Chapter 1

Question 1

Sociological Imagination

Answer 1

Term coined by C. Wright Mills.
Society, not, individuals are the primary force.
Allows us to understand individuals’ circumstance as shaped by social forces.
Helps us understand the connections between the political and the personal.

Question 2

Ibn Khaldun

Answer 2

Arab scholar, first person to carry out a systematic study of sociological subjects.

Question 3

Max Weber

Answer 3

Founder of modern sociology.
German sociologist.
Explored how a set of values embodied in early Protestantism led to the development of modern capitalism.

Question 4

John Porter

Answer 4

Examined the relationship between social class and ethnicity.
Coined the term vertical mosaic.

Question 5

Vertical Mosaic

Answer 5

The hierarchical stratification of racial, ethnic, and religious groups due to systemic discrimination.

Question 6

Annie Marie MacLean

Answer 6

First Canadian woman to obtain a PhD in sociology.

Pioneered the sociological study of working women.

Question 7

Aileen Ross

Answer 7

First woman hired as a sociologist at a Canadian university.

Completed the first study of homeless women in Canada.

Question 8

Helen C. Abell

Answer 8

Founder of rural sociology in Canada.

Question 9

Sociology by Approach

Answer 9

The traditional way of representing different kinds of sociology used by sociologists to pursue their inquiries.

Question 10

Macrosociology

Answer 10

Focuses on the ‘big picture’ of society and its institutions.
Examples: Structural functionalism, conflict theory, feminist theory, postmodern theory, etc.

Question 11

Microsociology

Answer 11

Focuses on the plans, motivations and actions of individuals and small groups.
Example: Symbolic interactionism.

Question 12

Structural Functionalism

Answer 12

Uses an organic or biological analogy for society.
Identifies the various structures of society and describes the function the structure performs to maintain the entire social system and produce social cohesion.

Question 13

Emile Durkheim

Answer 13

One of the founders of sociology.
Coined the term social fact.
Key representative of structural functionalism.

Question 14

Social Fact

Answer 14

Patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside of any one individual but exert social control over people.
Allow sociologist to examine larger social forms rather than focusing on individuals.
Every social fact has three essential characteristics: It was developed prior to and separate from you as an individual, it can be seen as a characteristic of a particular group and it involves a constraining or coercing force that pushes individuals into acting in a particular way.

Question 15

Robert K. Merton

Answer 15

A major contributor to functionalist thinking.

Identified three types of functions: manifest functions, latent functions and latent dysfunctions.

Question 16

Manifest Functions

Answer 16

Intended and readily recognized.

Question 17

Latent Functions

Answer 17

Unintended and unrecognized.

Question 18

Latent Dysfunctions

Answer 18

Unintended and produce socially negative consequences.

Question 19

Conflict Theory

Answer 19

Based on the idea that conflicts exists in all large societies due to class division and is the motor of major socio-historical change.
Based on four C’s: conflict, class, contestation and change.

Question 20

Karl Marx

Answer 20

Major figure in early sociology.
Believed that society is a hierarchy and that each group’s position in the hierarchy is determined by the group’s role in production of wealth.
Saw conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, which would initiate a socialist revolution that would produce an egalitarian society.

Question 21

George Herbert Mead

Answer 21

Examined socialization, the development of self, and social roles in the context of human interaction.

Question 22

Symbolic Interaction

Answer 22

Term coined by Herbert Blume.
Individuals and groups create and maintain social systems through interaction.
Focuses on individuals and small groups and their everyday practices and interactions rather than larger social structures.

Question 23

Total Institution

Answer 23

Term coined by Erving Goffman.
Institutions which seek to regulate, control, and manipulate its residents.
Examples: prisons, boarding schools, concentration camps, etc.

Question 24

Feminist Theory

Answer 24

Rooted in conflict theory.

Addressed the issue of systematic discrimination against women.

Question 25

Standpoint Theory

Answer 25

Developed by Dorothy Smith.
Challenges objective analysis.
Knowledge is always developed from a particular standpoint or lived experience.
The everyday experience and the female standpoint were largely ignored in sociological knowledge developed from the male standpoint.

Question 26

Feminist Waves

Answer 26

First wave: campaign for civil and political rights.
Second wave: focus on public and private rights.
Third wave: inclusion of LGBTI and racialized individuals.

Question 27

Postmodern Theory

Answer 27

Seeks to include a diversity of voices, especially those that are often drowned out by powerful voices of dominant groups.

Question 28

Discourses

Answer 28

Distinct ways of speaking about some element of reality.

Question 29

Totalitarian

Answer 29

A set of beliefs or ideas that dominates all others.

Question 30

Totalitarian Discourse

Answer 30

Any universal claim about how knowledge or understanding is achieved.

Question 31

Sociology by Audience

Answer 31

Sociology can be categorized based on the audience for whom the work is intended.

Question 32

Professional Sociology

Answer 32

Research designed to generate highly specific information, often with the intention of applying it to a particular problem or intellectual question.
Written in highly technical and specialized language.
Audience: academic and professional readers.

Question 33

Critical sociology

Answer 33

Considered to be the conscious of professional sociology.
Aims to make sure that professional sociologists do not become so lost in esoteric debates that they lose sight of the goals of sociological inquiry.

Question 34

Policy Sociology

Answer 34

Generates sociological data to be used in the development of social polices, laws, rules or plans.
Mainly serves education, health, and social welfare domains.
Audience: government and coorporations

Question 35

Public Sociology

Answer 35

Goals is to make sociology accessible to the public through the use of jargon-free language.
Audience: those outside of the discipline and political establishment