Chapter 1 An Introduction Key Terms

Social Structure –The social structure of a society consists of institutions, social groups, statuses, and roles. Institutions –Established and enduring patterns of social relationships. Major institutions include the family, economy, education, and religion.

Social Groups –Institutions are made up of social groups, defined as two or more people who have a common identity, interact, and form a social relationship.

Primary group –Social groups which tend to involve small numbers of individuals and include intimate and informal interaction. Secondary group –Social groups that involve small or large numbers of individuals and include impersonal and formal interaction.

Status –A position a person occupies within a social group. Role –Sets of rights, obligations, and expectations associated with a status.

Beliefs –Explanations about what is true. Values –Standards regarding what is good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable.

Culture –Meanings and ways of living that characterize persons in a society Sociological imagination –An awareness of how powerful social structure and culture are in influencing decision making.

Familism –Supporting what is best for the group, or family. Individualism –Making decisions that are more often based on what serves the individual’s rather than the family’s interests.

Marriage –The state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.

Polygyny –Involves one husband and two or more wives. Polyandry –Where one wife has two or more husbands.

Polyamory –A lifestyle in which two lovers do not limit each other in having other lovers. Pantogamy – A group marriage in which each member of the group is married to the others.

Family –A group of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption. –Rather than view family members as partners exclusively related by blood, marriage, or adoption, courts now more often look at the nature of the relationship between the partners.

Civil union –A voluntary union for life (or until divorce) of adult parties of the same sex. Domestic partnership –Considered an alternative to marriage by some individuals and tend to reflect more egalitarian relationships than those between traditional husbands and wives.

Family of orientation (origin) –The family into which you were born or the family in which you were reared. Family of procreation –The family you will begin when you marry and have children.

Nuclear family –Refers to either a family of origin or a family of procreation. Traditional family –The two-parent nuclear family, with the husband as breadwinner and wife as homemaker.

Modern family –The dual-earner family, where both spouses work outside the home. Postmodern families –Represent a departure from traditional models such as lesbian or gay couples and mothers who are single by choice.

Binuclear family –A family in which the members live in two separate households. Extended family –Includes not only your nuclear family but other relatives as well.

Blended family –When parents remarry and bring additional children into the respective units. Family career The family career is comprised of all the stages and events that have occurred within the family.

Theoretical framework –Provide a set of interrelated principles designed to explain a particular phenomenon and provide a point of view. Functionalists –Functionalists view the family as an institution with values, norms, and activities meant to provide stability for the larger society.

Human ecology –The study of ecosystems, or the interaction of families with their environment. Ecosystem –The interaction of families with their environment.

Biosocial framework –Emphasizes the interaction of one’s biological/genetic inheritance with one’s social environment to explain and predict human behavior.

Stratification –Refers to the ranking of people into layers or strata according to their socioeconomic status or social class, usually indexed according to income, occupation, and educational attainment.

Race –A division of mankind possessing traits that are transmissible by descent and sufficient to characterize it as a distinct human type.

Random Sample –In a random sample, each individual in the population has an equal chance of being included in the sample. –Random sampling involves selecting individuals at random from an identified population. –That population often does not include the homeless or persons living on military bases.

Experimental group –The group exposed to the independent variable you are studying. Control group –The group not exposed to the independent variable you are studying.