Robert H. Lauer,
U.S. International University
Jeanette C. Lauer,
U.S. International University
| abuse | improper use of drugs or alcohol to the degree that the consequences are defined as detrimental to the user or society
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| achievement | as distinguished from educational "attainment," the level the student has reached as measured by scores on various verbal and nonverbal tests
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| addiction | repeated use of a drug or alcohol to the point of periodic or chronic intoxication that is detrimental to the user or society
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| adjudication | making a judgment; settling a judicial matter
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| aggression | forceful, offensive, or hostile behavior toward another person or society
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| AIDS | acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a disease in which a viral infection causes the immune system to stop functioning, inevitably resulting in death
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| alienation | a sense of estrangement from one's social environment, typically measured by one's feelings of powerlessness, normlessness, isolation, meaninglessness, and self-estrangement
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| anarchism | the philosophy that advocates the abolition of government in order to secure true freedom for people
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| anomie | literally, normlessness; as used by Merton, it refers to a structural breakdown characterized by incompatibility between cultural goals and the legitimate means of reaching those goals
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| atmosphere | the general mood and social influences in a situation or place
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| attainment | as distinguished from educational "achievement," the number of years of education completed by a student
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| attitude | a predisposition about something in one's environment
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| autonomy | the ability or opportunity to govern oneself
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| biological characteristic | an inherited, rather than learned, characteristic
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| bisexual | having sexual relations with either sex or both together
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| bureaucracy | an organization in which there are specific areas of authority and responsibility, a hierarchy of authority, management based on written documents, worker expertise, management based on rules, and full-time workers
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| capitalism | an economic system in which there is private, rather than state, ownership of wealth and control of the production and distribution of goods; people are motivated by profit and compete with each other for maximum shares of profit
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| carcinogenic | causing cancer
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| caste | social category of a closed stratification system; that is, an individual's position throughout life is completely determined by his or her father's social rank (caste membership)
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| catharsis | discharging socially unacceptable emotions in a socially acceptable way
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| cognitive development | growth in the ability to perform increasingly complex intellectual activities, particularly abstract relationships
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| cohabitation | living together without getting married
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| compensatory programs | programs designed to give intensive help to disadvantaged pupils and increase their academic skills
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| consciousness raising | the process by which people become aware of their situation as the situation is defined by some group
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| consumer price index | a measure of the average change in prices of all types of consumer goods and services purchased by urban wage earners and clerical workers
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| contradiction | opposing phenomena within the same social system
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| corporate welfare | governmental benefits given to corporations that are unavailable to other groups or to individuals
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| critical thinking | the analysis and evaluation of information
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| crude birthrate | the number of births per year per 1,000 population
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| crude death rate | the number of deaths per year per 1,000 population
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| culture | refers to the way of life of a people, including both material products (such as technology) and nonmaterial characteristics (such as values, norms, language, and beliefs)
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| cunnilingus | oral stimulation of the female genitalia
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| dehumanization | the process by which an individual is deprived of the qualities or traits of a human being
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| deinstitutionalization | movement to change the setting of treatment of mental disorders from hospitals to the community through rapid discharge of patients
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| demographic transition | a shift from high rates of births and deaths to low rates of births and deaths
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| demography | the scientific study of population
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| dependent variable | the variable in an experiment that is influenced by an independent variable
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| detoxification | supervised withdrawal from dependence on a drug
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| deviance | behavior that violates norms
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| differential association | the theory that illegal behavior is due to preponderance of definitions favorable to such behavior
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| discrimination | arbitrary, unfavorable treatment of the members of some social group
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| disfranchise | to deprive of the right to vote
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| division of labor | the separation of work into specialized tasks
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| divorce rate | typically, the number of divorces per 1,000 marriages
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| downsizing | reduction of the labor force in a company or corporation
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| ecosystem | a set of living things, their environment, and the interrelationships among and between them
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| environmental depletion | increasing scarcity of natural resources, including those used for generating energy
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| environmental destruction | alterations in the environment that make it less habitable or useful for people or other living things
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| environmental pollution | harmful alterations in our environment, including air, land, and water
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| epidemiology | the study of factors that affect the incidence, prevalence, and distribution of illnesses
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| erotica | sexually arousing materials that are not degrading or demeaning to adults or children
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| ethnic group | people who have a shared historical and cultural background that leads them to identify with each other
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| etiology | the causes of a disease
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| eutrophication | overfertilization of water due to excess nutrients, leading to algae growth and oxygen depletion
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| exploitation | use or manipulation of people for one's own advantage or profit
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| fallacy of appeal to prejudice | argument by appealing to popular prejudices or passions
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| fallacy of authority | argument by an illegitimate appeal to authority
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| fallacy of circular reasoning | using conclusions to support the assumptions that were necessary to make the conclusions
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| fallacy of composition | the assertion that what is true of the part is necessarily true of the whole
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| fallacy of dramatic instance | the fallacy of overgeneralizing
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| fallacy of misplaced concreteness | the fallacy of making something abstract into something concrete
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| fallacy of non sequitur | something that does not follow logically from what has preceded it
