- •4. What factors influence the rate of change experienced by a society?
- •5.Discuss the pros and cons of considering the economy as part of the infrastructure of sociocultural systems
- •6 Who are the power elite? What is the source of their power?
- •7.What social forces have made the masses (and even the middle level) powerless?
- •8.Population, Urbanization, & Environoment
- •9. Government & Politics
- •10. Role of religion in society
- •11) Role of education in society
- •12) The role of family in socialization
- •13) The problem of stratification in Sociology
- •14) Hawthorne experiment
- •16) Scope of the subject of sociology and comparison with other social sciences.
- •17) Sociology and common sense.
- •18) Sociology as Science
- •19) Positivism and its critique
- •20) Research Methods and Analysis
- •21) Techniques of data collection
- •22) Variables, sampling, hypothesis, reliability and validity.
- •23) Sociological Thinkers
- •24) Karl Marx - Historical materialism, mode of production, alienation, class struggle.
- •25) Emile Durkheim- Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society
- •26) Robert k. Merton- Latent and manifest functions, conformity and deviance, reference groups
- •27) Mead - Self and identity
- •28) Stratification and Mobility
- •29. Dimensions – Social stratification of class, status groups, gender, ethnicity and race
- •31. Social organization of work in different types of society- slave society, feudal society, industrial /capitalist society
- •32. Labour and society
- •34 Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties
- •35 Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution
- •36 Religion and Society
- •37. Sociological theories of religion
- •38 Types of religious practices: animism, monism, pluralism, sects, cults
- •39. Religion in modern society: religion and science, secularization, religious revivalism, fundamentalism
- •40. The object and the subject of Sociology
- •41. The main categories (terms) of Sociology
- •42. Specializations of Sociology
- •43. The main techniques (methods) of Sociology
- •1 Please explain how Durkheim’s study of suicide and d. Snow’s study of homelessness reflected both a sociological and a scientific approach to their topics
- •2 What is the difference between micro-sociology and macro-sociology
- •3.Why does this course focus exclusively on macro-sociology
- •4. What is a paradigm?
- •5.Of what use is social theory?
- •6. How is this different than earlier industrial societies?
- •7. How does the capitalist world-system maintain political stability?
- •8. Describe the social condition Durkheim calls "anomie.
- •10) What is the role of religion in society?
- •11) What are manifest and latent functions? What is a dysfunction?
- •12) What is Durkheim's anomie theory of deviance?
- •13) Conflict Theory
- •14) Social Classes
- •15 Social mobility
- •16) Race and Ethnicity
- •17) Minority Groups
- •18 Money, economy and social relevance
- •19 The role of mass media in our life
- •20 Censorship and freedom of speech
- •21 Environmental health
- •23) How has television affected social and political discourse in modern society?
- •24) In what sense is technological change "ecological" in nature?
- •25) In what ways has our production system become hostile to the environment?
- •26) Why did America go into Iraq?
- •27) Why did nato help to drive out Muamar Kaddafi in Libya?
- •28) Please explain the significance of the Hawthorne experiment to the development of applied Sociology.
- •29 Is it possible to replicate Hawthorne experiment in nowadays (you can try and remember the case from the text “Replication as a research tool
- •30 How to avoid the Hawthorne Effect?
- •31. How do sociologists use scientific method?
- •32. How can researchers develop a sample of homeless persons in order to study the issue of homelessness?
- •33. Why does the conclusion of a sociological study invariably point the way to new research?
- •36, Why is it valuable for sociologists to have a code of professional ethics?
- •38. Please explain and describe the difficulties that you can encounter in defining a problem when you are conducting a sociological research
- •39. Please explain how sociologists define operational definitions in their sociological project
- •40. Please explain and give reasons why sociologists review special literature on their social problem
- •41. Please explain and define how sociologists give variables in their sociological research
- •42. Explain how sociologists use definite method(s) for gathering data
- •6) Social ideas of Herbert Spencer
- •8) The problems of social interaction and reality in sociology
- •10) The meaning of ascribed and achieved status. Master status.
- •11) Conflict view to the social institutions
- •12) The problems of social structure and modern society
- •13) The problem of anomie in sociology
- •14) Interactionist view to the social institutions
- •15)Functionalist view to the social institutions.
- •16) How has the socialization process changed in the 20th century? How have these changes affected childhood?
- •17) Patriarchy and sexual division of labour
- •18) Agents of social change
- •19) Education and social change
- •20) Science, technology and social change
- •21) Society, community, association, institution
- •22) Social Groups - primary, secondary and reference groups.
