Introduction to Sociology 1001 Mid-Term Exam PDF

Mid-Term Exam Technical Stuff Date: October 17th, 6:50 - 8:15 pm Bring two sharpened pencils Bring student card 21 True/False 49 Multiple Choice 65% of questions are from lectures 35% from textbook and some from blackboard reading No numbers or specific places...

Mid-Term Exam Technical Stuff Date: October 17th, 6:50 - 8:15 pm Bring two sharpened pencils Bring student card 21 True/False 49 Multiple Choice 65% of questions are from lectures 35% from textbook and some from blackboard reading No numbers or specific places Review Week 1: ○ Lecture Social patterns and social processes Micro and macro Sociological perspective ○ Reading Notion of sociological perspective Seeing the general in the particular Uncovering surface reality Analyse the social behaviour using social categories that reflect established social patterns ○ e.g social class, gender, race, sex Seeing the strange in the familiar Taking normal things out of context we see them differently Week 2: ○ Lecture What is sociology? A way of knowing and thinking An approach to understanding Sociology is less a body of concrete knowledge and more a way of understanding Ways of knowing: limited and partial Direct experience/knowledge ○ Being a man or woman, etc. Conventional wisdom ○ Common sense Art/aesthetics ○ Can be illuminating about our world  Religious knowledge ○ Based on traditional wisdom and faith Leading into sociology as a way of knowing Largely rooted in science Methods ○ On a deeper level to understand the bigger picture ○ Systematic Perspective ○ Many variations - different topics, questions, theories, methods ○ Macro-level approach: big group, very broad ○ Micro-level: small group, face to face interactions Sociological perspective: understands we are social beings and live within a social context (larger social patterns) We talk about the way in which humans interact socially with each other in patterned or regularised ways How we in sociology look at life How we get at what's going on under the surface In understanding underlying social contexts We try to account for context (tools in our analysis) Reflect social patterns What we mean by social structure Feel like stable but there will always be social change ○ Readings Sociological imagination: C Wright Mills - important to course The Sociological Imagination ○ Recognizing the pervasiveness of social influences in understanding human behaviour and social problems ○ Our lives are shaped in great part by ‘social forces’ ○ Quality of mind = individual lives in broader context ○ Makes connections between immediate personal troubles and the public issues of society ○ Intersects: biography, social structure, and history Understand the quality of mind he describes (connecting personal troubles and public issues) Invitation to sociology: Peter Berger What the main point that he establishing First wisdom of sociology Underlying assumption of sociology  Week 3: ○ Lecture Theoretical paradigms How we know things sociological Our discipline is rooted in scientific approach What is the sci9entific approach 6 premises of science ○ The second is the notion of causality - know these three principles It's about the difficulty of applying scientific things to the study of social world 5 obstacles with this Idea of paradigms Models or views that give us a general way of seeing the world Rooted around three main paradigms ○ Social conflict ○ Symbolic interactionist ○ Structural functional ○ Know what each is about thoroughly Importance of theory in social research Generally start with theory guides our research Main thing to understand: we are always trying to explain social patterns and linkages How these become social structures, making the society in which we live Understand hypothesis What it is used for Why - causality Term: conceptualization Being able to define concepts Variables What you are going to test in the real world What you use them for Two different types of variables must be in every hypothesis ○ Independent and dependant ○ Relation to causality Operationalization Measure your variables in action (concrete indicators) Research design Nothing on sampling  Time frame is it longitudinal or cross sectional Methodology Method to test hypothesis Three main factors ○ How you are choosing which one to use Four types of method ○ Content analysis ○ Field research ○ Survey research ○ Experiments (not common in canadian) ○ Readings Positivism Variables Operationalisation Validity Reliability in research Causality and objectivity Three types of sociology Positivist sociology Critical sociology Interpretive sociology ○ Max Weber - Verstehen What is each about and the differences Week 4: ○ Marco level ○ Society itself - capitalist Defining characteristic of it Shape our lives ○ Defining characteristics of capitalist ○ Key thinkers Karl marx Max weber Emile durkheim ○ Basis of any society being mode of production ○ Capitalist mode of production Specific means and relations of production Two main social classes involved System based on commodities for profit Unique to capitalism ○ Main features of capitalist production Profit making Commodification  Complex division of labour** Two ways ○ Karl marx ○ Emile Durkhiem ○ Rationalisation Max weber Bureaucracy He observed that the way we were being governed was changing from ____ to _____ ○ Readings George Ritzer Expands on max Weber for rationalisation looking at fast food in contemporary society Five key dimensions of mcdonaldization Textbook Mcdonaldization of society Ch 17 - modernity and loss of community ○ Gesellschaft - Ferdinand Tonnies Week 5: ○ Lecture Two key concepts Norms ○ Rules and expectations guiding society and social order Role ○ Two main perspectives on social roles Structuralist perspective Interactionalist perspective Four steps to role enactment Self having meaning in relation to others Know difference Socialisation How we grow to understand what the norms and roles are Life-long Complex Is the link between individual and society How individual and society need this Two stages ○ Primary Development of self from birth/childhood Charles - looking glass self  Subsets of socialisation Focus on gender ○ Secondary Two concepts Anticipatory Resocialization ○ Voluntary or involuntary ○ Readings Sense of difference between biological sciences and social sciences Nature v. nurture Agents of socialisation Socialisation overleaf course Ch 4 Understand roles ○ Role strain ○ Role conflict ○ Master status Dramaturgical Analysis of Presentation of Self: Erving Goffman Body ritual: One question: what is he trying to say/do in this article ○ Seeing strange in familiar Week 6 ○ Lecture Introduction to overarching concepts Social order is about social conflict - becuase things valued in society are nnot distributed equally Social stratification (defined) It is intertwined with social inequality (also defined) Inequality is every society but in different things Three main divisions Social clas Gender race/ethnicity They shape or individual life chances and criteria ○ Ascribed status and achieved status Consequences of inequality for those at top and those at bottom In canada ours resembles pyramid shape First of three ascribed characteristics - social class Karl Marx  ○ Social class theory Mode of production Relations to means of production Those who own and those who work on it To overthrow upper class they need to get social consciousness ○ Objective and subjective ○ Four steps to class consciousness ○ False consciousness Max Weber ○ Agreed on some economic interpretation ○ Added his concept of status ○ Readings ch 9 9.2 davis-moore thesis You don't need to know: Controversy and debates on stereotypes Group leadership Max weber's six characteristics of bureaucracy History of genes Modernity and progress Socialisation overleaf course 3.4 ○ Nothing on ageing and biology - income - death and dying - total institutions ○ Thomas theorem Classist societies - soviet union In 9.4 on statistics on inequality and social class in canada 9.6 poverty in canada ○ Nothing on homelessness ○ Welfare dilemma ○