Social Science Tutorials

Socialization: The lifelong process through which individuals learn and internalise the values, beliefs, and norms of their society.
Culture: The shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that characterise a group or society.
Norms: Implicit or explicit rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviour of its members.
Anomie: A state of normlessness or breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community, often leading to social instability.
Agency: The capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices.
Structure: The recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available to individuals.
Stratification: The hierarchical arrangement of individuals into social strata (classes, castes) based on wealth, power, and prestige.
Hegemony: The leadership or dominance of one social group or state over others, often maintained through cultural beliefs rather than military force.
Identity: The distinct personality of an individual or the characteristics of a group that define who they are.
Ideology: A system of ideas, ideals, and beliefs that forms the basis of economic, social, or political theory.
Xenophobia: Dislike of, contempt for, or prejudice against people from other countries or cultures.
Ethnocentrism: The tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to judge other cultures based on one's own standards.
Subculture: A cultural group within a larger culture that has beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture.
Assimilation: The process by which a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing dominant culture.
Alienation: A condition in social relationships reflected by a low degree of integration or common values and a high degree of isolation.
Bourgeoisie: The social class that owns the means of production in a capitalist society (the capitalist class).
Proletariat: The social class consisting of wage earners or workers who do not own the means of production.
Collectivism: A cultural or political value that prioritises the goals and well-being of the group over the individual.
Individualism: A social theory or outlook that prioritises the freedom and independent action of the individual over collective control.
Deviance: Behaviour or actions that violate informal cultural norms or formally enacted rules and laws.
Authority: The legitimate or socially approved use of power that people accept as right or just.
Sovereignty: The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power or authority by which an independent state is governed.
Bureaucracy: A system of government or administration marked by hierarchal authority, job specialisation, and formal rules.
Democracy: A system of government where power is vested in the people, who rule either directly or through freely elected representatives.
Totalitarianism: A political system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life.
Legitimacy: The popular acceptance and recognition of the validity of a governing regime or law.
Geopolitics: The study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations.
Nationalism: An ideology and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining sovereignty.
Imperialism: A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force over foreign lands.
Colonialism: The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
Governance: The traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good.
Pluralism: A political philosophy that views society as being composed of diverse groups with competing and conflicting interests.
Populism: A political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
Capitalism: An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.
Socialism: A political and economic theory of social organisation which advocates that the means of production should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Fascism: A far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology characterised by dictatorial power and forcible suppression of opposition.
Franchise: The right to vote in public, political elections.
Civil Society: The aggregate of non-governmental organisations and institutions that manifest the interests and will of citizens.
State: A nation or territory considered as an organised political community under one government.
Constitution: A body of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organisation is acknowledged to be governed.
Globalization: The process by which businesses, technologies, or philosophies spread throughout the world, increasing global interconnectedness.
Capital: Wealth in the form of money or other assets owned by a person or organisation or contributed for a purpose such as starting a company or investing.
Infrastructure: The basic physical and organisational structures and facilities (e.g., buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society.
Sustenance: The maintaining of someone or something in life or expression; or the basic food and drink required to survive.
Scarcity: The fundamental economic problem of having seemingly unlimited human wants in a world with limited resources.
Commodification: The transformation of goods, services, ideas, and people into objects of trade or commodities.
Recession: A period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters.
Inflation: A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year.
Socioeconomic Status (SES): An economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic and social position.
Neoliberalism: A contemporary manifestation of reform capitalism emphasizing deregulation, free markets, privatization, and minimal government intervention.
Proletarianization: The social process whereby people move from being either an employer or self-employed to being employed as wage labour by an employer.
Marginal Utility: The additional satisfaction or benefit a consumer gains from consuming one more unit of a good or service.
Microeconomics: The part of economics concerned with single factors and the effects of individual decisions.
Macroeconomics: The part of economics concerned with large-scale or general economic factors, such as interest rates and national productivity.
Sustainable Development: Economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources, meeting current needs without compromising future generations.
Distribution: The way total output, income, or wealth is distributed among individuals or among the factors of production.
Austerity: Difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce a budget deficit, usually by cutting public spending.
Monopoly: The exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.
Externalities: A side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved.
Cognition: The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.
Empathetic: The capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference.
Psyche: The human soul, mind, or spirit, regarded as the centre of thought, emotion, and behaviour.
Habitus: A system of embodied dispositions, tendencies, and habits that individuals acquire through their life experiences (popularised by Pierre Bourdieu).
Intersectionality: The interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
Gender: The socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions, and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender-diverse people.
Race: A social construct used to classify humans into physically, socially, and culturally distinct groups, often associated with systemic hierarchies.
Ethnicity: The fact or state of belonging to a social group that shares a common national or cultural tradition.
Prejudice: Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience; an irrational hostile attitude directed against an individual or group.
Bias: Disproportionate weight in favour of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair.
Altruism: The belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others.
Behaviorism: The theory that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings.
Heuristic: A mental shortcut that allows people to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently.
