Sociology 101
Ms. Semmes
Study Guide Chapters 1-4
Make sure to understand all vocabulary and theories discussed in the chapters.
Chapter 1: Sociology and the Real World
Society
What is the Sociological Imagination?
Macrosociology and microsociology-How do they study sociology differently?
Quantitative and qualitative methods
Difference between the glass escalator effect and glass ceiling effect and who is affected by each one
Chapter 2: Sociology’s Family Tree: Theories and Theorists
Auguste Comte
Karl Marx and know the tenets of conflict theory
Proletariat, Bourgeoisie, Alienation and Class Consciousness
What does it mean to “own the means of production?” What does it mean to experience “worker
alienation?” How do they relate to social inequality?
Emile Durkheim and know the tenets of Structural-functional theory
Anomie, Suicide, Mechanical and Organic Solidarity-how are they different
Max Weber
Iron Cage, bureaucracies and rationalization
Symbolic Interactionism
Mead and language & Goffman and Dramaturgy
Chapter 3: Studying Social Life: Sociological Research Methods
Understand the steps of the scientific method
Ethnography and participant observation
Why does an ethnographer need access? Why does an ethnographer take fieldnotes?
What are interviews?
What is quantitative data? What is qualitative data?
What are surveys? Why is the wording of the questions on surveys so important?
What is an experiment? What is a hypothesis? Know the definitions of both the independent and
dependent variables in an experiment and which one causes change
Chapter 4: Cultural Crossroads
What is culture? How is it learned?
What is ethnocentrism? Cultural relativism?
What is the difference between material and symbolic culture?
Forms of communication: signs, gestures, and language
Norms-Laws, Mores, Folkways-what’s the difference in enforcement?
What is the difference in power between the dominant culture and subcultures and countercultures?
Polysemy and interpretive communities
Technology’s role in spreading material culture/cultural imperialism