Sociology key terms

Unpaid support provided by relatives, friends or neighbours to someone who needs help because of age, illness or disability.

A person who provides unpaid support to someone who needs help because of illness, disability or age.

Learning norms, values and behaviour through educational experiences rather than through planned subject teaching; this includes the hidden curriculum.

Influence that does not depend on holding an officially recognised position.

Control exercised through everyday social reactions, such as approval, ridicule or exclusion, usually enforcing unwritten expectations.

A participant’s agreement to take part in research after receiving enough information to understand what participation involves.

Money, property or other assets received from a previous generation rather than earned by the recipient.

A lack of fairness that may involve a violation of someone’s rights.

Merton’s response in which an individual accepts conventional success goals but uses unconventional or illegitimate means to achieve them.

Racism embedded in an organisation’s practices, procedures or culture, rather than confined to the actions of particular individuals.

Cooperation with other workers, for example through a trade union, primarily to improve personal pay and working conditions rather than to pursue wider class interests.

The breadwinning and disciplinary role that Parsons associated with men in the family.

Responsibilities shared between partners, alongside more shared interests and leisure activities; also called joint conjugal roles.

A numerical score intended to measure a person’s intelligence and reasoning ability.

A numerical score intended to measure a person's intelligence and reasoning ability, relevant to discussions of selection by measured ability.

A sociological perspective that focuses on social interaction and the meanings people attach to behaviour, identities and situations.

A group organised around a shared interest, which may seek to influence policy or public opinion.

Between generations, for example a relationship between grandparents and grandchildren.

Movement in social position identified by comparing a person's position with that of their parents.

Relationships between different generations, such as parents and their adult children.

The occupational class comprising clerical or sales workers, the self-employed, lower-grade technicians and foremen in Halsey, Heath and Ridge's study.

The process of accepting norms and values as one's own, so that they guide behaviour even without supervision.

An approach to sociology that seeks to understand the meanings people attach to their actions and experiences, usually through qualitative evidence.

The way different forms of inequality, such as class, gender and ethnicity, overlap and shape people's experiences together.

A research method in which a researcher asks a participant questions and obtains their answers.

The influence of an interviewer’s characteristics, wording or behaviour on a respondent’s answers.

Movement in social position during one person's lifetime.

Crime that is difficult to see or recognise and may therefore remain undetected, unreported or unrecorded, such as concealed workplace fraud.

Poverty experienced by someone living in a household where at least one person is in paid employment.

A basic role that Parsons argued the family continued to perform and which could not be reduced further: primary socialisation or stabilisation of adult personalities.