Module 1

Question 1

Sociology

Answer 1

The study of groups and groups interactions, societies, and social interactions from small and personal groups to very large groups. A group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who interact with one another, and who share a common culture is what sociologists call a society.

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

Refers to the group’s shared practices, values, and beliefs. Culture encompasses a group’s way of life, from routine, everyday interactions to the most important parts of groups members lives. It includes everything produced by a society, including all of the social rules.

Question 3

Sociological Imagination

Answer 3

Sociologists often study culture using the sociological imagination, which pioneer sociologist C. Wright Mills described as an awareness of the relationship between a person’s behavior and experience and the wider culture that shaped the person’s choices and perceptions. Its a way of seeing our own and other people’s behavior in relationship to history and social structure.

Question 4

Reification

Answer 4

Is an error of treating an abstract concept as though it has a real, material existence (Sahn 2013)

Question 5

Figuration

Answer 5

The process of simultaneously analyzing the behavior of an individual and the society that shapes that behavior.

Question 6

Society

Answer 6

A group of people who live in a defined geographical area who interact with one another who share a common culture.

Question 7

Sociology

Answer 7

The systematic study of society and social interaction.

Question 8

Antipositivism

Answer 8

The view that social researchers should strive for subjectivity as they worked to represent social processes, cultural norms, and societal values.

Question 9

Generalized Others

Answer 9

The organized and generalized attitude of a social group.

Question 10

Positivism

Answer 10

The scientific study of social patterns.

Question 11

Qualitative Sociology

Answer 11

In-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or analysis of content sources as the source of its data.

Question 12

Quantitative Sociology

Answer 12

Statistical methods such as surveys with large numbers of participants..

Question 13

Significant others

Answer 13

Specific individuals that impact a person’s life.

Question 14

Verstehen

Answer 14

A German word that means to understand in a deep way.

Question 15

Personal Troubles

Answer 15

Private problems experienced by one individual and the range of their immediate relation to others.

Question 16

Public issues

Answer 16

Issues that lie beyond one’s personal control and the range of one’s inner life, are rooted in society instead of at the individual level.

Question 17

Sociological imagination.

Answer 17

The use of imaginative thought to understand the relationship between the individual (personal troubles) and the broader workings of society (public issues).

Question 18

Conflict Theory

Answer 18

A theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources.

Question 19

Critical Race Theory

Answer 19

A theory that looks at structural inequality based on white privilege and associated wealth, power, and prestige.

Question 20

Dominant Gender Ideology

Answer 20

The assumption is that physiological sex differences between males and females are related to differences in their character, behavior, and ability (i.e., their gender).

Question 21

Feminism

Answer 21

The critical analysis of the way gender differences in society structure social inequality.

Question 22

Patriarchy

Answer 22

A set of institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power, and relationship to sources of income) that are based on the belief that men and women are dichotomous and unequal categories.

Question 23

Dominant Gender Ideology

Answer 23

The assumption is that physiological sex differences between males and females are related to differences in their character, behavior, and ability (i.e., their gender).

Question 24

Heterosexism

Answer 24

Is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination that favors male-female sexuality and relationships.

Question 25

Patriarchy

Answer 25

A set of institutional structures (like property rights, access to positions of power, and relationships to sources of income) that are based on the belief that men and women are dichotomous and unequal categories.

Question 26

Standpoint Theory

Answer 26

The theory that feminism social science should be practiced from the standpoint of women.

Question 27

Conflict Theory

Answer 27

A theory that looks at society as a competition for limited resources.

Question 28

Constructivism

Answer 28

An extension of symbolic interaction theory which proposes that reality is what humans cognitively construct it to be.

Question 29

Dramaturgical Analysis

Answer 29

A technique sociologists use in which they view society through the metaphor of theatrical performance.

Question 30

Functionalism

Answer 30

A theoretical approach that sees society as a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of individuals that make up that society.

Question 31

Symbolic Interactionism

Answer 31

A theoretical perspective through which scholars examine the relationship of individuals within their society by studying their communication (language and symbols).

Question 32

Theory

Answer 32

A proposed explanation about social interactions or society.

Question 33

Dependant Variables

Answer 33

A variable is changed by other variables.

Question 34

Hypothesis

Answer 34

A testable educated guess about predicted outcomes between two or more variables.

Question 35

Independent Variables

Answer 35

Variables that cause changes in dependent variables.

