Assam ASSEB Higher Secondary Sociology cheat sheet

Sociology was named by Auguste Comte in 1838; he is called the father of sociology and placed it at the top of his hierarchy of sciences.

Definition core: sociology is the scientific study of human society, social relationships, social groups, and social institutions, using systematic observation rather than speculation.

Emergence context: Industrial Revolution, French Revolution, and urbanisation created social dislocation that demanded a science of society.

Early contributors: Comte (positivism), Spencer (social Darwinism, organic analogy), Marx (class conflict), Durkheim (social facts, suicide study), Weber (interpretive understanding, verstehen).

Sociology in India: beginnings with works on caste and village society; GH Ghurye, AR Desai, MN Srinivas, SC Dube are key Indian sociologists.

Relation to other social sciences: sociology overlaps with anthropology (society vs culture focus), history, economics, political science, and psychology, but studies society as a whole.

Micro vs macro: microsociology studies face-to-face interaction; macrosociology studies large-scale structures and institutions.

Sociology is a science in method (empirical, systematic) but not in the predictive sense of physics, because social behaviour is meaningful and reflexive.

Society: a web of social relationships; it is abstract (relationships) whereas community is concrete (a group living in a definite area).

Community: a group living in a definite geographical area with shared interests and a sense of belonging; village, town, tribe are examples.

Association: a deliberately formed group with a specific purpose, formal rules, and voluntary membership, such as a cooperative or trade union.

Institution: an established pattern of norms and roles organised around a basic social need (family for reproduction, education for transmission of culture).

Social group: two or more interacting individuals with shared expectations; primary groups are small, intimate, face-to-face (family, play group); secondary groups are larger, impersonal, goal-oriented (office, factory).

Status and role: status is a position in a group; role is the dynamic behaviour expected of that status. Ascribed status is inherited, achieved status is earned.

Culture: the total way of life of a society, including material culture (tools, technology) and non-material culture (norms, values, beliefs, symbols).

Socialisation: the lifelong process by which individuals acquire norms, values, and skills needed to function as members of society.

Family functions: reproduction, biological and emotional care, socialisation, economic support, and status placement; nuclear families are typically residential and economic units, joint families add shared property and authority.

Residence rules: patrilocal (couple lives with husband's family), matrilocal (with wife's family), neolocal (independent residence).

Descent rules: patrilineal (through father), matrilineal (through mother, e.g. Khasi and Nair), bilateral (through both).

Marriage forms: monogamy is the norm in most societies; polygyny (one man, several wives) and polyandry (one woman, several husbands) are recognised alternatives.

Kinship: relationships based on blood (consanguineal) or marriage (affinal); kinship terms classify relatives and regulate marriage, inheritance, and mutual obligation.

Religion: Durkheim defines it as beliefs and practices relating to sacred things; functions include social cohesion, legitimation of norms, and emotional support; Marx saw it as an opiate of the masses.

Education: manifest functions include transmission of knowledge and skills; latent functions include socialisation, social control, and status allocation. It can reproduce inequality (conflict view).

Economy and polity: economy organises production and distribution of goods; polity organises power and authority. Weber's types of authority are traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational.

Norms: shared expectations of behaviour, ranging from folkways (customary, mild sanctions) to mores (strong moral significance) to laws (codified and enforced by the state).

Values: general, abstract standards of what is good and desirable; they guide norms and are the core of a culture.

Culture vs personality: culture provides the environment in which personality develops; personality is the individual's organised pattern of behaviour and attitudes.

Agencies of socialisation: family (primary and most influential), peer group, school, mass media, workplace, and religion.

Primary socialisation occurs in childhood within the family; secondary socialisation occurs later through formal institutions such as school and workplace.

Re-socialisation: learning new norms and roles that replace earlier ones, as in total institutions like the army or prison.

Sigmund Freud: personality develops through id, ego, and superego; the superego internalises parental and social norms.

