St. Francis Xavier University
Department of Sociology
Sociology 100: Introduction to Sociology – 2012-13
Dr. John Phyne
Annex 110A
Phone: 867-2313
e-mail (jphyne@stfx.ca)
Outline for Test Two
Date: Monday, October 29 – 11:15 to 12:30 AM.
grade.
Evaluation: 15% of your final
Office Hours: Tuesday, October 23 (2 to 4 PM), Wednesday, Oct. 24 (10 AM to 12
Noon), Thursday, October 25 (same times) and Monday, October 29 (9 AM to 10:30
AM). E-mail questions will not be answered.
Format: Three essay questions worth 50 marks each. All students must complete
question 1. You have a choice of answering question 2 or 3.
Requirements: The examination will cover class lectures up to, and including, the class
on Thursday, October 25 (for Chapters 3 and 5). Your performance on the examination
will be based on your ability to combine materials from class lectures and the following
required readings:
Section Two: Becoming Members of Society: Culture
Socialization
William Shaffir and Michael Rosenberg, ‘Chapter Three: Socialization’, pp. 48-72.
The Mass Media
Graham Knight and Josh Greenberg, ‘Chapter Five: The Mass Media’, pp. 97-119.
Sample Questions: Here are some questions to consider in studying for the examination.
Keep in mind that the issues pertaining to these questions may be combined in the
questions that you will be answering on the examination.
1. Outline and discuss the central components of the symbolic interactionist
perspective. Show how Mead’s theory of the development of the self contributed
to this perspective.
2
2. Cooley and Mead presented theories of how the self develops. Discuss the main
aspects of each of their approaches.
3. What does it mean to have the ability to treat your self as a social object? Discuss
with respect to Mead’s theory of the self. In your answer, make reference to the
stages in the development of the self.
4. The self is informed by the social context within which individuals live. Discuss
this statement with respect to Mead’s theory of the self for small children and
Willis’s consideration of the self during adolescence.
5. How does socialization develop over the life cycle? In your answer, refer to
socialization in childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age.
6. What does impression management mean? Discuss with reference to the role of
impression management in the development of a cloak of competence amongst
medical students.
7. Goffman argues that total institutions participate in the resocialization of their
‘inmates’. Discuss what this means by reference to what a total institution is, the
types of total institutions that exist, and how total institutions participate in
resocialization through the ritual of status degradation and the reconstruction of
identity.
8. Technology determines social relations and how we perceive the world? Discuss
with reference to Innis’s and McLuhan’s approach to the mass media. Refer to
the chief criticism of the technological perspective by the critical perspective.
9. Summarize the main argument of the critical perspective on the mass media. In
your answer, refer to the issues of media ownership and the role of the dominant
ideology.
10. The critical perspective argues that the news functions to reproduce the dominant
ideology. Discuss what this means with reference to the role of newsworthy
events and the representation of these events in the news. In your answer, also
refer to the various news sources that are used in the reporting of what is
considered newsworthy.
11. There is a direct causal linkage between exposure to violence in the mass media
and participation in violent behaviour. Examine this argument with respect to the
research on the impact of exposure to violence in the media to actual behaviour.
12. Discuss the social impact of the internet by reference to the main arguments in the
technological and critical perspectives. In your answer, focus upon issues such as
the digital divide, the use of e-mail and browsing, blogs and social protest
movements and citizen journalism.