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| fallacy of personal attack | argument by attacking the opponent personally rather than dealing with the issue
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| fallacy of retrospective determinism | the argument that things could not have worked out any other way than they did
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| family | a group united by marriage, blood, and/or adoption in order to satisfy intimacy needs and/or bear and socialize children
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| fellatio | oral stimulation of the male genitalia
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| forcible rape | actual or attempted sexual intercourse through the use of force or the threat of force
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| frequency distribution | the organization of data to show the number of times each item occurs
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| gender | the meaning of being male or female in a particular society
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| gender role | the attitudes and behavior that are expected of men and women in a society
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| gentrification | the process of middle-class people developing and residing in low-income areas, thereby increasing land and housing values
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| ghetto | an area in which a certain group is segregated from the rest of society; often used today to refer to the impoverished area of the inner city
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| gridlock | the inability of the government to legislate significant new policies
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| gross national product (GNP) | the total value, usually in dollars, of all goods and services produced by a nation during a year
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| herbicide | a chemical used to kill plant life, particularly weeds
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| heterogamy | marriage between those with diverse values and backgrounds
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| heterosexual | having sexual preference for persons of the opposite sex
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| homogamy | marriage between those with similar values and backgrounds
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| homophobia | irrational fear of homosexuals
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| homosexual | having sexual preference for persons of the same sex; someone who privately or overtly considers himself or herself a homosexual
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| iatrogenic | caused by the physician in the course of his or her treatment of a patient
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| ideology | a set of ideas that explain or justify some aspect of social reality
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| immigration rate | the number of people entering a country in one year per 1,000 population
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| incest | exploitative sexual contact between relatives in which the victim is under the age of 18
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| incidence | the number of new cases of an illness that occur during a particular period of time
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| independent variable | the variable in an experiment that is manipulated to see how it effects changes in the dependent variable
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| infrastructure | the basic physical requirements for modern social life, including roads, water supplies, sewage disposal, and so forth
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| innate | existing in a person from birth
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| institution | a collective pattern of dealing with a basic social function; typical institutions identified by sociologists are the government, economy, education, family and marriage, and religion
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| institutional racism | policies and practices of social institutions that tend to perpetuate racial discrimination
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| interaction | reciprocally influenced behavior on the part of two or more people
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| interest group | a group that attempts to influence public opinion and political decisions in accord with the particular interests of its members
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| labeling theory | the theory that deviant behavior is the result of individuals being defined and treated as deviants-a form of self-fulfilling prophecy
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| labor force | all civilians who are employed or unemployed but able and desirous of work
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| lesbian | a female homosexual
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| life chances | the probability of gaining certain advantages defined as desirable, such as long life and health
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| life expectancy | the average number of years a newborn can expect to live
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| lobbyist | an individual who tries to influence legislation in accord with the preferences of an interest group
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| maladjustment | poor adjustment to one's social environment
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| malnutrition | inadequate food, in amount or type
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| manic-depressive reaction | a disorder involving fluctuation between emotional extremes
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| Marxist | pertaining to the system of thought developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, particularly emphasizing materialism, class struggle, and the progress of humanity toward communism
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| mean | the average
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| median | the score below which are half of the scores and above which are the other half
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| megalopolis | an urban area formed by the merging of two or more metropolitan areas
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| migration | movement of people from one area to another
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| military parity | equality or equivalence in military strength
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| morbidity | the prevalence of a specified illness in a specified area
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| morphological | pertaining to form and structure
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| neurosis | a mental disorder involving anxiety that impairs functioning
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| norm | shared expectations about behavior
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| nuclear family | husband, wife, and children, if any
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| obscenity | materials that are offensive by generally accepted standards of decency
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| organized crime | an ongoing organization of people who provide illegal services and goods and who maintain their activities by the aid of political corruption
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| paraphilia | the need for a socially unacceptable stimulus in order to be sexually aroused and satisfied
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| participant observation | a method of research in which one directly participates and observes the social reality being studied
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| patronage | giving government jobs to people who are members of the winning party
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| pedophile | an adult who depends on children for sexual stimulation
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| personal problem | a problem that can be explained in terms of the qualities of the individual
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| pesticide | a chemical used to kill insects defined as pests
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| photosynthesis | a natural process essential to life, resulting in the production of oxygen and organic materials
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| pica | a craving for unnatural substances, such as dirt or clay
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| pimp | one who earns all or part of his living by acting as a manager or procurer for a prostitute
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| placebo | any substance having no physiological effect that is given to a subject who believes it to be a drug that does have effect
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| pluralism | the more or less equal distribution of power among interest groups
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| political alienation | a feeling of political disillusionment, powerlessness, and estrangement
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| political party | an organized group that attempts to control the government through the electoral process
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| pollutant | anything that causes environmental pollution
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| pornography | literature, art, or films that are sexually arousing