Dissonance (Cognitive): The mental discomfort that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes.
Social Constructionism: A theory that proposes that jointly constructed understandings of the world form the basis for shared assumptions about reality.
Neurosis: A relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress but not a radical loss of touch with reality.
Stereotype: A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
Kinship: Web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, often based on blood or marriage.
Stigma: A mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.
Social Identity Theory: A person's sense of who they are based on their group membership(s).
Empiricism: The theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience and validated through systematic observation or experimentation.
Epistemology: The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.
Ontology: The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being, reality, and what can be said to exist.
Quantitative: Relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity or amount of something rather than its quality (involving numbers and statistics).
Qualitative: Relating to, measuring, or measuring by the quality of something rather than its quantity (involving words, descriptions, and meanings).
Methodology: A system of broad principles or rules from which specific methods or procedures may be derived to interpret or solve data problems.
Hypothesis: A proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
Variables: Any characteristics, number, or quantity that can be measured or counted in a research study.
Correlation: A mutual relationship or connection between two or more things, where changes in one coincide with changes in another (though not necessarily causing them).
Causation: The action of causing something; the relationship between cause and effect.
Objectivity: The quality of being neutral, fair, and open-minded, without letting personal biases or feelings influence the interpretation of facts.
Subjectivity: The quality of being based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
Validity: The extent to which a concept, conclusion, or measurement is well-founded and corresponds accurately to the real world.
Reliability: The degree to which a research instrument or method produces stable and consistent results over time.
Paradigm: A distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, and standards for what constitutes legitimate contributions to a field.
Positivism: A philosophical system recognizing only that which can be scientifically verified or which is capable of logical or mathematical proof.
Phenomenology: An approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience from a first-person viewpoint.
Ethnography: The scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures through immersive fieldwork.
Determinism: The philosophical doctrine that all events, including human actions, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will.
Dialectic: A discourse between two opposing ideological sides, where a thesis and its antithesis interact to produce a new synthesis.
Meritocracy: A social system in which advancement and success are based strictly on individual ability and effort rather than wealth or social position.
Gentrification: The process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses, often displacing poorer residents.
Secularization: The historical process by which religion loses social, cultural, and political significance in society.
Social Capital: The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively.
Cultural Capital: The social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech, dress, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society.
Intertextuality: The relationship between texts, especially how a text's meaning is shaped by other texts in social discourse.
Hyperreality: A condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction for the spectator.
Simulacra: Representations or copies of things that either had no original to begin with, or that no longer have an original (popularized by Jean Baudrillard).
Biopolitics: The examination of how human life and processes of the body are regulated, managed, and controlled by political power.
Intersectionality: The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, creating overlapping systems of discrimination.
Cultural Relativism: The practice of judging a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one's own culture.
Xenocentrism: The preference for the products, styles, culture, or ideas of a society other than one's own.
Social Cohesion: The strength of bonds and the sense of solidarity that link people together in a society.
Stigmatization: The process of branding or labeling an individual or group as socially unacceptable, leading to disgrace and discrimination.
Counterculture: A subculture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to it.
Diaspora: The dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland across the globe.
Transnationalism: The diffusion of practices, relations, and identities across the borders of nation-states.
Mores: The essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a community that carry strong moral significance.
Folkways: The traditional behavior customs of a common group, usually carrying less moral weight than mores.
Taboo: A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.
Authoritarianism: A political system that concentrates power in the hands of a leader or a small elite that is not constitutionally accountable to the body public.
Oligarchy: A small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution, usually based on wealth or status.
Plutocracy: A society or system that is governed and controlled strictly by the wealthiest class.
Technocracy: A system of governance where decision-makers are selected on the basis of their technological, scientific, or specialized expertise.
Gerrymandering: The manipulation of the boundaries of an electoral constituency so as to favor one party or class.
Jurisprudence: The theoretical philosophy and science of law and how legal systems operate.
Realpolitik: A system of politics or principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations.
Supranationalism: An alliance involving three or more countries for their mutual benefit such as economic, cultural or political shared governance.
Devolution: The statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level.
Unicameralism: A legislative structure consisting of only one chamber or house.
Bicameralism: A legislative structure split into two distinct houses or chambers, such as a Senate and a House of Representatives.
Hegemonic Stability: The theory that the international system is more likely to remain stable when a single nation-state is the dominant world power.
Neocolonialism: The use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.
Autocracy: A system of government by one person with absolute power over all institutions.
Cleavage: A historically determined social or cultural line which divides citizens into factions or voting blocs.
Discourse: Written or spoken communication or debate that reflects and shapes social structures and power dynamics.
Clientelism: A social structure or political approach based on the exchange of goods and services for political support.
Demagogy: A political strategy for gaining power and popularity by appealing to the prejudices and passions of the common people.
Statism: A political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs.
Coalition: A temporary alliance of distinct political parties or factions formed for joint action, especially in government.
Mercantilism: An economic policy designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy, prominent in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century.
Keynesianism: An economic theory advocating for active government intervention and spending to manage economic recessions and promote growth.
