127,669 articles
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 research
Social research: systematic study of human societies using surveys, field research, experiments, and secondary data analysis. Rooted in Enlightenment thought and Comte's positivism, shaped by Durkheim, Weber, and Marx, and now including mixed methods designs.
Social responsibility
Social responsibility: the obligation of organizations and individuals to benefit society beyond legal and profit requirements; in business known as CSR, rooted in Bowen's 1953 work, Carroll's pyramid, ISO 26000, and modern ESG law.
Social return on investment
Social return on investment (SROI) is a framework used in nonprofit and social enterprise management that expresses social value as a ratio, such as £3 per £1 invested.
Social revolution
Social revolution: rapid, violent transformation of a society's class structure together with its government and regime, distinct from coups and political revolutions; classic cases are France 1789, Russia 1917, and China 1911–1949.
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 Sciences and Humanities Research Council
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) is Canada's federal agency funding postsecondary research and training in the social sciences and humanities, created in 1977.
Social Security
Social Security, formally Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI), is the United States federal program paying monthly benefits to about 70 million retired and disabled workers.
Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952
ILO Convention No. 102, adopted 28 June 1952 and in force 27 April 1955, is the flagship international treaty setting minimum social security standards across nine branches, with ratification of at least three branches required.
Social Security Act
The Social Security Act (Public Law 74-271, H.R. 7260) is the 1935 U.S. federal statute signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935, creating old-age benefits, unemployment compensation grants, and aid programs, later expanded by the 1939, 1950, 1965 Medicare, and 1972 amendments.
Social Security Administration
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the United States federal agency that administers Social Security, paying monthly retirement, survivors, and disability benefits to 70 million people.
Social Security Appeals Tribunal
The Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT) was an Australian tribunal reviewing social security, family assistance, and child support decisions, merged into the AAT in 2015.
Social Security Disability Insurance
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a federal social insurance program paying monthly cash benefits to disabled workers and certain dependents, funded by a payroll tax share.
Social Security System (Philippines)
The Social Security System (SSS) is the Philippine state social-insurance agency, created in 1954, that collects compulsory contributions from private-sector workers and pays retirement, sickness, maternity, disability, and death benefits.
Social Security Tribunal of Canada
The Social Security Tribunal of Canada (SST, Tribunal de la sécurité sociale) is an independent administrative tribunal, operating since April 1, 2013 under Part 5 of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act, hearing EI, CPP, OAS, and Canada Disability Benefit appeals through a General Division and an Appeal Division.
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 studies
Social studies is school education studying individuals, communities, systems, and their interactions across time and place to prepare students for civic life, spanning history, geography, economics, civics, and the social sciences, formally named in 1916 and internationally assessed by IEA's ICCS.
Social studies of science
Social Studies of Science (Soc Stud Sci) is a bimonthly Sage peer-reviewed STS journal, founded 1971 as Science Studies by David Edge and Roy MacLeod, renamed 1975, ISSN 0306-3127.
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 theory
Social theory is the systematic body of ideas, concepts, and explanatory speculations about how human societies form, change, and disappear. Covering classical traditions (Marx, Weber, Durkheim), functionalism, conflict theory, and dialogic approaches, it differs from sociological description by demanding abstraction and explanation.