SOC101 Glossary

 ABSOLUTE POVERTY

Poverty as defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, health care and shelter.

 ACHIEVED STATUS

A position attained through personal ability and effort.

 ACID RAIN

The increased acidity of rainfall which is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants and automobiles.

 ADAPTATION

Refers to the ability of a sociocultural system to change with the demands of a changing physical or social environment. The process by which cultural elements undergo change in form and/or function in response to change in other parts of the system.

 AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

Government programs intended to assure minorities and women of equal hiring or admission opportunities.

 AGE GRADES

System found in some traditional cultures which group the population by sex and age. Age grades go through rites of passage, hold similar rights and have similar obligations.

 AGE STRUCTURE

The relative proportions of different age categories in a population.

 AIR POLLUTION

Refers to the contamination of the atmosphere by noxious substances

 ARRANGED MARRIAGE · SOC101 · Glossary

Marriage based on the family ties rather than the couple's personal preferences.

 ASCRIBED STATUS

A social position that is given at birth (such as race or sex).

 ASSIMILATION

A minority group's internalization of the values and norms of the dominant culture.

 AUTHORITY

Power that is attached to a position that others perceive as legitimate.

 Beliefs

Shared ideas held by a collective of people within a sociocultural system.

 Birthrates

The number of live births per 1,000 population in a given year. Also known as the crude birthrate.

 Blue-collar (or manual) occupations

Lower-prestige work involving mostly manual labour

 Bourgeoisie

A term meaning capitalist employed by Karl Marx.

 BUREAUCRACY

A formal organization marked by a clear hierarchy of authority, the existence of written rules of procedure, staffed by full-time salaried officials, and striving for the efficient attainment of organizational goals.

 Bureaucratic inertia

The tendency of bureaucratic organizations to perpetuate themselves.

 BUREAUCRATIZATION

Refers to the tendency of bureaucracies to refine their procedures to ever more efficiently attain their goals. More generally, refers to the process of secondary organizations taking over functions performed by primary groups

 CAPITALISM

An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution in which the goal is to produce profit.

 CAPITALISTS

Those who own companies, or stocks and shares, using these to generate economic returns or profits.

 CARRYING CAPACITY

The number of a species that a particular ecosystem can support without suffering irreversible deterioration

 CASTE

A closed form of stratification in which an individual's status is determined by birth and cannot be changed.

 CAUSATION

A 'cause and effect' relationship exists wherever a change in one variable (the independent variable) induces change in another (the dependent variable). Causal factors in sociology include individual motivation as well as many external influences on human behavior that often go unrecognized.

 Census

An enumeration, or counting, of a population

 CIVIL DISORDERS

Social conflict (such as riots) that the government becomes involved in to restore public order.

 CIVIL RIGHTS

Legal rights held by all citizens in a given state.

•  CLAN

A broad extended kin group found in many preindustrial societies.

 CLASS

Most sociologists use the term to refer to socioeconomic differences between groups of individuals which create differences in their life chances and power.

 CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

An objective awareness of the class system, including the common interests of people within your class.

 Closed system

A social system in which there is little or no possibility of individual mobility.

 COLONIALISM

The process whereby nations establish their political and economic rule over less powerful nations.