SYG 2000 FINAL EXAM VERIFIED STUDY GUIDE
Sociological Imagination - C. Wright Mills - Answers - The ability to see the connections
between our personal experience and the larger forces of history.
(The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to
seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces.)
Verstehen - Max Weber - Answers - Researchers imagine themselves experiencing the
life positions of the social actors they want to understand rather than treating those
people as objects to be examined.
Double Consciousness -W.E.B. Du Bois - Answers - A concept conceived by W. E. B.
Du Bois to describe the two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and
the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers, which are
constantly maintained by African Americans.
Conflict Theory - Karl Marx - Answers - The idea that conflict between competing
interests is the force of social change and society in general.
(- the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of
social change and society in general.
Example: Religion contributes to stratification. Keeps followers working.)
Feminist Theory - Answers - is an emphasis on women's experiences and a belief that
sociology and society in general subordinate women.
-very similar to marxism. conflict & political reform.
-research focuses on inequalities based on gender categories.
symbolic interaction theory - Answers - a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions.
(example: A drawing of a heart means love.)
Post-modernism Theory - Answers - 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.
(example: A red light, for instance, may have multiple meanings to different groups or
individuals in society. There is no longer one version of history that is correct.)
,Quantitative Approaches - Answers - Methods that seek to obtain information about the
social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form. This methodology
then uses statistical analysis to describe the social world that those data represent.
Qualitative Approaches - Answers - (methods that attempt to collect information about
the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.)
-The information gathered with this approach is often used to document the meanings
that actions engender in social participants or to describe the mechanisms by which
social processes occur.
Deductive Methods - Answers - a research approach that starts with a theory, forms a
hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm,
reject, or modify the original theory.
Inductive Methods - Answers - a research approach that starts with empirical
observations and then works to form a theory.
Causality - Answers - (the notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding
change in another.)
-To establish causality, three factors are needed: correlation, time order, and ruling out
alternative explanations.
Correlation - Answers - when two variables tend to track each other positively or
negatively.
(-For example, people with higher levels of income tend to enjoy better overall health.)
The Challenges of Establishing Causality - Answers - three factors are needed:
correlation, Time order and ruling out alternative explanations
Dependent Variables - Answers - the outcome the researcher is trying to explain.
(-The difference between the independent and the dependent variables is that change
in your dependent variable depends on change in your independent variable.)
Independent variable - Answers - a measured factor that the researcher believes has a
causal impact on the dependent variable.
Hypothesis - Answers - a proposed relationship between two variables, usually with a
stated direction.
Hypothesis Testing - Answers - Must assign dependent and independent variables,
make research question, make casual story of why you would expect your hypothesis to
be true and one for the alternative hypothesis.
, Culture - Answers - the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in
addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; everything but the
natural environment around us.
Ethnocentrism - Answers - 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 - Answers - everything that is a part of our constructed, physical
environment, including technology.
(example: Well-known monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore,
are part of our culture, but so are modern furniture, books, movies, food, magazines,
cars, and fashion.)
Nonmaterial culture - Answers - values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms
(-it is technology that generates ideas and concepts, values and beliefs.)
Ideology - Answers - is a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of
cause and effect.
(-science and religion, which may seem like polar opposites, are both ideological
frameworks.)
Cultural relativism - Answers - taking into account the differences across cultures
without passing judgment or assigning value.
Cultural Scripts - Answers - modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal
or natural.
Subculture - Answers - 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 - Answers - (a condition where a dominant group uses its
power to elicit the voluntary consent of the masses, getting people to along with the
status quo because its the course, media reflect culture and works to produce the
culture they represent, are people molded by the world or do they shape their world)
book def: a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary
"consent" of the masses.
Sociological Imagination - C. Wright Mills - Answers - The ability to see the connections
between our personal experience and the larger forces of history.
(The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual's life to
seemingly impersonal and remote historical forces.)
Verstehen - Max Weber - Answers - Researchers imagine themselves experiencing the
life positions of the social actors they want to understand rather than treating those
people as objects to be examined.
Double Consciousness -W.E.B. Du Bois - Answers - A concept conceived by W. E. B.
Du Bois to describe the two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and
the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers, which are
constantly maintained by African Americans.
Conflict Theory - Karl Marx - Answers - The idea that conflict between competing
interests is the force of social change and society in general.
(- the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of
social change and society in general.
Example: Religion contributes to stratification. Keeps followers working.)
Feminist Theory - Answers - is an emphasis on women's experiences and a belief that
sociology and society in general subordinate women.
-very similar to marxism. conflict & political reform.
-research focuses on inequalities based on gender categories.
symbolic interaction theory - Answers - a micro-level theory in which shared meanings,
orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions.
(example: A drawing of a heart means love.)
Post-modernism Theory - Answers - 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.
(example: A red light, for instance, may have multiple meanings to different groups or
individuals in society. There is no longer one version of history that is correct.)
,Quantitative Approaches - Answers - Methods that seek to obtain information about the
social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form. This methodology
then uses statistical analysis to describe the social world that those data represent.
Qualitative Approaches - Answers - (methods that attempt to collect information about
the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.)
-The information gathered with this approach is often used to document the meanings
that actions engender in social participants or to describe the mechanisms by which
social processes occur.
Deductive Methods - Answers - a research approach that starts with a theory, forms a
hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm,
reject, or modify the original theory.
Inductive Methods - Answers - a research approach that starts with empirical
observations and then works to form a theory.
Causality - Answers - (the notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding
change in another.)
-To establish causality, three factors are needed: correlation, time order, and ruling out
alternative explanations.
Correlation - Answers - when two variables tend to track each other positively or
negatively.
(-For example, people with higher levels of income tend to enjoy better overall health.)
The Challenges of Establishing Causality - Answers - three factors are needed:
correlation, Time order and ruling out alternative explanations
Dependent Variables - Answers - the outcome the researcher is trying to explain.
(-The difference between the independent and the dependent variables is that change
in your dependent variable depends on change in your independent variable.)
Independent variable - Answers - a measured factor that the researcher believes has a
causal impact on the dependent variable.
Hypothesis - Answers - a proposed relationship between two variables, usually with a
stated direction.
Hypothesis Testing - Answers - Must assign dependent and independent variables,
make research question, make casual story of why you would expect your hypothesis to
be true and one for the alternative hypothesis.
, Culture - Answers - the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in
addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practices; everything but the
natural environment around us.
Ethnocentrism - Answers - 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 - Answers - everything that is a part of our constructed, physical
environment, including technology.
(example: Well-known monuments, such as the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore,
are part of our culture, but so are modern furniture, books, movies, food, magazines,
cars, and fashion.)
Nonmaterial culture - Answers - values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms
(-it is technology that generates ideas and concepts, values and beliefs.)
Ideology - Answers - is a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of
cause and effect.
(-science and religion, which may seem like polar opposites, are both ideological
frameworks.)
Cultural relativism - Answers - taking into account the differences across cultures
without passing judgment or assigning value.
Cultural Scripts - Answers - modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal
or natural.
Subculture - Answers - 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 - Answers - (a condition where a dominant group uses its
power to elicit the voluntary consent of the masses, getting people to along with the
status quo because its the course, media reflect culture and works to produce the
culture they represent, are people molded by the world or do they shape their world)
book def: a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary
"consent" of the masses.