Question 36

Interpretive framework

Answer 36

A sociological research approach seeks an in-depth understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction; this approach is not based on hypothesis testing.

Question 37

Literature Review

Answer 37

A scholarly research step entails identifying and studying all existing studies on a topic to create a basis for new research.

Question 38

Operational Definitions

Answer 38

Specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher plans to study.

Question 39

Reliability

Answer 39

A measure of a study’s consistency that considers how likely results are to be replicated if a study is reproduced.

Question 40

Scientific Method

Answer 40

An established scholarly research method involves asking a question, researching existing sources, forming a hypothesis, designing and conducting a study, and drawing conclusions.

Question 41

Validity

Answer 41

The degree to which a sociological measure accurately reflects the topic of study.

Question 42

Correlation

Answer 42

When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable but does not necessarily indicate causation.

Question 43

Hawthorne effect

Answer 43

When study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their awareness of being observed by a researcher.

Question 44

Interview

Answer 44

A one-on-one conversation between the researcher and the subject.

Question 45

Participant Observation

Answer 45

When a researcher immerses herself in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an “insider” perspective.

Question 46

Population

Answer 46

A defined group serving as the subject of a study.

Question 47

Primary Data

Answer 47

Data that are collected directly from first-hand experience.

Question 48

Quantitative Data

Answer 48

Represent research collected in numerical form that can be counted.

Question 49

Qualitative Data

Answer 49

Comprise information that is subjective and often based on what is seen in a natural setting.

Question 50

Random Sample

Answer 50

Small, manageable number of subjects that represent the population.

Question 51

Secondary Data Analysis

Answer 51

Using data collected by others but applying new interpretations.

Question 52

Surveys

Answer 52

Collect data from subjects who respond to a series of questions about behaviors and opinions, often in the form of a questionaire.

Question 53

Experiment

Answer 53

The testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions.

Question 54

Field Research

Answer 54

Gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab experiment or a survey.

Question 55

Case Study

Answer 55

In-Depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual.

Question 56

Correlation

Answer 56

When a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable but does not necessarily indicate causation.

Question 57

Ethnographer

Answer 57

Observing a complete social setting and all that it entails.

Question 58

Participant Observation

Answer 58

When a researcher immerses herself in a group or social setting in order to make observations from an “insider” perspective.

Question 59

Primary Data

Answer 59

Data that are collected directly from firsthand experience.

Question 60

Content Analysis

Answer 60

Applying a systemic approach to record and value information gleaned from secondary data as it relates to the study at hand.

Question 61

Secondary Data Analysis

Answer 61

Using data collected by others but applying new interpretations.

Question 62

Code of Ethics

Answer 62

A set of guidelines that the American Sociological Association has established to foster ethical research and professionally responsible scholarship in sociology.

Question 63

Value Neutrality

Answer 63

A practice of remaining impartial, without bias or judgment during the course of a study and in publishing results.

Question 64

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)

Answer 64

Martineau was a writer who addressed a wide range of social science issues. She was an early observer of social practices, including economics, social class, religion, suicide, government, and women’s rights. Her writing career began in 1931 with a series of stories titled Illustrations of Political Economy, in which she tried to educate ordinary people about the principles of economics (Johnson 2003).
Martineau was the first to translate Comte’s writing from French to English and thereby introduced sociology to English-speaking scholars (Hill 1991). She is also credited with the first systematic methodological international comparisons of social institutions in two of her most famous sociological works. Society in America (1837) and Retrospect of Western Travel (1838). Martineau found the workings of capitalism at odds with the professed moral principals of people in the United States; She pointed out the faults with the free enterprise systen in which workers were exploited and impovrished while business owners became wealthy. Much like Mary Wollstoncraft, Martinau was often dicounted in her own time by the male domination of academic Sociology.

Question 65

Auguste Comte (1798-1857) The Father of Sociology

Answer 65

The term sociology was first coined in 1780 by the French essauist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes (1749-1836) in an unpublished manuscript (Faure et al. 1999). In 1838, the term was reinvented by Auguste Comte originally studied to be an engineer, but later became a pupil of social philosopher Claude Henri Rouvroy Comte de Saint-Simon (1760-1825). They both thought that social scientists could study society using the same scientific methods utilized in natural sciences. Comte also believed in the potential of social scientists to work governed society, sociologists could address problems such as poor education and poverty (abercrombie et al. 2000).
Comtenamed the scientific study of social patterns positivism. He described his philosophy in a series of books called The Course in Positive Philosophy (1830-1842) and A General View of Positivism (1848). He believed that using scientific methods to reveal the laws by which societies and individuals interact would usher in a new “positivist” age of history. While the field and its terminology have grown, sociologists still believe in the positive impact of their work.

