Sociology Key Terms by Unit

Intro sociology is a vocabulary course. Almost every exam question asks you to name a concept from a short scenario, and the concepts come in near-miss pairs: ethnocentrism and xenocentrism, role strain and role conflict, de jure and de facto. This page collects the key terms from Encodr's free Intro to Sociology deck, unit by unit, with definitions taken from the course's chapter notes (built on OpenStax Introduction to Sociology 3e).

How to use these tables

Cover the right-hand column and define each term aloud before you check. Reading a list of definitions over and over feels productive but does little, as why rereading notes doesn't work explains. If you want to know how long a full pass over the deck will take, the flashcard deck time estimator turns the card count into a daily plan. For an outline of the whole course, see what's in Intro to Sociology.

Foundations (units 1-4)

Unit 1: An Introduction to Sociology

Term	Definition
Sociology	The systematic, scientific study of groups, societies and social interaction.
Sociological imagination	C. Wright Mills: seeing how personal experience connects to wider history, culture and social structure.
Micro-level; macro-level analysis	Micro studies small groups and face-to-face interaction; macro studies large groups and broad trends.
Structural functionalism	Society is interrelated parts, each meeting needs. Manifest functions are intended; latent functions are unintended; dysfunctions harm the system (Merton).
Conflict theory	Society is competition for limited resources, and institutions can maintain inequality.
Symbolic interactionism	People build meaning through symbols and face-to-face interaction.
Looking-glass self	Cooley: we see ourselves through others' reactions.

The three perspectives are compared side by side in functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism.

Unit 2: Sociological Research

Term	Definition
Independent variable; dependent variable	The cause; the effect.
Reliability	Results can be repeated.
Validity	The study measures what it claims to measure.
Operational definition	A concept defined by concrete, observable steps.
Hawthorne effect	People change behavior because they know they are observed.
Informed consent	Participants agree knowing the nature and risks of the study.
Participant observation	The researcher joins the group (covert means identity hidden; overt means subjects know).
Secondary data analysis	Uses existing data; nonreactive, with no direct contact with subjects.

Unit 3: Culture

Term	Definition
Values; beliefs; norms	Ideals a culture holds in high regard; convictions held to be true; rules of conduct.
Mores; folkways	Mores carry moral weight; folkways are everyday customs.
Sanctions	Rewards or punishments that enforce norms.
Material culture; nonmaterial culture	Tangible things; ideas, attitudes and beliefs.
Ethnocentrism	Judging another culture by your own norms.
Cultural relativism	Judging a culture by its own standards.
Xenocentrism	Believing another culture is superior.
Subculture; counterculture	A smaller group within a larger culture with its own identity; a group that rejects some of the larger culture's norms and values.
Culture lag	Ogburn: the delay between a material innovation and society's adjustment to it.

Unit 4: Society and Social Interaction

Term	Definition
Thomas theorem	Situations defined as real are real in their consequences.
Self-fulfilling prophecy	Merton: a false belief comes true through action.
Ascribed status; achieved status	A status that is not chosen; one that is.
Role strain; role conflict	One role is too demanding; two roles clash.
Mechanical solidarity; organic solidarity	Durkheim: order built on likeness (preindustrial); order built on interdependence (industrial).
Anomie	Norms weaken.
Bourgeoisie; proletariat	Marx: those who own production; those who sell labor.
Hunter-gatherer society	Preindustrial; forages and hunts, nomadic.

Groups and deviance (units 5-7)

Unit 5: Socialization

Term	Definition
Socialization	The lifelong process through which people learn to be proficient members of society.
Agents of socialization	The groups and institutions through which people learn society's ways; the family is the first.
Hidden curriculum	The informal teaching schools do.
Anticipatory socialization	Preparing for a future role.
Resocialization	Removing old behaviors and replacing them with new rules and roles.
Total institution	A place cut off from society, like a prison, convent or ship at sea.
Nature; nurture	Genes set temperament, interests and talents; relationships and care shape who we become.

