Sociology Quiz #1

Durkheim argued that the world was split by most human societies into the divine and the mundane. What terms did he use for them

Sacred and profane

In one sentence, describe some of the major assumptions that functionalists make about society when they begin to theorize?

1) society is stable and harmonious 2) society is like a body 3) made up of different structures that each have a function 4) each function has either intended (manifest) or accidental (latent) functions 5) dysfunction leads to change

In one sentence, describe bias in sociological research, according to the lecture.

Bias is anything that skews data.

Much of Weber's analysis of society was rooted in a study of rational-legal authority expressed in hierarchical institutions that might be conceived as triangles with power emanating from the point top (and concentrated there), flowing downward. What did he call these institutions?

Bureaucracies

What are the two groups in experimental research called?

Control group and experimental group

What event in human prehistory led to the development of a surplus and class society?

Development of agriculture/division of labor/specialization

From what epistemological tradition does sociology, as a science, emerge?

Empiricism

In field research, sociologists use what two types of observations?

Passive and participant

Karl Marx argued that capitalism had simplified class antagonisms to a great struggle between people who owned the means of production and those who must sell their labor to survive. What term did he use for these workers and capitalists?

Proletariat and Bourgeoisie

Durkheim argued that the objects of sociological study were the things that exist independently of us as individuals, such as language, culture, and religion. These things exist before we do and will continue to exist after we cease to. What term did he use to describe these things?

Social facts

Describe the sociological imagination in one succinct sentence.

Sociological imagination is connecting the micro (individual actions) to the macro (society as a whole)

In three sentences or less describe standpoint epistemology.

Standpoint epistemology is the theory that we cannot have a full understanding of society, but we can have a partial one. For example, men cannot experience the marginalization that women face in everyday life, so they only have partial understanding.

The German sociologist, Max Weber, believed that Marx's analysis of class was too simplistic. He argued that there were two other forms of power that needed to be analyzed by sociologists besides class. What were they?

Status (social order) and Party (political power)

What social theory was the United States's unique contribution to sociology?

Symbolic Interactionism

In class, we talked about the importance of historical and cultural context. We particularly discussed three historical events/processes that took place in Europe around the same time that sociology emerged that had effects on human populations and, therefore, the development of social sciences. What were those three events?

The Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, Political Revolutions