Exam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 8Lecture 1 (January 21)SociologyWhat is sociology? And what are some examples of it?Sociology is the study of human society (which is a very broad way of puttingit) it is also everything humans do together.Some examples of sociology could be: family, work, education, politics, mu-sic or culture.What is sociological imagination? (2 Parts) and some examples of it. It is what makes sociology unique and it’s a particular perspective on how the world works.Some examples of sociological imagination could be environmental justice and same-sex marriage.How does a sociologist think? What 3 things does one look at?1. History 2. Personal Experience 3. Larger Social ForcesWhat does ‘making the familiar strange’ mean and applying it to “how sociologists think”? What is a good example of this?This means sociologists look at something familiar and try to change it to being strange or complicated.SOC 100 1st EditionAn example of this is a smart phone. The history of a phone started with dial phones and made interpersonal communication scarce. Moving forward, hav-ing a smartphone for personal experience created a great life enhancement but had some negative effects such as promoting anxiety and interfering with academics by being a distraction. Looking at smartphones from larger social forces, it is known that materials are taken from Congo (where a civil war is occurring because of the debate about harvesting the resources used for these materials). Another larger social force is in the supreme court case of whether police have the right to sort through your phone while being ar-rested. Lastly, NSA is a larger social force which could read through every single data of your phone.There are 6 Modern Theories of Sociology. What are they and could you describe them?First there is functionalism which is trying to find an explanation on how and why things fit together. The next one is conflict theory which is things that keep society changing and moving is conflict. Moving on there is Feminist theory and critical race theory. Symbolic Interactionism, another theory, is atheory that face-to-face interactions shape the world. Lastly is social con-struction.What are social institutions and some examples. How do families and educational systems act as social institutions.A social institution is networks of structures in society that work to socialize the groups od people within them.Some examples of social institutions would be family, educational systems, healthcare systems, and legal systems. Families are social institutions be-cause we are the product of our families; they shape experiences and the way we think about certain things. Educational systems are social institutionsbecause it shapes our patterns of behavior.What is social identity?Social identity is the way individuals define themselves in relationships or groups they are a part ofLecture 2 (January 23)Research MethodsWhat is the purpose of social science, what are the 2 parts that soci-ologists are most interested in, what do they mean, and what are some examples of those 2 parts. What is the third part of social sci-ence that sociologists aren’t particularly interested in?There are two parts of social science that sociologists are most interested in: description and causation. Description is used to describe the social world bylooking for patterns of behaviors or interactions that people would be sur-prised by. Some examples of description would be poor people having poor health. Explanation, or causation, is identifying the factors. Continuing with our last example on poor people, for explanation, sociologists would ask the question ‘why do poor people have poor health?’ The third part is prediction, and most sociologists are skeptical of this part.Where and how do you start research methods?Research methods start with the research question. Meaning, how does, at least some small part, of the world work? Have others studied the same thing? What are the two types of research strategies? How are they differ-ent?First there is deductive research which starts with a theory and then devel-ops a hypothesis, which is a prediction. Next, it makes empirical observationsby looking at the world. Lastly, they analyze data and confirm, reject, or modify the theory. Rejecting theories is extremely rare. The second type of research strategy is inductive research. Instead of starting with a prediction, they start with empirical observations then builds a theory off of their obser-vations. There are four steps to designing research, what are they? First you identify concepts and relationships. Then you find the variables. Next is operationalization, and lastly you pick a population and sample.There are two types of variables, what are they and how are they different?First lets define variables; which means narrowing down concepts. One type of variable is the dependent variable; which is the outcome we are interestedin. The independent variable is the explanations of the outcomes we find.How are operationalization and variables related?Operationalization is the method for measuring a variable.What are two ways to pick a population and sample?Random samples and case studiesThere are two types of data collection; what are they and what are examples of them?Quantitative; some examples are survey research, demography, and content analysisQualitative; some examples are participant observation, interviews, ethnog-raphy, historical methods, and content analysisWhat does experimenter effects mean?It means is our presence effecting the results of the research?Going back to the example of poor people and diets, what is the ini-tial question of why this is?Cost.What are the dependent and independent variable in this example?Dependent variable is diet and independent variables could be personal pref-erence, cultural traditions, cost, and food deserts.But what are food deserts exactly?accessibility to healthy food. This is the dependent variable. Independent variables would be race/ethnicity and classLecture 3 (January 28)CultureWhat is culture and what is the key distinction of trying to under-stand it?Culture is society’s set of beliefs, traditions, and practices. In order to under-stand, you must look at natural environment and whether it’s modified or created by humans.What is cultural relativism?Cultural relativism is recognizing that there are differences across cultures without passing judgement or