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Achieved status
This is the respect a person has from something that they have done in their lives.
Ageism
This is behaviour in which people are treated differently because of age. Young and older
people are particularly likely to experience ageism.
Agency of
socialisation
A social institution which socialises people, for example, the family, education, the mass
media or religion.
Alternative
status
This is when you gain respect in a sub-culture, or a small group of people.
Ascribed status
This is the status or respect that you are born with an it can be based on gender, or family,
or ethnicity
Asylum seeker
Person seeking to escape oppression or political violence in his or her home country
Birth rate
Number of babies born per thousand people
Blended family
This is also known as a reconstructed family. A blended family has parents and children
from more than one relationship in it.
Britain
This is the name of the large island that comprises Scotland, Wales and England
(sometimes called Great Britain)
Canalisation
Parents try and push children in certain directions, for instance by giving them gendered
clothing
Capitalism
This is the economic structure of countries such as the USA and Britain where people
acquire wealth through making profits.
Class
Group of people of similar work, wealth, education and status
Class identity
This is a way of seeing yourself as being part of a social class
Cohabitation
People live together without marriage
Community
A group of people with a shared culture
Comprehensive
School
A type of school where people all have an equal chance to do well in education
Conform
This means to follow social rules
Conjugal roles
This is the work that is done in the home depending on the gender.
Consumption
This means to use or to buy
Contemporary
Happening now
Crime
This is an act that is against the law.
Cultural capital
Cultural capital is the type of knowledge that can give you power over other people.
Cultural relativity
This is the idea that right and wrong depends upon the norms and values of the culture to
which you belong.
Cultural
universal
There are certain features of social life that are common to all cultures. All societies share
these features. Examples of cultural universals are:
 religions
 families,
 traditions
 laws
 norms
Culture
This is the way of life of a group of people and consists of norms and values.
Dark figure of
crime
The crime we do not know about is the ‘dark figure’ or sometimes the ‘hidden figure’.
Death rate
Number of people who die per thousand people (also called mortality rate)
Delinquent
A young criminal
Democracy
This is a society where everyone has a right to have a say in who governs him or her.
Deviant
A deviant breaks social rules such as norms or values. Other people see a deviant as either
‘mad’ or ‘bad’.
Devolution
Power is moved from London to other areas of the country, so in Wales, the Assembly has
power to make rules
Dictatorship
This is a society that is ruled by one person.
Differentiation
This is the term used to describe the way that some people and some social groups are
made different from others. The most common forms of differentiation are on the basis of
social class, age, gender and ethnicity.
Discrimination
This is the power to act on a prejudice so that you act differently and in a way that is unfair
to people in some social groups.
Divorce
The legal end of a marriage
Domestic labour
Housework, or unpaid work in the home
Education
The process of learning the skills needed for your culture
Election
People are able to choose a government by voting in an election
Emigrants
Emigrants move out of an area.
Equality of
access
People all do equally well or badly in society regardless of their age, gender or background
Equality of
opportunity
Everyone has the same legal chance to do well
Ethics
Ethics is an important part of sociological research. It means that researchers should not put
themselves or anyone else at risk of embarrassment or danger because of the work that
they are doing.
Ethnicity
This refers to the cultural or religious group to which people may feel that they belong.
Ethnocentrism
This is the idea that your own culture is more important than anyone else’s culture.
Evaluate
This is a judgement on the value of an idea, a concept or a study. Evidence should be used
to back up opinions as to both strengths and weaknesses.
Evidence
This is the proof or examples that we can use to support our points of view
Exclusion
Some people are too poor to participate properly in society
Expectations
This is expected behaviour
Family
This is a group of people to whom you feel related by ties of blood or marriage.
Family structure
This is the way that families organise themselves into family groups
Femininity
This refers to the behaviour that is considered by a culture to be typical of females and of
women.
Feminism
This is the belief that men and women should be equal.
