May 2009
Instructor – J. FerryDelaware County Community College
Test has two parts: a section of questions requiring essay responses, and a section of 10 objective questions. Each correct answer will be worth two points.
There are seven questions in the essay section but you need to answer only four of them. It is your choice which four of the seven to answer. Each essay will be worth up to 20 points. The essay questions are designed, not to draw out a single correct answer, but to allow you to communicate some of what you have learned about society and sociology since class began. Essays should be 100 to 300 words in length. I will evaluate your essays with these three criteria in mind: 1) Is there evidence of recent study, 2) Does writer have a clear understanding of the theories, facts and explanations she/he is writing about, 3) Is the essay well-written (grammatical sentences, ideas coherent, organized and presented well, sources stated, conclusions drawn from statements presented).REMEMBER - ANSWER 4 ESSAY QUESTIONS
The test is open book. It must be submitted by May 13at 11:50AM.
ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. What have you learned in your study of society these past few months? How is it different from what you already knew? How/from whom/under what specific conditions did you learn these things about the ways we associate, the patterned way we conduct ourselves, and the common meaning we give to behavior, events, groups, settings? What good is, or can come from, this new knowledge that you have?
2. Regarding Education: Compare education using schooling (as the dominant social system) with non-schooled learning. Contrast some of the functions (manifest and latent) of schooling/education, with the learning that occurs outside these types of service institutions that we call “schools”.
3. Regarding Gender: Whose interests are served, what problems are solved, by NOT distinguishing or discriminating between men/women, boys/girls, males/females in the workplace, in the marketplace, in civil society. If there are no specific MALE roles in society, what would be the use of male role models? Conversely, if there were no FEMALE roles or statuses in society, how could one be a woman; what would it mean to be a woman?
4. Regarding the institution of the modern Economy: What do we mean by the ‘economy’? According to Karl Polanyi, our society is dominated by market exchange as the way that goods and services are distributed; what other ways are there? What are some of the consequences to relationships and interactions in a society when market-produced goods/services replace other ways of satisfying needs for adult supervision of children, entertainment, funerals, getting around, or making homes?
5. Regarding Race, Ethnicity and Nationality: define these terms, then compare and contrast (in what ways are they similar and in what ways are these different)
6. Regarding Social Structure: Define the terms "role" and "status" as sociologists use them.
7. Regarding symbolic interaction: How is body language used in negotiating social activity and relations? Give some examples how the body language of one society or group of people can be misunderstood by people from outside that group.
Objective Questions - circle the number beside the best answer to these questions.
1. The sociologist Talcott Parsons considered gender roles as arising out of the need to establish a _____________________________ between marriage partners.
a. Modus operandi
b. Division of labor
c. Power differential
d. Set of child care routines2. Minority groups are groups that
a. Are small in size.
b. Has less power and fewer privileges than the majority group
c. Do not desire to have the same culture as the majority group
d. Are biologically distinct from majority group.3. People in the United States have a widespread belief that education will provide
a. An appreciation of art and culture
b. Reduced stress in coping with life
c. Upward mobility
d. Better marriage partners4. A type of marriage in which women have more than one husband is ___________________.
a. polygamy
b. polygyny
c. polyandry
d. boytoygny5. The most common type of household in the United States in 1940 was married couples (84% of households). What was the most common type in the year 2000.
a. Married couples
b. Female-headed households
c. Male-headed household
d. Non-family households
6. In America, divorce occurs most frequently
a. In the Northeastern States
b. Among middle-aged couples
c. Among the upper middle class and the wealthy
d. Among the lower socioeconomic class.7. According to the functionalist perspective, the functions of the family include
a. Nurturant socialization of children
b. Emotional support for adults
c. Regulation of sexual behavior
d. All of the above8. In the U.S. at present about ______________ of currently married couples say that they lived together before getting married.
a. One in four
b. 75%
c. 37%
d. half9. Durkheim, one of the founding fathers of sociology defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and ____________ relative to sacred things”.
a. sacraments
b. vestments
c. practices
d. voluntary financing10. Another important early social thinker, Max Weber, emphasized that the collective nature of religion _________________________________.
a. Is an opiate to the masses
b. Has social consequences for society as a whole
c. Brainwashes its adherents
d. Is true only in Judeo-Christian societies