My glossary on Social Sciences

Human sciences

This glossary was created to help better understand key concepts related to the field of Social Sciences. The terms included in this glossary are commonly used in courses such as Psychology, Sociology, Economics, and Political science.

Culture

noun

Culture is the shared set of beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that define a group, society, or organization.

Example: Due to the limited scope of this review the following lines will attempt to summarize only one of the chapters, namely Sakabe Megumi's 'Mask and Shadow in Japanese CULTURE: Implicit Ontology in Japanese Thought'.

fr: culture

socialization

noun

Socialization is the lifelong sociological process through which individuals learn and internalize the norms, values, behaviors, and social skills necessary to function as proficient members of a society.

Example: Indeed, Marxists argue that political SOCIALIZATION can become a mechanism of control, and that the dominant ideas of any moment of history simply reflect the interests of the ruling class.

fr: socialisation

society

noun

A large, organized group of individuals living together in a shared geographic or social territory, characterized by persistent interactions, common culture, institutions, and, typically, a shared political authority.

Example: In these terms decentralisation with the form of civil SOCIETY's participation in the decision making process could be considered as a way to provide a check on state power and therefore reduce corruption.

fr: société

Identity

noun

The fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

Example: IDENTITY is often defined in the contrast to the other (Wilson, 2002), that is, distinctive ways of seeing themselves in relation to others. The class IDENTITY, has served to describe the economic and social positions an individual has with related to others.

fr: Identité

Values

noun

The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.

Example: The common understanding of what the organization is and how employees should behaviour are related to dominant VALUES, the philosophy of the organization, basic assumptions and beliefs of members of the organization.

fr: valeurs

Economic

noun

Economy

noun

Refers to things related to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, and the science of economics, which studies how people make choices with limited resources (scarcity)

Example: Grossman and Helpman find in their model that whether trade promotes innovation in a small ECONOMY depends in particular on whether the ECONOMY's resources are channelled towards activities that generate long run growth via externalities in R&D, expanding product variety, upgrading product quality etc.

fr: Économie

Inequality

noun

Difference in size, degree, circumstances, etc.; lack of equality.

Example: Providing treatment that is the same can, in some situations, actually result in INEQUALITY.

fr: Inégalité

Power

noun

The capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events.

Example: Supernatural POWER inhabits those of high social status, thus making them dangerous to lower ranks and vice versa.

fr: pouvoir

Institutions

noun

A society or organization founded for a religious, educational, social, or similar purpose.

Example: It is important to note that partnership considers trade unions as secondary INSTITUTIONS.

fr: Institutions

Globalization

noun

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Example: Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (1992), The Problem of 'GLOBALIZATION': International Economic Relations, National Economic Management and the Formation of Trading Blocs, Economy and Society.

fr: Mondialisation

Politic

noun

Politics is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources.

Example: For persons who have associated together to form this sovereign, to be governed by it constitute the state or body POLITIC.

fr: politique

Motivation

noun

The psychological, emotional, and cognitive process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviors

Example: The most complex of these areas is altering the rewards system, as this links to theories of MOTIVATION and job design, of which there are many, often conflicting, views. There are two main theories of MOTIVATION - Extrinsic and Intrinsic. Extrinsic MOTIVATION focusses firmly upon the tangible aspects of rewards - pay, conditions and rewards that stem directly from task performance.

fr: Motivation

Behavior

noun

The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially toward others.

Example: Reading through reports on performances of the company, or brand results and comparing the figures also helps to understand customers and their BEHAVIOR.

fr: Comportement

Group

noun

A number of people or things that are located close together or are considered or classed together.

Example: Looking at chart two, from left to right, it can be seen that more is spent, on average, by each age GROUP as we move from Kwiksave through to Waitrose. From this table it is also possible to see that within each of the supermarkets, the highest spenders on chocolate (with the exception of Waitrose) are those in the '45+' age GROUP - confirming the data reported in chart one.

fr: Groupe

Social interaction

noun

The process of reciprocal, dynamic, and often symbolic communication between two or more individuals (or groups) where actions influence, and are influenced by, others.

Example: A review of the motivation literature identified a number of factors that influence travel decisions.'Escape from the everyday environment', 'novelty', 'cultural experience', 'SOCIAL INTERACTION', and 'prestige ' motivation factors

fr: Interaction sociale

Research

noun

Research is the systematic, diligent, and creative investigation of a subject to discover, interpret, or revise facts, theories, and applications.

Example: So the initial step to diversification is assessing potential demand for product using the tools of market RESEARCH, local knowledge and evaluation of local competing businesses.

fr: Recherche

Demography

noun

Demography is the scientific, statistical study of human populations, focusing on their size, composition, distribution, and changes over time.

Example: Regional Survey, DEMOGRAPHY, and the Rise of Complex Societies in the Ancient Aegean: Core-Periphery, Neo-Malthusian, and Other Interpretive Models, Journal of Field Archaeology .

fr: Démographie

Ideology

noun

An ideology is a structured set of beliefs, values, and ideas that shape how individuals or groups perceive, interpret, and interact with the social, political, and economic world.

Example: In Germany, the collapse of the Weimar Republic 'allowed the Nazis to recast German identity and IDEOLOGY' and their subsequent control of government apparatus meant they could alter social and racial policy to infiltrate anti-Semitic ideas

fr: Idéologie

Media

noun

The main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet) regarded collectively.

Example: Some are legal authorities such as government publications and law textbooks, others are items of news in the popular MEDIA, and others are technical journals and documents.

fr: Média

This glossary was made with the Virtual Writing Tutor glossary maker and grammar checker.