Charles Horton Cooley: the looking-glass self, meaning we form our self-image from how we believe others see us. GH Mead: the self develops through play and game stages and the generalised other.

Stratification: the ranking of people into hierarchical strata with unequal access to valued resources; the main forms are caste, class, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Caste: a closed, ascriptive system with endogamy, hereditary occupation, and ritual hierarchy based on purity and pollution; the varna model (four categories) differs from the many jatis.

Class: an open, achieved system based on economic position (income, wealth, occupation, education); mobility between classes is possible.

Gender: socially constructed roles and expectations attached to being male or female, distinct from biological sex; it produces systematic inequality in work, wages, and power.

Race and ethnicity: race is a socially constructed category based on physical traits; ethnicity is based on shared culture, language, and descent.

Social mobility: movement between social positions. Vertical mobility is upward or downward; horizontal mobility is a change of position at the same level.

Intergenerational mobility is change between parent and child; intragenerational mobility is change within a person's lifetime.

Caste mobility historically took the form of Sanskritisation (claiming higher ritual status) or conversion; class mobility is mainly through education and occupation.

Social change: alteration in the structure and functioning of society over time, including changes in norms, institutions, and social relationships.

Factors of change: technological innovation, demographic shifts, ideology and social movements, education, legislation, and contact with other cultures.

Modernisation: adoption of rational, scientific, and achievement-oriented values, along with new technology and institutions; it is not the same as westernisation.

Westernisation: adoption of western ways of life, dress, manners, and institutions, as in the growth of English education and legal codes in colonial India.

Sanskritisation (MN Srinivas): upward mobility in the caste hierarchy by adopting the rituals, diet, and customs of a higher caste, usually without changing the caste's structural position.

Secularisation: the decline of religious influence over public life and the separation of state from religion; in India it also means equal respect for all religions.

Other processes: urbanisation, industrialisation, globalisation, and social legislation such as the abolition of untouchability and Hindu marriage law reform.

Change may be evolutionary (gradual) or revolutionary (rapid and disruptive); planned change through state policy is a distinctive feature of modern India.

Unity in diversity: India has many languages, religions, castes, and ethnic groups, yet shares common cultural elements and a single political and legal framework.

Tribal society: relatively small, homogeneous, often geographically isolated communities with distinct culture, language, and communal ownership; for example, the Khasi, Garo, and Naga.

Rural society: agriculture-based, with close face-to-face relations, strong kinship, and informal social control; about two-thirds of India's population remains rural.

Urban society: large, dense, heterogeneous, with secondary relationships, occupational diversity, and formal social control.

Village community life: features include the jajmani system (hereditary patron-client economic ties), caste councils, panchayats, and collective rituals.

Tribal-rural-urban continuum: societies are not sharply separated but show gradual differences in size, density, heterogeneity, and occupational diversity.

Regionalism, linguism, and communalism are expressions of diversity that can become sources of tension when mobilised politically.

Indian social structure is characterised by the coexistence of caste and class, joint and nuclear families, and ascribed and achieved status.

Deviance: behaviour that violates significant social norms; it is relative to time, place, and group and is not always criminal.

Crime: behaviour defined and punishable by law; it is legally defined, whereas deviance is socially defined.

Functionalist view: Durkheim argued that deviance is normal and can strengthen social solidarity by marking boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

Poverty: absolute poverty is measured against a minimum subsistence standard; relative poverty is measured against the living standards of others in the same society.

Unemployment: involuntary lack of work for those able and willing to work; types include seasonal, structural, cyclical, and disguised unemployment.

Inequality: unequal distribution of income, wealth, education, and opportunity; it is both a cause and a consequence of other social problems.

Social control: the means by which society enforces norms; formal control uses law and police, while informal control uses family, peer pressure, and public opinion.

Agencies of control: family, religion, education, and the state. Hirschi's social bond theory identifies attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief as restraints on deviance.

Functionalism: society is a system of interdependent parts, each contributing to stability; key figures are Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Parsons, and Merton.

