Intro to Sociology (StraighterLine) Exam Questions and Complete Solutions

Intro to Sociology (StraighterLine) Exam Questions and Complete Solutions sociological imagination - Answer: the ability to see how our experiences connect with structural arrangements of our society and the times in which we live Microsociology - Answer: the detailed study of what people say, do, and think moment by moment as they go about their daily lives. Macrosociology - Answer: focuses upon large-scale and long-term social processes of organizations, institutions, and broad social patterns Auguste Comte - Answer: The Founder of Sociology (emphasized that the study of society must be scientific, he urged sociologists to employ systematic observation, experimentation and comparative historical analysis as their methods. He divided the study of society into social statics and social dynamics.) Harriet Martineau - Answer: Feminist and Methodologist (wrote the first book on social research methods and was among the first to do systematic, scientifically based, social research (Her comparative analysis of slavery and the position of women in the Western world paved the way for feminist scholarship and the further pursuit of gender equality.)) Herbert Spencer - Answer: Depicted society as a system, a whole made up of interrelated parts (Social Darwinism founder) Social Darwinism - Answer: Spencer's application of evolutionary notions and the concept of 'survival of the fittest' to the social world Karl Marx - Answer: believed that society is divided into those who own the means of producing wealth and those who do not, giving rise to class conflict (The Role of Class Conflict) Dialectical materialism - Answer: Marx's theory that development depends on the clash of contradictions and the creation of new, more advanced structures out of these clashes Émile Durkheim - Answer: He contended that the distinctive subject matter of sociology should be the study of social facts (especially concerned with social solidarity, distinguishing between mechanical and organic solidarity.)(Social Integration and Social Facts) Max Weber - Answer: said that a critical aspect of the sociological enterprise is the study of the intentions, values, beliefs, and attitudes that underlie people's behavior. He used the word 'Verstehen' in describing his approach and contributed his notions of the ideal type and a value-free sociology (Subjectivity and Social Organization) Social Laboratory - Answer: The first department of sociology was established at the University of Chicago in 1893, and Chicago served as a "social laboratory" at the beginning of the century. Contemporary movements in sociology - Answer: critical theory, feminism, and postmodern social theory Functionalist Perspective - Answer: sees society as a system. (Functionalists identify the structural characteristics and functions and dysfunctions of institutions, and distinguish between manifest functions and latent functions. Functionalists also typically assume that most members of a society share a consensus regarding their core beliefs and values.) Conflict Perspective - Answer: argues that the structure of society and the nature of social relationships are the result of past and ongoing conflicts (draws much of its inspiration from the work of Karl Marx) Interactionist Perspective - Answer: contend that society is possible because human beings have the ability to communicate with one another by means of symbols (we experience the world as constructed reality) Sociology is a - Answer: social science (cause-and-effect relationships prevail in the universe. These causes and effects can be observed and measured, and sociologists look for correlations among variables as a way of doing so) Four major techniques of data collection - Answer: experiments, surveys, observation, and archival research The scientific method includes - Answer: selecting a researchable problem, reviewing the literature, formulating a hypothesis, creating an operational definition, choosing a research design, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and stating conclusions correlation - Answer: A change in one variable associated with a change in another variable dependent variable - Answer: The variable that is affected in an experimental setting economic determinist - Answer: (money makes the changes) A believer in the doctrine that economic factors are the primary determinants of the structure of societies and social change. functions - Answer: (observable changes) Observed consequences that permit the adaptation or adjustment of a system latent functions - Answer: (accidental purpose) Consequences that are neither intended nor recognized by the participants in a system. (i.e. newspaper as fly swatter) manifest functions - Answer: (intended & designed purpose) Consequences that are intended and recognized by the participants in a system operational definition - Answer: (making things where you can measure them) A definition developed by taking abstract concepts and putting them in a form that permits their measurement spurious correlation - Answer: The apparent relationship between two variables produced by a third variable that influences the original variables (illus. cheese & death by bed sheets) stratified random sample - Answer: A sampling procedure in which researchers divide a population into relevant categories and draw a random sample from each of the categories. (i.e. races and