Social Patterns
Culture, groups, and population
Social patterns are the regularities sociologists observe across societies: shared culture, group structure, and demographic trends. Items in this domain often ask you to classify a pattern or match a concept to an example.
Concepts to name
- Culture: material (objects) and nonmaterial (beliefs, values, norms). Norms range from folkways (customs) to mores (strong moral standards) to laws (codified).
- Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism: judging another culture by one's own standards vs. understanding it on its own terms.
- Subculture vs. counterculture: a subculture differs within a society; a counterculture actively opposes dominant norms.
- Groups: primary (intimate, enduring) vs. secondary (formal, instrumental); in-groups and out-groups; reference groups shape self-evaluation.
- Demography: birth rates, death rates, migration; demographic transition moves from high birth/death rates through a period of rapid growth to low rates.
- Urbanization and social change: population shifts alter family, work, and community life.
Traps to watch
- Folkway vs. mores-mores carry moral weight; folkways are etiquette-level.
- Subculture vs. counterculture-opposition, not mere difference, defines counterculture.
- Primary vs. secondary groups-intimacy and duration, not size alone, distinguish them.
- Confusing demographic transition stages-watch whether birth or death rates are described as falling first.
Rule of thumb
Classify the degree of opposition or intimacy in the example before choosing a label.
Worked example
A group that rejects mainstream consumer values and lives by its own rules is a counterculture; a neighborhood with a distinctive dialect but shared mainstream values is a subculture.