Unit 6: Groups and Organizations

Term	Definition
Group; aggregate; category	A group is at least two people who interact regularly and share a sense of belonging; an aggregate is people in the same place with no interaction or shared identity; a category is people who share a characteristic but are not tied to each other.
Primary group; secondary group	Small, face-to-face, long-term, expressive; larger, impersonal, instrumental, task-focused.
In-group; out-group	One belongs to it and it shapes identity; one does not belong to it.
Reference group	A standard people compare themselves to.
Dyad; triad	Two members, ending if one leaves; three members, surviving the loss of one and allowing two to side against one.
Formal organization	A large, impersonal secondary group set up around specific goals; bureaucracy is its typical form.
Conformity	Complying with group norms.

Unit 7: Deviance, Crime and Social Control

Term	Definition
Deviance	Violating established cultural, contextual or social norms.
Social control	The regulation and enforcement of norms.
Labeling theory	Deviance is determined by others' reactions.
Primary deviance; secondary deviance	Little effect on self-image; the person adopts the deviant role.
Strain theory (Merton)	Conformity or deviance depends on access to socially accepted means of reaching accepted goals: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion.
Crime	Behavior that violates official law and is punishable through formal sanctions.
Jail; prison	Temporary and local; sentences over a year.
UCR; NCVS	An FBI compilation of police-reported crime; a victim survey that captures unreported crime.

Inequality (units 8-12)

Unit 8: Media and Technology

Term	Definition
Media	All print, digital and electronic means of communication.
Media consolidation	Fewer owners control most outlets, producing an oligopoly.
Disruptive technology	A major impact on a whole industry.
Planned obsolescence	Designing products to become outdated.
Digital divide	Uneven access to technology among races, classes and regions.
Net neutrality	Internet providers treat all data equally.

Unit 9: Social Stratification in the US

Term	Definition
Social stratification	Society's ranking of people by wealth, income, education, family background and power.
Meritocracy	An ideal in which merit alone decides rank; no society has achieved it.
Intergenerational mobility	Compares parents and children.
Intragenerational mobility	One person's change over a lifetime.
Structural mobility	Society-wide changes that move whole groups.
Absolute poverty; relative poverty	Cannot afford basic necessities; income far below the median.
Davis-Moore thesis	The more functionally important a role, the greater its reward.

Unit 10: Global Inequality

Term	Definition
Global stratification	The unequal distribution of resources among nations.
Human Development Index	Combines health, education and income.
Gini coefficient	0 is perfect equality; 1 is one person having everything.
Modernization theory	Low-income countries are held back by too little industry and by cultural values; they develop by industrializing and shifting attitudes.
Dependency theory	Core nations exploit peripheral and semi-peripheral nations and keep them dependent.
Feminization of poverty	Women have higher poverty rates in nearly all societies.

Unit 11: Race and Ethnicity

Term	Definition
Race	A set of superficial physical differences that a society treats as significant; socially constructed, not biological.
Ethnicity	Shared culture: language, religion, customs and values.
Minority group	Defined by lack of power, not small numbers.
Stereotype; prejudice; discrimination	An oversimplified generalization; a learned belief or attitude about a group; action against a group.
Pluralism; assimilation; amalgamation	Groups keep their cultures with equal standing; a minority gives up its identity for the dominant culture; groups combine into a new one.
De jure segregation; de facto segregation	Segregation by law; segregation without law.
Intersectionality	Race cannot be separated from class and gender.

Unit 12: Gender, Sex and Sexuality

Term	Definition
Sex	The biological difference between males and females.
Gender	The behaviors, traits and roles a society attaches to being female or male.
Gender identity	A person's internal sense of their own gender.
Sexual orientation	The pattern of attraction to a particular sex or sexes; a separate matter from gender identity.
Sexism; misogyny	Prejudice that values one sex over another; hatred of or prejudice against women.
Glass ceiling	An invisible barrier to top jobs.
Double duty	Paid work plus most household work.

The life course and institutions (units 13-19)

Unit 13: Aging and the Elderly

Term	Definition
Ageism	Discrimination based on age.
Gerontology	The multidisciplinary science of aging.
Cohort	A group sharing a demographic trait, such as being born in the same years.
Disengagement theory	Filed under functionalism: withdrawal is a natural part of aging.
Hospice	Comfort-focused care for the terminally ill when cure is no longer the aim.

