Download Chapter 1, Groups and Relationships: A Sociological Sampler

Chapter 1
Groups and Relationships:
A Sociological Sampler
Key Terms

Science
A method for describing and explaining why
and how things work. It consists of two
components: theory and research.

Social sciences
Those scientific fields devoted to the study of
human behavior, including sociology,
psychology, economics, political science,
anthropology, criminology, and some
branches of history.

Theory
An abstract statement that explains why and
how certain things take place, whether these
things be eclipses of the moon, chemical
reactions, or outbursts of racism. In addition
scientific theories must have empirical
implications. That is, theories make definite
predictions and prohibitions; they say some
things will happen under certain
circumstances and that other things will not
happen.

Sociological imagination
A term coined by American sociologist C.
Wright Mills to describe the ability to see the
link between incidents in the lives of
individuals and large social forces.

Sociology
The scientific study of the patterns and
processes of human social relations.

Units of analysis
The “things” on which a set of research
observations are based. Sociologists use
many different units of analysis; among them
are individuals, small groups, large
organizations, counties, cities, states, and
nations.

Microsociology
The study of small groups and of face to face
interaction among humans.

Macrosociology
The study of large groups and even of whole
societies.

Concepts
Names used to identify some set or class of
things that are said to be alike. Concepts are
the building blocks of theories.

Group
Two or more persons who maintain a stable
pattern of social relations over a significant
period of time.

Aggregate
A collection of people lacking social relations;
for example, pedestrians waiting for a walk
light.

Primary groups
Groups whose members have close and
intimate emotional attachments to one
another.

Secondary groups
Groups whose members have only limited
emotional attachments to one another.

Social solidarity
The density and emotional intensity of
attachments within a group; put another way,
the capacity of group members to generate a
sort of glue that enables them to stick
together, to “belong,” to be loyal.

Social conflict
Unfriendly interactions between groups,
ranging from disagreements to violent
encounters. For a conflict to be social, at least
three people must be involved.

Network
A pattern of ties or connections among some
set of units, as a computer network links
many computers and a TV network links
many local stations, allowing them to
communicate and exchange.

Social network
A pattern of social relationships or links
among some set of social units—usually
people, but sometimes groups.

Social relationship
Repeated actions between social units, or the
persistence of stable, shared features among
units.

Unobtrusive measures
Techniques used to measure behavior
without disturbing the behavior of the
subjects.

Validation research
Studies conducted to determine whether
particular measures used in research are
accurate.

Operationalize
To select measures of concepts in order to
make it possible to perform observational
operations on them.

Hypothesis
A statement about the expected relationship
between (or among) observable measures of
concepts.

Free will
The philosophical and theological doctrine
that humans possess the capacity for
choosing among alternatives and, therefore,
can be held responsible for the choices they
make.