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| posttraumatic stress disorder | an anxiety disorder associated with serious traumatic events, involving such symptoms as nightmares, recurring thoughts about the trauma, a lack of involvement with life, and guilt
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| poverty | a state in which income is insufficient to provide the basic necessities of food, shelter, clothing, and medical care
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| poverty level | defined as the minimum income level at which Americans should have to live, it is based on the Department of Agriculture's calculations of the cost of a basic diet called "the economy food plan"
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| power elite model | a model of politics in which power is concentrated in political, economic, and military leaders
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| predatory crime | acts that have victims who suffer loss of property or some kind of physical harm
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| prejudice | a rigid, emotional attitude that legitimates discriminatory behavior toward people in a group
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| prevalence | the number of cases of an illness that exist at any particular time
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| primary deviance | deviant behavior of an individual who still considers himself or herself as a conforming member of society
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| primary group | the people with whom we have intimate, face-to-face interaction on a recurring basis, such as parents, spouse, children, and close friends
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| promiscuity | undiscriminating, casual sexual relationships with many people
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| prostitution | having sexual relations for remuneration, usually to provide part or all of one's livelihood
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| psychosis | a disorder in which the individual fails to distinguish between internal and external stimuli
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| psychosomatic disorder | an impairment in physiological functioning that results from the individual's emotional state
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| race | a group of people distinguished from other groups on the basis of certain biological characteristics
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| racism | the belief that some racial groups are inherently inferior to others
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| recidivism | repeated criminal activity and incarceration
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| regulatory agency | an organization established by the government to enforce statutes that apply to a particular activity
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| rehabilitation | resocializing a criminal and returning him or her to full participation in society
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| reification | defining what is abstract as something concrete
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| relative deprivation | a sense of deprivation based on some standard used by the individual who feels deprived
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| retributiveness | paying people back for their socially unacceptable behavior
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| ritualized deprivation | a school atmosphere in which the motions of teaching and learning continue while the students are more concerned about surviving than learning
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| role | the behavior associated with a particular position in the social structure
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| role conflict | a person's perception that two or more of his or her roles are contradictory, or that the same role has contradictory expectations, or that the expectations of the role are unacceptable or excessive
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| sadomasochism | the practice of deriving sexual pleasure from the infliction of pain
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| sanctions | mechanism of social control for enforcing a society's standards
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| schizophrenia | a psychosis that involves a thinking disorder, particularly hallucinations and fantasies
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| secondary deviance | deviant behavior by an individual who regards himself or herself as deviant
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| self-fulfilling prophecy | a belief that has consequences (and may become true) simply because it is believed
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| senescence | biological aging
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| sex | an individual's identity as male or female
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| sexism | prejudice or discrimination against someone because of his or her sex
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| sexual harassment | unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other sexual behavior that results in punishment when the victim resists or that creates a hostile environment.
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| social change | alterations in interaction patterns or in such aspects of culture as norms, values, and technology
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| social disorganization | a state of society in which consensus about norms has broken down
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| socialization | the process by which an individual learns to participate in a group
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| social problem | related to the fact that human beings live together in organized societies; that is, a condition or pattern of behavior caused by social factors
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| socioeconomic status | categories of people based on similar economic resources, power, education, prestige, and style of life
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| sodomy | intercourse that is defined as "unnatural"; particularly used to refer to anal intercourse
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| statutory rape | sexual intercourse with a female who is below the legal age for consenting
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| stealth racism | hidden or subtle acts of prejudice and discrimination that may only be apparent to the victim
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| stepfamily | a family formed by remarriage that includes one or more children from a previous marriage
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| stereotype | an image of members of a group that standardizes them and exaggerates certain qualities
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| stigma | that which symbolizes disrepute or disgrace
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| subculture | a group within a society that shares much of the culture of the larger society while maintaining certain distinctive cultural elements of its own
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| subsidy | a government grant to a private person or company to assist an enterprise deemed advantageous to the public
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| suburb | an area adjacent to a city but outside the jurisdiction of the city's government
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| survey | a method of research in which a sample of people are interviewed or given questionnaires in order to get data on some phenomenon
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| test of significance | a statistical method for determining the probability that research findings occurred by chance
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| total institution | a place in which the totality of the individual's existence is controlled by external forces
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| trauma | physical or emotional injury
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| underemployment | working full time for poverty wages, working part time when full-time work is desired, or working at a job below the worker's skill level
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| unemployment rate | proportion of the labor force that is not working but is available for work and has made specific efforts to find work
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| urbanization | the increasing concentration of people living in cities
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| urban renewal | a program in which government financing enables renovation of a decaying urban area
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| values | things preferred because they are defined as having worth
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| variable | any trait or characteristic that varies in value or magnitude
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| violence | the use of force to kill, injure, or abuse others
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| war | a major armed conflict between nations or between organized groups within a nation in which a thousand or more people are killed
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| white-collar crime | crimes committed by respectable citizens in the course of their work
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| work ethic | the notion that our sense of worth and the satisfaction of our needs are intricately related to the kind of work we do
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education