YOU WERE LOOKING FOR: Introduction To Sociology Exam 3
How can you find out what is going on? Although you are in it, you may not feel like you are part of this crowd. You may not know what to do or how to behave. Even within one type of crowd, different groups exist and different behaviours are on...
One hundred thousand people had been watching the game on outdoor screens. Eventually , people filled the downtown streets. Why was the crowd response to the two events so different? Figure 1. The group is a phenomenon that is more than the sum of...
Sociologists study all aspects and levels of society. A society is a group of people whose members interact, reside in a definable area, and share a culture. One sociologist might analyze video of people from different societies as they carry on everyday conversations to study the rules of polite conversation from different world cultures. Another sociologist might interview a representative sample of people to see how email and instant messaging have changed the way organizations are run.
Yet another sociologist might study how migration determined the way in which language spread and changed over time. A fourth sociologist might study the history of international agencies like the United Nations or the International Monetary Fund to examine how the globe became divided into a First World and a Third World after the end of the colonial era. These examples illustrate the ways society and culture can be studied at different levels of analysis, from the detailed study of face-to-face interactions to the examination of large-scale historical processes affecting entire civilizations.
It is common to divide these levels of analysis into different gradations based on the scale of interaction involved. As discussed in later chapters, sociologists break the study of society down into four separate levels of analysis: micro, meso, macro, and global. The basic distinction, however, is between micro-sociology and macro-sociology. The study of cultural rules of politeness in conversation is an example of micro-sociology. At the micro-level of analysis, the focus is on the social dynamics of intimate, face-to-face interactions. Research is conducted with a specific set of individuals such as conversational partners, family members, work associates, or friendship groups. If the same misunderstandings occur consistently in a number of different interactions, the sociologists may be able to propose some generalizations about rules of politeness that would be helpful in reducing tensions in mixed-group dynamics e.
Other examples of micro-level research include seeing how informal networks become a key source of support and advancement in formal bureaucracies or how loyalty to criminal gangs is established. Macro-sociology focuses on the properties of large-scale, society-wide social interactions: the dynamics of institutions, classes, or whole societies. The example above of the influence of migration on changing patterns of language usage is a macro-level phenomenon because it refers to structures or processes of social interaction that occur outside or beyond the intimate circle of individual social acquaintances. These include the economic and other circumstances that lead to migration; the educational, media, and other communication structures that help or hinder the spread of speech patterns; the class, racial, or ethnic divisions that create different slangs or cultures of language use; the relative isolation or integration of different communities within a population; and so on.
Other examples of macro-level research include examining why women are far less likely than men to reach positions of power in society or why fundamentalist Christian religious movements play a more prominent role in American politics than they do in Canadian politics. In each case, the site of the analysis shifts away from the nuances and detail of micro-level interpersonal life to the broader, macro-level systematic patterns that structure social change and social cohesion in society. The relationship between the micro and the macro remains one of the key problems confronting sociology. The German sociologist Georg Simmel pointed out that macro-level processes are in fact nothing more than the sum of all the unique interactions between specific individuals at any one time , yet they have properties of their own which would be missed if sociologists only focused on the interactions of specific individuals. While suicide is one of the most personal, individual, and intimate acts imaginable, Durkheim demonstrated that rates of suicide differed between religious communities—Protestants, Catholics, and Jews—in a way that could not be explained by the individual factors involved in each specific case.
The different rates of suicide had to be explained by macro-level variables associated with the different religious beliefs and practices of the faith communities. We will return to this example in more detail later. On the other hand, macro-level phenomena like class structures, institutional organizations, legal systems, gender stereotypes, and urban ways of life provide the shared context for everyday life but do not explain its nuances and micro-variations very well. The Sociological Imagination Although the scale of sociological studies and the methods of carrying them out are different, the sociologists involved in them all have something in common. Each of them looks at society using what pioneer sociologist C. Mills reasoned that private troubles like being overweight, being unemployed, having marital difficulties, or feeling purposeless or depressed can be purely personal in nature.
