Sociology Unit 1

Which of the following statements best characterizes microsociology?

It is an approach that examines interactions between individuals and how those interactions reflect larger societal patterns

What can an institutional review board do if it has reservations about the safety or ethics of a research project?

It may stop the project from going forward, at least until changes have been made.

Which of the following statements best describes the the approach taken by macrosociologists?

Macrosociology examines large-scale social structure to see how if affects individuals lives

According to Robert Merton, which of these statements about manifest functions is true?

Manifest functions are intended and obvious.

Why did C. Wright Mills think that it is important for everyone, even people who will never take a sociology class, to develop a sociological imagination?

Many people are unaware of the connections between their own lives and the larger course of history

Symbolic interactionism argues that people act toward things on the basis of their meaning. According to this perspective, how does meaning arise?

Meaning is negotiated through interaction with others.

According to the theoretical position developed by Karl Marx, what is the engine of social change?

conflict between social groups

Survey research tends to produce quantitative data. One key advantage of this kind of data is that it

is easy to transmit to the public.

Which of the following is a latent function of the educational system in the United States?

keeping children out of trouble while parents are at work

Sociology can be defined as the systematic and scientific study of human society and social behavior from ___________ to ____________

large-scale institutions; individual interactions

A closed-ended question is one that

limits the possible responses.

What does it mean for a sociologist to control for a variable?

All factors except the independent variable are taken into account.

Sociology can be approached from both a microsociological and macrosociological perspective. Which is more useful?

Both are useful in different ways because they each provide different types of information about the same object of study

Which of the following is an advantage of replicability in experiments?

Experiments can be performed again and again over time in order to measure change.

Why are social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter so exciting to sociologists who study social networks?

For the first time, social networking sites offer sociologists a data set rich enough to test ideas that, until now, have only been theorized.

What does it mean if a researcher has obtained informed consent from all of his or her participants?

Participants understand the nature of the research and are participating freely.

Why are there disagreements among sociologists about how to define sociology?

Sociology encompasses a large intellectual territory.

Why do high schools often use surveys rather than a more direct form of communication like interviews when they ask students about sensitive subjects like drug use or sexual health?

Surveys allow students to answer the questions in private and assure the confidentiality of their responses.

When conducting experiments, how is the experimental group different from the control group?

The experimental group is administered the independent variable while the control group is not.

Why might Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim be placed far apart on sociology's family tree?

The theoretical approaches they founded are very different.

Survey researchers often use Likert scales to construct the possible answers when they write closed-ended questions. How do Likert scales allow respondents to answer?

They allow respondents to answer along a continuum from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree."

What is a paradigm?

a set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way of understanding social reality

Structural functionalist theory is concerned with the ways in which structures contribute to the stability of society. What is a structure?

a social institution that is stable over time and helps meet the needs of society

What is a researcher guilty of if he or she allows his or her own values and opinions to affect his or her analysis?

bias

Critical race theory is associated with which of the major theoretical perspectives or schools of thought in sociology?

conflict theory

If changing one variable seems to lead to a change in another variable, this shows ________ but does not necessarily prove ________.

correlation; causation

According to the scientific method, what are the steps in conducting research and in what order should they be completed?

form a hypothesis, define variables, choose research method, collect data

What was probably Harriet Martineau's MOST important contribution to the development of sociology as a discipline?

her translation of the work of Auguste Comte into English

What kind of question usually produces a wide variety of responses by allowing respondents to answer in whatever way seems appropriate to them?

open-ended

What do you call broad theoretical models of the social or natural world?

paradigms

Which of the following research techniques focuses on gaining an insider's perspective of the everyday lives of subjects under investigation, often dispelling stereotypes about the group being investigated?

participant observation

What kind of research are you doing if you observe a group in order to determine its norms, values, rules, and meanings?

qualitative

What school of social theory believes that society is a stable system of structures, which contribute to the equilibrium of the whole?

structural functionalism

Which of the following theories views society as a whole unit made up of interrelated parts that work together?

structural functionalism

Sociologists observe society by

studying the various parts of a society and the ways they interact and influence one another

Which of the following theories focuses on how our behaviors are dependent on the ways we interpret, make sense of, and define ourselves, others, and social situations?

symbolic interactionism

Which social theory focuses on micro-level interactions?

symbolic interactionism

A simple random sample is defined as a sample

that provides the same chance of being included to every member of the population.

Every four years, when it is time to elect a new president, we pay much attention to surveys, which we usually call "polls." Even though there are more than 300 million people in the United States, most political po

the 1,000 people who are asked whom they will vote for

What is the sociological imagination?

the ability to understand the connections between biography and history of the self and the world

A researcher must identify a target population before engaging in sampling. What is the target population?

the larger group of people about whom he or she wishes to generalize

What is the scientific method?

the procedure for acquiring and collecting concrete data

What is the primary goal of comparative and historical research methods?

to understand relationships between parts of society in various regions and time periods

What are researchers doing when they use a social networking site like Facebook to obtain data?

using existing sources

Even though we are not all trained academically as sociologists, we can all be considered "everyday actors" because

we are all members of society and have background knowledge about how society works

Max Weber helped lay the groundwork for sociologists who would develop symbolic interactionism as a theory because he believed that a social scientist should approach the study of human action

with verstehen (understanding), which emphasizes empathy with individuals' experiences.