Question 66

Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Answer 66

A German philosopher and economist. In 1848 he and Fredrich Engles (1820-1895) coauthored the Communist Manifesto. This book is one of the most influential political manuscripts in history. It also presents Mark’s theory of society, which differed from what Comte proposed.
Mark rejected Comte’s positivism. He believed that societies grew and changed as a result of the struggles of different social classes over the means of production. At the same time, he was developing his theories, the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism led to great disparities in wealth between the owners of the factories and workers. Capitalism, an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of goods and the means to produce them, grew in many nations.
Marx predicted that the inequalities of capitalism would become so extreme that workers would eventually revolt. This would lead to the collapse of capitalism, which would be replaced by communism. Communism is an economic system under which there is no private or corporate ownership: everything is owned communally and distributed as needed. Marx believed that communism was a more equitable system than capitalism.
While his economic predictions may not have come true in the time frame he predicted, Marx’s idea that social conflict leads to change in society is still one of the major theories used in modern sociology.

Question 67

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Answer 67

In 1873, the English philosopher Herbert Spencer published The Study of Sociology, the first book with the term “sociology” in the Title. Spencer rejected much of Comte’s philosophy as well as Mar’s theory of class struggle and his support of communism. Instead, he favored a form of government that allowed market forces to control capitalism. His work influenced many early sociologists including Elile Durkeim (1858-1817).

Question 68

Georg Simmel (1858-1918)

Answer 68

Simmel was a German art critic who wrote widely on social and political issues as well, Simmel took an anti-positivism stance and addressed topics such as social conflict, the function, the function of money, individual identity in city life, and the European fear of outsiders (Stapley 2010). Much of his work focused on the micro-level theories, as the creative capacities of individuals. Simmel’s contributions to sociology are not often included in academic histories of the discipline, perhaps overshadowed by his contemporaries Durkheim, Mead, and Weber (Ritzer and Goodman 2004).

Question 69

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)

Answer 69

Durkheim helped establish sociology as a formal academic discipline by establishing the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895 and by publishing his Rules of the Sociological Method in 1895. In another important work, Division of Labor in Society (1893), Durkheim laid out his theory on how societies transformed from a primitive state into capitalist, industrial societies. According to Durkheim, people rise to their proper levels in society based on merit.
Durkheim believed that sociologists could study objective “social facts” (Poggi 2000). He also believed that through such studies it would be possible to determine if a society was “healthy” or “pathological.” He saw healthy societies as a table, while pathological societies experienced a breakdown in social norms between individuals and society.
In 1897, Durkheim attempted to demonstrate the effectiveness of his rules of social research when he published a work titled Suicide. Durkheim examined suicide statistics in different police districts to research differences between Catholic and Protestant communities. He attributed the differences to socioreligious forces rather than to the individual or psychological causes.

Question 70

George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)

Answer 70

Mead was a philosopher and sociologist whose work focused on the ways in which the mind and the self were developed as a result of social processes (conk n.d.). He argues that how an individual comes to view himself or herself is based to a very large extent on interactions with others. Mead called specific individuals that impacted a person’s life significant others, and he also conceptualized “generalized others” as the organized and generalized attitude of a social group. Mead’s work is closely associated with the symbolic interactionist approach and emphasizes the micro-level of analysis.

Question 71

Max Weber (1864-1920)

Answer 71

Prominent sociologist Max Weber established a sociology department in Germany at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich in 1919. Weber wrote on many topics related to sociology including political change in Russia and social forces that affect factory workers. He is known best for his 1904 book, The Protestant Thic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The theory that Weber sets forth in this book is still controversial. Some believe that Weber argued that the beliefs of many Protestants, especially Calvinists, led to the creation of capitalism. Others interpret it as simply claiming that the ideologies of capitalism and Protestantism are complementary.
Weber believed that it was difficult, if not impossible, to use standard scientific methods to accurately predict the behavior of groups as people hoped to do. They argued that the influence of culture on human behavior had to be taken into account. This even applied to