SOC 101 -- Study Guide for Test #2 (Chapters 4-7) – test date: March 11, 2009
Chapter 4
• What socialization is and what children learn through the socialization process
• Role of socialization in social reproduction
• George H. Mead’s theory of the development of the self
• Definition of agent of socialization and the different agents of socialization in modern society
• Differences between primary and secondary socialization
• Social roles, including the importance of social interaction in the performance of social roles
• what we mean by identity, the differences between social identity and self-identity and the main
sources of our identity
• what gender socialization is and how agents of socialization contribute to gender socialization
• stages in the life course and factors that influence the definition of the different stages
Chapter 5
• The major reasons why sociologists study social interaction
• Forms of nonverbal communications including Darwin’s and Ekman’s studies on the universality of
facial expressions of emotions
• What ethnomethodology is, including Garfinkel’s concept background expectancies
• Goffman’s approach to the study of social interaction, including his notions about civil inattention,
unfocused and focused interaction (encounters), the importance of “openings,” the use of sign-vehicles
for impression management, teamwork, and the difference between front and back regions
• What roles and statuses are and the different types of statuses (ascribed, achieved, and master)
• The four zones of personal space and how we react when our intimate/personal distances are invaded
• What the “social construction of reality” is
Chapter 6
• Definition of a social group and how it differs from an aggregate or social category
• In-groups and out-groups, primary and secondary groups, reference groups
• The power of the group to influence our behavior: Milgram’s and Asch’s research, groupthink
• Definition of a formal organization
• According to Max Weber, why bureaucracy becomes a feature of modern society and what the
characteristics of bureaucracy are
• The dysfunctions of bureaucracy and why they emerge
• Rationalization and McDonaldization – what these are and why they occur
• What social capital is, what forms it takes, and why it is important
Chapter 7
• What deviance is and the important role deviance plays in social life
• The process of normalizing deviance
• What sanctions are and the different forms they take
• How each of the following theories explains the presence of deviance in society: functionalism
(Durkheim, Merton, and Ohlin & Cloward); symbolic interactionism (differential association and
labeling theory); conflict theory; control theory
• Types and patterns of criminal activity
• Social characteristics of those who commit uniform crimes (differences by age, race/ethnicity, gender)
• The reasons for the relatively high rates of violent crime in the U.S.
• The role of the chivalry thesis and the gender contract in explaining gender differences in crime
You might also want to use the online quiz reviews at the textbook study site:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/soc/giddens6/index.asp
Some of the questions on your test will be taken from this site. Note: I will only take questions from the site
that reflect the bulleted material above, so do not spend time reviewing questions that are about material
not on the study guide.