the Internet bought us information, but at a cost

electronic aggression" to describe "any type of harassment or bullying that occurs through e-mail, a chat room, instant messaging

Social media has the potential to dramatically transform how people get involved in movements ranging from local school district decisions to presidential campaigns.

Social movements are purposeful, organized groups that strive to work toward a common social goal

Expressive crowds are people who join together to express emotion, often at funerals, weddings, or the like.

climate change

The subfield of environmental sociology studies the way humans interact with their environments.

children. A refugee is defined as an individual who has been forced to leave his or her country in order to escape war,

rbanization is the study of the social, political, and economic relationships in cities, and someone specializing in urban sociology studies those relationships.

According to Malthusian theory, three factors would control human population that exceeded the earth’s carrying capacity, or how many people can live in a given area considering the amount of available resources. Malthus identified these factors as war, famine, and disease (

The fertility rate of a society is a measure noting the number of children born.

Money

The first true economies arrived when people started raising crops and domesticating animals.

Although military technology has evolved considerably over the course of history, the fundamental causes of conflict among nations remain essentially the same

The third branch of the U.S. government is the judicial system,

representative democracy

Power in a dictatorship is held by a single person (or a very small group) that wields complete and absolute authority over a government and population

The power in an oligarchy is held by a small, elite group

Authority refers to accepted power—that is, power that people agree to follow. People listen to authority figures because they feel that these individuals are worthy of respect.

who said that power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others (Weber 1922)

The answer to those questions might be a matter of opinion, perspective, and circumstance.

This statistic has made many people cynical when it comes to marriage, but it is misleading.

According to 2010 census data, only 66 percent of children under seventeen years old live in a household with two

Marriage and family are key structures in many societies.

This type of physical abuse is referred to as shaken-baby syndrome, which describes a group of medical symptoms such as brain swelling and retinal hemorrhage resulting from forcefully shaking or causing impact to an infant’s head

So what causes divorce?

Cohabitation is when a man and woman live together in a sexual relationship without being married

Single-parent households are on the rise. In 2017, 32 percent of children lived with a single parent only, up from 25 percent in 2008.

Similarly, in matrilocal residence systems, where it is customary for the husband to live with his wife’s blood relatives (or her family of orientation), the husband can feel disconnected and can be labeled as an outsider.

As you may have seen in the chapter on Aging and the Elderly, different generations have varying living situations and views on aging. The same goes for living situations with family

exchange theory (Dowd 1975), a rational choice approach, suggests we experience an increased dependence as we age and must increasingly submit to the will of others because we have fewer ways of compelling others to submit to us. Indeed,

Elder abuse occurs when a caretaker intentionally deprives an older person of care or harms the person in his or her charge.

The term senescence refers to the aging process, including biological, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual changes. This section discusses some of the challenges we encounter during this process.

A life course is the period from birth to death, including a sequence of predictable life events such as physical maturation.

In the United States, by contrast, many people view caring for the elderly as a burden.

There is an element of social construction, both local and global, in the way individuals and nations define who is elderly; that is, the shared meaning of the concept of elderly is created through interactions among people in society.

One hindrance to society’s fuller understanding of aging is that people rarely understand the process of aging until they reach old age themselves.

Most people in the United States have immigrant ancestors.

public healthcare (government-funded) and private healthcare (privately funded).

It is important to remember that economics are only part of the SES picture; research suggests that education also plays an important role

African Americans also have higher incidence of several diseases and causes of mortality, from cancer to heart disease to diabetes. In a similar vein, it is important to note that ethnic minorities, including Mexican Americans and Native Americans, also have higher rates of these diseases and causes of mortality than White people.

These epidemiological studies show that the health problems of high-income nations differ from those of low-income nations, but also that diseases and their diagnosis are changing

For instance, in the early nineteenth century, pregnant women were discouraged from driving or dancing for fear of harming the unborn child, much as they are discouraged, with more valid reason, from smoking or drinking alcohol today.

Many Native Americans (and others) believe sports teams with names like the Indians, Braves, and Warriors perpetuate unwelcome stereotypes. The Not Your Mascot protest was one of many directed at the then Washington Redskins, which eventually changed its name. (Credit: Fibonacci Blue/fickr)

Discrimination can be based on race, ethnicity, age, religion, health, and other categories.

Prejudice refers to the beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes someone holds about a group.

Culture of prejudice refers to the theory that prejudice is embedded in our culture.

American community may embrace their collective identity in the context of the United States

human race is a grouping of humankind based on shared physical or social qualities that can vary from one society to another.

Studying sexual attitudes and practices is a particularly interesting field of sociology because sexual behavior is a cultural universal.

A mother of young children is more likely to drop out of the labor force for several years or work on a reduced schedule than is the father.

Children learn at a young age that there are distinct expectations for boys and girls.

Transgender people's sex assigned at birth and their gender identity are not necessarily the same

term gender role refers to society’s concept of how men and women are expected to look and how they should behave.

Gender refers to behaviors, personal traits, and social positions that society attributes to being female or male.

Close up, you can see the heroic firefighter is covered in dirt and soot. A large gash is visible in their suit, and they're immediately given medical attention. As the EMTs pull off the firefighters' helmet, you're surprised to see features you identify as a woman's. You had just assumed the person was a man, but you were incorrect.

Stereotyping all Asians as smart and capable can also lead to a lack of much-needed government assistance and to educational and professional discrimination.

