Soc 100 Chapter 1

Question 1

Narratives

Answer 1

a person’s story told in their own words or voice

Question 2

Social location

Answer 2

details about a person (e.g. gender, age, health status, interests, etc.) that inform the individual’s perspective and shape his/her experience.

Question 3

Intersectionality

Answer 3

describes how two or more aspects of your social location can combine together and increase the discrimination or privilege you experience.

Question 4

Sociologists observe…

Answer 4

social patterns.

Question 5

Sociological research helps us to…
This allows us to…

Answer 5

discuss social issues in a informed and critical manner.

challenge common perceptions such as stereotypes.

Question 6

How does sociology distinguish itself from other social sciences?

Answer 6

through its history, vocabulary and tools.

Question 7

Sociology is distinct.. (3 ways)

Answer 7

• concerned with society
• examines different kinds of societies as totalities
• Explanation, analysis and debate about contemporary or
  “modern” life

Question 8

Totalities

Answer 8

a sum of interconnected social elements and the ways they are interconnected

Question 9

Sociology (steckley def.)

Answer 9

the social science that studies the development, structure, and functioning of human society.

Question 10

Sociology (alt def.)

Answer 10

the study of the way that humans are shaped by things that they don’t see.

Question 11

Sociology looks for social patterns in…

Answer 11

social variables, social institutions, and social interactions.

Question 12

Social variables

Answer 12

e.g. age, gender, religion, ‘race’, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.

Question 13

Social institutions

Answer 13

They dicatate and perpetuate social norms.

e.g. education, religion, the family, government.

Question 14

Sociological imagination

Answer 14

the ability to understand how your personal experiences are connected to larger social and historical forces.

You are able to step back and look at that problem or experience in relation to society and a border social context.

Question 15

Who developed the term “sociological imagination”?

Answer 15

C. Wright Mills

Question 16

Henry Giroux says that failing to exercise our sociological imagination means that…

Answer 16

society can no longer translate private problems into social issues.

Individuals have a sense of failure, as they are made the primary focus of blame.

Question 17

Disproportionate representation

Answer 17

when an atypically high or low number of a particular social group is associated with a specific situation.

Question 18

Confucius

Answer 18

a strong proponent of role modelling.

Question 19

Ibn Khaldun

Answer 19

Arab scholar who researched the cyclical rise and fall of powerful tribes and nations.

Found that as a society achieves strength, it will inevitably reach a point of decay and will be overtaken by outside forces or by disgruntled factions from within.

Question 20

Auguste Comte

Answer 20

The founder of sociology (Gave us the term ‘sociology’) . Thought that sociology could discover laws of human social behaviour to help solve society’s problems.

Question 21

Positivism says…

Answer 21

the best way to gain knowledge is to experiment, measurement, observation.

Question 22

Harriet Martineau

Answer 22

1st female sociologist.
Translated many of Comte’s works.
Interested in the equality of women / women’s rights movement.

Question 23

Who wrote the first sociology methods book?

Answer 23

Harriet Martineau

Question 24

Herbert Spencer

Answer 24

sought to apply Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human societies; also influenced by Comte’s positivism.

Coined the term survival of the fittest.

Question 25

Max Weber

Answer 25

The founder of Modern Sociology. Wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Question 26

Protestant ethic

Answer 26

Max Weber said these set of values led to the development of capitalism.

Protestantism also included the accumulation of capital.

Question 27

What spurred the growth of sociology in Europe?

Answer 27

the shift from the feudal landholding system towards rapid industralization and population growth in European cities.

Question 28

Who wondered if Europe’s cities could handle such tremendous population growth?

Answer 28

Thomas Malthus (economist)

Question 29

what suppred the growth of sociology in the USA?

Answer 29

the change from a rural society to a nation with fast-growing urban centers revolving around industry and commerce (arrival of millions of immigrants).
- sociologists sought to understand this.

Question 30

Robert E. Park

Answer 30

Founding member of the Chicago school of sociology.
- Human ecology: viewed the city as the main habitat for the human species.

Question 31

Ernest Burgess

Answer 31

(Chicago school) Used a ‘physics like statistical precision’
- developed a 21-point scoring system to determine the likelihood an inmate on parole would reoffend.

Question 32

Jane Addams

Answer 32

(Chicago school) Social worker/activist, sociologist, and intellectual established America’s first settlement house

Question 33

Settlement house

Answer 33

building in a low-income neighbourhood where volunteers offer educational, recreational, and other social services to the community

Question 34

Canada’s focus on sociology:

Answer 34

1. Relationship between French and English.
2. Development of the Canadian West.
3. Connection between class and ethnicity.
4. Relationship between Indigenous people and settlers, and the colonial state.
5. Close working relationship with anthropology.

Question 35

Political economy

Answer 35

field of study that involves sociology, political science, economics, law, anthropology, and history.

Looks at the relationship between politics and the economics surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of goods.

Question 36

John Porter

Answer 36

looked a social stratification (social class) as it relates to ethnicity.

Vertical mosaic.

Question 37

Cultural mosaic

Answer 37

any society in which individual ethnic groups are able to maintain distinctive identities (e.g. Canada).

Question 38

Vertical mosaic

Answer 38

systematic discrimination produces a hierarchy of racial, ethnic, and religious groups (whites anglo-saxon protestants at the top, indigenous and recent immigrants at the bottom).

Question 39

Annie Marion MacLean

Answer 39

1st canadian women to obtain PhD in sociology (from UChicago)

Question 40

Aileen Ross

Answer 40

the first women hired as a sociologist at a Canadian university.
Obtained a PhD from UChicago.
- studied gender roles in Hindu families.
- Conducted the first study of homeless women in Canada.

Question 41

Helen C. Abell

Answer 41

the founder of rural sociology in Canada.
- contributions of farm women to agriculture.

Question 42

Dorothy Smith

Answer 42

Feminist standpoint theory and Institutional ethnography

Question 43

Feminist standpoint theory

Answer 43

knowledge is developed from a particular lived position/standpoint, therefore objectivity is impossible.

Question 44

Institutional ethnography

Answer 44

challenges the need for a neutral stance in sociological research.

Claims that any institution can be seen as having two sides: one that represents the ruling interests of the organization, one representing the interests of those working for the organization.