Key Words and Meanings - Year 12 Sociology

• Introduction to Sociology, Research Methods and Education

  Questionnaires	A list of pre-set questions which tend to use mainly pre-coded answers.
  Structured interviews	A method of gathering information by asking questions orally, face to face or by telephone. These involve pre-set, standardised and closed ended questions.
  Unstructured interviews	A method of gathering information by asking questions orally, face to face or by telephone. Unlike structured interviews, these are like a guided conversation and use open ended questions.
  Participant observation	A primary research method in which the sociologist studies a group by taking a role within it and participating in activities.
  Non-participant observation	A primary research method where the observer records events without taking part in them.
  Social solidarity	A sense of community and togetherness.
  Value consensus	An agreement among a majority of members of society that something is good and worthwhile
  False class consciousness	The state of not being aware of our true identity as exploited workers.
  Class inequality	Unfairness in the way that wealth is distributed between different social classes.
  Patriarchy	Feminists use this term to describe a society based on male domination; a system or ideology of male power over women.

• Education, Research Methods & Families and Households

  Meritocracy	An educational or social system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and where individuals rewards and status are achieved by their own efforts rather than ascribed by their gender.
  Hidden Curriculum	This includes all the things that are learnt in education without being formally taught and often acquired simply through the everyday workings of the school.
  Correspondence principle	Bowles and Gintis' concept describing the way that the organisation and control of schools mirrors or 'corresponds to' the workplace in capitalist society.
  Material Deprivation	A lack of basic necessities such as adequate diet, housing, clothing or the money to buy these things.
  Cultural Deprivation	Lacking the basic values, attitudes and skills that are needed for educational success, such as language, self-discipline and reasoning skills.
  Official statistics	Quantitative data collected by the government.
  Lab experiment	A test carried out in controlled conditions in an artificial setting, where both the independent variable is manipulated and extraneous variables controlled.
  Field experiments	A test carried out in a natural setting where the IV is manipulated.
  Validity	The capacity of a research method to measure what it sets out to measure; a true or genuine picture of what something is really like.
  Reliability	A piece of research is reliable if it produces exactly the same results (a replica) when repeated using identical methods and procedures.

• Education & Families and Households

  Labelling	To attach a meaning, definition or stereotype to an individual or group.
  Self-fulfilling prophecy	A predicition that comes true simply by virtue of it having been made.
  Pupil subculture	A group of pupils who share similar values and behaviour patterns They often emerge as a response to the way pupils have been labelled and in particular as a reaction to streaming.
  Institutional racism	This exists when the routine ways an organisation operates have racist outcomes regardless of the intentions of the individuals within it.
  Ethnocentric	Seeing or judging things in a biased way from the viewpoint of one particular culture.
  Nuclear family	A two generation family of a man and woman and their dependent children, where the woman fulfills the expressive role and the man the instrumental role.
  Instrumental role	The breadwinner or provider role in the family, traditionally fulfilled by the male in the family.
  Expressive role	The caring, nurturing, 'homemaker' role in the family, traditionally performed by the female in the family.
  Joint conjugal roles	Where the couple shares tasks such as housework, and childcare and spend their leisure time together.
  Segregated conjugal roles	Where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer. Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.

• Education & Families and Households

  Tripartite system	Part of the 1944 Butler Education Act which means that all students would be selected and allocated to one of three types of schools, supposedly according tho their aptitude and abilities (identified by the 11+ exam).
  Comprehensive system	Introduced from 1965 onwards and replaced the tripartite system. Children attend a comprehensive school for children of all abilities within their local area.
  Parentocracy	'Rule by parents'. The concept is associated with a marketised education system where parents have choice about which school their child attends.
  Privatisation	The transfer of industries or services previously owned by the state (public sector) to ownership by private businesses (the private sector) who run them to make profit.
  Globalisation	The idea that the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and barriers are disappearing, e.g. as a result of instantaneous communication systems and global media and culture.
  Secularisation	The decline of religion; the process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions lose their importance or influence.
  Cohabitation	Unmarried couples in a sexual relationship living together.
  Extended families	Any group of kin (people related by blood, marriage or adoption) extended beyond the nuclear family. The family may be extended vertically (grandparents) or horizontally (aunties, uncles, cousins).
  Re-constituted family	A step family, in which one or both partners has children from a previous relationship.
  Individualism	The belief that the individual is more important than the group or community.

• Methods in Context (education) & Families and Households

  Hawthorne effect	Where the subjects of a research study know they are being studied and begin to behave differently as a result thereby undermining the study's validity.
  Response rate	The proportion of those people included in a social survey who actually reply or respond to the questions asked.
  Subjectivity	Bias, lack of objectivity, where the individuals own viewpoint influences their perception or judgement.
  'Going native'	Over-identifying with the group you are observing and becoming biased.
  Total fertility rate	The average number of children women will have during their fertile years
  Birth rate	The number of live births per thousand of the population per year.
  Infant mortality rate	The number of infants who die before their first birthday, per thousand babies born alive, per year.
  The dependency ratio	The relationship between the size of the working part of the population and the size of the non-working or dependent part of the population.
  Life expectancy	How long on average a person born in a given year can expect to live.
  Net migration	The difference between the numbers of immigrants and the numbers of emigrants, and is expressed as a net increase or net decrease due to migration.

• Theory in sociology

  Social control	The means by which society tries to ensure that its members behave as others expect them to. Control can be formal (e.g. the law) or informal (e.g. peer pressure).
  Socialisation	The process by which an individual learns or internalises the culture of society.
  Value consensus	An agreement among a majority of members of society that something is good and worthwhile
  False class consciousness	The state of not being aware of our true identity as exploited workers.
  Anomie	A sense of normlessness. Durkheim argues this arises when there is rapid social change, because existing norms become unclear or outdated.
  Alienation	Where an individual or group feels socially isolated and estranged because they lack the power to control their lives and realise their true potential.
  Patriarchy	Feminists use this term to describe a society based on male domination; a system or ideology of male power over women.
  Expressive role	The caring, nurturing, 'homemaker' role in the family, traditionally performed by the female in the family.
  Instrumental role	The breadwinner or provider role in the family, traditionally fulfilled by the male in the family.
  Separatism	A radical feminist idea that women should organise to live independently of men as the only way to free themselves from patriarchal oppression.