However, if private troubles are widely shared with others, they indicate that there is a common social problem that has its source in the way social life is structured. At this level, the issues are not adequately understood as simply private troubles. They are best addressed as public issues that require a collective response to resolve. Obesity, for example, has been increasingly recognized as a growing problem for both children and adults in North America. Michael Pollan cites statistics that three out of five Americans are overweight and one out of five is obese In Canada in , just under one in five adults Obesity is therefore not simply a private trouble concerning the medical issues, dietary practices, or exercise habits of specific individuals.
It is a widely shared social issue that puts people at risk for chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. It also creates significant social costs for the medical system. Pollan argues that obesity is in part a product of the increasingly sedentary and stressful lifestyle of modern, capitalist society, but more importantly it is a product of the industrialization of the food chain, which since the s has produced increasingly cheap and abundant food with significantly more calories due to processing. Additives like corn syrup, which are much cheaper to produce than natural sugars, led to the trend of super-sized fast foods and soft drinks in the s.
As Pollan argues, trying to find a processed food in the supermarket without a cheap, calorie-rich, corn-based additive is a challenge. By looking at individuals and societies and how they interact through this lens, sociologists are able to examine what influences behaviour, attitudes, and culture. By applying systematic and scientific methods to this process, they try to do so without letting their own biases and pre-conceived ideas influence their conclusions. Studying Patterns: How Sociologists View Society All sociologists are interested in the experiences of individuals and how those experiences are shaped by interactions with social groups and society as a whole.
To a sociologist, the personal decisions an individual makes do not exist in a vacuum. Cultural patterns and social forces put pressure on people to select one choice over another. Sociologists try to identify these general patterns by examining the behaviour of large groups of people living in the same society and experiencing the same societal pressures. Understanding the relationship between the individual and society is one of the most difficult sociological problems, however. Partly this is because of the reified way these two terms are used in everyday speech. This conventional distinction between society and the individual is a product of reification in so far as both society and the individual appear as independent objects.
As we will see in the chapters to come, society and the individual are neither objects, nor are they independent of one another. The problem for sociologists is that these concepts of the individual and society and the relationship between them are thought of in terms established by a very common moral framework in modern democratic societies, namely that of individual responsibility and individual choice. Talking about society is akin to being morally soft or lenient. Sociology, as a social science, remains neutral on these type of moral questions. The conceptualization of the individual and society is much more complex. The sociological problem is to be able to see the individual as a thoroughly social being and yet as a being who has agency and free choice.
You can use as little or as much room on a sheet of paper to answer them. I apologize for any typos or formatting problems. How do sociologists and biologists differ in how they view race? How does conflict theory explain racial inequality? Use an example to illustrate your points. What is racism? What is racial prejudice? What is racial discrimination? How do people legitimize these negative beliefs and practices? You should use an example to illustrate your answer. What kinds of race relations have existed in the U. Which one do you think should be our goal? What are some changes we need to make to attain this goal? Questions on Gender How do sociologists define sex, gender and sexuality? What is more important, sociologically -- sex or gender? What is sexism? What is gender prejudice? What is gender discrimination? Describe some patterns of gender inequality in our families, schools, media, culture and work? Assume you want to help attain gender equality in either your home, work, romantic relationships, or at church.
What kind of belief, attitudinal and behavioral changes would need to take place in order to attain gender equality? What gender pattern did the clips on sexism in the business world employers, car dealers, golf courses , marriage and family divorce , and health care cancer depict? Questions on Sexuality How do biologists, psychologists and sociologists differ in how they explain heterosexuality and homosexuality?
Which one, or combination of, do you agree with? What are the three components of sexuality? Provide an example of each. How do these three components influence estimates of the homosexual population? How do homophobia and heterosexism differ? How pervasive is heterosexism? Provide examples to make your points. Questions on Marriage and Family Taking a functionalist perspective, what are some of the functions and dysfunctions of our institution of marriage and family?
Provide examples. Taking a conflict theory perspective, identify some of the inequalities of our institution of marriage and family? Why have divorce rates been increasing? Why may they be falling some now? Questions on Education Taking a functionalist perspective, what are some of the functions and dysfunctions of our institution of education? Taking a conflict theory perspective, identify some of the inequalities of our institution of education? What is credentialism? How does it affect the job market and our lives? Questions on Material from All Topics in this Section What are the characteristics of minority groups? Why people of color, women, and non-heterosexuals considered minorities, from a sociological perspective? You work as a data analyst for the police department of a large Northeast city. Five years ago, the police department began documenting and tracking hate crimes. The hate crime data show that most are committed by men aged against gay men, and that the number of hate crimes against gay men is increasing dramatically.