Monetarism: A school of economic thought that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation to achieve stability.
Protectionism: The economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods and restrictive quotas.
Fiscal Policy: The use of government spending and taxation to influence the trajectory and health of a nation's economy.
Monetary Policy: The macroeconomic policy laid down by a central bank involving the management of money supply and interest rates.
Opportunity Cost: The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one specific alternative is chosen.
Microcredit: The lending of small amounts of money at low interest to new businesses or individuals in developing countries to stimulate self-sufficiency.
Cartel: An association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.
Laissez-faire: A policy or attitude of total non-interference by governments in the economic affairs of individuals and society.
Stagflation: An economic condition characterized by slow economic growth and relatively high unemployment accompanied by rising prices (inflation).
Command Economy: An economy in which production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government department.
Market Failure: A situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not efficient, often leading to net social loss.
Human Capital: The collective skills, knowledge, or other intangible assets of individuals that can be used to create economic value for the individuals, their employers, or their community.
Circular Economy: An economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources through recycling, reuse, and repair.
Dependency Theory: The notion that resources flow from a 'periphery' of poor and underdeveloped states to a 'core' of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former.
Deindustrialization: The decline of industrial activity, particularly manufacturing, in a region or economy.
Informal Economy: The part of an economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government.
Capital Flight: A large-scale exodus of financial assets and capital from a nation due to events such as economic instability or high taxes.
Gini Coefficient: A statistical measure of economic inequality in a population, measuring income or wealth distribution.
Neuroplasticity: The ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience.
Behavior Modification: The alteration of behavioral patterns through the use of learning techniques such as biofeedback, reinforcement, or aversion therapy.
Social Facilitation: The tendency for people to perform differently when in the presence of others than when alone, often improving on simple tasks.
Groupthink: The practice of thinking or making decisions as a group in a way that discourages creativity or individual responsibility.
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.
Somatic: Relating to the human body, especially as distinct from the human mind.
Affective: Relating to, arising from, or influencing feelings, moods, or emotions.
Psychoanalysis: A system of psychological theory and therapy that aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind.
Internalization: The psychological process where a person integrates an external belief, value, or norm into their own personal identity.
Projection: A psychological defense mechanism in which individuals attribute their own unacceptable thoughts, feeling, or motives onto another person.
Egocentrism: The inability to accurately differentiate between oneself and others, or to see a situation from another person's perspective.
Operant Conditioning: A method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior, pioneered by B.F. Skinner.
Classical Conditioning: A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired, pioneered by Ivan Pavlov.
Social Loafing: The phenomenon of a person exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone.
Self-Actualization: The realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, considered as a drive or need present in everyone (Abraham Maslow).
Emotional Intelligence: The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.
Anomie: A condition of instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values or from a lack of a purpose or ideals.
Collectivity: A gathering of people who share some common interest or characteristic but lack a highly structured continuous organization.
Altruistic Suicide: Suicide committed for the benefit of others or due to extreme integration into a social group, according to Émile Durkheim.
Looking-Glass Self: The social psychological concept stating that a person's self-concept grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others.
Hermeneutics: The branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially the interpretation of human action, culture, and texts.
Constructivism: A theory of knowledge arguing that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas.
Falsifiability: The capacity for a theory or hypothesis to be proven wrong or inherently testable by empirical experimentation.
Inductive Reasoning: A logical process in which multiple premises, all believed true or found true most of the time, are combined to obtain a specific conclusion.
Deductive Reasoning: A logical process in which a conclusion is based on the concordance of multiple premises that are generally assumed to be true.
Grounded Theory: A systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the construction of theories through methodical gathering and analysis of data.
Triangulation: The use of multiple methods or data sources in qualitative research to develop a comprehensive understanding of phenomena.
Operationalization: The process of strictly defining variables into measurable factors to allow them to be analyzed empirically.
Double-Blind Study: An experimental procedure in which neither the participants nor the researchers know who is receiving a particular treatment.
Ethnomethodology: A perspective within sociology which focuses on the methods people use to produce and sustain their shared social order.
Structuralism: A method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behavior, culture, and experience that focuses on relationships of contrast between elements.
Post-Structuralism: An extension of structuralism that emphasizes the instability of language and social systems, rejecting absolute truths.
Reductionism: The practice of analyzing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents.
Holism: The theory that parts of a whole cannot exist or be understood except in their relation to the whole.
Confounding Variable: An unmeasured third variable in a study that influences both the supposed cause and the supposed effect, distorting findings.
Sampling Bias: A bias in which a sample is collected in such a way that some members of the intended population are less or more likely to be included.
Cohort Study: A longitudinal study that samples a cohort (a group of people who share a defining characteristic) performing a cross-section at intervals through time.
Cross-Sectional Study: A type of observational study that analyzes data from a population, or a representative subset, at one specific point in time.
Longitudinal Study: A research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables over short or long periods of time.
Teleology: The explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by their postulated causes.

Belltes Academy

Our use of cookie and other technologies