populations survey) Verstehen - Answer: translates roughly as "understanding." (thinking in someone else's shoes)(An approach to the study of social life developed by Max Weber in which sociologists mentally attempt to place themselves in the shoes of other people and identify what they think and how they feel) Ethnography - Answer: long-term observation of groups or organizations, can take years of intensive data gathering The Hawthorne Effect - Answer: the unintended influence that observers or experiments can have on their subjects The Code of Ethics - Answer: what the American Sociological Association (ASA) calls for objectivity and integrity in research, confidentiality, and disclosure of all sources of financial support Control group - Answer: subjects in an experiment who are not introduced to the independent variable by the researcher Casual logic - Answer: the relationship between a condition or variable and a particular consequence, with one event leading to the other Value neutrality - Answer: objectivity in the interpretation of data Qualitative research - Answer: research that relies on what is seen in field or naturalistic settings more than on statistical data Research design - Answer: a detailed plan or method for obtaining data scientifically Quantitative research - Answer: research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form Reliability - Answer: research that collects and reports data primarily in numerical form aggregate - Answer: A collection of anonymous individuals who are in one place at the same time. cultural relativism - Answer: A value-free or neutral approach that views the behavior of a people from the perspective of their own culture. ethnocentrism - Answer: The tendency to judge the behavior of other groups by the standards of one's own culture. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis - Answer: a hypothesis concerning the role of language in shaping cultures, it holds that language is culturally determined and serves to influence our mode for thought Folkways - Answer: a norm governing everyday behavior whose violation raises comparatively little concern Mores - Answer: norms deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society Discover - Answer: making known or sharing an aspect of reality (i.e. new planet) Invention - Answer: results from combining existing cultural items into a form that did not exist before (i.e. computer) Diffusion - Answer: spreading an aspect of culture from one society to another (i.e. the internet) Argot - Answer: specialized language used by members of a group or subculture (i.e. slang) Ethnocentrism - Answer: to refer to the tendency to assume that one's own culture is normal, or superior, to all others (coined by William Graham Sumner) Xenocentrism - Answer: the belief that the products, styles, or ideas of one's own country are inferior to those that originate outside one's country Cultural relativism - Answer: the viewing of people's behavior from the perspective of their own culture (value free or neutral approach) Culture lag - Answer: Ogburn's term for a period of maladjustment during which the nonmaterial culture is still adapting to new material conditions Negotiated order - Answer: a social structure that derives its existence from the social interactions through which people define and redefine its character Ascribed status - Answer: a social position "assigned" to a person by society without regard for the person's unique talents or characteristics Achieved status - Answer: a social position attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts Masters status - Answer: dominates others and determines a person's position in society Role conflict - Answer: occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social positions held by the same person Role strain - Answer: the difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes conflicting demands and expectations Role exit - Answer: (by Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh in 1988) the process of disengagement from a role that is central to one's self-identity and reestablishment of an identity in a new role Social institutions - Answer: mechanism that organizes, directs, and executes the essential tasks of living and structure that offers a standardized solution to a set of problems. Gemeinschaft (Tonnies) - Answer: simple, informal, rural life Gesellschaft (Tonnies) - Answer: urban, differences more striking than similarities Sociocultural evolution (Lenski) - Answer: tech advancements allow society to move through stages faster Organic solidarity (Durkheim) - Answer: more technology = greater division of labor Pre-industrial societies - Answer: hunting and gathering societies, depend on humans and animals to produce food and other goods Industrial societies - Answer: depend on mechanization to produce their goods and services Post-industrial societies - Answer: processing and control of information Postmodern societies - Answer: technologically sophisticated global society, preoccupied with consumer goods and media images. Consume good and information on a mass scale Agrarian society - Answer: the most technologically advanced form of preindustrial society. Members are primarily engaged in the production of food but increase their crop yield through such innovations as the plow Horticulture society - Answer: preindustrial societies in which people plan seeds and crops rather than subsist merely on