Feral child
This is a child who has been brought up without contact with other people. Feral children
have not been socialised properly.
Folk Devil
A group of people whom everyone fears in a moral panic
Gender
These are the social rules and ways of acting in all societies, which are based upon whether
you are male or female. Sex is biological; gender depends on your society.
Globalisation
This term refers to the idea that the world is developing one mass global culture based on
American ideas and values. The world is seen to be getting smaller as we all share similar
cultural ideas and fashions.
Hate crime
A crime that is caused by people’s racism or hatred of another group of people
Hidden
curriculum
We learn a great deal in schools and colleges, which is neither intended for us to learn or
part of what we are supposed to learn.
Hobby
Work that you do for pleasure
Identity
This is a person’s sense of who he or she actually is.
Ideology
It refers to a set of political beliefs or principles by which one lives one’s life.
Imitation
A process of socialisation where children copy the behaviour of adults
Immigrants
Immigrants move into an area.
Inequality
People do not have the same chances, opportunities or wealth
Interactionism
This is a form of sociology that looks at how people react together.
Judicial system
This term refers to the law system and courts that we have in this country.
Kinship
Our sense of family relationships and duties
Labelling theory
This is the idea that if we see someone in a certain way, for example as bad, we interpret
everything they do as being negative and wrong
Ladettes
Young women who act like boys and do hard drinking and violence.
Lads
Young men who act in an old fashioned masculine way: drinking and violence are part of
being a lad
Law
A written rule for all of our society
Leisure
Leisure is people’s free time. It is what they do when they are not working or doing the
things that they must do in order to live.
Life chance
This refers to the opportunities that present themselves to people.
Life choice
These are the kinds of decisions that we make that can affect the whole pattern and course
of our lives.
Life style
This refers to the way that we live our lives and how we spend our money.
Life-long
learning
This is the view that education takes place all through our lives and not just in school.
Lone Parent
Person bringing up his or her children without a partner to support him or her
Marxism
This is a form of sociology based on the idea that rich people dominate poorer people. They
are able to do it in such a way that poor people do not recognise what is happening to them.
Masculinity
This refers to the behaviour that is considered by a culture to be typical of males and men.
Mass media
These are forms of communication which reach a lot of people at one time: radio, television,
CD Rom, DVD, films, newspapers, computer games, music, advertising and packaging for
products.
Methodology
This term refers to the methods that sociologists use to form their conclusions. The most
common methods are: Questionnaires, Interviews and Observations
Middle class
Middle class people tend to work in professions.
Migration
This is a movement of people to or from an area
Minority Ethnic
Group
A minority ethnic group consists of people who have a background that is not the same as
the majority of people.
Monogamy
This is used to describe single partner marriage; people are married to only one person at a
time.
Moral panic
This is when the media build up a news story to get people worked up into a frenzy of panic
about a social issue.
Mores
The term is pronounced ‘more rays’. These are morals held by groups of people.
National
Curriculum
This is the information which teachers must teach children in school.
Nature Theory
This is the idea that people behave as they do because they are controlled by their biology.
New Man
This is a man who has thought about his gender behaviour and who acts in a way that is
different from traditional macho men.
New Right
This is a set of political views associated with extreme conservatism and the politics of
Margaret Thatcher who was elected Prime Minister in 1979. It emphasised traditional values
Norms
A norm is a normal way to behave.
Nurture Theory
This is a sociological theory. It says that people’s actions and behaviour are based on what
they are taught by others around them.
Objective
It means to be scientific and value free.
Official statistics
Official statistics are collected by government agencies. You can find out more about official
statistics by looking at www.statistics.gov.uk
Parliament
The place in London where the law-makers meet to create laws for the rest of us
Peer Group
People around you, your equals are your peer group.
Plagiarism
Copying someone’s work and pretending that it is your own
Political party
This is a group of people who have views about the world that are similar. Examples
include: the Labour party, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats
Polygamy
This is marriage to multiple partners at a time.
