6,078 articles
Social learning theory
Social learning theory, developed by Albert Bandura (1925-2021), explains how people learn behaviors by observing and imitating models through attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation, with vicarious reinforcement and reciprocal determinism; known from the 1961 Bobo doll experiments.
Social loafing
Social loafing is the reduction in individual effort that occurs when people work in a group rather than alone, first named in 1979 clapping and shouting experiments.
Social movement
A social movement is a sustained network using unconventional means, shared beliefs, and solidarity to pursue conflictual aims. Covers classical, resource mobilization, political process, new social movement, and framing theories, plus digital-era protest.
Social network
Social network: a set of actors (nodes) connected by ties (relationships), studied via social network analysis founded in Moreno's 1930s sociometry; distinct from social network sites like Facebook, which make networks visible online.
Social networking service
Social networking service (SNS): online platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X where users build profiles and connection lists. Defined by boyd and Ellison; began with SixDegrees.com in 1997; distinct from topical forums and social media generally.
Social norm
Social norm: an informal, self-enforcing rule of behavior in a group, distinct from law and moral norms, sustained by descriptive and injunctive expectations and by sanctions ranging from disapproval to ostracism.
Social organization
Social organization: the patterned arrangement of relationships, roles, groups, institutions, and networks coordinating a society, studied through functionalism, conflict theory, interactionism, network science, emergency-response frameworks, and digital platforms.
Social proof
Social proof, popularized by Robert Cialdini's Influence (1984), is the tendency to decide what is correct by observing what similar others do, strongest under uncertainty; an informational form of conformity distinct from normative influence.
Social psychology
Social psychology, a field shared with sociology (sociological social psychology), is the scientific study of how individuals think, feel, and behave in social contexts. Key facts: Lewin's Behavior = f(person, situation), Sherif, Asch, Milgram, Zimbardo landmark studies, and the replication crisis.
Social rejection
Social rejection: being explicitly told one is not wanted; related to ostracism (being ignored and excluded) and social exclusion. Threatens belonging, self-esteem, control, meaningful existence; studied chiefly via the Cyberball paradigm; meta-analytic effects large (d > 1.4).
Social relation
Social relation: a connection between people who are at least minimally interdependent, influencing each other's thoughts, feelings, or behavior; central concept of sociology (Weber, Simmel, Marx), classified structurally and functionally, and measured in relationship science and health research.
Social science
Social science: the study of society and human behavior, spanning disciplines such as economics, sociology, psychology, and demography; uses quantitative, qualitative, and experimental methods under human-subjects rules and informs public policy.
Social services
Social services: organized public and voluntary programs delivering cash and in-kind benefits across the life cycle, also called social protection or social security; three pillars (social assistance, social insurance, labour market programs), about 20% of OECD GDP in spending, and persistent non-take-up of eligible benefits.
Social skills
Social skills: competencies for verbal and nonverbal interaction and communication. Covers definitions, component skills, history of social skills training, and effectiveness evidence in ADHD, autism, and psychiatric populations.
Social status
Social status is an individual's or group's rank of respect and admiration in a social hierarchy, attained via dominance (coercion) or prestige (valued knowledge), signaled through cues like speech, appearance, and titles, and studied across psychology and Weberian sociology.
Social stigma
Social stigma: discrediting social marks triggering labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination per Link and Phelan, following Goffman; studied across public, self, felt, and structural forms in health.
Social stratification
Social stratification is sociology's term for ranking people into hierarchical layers by wealth, income, education, race, and power, studied through caste and class systems, Marx, Weber, and Davis-Moore theory.
Social structure
Social structure: the stable arrangement of statuses, roles, groups, networks, and institutions organizing a society. Covers Durkheim's solidarity, Marx's base and superstructure, Weber's class, status, and power, and functionalist versus relational conceptions.
Social structure of China
Social structure of China (中国社会结构): the organized pattern of families, classes, urban-rural groups, and institutions in Chinese society, marked by shrinking households, hukou-based urban-rural division, a pyramid-shaped stratum structure, rapid urbanization, and population aging.
Social support
Social support: the provision of psychological and material resources by a social network to help cope with stress (Cohen). Covers emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal types, stress buffering, and intervention evidence.
Social system
Social system: the ordered arrangement of roles, institutions, and communications analyzed as a whole, central to Parsons' structural functionalism and Luhmann's autopoietic systems theory.
Social work
Social work is a practice-based profession and academic discipline promoting social change, social justice, human rights, and wellbeing. Known internationally through the IFSW 2014 global definition, it arose from 19th-century charity and settlement movements, with clinical licensure, NASW ethics codes, and about 728,600 US workers in 2022.
Socialist feminism
Socialist feminism, a 1970s feminist current combining Marxist and radical feminism, explains women's oppression through capitalism and patriarchy together, via concepts like capitalist patriarchy, dual systems theory, and social reproduction theory.
Socialite
Socialite: a wealthy, fashionable person famous for attending elite parties and events rather than for achievement; also called high-society or leisured-class figures; distinguished from celebrities and debutantes by lifestyle-based fame and externally applied labeling.
Socialization
Socialization is the lifelong process of social interaction by which people develop a social identity, learn societal norms, and come to participate effectively in society.
Societal attitudes toward homosexuality
Societal attitudes toward homosexuality, measured by Pew and Gallup acceptance questions since 1994 and 2002, divide sharply by region, wealth, religion, age and ideology, rising globally yet dropping recently among U.S. Republicans.
Society
Society: a population sharing a territory, culture, and political authority. Covers Lenski's societal types, social institutions, cohesion and inequality research, and UN data on exclusion, aging, and labor.
Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London learned society founded 1882, first to investigate psychic phenomena scientifically; founded by William Fletcher Barrett, first president Henry Sidgwick; published Phantasms of the Living and Journal since 1884.
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
SPCA societies are independent animal welfare charities tracing to the 1824 London founding; examples include RSPCA, ASPCA, and SPCA New Zealand, which differ sharply in legal enforcement powers and funding.
Sociobiological theories of rape
Sociobiological theories of rape, chiefly Thornhill and Palmer's A Natural History of Rape (2000), explain rape as an evolved adaptation or by-product; contested by feminist and social science critics.