Sociology: the study of human behavior in society.
Conflict Theory: emphasizes the role of coercion and power, a person's or groups ability to exercise influence and control over others, in producing social order (Karl Marx) where fragmented groups compete for social and economic resources/domination/inequality (strife and friction).
3. Controlled experiment: .
4. scientific method: principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem; collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.
5. dependent variable: a mathematical variable whose value is determined by that of one or more other variables in a function.
6. independent variable: a mathematical variable that is independent of the other variables in an expression or function and whose value determines one or more of the values of the other variables.
7. Functionalism: a theoretical perspective that interprets each part of society in terms of how it contributes to the stability of the whole society (cohesion).
8. Quantitative research: systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques.
9. Qualitative research: uses observation as the data collection method.
10. Social action: coined by Weber as a behavior to which people give meaning such as placing a bumper sticker on your car showing pride in the troops.
11. sociological imagination: the ability to see the societal patterns that influence individual and group life.
12. troubles vs issues: troubles: privately felt problems that come from events or feelings in one individual's life.
13. Issues: problems that affect large numbers of people and have their origins in the institutional arrangements and history of a society.
14. applied sociology: any use of sociological perspective and/or its tools in the understanding of, intervention in, and/or enhancement of human social life.