Key concepts

    Cards (142)

    • Welfare state
      Where the government or state takes responsibility for peoples well being, especially their basic needs
    • Vocational
      Connected to a career. Vocational education, and training transmits knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to Perdue particular careers
    • Variables
      Any factor that can change or vary; such as age, gender, occupation or income
    • Values
      Ideas of believes around general principles or goals
    • Value consensus
      Agreement among society’s members about what values are important
    • Validity
      The capicity of a research method to measure what it is set out to measure, a true or genuine picture of what something is really like
    • urbanisation
      The process of change from a rural society where the majority of the population lives in the countryside to an urban society where most people lives in towns and cities
    • unit of production
      Where family members work together as economic producers
    • Unit of consumption
      Unlike the pre-industrial family, the modern family no longer works together, but still consumes together as a single unit or group the income that it’s members earn
    • underclass
      From a new right perspective, the lowest level of social class structure, below the working class
    • Triple shift
      Doing housework, paid work and offering emotional support
    • tripartite system
      The system of education based on three types of schools. Those identified as having academic ability went to grammar schools, most working class children went to secondary modern schools
    • Triangulation
      The use of two or more different sources of data so that they compliment each other, the strengths of one countering the weakness of another
    • Symmetrical family
      A nuclear family with equal roles in the household
    • Symbolic violence
      bourdieu concept- it refers to the harm done by denying someone symbolic capital ( status and value)
    • Symbolic capital
      Bourdieu-it refers to the status, recognition and sense of worth we are able to obtain from others, especially those of a similar position to us
    • Subjectivity
      Bias, lack of objectivity, where the individuals own viewpoint influences their perception or judgement
    • Subculture
      A group of people within society who share norms, values, beliefs and attitudes that are in some way different from or opposed to the mainstream culture
    • Structural theories
      see individuals as entirely shaped by the way society is structured or organised
    • Streaming
      Where children are seperwted into different ability groups or classes and then each ability group is taught separately from others for all subject
    • Stratification
      The division of society into hierarchy of unequal groups. the inequalities may be wealth, power and or status
    • Stigma
      A negative label or mark of dissaproval, discredit, or shame attached to a person, group or characteristic
    • Stereotype
      a simplified, one-sided and often negative image of a group or individual which assumes that all members of that group share the same characteristics
    • status
      A position in society
    • Stabilisation of adult personalities
      According to parsons one of the two functions of the nuclear family along with primary socialisation. It is a place where adults can relax and release tentiond, enabling them to to return to the workplace ready to meet its demands
    • Speech codes
      Patterns or ways of using language. Bernstein argues that the working class use the context bound restricted cos]de whereas the middle class uses the elaborated code
    • Socialisation
      The process by which am individual learns of internalises the culture of society
    • Social survey
      Any research method that involves systemativslly collecting information from a group of people by asking them questions
    • Social policy
      The actions, plans and programmes of government bodies and agencies that aim to deal with a problem or achieve a goal
    • Social control
      This means a society tries to ensure that it’s memberd behave as others expect them to. control can be formal or informal
    • Social construction
      Where something is created by social processes rather than simply occuring naturally
    • Social class
      social grouping or hierarchy based on differences in wealth, income or occupation
    • Social action theories
      See individuals as having free will and choice, and the pier to create society through their actions and interactions, rather than being shaped by society
    • Sexuality
      Sexual orientation, a persons sexual prefernces or sexual identity
    • Sexism
      Prejudice and discrimination on the grounds of sex
    • Separatism
      A radical feminist idea that women should live independently of men as the only way to free themselves from the patriachal oppression to the heterosexual family
    • Self- fulfilling prophecy
      Where a prediction is made about a person or group comes true simply because it has been made
    • Selection
      In education the process of choosing and allocating pupils to a particular school, class or stream
    • Secularisation
      The decline of religion and its beliefs, practices and institutions lose their importance or influence
    • Secondary data
      Information collected not by sociologists themselves, it’s collected by someone else