity. Embodies certain common values and
procedures and meet certain basic needs of society.
Interaction - A process in which the responses of each partly
successively become stimuli for the responses of the other
LEARNFAST REVIEW AND TUTORIAL HUB – NMAT REVIEWER
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Matrilocal Residence - The condition in which a married couple
live in the family home or locality of the wife.
Norm - Standard behaviour. Statistical norm is a measure of
actual conduct; cultural norm states the expected behaviour of
the culture
Extended Family - The nuclear family plus other kin with whom
important relation are maintained. The other kin may or may not
live in the same house
Folkways - Customary, normal, habitual behaviour characteristic
of the members of the group
Gesellschaft - A type of community life in which impersonal,
superficial, and business like relationship prevail, secondary group
contacts of a transitory sort predominate. The large urban centers
are the prime example of a gesellschaft community.
Ideology - A system of ideas which sanctions a set of norms
Inductive Method - The method of arriving at general
principles from actual observation of behaviour of what is being
studied.
Polygamy - A plurality of mates
Polygymy - A form of polygamy in which a husband has several
wives
Nuclear Family - The same as conjugal Family
Particularistic - The tendency to govern actions by special
relations to an individual or group rather than by criteria equally
applicable to all men. Nepotism is an example.
Patriarchal Residence - A consanguine family, usually patilineal
and patrilocal, in which an elderly man is functional head
Patrilocal Residence - The condition in which a married couple
live in the family home – or locality – of husband
Polyandry - A form of polygamy in which plural husband share a
wife
Reference Groups - Groups whose norms we respect and
generally adapt
Role - The behavior of one who holds a certain status
Sect - A religious group including only a small proportion of the
population. There is frequently a marked contrast between the
ethical ideals dominant in the total culture
Secular Society - A society with a diversity of folkway and
mores. The term is also used as an adjective describing any
group in which religious influence is minimized
Secularization - Movement from a sacred to a rationalistic,
utilitarian and experimental viewpoint
Social Control - Means and processes by which society secures
its members conformity to its norms and values.
Social Distance - Degree of closeness to or acceptance of
members of other groups
Social Mobility - Movement from one class level to another.
Social Processes - Respective forms of behaviour commonly
found in social life.
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Socialization - The process by which one internalizes the

patters of the groups so that distinct self-unique to the individual
emerges

Society - A group of people who share a common culture

Stereotype - A false ideas or belief which regards all members

of a group as having identical traits.

Status - The position of individual in a group

Subculture - A cluster of behaviour patter=n related to the

general culture of a society yet distinguishable from it. The
behaviour patterns of the distinct group within the general
society.

Values - Measures of goodness or desirability

Competition - The struggle of possession or rewards which are

in limited supply – money, good, status, power, love - anything.
It may be formally defined as the process of seeking to obtain a
reward by surpassing all rivals

Assimilation - This process of mutual cultural diffusion through

which person and groups come to share the common culture

Formal Organization - Large social groups that are deliberately

rationally designed to achieve specific objectives. They have a
carefully designed structure that coordinates the activities of the
member of the interest of the organization’s goals

Social Inequality - Social inequality exists when people’s access

to social rewards (such as money, influence, or respect) is
determined by their personal or group characteristics

Social Stratification - The structured inequality of entire

categories of people, who have different access to social rewards
as a result of their status in the social hierarchy

Expressive Leadership - The kind to leadership necessary to

create harmony and solidarity among members

LEARNFAST REVIEW AND TUTORIAL HUB – NMAT REVIEWER