Introduction

Question 1

What is sociology?

Answer 1

The systematic study of human and social groups and their interaction.

Question 2

What is agency?

Answer 2

The assumption that individuals have the ability to alter their socially constructed lives.

Question 3

What is structure?

Answer 3

The network of relatively stable opportunities and constraints influencing individual behaviours.

Question 4

What is the debate among sociologists between agency and structure?

Answer 4

A debate as to whether social change in brought about by human agency (people who have ideas) or through structural forces (technological, economic, institutional, etc).

Question 5

What is seeing the general in the particular? (Peter Berger)

Answer 5

Looking at what appears to be unique events or circumstances and then recognizing larger and general features (e.g., seeing a beggar on the street)

Question 6

What is seeing the strange in the familiar? (Peter Berger)

Answer 6

Seeing what appears as normal and familiar, and then seeing it as peculiar and strong (e.g., people using smart phones).

Question 7

What are examples of sociological variables?

Answer 7

Minority status, gender, socioeconomic status, family structure, urban-rural differences.

Question 8

What is positivism?

Answer 8

• Occurred in the enlightenment
• There exists an objective and knowable reality
• All sciences become more alike because they explore the same reality
• There is no room for value judgments in science

Question 9

What is anti-positivism?

Answer 9

• We need to understand the meaning behind scientific explanations
• All sciences will not merge because there is no single methodological approach that can provide us with a complete understanding of our world
• Science cannot be separated from our values