Unit 14: Marriage and Family

Term	Definition
Family of orientation; family of procreation	The family you are born into; the one formed through marriage.
Monogamy; polygamy; bigamy	One spouse at a time; more than one; a second marriage entered while still married.
Nuclear family; blended family	Married parents and their children; includes step-parents or step-siblings.
Patrilocal; matrilocal	Residence patterns by the husband's or wife's family.
Intimate partner violence	Includes unmarried, cohabiting and same-sex couples.

Unit 15: Religion

Term	Definition
Religion	A system of beliefs and practices about what people consider sacred.
Sacred; profane	Durkheim: extraordinary and awe-inspiring; ordinary everyday life.
Ecclesia; denomination; sect; cult	An official state religion; a large mainstream group; a breakaway group; a new, small, often charismatic group.
Secularization	The decline of religion's influence with modernization.
Polytheism; monotheism; atheism; animism	Many gods; one god; none; divinity in nonhuman nature.

Unit 16: Education

Term	Definition
Formal education; informal education	Learning facts and concepts through a set curriculum; learning values, norms and expected behavior by taking part in society.
Cultural transmission	How people learn a culture's values, beliefs and norms.
Manifest functions; latent functions	Intended purposes of schooling; hidden, unintended effects such as courtship and social networks.
Tracking	Sorting students into ability groups.
Cultural capital	Bourdieu: cultural knowledge that works like currency.
Inclusion; mainstreaming	A student with a disability fully in a standard classroom; time split between a special-needs room and a standard classroom.

Unit 17: Government and Politics

Term	Definition
Power	Weber: the ability to exercise your will over others.
Authority	Power that people accept as legitimate.
Traditional; charismatic; legal-rational authority	Rests on long-standing custom; on a leader's exceptional personal qualities; on laws and written rules that belong to an office.
Oligarchy	Rule by a small elite.
Totalitarian dictatorship	Tries to control every part of subjects' lives.
Power elite	Coined by C. Wright Mills (1956) for the small group that controls much of society.

Unit 18: Work and the Economy

Term	Definition
Primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors	Raw materials; finished goods; services; ideas and information.
Capitalism	Private ownership and a profit motive.
Socialism	Government ownership and an aim of sharing work and wealth equally.
Globalization	Integrating governments, cultures and financial markets through international trade into a single world market.
Outsourcing	Contracting jobs to an outside, often overseas, source.
Underemployment	Taking a job below your qualifications.
Structural unemployment	A societal mismatch between job seekers and available jobs.

Unit 19: Health and Medicine

Term	Definition
Socialized medicine	The government owns and runs the system and employs the staff.
Universal healthcare	Coverage is guaranteed for everyone regardless of who delivers care.
Morbidity; mortality	The incidence of disease; death.
Medicalization	Redefines normal parts of life as illness needing medical treatment.
Sick role	Parsons: expectations for the sick and their caregivers.
Social construction of health	Society's meanings shape how a measurable disease is defined, experienced and treated; it does not say disease is unreal.

Population and change (units 20-21)

Unit 20: Population, Urbanization and the Environment

Term	Definition
Demography	Studies populations through three pillars: fertility, mortality and migration.
Carrying capacity	The most life an area can sustain.
Tragedy of the commons	A shared resource is ruined because each user gains from taking more while the costs are spread across all users.
Environmental racism	Minority and low-income neighborhoods bear a disproportionate share of hazards such as dumps and waste sites.
Gentrification	Renovation of poor areas by wealthier groups.
Refugee; asylum-seeker	Flees their country; awaits a decision on that claim.

Unit 21: Social Movements and Social Change

Term	Definition
Collective behavior	Noninstitutionalized activity that several or many people voluntarily engage in.
Social movement	A purposeful, organized group working toward a common social goal.
Resource mobilization theory	Success depends on resources, mainly time and money.
Framing	Diagnostic (problem and blame), prognostic (solution) and motivational (call to action).
Cultural lag	Ogburn: material culture races ahead of nonmaterial culture.

Turn the tables into practice

Knowing a definition and recognizing the term in a scenario are different skills, and the exam tests the second. Try the Intro Sociology practice questions, or work through the full free Intro to Sociology deck, which schedules each card for review just before you would forget it. For methods specific to this course, see how to study for Intro to Sociology.