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The power to perform a mental or physical task—either before or after training. Social psychologists usually distinguish ability from aptitude, the natural capacity to acquire or learn a body of knowledge as measured in an aptitude test. Sociologists would probably distinguish ability and ...

Ruler of Fārs Province, wife of Mongol prince Tash-Möngke bin Hülegü Khan. A daughter of the Salghurid dynasty whose grandfather,

The state of ritual purity (ṭahārah) that is an essential condition for the fulfillment of many religious practices

A term originally associated with a call for the abolition of slavery on the grounds of its inhumanity (see, for example, the arguments of ...

The deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. In many countries women may request such a termination within a specific period

The legal status of abortion in the United States has undergone dramatic shifts, while its practice has been consistent. Throughout

In the medical sense, abortion is the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable and is capable of survival

The phrase refers to women’s right to demand an abortion if they so wish rather than, for example, needing to

A strong and centralized form of state typical of societies in the process of transition from *feudalism to *...

A term coined by C. Wright Mills in The Sociological Imagination (1959) to refer to the work of those sociologists who equate a strong and rigid ...

One of two models, the other being the *pressure and release model (PAR model), that have been developed by

An event with a negative, unwanted outcome. The meaning of the term has developed over the last centuries from the

The process whereby the norms, practices, and values of a given cultural context are adopted by those who are, or

A social-psychological process of acquiring, modifying, and adapting from a parent culture to a host culture. This process occurs over time and includes adjusting to the customs, values, behaviours, style, and other aspects of the host culture. In relation to gangs, failure to properly acculturate to the culture of the United States is a criminogenic ...