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Terms of Sociology

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Idiographic & Nomothetic
Idiographic discipline is concerned with particular propositions while nomothetic is concerned with general propositions. This distinction was made by Wilhelm Windleband.

Incest Taboo
This is almost a universal phenomenon according to which sexual relationship between near kins (usually primary relatives like siblings, children etc.) is prohibited. The attribution of incest taboo to fear of inbreeding, socialization etc. is discussed by Levi Strauss. Freud has also discussed it in `Totem and Taboo' (1917).

Initiation Rites & Rites de Passage
It is a ceremonial process associated with rituals by which a person takes new position and role according to the new status. The term initiation rites are associated with the ceremonial activities attached with the rite de passage from childhood to adulthood.

Invisible Religion
T Luckmann argues that religion should not be identified merely with religious institutions but that the human animal is essentially religious in its transcendence of biological nature. Such transcendence is possible through the creation of a meaningful sense of SELF a process that usually takes place in the context of a world-view that gives everyday life its ultimate significance. In modern societies Luckman claims that a new social form for religion is emerging based on consumer preference and possessing a more differentiated character than in the traditional world.

Idealistic Society
A society in which the culture represents a compromise between the ideational and sensate types of cultures.

Ideational Society
A society which exalts spiritual values over material value.

Industrial Society
A society in which an industrial economy crucially affects the social relations among the people. It is one in which large masses of people who form the labor force live in large urban areas. They are differentiated into numerous status levels based on differences in wealth, political power, occupational status and speacialization.Bacause of the use of mass production techniques a wide variety of goods are produced and the living standards are high. It is a society in which because of its size much of the social interaction is formal, government is distant and mechanical and mass communication methods have to be used to reach the people.

Industrial Sociology
The study of the effect of work in industry on the way of life of workmen ;it includes the study of work groups as social units and the social relations in theses groups, it views workmen not as faceless cogs in an impersonal enterprise, but as human beings with hopes,fears,shortcomings,aspirations and self-esteem who carry on a peculiar tradition observe a work oriented status system and live a certain way of life which is largely affected by the occupations.

Initiation Rites
A ceremony commemorating the admission of a person into a new status level of group.

Institution
The social norms and standardized practices which are performed by special functionaries in meeting continuous or recurring human requirements. The term is often loosely applied to a public building.

Institutionalization
The process of formalizing and standing the social practices which serve to maintain the important social values and establish regular procedures of control in a society.

Integration
In the social sciences the term is used in various contexts to refer to the act of process of unifying things which were previously discrete and separate in to a composite whole.

Intelligence
The capacity for learning new habits and insights to retain learned ones to adapt to new situations adequately to see relationships among phenomena to solve problems to anticipate the actions of others and so on. The measurable abilities to solve problems analyse logical fallacies to learn new knowledge and to retain learned knowledge.

Incest Taboo
This is almost a universal phenomenon according to which sexual relationship between near kins (usually primary relatives like siblings, children etc) is prohibited. The attribution of incest taboo to fear of inbreeding, socialization etc is discussed by Levi Strauss. Freud has also discussed it in Totem and Taboo.

Initiation rites and Rites de passage
It is a ceremonial process associated with rituals by which a person takes new position and role according to the new status. The term initiation rites are associated with the ceremonial activities attached with the rites de passage from childhood to adulthood.

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