Category: Sociology Dictionary

  • Cooley’s “The looking glass self” Theory and Examples

    Charles Horton Cooley, in his work, Human nature and the Order, introduced the concept of “the looking glass self” in 1902. It can be explained as the reflection of what we think we appear in front of others or how we are viewed and conceived by others. Cooley used the term to explain the process…

  • Manifest and Latent Functions – Differences and Examples

    The function can be explained as the result or consequence of people’s action. These consequences can be either latent function or manifest function in any social institution. The distinction is explained by Robert K. Merton in his book, Social Theory and Social Structure, in 1949. Latent functions are those functions which are unintended or unrecognized…

  • Weber’s concept of bureaucracy and Characteristics

    Bureaucracy can be explained as the way in which a large number of people who work together are organized or administered. It is the body of non-elective government officials or a group that makes administrative policies. The term is derived from the French word; bureau, meaning desk or office, and the Greek word, Kratos, which…

  • What does Gentrification mean in sociology

    The term gentrification can be used to denote the various changes in the urban neighborhoods which includes economic changes due to the arrival of wealthier people such that rents and property values increase resulting in the displacement of the poor people. This process although leads to various positive changes like reduced crime rates, improvements in…

  • What is Genealogy ? Write a Short note ( Sociology of Kinship )

    Genealogy refers to the record of the history of the family or the tracing of the family’s lineages. It can also be called the study of descent for an individual, or a family constituting the family tree. Oral interviews from informants, historical records, analyzing the genetics, and some other methods are used in order to…

  • What Is the Meaning of Globalization in Sociology?

    Globalization as a process has been quite significant which can be seen as trying to bring closer the regions which were never close before. It is an ongoing process involving the ever-increasing integration in economic, cultural, social and political spheres between nations, states, and even small isolated regions. It is the exchange of cultural values,…

  • What is Goffman’s dramaturgical theory ( Impression Management)?

    Dramaturgical perspective was introduced in sociology in 1959 by Erving Goffman in his book ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life’. Erving Goffman studied the interactions that take place in society at the micro-level. He took this perspective from theatre, he uses theatre as a metaphor to represent how people behave in society and represent…