Midterm Exam Review Guide

Introduction to Sociology – Health Focus (Fall 2023) Midterm Exam Review Guide To prepare for the midterm exam, carefully review ALL course content so far – this includes assigned textbook chapters, additionally assigned articles/videos, in-class lectures and notes, and ppts. Consider and respond to ALL of the question prompts that are listed on this review guide (they follow the order of in-class presentation). Be sure to familiarize yourself with all pertinent vocabulary related to each prompt. Also be sure that you can compare/contrast related ideas, and that you can APPLY your knowledge (using examples!). SECTION 1: “An Invitation to Sociology”  What is sociology?  What is boundary work?  How did Berger and Mills establish boundaries for the field of sociology?  Define the sociological imagination (what is it, and how/why is it used)?  Differentiate between Mills’ understandings of history and biography  What is a society, and why is this definition changing?  Define/describe the sub-field of medical sociology  What is the relationship between theory and research?  What are systematic studies?  What is social location, and why is it important to sociologists? What variables typically comprise an individual’s social location? SECTION 2: “The Sociological Perspective”  Name and describe the 5 historical phenomena/factors that led to the development of sociology as an academic discipline.  What were Auguste Comte’s contributions to sociology? o Positivism, armchair philosophy, and the applied sociology perspective  What were Herbert Spencer’s contributions to sociology? o Positivism, Social Darwinism, the pure sociology perspective  Explain the debate between applied and pure sociology  Describe Karl Marx’s contribution(s) to sociology o Economic determinism, substructure/superstructure, evolutionary schema, bourgeoisie, proletariat, the means of production, class conflict, ideologies, false consciousness, class consciousness, social change, communism, conflict theory  Describe Emile Durkheim’s contribution(s) to sociology o Boundary work, “The Rules... ”, social facts, Suicide and its findings, the four types of suicide and examples of each, social integration and social regulation  Describe Max Weber’s contributions to sociology

o Causal pluralism, “The Protestant Ethic... ”, predestination, the calling, ascetic lifestyle, the iron cage and victorious capitalism, verstehen, objectivity in research  Be able to define/describe/apply each of the three main sociological perspectives: o Symbolic Interactionism o Functionalism o Conflict Theory *Also be able to determine which perspective is being used in a written passage! SECTION 3: Research Methods  What are research methods?  Describe the forms of non-scientific knowledge – why is this an important point of awareness for sociologists?  Define/explain the steps in the basic research process o Choosing a topic, literature review, research question, hypothesis, operational definitions, validity, reliability  What is the quantitative approach?  What is the qualitative approach?  Compare/contrast the quantitative and qualitative approaches.  What is generalizability, and how is it achieved in/by both approaches?  What are surveys, and how are they used by sociologists? o Random sample, convenience/availability sample, sampling frame, stratified random sample, hidden population, open-ended and close-ended questions, self- administered survey, interview survey, double-barreled questions, other survey construction errors to watch out for, mutual exclusivity, exhaustiveness, balancing scales  What is fieldwork, and what are some of its challenges? What are case studies?  What is secondary (data) analysis?  What is content analysis?  Describe what focus groups are, and how they can effectively be used by sociologists  What are some points of consideration when deciding what research methods to use?  What are some of the ethical safeguards used by sociologists? o Do No Harm framework, IRBs, ASA Guidelines  What was the Milgram experiment, and what lessons did the field of sociology learn from this experiment?  Be able to identify and distinguish between the five most frequently used charts/graphs. o Line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, histograms, scatterplots – what does each look like, and how is each used? o Continuous data vs Categorical data