Kerala Plus Two Sociology (DHSE) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Sociology

The systematic, empirical study of human society, social groups, institutions, and social interaction; coined by Auguste Comte in 1838 and developed as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century.

Community

A territorial, face-to-face grouping whose members share a common way of life, locality, and identity, such as a village or neighbourhood, distinct from a purpose-built association.

Association

A deliberately formed organisation of individuals created to pursue a specific, stated purpose, such as a trade union, a political party, or a sports club.

Social institution

An established, enduring pattern of norms and roles organised around a basic social need, such as family, education, economy, polity, or religion; not a physical building.

Primary group

A small group marked by intimate, face-to-face, personal relationships and strong emotional ties, such as family or close friends; Cooley coined the term.

Ascribed status

A social position assigned to an individual at birth or by circumstances beyond personal control, such as caste, sex, or royal descent, rather than earned through effort.

Role conflict

The tension experienced when the behavioural expectations attached to two or more of an individual's statuses make incompatible demands, such as work and family duties.

Nuclear family

A household consisting of a married couple and their dependent children, usually residing independently of wider kin; contrasted with the extended or joint family.

Saptapadi

The seven steps taken together by bride and groom around the sacred fire in Hindu marriage; under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, it completes a valid marriage.

Polyandry

A form of marriage in which one woman is simultaneously married to two or more men, historically practised in parts of the Himalayas and among some Nair groups.

Exogamy

A marriage rule requiring a person to marry outside a specified group, such as one's clan, gotra, or village, thereby creating alliances between groups.

Kinship

A network of relationships based on blood (consanguineal) or marriage (affinal) that defines rights, obligations, inheritance, and marriage rules in a society.

Norms

Shared expectations of behaviour in a society, ranging from mild folkways to strongly enforced mores and formal laws, learned through socialisation.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to judge another culture by the standards of one's own, treating one's own practices as normal and superior and others as strange or inferior.

Cultural lag

William Ogburn's term for the delay between change in material culture, such as technology, and the slower adjustment of non-material culture, such as values and norms.

Secondary socialisation

The later process of learning the norms and skills of wider society through schools, peers, workplaces, and media, after primary socialisation in the family.

Looking-glass self

Charles Horton Cooley's idea that individuals form their self-image by imagining how others perceive and evaluate them, and reacting to that imagined judgement.

Caste

A hereditary, endogamous, hierarchically ranked social group linked to traditional occupation and ritual purity, in which membership is ascribed by birth.

Social mobility

Movement of individuals or groups between social positions; vertical mobility involves a rise or fall in rank, horizontal mobility involves a change without rank change.

Cooperation

A basic social process in which individuals or groups work together toward shared goals, ranging from spontaneous mutual aid to formally organised and contractual collaboration.

Modernisation

The adoption of modern values and institutions such as rationality, achievement, universalism, secularism, and democracy, often linked to industrialisation and education.

Globalisation

The growing interconnectedness of economies and cultures through trade, investment, information technology, and migration, accelerated in India by the 1991 liberalisation reforms.

Social movement

Sustained, organised collective action by a group seeking to promote, resist, or reverse social change, such as the Chipko movement or the Dalit movement.

Regionalism

Identification with and loyalty to one's region, expressed positively as cultural pride and autonomy demands or negatively as secessionism and hostility to outsiders.

Communalism

The politicisation of religion, treating religious communities as homogeneous, mutually hostile political blocs; an ideology distinct from personal religious belief.

Indian secularism

A constitutional principle under which the state has no official religion, guarantees freedom of religion, and may reform religious practice to secure equality and dignity.

Social exclusion

The process by which certain groups are pushed to the margins of society and denied full access to resources, decision-making, and participation in social life.

Marginalisation

The condition of groups denied access to power, resources, and decision-making, such as Dalits, Adivasis, women, persons with disabilities, and minorities.

Participant observation

A research method in which the researcher joins the group being studied and takes part in its activities to record behaviour in its natural setting.

Case study

An intensive, in-depth study of a single case, such as a person, group, or institution, using multiple sources of evidence to understand context and process.

Informed consent

The ethical requirement that research participants understand the purpose, procedures, and risks of a study and freely agree to take part before data collection.

Triangulation

The use of two or more methods, data sources, or researchers to cross-check findings, thereby strengthening the validity and credibility of a study's conclusions.