Sociology Terms Definitions

1. Rationality: The state of basing ones beliefs and actions on facts and reason.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

2. Traditional society: This is a society that is oriented on the past and not the future with a strong sense of habit and culture.

3. Rationalization of Society: The process of replacing traditional methods, values and customs with more modern calculated ones.

4. Formal organization: The state of establishing rules and principles that works to govern the operations of a system.

5. McDonaldization of society: The process of applying the principles of fast food restaurants in various aspects of a society.

6. Goal displacement: The process of substituting an initial goal set with another goal.

7. Voluntary association: This is a group of people with a common goal working together for a purpose.

8. Iron law of oligarchy: This law is based on the tendencies of organizations to adopt oligarchy at the expense of losing democracy.

9. Humanizing the work setting: This is the process of organizing the work place in a manner that develops rather than inhibit the potential of humans.

10. Corporate culture: The beliefs, customs and principles that affect the companys employees/management interaction.

11. Social control: This is the study of the mechanisms used to maintain social order and cohesion in a society.

12. Negative sanction: The punishments imposed on people to make them conform to the set rules.

13. Positive sanction: The pleasant things done or offered to people to entice them to conform to the set rules.

14. Genetic predisposition: The genetic make-up of individuals which influences them to develop certain phenotypes within a population.

15. Personality disorders: A group of mental disorders that alters the character of affected individuals giving them a great difficulty dealing with people.

16. Differential association: The process of learning values, techniques and attitudes for criminal behaviors through interaction with others.

17. Control theory: The idea that inner and outer controls work as guidelines preventing us from any form of deviation.

18. Degradation ceremony: A rite of passage of initiating people into institutions like prisons, military and mental hospitals.

19. Labeling theory: The process by which the character of an individual can be determined by the terms used to refer to them.

20. Techniques of neutralization: The methods that lead one into committing temporary illegitimate acts hence they compromise certain values they possess such as morality.

21. Recidivism rate: The frequency of people repeating a forbidden act even after experiencing negative consequences as a result of the same.

22. Social stratification: The categorizing of people in a society based on their socio-economic statuses.

23. Bonded labor (indentured service): The provision of services to a person you owe as a means of settling your debt.

24. Caste system: The system of grouping people according to their social ranks.

25. Estate stratification system: The system where estates were legally defined with each having rights and duties, privileges and obligations.

26. Class system: A system where people are categorized in groups according to their social classes.

27. Social Mobility: The change in social status of individuals or families within a given society.

28. Meritocracy: This is the form of leadership that is selected on the basis of intellectual capacity.

29. World System theory: The suggestion that in the world economic system some countries gain while others lose.