© EVERLY 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SYG 2000 Final Exam Review Study Guide.
Sociological Imagination - C. Wright Mills - Answer✔The ability to see the connections
between our personal experience and the larger forces of history. This is what we do when we
question our textbook and college in general.
Verstehen - Max Weber - Answer✔"understanding" in German. Suggests that sociologists
approach social behavior from the perspective of those engaging in it.
Double Consciousness -W.E.B. Du Bois - Answer✔A mechanism by which African Americans
have two behavioral scripts. The first is the script that any American would have by moving
through the world. The second is the script that takes the external opinions of an often racially
prejudiced onlooker into consideration.
Conflict Theory - Karl Marx - Answer✔Marx's theory that conflicts between classes drives
social change throughout history. In Marx's version of history, each economic system// had its
own fault lines of conflict. Basically says that conflict among competing interests is the basic,
animating force of any society.
Feminist Theory - Answer✔a conflict theory and theoretical perspective which observes gender
in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction and reflexivity within a social
structure at large. Focuses include sexual orientation, race, economic status, and nationality.
Symbolic Interaction Theory - Answer✔Eschewed big theories of society and instead focused on
how face-to-face interactions create the social world.
Post-modernism Theory - Answer✔a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of
progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even
conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations.
Qualitative methods - Answer✔attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot
be readily converted to numeric form.
Quantitative methods - Answer✔seek to obtain information about the social world that is already
in or can be converted to numeric form.
Deductive approach - Answer✔starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical
observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.
Inductive approach - Answer✔starts with empirical observations and then works to form a
theory.
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, © EVERLY 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Causality vs. Correlation - Answer✔Causality means that a change in one factor causes a change
in another. Correlation, however, just means that we observe a change in both.
The Challenges of Establishing Causality - Answer✔Time order is important or reverse causality
can occur in which you would think that A results in change in B, but really B is causing a
change in A.
Dependent Variables - Answer✔The outcome that the researcher is trying to explain.
Independent Variables - Answer✔A measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal
impact on the dependent variable.
Hypothesis - Answer✔A proposed relationship between two variables.
Hypothesis Testing - Answer✔Relates to operationalization, which is the process of assigning a
precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study. Really helps
us see how to pieces of a puzzle fit together.
Culture - Answer✔A set of beliefs, traditions, and practices; the sum of the social categories and
concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs. In addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual
ones) and practices; everything but the natural environment around us.
Ethnocentrism - Answer✔The belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others, and the
tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own.
Material culture - Answer✔Everything that is a part of our constructed, physical environment,
including technology.
Nonmaterial culture - Answer✔Values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.
Ideology - Answer✔a system of concepts and relationships; an understanding of cause and
effect.
Cultural relativism - Answer✔Taking into account the differences across cultures without
passing judgement or assigning value.
Cultural Scripts - Answer✔Modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or
natural.
Subculture - Answer✔the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in
society; a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the
members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or
society.
Hegemony - Antonio Gramsci - Answer✔A condition by which a dominant group uses its power
to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses.
Political Economy of the Media - Media concentration - Answer✔Most broadcasting companies
are privately owned in the United States, are financially supported by advertising, and are
therefore likely to reflect the biases of their owners and backers. As corporate control of the
2|Page
SYG 2000 Final Exam Review Study Guide.
Sociological Imagination - C. Wright Mills - Answer✔The ability to see the connections
between our personal experience and the larger forces of history. This is what we do when we
question our textbook and college in general.
Verstehen - Max Weber - Answer✔"understanding" in German. Suggests that sociologists
approach social behavior from the perspective of those engaging in it.
Double Consciousness -W.E.B. Du Bois - Answer✔A mechanism by which African Americans
have two behavioral scripts. The first is the script that any American would have by moving
through the world. The second is the script that takes the external opinions of an often racially
prejudiced onlooker into consideration.
Conflict Theory - Karl Marx - Answer✔Marx's theory that conflicts between classes drives
social change throughout history. In Marx's version of history, each economic system// had its
own fault lines of conflict. Basically says that conflict among competing interests is the basic,
animating force of any society.
Feminist Theory - Answer✔a conflict theory and theoretical perspective which observes gender
in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction and reflexivity within a social
structure at large. Focuses include sexual orientation, race, economic status, and nationality.
Symbolic Interaction Theory - Answer✔Eschewed big theories of society and instead focused on
how face-to-face interactions create the social world.
Post-modernism Theory - Answer✔a condition characterized by a questioning of the notion of
progress and history, the replacement of narrative within pastiche, and multiple, perhaps even
conflicting, identities resulting from disjointed affiliations.
Qualitative methods - Answer✔attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot
be readily converted to numeric form.
Quantitative methods - Answer✔seek to obtain information about the social world that is already
in or can be converted to numeric form.
Deductive approach - Answer✔starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical
observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.
Inductive approach - Answer✔starts with empirical observations and then works to form a
theory.
1|Page
, © EVERLY 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Causality vs. Correlation - Answer✔Causality means that a change in one factor causes a change
in another. Correlation, however, just means that we observe a change in both.
The Challenges of Establishing Causality - Answer✔Time order is important or reverse causality
can occur in which you would think that A results in change in B, but really B is causing a
change in A.
Dependent Variables - Answer✔The outcome that the researcher is trying to explain.
Independent Variables - Answer✔A measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal
impact on the dependent variable.
Hypothesis - Answer✔A proposed relationship between two variables.
Hypothesis Testing - Answer✔Relates to operationalization, which is the process of assigning a
precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study. Really helps
us see how to pieces of a puzzle fit together.
Culture - Answer✔A set of beliefs, traditions, and practices; the sum of the social categories and
concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs. In addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual
ones) and practices; everything but the natural environment around us.
Ethnocentrism - Answer✔The belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others, and the
tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own.
Material culture - Answer✔Everything that is a part of our constructed, physical environment,
including technology.
Nonmaterial culture - Answer✔Values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.
Ideology - Answer✔a system of concepts and relationships; an understanding of cause and
effect.
Cultural relativism - Answer✔Taking into account the differences across cultures without
passing judgement or assigning value.
Cultural Scripts - Answer✔Modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or
natural.
Subculture - Answer✔the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in
society; a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the
members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or
society.
Hegemony - Antonio Gramsci - Answer✔A condition by which a dominant group uses its power
to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses.
Political Economy of the Media - Media concentration - Answer✔Most broadcasting companies
are privately owned in the United States, are financially supported by advertising, and are
therefore likely to reflect the biases of their owners and backers. As corporate control of the
2|Page