Using the sociology of gender and sexuality, determine why this is happening so you can help develop prevention and educational programs. Three local ministers of different churches want to bring their congregations together into one united non-denominational parish. The members of each church differ in race, ethnicity, and social class. What problems should the ministers be ready to confront? Use the sociology of race, gender, sexuality, and marriage and family to reflect on your family system and map out the social forces and functions that impact on it.
Applied Sociology The use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of yielding practical applications for human behavior and organizations. Basic Sociology Sociological inquiry conducted with the objective of gaining a more profound knowledge of the fundamental aspects of social phenomena. Also known as pure sociology. Clinical Sociology The use of the discipline of sociology with the specific intent of altering social relationships or restructuring social institutions. Conflict Perspective A sociological approach that assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of conflict or tension between competing groups. Dramaturgical Approach A view of social interaction in which people are seen as theatrical performers.
Dysfunction An element or process of a society that may disrupt the social system or reduce its stability. Feminist View A sociological approach that views inequity in gender as central to all behavior and organization. Functionalist Perspective A sociological approach that emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Globalization The worldwide integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and the exchange of ideas. Ideal Type A construct or model for evaluating specific cases. Interactionist Perspective A sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole Latent Function An unconscious or unintended function that may reflect hidden purposes.
Macrosociology Sociological investigation that concentrates on large scale phenomena or entire civilizations. Manifest Function An open, stated, and conscious function. Microsociology Sociological investigation that stresses the study of small groups, often through experimental means. Natural Science The study of the physical features of nature and the ways in which they interact and change. Nonverbal Communication The sending of messages through the use of gestures, facial expressions, and postures. Science The body of knowledge obtained by methods based on systematic observation.
Social Inequality A condition in which members of society have differing amounts of wealth, prestige, or power. Social Science The study of the social features of humans and the ways in which they interact and change. Sociological Imagination An awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society, both today and in the past. Sociology The scientific study of social behavior and human groups. Theory In sociology, a set of statements that seeks to explain problems, actions, or behavior. Verstehen The German word for "understanding" or "insight"; used to stress the need for sociologists to take into account the subjective meanings people attach to their actions.
Causal Logic The relationship between a condition or a variable and a particular consequences, with one event leading to the other. Code of Ethics The standards of acceptable behavior developed by and for members of a profession. Content Analysist The systematic coding and objective recording of data, guided by some rationale. Control Group The subjects in an experiment who are not introduced to the independent variable by the researcher. Control Variable.
Office: PGH; Tel. The course will review and discuss sociological concepts, theories, and research. First, the course will describe the place and role of sociology among other disciplines of the social sciences. Secondly, the course will introduce major theorists, perspectives, and research methods in sociology. Thirdly, the course will describe perspectives in microsociology, e. Finally, the course will review major perspectives in macrosociology, e. Course Requirements Read the assigned readings and come to class prepared to discuss them. Take three exams scheduled for the course. Exams must be taken on the dates specified. Students may take a make-up exam only in exceptional cases. The make-up exam must be taken within one week of the exam scheduled date. Exams not made up within this one week period will be given a grade of zero.
All make-up exams will consist of essay questions. Write a short report on a research article published in a social science journal indicated by the instructor. Students will be given guidelines for writing this report, which is due on November 3. Course Grade The course grade will be based on exam and paper grades. Exams will be worth points each, and the paper will be worth 50 points. Final course grades will be determined by dividing the total exam points by The course grade will be based on the exam and report grades.
Exams will be worth points each, and the research report will be worth 40 points. Extra credit can be obtained by writing a second research article report. This will add additional points to your final grade average. The report for extra credit must be turned in no later than Nov Texts R. Gelles and A. Sociology, 6th edition. Boston: McGraw Hill, Mapping the Social Landscape, 2nd edition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield,
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