- •23) Social structure, social system, social action
- •24) Status and role
- •25) Norms and values-conformity and deviance.
- •26) Social stratification: forms and functions
- •27) Types of society: tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial
- •28) Marriage : types and norms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.
- •29. Family : types, functions and changes.
- •30 Kinships : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.
- •31. What is the difference between micro-sociology and macro-sociology?
- •32 Why does this course focus exclusively on macro-sociology?
- •33 What is a paradigm in Sociology?
- •34 Of what use is social theory?
- •35 What is positivism?
- •36, What was Comte’s favored (principal) method of inquiry?
- •37, The role of social institutions in a modern society.
- •38. The problem of suicide in sociology.
- •39. Society as a category of Sociology.
- •40. Durkheim’s Study of Suicide.
- •41. Comte believed all human life had passed through the same 3 distinct historical stages – theology, … , … .Please complete the sentence and explain what Comte meant.
- •42. Sociologists often conduct research using the scientific method. Please, explain how they do it. Give definite example from your hand-outs.
- •43 Max Weber suggested that the best way to understand human behavior is by a direct ″sympathetic understanding″. Please, explain what Weber meant.
- •44 It is sometimes charged by nonsociologists that sociology is a science of the obvious. Please, give your own opinion about this problem.
- •45 There is a traditional commonsense explanation (statement) that more young people than old people commit suicide. How to prove or reject this statement using the method of natural science.
- •49 Please, examine sociological and psychological approaches to the issue of gambling.
- •50 Please, explain why Herbert Spencer did not feel compelled to correct or improve society.
- •52 Durkheim insisted that the growing division of labor found in industrial societies led to what he called anomie. Please, explain what Durkheim meant and what sociologists call anomie.
- •II Durkheim's Theory on Anomie
16) Scope of the subject of sociology and comparison with other social sciences.
Scope of the SubjectSociology as coined by Auguste Comte comprises of two terms Society and Logos (Study), so itmeans a reasoned study of society. As a scientific and reasoned study of society, sociology encompassesalmost each and every sphere of life of a human being because most of the activities of a human beingare conducted in groups. From the mundane act of cooking by a house wife to the highly sophisticatedact of experimenting at International Space Station by an astronaut can be studied under sociology.Former act can be studied from various sociological viewpoints such as sexual division of labour,functions of a family, eating habits of a particular community, effect of social stratification on nutritionalintake of a family and so on. While the latter act can be studied from the vantage point of groupbehavior of an individual under extreme circumstances, norms guiding the scientific acts, social cohesionamong highly rational individuals and many more. Above examples show that scope of sociology islimited only by the limitations of human thought.Although Sociology is a highly general and exhaustive subject but its approach isqualified by a certain specificity. Sociology sees the phenomena from a societal point of view. Asociologist concentrates on those aspects of a phenomenon which helps him to explain it as a socialphenomenon. He doesnt wander into the specific descriptive and explanatory aspects unless required.For example, A sociologist studying the social behavior of individuals in a pub will concentrate onaspects such as age group of visitors, social background of visitors, maintenance of relationship formedat pubs etc. He will not bother about the harmful effects of drinking at a pub on the health of anindividual or the economics of pub-going etc. He will leave these tasks to a biologist and an economistrespectively. Though, he may use the findings of these in order to carry forward his study. So it can besaid that sociology, by virtue of being a general science of society, delegates its works to other sciencesand refrains from being indulged in specific nuances of a phenomenon.Being a bit more specific it can be said that Sociology studies society and its institutions likepolitics, religion, economy, education, culture etc. Distribution of power among various social classes,Effect of religious ideas on the economy of a society, Role of education in maintainence of a society,family, individuals status; Effect of change in technology on culture of a society are the kinds of studysociology does. Broadly, There are three levels of approaches by which society is studied in sociologyviz. Macro-level, Middle Level and Micro-Level. Macro-level study involves grand theorizing of the socialphenomena to explain the society as a whole e.g. The Marxian view that whole of Political, legal, culturaland religious superstructure of society is based on economic infrastructure i.e. social forces andrelations of production of goods in the economy. Micro-level study comprises the study of the meaningswhich individuals attach to their social interactions and actions and then using these meanings toexplain the social phenomena. E.g. studying the motive of a religious person in going to church andthereby explaining the religion in society as a whole. As the name suggests Middle-level study focuseson the middle space between the macro-level and micro-level, between society as a whole and anindividual. It studies institutions coming at the middle level like family, peer groups, clubs etc