SOCL 2001 Exam Study Guide
Sociology - Answer✔✔-- study of society
- One of the social sciences
- Disciplines that examine the human and social world
- looks at a broad range of institutions- structures in our society (education and politics) to
better understand social relationships
Everyday Actor - Answer✔✔-someone who approaches the by world by using knowledge that is
practical/taken for granted
Social Analyst - Answer✔✔-someone who approaches the world by using reasoning and
questioning to gain insight
Social Perspective - Answer✔✔-- A way of looking at the world through a sociological lens
- Beginner's Mind, Culture Shock, Sociological Imagination
Beginner's Mind - Answer✔✔-opposite of an expert mind
Culture Shock - Answer✔✔-- Sense of disorientation you experience upon entering a new
environment
- Behaviors that are typical in one society/culture may seem very strange in another comtext
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Sociological Imagination - Answer✔✔-- to understand social life we must understand the
intersection between biography and history
- term coined by C. Wright Mills
Levels of Analysis - Answer✔✔-- levels used to explore relationships
- microsociology, macrosociology
- referred to as micro-level and macro-level with meso-level in between
Microsociology - Answer✔✔-examines small group interactions to see how they impact larger
institutions in society
Macrosociology - Answer✔✔-examines large-scale social structures to determine how they
impact groups and individuals
Theories - Answer✔✔-- propositions that seek to explain the social world and help to make
predictions about future events
- sometimes referred to as approaches, schools of thought, paradigms, or perspectives
- address social pressures
August Comte - Answer✔✔-- states that sociology needed to be treated like any other scientific
discipline
- he laid the groundwork for future sociologists and helped to establish the discipline
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Harriett Martineau - Answer✔✔-- a social activist who traveled the US and wrote about social
changes that are radical for this time period
- she translated Comte's work into English making his idea accessible to England and America
Herbert Spencer - Answer✔✔-- first great English-speaking sociologist
- believed in evolution and coined the phrase "survival of the fittest"
- believed that societies evolve through time by adapting to their changing environment.
- his philosophy is often referred to as Social Darwinism
Emile Durkheim - Answer✔✔-- like Comte, Durkheim worked for establish sociology as an
important academic discipline
- in 'Suicide', he studied the relationship between social isolation and suicide at the macro-level
Karl Marx - Answer✔✔-- German philosopher and political activist who contributed significantly
to sociology's conflict theory
- theorized that capitalism created social inequality between the bourgeoisie (owned the means
of production) and the proletariat (the workers)
- predicted that inequality leads to class conflict
Max Weber - Answer✔✔-- Also studied how society was becoming industrialized
- concerned with the process of rationalization (applying economic logic to all human activity)
- he believed that contemporary life was filled with disenchantment
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