Merton's distinction: manifest functions are intended and recognised; latent functions are unintended and unrecognised. Dysfunctions disrupt stability.

Conflict theory: society is characterised by competition for scarce resources and domination by powerful groups; key figures are Marx, Dahrendorf, and Coser.

Interactionism (symbolic interactionism): social reality is created through everyday interaction and the meanings actors attach to symbols; key figures are GH Mead, Blumer, and Goffman.

Marx: class is determined by relation to the means of production; the bourgeoisie and proletariat are in conflict; base (economy) shapes superstructure (culture, law, religion).

Durkheim: social facts are external and constraining; his study of suicide linked suicide rates to social integration and regulation, identifying egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic types.

Weber: verstehen (interpretive understanding) is the method of sociology; the Protestant ethic contributed to the rise of capitalism; bureaucracy is the pure type of legal-rational authority.

Parsons: pattern variables (universalism vs particularism, achievement vs ascription) describe how modern societies differ from traditional ones; his AGIL scheme names adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latency.

Observation: the researcher watches behaviour directly. Participant observation involves joining the group; non-participant observation involves watching from outside. It is strong on validity but weak on generalisability.

Interview: a conversation with a purpose. Structured interviews use fixed questions; unstructured interviews are open-ended and exploratory; a schedule is filled in by the interviewer, a questionnaire by the respondent.

Questionnaire: a written set of questions administered to respondents. Open-ended questions allow free answers; closed-ended questions offer fixed choices and are easier to code.

Survey: collection of data from a sample to describe a population. A sample is representative when it reflects the characteristics of the population; random sampling gives every unit an equal chance of selection.

Case study: intensive, in-depth study of a single case (person, group, or community) using multiple methods; it is strong on depth but weak on generalisation.

Validity: the instrument measures what it claims to measure. Reliability: repeated use gives consistent results. A measure can be reliable without being valid.

Sampling error decreases as sample size increases; bias arises when selection is not random.

Ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and avoiding harm to participants are standard requirements in sociological research.

Sociology was named by Auguste Comte in 1838; he is called the father of sociology and placed it at the top of his hierarchy of sciences.

Definition core: sociology is the scientific study of human society, social relationships, social groups, and social institutions, using systematic observation rather than speculation.

Emergence context: Industrial Revolution, French Revolution, and urbanisation created social dislocation that demanded a science of society.

Early contributors: Comte (positivism), Spencer (social Darwinism, organic analogy), Marx (class conflict), Durkheim (social facts, suicide study), Weber (interpretive understanding, verstehen).

Sociology in India: beginnings with works on caste and village society; GH Ghurye, AR Desai, MN Srinivas, SC Dube are key Indian sociologists.

Relation to other social sciences: sociology overlaps with anthropology (society vs culture focus), history, economics, political science, and psychology, but studies society as a whole.

Micro vs macro: microsociology studies face-to-face interaction; macrosociology studies large-scale structures and institutions.

Sociology is a science in method (empirical, systematic) but not in the predictive sense of physics, because social behaviour is meaningful and reflexive.

Society: a web of social relationships; it is abstract (relationships) whereas community is concrete (a group living in a definite area).

Community: a group living in a definite geographical area with shared interests and a sense of belonging; village, town, tribe are examples.

Association: a deliberately formed group with a specific purpose, formal rules, and voluntary membership, such as a cooperative or trade union.

Institution: an established pattern of norms and roles organised around a basic social need (family for reproduction, education for transmission of culture).

Social group: two or more interacting individuals with shared expectations; primary groups are small, intimate, face-to-face (family, play group); secondary groups are larger, impersonal, goal-oriented (office, factory).

Status and role: status is a position in a group; role is the dynamic behaviour expected of that status. Ascribed status is inherited, achieved status is earned.

Culture: the total way of life of a society, including material culture (tools, technology) and non-material culture (norms, values, beliefs, symbols).

Socialisation: the lifelong process by which individuals acquire norms, values, and skills needed to function as members of society.

