Study guide exam 1 - Brief summary about the Exam #1 of Introduction of Sociology. PDF

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Brief summary about the Exam #1 of Introduction of Sociology. ...

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Soc 100 Study Guide: Exam 1 The exams in Soc 100 only contain multiple choice questions. However, answering the open-ended questions below will help you prepare for the exam by reminding you of many important concepts and encouraging you to do more than memorize information. The questions below often encourage you to illustrate the ideas using your own examples and to use the ideas in your thinking. You will need to apply concepts, not just memorize definitions, on the exam, so coming up with examples is a useful way to more fully understand the concepts. How should I use this study guide? I recommend that you review the PowerPoint files, your notes, and the textbook, and answer the questions below. Then perhaps talk with some classmates (before the exam period) to examine how your answers are similar and different. When you find questions that you cannot answer or questions that prompted different answers from different people, review the PowerPoint files, your notes, the textbook, other required readings, and the films. If you still cannot answer the questions, you can contact your TA for help. What is the exam like? 1) For the exam, you are allowed to refer to our textbook, the powerpoint slides and other lecture materials I provided on Brightspace, your notes, and any answers you wrote for the study guide. --BUT, you are not allowed to discuss this exam with anyone during the exam period (i.e., the time during which the exam is available to be taken on Brightspace. If you discuss the exam during that time, that constitutes academic dishonesty. 2) The exam will be available through Brightspace starting on Thursday, September 24 th at 9am. a. You must be done with the exam by 11:59pm on Friday, September 25 (Purdue time). --If you are not in this time zone, please plan carefully. c. You can start the exam whenever you want once it is available, but you will only have 90 minutes to complete it once you start (or less time if you start after ~10:30pm Purdue time).

Sociology and The Sociological Imagination (Chapter 1) 1. What is Sociology? 2. What does Sociology have to say about individualism? 3. Our textbook says that a good sociologist, “makes the familiar strange.” What does that phrase mean? What questions might you ask to help make things strange? 4. How can you tell that the educational system is a social institution? 5. What does the sociological imagination encourage you to link? 6. How could using your sociological imagination help you better understand why some Purdue students are more successful than others after graduation? 7. When we define things as personal troubles or public issues, that often influences what we think should be done in response to the problem. How might your approach to drug abuse vary if you think it is a personal trouble or a public issue? Why might your attempts to fix a problem fail if you think something is a personal trouble when it is actually a public issue? 8. Who were the early thinkers in Sociology and what were their main ideas and contributions? 1

9. What were the two important schools of thought in early American Sociology? What kinds of research did they do? Which one was given less recognition and why? 10. What are the 3 major sociological perspectives, and what are their main ideas? 11. What metaphor does functionalism use to describe society? How might functionalists explain poverty? How likely would they be to argue that it should be eliminated? 12. What is an example of a question that microsociology would ask? What about macrosociology? 13. Which of the 3 major sociological perspectives would be considered micro and which macro?

Film: Two American Families 14. In one or two sentences, describe what this film is about. 15. This film is useful to practice using a sociological imagination. Explain how connecting biography with history helps us better understand the experiences of the people in the film. 16. The American Dream tells us that the key to economic success is honest, individual hard work. If hard work were the only thing that mattered, what should have happened to the Stanley family by the end of the film? 17. We cannot choose the family we are born into. Some people are born into families at the top of the social ladder with great resources. Other people are born into families at the bottom of the social ladder with few resources. How do you think this “accident of birth” influences what you must do to get ahead, what happens when you make mistakes, and your chances of making it to the top of the social ladder? 18. Illustrate the importance of the accident of birth by comparing your efforts to get a college degree with Keith Stanley’s efforts to get a college degree.

Methods (Chapter 2) 19. Why is it important to systematically analyze data rather than simply rely on our own everyday observations? 20. What is the difference between a deterministic explanation and a probabilistic explanation? Which is more common in sociology? 21. What is the difference between validity, reliability, and generalizability? Why are these important for research? 22. What are some of the methods sociologists use to collect data? 23. What is a strength and a weakness of each type of method sociologists use? 24. What is the main difference between inductive and deductive approaches? 25. If a research team wants to do inductive research about dating patterns on college campuses, what might they do? 26. Sociological research shows that your parents’ economic resources influence your chances of graduating from college. What is the independent variable in that relationship? What is the dependent variable? 27. What is the difference between correlation and causation? Provide an example of each. 28. What three things would you need to establish to show that poverty causes alcoholism?

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Culture and Media (Chapter 3) 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40.

Provide an example of something that is not part of culture. Provide an example of material culture and nonmaterial culture. What are the important elements of nonmaterial culture? What helps distinguish a subculture from the larger culture? How does culture both enable and constrain you behavior in a classroom? In medieval Europe, people paid much attention to their ancestors and their family tree. How might a conflict theorist and a functional theorist explain this fascination with family? What do each of our three main sociological perspectives (Functionalism, Conflict, and Symbolic Interactionism) have to say about culture? How is hegemony different from and more efficient than military domination? Identify a group that you think qualifies as a subculture, and provide some evidence. What is the difference between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism? Identify two ways the mass media has shaped your behavior. What are some of the gender norms (for men and women) encouraged by the mass media?

Socialization and the Construction of Reality (Chapter 4) 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

How might reality be considered socially constructed? What are some of the most important agents of socialization? In what ways are you still being socialized? In what ways do symbolic interactionists show that even your sense of self is influenced by society? According to Cooley, why do we need others to develop a sense of self? Does your social media profile show your front stage or your back stage, according to Goffman? What are examples of norms of different severity (i.e., examples of folkways, mores, and taboos) How might a family socialize their children differently based on their social class? Identify one ascribed and one achieved status that you have. What do you think is your master status? What is the difference between a status and a role? Provide an example of role conflict by identifying two statuses that make incompatible demands and explaining how they might be difficult for a person to reconcile. What is the difference between role conflict and role strain?

Film: The Mask You Live In 54. 55. 56. 57. 58.

What are some cultural scripts in our culture based on gender that the film discusses? What does the concept of socialization fit into this film? In what ways are the young men engaging in impression management? How does this film show the importance of peers as an agent of socialization? How does the devaluing of women and things associated with women (like emotions) hurt men?

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