Flashcards and Answers – Sociology s
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What is Sociology?
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The systematic study of social interaction. It's a social science.
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What are the two siblings to Sociology?
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Psychology and Anthropology
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What does anthropology focus on?
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Traditional societies: old societies are viewed, but not big societies.
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What does psychology focus on?
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The behavior or thought process behind the actions.
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What does sociology focus on?
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Modern society. It focuses on society past the industrial revolution.
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Why did sociology become a science?
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Because there were rapid changes during the Early Industrial Revolution that needed looking at.
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What are the five institutions in society?
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Family, Religion, Government, Education, and Economy
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What type of economy do we live in?
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Capitalistic
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What is capitalism?
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An economic system in which the ownership of the means of production--like land, factories, large sums of money, and machines--is in private hands.
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What is capitalistic?
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The ruling elite who own the means of producing wealth (the "haves")
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What is proletariat?
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The masses of workers who depend on wages to survive, who have few resources, and who make up the working class
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petit bourgeoisie
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The small business owners and owner workers who still have their own means of production but might end up in the proletariat because they are driven out by competition or their businesses fail
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What is the sociological imagination?
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The intersection between individual lives and larger social influences.
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Who came up with the sociological imagination?
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C. Wright Mills
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What is microsociology?
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The study of small-scale patterns of individuals' social interaction in specific settings.
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What is macrosociology?
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The study of large-scale patterns and processes that characterize society as a whole.
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What is a theory?
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A set of statements that explains why a phenomenon occurs.
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What is empirical evidence?
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Information that is based on observations, experiments, or experiences rather than on ideology, religion, or intuition.
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State the societies in order:
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hunting and gathering --> horticultural --> agrarian --> early industrialization
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What did Emil Durkheim come up with?
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Anomie (late 1800s to early 1900s)
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What is an anomie?
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When social norms change.
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What did Emil Durkheim study?
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Suicide (he died in 1917)
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Who was the father of sociology?
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Auguste Comte
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Who created the Conflict Theory?
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Karl Marx
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What is functionalism?
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It's an approach that maintains that society is a complex system of interdependent parts that work together to ensure a society's survival.
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What is dysfunctional?
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Social patterns that have a negative impact on a group or society.
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What are manifest functions?
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Functions that are intended and recognized; they are present and clearly evident.
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What are latent functions?
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Functions that are unintended and unrecognized; they are present but not immediately recognized.
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What is the conflict theory?
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An approach that examines the ways in which groups disagree, struggle over power, and compete for scarce resources (such as property, wealth, and prestige).
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Who came up with the sociological perspective?
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Peter BERGER (think PER and BER)
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What is the sociological perspective?
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He said it helps us see general social patterns in others than just individuals. We look for reasons behind certain trends and the strange in the familiar.
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What is social integration?
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Being connected to other people.
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What did Robert Putnam write and what was it about?
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Bowling Alone (nAm Alone) and it was about social integration and how it's decreased significantly in recent years.
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Who came up with the three different types of functions in functionalism?
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Robert Merton (function) (Merton) (function)
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What's affirmative action? Where is this typically discussed?
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A society policy - preferential status given to minority. Typically discussed in Conflict Theory.
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What is a symbol and what must it have to be a symbol?
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It's a word or gesture that stands for something. It must have a shared meaning.
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What are roles?
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Parts we play in society: child, student, citizen, Christian, Jew, Muslim, friend, sibling.
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Who embellished this idea of roles?
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Erving Goffman's "Dramaturgical Approach"
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What does the Dramaturgical Approach talk about?
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It says we don't act the same way around everyone.
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What does Social Exchange Analysis analyze?
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Looks at the roles we have and our social interactions stand on what we gain or lose in the exchange.
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Who wrote "Savage Inequalities," and looked at roles?
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Johnathan Kozol (studied fine education vs. abismal education comparisons)
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Criticism of Functionalism?
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Not everyone can get where they want to be just because they're intelligent or a hard worker.
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Criticism of Conflict Theory?
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Too focused on conflict and differences.
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Criticism of Social Interactions?
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We ignore larger social forces -- government, social class.
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Scientific method
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doing researching and experimenting
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Not talked about in sociology?
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Absolutes
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Scientific research needs what?
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Empirical Evidence (Comte talked about this but failed to explain how we were to get it)
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What is a concept?
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A mental construct that represents part of a world: love, hate, weight, happiness.
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What are variables?
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Values that change from case to case.
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What is measurement?
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They are procedures that determine the value of a variable.
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What is reliability?
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It is a consistence in measurement.
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What is validity?
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It measures exactly what is attended and accurate.
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What is the mean?
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Average of a series of numbers.
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What is the median?
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All the numbers in order -- "the middle number."
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What is an outlier?
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It skews information. One is pulled away from the other.
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What is mode?
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The value that occurs the most often.
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What is the relationship between variables?
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Cause and effect
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What is the independent variable?
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The thing that caused the change.
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What is the dependent variable?
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The one that relies on the change that's natural, not controlled.
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What two things should be involved in an experiment?
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Repetition - should try experiment over and over again. Replication - same result each time.
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1st limitation to sociology experimentation?
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Human behavior is not all that predictable.
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2nd limitation?
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Humans act differently when they know they're being watched. Hawthorne effect.
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3rd limitation?
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Humans are connected to culture. Cultures dictate what is appropriate and what is not.
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Experiment?
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A research method for investigating cause and effect.
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What did the study of the Stanford Prison Experiment show?
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Power corrupts--it showed how difficult it was to stand up to abuse and how easy it was to fall into a certain role.
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What happened in the Stanford Prison Experiment?
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It was cut by Zimbardo 6 days in, due to ethical reasoning.
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What was the outcome of the Milgram Experiment?
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66% would've killed that person if they had the chance and money.
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What are the methods of research?
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Survey, field studies, and secondary sources
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What is a survey?
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Where subjects respond to a series of questions and statements.
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What is a questionnaire survey?
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They are the same questions and close-ended. Less accurate, but you can tally them up.
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What about the interview survey?
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They are open-ended and they are open for follow up questions that can be thrown there. You can't really tally it up, but it's more accurate.
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What is population?
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A particular group we want to give the survey to get feedback.
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What is a sample?
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A small part of the population, but representative of the whole. This is used when a population is too large.
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What is a field study?
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Researchers who go out and participate in order to study their subjects.
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What is Participation Observation?
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You have to be a part of it but you can't say you're a researcher.
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What are the two main problems involved with Participation Observation?
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It's usually illegal and it raises ethical issues.
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What are secondary sources?
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It's existing data. Basically you get to build off data from someone else.
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What is typical in this type of research?
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Older data is typical in this type of research.
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What is the average again?
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The mean.
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How can this be spun?
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People can spin it to make their point How information is worded is very important. More or less questions can influence this idea.
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Statistics - Graphs. How can the title affect a graph of info? How can the zooming affect a graph's look?
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Title can be spun and the increments can be larger or smaller.
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In what ways can statistics be misleading?
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Statistics can be misleading because they can select data and there are also people who analyze the data.
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What is common with statistics?
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Loaded questions.
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ESSAY QUESTION: Compare and contrast the three theories in Sociology.
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Write down.
