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SOCIOLOGY 102
PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER MULLER
MIDTERM EXAM, SPRING 2022.
STUDENT ID #:
NAME:
Instructions: Write your answers in an uploaded Word document or PDF. Don’t
forget to number your answers so that the GSIs know which question you are
answering. Make sure to read the questions carefully. Please indicate which
texts you are drawing from (i.e., Asylums, Gender Trouble, etc.), but direct
quotes, page numbers, and works cited are not expected. Only cite the texts;
do not cite the lecture slides.
This exam is open-note, open-book, and open-slide. However, it is important
that you phrase your answers in your own words and do not plagiarize the
slides. Please refrain from watching or listening to the recordings of the
lectures or communicating with other students in Sociology 102 during the
48-hour exam period. Please report your word count at the end of each
question (citations do not need to be included in the word count). Do not go
over the word limits.
PART I. SHORT ESSAY (70% FOR PART I). ANSWER THREE OF THE FOLLOWING FIVE QUESTIONS (WORD
LIMIT: 350 WORDS EACH; EST. TIME FOR THIS SECTION: 50 MINS).
1. Mead, Butler, and Bourdieu each have ideas about if and how people
can change society. Describe how two of these theorists would explain
how social change happens. Compare and contrast their
approaches.
2. Explain Arlie Hochschild’s concepts of “emotion work” and “feeling
rules” and describe how she uses these concepts to critique Goffman.
3. Give a definition of the three main forms of capital according to
Bourdieu and briefly explain how these forms of capital relate to the
idea of social space.
4. How do Goffman, Butler, and Bourdieu think about the idea that there
is a stable self? What factors do they argue lead to the formation of a
"self" with certain characteristics, likes, and ways of acting?
5. Bourdieu argues that people’s ability to succeed economically
depends not just on their material resources (their economic capital)
but also on their cultural capital. Describe an example of how cultural
capital can help a person to succeed economically or can prevent
them from succeeding economically. Tell us how important you
believe a person’s cultural capital is to their success, in comparison to
their economic capital.
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PART II. TEXT COMMENTARY (30%). CHOOSE ONLY ONE OF THESE TWO TEXTS. (WORD LIMIT: 500
WORDS; EST. TIME: 30 MINS)
Analyze one of the two texts below. Your analysis should have three parts: (1)
Explain the meaning of each text in your own words. (2) Analyze its
significance to the author’s general theory. (3) Tell us whether or not you
believe this text is relevant for understanding social life today and why.
IIA- FROM JUDITH BUTLER, “GENDER TROUBLE”
“Gender ought not to be construed as a stable identity or locus of agency
from which various acts follow; rather, gender is an identity tenuously
constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition
of acts. The effect of gender is produced through the stylization of the body
and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily
gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an
abiding gendered self” (140)
OR
IIB-FROM PETER BERGER and THOMAS LUCKMANN, “THE SOCIAL
CONSTRUCTION OF REALITY”
“the interaction of both becomes predictable. The ‘There he goes again’
becomes a ‘There we go again.’ This relieves both individuals of a
considerable amount of tension. They save time and effort, not only in
whatever external tasks they might be engaged in separately or jointly, but in
terms of their respective psychological economies. Their life together is now
defined by a widening sphere of taken-for-granted routines. Many actions are
possible at a low level of attention…much of what goes on takes on the
triviality of what, to both, will be everyday life. This means that the two
individuals are constructing a background of routine that in turn makes
possible a division of labor between them, opening the way for new
innovations, which demand a higher level of attention. The division of labor
and the innovations will lead to new habitualizations further widening the
background common to both individuals. In other words, a social world will
be in the process of construction, containing within it the roots of an
expanding institutional order” (57)