Study Guide
Henslin, James M. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 8th edition. Pearson: Boston,
2007.
Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective
1. What is stressed in the sociological perspective on human behavior?
2. What is a society?
3. To what does the term “social location” refer?
4. Sociologist C. Wright Mills said, “The sociological imagination [perspective] enables
us to grasp the connection between history and biography.” In your own words,
explain what he meant and give a personal example.
5. Compare and contrast the purpose of the natural sciences and the social sciences.
Give three examples of a social science and describe the focus of each one.
6. What distinguishes sociology from other social sciences?
7. What historical developments promoted the development of sociology as a separate
academic discipline?
8. Briefly describe the contributions of the following scholars to the development of
sociology:
a. August Comte
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Karl Marx
d. Emile Durkheim
e. Max Weber
9. How may one’s values influence sociological research and views on the uses of
sociology?
10. Briefly describe the difference between the Verstehen approach in sociology and the
Social Facts approach. Which approach uses microsociology and which uses
macrosociology?
11. Why did women, such as Jane Addams, and civil rights activists, such as W.E.B.
DuBois, play an important part in the early development of sociology?
12. How did the emphasis on sociological theory and social reform shift in the U.S.
during the 1920s and ‘30s, the 1940s, and the 1960s and ‘70s?
13. Use the social phenomenon of the rising U.S. divorce rate since the 1960s to
illustrate the difference in the social theories of the following:
a. Symbolic Interactionism
b. Functional Analysis
c. Conflict Theory
14. What effect will globalization have on sociological research or on the value of the
sociological perspective in general?