The eradication of Native American culture continued until the 1960s, when Native Americans were able to participate in and benefit from the civil rights movement.

Information on race is required for many Federal programs and is critical in making policy decisions, particularly for civil rights including

Other determinants are found in a society’s occupational structure. Teachers, for example, often have high levels of education but receive relatively low pay. Many believe that teaching is a noble profession, so teachers should do their jobs for love of their profession and the good of their students—not for money. Yet, the same attitude is not applied to professional athletes, executives, or those working in corporate world. Cultural attitudes and beliefs like these support and perpetuate social and economic inequalities.

An individual’s place within this stratification is called socioeconomic status (SES).

The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) includes oil-rich countries in the Gulf, such as Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait, but also countries that are relatively resource-poor in relationship to their populations, such as Morocco and Yemen. These countries are predominately Islamic. For the last quarter-century, economic growth was slower in MENA than in other developing economies, and almost a quarter of the 300 million people who make up the population live on less than $2.00 a day (World Bank 2013)

The expansion in the number of female-headed households

treme poverty lack even the basic necessities, which typically include adequate food, clean water, safe housing, and access to healthcare. Extreme poverty occurs when someone lives on less than 1.90 U.S dollars per day.

Low-income economies are primarily found in Asia

Capital flight refers to the movement (flight) of capital from one nation to another, as when General Motors automotive company closed U.S. factories in Michigan and opened factories in Mexico.

one way to evaluate stratification is to consider how many people are living in poverty, and particularly extreme poverty, which is often defined as needing to survive on less than $1.90 per day.

In addition to garment factories employing about 5,000 people, the building contained a bank, apartments, childcare facilities, and a variety of shops.

According to functionalism, different aspects of society exist because they serve a vital purpose

standard of living, the level of wealth available to acquire the material necessities and comforts to maintain a specific lifestyle

Within each class, there are many subcategories

Closed systems accommodate little change in social position. They do not allow people to shift levels and do not permit social relationships between levels. Closed systems include estate, slavery, and caste systems. Open systems are based on achievement and allow for movement and interaction between layers and classes.

Geologists also use the word “stratification” to describe the distinct vertical layers found in rock. Typically, society’s layers, made of people, represent the uneven distribution of society’s resources.

Crime is established by legal codes and upheld by the criminal justice system.

often-debated third type of crime is victimless crime. Crimes are called victimless when the perpetrator is not explicitly harming another person.

Continuing with an examination of large social factors, control theory states that social control is directly affected by the strength of social bonds and that deviance results from a feeling of disconnection from society. Individuals who believe they are a part of society are less likely to commit crimes against it.

Developed by researchers at the University of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, social disorganization theory asserts that crime is most likely to occur in communities with weak social ties and the absence of social control. An individual who grows up in a poor neighborhood with high rates of drug use, violence, teenage delinquency, and deprived parenting is more likely to become engaged in crime than an individual from a wealthy neighborhood with a good school system and families who are involved positively in the community

Perceptions and proclamations of deviance have long been a means to oppress people by labeling their private behavior as criminal.

What is deviant behavior?” cannot be answered in a straightforward manner.

Even though these actions were found to be criminal, no one from Wells Fargo faced jail time, as is common in financial crimes. Deviance does not always align with punishment, and perceptions of its impact vary greatly

This approach is so common in chain stores that you might not even notice it; in fact, if you went to a large-chain resturant or a store like Walmart, seeing a worker or a process that didn’t have these uniform characteristics would seem odd.

bystander effect, a situation in which people are less likely to interfere during an emergency or when a social norm is being violated if there are others around. They feel less responsible because of the presence of other bystanders (Beyer et al., 2017). This is known as diffusion of responsibility.

In different circumstances, each of these leadership styles can be effective and successful

Often, larger groups require some kind of leadership. In small, primary groups, leadership tends to be informal.

rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is inaccurate. Words can hurt,

Neither primary nor secondary groups are bound by strict definitions or set limits. In fact, people can move from one group to another.

primary groups and secondary groups (Cooley 1909). According to Cooley, primary groups play the most critical role in our lives. The primary group is usually fairly small and is made up of individuals who generally engage face-to-face in long-term emotional ways. This group serves emotional needs: expressive functions rather than pragmatic ones. The primary group is usually made up of significant others, those individuals who have the most impact on our socialization. The best example of a primary group is the family.

Unfortunately, when these codes of ethics are ignored, it creates an unethical environment for humans being involved in a sociological study.

Sociologists often interpret findings in a new way, a way that was not part of an author’s original purpose or intention

The experimental group is exposed to the independent variable(s) and the control group is not.

Field research refers to gathering primary data from a natural environment

With its systematic approach, the scientific method has proven useful in shaping sociological studies. The scientific method provides a systematic, organized series of steps that help ensure objectivity and consistency in exploring a social problem

Over their college years, Noel found themselves drawn toward the more strategic aspects of medicine, and pursued a degree in healthcare administration. Meanwhile, they did get an EMT certification and joined the college emergency services team; later on, while in grad school, Noel was a part-time professional EMT in a small city. With good grades and varied experience, Noel was recruited into a great job several states away.

Gilligan’s research suggested that boys and girls do have different understandings of morality. Boys appeared to have a justice perspective, by placing emphasis on rules and laws. Girls, on the other hand, seem to have a care and responsibility perspective; they consider people’s reasons behind behavior that seems morally wrong.

studied the self, a person’s distinct identity that is developed through social interaction