Socialization: the process whereby individuals acquire the modifications of behavior and the values needed for the stability of the social group of which they are or become members.

Family: Definition under development!

Stratification: the formation and establishment of social or cultural levels resulting from differences in occupation and political, economic, or other influences.

Class: a group of people of the same or similar socioeconomic milieu, having a certain community of interests and behaviors.

Bureaucracy: the concentration of authority in a complex structure of administration, characterized by routine, insistence on forms ("red tape") and regulations, a tendency toward abstract, "plastic" language, and impersonal decision-making.

Deviance: patterns of conduct which depart from the rules or expectations for behavior that govern social life.

Social control: any social mechanism by which individuals are compelled to follow the rules or conform to the standards of society. Social control may be external, taking the form of punishments for deviant behavior, or internal, being established by the socialization process.

Legitimation: the ways in which the institutions of the social world are explained or justified.