Family functions: reproduction, biological and emotional care, socialisation, economic support, and status placement; nuclear families are typically residential and economic units, joint families add shared property and authority.

Residence rules: patrilocal (couple lives with husband's family), matrilocal (with wife's family), neolocal (independent residence).

Descent rules: patrilineal (through father), matrilineal (through mother, e.g. Khasi and Nair), bilateral (through both).

Marriage forms: monogamy is the norm in most societies; polygyny (one man, several wives) and polyandry (one woman, several husbands) are recognised alternatives.

Kinship: relationships based on blood (consanguineal) or marriage (affinal); kinship terms classify relatives and regulate marriage, inheritance, and mutual obligation.

Religion: Durkheim defines it as beliefs and practices relating to sacred things; functions include social cohesion, legitimation of norms, and emotional support; Marx saw it as an opiate of the masses.

Education: manifest functions include transmission of knowledge and skills; latent functions include socialisation, social control, and status allocation. It can reproduce inequality (conflict view).

Economy and polity: economy organises production and distribution of goods; polity organises power and authority. Weber's types of authority are traditional, charismatic, and legal-rational.

Norms: shared expectations of behaviour, ranging from folkways (customary, mild sanctions) to mores (strong moral significance) to laws (codified and enforced by the state).

Values: general, abstract standards of what is good and desirable; they guide norms and are the core of a culture.

Culture vs personality: culture provides the environment in which personality develops; personality is the individual's organised pattern of behaviour and attitudes.

Agencies of socialisation: family (primary and most influential), peer group, school, mass media, workplace, and religion.

Primary socialisation occurs in childhood within the family; secondary socialisation occurs later through formal institutions such as school and workplace.

Re-socialisation: learning new norms and roles that replace earlier ones, as in total institutions like the army or prison.

Sigmund Freud: personality develops through id, ego, and superego; the superego internalises parental and social norms.

Charles Horton Cooley: the looking-glass self, meaning we form our self-image from how we believe others see us. GH Mead: the self develops through play and game stages and the generalised other.

Stratification: the ranking of people into hierarchical strata with unequal access to valued resources; the main forms are caste, class, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Caste: a closed, ascriptive system with endogamy, hereditary occupation, and ritual hierarchy based on purity and pollution; the varna model (four categories) differs from the many jatis.

Class: an open, achieved system based on economic position (income, wealth, occupation, education); mobility between classes is possible.

Gender: socially constructed roles and expectations attached to being male or female, distinct from biological sex; it produces systematic inequality in work, wages, and power.

Race and ethnicity: race is a socially constructed category based on physical traits; ethnicity is based on shared culture, language, and descent.

Social mobility: movement between social positions. Vertical mobility is upward or downward; horizontal mobility is a change of position at the same level.

Intergenerational mobility is change between parent and child; intragenerational mobility is change within a person's lifetime.

Caste mobility historically took the form of Sanskritisation (claiming higher ritual status) or conversion; class mobility is mainly through education and occupation.

Social change: alteration in the structure and functioning of society over time, including changes in norms, institutions, and social relationships.

Factors of change: technological innovation, demographic shifts, ideology and social movements, education, legislation, and contact with other cultures.

Modernisation: adoption of rational, scientific, and achievement-oriented values, along with new technology and institutions; it is not the same as westernisation.

Westernisation: adoption of western ways of life, dress, manners, and institutions, as in the growth of English education and legal codes in colonial India.

Sanskritisation (MN Srinivas): upward mobility in the caste hierarchy by adopting the rituals, diet, and customs of a higher caste, usually without changing the caste's structural position.

Secularisation: the decline of religious influence over public life and the separation of state from religion; in India it also means equal respect for all religions.

Other processes: urbanisation, industrialisation, globalisation, and social legislation such as the abolition of untouchability and Hindu marriage law reform.

Change may be evolutionary (gradual) or revolutionary (rapid and disruptive); planned change through state policy is a distinctive feature of modern India.

