LSU Sociology 2001, Chauvin, Midterm Exam Questions and Answers Graded A+
The study of human society as a whole - Answers Sociology
Who coined the term "sociological imagination?" - Answers C. Wright Mills
Finish the phrase: "A successful sociologist will ____________" - Answers Make the familiar strange
Humans are constantly changing and evolving, being shaped by experiences around us and by historical
forces such as culture. This is an example of the _____________ - Answers Sociological Imagination
Networks / structures in a society to socialize groups of people in them - Answers Social institutions
Name three examples of a social institution - Answers Legal system, education system, family, military,
labor market, etc.
This sociologist believed that society was better understood by determining the logic or scientific laws
governing human behavior, which is known as social physics or positivism - Answers Augustus Comte
The way individuals define themselves in relationship to groups they are a part of (or in relationship to
groups they choose not to be a part of) - Answers Social identity
Name an example of social identity - Answers Married or divorced women can change their last names,
because it creates a new "identity" for them
Who developed the theory of positivism? - Answers Augustus Comte
This sociologist was the first to translate Comte's written works to English and she was one of the
earliest feminist social scientists - Answers Harriet Martineau
Who were the 3 founding fathers of sociology? - Answers Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber
This sociological founding father believed in the theory of historical materialism, which identifies class
conflict as the primary cause of social change and his writings provided the theoretical foundation of
Communism - Answers Karl Marx
This founding father coined the term Verstehen, which means understanding - Answers Max Weber
This founding father was the founder of positivist sociology and he developed the theory of the division
of labor that helps to determine how social cohesion is maintained, or not maintained, in that society -
Answers Emile Durkheim
At what school was sociology prominent? - Answers University of Chicago
What did the University of Chicago focus on? - Answers Social ecology
The belief that people's behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical
environments is known as - Answers Social ecology
, The theory that all the parts of a society have to function together in order to work properly - Answers
Functionalism
The theory that social change is occurring because of a conflict and that conflict promotes change -
Answers Conflict theory
The theory that focuses on empowering women - Answers Feminist theory
The theory that attempts to understand social behavior by examining the way people interact with one
another - Answers Symbolic interactionism
The theory that different cultures may see similar things very differently and that everything is socially
constructed - Answers Post Modernism
What focuses on making comparisons across cases to find patterns and create hypotheses about how
societies work now or how they worked in the past and how individuals interact with one another? -
Answers Sociology
What branch of sociology tends to focus more on particular circumstances? - Answers History and
anthropology
What branch of sociology tends to examine things on a more micro level than sociology does, and
economics is an entirely quantitative discipline? - Answers Psychology and biology
What branch of sociology tends to focus more on one aspect of social relations... power? - Answers
Political science
Understands local interactional contexts, focusing on face-to-face encounters and gathering data
through participant observations and in-depth interviews (focuses on certain group of people / smaller
scale) - Answers Microsociology
Looks at social dynamics across whole societies or large parts of them and often relies on statistical
analysis to do so (larger scale) - Answers Macrosociology
Asking questions leads to ___________ - Answers Other questions
True of False: A sociologist is done with his work once he reaches a conclusion - Answers False: A
sociologist's work is never done
Methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is in, or can be converted to,
numeric form - Answers Quantitative methods
Methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to
numeric form - Answers Qualitative methods
Why are quantitative methods useful? - Answers You can study a lot of people at once without having to
conduct face-to-face interviews, because this method can be done as a survey on the computer
The study of human society as a whole - Answers Sociology
Who coined the term "sociological imagination?" - Answers C. Wright Mills
Finish the phrase: "A successful sociologist will ____________" - Answers Make the familiar strange
Humans are constantly changing and evolving, being shaped by experiences around us and by historical
forces such as culture. This is an example of the _____________ - Answers Sociological Imagination
Networks / structures in a society to socialize groups of people in them - Answers Social institutions
Name three examples of a social institution - Answers Legal system, education system, family, military,
labor market, etc.
This sociologist believed that society was better understood by determining the logic or scientific laws
governing human behavior, which is known as social physics or positivism - Answers Augustus Comte
The way individuals define themselves in relationship to groups they are a part of (or in relationship to
groups they choose not to be a part of) - Answers Social identity
Name an example of social identity - Answers Married or divorced women can change their last names,
because it creates a new "identity" for them
Who developed the theory of positivism? - Answers Augustus Comte
This sociologist was the first to translate Comte's written works to English and she was one of the
earliest feminist social scientists - Answers Harriet Martineau
Who were the 3 founding fathers of sociology? - Answers Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber
This sociological founding father believed in the theory of historical materialism, which identifies class
conflict as the primary cause of social change and his writings provided the theoretical foundation of
Communism - Answers Karl Marx
This founding father coined the term Verstehen, which means understanding - Answers Max Weber
This founding father was the founder of positivist sociology and he developed the theory of the division
of labor that helps to determine how social cohesion is maintained, or not maintained, in that society -
Answers Emile Durkheim
At what school was sociology prominent? - Answers University of Chicago
What did the University of Chicago focus on? - Answers Social ecology
The belief that people's behaviors and personalities are shaped by their social and physical
environments is known as - Answers Social ecology
, The theory that all the parts of a society have to function together in order to work properly - Answers
Functionalism
The theory that social change is occurring because of a conflict and that conflict promotes change -
Answers Conflict theory
The theory that focuses on empowering women - Answers Feminist theory
The theory that attempts to understand social behavior by examining the way people interact with one
another - Answers Symbolic interactionism
The theory that different cultures may see similar things very differently and that everything is socially
constructed - Answers Post Modernism
What focuses on making comparisons across cases to find patterns and create hypotheses about how
societies work now or how they worked in the past and how individuals interact with one another? -
Answers Sociology
What branch of sociology tends to focus more on particular circumstances? - Answers History and
anthropology
What branch of sociology tends to examine things on a more micro level than sociology does, and
economics is an entirely quantitative discipline? - Answers Psychology and biology
What branch of sociology tends to focus more on one aspect of social relations... power? - Answers
Political science
Understands local interactional contexts, focusing on face-to-face encounters and gathering data
through participant observations and in-depth interviews (focuses on certain group of people / smaller
scale) - Answers Microsociology
Looks at social dynamics across whole societies or large parts of them and often relies on statistical
analysis to do so (larger scale) - Answers Macrosociology
Asking questions leads to ___________ - Answers Other questions
True of False: A sociologist is done with his work once he reaches a conclusion - Answers False: A
sociologist's work is never done
Methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is in, or can be converted to,
numeric form - Answers Quantitative methods
Methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to
numeric form - Answers Qualitative methods
Why are quantitative methods useful? - Answers You can study a lot of people at once without having to
conduct face-to-face interviews, because this method can be done as a survey on the computer
