MATSEC AM Sociology key terms

The ability to see personal troubles as connected to wider public issues and historical structures, linking individual biography to social arrangements rather than explaining problems by personal failing alone.

The relatively stable patterns of relationships, roles and institutions that shape how people act and what opportunities they have, existing beyond any single individual's intentions.

The debate over how far people freely choose their actions (agency) and how far those actions are constrained by social patterns and institutions (structure), with most sociologists treating the two as interdependent.

A perspective treating society as a system of interdependent parts, each contributing to stability, so that institutions are explained by the needs they meet for the whole.

Merton's distinction between the intended, recognised purposes of a social practice (manifest) and its unintended or unrecognised consequences (latent), used to show that institutions can have hidden effects.

Any consequence of a social practice or institution that undermines the stability or functioning of the wider social system, such as high unemployment weakening family and community ties.

A perspective explaining social arrangements through struggles between groups with unequal power and resources, arguing that institutions often serve dominant interests and reproduce inequality.

A perspective focusing on small-scale face-to-face interaction, holding that people act towards things on the basis of meanings, and that these meanings are created and changed through communication.

The process by which meanings, categories or problems come to be defined as real through social interaction and shared agreement, rather than arising inevitably from nature.

A more or less coherent set of beliefs and values that shapes how people interpret society, often serving to justify existing power relations by presenting them as natural or inevitable.

Dominance achieved less by force than by winning consent, so that subordinate groups come to accept the values of the powerful as common sense, as developed from Gramsci's work.

The view that sociology should model itself on the natural sciences, seeking observable, measurable facts and causal laws through methods such as experiments and statistics.

The view that social action must be understood through the meanings actors themselves give to their situations, so methods should capture subjective experience rather than only measure external behaviour.

Weber's method of interpretive understanding, in which the researcher attempts to grasp the subjective meaning an actor attaches to their own conduct before explaining it causally.

The process of turning an abstract concept, such as social class or religiosity, into concrete indicators that can actually be observed or measured in a study.

The extent to which a method or measure actually captures the concept it claims to study, so that findings correspond to the social reality being investigated.

The consistency of a measure or study, meaning that repeating it under the same conditions would produce the same results, regardless of whether it measures the right thing.

The degree to which a sample reflects the characteristics of the wider population from which it was drawn, allowing findings to be generalised beyond those actually studied.

The list or register of the population from which a sample is selected, such as an electoral register, whose completeness strongly affects how representative the resulting sample can be.

Research techniques that collect numerical data amenable to statistical analysis, such as structured surveys and official statistics, typically favouring breadth and comparability over depth.

Research techniques producing rich, non-numerical data, such as interviews, observation and documents, typically favouring depth, meaning and context over statistical generalisation.

Using more than one method, data source or researcher to study the same question, so that findings can be cross-checked and the weaknesses of a single method reduced.

The ethical requirement that participants understand the purpose and risks of research and agree freely to take part, without deception or pressure.

Ethical safeguards ensuring that participants cannot be identified in published findings (anonymity) and that personal information is not disclosed to others (confidentiality).

The lifelong process through which people learn the norms, values and skills of their society, beginning in early childhood and continuing through adult roles.

Early socialisation, usually within the family during childhood, where a child acquires basic language, values and a sense of self through close emotional relationships.

Later socialisation occurring outside the family, in institutions such as schools, peer groups and workplaces, where people learn the norms attached to wider social roles.

Shared expectations about how people should behave in particular situations, ranging from everyday courtesy to formal legal rules, enforced by sanctions.

Broad, shared beliefs about what is desirable or worthwhile in a society, such as fairness or achievement, which underpin norms and guide judgements about behaviour.

The total way of life of a group, including its knowledge, beliefs, values, norms, language and material objects, learned and shared rather than inherited biologically.

A group within a wider society that shares distinctive norms, values or styles while still participating in the dominant culture, such as a youth or occupational grouping.

Judging another culture by the standards of one's own and treating it as inferior, a tendency that can distort sociological research and everyday understanding alike.

A reward or punishment used to encourage conformity to norms, ranging from informal reactions such as disapproval to formal responses such as fines or imprisonment.

The processes, formal and informal, through which societies encourage conformity and discourage deviance, ranging from socialisation and peer pressure to policing and law.

The process by which an audience defines a person or act as deviant, which can then shape that person's self-concept and future behaviour, as in Becker's work on outsiders.

The structured ranking of groups into unequal layers with differing access to wealth, power and prestige, persisting across generations rather than reflecting mere individual difference.

A broad grouping based on economic position, especially occupation and income, which shapes life chances such as education, health and employment prospects.

Movement of individuals or groups between positions in a stratification system, either upward or downward, and either within a lifetime or across generations.

An established pattern of social relationships and rules governing a major area of life, such as the family, education, religion or the state, which shapes behaviour over time.

Significant alteration over time in social structures, institutions, norms or patterns of behaviour, driven by factors such as technology, conflict, demography or social movements.