Maharashtra HSC Sociology key terms

The systematic study of human society, focusing on how social relationships, groups, institutions and patterns of behaviour shape individual lives and collective outcomes.

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

The relatively stable arrangement of roles, groups and institutions in a society, which patterns interaction and distributes opportunities, resources and constraints among members.

The approach, associated with Auguste Comte and Durkheim, holding that society should be studied using methods modelled on the natural sciences, through observation and comparison.

Durkheim's term for ways of acting, thinking and feeling external to the individual and exercising coercive power over them, such as norms, laws and collective beliefs.

A group of people living together in organised patterns of relationships, sharing institutions, territory and culture, and reproducing themselves across generations.

The social position a person occupies within a group, carrying certain expectations; it may be ascribed at birth or achieved through effort and choice.

The set of expectations, rights and duties attached to a particular status, guiding how an occupant of that position is expected to behave.

The tension experienced when the demands of two or more roles held by the same person clash, making it impossible to satisfy both fully at once.

A shared expectation of behaviour in a given situation, ranging from everyday custom to formal rule, whose violation usually invites social disapproval or sanction.

A reward for conformity or a punishment for deviance, applied by others; sanctions may be informal, such as praise or gossip, or formal, such as fines or promotion.

The processes and institutions through which a society persuades or compels members to conform to its norms, including family, school, law, religion and public opinion.

Two or more people who interact on the basis of shared expectations and recognise themselves as a unit, distinguished from a mere aggregate or statistical category.

A small group marked by close, face-to-face, enduring and personal relationships, such as family or close friends, where members relate to one another as whole persons.

A larger, more impersonal and formally organised group formed for a specific purpose, such as a college class or workplace, where relationships are segmental and role-based.

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

A kinship group based on marriage, blood or adoption, forming a basic unit of residence and socialisation; it may be nuclear or extended in composition.

The network of social relationships based on descent, marriage and adoption, defining rights, obligations and categories of relatives in a society.

A formal organisation marked by hierarchy of authority, written rules, defined jurisdictions, salaried officials and impersonal treatment of cases, as analysed by Max Weber.

The total way of life of a society, including knowledge, beliefs, values, norms, language, technology and material objects transmitted from one generation to the next.

The lifelong process through which individuals learn the culture, norms and roles of their society and develop a self and personality suited to it.

The groups and institutions that transmit culture and train individuals, such as family, peer group, school, mass media, workplace and religion.

The tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of one's own, treating one's own way of life as normal and superior and others as inferior.

The principle that a culture should be understood in terms of its own values and context rather than judged by the standards of another culture.

The arrangement of a society into ranked layers whose members have unequal access to valued resources, opportunities, prestige and power.

A hereditary, endogamous and hierarchically ranked social group in India, traditionally linked with occupation and ritual status and associated with practices of purity and pollution.

A form of stratification based on economic position, such as income, occupation and ownership, whose membership is relatively open and permits movement between levels.

Movement of individuals or groups between social positions or strata, which may be vertical or horizontal and may occur within one generation or across generations.

The historical practice of treating certain groups as ritually impure and excluding them from temples, wells and social contact; it is abolished under Article 17 of the Indian Constitution.

Alteration over time in the structure, institutions, culture or behaviour patterns of a society, arising from factors such as technology, economy, ideas and social movements.

M. N. Srinivas's term for a low caste adopting the rituals, diet, dress and customs of a higher caste in order to raise its status within the caste order.

The process by which a society adopts industrial, scientific, rational and secular outlooks and institutions, often accompanied by urbanisation and expanded education.

A condition widely regarded as harmful to society and demanding collective action, such as poverty, unemployment, dowry or caste and gender discrimination.

A condition of severe deprivation in income, assets and access to basic needs, measured in India through poverty lines and multidimensional indices.

Systematic differences in power, resources and opportunity between women and men, visible in wages, literacy, property, political representation and household division of labour.

A system of social organisation in which men hold dominant authority in family, economy and polity, and masculine norms are treated as the standard.

Enquiry based on observation, measurement and evidence gathered through systematic methods rather than speculation or personal opinion alone.

First-hand study of a community or setting in its natural environment, typically involving prolonged observation and interviews, as in ethnographic research.

The systematic investigation of social phenomena using defined methods, such as surveys, interviews, observation and secondary data, to describe, explain or evaluate them.

The growing interconnectedness of economies, cultures and communication across national borders, reshaping work, consumption, migration and social identities.

The increasing proportion of a population living in towns and cities, accompanied by changes in occupation, family life, housing and social relationships.

The process by which certain groups are pushed to the margins of society and denied full participation in economic, political and cultural life.