| Agency | The freedom individuals have to choose and to act.
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| Anomie | Durkheim's term for the loss of direction felt in a society when social control of individual behavior has become ineffective.
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| Applied sociology | The use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of yielding practical applications for human behavior and organizations.
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| Clinical sociology | The use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of altering social relationships or restructuring social institutions.
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| Conflict perspective | A sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups.
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| Dramaturgical approach | A view of social interaction popularized by Erving Goffman in which people are seen as theatrical performers.
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| Functionalist perspective | A sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.
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| Globalization | The worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas.
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| Interactionist perspective | A sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole.
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| Macrosociology | Sociological investigation that concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire civilizations.
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| Microsociology | Sociological investigation that stresses the study of small groups, often through experimental means.
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| Natural science | The study of the physical features of nature and the ways in which they interact and change.
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| Private troubles | Obstacles that individuals face as individuals rather than as a consequence of their social position.
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| Public issues | Obstacles that individuals in similar positions face; also referred to by sociologists as "social problems."
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| Science | The body of knowledge obtained by methods based upon systematic observation.
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| Social inequality | A condition in which members of society have differing amounts of wealth, prestige, and power.
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| Social science | The study of the social features of humans and the ways in which they interact and change.
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| Sociological imagination | An awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past.
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| Sociology | The systematic study of social behavior and human groups.
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| Theory | In sociology a set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behavior.
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