Review Test Bank.
Sociology - Answer a science guided by the basic understanding that "the social matters: our
lives are affected not only by our individual characteristics but by our place in the social world"
(ASA)
Sociological imagination - Answer the ability to look beyond the individual as the cause for
success and failure and see how one's society influences the outcome
Micro vs. Macro - Answer Most of us see issues through our own biography or the micro or
small-scale perspective, however the macro or large-scale perspective is also important
Durkheim - Answer (Functionalist)
Four types of suicide Durkheim describes - Answer Egoistic suicides are suicides that result
from a lack of solidarity
Altruistic suicides are suicides that occur when the level of solidarity is exceptionally high
Fatalistic suicides are suicides that result from a lack of social control
Anomic suicides are suicides that occur as a result of social unrest
Solidarity - Answer refers to the level of connectedness and integration a person feels to
others in the environment
Social Control - Answer refers to the social mechanisms that regulate a person's actions
Individual choice vs. social factors - Answer Social factors often influence our personal choices,
even suicide
, Functionalism is a theoretical paradigm that defines society as a system of interrelated parts
Conflict theory is a theoretical framework that views society in a struggle for scarce resources
Symbolic interactionists focus on how communication influences the way people's interactions
with each other create the social world in which we live
Know functionalist - Answer Comte, Spencer (social Darwinism), Durkheim, Parsons, and
Merton
Social laws - Answer statements of fact that are unchanging under given conditions and can be
used as ground rules for any kind of society (comte)
social statics - Answer the existing structural elements of society
social dynamics - Answer the change in the structural elements of society
Know Conflict Theorists- Marx (ideas about capitalism, false vs. class consciousness)
Martineau, Adams, Foster - Answer Capitalism - an economic system in which private
individuals own businesses and control the economy
false consciousness - a person's lack of understanding of his or her position in society
Know Symbolic Interactionists - Answer Mead, Blumer, Goffman, Becker
MAX WEBER - Answer Crosses all three paradigms
Research methods - Answer the scientific procedures that sociologists use to conduct research
and develop knowledge about a particular topic
Objectivity - Answer the ability to conduct research without allowing personal biases or
prejudices to influence you