Download Sociology 12 Exam Outline: June 2011

Sociology 12
Exam Outline: June 2013 (4AB)
General terms/concepts
Explain how social scientists can study an issue/event from a different focus: Sociology,
anthropology and psychology
Define Society and sociology
Bias
Understand the term bias
Know the steps to detecting bias
Know examples of how to detect bias in the news
Sociological Imagination
Personal troubles
Public issues
Components (Historical and social forces)
Origins of Sociological Thinking
Age or Reason/ Age of Enlightenment
Development of Natural Sciences
Less reliance on Religion for answers to questions about people and society
Age of Revolution (French and American Revolutions- changes in government and power
structures, new social class emerging)
Industrialization (effect on society- social problems)
Urbanization (effect on society- social problems)
Macro-level sociology and micro-level sociology
Sociologists: Know important sociologists and each of his/her contributions to the field of
sociology
Auguste Comte (sociology, positivism, social statics, social dynamics)
Harriet Martineau (Translated Comte’s works, social research, sufferers, equality, social
classes working together)
Herbert Spencer (Evolution, Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest)
Emile Durkheim (Functionalism, product of social environment, anomie, study of suicide)
Karl Marx (conflict theory, economics, class conflict and change, bourgeoisie, proletariat,
means of production, capitalists, alienation, revolution)
Max Weber (Value-free sociology, Verstehen, )
C. Wright Mills (Sociological Imagination, personal troubles, public issues, social and
historical forces)
Sociological Perspectives: Understand the five main sociological perspectives (schools of
thought). Know the theory and be able to apply it to an example as we did in class
through our work with analogies and the specific examples given on the handouts.
Functionalism
Conflict Theory
Symbolic Interactionism
Feminism
Post-Modernism
Be sure to consider the connections we made to other units such as culture and
socialization ex:
a) What would a conflict theorist /functionalist/ Symbolic Interactionist/Feminist
Post-Modernist say about the purpose of culture?
b) What would a conflict theorist /functionalist/ Symbolic Interactionist/Feminist
Post-Modernist say about school or family as agents of socialization?
Research Methods
Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative research methods
Distinguish between descriptive and explanatory studies
Understand the steps to the scientific inquiry method
Understand and be able to identify and explain research methods including: observation
(structured, unstructured, natural, participant), experiment, case studies, survey (random,
representative), interview, historical analysis/content analysis
Be able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each type of research
Explain the difference between a common cause and cause and effect
Make reference to examples discussed in class/ text (Kitty Genovese, Milgram’s
experiment on obedience, Queue Culture, Inside a Glasgow Gang etc.)
Research Methods- define/ apply the following terms:
Reactivity/
Hawthorne effect
Validity
Reliability
Analysis
Replication
Control group
Experimental group
Variable
Independent variable
Dependent variable
Random sample
Representative sample
Culture: A Shared Human Experience
Define Anthropology
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Culture- definition
material & non-material culture
values, symbols, folkways (a norm), mores (a norm), laws (a norm)
Cultural Universals (Murdock)
ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativity (see definitions in binder, photocopied case study on
the Fore)
cultural diffusion & cultural lag(see definitions in binder, consider discussion of what
happens when cultures change)
culture shock ( remember example of Swiss woman living in a Masai village)
cultural variation (
counterculture (remember example of the Hippies)
subculture (remember example of Rodeo- note the features of a subculture)
popular or pop culture & high culture (see handout for video assignment the Merchants of
Cool, answers to questions)
Ms. Hennessey’s Terms: Multiculturalism, Melting pot, Cultural mosaic ,
Cultural Pluralism, Dominant culture
Socialization
Agents of socialization (family, school, peers, media, government, religion, clubs/social
groups, ethnic background, work)
Ascribed and achieved roles
Personality development theorists: Cooley, Mead, Freud Jung, Piaget Kohlberg Gilligan,
Erikson
Digital Divide
Hidden curriculum
Gender Socialization
Anticipatory socialization
Voluntary and involuntary re-socialization
Social devaluation
Total institution
Feral and Isolated Children (Genie) nature, nurture, innate, learned
Mass media, socialization and its impact- be ready to analyse an image!
Videos… Killing us Softly, Tough Guise
Social Organization
Characteristics of personal and impersonal institutions
Social institutions (you have a handout about this) Know the 5 tasks
Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination terms
ISMS” (classism, ageism, racism etc)
Types of racism, overt, polite, subliminal, institutional, systemic
In groups and Out groups
Social groups, aggregates, categories
Primary and secondary groups
reference group
Networks