Glossary

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Words (or words that have the same definition)	The definition is case sensitive	(Optional) Image to display with the definition [Not displayed in Glossary, only in pop-up on pages]	(Optional) Caption for Image	(Optional) External or Internal Link	(Optional) Source for Definition
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Glossary Entries
Word(s)	Definition	Image	Caption	Link	Source
Automation	The replacement of many workers by machines, as well as the monitoring and coordination of workers by machines with only minimal supervision from human beings
Autocratic rule	Rule by a specific leader, who concentrates power in his own hands.
Authority	Power that is attached to a position that others perceive as legitimate.
Authoritarian personality	A set of distinctive personality traits, including conformity, intolerance, and an inability to accept ambiguity.
Assimilation	A minority group's internalization of the values and norms of the dominant culture, they become socially, economically, and politically absorbed into the wider culture.
Ascribed status	A social position that is given at birth such as race or sex.
Artisan	A skilled manual worker.
Arranged marriage	Marriage based on the family ties rather than the couple's personal preferences.
Appropriate technology	Technology that is designed with the needs, values, and capabilities of the user in mind.
Applied sociology	The use of sociology--both theory and methods--in solving social problems.
Apartheid	Until recently, the system of strict racial segregation established in South Africa.
Anticipatory socialization	Learning new roles and attitudes in preparation to joining a group
Anti-Semitism	Prejudice or discrimination against Jews. It defines the Jewish people as inferior and targets them for stereotyping, mistreatment, and acts of hatred.
Anthropology	A social science, closely linked to sociology, which concentrates (though not exclusively) on the study of traditional cultures--particularly hunting and gathering and horticultural societies--and the evolution of the human species.
Anomie theory	Robert K. Merton's theory of deviance which holds that many forms of deviance are caused by a disjunction between society's goals and the approved means to achieve these goals; also called "structural strain theory."
Anomie	A structural condition in which social norms are weak or conflicting.
Anomic suicide	Durkheim's concept for suicide that is performed because the egoistic individual is not given clear guidance from the social order.
Anomia	A condition of anxiety and confusion that exists in individuals who are not given clear social guidance through social norms.
Animism	A type of religion that believes that events in the world are often caused by the activities of spirits.
Androgyny	The blending of traditional feminine and masculine traits.
Americanization	The spread of American cultural elements—products, lifestyles, customs, institutions, and ideologies—around the globe.
Altruistic suicide	Durkheim's concept for suicide that is performed for the good of a group or for accomplishing a political or social cause.
Alienation	The sense that we have lost control over social institutions that we have created. Often characterized as estrangement from the self and from the society as a whole. Marx believed that general alienation was rooted in the loss of control on the part of workers over the nature of the labor task, and over the products of their labor.
Air pollution	Refers to the contamination of the atmosphere by noxious substances. (See also Depletion, Environment, and Pollution.)
Agencies of socialization	Groups or institutions within which processes of socialization take place (see also Social reproduction).
Ageism	Prejudice against a person on the grounds of age in the belief that the age category is inferior to other age categories and that unequal treatment is therefore justified.
Age-sex structure	(Age-sex pyramid). The relative proportions of different age/sex categories in a population.
Age grades	System found in some traditional cultures which group the population by sex and age. Age grades go through rites of passage, hold similar rights and have similar obligations.
Age cohort	A group of people born around the same time.
Affirmative action	Government programs intended to assure minorities and women of equal hiring or admission opportunities.
Affective action	Part of Weber’s action typology that refers to individual action motivated by emotions.
Adult socialization	The process of learning new roles in maturity.
Adaptation	Refers to the ability of a sociocultural system to change with the demands of a changing physical or social environment. The process by which cultural elements undergo change in form and/or function in response to change in other parts of the system.
Acquired Immune Deficiency (AIDS)	A disease that attacks the immune system of the body that is often passed on through sexual contact.
Achieved status	A position attained through personal ability and effort.
Absolute poverty	Poverty as defined in terms of the minimal requirements necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, health care and shelter.