SOCIOLOGY

ASIAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

The term Asian American is used in the United States by federal, state, and local governments to designate people of Asian descent, including Pacific Islanders (residents from the Pacific islands that are under U. S. jurisdiction, such as Guam, American Somoa, and the Marshall Islands). Although historically relevant and geographically appropriate, inclusion of the Pacific […]

ART AND SOCIETY

There is no consensus as to what art is nor, until the 1970s, had sociologists expended much energy on its study or on the development of a sociology of the arts. While in Europe art had longer been of interest to sociologists than in the United States, even there it had not developed into an […]

APPLIED SOCIOLOGY

Applied sociology is sociology in use. It is policy-oriented, action-directed, and intends to assist people and groups to think reflectively about what it is they do, or how it is they can create more viable social forms capable of adapting to changing external and internal conditions. The roots of applied sociology in the United States […]

ATTITUDES

Attitude “is probably the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American social psychology” (Allport 1985, p. 35). Hundreds of books and thousands of articles have been published on the topic. A review of this literature may be found in Eagly and Chaiken (1998). Despite this popularity, there is considerable disagreement about such basics as […]

BANKRUPTCY AND CREDIT

Every society must resolve the tension between debtors and creditors, especially if the debtors cannot pay or cannot pay quickly enough. Many of the world’s religions have condemned lending money for interest, at least among co-religionists. In traditional societies, money lenders, although necessary for ordinary commerce, were often viewed as morally suspect. The development of […]

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Attribution is a cognitive process that entails linking an event to its causes. Attribution is one of a variety of cognitive inferences that are included within social cognition, which is one of several theoretical models within social psychology. Social cognition has been the most dominant social psychological perspective within psychology since the 1960s, and this […]

BEHAVIORISM

Behaviorism is the conceptual framework underlying the science of behavior. The science itself is often referred to as the experimental analysis of behavior or behavior analysis. Modern behaviorism emphasizes the analysis of conditions that maintain and change behavior as well as the factors that influence the acquisition or learning of behavior. Behaviorists also offer concepts […]

BIRTH AND DEATH RATES

Much of the birth and death information published by governments is in absolute numbers. These raw data are difficult to interpret. For example, a comparison of the 42,087 births in Utah with the 189,392 in Florida in 1996 reveals nothing about the relative levels of fertility because Florida has a larger population (Ventura et al. […]

BUREAUCRACY

The origin of the term bureaucracy can be traced to eighteenth-century French literature (Albrow 1970). The early usage referred to an official workplace (bureau) in which individual activities were routinely determined by explicit rules and regulations. As modern systems of management, supervision, and control, bureaucracies are designed to rationally coordinate the duties and responsibilities of […]

BRITISH SOCIOLOGY

In a global age, the concept of British sociology poses an interesting question with regard to the viability of national sociologies. Neither academic disciplines nor the subjects studied fit easily into national boundaries. An academic’s closest colleague may be in New York or Delhi rather than in Lancaster or Birmingham. Key figures in British sociology, […]

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