Sample Material of Our IAS Mains Sociology Study Kit

Subject: Sociology (Optional)

Topic: Glossary

• Androgynous: Capable of expressing the full range of human emotions and rote possibilities without being restricted by gender stereotypes.
• Applied Sociology: While the methods and substantive findings of sociology are frequently applied, the notion of applied sociology is neither a discrete and developed area of the disciplineaer a term which is commonly used by sociologists. It raises problems of ethics and professional autonomy.

• Asceticism: This is a doctrine or practice in which sensuous pleasures are denied for the enhcncement of the spiritual self. The notion is associated with branches of most important religions. For M. Weber, Protestant asceticism was of crucial importance for the origins of capitalism, the discipline of labour and capitalist organization.

• Ascription: Ascription means that certain qualities of individuals-status, occupation or income for example-are given by the position into which those individuals are born or over which they have no control, rather than by their achievements.

• Achieved status: The status or position in society that one achieves through his/her own efforts.

• Acculturation: The voluntary adoption of the norms, values and lifestyle of the dominant culture.

• Affirmative action: Governmental policy and programs that grant preference to minorities in order to make-up for past and  present discrimination. The purpose of affirmative action is to achieve economic equality.

• Agnosticism: A belief that does not deny or affirm the existence of a god.

• Alienation: A Marxian concept describing the process whereby workers are robbed of their creativity and imagination through industrialization.

• Altruistic suicide: Emile Durkheimâs term for a person who sacrifices his/her life for the good of the group.

• Androgyny: A gender role that combines male and female characteristics.

• Animism: A belief that supernatural being or beings, spirits, or deceased ancestors actively exist in the bodies of present-day people or in creatures or physical objects in the natural environment.

• Anomic suicide: Emile Durkheimâs term for suicides that are the result of an absence of norms in society.

• Anomie: A state of normlessness characterized by the loss of a sense of meaning and detachment from others in the society.

• Atheism: The belief that God does not exist.

• Ascribed status: The status that comes to an individual through birth or through a condition over which he/she has no control over.

• Assimilation: The process of absorption into the dominant culture.

• Authoritative leadership: An individual who exercises leadership in a strong and individual fashion.

• Authority: The right to exercise power.

• Absolute monarchy: A political system under which a king or queen has complete control of a country.

• Achieved status: A status that we either earn or choose and that is not subject to where or to whom we were born.

• Agents of socialization: People, groups, and experiences that influence our behavior and self-image.

• Aggregate: A collection of people who happen to be at the same place at the same time but have no other connection to one another.

• Agricultural or agrarian society: A society that raises crops by using animal-drawn plows.

• Alienation: The feeling of workers in a bureaucracy that they are being treated as objects rather than people.

• American Dream: The belief that all Americans, regardless of the conditions of their birth, have an equal chance to achieve success.

• Anomie: According to strain theory, the feeling of being disconnected from society that can occur when people aren’t provided with the institutionalized means to achieve their goals. The term was coined by Émile Durkheim.

• Anticipatory socialization: The learning of new norms and values in anticipation of a future role.

• Apartheid: A social system in which there is total separation of the races.

• Appearance: The way we look physically to other people.

• Ascribed status: A trait or characteristic people possess as a result of the circumstances of birth.

• Assimilation: The process whereby members of a group give up parts of their own culture in order to blend in to a new culture.

• Authoritarianism: A political system that does not allow citizens to participate in government.

• Belief: A specific idea that people feel to be true.

• Blue-collar: Another term for the working class.

• Body language: The ways in which we use our bodies consciously and unconsciously to communicate.

• Bourgeoisie: Karl Marx’s term for the owners of the means of production—factories, businesses, and equipment needed to produce wealth.

• Bureaucracy: According to Weber, a type of formal organization in which a rational approach is used for the handling of large tasks.

• Baby Boomers: An extraordinarily large cohort born in the United States during the period of time following World War II and lasting 15 years.

• Barter: An economic exchange of one item for another. No money is involved in the transaction.

• Battered wife syndrome: A post traumatic stress disorder cause by repeated physical abuse. It has been used as a legal defense by women accused of murdering their abusers.

• Behaviorism: A theory that argues that pattern behavior is not biologically determined, but learned.

• Bias theory: A theory that blames prejudice for the secondary status of minority groups.

• Birth cohort: The number of people born in a specific year.

• Birthrates: The average number of children born to women.

• Born again: A Christian concept held by some religions that one must accepting Jesus Christ as savior in order to enter heaven. Generally applied, this marks a life: transforming period for the individual and is accompanied by ritual rights of passage.

• Bourgeoisie: A term meaning capitalist employed by Karl Marx.

• Bureaucracy: A formal organization with clear objectives and a hierarchy of administrators who possess the power to achieve organizational goals. Within the organization there is an established division of labor, rules of conduct, and means to keep records.

• Behaviourism: This is a school of psychology that deals with observable behaviour and disregards the subjective aspects of human activity such as consciousness, intention or the meaning of behaviour to the people involved. The idea that behaviour divorced from its subjective and social meanings is a legitimate area of study is rejected by sociologists, who use the term ‘action’ to distinguish meaningful activity from mere behaviour.

• Birth Rate: The crude birth rate is given by the number of live births per 1,000 persons of all ages in one year. The birth rate is the number of live births per 1,000 females of childbearing age in one year.

• Blackcoated Worker: This term was used by D. Lockwood (1958) to describe, low­level, non-manual employees such as clerks. It is often used as an alternative to the more common term ‘white: collar’ worker.

• Blue-collar: This is an American term used to describe manual workers.

• Cluster Analysis: A group of statistical techniques used in the analysis of multivariate data to identify internal structure. Cluster analysis may be applied, for example, to identify distinct groupings (clusters) of responses to attitude surveys, or to establish what patterns of behaviour occur in activity data. It is also used to identify groups of individuals or variables.

• Capitalism: The economic system in which the means of production are owned privately and individuals are free to keep the profits they make.

• Capitalist class: In industrialized societies, the rich and powerful and the owners of the means of production. It is also called the elite.

• Caste system: A system of stratification based on ascribed statuses.

• Category: A collection of people who share a particular characteristic but have nothing else in common.

• Charismatic authority: Authority that depends on the personal magnetism of one person, according to Weber’s power theory.

• Church: A religious group integrated with society.

• Class system: A system of stratification based on achieved statuses.

• Clergy: The middle stratum of the estate system of stratification, composed of Roman Catholic priests.

• Clique: An internal cluster or faction within a group.

• Colonialism: The tendency for a powerful country to invade a weaker country in order to exploit its resources by making it a colony.

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