Microsociology

• Sociology


  The scientific study of human society. It examines social institutions, stratification within society, basic social processes, and the structure of social units.
• Psychology


  The scientific study of the individual and of individual behavior.
• Social Structure


  The stable arrangement of institutions whereby human beings in a society interact and live together.
• Agency


  The idea that people make their own decisions and are responsible for their own actions.
• Microsociology


  Concerns the nature of everyday human social interactions and agency on a small scale: face to face.
• Macrosociology


  Emphasizes analysis of social systems and populations at the structural level, often at a necessarily high level of theoretical abstraction.
• Functionalist Perspective | Functionalism


  • A framework for building a theory that assumes society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability.
• Conflict Perspective | Conflict Theory


  • A framework for building that assumes society is an arena for inequality that generates conflict and change.
• Social Action Perspective | Symbolic Interactionism

  • Micro-level orientation, as opposed to broad structures, which focus on how people orient themselves to each other on the basis of meanings.
• Symbol


  Something that represents an object, emotion, process in the real world.
• Interaction


  How the meaning of a symbol is interpreted and modified through social interaction.
• Socialization


  The process in which the culture of a society is transmitted to children. It is the modification from infancy of an individual's behavior to conform with the demands of social life.
• Agents of Childhood Socialization


  • Family
  • Peers
  • School
  • Mass Media
• Instrumental Conditioning


  A form of behaviorist learning. It involves using behavioral consequences to affect the likelihood of an action happening again.
• Observational Learning


  Learning by watching the actions of others. A specific behavior is observed by a student, trainee, or child, and then that behavior is imitated.
• Internalization


  The acceptance of a set of norms and values through socialization. It starts with learning what the norms are, and then the individual goes through a process of understanding why they are of value or why they make sense, until finally they accept the norm as their own viewpoint.
• Outcome of Socialization


  • Gender Role
  • Linguistic and Cognitive Competence
  • Moral Development
  • Work Orientations
• Hypothesis


  A conjectural statement of the relation between two or more variables.
• Independent Variable


  Any variable considered to cause or have an effect on some other variables.
• Dependent Variable


  Any variable caused by some other variable. The dependent variable changes in response to changes in the independent variable.
• Extraneous Variable


  Any variable that is not expressly included in the hypothesis but that nevertheless has a causal impact on the dependent variable.
• Surveys


  • The collection of information from a sample of individuals through their responses to questions.
• Interview Survey


  • A person serves as an interviewer and records the answers from the respondents.
• Questionnaire Survey


  • The questions appear on paper or a computer screen, and the respondents read and answer them at their own pace.
• Reliability


  The extent to which an instrument produces the same results each time it is employed to measure a particular construct under given conditions.
• Validity


  How accurately a method measures what it is intended to measure.
• Experimentation


  • The experiment is the most highly controlled of the research methodologies available to social psychologists, and it is a powerful method for establishing causality between variables.
• Laboratory Experiments


  • Are those conducted in a laboratory setting, where the investigator can control much of the participants' physical surroundings.
• Field Experiments


  • The study where investigators manipulate variables in natural, non laboratory settings.
• Identities


  The meanings attached to self by one's self and others.
• Role Identities


  The set of behaviors, obligations, and expectations associated with a particular social position or status that an individual occupies within society.
• Social Identities


  A person's membership in a social group. This could be self-selected or assigned at birth.
• Social Identity


  Involves how you identify yourself in relation to others according to what you share in common with others. It focuses on similarities people share.
• Personal Identity


  Involves how you see yourself as different from others. It focuses on the differences among people.
• The Situated Self


  The subset of self-concepts chosen from our identities, qualities, and self-evaluations that constitutes the self we know in a particular situation.
• Working Self-Concept


  The current, active, accessible self-presentations.
• Social Networks


  The web of social connections and relationships between individuals, groups, or organizations.
• Self-Esteem


  An individual's overall subjective evaluation of their own worth, value, and competence.
• Sources of Self-Esteem


  • Family Experience
  • Performance Feedback
  • Social Comparison
• Self-Presentation


  The processes by which individuals attempt to control the impressions that others form of them in social interaction.