Poverty
This means that you have to do without things
Power
This is the ability of other people to make us do what they want, whether we want to or not.
Prejudice
This is when people judge others without knowing them.
Pressure Group
A pressure group is a group of people who join together in order to influence government in
some way.
Prestige
This is your standing or status within a given group. It is a bit more particular than status,
which refers to social standing.
Primary poverty
This is a lack of the things essential for life
Primary
socialisation
This is the type of socialisation that takes place in the home. Young children experience
primary socialisation when they learn the norms and values typical of their culture from their
families.
Professional
work
This is work which is paid a salary and which is non-manual.
Qualitative data
This is research concerned with quality of feeling and emotion.
Quantitative data
Quantitative data is information that can be counted in some way.
Racism
This is when people treat you differently because of your cultural, religious or ethnic
background.
Reliability
The dependability of a piece of research or data. Can it be trusted to be repeatable and
accurate?
Religion
A set of beliefs about God and the spiritual side of life or a group of people who share those
beliefs
Role model
This is someone we admire someone and want to be like.
Roles
We change our behaviour depending on the situation we find ourselves in. Each situation
will have different rules for how to act.
Sanction
This word means a punishment.
Secondary data
This is information that sociologists can use as evidence that already exists in one form or
another. Someone else has collected the information and it is in a book or report.
Secondary
poverty
This is a lack of the things most people feel are important for life. People who exist on
benefit may experience secondary poverty in Britain.
Secondary
socialisation
This is the kind of socialisation that takes place outside the family.
Secularisation
The term is used to describe a view that some people have that our society is becoming
less religious and that traditional Christianity is less important than it was in the past.
Self-fulfilling
prophecy
This is the idea that what you believe will come true because you act in a way that makes it
happen. If people are told they will fail in school, they come to believe in that view and have
no self-confidence.
Sexism
This is a way of treating people differently because of their biological sex.
Social class
Sociologists put people into categories according to their relative wealth and status in
society. This is usually done on the basis of the type of work that they do and the level of
education that they have.
Social conflict
This is the idea that groups of people have different interests and values.
Social identity
These are the identities, which we carry which are linked to our position in society. A job
may be a social identity, think of the way that people think about the people who have the
jobs of doctors.
Social Trends
A book published annually with information about British society
Socialisation
The process of learning to behave in a way that is right for your culture. Primary
socialisation takes place in the home. Secondary socialisation takes place in the wider
world.
Statistics
These are the numbers that are collected about our society.
Status
This is the respect that others have for you
Stereotype
This is an unthinking way of categorising people by some characteristic such as their age,
gender or ethnicity.
Stratification
This is the layering of society into groups such as social classes or castes.
Sub-culture
This is a smaller group within society who have norms and values that are different from
those of mainstream society.
Trade Union
This is an organisation of people who work in the same types of job or in the same industry.
Underclass
These are the very poorest people in a society
United Kingdom
This refers to the countries of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and some
islands such as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is governed by the monarch and
by Parliament
Validity
Information or research is valid if it is true to life. It measures what happens accurately and
reflects reality in some way.
Values
This word describes a shared moral system where most people believe in certain ideas.
Victim study
A way of discovering how much crime has taken place by asking people if they have been
the victims of crime
Victimless
crimes
The crimes that take place when both people involved want it to happen even though both
are breaking the law.
Wealth
This is money or property that is extra or surplus to what you need to live. It can be sold to
give you money if you need it: jewellery, stocks and shares, antiques, investments and
artworks.
White-collar
crime
This is crime carried out by middle class people. Examples could consist of fiddling tax
returns or committing fraud.
Work
This is what you do to earn income or because other people want or need you to do it.
Working class
Working class people tend to work with their skills.
Youth culture
This is a set of fashions, values and shared norms that are typical of a group of young
people such as punks or hippies.