available foods Status - Answer: a term used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society Aggregate - Answer: a collection of anonymous individuals who are in one place at the same time Face work - Answer: the efforts of people to maintain the proper image and avoid embarrassment in public Anticipatory socialization - Answer: The process in which people think about, experiment with, and try on the behaviors associated with a new role Total institutions - Answer: Institutions that regulate all aspects of a person's life under a single authority, such as prisons, the military, mental hospitals and convents Cognitive Theory of Development - Answer: Jean Piaget's theory explaining how children's thought processes through four stages Generalized other - Answer: the attitudes, viewpoints, and expectations of society as a whole that a child takes into account in his or her behavior Impression management - Answer: the altering of the presentation of the self in order to create distinctive appearances and satisfy particular audiences Looking-glass self - Answer: a concept that emphasizes the self as the product of our social interactions with others Role-taking - Answer: the process of mentally assuming the perspective of another, thereby enabling one to respond from that imagined viewpoint Life course approach - Answer: a research orientation in which sociologists and other social scientists look closely at the social factors that influence people throughout their lives from birth to death Dramaturgical approach - Answer: (our life is a stage) a view of social interaction that examines people as if they were theatrical performers Bureaucracy - Answer: A social structure made up of a hierarchy of statuses and roles that is prescribed by explicit rules and procedures and based on a division of function and authority Ethnomethodology - Answer: Procedures—the rules and activities—that people employ in making social life and society intelligible to themselves and others. Groupthink - Answer: A decision- making process found in highly cohesive groups in which the members become so preoccupied with maintaining group consensus that their critical faculties are impaired. Instrumental leader - Answer: A leader that focuses on appraising the problem at hand and organizing people's activity to deal with it. Iron law of oligarchy - Answer: The principle that states that bureaucracies invariably lead to the concentration of power in the hands of a few individuals who use their offices to advance their own fortunes and self-interests Parkinson's law - Answer: The principle that states that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion Relative deprivation - Answer: Discontent associated with the gap between what we have and what we believe we should have. Social loafing - Answer: The process in which individuals work less hard when working in groups than they do when working individually Thomas theorem - Answer: The notion that our definitions influence our construction of reality; as stated by William I. Thomas and Dorothy S. Thomas: "If [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." Reflexive behavior - Answer: a component of symbolic interactionism in which people observe, interpret, evaluate, communicate with, and attempt to control themselves Problems of bureaucracies - Answer: oligarchy, high levels of redundancy, trained incapacity Cultural transmissions - Answer: the idea that criminal behavior is learned through interacting with criminals Differential association - Answer: a theory that early, frequent, and intense exposure to deviant setting and attitude can lead to deviant behavior Labeling theory - Answer: if people associate with criminals, their attitudes change and they learn to violate rules (Sutherland), analysis of the variety of social reactions to deviance, the idea that we all engage in deviant behavior by violating some norms "Anomie Theory of Deviance" or the "Structural Strain Theory," - Answer: (Merton's theory) proposes that people have five major responses to social norms: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Informal social control - Answer: strategies ordinary people use to regulate behavior within society Formal social control - Answer: strategies that authority figures use to regulate behavior within society Deviance - Answer: acts, beliefs, and behaviors that do not conform to social norms of a particular group Sanction - Answer: a penalty or reward based on conduct related to a norm Stigma - Answer: a powerfully negative social label that radically changes a person's self-concept and social identity Recidivism - Answer: return to criminal behavior Objective method - Answer: a technique used for measuring social class that assigns individuals to classes on the basis of criteria such as occupation, education, income and place of residence Closed system - Answer: a social system in which there is little or no possibility of individual mobility Open system - Answer: - a social system in which the position of each individual is influenced by his or her achieved status Caste - Answer: Hereditary systems of rank, usually religiously dictated, that tend to be fixed and immobile Social mobility - Answer: Movement of individuals or groups from one position of society's stratification system to another Stratification - Answer: a structured ranking of entire groups of people that perpetuates unequal economic rewards and power in a society