Unity in diversity: India has many languages, religions, castes, and ethnic groups, yet shares common cultural elements and a single political and legal framework.

Tribal society: relatively small, homogeneous, often geographically isolated communities with distinct culture, language, and communal ownership; for example, the Khasi, Garo, and Naga.

Rural society: agriculture-based, with close face-to-face relations, strong kinship, and informal social control; about two-thirds of India's population remains rural.

Urban society: large, dense, heterogeneous, with secondary relationships, occupational diversity, and formal social control.

Village community life: features include the jajmani system (hereditary patron-client economic ties), caste councils, panchayats, and collective rituals.

Tribal-rural-urban continuum: societies are not sharply separated but show gradual differences in size, density, heterogeneity, and occupational diversity.

Regionalism, linguism, and communalism are expressions of diversity that can become sources of tension when mobilised politically.

Indian social structure is characterised by the coexistence of caste and class, joint and nuclear families, and ascribed and achieved status.

Deviance: behaviour that violates significant social norms; it is relative to time, place, and group and is not always criminal.

Crime: behaviour defined and punishable by law; it is legally defined, whereas deviance is socially defined.

Functionalist view: Durkheim argued that deviance is normal and can strengthen social solidarity by marking boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

Poverty: absolute poverty is measured against a minimum subsistence standard; relative poverty is measured against the living standards of others in the same society.

Unemployment: involuntary lack of work for those able and willing to work; types include seasonal, structural, cyclical, and disguised unemployment.

Inequality: unequal distribution of income, wealth, education, and opportunity; it is both a cause and a consequence of other social problems.

Social control: the means by which society enforces norms; formal control uses law and police, while informal control uses family, peer pressure, and public opinion.

Agencies of control: family, religion, education, and the state. Hirschi's social bond theory identifies attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief as restraints on deviance.

Functionalism: society is a system of interdependent parts, each contributing to stability; key figures are Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Parsons, and Merton.

Merton's distinction: manifest functions are intended and recognised; latent functions are unintended and unrecognised. Dysfunctions disrupt stability.

Conflict theory: society is characterised by competition for scarce resources and domination by powerful groups; key figures are Marx, Dahrendorf, and Coser.

Interactionism (symbolic interactionism): social reality is created through everyday interaction and the meanings actors attach to symbols; key figures are GH Mead, Blumer, and Goffman.

Marx: class is determined by relation to the means of production; the bourgeoisie and proletariat are in conflict; base (economy) shapes superstructure (culture, law, religion).

Durkheim: social facts are external and constraining; his study of suicide linked suicide rates to social integration and regulation, identifying egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic types.

Weber: verstehen (interpretive understanding) is the method of sociology; the Protestant ethic contributed to the rise of capitalism; bureaucracy is the pure type of legal-rational authority.

Parsons: pattern variables (universalism vs particularism, achievement vs ascription) describe how modern societies differ from traditional ones; his AGIL scheme names adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and latency.

Observation: the researcher watches behaviour directly. Participant observation involves joining the group; non-participant observation involves watching from outside. It is strong on validity but weak on generalisability.

Interview: a conversation with a purpose. Structured interviews use fixed questions; unstructured interviews are open-ended and exploratory; a schedule is filled in by the interviewer, a questionnaire by the respondent.

Questionnaire: a written set of questions administered to respondents. Open-ended questions allow free answers; closed-ended questions offer fixed choices and are easier to code.

Survey: collection of data from a sample to describe a population. A sample is representative when it reflects the characteristics of the population; random sampling gives every unit an equal chance of selection.

Case study: intensive, in-depth study of a single case (person, group, or community) using multiple methods; it is strong on depth but weak on generalisation.

Validity: the instrument measures what it claims to measure. Reliability: repeated use gives consistent results. A measure can be reliable without being valid.

Sampling error decreases as sample size increases; bias arises when selection is not random.

Ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and avoiding harm to participants are standard requirements in sociological research.