Sociology Exam Study Guide
Please define C. Wright Mill's sociological imagination.
How individuals understand their own and others' pasts in relation to history and social structure.
____ believed that societies grew and changed as a result of the struggles of different social
classes over the means of production and greatly favored ____.
Karl Marx; Communism
A hypothesis can be defined as:
A testable proposition
After weeks of protest in Zuccotti Park, NYC's "Occupy Wall Street" divided into two
camps: one composed of higher income protestors, and one composed of lower-income
protesters. A ______ would be most interested in the relationship and nature of day-to- day
exchanges between the two groups.
Symbolic interactionist
Which theorist claimed that people rise to their proper level in society based solely on their
belief in a meritocracy?
Émile Durkheim
, Which of the following men coined the term positivism, and is widely considered the father
of sociology?
Auguste Comte
A paradigm can be defined as:
Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories,
generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them.
____ view society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and
social needs of individuals who make up that society.
structural Functionalists
Alexis wants to research the 1960's feminist movement. She reads articles from the time
period, watches documentaries, reads scholarly journals on the topic, and interviews
influential women from the movement. What kind of research method is Alexis using?
Secondary data analysis
The term interpretive framework can be defined as:
A sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through
observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing.
Thomas wants to better understand the trends in literacy rates in Baltimore city over the
past 50 years using Baltimore city data. What type of research should Thomas conduct?
Secondary data analysis
What is the importance of interpretive framework?
Please define C. Wright Mill's sociological imagination.
How individuals understand their own and others' pasts in relation to history and social structure.
____ believed that societies grew and changed as a result of the struggles of different social
classes over the means of production and greatly favored ____.
Karl Marx; Communism
A hypothesis can be defined as:
A testable proposition
After weeks of protest in Zuccotti Park, NYC's "Occupy Wall Street" divided into two
camps: one composed of higher income protestors, and one composed of lower-income
protesters. A ______ would be most interested in the relationship and nature of day-to- day
exchanges between the two groups.
Symbolic interactionist
Which theorist claimed that people rise to their proper level in society based solely on their
belief in a meritocracy?
Émile Durkheim
, Which of the following men coined the term positivism, and is widely considered the father
of sociology?
Auguste Comte
A paradigm can be defined as:
Philosophical and theoretical frameworks used within a discipline to formulate theories,
generalizations, and the experiments performed in support of them.
____ view society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and
social needs of individuals who make up that society.
structural Functionalists
Alexis wants to research the 1960's feminist movement. She reads articles from the time
period, watches documentaries, reads scholarly journals on the topic, and interviews
influential women from the movement. What kind of research method is Alexis using?
Secondary data analysis
The term interpretive framework can be defined as:
A sociological research approach that seeks in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through
observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing.
Thomas wants to better understand the trends in literacy rates in Baltimore city over the
past 50 years using Baltimore city data. What type of research should Thomas conduct?
Secondary data analysis
What is the importance of interpretive framework?
