Karnataka II PUC Sociology (KSEAB) key terms

The systematic study of human social life, groups, and societies, examining how social relationships, institutions, and patterns of behaviour shape individual experience and collective outcomes.

C. Wright Mills's idea that personal troubles must be understood in relation to wider public issues and historical circumstances, linking individual biography to social structure.

Durkheim's term for ways of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individual that exert constraint and are general throughout a society, such as norms and rates of behaviour.

A relatively self-sufficient and enduring system of interacting individuals and groups who share territory, institutions, and patterns of relationship organised around common needs.

A group of people living in a defined locality and bound by shared interests, identity, and face-to-face relationships, such as a village or neighbourhood.

A deliberately formed group organised around a specific, stated purpose with defined membership and rules, such as a trade union, club, or cooperative.

An established, enduring pattern of norms and roles organised around a basic social need, such as family, education, religion, or the economy.

Two or more people who interact on a sustained basis, recognise themselves as members, and are recognised by others as belonging together.

A small group marked by intimate, face-to-face, personal relationships and strong emotional ties, such as family, close friends, or a play group.

A larger, more impersonal group formed for a specific instrumental purpose, where relationships are formal and role-based rather than emotionally close.

The learned, shared way of life of a group, including knowledge, beliefs, values, norms, customs, language, and material objects transmitted across generations.

The tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one's own and to regard one's own as superior or normal.

The methodological stance of understanding a culture's practices and beliefs in terms of that culture's own context rather than judging them by outside standards.

The relatively stable pattern of social relationships, roles, and institutions that constrains and enables action within a society.

The social position a person occupies within a group or society, carrying certain expectations and rights, which may be ascribed at birth or achieved through effort.

The set of expected behaviours, obligations, and privileges attached to a particular status, guiding how its occupant is expected to act.

Shared rules and expectations that specify appropriate behaviour in given situations, enforced through informal disapproval or formal sanctions.

Culturally shared conceptions of what is desirable, good, or worthy, which guide preferences and provide general standards for judging behaviour.

The lifelong process through which individuals learn the norms, values, roles, and skills of their society and become functioning members of it.

A kinship-based institution of people related by blood, marriage, or adoption who share economic and emotional responsibilities, appearing in nuclear and extended forms.

A socially recognised and approved union between partners that establishes rights and obligations, legitimises offspring, and is regulated by rules of endogamy and exogamy.

The network of social relationships based on descent, marriage, and adoption that defines obligations, inheritance, and marriage rules in a society.

The hierarchical arrangement of social groups into ranked layers with unequal access to valued resources, opportunities, and prestige.

A hereditary, endogamous, and traditionally occupation-linked social category in South Asia, ranked hierarchically and historically associated with ritual purity and pollution.

A grouping based on economic position and related life chances, such as occupation, income, and education, which allows movement between ranks.

The movement of individuals or groups between positions in a stratification system, whether upward or downward and within or across generations.

The socially constructed roles, expectations, and identities associated with being male or female in a particular society, distinct from biological sex.

A system of social organisation in which men hold dominant authority in family, economy, and polity, and women's roles are subordinated.

Alteration over time in the structure, culture, and functioning of a society, including shifts in institutions, norms, and patterns of social relationships.

The process by which societies adopt industrial, rational, secular, and bureaucratic features associated with development, including new values and institutional forms.

The growing interconnection of economies and societies through flows of goods, capital, information, people, and culture across national borders.

Sustained collective action by a group pursuing or resisting change in social structures, policies, or cultural values, often organised beyond a single event.

The mechanisms, both formal such as law and police and informal such as custom and gossip, through which a society enforces conformity to its norms.

Behaviour that departs from the norms of a group or society and typically attracts disapproval or sanction, though its definition varies across contexts.

The coexistence of many languages, religions, and regional cultures within one Indian nation, held together by shared political and civilisational bonds.

A research method in which the investigator joins a group's activities over an extended period to study its life from within.

A method of gathering data through guided conversation between a researcher and respondent, ranging from structured schedules to open-ended, unstructured exchanges.

A written set of questions administered to respondents to collect standardised information, often used for large samples and self-completion.

A systematic method of collecting data from a sample of a population, usually through questionnaires or interviews, to describe characteristics or test hypotheses.

An in-depth, detailed investigation of a single instance such as a person, family, group, or community, using multiple sources of evidence.